Wednesday, October 28, 2015

168. Yong Pal 용팔이 (2015) Korean

Joo Won, Kim Tae Hee, Jo Hyun Jae, Chae Jung Ah, Jung Woong In, Stephanie Lee

Drama Rating: 3/10     Neck Score: A-

Hmm, what can I say about this drama.  It's nonsense.  There was a time in the middle where I was at least enjoying the crazy mess of revenge.  People were being killed right and left, and the main girl was bat shiz crazy.  That was kind of fun to watch.  But the rest was a little boring.  Then it was extended.  Two whole episodes of nothing.  Absolutely boring and lame, and the whole time I was just hoping that she would die, only I knew she wouldn't, because I had heard it had a "happy" ending.  Well, it did have Stephanie Lee coming back, playing the deus ex machina to force a "happy" ending down our throats.  There are some very interesting dynamics that kept this show from just being a series of painfully obvious tropes strung together with a whole lot of crazy.  Joo Won's character really doesn't do anything but cry the whole second half of the show.  Basically he is a male "Candy" while Kim Tae Hee is the evil chaebol.  He does about as much as Candy and has zero power the entire time.  He rarely gets to act and have it be meaningful, he's just acted on and being pushed around (but he was one of the only actors who could act, there is at least that).  The role reversal was a bit interesting.  The amount of moral ambiguity and justification is ridiculous.  Literally everyone gets away with murder.  Is anyone actually punished in this show?  Not that we see.  Revenge is taken, people are killed, that's about all the justice that is served and there is no justice there.  I loved that the girl went bad guy and killed everyone (except the evil brother's death was lame).  It was so ridiculous how literally everyone died halfway through the show.  But then redeeming her?  No.  Forgiving her?  No.  Him going back to her?  No, no, no, no.  What lame sauce crap was that?  All I wanted was for her to die and him to move on and get together with Stephanie Lee like a year later.  Instead we got two episodes of boring and a lame-a ending.  What utter nonsense.  Boo!

Sunday, October 18, 2015

The Final Installment of My Adventures in Japanese Candyland!

Everyone, this is probably my last time reviewing the items of Japan Crate for you.  My free 3 month subscription is now up, and I am too poor to actually buy one for myself, as much as I want to.  It was super fun to do though, and maybe someday I will treat myself to something like this again.  It's totally worth it.


This month seemed to have a lot of chip type deals, and a lot of savory options, which is pretty good.  There was also some of the weirdest shiz that I have eaten to date.  WEIRDNESS!  At least I went out with a bang.  My last free Japan Crate. Sniff. I was looking forward to everything but that raisin flavored candy. Ew.  But that wasn't the worst of it.  The worst was much more.

Marlubs and Lizabreff (and Dongsaeng)'s Adventures: We MADE it to Vegas and saw BIGBANG!

Here it is, more than two weeks after that glorious weekend, and I am finally writing about it.  It all makes sense when I tell you how much work I had to put into being able to leave in the first place (like bribing coworkers) and how much catch up I did when I got back.  That is what grad school plus work will do to you.  Especially when I still wanted to play with my sister before she left.

But this was really a dream trip for us all.  Lizabreff and I went to the 2012 Alive Galaxy Tour in LA, so this was like part 2 of our BIGBANG adventures, but this was my Donsaeng's first Kpop concert, so it was like my first time all over again watching her be super excited and taking her fan girling to the next level.  Also, it was perfect because we all have our biases that we are obsessed with, so that gives me a good coverage of the concert from at least 3 bias views: G-Dragon, T.O.P and Daesung.


And yes, we went to ridiculous lengths to protect... our identities?  I guess that's what we're doing... Lizabreff wanted to (blame everything on her for the ridiculous stickers and photoshop that I didn't try to make look good at all... haha).  And these bias expressions are pretty much the same as our actual expressions anyway.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

171. Noble, My Love 고결한 그대 (2015) Korean

Sung Hoon, Kim Jae Kyung, Park Eun Suk, Kim Dong Suk

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A+

Pure fan service.  It was basically the Sung Hoon is a sexy, sexy man show.  It was a fluffy little love/hate love story, and since it was a web drama, with twenty 15 min long episodes, it gets right to the tension and chemistry, with plenty of shirtlessness to oogle at. Sung Hoon's voice is super sexy.  Their chemistry is good.  She is a good kind of plucky, and she stays plucky the whole time.  Everyone else is a bit annoying at times, but never in it for long, so no biggie.  That other dude though.  He was lame.  Just a plot device to make sexy voiced Sung Hoon get jealous, which of course is hilarious.  Basically it's super predictable, fluffy fan service and we love it.  My little sister, who watched it with me, was all "he's a jerk" at the beginning, and by the end she was super fan girling.  Nothing like a little brother to suddenly arrive and make our couple suddenly skinshippy and completely together.  She liked it when they were together and being cute.  Then, all past jerkiness was almost forgotten.  I thought it was hilarious how he was basically just the worst at trying to win a girl.  He loves her, so he throws money at her and gives her a hard time.  Yeah, that works every time.  Yes, he did get the girl in the end, but only after she finally figured out he wasn't really a jerk.  So hilarious, predictable, and fluffy show completely about a sexy, sexy man with a sexy voice and body.  Um, yes, please.

170. Thank You 고맙습니다 (2007) Korean

Jang Hyuk, Gong Hyo Jin, Seo Shin Ae, Shin Sung Rok, Shin Goo

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

How did this show make me like it so much?  It's about cancer, AIDS, dementia, single parenthood, and death.  Basically it's a feely sob story.  And I really liked it.  It was pretty well written and it had amazing actors.  I knew when I found out that it had not only Jang Hyuk but Gong Hyo Jin, Seo Sin Ae, and Shin Sung Rok in it that I would have to watch it.  They are all amazing.  I love Seo Shin Ae.  She's one of those child actresses who can actually act.  She was just perfect.  It was a heartwarming drama that was actually good (I don't tend to like those kinds) and heartwarming.  It left you feeling fuzzy and warm instead of like eye rolling and barfing.  That's a pretty good sign, I would say.  And it never made me feel burdened by its agenda, even when it clearly had one.  Anyway, it was pretty good.  It kept me watching even when Mr. Lee (Shin Goo) was making me cry.  He was awesome.  Mr. Lee!

167. Misaeng- Incomplete Life 미생 - 아직 살아 있지 못한 자 (2014) Korean

Im Siwan, Lee Sung Min, Kang So Ra, Kang Ha Neul, Byun Yo Han

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

Painful, hilarious, relatable, and amazing.  It's just about office workers, but it had me on the edge of my seat at times.  That PPT test, boy was that intense.  Whew.  It was painful because it was so relatable.  I kept cry saying "I know how you feel [Geu Rae, Pyeontae, Baek Gi, Yeong Yi]!"  It was just office work, but it was life or death to us watching it.  No one was completely evil, not even the bitca of an executive director... well, Department Head Ma might have been the worst... that sexist pig.  But I did like how it followed the stories of all four interns, and they each had their own relatable strugs.  It made it hard to watch, and also addicting.  So glad I finally got around to watching it.  It was so good.  So many good characters, so many funny facial expressions, so many crying times, so many lol moments.  Just a good, well rounded drama.

165. Mrs. Cop 미세스 캅 (2015) Korean

Kim Hee Ae, Kim Min Jong, Lee Da Hee, Son Ho Jun

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

Well, the basic concept of this drama was good.  I liked that it was about strong female characters who kicked-a.  I also liked how the title character was an ahjumma who couldn't really run or fight anymore but she still kicked-a in awesomeness.  The cases they worked on were good at first.  Then it all went campy.  The writing was always bad.  The dialog was just awful.  It made the lead male come off as a pervert at first.  I was all "wut?  I started this show for this?"  But it was just incredibly bad writing.  I mean, it took 18 episodes for the younger couple to kiss, and I don't even know how the older couple suddenly managed to be together.  It was like random and not supported when she finally started taking him seriously.  I don't think it was doing Korean police any favors either, because it made them all come off as violent and hot tempered.  So much police brutality, tsk tsk.  The bad dude was also just way over the top.  If he can do something bat-shiz crazy, you can count on him to actually do it.  From smashing statues full of gold bars to ordering hits on cops, to laughing insanely as he fakes his own death by lighting a car on fire.  Yeah, the concept was good.  I was hoping for something as good as Angry Mom.  Instead, I got campy cheese that had some attractive men in it and some awesome bad-a women.  Yep, the women ran the show in this and the men looked pretty.  At least there was that role reversal aspect.  Everything else... meh.