225. 49 Days 49일 (2011) Korean

Lee Yo Won, Nam Gyu Ri, Jo Hyun Jae, Jung Il Woo, Bae Soo Bin, Seo Ji Hye

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A-

I don't mind tragic endings and crying at an eternally separated OTP, I know Jung Il Woo was going to make me cry from the start, but I don't like being sucker punched in the face by random and unnecessary tragedy, or having a cheap and ridiculous band aid that makes no sense the way that it was randomly thrown in at the end without proper buildup.  Nope, the ending of this show completely ruined it.  Well.... not completely.  I still gave it a 6, which is pretty good for how lame the last episode was.  Why do they always ruin that last episode?  What is worse than the random family crap at the end is how they tried to redeem the bad guys.  Nope, those two were the worst.  I hated them both the whole time because they were vindictive and bat shiz crazy.  They were both just losers who pitied themselves so much that they decided to ruin everyone else's lives, and were both not cool ever.  I hated how much screen they got, and especially at the end.  Lame.  Now, let's talk about what I liked, because I did like most of the show.  Lee Yo Won was amazing.  She played two roles so well, it was beautiful.  You could always clearly tell who she was in an instant, from the way she talked, walked, moved, or even just stood.  She also caught all of the little ticks and mannerisms of Baby's (Nam Gyu Ri) character perfectly, so it was no wonder that Han Kang (Jo Hyun Tae) recognized her.  It wasn't just because it was in the script, it was that good.  I also loved the relationships between all our lead peeps.  Between Ji Hyun (Baby) and the Scheduler (Jung Il Woo), between her and Han Kang, between her and Song Yi Kyung (Lee Yo Won) and also between Han Kang or Jung Il Woo and Song Yi Kyung.  Of course I loved Jung Il Woo as the scheduler.  His parts were always the best parts, because he was less dramatic at first, being a little punk of a scheduler who was constantly being harassed by Baby.  Of course he was also the one who made me cry at the end, but that's because he's good and those parts were beautifully sad (not like the rest of the ending).  I liked the plot, there were lots of good twist and turns through out the story, so right up until the last episode or so this show was great.  Sigh.  I do with that I could have a Jung Il Woo Scheduler ringtone, with his pissy little voice telling me I have a call, or telling people that I can't answer a call.  That would be the best.

The Nicknames of The Heartless Cruel City

A while back I finally got around to watching Cruel City.  It was amazing.  My queue is filled with melodramas, dramas, and heavy thrillers that I want to watch but usually put off as I waste my time with the fluffy romcoms.  I get around to them eventually, but not as quickly as they deserve.  But I'm glad I finally got around to this one, because it was really good.

I actually really love crime noir things, which is why I try to save them for a special time, when I can really savor them, but it usually turns out that I never have time for them and end up not watching them for forever.  I'm learning to just start them and make time for them.  Because they will be that good.  One thing that is always good about crime noir is the rich assortment of characters who all deserve a great set of nicknames.  Half of them only have nicknames in the show anyway, because that is apparently how the crime world works.

177. Cruel City 무정도시 (2013) Korean

Jung Kyung Ho, Nam Gyu Ri, Lee Jae Yoon, Son Chang Min, Kim Yoo Mi, Choi Moo Sung, Yoon Hyun Min 

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

While this was an amazing drama, the ending was still super hard for me to watch.  Mostly because WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE THE FREAKING GUN AWAY FROM HIM!  SOMEBODY COULD DIE THAT WAY!  Freaking Two-Faced Ahjussi.  Omo.  This drama is so good.  So dark.  I heard someone say they were watching this for them romance.  Um... what romance?  Do you mean bromance?  That is clearly the most important thing in this show.  I could start a drinking game: take a shot every time Soo is used as bait for a trap and almost dies.  Haha, I still love you, Fish bangs, and definitely love you in those suits. Rawr.  I was already in love with Paksa, so this was just a big indulgence to watch him being bad-a.  I think the best part of this show is the characters.  Not necessarily the police, although they are ok, but the drug peeps though.  Imo Noona was awesome.  I loved her, like a serious cool kids crush on her, because she was so cool... even though she was a little silly at times and had a weird crush on Paksa (but really, can you blame her?).  I loved how consistently loyal she was to all her friends.  Even Sapari Samchon was super relatable and well-rounded.  It was a good mixture of predictable and a bit less predictable, but that is me being too good at predicting.  But it had me on my toes, which was nice.  I do have to say that another thing I kept counting was how many times people were obviously drinking and driving.  Not shocking since everyone was constantly drinking, but then they would always have a brooding driving shot right afterward.  Um, no, Paksa, you shouldn't be driving after drinking multiple glasses of that strong liquor.  Haha.  Anyway, brilliantly good.