Night Watch

불침번을 서라 (Night Watch, also known as Neighborhood Watch) is a South Korean drama special that was aired on KBS2 on August 7th 2013 and has a duration of 1 hour and 7 minutes.

Story: Kim Hee-chan is an unpopular novelist and usually stays at home during daytime. On the other hand, his wife Jo Min-sook works during regular work hours. One morning she leaves for work and finds a blue bag filled with food trash tied to her car. She suspects Kim Soo-ji but the next morning, Soo-ji finds a blue bag like that next to her door and assumes it is revenge. However, during the next few days, blue trash bags appear in front of other neighbor's doors as well and cause a lot of suspicion and even one accident. Trying to find the "culprit" the residents start to check the CCTV and literally go on night watch.
I'm not fully sure if I understood the point of this drama. Yet it is a cute watch and keeps you busy for 1 hour. I actually caught myself being suspicious of everyone at one point and trying to figure out why someone would place trashbags in front of random doors.

Cast: Ki Tae-young as Kim Hee-chan. I don't really know what I should write here, it's not like I did not like his acting but more that it was again over the top and I think it was supposed to be like this to light up the mood a bit but.. I wish the whole special would've been just a tad bit more serious. But after all it was good and I have no idea what to criticize.
Lee Seung-min as Jo Min-sook. Oh, I liked her acting but not her character! I guess I just generally have a problem with female characters in dramas sadly but the jealousy was no joke and I hated it.. Well, I can't change that at least but a part of her character was actually understandable.
Kim Yoo-hyun as Kim Soo-ji. I found her character to be much more interesting for a female character. I can't pinpoint what it is but maybe it was just that she actually seemed interested at one point and wanted to find out what was going on (if I remember right).
Kwak Hee-sung as Kim Jin-hyuk. Oh, his character is a sweetie in this one and he reminded me of a puppy, especially the way he cared for his parents even though they were not present in this drama directly was quite sweet. I fairly enjoyed his acting, too.
Keep in mind that after just 1 hour you're usually not able to talk a lot about acting skills unless you really focus on that.


6/10
This was an entertaining, light-hearted watch but I probably wouldn't rewatch it because yes, it got me bored here and there and I still don't understand what the big deal is about a trash bag if you carry out your trash every single day anyway. I probably wouldn't bother to do research but rather rely on surveillance cameras or anything but I certainly wouldn't care enough to sit outside during nighttime and observe the building.
Also, parts of this looked more like a play that could've been performed on stage but not really like a drama special. This bothered me slightly but it wasn't terrible.

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!

1 Litre of Tears

1リットルの涙 (1 Litre of Tears, 1 Litre no namida) is a Japanese drama series that aired from October 11th to December 20th 2005 on Fuji TV.

Story: The drama tells the story of Aya Ikeuchi, a young girl at the age of 15 who enters the highschool she wanted to along with her best friend. After tripping often lately, her mother, Shioka Ikeuchi, is worried and takes Aya to see a doctor, Hiroshi Mizuno, who diagnoses her with spinocerebellar degeneration. Though Shioka meets many other doctors as well as the specialist about this disease, the reality that it cannot be cured remains. She didn't tell Aya, but in the meantime the girl is able to figure out what's going on with her body on her own. One day when visitting Dr. Mizuno again, the information she found becomes reality - she won't be able to walk or speak or write and will be bedridden someday. "Why did the disease chose me?" As her everyday activities become more difficult, she even has to leave her friends and can't realize her dream to graduate from Higashikou anymore. But the young woman refuses to give up hope, also because of Haruto Asou whom she met on the day of her entrance exam and though the two of them didn't get along that well at first became a reliable friend.

Cast: Erika Sawajiri does a brilliant job as Aya Ikeuchi. She's fighting for her freedom, her life and in the end for her body to remain hers. Not being able to control her body anymore is a nightmare and I usually felt how thankful she was towards her friends and family but in the same time she was so sorry for being a burden to those around her. Also Ryo Nishikido as Haruto Asou is good in this one. I don't know if I would describe his acting as excellent. Sometimes he seems a little too cold, especially when he's more or less rebelling against his father but the scenes with Haruto and Aya were always nice to watch and I loved their friendship - I won't say love because not even once it is officially stated they are dating - we only know that they like each other. A lot.
My favorite actors in this series were actually Hiroko Yakushimaru and Takanori Jinnai as Aya's parents, Shioka and Mizuo Ikeuchi. Parents fighting for their child, trying to comfort her though they are in pain as well. Especially Aya's father has difficulties accepting the truth about the disease and though he tries to not show that he's in pain sometimes, when Aya's not around, it still comes through. As for Aya's mom, it's almost the same. She's trying hard to be strong in front of her children so they won't worry too much but then again her pain comes through while she's still fighting.
Naohito Fujiki as Hiroshi Mizuno is the doctor caring for Aya and while at first he's the one to accept the fact that he can't cure the disease, Aya becomes someone to make him go forward and work and research much more than before because he wants to cure the young woman.
Riko Narumi as Ako Ikeuchi at first seems like a rebellious teenager who wants attention from her parents because Aya always was the number one in the family. As she didn't seem to care too much at first, she's trying hard to help her sister later and even wants to try and get accepted at Higashikou so she can fulfill her sister's dream. The development of her character is really good and actually something one can understand. Yuma Sanada as Hiroki Ikeuchi has a lot less screentime but I somehow found him to be an interesting character as well. While he was somewhat embarrassed at first when his team mates found out about his sister 'walking strangely' he changed due to something Ako said and was sorry for hurting his precious older sister.


Soundtrack: One song became incredibly popular and I knew it belonged to this drama even before watching it - "Konayuki" by Remioromen! I still love this song a lot, especially the various versions shown in this drama. It's also known to be Aya's and Haruto's theme song.
But honestly one song made me cry. Once. "3月9日 (Sangatsu Kokonoka/ March 9th)", originally performed by Remioromen as well usually appears as a choir version. When watching Ep. 8, the very end of that episode, you might understand why this got me. Thinking about this scene still makes me cry.
Just to complete the soundtrack, there is one ballad track on the OST performed by Korean singer K/ Kang Yoon-sung called "Only human" which actually is the theme song of this drama. Combined with the pictures at the end of each episode it's beautiful but makes me feel sad as well.
After all it's a well-chosen soundtrack in my opinion.


My rating for this series is a definitely strong 9.5/10. I'm not a person who cries often when it comes to series but I admit that there were some episodes (or more endings of episodes) that got me. It's a good and strong series but with a rather slow development, especially in the beginning but it's a melodrama after all and it's not surprising. In the end, it became a lot faster and there were many times when suddenly months or even years passed by. I see why they did that though. Only watching Aya's daily routine in the hospital wouldn't have been interesting - at least not that much.

As for the special from 2007, I think it's worth watching if you enjoyed this drama a lot and want to see some moments again. The special is about two hours long but I'd just guess that roughly half of this are only flashbacks. That's why my rating for the special is only 6.5/10. It's interesting though to see how the family and Haruto dealt with the happenings as well as all those people coming to 'meet' Aya.

Sirius

시리우스 (Sirius) is a Korean drama special that aired on KBS2 from January 6th to January 27th 2013. It consists of 4 episodes in total.

Before starting the review I have to mention this
(←) awesome picture they used. I really think the whole card design looks awesome and I could talk about my interpretation for hours - maybe I'll do that in the last part of my review - because it leaves a lot of impressions.

Story: The story evolves around the identical twin brothers Do Eun-chang and Do Shin-woo. Thought they are twins, their characters were always different. Shin-woo got into trouble a lot, while Eun-chang was a good and bright person and a good student in his teens but went to jail for his brother. So Eun-chang's life changed a lot.
On the other side Shin-woo always felt inferior to his brother but his feelings changed after Eun-chang went to jail. Now a chief detective of an investigation team, Shin-woo works mainly with drug investigations. Eun-chang, after being released from prison, works as an errand man. But due to a plot planned by Ko Seok-min the two brothers change their positions. While Eun-chang accepts the current state, Shin-woo tries to get his position back.

Cast: Both twins are played by Seo Jun-young who manages to play both different characters quite well. Especially since they aren't close at all I think it requires a lot of skills to do this job well. ZE:A's Park Hyung-sik accepted the challenge as well taking over the teen roles of the twins.
The main gangster Ko Seok-min is played by Ryu Seung-soo. Two female characters appear as well and so we see Uhm Hyun-kyung as Kim An-na and Jo Woo-ri as So-ri.

After all it's a 6/10, though I think it's still a rather good 6~ basically I think it's too short, I would've wished for more contexts and by far more story. Because actually this drama special has so much potential! Regarding the dark angel Shin-woo and the white-winged angel Eun-chang more information would've been a good thing but obviously the producers only wanted a short drama special so - they should've either turned this into a mind-blowing movie or just use the story for a full drama, at least 8 episodes would've been possible to answer some question and to give the viewer some more insight-

Identical Criminals

동일범 (Identical Criminals) is a Korean drama special that aired on August 21st 2011 on KBS2.

Story: After a woman is murdered Choi Kyung-rok who was released from prison around two months ago is arrested as the prime suspect. But Detective Han Sang-won has doubt about the Choi's guilt since he was only involved in minor crimes before. On the other side Detective Han's partner Detective Kang Dae-woo wants to close the case as soon as possible. After checking his partner's file case Detective Han has more doubts about the case and starts to feel uneasy because of his partner's behavior. Detective Han then meets the senior officer Jung Jong-doo and they decide to work together and catch the real murderer.

Cast: Lee Ji-hoon acted as Detective Han Sang-won. I feel like sometimes his character was a little too naive and didn't really think. Definitely not a good detective but that's not something the actor did wrong but actually the writer. Lee Sung-min took the role of Detective Kang Dae-woo, Detective Han's partner. Lee Hee-joon as Jung Jong-doo decided to solve the case together with Detective Han. Sure there were a few more actors involved but those are the most important ones. Their acting skills are good, yes. But I somehow feel like something was missing, just a spark, that might be because of the lack of logical thinking from time to time (which isn't their fault but the writer's).

After all it's not that much of a usual police crime drama, I liked it but it's definitely not one of the best dramas I've seen, maybe it was too fast from time to time as well. It's a drama special, sure they didn't have time but turning this into a four-episode-series wouldn't have hurt anyone. So my rating turned out like 7/10 which definitely is a good rating but still not one of the best. (I think you've noticed by now that I rarely give ratings lower than 6 and I think 4 was the worst rating).

Adolescence Medley

사춘기 메들리 (Adolescence Medley) is a Korean drama special consisting of four episodes that aired from July 10th to July 31st 2013 on KBS2.

Story: Choi Jung-woo has transferred schools for seven times and finally learned that it's easiest to live as if he was invisible and to not get involved with anyone. But after transferring to Namil High School Yang Ah-young talks him into doing lots of school chores. Meanwhile his seatmate is bullied. Though he doesn't want to get involved he ends up yelling at the bullies and gets into a fight with "Brown Bear", a school legend at fighting.
When he learns his father isn't going to be transferred to Seoul Jung-woo can't run away from his problems anymore and therefore has to face those.

Cast: Kwak Dong-yeon plays the teen Choi Jung-woo. Personally I like the way he's acting in this drama, sure it's the role of an impulsive teenager, maybe because he was 16 when this drama was filmed and aired as well. Lee Se-young as Yang Ah-young is the one talking him into school services and also the one he asks out for his revenge. Kwak Jung-wook as Im Deok Won is the bullied seatmate because of whom Choi Jung-woo becomes active.
Others include Choi Tae-joon as "Brown Bear" Lee Yeok-ho, Park Jung-min as Shin Young-bok and Baek Sung-hyun as adult Choi Jung-woo.

Skipping the part soundtrack because I can't really say something about that, I really like this drama, it's the story of a loner who suddenly sees himself confronted with the world and has to deal with the consequences. Friendship and first love - completely teenager things but I still think that this drama is nice compared to others.
With a rating 8/10 I think it's really a good way to spend a day.

Men Cry

남자가 운다 (Men Cry) is a KBS2 drama special that aired on June 19th 2011.

Story: Nam-soo is a high ranking gangster and one day, he's diagnosed with cancer. After finding out that he will die. He starts to look out for Young-chae and finds her and her daughter in Kangwon province.
Since he was the one who killed his friend Jong-kil who was about to marry Young-chae he feels a heavy sense of guilt.

Cast: Son Hyeon-ju as Nam-soo played a really emotional character. Or more like.. a melodramatic character. Sure he wants to make up for his mistakes in the past but I feel like it definitely was a little overacted. Jo Mi-ryung took the role of Young-chae, and I feel like her character was a little overacted as well but it's actually not that bad. I think both are good actors and that they just were told to overact.

Soundtrack: Once again I can't say anything about the soundtrack since it's a drama special and I usually don't pay that much attention to the OST when it's a special. But well, you'll be able to guess there won't be any bubbly and happy songs included.

After all this is a 7/10, good but not perfect and definitely with a surprising ending.. which I would describe as unrealistic but it's a Korean drama so nothing is impossible! At least it's not a waste of time regarding the fact that it only has a one episode

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Pianist

피아니스트 (Pianist) is a Korean drama special that aired on November 27th 2010 on KBS2.

Story: Oh Je-ro is a musical genius and wanted to learn how to play the piano but works at a piano factory as a tuner to support his sick father instead. He thinks the name his father gave him sounds like "Oh, Zero" and symbolizes the lack of hope for his future. One day he meets Yoon In-sa and falls in love with her. When she was younger In-sa dreamed of becoming the world's best pianist but had to give up her dream as well and works part-time as an elementary school music teacher. When the two begin their love story they eventually start healing each others souls.

Cast: The cast includes Choi Minho as Oh Je-ro and Han Ji-hye as Yoon In-sa. Choi Phillip took the role of Han Jung-woo, and those are basically the three involved in the love triangle. The acting wasn't that good but not that bad either. But regarding a rather typical story one shouldn't expect too much, it doesn't really need the best actors to portray those characters.

Soundtrack: The piano pieces are quite nice, but besides those I don't remember an OST because it is only a drama special. Nothing more I could tell you about that.

My rating is 7/10, it's not that great but also not bad and something nice to watch if you're bored and need to kill time. Around 70 minutes aren't that much but I think they definitely couldn't have made this longer even if they wanted to because it would be like many other dramas out there. However, as for Minho's acting debut, I think this was decent enough.