My Girl

마이걸 (My Girl) is a South Korean drama series that was aired on SBS from December 14th 2005 to February 2nd 2006 and consists of 6 episodes.

Story: Seol Gong-chan's grandfather is sick. His wish is to find his lost grandchild, a girl who is not easy to find. In order to fulfill his grandfathers supposed last wish Gong-chan is looking for his cousin and meets Joo Yoo-rin on Jeju Island. Yoo-rin has a connection to his lost cousin. As his real cousin cannot be found, Yoo-rin, who is an excellent liar and actress, becomes Gong-chan's contract cousin. She is supposed to disappear after Gong-chan found his real cousin but miraculously his grandfather gets better and spoils Yoo-rin as he believes Yoo-rin is his granddaughter. Soon Gong-chan and Yoo-rin start to fall in love but as cousins it is actually a forbidden love. On the other hand Gong-chan's friend Seo Jung-woo also falls in love with Yoo-rin and wants to marry her. As Jung-woo is not related to her the grandfather, Seol Woong, also agrees to Yoo-rin marrying Jung-woo - but Yoo-rin rejects Jung-woo.
In the meantime Gong-chan's ex girlfriend Kim Se-hyun appears again as well. She became a famous tennis athlete and broke up with Gong-chan to achieve that dream but now wants him back and tries to get rid of Yoo-rin in every way one can think of.
This story is quite something. Contract marriage? Okay, cool. Well, not cool, but I understand how that is supposed to work. But contract cousins? If you really ask me about it this was bound to fail and again, one of my major issues with rom-com dramas, the plot was quite predictable in many ways but I did enjoy it. It has light hearted parts as well as more serious aspects to it and is definitely worth watching if you like rom-com. I sometimes found it a bit too much but then again that might be me. It wasn't hilarious but ridiculous in some parts but I found myself quite enjoying the latter half of the drama.

Cast: Lee Dong-wook as Seol Gong-chan. I swear to whatever I need to that I saw Lee Dong-wook in a drama or movie before but I don't remember which one and it makes me pull out my hair. (It's not Goblin, I know he's in that drama, too *cough* review upcoming *cough*.) I did enjoy many aspects of his acting in this drama, too, but sometimes it just went a tiny bit overboard and ended up in the extremely ridiculous field. I don't believe it is fully his fault but I feel like I need to mention it anyway.
Lee Da-hae as Joo Yoo-rin. I hated her character at first because it was too lively and too over-the-top all the time. She annoyed the hell out of me and usually these things don't change but again I have to say that during the second half of this drama it seemed much better. I was quite surprised when I found myself actually enjoying a drama I stopped watching in February because I hated it and then continued in.. maybe April? It might be because she seemed a bit more calm during the latter half.
Lee Joon-ki as Seo Jung-woo. Before I mention anything else, can we talk about that hairstyle? I was laughing so much! It might have been a trend back in the days but let's thank the gods of time that this is over. I quite loved his acting in this and probably forever will love him as an actor because of the very different but great characters he played in dramas. Even though many people don't like his acting, he was also one of the most realistic actors - his portrayal of Jung-woo was less ridiculous and more serious if I remember right and I loved that all the more.
Park Si-yeon as Kim Se-hyun. You probably know what I think about the second-female-leads. I was wishing for her to just disappear but things didn't work out as well as I hoped. Her acting was fine but the character was once again one of those terrible bitch characters (excuse me cursing, I don't know why but I feel like it today). I didn't even want her to die but to grow up and leave a man who didn't like her anymore alone. Is that really that difficult for females in K-Dramaland?
Other actors in this drama include Jo Kye-hyung, Hwang Bo-ra, Choi Ran, Ahn Seok-hwan, Byun Hee-bong and Jung Han-heon.

Soundtrack: Once again this was quite a retro soundtrack but a quite good with a song sung by Lee Ji-soo (formerly a member of BoM and BTL) and KARA. The soundtrack had emotional and energetic songs if I remember right and I certainly enjoyed the music.


6.5/10
This is such a retro drama and I loved it - partly. On the other hand until episode 10 I had real trouble to get through it so it wasn't really catching or particularly outstanding.
Yes, the idea of contract siblings is not a common one and gives the whole drama a unique touch but some parts were so cliché. And I wanted to kill the person who was responsible for Yoo-rin's outfits. We find a 2nd male lead syndrome and 2nd female lead syndrome and a lot of those misunderstandings were just dragging this drama (as they do in many rom-coms even today). It left me quite frustrated near the end of this drama but again, I did not hate it.

If you're into typical rom-com with an old school touch - watch it. If not.. I would not recommend it unless you're a huge fan of one of the leads.

Death Note: The Last Name

Death Note: The Last Name is a Japanese movie released in 2006 based on a manga series:


Story: As in the first movie, Death Note, L and the team of detectives trying to find kira. Light joins the special unit after the death of his former 'girlfriend' Shiori. Now being placed next to L, he wants to get rid of the ones in his way. As L is still suspicious he decides to observe Light closely.
Suddenly another kira appears and needs to be found. Both owners of the Death Note's together would be even more dangerous since one of them is a good strategic player while the other seems to see the name of the victim..

Cast: Okay, so I have no idea what I should really put on here. The main cast is of course the same as in the first movie. Kenichi Matsuyama as L and Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami. While in this movie Light seems to be more insane than in the first one which makes the acting more intense it's as good as in the first movie as well.
And let's not forget about Erika Toda as Misa Amane. While I love her style I think she's a little bit too psycho in a different way due to a trauma. All she wants is to be loved after all.
And there's Nana Katase as Kiyomi Takada who would do basically anything for her career.


I personally really liked how things involved. Many things were easy to understand because of the connections between the characters. Nothing seemed to be just fate but a plan carefully made.
The story is a little bit too crazy later though. This might be a spoiler but Light seems to have gone completely mad.
So my personal rating is a 7/10 which is not as good as the first movie but still not that bad.

Boys Love

!Warning! This is a Boys Love movie (which is actually quite obvious in this case)! Don't like the genre? Then just ignore it.

ボーイズ ラブ (Boys Love) is a Japanese movie that was released in 2006.

Story: The story starts of with Taishin Mamiya interviewing model and artist Noeru Kisaragi. They soon fall in love with each other and Taishin finds out about the reasons why Noeru meets up with various men for sex.
Soon they get along and they could be rather happy if it wasn't for Chidori Furumura, Noeru's childhood friend who has a crush on him. This love develops into an obsession that becomes a huge problem for Taishin and Noeru.

Cast: Yoshikazu Kotani accepted the role as Taishin Mamiya. I don't really know what to tell about him. I think his acting in this movie wasn't too bad but sometimes a little overdone and still not completely perfect. As Noeru Kisaragi we see Takumi Saito. To be honest I didn't really understand his character and that one scene when he was crying was just.. meh. That actually goes for both actors but then again I wonder whether they couldn't do better (which I highly doubt) or whether it was about the director pretty much wanting them to do it like this. The last one is Hiroya Matsumoto as Chidori Furumura. To be honest I came to dislike his character but his acting was definitely better than what we've seen from the lead characters. The insane and obsessed friendzoned guy seemed a little bit.. too crazy from time to time but then again that is definitely my opinion and it was easy to believe in his acting.


Though this was one of the movies I've actually liked a lot about five years ago, accept for the ending, my rating today is 6/10. The story actually is good - just a little bit overdone here and there, the ending wouldn't have to be that way. Plus, what actually makes me furious is the fact that it seems too rushed, way too fast. There are so many things that happen within the last five minutes. And then I start to question logic. Usually, when anything like that happens, you'd go to the hospital. But of course a promise is way more important than at least trying to save a life.. That logic.
The cast isn't perfect but then again as someone interested in Japanese culture and society I don't blame the actors, I just wonder if they were uncomfortable because of how Japan deals with homosexuality.
I honestly also think that the usage of quotes is a good idea but then again I feel like they've been using too many quotes in some scenes. Three quotes whithin five minutes? Is that even necessary? But it's fine, it's at least something I haven't seen that often.

No Regret

BOYS LOVE! Don't like it? That's fine, don't read this review then. Thank you~

후회하지 않아 (No Regret) is a South Korean Boys Love movie released in 2006.

나도 이유를 모르겠어. 그냥 니가 좋아... I don't know the reason either. I just like you...
I seriously love this line so much. It basically explains how people fall in love. It's impossible to give reasons why you start liking a person.

Story: Lee Soo-min is an orphan who wants to study at art school so he works two jobs. One night, as a driver, he picks up Song Jae-min, who's completely drunk then, and tries to bring him home safely.
The next day, while working at a factory, Soo-min meets Jae-min again. Jae-min is the boss' son and tries to help Soo-min who's close to loosing his job because of a round of layoffs. But Soo-min is too proud and ends up quitting his job. Because of his bad situation he ends up working in a hustler bar selling his body to men who pay well. Jae-min finds Soo-min and wants to stay with him for longer, even if it's about him being a customer.

Cast: Lee Young-hoon as Lee Soo-min is doing a great job in this movie, as well as Kim Nam-gil as Song Jae-min. As far as I've read, at least Lee Young-hoon still gets asked about his sexual orientation in interviews. If people seriously believe he's gay (which he denies, he himself states he's heterosexual) he did a really good job, and I agree with them! I really liked the main cast, though some scenes were weird.

After all, to me this movie is a 10/10. I did love this movie a lot.
Yes, the end is not clear at all but it somehow made me laugh.
Yes, there are some sexual scenes - and it's not bad, after some time of watching Boys Love movies I became sick and tired of holding hands and the oh-so-innocent-love. Sexuality is something normal in human life.
So did the conservative country Korea open up? A little bit, yes. BUT thinking about this movie, it was only shown in nine cinemas all over Korea. That's not that much.
Finding the locations for filming was difficult for the crew because the owners of clubs were scared they would have to close down their clubs if the address was published. And money was an issue as well, the actors basically worked for no money, and the whole team even contributed their personal cash to make this project possible (it was made with 100.000$ only, that's not much..).

Anyways, if you don't mind seeing some sexual stuff between guys, this movie might be a great option though. And I've already stated in the first part, if you don't like Boys Love this is definitely nothing you should watch.

Death Note

So I bet nearly everyone knows this movie.. it was the first Japanese movie I've ever watched and really popular but I wanted to review it anyways~

デスノート (Death Note) is a Japanese movie based on a manga series. It was followed by two more movies, Death Note: The Last Name and L: Change The World. The first movie was released in 2006.

Story: A Shinigami, a God of Death, drops a Death Note in the human world where Light Yagami finds it. "The human whose name is written in this book shall die" it says. Light decides to try if it really works by using the names of released criminals - and finds out that it's true. He decides to create a new ideal world.
Meanwhile the police figures out a pattern since all the criminals die of a heart attack and there are no leads around. Detective "L" was placed in a police force to help solving the mysterious case, and he somehow gets closer to Light..

Cast: There's a bunch of people included in the cast. At first we have Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami (yes, I know that usually in Japan the last name comes first but I'll just leave it like this because I think it's easier for most people). And his opponent L is played by Kenichi Matsuyama. I have to admit that I still can't choose who I think is cooler. I have to admit that actually Light has some things that speak for him.
Then there's Asaka Seto as Naomi Misora. She also becomes an opponent of Light and she also figures out that he's kira. That becomes obvious when she brings Yu Kashii as Shiori Kashino, a girl who's pretty close to Light into the game.
Not that important in the first movie but still one of the most important characters in the whole series is Erika Toda as Misa Amane.
Of course there are many many more characters but it would take ages to list all of them on here and I think this should be enough for now.

So this movie got a 9/10 rating from me, it's probably one of my most watched movies and I seriously like it a lot. It's a great movie for fans of crime and fantasy stories as well as manga and anime fans and the duel between Light and L is awesome to watch.
Oh, and I love the Shinigami, Ryuuk. Shinigami and apples - if you know the movie/anime/manga, you'll get this. Ryuuk is such a great and funny part of this movie. And I don't think he's scary at all though he looks a little.. strange.