Absolute Boyfriend

絕對達令 (Absolute Boyfriend) is a Taiwanese drama series based on a manga by Yuu Watase that aired from April 8th to July 1st 2012 on FTV/GTV.

Story: After being involved in lots of unrequited love stories over the past years even since high school, Guan Xiao Fei, a woman in her late 20's, finds a phone in a park (or forest? I only know there are trees and basically no people around when she finds it.) The owner of the phone calls and invites her to his home where he introduces himself as Lei Wu Wu, a salesman. Wanting to thank her for finding his phone, Lei Wu Wu asks about a wish - and being a little desperate in that situation Xiao Fei says she wants a boyfriend. That's how she gets access to a website and orders a robot, a 'perfect darling'. After a two day trial she doesn't manage to return the robot in time so she would either have to pay a lot of money - or work for the company sending them information so in the future the data collected can be of use for other robot models. However, she can't tell anyone about Nai Te being a robot, not even her best friends nor her colleagues... so the two of them have to face many difficulties, especially when Nai Te starts to feel uncomfortable.

Cast: First of all, as you might know, I really really really like Koo Hye-sun for usually playing strong and confident female characters in most of her series. That being said, Guan Xiao Fei is so stupid, at least during the first episodes. Naive and can't do ANYTHING on her own. While I did hate her character in the very beginning, it was in fact bearable. What I found to be weird actually was that they had to dub her voice. Sure, she might not be fluent in Mandarin Chinese - but why in the world did they have to put a Korean actress in a Taiwanese drama if she doesn't know the language? I'd make a guess and say it's for popularity reasons but then again, who knows.
As Wan Nai Te we see Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit (yay! Make a guess how I found out about this series at all) and while I did like him in this series a lot sometimes his acting was too humane - but then again I would've imagined Nai Te to be like this so nothing wrong with Jiro portraying his character like that. Now, not criticizing him but saying this as a Korean studies major student - his accent when speaking Korean is so cute! Like.. I honestly didn't understand anything at first but it was just so adorable.
Yan Zhong Shi, a character I didn't mention earlier, is basically Xiao Fei's childhood friend and her neighbour. They're also working at the same company so they spend a lot of time together. Xie Kun Da was more like a squishy cutie in this series and while I felt sorry for him I really respected him 'fighting' for Xiao Fei and Nai Te in the end since it must have been hard on him.
The last character I just need to mention is Na Wei Xun as Lei Wu Wu. Despite for his.. taste in fashion this man just made my day, especially during the last two episodes. He's hilarious and funny and always made me smile. Sometimes I wasn't sure whether he was supporting or manipulating Xiao Fei's and Nai Te's relationship but it was alright - it definitely was, since he was funny on one side and actually we found out about this in the end.
Others in the cast include Cherry Hsia as Luo Mei Jia (I hated her, okay? If there are things I can't deal with in dramas it's people like her!), Emily Tsai as Fang Zhi Xi, Lin Yun Jong as SKY (loved him so much, so sassy~) and Bi Xiao Hai as Bai Qi.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack itself was and still is really nice but then again I like Jiro Wang as well as Fahrenheit, so basically the opening and ending songs were awesome to me. But I think Fahrenheit's "Mr. Perfect" has to deal with the same effect like many other songs - after some times you just tend to find it a little annoying because you've heard it (or only certain parts) over and over and over again. (If you don't know this effect, watch Boys Over Flowers and talk about T-MAX' "Paradise"..).
While I did listen to Jiro Wang's album already years ago I only found out through this series that his song "假裝我們沒愛過 (Pretend We Never Loved)" actually is/was part of a drama soundtrack. While this song isn't his best track ever, I do think it's nice and fits the series well, at least the concept.
Overall I found the soundtrack to be nice.


As for my rating, I think 6.5/10 is pretty much alright. While my ratings will definitely become more strict in general, this series put up some things I just hate - an incredibly stupid female lead, dubbing, "friends" lying, annoying bitches and - in fact a sad ending. The soundtrack and the nice male actors and characters as well as funny and cute moments just couldn't really save this series.
I've heard that since 2012 a Korean version produced by MBC was in talks but it didn't air yet and to be honest I'm quite curious how Korea would portray the characters and organize the story since there are already variations of this series in Japan and Taiwan.

And girls - let's appreciate this picture for it's... artistic.. atmosphere..? Ah, let's just appreciate it!

The Musical

더 뮤지컬 (The Musical) is a Korean drama that aired from September 2nd to December 23rd 2011 on SBS.

Story: Go Eun-bi wants to become a musical singer. Musicals are her life, she dreams about musicals at night. One night she's singing in a park and gets the advice that she shouldn't think about becoming a musical actress without talent. Willing to prove the person that he was wrong she decides to take a break from her medical studies and participate in numerous auditions but fails all of them. Two weeks before she has to return to med school she's desperate and participates in an audition for a male musical actor dressed up as a man but she's discovered and thrown out. Following she meets a woman in the restroom claiming to be a musical instructor. Eun-bi once again decides to leave school, for a year this time, and she strongly believes that she can make her dream come true.

Cast: At first we have Koo Hye-sun as Go Eun-bi. Personally I love Koo Hye-sun's characters, all of them are such strong females. A princess who knows how to defend herself and acts the way she really is. I can't wait to watch more dramas with her. Choi Daniel participates in the drama as the composer Hong Jae-Yi and somehow one just has to like his character in this drama. Another important male character is Yoo Jin played by Park Ki-woong, another actor I really like and respect.
Other important actresses included in the main cast are Ok Joo-hyun as Bae Kang-hee, Ki Eun-se as Seo Ra-kyung and Park Kyeong-rim as Sa Bok-ja.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack goes well with the whole 'Musical' topic. Makes sense, doesn't it? There's one duet I really love by Koo Hye-sun and Park Ki-woong, I think it's in episode 10 but don't remember cleary. However, this duet was nearly perfect and I would've loved a studio version of this but couldn't find anything - sadly. However, I think the whole soundtrack is nice but can be pretty annoying if you're not a huge fan of musical songs.

My rating is 6/10 which would be like a good average but not because the story is bad or someone did a poor job. No, I just feel like it was somehow boring from time to time. I didn't skip any scenes, that's not like me, but some things were just unnecessary in my personal opinion.

Boys Over Flowers

꽃보다 남자 (Boys Over Flowers or Boys Before Flowers) is the Korean remake of the Japanese dram Hana yori dango (花より男子) that aired originally in 2005 and 2007 in Japan. The Korean remake first aired from  January 5th to March 31st 2009 on KBS.
As far as I remember it's one of the most famous Korean dramas internationally and I think I haven't met anyone who didn't watch it.


Story: Oh, if you hear about the story now - believe me, it'll seem quite familiar to you. Why? Uhm, well, that's simple. In short a poor girl, Geum Jan-di, is delivering dry cleaning for her parents shop. One day she saves a student of the prestigious Shin Hwa High and gets a scholarship because of being good at swimming. Being the poor girl surrounded by rich students she has to deal with some issues. Soon she gets terrorized by the leader of the F4, Gu Jun-pyo. He and his friends are the most popular and richest boys in school. While bullying her Jun-pyo begins to realize he's attracted to Jan-di, but Jan-di has a crush on his best friend, Yoon Ji-hoo. And so the drama starts.
If you're looking for THE typical K-Drama - well, congrats, you've found it, though it's actually based on a manga and the Japanese series. Don't believe me? Well, look at this:

Please pay attention to.. well, almost all of those points explained on there. You'll understand when you've finished this drama.
Don't get me wrong, talking about Boys Over Flowers as THE typical K-Drama makes it sound worse I think. Because actually I really adored this one. I remember I had trouble with the first episode and had to wait a few.. well, weeks, until I started the second. But after watching the second episode I've finished the drama in around three days (which is a lot considering I've watched 23 episodes in three days, makes about 8 episodes per day.. now you can guess what else I did during that time except for sleeping and eating and watching this drama).
I admit there are a lot and I mean a whole freaking lot of misunderstandings and after some time you might feel like it's just a strategy so they can produce more episodes and therefore make more money - which might be true up to some point - but everything actually makes sense.

Cast: When I started watching this I didn't really care about actors at all. Sure I knew that Kim Hyun-joong as Yoon Ji-hoo was in it but that was basically everything. Oh, and I've heard about Lee Min-ho who took the role of the male lead Gu Jun-pyo here before but couldn't really connect him to any popular drama. However, this drama was the first one I've watched with Kim Bum who's my absolute favorite actor. As So Yi-jung his smile made my heart melt like.. icecream. This sounds weird but it IS actually really weird (and I'm embarrassed to admit that I was really squealing like a 12-year-old back then). Anyways, the last member of the F4 missing on here is Song Woo-bin played by Kim Joon. Sadly I couldn't find that much info on Kim Joon, the last thing I've heard was that he went to the army after his group T-MAX disbanded (they were good, I remember I've downloaded some songs).
Well, after mentioning all of the F4 now we can't leave out our Geum Jan-di played by Koo Hye-sun. I admit I've also become a fan of hers, I like those princesses who can protect themselves. Don't get what I mean? Watch the first few episodes of this drama and you'll understand that.
The last one I'll name on here would be Kim So-eun who took the role of Jan-di's best friend Chu Ga-eul.

Soundtrack: Well, the soundtrack.. While I sincerely loves some songs like Lee Jung-sik's Saxophone instrumental "I Know" and Kim Bum's "지금 만나러 갑니다 (I'm Going To Meet You Now)" there were some songs that seriously pissed me off after hearing them about 15 times per day just like T-Max's "Paradise" which is the title song. Listening to it now it's actually a good and cheerful song but used way too often. And that's weird because the actual soundtrack consists of two CDs with a total of 26 songs PLUS there's an F4 Special Edition which includes 10 tracks as well. Why did they have to overuse one song that much? I really don't know and I'm not sure if I'll ever find out.


So in total I gave 9/10. Like, come on, I've already told you how fast I've finished that. If that doesn't qualify as being addicted to a drama then.. I don't even know.