Korean Movie Night: Socialphobia 소셜포비아 (2015) Korean

Byun Yo Han, Lee Joo Seung, Ha Yoon Kyung, Ryu Jun Yeol

Movie Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

We finally had another Korean Movie Night, and we were trying to decide what to watch.  We were thinking of watching Chingu, but weren't in the mood for sad, but somehow that message didn't get all the way through to Lizabreff who suggested Socialphobia.  I was thinking more on the lines of thriller so we all agreed, and then didn't consider that this was still going to mess with our heads.  It was a thriller, but more of a psychological one.  It was freaking messed up, and left us feeling weird.  That's not to say it wasn't good.  It was amazing, but that was because it was so real.  This is the world we live in.  A world where people troll people on the internet because it doesn't seem real, and they don't realize the consequences of what will happen.  People's lives are ruined.  People die.  It was an amazing show of the consequences of social media and cyber bullying.  It was sick.  It was also an interesting paced movie.  Since all the action was literally online, it had the effect of being both boring and stressful.  Curdy couldn't handle the stress part, but I was also having problems staying away.  It was a lot of reading, a lot of silence, and very tense all at once.  A very interesting movie, but not for the faint at heart, or the short attention span.  It probably messed me up more than Chingu would have, but I still loved it.  It's gritty and real, from the fact that no one is a good person, but no one is a bad person.  From the fact that this is how messy life is, and how all our actions have consequences.  It was brilliant and not a fun watch, but a good watch.

178. Six Flying Dragons 육룡이 나르샤 (2015) Korean

Yoo Ah In, Kim Myung Min, Shin Se Kyung, Byun Yo Han, Yoo Kyun Sang, Chun Ho Jin

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

Slow clap.  I loved it.  Seriously long, but never boring.  I actually had some trepidation about starting it because it was so long.  I saw who was in it and what it was about, and I got super excited.  Then I saw how long it was and I was like... ew.  Then I kept hearing such good things about it, that I decided to just watch it anyway.  It was amazing.  I started it with Curdy at first, which slowed me down considerably.  We were already way behind, but we ended up not being able to watch more than one episode at a time because it was too heavy for her.  Soon it was harder and harder to get her to make time for it.  When I saw how into Madame Antoine she was (much more of her type of show), and how she'd drop everything for that one, I knew I needed to press on alone.  Honestly there were times when I could only watch one episode as well, because it is pretty heavy, but it's totally worth it.  I was super sad when Gil Tae Mi (Park Hyuk Kwon) died.  He was my favorite, Gil Seon Mi (also Park Hyuk Kwon) just wasn't as cool.  But at least Gil Tae Mil had one heck of a death scene.  Another sign that this was amazing was that it made me do more research about this period than other sageuks have.  I had to look up everything that happened to see what was the fake and what was the real.  Everyone did amazingly.  Seriously.  I've seen most of these actors before, and have been impressed with them generally, but never so impressed with them as I have been in this one.  Round of applause for every one of these cast members.  I was especially proud of Shin Se Kyung because she was probably the one that's been hit or miss the most for me, but she did awesome.  I love her strong character.  Booyah.  Another thing I love about this is all the character developments.  No one was the same person at the end as they were at the beginning.  Some people changed more than others, but there was absolutely no stagnant characters.  Moo Hyeol (Yoo Kyun Sang) was one of the most startling of the changes, since it was so abrupt, but obviously Bang Won (Yoo Ah In) was the biggest.  But because everyone was constantly changing, I never could love or hate any person 100%.  They were all super dynamic, well-rounded characters.  I couldn't be on any side completely.  That went for the villains too.  I couldn't decide who was worse, because they all took turns being the worst and sympathetic.  Our heroes all took turns doing dumb things and being less sympathetic too.  When it came down to it, only the completely fiction people had less bad decisions, but that makes sense too.  They let everyone be real and conflicted, and messed up, and it was marvelous.  So worth the 50 episodes.  I couldn't give it any less, even if the very last episode was a bit draggy.  I mean, they had to resolve what they could so we didn't think too ill of anyone... only they could have, but it was still ok.  They tried to end on a hopeful note, I guess.  But still, slow clap for awesome.

Madame Derp Face Antoine: Bad Nicknames That Are Clearly Out of Love

I'm super enjoying Madame Antoine right now, and mostly because besides being funny in its own right, it is the perfect ground for Derp Face (Sung Joon) to do what he does best.  Make derp faces.  If I tried to capture every face he makes that makes me laugh, I would basically just have to be constantly taking screenshots the entire time instead of enjoying the show.

Which brings me to the perfect time to discuss this topic, which I had been meaning to since I admitted that I was crushing on Fish Bangs: my habit of creating horrible nicknames out of endearment.

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.

154. Ex-Girlfriend Club 구여친클럽 (2015) Korean

Song Ji Hyo,  Byun Yo Han, Lee Yoon Ji, Jang Ji Eun, Hwa Young

Drama Rating: 6/10    Neck Score: A

I'm sadder that this show was cancelled than I thought I would be.  I didn't like the episodes where everything started to go crappy, because it seemed like too much all at once, and then I heard that they had cancelled the show and so they were wrapping up quickly.  They did manage to make it not suck so much with the sudden shortening.  I am super shocked that it was doing so poorly in ratings, because I loved it.  I love Ji Hyo and Byun Yo Han was adorably amazing in it.  I also loved and hated the three exes at the same time, which is good.  It's just sad that it got a bit weird in the middle.  I was getting frustrated at the exes because the OTP was too cute and they were starting to get to the annoying point, but it was also so funny at the same time.  I thought because of how cray it was getting that ending it sooner would be good, but it still came off as a bit abrupt.  It was like they solved too much and not enough at the same time.  It was weird.  Not bad, just weird.  I still liked it.  I think the biggest reason I was dissatisfied was that it wasted too much time on drama that didn't matter and then only gave us superficial fixes to the rest.  Even our OTP was only given cutesy time while never getting into any real emotional depth in their relationship, which is why they still looked like best friends or a high school couple at best.  This is one of the problems with shortening shows, however with the way they were dragging out the love triangle and other annoying crap, I do have my doubts as to whether they were ever going to go there, even after they made a big deal about the sexy time earlier in the show.  I don't know, I still liked it, but the ending was decidedly lackluster and left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.