Jeon Woo Chi: The Taoist Wizard

전우치 (Jeon Woo Chi) is a South Korean movie directed by Choi Dong-hoon released in 2009.

Story: The movie begins in the Chosun dynasty where a young wizard named Jeon Woo Chi, his friend and helper, three Taoist wizards, a king and evil goblins all are after a prophetic pipe. While trying to get the pipe Jeon Woo Chi becomes framed for a crime he didn't commit and ends up sealed into an ancient scroll.
In 2009 evil goblins start appearing all over Korea again and the retired Taoist wizards are called to help. They release Jeon Woo Chi and his friend and servant from the scroll to help them and save the world. In modern Korea, however, women and sightseeing become far more interesting to Jeon Woo Chi.

Cast: So the main character Jeon Woo Chi was played by Kang Dong-won. I haven't seen him in many works I think but in this one his acting was good - just the character was a little bit ridiculous and weird which is probably not really surprising.
Yoo Hae-jin as Chorangyi, the servant, friend and actual dog of Woo Chi, was hilarious in his own way. The acting was so funny that I really came to like him as a character and the actor itself.
Lim Soo-jung as Seo In-kyung turned out to be one of the less memorable characters. I would love to tell all of you more about the character and the acting but I cannot say much about it. It wasn't bad but not good so more like an average not really outstanding person.
Kim Yun-seok as Hwadam was just the perfect villain to me though. I think I was a little bit scared but it wasn't too bad so I'm still alive.
Other actors in this movie include Baek Yoon-sik, Joo Jin-mo, Kim Sang-ho and Song Young-chang.


After all I can say that a 7.5/10 is not really a bad rating for this movie. Logic aside, it was fun and included impressive martial arts-scenes. On the other hand it really lacked that one thing - logic. Yes, even fantasy usually includes some.
However, for a movie night with about 200 exchange students it is a fun and light watch and nothing too serious.
I recommend it if you're interested in fantasy and martial arts as a short pleasure but nothing more, I don't think it would be more to most people.

Wonderful Days

참 좋은 시절 (Wonderful Days) is a South Korean drama series that was aired from February 22nd to August 10th 2014 on KBS2 and consists of 50 episodes.

Story: Kang Dong-seok comes back to Gyeongju after studying and working in Seoul for 15 years. Back in his hometown, he finds himself confronted with issues of a messed up family with his siblings, their children, their relationships - and his own past with his ex-girlfriend Cha Hae-won and her family.

Cast: Even if I wanted to - I just cannot list all the actors that took part in this series, even listing the family around Kang Dong-seok alone would be too much since I have a limited number of tags and don't want to write 20 pages only about the family.
There are good actors in this series though sometimes the emotions weren't perfectly shown but still good.
At first we have Lee Seo-jin as Kang Dong-seok who's in the center of this whole mess. A prosecutor as cold as the Syberian winter. If I remember right. Kim Hee-sun appears as Cha Hae-won whom I clearly preferred in the beginning but then again it might be just me having a thing for strong women.
The reason why I even stumbled upon this series is definitely Ok Taec-yeon as Kang Dong-hui, and I honestly consider him not bad at acting. Like not bad at all though people are always criticizing idols.. I'm looking forward to see more series with him though (and still have at least one on my list).
Lee Elijah appears as Kim Ma-ri in this drama, and while one might think that her character isn't important at all.. One shouldn't underestimate her.
Once again I've been watching a drama with Ryu Seung-soo (accidentally), this time as Kang Dong-tak, Dong-seok's older brother. I start to really enjoy his acting though his characters always seem to be the less serious characters that make you laugh though their actually in a sad situation. Jin Kyung joins him as Kang Hae-ju, Hae-won's older sister, in this drama. While their relationship is completely weird in the beginning, it gets better and better.
The last actors I need to mention are Kim Sang-ho as Kang Ssang-shik, Park Bo-gum as young Kang Dong-seok and Choi Woong as Dr. Min Woo-jin. Now why did I have to add this mix of actors? Mainly because I know that I did watch/will watch another drama with them in the cast, or because it's pretty much likely I would watch a drama for their acting only, and that's perfectly fine!

Soundtrack: The soundtrack has cute instrumentals but rarely anything memorable. Even now, 10 minutes after finishing the last episode, I just can't remember anything about the soundtrack either. And I've been watching the whole drama in two weeks! But let's say there wasn't anything too bad either, otherwise I'd definitely remember the bad parts.

I gave this drama a 6.5/10 and this is of course only my opinion! While to me, the most interesting part of the story is over around Ep. 25, they introduced a 'father' I came to dislike for various personal reasons - let's just say he really pissed me off because he reminds me so much of someone I know - and I did skip a lot. The story is slow and focussed on the character development but sometimes, just sometimes, a rather fast-paced story would've made sense.  And while I did like the character development in the beginning, the harder it was in the end to watch one episode dealing with family issues after another.
And 50 episodes definitely aren't a quota the story can keep up unless you're really into family stuff and slow character development. I have seen worse dramas though and expected worse just because of the number of episodes.
Rewatch value.. no, 50 episodes is too much, but I'll definitely rewatch some scenes. That's enough.

Special Affairs Team TEN (Season 2)

특수사건전담반 TEN 2 (Special Affairs Team TEN 2) is the second season of the TEN series that airs on OCN. The second season was aired from April 14th to June 30th 2013.

*Please note that the main cast is exactly the same as in the first season so I might just copy and paste some parts. Just to mention the cast in this entry as well.*

Story: Team TEN is back! Yeo Ji-hoon, the leader of Team Ten suddenly disappeared. Soon the confused team members find a note about his intentions and start working on their own, especially on a serial murder case known as the "F cases". But as they get closer, the team itself is in a dangerous situation and experiences a shock.

Cast: The whole cast is doing an awesome job. At first we have Joo Sang-wook as Yeo Ji-hoon, "the monster who catches monsters". He's a really good cop and team leader with an impressive logical thinking. I think that's exactly what makes the character Yeo Ji-hoon as attractive and impressive as he is. The acting itself definitely is amazing, I sometimes had to remind myself that it is actually a TV series..Jo An excepted the role of Nam Ye-ri. She's pretty but what's more interesting is her skill when it comes to observation and interpretation of contexts. The smart female member of the team, such an awesome combination.
Than there's Kim Sang-ho as Baek Do-shik. You wouldn't expect a veteran cop to be as good as he is, and he's indeed really important for the team with his experience and knowledge of humans. Some people might argue OCN could've found someone to get to the female audience as well but come on, that's superficial. The character as well as the actor have other qualities, it's like impossible to separate the actor and the character, they're the same person.
The last member of the team is Choi Woo-sik as Park Min-ho. In the beginning one might say he's acting too cute and too much like a puppy (which might be partly true) but he's courageous and smart and has a great logical understanding - and well, rookie officers need to learn and someone needs to do the running work. Plus he's developing quite fast and has some other.. 'reasons' why he's even more important for the team itself.

Soundtrack: Once again the soundtrack isn't overdone but I don't remember songs that returned over and over and over again. The main reason could be the different natures of the cases.

This season got a 10/10 rating from me. It's perfect, I was close to a mental breakdown during the last two episodes because those were some of the most exciting events I've ever seen in a TV series. This thin line of excitement and fascination is what actually makes a drama really good, especially if one can connect with the characters. Plus, since this crime topic is kind of new in Korea, especially without any love story included (though I ship Ye-ri and Min-ho a tiny little bit), it's even better HOW good this is.

There's only one frustrating point left. OCN confirmed a third season. Actually planned for late 2014. Then it was postponed to early 2015. And since they now need to film two completely new drama series (which I am going to watch anyways because OCN is awesome) it is said the third season might start airing in January 2016. Thank you, OCN? *Sarcasm*

Special Affairs Team TEN (Season 1)

WARNING!
Both reviews for Special Affairs Team TEN (Season 1 & Season 2) will be loooong and full of me fangirling about the drama itself. If you think me fangirling over my favorite group you so don't want to see me and my friend Jessi fangirling about this series. To me it's like the most perfect drama series ever, a mix of my favorite US series (Criminal Minds) with an interesting and exciting case in the background. Yes, it's definitely not one of the most unique drama series on Earth, I agree. But it's definitely something completely new and amazing to Korea (at least it was at that time.)

특수사건전담반 TEN (Special Affairs Team TEN) is a Korean drama series consisting of 9 episodes that aired from November 18th 2011 to January 20th 2012 on OCN.

Story: The first episode consists of two parts and takes about two hours. This is basically how Team TEN is founded. The team consist of team leader Yeo Ji-hoon, a former detective who worked as an instructor in the police academy but wants to get back to crime-solving after his wife was murdered, profiling specialist Nam Ye-ri, veteran cop Baek Do-shik who has an incredible intuition, and Park Min-ho, a rookie agent and "flower boy" who does all the running work but impressed Yeo Ji-hoon during a lecture.
The team tackles the most hardcore and violent crimes in South Korea, usually with a rate for arrests that's less than 10%. The cases in itself couldn't be more different, as well as the locations. I mentioned this before, it's similar to Criminal Minds so the cases are really different and a variety of skills is needed to solve all of them.

Cast: The whole cast is doing an awesome job. At first we have Joo Sang-wook as Yeo Ji-hoon, "the monster who catches monsters". He's a really good cop and team leader with an impressive logical thinking. I think that's exactly what makes the character Yeo Ji-hoon as attractive and impressive as he is. The acting itself definitely is amazing, I sometimes had to remind myself that it is actually a TV series..
Jo An excepted the role of Nam Ye-ri. She's pretty but what's more interesting is her skill when it comes to observation and interpretation of contexts. The smart female member of the team, such an awesome combination.
Than there's Kim Sang-ho as Baek Do-shik. You wouldn't expect a veteran cop to be as good as he is, and he's indeed really important for the team with his experience and knowledge of humans. Some people might argue OCN could've found someone to get to the female audience as well but come on, that's superficial. The character as well as the actor have other qualities, it's like impossible to separate the actor and the character, they're the same person.
The last member of the team is Choi Woo-sik as Park Min-ho. In the beginning one might say he's acting too cute and too much like a puppy (which might be partly true) but he's courageous and smart and has a great logical understanding - and well, rookie officers need to learn and someone needs to do the running work. Plus he's developing quite fast and has some other.. 'reasons' why he's even more important for the team itself.

Soundtrack: Sadly I couldn't find the whole soundtrack to listen to it but then again I'm not even sure if there are more than two or three songs that appear again and again because the cases require different atmospheres. But the sounds are placed well, it doesn't disturb anything but go with the story.

The only thing I've really hated about the first season is the end. Because it is so definitely not complete. It's frustrating that when you watch the last episode which seems pretty much okay for itself but when you start the second season you notice that OCN split the episode in two parts. The first being the last episode of the first season, the second being the first episode of the second season - and that left me hell of frustrated!
It's still a 9/10 season though and I definitely should and want to watch it again~