Please Teach Me English 영어완전정복 (2003) Korean

Lee Na Young, Jang Hyuk, Angela Kelly, Na Moon Hee

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

This movie was a lot more funny than I thought it would be.  I was expecting something super campy, and it kind of was, but as peeps with experience in teaching English, or as anyone who has taken any foreign language classes, it was much more hilarious.  Lee Na Young was amazing.  I loved her little cartoon character, inner thoughts, and especially their dreams.  Those language learner dreams were amazing.  Jang Hyuk was great as the "playboy" who was really just an awkward big talker.  Their relationship was funny, and like most movies developed quickly but a bit naturally.  Naturally there was plenty of misunderstandings.  I was worried about that English teacher at first.  She seemed like a bad teacher and a bit slutty at first.  But she became hilarious and a lovable character, especially when we learned more about her and her "type."  It is definitely 2003, but not in a bad way.  It's cute and hilarious.  I especially loved Lee Beom Soo's cameo.  We were watching for it and it was delightful.  The important thing to remember is that it is a bit campy and they are certainly not trying to take themselves serious.  It's supposed to be funny and ridiculous, and it is.  It is also sweet and relatable, especially for those language teachers and learners.

201. Ms. Temper and Nam Jung Gi 욱씨남정기 (2016) Korean

Lee Yo Won, Yoon Sang Hyun, Chansung, Lim Ha Ryong, Son Jong Hak

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I found my woman crush character.  I absolutely love Ok Da Jung (Lee Yo Won).  She was hard and snarky on the outside and gooey on the inside.  This show was basically the ultimate underdog show.  Even Da Jung represented an underdog, as a woman in business.  She was not content with that, and so became a powerful confident woman, but that didn't stop those rumors from being around her constantly.  But this show was about the underdogs not standing from the crap that is thrown at them because that is the way that it always is, but too fight for fairness and for themselves.  But in doing so, breaking from the cultural norm of the cosmetics industry, they would have to swim through a sea of crap.  I got seriously angry several times, and some episodes made me so angry and depressed I wanted to cry.  But there were also times that were outright awkward and others outright hilarious.  I hardly could remember that Jung Gi was Oska (Yoon Sang Hyun), because he was so completely different.  Loved Chansung. Bong Gi was the lazy, but bold and brilliant bum to Jung Gi's hard working and brilliant, but super timid office worker.  I loved Nam boys.  From Grandpa to Grandson they were all super cute and funny.  I absolutely loved the relationship between the kid and Da Jung.  It was adorable and hilarious.  It was like the real love story of the show, since our main couple's was so slow, which was perfect for this show.  I loved how naturally the love story progressed.  It would have been weird to see it any other way.  It was perfect.  Especially since all the "second male leads" of the main love triangle were her three ex-husbands.  We also had the awkward young love triangle which was awkward yet amazing.  It also took on some hard topics like sexual harassment like a champ.  The ensemble was good.  I just liked this show, even when it made me mad and so on.

Splash Splash Love 퐁당퐁당 LOVE (2015) Korean

Yoon Doo Joon, Kim Seul Gi, Jin Ki Joo, Ahn Hyo Seop, Kim Kap Soo

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

I can't believe I forgot to write the review for this earlier.  I loved this show/movie/drama special!  But since it's only 2 episodes, I naturally just forgot about it, haha.  One of the best and cutest time travel type deals ever.  Also gender bender things.  Because it is so short they didn't have time to mess around with the typical stereotypes, such as when he discovers that she's a girl, etc.  They all just assumed that she was a guy because she was wearing her hair in a topknot... or bun or whatever.  It's just cute and funny, and both Doo Joon and Seul Gi do a super good job with it.  It has the right type of humor for the time travelling and gender bending.  I was satisfied with the ending too.  So if you need something short and good, I definitely recommend this one.  It's super cute and fun.

Puck! 퍽! (2016) Korean

Lee Kwang Soo, Jung Hae Kyun, Son Soo Hyun, Kwak Dong Yeon, Jo Yoon Woo

Movie rating: 8/10     Neck score: A++

I can't even handle how much I loved Lee Kwang Soo in this.  I hate sports movies, but I love Kwang Soo, so I watched it.  He is so amazing.  We have all seen him do mostly comedy, which he is brilliant at, so it's always so great to see him pull of serious so amazingly well.  This was basically, in a nutshell: a loan shark lives for a season (like, the hockey season).  Loan shark thug Kwang Soo beats up peeps.  Almost kills someone.  Has to be less violent when getting money back for his boss.  Ends up joining a hockey team so they can win, so he can get the money.  Evil dude tries to get rid of team.  He finds team spirits, etc.  It was basically the plot of every sports movie, but it was also about how sucky life is.  He became a loan shark thug because his wife put him in debt.  He kind of turned off his emotions, etc., to survive.  The other team players also have their own problems.  The end, like most Korean movies, is really open ended and non-conclusive about that part of the stuff.  The life sucks stuff.  But it also still has the miraculous sports movie ending, so it really made me like it better than most.  Plus, Kwang Soo is amazing.  There was one scene in particular that his neck was so sexy (in that red letterman jacket) that I couldn't handle it (fans self).  Whew!  So, it was way better than most sports movies.  It made me cry, but that might just have been because Kwang Soo.  But, yes, it was good.

204. Click Your Heart 클릭유어하트 (2016) Korean

Kwon Min Ah, Baek Joo Ho, Kang Chan Hee, Kim Ro Woon, Lee Da Won, Kim Hwi Young

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

So this was kind of fun, especially as a concept, as it was a choose your own adventure type deal.  But naturally we had to watch all of them.  Especially since there was only 7 episodes and they were only like 15 min long.  I guess this is a pretty good way to publicize a new group.  All for boys were from the rookie group Neoz (which has way more boys, so this is just four of them).  Each boy represents one male lead stereotype.  Jerk popular boy, best friend nice guy, cutie angel boy, and chic bad boy.  The first episode introduced all of them, and from there you got to pick who was pitted against each other and then who would win.  So there is story A. Jock vs bestie, and B. Cutie vs. Bad boy.  We followed our hearts the first time and ended up with the bad boy.  His story was the most compelling.  Our next favorite was the best friend.  Then as a story we liked the jock better than the cutie boy... but as characters we liked the cutie boy way better, because the jock was a jerk.  Typical jerk male lead.  Boo.  Personally, I couldn't handle that cutie kid, because he was way too young for me, but as a cute dongsaeng, he was adorable.  I also loved how Min Ah actually had a character and it made sense for her to be with any of them, some more than others (like in the order of how we liked the stories).  She had that bad luck thing, but she also had attitude and a bit of sass for the most part.  Anyway, I thought it was fun and cute.  Definitely good for some fluff and stuff.

178. Six Flying Dragons 육룡이 나르샤 (2015) Korean

Yoo Ah In, Kim Myung Min, Shin Se Kyung, Byun Yo Han, Yoo Kyun Sang, Chun Ho Jin

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

Slow clap.  I loved it.  Seriously long, but never boring.  I actually had some trepidation about starting it because it was so long.  I saw who was in it and what it was about, and I got super excited.  Then I saw how long it was and I was like... ew.  Then I kept hearing such good things about it, that I decided to just watch it anyway.  It was amazing.  I started it with Curdy at first, which slowed me down considerably.  We were already way behind, but we ended up not being able to watch more than one episode at a time because it was too heavy for her.  Soon it was harder and harder to get her to make time for it.  When I saw how into Madame Antoine she was (much more of her type of show), and how she'd drop everything for that one, I knew I needed to press on alone.  Honestly there were times when I could only watch one episode as well, because it is pretty heavy, but it's totally worth it.  I was super sad when Gil Tae Mi (Park Hyuk Kwon) died.  He was my favorite, Gil Seon Mi (also Park Hyuk Kwon) just wasn't as cool.  But at least Gil Tae Mil had one heck of a death scene.  Another sign that this was amazing was that it made me do more research about this period than other sageuks have.  I had to look up everything that happened to see what was the fake and what was the real.  Everyone did amazingly.  Seriously.  I've seen most of these actors before, and have been impressed with them generally, but never so impressed with them as I have been in this one.  Round of applause for every one of these cast members.  I was especially proud of Shin Se Kyung because she was probably the one that's been hit or miss the most for me, but she did awesome.  I love her strong character.  Booyah.  Another thing I love about this is all the character developments.  No one was the same person at the end as they were at the beginning.  Some people changed more than others, but there was absolutely no stagnant characters.  Moo Hyeol (Yoo Kyun Sang) was one of the most startling of the changes, since it was so abrupt, but obviously Bang Won (Yoo Ah In) was the biggest.  But because everyone was constantly changing, I never could love or hate any person 100%.  They were all super dynamic, well-rounded characters.  I couldn't be on any side completely.  That went for the villains too.  I couldn't decide who was worse, because they all took turns being the worst and sympathetic.  Our heroes all took turns doing dumb things and being less sympathetic too.  When it came down to it, only the completely fiction people had less bad decisions, but that makes sense too.  They let everyone be real and conflicted, and messed up, and it was marvelous.  So worth the 50 episodes.  I couldn't give it any less, even if the very last episode was a bit draggy.  I mean, they had to resolve what they could so we didn't think too ill of anyone... only they could have, but it was still ok.  They tried to end on a hopeful note, I guess.  But still, slow clap for awesome.

198. Marriage Contract 결혼계약 (2016) Korean

Lee Seo Jin, Uee, Kim Yong Geon, Park Jung Soo, Lee Whee Hyang, Kim Young Pil, Kim Yoo Ri, Shin Rin Ah, Kim Kwang Kyu, Lee Hyun Geol

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

An oddly perfect mixture of adorable and crying.  This is full of all those stereotypes of melodramas.  Cancer, more cancer, evil chaebols, contract marriages, selfish male leads with mommy and daddy issues, that bitca who is the same character in all her shows, the works.  But then it somehow uses those stereotypes in a completely different way.  Maybe it's just because Lee Seo Jin is amazing (he is my spirit animal), but he really turned that typical rich chaebol with family issues into a complete different type of character.  He was also believable and completely too perfect to be believable at the same time.  He started out as a jerk ladies man who was willing to buy a liver to save his mom and turned into an adorable dad and husband who knew how to play with kids, cats, and comfort the girl so she didn't feel like a patient or pitiful.  It was too adorable.  Those dimples!  I liked most all the characters except the bad peeps of course.  That dad was the worst ever.  But I liked his real mom.  I even related a bit with the idiotic older brother and wife, even though I also disliked them.  At least you could see where everyone was coming from.  Uee had a lot of great ugly crying.  Unfortunately for me it was too long.  So many long crying scenes.  She did a good job being a mom and a cancer patient.  So maybe it was all just melodrama held together by the amazing charisma of Lee Seo Jin, but I liked it despite all the craziness.  The ending was a little abrupt, since there was no real resolution, and I cried plenty of times, but I consistently liked.  Especially after the first couple of episodes.  It was pretty good.