Monsters

MONSTERS is a Japanese crime series that aired on TBS from October 21st to December 9th 2012. The series consists of 8 episodes with an average duration of 45 minutes.

Story: Kosuke Saionji is designated to the best investigation team and is close to fulfilling his dream but he ends up assigned to Heihachi Hiratsuka, a top class detective who was working alone, he needs to take care of because of Hiratsuka's loud and impolite personality and his possible secrets in solving crimes. Every episode follows another crime and the investigation led by Hiratsuka.

Cast: The very first thing I need to say about this series is that it seems to be satirical. Everything is just a little overdone from acting to the way the cases are shown. In its own genre mixing up comedy and crime it is not bad but if it was a real crime drama it would lack some seriousness. This shows extremely well in the eccentric character of Heihachi Hiratsuka played by Shingo Katori. His acting in the eccentric way is good as well as some of the serious parts are great, too. As an actor I don't remember being familiar with Katori but I enjoyed his acting in this drama.
Tomohisa Yamashita as Kosuke Saionji is the helpless subordinate type of character and I honestly don't think this drama shows the strong side of his acting but it is a different side of what I've seen in most dramas he was starring in (that I watched so far of course).
Other characters were rarely in the focus as this drama just evolves around these two but other actors in this drama include Kenichi Endo, Tomoya Warabino, Daisuke Kikuta, Tatsuya Hino, Tomoya Shiroishi, Yasukage Hinaka and Makoto Otake.
 
Soundtrack: I totally loved the soundtrack and the music played in the episodes. I can't really explain why but I think it did highlight the atmosphere very well.


In total I rated this drama as 8/10 as it is not a full crime drama but includes comedy so the eccentric and over-the-top parts were intended to be that way. The crimes in each episode were interesting but sometimes it was a little obvious what might have happened. I would recommend this if you like the type of satirical crime dramas but if you only watch this for Tomohisa Yamashita you might be disappointed as this is not his best drama.

Confession of Murder

내가 살인범이다 (I'm a Murderer; Confession of Murder) is a South Korean movie directed by Jung Byoung-gil released in 2012.

Story: Lieutenant Choi Hyung-go is chasing the serial killer who killed 10 women one rainy night. During the chase he gets a scar after fighting with the murderer.
Later, Jung Hyun-sik, the son of the first victim, who became close to Hyung-go after the cases commits suicide.
In 2007, two years after the statute of limitations that originally was 15 years ended, Lee Duk-soo publishes a book with the title "Confession of Murder". He describes the murders and states that he needs to talk about it because of the guilt. The book turns him into a bestselling author but also gets him kidnapped by the family members of the victims, among them Han Ji-soo who still tries to find her daughters' remains.
During a live debate broadcast with Lee Duk-soo and Choi Hyung-go another man who only refers to himself as "J" calls and asks questions to which only the real murderer can know the answers. Now everyone is carefully trying to find out who is the murderer and what will happen.

Cast: Jung Jae-young as Choi Hyung-go. He was brilliant in the role, I totally believed every little bit of this even though I only fully understood it in the end. While he can portray the rough cop and the poker face I honestly did like the emotional side as to why he can't let it go, too.
Park Si-hoo as Lee Doo-suk is a perfect flower boy in his role. I think that the part of the "nice killer" fits him in this drama and that he also portrays it in a believable manner while sometimes the way he uses to ask for forgiveness seems a little bit ironic and not serious. I'm talking about a specific scene with the doctor, if you watch the movie you might understand where I'm coming from.
Jung Hae-kyun as J. He was barely seen without a mask for the most part of the movie so judging facial expressions is more or less impossible. However, the way he talked he didn't seem to be a normal criminal but totally insane. I don't know if that was how the character was written or if it was his acting but yeah..
Kim Young-ae as Han Ji-soo was awesome especially in the end but also in the flashbacks. A mother in grief trying to find her daughter so she can let go peacefully. All the sides of her character seemed more or less realistic.
Other actors in this drama include Jang Gwang as the director of the broadcasting station, Jo Eun-ji as Choi Kang-sook, Choi Won-young as Jung Tae-suk, Kim Jung-goo as the snake hunter and Min Ji-ah as Jung Soo-yeon.


So I personally think this movie is interesting but not one of the most mind-blowing I have seen in my life which is why I rated it with 8.5/10. The main reason is that some of the chases just seemed kinda overdone and totally unrealistic (you will get me, I just mention the ambulance so you know which chase I mean).
What I can say for sure is that in this movie nothing is what it seems to be. It surprised me quite a lot how the mystery was solved but you will have to watch it yourself to find out. I recommend this movie to lovers of crime and suspense stories with a lot of action.

White Night

!Warning! This is a Boys Love movie - don't like it? Then ignore it.


백야 (White Night, also known as One Night and Two Days) is a South Korean boys love movie directed by Lee Song Hee-il and was released in 2012.

Story: Kang Won-gyu left Seoul after traumatic events and comes back two years after what happened. While memories just come to live again, he meets Lee Tae-jun online. The two of them spend a special night together but not simply in a way one would expect - unexpected things keep happening especially to Tae-jun who doesn't know why Kang Won-gyu returned.

Cast: Won Tae-hee as Kang Won-gyu is actually an interesting character with a lots of secrets around him in the beginning that the viewer wants to solve out of curiosity. His acting in this movie is pretty good and I enjoyed watching his character after all. The reason I was dying to watch this movie as soon as I found out about it was Lee Yi-kyung though and his character Lee Tae-jun is more badass and less quiet than I expected him to be at first. I really liked his acting as well. I don't really know what I should tell you about it but sometimes I just felt like his characters thoughts were written all over his face but I still couldn't fully understand it.
After all this was a really interesting combination of actors and their characters as well as the way they acted and it in fact did work while at some point I just missed something like.. the chemistry.


After all this movie gets a 6.5/10 rating from me for a few reasons. It's fast-paced since it only has a runtime of 75 minutes so they needed to use that time. The acting in fact was good though the chemistry is missing up to some point. The music was beautiful but nothing too special. The setting was really beautiful, I like the place pretty much giving a view over certain parts of Seoul.
But at some point this movie again lacked just some exciting factor for me so sometimes I found myself rather bored.
It's not bad and I'll probably watch it again someday just to get the full story, preferably without subtitles so I don't need to rely on translations as much as I need to as of now.
But one thing: Won Tae-hee speaking a few lines of German in this movie is just too cute but I didn't really understand it's German at first. That accent basically killed me, it's adorable!

Absolute Boyfriend

絕對達令 (Absolute Boyfriend) is a Taiwanese drama series based on a manga by Yuu Watase that aired from April 8th to July 1st 2012 on FTV/GTV.

Story: After being involved in lots of unrequited love stories over the past years even since high school, Guan Xiao Fei, a woman in her late 20's, finds a phone in a park (or forest? I only know there are trees and basically no people around when she finds it.) The owner of the phone calls and invites her to his home where he introduces himself as Lei Wu Wu, a salesman. Wanting to thank her for finding his phone, Lei Wu Wu asks about a wish - and being a little desperate in that situation Xiao Fei says she wants a boyfriend. That's how she gets access to a website and orders a robot, a 'perfect darling'. After a two day trial she doesn't manage to return the robot in time so she would either have to pay a lot of money - or work for the company sending them information so in the future the data collected can be of use for other robot models. However, she can't tell anyone about Nai Te being a robot, not even her best friends nor her colleagues... so the two of them have to face many difficulties, especially when Nai Te starts to feel uncomfortable.

Cast: First of all, as you might know, I really really really like Koo Hye-sun for usually playing strong and confident female characters in most of her series. That being said, Guan Xiao Fei is so stupid, at least during the first episodes. Naive and can't do ANYTHING on her own. While I did hate her character in the very beginning, it was in fact bearable. What I found to be weird actually was that they had to dub her voice. Sure, she might not be fluent in Mandarin Chinese - but why in the world did they have to put a Korean actress in a Taiwanese drama if she doesn't know the language? I'd make a guess and say it's for popularity reasons but then again, who knows.
As Wan Nai Te we see Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit (yay! Make a guess how I found out about this series at all) and while I did like him in this series a lot sometimes his acting was too humane - but then again I would've imagined Nai Te to be like this so nothing wrong with Jiro portraying his character like that. Now, not criticizing him but saying this as a Korean studies major student - his accent when speaking Korean is so cute! Like.. I honestly didn't understand anything at first but it was just so adorable.
Yan Zhong Shi, a character I didn't mention earlier, is basically Xiao Fei's childhood friend and her neighbour. They're also working at the same company so they spend a lot of time together. Xie Kun Da was more like a squishy cutie in this series and while I felt sorry for him I really respected him 'fighting' for Xiao Fei and Nai Te in the end since it must have been hard on him.
The last character I just need to mention is Na Wei Xun as Lei Wu Wu. Despite for his.. taste in fashion this man just made my day, especially during the last two episodes. He's hilarious and funny and always made me smile. Sometimes I wasn't sure whether he was supporting or manipulating Xiao Fei's and Nai Te's relationship but it was alright - it definitely was, since he was funny on one side and actually we found out about this in the end.
Others in the cast include Cherry Hsia as Luo Mei Jia (I hated her, okay? If there are things I can't deal with in dramas it's people like her!), Emily Tsai as Fang Zhi Xi, Lin Yun Jong as SKY (loved him so much, so sassy~) and Bi Xiao Hai as Bai Qi.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack itself was and still is really nice but then again I like Jiro Wang as well as Fahrenheit, so basically the opening and ending songs were awesome to me. But I think Fahrenheit's "Mr. Perfect" has to deal with the same effect like many other songs - after some times you just tend to find it a little annoying because you've heard it (or only certain parts) over and over and over again. (If you don't know this effect, watch Boys Over Flowers and talk about T-MAX' "Paradise"..).
While I did listen to Jiro Wang's album already years ago I only found out through this series that his song "假裝我們沒愛過 (Pretend We Never Loved)" actually is/was part of a drama soundtrack. While this song isn't his best track ever, I do think it's nice and fits the series well, at least the concept.
Overall I found the soundtrack to be nice.


As for my rating, I think 6.5/10 is pretty much alright. While my ratings will definitely become more strict in general, this series put up some things I just hate - an incredibly stupid female lead, dubbing, "friends" lying, annoying bitches and - in fact a sad ending. The soundtrack and the nice male actors and characters as well as funny and cute moments just couldn't really save this series.
I've heard that since 2012 a Korean version produced by MBC was in talks but it didn't air yet and to be honest I'm quite curious how Korea would portray the characters and organize the story since there are already variations of this series in Japan and Taiwan.

And girls - let's appreciate this picture for it's... artistic.. atmosphere..? Ah, let's just appreciate it!

God's Quiz 3

신의 퀴즈 3 (God's Quiz 3) is the third season of popular OCN Originial series God's Quiz and aired from May 20th to August 12th 2012.

Story: As in the two seasons before Han Jin-woo and a team of medical experts continue to solve cases involving rare diseases. But the new detecting in charge, Bae Tae-shik, and Jin-woo just won't get along and tend to end up arguing often. As they solve different cases, Han Jin-woo seems to change a lot while getting involved with a rather specific case on his own.

Cast: Let's say that there are some actors that appeared in the first seasons as well. Except for Ryu Deok-hwan as Han Jin-woo - that change of hairstyle though - there are Choi Jung-woo as Jang Kyu-tae, Park Joon-myun as Jo Young-shil and Na Yoon (or Kim Dae-jin) as Kim Sung-do left. I think I've commented on their acting enough already but especially for Ryu Deok-hwan this season was a good opportunity to show a completely different side of Han Jin-woo and therefore his acting.
New in the main cast of this series is Ahn Nae-sang as Bae Tae-shik and he's just what you imagine a veteran detective to be like, especially when it comes to his instincts. But especially at the end of this season you can also see a rather soft side of his character caring for the members of his team like he would care for a family.
Another new addition to the cast is Park Hee-bon as Lee Ran (pronounced as Iran which made me randomly laugh during the first episode). While I thought her character was too bubbly especially in the earlier episodes, I wonder about her background story. It's not like the audience gets that many hints when it's about a character that doesn't appear all the time. And we can't forget about Han Seo-jin as Yoo So-yi. While she's not one of the main characters, she becomes more important in Ep. 8 I think because - without her and Sung-do the team probably wouldn't have known about the case at all.
Oh, and Ko Gyung-pyo has to be mentioned as Seo In-gak since the last two episodes wouldn't make sense without him at all. I knew him because of Flower Boy Next Door but this series shows a completely different side of his acting which is indeed good.

Soundtrack: As it is rather typical for OCN series, the soundtrack is a lot shorter than those for the first seasons and the main focus is put on the story. Though OCN definitely knows how to use instrumentals to highlight the atmosphere, I sometimes miss the songs one would start to love. But that's just a general side note and I seriously loved the fact that Hlin performed a song again, this time called "비밀 (Secret)". Though I personally enjoyed the soundtrack a lot, those who prefer listening to 'real' K-Pop might not like it that much.


After all I found this season to be good, especially Episode 4 hit me harder than I expected any episode of this series could but especially the first episodes until Episode 5 and episodes 10 to 12 were interesting but in the middle I found myself yawning from time to time. Sure the cases were interesting but I know that they can do better. Also it's a shame the comedic part added mostly in Episode 1 with Detective Bae and Dr. Han not getting along at all and arguing in a funny manner disappeared.
Oh, and I just need to get rid of this weight but - I hate extremely religious people. All the talk about God and an alternative in season 2 already bothered me but this time there was this Episode (I think it was Ep. 8?) and I wanted to just skip the whole episode.. but then again not everyone might be that annoyed by that talk.
9.5/10 therefore is my rating of this season, and though many people consider it the best, I'd still go for the second season as my personal favorite. It's worth a watch though and if you really don't like a few things there's still the opportunity to skip some scenes.

I Need Romance 2

로맨스가 필요해 2012 (I Need Romance 2012 or I Need Romance 2) is a South Korean drama series consisting of 16 episodes that aired from June 20th to August 9th 2012 on tvN.

Story: Once again the story evolves around three women in their 30's. Joo Yeol-mae and Yoon Seok-hyun have been together - more or less since they broke up and got back together - for a long time. Because of Seok-hyun pushing her away while working with Kang Na-hyun Yeol-mae meets Shin Ji-hoon, the owner of a coffee shop.
Yeol-mae's friend Seon Jae-kyung, a former model, experiences trouble when her husband claims she committed adultery and her business as well as her life itself seems to be endangered. And Woo Ji-hee breaks up with her boyfriend and somehow her new boss knows about the reasons which makes working together a lot more chaotic.

Cast: Jung Yu-mi and Lee Jin-wook as Joo Yeol-mae and Yoon Seok-hyun actually show a nice charisma on-screen. Their acting was good, and, what's most important, it actually kept my attention. I did skip very few of their scenes just because their acting and charisma was great. But also Kim Ji-seok as Shin Ji-hoon did a great job showing some cute chemistry with the female lead. Kim Ye-won as Kang Na-hyun was actually the only one in this kind of love triangle (or square?) who seemed kind of.. off to me sometimes.
Kim Ji-woo as Seon Jae-kyung is the kind of perfect self-confident woman I love to see. Sure she faces some trouble because of her affair with her assistant Han Jung-min played by In Gyo-jin after her husband Lee Jang-woo played by Gong Jung-hwan accuses her of adultery though he himself isn't a saint but with her friends she manages to go through those hardships.
Beautiful and seemingly innocent is Kang Ye-sol as Woo Ji-hee in this drama, who ends up falling for a character we have seen in the first season of I Need Romance before, Kim Tae-woo played by Heo Tae-hee. I did enjoy their awkward situations the most, this couple made me laugh harder than the others, maybe that's why I especially liked them.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack got on my nerves to be quite honest. The title, "Waru Waru" by Han Su-ji only appears at the end and what I've heard already made me decide that I am never listening to the full song. Also the song "I Could Give You Love" by Lasse Lindh appeared way too often. I don't remember any of the other songs at all, they either weren't used that often or couldn't really capture one's attention.


After all my rating is 7.5/10. It's definitely better than the first season to me but then it's not memorable enough and the soundtrack is a huge minus. The most interesting part of this drama is to actually try and figure out why Seok-hyun behaves the way he does.
If you enjoy romantic comedy with some kind of Sex and the City-theme, you would like to watch this probably.

A Company Man

<- This is the German DVD Cover. Yes, there are at least two others I've seen but I honestly love this one so I'll just stay with this.

회사원 (A Company Man) is a Korean movie that was released in 2012. In Germany it's rated 18+ which basically means.. for adults only.

Story: Ji Hyeong-do is working at a company just like many other people. But while his company seems to produce metals, he's actually a professional murderer. After working with Hoon, he gets asked to kill the young man who begs him to give money to his family. Getting to know Yoo Mi-yeon, Hoon's mother, he starts to be confronted with guilt.
After his company finds out that Hoon is still alive, Hyeong-do's hunted down by his former colleagues but still thinking about the family he tries to save them as well.

Cast: I was surprised from time to time in this movie noticing familiar faces. So of course the reason why I wanted to watch this was, mixed up with the 18+ rating, So Ji-sub as Ji Hyeong-do. He IS an awesome actor. This story was basically written for the lead character only, it's his story, and So Ji-sub is perfect for this 'badass' role what some people call it but actually the emotional side of a contract killer also works perfect for him. Lee Mi-yeon appears as Yoo Mi-yeon. While I wasn't that much a fan of her acting, I thought it was pretty decent and believable at the end of the day.
Speaking of familiar faces, Kim Dong-jun of ZE:A appears as Ra Hoon, Mi-yeon's son. I loved his character a lot as well, caring for his family, a huge resposibility, trying to make money so his mom won't need to worry anymore. The story wouldn't have worked without him either.
Others that appear are Kwak Do-won as Kwon Jong-tae, Jeon Guk-hwan as President Jeon and Lee Kyung-young as Ban Ji-hoon.


9/10 is my rating for this movie. After finishing this movie, there was this huge emptiness I rarely feel so I would argue that it is a good movie. I like it. I'm only curious where's the difference between the 'normal' and the 'uncut' versions but that's just a minor thing at the end of the day.
There were some dramatic events. Otherwise 'revenge' wouldn't make sense. The story isn't that unique, that's true, but I don't regret buying the DVD and I would definitely recommend this movie if you're
a) a fan of So Ji-sub,
b) in love with dark and atmospheric action movies,
c) a fan of fighting scenes or
d) all of the above.

Vampire Prosecutor (Season 2)

Please note that this entry may involve fangirling, ranting and cursing about a TV channel. Don't mind me, it's just me freaking out because of frustration.

뱀파이어 검사 2
(Vampire Prosecutor) is a South Korean drama series that aired on OCN from September 9th to November 18th 2012.

Story: Prosecutor Min Tae-yeon is a vampire using his special abilities to solve crimes and catch the criminals. However, he stumbles upon another vampire in is series that becomes more commonly known as "L" who seems to enjoy playing games. Trying to safe his team consisting of Detective Hwang Soon-bum, Prosecutor Yoo Jung-in and Choi Dong-man, he solves some cases with them but has to deal with the final enemy on his own..

Cast: We see Yeon Jung-hoon again as Prosecutor Min Tae-yeon. His acting is just awesome, I seriously fell for his character but then again the end left me seriously frustrated (I won't say anything else about this). As Yoo Jung-in we see Lee Young-ah and I definitely prefer her in this season. It's just like her character isn't nagging as much as I remember from the first season so that might be the reason. Lee Won-jung appears as Hwang Soon-bum again and after this season I somehow find his character more and more interesting. Sure he doesn't seem to be an incredibly smart detective but then again, with his good instincts, he's an important member of the team. Choi Dong-man was played by Kim Joo-young again and I seriously came to like his character for lightening up the dark atmosphere in this series.
Lee Kyung-young is new in this series as Jo Jung-hyun. And this man.. I don't know what I should think about him. Weird but effective and him not being a part of the team anymore will be a huge loss? Not the most charming or lovable character but his love for Kim Ji-young as Lee Ji-ae is really touching. I think you'd need to watch the series to understand what's behind this but it's adorable how much he's caring for her.
Kwon Hyun-sang appears as "L". So, except for me wondering why there are so many characters named "L" in Asia (is this some nickname based on stereotypical features?), his madness is damn well acted. I loved to hate him. But he seriously had too much time making plans and observing his enemies.
Others in the main cast include Jung Hwan as Park Hoon, Park Jae-hoon as Ra Jae-wook, Yoshitaka Yuriko as Luna (and seeing a Japanese fortune-teller made this series a lot better in my opinion, I loved her character) and Kim Bo-young as Chief Prosecutor Joo Hyun-ah.

Soundtrack: The ending theme is "Danger" by MC Sniper. Now I'm not a huge fan of rap but I came to like the rock and crossover influence in this song. It's not used that much in the drama though and only appears at the end. As for the instrumentals, they worked well - supported the atmosphere. Watching the drama without sound would make most of the scenes less atmospheric.


My personal rating is a 9.5/10. There was one episode (I think it was Ep. 8, Rude Min Tae-yeon) that seriously got on my nerves. Yes, the last five minutes are important. The rest of the episode seems to be a complete joke. I'm not saying that a few scenes that make you smile or laugh are bad but this episode just didn't fit the overall atmosphere at all.
We get some more information on the characters though, and that is actually really well-played by OCN. Since I've heard that they're still talking about a 3rd season (as of January 2015 it might be aired in Summer/Fall 2016) they need to keep people interested. Same with the ending which seriously leaves me frustrated. If they would liked an open ending or a cliff hanger, I think about 2 minutes earlier (right after the explosion - I hope I'm not saying too much about this) would have been better in my honest opinion.

Overall I'd definitely recommend this to people into crime, mystery and some 'hinted-romance' stuff. While it bothers me that the hints become actually really strong in this season (I prefer my crime series without romance at all), others seem to like that a lot.
But if you want to watch a typical vampire-teenage-romance, this is definitely not the right drama for you.
One more thing I have to add: The fights were awesome. Just awesome. Loved it more than anything.

Codename: Jackal

자칼이 온다 (Jackal is Coming/ Codename: Jackal) is a South Korean movie released in November 2012.

Anyone in for some tied up Kim Jae-joong? Do I hear voices screaming "No"? Well, then this movie definitely isn't for you because we have a lot of tied up Jae-joong but I think many people are actually here for this.

Story: Bong Min-jung is hired to kill actor Choi Hyun. But since she appears not-so-smart it's actually a kind of complicated situation. The mission starts by abducting him at Paradise Hotel in Seongju. But in the same hotel the police is looking for the serial killer "Jackal". Hyun finds out that his ex-girlfriend hired Min-jung to kill him and tries to convince her to let him go because she got the wrong person.
After several attempts to escape a crazy fan sneaks into the hotel room, unties the ropes and takes him to her own suite but starts to torture him. Min-jung saves him from that fan. Then Angela, Hyun's lover appears, but is stabbed to death.
"Jackal" arrives and after Min-jung kicked Hyun which caused him to fall down and become unconscious. Min-jung fights with "Jackal" and it comes out that actually Hyun was never the target but just a way to contact the real target..

Cast: Song Ji-hyo can be seen as killer Bong Min-jung. She's so funny in the beginning but in the end you realize that she's actually really smart and her strategy was almost perfect. And yes, we have Kim Jae-joong as Choi Hyun. Did I mention tied up Jae-joong? Come on, I know we all want that (and he's not even included in my bias list). After all the dramas and movies he starred in I'm sure I don't need to talk about his acting skills. He can do well and he definitely did do well in this movie.
We have Oh Dal-su as Chief Detective Ma, Han Sang-jin as Team Leader Shin and Kim Sung-ryung as Angela.

Soundtrack: Jaejoong himself sang two songs for the soundtrack, "Stay" and "Kiss B" and I really enjoyed listening to those songs. But then again I really like Jaejoong's voice so.. if you don't like his voice at all the OST isn't for you at all.

My final rating is 7/10 just because I admit there were some parts I just didn't understand at all. The movie was more confusing than everything else I've watched because.. I seriously didn't understand anything and even the end left me confused. As for a movie I think everything should be clear in the end unless they want to leave me unsatisfied or definitely want to film another part. And the end definitely sounds as if they are thinking about a sequel. Anyways..

I did promise some tied up Jaejoong so - here you go~ Grab some popcorn and enjoy it!

Rooftop Prince

옥탑방 왕세자 (Rooftop Prince) is a Korean drama series that aired from March 21st to May 24th 2012 on SBS and consists of 20 episodes.

Story: After the Crown Prince Lee Gak's wife dies in 18th Century Joseon he tries to find out who killed his wife and finds himself transported 300 years into the future, in 21st Century Seoul together with the three members of his investigation team.
Landing in the rooftop apartment of Park Ha the chaos starts. Somehow she believes the quartets story and becomes their guardian as well as their teacher on living in the 21st Century with all those modern technologies. Lee Gak meets Park Ha's stepsister and believes that she is the reincarnation of his wife. He takes on the identity of his reincarnation Yong Tae-yong and tries to figure out what happened to the real Yong Tae-yong (whom he thinks got murdered because the reincarnation can't exist in the same time as he does) while solving the murder that happened 300 years ago.

Cast: The four time travelers are Crown Prince Lee Gak played by Park Yoo-chun, Lee Min-ho (born in 1993, not to be confused with the other, more popular actor Lee Min-ho) accepted the role of the incredibly smart Song Man-bo, the sword fighter Woo Yong-sool was played by Jung Suk-won and we see Choi Woo-sik as Do Chi-san who becomes a really good friend to Park Ha. Surely those four overact a little in the beginning but regarding the fact that they've never heard about a shower since that didn't exist in the Joseon Dynasty I think those reactions are quite understandable so I think they were the right ones to do the job. And I have to mention that this extremely.. gay character (excuse me, I lack words to describe this.. maybe swishy would be an option?) Choi Woo-sik accepted was hilarious. I'm not even surprised some people think the actor is gay as well (and it wouldn't be bad if he was).
Park Ha as well as her past character Boo-yong were played by Han Ji-min and I really felt like she accepted the story she was told too fast. Imagine four strangers in historical clothing appear in your apartment and tell you they come from the same place but time travelled. But that's the writer's fault, not her's, and I really like her family-oriented behavior. It seems completely true, and no matter how much her stepsister Se-na tries to get rid of her and how bad the things are Se-na says - Park Ha forgives her all the time and tries to become closer to her sister. Talking about Hong Se-na already - we have Jung Yoo-mi in that role that once again falls under the category bitchy-second-female-lead. As well as her past-self Hwa-yong who was Boo-yong's real sister.
And because every Korean drama needs a bad guy we have Lee Tae-sung as Yong Tae-moo and Lee Gak's cousin Prince Moo-chang. He's probably the character many people dislike for his motives and his personality. I agree with them. But Lee Tae-sung did an incredibly good job, I think I'll have trouble thinking about him as a good guy (if I manage to watch a drama with him in a 'good guy'-role).

Soundtrack: Talking about the OST the first thing I need to talk about is Vol. 1. I really like the fact that there are various instrumental parts that work for both, the historical part as well as the modern era-parts. And since I'm a huge fan of instrumentals used in OST's I'm definitely happy about that. But then I was a little annoyed by the songs Baek Ji-young and ALi sang for the drama. I like both of them as singers but I couldn't really connect it with the drama.
Another OST was released in late April and I have to admit that I don't remember anything - I've read that rookie group Twilight recorded a song for the second OST but don't remember the song at all (and I don't think the group still exists though, they disappeared in 2012 already). Besides for hearing their group name, I don't think there are any other artists included in the second OST that most people are familiar with. Because it is Korea and most singers are trained for years I think they can sing, yes, but that's all I can say.

My personal rating is 9/10. I'm not a huge fan of sad endings nor of supernatural things like time travelling but this one made me laugh so hard that I had to watch some scenes around four times so I could stop laughing and actually noticed what happened. It's hilarious, especially the expressions shown by the time travelling characters.

Special Affairs Team TEN (Season 1)

WARNING!
Both reviews for Special Affairs Team TEN (Season 1 & Season 2) will be loooong and full of me fangirling about the drama itself. If you think me fangirling over my favorite group you so don't want to see me and my friend Jessi fangirling about this series. To me it's like the most perfect drama series ever, a mix of my favorite US series (Criminal Minds) with an interesting and exciting case in the background. Yes, it's definitely not one of the most unique drama series on Earth, I agree. But it's definitely something completely new and amazing to Korea (at least it was at that time.)

특수사건전담반 TEN (Special Affairs Team TEN) is a Korean drama series consisting of 9 episodes that aired from November 18th 2011 to January 20th 2012 on OCN.

Story: The first episode consists of two parts and takes about two hours. This is basically how Team TEN is founded. The team consist of team leader Yeo Ji-hoon, a former detective who worked as an instructor in the police academy but wants to get back to crime-solving after his wife was murdered, profiling specialist Nam Ye-ri, veteran cop Baek Do-shik who has an incredible intuition, and Park Min-ho, a rookie agent and "flower boy" who does all the running work but impressed Yeo Ji-hoon during a lecture.
The team tackles the most hardcore and violent crimes in South Korea, usually with a rate for arrests that's less than 10%. The cases in itself couldn't be more different, as well as the locations. I mentioned this before, it's similar to Criminal Minds so the cases are really different and a variety of skills is needed to solve all of them.

Cast: The whole cast is doing an awesome job. At first we have Joo Sang-wook as Yeo Ji-hoon, "the monster who catches monsters". He's a really good cop and team leader with an impressive logical thinking. I think that's exactly what makes the character Yeo Ji-hoon as attractive and impressive as he is. The acting itself definitely is amazing, I sometimes had to remind myself that it is actually a TV series..
Jo An excepted the role of Nam Ye-ri. She's pretty but what's more interesting is her skill when it comes to observation and interpretation of contexts. The smart female member of the team, such an awesome combination.
Than there's Kim Sang-ho as Baek Do-shik. You wouldn't expect a veteran cop to be as good as he is, and he's indeed really important for the team with his experience and knowledge of humans. Some people might argue OCN could've found someone to get to the female audience as well but come on, that's superficial. The character as well as the actor have other qualities, it's like impossible to separate the actor and the character, they're the same person.
The last member of the team is Choi Woo-sik as Park Min-ho. In the beginning one might say he's acting too cute and too much like a puppy (which might be partly true) but he's courageous and smart and has a great logical understanding - and well, rookie officers need to learn and someone needs to do the running work. Plus he's developing quite fast and has some other.. 'reasons' why he's even more important for the team itself.

Soundtrack: Sadly I couldn't find the whole soundtrack to listen to it but then again I'm not even sure if there are more than two or three songs that appear again and again because the cases require different atmospheres. But the sounds are placed well, it doesn't disturb anything but go with the story.

The only thing I've really hated about the first season is the end. Because it is so definitely not complete. It's frustrating that when you watch the last episode which seems pretty much okay for itself but when you start the second season you notice that OCN split the episode in two parts. The first being the last episode of the first season, the second being the first episode of the second season - and that left me hell of frustrated!
It's still a 9/10 season though and I definitely should and want to watch it again~

Holy Land

홀리랜드 (Holy Land) is a Korean mini drama series that aired from April 28th to May 19th 2012 on Super Action (and no, I've never heard about that channel either). It consists of 4 episodes with a duration of around 60 minutes per episode.
It's the remake of the Japanese series ホーリーランド (Holyland) that was originally aired in 2005.

Story: Kang Yoo doesn't fit in at school or anywhere else, he's just different. The ordinary teenager starts learning the basics of boxing from a book. When he goes out one day and gets attacked by a group of thugs he defends himself with his self-taught skills. In the aftermath he becomes known as the 'Hunter of Thugs'. When he meets Sang-ho by chance, he suddenly finds a mentor and starts to push himself to the limit to find out who he really is. During that time, he meets a lot of people, one of them being Tae-sik. Starting off as enemies the two become friends in the end.

Cast: Shin Dong-ho of U-KISS took the role of Kang Yoo. I'm still impressed with his acting, he would make a good actor. It's still sad he left the group and the whole industry but I wish him all the best and at least there are ways to see him. I wish he'd return as an actor some day though but this is not the right place to talk about this. But Yeo Hoon-min also from U-KISS joined him in this drama as Tae-sik. Those two were almost flawless actors. Sure, their characters had some issues but that's what made them appear human and one shouldn't confuse the actor and the character.
Actor Seong Woong was Kang Yoo's menthor, Sang-ho.

I really enjoyed watching this one, the characters seemed pretty well-developed, and the story is really good - unless you've watched the Japanese dorama before, I think those who know the Japanese version might be a little bored from time to time. But the fighting scences are worth watching and I think I've learned more about boxing than during my sports classes.

My rating is 8/10, it could've been longer with more details given on why exactly Kang Yu wants to learn boxing (or I just don't remember the exact reason) but then again I think there would've been more about a love story if there are more episodes. So in the end I'm not like "Woah, best thing ever!" but it's still pretty good and worth watching.

The Strongest K-Pop Survival

K-POP 최강 서바이벌 (The Strongest K-Pop Survival / The Ultimate Audition) is known under fairly many titles. The drama originally aired from March 19th to May 1st 2012.

As far as I've heard it was originally planned as a drama with 16 episodes. However, the aired version has 14 episodes.

Story: Ji Seung-yeon wants to become a hip-hop legend and some events seem to make this possible. The only obstacle - she has to dress up as a guy and has to live with the other guys as well. The "M2 Juniors" meet the group M2 while they're being trained by Sunny Entertainment and Seung-yeon happens to meet Kang Woo-hyun who hides a rude and selfish personality behind musical talents and a charming smile.

Cast: The main cast consist of Go Eun-ah as Ji Seung-yeon, Kwak Yong-hwan as Kim Ji-woo, Seung-yeon's best friend, and Park Yoo-hwan as Kang Woo-hyun. While I didn't know any of the actors before Park Yoo-hwan looked somehow familiar. Searching for some info about him I've read that he's Park Yoo-chun's younger brother (and somehow only called Yoo-chun's brother often by English online magazines (AKP *cough*)).
There are also many idols included in the cast or not that typical idols but still singers - there's Song Min-ho more commonly known as Mino of Winner. Back then he was a member of B.o.M, a pretty nice ballad group that disbanded around 2013 if I remember right. Why I'm saying this? Because fellow B.o.M member Maeng Se-chang joined him. Also soloist ALi acted in the drama as vocal teacher Park. And Kevin Kim of ZE:A was another idol included in the cast.

Soundtrack: Regarding the cast including quite a lot of vocalists I think everyone can guess that the soundtrack wasn't completely bad. I admit I don't remember any song clearly though but I remember that I did like the songs M2 Junior performed in the drama.

To me this was a 9/10 after all but there could be multiple reasons like simply me being into music dramas. Also the friendship between the members of M2 Junior becomes pretty strong in the end. Though I am not a huge fan of genderbend I really liked this one.
Oh, well, and yeah, I do have a thing for Park Yoo-hwan and Jin Hyuk..
If you like music OR want to see Mino shirtless - watch this. After all it's fun and cute and pretty good.

Reply 1997 / Answer Me 1997

응답하라 1997 (Reply 1997; Answer Me 1997) was aired from July 24th to September 18th 2012. Set in 1997, at least partly, it made me feel quite old somehow. Because I remember a lot of things that were around at that time. (1990's babies will understand what I mean.)

Story: The series follows a female high-school student, Sung Shi-won, who is a huge fan of H.O.T. She's last in her class and instead of focussing on her studies she supports the group unconditionally. She's a straight-forward and sassy character. Yoon Yoon-jae is her best friend and a boy next door. As if it was fate he falls for Shi-won. So does his brother, Yoon Tae-woong. And there's the typical triangle we face in a lot of dramas.

Cast: The cast includes quite a few idols once again. First we have Jung Eun-ji as Sung Shi-won and Seo In-guk as Yoon Yoon-jae. The two of them make a quite adorable couple though they actually aren't a couple. Also Hoya of Infinite acts in this drama, as Kang Joon-hee and he was especially praised for taking the role of a gay character (which actually in our society shouldn't be a huge deal anymore but we don't need to discuss this here).
Also part of the cast are Shin So-yul as Mo Yoo-Jung, Eun Ji-won as Do Hak-chan and Song Jong-ho as Yoon Tae-woong.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack includes a lot - and I mean a lot - old school sounding songs. The most popular song was performed by Seo In-guk and Jung Eun-ji. "All For You" is a cover of a song by Cool released in the 1990s though. Songs by Fin.K.L and Sechs Kies were also included in the soundtrack. Personally, I'm not that much into old school (K-)Pop but I really liked the remakes of 1990s songs, maybe because of an improve in production quality.


Rating this one is kind of difficult. I'd say 7/10 just because after all I'm not that interested in the topic. But it was a really good way to spend my time watching this one. After all it was too good so that I'm kind of scared of watching Reply 1994, thinking they might have ruined the nice story.

And now, some wise words by Kang Joon-hee and an adorable scene:

Shut Up: Flower Boy Band

닥치고 꽃미남밴드 (Shut Up: Flower Boy Band) is the second part of tvN's "Flower Boy" series and aired from January 30th to March 20th 2012.
Now you can make a guess why I wanted to watch this so bad. Is it about L? Hm, probably but also because I love everything connected to music. And since this one involves music I sincerely loved it!

Story: The whole story evolves around the members of a band called "Eye Candy". When their school gets closed they have to transfer to another school, Jungsang High. After a confrontation with the leading band of Jungsang High, Strawberry Fields, they decide to continue going to highschool.

Cast: The main cast includes Sung Joon as Kwon Ji-Hyuk who becomes the male lead after a tragic incident, Kim Myung-soo (L) as Lee Hyun-soo (excuse me, I was dying from time to time because of that smile), Lee Min-ki as Joo Byung-hee, Lee Hyun-jae as Jang Do-il, Yoo Min-kyu as Kim Ha-Jin, Kim Min-suk as Seo Kyung-jong and Jo Bo-ah as Im Soo-ah.
I can't remember disliking any acting though it has been a while since I've watched it. Though some characteristics might seem quite faked.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack was one of the best soundtracks ever. Sung Joon's "무단횡단 (Jaywalking)", "Wake Up", "오늘은 (Today)" and "몰라야 할 말 (Words You Shouldn't Know)" are all quite good songs. "Love U Like U" sung by Kim Ye-rim and Kim Myung-soo is an awesome duet track included in the soundtrack as well.


After all this was a quite good drama I enjoyed a lot but it was somehow confusing after the first few episodes but once I understood what actually happened it was easy to follow. 8.5/10 would be my rating. And I think once I've watched all dramas on my list (which will probably never happen, Korea, y u produce so many awesome dramas?) I would definitely watch this again and again and again.

To The Beautiful You

아름다운 그대에게 (To The Beautiful You) was the first Korean drama I've watched and basically the only drama I've watched online while it was aired. 
Why did I watch that? Oh, well, that's a good question. I've been into K-Pop before, SHINee were the first K-Pop group I've known and after I started studying Korean I thought it might be helpful to hear the language more regularly through - right, dramas. Also, one of my friends loved Hanazakari no kimitachi he (花ざかりの君たちへ), the Japanese version of this drama, a lot.
I've finished this drama in October 2012 after it aired from August 15th to October 4th 2012.

Story: The story is about a girl dressing up as a boy to be close to her 'idol', who, in this case, is a competitor in a high jump competition. While she's living in an all-boy-school and dormitory a lot of trouble is caused because she's hiding her real gender.
Those gender bend stories are old? Yes, absolutely. I don't even know how many dramas exist with girls acting as boys and falling for the male lead. But to be honest this one is not as boring as one might expect but this might be just me because I didn't watch any dramas before and because I didn't watch the Japanese version either.

Cast: The cast is quite awesome for K-Pop fans. Choi Min-ho as Kang Taejoon was the reason why I wanted to watch this drama and I think he did a quite good job. Sulli of f(x) took the role of the female lead Goo Jae-hee/Jay Dawson and I also liked her quite a lot. Lee Hyun-woo was really adorable as Cha Eun-gyeol, the second male lead, and I enjoyed his acting. The cast also includes:
Seo Jun-young as Ha Seung-ri 
Hwang Kwang-hee (ZE:A) as Song Jong-nim
Kang Ha-neul as Min Hyeon-jae
Yoo Min-kyu as Jo Young-man
Kim I-an as Na Cheol-soo
Ki Tae-young as Jang Min-woo
Kang Kyung-joon as Byeon Gwang-min
Kim Ji-won as Seol Han-na
And let me take a minute to mention the dog called Sangchu. It's a fluffy white dog, I love it. >3<

Soundtrack: The soundtrack is filled with songs by SM Entertainment artists. Though I'm not a huge fan of SM Entertainment I admit that their artists are good at singing. I enjoyed the soundtrack as a whole. J-Min's song "일어나 (Stand Up)", the title track was my personal favorite.


After all this drama was alright. My rating would be 6/10, it's not that high, I know, but maybe because I've watched a lot of dramas later I've corrected the rating a few times.