Discovery of Romance

연애의 발견 (Discovery of Romance) is a South Korean rom-com drama that was aired from August 18th to October 7th 2014 on KBS2. The 16 episodes have an average duration of 60 minutes.

Story: Han Yeo-reum is in love with her boyfriend of more than 1 year, Nam Ha-jin, who works as a plastic surgeon. However, as she catches her boyfriend going on a blind date arranged by his mom, she eventually meets her ex-boyfriend and owner of a construction company, Kang Tae-ha, and their phones get exchanged. The day after the meeting, Yeo-reum calls her phone while she is drunk and ends up spending the night at her ex-boyfriend's house. Of course she ends up getting caught and her best friend Yoon Sol as well as their roommate Do Joon-ho, who is a close friend of Ha-jin, try to help her out. But suddenly the small woodcraft company Sol and Yeo-reum own together has to work with Tae-ha's construction company so of course they run into each other quite often.
This story is something I personally haven't seen often in K-Dramas yet but I'm pretty sure I have a bunch of stories with the "second chance for the first love"-story line on my list of dramas I still intend to watch. Now was this drama refreshing? Yes and no. I did enjoy the interviews even though it was a little bit awkward at first. But the actual story is not the most unique nor exciting one I've ever seen. I would personally say that this drama is a light, quick watch (I finished it within two days but I'm currently on a drama marathon anyways).

Cast: Jung Yoo-mi as Han Yeo-reum. I was totally surprised to see her in this drama to be honest because she looks totally different on the posters. I still don't know how I should rate her as an actress for sure but her acting wasn't bad. The main problem was that she seemed to be sad or annoyed most of the time. Maybe that's a trait that the writer gave to the character though but it doesn't make it really easy to watch her in this drama.
Eric Moon as Kang Tae-ha. I don't know why but most of the time I found Tae-ha to be a very funny character that was portrayed well. I can't really say anything about Eric's acting that bothered me, he did a good job.
Sung Joon as Nam Ha-jin. I know I've actually watched quite a few dramas with Sung Joon, thank you very much to anyone who wanted to point that out. It's an accident he usually acts in dramas I want to watch sooner or later and I can guarantee that more of his dramas will be on this blog. I really think he is an amazing actor as I liked him in almost all roles I've seen him in so far and this one is no exception, I totally adored his character and his acting. I don't think I need to explain exactly what I mean.
Yoon Hyun-min as Do Joon-ho. I really enjoyed Yoon Hyun-min's acting. Do Joon-ho is a lovable idiot and sometimes his behavior made me facepalm but after all it's adorable even though he also has a serious side when he tries to protect the relationship between Yeo-reum and Ha-jin. The acting was good enough to make me believe almost every line so it's all good and I'm looking forward to seeing him in the future.
Kim Seul-gi as Yoon Sol. Kim Seul-gi also is definitely a good actress that can take over different roles but usually her characters seem to be a little bit grumpy and moody. Sol is no exception, she's picky and gets drunk often. The only thing that bothered me in the long run to be very honest was her voice, I don't know why. However, I think she also did a good job in this drama.
Yoon Jin-yi as An Ah-rim. She seems to be the nice girl living next door. The acting was fair enough but something just didn't work for me. I don't know what exactly it was but something literally bothered me about her acting in general. While she was still not bad I do believe it could've been better.
Other actors in this drama include Lee Seung-joon, Kim Hye-ok, Gu Won and Sung Byung-sook-

Soundtrack: I think the soundtrack, the artists and the titles were well chosen. I can't really point out a song that fit the drama more than the others but I do have to admit that "어린애처럼 (Like A Child)" by Shinhwa's Shin Hye-sung (신혜성) really hit me in that moment and had me sitting straight up. I absolutely love Hye-sung's voice so I had to put this here.


6.5/10
As I mentioned before this is a light watch in between, something romantic and fun but it does have some weaknesses mainly in the story. There are hardly any memorable scenes so I don't really know what I should do or say about this specifically. The story itself is not totally bad but I found my thoughts wandering off many times because it wasn't as catchy as other dramas can be. It is still not bad.
Recommended to those who like romantic comedy dramas that are not too long and who might be interested in the emotional struggle between past and current love.

It's Okay, That's Love

괜찮아, 사랑이야 (It's Okay, That's Love) is a South Korean drama series that aired on SBS from July 23rd to September 11th 2014. It consists of 16 episodes with a duration around 58 minutes per episode.

Story: Ji Hae-soo is a psychiatrist in a hospital in Korea. Due to some events in the past she is scared of intimacy. Her personality as well as her trauma make it difficult for her to have a relationship that lasts for a long time.
On the other hand Jang Jae-yeol is a popular novelist who had his ex-girlfriend plagiarizing his novel. Instead of getting back at her he cancels the lawsuit and decides to go back to writing. A construction for three months starts in his home and he moves into his house in Hongdae for the time being - which eventually makes Hae-soo his roommate along with Hae-soo's senior Jo Dong-min and Park Soo-kwang, a young man who suffers from Tourette syndrome.
As the four of them live together they eventually get to know each other and despite not really liking each other at first Hae-soo and Jae-yeol fall in love. Over time, they help each other to heal their scars from past traumas and tragic events within their families.
Personally I thought this story line sounds like the most basic K-Drama stuff you can find. Just by that description and by knowing K-Dramaland I had an idea where this would go and had pretty much 90% of the story figured out between episodes 2 and 6 which is actually sad. This drama in itself was kinda obvious or maybe it was just me. While I kinda do like the idea of two messed up characters getting together and helping each other this was just turned into the basic romance and especially Hae-soo's character was a victim of poor writing in my humble opinion. While I liked her at first I came to hate her as the story continued. In the early episodes, the story was quite fast-paced which made it very interesting and kept me going but towards the end it turned out so slow that I found myself getting annoyed over it.

Cast: Jo In-sung as Jang Jae-yeol. While his character is the typical good-looking player in the beginning it turns out soon enough that there is more than meets the eye. I do see his character to be one of the better developed ones in this drama, especially regarding the events of the past. It seems like the writers were really thinking about how his character could or should be developed. As an actor Jo In-sung definitely did a great job portraying him. The acting felt real and I totally believed everything he said. Definitely a great actor in a great role.
Gong Hyo-jin as Ji Hae-soo. As some of you might now I love Gong Hyo-jin ever since Master's Sun and she is still one of my favorite actresses. But her character in this drama was okay in the beginning and started to turn into a stupid, useless crybaby female lead somewhere along the way. I do remember that it was the end of episode 6 and the beginning of episode 7 where I was close to yelling at my laptop because how blind and stupid can a person be?! After calming down I still continued to watch it and it got slightly better again but let's say I still can't bring myself to like her character in this drama. However, I see it more as a thing of bad writing. The writer(s) probably didn't really know what to do anymore and fell into the cliché-trap.
Sung Dong-il as Jo Dong-min. The old man in the household, Jo Dong-min, is quite an interesting character. While he can be noisy and childish he also has a serious side to him that mainly shows when he's treating his patients. I totally enjoyed the acting of Sung Dong-il and think that this was a great show for him.
Lee Kwang-soo as Park Soo-kwang. How creative to turn the syllables of the actors name around if you can't think of a character name. Anyway, as a character Soo-kwang suffers from Tourette syndrome and therefore has trouble with females. But he loved Oh So-nyeo for quite some time and started to not only care for her but buy her a lot of things as well. Regarding the acting I actually enjoyed seeing Lee Kwang-soo in this drama. I don't know much about Tourette syndrome patients but it seemed like he really learned about his character and managed to make it seem real.
Jin Kyung as Dr. Lee Young-jin. I don't know much about her but I liked her acting. As a character Lee Young-jin goes through the struggle many women seem to know; choosing between your career or your own family. I felt like I could understand her and that this character really came to life so definitely kudos to the actress for doing such a good job.
Lee Sung-kyung as Oh So-nyeo. A pretty girl doing a lot of things she actually shouldn't do but she doesn't care. That's Oh So-nyeo. I think Lee Sung-kyung did well even though her character came off a little annoying and more than a little bit manipulative but then again it was probably again the writing and she didn't do a bad job in following what she was supposed to be like.
Other actors in this drama include Do Sang-woo, Do Kyung-soo, Yang Ik-joon, Tae Hang-ho and Cha Hwa-yeon.

Soundtrack: The OST of this drama actually includes quite a few huge names in the K-Pop and OST business like Davichi, Crush, Wheesung, Hong Dae-kwang, Yoon Mi-rae and M.C. The Max. The Korean song I probably like the most was Crush feat. Punch's "잠 못드는 밤 (Sleepless Night)". While I did enjoy the OST overall I have to say that the songs that stand out the most are not Korean songs and are actually in no way related to this drama. I'm talking about "Hero" by Family of the Year specifically. While I neither liked nor disliked the song before I still knew it (which 90% of the people commenting on Youtube didn't seem to do) I have it stuck in my head now.


6.5/10
Overall this drama was, and is, one of the most hyped dramas of 2014 and again it seems to be my own problem. I love the actors, I liked the idea but I literally ended up either yelling at my laptop or playing on my phone towards the end of the drama. And what I mean with my own problem is this; I dislike dramas most people love most of the time. And I like dramas people heavily criticize. Is it because of expectations? Possible, I was looking forward to watching this drama. But I couldn't bring myself to give it a better rating than 6.5, I even considered a worse rating with 5.5 or 5.0 for some time but I've seen much worse dramas.

Recommendation? I don't know. If you like a little bit of psychology, family issues and romcom than this might be a great option for you. I can't really explain what it is that makes me dislike this drama and it's hard to give a recommendation if you can't really find something to point out.

Trot Lovers

트로트의 연인 (Trot Lovers) is a South Korean drama series that aired on KBS2 from June 23rd to August 12th 2014. It consits of 16 episodes with average duration of one hour.

Story: Choi Chun-hee is a marathon athlete who caught singer Jang Joon-hyun cheating to win a medal in a competition. As fate kicks in, the two meet again when Joon-hyun gets into a scandal. Meanwhile, Chun-hee's father disappears and leaves her and her sister Byul behind with loan sharks following them around. Joon-hyun gets involved in the trouble and is ordered to be Chun-hee's manager so he can release a comeback album after his scandal while Chun-hee's main reason for agreeing to work together is the fact that she needs money and she hopes to get in contact with her father. She eventually signs with Shine Star Entertainment and meets Jo Geun-woo, the new CEO after his father went on a "holiday" as well as Park Soo-in, Joon-hyun's first love.

Cast: Jung Eun-ji as trot singer Choi Chun-hee gave me life! I'm sad the songs she sang in this drama are not part of an album but they are totally great. Regarding her character I did like the sassy part but the sensitive parts she showcased didn't seem to work well with the beginning of the story. As for the acting I can't really complain, Eun-ji is a good singer but also a good actress in her own way.
Ji Hyun-woo as Jang Joon-hyun seemed a little bit bland to me. The character was a whole new level of jerk even though he did have his sweet moments. I don't think Ji Hyun-woo really suited this character though so I don't quite know what to think about him as an actor after all.
Shin Sung-rok shows a totally different side of his acting skills in this drama as Jo Geun-woo. While I did sincerely enjoy him in his villain-roles the awkward yet sweet President of Shine Star Entertainment was very good and well-portrayed. Even though the behavior of the character seemed a bit too awkward from time to time I think that was part of the writing.
Lee Se-young as Park Soo-in was not really good. It's not that I hated her as a character or anything, it's just that the drama lost all of the energy whenever she appeared which was not good for the pacing nor for the story itself. While she's a pretty woman I think this drama was not made for her - or the other way around. Shin Bo-ra as Na Pil-nyeo seemed to be a much better antagonist in the beginning and her character turned out much better than I thought it would. As a female who has been training for 10 years waiting for her debut the main sentiment at first is jealousy and all her actions portrayed that well. Well, until she met Seol Tae-song played by Son Ho-jun. Seol Tae-song as a character seems kinda clueless but he's not bad, just a kind of confused, cute male side character. I kinda liked the side story between him and Pil-nyeo. As for the acting, it really seemed fine to me.
Other actors in this drama include Jang Won-young, Yoon Bong-kil, Park Hyuk-kwon and Lee Yi-kyung.

Soundtrack: Personally I'm not a huge fan of the OST but as I mentioned above I loved Eun-ji as a trot singer. The problem is just that the songs she sang are not part of the OST even though all of them are awesome, especially the one she sang first, "고추 (Red Pepper)" but as I said it is not part of the OST.


Now this sounded like a solid and fun drama and in the beginning it seemed to be exactly that but turned out that I rated it as 6/10 for reasons.
The positive things that I have to say about this drama only evolve around the cast, acting and the music but that's all.
It started off funny, light-hearted and cheerful but eventually the energy disappeared and was replaced by one K-Drama cliché after another - an evil mother, evil second female lead, poor second male lead, terminal diseases, amnesia, wristgrab, past accidents - this drama literally has everything and it almost made me puke how cliché it is. Just like a poorly written fanfiction in some parts. I was close to dropping this drama after episode 11 but eventually decided against it since I'm still proud I never dropped a drama.
Yes, it eventually got back to the light-hearted and cute atmosphere it had in the beginning but that didn't safe it in the end and I'm glad I finally finished this.
Recommended? Well, if you're a fan of clichés and the typical cheesy love stories in K-Dramaland with an extra portion of famous jerk you might enjoy this. If you don't like that - don't watch this drama or you will end up hating 90% of the characters.

Be Arrogant

도도하라 (Be Arrogant, Be Proud) is a South Korean drama series that was aired on SBS Plus from October 27th to November 24th 2014.

Story: Hong Ha-ra is a bright, energetic and sweet girl working as a tour guide for Chinese tourists who happens to send her boyfriend 5000$ one day. After that he disappears and took all her deposit money. One day she has to move out of her room but doesn't have anywhere to go. The only place she can think of is the house of her boyfriend's sister Do Ra-hee. It turns out that her boyfriend Noh Cheol has been in a relationship with the woman he always called his sister for more than 6 years but she doesn't know where he currently is either. To make money the two women start an online business called Dodohara. When Cheol appears again the three of them live together in the house and get into a complicated relationship based on friendship and love.

Cast: Okay, so at least there are some familiar faces in this drama, let me be happy about this! At first there is Shin So-yul as Do Ra-hee. I honestly enjoyed seeing her in this role, the hot temper was great with her acting and I really liked it how she was not the typical female character in a drama.
On another corner of this love triangle we have Kim Ah-young better known as Yura of Girls Day. I think she did well in the cheerful part but also managed to show the more serious emotions and the temper she developed living with Ra-hee and Cheol.
Yoo Min-kyu as Noh Cheol was another familiar face in this drama. I personally think the flower boy role suits him but something about his character and his indecisive acting didn't really click for me. Maybe it was the way his character was written between those two women but it might have also been his acting.
Go Se-won as himself was the only actor in the cast that appeared frequently that I was not familiar with. I think his acting seemed a little bit less expressive than I would've expected in some parts of this drama and maybe that is his style of acting I didn't quite enjoy in this drama.

Soundtrack: I don't know much about the OST (again) but then again I'm pretty sure it wasn't bad or I would remember that part at least. It's just nothing I would listen to outside of the drama either so somewhere around average.


After all I rated this drama as a 7.5/10. I didn't have high expectations to be honest and that made this drama probably better than it actually was. Such a short drama with 10 episodes and 20 minutes per episode doesn't leave much space for character development but the humor and the way the characters dealt with problems was interesting.
It delivered a solid story line and three entirely different characters who somehow ended up living together and have to sort out their personal lives while earning money. It might not be the best drama ever but if you have some spare time and are looking for something short to watch this drama is not the worst choice.

Surplus Princess

잉여공주 (Surplus Princess) is a South Korean drama series consisting of 10 episodes that aired on tvN from August 7th to October 9th 2014.

Story: Aileen is the 18th mermaid princess and has a crush on Kwon Shi-kyung. She wants to become a human and steals a potion from An Ma-nyeo. The big problem after drinking the portion is - that she has to find true love within 100 days or she will die or, more correctly, disappear without a trace.
She moves into the "Surplus house" and her new housemates are all unemployed job seekers who experience various difficulties together. Trying to hide her real identity Aileen, going by the name Kim Ha-ni,  tries to gets closer to Shi-kyung not only because of her feelings but also to save her life.

Cast: Another drama on this blog with Jo Bo-ah, in this case as Kim Ha-ni or Aileen. I really like her as an actress but I have a feeling the very bright and cheerful (and somehow stupid) character didn't really suit her well. Also the helplessness in some scenes just didn't feel right.
Ohn Joo-wan as Lee Hyun-myung definitely did an awesome job acting in this drama as the hero always around to save the damsel in mistress. Definitely a very likeable and sweet character but somehow his relationship with Jin-ah in the beginning just made him seem too weak.
Chef Kwon Shi-kyung was played by Song Jae-rim and I think he did a very good job regarding the disease (you will find out more about this when watching the drama but it is not thaaaat bad). For a male lead in a rom-com drama he was actually very nice and charming.
Park Ji-soo as Yoon Jin-ah probably became my most hated character in the drama. The acting was really good and I really enjoyed hating her character a lot. I'm just going to mention the second-female-lead-syndrome and I guess many of you actually understand what I mean.
Kim Seul-gi as Ahn Hye-young was just brilliant in my opinion. I really love her as an actress by now, her singing in this drama was also nice and she was weird at first but turned out so supportive. The character was well played and I don't know what else I should say.

Nam Joo-hyuk as Big was the youngest person in the sharehouse. His character was acted well, too, but I feel like sometimes it lacked some depth in writing or acting, I don't know what is the reason but it was just my impression.
Ahn Kil-kang as An Ma-nyeo had the weird darkness that totally didn't fit the drama this much and that is 100% about the writing. The acting was nice and fit the actor but I personally liked the less mysterious parts of him a little better and thought that it works better with this drama.
Other actors in this drama include Jin Hee-kyung, Kim Min-kyo, Kim Jae-hwa and Lee Sun-kyu.

Soundtrack: I don't know how they did it but a lot of songs that were not the OST for this drama were played. However, sometimes it was just not the right timing and sometimes the songs were a little out of place for me but in total I would say they supported the light and humorous atmosphere.


My rating of this drama is a simple 5.5/10.
The reason is simple: I was so close to dropping this drama during the first episodes. Somewhere in episode 4 or 5 it became bearable and I didn't want to kill the main character anymore (yaaay). Still the humor in this drama was so flat in the first episodes that I could just sit here, shake my head and hope the writer stopped taking whatever he or she took while writing the first episodes. If a drama has 10 episodes and I would rate the first 4 episodes as a 0 or maybe 1 of 10 something is seriously off.
However, as I said it became bearable and even enjoyable even though some of the jokes were still stupid but maybe I just got used to it.
The idea itself wasn't bad, it kinda reminds me of the little mermaid, but also has it's differences.
Oh, and what is still in my mind is the ending. I'm not sure if I like it or not but.. it is refreshing but something I would wish for in any drama with those annoying and rude male leads..
I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone, honestly, unless this is totally your kind of humor but.. you know the risk and don't say I didn't warn you.

Flower Grandpa Investigation Unit

꽃할배 수사대 (Flower Grandpa Investigation Unit) is a South Korean drama series that aired on tvN from May 9th to July 25th 2014 every Friday and consists of 12 episodes.

Story: Three detectives in their late 20's transform to 70 year old men overnight after getting in contact with a weird liquid. Only the fourth member of the team, Park Jung-woo, doesn't transform into an old man for an unknown reason. While trying to get back their youth and finding an option to become their original age again, the Grandpa unit together with Park Jung-woo and Jung Eun-ji solve crime cases with Lee Joon-hyuk's intellect, Jeon Kang-seok's strength and Han Won-bin's charm.

Cast: For obvious reasons - there are so many people in the cast that it is really difficult to name and rate all of them separately.
Lee Joon-hyuk was portrayed by Lee Soon-jae and Choi Jin-hyuk in the different ages. Personally I think they did show a difference in portraying the character. While Choi Jin-hyuk made Joon-hyuk seem more cold than Lee Soon-jae, they both made him a little bit sarcastic and therefore someone others would hate but I used to like especially for this. The difference in their portrayal doesn't really bother me much since it is something also about the actors and what the audience wants to connect with them.
Byun Hee-bong and Park Min-woo both acted as Kang Won-bin who made this drama hilarious in his own way. Being a flower boy in his first age Park Min-woo portrays the shallow and popular guy very well as a little arrogant and obsessed with his own looks and skin care. Byun Hee-bong did well showing the personal crisis he experienced when Won-bin noticed he got old - wrinkly skin and not the usually perfect hair style was a horrible thing for him. Both actors did well while showing the arrogant and shallow aspects - as well as Won-bin being after pretty much every beautiful female.
In the role of Jeon Kang-seok Jang Kwang and Park Doo-sik both did well. As the character is strong but not really bright he had his own moments to shine and make the audience laugh. The most interesting thing about him was the fact that the character loved A Pink which led to a really cute behavior and a lot of aegyo the actors showed.
Kim Hee-chul of Super Junior is in this drama as Park Jung-woo and I personally think his acting was really good in the emotional parts. He did a very good job in this series and I think I would watch other comedy dramas with him, too.
Lee Cho-hee as Jung Eun-ji was really good, too. Her love for food and her ability to tell smells apart easily seems just a little weird and not really useful for a crime part at first even though it is entertaining but she turns out to be very helpful. As for the acting it was very solid, it somehow worked together even though I wasn't blown away by her acting.
Kim Eung-soo as the leader of the investigation unit Kim Young-chul was very interesting in his grumpy acting while also at some point caring for team members and their safety. The acting was really nice to watch.
And I need to mention Lee Ki-woo as Park Tae-min. I can't help it but I think after The Virus I developed a small weakness for Lee Ki-woo as the intelligent but slightly... crazy doctor or scientist. I think he is doing well in those rather serious roles and I was so happy when I saw him in this drama that I was almost jumping up and down because I got so excited.
Other actors in this drama series include Park Eun-ji as Han Yoo-ra, Kim Byung-se as Choi Jae-wook and Park Hyo-joo as Jun Hae-jin.

Soundtrack: I personally did like the instrumentals in the drama but not so much the songs by K-Pop/K-Indie artists Ladies' Code, Rumble Fish and Sun Woo. It is not a big minus though since I loved the rest of the music.

In total this drama got a 8/10 rating from me. It is a good crime and comedy mix that offers plot twists and a good cast. BUT what leads to this not being perfect is about some aspects that made it too ridiculous to be taken seriously even in a minor way. Sometimes the outcome was obvious while they were still investigating which is a spoiler within itself. Those are some things that did bother me but in the end this drama was still a good, funny and somehow light watch but had his serious moments.
Recommended to fans of comedy and crime in one!

Reset

리셋 (Reset) is a South Korean drama series that aired 10 episodes on OCN from August 24th to October 26th 2014.

Story: Cha Woo-jin is a prosecutor who lost his first love Seung-hee because she became the victim of a crime. After that he devoted himself to violent crime cases and tends to solve them with the help of a special hypnosis. Being able to get the criminals to tell the full and true story that way his success rate is quite high.
The female high school student Jo Eun-bi becomes involved in one of his cases. She reminds Woo-jin of Seung-hee and he decides to protect her and prove her innocence together with Section Chief Han and Officer Ko.

Cast: Chun Jung-Myung as Cha Woo-jin is a character that is so typical for OCN dramas that I can't do anything but like him a lot. The charismatic strong male lead with good intentions fighting evil while he himself has a dark past he just wants to forget. The acting was really good, he did portray the very rational parts just as good as the parts of the character that were lead by his emotions. Kim So-hyun portrayed both, Jo Eun-bi and Choi Seung-hee, in this drama. As the clear female lead it is somewhat unclear what exactly her relationship is with Cha Woo-jin since they have a good chemistry but a huge age difference that would complicate things and makes me believe that chemistry was intended but not as much as there was.
Park Won-sang as Officer Ko was a good friend to Cha Woo-jin and helped him protecting Eun-bi even when one of his rather illegal secrets was revealed and it almost got him killed. The acting of a character that knew he did wrong but still works for the state and the prosecutors' office impressed me a bit to be honest and he definitely brought the character to life and offered good views to understand him.
Shin Eun-jung as Section Chief Han is a female who doesn't have any children. And the way she starts to interact with Eun-bi after some time makes one feel like they are mother and daughter and in that way they do have a great chemistry in this familiar way. Again as a character with personal issues I think Shin Eun-jung was able to portray her character well.
Song Ha-yoon deserves an honorable mention as Choi Yoon-hee. The younger sister of Seung-hee who fell for Woo-jin and can't let go even though he told her 15 years later that he still couldn't let go of her sister. A tragic and sad story for her but eventually the acting was good, too, so it did not bring anyone down.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack in this one was good but not that outstanding. As usual also there isn't a quite huge OST so that makes things a little more difficult to judge. Anyway, it is not a bad point.


So in total I rated this one as a 9/10. The only things I can criticize are some minor issues for me.
It doesn't really make sense they always go out to investigate alone - which is the reason for most of the dangerous incidents I would say.
The soundtrack was okay but it could've been better. However, it is not really a deal breaker for me.
The last point is the fact that Eun-bi's character changed a little bit too fast in certain aspects. Of course they didn't have much time which is why I'm willing to forgive this but it is something I'm thinking about.
Recommend this to crime and thriller fans who are not too much into ghosts/vampires but can handle people hypnotizing each other.

The Target

표적 (The Target) is a South Korean movie that was released in 2014. The movie directed by Director Chang has a runtime of 98 minutes and is a remake of the French movie Point Blank.

Story: Baek Yeo-hoon is followed by men in the beginning and gets into an accident. Ending up in a hospital, Lee Tae-joon becomes his doctor. Soon Lee's wife is kidnapped and he needs to get Baek Yeo-hoon out of the hospital to safe his pregnant wife. Through this crime Yeo-hoon and Tae-joon find themselves in the middle of police officers working for their own benefits.

Cast: Lee Jin-wook is in this movie (again~? I feel like I've been watching a lot of his works lately) as Lee Tae-joon. His performance in this movie was quite good though his character was the type of character I usually like, more like a too unrational person.
Ryu Seung-ryong was a more interesting character to me. While at first his intentions are pretty unclear, this is exactly what makes the character as interesting as it is. A sad family story in the background, he tries to protect his brother Sung-hoon who suffers from the Tourette syndrome played by Jin Goo. Yoo Jun-sang as Chief  Detective Song also did a good job in my opinion though I think it's natural to not really like his character. In general it was believable though.
And there's Jo Yeo-jeong as Tae-joon's wife Hee-joo, a psychiatrist, who really seems to live up to her role. I enjoyed seeing her in this movie a lot.

Soundtrack: Nothing was off, everything was where it had to be - that's literally all I can say about this. It's definitely a nice action soundtrack.


Please note that I did not watch the original movie. Therefore, I cannot compare this movie to the French original.
In general this movie was good, a 7,5/10 rating is still pretty nice regarding the fact that the story wasn't mind-blowing. It's a story that's quite common. The acting and soundtrack were good though and the story wasn't boring either so I will forget about some flaws.

Recommended to fans of action movies!

The Three Musketeers

삼총사 (The Three Musketeers) is a South Korean drama series that aired from August 17th to November 2nd 2014 every Sunday on tvN. The drama consists of 12 episodes with a duration ~65 minutes.

Story: The story is set in 17th Century Joseon and evolves around Crown Prince Sohyun and his guards Heo Seung-po and Ahn Min-seo as well as Park Dal-hyang, a young man who came from Gangwondo to take the military examination and find his first love. Even on his first day Park Dal-hyang meets the three men who introduce themselves as the "Three Musketeers" and soon he finds himself within a political conflict.

Cast: In the very first place we have Lee Jin-wook as Crown Prince Sohyun. While I don't really understand why his character is the way he just... is I kinda like this rebellious royal thing. It makes his character somehow special since he's not what one would expect. However, in some moments I couldn't really feel the acting, I just noticed that it wasn't real from time to time and I don't know if that's because of the actor or because of the writing. Yang Dong-geun as Heo Seung-po is the son of General Heo and one of the men the prince grew up with. He loves gambling and alcohol and usually is pretty calm about being sent to prison for some time. The acting in general worked with the character and the background. He shows a great loyalty towards the crown prince. The same works for Ahn Min-seo played by Jung Hae-in. Definitely an actor I will look out for in the future! Ahn Min-seo is a rather loyal and smart character and seems to be more pure since he comes from a religious background. The acting connected with the character himself made this character one of my favorites.
Jung Yong-hwa took over Park Dal-hyang's part. Solid acting? Well, his character was a little stubborn and sometimes childish, led by emotions but that's Park Dal-hyang's innocent, childish charm. So for a main character he was actually quite nice to watch and did cause some trouble from time to time. Seo Hyun-jin as the Crown Princess Kang Yoon-seo/ Kang Bin was one of the characters I somehow liked - and at the same time didn't. She's loyal and a horrible liar - and exactly these traits get her into huge trouble while the King tries to find out what's going on. Her acting was nice though her character was really stupid from time to time.
Of course there does have to be a bad witch in a series like this (though she's not exactly a witch but you get where I'm coming from). At some point I was literally waiting for her to just die. Though Mi-ryung/Hyang-sun played by Yoo In-young was beautiful and the obsessed acting was pretty much what I expected. A character you start to hate but one also likes to find out more about why she behaves the way she does.
Other actors in this drama include Kim Myung-soo as King Injo, Jeon Noh-min as Choi Myung-gil, Park Young-kyu as Kim Ja-jum and Kim Sung-min as Yong Gol-dae.

Soundtrack: I personally found the soundtrack to be pretty good. I LOVED the song "All For One" by NOXX and DinDin a lot though I thought they played the song too loud in the drama - it wasn't in the background anymore. The other songs seemed more subtle in a way but then again nothing can compare to a rock song as music played while fighting (at least that's where I saw it in my imagination when I first listened to it).


SO how am I going to rate this drama? 8.5/10 for a solid drama that's somewhat based on Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers but in a Korean background.
I liked it. It's sometimes too funny for a serious historical drama but I think that's what they intended to do and it was nice the way it was. They ended it with an open ending though because there were supposed to be three seasons - tvN cancelled the other two.
A beautifully filmed drama and good acting in general with an interesting story but the last parts were rushed while other things were dragged a little.

I'd consider this drama as highly recommendable though! So give it a try.

Kang Koo's Story

강구 이야기 (Kang Koo's Story) is a South Korean drama special that was aired on March 29th and March 30th 2014 on SBS.

Story: Kyung-tae is considered a good-for-nothing gangster and goes to Kanggu, a place at the coast. After a friend of his died, he wants to take care of his friend's older sister Moon-sook and her son Kang-koo. As the story goes, Kyung-tae falls in love with Moon-sook and also becomes closer to Kang-koo but there are two problems - the two of them don't know that his friend and Moon-sook's brother, Jung-soo, died and Moon-sook is sick..

Cast: Lee Dong-wook as Kyung-tae showed a huge variety of emotions in this drama, at least this was my personal feeling. I liked his acting as well as his character after all though it wasn't a kind of character one would expect in a series dealing with "gangsters".
Park Joo-mi as Yang Moon-sook was nice to watch in this movie as well. She seemed to soft in some parts I think, for a strong woman who's working even though she's sick and who raised a child mostly on her own it's just that it didn't work that well.
Shin Dong-woo as Kang-koo was just the perfect son. His acting was good, the way his character changed was portrayed in a nice way and in general his acting seemed stable. Regarding the fact he's one of these "child actors" (he was like 15/16 when this was filmed) he's definitely an actor to look out for in the coming years.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack supported this drama perfectly! The only problem about this soundtrack is that basically no one knows all of the songs that were included and I couldn't find any information on that! Grrrrr..


In general I gave this drama special a 6.5/10 rating solely because I did have some.. too melodramatic aspects. It's not that much my style but I still enjoyed watching it after all. The scenery is incredibly beautiful in this drama so if you want to see some wonderful places in South Korea, this drama might also be to your liking.

Recommended if you like sweet but sad love stories and not that much blood!

Mimi

미미 (Mimi) is a South Korean drama series that aired on Mnet from February 21st to March 14th 2014 every Friday at 11PM. The series consists of four episodes with a duration of 70 minutes each.

Story: Han Min-woo is a webtoonist who recently gained popularity because of "December 8th" but he suffers from a partial loss of his memory. All memories until December 2003 disappeared but it feels like the webtoon he's working on tells his own story. To be able to complete the story he tries to restore his memories of his first love that were erased by someone to save him from the pain. While he finds out what has happened, the viewer watches his past self as well as Mimi as high school students and understands what exactly happened.

Cast/Acting: Han Min-woo is a quite complex character who had to deal with loss before. Shim Chang-min actually did a good job portraying him though I'm not familiar with his acting itself. I enjoyed seeing him in this series after all. Moon Ga-young as Mi-mi was quite good as well, though my personal feelings towards her character changed within 30 minutes in the last episode (some humans are just stupid and not romantic but hey, that's my opinion) but her acting throughout this drama was solid.
Jang Eun-hye portrayed by Shin Hyun-bin was good in the beginning as well. While the acting was okay, in the end I felt like her character was just the most senseless one in this series. Yes, sure, there had to be a love story with a happy ending but besides for that I missed something about character development and the importance of her character. She didn't seem like a main character/actress at all.
Jung Ji-soon delivered as one of the side characters, to be more exact he was the team leader Min-woo was working with.
The last actor I really NEED to mention is Baek-hyun. No, not the one from EXO though someone confused them already (I had a good time laughing about wikipedia) but his voice and charisma as the "umbrella guy" is no joke. I loved him and I'm looking forward to maybe see him in more dramas.

Soundtrack: The actual soundtrack only includes one song performed by two singers, it's just a male and a female version. "슬픔 속에 그댈 지워야만 해 (Because I Love You)" was performed by Wendy and Chang-min and isn't a bad song but I found it rather boring after listening to it a few times. The other songs are actually a part of the S.M. The Ballad Vol.2 project. I personally loved and still love Yesung's "내 욕심이 많았다 (Blind)" to death and it really works well with this drama.
After all, the music in this series is really good and nothing else was to be expected since that's what Mnet is known for.

I decided to rate this drama with a 6/10 though. The story was nice but I personally missed some logical aspects and just started complaining about why some characters just started acting the way they did. The drama itself lost the mysterious aspect after the first episode, especially due to the flashbacks it possible to guess what's actually behind everything. So if you're looking for something mysterious with a hint of romance this drama just fails to deliver the mystery part at some point and develops into a typical tragic love story. But what really bothered me the most is how they actually just put Eun-hye in this drama while her character lacks sense, there was literally no reason why another woman had to be there. She didn't support the romance between Min-woo and Mi-mi nor did she have any impact on the whole mystery.
However, the music, the scenery and the acting itself saved a plot that was actually based on a good idea but not delivered the way they could have. It's beautiful to watch if you're in the mood for some tragic first love and don't want to spend much time on it.

Secert Love

시크릿 러브 (Secret Love) is a South Korean drama series that aired on Dramacube network from June 13th to July 11th 2014. The series consists of 5 episodes telling different stories. It is also known as KARA's Secret Love because a member of Kara starring in each of the episodes.

Story:
1. Min Ji-hye is a model who lost her longterm boyfriend Jang Hyun-jin because of a car accident. In a bar she gets offered to travel to the past and stop them from meeting to save Hyun-jin. However, the price she has to pay for changing the past is high: She has to give up all of her memories involving Hyun-jin.
2. Lee Hyun-jung is diagnosed with cancer and the doctor tells her she only has three to six months left to live. She writes a bucket list and starts to do what she really wants to do before her time has come. One day she meets Yoon Joon-moon who's currently a soldier and has three months left until his discharge. When he finds out that Hyun-jung will probably die he decides to help her fulfill her wishes.
3. Park So-yeol collapses on a highschool festival one day and is brought to the hospital. There she meets Hyun-joon, a man who's a lot older than her. But the two of them start going on short trips together and So-yeol finds herself becoming attracted to a man only she can hear and see...
4. Melly/Mary Jung comes back to Korea after hearing that her birth father died. While she never met him as far as she knows, she has to solve a puzzle in order to receive the money he left behind. The only hint she got is Tae-yang, a boy she has been playing with when she spent one week in Korea years ago.
5. Park Sun-woo is helplessly in love with her senior Woo-bin but got turned down for four years. After graduating from university she starts working for the same company. One night she makes an earnest wish that she'll end up with Woo-bin. Her guardian angel Chun Sa-nam has to help her and can only return to heaven when her wish came true.
All of the stories are completely different and, as far as I know, written by different writers, too. What bothered me the most, though, is in fact, that cancer played a huge part in two of five stories, while another deadly disease is mentioned in another episode. Now if someone really has seen people deal with those diseases or lost beloved ones.. I don't like how often they used this without considering that the repeated use might hurt people a lot.

Cast: 1. Han Seung-yeon as Min Ji-hye did a far better job in this series compared to Her Lovely Heels. I liked her acting overall, in some scenes I still thought she seemed to be a little cold but she has improved her acting. Yeon Woo-jin as Jang Hyun-jin was excellent in this series, I really enjoyed his acting and the end of this series almost made me cry because of him.
2. Goo Ha-ra as Lee Hyun-jung was a lot better than I expected her to be. I somehow found her acting a little bit too much from time to time as well but since it was my first time seeing her in a series I think it was a solid performance. Kim Young-kwang as Yoon Joon-moon was good as well but his character changed within five minutes completely. Sure that's because they lacked time but it could've been portrayed better.
3. Kang Ji-young as Park So-yeol simply delivered. I was impressed with her acting, especially in the end. There's nothing I can really criticize about her. Bae Soo-bin as Hyun-joon was a good counterpart and his acting especially when he finally learns the truth was simply awesome.
4. Nicole Jung as Melly/Mary Jung was pretty much alright. I can understand her feelings towards the father she never had but then again in the end she took the shocking message who her father was and why he died to lightly though. Humans are different but I would've imagined something more emotional, especially since she seems to have quite a temper. Lee Kwang-soo as Tae-yang is a chaotic personality in need of money. He seemed goofy but has a serious side to him as well that was kind of interesting to watch.
5. Park Gyu-ri as Park Sun-woo is probably one of the characters I really disliked at first but came to like in the end and her acting was good. She might be one of the few female idols I like to see in K-Dramas. Ji Chang-wook as Chun Sa-nam or Guardian Angel No. 2013 (this sounds so weird though) did a great job. Especially when complaining about humans and scolding Sun-woo.


Rating this series as a whole is rather difficult to me so I somehow calculated an average that happened to be 7.5/10. There are some things I feel I need to mention.
Some things (for example the disease-topic) became repetitve. Of course the writers just used topics that are typical for K-Drama but it's actually annyoing to see how often it's used.
Even if episode 3 deals with this topic, it managed to be memorable and is my favorite episode of this series.
Episode 5 was probably the most interesting one for me since I loved the angel-part of that. I sincerely hope for a longer series probably dealing with the topic of guardian angels or fallen angels since aliens and vampires already were a topic in K-Drama.
Why didn't I mention the soundtrack? Well, it didn't do much for me in this series and I felt like there were loads of different songs involved so I decided to just leave it be.

And I just HAVE to mention how much I loved the settings in Ep. 1, 4 and 5. Those pictures shown are really beautiful.

How would I rank the episodes based on my personal preference?
1. Kang Ji-young/ Bae Soo-bin - Ep.3
2. Park Gyu-ri/ Ji Chang-wook - Ep. 5
3. Han Seung-yeon/ Yeon Woo-jin - Ep. 1
4. Nicole Jung/ Lee Kwang-soo - Ep. 4
5. Goo Ha-ra/ Kim Young-kwang - Ep.2

Boarding House #24

하숙 24번지 (Boarding House #24) is a South Korean TV series that was aired on MBC every1 from September 23rd to December 9th 2014.

Story: Kim Kwang-gyu opens a boarding house and six young people happen to move in. However, he controlled who moves into his house in order to find his long lost child. While all of the different characters try to find their place in life and work hard to fulfill their dreams, it turns out who can't be the owner's child. Among the three male and three female tenants romance develops as well as good friendships.

Cast: What is the best about this series is actually that most of the characters and their actors share the same name. And I honestly found everyone's acting decent. Why? It's a sitcom, not everything has to be realistic and it has to be overacted for the effect sometimes.
Kim Kwang-gyu is an actor who has been acting in a few dramas before so there is a chance most of the people reading this will have seen him before (or will probably see him in the future). His role in this was basically the most important one.
Park Se-mi from Jewelry is in this series as well, and damn! Her character was just creeping me out sometimes but somehow I ended up liking her for being loyal.
BIGFLO's High Top (Im Hyun-tae) suffered a lot because of her as Lee Bang-in. He rocked this series, his scenes were so much fun and I loved the way he was speaking since it wasn't that much of standard Korean as far as I know (I don't know much about the Northern dialects though~).
Rainbow's  Cho Hyun-young is a girl who loves her luxury brands a lot and has to try and has to move into the boarding house because of spending all her rent money for her bags also known as her "babies".
Kim Dong-jun (from ZE:A) is a sport freak who couldn't become a professional soccer player because of an injury and was left unemployed without any dreams anymore.  
Kim Sa-eun wants to date and marry a rich man and doesn't really care about looks anymore until she really develops feelings for someone.  
Min Do-hee (actually from Tiny-G), a quiet girl who can't suffers from a psychological disease.
VIXX's Ken (Lee Jae-hwan) is the son of a hospital owner who left home to fulfill his dreams.
So as you can see the cast basically consists of only idols but they delivered a solid performance in a comedy series.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack itself is kind of interesting, especially in the beginning the use of the songs isn't surprising but it was nice how they used a huge variety of songs I can't even name. It's solid.


So in the end this series got a 7.5/10 rating because it was entertaining. It was funny. It was easy to watch. And it wasn't that long. Of course the story isn't one of the rather unique once but it's okay. The only thing that was really annoying in fact was the laugh track or whatever it's called but I was able to ignore it up to some point.

If you're looking for a light and funny short series and can deal with secondhand-embarrassment, this might be the perfect not-so-serious one for you.

Twenty Years Old

Just a short writer's-note: This was my 50th K-Drama so it is a milestone~ Yay! ♥



스무살 (Twenty Years Old; also known as 20's) is a South Korean drama series consisting of four episodes with a duration of 20 minutes that aired on January 6th and 7th 2014 on tvN.

Story: This short drama series tells the story of Kim Hye-rim who fell for one of her seniors but one night he tries to take her to a motel and her romantic love story ends. After being home for a few days her best friend and housemate Oh Ga-young takes her to a concert of popular idol group BEAST. Ga-young really likes member Lee Gi-kwang who was one of Kim Hye-rim's classmates in middle school.
After the concert, Hye-rim and Gi-kwang meet again and the story of their past becomes relevant again as Gi-kwang shows interest in Hye-rim after four years.

Cast: I think the first person I just need to talk about on here is Lee Gi-kwang as.. himself. Well, yes, it makes sense that his acting therefore wasn't too bad because after all.. who knows a character better than actually the person who is or was the model for this role? That does not mean that I don't think he might be a good actor but probably his role in this one wasn't the hardest to play but then again I don't really know his personality. His acting in this was just okay, pretty much okay and nice but nothing special and he might not be the best idol-turned-actor of all time but I will probably check that out some time later.
Secondly, there's Lee Da-in as Kim Hye-rim. She's pretty but I just came to laugh about how innocent and naive a young woman can be. But that means her acting was in fact believable though it seemed ridiculous how innocent she acted.
Other actors in this drama include Kim Hye-ji as Oh Ga-young and Kim Dong-seok as Kim Tae-woo.

Soundtrack: Is there even a soundtrack besides some of BEAST's songs that are playing in this series? There were a few tracks I've noticed but I don't know the titles or anything about the soundtrack in general. The music is supporting the drama itself and it doesn't have a bad impact on the rating but it is not outstandingly good as well.







A 6/10 might seem to be a kind of low rating to those who have read a few reviews but for me this is solely based on one important factor: the story. The story itself delivers the feeling of a fanfiction, there is literally nothing outstanding about it. It's a story 13 year old girls think about and publish something similar on myfanfiction.com or asianfanfics or I-don't-even-remember-how-many-sites-exist. It simply lacks individuality, the special factor. The character design is alright, the story has the usual elements teen-dramas include.
Character development is difficult to show in such a short series so this didn't really influence my rating.

For fans of BEAST and in general short idol stories this is a cute love story but if you're looking for something more special, this drama might not be the one you should watch. It only has the length of a movie though so it's not a waste of time if you decide to watch this.

Liar Game

라이어게임 (Liar Game) is a Korean drama series that aired on tvN from October 20th to November 25th 2014. The series itself is based on manga.

! I do not know the manga or the Japanese version of this series so I will write this review without comparing the plot and actors. !

Story: Nam Da-jung, an innocent young woman, is asked to help an elderly woman one day. After that woman disappeared leaving her alone with a bag full of money, Da-jung takes the bag home but her conscience tells her to take the money to the police station the next day though she could pay back her debt. By returning that bag filled with money she gets pulled into a TV show called "Liar Game" hosted by Kang Do-young. Since Da-jung is too innocent to win that game and the 10 Million dollar the final winner will receive, loan shark Jo Dal-goo tells her about a smart guy he met in prison - Professor Ha Woo-jin. Since she desperately needs help, Da-jung starts looking for Woo-jin the day he gets out of prison, and though he doesn't want to help her at first, the two of them become a team. Innocent Da-jung learns about people betraying her and that, in order to win, those who betrayed her need to be punished so she finds a circle of players joining her team. But is it right for her to trust all of those people when in the last round 10 Million dollar can be won? And why of all people was she chosen for the show? Was it a plan to get Ha Woo-jin to participate in the game as well?

Cast: The first character to name is Nam Da-jung played by Kim So-eun. While I really liked Kim So-eun since Boys Over Flowers I still liked her - but not that much in this drama, her acting was alright but her character horrible. While I heard people say she's not innocent enough (compared to the Japanese version, that is - found the statement on Mydramalist.com) I wonder how she could be more innocent and even more DUMB. It's not even naive anymore but sometimes I started wondering whether she was just left out when brains were given out for free. Seriously, the one thing that was horrible in this series was how stupid and naive Nam Da-jung was.
Luckily, the main antagonist Kang Do-young played by Shin Sung-rok was awesome. Talking about the actor, can we please talk about his role in You Who Came From The Stars? He was a great villain in a rather basic rom-com series but this time he was even better, maybe because of the setting. I got scared of him in front of my laptop. Kudo's to Shin Sung-rok for creeping me out though I'm still 8000km away. As a character, I enjoyed watching Kang Do-young and Ha Woo-jin caught up in their battle with Woo-jin protecting Da-jung.
Lee Sang-yoon as Ha Woo-jin is someone I've seen for the first time ever in a drama so I might not be able to tell you much about his other series and that is not necessary either. He had this kind of.. aura around him in this series that made me forget that it's actually a K-drama and as I stated above, I loved watching him and Shin Sung-rok in a dangerous battle. While I feel his acting itself was pretty good the combination of two main characters with incredibly charismatic actors made it perfect.
Of course there is a great number of actors involved mainly because of the number of participants as well as the people involved in the production of the show "Liar Game". For example we have Cha Soo-yeon as Lee Yoon-joo who is responsible for the program. At first everything's about the rating for her but she changes and suddenly finds her self under pressure to safe the TV station JVN. Choi Jin-ho as Director Jang is responsible for the pressure and he tends to manipulate what's going on to keep the show interesting.
Among the participants are Lee Si-hoo as Choi Sung-joon, Jang Seung-jo as Kim Bong-geun, Jo Jae-yun as Jo Dal-goo, Lee Cheol-min as Bulldog, Park Jae-hoon as actor Goo In-gi and Lee El as Oh Jung-ah or Jaimie, a character I never thought I would come to like as the series progresses.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack for this series wasn't too special. As far as I remember there was only Dear Cloud's "Liar" that really caught my attention and that is not much but at least that song even made it up to my list of my personal favorite OST songs of all time. But since this drama is filled with suspense I would've wished for something slightly more mysterious. I don't know if you get what I mean but bands like Nell or Hlin would've completed that soundtrack perfectly..

Overall I did enjoy this series a lot but it still only gets a 9/10 for mainly two reasons. I was really bothered by Nam Da-jung's stupid and naive behavior and I just cannot look past that fact. The other reason is indeed the soundtrack. I explained it before in the post regarding my favorite soundtracks I think and the OST can in fact save a series - or kind of destroy it. Now the music did not destroy this but it's a minus for me.
There's only a hint of romance in this series - if you want to see it like that so I think you can very well ignore it if you don't like it.
Some people said that certain aspects of the games were hard to understand without knowing the Japanese version - but I do not agree with this. Yes, I sometimes needed to rewatch a scene because I didn't really get the explanation but as soon as examples were shown it made sense.

As far as I've heard many fans of the Japanese version didn't like the Korean version and that's okay but standing for itself the series is definitely worth watching. It's interesting, suspenseful and will keep you excited if you like this kind of series.

I'll just leave you wiht some gifs you will understand after watching the series - the last one was one of my favorite scenes in the whole 12 episodes.

One Night Only

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

원나잇온리 (One Night Only) is a Korean movie that was released in 2014. It consists of chapters, each about 30 minutes long, and therefore gives a hint on the lives of a few young man.

Story: The first story is called "Night Bug". Han-jae organizes meetings in a bar in Jongno for gay men with a group of others where they get drunk. He and his 'business partner' then take their money. Not long ago he met Hoon who became his bait. With Hoon longing for his love it's easy for Han-jae to control him - but maybe also to lose him.
The second story, One Night, deals with the hopes of three students from the a Southern province who want to go to Seoul to be able to date properly, at least compared to the rather small town they're living in. One day, Geun-ho almost gets into a car accident but a man, Joon, saves him. Later that day they meet in a small gay bar again and Joon takes Geun-ho to Seoul the next day. But isn't it naive to trust someone you barely know and leave with him?

Cast: The cast of this movie consists of, as far as I know, rather unknown actors, most of them acted in a few movies but only as supporting characters.
In the first part we have Jang Yoo-sang as Choi Hoon and Park Geun-rok as Han-jae. While I did like their acting Han-jae as a character seemed too cold and only opened up in the end when you feel like it's too late.
The second part evolves aroung Geun-ho played by Yoo Min-kyu and his friends Yong-woo played by Jo Bok-rae and Sang-soo played by Kim Dae-joon. And the characters have been too sassy from time to time! WHY? I actually did like the story. But come on, gay men aren't like that. At least not the majority. That's why I actually liked the sometimes really shy but cute Geun-ho, and of course Jeong Won-jo as Joon. They're acting felt much better and the behavior of the characters seemed way more natural.


Why did I rate this movie with 7/10? Well, it's worth a watch but I kept wondering why they just put both parts in one movie. Of course it's not helpful that the audience is only introduced to the characters for one night.
But we would need to analyze the reason why this movie was made at first - to show how gay men live in Korea? Simply to talk about a topic that was and still somewhat is a taboo? Some more plot or even info on why exactly they put to completely different stories together would've been nice since it didn't feel like a clear cut to me.

Ghost-Seeing Detecitve Cheo Yong

귀신 보는 형사 처용 (Ghost-Seeing Detective Cheo Yong, also known as simply Cheo Yong) is a South Korean drama series that aired from February 9th to April 6th 2014 on OCN.

Story: Detective Yoon Cheo-yong was born with the ability to see ghosts. Seven years ago after the death of his partner he quits the W.S.T and works as an ordinary police officer. However, because of a mysterious case he decides to help the responsible unit and meets Han Na-young, the ghost of a high school girl who's caught in the police station. Together with Detective Ha Sun-woo and with Na-young occasionally helping him by taking over Ha Sun-woo's body.

Cast: Well, the cast was alright I guess. I did enjoy Oh Ji-ho as Yoon Cheo-yong the most. The cold wall around him trying to not lose another person due to his special ability and the danger he always sees because of that is something understandable and I'd argue it's actually human. Though he's not a character one gets to like in the very beginning, I think it's okay.
Oh Ji-eun did a really good job as Ha Sun-woo (and sometimes also Han Na-young when the ghost managed to take over her body) which is quite enjoyable but at first I just thought that she was annoying. To be honest I don't really know why but trying to make Cheo-yong accept her as his partner.. In the very beginning I actually thought Sun-woo as a character was more involved with Cheo-yong's former partner but - at least in the first two or three episodes they managed to lead me into the wrong direction.
Talking about Han Na-young.. I love Jeon Hyo-sung of Secret a lot. She's beautiful and has a nice body and voice and I admire her but I honestly don't know whether her acting sucks or if it's just her character. Many people say Na-young is cute but I just found her to be overly annoying and childish - and not even like a high school student but more like some girl who hasn't graduated from elementary school yet. It might be just me though but I just would've wished for at least a character who is a little more serious.
In the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency we see Yoo Seung-mok as team leader Byun Gook-jin and his character made me wonder if someone even has to work hard to become something like a team leader in the Korean police agency because he seems so stupid as a character. Sadly, that's not the only character I seriously don't understand. Because the same goes for Yeon Je-wook as Detective Lee Jong-hyun. So. Stupid. It seems like he just wants to prove he can do well, too, after Cheo-yong came back and actually the character seems to be some semi-intelligent person one would love to beat up. And also about the third member of the team, Yoo Min-kyu as Park Min-jae I could say the same thing but he has some bonus - he's a lot younger and therefore a lot less experienced than his seniors so I do think it's forgivable that his character isn't the best detective (yet).
Now I need to mention two cameos of characters that are necessary for the story in the background. At first we have Baek Sung-hyun as Jang Tae-suk, Cheo-Yong's former partner. Thanks to this guy I cried a river. Again. It's not like I've never done this before. What I really enjoyed about his character in this drama is in fact that he shows the same ability Oh Ji-eun does - being possessed by a ghost at least for some time. But let me admit that he's freaking sexy in that black trenchcoat with this stone-like gaze. And his character probably wouldn't have been that important if it wasn't for Choi Deok-moon as Yang Soo-hyuk. I don't want to tell you too much about his role in this drama but from a human point of view I just can't see him as an evil spirit. I just can't stop myself from pitying his character in this series a lot.

Soundtrack: Speaking in all honesty the soundtrack isn't bad but definitely not my cup of tea. There were some enjoyable tracks, some nice instrumental pieces, yes, but that's that. About the two songs that appeared in the drama, there was nothing memorable.



Now is this a bad series? 7.5/10 for an OCN series is rather on the worse side of the scale, that's true, especially since I'm a huge fan of OCN Original series. But I did hear from many people this was rather weak. (I had to watch it though just because.. you know.. Baek Sung-hyun.)
Talking about the positive and negative aspects, some cases were good. Especially the one with the ghost of that young girl protecting her brother, I think it's Ep. 7, was touching and had an interesting story, and Ep. 8 just killed me. It was sad but at the same time I was swearing at those guys. You will understand what I'm talking about when watching this. But sadly I had a feeling there were some episodes just added to fill the quota, the stories weren't that good or catchy.
Another point is the atmosphere. I had the feeling the atmosphere was rather light with most of the scenes being shot during the day. As for a drama that should cause something like suspense or a thrill this was rather weak. And of course some overly melodramatic things (which I did enjoy, yes, but don't expect to be in a drama about mystery, crime or suspense) didn't really do any good about this.
And there's one point in logic I don't get. All of the other ghosts seem to remember their story and are trying to help and find their murderers. But then there's Na-young who doesn't even remember her name at first nor what happened to her? Logic?
The end didn't really make sense to me either. I don't know but there's only one question left - why did Sun-woo change like that?! Except for that fact that drama has ended. There are no questions left. But why do they need to air another season of this series? I sometimes really don't understand writers nor OCN.

If you like ghosts and detective series, go for it. Watch it. It has some ups and downs and it's not that bad at the end of the day.
And if you're a fan of Baek Sung-hyun, just like I am, I'd also say watch this. But only if you're really a huge fan of his because he hasn't that much screen time so...