Posts mit dem Label Choi Yeo-jin werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label Choi Yeo-jin werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen

Freitag, 26. August 2016

The Lover

더 러버 (The Lover) is a South Korean drama series that aired on Mnet from April 2nd to June 25th 2015 every Thursday.

Story: The drama tells the story of four couples living in the same building in different apartments.
Oh Do-si and Ryu Doo-ri live in Apartment 609. Both in their thirties, Do-si is a voice actor and Doo-ri is a blogger. They simply chose to live together instead of getting married, and have been sharing an apartment for two years after dating for five years.
In Apartment 610 lives a couple with a huge age gap. Jung Young-joon and Choi Ji-nyeo are twelve years apart in age. Ji-nyeo has the personality of a penny-pinching ajumma and basically supports her younger boyfriend in the hope that he will someday realize his dream, while Young-joon is an unemployed musician who carries around a guitar he doesn't know how to play. They've been living together for a year, and are quick to fight and make up.
Ha Seol-eun and Park Hwan-jong live in Apartment 510. They are in their twenties and have just moved in together. Seol-eun wants her boyfriend to believe that she's the perfect embodiment of femininity, and works tirelessly to keep up the illusion.
Lee Joon-jae lives alone in apartment 709. Though he is a loner and prefers to stay on his own he has to find a roommate for financial reasons. Takuya moves in with him and convinces Joon-jae to come out of his apartment from time to time.

Cast: The first couple, Oh Do-si and Ryu Doo-ri, is played by Oh Jung-se and Ryu Hyun-kyung. At this point I openly admit that I can't say much about their acting. What I've seen was supposed to be funny but just seemed too ridiculous and weird. The actors are not to blame for that but honestly - this couple was just the most boring one to me so I just skipped almost all of their parts during the last episodes. Even decent acting wasn't able to save it though they did have some quite funny scenes.
Choi Ji-nyeo and Jung Young-joon were played by Choi Yeo-jin and Jung Joon-young. As I've been a huge fan of JJY's solo albums, I just feel like I had to watch this drama, and it was also my second time watching a drama starring Choi Yeo-jin and she's a quite good actress. The chemistry could have been better from time to time but in general I liked the way they portrayed the characters.
Park Jong-hwan and Ha Eun-seol acted in this drama as Park Hwan-jong and Ha Seol-eun (does anyone else realize that they were pretty creative when it comes to character names?) The idea and the acting of this couple overall was alright. I wouldn't say they were outstanding but they weren't as bad as the first couple either. I started to skip some of their scenes though because their story wasn't that interesting to me so it is possible I missed out some either incredibly good or very bad scenes.
Lastly, Lee Joon-jae and Takuya were played by Lee Jae-joon and Takuya Terada (of Cross Gene). I loved them with all of my heart and found their acting to be pretty good. The way both of these actors portrayed the character was pleasant to watch and seemed okay - despite for one thing once again the writers are to blame for. Joon-jae just accepts what is new too fast. Now, as far as I remember we don't know if he ever came to like another guy before, but most people would question themselves a lot more than he does.

Soundtrack: Did anyone count how many songs were played in this drama? All I can tell you is that there was literally nothing too memorable about all of those songs. Most of them were older I think and just randomly taken but still had to fit the situation. In general this worked out. But I really wondered if the songs were chosen to fit the dialogues - or if the dialogues were written following the songs.


After all? 5/10 is the best rating I can give because I skipped huge part of this drama. I kept watching for Takuya and Joon-jae as well as Ji-nyeo and Young-joon. The other two couples couldn't capture my interest at all. Of course a drama of 12 episodes with a duration of 45 minutes or something isn't a huge waste of time but well.. I just didn't like it and if I'm going to ever watch this again, I'll probably watch some cut versions on Youtube.
If you want to watch this drama, be warned though. It's nothing like other K-Dramas that are loved because of their "innocent nature" or something.



Freitag, 18. Dezember 2015

I Need Romance

로맨스가 필요해 (I Need Romance) is a South Korean drama series that was aired from June 13th to August 2nd 2011 on tvN. It consist of 16 episodes with a duration between 40 and 45 minutes.

Story: The story is about Sun-woo In-young, a 33-year-old woman, who has been dating Kim Sung-soo for 10 years when they face a crisis. After he cheated on her for the second time, the couple breaks up but In-young can't forget Sung-soo until she starts dating Bae Sung-hyun.
In-young's best friends, Hyun-joo and Seo-yeon, both also 33 years old, both face difficulties with love at the same time: While one tries to get rid of her virginity desperately, the other has to go to court because of 'adultery' after finding out one of her countless lovers was married.

Cast: The lead 'triangle' was played by Jo Yeo-jeong as Sun-woo In-young, Kim Jung-hoon as Kim Sung-soo and Choi Jin-hyuk as Bae Sung-hyun (who left me with a serious love for his character). While their acting was well done - at least I think so - it might be mainly because of me being able to understand Bae Sung-hyun's reactions. God, how I just wanted In-young to grow the fuck up! (Sorry for using that kind of language but the character seriously got on my nerves). As for Kim Jung-hoon, his 'suffering' was nice in the end but I still hated his character. Full stop. Maybe some of you will understand after watching the drama, some might not be able to. I can deal with this.
Anyway, I happened to find the side story between Choi Yeo-jin as Park Seo-yeon, Ricky Lee Neely as Alex and Lee Kwan-hoon as Seo Joon-Yi the most entertaining part of the whole drama. Though everything 'happens' rather late, I came to not only like their acting but also the development of the characters, especially Seo-yeon who has been present for such a long time.
Also, the relationship between Kang Hyun-joo and Kim Duk-soo played by Choi Song-hyun and Kim Hyung-min was somewhat cute and amusing and Hyun-joo was definitely one of the best and funniest female characters I've ever seen in a K-Drama. Especially the wedding was such a beautiful and perfect 'scene' that I couldn't help but watch it again and again.

Soundtrack: This is once again one of the soundtracks I don't know a lot about. While I did happen to like it somewhat it was too passive, mostly in the background and I just couldn't get used to it. I have to admit that I love the song Choi Jin-hyuk performed in Ep.14 (?) but it's sadly not included in the OST so I can't really count it.


What's left after watching this drama in about 3 days.. is a rating of 6/10. Maybe I lack some kind of sensitivity, that's possible. But:
WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD A WOMAN TAKE A GUY BACK WHO CHEATED ON HER TWICE?! WHO WOULD EVEN CONSIDER THIS?!
What the fuck is wrong with this woman? I don't get it. While I do see that it's important to love yourself and your dreams more than a man I wonder what would be bad about staying alone..?

That's actually the main point that bothered me. But when it comes to talking about positive aspects, let's face a fact: When the leads are making out - it IS passionate and it IS awesome to watch.
Some scenes are funny, especially those involving the two best friends.

Would I watch it again? The whole drama? No. Scenes? Yes.
Recommendation? Well, give it a shot if you like Sex and the City and/or romantic comedies. At least if you're not bothered by a female character that doesn't know what she wants you should do well.


This scene broke my heart though, I just cannot deal with this..