cw: spoilers

Our next watch was "My Girl" from 2005. This was inspired by a previous discussion about the recent drama Dynamite Kiss. There are indeed many parallels between Dynamite Kiss and My Girl. We've got Jeju Island shenanigans. We've got the plucky, adorable FL who's in trouble with loan sharks due to an irresponsible family member. We've got a handsome and extremely rich ML with whom she becomes entangled through a series of improbable coincidences.
154/N

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And most importantly, having established some fiction making their romance taboo, the two leads are placed in close proximity. In this case ML Gong-chan has hired FL Yoo-rin to impersonate his long lost cousin, in order to ease the conscience of his dying grandfather. Cousins dating cousins is a strict taboo in Korea.
155/N

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Lee Da-hae as the scrappy, spontaneous Yoo-rin has to be one of the most delightful screen ingenues ever - she truly lights up the screen. Lee Dong-wook as Gong-chan is the achetype of the reserved, self-important rich boy who ultimately reveals his warm-hearted and loyal nature. Lee Joon-gi as Gong-chan's "playboy" best friend provides the cool and waggish counterpart to Gong-chan's seriousness, and becomes a rival for Yoo-rin's affections.
156/N

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And there are countless more fun characters, from Yoo-rin's adorable friends, to Gong-chan's associates and family members. My Girl does have some clumsy plot devices, but when a climactic scene is teed up there is a big payoff. Well past the halfway mark Yoo-rin and Gong-chan have finally confessed their feelings, just as the fiction about her being the missing granddaughter is exposed.
157/N

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Yoo-rin is convinced the only honorable course is to break off with Gong-chan and family decisively. In a dramatic moment she confesses (falsely) and very elaborately to Gong-chan's entire family that she deceived all of them for the money from the start. She delivers her long and very detailed confession, and then walks out, believing she's said farewell forever to Gong-chan.
158/N

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My wife felt the final episodes dragged, where their ultimate reunion is hindered by an endless series of missed connections and second thoughts. My Girl has a lot of overacting and soapy melodrama like other older dramas, but to me that's part of its charm. There is also a dizzying sense of madcap spontaneity lacking in modern dramas. This masterpiece - the writing debut of the famous Hong sisters - became the blueprint for many romcoms to follow. 5/5 stars!
159/N

#kdrama

cw: spoilers

Can This Love Be Translated? is a drama that explores themes of language, communication and love. This 2026 series written by the Hong sisters also throws in some childhood trauma, (fictional) zombies and split personality disorder to spice things up.
160/N

#kdrama

Kim Seon-ho plays ML Joo Ho-jin, a multilinguist and professional translator. Our story starts in Japan when Ho-jin encounters Mu-hee (Go Youn-jung), an unknown Korean actress, in a ramen shop in a charming seaside town. Mu-hee's boyfriend left her 2 months ago, and has re-appeared as the chef of this restaurant. Mu-hee has come to Japan to confront him and presumably win him back.
161/N

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Unfortunately the boyfriend is nowhere to be found, and instead we get an awkward and comically embarrassing confrontation between Mu-hee and the boyfriend's Japanese lover Momo who comes out of the kitchen and is very obviously pregnant. Mu-hee pressures the Ho-jin to translate the exchange, despite his (reasonable) reluctance. Our OTP is off to a somewhat inauspicious start. Mu-hee is a hot mess, and Ho-jin is kind of stiff and priggish.
162/N

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Nonetheless there is something of a spark and they have a cinematic farewall by the train tracks. Time passes, bringing dramatic change Mu-hee's life. During her last day of filming zombie movie "The Quiet Woman" she suffers a terrible accident which leaves Mu-hee in a coma for six months. When she finally wakes up, the incident has gone viral on social media and the movie has become a cult hit. Mu-hee is suddenly famous, and high in demand.
163/N

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Ho-jin and Mu-hee meet again months later for the filming of a reality show called Romantic Trip. Mu-hee has been cast opposite Japanese actor Hiro Kurosawa (Sota Fukushi) in a series in which the two will be thrown together in spectacular destinations around the globe in the hopes that some kind of chemistry results. Ho-jin's somewhat awkward role is to serve as translator between the two.
164/N

#kdrama

Inevitably I was charmed by the chaotic and vulnerable Mu-hee, and would watch this series if only on that basis. Ho-jin plays that more tedious type of lead guy who is competent, worldly and polished yet lacking in self-awareness, and unable to express his feelings lest it upset his decorum.
165/N

#kdrama

Hiro, Mu-hee's opposite in the "Romantic Trip" also starts off very priggish and unlikeable, but has a satisfying arc as the warm, unpredictable Mu-hee wins him over. This was a perfectly enjoyable drama with an appealing cast, gorgeous locations and a healthy sprinkling of kookiness and menace. Also zombies. 4/5 stars.
166/N

#kdrama

cw: spoilers

Having recently become curious about Korean history and the conflict between North and South, I picked Crash Landing On You (2019) out of my queue. I didn't have super high expectations for this improbable tale of a South Korean woman whose paraglider is carried by a storm into N Korea, but my wife and were all in from the first episode.
167/N

#kdrama

The chemistry between the two leads is legendary. Son Ye-jin plays Yoon Se-ri, a flashy and confident businesswoman who heads a successful fashion brand. Se-ri possesses a classic and elegant beauty. Our leading man is Ri Jeong-hyeok, a captain in the Korean People's Army, who is patrolling the DMZ between the two countries. Jeong-hyeok has a tall, broad shouldered masculinity and a serious demeanor.
168/N

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Se-ri is planning to paraglide while modeling her new line of activewear. Unfortunately for Se-ri, a freak tornado carries her miles off course. She loses consciousness and crashes into the forest on the wrong side of the border. She wakes up hanging from a tree, with Jeong-hyeok in uniform aiming his pistol at her. His obvious assessment is that she's a South Korean spy.
169/N

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Meanwhile, back in South Korea, Se-ri's family is clashing in very unbecoming ways. Seri's two brothers and their wives are truly awful, thinking only of how to take advantage of her disappearance to advance their own positions in the family business. The eldest is mostly just incompetent, while the younger one is actively evil, and tries to hide news that Se-ri survived the storm, and later hires thugs to keep her in North Korea.
171/N

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If you're a fan of k-dramas you can probably imagine the sorts of crazy situations our cast gets into. As is typical of Studio Dragon productions, scenes of genuine danger and menace are deftly woven with more lighthearted moments into a very satisfying tapestry. The action ends up with most of our characters back in South Korea.
172/N

#kdrama

cw: spoilers

Castaway Diva is a drama layering a number of different themes and storylines across 15+ years. The drama begins with the unlikely middle-school friendship between Seo Mok-ha, an outgoing girl with dreams of becoming a singer, and Jung Ki-ho, a standoffish new kid on Chunsam Island. When Mok-ha learns that Ki-ho has a camcorder, she recruits him to film a music video for her. Ki-ho agrees grudgingly, but he soon comes to realize that she has genuine talent.
174/N

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Mok-ha washes up on a deserted island where she ends up spending the next 15 years, Robinson Crusoe style, with only a seagull named "Gully" for a friend. Finally she is discovered by crew of young environmentalists and is returned to civilization. On some level we have an improbable feel good tale of dreams deferred, but eventually realized.

176/N

#kdrama

The operative theme is something Ki-ho's mother used to say: 'your wish will come true, just not in the way that you expect.' Upon returning to civilization, Mok-ha finds that her idol Ran-joo's career is on the rocks and her vocal chords are shot. Nevertheless, Mok-ha's belief in her idol is unwavering, and she devotes herself to reviving the older star's career, even as Mok-ha herself now has a shot at fame.
177/N

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Meanwhile we have the mystery of what happened to Ki-ho in the intervening years. Ki-ho also escaped Chunsam island and his abusive dad. Now he's been reunited with his mother and brother. His mother is now married to the kindhearted Kang Sang-du, and all of them are living under assumed names to prevent Ki-ho's father, a diabolical former police officer, from tracking them down.
178/N

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Lee Re as young Seo Mok-ha and Moon Woo-jin as young Jung Ki-ho back on Sangmun Island really have a lot of chemistry and spark. It would have been nice to linger more in that timeline. Lee Seung-joon as Ki-ho's diabolical father adds a healthy dose of suspense and menace to the action. Overall entertaining drama with many emotional and memorable scenes. 4/5 stars.
180/N

#kdrama

cw: spoilers

Our next watch was "My ID is Gangnam Beauty" from 2018, which is based on the webtoon of the same name. (Gangnam Beauty is slang for a woman who has undergone significant cosmetic surgery to be beautiful.) FL Kang Mirae's childhood has been shaped by being teased and ostracized by the other children - she is "ugly". We see her crying after a mean boy calls her "Kang Orc".
181/N

#kdrama

During the summer before starting her freshman year at Hankook University, Mi-rae gets a full face re-do at the plastic surgery clinic. When the bandages come off, she is a beauty. When she arrives for orientation with her fellow chemistry majors, the boys are taking notice and the girls are sizing up the competition.
182/N

#kdrama

The first few episodes of Gangnam Beauty are a real carnival of cringe. The way everybody sizes everyone else up and essentially ranks their classmates solely on looks is gross. The boys (most of them) are openly discussing which girls they think are hotter and which ones they want to date. Trigger warning for non-consensual sexual advances.
183/N

#kdrama

Mirae's inner journey is the central theme of the drama. Because she was an ugly kid, she possesses an outsider mentality, and chafes against her new found popularity. This gives her a degree of empathy, but she is not free from judging based on physical appearance. We see Mi-rae's thought bubbles as she rates other women numerically, and critically assesses any work they've had done.
184/N

#kdrama

The series' antagonist is Mi-rae's classmate Hyun Su-ah (Jo Woo-ri), by consensus the hottest of the incoming freshman girls. Su-ah makes nice with Mi-rae, who is flattered by the attention of the prettiest girl. However we soon see that Su-ah is scheming constantly to undermine Mi-rae and the other girls, and simultaneously leading a number of the boys into thinking she likes them.
185/N

#kdrama

Su-ah's scheming and fake affection make her the character you want to see destroyed. In the end we are forced to have a shred of compassion for Su-ah as her sad backstory is revealed. Mi-rae's love interest is Do Kyung-seok, the hottest boy in the incoming class. Kyung-seok like Mi-rae is a loner, having been scarred by his parents' divorce and the disappearance of his mother.
186/N

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Kyung-seok is refreshingly impervious to the horniness of all his classmates, and is unmoved by the flirtations of several young women. He sees through Su-ah's deceits, and is pointedly blunt in rejecting her overtures, which is delicious. He is however very interested in Mi-rae, and not because of her looks. We learn that Kyung-seok knew Mi-rae in middle school, and was drawn to her back then - perhaps because he felt a kinship with a fellow loner.
187/N

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Mi-rae is appalled, because Kyung-seok knows how she used to look like when she was ugly. Mi-rae cannot believe that Kyung-seok actually likes her, even as she becomes aware of her own feelings for him. Their courtship is predictably slow and tortuous but when they finally get together it's really something to see. They really capture the swoonworthy blush of first love.
188/N

#kdrama

For my money, Gangnam Beauty is not a masterpiece, but is is a highly entertaining watch if you can handle the cringe factor. It's also a fascinating treatment of the complicated world of beauty standards, attitudes towards plastic surgery, and the roles of men and women in Korean society. 4/5 stars.
189/N

#kdrama
#myidisgangnambeauty

cw: spoilers

Resident Playbook is the sequel to Hospital Playbook, which we did not watch (yet). Wife picked this one because it stars Go Youn-jung, who we loved so much in "Can This Love Be Translated". Go plays Oh Yi-young, a reluctant first year resident (R1) at the Yulje medical center. Yi-young has already quit the first year once before - now she is 50,000,000 won in debt - and her sister Joo-young insists that she face up to her responsibilities.
190/N

#kdrama

This is a pretty straight up medical drama, but very poignant and deftly handled. Residency is extremely challenging, and the first year particularly so - relentless sleep deprivation, heavy patient loads, sadistic senior staff, and constant high pressure medical situations. The gruff and sardonic Oh Yi-young and her three fellow R1's in the Ob-Gyn department could not be more incompatible.
191/N

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Cutesy Pyo Nam-kyung is concerned with shopping and dating, Um Jae-il is a former boy band member who forgets what he learned in med school, and Kim Sa-bi remembers everything she learned in med school, but lacks empathy to the point of being practically a robot. Each episode brings new patients which become the catalyst for growth of Yi-young and her fellow R1's. We run the spectrum from terminal cancer patients to every possible birth scenario.
192/N

#kdrama

The hospital setting provides a steady stream of tense drama, grief and joy. Our hero Yi-young is always one step away from throwing in the towel - the stress and pressure are so intense. Nevertheless, during moments of crisis she faces the challenge and reveals her natural aptitude as a doctor. Similarly her colleagues each face their insecurities, overcome adversities, and grow as doctors.
193/N

#kdrama