416. Piece of Your Mind 반의 반 (2020) Korean

Jung Hae In, Chae Soo Bin, Lee Ha Na, Kim Sung Kyu, Park Joo Hyun

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A+

When I started this, it was perfect for the mood I was in. I didn't know it, but melancholy sweet was the perfect mood for me. Unfortunately, it is just the general mood of all dramas currently, so I also think I'm done with it now, but I did like this drama. The breakdown of how I came to this rating is: 10/10 for the main couple's romance, 8/10 for general writing, but probably 4 or 5/10 for basic plot. I loved that it was a healing story about love, loss, and self-worth, but the dramatic causes of these people needing to be healed was quite frankly, to me, the worst. Yeah, people dying in such random and weird ways wasn't doing it for me right now. It was both too realistic and not? I don't know. Also, you have to suspend a lot of disbelief with the whole conversation AI. I can accept that the AI will develop the personality of the person, but I don't think there is anyway that it would then have all their memories or reasoning. Nope. That was too much for me. However, despite all that, and the fact that the drama was cut short and had to be rushed, it was still a cute, healing, melancholy sort of feel good drama.

327. Where Stars Land 여우각시별 (Korean) 2018

Lee Je Hoon, Chae Soo Bin, Lee Dong Gun, Kim Ji Soo, Kim Kyung Nam, Lee Soo Kyung, Ro Woon

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+

Despite loving all of the actors in this show, it wasn't as good as could be hoped. It either didn't have a plot, or there were too many loose ends in whatever plot it was about. I thought it was about a bunch of people working at an airport who all had some kind of issues, but apparently the real plot was Lee Dong Gun and Lee Je Hoon's issues? Or is it? Was it just the techno arm/he doesn't want to be handicapped deal? Was it really just about the relationship? There were too many little plots to say which was the main plot, but the one that suddenly ended it all was the thrown in at the last minute: hyung's got issues with the mafia and you're broken, son. I guess that sums up the plot. Because that was the one that got the biggest resolution... except there were too many things not explained, so actually there was no real resolution. Did that make me hate the show? Not really. The ending wasn't so much the problem. It was the middle stuff.

289. I'm Not a Robot 로봇이 아니야 (2017) Korean

Yoo Seung Ho, Chae Soo Bin, Uhm Ki Joon

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I'm so lazy, I'm finally writing the post for this like what, a week after the fact?  Oh well.  Still having computer issues.  I really loved this show though.  It was cute, and fluffy, and full of heart.  I loved almost every single character and was rooting for them.  What was there not to love when I had my puppy Yoo Seung Ho, who was overly lovable in this, one of my favorite girls Chae Soo Bin, and naturally my Grumpy Cat (Uhm Ki Joon)?  Also the ensemble was great and included more favorites, including Kang Ki Young, Eom Hyo Seop, and Seo Dong Won (although he was a bit frustrating at first).  Everyone did a great job and exceeded my expectations.

I'll admit I first got excited about this drama, it was because Dong Ha was supposed to be the lead.  I absolutely love him, while I didn't have any particular feelings about Yoo Seung Ho, although he's a cute puppy.  Grumpy Cat made me watch it anyway, but I had no problems with the leads once I started the show.  This role was made for Yoo Seung Ho.  He was perfect.  The perfect combo of awkward, innocent, cute and naive/prickly.  The cutest lonely boy with trust issues ever.  He stole the rest of the show for me that though I still loved Grumpy Cat so much, he was so clearly not the guy that I couldn't even mourn for him... but there was little reason to.  Things turned out just perfect in all aspects.  What a bunch of cute nerds!

I was also really impressed with Chae Soo Bin's robot acting abilities.  She was so very clearly two different people, one the actual robot and then the human girl it was based on.  Even when there were memory overlaps it was pretty impressive to see her be both.  Although it was weird to see her literally be both, like interacting in the same shot.  Weird.  Whatever, the show was good, I loved it and looked forward to watching it every week.  Fun and cute.

271. Strongest Deliveryman 최강 배달꾼 (2017) Korean

Go Kyung Pyo, Chae Soo Bin, Kim Sun Ho, Go Won Hee

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I'll admit it took me a couple of episodes to get into this, but maybe it's because I had just finished Golden Cross and was still stuck in snarky snarkville.  I didn't like how everyone was being mean to Kang Soo (Go Kyung Pyo) when he was literally the nicest person in the world.  But then they just didn't get it yet, and it wasn't too long before everyone loved him because he was literally the nicest person in the world.  I love the nice guy trend.  It worked really good for this one, especially when it was also a continuation of the fight corruption/evil conglomerates trend.  It seemed to start slow, but I think that was partially because they really wanted all the characters to grow, and I mean all of them.  It started all mixed up, with the two rich people liking the two poor people, or at least clinging to them as they taught them how to be people, but then everyone learned from everyone, and it was great.

Korean Movie Night: Sori: Voice From the Heart 로봇, 소리 (2016) Korean

Lee Sung Min, Shim Eun Kyung, Lee Ha Nui, Lee Hee Joon, Kim Won Hae, Chae Soo Bin

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: B

Lizabreff summed it up nicely when she said that if it had been anyone with less acting chops than Lee Sung Min, this movie might not have worked.  It would have been superbly campy and not the sweet tear jerker it was.  Lee Sung Min was amazing as a man who has lost his daughter and doesn't believe she was killed in the subway fire like everyone else keeps telling him.  During his crazy search to find her, he finds a crashed surveillance satellite that can trace calls and phone records.  It also has an attitude.  Shim Eun Kyung did an awesome job with the satellite robot's voice, making it sound very robot AI, but also have such character and personality.

He join forces with the robot and goes in search of his daughter, based on phone records and GPS locations.  Naturally, since this was an NSA surveillance satellite, they don't want it falling in the wrong hands, so we've got some bad English speaking actors.  We also have the NIS and KARI involved too.  Lee Ha Nui is the KARI employee, and she is awesome.  Her English was awesome too.  At first, based on the friction between her and Lee Hee Joon, the NIS agent, we were like "couple?" but then he was just a tool, so we were glad that didn't happen.  Ew.  So, it definitely had an agenda.  It was very anti-surveillance and pro-personal privacy protection.  No one seemed to have a good opinion about the NSA.  The NIS wasn't very favorable either, for that matter.  They definitely made a statement about the issues about privacy in the digital age, as well as corruption based on the power of having the sort of information that would be stored in such a remarkable surveillance satellite.

So it's going to put you through all the emotions.  I described it to my brother as "a tear jerker, but funny" and that is true.  The robot is so sassy, and Lee Sung Min is great and a little crazy.  Ryu Jun Yeol's bit part was funny.  That wig, haha.  Then all the crying parts.  It's good.  But really, it is a silly concept, so it could have been so bad so easily, but it wasn't.  It was a funny tear jerker and it was good.

221. Moonlight Drawn By Clouds 구르미 그린 달빛 (2016) Korean

Park Bo Gum, Kim Yoo Jung, Jung Jin Young, Chae Soo Bin, Kwak Dong Yeon

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

And yet another tale of Lizabreff and I not finishing a drama right away because of reasons that weren't really reasons.  Once again we were watching too many dramas at once, and we sacrificed this one so we could finish the others.  Of course, like always, we stopped right before it got good again.  It was getting boring and we couldn't handle it.  We weren't ready for all the crap that was inevitably going to happen after episode 12, so we just stopped before 13.  It probably didn't deserve that, since it was by far a better drama than most the other ones we actually finished at the time, which I gave much lower ratings (cough cough Moon Jun Ki ahem Cinderella and the Four Knights cough cough).  I think it was too many sageuks for Lizabreff.  She'll be the first to admit they are not her thing, and as soon as they get slow she struggles.  I think that was partially what happened, plus the other sageuks, and it was just too much.

So, I ended up just finishing it alone, much later.  It took me no time at all too, which makes this whole story pathetic.  In like two or three days I finished the remaining 6 episodes.  Why was that so hard?  I was super into it too.  Nothing was hard to watch, it was all just normal good sageuk.  Not even the bad kind, the normal good kind.  I do have to say that the last episode was not good.  It did not measure up to the quality of the rest of the drama, which is often the case with any given drama.  However, this erred on the side of being too happy and gooey.  No way any of that was possible.  It was like they just threw all reality out the window and made every happy ending fantasy come true.  It was cheesy and bad.  Sorry that I actually wanted Bo Gum to die?  Not because I hate him, I love him. But I thought a tragic ending would have been nice.  It's not like that historical figure didn't die young.  Apparently he did, so what was that ending?  Spoilers, he doesn't die.  Sorry.  I know it was based off of a novel, but not having read it, all I had was the historic context, but I probably should have just left that part alone.  Then the cheesiness could have prevailed.  But I guess it did make an obvious point about what the title was about in the end, tying everything up with a nice big bow, the end, everything is great.

So, it wasn't a bad drama by any means, and I can see why it was so popular, although maybe not agreeing to that whole extent.  It wasn't amazing or anything, just good.  The acting was stellar through out, although I will say that Yoo Jung looks young for her age and Bo Gum looks exactly his age, so no one but Dong Yeon looked 18.  I liked to point out all the age gap romance scenes, which annoyed everyone else, mwahaha.  It does have all those sageuk tropes, with the girl dressed as a guy, but it was fresh in the execution.  At least what she had to go through to be a eunich was interesting.  I loved the bromance the best.  Kim Hyung and the prince were my OTP.  Wah, that scene at the end when Kim Hyung... wah!!!!!!  I liked how the second female lead was nice the whole time and liked Jin Young just all the time, even when he was being annoying.  His ending was super weird and unnecessary, but whatever.  At least he got lots of pretty clothes.  Lots of pretty men in pretty clothes all around!  Yay!