The Target

표적 (The Target) is a South Korean movie that was released in 2014. The movie directed by Director Chang has a runtime of 98 minutes and is a remake of the French movie Point Blank.

Story: Baek Yeo-hoon is followed by men in the beginning and gets into an accident. Ending up in a hospital, Lee Tae-joon becomes his doctor. Soon Lee's wife is kidnapped and he needs to get Baek Yeo-hoon out of the hospital to safe his pregnant wife. Through this crime Yeo-hoon and Tae-joon find themselves in the middle of police officers working for their own benefits.

Cast: Lee Jin-wook is in this movie (again~? I feel like I've been watching a lot of his works lately) as Lee Tae-joon. His performance in this movie was quite good though his character was the type of character I usually like, more like a too unrational person.
Ryu Seung-ryong was a more interesting character to me. While at first his intentions are pretty unclear, this is exactly what makes the character as interesting as it is. A sad family story in the background, he tries to protect his brother Sung-hoon who suffers from the Tourette syndrome played by Jin Goo. Yoo Jun-sang as Chief  Detective Song also did a good job in my opinion though I think it's natural to not really like his character. In general it was believable though.
And there's Jo Yeo-jeong as Tae-joon's wife Hee-joo, a psychiatrist, who really seems to live up to her role. I enjoyed seeing her in this movie a lot.

Soundtrack: Nothing was off, everything was where it had to be - that's literally all I can say about this. It's definitely a nice action soundtrack.


Please note that I did not watch the original movie. Therefore, I cannot compare this movie to the French original.
In general this movie was good, a 7,5/10 rating is still pretty nice regarding the fact that the story wasn't mind-blowing. It's a story that's quite common. The acting and soundtrack were good though and the story wasn't boring either so I will forget about some flaws.

Recommended to fans of action movies!

The Three Musketeers

삼총사 (The Three Musketeers) is a South Korean drama series that aired from August 17th to November 2nd 2014 every Sunday on tvN. The drama consists of 12 episodes with a duration ~65 minutes.

Story: The story is set in 17th Century Joseon and evolves around Crown Prince Sohyun and his guards Heo Seung-po and Ahn Min-seo as well as Park Dal-hyang, a young man who came from Gangwondo to take the military examination and find his first love. Even on his first day Park Dal-hyang meets the three men who introduce themselves as the "Three Musketeers" and soon he finds himself within a political conflict.

Cast: In the very first place we have Lee Jin-wook as Crown Prince Sohyun. While I don't really understand why his character is the way he just... is I kinda like this rebellious royal thing. It makes his character somehow special since he's not what one would expect. However, in some moments I couldn't really feel the acting, I just noticed that it wasn't real from time to time and I don't know if that's because of the actor or because of the writing. Yang Dong-geun as Heo Seung-po is the son of General Heo and one of the men the prince grew up with. He loves gambling and alcohol and usually is pretty calm about being sent to prison for some time. The acting in general worked with the character and the background. He shows a great loyalty towards the crown prince. The same works for Ahn Min-seo played by Jung Hae-in. Definitely an actor I will look out for in the future! Ahn Min-seo is a rather loyal and smart character and seems to be more pure since he comes from a religious background. The acting connected with the character himself made this character one of my favorites.
Jung Yong-hwa took over Park Dal-hyang's part. Solid acting? Well, his character was a little stubborn and sometimes childish, led by emotions but that's Park Dal-hyang's innocent, childish charm. So for a main character he was actually quite nice to watch and did cause some trouble from time to time. Seo Hyun-jin as the Crown Princess Kang Yoon-seo/ Kang Bin was one of the characters I somehow liked - and at the same time didn't. She's loyal and a horrible liar - and exactly these traits get her into huge trouble while the King tries to find out what's going on. Her acting was nice though her character was really stupid from time to time.
Of course there does have to be a bad witch in a series like this (though she's not exactly a witch but you get where I'm coming from). At some point I was literally waiting for her to just die. Though Mi-ryung/Hyang-sun played by Yoo In-young was beautiful and the obsessed acting was pretty much what I expected. A character you start to hate but one also likes to find out more about why she behaves the way she does.
Other actors in this drama include Kim Myung-soo as King Injo, Jeon Noh-min as Choi Myung-gil, Park Young-kyu as Kim Ja-jum and Kim Sung-min as Yong Gol-dae.

Soundtrack: I personally found the soundtrack to be pretty good. I LOVED the song "All For One" by NOXX and DinDin a lot though I thought they played the song too loud in the drama - it wasn't in the background anymore. The other songs seemed more subtle in a way but then again nothing can compare to a rock song as music played while fighting (at least that's where I saw it in my imagination when I first listened to it).


SO how am I going to rate this drama? 8.5/10 for a solid drama that's somewhat based on Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers but in a Korean background.
I liked it. It's sometimes too funny for a serious historical drama but I think that's what they intended to do and it was nice the way it was. They ended it with an open ending though because there were supposed to be three seasons - tvN cancelled the other two.
A beautifully filmed drama and good acting in general with an interesting story but the last parts were rushed while other things were dragged a little.

I'd consider this drama as highly recommendable though! So give it a try.

I Need Romance 2

로맨스가 필요해 2012 (I Need Romance 2012 or I Need Romance 2) is a South Korean drama series consisting of 16 episodes that aired from June 20th to August 9th 2012 on tvN.

Story: Once again the story evolves around three women in their 30's. Joo Yeol-mae and Yoon Seok-hyun have been together - more or less since they broke up and got back together - for a long time. Because of Seok-hyun pushing her away while working with Kang Na-hyun Yeol-mae meets Shin Ji-hoon, the owner of a coffee shop.
Yeol-mae's friend Seon Jae-kyung, a former model, experiences trouble when her husband claims she committed adultery and her business as well as her life itself seems to be endangered. And Woo Ji-hee breaks up with her boyfriend and somehow her new boss knows about the reasons which makes working together a lot more chaotic.

Cast: Jung Yu-mi and Lee Jin-wook as Joo Yeol-mae and Yoon Seok-hyun actually show a nice charisma on-screen. Their acting was good, and, what's most important, it actually kept my attention. I did skip very few of their scenes just because their acting and charisma was great. But also Kim Ji-seok as Shin Ji-hoon did a great job showing some cute chemistry with the female lead. Kim Ye-won as Kang Na-hyun was actually the only one in this kind of love triangle (or square?) who seemed kind of.. off to me sometimes.
Kim Ji-woo as Seon Jae-kyung is the kind of perfect self-confident woman I love to see. Sure she faces some trouble because of her affair with her assistant Han Jung-min played by In Gyo-jin after her husband Lee Jang-woo played by Gong Jung-hwan accuses her of adultery though he himself isn't a saint but with her friends she manages to go through those hardships.
Beautiful and seemingly innocent is Kang Ye-sol as Woo Ji-hee in this drama, who ends up falling for a character we have seen in the first season of I Need Romance before, Kim Tae-woo played by Heo Tae-hee. I did enjoy their awkward situations the most, this couple made me laugh harder than the others, maybe that's why I especially liked them.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack got on my nerves to be quite honest. The title, "Waru Waru" by Han Su-ji only appears at the end and what I've heard already made me decide that I am never listening to the full song. Also the song "I Could Give You Love" by Lasse Lindh appeared way too often. I don't remember any of the other songs at all, they either weren't used that often or couldn't really capture one's attention.


After all my rating is 7.5/10. It's definitely better than the first season to me but then it's not memorable enough and the soundtrack is a huge minus. The most interesting part of this drama is to actually try and figure out why Seok-hyun behaves the way he does.
If you enjoy romantic comedy with some kind of Sex and the City-theme, you would like to watch this probably.