131. Liar Game ライアーゲーム (2007) Japanese

Matsuda Shota, Toda Erika, Suzuki Kazuma, Hiroko Taguchi

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

I don't know if I should have watched this first, but after I loved the Korean version of Liar Game, I had to watch this one.  The only problem is I tried watching it too soon and got a bit bored because I knew what was going to happen already, which was sad, because this is so good.  I also have to compare it to the remake, because I watched it first, which is sad in some ways, because this one was first and very well done.  Well, being from 2007, it is also super dramatic and a bit cheesy in how it is dramatic.  Like a million fast zooms to each character's face every time anything sneaky or dramatic happens.  Also, this one comes off a lot more sinister and sketchy in how people get roped in and trapped, etc., since this is literally a con set up by super rich and cynical people rather than a game show.  I think it probably would be better to watch it first.  I still loved it.  It has many points that I liked better.  One big one is Matsuda Shota.  He does happen to be on my list of 10 sexiest necks, and with reason.  Rawr.  Lee Sang Yoon did a good job, but Matsuda Shota did a million times better.  He rocked it.  I did miss Shin Sung Rok, but what can you do?  Even if you don't decide to watch this one first (I didn't, but I think it would be good to) it is worth watching.  I am also planning on watching the second season and the movie as well, it's that good.  Sinister games, good honest people winning with their goodness, bad boy con artists with secret soft hearts, what more could you want?

193. High End Crush 고품격 짝사랑 (2015) Korean

Jung Il Woo, Jin Se Yeon, Lee Si Eon, Yoon Bora, Moon Se Yoon

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

This might be one of the best web dramas I have seen.  I mean, it's twenty 15-min episodes of Jung Il Woo going crazy because he has a crush on Jin Se Yeon.  Hilarious.  So we have a super successful, top of the food chain CEO of an entertainment center who doesn't believe in one-sided loves, he thinks they are only for pathetic people and that he can get anything he wants.  Famous last words.  He immediately falls for this girl that they randomly pulled off the street (well, after she beats Lee Si Eon over the head trying to "save" Bora) for a photo shoot.  She lives in the mountains and is practically from the Joseon period with how much she understands the complexities of Seoul.  She's tech savvy and smart (I mean, she had zero learning curve when it came to texting on her brand new smartphone), but really clueless when it comes to relationships, etc.  Aka, an organic person.  It is just a bunch of misunderstandings because they think completely differently.  It does get a bit draggy, if that is possible, because of how long those misunderstandings can go on, but it was highly enjoyable.  I also really loved the Soon Jung cameos with Jung Kyung Ho and Kim So Yeon being MCs or news anchors who are conveniently talking about just what the Organic Girl needs to help her understand the situation or her feelings.  I did love how simple it was.  There was no love triangle needed, because there was plenty of drama developed with just those two not understanding each other, especially since they didn't understand how they felt themselves for the longest time.  I like how it had time to show their relationship developing, etc.  I fully enjoyed it.

179. Reply 1988 응답하라 1988 (2015) Korean

Lee Hyeri, Ryu Jun Yeol, Go Kyung Po, Park Bo Gum, Lee Dong Hwi

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

Well that was a perfectly wonderful drama that fell flat on its face in the end.  Everything was wonderful until they finally did a time jump.  Then all the sudden they tried too hard to wraps things up too suddenly.  You know, the things they'd been neglecting while they spent more time on the gloriously awesome other things.  I mean neglecting all the romance in favor of family and community matters.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the family and community matters.  This show was one big neighborhood romance as opposed to a romance or love triangle.  Well that's what I thought it was until they forced it back into a love triangle husband hunt in the last few episodes.  Narratively, the romance didn't make sense.  I have no idea why they wrote it that way.  Why would they make us care about one person so much that they completely neglected building up the person who was actually going to end up married to her?  Mmmm, no.  Not okay with it.  I cared about every single character in this drama.  I was absolutely in love with Jung Bong, and Samcheonpo (Kim Sung Kyun), and Cheetah Ahjumma, and Jin Joo.  All five of the kids.  Literally everyone was compelling.  Their stories together, the little mundane things.  All of it was so good.  The only thing that wasn't good was the way they handled the romance.  It was like the battle of the 2nd male leads.  They made us care about Jung Hwan by showing us his feelings from episode 1, and then they made both him and Taek do nothing... for the rest of the series.  We never knew what Deok Sun was thinking.  She ended up being an impressionable girl who married the only guy who ever actually did something, after 6 years of doing nothing because the writers are lame, and we never knew what she was feeling the whole time.  I might have given this show a 9 or a 10 if the ending hadn't been so lame, but that really leaves the last impression, doesn't it?  I was actually so angry at the way they played so mercilessly with my emotions that I didn't even want to finish episode 19, and if it wasn't for Jung Bong's scenes being next I probably wouldn't have.  They literally spent so much time making me hurt for Jung Hwan that I literally didn't care about anything else.  That's just messed up.  Literally the only good thing that happened after the time jump to 94 was Sseuregi Oppa.  The end.  They needed to balance the romance with the neighborhood love so we actually have time to care about the couple.  We needed to see the couple grow, not have their love force fed to us in the last two episodes.  Like, they literally rammed it down our throats in such a way that even if I was team Taek I wouldn't have been satisfied.  Like seriously no.  Very badly done.  Narratively, it was a huge slap to the face to all characters involved.  I mean, Cheetah Ahjumma going through menopause was more compelling than the love story, and that is a fact.  So the ending gets a 1 or a 2.  The rest of the series gets a 9 or a 10 (because they made me love them) so that evens out to a 7 or 8.  Since I want to be generous and try to not let the bad aftertaste taint how fun the rest of the show was, I will make it an 8, but that is being very generous on my part.  (She's not even sitting next to him in this poster!)

192. Falling For Challenge 도전에 반하다 (2015) Korean

Kim So Eun, Xiumin, Jang Hui Ryoung, Jang Yoo Sang

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A-

This was another cute, short web drama.  I like Kim So Eun, so I thought I might as well watch it since, with 6 nine minute episodes, it is only an hour long.  That always makes things rushed, especially in the romance department.  But this was about working together and growing together.  It's about a struggling club that's purpose is to take on challenges.  It only has two members, both girls, but magically it gets two boys to join (hmm, two boys and two girls?).  One of them is Xiumin, who is a mime, or Pierrot as they call it, in training.  Anyway, I spent the whole show being weirded out by all the people that Xiumin reminds me of.  Basically I would describe it as this: If G-Dragon and Baek Jin Hee were to have a love child... and if Yoon Doo Joon was somehow also related, or at least around to train him in facial expressions, then that about sums him up.  At least I know why he is one of my friend's Exo bias (especially when she also loves G-Dragon) because he's cute and has a great smile.  But he also looks like he's twelve, so I only want to pat him on the head and tell him he's cute, that is all.  It was a good little web drama.  I liked the documentary style.  It made it a bit different, so that was nice.

My Secret K-Biases, Ridiculous Dislikes, and People I Can't Take Seriously

I don't know why I am not completely honest with my feelings, even down to the celebrity crush level.  I guess I am just a compulsive emotional liar, especially to myself, haha.  You know when you secretly like someone but it's so secret that you don't even tell yourself?  It's not just me, right? ... Ahem.  Well, I do this all the time, and then when I finally realize it and admit it, I'm suddenly like "why did I never...?" or "I can't believe I didn't just admit this..." or "what was I thinking?"

I also have unreasonable dislikes for people.  Sometimes they are based on an impression from a drama that remains long after they are no longer playing that character, but I still can't separate them from that character, and sometimes it is because I think their face looks creepy.  I tell you, they are unreasonable and also a total joke (because I actually don't hate them as people or anything, I just like to hate on them).  I also have people that I just can't take seriously and will lovingly laugh every time I see them do anything... anything at all.

Aladdin and the Three Amigos: Chuno is Full of Nicknames

We are the three aAAAAAAAAmigos!  And amigos forever we'll be.... EEEEEEEEEEE!

That was literally the first thing that popped into all of our heads as we started the first episode of Chuno.  And with these three amigos being shirtless hotties, we were excited to watch... at first.  Oh Chuno, so good, yet so draggy.  Once I hit episode 11, it was awesome, but getting to that point was frustrating.  It was frustrating after that too.  But the thing that was consistently good, despite the near misses and frustrating no talk just fight and die mentality, was how good the characters were.  We had names for all of them, like usual.  And even the ones I hated most of the time made me cry by the end.  Nice development.

Curdy and MarlubsGD's Weird Dreamland Adventures

This one deserved its own post because it was kind of long and kind of ridiculous.

I mean, you can't get much crazier than Curdy's dream here...