İyi Seyirler Dileriz.
Heartless City (2013)
Heartless City
무정도시 / Cruel City
(May – July 2013)
--Spoiler Free Review--
who’s in it
Jung KyungHo (Smile You, Time Between Dog and Wolf)
Nam GyuRi (49 Days, Life is Beautiful)
Kim YooMi (Enjoy Life, Country Princess)
Lee JaeYoon (Ghost, Just Like Today)
Yoon HyunMin (Still You, More Charming By the Day)
Choi MooSung (I Live in Cheongdam-dong)
Son Chang Min (Horse Doctor, Man of Honor)
Go Na Eun (Assorted Gems)
what’s it about
For a show like this one, built on violence, suspense, and misdirection, any summary becomes too much summary because even a half morsel of information ends up giving everything away.
The bones of this drama, however, is simply about a police task force created for the sole purpose of bringing down a shifty criminal network that has been flooding massive amounts of soul-sucking drugs into Seoul. That is the spine of it, but there is so much more to the tale than the basic promise of cops going after drug dealers. There is blood, heart, brains, and a whole heaping mess of beautifully filmed gore, gristle, muscle…basically it’s a cinematically riveting organic explosion about the darker side of human nature as told from the point of view of a criminal underworld and a legal system that behaves no different than the people it chases. It is a modern story with old themes, ones as old as Rome, about the redemption of devils and the corruption of angels.
Lee JaeYoon plays the detective chasing and Jung KyungHo plays the man being chased. Nam GyuRi plays the innocent caught between two worlds. That’s all you are allowed to know until you watch it, the show will reveal the rest. That’s all you should want to know if you have any interest in watching this one. Trust me on this, Heartless is not the show you should indulge your need for spoilers, as part of its hypnotic quality is about going in blindfolded and tied, being tossed completely innocent into this stylish romance with the dark side.
commitment
20 episodes
network
JTBC
director
Lee JungHyo
screenwriter
Yoo SungYeol
music
Nam HyeSung
Amazing soulful music in this one, and perfectly constructed for the show. There were so many layers that it fit so many aspects and themes. Hints of jazz and blues, sometimes even carnie, and all parts emotional.
photography
Choi YoonMan
The look of this one was all vintage style, atmospheric, and a personality of its own. Practically black and white…without actually being filmed in black and white.
first impressions
What’s the date and time? I may have to notarize this moment.
It is possible that I have just begun watching the hands-down coolest, sexiest, most awe-smacking, well-produced drama served up to a kdrama audience in recent memory. Can a person tell they are living a momentous historical moment even before that moment passes? Absolutely I’m going overboard, but that’s how much amazement I have for this one, and how impressed I am by the first few episodes.
Not all the main characters have been introduced yet, in fact, a few only catch minutes of airtime. The ones we do meet have little direct interplay with the wider net of players as yet. They exist in their own corners of Seoul. Still, we already know that they are all insidiously interconnected, whether by circumstance or by people. The showdown we all know is coming already feels epic. We feel it looming ahead like the iceberg that must have seen the bloated tanker Titanic approaching. We know some of these characters only by their aliases, but what will happen when we know their true names and their true faces? How will they be revealed when their costumes are stripped away and the truth of the person inside is laid bare?
This world is a winding clock, and the players in it the gears grinding along…and it is not a natural world in which they exist, not a world built for surviving.
And as spectators, we all hold our breaths knowing that someone or something—pure and hot—is about to come along with a hammer and smash its constant simple logic to smithereens, offering us a glimpse into the chaos and complexity behind the movement of lives.
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Padam Padam (2012)
Padam Padam
빠담빠담... 그와 그녀의 심장박동소리 /
Padam Padam…The Sound of His and Her Heartbeats
(Dec 2011 – Feb 2012)
who’s in it
Jung Woo Sung (The Good, The Bad, The Weird-film, Athena)
Han Ji Min (Rooftop Prince)
Kim Bum (The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry)
Kim Ji Yoo (Mom Has Grown Horns)
Na Moon Hee (I Believe in Love)
Jang Hang Sun (Crime Squad)
Choi Tae Joon
Kim Joon Sung (The Lobbyist)
what’s it about
If the opportunity to hit a “do over” button was offered to you, would you—no, could you—change a singularly life changing moment for the better? Where precisely does destiny end and free will begin?
Jung WooSung plays a guy who has been in prison for 16 years and according to him, unfairly so. He was not a thug when he went in, but by the time he is freed into the real world, he has become a variation of one. He has grown into a socially stunted and frustrated man-child. He is filled with both wonder and anger at the changed world, being estranged from it and wanting to belong. However, he does have a more pressing goal on his mind: clearing his name. Unfortunately, his enemies also have a purpose: keeping him silenced forever.
Kim Bum is a fellow inmate released at the same time, and it is quite possible the young man is a certifiable nutjob, although a harmless one. He believes with all his heart that he is Jung WooSung’s guardian angel—and that’s literally, as in he wants to literally earn his wings so he can finally fly to Heaven where he rightfully belongs. He believes his purpose for existence is to make sure his best friend Jung WooSung is safe and happy.
When our hero returns to his hometown with his nutty angel sidekick tagging along (who is hell bent on kicking up some emotional dust), this ex-con’s past, present, and future collide in dangerous and wonderful new ways, including falling in love with a beautiful local vet played by Han JiMin. Even with his own personal angel fighting by his side, Jung WooSung is faced with an unlikely proposition: is it possible for a mere man to do the impossible and defy the course of his life?
commitment
20 episodes
network
jTBC
(Lately, just like the trend here in the States, it seems like all the really good shows aren’t on the major networks, but on cable!)
first impressions
Wow.
Visceral, chaotic, gritty, violent—and elegant. Very, very elegant. Padam was both ugly and beautiful at the same time...or rather, more accurately, it found beauty in the ugly? After the first few episodes, I genuinely felt that I had stumbled onto something truly unconventional, a show deftly guided by someone with a very specific vision for the show. This didn’t feel like a kdrama at all, it felt like a film. The basics of the premise had all been done before, you know the drill, a tough guy released from jail stumbles along in violence until he finds true love, which reforms his whole life. To be honest, going into Padam, I felt like I had already seen this one many times over. I did not believe that this one could surprise me or engage me in any new way.
Even after only the second episode, I knew in my gut that I had been so very wrong, this drama was different. The uniqueness wasn’t in the setup, but in the craftmanship, like the difference between products generically produced for mass consumption, and ones designer, stitched together with detail and skill. Padam seemed to understand the rules of this kdrama genre, and it knew the right threads to use, but it also clearly established from the onset that it was going to try its damnest best to be different and daring in its delivery.
My initial thought was that this kdrama was weird, confusing, and far too heartbreaking in its portrayal of life…the protagonist felt like a violent maniac, the second guy was a delusional loony who thought he was a supernatural entity…on top of that, it was littered with an ensemble cast of broken personalities that were thorny country bumpkin folk, and let’s not forget, all of them were involved in some wacky festering crime mystery, too. But, oh what the hell, even though I was afraid the story direction would only end up breaking my heart, and even though the ‘fantasy’ aspect of Padam scared the hell out of me, I could not dismiss this one.
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Haru: An Unforgettable Day in Korea (2010)
Haru: An Unforgettable Day in Korea
하루/ One Day in Korea
September 24, 2010
who’s in it
Yunho (Heading to the Ground)
Lee DaHae (My Girl, Chuno)
Kim Bum (Woman Who Still Wants to Marry)
Big Bang (Seungri, TOP, G-Dragon, Taeyang, Daesung)
Park ShiHoo (Prosecutor Princess)
Han ChaeYoung (Delightful Girl Choon Hyang)
director
Park MyungChun
screenwriter
Lee JeongAh
commitment
30 minutes
network
www.haru2010.com
review
Not exactly a kdrama…but kinda, I mean, it is Korean and sort of a drama.
Haru: An Unforgettable Day in Korea is a little mini-dramatization (30 minutes) made with the sole purpose of showing the world the magical possibilities of one day in Korea. To really sell the point, four actors, a Yunho, and ze Big Bang were recruited for the gig.
They had me at Big Bang.
The story follows a writer, Lee DaHae, who is taking the train through Korea’s picturesque countryside on her way to meet up with her secret boyfriend Yunho, an actor filming action scenes on location. While in transit, she works on a screenplay that mirrors some of the issues in her real life relationship—about a couple with a secret between them: Han ChaeYoung and Park ShiHoo play the fantastic power couple in that fictional story scenario. They are normal business entrepreneurs by day but covert assassins by night (think Mr. & Mrs. Smith). While on this long commute over the rails, however, Lee DaHae gets swept off her feet by a charming stranger, photographer Kim Bum, who wants to play hooky from life for just one train stop.
Interspersed within the main story, we have random scenes from a remote village where an elementary school has permanently closed its doors. The students have sent a video letter asking kpop superstars Big Bang to come out to their school and create some lasting memories with them as their last wish before bidding their school farewell. Big Bang, the big softies that they are, trek themselves out, only to arrive a day too late. Seungri, TOP, Daesung, Taeyang, and Jiyong are discouraged, but not quitters. Feeling regretful over disappointing the young ones, they decide to rent some wicked cool ATVs and roam the small town in search of the displaced kids. The Big Bang subplot has seemingly nothing to do with nothing in regards to the main story, but who cares, we get to see Big Bang together and they are adorable with the children.
Forget the premise, forget the acting, forget everything. This is 30 minutes of amusing fun. We don’t get to see enough of Korea considering this is a tourism-bent venture, but hell, those big stars are enough to convince me to buy a ticket and haul ass over there. If there is the smallest chance of bumping into Kim Bum or his lookalike on a train, I’m there. If there is even just a pea-sized hope of catching Big Bang on ATVs while visiting some rural village in Korea, I’m there. If the food tastes half as delish as it looked in this drama, I wouldn’t care if the restaurant was owned by assassins, I’m there.
total enjoyment factor
10/10
verdict
Silly. Whimsical. Fun. A half hour of happiness.
Adorable.
High Kick Through the Roof 2 (2010)
High Kick Through the Roof 2
지붕 뚫고 하이킥
(Sept 2009 – Mar 2010)
who’s in it
Lee SoonJae (Stars Falling from the Sky)
Kim JaOk (Be Strong, GeumSoon!, My Lovely Kim SamSoon)
Oh HyunKyung (First Wives Club)
Daniel Choi (Cyrano, Dating Agency - film)
Shin SeKyung (Queen SeonDuk)
Yoon SiYoon (Baker King, Kim TakGu)
Hwang JungEum (East of Eden, Last Scandal of My Life)
what’s it about
An all-star cast of exceptional stars lead this ensemble family sitcom through 126 episodes of laughter, often via some quirky storytelling. Basically, we lucky viewers are given massive amounts of goofy awesomeness. And by all-star cast, I, of course, am referring mostly to everyone’s exceptionally shiny skill in bringing these characters to life, not necessarily their established names.
The basic story centers around the well-off Lee family and the entourage of people that encircle them. The plot is secondary to the characters, who are all so well-developed that they walk around with their own cloud full of stories to tell, and surprisingly, we actually care about what happens to all of them. The best way to sum up this drama [without giving away too many spoilers] is to quickly introduce the main characters:
Lee SoonJae (played by Lee SoonJae)
Lee JiHoon (Daniel Choi)
Lee HyunKyung (Oh HyunKyung)
Jung BoSuk (Jung BoSuk)
Jung JoonHyuk (Yoon SiYoon)
Jung HaeRi (Jin JiHee)
Kang SeHo (Lee KiKwang)
Shin SeKyung (Shin SeKyung)
Shin ShinAe (Seo ShinAe)
Kim JaOk (Kim JaOk)
Hwang JungEum (Hwang JungEum)
Julien (Julien Kang)
Yoo InNa (Yoo InNa) and KwangSoo (Lee KwangSoo)
commitment
126 episodes
network
MBC
wildcard factor
126 episodes, each at a speedy 30 minutes each. The entire drama may have been on the longish side, but I promise you, the number 126 never felt so short. It will fly by.
Daniel Choi, Hwang JungEum, Yoon SiYoon did an admirable job as the leaders of the younger cast, and brought new spin to an old formula, making it feel like something we’ve never seen before. The capricious idiosyncrasies they brought to each their characters stayed consistent throughout and was always playfully fun to watch.
There were also some strange cameos by some big names scattered throughout the drama, including the likes of Park KyungLim, Yun JongShin, Jung IlWoo, Danny An, Kim Bum, Park ShinHye and Lee NaYoung. Intriguing, non?
first impressions
Wow, this was genuinely…funny, with laughter squeezed out of the most unexpected moments and most outlandish scenarios. I was literally laughing out loud with my hands clasped over mouth. How can characters this crazy and not of this planet actually still feel real and relatable? Even after only a few episodes, I felt like I knew all these people so well. All the main players get a quick intro in the first few hours and although some more fleeting than others, we were still able to deduce the core and crutch of every person in this wacky corner of Seoul. I knew right away, just after the first half hour, in fact, that I was going to love this drama. It was complete addiction. It is very rare for me to love a show so instantly, but this was definitely one such case. Total crack tv!
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Pasta (2010)
Pasta
파스타
(Jan – Mar 2010)
who’s in it
Gong HyoJin (Guns & Talk - film)
Lee SunGyun (Coffee Prince, Triple)
Lee HaNee/Lee Honey as (Partner)
Alex (Clazziquai – singer)
Kim TaeHo (Hometown Legends)
No MinWoo
Hyun Woo (Dream)
what’s it about
La Sfera, il ristorante italiano, has lost its way under the disorganized leadership of an imported Italian chef, so they give the boot to the ruddy-cheeked foreigner (thankfully sparing us from any more of his bad acting) and replace him with the next best thing, a Korean chef that has been formally trained in Italy—a finicky purist when it comes to Italian cuisine. Cue Lee SunGyun, who is witty and charming—when out of the kitchen. In it, he’s a raging tyrant. Gong HyoJin plays the diligent and well-liked aspiring chef in that kitchen. She’s just been promoted to pasta assistant after quietly suffering in the role of the maknae kitchen assistant for three long years. When this new chef comes barging in with his Italian creds and disrupts her quaint and comfortable universe, she’s both challenged and frightened (and fired).
This universe also includes handsome Alex, who plays a genial and cucumber-cool businessman who enjoys eating at La Sfera, and especially enjoys baiting Gong HyoJin, and by baiting, of course, I mean quasi-flirting, even if she’s clueless to it.
Last, we have Honey Lee who plays best friend to Alex and a celebrity chef (think Barefoot Contessa meets Rachel Ray) who isn’t fulfilled in her life or career despite her successes…it’s the absence of the right man that’s bringing her down. She’s still desperately in love with our leading man Lee SunGyun, despite their nasty breakup during their formative culinary training years in Italy…the bad news for her? Well, it seems neither of these two equally desirable men are interested her pasta anymore.
commitment
20 episodes
network
MBC
wildcard factor
It’s a dueling war of wickedly handsome men—of the mature variety, not the just-out-of-puberty type. Now, there is nothing wrong with young and sweet dessert wines, but certainly never underestimate the value of a nicely aged one either. These two opposites strutted their stuff to convince you they were the real deal and the one to make a pasta assistant (and you) swoon into a plate.
On the one delicious hand, you had the dashing Prince Charming played by Alex (wonderfully, by the way), guaranteed to make any girl giggle in delight with one of his ‘I have a secret and I’m not telling you’ grins. On the other equivalently tasty hand, you had the gruff but charismatic Beast, minus all the fur, hair, and fang. Well, maybe a little fang, he did have a bit of a bite, this one. The Beast…er, the head chef, played by Lee SunGyun, technically got more screen time than Alex but both men sparkled like new stainless steel appliances in their assigned roles and it was a tough decision as to who came off more palatable, if I may employ a foodie descriptive. The easy answer would be Alex with his puppy dog smiles and all around twinkling demeanor, but the more complex appeal was definitely played by Lee SunGyun. Truthfully, I’d never cared for him or his character in Coffee Prince, but here, he was pretty darn sexy. Maybe jerks are just sexier in general? In a tv show context, of course. It gives them more room to grow. By the end, I didn’t even care how the whole thing ended as long as both Alex and Chef Lee SunGyun were happy.
first impressions
The poster is a good representation of the drama: simple, classy and clearly visible. Clearly visible, you ask? What does that even mean? Well, it’s very bright and up front about who the characters were, in terms of personality, and what kind of development was needed for each of them. The obvious comparisons can be made to Beethoven Virus (nasty genius coming in to shake things up, firing and hiring, firing and hiring) and The Grand Chef (preparation of haute cuisine, although Italian not French, nor upgraded Korean like in Grand), but after a couple of episodes it became very clear that Pasta was nothing like either of the shows I’ve just mentioned despite the passing similarities. It actually reminded me a lot of another show, but more on that later. Pasta wanted to stay a romantic comedy until the very end and it succeeds in staying relatively angst-free and light-hearted without much of a plot, but as a mollifying incentive for those bothered by the zipless storyline, Pasta provided instead some very well-developed and intriguing characters.
After the initial episodes, I couldn’t decide if Lee SunGyun was charming or too slick and scathing for my liking. He definitely sided heavily toward the arsehole scale at first, especially his distaste for women in the kitchen. On the other hand, it was more than obvious something else going on here than a mere sexist desire to keep women in their place, which ironically, in this case was out of the kitchen. This man had been burned and not just by olive oil.
I will also note, Lee SunGyun and Gong HyoJin had one of the cutest first encounters I’d ever seen in a drama. One metaphor down, a million to go!
From the very start, you’d be hard pressed to find anything specifically wrong with this show, although you may be tempted to interpret your lack of excited hysteria for this drama as boredom which may lead to some quick channel switching (you know, the kind of hysteria you may feel for, say, a show like You’re Beautiful). For me, I encouraged myself to focus on the appealing characters—Gong HyoJin’s quiet determination, Lee SunGyun’s witty but explosive menace interjected with his characteristic crooked smile, Alex’s silky smoothness (man oh man was this guy dreamy in this role), Honey Lee’s courage in trying to undo a past mistake and win her man’s love back, and of course, the fun and frivolous staff that worked at La Sfera. This show really hooked me at around episode 3 and I couldn’t wait to enjoy all the people in it and see what happened when they started opening up and enjoying one another!
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Dal Ja’s Spring (2007)
Dal Ja’s Spring
달자의 봄
(Jan – Mar 2007)
who’s in it
Chae Rim (Powerful Opponents)
Lee MinKi (Really, Really Like You, Evasive Inquiry Agency)
Lee HyunWoo (Attic Cat)
Lee HyeYoung (Queen of Housewives)
Gong HyungJin (Chuno)
what’s it about
As the story goes…you’re standing at a crosswalk minding your own, waiting for the light to turn green (aren’t we all just waiting for that light to turn green?) when all of a sudden love comes flying out of nowhere to knock you off your feet—in Chae Rim’s case, however, it also knocks her to the pavement and breaks her cell phone. This whirlwind arrives in the form of angular, runway model-turned-actor Lee MinKi. Not a bad reason to fall at all, literally and figuratively. Mr. Mystery waltzes into her life, young and vibrant and critical of her insecurities, especially her hang-ups regarding her age and her unrealistic notions on love. For someone younger, it becomes immediately obvious that Lee MinKi’s got more life wisdom under his sneakers than his noona (older woman to younger man).
Chae Rim is a buyer for a home shopping network and pretty good at her job, and she’s worked hard to become so capable, but she remains unlucky in love due to her overly romantic sensibility. After falling for the charms of a coworker who turns out to be a major player, she becomes the butt of pitying office gossip, so she takes on Lee MinKi as a ‘fake boyfriend’ for a month to resuscitate her female pride. The real loveline tangle arises when she meets the CEO of a new brand they’re selling, a man she suspects may be “the man of her destiny”…but what about Lee MinKi? Is he really just her ‘spare tire’ or, dare she hope, something more?
How do you calculate love, by counting the years of your life or by the beats of your heart?
commitment
22 episodes
network
KBS2
wildcard factor
Chae Rim’s eyeliner…heh, just joking. Thick eyeliner and poofy hair aside, she’s adorable here as the prideful and determined thirty-something Oh Dalja still looking for that great romance that will sweep her off her feet. She had an obsession with her age and was quite the boy crazy woman, but surprisingly, Chae Rim was able to make this girl likable and not too pink and fluffy.
after the first episode
Even after only an hour, we really got a sense of who Chae Rim was playing. This was a girl who became a woman overnight and along the way, without her realizing it, she traded in a personal life for her job. She thought herself worldly but she was actually naïve, especially when it came to people and their motivations. As the popular refrain goes ‘a good deed never goes unpunished,’ her life was a lot like that, sometimes unlucky through no real fault of her own but due only to her desire to live earnestly. She tried hard [at everything] but her insecurities were the barriers she couldn’t seem to overcome. She was constantly sneaking glances around to see who was watching and how she was being judged. She was attractive and well-liked by her peers, but she didn’t see herself that way. She wanted love but didn’t believe she was worthy of it, not really. We know this because we were allowed to hear her inner dialogues via voiceovers. Basically, we had here an everywoman, someone we pitied and couldn’t wholly comprehend, but also a person we could not deny lives in all of us to some capacity.
The story was intent on focusing on Oh Dalja as a whole person, not just her love life, evidenced by the introduction of her family, friends and coworkers in an intelligent manner, not as passing bit players. They were as complicated as the lead. I liked it. This had a sly scent of something refreshing.
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Jumong (2005/2006)
Jumong Prince of Legend
삼한지-주몽 편
(May 2005 – Mar 2006)
who’s in it
Song IlGook (Lobbyist, Kingdom of the Wind)
Han HyeJin (Be Strong, Geum Soon!, Terroir)
Won KiJoon (The Grand Chef)
what’s it about
Song IlGook wonderfully portrays Prince Jumong, the lazy and carefree son of King Geumwa’s Royal Concubine, Lady Yuhwa; he is the youngest out of three princes in line for the throne. Despite his boozing and whoring, Jumong is King Geumwa’s favorite son, in part because Jumong is an affable prince, but also because the king has loved Jumong’s mother the way he has never loved his queen. When Jumong learns of his true heritage (which had been kept hidden from him), he also wakes to the political hatred simmering under the veneer of civility in palace life, and realizes he has spent all of his youth in ignorance. With the burden of his past heavy upon his shoulders, he embarks on a new path. This is an embellishment of legend (loosely based in fact) of the young prince destined to unite the scattered city-states of present day Koreans under one banner, a race of people estranged from one another and oppressed by Han tyranny (loosely China). It would be impossible to go further into detail, not only because of the sheer depth of characters and story (as it spans generations!) but also because the twists and turns of the journey is precisely what makes Jumong so involving to watch.
commitment
A substantial 81 episodes
network
MBC
wildcard factor
Historical pieces can be difficult. True historicals tend to be favored by the older generation of drama watchers because they demand a lot of patience and time and are usually steeped in an overwhelming package of traditional theme and speak. They are the choice entrée for my parents, for example. Now, unlike the fusion sageuks that have recently come into popularity, ones that blend historical settings with contemporary panache, true historical dramas rarely care to be fast-paced or comedic in delivery. Jumong is that sort of heavily political historical drama that is both serious and steeped in war, and tests you through lots and lots of dialogue. How Jumong separates itself from the pack, however, is by having a very capable leading man that was both the everyman and heroic. Song IlGook was able to keep Jumong grounded and easy to connect with despite the pomp and fuss of being a historical character of “grave importance.” Jumong also had a fairly brisk storytelling pace that kept itself accessible. Action-packed and, yes, at times very romantic—his female lead was the headstrong Han HyeJin, a competent merchant’s daughter who takes notice of Jumong after an unfavorable chance encounter.
after the first episode
W-O-W. I’ll be truthful, I don’t always care for historical dramas, they requiring more committment than I usually am able to give. I also rarely like the fusion saeguks. I will acknowledge they usually tell a good, well-developed tale but I lack the patience for them. But this one…I was instantly hooked. Not only did I immediately take a shine to Song IlGook as Prince Jumong, but I didn’t find the “historicalness” of Jumong overwhelming and headache-inducing. It felt suprisingly modern in the telling and well, surpise me, exciting. It had a feeling of grandness and a pinch of magic. I really liked it; somehow it felt new to me.
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My Lovely Samsoon (2005)
My Lovely Samsoon
내 이름은 김삼순
(Jun – Jul 2005)
who’s in it
Kim SunAh (City Hall, She’s On Duty - film)
Hyun Bin (World Within, Friend Our Legend)
Jung RyuWon (Ja Myung Go)
Daniel Henney (Spring Waltz, Seducing Mr. Robin – film)
what’s it about
Kim SunAh is a chubby (by tv standards), unemployed patisserie chef who gets dumped by her cheating dog of a boyfriend. After this crushing setback, she goes on a mission to land a better job and a better man, a better life. A better name, too. She believes that her cursed name has tainted her entire existence and all will be straightened out once she changes it from “SamSoon” to “HeeJin.” She lands a gig at a fancy-schmancy restaurant owned by the arrogant but handsome Hyun Bin, a man who has some ex-issues of his own. Although Hyun Bin’s new pastry chef makes some pretty awesome desserts…she is everything that he doesn’t find attractive in a woman: loud, opinionated and unsophisticated. But when the two start a fake relationship in order to thwart Hyun Bin’s mother from her matchmaking schemes (Kim SunAh borrows money from him in exchange), the couple’s real feelings start to get in the way of their contract. Yep, I said contract. It’s a contract romance one!
commitment
16 episodes
network
MBC
wildcard factor
Kim SunAh’s acting feels tremendously raw and honest in this role. She played a real human being that had flaws, yes, including a complex about her weight. It shouldn’t be considered ‘brave’ to play a normal woman, but let’s face it, this is the entertainment industry and her role as an “overweight” spinster was pretty courageous as she exists in a celebrity land of stick-skinny anorexics, including her co-star Jung RyuWon, who was so skinny in the drama that she could have made a spaghetti strand ashamed of its weight.
Kim SunAh was awkward, uncomfortable and completely charming as the brassy Kim SamSoon.
Hyun Bin became huge after this aired. What else is there to say? He’s a handsome guy who looked good in a nicely cut suit and perfectly coifed hair. Oh yeah, and as a nice side benefit, he could act.
after the first episode
There was something about this one that didn’t feel the same as the other kdramas [I had seen prior to it]. It was intelligent. It felt classy. It was heartwarming. The female lead was instantly recognizable as one of our own, a normal person and not just a kdrama cliché. Her flaws, her worries, and her fears felt real. As for Hyun Bin, my initial thought on his character was that he was interesting and complicated…you definitely felt there were onion skins to his character that would be peeled layer by layer as the show progressed.
And all this plus the show was FUNNY!
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Couple or Trouble (2006)
Couple or Trouble
환상의 커플 / Fantasy Couple
(Oct – Dec 2006)
who’s in it
Han YeSeul (Will It Snow at Christmas?)
Oh JiHo (Super Rookie, Queen of Housewives, Chuno)
Kim SungMin (Queen of Housewives, On Air)
Park HanByul (Freeze)
what’s it about
Han YeSeul is beyond rolling in the money but more than that, she’s the b-word that rhymes with rich. She comes back to be with her husband in Korea after having spent an extended duration in the States. While apart, her hubby has been running a resort in a quaint seaside town and living in glorious freedom away from her tyranny. Things start to unravel when Kim SunMin deems he’s had enough of his mean wife and Han YeSeul literally falls overboard into a new life. Adapted from the Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn 80’s romp Overboard, when Han YeSeul’s personality collides with the down-to-earth and extremely fantastically sculptured Oh JiHo, sparks erupt and it isn’t very pretty. It is shovel-smacking hate at first sight. But when fate hands him the opportunity to exact revenge on the woman who has done to him some grievous wrongs, he can’t resist the temptation get back at her.
commitment
16 episodes
network
MBC
wildcard factor
Penned by the Hongs, a sister-sister writing duo that has a great knack for creating memorably fun characters and unpredictable situations.
after the first episode
Han YeSeul was fantastic. Oh JiHo was manly hotness. Pretty plainly win-win!
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Someday (2006)
Someday
썸데이
(Nov – Dec 2006)
who’s in it
Bae DooNa (Take Care of My Cat – film, The Host – film)
Lee JinWook (Powerful Opponents, Air City)
Kim MinJoon (Friend Our Legend, Damo)
Oh YoonAh (Kingdom of the Winds, God of Study)
what’s it about
A shy manga artist and an errand-boy-for-hire, both with their own tragic pasts, meet under the strange circumstance of trying to solve the mystery of someone else’s sad love story.
commitment
16 Episodes
network
OCN
wildcard factor
This was a quiet, sensitive drama that doesn’t try for humor, but only aimed to tell a story about people. It was really about loneliness and trying to find a way to survive in the type of black hole that can live within us all. I thought this kind of character study was lovely and refreshing, but others may just interpret this kind of sobriety in a kdrama to be boring. No slapstick and no flashy action sequences, just plain ol’ storytelling.
after the first episode
What else has Lee JinWook been in? He’s pretty great.
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Goong (2006)
Goong
궁 / Princess Hours
(Jan – Mar 2006)
who’s in it
Yoon EunHye (Take Care of My Lady, Coffee Prince)
Joo JiHoon (Antique Bakery – film)
Kim JeongHoon
Song JiHyo
what's it about
Drawing obvious parallels with England, including frequent references to the torrid tabloid scandals that concerned Prince Charles, Camilla and Princess Diana before the latter’s tragic car accident and death, Goong cheerfully speculates an alternate version of history where the Republic of Korea is a constitutional monarchy and has maintained a figurehead sovereignty instead of adopting a purely presidential system of government.
When the reigning king begins to suffer in health, the elders make the sudden decision to wed off the crowned prince, Joo JiHoon, to solidify his status as the heir-apparent despite his still being in high school. There’s a problem though and it’s called a (let’s sing it together now) secret lover, that’s what we are...our little stuck-up prince has a real amour in his life and doesn’t take a shine to the girl chosen for him by the old people who want to dictate his every move in life. Apparently, the previous king (his late grandfather) had betrothed the crowned prince to a commoner’s granddaughter a long time ago, Yoon EunHye, a goofy art student who turns out to be his classmate at the very art institute he currently attends.
Throw into the hotpot of fun 1) extra meat: the sensitive exiled prince with emoting hair and his vindictive mother who wants her son on the throne and, 2) raw garlic: the abandoned ballerina who was the crowned prince’s secret first love, one that decides she needs to get her stud back. Now we got ourselves some salacious tomfoolery of the royal stew variety.
commitment
24 episodes
network
MBC
wildcard factor
Yoon EunHye – the singer turned actress does a really fine job here, to my surprise. She’s natural and funny as the hopeless school girl who crashed the royal party.
after the first episode
I liked it but I wasn’t sure if it would continue to impress. The concept was fun…but I was concerned about how far the novelty of this alternate world would carry before the story thinned and became too silly.
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The Grand Chef (2008)
The Grand Chef
식객 / Gourmet
(Jun – Sept 2008)
who’s in it
Kim RaeWon (Attic Cat, My Love Patzzi)
Nam SangMi (Sweet Spy, Time Between Dog and Wolf)
Kim SoYeon (IRIS)
Kwon OhJoong (Damo)
what’s it about
Kim RaeWon finds himself in a succession battle against his older brother to be the head honcho of Unamjung, a fine dining establishment that specializes in traditional Korean fare and even traces its roots back to the cooks of royalty. For an affable fellow who just loves good food and lacks ambition, it is a role he does not covet but ultimately cannot avoid. Nam SangMi is the kind-hearted but obstinate food critic who sees Kim RaeWon and Unamjung as the story that’ll give her career as a food columnist the boost it desperately needs.
commitment
24 episodes
network
SBS
wildcard factor
Kim RaeWon really brings Chef Lee SungChan to life and gives him a depth that may not have translated so well from paper had a different actor taken on the role.
after the first episode
I was very impressed. On the surface, Grand Chef looked like it would be a really boring drama, not good or bad, just boring, caught up in its own flights of pretentious fancy. Instead, it was very down-to-earth and it understood something very critical: the key component to the drama couldn’t only be the colorful and elaborate dishes being prepared, but the emotional connection between the people who made them.
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You're Beautiful (2009)
You're Beautiful
미남이시네요
(Oct – Nov 2009)
who’s in it
Jang GeunSuk (Hong Gil Dong, Beethoven Virus)
Park ShinHye (Stairway To Heaven, Tree of Heaven)
Lee HongKi (member of FT Island)
Jung YongHwa (member of CN Blue)
what’s it about
What happens when the heavens and the flashy brightness of kpop collide? Well, I’ll tell you, You’re Beautiful happens! And it is a wonderful fantasy land, my friends, an unrealistic but completely perfect place where idol angels sing and cook and flit around grocery stores in the middle of the night doing darling things with commercially freeze-packed products (get your mind out of the gutter, it’s not like that – yeah, you got me, I wish it were, too).
In this dazzling universe, popular kpop male idol group A.N.Jell is looking to add a new member to lend some harmonizing help to their vocally strained lead(er) singer’s voice, played by the one and only gorgeous Jang GeunSuk, who’s [real life] mother may have given birth to him and put him on this planet just so he could play this role. Back to the drama: turns out, their newly recruited member is actually out of the country for the time being and gets secretly replaced with his twin sister, but she’s not just any girl! No, no, no, she's a girl completely unfit to be an idol. She’s a pure and earnest yet endearingly naïve and clumsy Park ShinHye who has been cloistered away all her life in preparation to become a nun. She has no familiarity whatsoever with the Korean pop music world (or the real world in general, for that matter). Now, if you are also unfamiliar with kpop, I assure you, pretty boy idol bands like A.N. Jell are all the rage in the K-music industry right now.
After rounding out the last two members of A.N.Jell with equally gorgeous Lee HongKi of real idol group F.T. Island and bright new star Jung YongHwa, of recently debuted [real] idol band C.N. Blue, we got ourselves the settings for a pretty delectable looking plate of kdrama protein, baby!
commitment
16 episodes
network
SBS
wildcard factor
This is a Hong sisters kdrama which may or may not mean anything to you depending on how religiously you follow such things.
If it doesn’t mean anything to you, I give you Jung YongHwa as your wildcard factor for this one. These days, I have a personal soft spot for Jang GeunSuk and am prefering his brand of hotness, but I don’t think I’d be grossly exaggerating by saying that the C.N. Blue crooner/melodic-semi-rapper named YongHwa seemed to know what the ladies want because he robbed a lot of them of something precious: their sanity. A disturbing lot were stolen, yes indeed.
after the first episode
When I first heard about this drama and its ‘concept’ of Boys Over Flowers in the idol world, I really didn’t intend on watching it, much less enjoy it. I did, however, take into consideration that Jang GeunSuk is a pretty decent actor and was curious enough about his accepting a pretty boy idol role when it seemed in the past he’d shied away from characters that wanted to highlight or cash in on his pretty face.
What did I think after the first few episodes? If it’s not already annoyingly obvious, let me put it another way: I vowed never to judge another kdrama by its cover and at least give them all a go for no less than 3 episodes before laying down the judgmental hammer. The thought that I might have missed this gem really made me anxious…and wonder, seriously wonder, How many other secret little pieces of magical-unicorn-fairy-dust-leprechaun-gold drizzled kdrama candy have I let slip through the cracks due to my narrow-minded pigheadedness? It worried me, the ramifications of this--this novel idea that books really shouldn’t be judged by their cover…because come on now, who doesn’t do that!?
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Full House (2004)
Full House
풀하우스
(Jul – Sept 2004)
who’s in it
Song Hye Gyo (World Within, All In)
Rain (A Love To Kill, Ninja Assassin - film)
Han EunJung (Gumiho’s Revenge)
Kim SungSoo (More Charming By The Day)
Han EunJung (Gumiho’s Revenge)
Kim SungSoo (More Charming By The Day)
what’s it about
Rain is a clean freak top actor in love with his childhood best friend, although unable to confess those feelings to her. Unfortunately, that first love, Han EunJung, happens to be smitten with his best guy pal Kim SungSoo. Due to his impulsive and childish temper, Rain finds himself married instead to Song HyeGyo, a poor but cute aspiring screenwriter who has two of the crappiest friends to ever ruin a kdrama heroine’s life in order to get a plot moving. Throughout the course of their contract marriage, this height-challenged couple attempt to meet halfway.
committment
16 episodes
network
KBS
wildcard factor
How much do you love (or dislike) Rain?
after the first episode
Immediate attraction, both Song and Rain had an abundance of natural cute and it sizzled in a way that brought their characters to life. The two leads had chemistry enough to light up all of South Korea with their snappy banter and saucy glances.
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