alexandral | Entries tagged with kdrama

In order to start watching new drama crop, I have been finishing up some of the dramas that have been in watching already. I have finished Lee Jun Ki's drama "Hero" last week, to my perfect satisfaction. It is not a drama that will be in my "forever favourites" list, but I enjoyed it very well. I found the story (revenge versus fight for truth against evil corporate leaders) to be very engaging and the characters (hard-boiled lady-cop Yoon So Yi; tortured, brilliant and brooding Uhm Ki Joon; cute but angsty Lee Jun Ki, adorable mafia boss Baek Yoon Shik) to be very easy to bond emotionally with . I think the network company made a hash of this drama: the story is great, the actors are great, there is everything going for it, but because of the numerous changes of the lead female actress many people lost interest in it before it even started. I am glad

timescout recommended it to me .

"Hero"'s story is quite multi-dimensional, but I'll try to summarize it without spoiling:

It all starts when boss Jo Yong Deok (Baek Yoon Shik) gets out of the prison where he has spent 15 years, framed for a crime he didn't commit.

He makes a connection with a young journalist, Jin Do Hyuk (Lee Jun Ki), who presently works in a trashy magazine. After the trashy magazine is closed, Jo Yong Deok makes a proposition to Jin Do Hyuk: he wants to organize a new newspaper, and not just any newspaper, but the one which will try to fight for truth and justice.

In the process of fighting for truth and justice Jin Do Hyuk often bumps into a young female police lieutenant, Joo Jae In (Yoon So Yi), and his old University days nemesis Kang Hae Seong (Uhm Ki Joon). Kang Hae Seong currently works for a big and corrupt newspaper. To complicate the matters, there is some connection between the death of Jin Do Hyuk's parents and Jo Yong Deok.

The story is mostly one single arch.

( Some screencaps of various great Hero moments )

The ratings: 7/10

At the moment, I am watching and loving one of Hyun Bin's old dramas, "Worlds Within". The charm of the drama is hard to express in words because it is like no other Kdrama I have seen. It had abysmal ratings in Korea and I wonder what Korean viewers thought of it. To me, the drama translates breezy and soothing feeling of beauty of life found in small details that can be insignificant to one but can make other person feel happy for no apparent reason. This is such a feel-good drama, and something for every age as well.

IT doesn't hurt , of course, that "Worlds Within" also has Hyun Bin, the prettiest man in Korea and a great actor as well. I can across some recent photographs of him:

( the rest of the pictures )

In attempt to balance Kdrama watching with other dramas, I started 6-episode Japanese drama " Gaiji Keisatsu ", or Secret Police. I expected another version of SP: good looking people, terrorism, child trauma and all other "dark" themes on the surface, naivety and "are they seriously doing it this way in Japan? How do they manage to keep any order?" on the inside. But to my surprise, I am enjoying this very much. There are some annoying little niggles, for example: every non-Japanese person in the drama is a combination of equal measure of evil, slimy and stupid, but on the whole the drama is fabulous.

The main winning point is the lead duo of Watabe Atsuro and Ono Machiko. I think the main lead characters are very well-written, but I also think that the actors achieved perfect synergy with their roles and you don't notice acting, you just see real people. You get everything here: rookie vs old seasoned warrior , fighting, idealism vs scepticism , all blended with UST. You watch them together and in every scene you wonder: what are going to do next? Fight? Kiss (I wish)?

There are also some very interesting psychological turns and wonderful cinematography. This is the first Japanese drama which without any reservations wins with me on the cinematography side. Every scene is coloured in a different, wonderfully dark and rich colour, it is like life is a large kaleidoscope, but every bit of it is dark .

( Some of the screencaps, not spoilery to the story )

Oh my Poor Heart. I am going to miss "Prosecutor princess":

( Read more... )

It is safe to say now that Cinderella's Unni has been a great success with me. Through this drama I realised one thing – it wasn't just a fluke that I liked "Family's Honour" so much. I think I love family dramas in general, where alongside the main couple's romance I get something extra: various relationships between siblings, parents and children, grandfathers and grandchildren and others. This gives me a feeling of belonging to the story somehow. Episode 15 of "Cinderella's sister" had some very strong and intense scenes between the mother and Hyo Sun. I really applaud both actresses, Seo Woo and Lee Mi Sook. It is even strange to remember that I disliked Hyo Sun so much at first. Her character has become clear to us through the cause of the story , the creators managed to introduce us to her point of view and her inner thoughts very slowly, bit by bit.

And on the whole, "Cinderella's Unni" is such a girl power drama. The focus has never shifted from Eun Jo and Hyo Sun. I am absolutely loving this.

In this regard, the episode 15 had an amazing scene of "Eun Jo shows the Evil Brother number 1 who is the boss". Ever since the evil brother N1 was introduced, I have been waiting for this. I cheered for Britain and the whole world combined, because smart girls rule!

( Read more... )

I am very excited about new Kim Nam Gil's drama, "Bad Guy". The main reason for excitement can be expressed in 4 words "Bidam in a suit" . Another reason - adorable and vivacious Han Ga In (last seen as "Witch" Yoo Hee). Third reason: if there is any other drama theme I love more than "a guy plans a revenge but falls in love with the subject of the revenge" , it isn't surfacing in my mind right now. I just can't wait for "Bad Guy" to begin.

The most worrying thing about the drama is the director, Lee Hyung Min, the guy who was the creator of not one, not two, not three but four famous drams that ended in death of at least one of protagonists, in descending chronological order: "Winter Queen", "Sorry I Love You ", "Sang Doo, Let's Go To School", "Autumn Tale". Out of these four, at least two are in the top-5 most depressing dramas of all time, dramas that only rare few managed to watch through and survive ("Sorry I Love You", "Autumn Tale"). Besides this, I have personal gripes with the ending of "Sang Doo, Let's Go To School", it was absolutely not called for. And to round all this up, although Lee Hyung Min's most famous drama, "Winter Sonata", ends well, even this drama's levels of angst are not for faint-hearted and I have a strong suspicion that a very different (less happy) ending was intended , but changed because of strong pressure from Bae Yong Joon's fans. To conclude, I don't think Lee Hyung Min is a happy person, or may be he is, but he enjoys the suffering of others. And me? Do I want another drama which will send me over the edge and make me physically ill (like "Winter Sonata" did)?

But may be I enjoy pain , or may be I just can't resist the poster:

( The bigger version, other posters and adorable behind-scenes )

And if any of you are like me and can't resist pain and suffering , "Bad Guy" is going to begin on May 26!!!

I still need to watch the ending of "Jejoongwon" properly, but I have already found out the ending from the soompi thread, and ( spoilers )

I have noticed these pictures on Korean entertainment news site, and although I don't know a word of Korean, the pictures put in me in a mood for watching "Dong Yi":

( Another picture )

I am wondering how things are going with "Dong Yi" (and by "how things are going" I mean Dong Yi and ninja Bae Soo Bin)? Does anyone know? The ratings seem to be climbing up to 30% mark , so the drama must be doing well?

OH MY POOR HEART!

High-resolution screencaps from the lovely ladies on soompi, of most awesome variety:

( Cinderella's sister episode 14 )

( Prosecutor Princess 14 )

My sincere apologies - I am still behind with answering the comments!

Cinderella's sister
I loved the episode 13, I think I have settled in this drama and I am in love with every character, including secondary and evil characters. I am also in absolute love with the location of the farm. The place is absolutely fabulous!

There were some very intense moments in the episode 13, but my favourite still was "The evil brother number two gets a decent haircut and asks Ki Hoon to introduce him to Hyo Sun". Awwww! This was so cute. Also it seems there is no love between the two evil brothers, and may be the brother number two (and the brother number one) aren't that evil and everything is the result machinations of Ki Hoon's father (who is surely evil :D) :

( More )

Personal taste/Oh My Lady
I am following both of these, in a VERY fast forward mode, and my conviction is set: these are not-bad-but-pass-and-forget dramas; I will remember the first one more for good kissing scenes than for any coherency (also warning: don't watch it if the rights of gay people are close to your heart) and the second sadly falls by the wayside in terms of chemistry between the leads.

Prosecutor Princess
Seeing the subs are coming nice and fast, I have finally started "Prosecutor Princess". I am loving it in big way, mostly for snappy dialogue, fresh characters and electric combination of Park Shi Hoo+Kim So Yeon.

But there are two very distracting moments in this drama:
- Ma Hye Ri's terrible haircut. The hair stylists resonsible for the drama couldn't have chosen a less flattering haircut for gorgeous Kim So Yeon even if they tried, and they almost succeeded in making her ugly. As a haircut purist, I also must point out that this horror CAN NOT be a creation of any designer hair salon (as it supposed to be). Not unless all the hairdressers in the salon are on drugs.

- Ma Hye Ri's atrocious clothes. I refuse to believe these are purchased from any of designer shops (I haven't seen anything as ugly anywhere), and if they are, they matched in a "lets make it as less colour and shape coordinated as possible" way. This is not Cordelia, and this is not the girl from "Legally Blond": both of them had some very bold , but cute outfits. This is a mad chick who thinks that orange, purple and green go together in one combination (plus yellow shoes). I am going to make a special post about Ma Hye Ri's clothes because these clothes are totally post-worthy. Again, because I have not a passing interest in clothes, every single outfit of Ma Hye Ri's hurts my eyes and makes the drama less believable (designer shops - NO WAY!).

I am terribly behind on answering the comments. Terribly. My work seems to have taken off as a rocket and it is not coming back until it makes a full loop around Jupiter. I am really really sorry, I love and treasure everyone of your comments. :(

But you know, Lee Jong Hyuk, my favourite actor-who-always-plays-villains is going to star in a 50-episode Family drama "Please marry me"? As a lead!!!! And he won't be killing and torturing people, but will be falling in love with the actress from "Family's honour", Yoon Jung Hee! EEEEE! I was so happy when dangermousie first told me about this, it has been a long long time since I first noticed Lee Jong Hyuk in "Green Rose", but this is the first time I see him in a proper lead role ("Powerful Opponents" doesn't really count"). I have become even happier when I saw the poster:

See! Lee Jong Hyuk:
1) is not scowling, but smiling happily
2) he is wearing jeans
3) and acting in a cute way! And no torture devices anywhere to be seen!
4) the poster is generally adorable and pink
4) but he will be in angst at some point, I am sure:

( A photo of the leads and a photo of Yoon Jung Hee whom I adore )

But I want to watch it! Have you ever seen the most perfect drama synopsis?

Here is the one:
The drama about a man (Lee Tae Gon) who falls in love with his stepsister (Jo Yoon Hee) and their forbidden love. (a hundred episodes of it):

( Bigger and prettier posters: )

Oh my poor heart

1. It has been a while since the work was as busy as now. I am doing about 20 systems at once. I work as a database programmer in one of the UK Universities, looking after University's bigger systems (they are mostly made by other companies) and writing some smaller ones. I love the job , I always have, I am one of these lucky people who "find the job you love and you'll never work a day in your life". I work from home and from office, and the margins are blurred sometimes. On the plus/minus side I am almost always close to a computer, unless I eat, sleep, do shopping, figure skate, drive, jog, or perform any other non-information related activity. And of course, I wear glasses.

2. I have checked spoilers for the episode 12 of "Cinderella's sister" and also watched the episode 11 with subs and I can't express how much I am loving the drama.( spoilers ) For anyone interested, here is the ending of the episode 12 on youtube, uploaded by Shirley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8bCLY-snCA . And here is a fabulous shippy scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ha6N0m5Ik.

3. I have watched the 2nd episode of "Worlds Within", and I am in absolute love with Hyun Bin's character. If fact, I am in love with everyone in this drama, but the lead lady. Do you need an example of immature, "I think everyone should just fall at my feet because I am so cute", girl? This is Joo Joon Young , now (when she is almost 30) and in the flashbacks, exactly the type of girl that I try to politely avoid in RL. I hope her layers will be peeled off too.

4. I have watched some more episodes of "Queen Seon Deok" (I m on episode 33 now) . I am all about the older guys at the moment, Munno and Chil Sook (he is played by the same actor who played the bandit leader Jjakgwi in "Chuno")

5. I think Shin Min Ah is lovely and green is my favourite colour. ( Some pictures of Shin Min Ah )

In short: this was the best episode so far.

( Spoilers )

From lovely shirley on soompi:

Oh my poor heart! It is all I can say. :D I can't wait.

( Pictures: )

I have caught up on "A Man Called God". It seems that I like the skeletal version of Song Il Gook as much as I did his non-skeletal version, and may be more. Why? I don't know. I don't really approve of people starving themselves to death and I am still worrying for his mental health, for who in his good mind will do this to himself? But? He looks so vulnerable and I want to cook him food? No, not really, I am not really a person who enjoys cooking too much, even though I can cook adequately. I don't really know, but Song Il Gook still looks hot.

The drama itself is a bit silly, but I am giving it the benefit of a doubt, and in any case, I haven't met an action kdrama that I can take 100% seriously yet. "A Man Called God" is cheese, but I am in a mood for wine and cheese party today.

And leaving anything else aside, "A Man Called God" has lovely OTP:

( OTP in pictures. It has everything I need in an OTP: )

I am still loving to ponder over percents :D I am following TNS ratings.

1) "Cinderella's sister" episode 10 achieved 20% ratings. I think "Cinderella's sister" deserves this and so far it has been the best drama of the season. "Cinderella's sister" ratings have increased from 16% to 20% (4% difference) since the first episode, in continuous upward trend. I hope the upward trend will continue, it is a hard battle but it seems "Cinderella's sister" is winning it. Among the strengths of the drama: good writing, storylines involving various ages, Moon Geun Young, Taecyeon's unexpected ability to act, great filming locations (I absolutely adore the farm).

2) "Personal Preference" has stabilized around 13-14% ratings, and the ratings haven't changed too much since the episode 1. The drama is a mess, but not without it's attractions. It has two huge stars in the protagonist roles and they are driving the drama. I am going to catch up on this when it finishes.

3) "Prosecutor Princess": something's gotta give, and it seems that ratings of the few recent episodes of "Prosecutor Princess" continued in a very slow downward turn. I haven't seen any episodes of this drama yet, as the subtitles for this are not very fast, I have decided to watch it when the drama finishes (and when I know how it all ends).

It has been a while since I have watched anything with Hyun Bin (aka the prettiest man in Korea), and giving in to

dangermousie's ravings about "Worlds Within", I decided to get back to this drama. I started it as it aired, watched 4 episodes, got bored and dropped it. Now I am trying again.

I have finished the episode 1 properly today. I think I cautiously like it, because I love:

+ Hyun Bin, I have missed him
+ Secondary guy, Uhm Ki Joon , I liked him in "Hero" and his budding OTP with a perky young actress already seems intense.
+ "Older" couple (with Kim Gab Soo, recently seem as the Father in "Cinderella's sister")

On the other hand, it all flooded back to me and I remembered all the problems I had with this drama in the first place:

- the main herouine is selfish. As in: she is a director, she films a scene, a stunt man is injured, everyone is freaking out, she hides in a CHAT ROOM. And then the next day innocently asks "Oh, what did I do wrong?", in full seriousness. And then her doctor boyfriend tells her that he lost a patient and she tells him emotionlessly "these things do happen". Plus it seems that we are supposed to see her behaviour as cute and indeed much cute pouting is done by Song Hye Kyo, who is the Queen of Pouting. But I personally have a huge big problem with selfish people.

- We are presented with what supposed to be a working place, a place where people do dramas. You know, no wonder Kdrama is going down the drain, because it is not a working place, it is a mental institution! Everyone runs around, tapes are lost, people are shouting, people HIT EACH OTHER. At their working place.

I am not giving up on this as I am very much invested in the secondary couple (the guy seems to be the only professional in the place). I hope the herouine will shape up and show some human traits. Her stopping constant pouting would be nice too.

Finally, I think I have emotionally bonded with both Hyo Sun and Eun Jo.
( Spoilers for the episode 10 )

The photo is just because I like it:

I shamelessly watched episode 9 streamed raw.

( Spoilers )

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alexandral

January 2012

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Alexandra Leaving

Entries tagged with kdrama

Hero : the end

Latest pictures of Hyun Bin.

Dramas I like: Gaiji Keisatsu

Prosecutor princess the ending, Cinderella's sister episode 16

Cinderella's sister episode 15

Bad Guy: I CAN NOT WAIT

Jejoongwon: the ending

Dong Yi ?????

Cinderella's sister episode 14 and Prosecutor Princess episode 14

Cinderella's sister episode 13, plus a bit about other spring dramas

Please marry me

Golden Fish: this drama is 100 episodes plus!

Very miscellaneous:

Cinderella's sister Episode 11 in pictures

Cinderella's sister: preview ep.11

A Man Called God: lovely OTP in larger number of screencaps

Kdrama Wednesday/Thursday ratings war: update

The Worlds Within: episode 1

Cinderell's sister, episode 10 Raw

Cinderella's sister: episode 9