A Comprehensive Guide to Asian Dramas
Last Updated 7/10/2009
Updated series.
NEWEST SERIES ADDED: Coffee Prince
The Purpose of My List
Inspired by the great cranberrysheep's drama list, I realized I'd seen quite a few dramas & that it would nice to have a place where I could review/rate them for other drama lovers.
Before You Read Please Understand...
This list represents my opinions and feelings & mine alone. I admit I am opinionated but I am also objective. My lists are never complete (I've seen more than I have reviewed here.)
I realize that I make grammatical & spelling errors but I do come back and fix them. I like to update this list a lot so keep coming back for more!
Thanks, cranberrysheep, for this great idea!!
Currently Watching:
When It's At Night (Half way through)
Nine Tailed Fox Wondering if I should continue...
Easy Fortune Happy Life If this show keeps going the way it has, I will take back what I said about Chen Qiao En’s dramas. It's been really good...
Cinderella Man Two episodes in and I'm realizing that Korea got their fairytales mixed up; this is really much more the Prince & the Pauper. Addition: Now halfway through; They're sinking my ship!! Stop liking her!!! D:
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Rating system:
5 = Excellent plot, acted well, and worth rewatching many times.
4 = Well concieved plot, not too contrived, but has one or two flaws.
3 = Melodramatic to a fault but speckled with moments of good that keeps you watching.
2 = Like a trainwreck: Dramatically confused, convoluted, but keeps you watching.
1 = Not convincing, too sterotypical, and oftentimes tedious.
5/5
Hana Yori Dango - Obviously I’d have to rate this one highly as it’s the one that got me into watching dramas. If you don’t know the story by now, you need to. It’s a modern take on the Cinderella tale in many ways, only Cinderella has a nice family and a mean punch. Loved everything about it.
Bad Family -Probably my favorite drama to date and I think this is because it captures everything that a drama should be (according to me): quality romances, humor that mixes well with the melodrama, engaging plot, a great cast of characters along with fantastic acting, and that essential (at least for me as a fan of fiction) happy ending. It makes the most unlikely girl a heroine: an orphaned daughter of a fisherman with three younger brothers to bring up in the world is the ingénue of this story. She works selflessly as a fisherman so her brothers can go to school; she is determined that they should get a good education and jealously keeps them out of the workforce. One day she runs into the gangster Dal Gun who accidentally burns down her boat. Dal Gun, a man burned out of his gang, has sense found work by putting together “casts” of people (like movie extra for real life people). He finds himself hired to put together a fake family for the adorable Na Rim who not only lost her entire family in a car accident but also her memory of what happened in said tragedy. Her uncle hopes to bring back her memories about the one who caused her family’s death by using a "similar family system." Dal Gun organizes this and thus brings together a group of rag-tag outcasts to make this happen--including the girl whose boat he torched. We get to see each person go through a plethora of changes what might have been a cold working relationship, becomes something just like a real family. You won't find many of the improbable & often uncomfortable situations that happen so much in many other dramas; the characters keep things moving and find solutions to their problems together. It is really a fantastic show and I loved every moment of it.
Hana Kimi -Like Daron had stated in her review; this would never happen in America. A girl goes to the all-boys school to inspire her athletic high-jumping hero to keep going and then falls in love with said boy, all while pretending to be a boy herself. It’s hilarious, endearing, fun, and memorable. Not much to say her besides that; its worth your time!
Friends-Short, cute, and sweet. A Japanese girl who runs into a Korean guy while on vacation in Hong Kong (lol, I know). They form a friendship that transcends their heritage and influences both of their lives. The girl goes home and begins to learn Korean, eventually becoming a tour guide for Japanese people in Korea. The guy is inspired to chase after his dream of being a director, despite his strict father. But will said father even allow a relationship with a girl from Japan!? Will they ever be together? It's only several episodes long but they manage to fill it with as much material as shows twice it's length. I thought it was a really eye-opening show as well concerning relations of Asian countries. I love rewatching this one many times because it feels like a long movie.
101 Kaime no Puropozu - I rate this one very highly on my scale which is even suprising to myself. I really liked this drama but I realize that many people might not like it as I do-especially because it’s from the early 90’s and appears quite dated now compared to others. This is a beauty & the beast tale. The guy is an unattractive, middle-aged construction worker who is probably the most unlucky guy in the world of romance. He’s been going to omiai (arranged marriage) meetings but has been rejected 99 times. He’s fumbling and unimpressive, especially compared to his suave younger brother, but he’s also sweet, loyal, and hardworking-qualities hard for any of these women to see. He believes that if he is rejected at the 100th time, he will give up on love. On the other hand, there is a beautiful cellist who was once was engaged to a talented pianist. On what was to be their wedding day, he was tragically killed before they could be married. She deeply mourns the loss but to get her family off her back, she decides to attend an omiai as sort of a joke. When she meets our hero, of course she is completely shocked and amused. At first, she becomes his 100th rejection-if not for her meddling sister and his brother pushing them back together. What’s so great about this? It has heart and for some reason feels a lot more genuine that your typical love story. Yes, the guy is a bit pathetic and is not much to look at, but damn if they don’t show you his superior qualities. He’d make any woman a fine husband, and that’s what the series shows us. The ending is lovely.
Eighteen vs Twenty-nine - Some dramas give you the same old plot over and over again with little to no variation…then there are dramas like this. A twenty-nine-year-old married woman, furiously jealous that her actor husband might be cheating on her, resigns herself to divorce. As she rushes to bring her divorce papers to court, she gets in a car accident and temporarily loses her memory--her adult memory that is. Instead of the married twenty-nine year old housewife, she believes that she is eighteen years old and still in love with her high school crush. Of course, her husband is shocked and doesn’t quite know what to do with her-especially when she finds out that he is that cocky jerk from her high school. Wanting nothing to do with him and refusing to believe she ended up married to her enemy, she takes her life into her own (immature) hands. What makes this special is although there are plenty of comedic scenes, there are also many moments that are a rather sad and touching. It also is heartwarming because while she puts her husband through hell to a point where he might think she was nuts, he stays by her side so that they can fall in love all over again. I can’t really think of any blaring flaws in this one and I especially loved the flashback scenes because the real teenaged actors are adorable. I’d highly recommend it!
Couple or Trouble - This is a story about a real bitch of a woman named Jo Anna. She's used to having her own way; travelling around doing what she pleases and making life unpleasant for everyone around her--especially her husband, Billy. When she married Billy, it was like she took on another pet besides her beloved Persian cat, Princess. She makes his life a living hell to the point where he wishes he could get rid of her, if he even had the balls to try. When he finally does get some gumption to tell her that they're over, Jo Anna throws a fit, gets drunk on a boat, and ends up falling into the ocean, causing her to lose her memory. Everyone believes her to be dead--especially Billy--but lo, is he suprised to find her living as Na Sang Shil with Jang Chul Soo's family, a poor handyman who has three young nephews to raise. What he doesn't know is that Chul Soo took "Sang Shil" in as revenge against her for the money she decidedly didn't want to pay him when he did some work for her. As Billy see's Jo Anna starting to smile and learn to live life with a real family, is he starting to want her back? And what of "Sang Shil's" feelings for Chul Soo? This series is so very cute and sweet; I love Jo Anna's transformation, the way she approaches life, and her utter confidence in herself. I love her relationship with Chul Soo and his nephews and even their pet dog. It is very well-rounded and one of the better amnesiac stories out there, well deserving of one, two, many watches!
Boys Before Flowers - The story has been told at least four other times now through print, animation, and two different countries taking a shot at it. Now the Korean version; how did it stand up? I would say suprisingly well. There were many times where it stayed true to what I see as the "original plot" (the anime) and of course, plenty where they deviated. The acting was emmense; it really drew out emotions from you. And I loved the attention they gave to each of the F4 and the heorine's friends. Everyone was represented here and that is what made Boys Before Flowers rather different than it's predecessors. I loved the journey and I loved the resolution. If you are a fan of the franchise and were hesitant about this one, don't be: take a chance and watch it. You may have a favorite version but don't worry; it won't offend you as a fan but only make you happier for seeing it.
Back to the Rating System
4/5
*Devil Beside You - I loved this one more than I should have. It’s mostly driven by the silly Rainie and SEXY Mike He. The basic story is that a bouncy girl has a crush on this classmate of hers and when she finally gets the courage to confess, she accidentally hands the letter to the school “devil,” or bad boy. He starts to terrorize her about it. To twist things up, her widowed mother is suddenly engaged to said bad boy’s father and the two will be soon be brother and sister! But how can their quickly growing passion for each other cease or be understood by their family now that they’ll be legally related? Seriously, hot Mike He drives this show; I love every bit of his devilish smiles, his whimsical attitude, even the bobby pins he keeps in his hair to make his fake mohawk. He’s delicious, and a blush-tastic onscreen kisser to boot.
Attention Please -A punk rock girl decides to become a stewardess-oh, I mean, “cabin attendant”-in order to get the attention of a fellow band member she has a crush on (who claims he loves girls in uniforms). At first, she is just using the program to get the attention of her crush but soon she develops a respect for the entire profession as well as becoming proficient in it. It’s a role that Ueto Aya is best at; making adorable faces and displaying an energetic attitude that inspires everyone around her, even when she just completely botches something. There were a few scenes in this that reminded me so terribly of myself that I cried along with her. It’s only flaw is that whole Japanese drama thing about not wanting to give closure to couples. The specials help a bit but, I hate when they just hint.
Anna san no Omame -LOL at this series. It’s one I didn’t think I could stand but it kept me interested because the actors are hilarious. Literally translating as “Anna’s Best Friend,” it’s about a girl name Lili ( I call her ReRe) who is completely and utterly delusional. While the actress is quite beautiful, the character acts so crazy that people run away from her; she interprets this as them being too much in love with her to be able to contain themselves. Each man she meets she feels they have fallen for her; she misunderstands absolutely everything. And yet, perfect, beautiful, and intelligent Anna befriends her despite her flaws and considers Lili her most precious friend. Hilarity ensues when Anna introduces her boyfriend to Lili who acts polite, which is enough for her to assume he’s fallen for her. In order to keep his precious and perfect girlfriend, he has to play nice to Lili, causing more trouble. Each episode is consumed with hilarious misunderstandings, crazy situations, and Lili’s crazy poses which reminds me of a certain cosplayer we like to imitate in photos, you know who I mean, mirisha , cranberrysheep, dali-lamb , and lil_senmurv
Don't believe me? Check out the first few mintues.
Hotaru no Hikari- Okay, this one is special to me because it’s so much like my life in many ways. Our heroine works for an interior design company where she’s rather talented at it. At work, she’s sort of a girl who keeps to herself but is well respected for her work. At home, however, she’s a total bum; she wears holey sweat pants, ties her hair in an unattractive samurai knot, and drinks beer straight for the can (yeah, I know, SHOCK!) She loves her downtime and doesn’t go out like other girls, her maxim being “home is best.” Her boss, a hardworking man in his mid 30’s, is going through a divorce and needs a place to stay. So he goes back to the family home which he inherited but he hasn’t seen in years...only to discover our heroine renting the place. He tries to kick her out but she’s so attached to the home, his good heart kicks in and he instead decides to move in and share the place with her. Of course this is troublesome, firstly they have to keep it secret lest anyone think something adverse about it. Sececondly, she’s a pig and he’s a neat freak. To mix things up, our heroine falls for the cute newcomer and her boss helps her get out of her hermit ways to go out with him . . . but in the end, is it the coworker who she likes or is it actually her boss!? This series is really cute but it would have been so much better if they had actually given me a complete resolution!! >.< Thus, only a 4/5.
Painter of the Wind-I loved this series. I really did. It’s a historical drama about the famous painters Hae Won & Dan Won, two figures known for revolutionizing painting in Korean during the 1700’s. In this story, they play the what-if Hae Won was actually a girl disguised as a boy? What would it be like then? Well, in this story, it is a romance between her master/mentor/friend Dan Won as they challenge the conformities of painting, solve a murder mystery, and break my heart. It is the first Korean drama I experienced that didn’t have a saccharine ending, which disappointed me more than I can say. That is what keeps this from being a total 5 because they just should have conjectured with the plot just a little more. Even so, it’s a gorgeous drama and so worth your time.
Smiling Pasta-A poor pushover girl, the daughter of an Italian Pasta shop owner, is extremely unlucky in love. For some reason, she manages to push away a series of boyfriends within just a few weeks of dating; it’s down to a calculated fact on how long they stay with her. What’s not to love? She’s pretty, happy, and adoring of them…all which somehow alienates these guys. So just after her latest dumping, fate entwines her with a celebrity. She somehow innocently gets caught at his residence and the media attention forces him to say that she’s his fiancé to avoid a scandal. He ends up, of course, growing closer to her and breaks her dumping streak. This story is awesome because of the cast; her family is hilarious, making her different pastas all the time to fit the situation. They also sing and dance as a group when they’re happy or trying to inspire someone in the family. She’s a real sweetheart so it’s so heart-warming. I liked this show a lot.
Hello! Miss-An old Korean upper-class family has fallen on hard times. They have their familial property and one of the girls in the family is left to take care of it in the old style but they are running out of money and things are in severe disrepair. On the other hand, there’s the old servant who created a scandal back in the day by stealing a cow from the property. Many years later, he’s a rich owner of a successful company with two handsome grandsons. His greatest desire is to live out the rest of his life in the grand home he once served in and decides that the grandson who can get it for him will become the next heir. After meeting the aegesshi who runs the place (a pretty tomboy "trapped" in the role as the lady of the house position) the grandfather thinks marriage would be the best way to get his grandsons to own the property. The story is really sweet, full of the whole traditions versus modern thinking conundrum but somehow managing to find a happy medium between the two. I loved all the outfits and traditions covered as much as the spunky attitude of the aegesshi (lady of the house.) She’s a really cute heroine. It just dragged a little towards the end, so 4/5 is more appropriate. Still worth a watch!!
Get Karl! Oh Soo Jung- So, a fatty pushover guy has this hot girlfriend he’s about to marry. She steps all over him but apparently claims to love him. Yet, at the ceremony, she ditches him and runs away with another guy, breaking his heart. Several years later, fatty has lost the weight, looks hot, and is a golfing star. All the while our jilter runs her own jewelry business but is not doing so great. She’s also obsessed with trying to find a rich man to marry. So, when she sees this celebrity golfer who’s come home, she goes after him like a harpy not realizing who he actually is. He, embittered the moment he realizes who she is, decides to get his revenge. They both end up falling in love with each other all over again. I thought I’d dislike this because our heroine is shallow but when you start to get to know her, you actually understand her reasoning, which is bizarre that they would be able to turn your opinion so much! Plus, they do show that she loved her fiancé then and her decision, while wrong, wasn’t completely malicious in intent. I’m giving this a higher rating than even I thought I would. Wow.
Remote - A genius detective suffers a tragedy that causes him to alienate himself from the world, thus he isolates himself in a high tech bunker of sorts. But the department needs his skills so they hire a bubbly, pretty, but simple girl to be his link to the outside world. At first, she detests him and his strange, bossy behavior but as she gets to know him, the two form a great team and solve crimes together. This show had one flaw; it really looked like it was going to have a sequel and it didn’t (if it had a sequel, it'd be 5/5.) Otherwise, I loved it!!
Haruka 17 - A young girl, fresh out of college and full of ambition, has trouble finding a job directly after college (sound familiar anyone?) She nervously tries all over town only to get rejected again and again. Desperate for anything, she stumbles into a job where she herself becomes the product! A fledgling talent agency, unbeknown to Haruka, lead by an industry pro wanting to start afresh, hires her as their new pop idol-only she has to pretend that she’s seventeen years old. Strangely enough, she starts to take to it and gains confidence in herself. When I watched the anime, Skip Beat, I thought immediately of this series because it’s the same sort of story (apart from some details, of course): a “nerdy” girl with no confidence stumbles into the glamorous world of the media and finds that she’s pretty, talented, and well liked. This series was very enjoyable and I might rate it higher had it been longer to really sink its feet in but instead it gives you a taste of her world and ends gracefully, so it’s a little lower on the scale.
Hello My Teacher - Once upon a time there was a schoolgirl who defended a bunch of wronged students from a gang and instead of being called a hero, was blamed for being the hooligan. She was kicked out of school and never got to see her beloved favorite art teacher again nor graduation day. But what if this fabled girl decided to come back to that very school six years later so she could right the wrongs of other wronged students and become a real teacher? This is such a story of Na Bori, a fresh out of school 25 year old teacher. Instead of things going as magically as she'd hoped, she is only taken on as a teacher to be the watch-dog for the Director's trouble-maker step-son, Park Tae In. As long as he doesn't get in trouble, she'll remain a teacher at the school. Things seem to look up as she is reunited with her longtime crush--her former art teacher--but what she doesn't see coming is a romance from her charge, Tae In, who falls desperately in love with her! What will happen; how will she handle her feelings for both of them?! Will she ever be able to become a real teacher with such drama surrounding her? I liked this series because it took the time to get to know the other characters well, like the students. They had a plenty of episodes where Bori works to help them solve their problems and becomes a mother hen over them. Even as much as I didn't think I'd like Tae In, even he's adorable as he chases earnestly after his teacher. The only problem with this series is that once it hits the middle, it suffers from what a lot of Korean drama's do--which is hanging on with a going-nowhere plot & they recycle the same crap over and over again until finally they've stretched it out as much as they can and and they continue to move forward with the story. The ending would have been better if they spent some of that time where they were spinning story wheels by giving more than just two episodes after the "jump ahead a year in the future" bit, thus the lower rating. Still, I enjoyed it.
Who Are You? - A story about an excitable widower father and his spunky, beautiful daughter who’s relationship manages to transcend beyond the grave. In a freakish accident, the father is killed leaving his daughter with many unresolved issues; both financial and of the heart. Her father, however, saddened at leaving her before the day she graduated High School, begs the Reaper to give him more time on earth. The Reaper cuts him a deal allowing him to use a body of a man who, in a freakish automobile accident himself, is stuck in a coma. The Reaper using his powers to bring the man back to life is allowed three hours each day to take control of the young man’s body so he can spend more time with this daughter before his spirit leaves the earth. Only problem with this is that he inhabits one of the most cold men in Korea; one that clashes very much with his personality! Our young hero was abandoned by his family and then adopted spending most of his youth in America. He became both coldhearted and driven, coming back to Korea to become a highly successful businessman. These “spurts of insanity” that he begins displaying as our heroine’s father inhabits his body confuses everyone-especially his assistants. Throw in a baddie after some of our heroine’s father’s paintings and the mourning fiancé of the father and things really get complicated. The series was heart-breaking, funny, and romantic all at once and was a fun ride. I liked how the characters changed throughout the plot and the way they opened up to one another; no one was the same as they were in the beginning which is definitely a bonus. I think, and this is usually a problem with these types of series, that it could have benefitted from a trim down of a few episodes and it would have moved a bit faster towards the end. I also think the motive for our antagonists (the extremities that they go to) was a little silly but not anything that truly bothers me. Definitely give it a watch!
Coffee Prince - This is a very popular series, from what I’m told, but that’s not why I watched it. I first watched this show about a year ago but somehow stopped in the middle. I can’t remember why I stopped watching; I think it was because I was trailing the subtitlers and fell behind. So I started over from the beginning since cranberrysheep has spoken highly of it. The story is about an androgynous girl, Eun-chan, who supports her mother and younger sister by doing a variety of part time jobs. She runs into Han-gyeol, a rich playboy, accidentally while stopping a purse thief. Han-gyeol then persuades her, completely fooled by her short hair, flat chest, and tomboyish mannerisms that she is a man, to help him fool blind dates into thinking he’s gay so that his grandmother will get off his back about getting married. Failing in that and quite desperate to make a real man out of him, the grandmother gives him some responsibility in creating and managing a brand new coffee shop. Still desperate for a paycheck, Eun-chan takes further advantage of his misunderstanding & thus finds herself the only female barista in a coffee shop exclusive for female customers called “Coffee Prince.” What truly complicates things further than the secret of her gender is that the more time that Eun-chan spends with Han-gyeol, their odd bro-ship begins to blossom into something more like romance. This series has a few things going for it; a talented cast of actors, one being the very amiable Gong Yoo as Han-gyeol. If it didn’t have their creative touch, this series could have been very derpish and cliché. They draw you in with their approach to the emotions in the story and each character’s passion is expressed honestly, which does the series far more credit than the plot, which after about episode 12, seems to trip along to the end. You see where it’s going but you’re fascinated and entertained all the same. I don’t think this series is worthy of a 5/5 because it seemed to have run out of material, ending it as if they were dusting off their hands & giving no closure to the plethora of side-character stories they decided to open. Nevertheless, I do think it’s worth watching because they gave a very pleasing ending for the principle characters. While sporting a full cast, it’s really only about them and despite what may seem like a doomed friendship, they never experience half the heartache and uncomfortable dramatic situations that you feasibly would expect from such a plot. I highly recommend it as one that you take the time to watch.
Back to the Rating System
3/5
Full House - An orphan girl author with two ridiculous friends who(very illegally and unrealistically) somehow manage to sell HER family house while she is on vacation in order to pay for their lovechild. A stuck-up celebrity model/actor buys the house and, desperate to get back the beloved home her father designed and built, she annoys the celebrity to death until he sells it back. His manager wants to create a domestic image for him so they decide to make a deal; she marries him for a period of time and at the end of it, she gets her house back. Yeah, we allll know what happens here. It’s really contrived but somehow crazy popular with the drama crowd. I didn’t get into it as much as the community did but it was one of the first I really started watching and it has its moments. I much preferred his friend and the jealous ex-girlfriend though…even though she was love-trianglish evil.
*The Prince Who Turned Into a Frog - This one is another type of fairytale. A poor country girl, fighting to save her hometown from being demolished by a rich man’s company’s ambitions. In a twist of fate, said rich man, after quibbling with said heroine, gets in an accident and loses his memory. The girl takes him in and the two fall in love after being able to see his humble heart. It’s cute but just a bit long. I did like it but it drags a bit, causing me to rate it lower.
*Fated to Love You - Rich guy, poor girl. Confident man, pushover girl. Both meet on a boat and accidentally, through a turn of crazy events, end up having a one night stand that results in a baby being conceived. But the guy is desperately in love with his ballet dancing girlfriend who keeps standing him up to chase after her dream of being the first Taiwanese Odette principle in Swan Lake. Rich Granny wants the family line to be preserved and makes the two get married. This drama just gets weirder and weirder; it has about three plots in it and while the acting is fine, it just makes you raise and eyebrow sometimes with how it keeps going. I love the actors and they managed to seriously shock me a few times (that’s hard after you’ve seen a few dramas), but it could have had a tighter plot and so much shorter.
Lunch Queen -Mafia queen on the run has a taste for eating delicious lunches. She stumbles across a family run shop that ends up bringing her in, where two brothers end up competing for her. It’s very cute but again, suffers from the same syndrome described above, which, pun intended, left a bad taste in my mouth.
Liar Game -Fluff-headed girl, naïve and trusting to the core, walks blindly into playing a cruel game of chance where the participants must lie to one another in order to win a huge amounts of money. However if you lose, you end up owing that money. She ends up seeking the help of wrongfully imprisoned ex-convict with a genius for puzzles to help her win the games. It has the same heart as the Saw series where there’s a genius mastermind with a disdain for the inherent evil in people and consequentially is out to punish them by using their own greedy tendencies against them.
First Love - Fukada Kyoko portrays the sweet Kasumi who in High School carried on a clandestine, but passionate love affair with her young teacher. But it ended sadly as he left suddenly one day never to contact her again. Several years later, her successful (adopted) older sister wants to introduce her new fiancé to the family but to Kasumi’s surprise, it’s her old teacher! Both are shocked but don’t want to admit that they know each other to anyone else-least of all her sister. This story takes a frightfully disturbing turn when you find out that her sister is severely cracked, consumed by a strange jealousy of her sibling as she felt she never belonged to her adopted family, despite them pouring love on her. She manipulates both her fiancé and her sister to pratically force them to betray her so she can take a justified revenge upon them both. It’s very painful at times but also captivating. I did enjoy it, as wicked as it was.
An Enchanted Life -A rare Singapore drama on my list! Our heroine, a poor “betel nut babe” (a girl who sells a type of natural chewing gum on the highways of Taiwan to truckers in prostitute-esq attire) reunites with her rich, long-lost father who takes her into his household. Even though she meets the man of her dreams, she must live with the prejudice and jealousy of her evil step-mother & half-sister. They stand out as two of the worst bitches in all the series I've ever watched, simply because they are both conniving and quite literally crazy, and she ends up taking so much of their bullshit with a smile. This series has one thing that sticks out among many I've watched though: it's one of the few dramas out there where the heroine will actually say what she -should- at the appropriate moment instead of lying, refusing to communicate, or running away from her problems that force the man chase after her therby causing further episodes of unnecessary drama because of one stupid thing she could have been solved by simple honesty in the first place. Shanqi is truly a gem of a heroine! The major flaw in this story is the way they handled the ending, which was a little too corny for much respect as it had all the sloppy mess of melodrama wrapped up a little too tidily within ten minutes of the last episode. Still, it has moments that recommend it and should stand out among other dramas simply because you have a girl that is interesting enough to stomach the evil shennanigans of the antagonists.
Sweet 18 -This plot is one that could only come out of Korea. It’s about two highly traditional families who wish that the son from one is united with the daughter of the other-only the girl is barely 18 and very immature while the son is already out of college and works as a detective. They marry, of course, and hilarity ensues as she gets him into trouble and he gets her out of it again. Things complicate when his old girlfriend appears, swooping down like a man-stealing harpy and forcing him to make a decision; his young wife or his old girlfriend? It’s actually really cute, even though some might scream “PEDO!”
Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang-One of those stories where a spunky, smart girl and a irresponsible but talented guy meet and innocently create a scandal that leads to their parents forcing them to be married. Is this a dramatic theme? Perhaps only in South Korea! She inspires him to greatness, but he’s still hung up on his childhood love (like all those who are forced to be married.) The heroine, despite her first impressions of him, genuinely falls in love with her husband but unfortunately for him, he can’t see it until it’s too late. The rich guy who becomes obsessed with the heroine blackmails her to be with him or "something bad" will happen to her husband. Take the entirety of the series for things to get straightened out. It’s the middle-ground for this one; moments of good but a stereotypical plot detracts from it. Plus, too much pain for the heroes and too much of that “I won’t communicate with you even though it would solve EVERYTHING if I did.” Ugh.
Soulmate - Took a chance and rewatched this recently to refresh my memory on why I rated this so low & now I remember why. The story is about several groups of friends both male and female. There is the main hero is going on family-ordered blind dates to find a wife. He meets a girl who doesn't seem his type at all, but somehow her actions intrigue him. He doesn't know that her very worldly friend is coaching her on what to say & do to capture his attention. Attracted mostly to the contridiction of her personality, he begins to pursue her in what he thinks may finally be true love. Meanwhile, our main heroine has just been proposed to by her boyfriend of several years . . . but why does it feel so wrong to her? The story is about the real hero & heroine almost meeting many times and fate intervening to bring them together. What's really unique about this story is that one episode will be told from the prospective of the man while the next will be told from the perspective of the female. It really is very entertaining to see the meanings of each action be translated in the next and yet it somehow manages not to be redundant. It also involves many fun adventures with the other couples, which cross in and out of the principle's lives. The biggest problem with this drama, which I was reminded of when I saw it again, is the ending. HUGE PROBLEM here. It was like a train wreck in the very last episode. This story could easily be a 5/5 if it weren't for the last episode. What I will say for it is that if you stop one episode before the last, this would be a great series ending and everything would be fine. I highly recommend you watching this but again, I warned you, which is why this is at a very cautious 3/5!.
Absolute Boyfriend -A shy girl who is unlucky in love thinks she’s going to a dating service when instead she is being screened to be a tester of a new dating product; a lover robot. When he arrives in his box (very much like Chii in Chobits) at her doorstep, she’s dumbfounded. He’s a gorgeous robot man ready to do anything she wants of him. Embarrassed by the whole situation, she tries to get rid of him only to find they’ll be billing her unless she tests him out for them. Just as love is unwillingly dropped at her feet, she actually meets a real guy who likes her. Will she pick the robot or the real man? This was very sweet but for some reason there are parts of this that feel artificial and stiff(::rimshot::). Worth a watch, though!
Celeb to Binbo Taro -Basically, the Paris Hilton of Japan hires on a poor widower, desperate for money to take care of his three adorable children, as a driver. Through a series of events the rich girl and the poor man connect and an unspoken romance develops. It’s cute but it’s funny that the best part of this show is that they have a pet chicken named Asuko. XD I totallly don't know why I like that aspect so much! :B
My Lucky Star - A story revolving around the jewelry industry, it concerns a man who is heir to a successful jewelry company and a talented jewelry designer who has been arrested for conning exact replicas of famous company's designs in the past. Through fate, their lives are entwined together; he learns what is important in life while she is given an opportunity to show the world that she’s more than just a copycat. This story is very…hilly; there are high moments and low moments due to some very interesting plot shocks. Throw in one evil ex-girlfriend (yeah, and she deserves the disdain because she seriously fucks up) and you have what is normally stereotypical storyline that is played out rather well. One of the major things that this suffers from is those unnecessarily stoic girl moments-the type of thing that happens after a character has decided not to talk to the person she should (as described in previous reviews) and instead runs away and literally hides from her problems. Despite all this, the ending is very satisfying, which it better have been after all the times you wanted to slap some sense into the characters. The only reason this goes here is those mentioned flaws but even so, I recommend watching it once!
Only You. - Oh you, Korea. Once again, this is an Asian “strangers meet and comfort each other, get drunk, and accidentally conceive kids” story where the girl just decides not to tell the guy about it. This sort of plot just wouldn’t happen in the US because I guess single parents are much more accepted. In Korea though, it appears it’s more like the parents want the heir and not the mother when these things happen. This has been an underscored plot in several shows I’ve seen, only in this one it is much more prevalent. As the grandparents aren’t getting an heir out of the other son they learn halfway through the series about their younger son’s unknown six-year-old son, and want to take him away. ::puts on her anger-fueled jet packs and takes a fly:: How dare anyone suggest you’d give your baby up!? I mean, the heroine is a chef who had to give up most of her ambitious dreams due to the baby. It’s bad enough she’s had financial problems but where does anyone get off trying to get the courts to take away your kid, because that’s what happens here. And the wicked girl who is set to marry the hero comes to her and flat out tells her that she’ll be the mother of that kid no matter fucking what. Thank goodness this had a happy ending or I’d be flying around in my jet packs more.
A Game About Love - I don’t know what a Chinese Mary Sue might be called, but whatever it is, I think the heroine of this story classifies as one. I don’t know why but all of Chen Qiao En’s dramas seem to end up here on my list. Most likely because they are very formulaic and well, they sometimes make me roll my eyes. That being said, I believe this one is one of her best. It is about a girl who saves two men from a locked building and in a series of different “coincidences,” the two of them, one a talented artist, fall in love with her and compete for her attention. While the ending is to my saccharine suiting, I also got a little miffed because they sunk my ship. ::sigh:: You can’t have everything, right?
Cinderella Man - This is a big example of where my bias comes into action. This series, dramatically, should be rated higher. It has a good set of actors and the story was strong enough to addict me so that I ended up watching the whole thing fairly quickly. Nevertheless, my personal beef with this story comes in this: the heroine suffers from Bella Swan syndrome; a particular brand of Mary Sue that is annoying simply because it is so unapologetically Mary Sue-esq. I got to disliking her mostly because I found her boring and I thought the dynamic, quirky hero deserved someone else, thus I cannot rate this higher. The title of this drama should have been the “Prince & the Pauper” because that is the fairytale that they’re bringing to life. I was first drawn to this show because the hero reminded me a lot of Dalgun from “Bad Family” (see above). Oh Daesan is an optimistic East Gate clothing salesman who also happens to be an orphan. On night he literally bumps into his exact duplicate, Lee Joonhee, in a barroom rumble. His duplicate is incredibly rich but also sickly and exhibits a wholly depressing attitude. Instead of initially investigating the nature of their duality-considering they really are too close for mere look-alikes-rich kid hires him to stand in for him so he can slip away and receive a donor heart. We also have the (evil?) step-brother who wants the grandmother to leave the family company to him instead of the sickly heir. The heroine, Yoojin, is an aspiring fashion designer who was previously studying in Paris before her father died and debt called her home. Yoojin’s father was Daesan’s mentor and he takes them under his wing as a self-titled big-brother figure. That’s the way their relationship stays, until halfway through the series you find out, surprise, surprise, Daesan has feelings for her. Yoojin’s designs pwn seasoned designers, such as the longtime friend of the rich family, who has eyes for Daesan, and catches every other man’s eye in the show. >.> I’m sorry, I didn’t like it. Initially I found the brother/sister relationship between the main characters innovative; when they swapped it for romance, even though they both had better options for them, I got upset. Although Daesan reminded me of Dalgun, he was not him. If that sort of thing doesn’t bother you, you really should see the series. I’ll admit it was very well done despite these personal biases I have described.
Back to the Rating System
2/5
*Why Why Love - Well, what’s to say about this one that hasn’t been said in the previous review of Devil Beside You? It’s basically the same story, with exception of details like the brother/sister thing. More like two brothers (same actors fighting over Rainie in DBY) competing for one girl. In the end they’re all a bit closer. I might have rated this higher but because they decide to freak the FUCK out of you with a whole “I’m gonna die in a month!” disease scare at the end, thus I rated this lower.
Marmalade Boy - Just like my favorite anime of the same name and plot (only set in college) with a lot less attractive people. Might have been better if it were a Japanese version, honestly. It disappointed me considering it’s the plot of my favorite anime shojo.
Glass Mask - Like the anime just live action; follows a girl as she chases after her dream of becoming a great actress and portraying the ultimate Japanese role of “The Crimson Goddess.” Meh, I’ll take it or leave it.
Kekkon Dekinai Otoko -I really laughed at this one because it’s about a 40 year old guy who makes good money, has a nicely organized home, but can’t have lasting relationships because he’s caught up on his own-way and being alone. Somehow he meets this girl who despite everything, gets attached him and despite his immature and anti-social whims, gets attached to her too. But again, ambiguity ruins this ending.
Love Queen -This took me over a year to watch because they took way too long to translate it, which made me even angrier because the end was as ambiguous as a Japanese drama! A guy is obsessed with his Senior in High School, although he never talks to her. During her graduation speech, he (for some ridiculous reason) rushes on stage, trips, and rips off her clothing, effectively creating the most horrible moment in her life and what she believes, curses her to years of bad luck. Ten years later, she’s divorced and moves in with these group of girls, each having their own (stupid) romantic hurdles. Then she runs into the guy who “ruined” her life, but as he doesn’t recognize her, she feels she can finally exact revenge. The other romances I frankly and honestly skipped through because I was only interested in the main girl and guy story; everyone else was yawn-fest. It’s got it’s moments but having to wait a year for them to pull one of those…endings…burned me on it. Otherwise it’s cute.
Witch Yoo Hee -This reminds me a lot of the taming of the shrew meets My Fair Lady, in some ways. Yoo Hee is a successful businesswoman but a real bitch. She’s snappy, mean, and non-nonsense--hence the reason no one really likes her. She gets rear-ended by a poor but amiable guy who is an aspiring chef. As he cannot pay for the damage done to her car, he’s hired on as a housekeeper of sorts to pay his bill. The guy she’s had a crush on for years reappears in her life and she becomes very self conscious, thus her housekeeper helps to rework her image so she can get her man, all while he starts to make it as a chef. Of course, there’s a romance between "the witch" and the housekeeper. I liked the series but there is just too much sterotypical plot turns (i.e. painful stomach cramps that result in the hero rushing the girl to the hopsital that happen more than once to just take up time) that it became a bit laughable and boring. The bad guy seems a bit too bad for little to reason. The best word is of course, "contrived" and I don't mind it too much if they cover it up with good acting, fun characters, and a witty script but only so much goes so far.
100% Senorita - A meh series. Twins, separated at birth, one rich, the other poor. Rich girl is almost killed by a guy trying to take over the business; instead a crazy doctor saves her from her wrecked car and changes her face so she’s unrecognizable. She meets her twin and convinces her to go back to her place to prevent the takeover and get justice. She falls in love with a guy there while the guy who was in love with original rich girl, becomes confused as he can tell something’s changed. This review is confusing as was this show.
It Started With a Kiss - I will now offend all the drama community by saying that I find this series really stupid. It’s about this lame brained girl with a crush on the super genius of the school, who flat up rejects her. Through a ridiculous circumstance (an earthquake destroys her house), her and her father end up living with his old friend’s family, who just so happens to be the family of the genius. And somehow, after many episodes, he falls in love with this IDIOT (with a Mary Sue..I mean “golden” heart), marries her, and has all sorts of adventures. It’s not my cup of tea and I couldn’t believe I actually watched BOTH series to come to this conclusion (I think I kept thinking she might eventually get smarter?)
MARS - Well, what’s to say? This is a story about dysfunctional and damaged people. The artist girl was molested by her mother’s boyfriend and therefore is fucked in the head when it comes to trusting guys. The guy had a twin brother that died and so he’s messed up in the head when he looks in the mirror. Somehow they come together and try to get passed these. I dunno, too EMO for me but it’s highly rated by others. I guess it’s alright but it’s slow and full of emotional hurdles to jump. Meh.
Why Did You Come To This House? - Have you ever “got dementia” before? Neither have I, nor has anyone I’ve ever heard of. I’ve heard of developing a case of dementia but to get it like a cold? Hmmm…not so much. I made a change here and started with the bad with this series simply because that line sums up the show pretty well, not to mention amused me greatly. It’s about a rich family consisting of the hard, and traditional father and his three daughters; all quite grown and at least one married. Principally, it is about the middle daughter who gets drunk and parties recklessly but still volunteers to charities and the like. She is in her mid-twenties and seems to suffer from extreme heart-ache over the abandonment of her lover several years before. On the other hand, there’s the hard-working, poor, and handsome handyman hero who has to care for his sick mother in the hospital and mentally handicapped older brother. How do these families meet (why does he come to her house ::snerk::)? Because Daddy wants his middle child married proper-like & he interviews candidates for her husband, that’s how. Despite the fact that our hero already has a long-term girlfriend of several years, desperate for the money a rich bride would bring so that he can save his mother, he interviews and is, of course, selected. She rejects the idea naturally and they clash big-time but of course, fall in love despite it all. This series had potential but unfortunately didn’t know exactly where it wanted to go nor who to follow. While this is a simplistic enough plot, they decided to distract you with a number of calamities happening to the other characters but never really giving them enough time or attention to truly care about them. We go through huge conundrums (the very young son of the father suddenly appearing after his mother, the father’s mistress, dies, the oldest daughter’s battle with breast cancer, the youngest daughter’s struggling with her fear of blood although she’s a surgeon :C AND having a gangster boyfriend, and, of course, the father “getting dementia") all like they were minor annoyances. Instead the focus is on the temper tantrums thrown by the hero’s girlfriend and the whining of the old beau come back to lay a claim to his old gf. Get real! 2/5!!!
Miss No Good - I love Rainie but there is only so much I will do for her. Normally when I watch dramas I lament because most of time I’m watching in the privacy of a lunch break with the sound turned off, causing me to miss a lot of excellent soundtracks. Nevertheless, this one made me grateful for that practice as when I watched it at home I ended up suffering from the character voice that Rainie decided would be cute for her role. Said voice sounds like a cat in heat; it offends. I haven’t even mentioned her clothing yet either! The story is about a boisterous young girl with a penchant for accessorizing with crazy outfits, colors, and hairclips. Her best friend in her youth was a fatty loser. Despite seperation, he never forgot her even though he thinned down and grew up to be a handsome and rich man. Determined still that he’d one day marry her, he is re-introduced to her with the intent of doing just that. She, suddenly seeing him as a (rich, hot) man, feels shamed because of her appearance and gets a well-known stylist who she clashed with earlier (and also happens to be her man’s best friend) to help her make herself over so she can “get the rich guy.” It is a natural dramatic theme that the person she spends the most time with--in this case, the stylist--will end up being the true object of her affection. It is just as true here. The series was borderline annoying and if weren’t for the excellent acting on the hero’s side and even the rival girl, I don’t know what would have kept me watching it. Rainie overacted more than usual because her character called for it. Despite knowing this, I still wanted to put a bag over her head and press the mute button.
Back to the Rating System
1/5
Kaew Tah Pee -A Vietnamese drama that shows you that some Asian men believe the tricking, lying, a punishing women is sometimes a way to show you they love you. A beautiful teacher helps a man she believes to be a poor beggar who is actually a rich stud. He convinces her to marry him and surprise, he takes her home to his mansion and breaks the news to her! Now she has a bunch of jealous harpies after her making her life miserable, all the while why the “hero” gets tricked constantly by their shenanigans. At the end, he fucking pretends to be blinded so she’ll come back and care for him again. Fucking rage-inducing and so could have been rated higher if it weren’t for the douche guy!
Love Generation -Summed up in one word: forgettable.
Love Letter - This show reminded me that there are a lot of Christians in Korea-I know have a few in our church and our sister-church in town is a Korean one but it’s interesting to see a drama about it. It deals with an orphan boy who is being used by his cruel aunt for money. His uncle on his mother’s side, a Priest, appears one day and saves him. He brings him to his church where they bring up other orphans. The boy from then on vows to become a Priest too. Years later, the daughter of an infamous actress finds herself and orphan and comes to the orphanage. No one can pierce her inner sadness but our hero and they form a very tight bond of friendship. Soon she realizes it is more than just friendship on her side and she writes him a confession letter on the last day of High School, only he confesses to her first-his dream of becoming a Priest. Not wanting to stand in the way of his dream, she never gives him the letter. They go off to college together where they meet another man who becomes friends with the hero and enemy to the heroine for “breaking up” their friendship, only she doesn’t realize the man is in love with her. A complicated turn of events occurs and everyone is pent up with issues as it gets weirder and sadder. I dunno, this had a strange ending and I just can’t see myself watching it again because the way it runs in circles. I wouldn’t recommend it so I’m placing it here.
Back to the Rating System
*All dramas with similar storylines and the same actors; a way for the drama makers to give fans more of the same. Nevertheless the originals were a bit better than the rehashed series.
Lost interest/sucked:
Hotelier I’m sorry I Love You Gal Circle In soon is Pretty Hana Kimi (Taiwan)
Haven’t & Need to Finish:
Shimokita Sundays Yamada Taro Monogatari Yukan Club One Pound Gospel Capital Scandal To Have Her
Updated series.
NEWEST SERIES ADDED: Coffee Prince
The Purpose of My List
Before You Read Please Understand...
Thanks, cranberrysheep, for this great idea!!
Currently Watching:
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Rating system:
5 = Excellent plot, acted well, and worth rewatching many times.
4 = Well concieved plot, not too contrived, but has one or two flaws.
3 = Melodramatic to a fault but speckled with moments of good that keeps you watching.
2 = Like a trainwreck: Dramatically confused, convoluted, but keeps you watching.
1 = Not convincing, too sterotypical, and oftentimes tedious.
5/5
Hana Yori Dango - Obviously I’d have to rate this one highly as it’s the one that got me into watching dramas. If you don’t know the story by now, you need to. It’s a modern take on the Cinderella tale in many ways, only Cinderella has a nice family and a mean punch. Loved everything about it.
Bad Family -Probably my favorite drama to date and I think this is because it captures everything that a drama should be (according to me): quality romances, humor that mixes well with the melodrama, engaging plot, a great cast of characters along with fantastic acting, and that essential (at least for me as a fan of fiction) happy ending. It makes the most unlikely girl a heroine: an orphaned daughter of a fisherman with three younger brothers to bring up in the world is the ingénue of this story. She works selflessly as a fisherman so her brothers can go to school; she is determined that they should get a good education and jealously keeps them out of the workforce. One day she runs into the gangster Dal Gun who accidentally burns down her boat. Dal Gun, a man burned out of his gang, has sense found work by putting together “casts” of people (like movie extra for real life people). He finds himself hired to put together a fake family for the adorable Na Rim who not only lost her entire family in a car accident but also her memory of what happened in said tragedy. Her uncle hopes to bring back her memories about the one who caused her family’s death by using a "similar family system." Dal Gun organizes this and thus brings together a group of rag-tag outcasts to make this happen--including the girl whose boat he torched. We get to see each person go through a plethora of changes what might have been a cold working relationship, becomes something just like a real family. You won't find many of the improbable & often uncomfortable situations that happen so much in many other dramas; the characters keep things moving and find solutions to their problems together. It is really a fantastic show and I loved every moment of it.
Hana Kimi -Like Daron had stated in her review; this would never happen in America. A girl goes to the all-boys school to inspire her athletic high-jumping hero to keep going and then falls in love with said boy, all while pretending to be a boy herself. It’s hilarious, endearing, fun, and memorable. Not much to say her besides that; its worth your time!
Friends-Short, cute, and sweet. A Japanese girl who runs into a Korean guy while on vacation in Hong Kong (lol, I know). They form a friendship that transcends their heritage and influences both of their lives. The girl goes home and begins to learn Korean, eventually becoming a tour guide for Japanese people in Korea. The guy is inspired to chase after his dream of being a director, despite his strict father. But will said father even allow a relationship with a girl from Japan!? Will they ever be together? It's only several episodes long but they manage to fill it with as much material as shows twice it's length. I thought it was a really eye-opening show as well concerning relations of Asian countries. I love rewatching this one many times because it feels like a long movie.
101 Kaime no Puropozu - I rate this one very highly on my scale which is even suprising to myself. I really liked this drama but I realize that many people might not like it as I do-especially because it’s from the early 90’s and appears quite dated now compared to others. This is a beauty & the beast tale. The guy is an unattractive, middle-aged construction worker who is probably the most unlucky guy in the world of romance. He’s been going to omiai (arranged marriage) meetings but has been rejected 99 times. He’s fumbling and unimpressive, especially compared to his suave younger brother, but he’s also sweet, loyal, and hardworking-qualities hard for any of these women to see. He believes that if he is rejected at the 100th time, he will give up on love. On the other hand, there is a beautiful cellist who was once was engaged to a talented pianist. On what was to be their wedding day, he was tragically killed before they could be married. She deeply mourns the loss but to get her family off her back, she decides to attend an omiai as sort of a joke. When she meets our hero, of course she is completely shocked and amused. At first, she becomes his 100th rejection-if not for her meddling sister and his brother pushing them back together. What’s so great about this? It has heart and for some reason feels a lot more genuine that your typical love story. Yes, the guy is a bit pathetic and is not much to look at, but damn if they don’t show you his superior qualities. He’d make any woman a fine husband, and that’s what the series shows us. The ending is lovely.
Eighteen vs Twenty-nine - Some dramas give you the same old plot over and over again with little to no variation…then there are dramas like this. A twenty-nine-year-old married woman, furiously jealous that her actor husband might be cheating on her, resigns herself to divorce. As she rushes to bring her divorce papers to court, she gets in a car accident and temporarily loses her memory--her adult memory that is. Instead of the married twenty-nine year old housewife, she believes that she is eighteen years old and still in love with her high school crush. Of course, her husband is shocked and doesn’t quite know what to do with her-especially when she finds out that he is that cocky jerk from her high school. Wanting nothing to do with him and refusing to believe she ended up married to her enemy, she takes her life into her own (immature) hands. What makes this special is although there are plenty of comedic scenes, there are also many moments that are a rather sad and touching. It also is heartwarming because while she puts her husband through hell to a point where he might think she was nuts, he stays by her side so that they can fall in love all over again. I can’t really think of any blaring flaws in this one and I especially loved the flashback scenes because the real teenaged actors are adorable. I’d highly recommend it!
Couple or Trouble - This is a story about a real bitch of a woman named Jo Anna. She's used to having her own way; travelling around doing what she pleases and making life unpleasant for everyone around her--especially her husband, Billy. When she married Billy, it was like she took on another pet besides her beloved Persian cat, Princess. She makes his life a living hell to the point where he wishes he could get rid of her, if he even had the balls to try. When he finally does get some gumption to tell her that they're over, Jo Anna throws a fit, gets drunk on a boat, and ends up falling into the ocean, causing her to lose her memory. Everyone believes her to be dead--especially Billy--but lo, is he suprised to find her living as Na Sang Shil with Jang Chul Soo's family, a poor handyman who has three young nephews to raise. What he doesn't know is that Chul Soo took "Sang Shil" in as revenge against her for the money she decidedly didn't want to pay him when he did some work for her. As Billy see's Jo Anna starting to smile and learn to live life with a real family, is he starting to want her back? And what of "Sang Shil's" feelings for Chul Soo? This series is so very cute and sweet; I love Jo Anna's transformation, the way she approaches life, and her utter confidence in herself. I love her relationship with Chul Soo and his nephews and even their pet dog. It is very well-rounded and one of the better amnesiac stories out there, well deserving of one, two, many watches!
Boys Before Flowers - The story has been told at least four other times now through print, animation, and two different countries taking a shot at it. Now the Korean version; how did it stand up? I would say suprisingly well. There were many times where it stayed true to what I see as the "original plot" (the anime) and of course, plenty where they deviated. The acting was emmense; it really drew out emotions from you. And I loved the attention they gave to each of the F4 and the heorine's friends. Everyone was represented here and that is what made Boys Before Flowers rather different than it's predecessors. I loved the journey and I loved the resolution. If you are a fan of the franchise and were hesitant about this one, don't be: take a chance and watch it. You may have a favorite version but don't worry; it won't offend you as a fan but only make you happier for seeing it.
Back to the Rating System
4/5
*Devil Beside You - I loved this one more than I should have. It’s mostly driven by the silly Rainie and SEXY Mike He. The basic story is that a bouncy girl has a crush on this classmate of hers and when she finally gets the courage to confess, she accidentally hands the letter to the school “devil,” or bad boy. He starts to terrorize her about it. To twist things up, her widowed mother is suddenly engaged to said bad boy’s father and the two will be soon be brother and sister! But how can their quickly growing passion for each other cease or be understood by their family now that they’ll be legally related? Seriously, hot Mike He drives this show; I love every bit of his devilish smiles, his whimsical attitude, even the bobby pins he keeps in his hair to make his fake mohawk. He’s delicious, and a blush-tastic onscreen kisser to boot.
Attention Please -A punk rock girl decides to become a stewardess-oh, I mean, “cabin attendant”-in order to get the attention of a fellow band member she has a crush on (who claims he loves girls in uniforms). At first, she is just using the program to get the attention of her crush but soon she develops a respect for the entire profession as well as becoming proficient in it. It’s a role that Ueto Aya is best at; making adorable faces and displaying an energetic attitude that inspires everyone around her, even when she just completely botches something. There were a few scenes in this that reminded me so terribly of myself that I cried along with her. It’s only flaw is that whole Japanese drama thing about not wanting to give closure to couples. The specials help a bit but, I hate when they just hint.
Anna san no Omame -LOL at this series. It’s one I didn’t think I could stand but it kept me interested because the actors are hilarious. Literally translating as “Anna’s Best Friend,” it’s about a girl name Lili ( I call her ReRe) who is completely and utterly delusional. While the actress is quite beautiful, the character acts so crazy that people run away from her; she interprets this as them being too much in love with her to be able to contain themselves. Each man she meets she feels they have fallen for her; she misunderstands absolutely everything. And yet, perfect, beautiful, and intelligent Anna befriends her despite her flaws and considers Lili her most precious friend. Hilarity ensues when Anna introduces her boyfriend to Lili who acts polite, which is enough for her to assume he’s fallen for her. In order to keep his precious and perfect girlfriend, he has to play nice to Lili, causing more trouble. Each episode is consumed with hilarious misunderstandings, crazy situations, and Lili’s crazy poses which reminds me of a certain cosplayer we like to imitate in photos, you know who I mean, mirisha , cranberrysheep, dali-lamb , and lil_senmurv
Don't believe me? Check out the first few mintues.
Click to viewHotaru no Hikari- Okay, this one is special to me because it’s so much like my life in many ways. Our heroine works for an interior design company where she’s rather talented at it. At work, she’s sort of a girl who keeps to herself but is well respected for her work. At home, however, she’s a total bum; she wears holey sweat pants, ties her hair in an unattractive samurai knot, and drinks beer straight for the can (yeah, I know, SHOCK!) She loves her downtime and doesn’t go out like other girls, her maxim being “home is best.” Her boss, a hardworking man in his mid 30’s, is going through a divorce and needs a place to stay. So he goes back to the family home which he inherited but he hasn’t seen in years...only to discover our heroine renting the place. He tries to kick her out but she’s so attached to the home, his good heart kicks in and he instead decides to move in and share the place with her. Of course this is troublesome, firstly they have to keep it secret lest anyone think something adverse about it. Sececondly, she’s a pig and he’s a neat freak. To mix things up, our heroine falls for the cute newcomer and her boss helps her get out of her hermit ways to go out with him . . . but in the end, is it the coworker who she likes or is it actually her boss!? This series is really cute but it would have been so much better if they had actually given me a complete resolution!! >.< Thus, only a 4/5.
Painter of the Wind-I loved this series. I really did. It’s a historical drama about the famous painters Hae Won & Dan Won, two figures known for revolutionizing painting in Korean during the 1700’s. In this story, they play the what-if Hae Won was actually a girl disguised as a boy? What would it be like then? Well, in this story, it is a romance between her master/mentor/friend Dan Won as they challenge the conformities of painting, solve a murder mystery, and break my heart. It is the first Korean drama I experienced that didn’t have a saccharine ending, which disappointed me more than I can say. That is what keeps this from being a total 5 because they just should have conjectured with the plot just a little more. Even so, it’s a gorgeous drama and so worth your time.
Smiling Pasta-A poor pushover girl, the daughter of an Italian Pasta shop owner, is extremely unlucky in love. For some reason, she manages to push away a series of boyfriends within just a few weeks of dating; it’s down to a calculated fact on how long they stay with her. What’s not to love? She’s pretty, happy, and adoring of them…all which somehow alienates these guys. So just after her latest dumping, fate entwines her with a celebrity. She somehow innocently gets caught at his residence and the media attention forces him to say that she’s his fiancé to avoid a scandal. He ends up, of course, growing closer to her and breaks her dumping streak. This story is awesome because of the cast; her family is hilarious, making her different pastas all the time to fit the situation. They also sing and dance as a group when they’re happy or trying to inspire someone in the family. She’s a real sweetheart so it’s so heart-warming. I liked this show a lot.
Hello! Miss-An old Korean upper-class family has fallen on hard times. They have their familial property and one of the girls in the family is left to take care of it in the old style but they are running out of money and things are in severe disrepair. On the other hand, there’s the old servant who created a scandal back in the day by stealing a cow from the property. Many years later, he’s a rich owner of a successful company with two handsome grandsons. His greatest desire is to live out the rest of his life in the grand home he once served in and decides that the grandson who can get it for him will become the next heir. After meeting the aegesshi who runs the place (a pretty tomboy "trapped" in the role as the lady of the house position) the grandfather thinks marriage would be the best way to get his grandsons to own the property. The story is really sweet, full of the whole traditions versus modern thinking conundrum but somehow managing to find a happy medium between the two. I loved all the outfits and traditions covered as much as the spunky attitude of the aegesshi (lady of the house.) She’s a really cute heroine. It just dragged a little towards the end, so 4/5 is more appropriate. Still worth a watch!!
Get Karl! Oh Soo Jung- So, a fatty pushover guy has this hot girlfriend he’s about to marry. She steps all over him but apparently claims to love him. Yet, at the ceremony, she ditches him and runs away with another guy, breaking his heart. Several years later, fatty has lost the weight, looks hot, and is a golfing star. All the while our jilter runs her own jewelry business but is not doing so great. She’s also obsessed with trying to find a rich man to marry. So, when she sees this celebrity golfer who’s come home, she goes after him like a harpy not realizing who he actually is. He, embittered the moment he realizes who she is, decides to get his revenge. They both end up falling in love with each other all over again. I thought I’d dislike this because our heroine is shallow but when you start to get to know her, you actually understand her reasoning, which is bizarre that they would be able to turn your opinion so much! Plus, they do show that she loved her fiancé then and her decision, while wrong, wasn’t completely malicious in intent. I’m giving this a higher rating than even I thought I would. Wow.
Remote - A genius detective suffers a tragedy that causes him to alienate himself from the world, thus he isolates himself in a high tech bunker of sorts. But the department needs his skills so they hire a bubbly, pretty, but simple girl to be his link to the outside world. At first, she detests him and his strange, bossy behavior but as she gets to know him, the two form a great team and solve crimes together. This show had one flaw; it really looked like it was going to have a sequel and it didn’t (if it had a sequel, it'd be 5/5.) Otherwise, I loved it!!
Haruka 17 - A young girl, fresh out of college and full of ambition, has trouble finding a job directly after college (sound familiar anyone?) She nervously tries all over town only to get rejected again and again. Desperate for anything, she stumbles into a job where she herself becomes the product! A fledgling talent agency, unbeknown to Haruka, lead by an industry pro wanting to start afresh, hires her as their new pop idol-only she has to pretend that she’s seventeen years old. Strangely enough, she starts to take to it and gains confidence in herself. When I watched the anime, Skip Beat, I thought immediately of this series because it’s the same sort of story (apart from some details, of course): a “nerdy” girl with no confidence stumbles into the glamorous world of the media and finds that she’s pretty, talented, and well liked. This series was very enjoyable and I might rate it higher had it been longer to really sink its feet in but instead it gives you a taste of her world and ends gracefully, so it’s a little lower on the scale.
Hello My Teacher - Once upon a time there was a schoolgirl who defended a bunch of wronged students from a gang and instead of being called a hero, was blamed for being the hooligan. She was kicked out of school and never got to see her beloved favorite art teacher again nor graduation day. But what if this fabled girl decided to come back to that very school six years later so she could right the wrongs of other wronged students and become a real teacher? This is such a story of Na Bori, a fresh out of school 25 year old teacher. Instead of things going as magically as she'd hoped, she is only taken on as a teacher to be the watch-dog for the Director's trouble-maker step-son, Park Tae In. As long as he doesn't get in trouble, she'll remain a teacher at the school. Things seem to look up as she is reunited with her longtime crush--her former art teacher--but what she doesn't see coming is a romance from her charge, Tae In, who falls desperately in love with her! What will happen; how will she handle her feelings for both of them?! Will she ever be able to become a real teacher with such drama surrounding her? I liked this series because it took the time to get to know the other characters well, like the students. They had a plenty of episodes where Bori works to help them solve their problems and becomes a mother hen over them. Even as much as I didn't think I'd like Tae In, even he's adorable as he chases earnestly after his teacher. The only problem with this series is that once it hits the middle, it suffers from what a lot of Korean drama's do--which is hanging on with a going-nowhere plot & they recycle the same crap over and over again until finally they've stretched it out as much as they can and and they continue to move forward with the story. The ending would have been better if they spent some of that time where they were spinning story wheels by giving more than just two episodes after the "jump ahead a year in the future" bit, thus the lower rating. Still, I enjoyed it.
Who Are You? - A story about an excitable widower father and his spunky, beautiful daughter who’s relationship manages to transcend beyond the grave. In a freakish accident, the father is killed leaving his daughter with many unresolved issues; both financial and of the heart. Her father, however, saddened at leaving her before the day she graduated High School, begs the Reaper to give him more time on earth. The Reaper cuts him a deal allowing him to use a body of a man who, in a freakish automobile accident himself, is stuck in a coma. The Reaper using his powers to bring the man back to life is allowed three hours each day to take control of the young man’s body so he can spend more time with this daughter before his spirit leaves the earth. Only problem with this is that he inhabits one of the most cold men in Korea; one that clashes very much with his personality! Our young hero was abandoned by his family and then adopted spending most of his youth in America. He became both coldhearted and driven, coming back to Korea to become a highly successful businessman. These “spurts of insanity” that he begins displaying as our heroine’s father inhabits his body confuses everyone-especially his assistants. Throw in a baddie after some of our heroine’s father’s paintings and the mourning fiancé of the father and things really get complicated. The series was heart-breaking, funny, and romantic all at once and was a fun ride. I liked how the characters changed throughout the plot and the way they opened up to one another; no one was the same as they were in the beginning which is definitely a bonus. I think, and this is usually a problem with these types of series, that it could have benefitted from a trim down of a few episodes and it would have moved a bit faster towards the end. I also think the motive for our antagonists (the extremities that they go to) was a little silly but not anything that truly bothers me. Definitely give it a watch!
Coffee Prince - This is a very popular series, from what I’m told, but that’s not why I watched it. I first watched this show about a year ago but somehow stopped in the middle. I can’t remember why I stopped watching; I think it was because I was trailing the subtitlers and fell behind. So I started over from the beginning since cranberrysheep has spoken highly of it. The story is about an androgynous girl, Eun-chan, who supports her mother and younger sister by doing a variety of part time jobs. She runs into Han-gyeol, a rich playboy, accidentally while stopping a purse thief. Han-gyeol then persuades her, completely fooled by her short hair, flat chest, and tomboyish mannerisms that she is a man, to help him fool blind dates into thinking he’s gay so that his grandmother will get off his back about getting married. Failing in that and quite desperate to make a real man out of him, the grandmother gives him some responsibility in creating and managing a brand new coffee shop. Still desperate for a paycheck, Eun-chan takes further advantage of his misunderstanding & thus finds herself the only female barista in a coffee shop exclusive for female customers called “Coffee Prince.” What truly complicates things further than the secret of her gender is that the more time that Eun-chan spends with Han-gyeol, their odd bro-ship begins to blossom into something more like romance. This series has a few things going for it; a talented cast of actors, one being the very amiable Gong Yoo as Han-gyeol. If it didn’t have their creative touch, this series could have been very derpish and cliché. They draw you in with their approach to the emotions in the story and each character’s passion is expressed honestly, which does the series far more credit than the plot, which after about episode 12, seems to trip along to the end. You see where it’s going but you’re fascinated and entertained all the same. I don’t think this series is worthy of a 5/5 because it seemed to have run out of material, ending it as if they were dusting off their hands & giving no closure to the plethora of side-character stories they decided to open. Nevertheless, I do think it’s worth watching because they gave a very pleasing ending for the principle characters. While sporting a full cast, it’s really only about them and despite what may seem like a doomed friendship, they never experience half the heartache and uncomfortable dramatic situations that you feasibly would expect from such a plot. I highly recommend it as one that you take the time to watch.
Back to the Rating System
3/5
Full House - An orphan girl author with two ridiculous friends who(very illegally and unrealistically) somehow manage to sell HER family house while she is on vacation in order to pay for their lovechild. A stuck-up celebrity model/actor buys the house and, desperate to get back the beloved home her father designed and built, she annoys the celebrity to death until he sells it back. His manager wants to create a domestic image for him so they decide to make a deal; she marries him for a period of time and at the end of it, she gets her house back. Yeah, we allll know what happens here. It’s really contrived but somehow crazy popular with the drama crowd. I didn’t get into it as much as the community did but it was one of the first I really started watching and it has its moments. I much preferred his friend and the jealous ex-girlfriend though…even though she was love-trianglish evil.
*The Prince Who Turned Into a Frog - This one is another type of fairytale. A poor country girl, fighting to save her hometown from being demolished by a rich man’s company’s ambitions. In a twist of fate, said rich man, after quibbling with said heroine, gets in an accident and loses his memory. The girl takes him in and the two fall in love after being able to see his humble heart. It’s cute but just a bit long. I did like it but it drags a bit, causing me to rate it lower.
*Fated to Love You - Rich guy, poor girl. Confident man, pushover girl. Both meet on a boat and accidentally, through a turn of crazy events, end up having a one night stand that results in a baby being conceived. But the guy is desperately in love with his ballet dancing girlfriend who keeps standing him up to chase after her dream of being the first Taiwanese Odette principle in Swan Lake. Rich Granny wants the family line to be preserved and makes the two get married. This drama just gets weirder and weirder; it has about three plots in it and while the acting is fine, it just makes you raise and eyebrow sometimes with how it keeps going. I love the actors and they managed to seriously shock me a few times (that’s hard after you’ve seen a few dramas), but it could have had a tighter plot and so much shorter.
Lunch Queen -Mafia queen on the run has a taste for eating delicious lunches. She stumbles across a family run shop that ends up bringing her in, where two brothers end up competing for her. It’s very cute but again, suffers from the same syndrome described above, which, pun intended, left a bad taste in my mouth.
Liar Game -Fluff-headed girl, naïve and trusting to the core, walks blindly into playing a cruel game of chance where the participants must lie to one another in order to win a huge amounts of money. However if you lose, you end up owing that money. She ends up seeking the help of wrongfully imprisoned ex-convict with a genius for puzzles to help her win the games. It has the same heart as the Saw series where there’s a genius mastermind with a disdain for the inherent evil in people and consequentially is out to punish them by using their own greedy tendencies against them.
First Love - Fukada Kyoko portrays the sweet Kasumi who in High School carried on a clandestine, but passionate love affair with her young teacher. But it ended sadly as he left suddenly one day never to contact her again. Several years later, her successful (adopted) older sister wants to introduce her new fiancé to the family but to Kasumi’s surprise, it’s her old teacher! Both are shocked but don’t want to admit that they know each other to anyone else-least of all her sister. This story takes a frightfully disturbing turn when you find out that her sister is severely cracked, consumed by a strange jealousy of her sibling as she felt she never belonged to her adopted family, despite them pouring love on her. She manipulates both her fiancé and her sister to pratically force them to betray her so she can take a justified revenge upon them both. It’s very painful at times but also captivating. I did enjoy it, as wicked as it was.
An Enchanted Life -A rare Singapore drama on my list! Our heroine, a poor “betel nut babe” (a girl who sells a type of natural chewing gum on the highways of Taiwan to truckers in prostitute-esq attire) reunites with her rich, long-lost father who takes her into his household. Even though she meets the man of her dreams, she must live with the prejudice and jealousy of her evil step-mother & half-sister. They stand out as two of the worst bitches in all the series I've ever watched, simply because they are both conniving and quite literally crazy, and she ends up taking so much of their bullshit with a smile. This series has one thing that sticks out among many I've watched though: it's one of the few dramas out there where the heroine will actually say what she -should- at the appropriate moment instead of lying, refusing to communicate, or running away from her problems that force the man chase after her therby causing further episodes of unnecessary drama because of one stupid thing she could have been solved by simple honesty in the first place. Shanqi is truly a gem of a heroine! The major flaw in this story is the way they handled the ending, which was a little too corny for much respect as it had all the sloppy mess of melodrama wrapped up a little too tidily within ten minutes of the last episode. Still, it has moments that recommend it and should stand out among other dramas simply because you have a girl that is interesting enough to stomach the evil shennanigans of the antagonists.
Sweet 18 -This plot is one that could only come out of Korea. It’s about two highly traditional families who wish that the son from one is united with the daughter of the other-only the girl is barely 18 and very immature while the son is already out of college and works as a detective. They marry, of course, and hilarity ensues as she gets him into trouble and he gets her out of it again. Things complicate when his old girlfriend appears, swooping down like a man-stealing harpy and forcing him to make a decision; his young wife or his old girlfriend? It’s actually really cute, even though some might scream “PEDO!”
Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang-One of those stories where a spunky, smart girl and a irresponsible but talented guy meet and innocently create a scandal that leads to their parents forcing them to be married. Is this a dramatic theme? Perhaps only in South Korea! She inspires him to greatness, but he’s still hung up on his childhood love (like all those who are forced to be married.) The heroine, despite her first impressions of him, genuinely falls in love with her husband but unfortunately for him, he can’t see it until it’s too late. The rich guy who becomes obsessed with the heroine blackmails her to be with him or "something bad" will happen to her husband. Take the entirety of the series for things to get straightened out. It’s the middle-ground for this one; moments of good but a stereotypical plot detracts from it. Plus, too much pain for the heroes and too much of that “I won’t communicate with you even though it would solve EVERYTHING if I did.” Ugh.
Soulmate - Took a chance and rewatched this recently to refresh my memory on why I rated this so low & now I remember why. The story is about several groups of friends both male and female. There is the main hero is going on family-ordered blind dates to find a wife. He meets a girl who doesn't seem his type at all, but somehow her actions intrigue him. He doesn't know that her very worldly friend is coaching her on what to say & do to capture his attention. Attracted mostly to the contridiction of her personality, he begins to pursue her in what he thinks may finally be true love. Meanwhile, our main heroine has just been proposed to by her boyfriend of several years . . . but why does it feel so wrong to her? The story is about the real hero & heroine almost meeting many times and fate intervening to bring them together. What's really unique about this story is that one episode will be told from the prospective of the man while the next will be told from the perspective of the female. It really is very entertaining to see the meanings of each action be translated in the next and yet it somehow manages not to be redundant. It also involves many fun adventures with the other couples, which cross in and out of the principle's lives. The biggest problem with this drama, which I was reminded of when I saw it again, is the ending. HUGE PROBLEM here. It was like a train wreck in the very last episode. This story could easily be a 5/5 if it weren't for the last episode. What I will say for it is that if you stop one episode before the last, this would be a great series ending and everything would be fine. I highly recommend you watching this but again, I warned you, which is why this is at a very cautious 3/5!.
Absolute Boyfriend -A shy girl who is unlucky in love thinks she’s going to a dating service when instead she is being screened to be a tester of a new dating product; a lover robot. When he arrives in his box (very much like Chii in Chobits) at her doorstep, she’s dumbfounded. He’s a gorgeous robot man ready to do anything she wants of him. Embarrassed by the whole situation, she tries to get rid of him only to find they’ll be billing her unless she tests him out for them. Just as love is unwillingly dropped at her feet, she actually meets a real guy who likes her. Will she pick the robot or the real man? This was very sweet but for some reason there are parts of this that feel artificial and stiff(::rimshot::). Worth a watch, though!
Celeb to Binbo Taro -Basically, the Paris Hilton of Japan hires on a poor widower, desperate for money to take care of his three adorable children, as a driver. Through a series of events the rich girl and the poor man connect and an unspoken romance develops. It’s cute but it’s funny that the best part of this show is that they have a pet chicken named Asuko. XD I totallly don't know why I like that aspect so much! :B
My Lucky Star - A story revolving around the jewelry industry, it concerns a man who is heir to a successful jewelry company and a talented jewelry designer who has been arrested for conning exact replicas of famous company's designs in the past. Through fate, their lives are entwined together; he learns what is important in life while she is given an opportunity to show the world that she’s more than just a copycat. This story is very…hilly; there are high moments and low moments due to some very interesting plot shocks. Throw in one evil ex-girlfriend (yeah, and she deserves the disdain because she seriously fucks up) and you have what is normally stereotypical storyline that is played out rather well. One of the major things that this suffers from is those unnecessarily stoic girl moments-the type of thing that happens after a character has decided not to talk to the person she should (as described in previous reviews) and instead runs away and literally hides from her problems. Despite all this, the ending is very satisfying, which it better have been after all the times you wanted to slap some sense into the characters. The only reason this goes here is those mentioned flaws but even so, I recommend watching it once!
Only You. - Oh you, Korea. Once again, this is an Asian “strangers meet and comfort each other, get drunk, and accidentally conceive kids” story where the girl just decides not to tell the guy about it. This sort of plot just wouldn’t happen in the US because I guess single parents are much more accepted. In Korea though, it appears it’s more like the parents want the heir and not the mother when these things happen. This has been an underscored plot in several shows I’ve seen, only in this one it is much more prevalent. As the grandparents aren’t getting an heir out of the other son they learn halfway through the series about their younger son’s unknown six-year-old son, and want to take him away. ::puts on her anger-fueled jet packs and takes a fly:: How dare anyone suggest you’d give your baby up!? I mean, the heroine is a chef who had to give up most of her ambitious dreams due to the baby. It’s bad enough she’s had financial problems but where does anyone get off trying to get the courts to take away your kid, because that’s what happens here. And the wicked girl who is set to marry the hero comes to her and flat out tells her that she’ll be the mother of that kid no matter fucking what. Thank goodness this had a happy ending or I’d be flying around in my jet packs more.
A Game About Love - I don’t know what a Chinese Mary Sue might be called, but whatever it is, I think the heroine of this story classifies as one. I don’t know why but all of Chen Qiao En’s dramas seem to end up here on my list. Most likely because they are very formulaic and well, they sometimes make me roll my eyes. That being said, I believe this one is one of her best. It is about a girl who saves two men from a locked building and in a series of different “coincidences,” the two of them, one a talented artist, fall in love with her and compete for her attention. While the ending is to my saccharine suiting, I also got a little miffed because they sunk my ship. ::sigh:: You can’t have everything, right?
Cinderella Man - This is a big example of where my bias comes into action. This series, dramatically, should be rated higher. It has a good set of actors and the story was strong enough to addict me so that I ended up watching the whole thing fairly quickly. Nevertheless, my personal beef with this story comes in this: the heroine suffers from Bella Swan syndrome; a particular brand of Mary Sue that is annoying simply because it is so unapologetically Mary Sue-esq. I got to disliking her mostly because I found her boring and I thought the dynamic, quirky hero deserved someone else, thus I cannot rate this higher. The title of this drama should have been the “Prince & the Pauper” because that is the fairytale that they’re bringing to life. I was first drawn to this show because the hero reminded me a lot of Dalgun from “Bad Family” (see above). Oh Daesan is an optimistic East Gate clothing salesman who also happens to be an orphan. On night he literally bumps into his exact duplicate, Lee Joonhee, in a barroom rumble. His duplicate is incredibly rich but also sickly and exhibits a wholly depressing attitude. Instead of initially investigating the nature of their duality-considering they really are too close for mere look-alikes-rich kid hires him to stand in for him so he can slip away and receive a donor heart. We also have the (evil?) step-brother who wants the grandmother to leave the family company to him instead of the sickly heir. The heroine, Yoojin, is an aspiring fashion designer who was previously studying in Paris before her father died and debt called her home. Yoojin’s father was Daesan’s mentor and he takes them under his wing as a self-titled big-brother figure. That’s the way their relationship stays, until halfway through the series you find out, surprise, surprise, Daesan has feelings for her. Yoojin’s designs pwn seasoned designers, such as the longtime friend of the rich family, who has eyes for Daesan, and catches every other man’s eye in the show. >.> I’m sorry, I didn’t like it. Initially I found the brother/sister relationship between the main characters innovative; when they swapped it for romance, even though they both had better options for them, I got upset. Although Daesan reminded me of Dalgun, he was not him. If that sort of thing doesn’t bother you, you really should see the series. I’ll admit it was very well done despite these personal biases I have described.
Back to the Rating System
2/5
*Why Why Love - Well, what’s to say about this one that hasn’t been said in the previous review of Devil Beside You? It’s basically the same story, with exception of details like the brother/sister thing. More like two brothers (same actors fighting over Rainie in DBY) competing for one girl. In the end they’re all a bit closer. I might have rated this higher but because they decide to freak the FUCK out of you with a whole “I’m gonna die in a month!” disease scare at the end, thus I rated this lower.
Marmalade Boy - Just like my favorite anime of the same name and plot (only set in college) with a lot less attractive people. Might have been better if it were a Japanese version, honestly. It disappointed me considering it’s the plot of my favorite anime shojo.
Glass Mask - Like the anime just live action; follows a girl as she chases after her dream of becoming a great actress and portraying the ultimate Japanese role of “The Crimson Goddess.” Meh, I’ll take it or leave it.
Kekkon Dekinai Otoko -I really laughed at this one because it’s about a 40 year old guy who makes good money, has a nicely organized home, but can’t have lasting relationships because he’s caught up on his own-way and being alone. Somehow he meets this girl who despite everything, gets attached him and despite his immature and anti-social whims, gets attached to her too. But again, ambiguity ruins this ending.
Love Queen -This took me over a year to watch because they took way too long to translate it, which made me even angrier because the end was as ambiguous as a Japanese drama! A guy is obsessed with his Senior in High School, although he never talks to her. During her graduation speech, he (for some ridiculous reason) rushes on stage, trips, and rips off her clothing, effectively creating the most horrible moment in her life and what she believes, curses her to years of bad luck. Ten years later, she’s divorced and moves in with these group of girls, each having their own (stupid) romantic hurdles. Then she runs into the guy who “ruined” her life, but as he doesn’t recognize her, she feels she can finally exact revenge. The other romances I frankly and honestly skipped through because I was only interested in the main girl and guy story; everyone else was yawn-fest. It’s got it’s moments but having to wait a year for them to pull one of those…endings…burned me on it. Otherwise it’s cute.
Witch Yoo Hee -This reminds me a lot of the taming of the shrew meets My Fair Lady, in some ways. Yoo Hee is a successful businesswoman but a real bitch. She’s snappy, mean, and non-nonsense--hence the reason no one really likes her. She gets rear-ended by a poor but amiable guy who is an aspiring chef. As he cannot pay for the damage done to her car, he’s hired on as a housekeeper of sorts to pay his bill. The guy she’s had a crush on for years reappears in her life and she becomes very self conscious, thus her housekeeper helps to rework her image so she can get her man, all while he starts to make it as a chef. Of course, there’s a romance between "the witch" and the housekeeper. I liked the series but there is just too much sterotypical plot turns (i.e. painful stomach cramps that result in the hero rushing the girl to the hopsital that happen more than once to just take up time) that it became a bit laughable and boring. The bad guy seems a bit too bad for little to reason. The best word is of course, "contrived" and I don't mind it too much if they cover it up with good acting, fun characters, and a witty script but only so much goes so far.
100% Senorita - A meh series. Twins, separated at birth, one rich, the other poor. Rich girl is almost killed by a guy trying to take over the business; instead a crazy doctor saves her from her wrecked car and changes her face so she’s unrecognizable. She meets her twin and convinces her to go back to her place to prevent the takeover and get justice. She falls in love with a guy there while the guy who was in love with original rich girl, becomes confused as he can tell something’s changed. This review is confusing as was this show.
It Started With a Kiss - I will now offend all the drama community by saying that I find this series really stupid. It’s about this lame brained girl with a crush on the super genius of the school, who flat up rejects her. Through a ridiculous circumstance (an earthquake destroys her house), her and her father end up living with his old friend’s family, who just so happens to be the family of the genius. And somehow, after many episodes, he falls in love with this IDIOT (with a Mary Sue..I mean “golden” heart), marries her, and has all sorts of adventures. It’s not my cup of tea and I couldn’t believe I actually watched BOTH series to come to this conclusion (I think I kept thinking she might eventually get smarter?)
MARS - Well, what’s to say? This is a story about dysfunctional and damaged people. The artist girl was molested by her mother’s boyfriend and therefore is fucked in the head when it comes to trusting guys. The guy had a twin brother that died and so he’s messed up in the head when he looks in the mirror. Somehow they come together and try to get passed these. I dunno, too EMO for me but it’s highly rated by others. I guess it’s alright but it’s slow and full of emotional hurdles to jump. Meh.
Why Did You Come To This House? - Have you ever “got dementia” before? Neither have I, nor has anyone I’ve ever heard of. I’ve heard of developing a case of dementia but to get it like a cold? Hmmm…not so much. I made a change here and started with the bad with this series simply because that line sums up the show pretty well, not to mention amused me greatly. It’s about a rich family consisting of the hard, and traditional father and his three daughters; all quite grown and at least one married. Principally, it is about the middle daughter who gets drunk and parties recklessly but still volunteers to charities and the like. She is in her mid-twenties and seems to suffer from extreme heart-ache over the abandonment of her lover several years before. On the other hand, there’s the hard-working, poor, and handsome handyman hero who has to care for his sick mother in the hospital and mentally handicapped older brother. How do these families meet (why does he come to her house ::snerk::)? Because Daddy wants his middle child married proper-like & he interviews candidates for her husband, that’s how. Despite the fact that our hero already has a long-term girlfriend of several years, desperate for the money a rich bride would bring so that he can save his mother, he interviews and is, of course, selected. She rejects the idea naturally and they clash big-time but of course, fall in love despite it all. This series had potential but unfortunately didn’t know exactly where it wanted to go nor who to follow. While this is a simplistic enough plot, they decided to distract you with a number of calamities happening to the other characters but never really giving them enough time or attention to truly care about them. We go through huge conundrums (the very young son of the father suddenly appearing after his mother, the father’s mistress, dies, the oldest daughter’s battle with breast cancer, the youngest daughter’s struggling with her fear of blood although she’s a surgeon :C AND having a gangster boyfriend, and, of course, the father “getting dementia") all like they were minor annoyances. Instead the focus is on the temper tantrums thrown by the hero’s girlfriend and the whining of the old beau come back to lay a claim to his old gf. Get real! 2/5!!!
Miss No Good - I love Rainie but there is only so much I will do for her. Normally when I watch dramas I lament because most of time I’m watching in the privacy of a lunch break with the sound turned off, causing me to miss a lot of excellent soundtracks. Nevertheless, this one made me grateful for that practice as when I watched it at home I ended up suffering from the character voice that Rainie decided would be cute for her role. Said voice sounds like a cat in heat; it offends. I haven’t even mentioned her clothing yet either! The story is about a boisterous young girl with a penchant for accessorizing with crazy outfits, colors, and hairclips. Her best friend in her youth was a fatty loser. Despite seperation, he never forgot her even though he thinned down and grew up to be a handsome and rich man. Determined still that he’d one day marry her, he is re-introduced to her with the intent of doing just that. She, suddenly seeing him as a (rich, hot) man, feels shamed because of her appearance and gets a well-known stylist who she clashed with earlier (and also happens to be her man’s best friend) to help her make herself over so she can “get the rich guy.” It is a natural dramatic theme that the person she spends the most time with--in this case, the stylist--will end up being the true object of her affection. It is just as true here. The series was borderline annoying and if weren’t for the excellent acting on the hero’s side and even the rival girl, I don’t know what would have kept me watching it. Rainie overacted more than usual because her character called for it. Despite knowing this, I still wanted to put a bag over her head and press the mute button.
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1/5
Kaew Tah Pee -A Vietnamese drama that shows you that some Asian men believe the tricking, lying, a punishing women is sometimes a way to show you they love you. A beautiful teacher helps a man she believes to be a poor beggar who is actually a rich stud. He convinces her to marry him and surprise, he takes her home to his mansion and breaks the news to her! Now she has a bunch of jealous harpies after her making her life miserable, all the while why the “hero” gets tricked constantly by their shenanigans. At the end, he fucking pretends to be blinded so she’ll come back and care for him again. Fucking rage-inducing and so could have been rated higher if it weren’t for the douche guy!
Love Generation -Summed up in one word: forgettable.
Love Letter - This show reminded me that there are a lot of Christians in Korea-I know have a few in our church and our sister-church in town is a Korean one but it’s interesting to see a drama about it. It deals with an orphan boy who is being used by his cruel aunt for money. His uncle on his mother’s side, a Priest, appears one day and saves him. He brings him to his church where they bring up other orphans. The boy from then on vows to become a Priest too. Years later, the daughter of an infamous actress finds herself and orphan and comes to the orphanage. No one can pierce her inner sadness but our hero and they form a very tight bond of friendship. Soon she realizes it is more than just friendship on her side and she writes him a confession letter on the last day of High School, only he confesses to her first-his dream of becoming a Priest. Not wanting to stand in the way of his dream, she never gives him the letter. They go off to college together where they meet another man who becomes friends with the hero and enemy to the heroine for “breaking up” their friendship, only she doesn’t realize the man is in love with her. A complicated turn of events occurs and everyone is pent up with issues as it gets weirder and sadder. I dunno, this had a strange ending and I just can’t see myself watching it again because the way it runs in circles. I wouldn’t recommend it so I’m placing it here.
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*All dramas with similar storylines and the same actors; a way for the drama makers to give fans more of the same. Nevertheless the originals were a bit better than the rehashed series.
Lost interest/sucked:
Haven’t & Need to Finish: