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.

That Winter, The Wind Blows

그 겨울, 바람이 분다 (That Winter, The Wind Blows) is a rather well-known drama that originally aired from February 13th to April 3rd 2013 on SBS and consists of 16 episodes.
The drama is based on the Japanese series 愛なんていらねえよ、夏 (I Don't Need Love, Summer) that was aired in Japan in 2002.

Story: Oh Soo is on of the best gamblers in the Cheongdamdong neighborhood but lives a rather meaningless life: He was left behind by his parents under a tree when he was a baby and lost his first love. There's another man called Oh Soo who takes care of his home.
The gambler Oh Soo is in a relationship with the actress So-ra who's nearly obsessed with him and doesn't realize that he doesn't love her as much. When she has to leave for one year, she plans to get him arrested for embezzlement afraid he might leave her for another woman when she's not with him.
One day, Oh Young, the heir of a company, appears at Oh Soo's apartment door and asks for him but he realizes that he's looking for the other Oh Soo. Later he reads out a letter the brother of that woman wrote to her because she is blind but has to run away soon. The other Oh Soo returns and dies. At the same time Oh Young's father passed away and she left.
One year later Oh Soo is in a difficult situation but suddenly a company attorney appears mistaking him for the dead Oh Soo who would've been another heir for the same company as Oh Young since they were siblings. Thinking he might be able to repay a debt he has left because of So-ra he decides to become the Oh Soo that died one year ago..

Cast: The cast is actually a really good one, the main reason why I watched this drama. At first we have Jo In-sung as Oh Soo. I've never heard about him before but I think it was actually a good drama for him to become more popular. Song Hye-kyo is seen as Oh Young. I don't know if it's really that difficult but I still think it's rather hard to act as if you're blind. I mean you can't show any reaction to the things you can't here and feel and remaining emotionless while 'looking' straight ahead needs a lot of proficiency. Oh Soo's best friend and partner Park Jin-sung was acted by Kim Bum, the main reason why I watched this drama. He's not a coward, quite the opposite, and he wants to take every risk to save his life. I quite like Kim Bum taking the roles of impulsive characters, it fits him well. Especially if he's confronted with a woman like Moon Hee-sun who was played by Jung Eun-ji of A Pink. Watching the two of them fight is actually one of the funniest things in the drama. And yes, Eun-ji did a good job as well.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack was performed by good and popular ballad singers who participated in many many many soundtracks before. My favorite track was sung by Yesung of Super Junior and is called "먹지 (Gray Paper)". I've been listening to this song without a break for hours because it's so beautiful. Another really good song was "그리고 하나 (And One)" by Taeyeon of SNSD. Though I'm not a huge fan of SM Entertainment artists, I really liked those two songs. But I'm not that much into the ballad genre so to me, the OST was a little bit boring after some time.


My personal rating: 6/10

Why such a 'bad' rating? It might be because it's a melodrama but from time to time I almost fell asleep.. some dialogues were written in an incredible boring manner, there weren't that many exciting scenes - and usually I've heard a melodrama should make people cry? If that's the case it definitely didn't work. I think it's good if you're into that genre but I doubt I would've finished this if it wouldn't have been for the cast who put a lot of effort into this. The soundtrack is nice but if you're more into dance pop or rock ballads it's definitely not the right OST for you.
On the other hand, the scenery, the filming and the characters are nice so.. take those really beautiful gifs for now.