Korean Movie Night: Little Forest 리틀 포레스트 (2018) Korean

Kim Tae Ri, Ryu Jun Yeol, Moon So Ri, Jin Ki Joo

Movie rating: 8/10      Neck score: A

An art house film filled with food. I was expecting it to be artsy, but I wasn't expecting it to be 75% her cooking food from scratch as a coping mechanism. Food prep as therapy taken to a whole new level, and I loved it. It made me want to move out to the middle of nowhere and just live off the land like that too. It is a way to go back to her roots and find comfort in the "little forest" that her mother had left for her in her hometown. But it did make me very hungry. I wanted to eat all the food.

Everyone did a really good job. Especially in the art house movies, where there is very little dialog and little to no background music, and it is essentially showing and not telling to the extreme, this is very important. I could tell they were friends from childhood, and they had their own struggles, and it was beautiful.

As confirmed members of team Ryu Jun Yeol, we were bound to love it no matter what, but it was also just really good. It was slow moving and quiet, but we were never bored. It was so visually appealing, it kept us interested the whole time. We were curious about each food she made, and learned more about her and what she was dealing with with each recipe. It was wholesome and comforting. It wasn't dramatic or even full of conflict. It was just healing- and lots of it. It was beautiful. Now I'm hungry again. I'm going to look up those recipes.

342. The Secret Life of My Secretary 초면에 사랑합니다 (2019) Korean

Kim Young Kwang, Jin Ki Joo, Kim Jae Kyung, Koo Ja Sung

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

How did I forget to review this when I first finished it? I loved this drama and was completely lost when I finished it because I didn't know what to watch! I totally love watching anything with Kim Young Kwang in it, but he really was made for this role. Or this role was made for him? He shined like he never has before in this. I loved it. And now I'm a super fan of Jin Ki Joo too. She's so cute and great in this. I thought she did a super job too. And most importantly, they had the best chemistry, which for a romantic comedy, is super important.

But what makes this drama so delightful was that it wasn't a classic love triangle. I hate love triangles, they are so overdone. They are so badly done half the time too. So having two couples to love was absolutely wonderful. I absolutely loved Veronica Park. Kim Jae Kyung did a fantastic job making a lovable, over-the-top, MVP, rich girl who really was one of the smartest people in the show, even if she didn't mean (or want) to be. I loved her romance, I loved the friendship, both with Gal Hee and her little sister, she was just fabulous!

263. Wednesday at 3:30 수요일 오후 3시 30분 (2017) Korean

Hong Bin, Jin Ki Joo, Ahn Bo Hyun, Cha Jung Won

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+

Hong Bin!  I've missed you so!  You're so delightfully cute and bad at acting.  Delightfully so.  He just makes me giggle whenever he's on screen.  Especially if he is supposed to be serious or whatever.  This show was pretty awful and ridiculous.  But we still 100% binge watched it and loved it because of our Beanie.  His character was supposed to be sassy, which was hilarious, because he couldn't really be sassy to that girl.  He's too much of a muffin, really.  It was so awkward the way the show was written, but it was also to unbearably cute that we just went along with it.  All the adorable dates right at 3:30.  Man, I wish I had a Beanie to take me out every Wednesday at 3:30, and a job that would let me just take off every week for like an hour, NBD.  Man, that thunderstorm holding hands over the puppy scene though, hahaha.  It just made us laugh out loud the whole way through.  It was very enjoyable, but not because it was good, just because it was cute and fluffy and we all love our Hong Bin.  I'm sure the rest of Vixx didn't let him live this down, except they were also probably jealous that he got to kiss that noona.  I do have to say that the second leads were pretty lame.  We called them Discount Zhoumi and Discount Kim So Eun.  They were both pretty lame and manipulative.  I did like the second second female lead, who was dating the second male lead.  She was actually pretty cool for a change.  Anyway, if you want a short fluffy thing, this is it.  If you want actual good acting/writing/drama this is definitely not it.  But for 10 short episodes, you might as well.  Its less than the length of a movie, and barely any commitment at all.

Splash Splash Love 퐁당퐁당 LOVE (2015) Korean

Yoon Doo Joon, Kim Seul Gi, Jin Ki Joo, Ahn Hyo Seop, Kim Kap Soo

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

I can't believe I forgot to write the review for this earlier.  I loved this show/movie/drama special!  But since it's only 2 episodes, I naturally just forgot about it, haha.  One of the best and cutest time travel type deals ever.  Also gender bender things.  Because it is so short they didn't have time to mess around with the typical stereotypes, such as when he discovers that she's a girl, etc.  They all just assumed that she was a guy because she was wearing her hair in a topknot... or bun or whatever.  It's just cute and funny, and both Doo Joon and Seul Gi do a super good job with it.  It has the right type of humor for the time travelling and gender bending.  I was satisfied with the ending too.  So if you need something short and good, I definitely recommend this one.  It's super cute and fun.