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.

182. Love Me, If You Dare 他来了请闭眼 (2015) Chinese

Wallace Huo, Ma Sichun, Edward Zhang, Wang Kai, Andrew Yin

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

I'm impressed.  This actually managed to creep me out a little at one spot.  Like I got little chills and thought "maybe I shouldn't be watching this alone at night" like I was.  But the fact that this was go good in spite of the horrific English speaking actors that had overly large parts in this is impressive too.  The second half of the show takes place in the U.S. so it is chalked full of actors speaking English who are supposed to be American.  There was that Susan FBI Profiler who was better than most English speaking actors in an Asian drama in the fact that she at least tried to sound American, but she also sounded like she was trying to sound cool and sexy all the time.  Then there was the dude from internal affairs who was clearly Russian and struggled with pronouncing his lines.  He acted a bit better than most.  There were a few others who just made me laugh every time they were on screen, like Dr. Barnes and that old dude... hahaha.  But a show can be better than its English speaking actors, which is a relief.  This show was full of hot Chinese men, such as Wallace Huo, who I started the show for.  He was a good pick for this egotistical criminal profiler with a potential dark side, since he plays creepy, egotistical, and cute all really well.  His creepy side is even sexy, which is true but weird to say out loud.  Then of course there is Wang Kai, who has a blessed jawline.  But the neck I fell for the most was Andrew Yin (Yin Zhen) also known as Cute Neck or the Baby GD Best Friend.  I thought he was just cute at first, and then I saw him in a polo and was a goner... happy sigh... Ahem, back to the important part.  The show itself.  There were lots of nice plot twists and darkness.  It certainly didn't hold back in the gruesome crimes department.  They were all pretty bad, which was good for a crime drama, and then when it started getting really psychological in the plot twists, I liked it even more.  There were several times when I thought everyone was going to die it was so good.  Like everyone.  But then there were also really confusing moments with... alternate endings?  I'm not really sure what was going on there.  Like what could have happened and then what really did?  Still confused about that.  Oh well. Also, some of the solutions seemed a bit fantastical.  Well... I guess it goes both ways when it comes to predicting what the hero or villain will do.  I could predict some things, but other things were not necessarily surprising, but not typical, which is generally good.  Basically it was a good, dark, psychological crime romance with good plot twists, plenty of blood, and a bunch of English speaking actors that just have to be tolerated because the rest of the show is good.

181. Oh My Venus 오 마이 비너스 (2015) Korean

So Ji Sub, Shin Min Ah, Yoo In Young, Jung Gyu Woon, Henry Lau, Sung Hoon

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

This was way better than I thought it was going to be.  I mean, shows about weight loss and having to change your image to find love and happiness are blech to me in typically.  But I love So Ji Sub and Shin Min Ah, and them together was sure to be worth something even if the plot was meh.  But it surprised me.  It wasn't about getting a makeover and getting a man.  It was about being healthy and healing, but it was more about total healing, like attitude, heart, emotional, etc.  The OTP was better than expected too.  What genuine people.  They were both people who weren't going to put up with crap, we honest about how they felt and especially about each other.  He fell in love with her way before she lost weight and suddenly became beautiful, so when he saw her dimples for the first time, that was cute.  They were overly cute and not in a bad way.  In fact there was really no one to hate in this show, unless it be that step-uncle, the grandma, PD Ex, and naturally the stalker pervert.  But even they were only mild hates.  They generally made everyone redeemable.  I actually was just as invested in the second leads romance as I was in the main leads.  I love Yoo In Young, so much that I looked to her for inspiration in my latest hair style.  So I liked that her character was not just bitca in this one, but that she had the issues she was dealing with (however badly she was) and we were more anxious about her bad decisions than about hating her.  And Wiener Thinker was surprisingly a nice guy and not the d-bag ex we expected him to be.  I loved them together and was more frustrated about them at the end, and whether they would get together or not, than anything else.  You know you have a good set of couples when every one of them makes you say "those two! Oh!" when they are doing something cute.  Then of course Henry and Sung Hoon were adorable and sexy.  Basically there was a decent set of characters which made up for any plot holes (why did there have to be a car accident and a year recovery gap?  Huh?) and silliness.  There was only one episode that was insufferable and made us tweet to get through it, and even that one wasn't that bad.  So basically if you want good chemistry and a couple that isn't afraid to express themselves, this is probably a good option.  I mean, how many other dramas have the girl seducing the guy?  Repeatedly?  So even if it had a few cheesy parts and a few head scratching moments, it was better than most romcoms I've seen.  Good job.

More of MarlubsGD's K-Dreamland Adventures

I know I said I was going to have Lizabreff's dreamland adventure next, but she honestly doesn't have them as often, and certainly doesn't write them down as much, so instead I will share a bunch of dreams I had over the last little bit.

There is less interaction because of how busy and how ridiculously different our schedules are these days.  Sigh.  It makes drama watching together extremely difficult.  Sad day.  Well, at least I can dream.

184. Never Die 그녀는 200살 (2015) Korean

Nam Ji Hyun, Ji Eun Sung, Kim Yoon Bae, Yoon Jin Yeong

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

Well this was a cute little drama.  Emphasis on little.  It is super short and very faced pace.  It was so short that I forgot I watched it and am only writing the review for it now, when I watched a couple weeks ago.  The plot is really short too.  Basically, baby faced dude falls in love with a girl who died saving him, only she didn't die because she's immortal.  She falls for him, but is worried that she'll just get attached and feel sad when he leaves her.  There is also a best friend who gives him advice and a weird magician who made her immortal until she can find true love or something.  The resolution happens really fast too.  I mean, it's only like 5 episodes long, so of course it's fast.  Still it's cute and funny, so worth the short amount of time you would invest in it.

150. Chuno 추노 (2010) Korean

Jang Hyuk, Oh Ji Ho, Lee Da Hae, Gong Hyung Jin, Lee Jong Hyuk

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I started out watching this with Curdy and Lizabreff, because Curdy loves Jang Hyuk and Lizabreff and I had been planning on watching it eventually anyway.  Well, that lasted about 8 episodes.  Then, after a long break, I had to continue on alone until the end.  Because the first eight episodes are basically the same thing over and over, with a lot of action and way too many near misses.  There are so many near misses that it is ridiculous.  I wanted to get violent with an ice pick, as tweeted by me: "The sheer # of near misses in #Chuno is making me want to stab things with an ice pick. You know, like ice and stuff."  But we literally stopped right as it got really good, instead of just actiony good.  Even though there were still so many more near misses and people drove me crazy with their stubborn nobility and pride (yeah, I'm talking about you, Arms).  And while they did kill like everyone off, they didn't kill off all my favorites, like I thought they did.  They literally make you think everyone will die, but it's not a completely sad ending... well... it kind of is, but it leaves you with hope and stuff.  It raises a lot of questions about equality and humanity, and also about life and death.  I have to admit that I never really paid attention during the politics talks by all the bad dudes, so I'm not 100% sure of the motivation behind some of the dastardly plots.  I really don't know why they did some of the lousy things they did.  I just know the outcomes and stuff.  I might need to read some recaps of some episodes, haha.  This is a bad habit of mine while watching sageuks.  I don't do those boring court and politics scenes well.  I do have to say that everyone did an amazing job acting and all the characters were good enough to deserve nicknames, so that is a mark of a good drama character-wise.  They made most of the main characters sympathetic at some point.  Even Basket Head (Lee Jong Hyuk), although that wasn't always the case.  I hated him a lot in certain scenes (leave Monkey and Secretary Ko alone!).  It was a good, but long and very involved show.  Very emotional in spots and very, very actiony in others.  Kind of a dude show like 95% of the time.  So... good overall, just a bit draggy about certain plots, and pretty predictable too, even though it is not stereotypical.  It is 24 episodes long.

What the Heck Did I Just Watch? Kpop MVs of 2015 That Left Us Feeling Weirded Out

It's the end of 2015, and there were a lot of what the heck Kpop MVs this year.  The kind that makes you wonder as you watch them "What the heck am I watching" and at the end you are still left with that blank expression of WTF.

What in the freak are they?  Well, here are some of 2015's that fit that bill.