427. My Unfamiliar Family (아는 건 별로 없지만) 가족입니다 (2020) Korean

Jung Jin Young, Won Mi Kyung, Choo Ja Hyun, Han Ye Ri, Shin Jae Ha, Kim Ji Suk

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

This drama felt like one of those 50 episode weekend family dramas that are full to the max with drama and follow multiple different story lines and couples. It had all that, except it was only 16 episodes long. Which was awesome, actually, since that meant that it stuck to only the important drama and left out the filler drama. It still focused on the whole family and their different problems, as well as their problems together. The whole premise is that even though they are family, they don't know everything about each other. In fact, they are the poster family for miscommunication and even no communication. The whole show is a lesson on how not communicating with your family and loved ones will lead to miscommunication, with is a poison that can ruin even the closest families. The beautiful thing is that it also shows the power of communication and how that builds relationships, and even creates families.

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!

Ode To My Father 국제시장 (2014) Korean

Hwang Jung Min, Yunjin Kim, Oh Dal Su, Jung Jin Young, Jang Young Nam

Movie rating: 9/10     Neck score: B

Oh. mo.  This movie had me in tears.  It also had me laughing really hard.  It was just all the emotions and feels, so much joy and pain.  It was a very emotional story about a family that was torn apart in the Korean War.  During the Hungnam Evacuation, Deok Soo was in charge of helping his little sister.  While climbing into the boat, his sister gets lost and the father goes back for her.  The boat leaves, leaving the father and sister missing.  Deok Soo then has to be the head of the family, at like 7 years old.  Commence the first round of tears.  Then the movie follows the rest of his life as he takes care of his family and searches for his father and sister, making sacrifice after sacrifice.  It's also full of  beautiful and wonderful moments of life, as he meets his best friend, as they grow up, as he falls in love.  There are plenty of moments that had us laughing so hard.  My personal favorite was the fangirl moment when Yunho suddenly popped up on screen and Lizabreff and I were whispering to each other (since it was a movie theater type experience): "omo, that's Yunho!" and getting all giggly.  We also did little heart hand dances when Ra Mi Ran or Kim Seul Gi were on the screen, because we heart them.  Everyone did such a fantastic job.  Even the people who got the old people make up did a pretty convincing job of acting old and stuff.  It just hit you right in the feels the whole time, whether those feels were happy, sweet, sad, or you know heart wrenching.  Basically we loved it.