Korean Movie Night: Midnight Runners 청년경찰 (2017) Korean

Park Seo Joon, Kang Ha Neul, Park Ha Sun, Sung Dong Il

Movie rating: 8/10     Neck score: A

So amidst all the stress of moving and changing jobs, we found time to finally watch a movie we had wanted to see since it was first announced. Especially Lizabreff. These two might be some of her top boys. In fact, we were so close to seeing it in the theater when we went out for K-Con last year, but it wasn't out yet. It was the coming soon title. We even have pictures of us wishing it were out as well as the other two we went to see. So we had to have one last (easy) Korean Movie Night and watch this one. It was a good way to relieve my stress.

It was actually a lot different and better than we thought it would be. You know how they always grab all of the clever scenes to be in the trailer. Lizabreff especially was thinking it was going to be goofier and much more crass. I think they literally grabbed every swear and every middle finger for the trailer, because it wasn't nearly as crude or ridiculous as it was made to seem. It was actually more serious and had more heart. But I feel like that is the way most trailers vs movies go.

313. What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? 김비서가 왜 그럴까 (2018) Korean

Park Seo Joon, Park Min Young, Lee Tae Hwan, Kim Byung Ok, Kim Hye Ok, Kang Ki Young

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+++

The biggest thing wrong with this show is that even when Park Seo Joon is playing a narcissistic chaebol, he's still a muffin. A confirmed muffin. As soon as he starts the eye smile, all narcissism is over, he's just a muffin. But he did a good job of it inspite of that. This was a really fun show. I loved the dynamic between Park Min Young and Park Seo Joon. She was amazing, and her clothes were super amazing too. They inspired Lizabreff to buy a bunch of cute blouses, which sadly turned out to be cheap pieces of crap that were not what was expected. Haha, everyone's gotta have a story like that, right?

257. Fight My Way 쌈 마이웨이 (2017) Korean

Park Seo Joon, Kim Ji Won, Ahn Jae Hong, Song Ha Yoon

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I would have to say that this one probably wins the prize of being consistently good and the best ending out of our four dramas we watched together.  It never got too bad, and the ending was really cute.  I was probably the most satisfied with this one's resolution.  It also had a good ending that didn't involve stereotypes such as weddings, etc.  It also had a lot of shirtless Park Seo Joon, so bonus points.

The part I loved the best about this one was the characters.  They were just the best.  I loved seeing them grow as they figured out what they wanted in life, both in their careers and romantically.  We started off with expectations, and we were met with some surprises, which was nice.  It was funny, and hard, and relateable, all the things.  There were some characters that we liked more than others.  Joo Man just needed to be punched in the face a lot sooner than he was.  Baked Potato (Seol Hee) was just the cutest, but I loved her when she put her foot down the best.  Ae Ra and Dong Man were probably one of my favorite OTPs of all time.  Like seriously, they were the best.  I especially just loved Ae Ra so much!  But Coach-nim was obviously my favorite character.  (I LOVE Kim Sung Oh!)  But that ex-girlfriend bitca could have just not existed.  I was over her before she first came on the scene.  However my hatred of her probably made the scene where she lost that much better, but I didn't like how she had to help fix things in the end.  Probably the worst part of the ending, in my opinion.  She just was the worst.

I loved that it was fairly equally about the four friends, and that it wasn't just about relationship problems, but about life problems.  No one was completely right and no one completely wrong.  It was messy and had to be worked out.  Overall it was funny and cute and a bit motivating too.  Plus, Kim Sung Oh in a tanktop, serving soondae.  Um, yes!

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.

The Flower Boy Bromance: Nicknames of Hwarang

Hwarang was a beautifully ridiculous show full of beautiful men.  It wasn't the worst fusion sageuk that I've seen, but it definitely wasn't great.  It was enjoyable, but only when it was being what it was, a bunch of flower boys being typical boys.  It was also full of gratuitousness, like the frequent, unnecessary shower scenes.

#Blessings.  But it was good when it was not taking itself serious, because there was no way that I was taking it serious, so when it got serious, it was lame.  Boring really.  But maybe not Nightwatchman bad.  At least it wasn't a supernatural/fantasy sageuk.  But as silly as it was, it spurred us to creating a bunch of nicknames for the collection of cast members.

240. Hwarang 화랑 (2016) Korean

Park Seo Joon, Go Ara, Park Hyung Sik, Sung Dong Il, Choi Min Ho, Do Ji Han, Cho Yoon Woo, Kim Tae Hyung

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+

If you just appreciate this for what it is, a bunch of flower boys being boys, it was good.  But then they got too draggy and serious, like normal, and it was... less good.  Like, when it was building the bromances and having needless shower scenes it was good, but then there was way too much of the evil queen, her crazy daughter, and evil politicians being evil.  It got in the way of the bromances and the romance.  They seriously didn't give this couple enough cute times.  There was way too much drama interrupting it.  Then they tried to surprise us with the ending, which was impossible, so they had to make us thing everyone was stupid, throwing bromance away, etc. and it was super draggy until the very end.  So that was lame.  But one thing it did do good was the death scenes.  Everyone who died in this (yes people died) made me almost cry.  They were also pretty gross with the blood coming out of the mouth and stuff.  As for acting, I thought everyone was decently good.  I didn't cringe or anything with anyone, and some people were pretty awesome.  We all fell in love with Park Seo Joon all over again.  We just couldn't help it, he's got so much charisma.  So, it was good for the pretty men, funny at the beginning, and then fizzled out like most dramas, so pretty typical.

173. She Was Pretty 그녀는 예뻤다 (2015) Korean

Hwang Jung Eum, Park Seo Joon, Go Joon Hee, Choi Siwon

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

This drama was just fun.  I had a lot of fun watching it, even if there were gaping holes at times.  Like, it bothered me at first that they had Seo Joon come off as such a jerk-faced butt head at first.  That seemed to be way out of character for him.  Even with stress and misunderstandings as an excuse.  But they made up for it in a big way.  By the end, they were one of my favorite couples of all time.  What a cute OTP.  I really had second lead syndrome for Siwon, especially when he was making all those amazing faces.  So much fun!  I also loved the friendship between Hye Jin (Hwang Jung Eum) and Ha Ri (Go Joon Hee).  We see so many bromances that it was refreshing to see a... what is the word for that?  Womance?  Yeah, something like that.  I shipped that friendship.  As frustrating as it was, I liked that they had the relationship grow before he knew who she was.  That made it more real and feely when he finally found out.  Then I could ship the OTP like crazy.  I liked how they showed the level of understanding between our main couple that made them perfect for each other and helped us (well me anyway) get over Siwon.  I loved Siwon to the end, but I knew that he was just friends material, because there was that level of knowing and understanding that was missing.  That might be why I loved it so much.  There was no bitca and no evil second male lead.  I loved everyone in the whole show.  When Ha Ri started falling for Seong Joon, I was worried for her because she was going to get hurt, and the guilt she was feeling, yeah no bitca there, just her being stupid.  And Siwon was like the nicest (and goofiest) guy on the planet who saw her beauty from the start.  Cute!  Although, I did think that his part was too drawn out and mopey at the end.  That was a bit boring.  I even cared about the silly side romance between Gold Digger and Happy Boy.  Anyway, no, it's not perfect, but it's fun.  And I have to give it major props for avoiding some of the major tropes, such as prolonged noble idiocy, bitcas, one year time jumps (with long distance relationships that magically last even when they lose contact), and makeovers that last forever.  They touched on all of them, but twisted them for the better.  Bravo!

135. Kill Me, Heal Me 킬미,힐미 (2015) Korean

Ji Sung, Hwang Jung Eum, Park Seo Joon, Oh Min Seok, Kim Yoo Ri

Drama Rating:  7/10    Neck Score: A+

Ok, while this was completely makjang with the whole set up- I mean the birth secrets and corporate drama were off the charts- this was completely enjoyable to watch.  It's probably all Ji Sung.  I know it is.  Park Seo Joon was good too, even if he had to be the annoying oppa.  But Ji Sung!  He was amazing!  How he played every character with perfect emotion!  Right down to those eyes which they had to emphasize so much (Ji Sung does have super gorgeous eyes).  What I liked best was that it was always exciting and didn't make me want to chew my arm off ever.  Each of the multiple personalities were so lovable (I'll be honest and admit that I was also one of the many who were swept away by Shin Se Gi's animal charisma), so much so that when they all went away at the end I cried!  I was watching it at like 2am and was therefore more susceptible to tears, but still, it was touching.  Not a super huge fan of Hwang Jung Eum.  She can overact at times.  Usually in the "comedy" roles.  She was annoying as heck at the beginning, but I think she mellowed out a bit when the melodrama serious stuff rolled in.  I actually was fine with her at the end.  Anyways, yes there are lots of ridiculous and probably psychologically unsound things, but they managed to make it seem a little more plausible than other similarly DID themed shows that might have happened at the same time, so it was hard not to compare... I did try, but I just liked this one better.  Like a million times better (I still love you Hyun Bin!).  Even if some problems seemed to be magically wrapped up at the end... they were the less important ones so I was glad they weren't dragged out at least.  And can I just saw that Ji Sung's jaw line makes me very happy.  It's so sexy!