430. Flower of Evil 악의 꽃 (2020) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Moon Chae Won, Jang Hee Jin, Seo Hyun Woo, Kim Ji Hoon

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

The premise was too good to pass, the cast was too good to pass, I was super excited to start this show. But still I waited to start it. Then I binged it until I caught up with it. It was so good and intense, I had a hard time not being able to just start the next episode. But sadly, it was my one drama I loved while I was being stressed out from everything, but having to stop and wait in the middle of a  hugely dramatic climax made the stress of anticipation overwhelm me, and with everything else I suddenly was too stressed to watch it. Which is so interesting because if I had the ability at the time, I would have just binged watched it to the end. However, though it took several weeks of getting to a place where I could watch anything besides We Bare Bears, I finished it and it remained good until the end. Even though the last episode was an extreme change of pace. It was still good. And then I still too even longer to write this review because that is what last year did to me. Apologies.

308. Lawless Lawyer 무법 변호사 (2018) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Seo Ye Ji, Lee Hye Young, Choi Min Soo

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A+++

Maybe this doesn't deserve a 7, but the cast does. It's been a while since I've seen such a well casted show. Or maybe I should say, it's been a while since these cast members have been able to shine this well in their roles. I absolutely love Lee Joon Ki, but he has been in a lot of not my favorite dramas, and this was the role he was born to play. He still got to do all that angsty tragic backstory stuff, but he also got to be a goofy goober AND show off his beautiful, beautiful martial arts. Seriously, he's the sexiest thing alive when he fights (fans self). His chemistry with Seo Ye Ji was off the charts too. I love her as well, but she also sometimes stars in not my favorite dramas too (I'm looking at you, Boorim School), so to have her in a good, strong role, rocking the pants suits and as a part of a power couple. I love that.

And then we have the villains. Choi Min Soo. I'm in love with him, basically. But I couldn't bring myself to watch his last drama, because yeah.... not going there. But he shined like gold in this. He's always a delight, and his conflicted gangster was just the best. His role wasn't the best written... or was it? I don't know, I can't tell, he played it so well no matter what. And his dynamic with Lee Hye Young was just awesome. Their power struggles, her detailed controlling, his crazy wildcard, it was just great. She was so classy that even though she was just despicable you had to love her all the same. And hate her, just loving to hate her and love her. She was a worthy villain.

238. Seven First Kisses 첫 키스만 일곱번째 (2016) Korean

Lee Cho Hee, Choi Ji Woo, Lee Joon Ki, Park Hae Jin, Ji Chang Wook, Kai, Ok Taecyeon, Lee Jong Suk, Lee Min Ho

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: A++++

Ok, so we all knew what this was before we started it, right?  A web drama commercial where a bunch of hot oppas were a little bit more of sell outs than normal for a CF.  But the good thing about it was that it was also a parody of all the drama genres and styles, because you can't take it seriously and I don't think it took itself seriously and definitely none of the actors did.  So it's a fun way to do a CF and its definitely a good way to look at the hot boys, so win-win?  It's ridiculous and hilarious.  So now here is a summary of what I thought of all the different stories:

Lee Joon Ki- creepy stalker who got away with it because he's the sexiest man alive.  I really think he got shafted by being first because it made his "first love/loved from afar" story line come off as creepy and stalkerish.  Especially the part where he has a slideshow of all his stalker pics he took of her.  That aside, he was probably one of the more swoon worthy oppas in the show.
Park Hae Jin- Tsundere boss?  Workaholic?  His story was one of the ones that made more sense, since it was just more natural since he was the boss character.  We also got lots of lovely forearm shots, and his swoony smile, so overall good.
Ji Chang Wook- Spy.  I kind of love how they typecasted everyone to their most famous roles.  Park Hae Jin was the tsundere/slightly creepy until you realize what is going on, and Ji Chang Wook was Healer again.  They went through all the thriller/spy stereotypes too, and it was hilarious.
Kai- the most awkward ever.  Kai = no acting.  Kai's hair = yuck.  It was just awkward, the whole time.  He was the tutoring student, so it was another squirrely, awkward noona romance.  And it was worse because there was zero chemistry on his part.  Just awkward.
Ok Taecyeon- absolutely hilarious.  He was the chaebol makjang character, and it was amazing.  I was just laughing the whole time.  The water slap, the kelp slap, the evil bitca, the evil mother, the birth secrets, it was hilarious and adorable.
Lee Jong Suk- this one was probably the most logical of all, as he was himself, filming a CF with her, and they were adorable together.  It was the one that was probably the most natural.  She also seemed to have good chemistry with him as well.
Lee Min Ho- was that even an episode?  I did like how awkward this one was, because she was assuming it was like all the others, and acting all full of herself, and everyone was like wut?  But then it was like just awkward the whole time, and Lee Min Ho's was like "what am I doing here?  Why did I agree to this?" the whole time too.  So this one doesn't even count.  It's just pure awkwardness.  Plus, he didn't even get an attempted kiss, so what is this 7 kisses thing?  It was like 6 1/2 first kisses.

Okay, so now, if I had to pick one of them to be my "kiss" choice, I would probably chose them in this order: 1. Lee Jong Suk, 2. Park Hae Jin (Hae Jin and Jong Suk might just be tied for first), 3. Lee Joon Ki (3rd now because of how stalkerish his story was), 4. Ji Chang Wook, 5. Ok Taecyeon- because I say no to that kind of drama in real life, 6. Lee Min Ho- because he's at least close to my age, 7. Kai- because that kind of awkward noona romance is a no.  This is probably a good indication as well of how sexy they were too, strongly based on the story lines as well.

And rating them based solely on their endings might put it at: 1. Ok Taecyeon-his ending was just too hilarious, 2. Lee Joon Ki- because his ending made his story much cuter 3. Ji Chang Wook- because his ending was bad-a, 4. Lee Jong Suk, 5. Park Hae Jin- both closely following the others in cuteness, 6. Lee Min Ho- because he didn't have an ending, 7. Kai- because his ending added nothing.

I could probably also rate them on how cute their BTS videos were, but that is just being silly (but Joon Ki was adorable in his) and basically just rating how much I love all these boys in real life (which would probably be a different post entirely).  So I will not, but they are worth watching (except I didn't bother watching Kai's).

Don't regret watching this.  It's pure fan fiction, so just indulge and enjoy.

224. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo 달의 연인 - 보보경심 려 (2016) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Lee Ji Eun, Kang Ha Neul, Hong Jong Hyun, Byun Baek Hyun, Ji Soo, Nam Joo Hyuk

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+

At least there were pretty oppas.  Can't say much else for it, the writing was all over the place, but the actors did a good job in spite of that.  It's just that the characters flipped flopped around so much.  This made me hate the main girl, the character, not IU, and be very confused as to anyone's motivations.  The show would go through waves of being cute and then just stupid.  It was frustrating and more often than not I was bored and disappointed.  It changed so much that looking back we were like, "wait, was that the same drama?"  I totally forgot she was from modern times by the end because so much weird shiz happened.  The pace was the number 1 problem, and then consistency was a big deal, because the characters changed back and forth so much that you don't know who they are or what they are doing most of the time.  Also, mostly everyone but Joon Ki was annoying at least part of the time, and then they made Joon Ki act like an evil crazy person, so there wasn't even that.  It was one big eye roll most of the time, and particularly at the end.  It was ridiculous.  The show had fun moments, but was ridiculous most of the time.  I think one excuse for the bad writing is that they were trying to adapt a Chinese drama to Korean history, so they had to fit everything that happened into the drama into as much historical events as possible, but since the two don't really work blow for blow, some of it was so forced it was frustrating.  Also, what the freak ending!  It was kind of lame and weird.  Why did they try to redeem everyone?  So dumb.  No one wants to waste time on the turd bucket prince, or see how pathetic Wookie became.  So many flashbacks!  Just in case we forgot it really was the same drama.  Seriously.  But there were plenty of hot men.  I love Lee Joon Ki and he was amazing in all the crazy different things they made him do.  Kang Ha Neul consistently stole Lizabreff's heart, until he was crazy bad, and then at least he was still hot and a good actor.  Guyliner (Hong Jong Hyun) was also a favorite of mine, he definitely did a great job, plus had impeccable eyeliner and skin, even after hiding out in the wilderness for a year or so.  I loved Queen Yoo (Park Ji Young) she is the best!  All the queens were really.  Classy and amazing, even though the script sucked.  Nam Joo Hyuk's character was the smartest person in the show.  Really there were a lot of stupid people or at least stupidity in the show.  So yeah, liked the actors if not the characters were good.  It bounced between being interesting, cute, boring, and just horrible.  It was inexplicable how much it changed.  But at least Lee Joon Ki was beautiful, even when he was being crazy.  That's about it.

187. My Girl 마이 걸 (2005) Korean

Lee Dong Wook, Lee Da Hae, Lee Joon Ki, Park Si Yeon

Drama Rating: 5/10 Neck Score: A-

I started this because I have a goal to watch all the Hong Sister's dramas eventually, but also because I needed more fluffy, trope romcoms in my life. You know the kind with forced living situations and ridiculous relationship deals, etc. I've been watching too many melodramas of late. Well, for the first half this really fit the bill, besides being highly laughable while looking at the early 2000s clothing styles and bad hair. I thought Lee Da Hee was Song Hye Kyo from Full House at first because their character styles are literally the same.  Awful.  The curly pigtails and mismatched quirky homespun look.  Shudder.  I'm glad she stopped the pigtails.  They turned a normally sexy woman into a nauseating aegyo fest.  I seriously thought Joon Ki was a girl at one point when I wasn't paying attention closely, because his hair was so bad. Ugh, the mullets. Yuck. That put a minus on the general A score of their necks.  It was fun at first, but super draggy to get to the main point, with them actually falling in love and wanting to get together, and then after they finally did (it took like 12 episodes) they were immediately ripped apart and the rest of the show became a mopey, draggy, mess of boring and overly dramatic. I was so bored trying to finish it.  And the 2nd leads hung on for way too long.  No, stop making my Joon Ki pathetic!  I only want happy Joon Ki and no drunk sad Joon Ki!  Boo.  I do have to say that minus the awful hair Lee Don Wook looks better in this one... tan and not overly pasty like recent dramas he's been in.  Why is he so white these days?  Well, it was fun in spots, but this drama was definitely meh at best.

Bromances Continued: 6 More Recent Drama Enhancing Men Relationships

If you're anything like me, you can't get enough of bromances, so here is a list of more bromances that have warmed my little heart and caused me delight recently.  Some of these are just recent for me (as I am currently watching them) but some are current dramas that just keep getting better as the bros keep loving (whether they want to or not) each other.

163. Scholar Who Walks The Night 밤을 걷는 선비 (2015) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Lee Yoo Bi, Shim Chang Min, Lee Soo Hyuk, Kim So Eun

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+++

So many beautiful vampires.  That's about all there was to this show.  It's plot was okay, but kind of draggy, as in they could have solved it sooner but they didn't.  They literally just ended up doing what they could have done so many episodes ago.  Sigh.  It was clearly about how hot Lee Joon Ki and Kim Soo Hyuk were.  It totally emphasized the sexuality of vampires.  They made scenes needlessly sexy, which was funny...well I rolled my eyes at the fan servicey sexiness of the scenes anyways.  It wasn't as bad as The Night Watchmen, but I did accidentally call it Night Watchmen all the time.  It has some similarities in the cheesiness department.  The biggest difference is that everyone in this one was a good actor, even Changmin, who I had my doubts about.  Sadly Changmin's character was a little sissy poo who caused a lot of the dragginess.  There was also everyone trying to sacrifice themselves for everyone else, blah blah blah.  I think by the end what saved it for me was how sympathetic they managed to make the villain while still making him an evil vampire.  Calling the Chief Minister out on his crap, "Are you even human after all of this?" and going on a rampage out of guilt when he killed someone he didn't mean to.  His conflict about emotions he didn't understand and dealing with hypocritical humans was nice.  The parts with him were about the only thing I liked about the ending, which was just weird.  I didn't get the need for a year gap or whatever it was they did to try and make the ending happy or whatever.  Also, props to Joon Ki for playing a human, a vampire, and a mix of the two so well, and looking so darn pretty as he did it too.  So it was okay, but super draggy/silly too.  But as a historical drama portraying vampires, it was decent.  It was one of the better vampire dramas I've seen (but is that really saying anything?)

108. Joseon Gunman 조선 총잡이 (2014) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Nam Sang Mi, Jun Hye Bin, Han Joo Wan, Yoo Oh Sung

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I think the thing that I loved most about this one was that it was my period of history, a period very similar to the one I did my senior capstone project on, so it made me really happy and excited.  However, this show was also painful to watch at times, because it was the new era fighting against tradition and it was twice as frustrating to see them fail.  Those torture scenes were extra disturbing when thrown up against the backdrop of the enlightenment, because they were shown as all the more inhumane.  Also it seemed like there was no way they could ever get ahead at times, and things would get super dramatic super quick.  however, Lee Joon Ki.  That says it all.  Lee Joon Ki in a number of awesome outfits.  He was so sexy in his gunman outfit, and so sexy in the western suit in glasses.  He is just a sexy man.  I also liked how it brought up the point that revenge doesn't help you at all, it leaves you feeling empty and hollow and then starts the whole revenge cycle all over again.  So while it was painful to watch, it was still just an awesome show.

59. Arang and the Magistrate 아랑사또전 (2012) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Shin Min Ah, Yeon Woo Jin

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

I really liked this one.  It is a fantasy/horror sageuk.  Mostly fantasy though.  Shin Min Ah is a ghost with no memory and Lee Joon Ki can see ghosts.  He looking for his mom, she might know because of a hair pin, so he becomes the magistrate to help her figure out who she is so he can find his mom.  Then you have lots of other mystery that is tied up in it, and the Jade Emperor and Yama (king of the underworld) pulling strings here and there to have the mystery (and their problems) solved.  There is fighting (yay to Joon Ki's sexy fighting skills) and mystery, romance of course, and plenty of funny.  It is very compelling, especially as the mystery unfolds and the plot thickens, etc.  It's got lots of buddhist things in it, obviously with the Jade Emperor, so you have to be ok with that kind of stuff.  These ghosts are also not scary, but there are scary or rather intense or suspenseful parts.  I mean, Arang was murdered and there are several more attempted murders so yeah.  Lots of good characters too, to love and hate and love.  So, good one.  Liked it.  One of the best parts is the servant friend dude flipping his wet hair.  Animal magnetism.  Love it.