Women Who Make Me Watch Dramas Against My Will: Tiny Edition

With several of my current favorite dramas ended or ending, I felt the need to show some love to some of my favorite actresses again with another list of women who make me watch dramas against my will, especially since some of them were starring in those ending shows.

This time the loose theme linking them all together is "tiny" because while these women are giants in their acting abilities and awesomeness, sometimes their size, age, or cuteness makes you want to just put them in your pocket and take them home.  I mean that in the best possible way.  I love these women and though they be little they are fierce and can hold their own on screen, and they deserve some love and respect.

Korean Movie Night: The Host 괴물 (2006) Korean

Song Kang Ho, Byun Hee Bong, Park Hae Il, Bae Doona, Go Ah Sung

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

We watched this one because besides being famous, it was the week of Halloween and we wanted to watch a scary movie... this movie is not scary.  I would not count it as horror, more of just a monster movie- a baby on the scale of Gojira (Godzilla), but the same kind.  In fact, when I found out that it was based on a real life event, when a Korean mortician working for the U.S. military dumped a bunch of formaldehyde down the drain and substantially into the Han River.  This turns it, like Gojira , into an anti-American film, as it focuses more on the effects of American involvement and attitude.  It is a political statement, not a horror movie.  I would even say that the real monsters in the movie are not the actual monster, but the U.S. Military and how they handled the situation.  The fact that they spread a mass virus hysteria because one of their soldiers died fighting the monster, while off duty, and that they would willfully turn Korean citizens into lab rats to cover their tracks just reinforces the theory.  Then there is the obvious stab with the thinly veiled reference to Agent Orange, renamed Agent Yellow, as the bio weapon used to combat the creature.

The monster itself is just not scary because this movie is old and I was super underwhelmed at the CGI.  It was meant to look like a giant mutated salamander or some other kind of amphibian, and it actually made me giggle when it first came out and went on a rampage.  But this was 2006, so try not to judge it too harshly.  I feel like the CGI budget was used up on the scenes where the monster would swing on the bridges in the sewers to travel, and climb up the the walls down to the pit where it would spit out it's victims.  It had moments of coolness, but was still an early example of CGI monsters at best... or maybe worst.

Korean Movie Night: The Beauty Inside 뷰티 인사이드 (2015) Korean

Han Hyo Joo, Park Seo Joon, Juri Ueno, Lee Jin Wook, Lee Dong Wook, Go Ah Sung, Yoo Yeon Seok, Lee Dong Hwi 

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

It's hard to know who to put down as "starring" in this, besides Han Hyo Joo and Lee Dong Hwi, because there are tons of people who play Woo Jin, our main character, because this is a movie about a man who changes bodies every time he wakes up.  He doesn't just change his face, but who he is completely.  He can become a woman, a child, a grandmother, anyone, every time he wakes up.  So I've listed some of the people who played him during pivotal moments.  I didn't particularly like the actual love story plot as much as I loved the execution of the premise.  It was a very interesting concept in the fact that we never knew what Woo Jin used to look like, so everyone who played Woo Jin was Woo Jin.  So really there was no starring role beside Han Hyo Joo.  It was really good how each of them played him, because they were all him, but also had their own twist.  You could always tell it was Woo Jin, which was fantastic.  I also really liked how it dealt with the trauma it would have on the people around him.  He felt sorry for himself, but then he was forced to look at the effects it had on his mom, his friend, and his girlfriend.  It was very interesting, and also very awkward at times.  It just has some inherently awkward situations, like when he was a girl or a kid, or a grandma.  But I think even the awkwardness was handled well, so it became an interesting story, full of emotions and perspectives.  On the whole, it was good.

248. Radiant Office 자체발광 오피스 (2017) Korean

Go Ah Sung, Ha Seok Jin, Kim Dong Wook, Lee Dong Hwi, Hoya

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I don't normally love office dramas this much, because they are usually about chaebols and office politics.  This one has more of a Misaeng vibe to it, however, which means its about the peons instead.  The office workers.  The interns.  Only they were contract workers instead.  Three of them.  They met in the emergency room when they had all tried to kill themselves, each for their own version of "life is so hard it sucks."  Then they all ran from the hospital, since none of them could pay their fees, and since that moment, they are buddies for life.  To the point where they laugh and cry for each other.  They are some of the most adorable friends ever.  I loved how raw and messy all of the relationships.  Even the people you hated were relatable at times.  Ha Seok Jin was great.  He was so awkward.  It was great to see her perception of him change, but also him just change as he realizes that he can change.  It was a super cute romance too.  Very organic and slow building.  It was a cute, normal person romance.  All the romances were.  All the relationships were.  All the people were.  Messy, but lovable.  I loved Bender (Oh Dae Hwan).  He was so annoying, and it was hilarious.  We loved to hate him, but couldn't really hate him, because we loved him.  The embodiment of every annoying, brown-nosing, power trippy sunbae office worker.  He was my favorite, as he usually is, but really I just loved everyone.  Except that Dr. Seo.  He was the worst, and I didn't want him to be redeemed or anything at the end.  Nope.  He was annoying.

140. Heard It Through the Grapevine 풍문으로 들었소 (2015) Korean

Lee Joon, Go Ah Sung, Yoo Joon Sang, Yoo Ho Jung

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

Wow, finally finished it.  It was so long (30 episodes) and so heavy that we couldn't get ourselves to finish it faster.  We just had to take it slow.  However, this was not because it was bad, it was because it was so good.  All of the characters were so dynamic and fully fleshed out that you both loved and hated them all.  I seriously had times of love and hate for pretty much everyone in the show, including the parents and main couple.  In fact I think every one of the main characters deserves a slow clap, especially the dad who played that hilariously detestable role so very well.  I do have to admit that I didn't know what was going on half the time.  Right up until the end of the show, I found it hard to follow the political or legal conversations.  Those ones in that cafe thing in Hansong where they always did those weird kaleidoscope shots.  The ending was good too, satisfying without wrapping everything up in an unrealistic bow.  Overall the show was a mash of realism and idealism, and the clashing of those two ideas.  As well as a battle of the generations, Confucian traditions, and class/social systems.  It was a very poignant statement about society and tradition.  It was very artistically done, and though I may not have understood everything, probably from the language and cultural barrier, I agree that it deserves all those awards that it won.  It's a solid, meaningful drama, even though it's long and heavy.