Wednesday, March 29, 2017

241. Defendant 피고인 (2017) Korean

Ji Sung, Uhm Ki Joon, Kwan Yuri, Oh Chang Suk, Uhm Hyun Kyung

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A


Woah.  What can I say besides "this show was amazing?"  I loved it so much.  It's mosaic structure at the beginning was great, as we flashed between the past and present and Ji Sung not being able to remember anything.  He was amazing.  I also loved Grumpy Cat.  Well, I loved to hate Grumpy Cat in this, while also just loving him.  He is just so good at what he does.  He plays such well rounded villains.  Even when they really aren't well rounded individuals.  Seriously though, how did he make me feel for him and despise him at the same time.  He was a horrible, psychopathic evil dude, who also just wanted to be loved.  To be normal.  To have everything he was always denied (from his perspective).  How did he make me cry at one moment and then rage scream the next?  Darn it, Grumpy Cat!  I love you, man!  Then we have a huge cast of just the best and worst people ever.  It was always fun to see how the best people in this show were the people in prison.  I loved the cellmate bromance between all 6 of those men.  They were the best.  There were so many good twists and turns in this show.  It always kept me excited.  Then, when I thought I couldn't handle another episode with another truck of doom, or another perjury ruining everything, they twisted the normal tropes and made me laugh.  Optimus Cheol Sik for the win!  It had the right amount of drama, intensity, tears, and humor.  Just the way I like it.  I felt all the emotions.  It had a stellar cast, mostly.  Even the less good peeps were passable.  Loved that it was not about romance, although I would have been fine with the brother-in-law and lawyer hooking up.  I loved the one side couple that did happen, but that is a story for those that see it.  Once again, it was amazing, and I loved it.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Like for Likes (2016) Korean

Lee Mi Yeon, Choi Ji Woo, Kim Joo Hyeok, Yoo Ah In, Kang Ha Neul, Esom

Movie rating: 7/10      Neck score: A

This movie was so cute.  It was full of feels.  I love how interconnected the three love stories were without them actually being that connected.  I loved all three couples, although naturally some more than others.  My favorite couple was actually the Choi Ji Woo/Kim Joo Hyeok couple, because their romance was just the cutest and funniest.  I also just love Choi Ji Woo, she's the cutest and bestest.  I also fell in love with that ahjussi.  I'm kind of love the ahjussis lately.  Mmmm.  Kang Han Neul and Esom were also cute.  Let's me honest, Kang Ha Neul probably gave us the most feels.  He made us almost (or just really, if you're Lizabreff) cry.  He also had the most difficult role as he played a deaf songwriter.  So his story was just a little more heart wrenching from the start.  He rocked it btw.  Yoo Ah In did a great job of being an adorable butt.  Funny and annoying at the same time.  It was a great noona romance between him and Lee Mi Yeon.  She was also great.  So really, this was just a cute show.  Not earth shattering or amazing, just great at what it is, a romantic comedy full of cute and funny characters and the perfect, cheesy resolutions that romcoms crave.  I loved it.

C'est si Bon (2015) Korean

Jung Woo, Kim Yoon Seok, Han Hyo Joo, Kim Hee Ae, Jin Goo, Jang Hyun Sung, Kang Han Neul, Jo Bok Rae

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

I liked this mostly for the music rather than the plot.  The plot was simple and pretty typical.  A young singer falls for the wrong girl and has a hard time.  But boy was the music beautiful!  Those honey voices!  Sigh!  It was just great.  It was also a good snap shot into the past, a little history of music and culture in the 70s.  It is a story about the fictional third member of the duo Twin Folio and how he came to be a member and then not debut with them.  Jung Woo was perfect for that awkward, country boy role.  There were lots of good moments, lots of funny moments, and yes some meh moments too.  Ultimately the music won me over, but the plot was not that compelling to me.  That being said, the music and flavor is enough to have me recommend it, as is the acting and singing.  Just don't expect something deep.  It's more just an enjoyable snap of the past, in the 1970s folk music craze.

Monday, March 20, 2017

242. Introverted Boss 내성적인 보스 (2017) Korean

Yeon Woo Jin, Park Hye Soo, Yoon Park, Kong Seung Yeon

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: A


Disappointing.  This had such a lovely premise,  I loved the first two episodes, but the whole misunderstanding about him and thinking he was a psycho was just going on for too long.  It was too relatable as an introvert, so it was frustrating as heck by the end of episode 4.  Then they were doing so poorly that they were forced to rewrite.  This saved the frustration at the moment, but actually ruined it in the long run by giving us crappy writing that didn't make sense.  It ruined the good things as well as getting rid of the bad things that we hated.  It made it much less believable, because it made the introverted transformation sloppy  It also had a lot more of those stereotypes.  It also ruined the ending, because it made it seem out of place, since it looks like they shoved everything they meant to do with it in the last two episodes. It was still enjoyable, because of Muffin (our new name for Yeon Woo Jin) and how adorable he was, but we had to roll our eyes and make fun of it because of how ridiculous it got.  They also had to redeem everyone at the end, which really cheapened it a lot and kind of trivialized some of the problems that people had.  Another good character who saved the show was Beautiful Beautiful Man (Heo Jung Min).  He is good in everything he's in.  He is gold.  I love my Beautiful Beautiful Man!  He and Muffin have such a cute bromance too.  Yes!  So I'm sad and disappointed at how it turned out, because it had potential, but it was a bit off right from the start, so that sucked and it just became cheesy and typical.  Oh well.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

243. Missing Nine 미씽나인 (2017) Korean

Jung Kyung Ho, Baek Jin Hee, Oh Jung Se, Choi Tae Joon, Lee Sun Bin

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A

Oh.... um... yeah... where to start?  Well, I liked the start of this, because it was crazy.  The whole time they were on the island it was good.  I liked the earlier mosaic of flashbacks to the island and her lost memory.  I was even fine with it turning into a murder horror flick, but then everything changed.  The first half was nerve wracking.  It was so life or death that it made us anxious to watch it.  Like, Curdy was constantly having to calm herself down afterwards.  Then, once they were all back in Seoul it became a typical lame melodrama where the now all powerful murderer has a all powerful gangster backing and everything sucks all the time.  It was like the writers gave up, because the longer the Seoul drama went on, the less it made sense.  It became unbearable during the last two episodes, where nothing was making sense and the writers unleashed a new wave of shiz to ruin our lives.  The worst part about it was that everything we loved was pushed to the back and then by the end completely ignored.  I just wanted our OTP's relation to be solidified, as in, I wanted them to kiss.  PLEASE!  LET THEM KISS!!!  They never did!  WAE!!!!!!!  The most sexy scene we got was her calling him Oppa.  I wanted more on Ji Ah and Ki Joon's relationship.  I wanted it to still be about the survivors, but instead it became about all powerful Tae Ho getting all the powerful people's trust when he was a murderer.  So ridiculous.  Then the writers gave up and wrapped it up in the lamest way possible, trying to redeem people?  No.  Trying to use the power of bromance?  NO.  Then it ended in what should have been a drug trip dream, but it was just a... well drug trip reality?  What was that ending?  I was so confused!  What was going on?  Why didn't they let them kiss!?!  Why is Tae Ho there?  Why are they painting like crap?  why is this the end?  Why didn't they kiss?  Why did they end it like this?  Why did they waste 8 hours of my life?  WHY DIDN'T THEY KISS!?!  Ahem.... yeah.  The ending sucked.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

232. Laurel Tree Tailors 월계수 양복점 신사들 (2016) Korean

Lee Dong Gun, Jo Yoon Hee, Cha In Pyo, Oh Hyun Kyung, Ra Mi Ran, Choi Won Young, Shin Goo, Kim Young Ae, Hyun Woo

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

50 episode family dramas are not everyone's cup of tea, but they are starting to be mine.  You have to pick a good one of course.  One that has something that grips you enough to make you want to stick around for 50 episodes.  This one might just have been 4 hot men in suits.  No, it wasn't just because all of these 4 male leads in this were super attractive and people I love, it was for the characters themselves.  Every single couple was cute for the most part, which meant that I was shipping everyone.  Even the villains were not that villainous.  Yes, that means the show was cheesy and moralistic and everyone got redeemed to a point at the end, but it also means that this is a show where people learn and grow, and I loved the journey.  It was downright weird to see flashbacks to the start when everyone was a young idiot or disliked each other, or had misunderstandings, etc., because by the end they had all matured and it was wonderful.  Now I had to talk myself into watching this, because it was 50 episodes.  I love Lee Dong Gun and I love Ra Mi Ran.  Then Choi Won Young tipped the scales for me.  He is my ahjussi actor, one of the ones that I love the most, so I just had too.  Then I was not disappointed.  He was a rock star (literally) who then became a trot star so his honey voice was responsible for most of the OST, which I cannot complain about.  We also saw him start off as a selfish has been full of pride to becoming the most humble family man.  We saw push overs becoming pillars of strength, and we saw people becoming family and having a family.  It was basically adorable.  I think I cried during every wedding scene (literally did during my ahjussi's wedding.  The sunshine couple- so cute!  The cheesy couple (the OTP, Dong Jin and Yeon Sil)- too adorable!  I loved how all the families felt real.  My favorite family might have been the antagonist's family, Dong Jin's ex-wife and her step family.  I know that mom was my favorite.  I loved Hyo Won and Hyo Sang's brother/sister teasing.  I loved Hyo Sang even though he was a little poo butt with an inferiority complex.  I did tend to hate the ex-wife and ex-girls friends who were the bitcas of the show, as well as the fake husband, who was a crazy liar gangster, but even they had their redeeming qualities.  Yes, the show was long.  Yes, it had it's fair share of makjang (you guys know that I actually like that stuff), but it was cute, and it game me the feels.  Now, I'm going to go listen to Susanna's Handkerchief for the umpteenth time.