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.
sigh i love kdramas 