December 12, 2022

October and November 2022 Korean Drama Review

Gaus Electronics

Gaus Electronics is a comedy drama that is based on a webtoon with the same name and the episodes were shorter more like 46 minutes than the regular 60 minute run time. It also only had 12 episodes so it was a shorter drama than most. It is about the team members of Marketing Team 3 of the home appliance department at Gaus Electronics. It stars Lee Sang Sik (Kwak Dong Yeon) who is pretty good at his comedic role and he is a man that a bit dense but very positive and causes problems on the team on a regular basis. It would seem that this team is the underdogs of the company and with their hijinks they deal with love, career and friendship within the office.

I thought this was an interesting drama since not many dramas fully go in the comedy arena the last one was probably the Welcome to Waikiki series. It is a quirky and silly drama that has its own unique charms that make you want to keep watching. The actors were all good at playing their roles and nothing seemed too over the top that it feels cheesy but the story and acting were all good. I didn’t get bored since the drama was shorter.

The one problem is that the drama is too short, I am sure that the webtoon had way more material so I am not sure why they made it so short but I definitely felt like the ending was just too sudden and they were not given enough time.

So if you want a funny drama on the shorter side this is the perfect drama.

Mental Coach Jegal

This drama is about Gil Je Gal (Jung Woo) who is a mental coach after he had his own traumatic experience being a apart of the National Taekwondo team and eventually became permanently banned from returning as an athlete. He returns to the national team as a coach because he wants to help a Cha Ga Eul (Lee Yoo Mi) who is a struggling short-track speed skater and is in a slump.

Okay so I thought this drama would be about counselling others and be somewhat more of an inspirational drama but it really wasn’t what I was expecting. I was really disappointed in how they first of all portrayed the coach for the short-track speed skating, he was really abusive and everybody knew he was and they just kept as the coach. All the things that he did wrong and they would just keep him, it was disturbing that he could keep his job after everything was known by his boss. I also feel like they didn’t really explain enough about the sport in the drama and how much teamwork is needed in the sport. If you want to watch a good drama about speed skating I would recommend To Fly With You which is a Chinese drama. I feel like since I watching that drama I was able to understand the sport in this drama but I think I would have been confused if I hadn’t watched this drama first. The second thing that drove me crazy was the female sports counsellor Park Seung Ha (Park Se Young) everything that she did and thought was just so annoying and wrong. She would always tell Je Gal not to get involved with any of the problems the athletes were having and it was like how could you just sit still when the coaches are abusing the athletes. It was like she should just quit if she is not going to actually help any of the athletes. She also was Je-Gal’s counsellor at one point and she said the most awful and wrong things to him as well. She is really one of the worst characters of this whole drama and am still frustrated by her just thinking of her.

The love line is really just messed up in this drama, the age difference is too much and not to mention it is completely disturbing when a counsellor or coach starts dating their client. It is crossing so many boundaries and this was not what I was expecting when I started watching. You don’t date someone you are counselling, seriously I couldn’t believe that they went there and not to mention she looks like a child even though she may be in her twenties it just was not sending out good ideas with this drama.The reason that he is helping her is because he sees himself in her and even though he realizes this he still decides its okay to be with her. It also started getting pretty boring at the end with the whole politics and trying to catch the bad guys. I also didn’t find it very inspiring or was emotionally attached to any of the characters in this drama.

I don’t really have any positive feedback for this drama, I would avoid this one if you don’t want to be completely frustrated!

Love is For Suckers

This drama is about Goo Yeo Reum (Lee Da Hee) who is a variety tv producer and she is struggling in her love life and her career. She has her best friend who is also her neighbor Park Jae Hoon (Choi Siwon) who is struggling in his career as a doctor and they are comfortable in their friendship. Yeo Reum runs into trouble with her variety show that she is working on and has to recruit Jae Hoon to be on the dating show she is working on.

I thought this was an entertaining rom-com that kept me interested and had lots of characters to keep the story interesting. It was interesting because it was a show within a show type of drama and it felt like it had a different vibe after a couple of episodes. I would never watch those reality type dating shows like the bachelor but it was more interesting to watch it within this drama. We got to see what was happening behind the scenes and I mean its scripted within a drama so we aren’t expecting anything to be real. It was an interesting dynamic and felt fresh and not just a typical Rom-com.

I like Yeo Reum’s character in the show, she is strong and at some point shows that even though everyone thinks she should be married and accept everything to fit the mold of society she doesn’t accept this answer and chooses her personal happiness. She chooses what she thinks is best even if other people around her don’t like her choices. Jae-Hoon I feel like his presence in this drama was overshadowed by Yeo Reum character, he feels more like a sideline character, you get the feeling that she doesn’t really need him and maybe the chemistry is a bit lacking. Normally Si-Won in dramas his character is quite silly and has a strong presence so it felt strange to see him so subdued. He did good but it felt like he wasn’t himself but it was probably more that he had different character than normal for him. I think they also brought up important themes within the show, so it not just fluff but I don’t know if they really gave some of these themes enough time and attention to address them properly. It still surprised me that it went to these serious places at times.

I didn’t really like Chae-Ri who was the other PD for the show, I mean her character is pretty messed up and I guess I feel more sorry for her than anything else. She had family trauma and to deal with it she would just sleep with people as a one-night stand. This is super unhealthy and destructive behavior and they really should have shown her going to get help.

Overall this was an interesting and great rom-com with some serious themes! I would recommend watching this drama!

Seasons of Blossom

This drama is based on a webtoon with the same name and is a short drama as it is a web drama so the episodes are shorter than a normal dram but there is still 16 episodes. This drama is about a group of students that are currently going to Seoyeon High School and it focuses on Yoon Bo Mi (Kang Hye Won) who is a popular student and wants to protect her friends even if it means not allowing herself to be happy. It also stars Lee Jae Min (Kim Min Kyu) who is dealing with a lot of emotional pain from past events. It also goes into the past with Han So Mang (So Ju Yeon) who is a student teacher at Seoyeon High School as she remembers her painful past when she was a student and has to come to terms with the suicide of her boyfriend at the time.

So this is a very sad drama as you know the suicide is looming in the story the whole time and it is devastating to think about it when you watch the past. I knew this because I read the webtoon but it is still so sad when watching this drama. So if these themes are triggering for you I would not watch this drama as it deals with a lot grief and sadness. I would be careful watching this drama in general if you can’t handle these sad themes. The final episode was really the most sad and really it felt painful.

In the present the high school story is much cuter and not so dark and thought everyone did a great job in acting and it was surprising light-hearted even though there is still so much sadness in this drama. Also the story felt a little different than the webtoon because they focused more on So Mang and she was never a student teacher. Even though they changed some details it still felt like they did a good job and was very authentic to the webtoon. The one thing is that the webtoon is much longer and therefore the drama feels unfinished compared to the webtoon.

This drama is going to break your heart but was still enjoyable to watch!

Shadow Beauty

This is another web drama that is based on a webtoon with the same name but I haven’t read the webtoon. It stars Koo Ae Jin (Shim Dal Gi) who is not considered beautiful and feels ugly and is being bullied at school. She has developed a secret world where she utilizes makeup and photo editing to run a popular social media account called Genie. She keeps this secret to herself but one day she gets a message that someone is aware of who she is and that they have a untouched photo of her.

This was a very intriguing and addicting drama as you want to solve the mystery and it really sucked me in and wanted me to keep watching. It has a strange vibe with all the girl wearing the same type of style and looks like bad wigs but I am not totally sure. The story does get somewhat weak after a while but it still was interesting to watch. I think part of the problem since it is a webdrama they had to rush the story and didn’t give the same backstory time with the characters and developing the story in the same way a webtoon is able to because they have time. It was an easy watch and was pretty entertaining.

I mean it was still not very convincing that Ae Jin is ugly but at least they didn’t just give her glasses! Honestly I also didn’t really get her being and becoming friends with her bully, it was too fast of a change but again they didn’t have time. The fake genie story again didn’t have enough time to do that justice and so it felt really rushed and weird. Also if this fake genie is so pretty in real life why wouldn’t she just build a brand on social media as well? She really didn’t need to pretend to be someone else, she could have easily done well on her own. It has some interesting themes and was a fun ride.

I would recommend if you want a short, easy drama to check out!

Upcoming Dramas

Curtain Call

It is about Ja Geum Soon who owns a large hotel Nakwon and who is nearing the end of her life and she wants to be reunited with her family that she lost when she was separated from her husband and child during the Korean War in the 1950s. Her assistant hires an actor to play the grandchild that she wants to reunite with to make her happy before she dies.

Summer Strike

It is about a young woman who runs into problems with her personal and career and then gets hit with a tragedy and decides to quit her job and ends up in a small seaside village and meets a gentle and quiet librarian who keeps helping her in her embarrassing moments.

Reborn Rich

It is about a man who has been a loyal secretary to the Jin family who run the Soonyang Group and ends up dying after being betrayed and he is brought back to life and wakes up inside the youngest member of the Jin family. He decides that he will take revenge and takeover the Soonyang Group.

Sighilovekdramas October 25, 2022

September and October 2022 Korean Drama Reviews

Today’s Webtoon

This dramas stars Ma- Eum (Kim Se-Jeong) who used to be a judo athlete, but wants to transition into a different job after suffering an injury. She uses her passion and love for webtoons to eventually get hired at a struggling Webtoon department and becomes an editor. It also stars Goo Jun-Yeong (Nam Yoon-Soo) as a newly transferred employee into the webtoon department, he doesn’t understand what he is doing there as an editor but starts to fit in after working together with Ma-Eum.

This drama did a great job of keeping the story interesting and something with depth. As someone who likes to read webtoons, it was interesting to see the work that goes on behind the scenes to create a webtoon and the mechanics of it. I really liked how it was a big cast and they showed the different characters and the problems they face as artists, editors and managers. It really kept the momentum of the show going and the different way they could solve problems was interesting. I was also surprised at the depth that they went into with especially Shin Dae-Ryuk’s character and it was interesting understanding his thinking and his past. I think this drama is an embodiment of the underdog spirit, they know they are fighting for their life but they keep their belief and are able to accomplish what was considered impossible. I really like these type of stories because it feels hopeful. It is nice to watch a heart warming drama that makes you feel good which this drama did well.

What I didn’t like was that the ending was good but it seemed to lack impact and the love lines kinda got lost in the mix of the drama. I am not sure what they were trying to do, it seemed for a while they wanted a love triangle and then took a sharp left and then just kinda left it hanging. I think the romance department was pretty lacking and to me if you don’t want to commit to that then it would be better to just omit the whole love line sequence in the drama altogether. I don’t really have much complaints about this drama. I thought it was very good and I connected with the characters and felt the story was interesting and didn’t find myself bored in the drama.

I would recommend this drama if you like heart warming and office style dramas.

Poong The Joseon Psychiatrist

Poong is about a physician Yoo Se Poong (Kim Min-Jae) that was famous for working for the royal family but gets kicked out the royal court and he has become unable to use his needles due to trauma and eventually finds his way to a doctor and a bunch of misfits that work there. He starts to work as a doctor that instead of using acupuncture to heal people he learns to treat and people’s mental pain that is affecting their physical bodies. Just to warn everybody that there is plans for a second season and this was planned from the start so the ending is a definitely a cliffhanger, so don’t go into watching it thinking that everything will be wrapped up at the end.

I am a sucker for dramas about acupuncture and psychology and they have mixed the two in this drama. I thought it was a very well made drama the way they told the story and the way they treated each patient was interesting and was always a mystery that needed to be solved. Of course they had greedy officials which I find very tiring in the historical type dramas but at least the story and plots were somewhat more interesting than the typical way they try to be evil. I also really liked the misfit group of people and enjoyed the humor that was sprinkled throughout the drama. I really liked the feel good aspect of the drama and enjoyed the characters and humor. I thought it was interesting to see dealing with mental health in historical type times since I haven’t really seen this be done before I thought it was a fresh perspective .

What I didn’t like about this drama was the chemistry was a bit lacking between the male and female leads. It didn’t ever really give me butterflies or twinges that they were meant to be together. This could be because they were planning a second season so they wanted to leave something to be explored in a second season so I am not too bothered by this aspect about this drama.

I would recommend this drama if you like medical/psychology type dramas

If You Wish Upon Me

This drama is about Yoon Gyeo -Rye (Ji Chang-Wook) a man that has lived a rough life and has found himself having to volunteer at a hospice for causing an accident. He starts to change as a person there after he gets involved with volunteer team leader Kang Tae-Sik (Sung Dong-ll) and Nurse Seo Yeon-Joo (Sooyoung) and their team that grants wishes to those who are dying. For the first time Gyeo-Rye starts to understand how to be truly happy for the first time even when having to face death head on.

This is a great drama if you need something to sob uncontrollably to something. I didn’t know if I could handle watching this drama since in almost every episode there is death or dealing with really tough situations. I kinda wanted to give up after an episode or two but somehow it was still interesting and I wanted to keep watching even if I ended up with a headache from crying to this drama. I though Chang-Wook did a great job which I was surprised because I didn’t really like other dramas that he was in but I thought he did a great job in this one. I liked how they showed the different people’s last wishes and it kept it interesting even though it was heart breaking.

What I didn’t like was some ideas they had in this drama was unrealistic, I don’t want to say too much but it had to do with a coma patient. Also I don’t really get how they can work and live there as volunteers, it is somewhat strange concept to me also is there enough money for a wage especially as they are volunteers. Again I didn’t really feel the chemistry between the two main leads, it was a interesting dynamic but I didn’t really feel the spark between them, they seemed more like brother and sister to me. They have cute moments but I never really got the passionate love between them more of a familial type love to me.

This is a tear jerking drama that is somewhat unrealistic but has heart and I would recommend it!

Good Job

This drama is about Eun Seon-Woo (Jung II-Woo) who owns Eun Kang Group one of the largest companies but does undercover work and loves disguises while he searches for his mom’s killer. He is doing it undercover and has to deal with snakes within his company since everyone wants his downfall. It also stars Don Se-ra (Kwon Yuri) who was born with hyper-acuity and is able to see farther than anyone else. She is caring and wants to take care of her family that was with her together in the orphanage. She works odd jobs and runs into Seon-Woo and he gets her onboard with his work and they make a great team investigating.

I think this was a fun drama with a bit of mystery and romance. I think I appreciated the humour aspect of it and the drama didn’t always take itself very seriously and that made it more watchable. I thought the main leads had good chemistry even though it seemed like they never kissed or got very romantic even at the end. They seemed to hold hands and hug a lot more which seemed a little odd by the end but I didn’t mind it, it was cute. It has a good ending and it seemed like they were hinting at a second season which could be interesting but I am not dying to second season or anything though. Honestly the plot twist was pretty good and had me fooled.

I am not sure I loved Yuri’s acting or if it was her character, I just found it lacking somewhat for the main lead but it wasn’t terrible or anything. One thing I thought was not great was the disguises that they would wear, they acted as if they were very good at going undercover but it was pretty laughable most of the time.

This is a fun romantic comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously and I recommend if you want a light drama with some mystery.

Upcoming Korean Dramas

Gaus Electronics

This is an office comedy about the workers in Marketing Team 3 which is a team that other workers look down upon. It focuses on love friendship and corporate life that is based off a webtoon.

Mental Coach Jegal

This is about a former Taekwondo athlete that learned a hard lesson and became banned from the national team and in the present became a mental coach that helps other athletes get out of slumps and mental hardships to be able to compete again.

Love is For Suckers

This is about two friends with a 20 year old friendship that are struggling with love and work. Yeo-Reum works as PD and is struggling to keep her show alive and Jae-Hoon is a plastic surgeon that has lost his spark for his job and is working to make money.

Seasons of Blossom

This is more of webdrama and is based off the webtoon with the same name. It is about love and friendship in a high school class. It is about love and painful pasts with each other.

sighilovekdramas August 27, 2022

July and August 2022 Korean Drama Reviews

The first drama that I finished was Dear M. This drama has been delayed for a long time because of bullying rumors regarding Park Hye-Soo. Unfortunately this drama won’t be airing in Korea but is being aired for international viewers on Viki. It is a college drama about a group of students that take a photography class and someone confesses secretly and no one knows who it is about. It stars Cha Min-Ho (Jaehyun) who is good at developing apps and has been best friends with Ma Joo-A (Park Hye-Soo) who is a 2^nd year in Business Administration and develops a crush on a guy but has never been in a relationship. It has stars Park Ha-Neul (Bae Hyun-Sung) who just switched majors to computer science and is in a relationship with Seo Ji-Min (Roh Jeong-Eui) who is a student in the Economics Department and is star member the cheering squad and they are considered the perfect campus couple that everyone is envious of. This is a pretty cute drama and is based off of a webdrama Love’s Playlist that I previously watched so I didn’t expect too much but it was better than the webdrama.

It was really likeable drama with cute characters and was focused on the beginnings of love which seemed a little immature but it fit the vibes of the youth drama so I thought it fit. I really enjoyed watching them and it was interesting and cute at the same time. They really sucked you into the story with dealing of the first crush moments, jealousy and being rejected. You could really feel the emotions and frustrations with each character. I think the drama did well in playing on the emotions. The anonymous crush aspect of the drama gets really pushed aside I think and they don’t use that aspect to its full potential and you kinda forget about it. I still liked the twist at the end and I was starting to think it was something like that but I won’t give it away. I liked that it was a easy going and just heart warming.

I don’t think I think I can complain about too much with this drama, it was a bit cheesy at times but I still found it very lovable and relatable and engaging. Sometimes they seemed really childish and silly but it still gave me all the feelings of love.

If you love college and young love dramas I would recommend Dear M.

The second drama that I finished was Yumi’s Cells 2. It is a sequel to the first drama so I would recommend you watch the first one before you would watch the second season. It keeps the same cast as the first one, it stars Kim Yu-Mi (Kim Go-Eun) who is the female lead. It also stars Yoo Ba-Bi (Jin Young) who is the same as the first one and is the one that recognizes Yumi’s talent and has her transfer to the advertising department at work. Obviously Ba-Bi becomes the male lead in this second season and does an amazing job of sweeping Yumi off her feet. This drama is following the webtoon very closely and unfortunately it ends on a cliffhanger and I think would be very disappointing for the fans that have watched the second season to not complete it with a third season just like the webtoon.

I honestly thought they should have speed it up a bit through the story especially if they aren’t planning to make a third season because it sounds like they have no immediate plans to do a third season which I find is disappointing to hear as it feels incomplete especially if you have read the webtoon. So I found it somewhat lagging and then kinda speeds up at the end which seems weird to skip over pivotal moments but waste so much time in less important moments. I wished they would have spent more time with Ba-Bi’s cells or other people’s cells. I feel like first season had more interesting cell moments then the second season. I also started to get annoyed with the character of Yu-Mi, she doesn’t say enough of what is on her mind to her significant other. I feel like if she would have addressed her issues more straightforwardly she would have saved herself a lot of grief and hardship. It seemed like she hardly talked about anything important when she is dating it seemed like it was shallow relationship at least through the second season. I think that is why it badly needs a third season so we can see Yumi as her true self with a loved one and become the best version of herself when she is in a relationship.

I really liked getting to know the inner workings of the mind and even deciding on what words to say can be a process and isn’t always straightforward. It has all the charms of the first season and all the cells personalities which of course keeps it interesting. It was a bit lackluster compared to the first season but it is decent and didn’t get boring it still had me curious about what was going to happen.

I would recommend this drama if you have watched the first season!

The third drama I finished was Why Her? It stars Oh Soo-Jae (Seo Hyun-Jin) who is a talented lawyer in one of the most prestigious law firms, she gets caught up in a scandal and is forced to work at law school to get out of the limelight with all the fingers pointing at her. She meets Gong Chan (Hwang In-Yeop) who is her student but he remembers her from his past when she was his lawyer and believed in him. It also stars Choi Tae-Guk (Heo Jun-Ho) who is the chairman at Soo-Jae’s law firm and is morally ambiguous and always needs Soo-Jae to clean up his messes. I usually don’t want to watch lawyer dramas but I thought since it stars Hyun-Jin and Hwang In-Yeop who was just in True Beauty and stood out that it would be a good drama, unfortunately I struggled to watch this drama.

I didn’t care for all the politics and constantly old men talking about trying to get ahead and doing bad things and getting away with whatever they want, it got pretty tiring. It felt too long with all these issues and the story could have finished much quicker, it felt draggy. I really hated the love story, it was one of the worst ones that I have seen in a long time. I thought I would like Hwang In-Yeop since I liked him in True Beauty but his character was just terrible. They made him soo boyish with his looks and the way he acted. It was bad enough it was a Noona drama but they made him so childish and unappealing I was shocked. They wrote his character in a terrible way and even when he had been betrayed he was like that doesn’t bother me, I’m not even mad and it was just so unrealistic and unreasonable. I would cringe every time they would do the romance line I started skipping over lots in this drama, old people hanging out and the romance line. I think it was the writing because I literally found myself feeling dead inside while watching this, I don’t think I even teared up once while watching this which is strange because there was plenty of sad scenes.

I have to say it did pick up in the last two episodes when they start revealing truth and the revenge starts happening and it did have interesting mysteries that needed to be solved which kept me continuing on to watch it but there was a lot of elements that just need unnecessary.

If you are wanting a lawyer drama that has a noona loveline you might like this drama, but I personally feel like you can find a better one than Why Her?

Upcoming Dramas

Today’s Webtoon

It is about a woman who has quit being professional in the sport of Judo. She loves webtoons and decides to apply at a Webtoon department and finds herself thrown head first into the world of being a webtoon editor and the struggles that she will go through trying to succeed in a world that is unfamiliar.

Poong, The Joseon Psychiatrist

It is about a doctor in the time of the Joseon Dynasty who is talented and worked at the palace but gets kicked out and ends up in a small village. He gets mentored by a middle-aged doctor to learn how to have more compassion and understanding and there he meets a young widow who is forced to remain faithful to her deceased husband.

If You Wish Upon Me

It is about a man who has had a horrible life as a child and then as an adult can’t stay out of trouble and gets ordered by the court to work at a end of life care facility for the terminally ill. He slowly starts to change while working with the staff that try to grant the patients their dying wishes.

Good Job

It is about a rich businessman who in secret is a master of disguise and has a detective agency where he solves crimes. He meets a woman who has gift of vision and wants to recruit her to work at his agency.

Sigh I Love Kdramas June 21, 2022

April May and June 2022 Korean Drama Reviews

The first drama that I finished was My Liberation Diary/ My Liberation Notes. This is a very interesting and unusual drama. It is about one family with adult siblings who live far from where they work in Seoul and have to spend a lot of time commuting. Gi Jeong (Lee El) is the oldest daughter and she is exhausted with her life and wants some romance. Chang-Hee (Lee Min-Ki) is the middle child and wants to live a better life and has dreams but feels crushed by the people around him. The youngest is Mi-Jeong who is introverted and doesn’t really like dealing with people but has a rich inner world that she doesn’t share with anyone. At work she is forced to join a club but instead with a couple of other people she makes her own club Liberation Club to help liberate each other from the things they want liberation from. It also stars Mr. Gu (Son Suk-Ku) who appears one day in Sanpo Village and starts to work for their dad. He never talks and is a known alcoholic that drinks everyday. Mi-Jeong decides to include him in her life and they find relief from life with each other.

This is a hard drama to explain because a lot of times it gives you a lot of feelings without even using a lot of words. This drama can feel monotonous because that is what is trying to be portrayed. It feels so relatable that it hurts at times and sometimes feels like it punches you in the gut with the truths that are revealed in the story. You feel the frustration, anger and sadness with the characters. At times there are silences when the family eats together and it actually would drive me bonkers, you just want them to communicate better with each other. When it focuses on the character of Mi-Jeong because she doesn’t talk much it would actually get frustrating because you just wanted her to speak her truth and what was on her mind. I just felt it was such a compelling drama even though it wasn’t action-packed or had a huge plot line. I like that it wasn’t a typical drama that was so predictable and always the same tropes. The acting is very good as well, they were able to convey deep emotions without even much dialogue at times.

What I didn’t like was the romance story line, I honestly feel that Mi-Jeong deserved someone better to love than someone that was an alcoholic. I would never encourage a friend or loved one to enter into a relationship with someone that had an addiction. I just can’t imagine it being healthy no matter and also being in love or having a loved one cannot be your savior, even though that was what the drama was hinting at. The drama didn’t really take it that far but the ending gave me hope for their relationship to be better. I also didn’t really love the love relationship for Gi-Jeong I thought she had better chemistry with another person in the drama then the one that she ended up with but it is fine. Chang-Hee’s ending is different but I mostly feel bad for him.

This is a great and well made drama! I would highly recommend if you like dramas that are more thought-provoking on the human condition.

The second drama that I finished was Our Blues. It is about a group of people living in a small village on Jeju Island. It focuses on one character for a couple of episodes and then moves onto another character. It had a large cast and no one was completely the main character as they would move on from a newcomer Lee Yeong-Ok (Han Ji-Min) who starts working as a haenyeo (female diver) and has a lot of secrets and is frustrating to the other people she works with. To Jung Eun-Hui who runs a fishing store and other businesses and focuses on the relationships that she has from the past and trying to figure out how to keep her friendship. To a teenage couple that gets themselves in trouble and their Dad’s have a grudge which makes it hard for them to solve their problem. This drama focuses on the hardest and best times of our lives and shows that they are often intermingled. Sadness and happiness are not really something you feel separately it is intermingled and can change quickly and suddenly but you can’t deny either of them. It is about family, friends and relationships and the struggle to keep them and understand the feelings of other people in your life. It is really a heart breaking and heart warming drama all at the same time.

I really was sucked into this drama and wanted to know what was the story between the different feuds and friendships and all the secrets between them. I also liked that there was a large cast so there was variety in the story telling. I think some of the best acting came from the oldest and youngest actors. The little girl Eun-Gi was so good at acting it was shocking. I thought it was really interesting that they were addressing Depression and how it can affect someone’s life. It was good they were talking about it but I’m not sure that they really gave good examples to deal with this disease. She didn’t really go and get help and was almost just supposed to overcome it with her own strength and friendship. I don’t know but that won’t work well for just anyone. I also thought it was good that they highlighted different disabilities in this drama as I think it is good to bring awareness to different issues that lots of people don’t have experience with and this drama seems to help bring understanding and showing how people are different.

What I didn’t like was I didn’t really care for Han-Su story line with Eun-Hui, it was honestly just weird and awkward and then the fact he leaves and doesn’t live there is just like why did we waste that much time on someone that doesn’t live there. It was also hard to watch Eun-Gi’s grandma treat her the way so roughly when she is just a little kid that needed some reassurance. I would never treat kids like that, I honestly couldn’t figure out why she was so harsh on a young child. I would have liked some more resolution on some of the story lines but overall I think they did a good job of wrapping up the loose ends.

I really think this is a worthwhile drama that has something in there for everyone as it covers a lot of ground and age groups.

The last drama that I finished was Love All Play which is about Park Tae-Yang (Park Ju-Hyun) is a badminton athlete and is returning to a professional team after a 3 year break after an incident. She was a contender to a star but because of her break she has to build back her abilities and strength. It also stars Park Tae-Joon (Chae Jong-Hyeop) who also decides to join the same team as Tae-Yang he feels like he is scared to actually know his true potential that if he actually tries his best he won’t measure up. He tries to act like he doesn’t care and it becomes his character.

I thought that this drama would have more badminton playing in it but found it was more focused on the characters and the drama between them. It also focuses on Park Tae-Yang’s guilt about the incident that she was involved in and that she feels guilty to even play badminton. It gets somewhat tiring and I didn’t feel like this drama was that unique or different then the typical drama. Two characters want to be together but because of other people around them they should be the last people that should be together. I kinda got frustrated in the drama and actually wished they would play more sports and I am not the type to like watching sports! Some characters were just the worst like basically all of Tae-Joon’s family and I really wished he would have told them off at some point but he doesn’t really and treats his mom way too well for the way she acted. He treated them all too well and at some point would have just wanted Tae-Joon and Tae-Yang to just be together and excommunicate his family. I don’t really mean it, but I was so frustrated by the situation at times.

I also found Tae-Yang’s character to get on my nerves at times, I don’t know why but I found her annoying at times. Also they have some weird romance moment that was kinda disturbing to me and just skipped over because it seemed so wrong on so many levels, the whole taking advantage of someone that is emotionally traumatized and weak. It just really gave off the wrong message and feel they should not have put that in.

The drama still kept me interested though in how it was going to turn out and was happy that it wasn’t a sad ending and there was some healing that happened. I wish they would have given a better ending of like who won the game at the end, which I thought was weird they didn’t put in there. I wish they would have given us more time with the ending instead of spending so much time with the characters being depressed and moping. It just felt tiring at some point.

Overall it wasn’t the greatest sports drama that I have watched but it was decent.

I just want to highlight a Chinese drama called Reset. It is about a college student Li Shiquing and a video game designer Xiao Heyun who are stuck in a time loop. They are stuck riding a bus that is about to explode and after they die, they wake up in the bus again. They have to find a way to stop the bus from exploding to escape from this endless time loop. I really thought this was a well done drama that actually made a time traveling drama that makes sense and doesn’t just turn into nonsense. It kept me on the edge of my seat a lot of time. They keep working out different simulations to try to stop the explosion. Each time they do a loop they get more and more information and discover the secrets behind the disaster. It really keeps you engaged the whole time and you want to binge it to find out the secrets. I don’t want to say too much in case I give away any of the clues but I highly recommend this drama if you like time traveling dramas.

January February and March Korean Drama Review 2022 April 16, 2022

Warning there are spoilers in this review!

Moonshine

The first drama that I have finished was Moonshine. It is set in the late Joseon period where there was a strict alcohol prohibition and had been going on for a while now. It stars Kang Ro-Seo (Hyeri) who is a poor noblewoman that has to work hard to make money for the family because her brother has been studying. She figures out that she could make a lot more money selling liquor but gets into trouble as the local gangs selling alcohol have the monopoly of the area and want to get rid of her. It also stars Nam Young (Yoo Seung-Ho) who works in the office of the inspector general and his main job is to catch the criminals that are selling alcohol. The two of them are bound to meet in the messy process of doing their jobs.

I didn’t have high hopes for this drama, I just thought that it would be an easy going drama to watch and for the most part it was likeable and relaxing. The first couple of episodes were good and interesting but then it just felt way too long, it had too many episodes and it was hard to get to the final episode. It is also hard because you know who the bad guy is from an early point in the drama and it feels so tedious waiting for the characters to catch on to it. I also felt that the romance was very lacking to me, they just did not have the chemistry that I expected. I really couldn’t feel that they liked each other I think the story did not build up the romance properly at all. My favorite part of the drama when they both liked each other but don’t know it yet and this drama didn’t really get to even this point to me. I just didn’t buy the romance between them at all and I’m not sure if it was the writing or the acting that was at fault, maybe both. I thought the side character of the crown prince and Yae-Jin had more chemistry together than the main romance story. I always feel with historical korean dramas they always focus so much on old guys trying to play politics and take control of the King that it just feels so overdone and boring. I doesn’t feel fresh to me I was hoping that they were going to focus on the prohibition that it would be different plot but it still turned into the typical old guys and politics without even making it fresh.

I did like Ro-Seo’s strong character, her ability to take care of herself and fix her own problems. It really highlighted women’s friendships and that they were able to work together to thwart their enemies. It showed that Women are just as capable of taking care of business and their loved ones as men and they have a role to play. This drama also had some funny comedy at times that made some of the characters pretty lovable. I would say overall this was a decent drama with a happy ending but you may get frustrated with the slow episodes at times. This is a solid drama that won’t make you have to think or feel too much!

Snowdrop

The second drama that I finished was Snowdrop. It is set in 1987 during the Democracy Movement which was when there was a mass protest movement to stop the South Korean authoritarian government and demanding that they hold fair elections. It is about a graduate student Lim Soo-Ho (Jung Hae-In) that is being chased by the government because they think he is a spy and hides in a Women’s University dorm. A girl Eun Yeong-Ro (Kim Ji-Soo) hides him because she thinks he is just a simple protester and wants to protect him and they start to develop feelings for each other. There was major controversy with this drama and people were signing petitions to be stopped from airing. They were upset because the fact in history many Korean people were accused of being North Korean spies just because they were protesters for democracy. It was considered very offensive that they were also going to use some historical names of people that were related to the movement which they did change in the drama. It just seemed to be in poor taste to most people but it did not stop the drama from being aired. The drama is fictitious and everything except for the situation of the military regime and presidential election is fictionally created.

This was a very intense drama and it seems to get started right off in the first episode and it feels like you have experienced whiplash the way the emotions go in this drama. By a couple of episodes in you already know that this is not going to end well, there is just no way that there can be happy ending and unfortunately I was correct. You have to not get attached to characters because you can’t really know who is going to make it but you are just hoping for them to get alive and don’t even care if they get to be together you just simply want them to breathe and be alive. This drama is not the best to watch before going to sleep, it is just too stressful and action-packed. It has lots of twist and turns that always keeps you on your toes and engaged in the drama. It does have some boring parts like when the wives are talking I would skip over their boring conversations at times. I also got tired of the politics and actually found it really disturbing at times especially in the times that we are in and the governments across the world becoming tyrannical. I felt like they were speaking a lot of truth and not fiction when it came to politics. Money rules the world and it always has and it really showcased how fixing elections work and manipulating the public with fake news and not speaking the real truth. We know that the government owns and influences all news stations and it really is disturbing how they can lie to the public. The idea that they can arrest anyone in the name of public defense or safety and it feels like how much abuse is and has happened with government stating it is a public safety that no one knows what they are actually doing. Anyway the government I think even though it is fictional really was showing us how governments are truly being run around the world.

I thought they did a good job telling us a story and multiple character stories and the acting was really good. They had frustrating characters but everything was well done with telling the story. I was pleasantly surprised with Ji-Soo’s acting since she is an idol and this was the first big role in a drama. She held her weight and did a good job although she has a bit of a nasally voice that I noticed other people getting annoyed with but I didn’t really mind. The ending is not happy but that was ruled out since almost the beginning and despite that I thought the ending was decent and didn’t try to play on our emotions that hard which I appreciate they didn’t try to devastate us further.

I can’t say that I disliked anything about this drama just the fact that there wasn’t a happy ending and that just wasn’t what the drama was about and realized early in so you could bail on this drama if you felt the need to. I just found the politics and the busybody women to get on my nerves but it was fine and at times could get draggy but was still a decent drama. Overall it was decent drama that was interesting despite the tragedy aspect of the drama.

Thirty-Nine

A story of three female friends who are 39-years-old. Cha Mi Jo (Son Ye-Jin) was born and raised by wealthy parents. She is now 39-years-old and works as a dermatologist at her own clinic in Gangnam, Seoul. Jung Chan Young (Jeon Mi-Do) is one of Cha Mi Jo’s close female friends. She works as an acting coach.

This drama is about the friendship of three women, Cha Mi Jo (Son Ye-Jin) who was adopted as a child and is now a doctor of dermatology and runs her own clinic and loves playing gold. Jung Chan-Young (Jeon Mi-Do) who is an acting coach and Jang Joo-Hee (Kim Ji-Hyun) who works at a beauty counter at department store. They became friends as teens and have stayed together even through their thirties. They go through a crisis together when Chan-Young finds out she has terminal cancer and this drama focuses on coming to terms with death.

I think I cried through almost every episode and I kept asking myself why I am continuing to watch this drama and I don’t know why I wanted to subject myself to so much sadness. If you feel like cancer and death are a trigger for you please do not watch this drama because it will be very triggering because it focuses 100% with death and preparing for it. It is almost like a car crash that you want to look away but you feel compelled to keep watching almost against your own will and this is what the drama is like for me. I really wanted to stop watching but for some reason the characters just kept me watching. I really felt like they really were over the top and almost forcing the sadness on the audience with the continual heart to heart talks about missing each other or how this will be the last time they do something that it felt like they were preying on our emotions. By the last episode it was just too much with the death stuff and they gave us no resolution with the characters left we needed more time with them.

I thought this drama was going to be more light hearted about friendship and even enjoying the time they left to spend together. It would have been better if Chan-Young was the only one that knew the truth so they could at least have enjoyed some time together. Since everyone knew she was dying every time they tried to do something fun every memory became tainted with sadness because they knew they couldn’t grow old together. Honestly just thinking about the characters and the drama causes my eyes to tear up. I just felt like the writer could have done a much better job writing this story and instead just pandered to our emotions and just decided every episode is going to use her death to make the audience sad. It felt like it has hard to even feel the friendship between each other because the drama didn’t even focus on that as much as the impending doom. They really did Joo-Hee’s character wrong because she could so little story line and even the was the less loved friend in the group. Chan-Young’s character really felt one note and didn’t get much variety in her character or growth. Mi-Joo was the only character that gotten the time and the growth. I can’t say I liked this drama but for some reason I felt compelled to keep watching but it made me feel miserable watching it. If you like dramas like that then go for it.

Twenty-Five Twenty-One

This drama is about Na Hee-Do (Kim Tae-Ri) a teen who wants to switch schools to do fencing because her current school shut down their program due to lack of funding and the overall South Korean financial crisis that was happening in her youth. She meets Back Yi-Jin (Nam Joo-Hyuk) in her neighbourhood who is also struggling because his father’s business went bankrupt because of the financial crisis. He has to work odd jobs to try and earn some money for his family who is separated due to the debt their family is in. The two of them become their strength through their struggles and are able to encourage each other through the hardest period of time in their lives.

This was an interesting drama because we are seeing the story through Hee-Do’s daughter who is going through her mom’s old diaries and so we get to see a future Hee-Do and also past Hee-Do which makes for an compelling story. There was so much build up to what happened from the past to make Hee-Do who she was in the current time and unfortunately the writer did not utilize this plot to the best of their ability. The ending was so disappointing and just fell flat on it’s face, most people were complaining because we never get to see who Hee-Do ends up with and never gets to see a reunion between Hee-Do and Yi-Jin. The way it was building up was right on track but they really let the fans down in the end. I also really did not care for the use of covid in the present part of the drama, I just don’t need to see it in fictional dramas it is enough to live it in real life. I think they did because they were making it in our reality with using the 9/11 tragedy in the story which was where the drama was getting weird and just seemed very depressing and sad from that point onward. It seems like Yi-Jin’s character changed so much that he seemed unrecognizable.

I thought the acting was all amazing and I loved all the side characters and the development of their characters. I loved the rivalry to friendship story line and how Hee-Do discovered the meaning of love. The character development was fun to watch and all the characters were lovable. This drama was always interesting and I never found myself getting bored. I also learned more about fencing because I knew nothing about it before watching and now I feel like I have a better understanding on the sport.

Overall I wish they had made some changes to the ending but I thought this was a fun drama to watch for the most part!

Business Proposal

This drama is about Kang Tae-Moo (Ahn Hyo-Seop) who is CEO of a food company that his grandfather founded and his grandfather wants him to go on blind dates and then get married soon. Tae-Moo is not interested in the blind dates and decides he will just marry the next woman he is set up with who is Shin Ha-Ri (Kim Se-Jeong) who is forced to go on the blind date instead of her friend. She goes on the date to try to be the most obnoxious and awful date as possible so her friend won’t have to meet the date. This drama is based on the webtoon Sanae Matsun by Hae Hwa.

So this drama is so funny and endearing it uses all the cliches and overused plot devices but yet it is being delivered in a funny and charming way that I did not mind at all. I kept finding myself smiling through the episodes and it was such a cheerful and fun drama that I loved every episode. Lots of people will find it cliche but for some reason I didn’t mind. It was an easy going drama that didn’t require much thinking it was like a stress reliever. I really needed to watch it especially watching the drama Thirty-Nine at the same time.

The ending did feel a bit rushed and just not a great build up but it wasn’t the worst one either, it is happy. Also I did find it strange the way that Tae-Moo was always deeply in love with Ha-Ri from the beginning it just felt over the top. He did really have a build up into love the way that Ha-Ri did it was always immediate for him and it felt not genuine at times.

Overall it is a highly entertaining drama that I felt was the most fun to watch this round.

Upcoming Dramas

Our Blues

This is a drama about a variety of people that are living on Jeju Island it seems to be about friendship and small town life feel.

My Liberation Diary

It is about three siblings that live in the country and work in the Seoul and are wanting to escape from their mundane lives.

Love All Play

Love and relationships surrounding the sport of Badminton.

Shooting Stars

About a top star who has a tumultuous relationship with his PR team leader.