Unemployed Romance

실업급여 로맨스 (Unemployed Romance) is a South Korean drama series that was aired from October 5th to December 07th 2013 on E Channel every Saturday. The drama therefore consists of 10 episodes.

Story: Im Seung-hee dreamed of becoming a famous writer but due to an injury she couldn't paricipate in a contest and is working for a small company. The company's owner ran away with her car without paying her and her colleagues. Now that the company is bankrupt, she has to go to a government office responsible for giving out unemployment checks. Her first love, Kim Jong-dae, is currently working there and a lot of memories come back.

Cast: So the female lead character Im Seung-hee is played by Lee Young-ah and this honestly wasn't her best roll. Seung-hee is, at least in the very beginning, such a naive and annoying person that I actually thought she needs some guidance. About the acting itself, the scenes of Seung-hee crying were just way too much, it was so obvious that it was fake so that definitely wasn't her strongest job but then again.. I've seen actors and actresses do worse. As the male lead, we have Nam Goong-min as Kim Jong-dae in this drama and his acting was alright but nothing more or less either. Again, in some scenes I couldn't even pity his character because it was just too weird - because people know how to think. Well, most of them.
Actually both of the lead characters are far from being successful and I really felt like they were giving up on some point which annoyed me.
In the rows of the second leads we have a heavy second male lead syndrome (yay, tropes!) named Song Wan-ha or Seo Jun-young, an actor whom I really learned to like. He's not that bad but it's sad that it's obvious even in the very beginning that he's going to be the poor guy. His acting was quite good I'd say while his character was probably a little naive as well. He's not really a victim though so actually he's a likeable character as well as a good actor. After all my favorite in this series.
Now I would say we have two female-second-leads. Bae Seul-gi as Moon Seon-joo is the typical second female lead. Yes, one can understand her up to some point since she felt betrayed in the past but then again it doesn't make up for what she did wrong. As for the acting, it was sometimes a little too much again, especially her break down in one of the latter episodes. Sometimes it seemed to me her character was already cold enough in the beginning to make a guess what went wrong but maybe that was just my feeling, I don't really know about that. The other one is Jung Seung-ah as Oh Yeon-woo, a naive but cheerful girl, her father has money and influence and tries to make Jong-dae stay with her for exactly that reason. Her character is simply immature, and that's what the acting delivers. It's not really bad but nothing surprising.
Lastly there are Park Woo-chun as Park Gwang-pal and Kim Kang-hyun as Uhm Hyo-sang. The first is a typical player and because his mommy has money he's just playing around. While it was kind of funny, it's actually really sad because people like him exist. The acting therefore was kind of on spot but the expressions again were a little too much only to turn his character into a funny one. As for Uhm Hyo-sang, all I can say is that he's kinda pathetic in the end. He wants a girlfriend but never had one as far as we know and which is also connected to his friend Gwang-pal.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack in fact isn't bad but please - I didn't even notice other songs except for T.O's "거짓말 (Lies)". Yes, M.Pire actually make a guest appearance in the beginning in this series but this song keeps playing all the time so I didn't really notice anything else. Why did they release other songs in the first place if that's the most memorable song included in the whole series? I don't know. However, there was nothing annoying about the music itself so I'm just glad they played such a nice song all the time.



Even after watching this drama with low expectations, I decided to give it a 5/10 only because there's hardly any change in the characters. And the only special thing was the ending when I wasn't even sure whether everything before was just written by Seung-hee or happened a long time before and she just used her real story. Nevertheless, it is in fact kind of confusing. Some things are supposed to be funny but were nothing more but the basics we've seen dozens of times before.
While I did like the flashbacks used in this I also thought that two episodes only consisting of the past story weren't really my style since it wasn't that funny either.

If you like something cute and slightly funny just taking a little more than 8 hours you should give this one a try but if you're looking for something special, something different from the ordinary rom-com stuff, this might not be your style either.

Vampire Prosecutor (Season 2)

Please note that this entry may involve fangirling, ranting and cursing about a TV channel. Don't mind me, it's just me freaking out because of frustration.

뱀파이어 검사 2
(Vampire Prosecutor) is a South Korean drama series that aired on OCN from September 9th to November 18th 2012.

Story: Prosecutor Min Tae-yeon is a vampire using his special abilities to solve crimes and catch the criminals. However, he stumbles upon another vampire in is series that becomes more commonly known as "L" who seems to enjoy playing games. Trying to safe his team consisting of Detective Hwang Soon-bum, Prosecutor Yoo Jung-in and Choi Dong-man, he solves some cases with them but has to deal with the final enemy on his own..

Cast: We see Yeon Jung-hoon again as Prosecutor Min Tae-yeon. His acting is just awesome, I seriously fell for his character but then again the end left me seriously frustrated (I won't say anything else about this). As Yoo Jung-in we see Lee Young-ah and I definitely prefer her in this season. It's just like her character isn't nagging as much as I remember from the first season so that might be the reason. Lee Won-jung appears as Hwang Soon-bum again and after this season I somehow find his character more and more interesting. Sure he doesn't seem to be an incredibly smart detective but then again, with his good instincts, he's an important member of the team. Choi Dong-man was played by Kim Joo-young again and I seriously came to like his character for lightening up the dark atmosphere in this series.
Lee Kyung-young is new in this series as Jo Jung-hyun. And this man.. I don't know what I should think about him. Weird but effective and him not being a part of the team anymore will be a huge loss? Not the most charming or lovable character but his love for Kim Ji-young as Lee Ji-ae is really touching. I think you'd need to watch the series to understand what's behind this but it's adorable how much he's caring for her.
Kwon Hyun-sang appears as "L". So, except for me wondering why there are so many characters named "L" in Asia (is this some nickname based on stereotypical features?), his madness is damn well acted. I loved to hate him. But he seriously had too much time making plans and observing his enemies.
Others in the main cast include Jung Hwan as Park Hoon, Park Jae-hoon as Ra Jae-wook, Yoshitaka Yuriko as Luna (and seeing a Japanese fortune-teller made this series a lot better in my opinion, I loved her character) and Kim Bo-young as Chief Prosecutor Joo Hyun-ah.

Soundtrack: The ending theme is "Danger" by MC Sniper. Now I'm not a huge fan of rap but I came to like the rock and crossover influence in this song. It's not used that much in the drama though and only appears at the end. As for the instrumentals, they worked well - supported the atmosphere. Watching the drama without sound would make most of the scenes less atmospheric.


My personal rating is a 9.5/10. There was one episode (I think it was Ep. 8, Rude Min Tae-yeon) that seriously got on my nerves. Yes, the last five minutes are important. The rest of the episode seems to be a complete joke. I'm not saying that a few scenes that make you smile or laugh are bad but this episode just didn't fit the overall atmosphere at all.
We get some more information on the characters though, and that is actually really well-played by OCN. Since I've heard that they're still talking about a 3rd season (as of January 2015 it might be aired in Summer/Fall 2016) they need to keep people interested. Same with the ending which seriously leaves me frustrated. If they would liked an open ending or a cliff hanger, I think about 2 minutes earlier (right after the explosion - I hope I'm not saying too much about this) would have been better in my honest opinion.

Overall I'd definitely recommend this to people into crime, mystery and some 'hinted-romance' stuff. While it bothers me that the hints become actually really strong in this season (I prefer my crime series without romance at all), others seem to like that a lot.
But if you want to watch a typical vampire-teenage-romance, this is definitely not the right drama for you.
One more thing I have to add: The fights were awesome. Just awesome. Loved it more than anything.

Vampire Prosecutor (Season 1)

뱀파이어 검사  (Vampire Prosecutor) is a Korean drama series that aired from October 2nd to December 18th 2011 on OCN.

I'm not a huge fan of vampires. Like not at all. Personally, I think that since Twilight it's already a good sign if vampires don't sparkle. But then again, thanks to this topic being used over and over again after the hype a certain movie series caused, I just came to think that it's all about popularity and I probably shouldn't watch anything involving vampires anymore except for the good old horror movies.
So how did I end up watching this? Just by reading the first paragraph of this entry, you might be able to notice something. It's an OCN Original series, and that's basically a guarantee for a crime series with 100% quality.
That being said, this entry might include fangirling, ranting and cursing because of a certain love-hate-relationship I've mentioned already like ten times before.

Story: Prosecutor Min Tae-yeon becomes part of a Joint Investigation Unit consisting of detectives and prosecutors. He seems to have worked with Detective Hwang Soon-bum before who's one of the few people who know Tae-yeon's secret: The prosecutor, after being bitten by someone he doesn't know one day, became a vampire and uses his abilities to solve mysterious cases. Soon, he figures out that a serial murder called the 'Vampire case' from years ago was committed by a vampire and while solving some cases with his team, he tries to find the other vampire.

Cast: Yeon Jung-hoon accepted the role of Min Tae-yeon, and to be completely honest, if vampires would be like this - I'm want them to come out, we need them. Speaking all honestly I loved his acting from the first minute to the last. It's as simple as that. Lee Young-ah as Yoo Jung-in is the female member of the team, and she's one of the strong and confident female characters in a drama series that I come to like a lot usually. Lee Won-jung as Hwang Soon-bum is a detective who works well with Min Tae-yeon. After having roughly 25 years of experience, he has seen a lot of things. To be honest, after watching the first season, I still wonder why he knows of Tae-yeon being a vampire and basically no one else does but then again I'll try to be patient and I hope I'll be able to figure that out when watching the second season.
Kim Joo-young joined the cast as Choi Dong-man. Though the use of his character might not be that obvious at first, I found myself thinking that he lightens up the atmosphere with his bright and somewhat funny character.
Jang Hyun-sung can be seen as Chief Prosecutor Jang Chul-oh, and while one cannot understand his intentions at first, I was confused even in the end. But nonetheless, I feel like this role was perfect for him, the whole atmosphere fit well. So either he's just good at playing that kind of characters or he's simply a really really really good actor.
As the bartender Ra Jae-Wook (and yes, I did look this up because I think all we get in the first season is "Mr. La") we seen Park Jae-hoon. Sure he did something bad when he was still a doctor but then again I seriously can't judge him for doing that and as someone who has been helping Tae-yeon all along I really liked this role as well.

Soundtrack: Oh, there was a soundtrack? Okay, okay, joking, I did notice like one song and after looking that up I think it was performed by Lee Jung but that's basically everything. And since it is not used that often, it doesn't get boring. I'd love to listen to the instrumentals played during the action scenes though since especially crime series tend to have a quite interesting and exciting soundtrack.

Conclusion? 9.5/10. The first episodes seemed a little bit chaotic to me but good nonetheless.
But then again I'm a huge fan of crime series and to be completely honest I think the 'vampire'-element wouldn't have been necessary. They could've just used a human who's good at observing as well so I think THAT actually was to get attention for the series. And that's not bad at all, sure they need people to watch a production.

*I never thought that a Korean with bright blue eyes could be that attractive since I usually prefer dark eyes but then again it's perfect.

**One of my favorite scenes, I had to laugh so hard and that smirk is seriously worth to capture.

***Excuse the quality of those screenshots, and yes, it's pretty much not my style but I've been watching a few episodes online due to some technical issues. BUT why am I sharing those screencaps? To be completely honest it's just because.. I went to that place. And my friend and I took a photo using that mirror as well. Forgive me, I was pretty much done seeing those pictures in a drama series now.