Tag: KDrama

Hello, Me! (Kdrama Review & Summary)

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Kdrama 2021

Hello, Me! (Kdrama Review & Summary)

Hello, Me! poster

  • Genre: Romance, Comedy, Fantasy: Time Travel
  • Release Date: 17 February 2021
  • Origin: South Korea; Netflix Original
  • Kdrama: 32 (16) Episodes

Cast

Quick Precis

Ban Ha Ni who at 37 is already rather disillusioned by life meets her bubbly and gregarious young self.

Episode 1

Bahn Ha Ni is 37, single with a no-hopper career as a squid mascot.

She was having the most terrible day.

Dressed as a squid, she was by her stand when a nasty little boy tried to grab the squid crisps that was there as a taster.

Ha NI told the boy to take a couple but not two handfuls.

The child though was not happy in between chomping the crisps and being told off.  His mother turned up who went mental because her child was allergic to seafood.  The child was just beginning to develop rashes in his face.

Anyway her boss insinuated that she had to go apologise to the mother and child in the hospital.  Her boss used emotional blackmail so with not much choice she promised to go.  But she was not able to go as a couple of plainclothes policemen had come to arrest her for slander.

Apparently, Bahn Ha Ni was into photography she inherited from her father.

While a movie star was pooing in the undergrowth, she was also taking photos of wildflowers.  The movie star thought that she was a stalker and grabbed her camera, took out the old fashion film then threw the lot on the ground, breaking the camera she inherited from her father.

Bahn Ha Ni was so upset she started blogging about the poop star.

She was left in the cell until the complainant turns up.

It so happens that a chaebol was also thrown into the cell next to hers.  He was arrested for perversion.  He was only wearing a designer coat/jacket over a pair of boxers after being thrown out by his father for being so idle.

They both got out of jail in the end.

But Bahn Ha Ni was in trouble with her manager for failing to apologise to the mother and son whose story had become viral.

Then she was forced to go on a blind date.  The man transferred money to her account to pay for the dinner because he could not be bothered to return to the table after going to the loo.

Bahn Ha Ni was thinking that her life was the opposite twenty years ago. She was the most popular girl in her school, she had guts and can do anything.  She doesn’t know how it all went wrong.

She was picking her mobile phone which she dropped on the street when she saw a truck coming.  It struck her the same thing almost happened to her 20 years ago.

When she woke up she was in the hospital.  The nurse was trying to get her personal details when someone seemed to be answering for her.

She got annoyed and tugged on the curtain separating her hospital bed to the next bed and she got a surprise to see herself 20 years ago.

Episode 2

The younger Bahn Ha Ni saw her older self looking and feeling so pathetic.  I felt she was really pathetic and the story is no longer that interesting despite good casting.  I just don’t want to watch it anymore when Bahn Ha Ni seemed not to get any break from life at all.  As a viewer, it does wear you out as well, probably this is the reason why ratings is going down.

Come on scriptwriters make the story fun not full of angst and failures.

Cheese In the Trap Drama Vs Movie (Review & Summary)

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Review and Summary

Cheese In the Trap Drama Vs Movie (Review & Summary)

The Drama version

Cheese in the Trap, promotional poster from TvN

  • Genre: Romance, Youth, School
  • Release Date: 4 January 2016
  • Origin: South Korea
  • Kdrama: 16 Episodes

Cast

  • Kim Go Eun as Hong Seol
  • Park Hae Jin as Yoo Jung
  • Seo Kang Joon as Baek In Ho
  • Lee Sung Kyung as Baek In Ha
  • Nam Joo Hyuk as Kwon Eun Taek
  • Park Min Ji as Jang Bo Ra
  • Son Byung Ho as Yoo Young Soo
  • Ahn Kil Kang as Hong Jin Tak
  • Yoon Bok In as Kim Yeong Hee
  • Kim Hee Chan as Hong Joon
  • Hwang Seok Jeong as Professor Kang
  • Kim Jin Geun as Professor Han
  • Lee Woo Dong as Heo Yoon Seob
  • Moon Ji Yoon as Kim Sang Chul
  • Oh Hee Joon as Ha Jae Woo
  • Ji Yoon Ho as Oh Yeong Gon
  • Yoon Ji Won as Son Min Soo
  • Cha Joo Young as Nam Joo Yeon
  • Yoon Ye Joo as Kang Ah Young
  • Go Hyun as Kim Kyung Hwan
  • Shin Joo Hwan as Min Do Hyun
  • Kim Hye Ji as Lee Da Yeong
  • Kim Gi Bang as Gong Joo Yong
  • Yoo Jang Young as Sang Geun

 

If I’ll be asked for my Top 10 Korean dramas ever, Cheese in the Trap will be one of them.

The drama was so good with the most perfect cast. That is why I can’t understand why the film version of this drama is more or less recast except for Park Hae Jin.

Kim Go-Eun was adorable as Hong Seol.  You can read how she was feeling in her face.  She is such a brilliant actress.

Seo Kang Joon was gorgeous as the streetwise Baek In-ho.

Whilst Lee Sung-kyung portrayed a self-centred, spoilt yet vulnerable Baek In-ha

I absolutely love this drama.  It is a sweet romance between Yoo Jung (Park Hae Jin) and Hong Seol (Kim Go-eun).  Yoo Jung is the heir of a big company while Hong Seol was a hardworking college student.

To start with Hong Seol was rather wary of Yoo Jung as he has a somewhat psychotic tendency. 🙂 He can blow hot and cold and therefore you are not sure where you at with him.  But having said that Yoo Jung was really into Hong Seol, he was very romantic but in his own terms.

The development of their relationship was so sweet and at times rather disturbing :).  Yoo Jung was so forceful in his chase of Hong Seol.  Before she really knew it, she had become his girlfriend.

And then even then, she was not sure of him or how she would react as his girlfriend. Hong Seol was not sure whether to fully trust Yoo Jung but in the end, she did truly love him.

This drama is rather addictive.  I have seen it several times and it feels every time.

Brilliant acting by both leads.

The only thing was that the ending was just too hanging!  Hong Seol was left waiting for an email from Yoo Jung for his return!

The 16-episode drama ended with the much-awaited email from Yoo Jung.

The film version is coming out this 14 March 2018.

So curious of the ending!

Cheese in the trap movie poster

Cheese in the Trap – The Movie

 

  • Released Date 2018

Cast:

  • Park Hae-Jin as Yoo Jung
  • Oh Yeon-Seo as Hong Seol
  • Park Ki Woong as as Baek In-Ho
  • Yu In-young as Baek In-Ha

The structure and framework of the film are the same with the drama but the story was a little different.

I have to admit that I loved the drama so much and watched it again and again; over and over. It’s a drama to go back to when there is nothing much to watch on telly.

I have to be honest I could only bear to watch the first 20 minutes of the film and sad to say, I fast-forwarded it to the final part just to find out how it ended.

I don’t know perhaps I am a bit biased towards the drama and the recasting of most of the actors that I did not really enjoy the film.

Kim Go Eun was such a brilliant actress that she made Hong Seol her own character and anyone else playing  her will be prone to become second-best to Go Eun,

That is where the film first went wrong, recasting the lead female, why try to improve on perfection?

Because the drama has many episodes the characters are more rounded – well defined.  While in the film you don’t really get to know them very well.  They just seems to be a bunch of highly suspect, unlikable characters.  Even in the only 20 minutes that I have seen, Hong Seol comes out as a bit of a victim and quite a pushover.  There was barely any chemistry between the leads.

Perhaps the film would have been better if the excellent drama did not exist or came out first.

Mind you it is not a bad movie, it is quite polishly done but it was not for me.

And the one saving grace of this film was that the ending is not hanging unlike the drama.  This was the reason I tried to watch this film.  I wanted to know the ending.

It ended of them being together.  It showed when Yoo Jung first liked Hong seol.

As a recommendation, watch the drama rather than the film but if you wanted to watch both, then watch the film first and then the drama to enjoy them both.

Radio Romance (Kdrama Review & Summary)

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Kdrama 2018

Radio Romance (Kdrama Review & Summary)

Radio Romance poster from KBS

  • Genre: Romance, Love Triangle
  • Release Date: 2018
  • Origin: South Korea
  • Kdrama: 16 Episodes

Cast:

I have to be honest.  I did not watch this as soon as it came out because I thought I did not like the lead actress.  It was not her fault.  I heard, she is multi-awarded already when she is still in her teens.,

The reason I would pass on her dramas was because I am rather loyal to Kim Yoo-jung, which I believed was her main competitor in dramas.  I do love Kim  Yoo-jung so much.  🙂

Anyway after just watching one episode of this drama, I had a complete turn around.  I think I like Kim So-hyun as much as Yoo-jung now.

The story in a nutshell is about a romance that developed in a radio station.  🙂  Geu-Rim is a writer for radio but so far not good at it as she does not get the experience.  Despite being the assistant writer,  she was tasked to get talents and guests for shows as well as fetch and carry food for the team.

Ji Soo is a popular actor, who is not 100 per cent into his job.  His popularity is supported by his rich and powerful mother.

Episode 1

Geu Rim had been made redundant from her radio show as the DJ had up and left not only the program but the country.

As luck would have it, Lee Gang, the genius radio producer has just come back from his sabbatical to India.

Lee Gang is producing a new radio show and he wants Geu Rim to be the writer .  But it was not that easy,  she had to convince Ji Soo to be the DJ in this new show.

Some back story:  It seemed Ji Soo is attracted to Geu Rim because of vitality and being carefree.

Episode 2:

Geu Rim continues to work hard in convincing Ji Soo to do radio.

Ji Soo on the otherhand has a back story.  His rich powerful mother is not actually his real mother.  She told him on his 8(?) birthday that he was not her real son.  She looks after him and in return he had to work doubly hard to please her by always smiling and do what he was told.

He grew up without real love or fun.

One day he saw a girl surrounded by happy laughing children.  He was fascinated with how carefree she looked and how joyous.  In her school jacket her name was written as Song Geu-Rim.

He might have kept an eye on her over the years because about four years ago, during a party he purposely tripped her over.  She was so annoyed but he smiled at her.

Geu -Rim loved of radio is legendary.  Even at a young age, she continued sending over a hundred post-cards to the radio station.  She often listen to the radio with her mother, who is blind.

Geu-Rim is a people’s person and quite popular as Lady Kamikaze, well known for her Soju and beer mix.  On the last day of JI Soo’s historical drama.  The cast and crew invited Geu Rim for a wrap-up drink up.

She showed up in the party, thinking that Ji Soo would also be attending. But as the night progressed he was not there but she got drunk.

She later woke up in a strange bed, which was Ji Soo’s.

Ji Soo said he would agree to being a DJ but she must help him out.  This was in the form of misleading his mother that there was more between Ji Soo and Geu Rim.

Geu Rim got very upset.  She felt degraded.

Back at the radio station, Geu Rim was called by the station manager for a meeting.  The she was told that she was to inexperience to be the main writer.  The former writer of the now defunct Minu’s show that she was not good and that Ji Soo would not agree to be in the program.

But suddenly a very handsome Ji Soo was there confirming that he will do the show and pulled Geu Rim to go with him.  🙂

So far the classic formula of a good sweet Kdrama romance is all here.

Episode 3

This episode is all about the contract signing.  This is also about Ji Soo finally trying to untangle himself from all his pseudo mother/stepmother’s web of mental cruelty.

The pseudo mother was nasty to Ji Soo because he is the son of her erring husband with another woman.

Episode 4:

Lee Gang team with Ji Soo and Jason went on a 2 days 1 night out of town bonding.  It did not go well as Ji Soo and Geu Rim had to go back to the ferry dock to retrieve Geu Rim’s laptop.  They spent the night together but all innocent.

The next morning Ji Soo was gone.

During their first radio recording, Geu Rim was all excited to have Ji Soo read her script.  Only to find that he had his own script.

She was so upset that when Lee Gang invited her for some soju, she agreed.  But before she can get into Lee Gang’s car, Ji Soon was there preventing her to go in.

This drama has so many eye candy on offer.  Ji Soo, Jason, Joon Woo and Lee Gang.  Nice.

Episode 5

It was the pilot of Ji Soo radio show.  It did not really go as expected because he was misled.  Instead of pre-recorded show, it went on live.

But nothing catastrophic happened.

His pseudo mother is working behind the scene to ensure that the radio show does not last for more than a month.

There is a growing love triangle between Ji Soo, Geu Rim and Lee Gang.  But although Lee Gang is so cute, Ji Soo is just so adorable.

Towards the end of the episode, Geu Rim is giving Ji Soo a crash course to radio broadcasting, telling him the 7 seconds rule, which is a DJ must not pause that long in between talking, otherwise it creates ‘dead air’

Episode 7

Ji Soo kissed Geu Rim to remind her that she had known him from a long time ago.

Episode 8

JI Soo has told Geu Rim that he likes her.

Geu Rim was not expecting it as she was told by Tae Ri that she was dating Ji Soo/

Geu Rim’s mother ended up in the hospital.  Geu Rim finally asked Ji Soo if he was the boy Woo ji Woo she used to know in the hospital 12 years ago.

Geu Rim found out that Ji Soo had like her since then.

This is a sweet episode.  Lee Gang told Ji Soo that he likes Geu Rim.

Episode 9-12

This drama has some mystery to its story.

Someone is sending postcards branding Ji Soo as a murderer.  The mystery deepens as Ji Soo has a box of letters addressed to Geu Rim, being the sender’s muse.  Was Ji Soo the real sender?  Or someone, the boy, who died twelve years ago?!!!

The romance between Geu Rim and Ji Soo is full on, but Lee Gang seemed had something to say about it!

Episode 13-16

Nice enough drama but in the end you are left feeling like ‘what did I just watch?’  I mean it was immediately forgettable

Geu Rim found out that Ji Soo is not the Woo Ji Woo, who sent her love notes a long time ago.

They all live happily ever after.

Kim So Hyun is a very good actress but this drama is way over her head.  They should have gotten a more mature actress.

 

 

Should We Kiss First (KDrama Recap & Review)

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Promotional Poster

Should We Kiss First (KDrama Recap & Review)

I have just started watching this drama.  It is supposed to be a comedy drama but at the moment it is more a melodrama.

Cast:

  • Kam Woo-sung as Son Moo-han
  • Kim Sun-a as An Soon-jin
  • Oh Ji-ho as Eun Kyung-soo
  • Park Si-yeon as Baek Ji-min
  • Kim Sung-soo as Hwang In-woo
  • Ye Ji-won as Lee Mi-ra

The story is about two middle age single people who are afraid to venture into marriage and yet lonely enough to try to be in a relationship.

An Soon-Jin married her childhood sweetheart, Eun Kyung-soo but they ended up divorced.  The reason of the divorce is not yet divulged. But there was a photo of a young child in An Soon-jin’s flat.

Eun Kyung Soo in now married to Baek Ji-min, who comes from an affluent family.

Despite the infidelity issue in this drama, all the characters are likeable even Baek Ji-min.  I supposed it is still early days yet to really judge her.  🙂

The ex-husband too is sweet, very different from Jin Seop, the ex-husband in Happy Sisters.

The two lead characters first crossed path about six years ago while on board a plane. Moo Han was a passenger whilst Soon-jin was a stewardess.  They had a bit of an angry incident as each were unhappy in their current personal situations.  He just lost his wife and child to an American man and it seemed she just lost her child.  She told him that it was fine with her if he did not want to fasten his seatbelt.  She even said that death might be a relief.

As soon as the plane touched down, they both found themselves going to the zoo (not together).  She was absolutely heartbroken.

At present day, Moo Han at 50 is still a genius ads man but a bit jaded.

Soon-Jin, who is now 45, is debt ridden with only a month to her 20 years of service as a flight stewardess.

Unbeknown to each one of them, they have lived on the same building on top of each other.  Soon-Jin is #401 whilst Moo Han is at #501.  They have issues against each other as anonymous neighbours.

Again, they have mutual friends who set them up together, in view of marriage.  They did not hit it off but Moo Han recognised her as the stewardess of six years ago.

And now follows both hilarious and poignant adventures.

Hopefully this drama will tackle how love and marriage as well as having relationships with older couples.

I have to admit that somehow, I have lost my initial desire to watch this drama.

I find some of the scenes so excruciating to watch.  These scenes where she followed what her best friend told her to do in order to ‘seduce’ Moo Han in view of marriage so that she can get some of his  money.  She was so pathetic and I find that hard to watch.

I fast forwarded this drama to some scenes which made me cry, like when her ex-husband bawling his eyes out in the grave site of their daughter.

I think I will just wait for the last two final episodes and then watch.

Sorry folks!

Ok I watched the last episode no 32 and WHAT WAS THAT?!!!

Moo Han is going for euthanasia because of terminal illness, I did not really get what was medically wrong with him as I did not watch anymore episodes after the first few ones but I gathered than he married Soon Jin so she gets his $20M fortune.

What a horrible ending.  Why not give them a happy ending to encourage mature people, that there are still plenty of  chances for a happy ever after to compensate for some shitty things in earlier life.

Also after 40, it is still possible to find love.  It is not an age when all you can look forward to is death.  🙂  Come on.

I am sure the drama was brilliant,  having a fantastic cast, but the story is not my cup of tea.  I don’t want the characters undergoing too much cringing embarrassment because I feel them.  🙂

The story I thought was just too real for comfort.  I want some sort of escapism when watching dramas,

Real life is too darn hard at it is.  I don’t want to be stressed with too much angsty drama scenes for the sake of realism.  🙂

Ooops it has not ended yet.  It seems it has more mileage to wring every drop of tears one can able to shed.

I think I am really curious enough to see how it finally ends so watch this space. 🙂

 

 

Jugglers (South Korean Drama Review & Summary)

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Kdrama 2017

Jugglers (South Korean Drama Review & Summary)

Jugglers poster

 

  • Genre: Office Romance, Business, Occupation
  • Release Date: 2017
  • Origin: South Korea
  • Kdrama: 16 Episodes

Cast

  • Baek Jin-hee as Jwa Yoon-yi
  • Choi Daniel as Nam Chi-won
  • Kang Hye-jung as Wang Jeong-ae
  • Lee Won-keun as Hwangbo Yul
  • Cha Joo-young as Ma Bo-na
  • Jung Hye-in as Park Kyung-rye
  • In Gyo-jin as Managing Director Jo Sang-moo
  • Kim Chang-wan as Vice President Do Tae-geun
  • Moon Ji-hoo as Min Deul-re
  • Jung Sung-ho as Director Gong Yoo
  • Jung Soo-young as Moon Soon-yeong
  • Kim Ki-bang as Park Chi-soo
  • Song Ji-ho as Go Myung-suk
  • Min Jin-woong as Woo Chang-soo
  • Hong Kyung as Jwa Tae-yi
  • Lee Ji-ha as Kang Soon-deok
  • Cha Soon-bae as General Manager Baek Soon-bae
  • Park Kyung-hye as Goo Kye-young
  • Shin Min-kyung as Go Si-won
  • Kim Se-rin as Joo Pan-mi
  • Choi Dae-chul as Director Bong Jang-woo
  • Jung Joon-won as Park Gun-woo
  • Kim Soo-yeon as Wang Mi-ae
  • Seo Eun-woo as Do Do-hee
  • Jeon Joon-ho as Park Joon-pyo

 

I have just started watching this new South Korean drama and I much say it is very promising.  The lead actress plays Jwa Yoon-Yi (Baek Jin-Hee) is adorably quirky but extremely efficient, while the lead actor is Daniel Choi playing the reluctant boss, Nam Chi – Won.

Jugglers pertain to the so-called office wives, the personal assistants, who would do almost anything for their bosses.  (In some cases, sleep with the boss is not out of bounds, but so naughty especially if the boss is already taken!)

Jugglers are the employees who anticipate every need of their employers.  And this is what this drama is all about.

The Personal Assistants are encouraged to get to know their bosses inside and out, his health condition, mental condition, his hobbies, his habits, people nearest and dearest to him, people who want to do him harm, everything.  Sometimes the PA knows more of their bosses than the bosses know themselves.

The only thing is that if the boss is particularly demanding, a PA’s life is no longer her own. She lives and breathes her boss’s life, including his personal activities.

During episode 1, Jwa Yoon Yi ended up being fired from her job because her boss’ wife wrongly thought that she was sleeping with her boss.  Unfortunately for Jwa Yoon Yi, the news got around and it was difficult to find another job.  That is until she was made a fait accompli PA to Nam Chi Won.

Episode 5

Yoon Yi is extremely annoying in this episode.  She is so clingy and over the top for a PA.  She is going to ruin her boss if she continues on with her antics.

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