Hidden Identity

신분을 숨겨라 (Hidden Identity) is a South Korean drama series consisting of 16 episodes that aired on tvN from June 16th to August 4th 2015.

Story: The story follows Investigation Team Five, a special team that is said to be nonexistent even in police records. Since it is a secret unit that doesn't always obey the law in order to get what they need, they tend to be criticized for their methods. But only Investigation Team Five led by Jang Moo-won can deal with one of the most dangerous criminal organizations led by the Ghost. It is just natural that the members of the team get themselves into huge trouble as well as personal affairs while working.

Cast: Cha Gun-woo played by Kim Bum is a rather complicated character. I really liked the acting all the time, especially when the past became relevant to him again. While I'd say the acting was great (and I might be biased, I won't even deny it), some of his fight scenes were just funny. Someone who has been through military training and manages to deal with.. a group of people at one time can't even deal with one person later on? To me it seems like someone didn't think about this.
Park Sung-woong as team leader Jang Moo-won was a pretty cold character most of the time. The type of team leaser we often get presented, taking responsibility for everything but not getting too involved. The acting was good, including most of the action scenes but sometimes there was something missing about the character itself. I totally blame the writing for this though.
Jang Min-joo is one of the characters I don't really understand. She has a sense of loyalty and sometimes that seems to be the only reason why she accepts things the way they are. However, Yoon So-yi delivered a solid performance in the end. Yes, sometimes she seemed to accepting though she was opposed to the idea of Gun-woo joining the team (you will understand that later, not in the first episodes) but it's not that bad and her acting therefore wasn't too bad either.
Lee Won-jong as Choi Tae-pyung is someone who already has some experience acting in a crime series. His acting was good, his character a little weird but loyal and there's actually nothing I can complain about.
Kim Tae-hoon is in this series as Min Tae-in and while I wasn't sure about his character in the very beginning I came to like him and was hoping for something more. His character is probably the one suffering the most and I just felt sorry for him. His acting was good regarding the fact that he wasn't around all the time.
Lim Hyun-sung as Jin Deok-hoo was simply lovable, I was happy to see him around. The acting wasn't anything special but worked well with the story and the team.
Other actors in this series include Lee Kyung-young as Choi Dae-han, Choi Jung-woo as President Lee (I simply forgot the rest of his name), Kang Sung asYoo Jin-woo and Heo Jae-ho as Jung Sang-joon.

Soundtrack: I personally came to like the OST even though I wasn't impressed at first. The songs go well with the atmosphere of this drama and I especially liked Chul Gu's "신세계 (New World)" and Mad Soul Child's "It's Over". After all it's not one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard but pretty good.



My rating for this series is a 8/10 after all. There are some things I really enjoyed, a lot of things I just accepted and things I didn't like at all. So what is it I criticize the most?
1. The logic. Mostly it's about the fights. Usually the agents are quite good but all of a sudden they lose each and every single fight? Once again, if someone has been through military training the person usually is good at fighting but still loses against some gangsters? And, if you lose against someone while fighting three times, does it make sense to even fight one more time instead of simply using your gun? Because as far as I've seen they do have guns. The fact that it's a serious drama makes the logical flaws worse.
2. The story itself. This drama was said to be about undercover cops. And that's misleading in fact because only one of them has been undercover. The others usually just take roles for a few hours, maybe a few days, but I wouldn't define that as an undercover thing.
Some things were obvious, others were only added to make the story longer than it actually would have been. Was it really necessary to make Jang Min-joo's father a part of the story? The family background didn't help the whole story.

Those are the things that bothered me the most. I also noticed that it started off pretty fast and exciting, lost it's pace somewhere around Ep.9/10 and started to change again in Ep. 15. Episodes 13/14 were the weakest point in my opinion since the suspense is destroyed when one figures out who's involved with the Ghost.
What else can I say? Regarding the whole "undercover" description I've had high expectations and thought it would be somehow similar to Line Walker but it wasn't.
Do I recommend this? If you don't expect much you won't be disappointed and I openly admit that this drama has a rewatch value solely because of the music, the cast and some interesting things within this series itself.

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.

God's Quiz 2

신의 퀴즈 2 (God's Quiz 2) is the second season of OCN Original series God's Quiz and aired from  June 10th to August 26th 2011.

Story: Han Jin-woo and the team of Hanguk University continue to solve cases involving rather rare diseases. But it turns out that some diseases should be hidden behind simply causes of death for some cases and the SCD, a national agency, tries to stop the team from investigating desperately.
I won't go into this topic too much because things would be boring if I would tell you everything about this but the background story kinda reminded me of The Virus - but there were differences as well. It gave me goosebumps and this season did well in keeping up the level of suspense.

Cast: As for the cast, there were indeed some changes but many actors who took important roles in the first season were in this one again so I don't want to comment on their acting over and over again - maybe I will do that later. I still enjoyed seeing Ryu Deok-hwan as Han Jin-woo. As a character, he became more complex in this season and I just wanted to find out why things turned out the way they are. Yoon Joo-hee as Kang Kyung-hee was awesome in this season as well, her character didn't really mature, that's not the right word, but her acting seems more confident than in the first season - and usually less cold. Another actor remaining in the cast is Choi Jung-woo as Jang Kyu-tae and I know why I'm talking about him as 'everyone's favorite ajusshi'. Though he loses the image of a caring father in this season, his acting was on spot and believable and I actually loved how he still tried to follow his principles after all. Park Joon-myun also appeared again as Jo Young-shil, and though she still doesn't belong to the main cast I did like her acting though it seemed too emotional sometimes. It's just that I know people can be like that from time to time and I suppose the writer wanted her character to act like that.
Way more important in this season than in the first became Na Yoon as Kim Sung-do who's trying his best to support Jin-woo no matter what happens. His acting was on spot, this is what one expects friends to be like to be honest and everyone should have at least one good friend like him.
Now this might be a spoiler but Ahn Yong-joon is back as Jung Ha-yoon as well! How is this possible after the first season? Well, you'll have to find out on your own but his acting turned out even better in this season. And I honestly think so because there are two sides of his character shown in here that couldn't be more different and making the audience believe in the different characteristics. Judging by his ability to manage that well I'm looking forward to seeing him in other series.
Someone I didn't mention in the cast for first season because he didn't appear to frequently is Choo Seung-wook as Detective Park Do-joon. Since he became more and more important in this season (I loved him in the last episode) I needed to mention him on here. Such a cool cop.
Talking about differences in the cast we actually notice.. we have a new character, Min Ji-yool, a profiler, played by Lee Seol-hee in this season and though one might hate her at first it turns out that  her support in fact isn't that bad. Acting or not, her cold character actually opened up and the audience suddenly starts to like her somehow.
And instead of Dr. Nam whom we've seen in the first season, this time Dr. Cha is responsible for most of the forensic work, played by Kim Se-hyun. It's hard to really judge his acting since most of the time it just feels like he's following orders - which might be true at the end of the day.

Soundtrack: Can we please talk about Hlin performing "Redd" for the OST of this season? Hlin are a band I mostly compare to Nell and when I heard the song I admit I thought about Nell at first when hearing the song but I love it. 10/10 just for this song. There's a song by Untouchable included in the OST as well called "Question" which I didn't really like at first but then I definitely grew attached to the song.


After all I found this season to be more emotional than the first one and therefore had to give it a better rating. Since this is nearly perfect, no one should be surprised about the overall 10/10. A great cast showing their abilities, well-written and sometimes really deep stories and at least the last three episodes were perfect and kept my heart beating faster and faster. All in all a great season and I'm curious as to what might follow in the next season(s).

God's Quiz

신의 퀴즈 (God's Quiz) is a South Korean drama series that aired on OCN from October 8th to December 10th 2010. It was followed by so far three other seasons.

Story: Genius medical doctor Han Jin-woo starts working at Hanguk University in the department responsible for medical and forensic analysis. The department has its own unit for investigation of strange death cases. Working together with a team of experts as well as detective Kang Kyung-hee who is the connection to the police force he solves crimes. But Jin-woo has to deal with some strange pains and gets threatened by someone so he has to solve his own case as well but unintentionally causes some more problems that put the whole team into a dangerous situation.

Cast: Ryu Deok-hwan is a rather young male lead actor for OCN as Dr. Han Jin-woo. His acting was pretty well done in my opinion, it wasn't obviously faked - it seems as if he's really in pain. While he also manages to portray the innocent and somehow playful young man well. Yoon Joo-hee as Kang Kyung-hee turns out to be someone he enjoys playing around with though she always tells him to stop playing. Kyung-hee is a rather cold character at first and doesn't seem to be someone the viewer would like but just a few episodes later I found myself actually sympathizing with her. Even if I would like to, I can't say anything bad about Yoon Joo-hee's acting.
With Choi Jung-woo as Jang Kyu-tae there's an ajusshi in this drama everyone I've met so far seems to love, including me. He seems once again like a mentor and almost a caring father in this drama.
Park Joon-myun is in this series as well as Jo Young-shil, a character who seems to care a lot about manners and respect. Though her character isn't around that often one cannot help but like her during the last episodes, and I honestly think Park Joon-myun did a good job playing this role.
One of the rather funny characters in this series, Kim Sung-do, was played by Na Yoon. He seems to discuss complete nonsense with Han Jin-woo from time to time (thinking of Episode 6 *cough*) and is also somewhat known because of his love for adult movies (or could we say porn?) but somehow lightens up the atmosphere in the office.
Park Da-an as Go Yoon-jeong to me seemed to almost have a crush on Jin-woo. It might be only about me, her acting was well done, but I couldn't figure out whether she liked Jin-woo or not by now and I've finished this season. But then again there is a chance she might only be a caring person.
Ahn Yong-joon as Jung Ha-yoon seems to be the perfect psychopath villain in here and I think that psycho-gaze suits him incredibly well. Except for not quite understanding why exactly he turned out to be a 'monster' (said in the series, I know, but I'm not sure if I really understood because - Jin-woo developed into another direction. Circumstances? Parenting done right/wrong?) but it was actually believable and he gave me goosebumps..
Lastly I feel like I need to mention Kim Gun-woo as Nam Joo-nam. He doesn't have too much screentime which I find rather sad because I see some potential but as far as I could figure out he did well as the somewhat lovable assistant.

Soundtrack: I wish I could tell you more about the soundtrack but wasn't really able to find out that much about it until now myself. Maybe I will edit this section later on because I've finally found out something. I can only tell you that I liked the music overall, it was always well used in the situations and especially the instrumental/orchestra pieces once again caught my attention.


Overall God's Quiz seems to be a solid series and therefore deserves to be rated with a 9/10. Now to those of you who might have noticed that my love for OCN Original series is actually overflowing and almost all of them got higher ratings than this one I feel like I need to explain why.. I think it's just similar to The Virus. While I do enjoy watching this mix of medical and crime it doesn't really trigger any emotions unlike other series. It might be because of me not being into medical stuff this much or mainly because I prefer my crime series rather romance free but this is just an idea..
I can only compare my reactions but Special Affairs Team TEN, especially the second season, brought me close to some kind of mental breakdown. Other series like Missing Noir M basically cause a huge emptiness after finishing one episode and I usually need at least 30 minutes to calm down and realize what kind of emotional rollercoaster ride I just endured. Compared to especially those two series I found myself rather emotionless watching this. It made me laugh, it sometimes made me feel sorry for certain characters but not to the extent I've experienced before.
However, it is possible I will change my opinion watching the other seasons. Nothing is impossible and overall I really did like it.

Dr. Frost

!Warning! This post may contain some ranting, fangirling, spoilers and everything that just comes out from me being in a love-hate relationship with OCN!

닥터 프로스트 (Dr. Frost) is a South Korean television series that aired from November 23rd 2014 to February 1st 2015 on OCN. The series consists of 10 episodes with a duration of about 60 minutes.

Story: Baek Nam-bong became a professor of psychology at an early age. After some traumatic events in the past he lost his emotions and studied psychology in order to get to know himself and other humans better. After being asked to work there he becomes a counselor at Yongang University and works as a bartender at night. Working with Teaching Assistant Yoon Seong-ah, he helps the police to solve cases. While he has problems sympathizing with other, Seong-ah is an emotional person and therefore helps him to connect with others.
While a mysterious case of manipulated memories appears, Dr. Frost and the people around him also find themselves in danger.

Cast: Song Chang-eui took over the role of Dr. Frost. And let me tell you that I had a really interesting time analyzing this character. I'm not a psychologist and far from knowing a lot about the human brain but just by observing we can usually figure out some things. Now, in this drama, the mask was basically perfect. But it's good to see a completely different side of the character in the end.
Jung Eun-chae becomes similar to an interpreter to Dr. Frost as Yoon Seong-ah. Does anyone on here know the US series Scorpion? There's a reason why I mention this on here. The team in that series consists of four geniuses but because of a high IQ, their EQ (emotional quotient) is rather low so they need someone to help them understand the world. While Seong-ah couldn't think this logically without Dr. Frost, he actually needs her to understand emotions. Their relationship doesn't seem like sympathy but because of different characteristics, they're an incredibly good team.
Sung Ji-ru as Detective Nam Tae-bong is their connection to the police. At some point we get to know that he has been working with Dr. Frost before but we don't know when they met and why or how exactly their work started.
Others in the main cast include Lee Yoon-ji as Song Seon, Choi Jung-woo as Professor Cheon Sang-won, Song Jong-ho as Moon Sung-hyun and Lee Shi-kang as Detective Cha.

Soundtrack: How I'd wish I could listen to the OST on CD or anything else.. there are very few songs but just by listening to the instrumentals while watching the drama, I loved how the music supported the atmosphere, be it mysterious or calm. The last two songs that are actually song by female vocalists in the end wouldn't have been necessary at all but since that's pretty much popular in Asia, I'm alright with that - and I can proudly say that there was no song that pissed me off.


My rating is a definite 10/10 and there's no need to discuss that.
But then again I am in love with crime series. If you want to watch this drama, give it a shot but there is no 'real' love story - people just love to interpret some things.
If you enjoy the American series Lie to me (not to be confused with the Korean series that has a completely different story!) and Sherlock Holmes this drama is like perfect for you.

The only thing I need to mention is the end again.. OCN, you seriously want to drive me crazy? It's not like I've been waiting for TEN's 3rd season now for a loooong time already - now you want to drive me nuts while waiting for a 2nd season of Dr. Frost as well?! If they continue like this, my hair will become as white as his just because of frustration..
Oh, mentioning white hair - there are two possibilities. Either I didn't realize the reason why his hair was white even at an early age or they didn't mention that at all. As a naturally curious person I need to figure that out..

Long story short: Great series, many mysteries left, now the long wait for a second season starts - if there'll ever be one. If they don't give me a second season, I might start seriously hating OCN but their OCN Original series are just way too good to be true. I'll just drown in feels and look for the next series to watch so I want fall into the post-drama depression.

The Master's Sun

주군의 태양 (The Master's Sun) is a Korean drama that aired from August 7th to October 3rd 2013 on SBS.

Story: Tae Gong-shil who was called "Tae-yang" (which means 'Sun', just in case you didn't notice that while watching the drama) when she was younger because of her bright mind is involved in an accident and wakes up with the ability to see ghosts. Ghosts go to see her and ask for favors which makes her life a lot harder so she can't go to university. Also drinking alcohol is a baaaaaaad idea because some crazy ghost might take control over her body. One day she meets chaebol Joo Joong-won who spent his whole life making more and more money. Because of a trauma in the past he has built a cold exterior that no one, not even his father, can get through.
In the first episode while being out to help a ghost Gong-shil jumps into Joong-won's car. Though he was not willing to take her back into town, Joong-won gives in when she fearfully screams because of a ghost appearing in front of her. Tae-yang realizes at some point, that, whenever she touches Joong-won, the ghosts just disappear. And so he becomes her 'secret hideout'.
The love story that evolves around those two definitely is not one we've seen 20 times before. Tae-yang's ability to see ghosts makes things a lot more difficult and puts them in danger from time to time as well.

Cast: The main cast consists of So Ji-sub as Joo Joong-won (who makes a perfect cold-hearted chaebol, it's really easy to believe he really behaves that way) and Gong Hyo-jin as Tae Gong-shil/Tae-yang. If you want to see a bunch of charisma, here you go~ they make a great onscreen couple and it's also really easy to believe that Gong Hyo-jin is really a confused, lost and desperate young woman who is so definitely not willing to let go of her secret hideout!
Seo In-guk can be seen as Kang Woo, who's the poor second male lead - or not so poor in the end because of the second female lead (and why are those second female leads either annoying as hell or just bad characters? Can't there be someone who's less annoying?) Kim Yoo-ri as Tae Yi-ryung. Not to forget: We see Choi Jung-woo who acts in a lot of SBS dramas as Kim Gwi-do (and basically the first person to ship Joong-won and Tae-yang, I always imagined him standing there like a cheerleader) and L or Kim Myung-soo who appears in a few scenes as the younger Joong-won.

Soundtrack: The OST is.. okay, let's just stay with this. Except for me not being a huge fan of Gummy (why is she featured in this many OST's anyways? Not hating, just wondering) my personal highlights were Hyorin's "미치게 만들어 (Driving Me Crazy)" and Hong Dae Kwang's "너와 나 (You and I)". Though I actually like the song itself as well, I just don't feel like Melody Day's "All About" fit the story or the drama and actually this song was so annoying while watching the drama.
Other artists who recorded songs for the OST include T-Yoon Mi Rae and Seo In-guk.

Though it does have some flaws - I'm not even denying that it's one of my favorite K-dramas and therefore has a rating of 10/10. Yes, we do have some typical things - Second Male Lead-Syndrome, bitchy second female lead, traumatic events in the past, love triangle (one should think this gets boring someday but it obviously still works relatively well) - but at the same time it is different from what I've seen in K-dramas before. Maybe it's because of the touching stories some ghosts tell, maybe it's simply because the whole story is about a woman who's able to see ghosts and therefore - pardon me - ends up like a crazy mess. Oh, and maybe it's just because we seriously want to know how
THIS

ended up like THIS

But this drama made me realize that I'm weird. The story of a dog's ghost made me cry an ocean but Ep. 12 (? You'll know what I mean when you see that scene) leaves me completely emotionless like "Oh, yes, good job, you did protect her, now what?"