Lovers in Prague

프라하의 연인 (Lovers in Prague) is a South Korean drama series that aired on SBS from September 24th to November 20th 2005. The drama consists of 18 episodes.

Story: Jae-hee, the daughter of the current Korean president, is living in Prague as a diplomat while getting over a painful breakup. She meets Sang-hyun, a police officer and their romance starts to blossom in Prague.
Sang-hyun's ex girlfriend Hye-joo is also living in Prague at that time - and she is pregnant and used Sang-hyun to pay for her studies for quite some time - which complicates things unnecessarily. Also, Jae-hee's ex boyfriend Yeong-woo appears which gets them not only into a love triangle..
This story is such a typical K-Drama storyline that I wouldn't even notice a difference it it was remade. Lots of cliché and very predictable but for sure enjoyable if you like rom-com dramas. The one big issue I have with this classic is literally that only the first two episodes are set in Prague - if I remember right - and they dragged the whole story a bit with lots of misunderstandings.

Cast: Jeon Do-yeon as Yoon Jae-hee. I don't know, she was somehow this typical girl and I would've wished for her to be more tough occasionally. Her acting was okay, her Czech language skill (in the beginning, according to friends from Czech Republic) is terrible but that is okay to me - I wouldn't be able to understand it anyway and I appreciate that the makers of this drama put that much effort into this.
Kim Ju-hyeok as Choi Sang-hyun. He looked like a lost puppy most of the time and while I did some of his moments the majority was not really my style. Just too lost and too pathetic which is my honest opinion and noone needs to share it. It just seemed like he was the too clingy type of boyfriend I would get rid of, too.
Kim Min-jun as Ji Yeong-woo. Ugh, I don't know why but it seems I disliked both of Jae-hee's options in this drama. Yeong-woo, as far as I remember (I watched this drama months ago and accidentally deleted my notes) wanted to get her back after hurting her and he would try harder even if she didn't want him back - which causes more hurt and difficulty than necessary. As an actor, I would chose Kim Min-jun over Kim Ju-hyeok though because I somehow likes his acting a tiny bit more.
Yoon Se-ah as Kang Hye-joo. The female character I wanted to kill so badly because she's a cheating slut. No matter her motives, I hate this. I hated her. The acting was believable enough but I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.
Other actors in this drama include Lee Jung-gil, Jung Dong-hwan, Yoon Young-joon and Kim Seung-wook.

Soundtrack: This is the biggest struggle. Regarding the year in which this drama was aired, the music was decent. But when looking back from nowadays I absolutely dislike the old school music even though it does make me somehow nostalgic (I was 9 years old when this drama aired and dislike most of the music I loved back then, too). It might be a matter of taste but as of today I don't really like the soundtrack per sé but let me stay with "for 2005, it wasn't bad".


7.0/10
After all I found this drama very funny and somehow light-hearted. Yes, there are lots of things I can criticize but I still enjoyed it more than some other dramas I watched.
Can we take a moment and appreciate the dinosaurs phones? I was on the floor laughing at those things (yes, I had one, too, back in the days).
If you love romance dramas with a hint of comedy and lots of confusion you should watch this. It's a classic and definitely not a bad one even though I hated some parts for sure.

The Housemaid

하녀 (The Housemaid) is a South Korean movie that was directed by Im Sang-soo and released in 2010. It is a remake of Kim Ki-young's movie "The Housemaid" that was released in 1960.

Story: Lee Eun-yi starts to work as a maid in the house of a rich family. Her task mainly is to take care of the daughter Nami but also do the housework and cook together with Byeong-sik, a woman who has been working for the family for a long time.
On a family trip Eun-yi gets into an affair with Hoon, the son of a rich family and her boss, who is married to Hae-ra. Hae-ra is pregnant with twins.
Soon Byeong-sik finds out that Eun-yi is pregnant with Hoon's child and tells Hae-ra's mother about it. So the women in the family are trying to get rid of the dark secret.

Cast: Jeon Do-yeon as Lee Eun-yi is the main character in this movie. While her acting was good I also think just by her looks she reminded me of what I would imagine a nanny to look like. Except for a few moments of definitely overdone acting she was good in this movie.
Lee Jung-jae as Hoon is the son of a rich family who always got what he wanted when he wanted it. The acting was good, too, but in some way his character confused me a bit in the end. Anyway, I think it was not about the acting itself but the character.
Hae-ra was played by Seo Woo and I think her acting was too flat. There were some emotions missing in the daily stuff, not only when acting like a jealous wife. So personally I didn't believe in the relationship between Hae-ra and Hoon because of her acting.
Park Ji-young as Hae-ra's mother has a similar problem in my opinion but it is not about a lack of emotions shown. It is more or less a too ruthless way of behavior her character showed and while I was able to believe her acting in that way the interactions with the family members were a little bit strange.
Lastly, Yoon Yeo-jeong as Byeong-sik seems cold and hard as stone but showed a nice change in character especially towards Eun-yi. I personally really think she is a good actress in these type of roles - she seems to become something like a mother or aunt and portrayed that change well.


I saw some really bad reviews of this movie because, yes, it is slow paced. Yes, the story itself is kinda obvious and some people don't even see a story (I don't know how though?). Yes, the ending really is ridiculous and totally influenced my rating but I'm not sure if it happened that way because of the original version from 1960.
However, I gave this movie a 5.5/10 for everything. While it did lack in aspects and definitely does not deserve the genre tags "thriller" and "suspense" it is a good, classical drama/melodrama and if you like those kind of movies you should go for it.


BE WARNED though since this movie has some nudity. So I would say watch it if you think you don't mind sexual scenes.