Rikki Don't Lose That NumberWe have a romance between the dazzling, successful CEO of a huge conglomerate called The Queens Group, Hong Hae-in (Kim Ji-won) and her dashing husband, Baek Hyun-woo (Kim Soo-hyun), an executive/legal eagle at the same company. However, things are not all rosy with the attractive and successful couple. Marrying in to the Queens group has been more than Hyun-woo, the son of hard-working farmers in Yongdu-ri, bargained for.
44/N
#kdrama
Hae-in is extremely competitive, and focused on growing her company, while their home life is sterile and cold. The two sleep in separate rooms, and Hyun-woo secretly prepares divorce papers to serve on Hae-in. However, just as Hyun-woo is about to tell Hae-in that he wants a divorce, she informs him that - suprise - she has an inoperable brain tumor, and has been given 3 months to live.
45/N
45/N
Hyun-woo immediately hides the divorce papers, since he would be better off as a widower than an ex-husband. This sets up a clever romance wrinkle, of how our two lovers can re-kindle the love they once shared and walk back from the brink of divorce, even as Hae-in seeks treatment for her life-threatening illness.
46/N
#kdrama
46/N
#kdrama
The romance plot plays off against an elaborate web of skullduggery, as Hae-in's friend from university Yoon Eun-sung (Park Sung-hoon) has returned from America, ostensibly eager to partner with The Queens Group, and possibly even woo Hae-in away from the apparently estranged husband. We are soon made aware of an extremely elaborate plot on the part of Eun-sung and a network of collaborators to wrest control of Queens away from Hae-in and her family.
47/N
#kdrama
47/N
#kdrama
Relief from the snakes nest of power and money hungry schemers, as well as Hae-in's illness, is provided by Hyun-woo's stolid and earthy family in the country. We have the somewhat familiar trope of the simple and loving working-class characters demonstrating common sense and a wholesome way of life, in contrast to the power-hungry rich characters. And we get some schadenfreude and comedy when circumstances force the two families to unite against a common threat.
48/N
#kdrama
48/N
#kdrama
The writers have done a great job of weaving several complex storylines into a coherent whole. The cast is fabulous including many truly hateful villains, along with many good-hearted characters who are there to save the day at key moments. They really pack in a lot of story in 16 episodes, but the direction and acting are top-notch. The story never loses its impact or coherence as it unfolds, and you'll be on the edge of your seat for every episode. Five stars.
49/N
#kdrama
#QueenOfTears
49/N
#kdrama
#QueenOfTears
My wife and I were still on our road trip when we finished Queen of Tears, and I wanted to watch a more low-stakes romance for a change of pace. Somebody on this site had mentioned "Run On," which is notionally a cute and lighthearted opposites attract story. Our ML is Ki Seon-gyeom (played by Im Si-wan), a national track star and a child of wealthy parents who seems to daydream through his life.
50/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
50/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
Seon-gyeom has a simple and good-hearted personality, in spite of his father being a scheming politician, and his mother a popular actress "the Queen of Cannes". Enter our FL, Oh Mi-joo (Shin Se-kyung), a worldly wise and scrappy translator of cinema subtitles. Mi-joo, an orphan, loves film, collects handgun replicas and is always on the hustle for her next gig.
51/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
51/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
When Mi-joo is ripped off by a shady guy over a handgun deal, Seon-gyeom happens to be running by and helps apprehend the baddie. Their first meeting winds up with the two of them at the police station. They meet a second time when Mi-joo is hired to serve as Seon-gyeom's translator at an international meet and it seems that fate has brought them together.
52/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
52/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
There is a compelling secondary/parallel romance, involving Seon-gyeom's agent Seo Dan-ah (played by Choi Soo-young of Girls Generation!). Dan-ah, like Seon-gyeom, comes from money, and her high-powered career representing athletes does not seem to leave time for dating. Dan-ah is also very brusque and seemingly inconsiderate of others. She does love art, and finds herself getting lost in a painting that hangs in the cafe where she gets her morning coffee.
53/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
53/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
This leads her to track down the artist, a struggling but fun-loving art student named Lee Yeong-hwa (Kang Tae-oh). Yeong-hwa falls pretty quickly for the dazzling Dan-ah, but she keeps him at arms length. She just wants to him to make her a painting, and has no time for frivolity. Dan-ah plays up the fact that she is older, and from a completely different economic strata than the student Yeong-hwa.
54/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
54/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
Yeong-hwa is nothing if not persistent, and eventually Dan-ah does reveal feelings for him. I confess that this drama made wish I had a better understanding of Korean language and manners. Much of the humor plays off a native understanding of Korean formalities, and modes of address. Dan-ah would frequently act (fake) shocked at Yeong-hwa addressing her informally.
55/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
55/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
At various times characters would pause to debate whether or not to use honorifics, and I couldn't help but feel that I was missing some of the humor. Another way the characters' emotions are revealed is through elaborate dream sequences, styled as movie scenes based on whatever film Mi-joo is working on. These were cute and comical, with the soft-spoken Seon-gyeom appearing as a gangster, and Mi-joo and Dan-ah as runaways or street urchins.
56/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
56/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
I understood that the director was making some kind of meta commentary with these sequences, but I will conceed I frequently felt like I was missing something. On one level, we have a completely enjoyable romcom with two very appealing couples being cute on screen, and let's be honest that's what many of us are here for. We've got some societal and cultural commentary, and some bossy patriarchs who get their comeupance.
57/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
57/N
#kdrama
#RunOn
When Life Gives You Tangerines is perhaps my favorite genre of k-drama - an emotional and intimate examination of the lives of working class Koreans. The Netflix thumbnail for this drama - a smiling young couple standing in a field of flowers - suggests the series will be a romance. And there is a great love weaving through the series, but that is only one thread among many.
59/N
This is an epic and often tragic story that in a way mirrors Korea's own metamophosis from a poor, traditional society to a prosperous and modern one. Our story follows the life of Oh Ae-Sun, born in the 1950's on Jeju Island in Korea. Ae-Sun's mother Gwang-rye is a haenyeo, a woman who dives in the chilly depths every day for abalone to support her family.
60/N
Gwang-rye is one of those indomitable women who works tirelessly to provide for her family, and her one wish is for Ae-Sun to have a better life, and certainly not one as a haenyeo. Gwan-sik is Ae-Sun's contemporary, a boy from a marginally more prosperous fishing family. Gwan-sik latches on to Ae-Sun from the time they are children, though she rebuffs him and treats him like something of a simpleton.
61/N
The drama picks up with teenage/young adult Gwan-sik and Ae-Sun, played by Park Bo-Gum and k-pop idol IU respectively. She wants to be a poet, go to college and 'marry a boy from Seoul', but she is thwarted by poverty and family obligations. Ultimately she realizes that she really does love Gwan-sik, and trades in her dreams of Seoul and college to be a fisherman's wife and mother.
62/N
I'm not going to go into a lengthy plot summary. If this sounds like your thing, I encourage you to settle in and watch this drama. It is a genuine masterpiece, and everything about it is moving and exquisite. All of the actors are first rate, with IU in particular compelling as Ae-Sun. I really liked Ae-Sun's mother Gwang-rye, too. She seems stern and harsh at first, but we see how she treasures her daughter and struggled to give her a better life.
63/N
Even though she dies somewhat early in the series, her mom's presence is never far from Ae-Sun as we see in numerous flashbacks. I think I cried at some point during every episode, but they were good, cathartic tears. And there is laughter and triumph as well. Highly recommend 5/5 stars!
64/N
cw: spoilers
After the epic When Life Gives You Tangerines, my wife and I needed some more lighthearted fare. We watched the drama Backstreet Rookie - reviewed previously - since she had not seen it and it was leaving Netflix in July. That prompted us to look around for another drama starring the adorable Kim You Jung, one of many former child actresses who acquired the "Nation's Little Sister" label. We settled on the preposterously titled "Clean With Passion For Now".
65/N
This is an "opposites attract" tale about a germophobe guy, Jang Sun Gyeol (played by Yoon Kyun Sang), and chronically messy Gil Oh Sol (played by Kim You Jung. As is inevitably the case, the dorky premise belies a multilayered and quite compelling love story and pleasing character arcs. Our story begins when Sun Gyeol's robot vacuum goes missing. Oh Sol finds the vacuum in the street and, thinking someone has thrown it out, brings it home.
66/N
Sun Gyeol offers a reward and subsequently she gets in touch to return the vacuum. Unfortunately their meeting goes spectacularly wrong, with Oh Sol crashing into Sun Gyeol's car, resulting in him demanding 3,500,000 won for repairs. Oh Sol, who is looking for work and already short on money, is despondent. After bombing out of several interviews for office jobs, Oh Sol decides to try out for a high-tech cleaning firm called Cleaning Fairy.
67/N
After proving to be the top candidate, she discovers that the CEO is none other than Mr. 3.5 million won himself, Sun Gyeol. This sets up the central conceit of the story. The action bounces back and forth between some great comedy, and the unfolding backstory (and tragedy) that ultimately connects Oh Sol and Sun Gyeol. Despite their comically opposite personalities, our two leads really have a lot of chemistry.
68/N
Oh Sol is just so appealing with her messy hair, crumbs on her mouth and adorable heart shaped face. ML Sun Gyeol takes a little warming up to, as he spends a lot of the drama scowling at messes, running his white glove disapprovingly, and being impossibly awkward around Oh Sol. This is softened by a sympathetic perspective of Sun Gyeol's psychological condition, and his struggles to overcome a crippling germophobia and participate more fully in life.
69/N
As is so often the case, there is an excellent cast of supporting characters. Sun Gyeol's assistant at Cleaning Fairy, Secretary Gwon is a particularly sympathetic presence. This is in contrast to Sun Gyeol's grandfather, the controlling and critical figure who seems in large part to blame for Sun Gyeol's mysophobia.
70/N
We also meet Daniel Choi, who is renting the rooftop apartment of Oh Sol's family. Daniel seems like a charming and ambitionless guy, but we eventually learn his backstory as well, and his surprising connection to Oh Sol And Sun Gyeol. There is nothing groundbreaking here, but I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable story with many great comic moments and plenty of genuine feeling. 4/5 stars.
71/N
So, I'm 15 series in to my kdrama journey, and I've settled in to the predictable nature of the romances. Honestly I enjoy familiar plot devices, tropes, and character types. Like many folks I watch tv to unwind and feel comforted in some way. At the same time, it's important to feel that the writers are putting some creativity into the product. I don't want to watch the same show again and again - give me some surprises and unexpected character arcs to change things up.
72/N
cw: spoilers
"Doctor Slump" is in many ways a formulaic romance, but I found it heartwarming and extremely compelling. ML Yeo Jeong-woo (Park Hyung-sik) is a dashing young plastic surgeon at the top of his game. His "NeoTube" channel has millions of subscribers, and he has opened up clinics across Korea. Jeong-woo has boyish good looks, and a cute - if conceited - personality. I thought 'he's probably a k-pop idol', and indeed he was a member of boy band ZE:A.
73/N
FL Nam Ha-neul (Park Shin-hye) is an anaesthesiologist at a big hospital, on track to be a professor - if she can please her superiors. Ha-neul is dedicated and skilled at work, but not at playing the game of organizational politics. Her male seniors have been taking credit for her research, and blaming their mistakes on her. The combination of burnout and the hospital director being a total dick to her drives her to walk out of her job.
74/N
Meanwhile Jeong-woo is involved with a horrific medical accident, which we will re-experience through flashbacks of throughout the series. Jeong-woo is doing routing cosmetic surgery on a Macau casino heiress, when she suddenly starts to lose blood at inexplicable rate and suddenly dies. The blame falls on Jeong-woo. It is clear that he's been set up. A vial of anticoagulant is found with his prints in the OR.
75/N
Suddendly his life comes crashing down, he's forced to sell his clinics, there is a trial against him, and he owes billions of won to his creditors. Jeong-woo has to leave his fancy apartment, and rents a rooftop apartment in a humble Seoul neighborhood. Do you want to guess who's family it belongs to??? That's right, none other than our Ha-neul, who comes back from quitting her job to find Jeong-woo brooding on her rooftop.
76/N
And to layer on even more tropes, we have learned that Jeong-woo and Ha-neul attended the same high school, where they were the top two students and fierce rivals. I think you can fill in the rest of blanks from here, but we have an extremely charming rivals to lovers story. Where Jeong-woo is playful and outgoing, Ha-neul has been intensely focused on her studies and her career, to the exclusion of all else.
77/N
We get lots of flashbacks to how they were in high school, Jeong-woo the popular kid, good at sports and academics, while Ha-neul methodically eliminates anything that distracts from her studies (to a completely comic degree). Whereas he is very much a pretty boy, Ha-neul's beauty is a more understated, wholesome type.
78/N
The examination of the medical world that both characters inhabit give the story more weight than many romances. Whether through scenes in the OR, or other high stakes interactions between doctors, medical staff, patients and their families, there are a lot of highly charged interactions. And there is a lot of intrigue with Jeong-woo's trial, as new evidence comes to light and an expanding web of conspiracy that involves more and more of the characters.
79/N
Another theme that I appreciated was the exploration of mental illness, and the normalization of seeking professional care for depression. We see the fiercely independent Ha-neul reach the point where she is willing to seek psychiatric care and take medications to help her through her challenges.
80/N
Like dramas previously reviewed in this thread that highlighted autism spectrum disorder or mysophobia, I think this was a nice public service to show Ha-neul seek help when she needs it to get back on her feet. Overall I was fully entertained by Doctor Slump, and was enthusiastically rooting for our two leads. Needless to say the supporting characters are well done, and the 2TP between the main characters' two best friends is adorable. Recommended 5/5.
81/N
cw: Spoilers
The next drama my wife and I watched was When the Weather is Fine, a 2020 romance starring Park Min-young and Seo Kang-joon. This is partially thanks to someone on this site commenting how much they love Park Min-young. I have so many thoughts about this drama and I'm finding it hard to boil them down into 500 character chunks. If you like slow-moving and visually satisfying dramas you will probably enjoy When the Weather is Fine.
82/N
However there is a lot more going on here, and I can't decide whether I think it's a bold, artistic masterpiece or a confused mish mosh of ideas. This drama is on the one hand a very dreamy tale set in the fictional village of Hyecheon over the course of one winter. The cinematography is stunning, and there is a very art-house feel to this drama. The camera pans slowly across the stark, wintry fields and bare trees.
83/N
Our two main characters are achingly beautiful. The dialog is very spare, and we get long shots of Eun-seop and Hae-won gazing at each other wistfully, questioningly and ultimately, of course, lovingly as they cradle steaming cups of coffee in their gloved hands. Many of the interior scenes occur in Eun-seop's improbable bookstore, the Goodnight Bookstore.
84/N
We don't get an explanation for how this bookstore exists in a town of what appears to be a few hundred residents, where our main characters spend hours preparing and drinking coffee, exchanging deep glances, and occasionally arranging some books. (Okay Eun-seop at one moment says 'I do a lot of online business'). The drama essentially begins when Hae-won takes a job in the open, airy and well-lit bookstore after returning from Seoul to spend the winter.
85/N
85/N
The central theme of the drama is the ever-so-slowly blossoming love between people who have suffered deep trauma. Through flashbacks we learn that Hae-won's mother has been in jail for the murder of her father. The father was physically abusive to the Mom, though he was always loving to Hae-won. The teenage Hae-won is sent to live with her aunt in Hyecheon, where the other high-schoolers don't know the dark family secret.
86/N
Eun-seop was raised by a hermetic father in a cabin on the mountain above Hyecheon. The father dies, and Eun-seop is taken in by a couple in the town who raise him as their own (more or less). As a kid in school he's very much a loner, and the other kids all know that he's kind of a 'wild child'. When Hae-won transfers to his class, it seems that Eun-seop falls for her at first sight - though nothing romantic happens during high school.
87/N
When they meet again in the present day we get the typical trope of the guy who cannot tell the girl that he likes her. Of course he shows it in a hundred tiny gestures - escorting her home on a dark night, buying her insulated boots and so on - but then goes out his way to deny that he has feelings for her which of course confuses Hae-won. I think ultimately there is some event - she gets lost in the woods - and they finally embrace when he rescues her.
88/N
88/N
When you boil it down it's your basic 'kindergarten kismet' where he's always loved her, and finally they are thrown together long enough for something to catch fire. I will not deny that they have good screen chemistry, and that I was 100% rooting for them, but their relationship is pretty much all vibes. Around this central love story, we have a wealth of other story lines and many compelling supporting characters.
89/N
We learn that Hae-won's aunt Myeong-yeo with whom she stays is an acclaimed novelist, but has not written anything for years. Myeong-yeo is fabulously gloomy, wears sunglasses indoors and is generally caustic and depressed. Hae-won's mother Myeong-joo is another tragic and compelling character. Like her sister, she drips with a world-weary resignation.
90/N
One of Hae-won's traumas is that her mother treats her coldly - she refused to met Hae-won when she was in prison, and sends back all her letters. Now Hae-won's mother has served her 7-year term and it's hard not to feel sympathy for her, despite freezing out her daughter. Myeong-joo has suffered her own trauma of broken dreams and an abusive husband. Her emotionless aspect is really kind of a defense mechanism.
91/N
#kdrama
91/N
#kdrama
I'm only scratching the surface here, as we have any number of additional characters and plotlines revolving around the inhabitants of this small town, and Hae-won and Eun-seop's other classmates. I do have to mention Eun-seop's adoptive little sister Im-hwi (played by Kim Hwan-hee), truly one of the most adorable characters brought to screen. She's boisterous and mischevous and yet surprisingly deep. I loved every minute that she was on screen.
92/N
When the Weather is Fine earns 4 stars from this reviewer. It's visually stunning, thought-provoking and tackles some deep themes.
cw: Spoilers
Eighteen series into my k-drama journey. A couple of the previous dramas had some spooky overtones, but Hotel del Luna serves up a legit supernatural universe populated with ghosts and divine beings. This is a gorgeous, sweeping drama with amazing writing and compelling storylines in historical Korea as well as the present time. Many deep themes are explored - death and loss, love and hate, regret and redemption.
94/N
The drama begins 1,300 years ago in historical Korea. Jang Man-wol (played by IU) is pulling a wagon carrying a coffin through the desert with grim determination. Man-wol is the only surviving member of a gang of bandits, her comrades having been executed after the man she loved betrayed her. Now she is looking for a mystical guest house that comforts the souls of the dead.
95/N
Man-wol receives guidance from Magu, a female deity who imposes limits and imperatives on the characters in the story. Because of her many crimes and deep grudges, Man-wol is condemned to a kind of immortality, in between living and dead. She becomes the proprietor of the mystical guest house, a kind of way-station for ghosts before they cross the Samdo river where their memories are wiped clean in preparation for the next life.
96/N
Back in present day Seoul, Man-wol is still the proprietor of the guest house, now the elegant Hotel del Luna. Koo Chan-sung is a rather dashing young man with a Harvard MBA in hotel management. He's looking for a job at a top hotel, but because of a deal his father made with Man-wol 20 years ago, Chan-sung was pledged to work at the hotel as its human manager.
97/N
Chan-sung resists at first, but after Man-wol gives him the ability to see ghosts he is inexorably drawn into the hotel and Man-wol's world. There is much sadness in this series, as beloved characters cross over into the afterlife, leaving their friends and loved ones to deal with the loss. The cast is fantastic.
IU dazzles as proprietor of the Hotel del Luna - surely one of the most heart stopping beauties from a country that has produced so many beautiful people.
98/N
IU is equally radiant and terrifying in the 1,300 years ago storyline. The chemistry between Man-wol and Chan-sung is humorous and subtle, and deepens as the series unfolds. As the series progresses, we see that Chan-sung's arrival portends a dramatic choice for Man-wol and her staff of ghosts. They must face the grudges and attachments that have kept them tied to this world.
99/N
Overseeing this karmic challenge is the deity Magu, who is assisted by a very compelling Grim Reaper. In addition to the arcs faced by our main characters as the series progresses, new ghosts are arriving at the hotel every episode. Each has their own story - how they lived, how they died, and whether they can lay down their grudges and release their attachments to the world of the living.
100/N
This little plot summary does no justice to just how cinematically beautiful and emotionally satisfying Hotel del Luna is. Certainly one of the best dramas I've seen so far, out of a very strong field - a gorgeous series with elements of humor, romance and horror, not to mention some very deep reflection on life, and the meaning of death. Five stars.
101/N
Just a reminder to readers of this thread that these reviews are solely my reactions to the drama as a random media viewer. I just love Korean popular culture so much, for the way it reliably delivers stories that connect with some deep part of my emotional circuitry. Stylistically there is an inventiveness, a sense of excess, and a willingness to push things to the limits of human and technical capabilities.
102/N
Boys Over Flowers from 2009 exemplifies so many elements of why I love K-dramas. This is the earliest drama I've watched so far, and lacks the polish, sophistication and production values of current dramas. What we do get is an expansive, boisterous and soapy exploration of class, family, love and morality. The hair styles and fashion in this series are so very much of its time as well - especially Jun-pyo with his signature curls, and Ji-hoo with his long, emo blond bangs - so great!
103/N
103/N
Our story begins when Geum Jan-di (played by Ku Hye-sun), whose family runs a drycleaning business, is making a delivery to a student at the extremely exclusive "Shinwa Academy," attended by the children of Korea's wealthiest and most powerful families. The top of the academy's social hierarchy is a group of four senior boys known by the acronmym F4 - Gu Jun-pyo, Yoon Ji-hoo, So Yi-jung and Song Woo-bin.
104/N
Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️🌈@girlbandgeek *nothing* about Gu Jun-pyo’s hair is of its time! It’s pure 70s pornstar 😂