Heartstrings

넌 내게 반했어 (Heartstrings; Literally You've Fallen For Me) is a South Korean drama series that was aired on MBC from June 29th to August 18th 2011. The drama consists of 15 episodes with a duration of 65 minutes.

Story: Lee Kyu-won is a Traditional Music (Gugak) major student and plays the Gayageum. Lee Shin attends the same university and majors in Applied Music. After accidentally bumping into each other and getting into conflicts they decide to have a contest - traditional music band Windflower vs rock band The Stupid. The loser will be the winner's servant for one month. Of course while being close together as master and servant Kyu-won and Shin eventually start to develop feelings for each other even though their personalities are still really different.
When preparation for the 100th Anniversary performance of the university start they eventually have to start working together when arranging the music.
At the same time Director Kim Seok-hyun, who came from the Broadway and used to study at the same university, seems to prefer Kyu-won over the daughter of an important person, Han Hee-joo, which eventually causes some trouble for Kyu-won on an entirely different level.
I love how the two line description speaks of a youth melodrama. Personally I didn't feel like it was a melodrama but just a pretty basic teen love story - despite for the fact that they are not in highschool but in university at this drama. It does have the typical antagonists and the typical asshole-male-lead and cute-but-confident female lead in this case in the beginning. Most of the side characters and their stories were only partly developed but it was okay. It was about the main couple after all. I don't see anything outstanding about this drama in the end though.

Cast: Jung Yong-hwa as Lee Shin. His acting in this drama was alright but honestly, it could've been better. Sometimes I had a feeling it was either too much or not enough to make me actually believe in the struggle his character was going through.
Park Shin-hye as Lee Kyu-won. Personally this drama might have been one of her better ones for me. I know in other dramas I absolutely hated her as an actress because she didn't show any emotion. This drama was far better but there were many times when I just couldn't believe her acting as it was just over the top and definitely too much.
Song Chang-ui as Kim Seok-hyun. If there was a character I absolutely adored it was Director Kim Seok-hyun. The acting was done so well that I actually believed a musical director like that exists. I just still don't get why the character was favoring Lee Kyu-won so much but maybe I missed it somewhere along the way and it's not a huge thing.
So Yi-hyun as Jung Yoon-soo. At first I didn't really like her as an actress in this drama to be honest but it got better and her acting seemed much better starting from some point. I don't know why but in the beginning I needed to get used to it I believe. After all I would say her acting was good.
Kim Yoon-hye as Han Hee-joo. As much as this type of character can annoy one, I have to admit her acting was good as well as her singing and her dancing (which was necessary for this role). Yes, some parts were a little bit overdone. I can imagine a girl with her background to behave like this though so it was nothing that bothered me much.
Kang Min-hyuk as Yeo Jun-hee. Such a cutie pie and a character that was written to be weird and a little too much to handle unless you're used to it. Personally I really enjoyed the acting and can't really say anything bad about it.
Lee Hyun-jin as Hyun Ki-young. I absolutely fell in love with his voice! I quite liked his acting and was happy whenever he appeared on screen so I can't say anything bad about his acting. Especially the beginning and the musical rehearsal/preview in front of the potential investors was great, the fear was shown well in my own opinion.
Other actors include Im Se-mi, Jang Seo-won, Lee Jung-heon and Im Do-yoon.

Soundtrack: I personally wish they would've used more songs. It felt like only 3 or 4 songs were always returning during the drama in so many different seems that a song could not support the atmosphere all the time. However, my favorite was and probably still is (after watching the drama) "그리워서... (Because I Miss You)" by Jung Yong-hwa. I absolutely love the band version and the song combined with Yong-hwa's voice.


6.5/10
In general, as a light romance drama between university students, this drama is enjoyable. The main things that bothered me that a huge amount of the characters seemed to be a parody of who/what they were supposed to be, especially Park Sa-rang and her two minions. Also, I really hopes Park Shin-hye finds a balance that seems more realistic one day. I know many people love her but I think this is one of her best dramas for me - and it still wasn't realistic.
What I really found terrible about this drama though is that it sometimes was difficult to focus on the characters, especially in the beginning, because it looked like it was filmed with a smartphone camera (from 2016 and not 2011 to be fair). I got used to it but there are dramas from 2008 to 2010 that look far more professional.
Recommended to fans of music, the lead actors and cute, funny love stories. You will enjoy this drama for sure.

Producer

프로듀사 (Producer) is a South Korean drama series that aired on KBS2 from May 15th to June 20th 2015 and consists of 12 episodes with an average duration of 80 minutes.

Story: Baek Seung-chan joins a KBS Entertainment World team as the new PD rookie. In the first place he decided to become a PD because of his first love. Right on the first day he gets into an accident with one of his senior PDs, Tak Ye-jin. Tak Ye-jin currently lives with her childhood friend who happens to be another PD, Ra Joon-mo, for KBS Entertainment World and above all Seung-chan's direct boss.
While helping out in one of the shows Seung-chan meets the famous singer Cindy who causes some trouble for Ye-jin. As the chaos evolves around the relationships between the four characters they try to overcome hardships in the entertainment business as well.

Cast: I think the cast is honestly what made this drama as well known as it is. At first we have Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Seung-chan. As the main character of this story the viewer becomes most familiar with him and the stubborn, puppy-like behavior makes him a total sweetheart. But I have to admit that this role didn't suit Kim Soo-hyun perfectly. His acting was good but I feel like sometimes the very goofy, innocent acting just didn't feel right.
Gong Hyo-jin as Tak Ye-jin is a good actress and in this drama she showed some huge differences between the professional and the real person Ye-jin. It was good to see Gong Hyo-jin in this role as her performance was really nice.
Cha Tae-hyun as Ra Joon-mo has the loser role in this drama, if there is one character I would have to name as that character that is. When it comes to his career, if I remember right, every show he touches ends up being ruined and he is trying to safe his current variety show "2 Days & 1 Night". That's when Seung-chan joins and Joon-mo's team is definitely not happy about it at first.
And who could take the role of a famous singer better than a famous singer? So IU is in this drama as Cindy. The change within her character is the most fascinating thing about her. The acting was maybe a little bit too sweet partly but then again idols have to be like that.
The cast also includes Lim Ye-jin, Kim Hee-chan, Kim Hye-ok, Park Hyuk-kwon, Kim Jong-kook, Na Young-hee, Jo Han-chul and Choi Kwon.

Soundtrack: The OST in fact includes a lot of very good singers and some indie bands. My favorite song has to be from a singer called Ben "두근두근 (Palpitations)" followed by "러브스윗 (Love Suite)" which was performed by EXID's Solji.


My personal rating for this drama is a 7/10 not because it is bad but it failed to deliver something special in the world of romantic comedies. As rom-com is the dominating genre in K-Drama land it is hard to deliver something innovative and new, that is for sure, and the only new aspect this drama added to complicated relationships was the entertainment industry. But in that way it actually gives you a nice impression how things might actually be working as a writer or program director and how hard the competition is. So as it was in that aspect a really good drama I was willing to give some bonus points even though it didn't impress me much. Recommendation? If you want to watch it, go ahead, it's not that long after all and I've seen worse than this drama.

Perseverance Goo Hae Ra

To make it short: This entry will be a long rant among the dozens of things I hated about this drama, why the 12 episodes took me two months to finish and how stupid some people make characters while I will probably talk about how much I loved the music and performances for half an hour. Don't mind me, you don't need to read everything if you don't want to.

칠전팔기 구해라 (Perseverance, Goo Hae Ra) is a South Korean drama series that was aired on Mnet from January 9th to March 27th 2015 and consists of 12 episodes.

Story: Goo Hae-ra's father died when she was a child. Since then it was her dream to make her fathers last song known all over the world. As she participates in a casting problems start to arise since something or someone seems to be against her. And to make it all worse her childhood friend Kang Se-chan signs with Emperor Entertainment which disqualifies the team. The only option to save Se-chan from a long-term contract is for his older brother Kang Se-jong to sign with them. As he is considered the traitor, his relationship with Hae-ra suffers heavily. The other team members already consider what to do if they can't fulfill their dream until one day the former idol Tae-poong decides to help them. Except for Se-jong the whole team is united again and starts to work towards their dream - standing on stage and performing together. Se-jong debuted with IMPACT in the meantime but wants to leave Emperor Entertainment to get back - but there are the entertainment's star Scarlet as well as the CEO Hwang Je-gook trying to stop him and destroy the Perseverance team.

Cast: Min Hyo-rin as Goo Hae-ra was just outright horrible in my opinion. Not only because of the character and the way it was written - Hae-ra is the type of female character I hate so much that it would get me to drop a drama solely because of her - but because her acting was just very obviously fake. Since I haven't seen her in any other role I would just love to say that the role definitely didn't suit her at all.
Kwak Si-yang as Kang Se-jong was good in my opinion though. Not really outstanding but the role of an older brother caring for his younger brother and Hae-ra enough to make himself suffer a lot made somehow sense to me. However, his push-and-pull at some point (yes, it was the writing, I know) was also stupid and so annoying that I think it could've been written a lot better.
B1A4's Jung Jin-young as Kang Se-chan as well as Ray in this drama mainly impressed me with his voice and rapping (which isn't really surprising) but his acting was okay for the characters I would say. At times he did seem to overact a bit but it was okay for the comedy parts. In the serious scenes I would love to say that he did have some brotherly chemistry with Kwak Si-yang which I enjoyed watching.
Henry Lau as... well, Henry, was one of the most funny and refreshing characters in this drama. His acting was a little bit childish at times (not often) but I guess that was also because of the writing. Except for overdoing it a bit in the beginning I would say it was good. But I think the chemistry between Henry and Lee Woo-ri played by Yoo Sung-eun was not really the best. I didn't think they fit together even though their story was good. Sung-eun as Woo-ri was a cute girl I learned to like through the drama but her acting could've been a little stronger. However, it is obvious she was in this drama because of her voice and I loved her songs already years ago so be assured - that woman can sing!
And another singer in this drama is Park Kwang-sun of Ulala Session as Jang Goon. I'm not sure how many people remember know Ulala Session and even if they did how many people recognize his voice - because I clearly didn't but it also has been a long time since I listened to this group. Anyway, his acting was also good somehow and there was a twist around his character that kinda surprised me.
Shim Hyung-Tak as Tae-poong was... weird but good? I don't really know how I can explain this, I think his acting was too extreme at times but that is what made Tae-poong interesting so I don't really know how to rate this. Rather an "above average but not perfect" rating.
Other actors in this drama include Seo Min-ji as Scarlet, Park Hee-jin as Heo Myeon-ran (Hae-ra's mother), Jang Young-nam as Kang Soon (Se-jong's and Se-chan's mother), Yoon Da-hoon as Hwang Je-gook and Kim Min-Jae as Sa Ki-joon.

Soundtrack: This is a drama by Mnet. It is literally a music drama. The music and life performances were good! And I'm not joking, it is what kept me watching this drama while I wanted to drop it at least five to six times. If there are any songs I remember as very special I have to name Yoo Sung-eun's "널 사랑해 (I Love You)" and Min Hyo-rin's and Jin-young's "널 만난 이후 (Oh, My Love)" but literally all the songs and performances are great and I highly recommend watching them on Youtube separately if you want to.


Above I didn't mention many negative things, I know that, because I didn't want to seriously spoiler anyone. But my total rating is a 5.5/10 and I rarely give ratings below 6 or 6.5.

Throughout the whole series what bothered me the most was Goo Hae-ra and don't mind me but she is the reason I will probably never even consider rewatching this. In one episode (yes, this is out of context) she wonders why another person is not answering the phone - after he told her like five minuets ago that his phone battery was empty. You must be kidding me. No one has such a short term memory. And already my short term memory is bad.
This drama includes so many twists (I wouldn't call them plot twists but rather relationship and character twists) that it went up and down faster than any rollercoaster could. It went from good-ok to omg-why-am-I-even-sitting-through-this-bad in five to ten minutes sometimes. It seemed like the writer him- or herself didn't have any idea where this mess was going to end up.
Especially during the last episodes it was really hard for me to keep watching. One of my notes says that I was close to jumping in a circle in episode 9 because they were dragging it so much. I don't exactly remember what made me freak out like that because I took a long break after that to recover and get the energy to force myself back to watching this but it was probably bad.
And there were so many things happening "by chance" in this drama that at some point it got me to roll my eyes.
In the end I would say what saved this series what the fact is that it really involved music as a huge factor and that made it interesting to me but definitely not a series I would recommend anyone to watch - check out the performances on Youtube and please leave it at that for your own sake.

Orange Marmalade

오렌지 마말레이드 (Orange Marmalade) is a South Korean drama series based on a webtoon that aired from May 15th to July 24th 2015 on KBS2.

Story: In a fictional world, vampires and humans coexist in the same society. However, vampires are still discriminated against so they have to hide their true identity. Baek Ma-ri is a high school student who had to move with her family after being found out a few times already. After moving again, she becomes more careful so she won't need to transfer to another school again. In school she meets Jung Jae-min who hates vampires because of past events involving his mother. Jo Ah-ra who has a crush on Jae-min creates some difficult situations for Ma-ri while she's getting closer to Jae-min. Shortly after that, Han Shi-hoo transfers to the same school. Since he remembers Ma-ri from his childhood, he recognizes her in a tough situation and decides to help her out a few more times.

Cast: The cast and the acting in general is okay. Yeo Jin-goo did a good job as Jung Jae-min though I felt like sometimes he was too cold - something was missing in his expression. Kim Seol-hyun in general did have similar issues as Baek Ma-ri. She seemed too stiff but overall her performance in this drama was okay, nothing especially good or bad either.
Lee Jong-hyun as Han Shi-hoo simply delivered. Now I am not biased but I liked his acting and I liked his character - probably these factors are basically the same but I'm not really sure how to describe it. When the first highschool part ended, I was frustrated because I just thought they couldn't do that to him. Jo Ah-ra played by Gil Eun-hye was someone on the other hand I hated at first but came to like during the "past events" part. Her character in itself was understandable but the change from liking one person to just accepting without doing anything was faster than I expected but then again that's what I liked about her.
A rather unknown actress, but I loved Oh Kyung-min as Choi Soo-ri in this series. Sure she did have some of her insecure moments but she's definitely an actress I should look out for.
Lastly, I need to mention Song Jong-ho as teacher Han Yoon-jae and Lee Il-hwa as Kang Min-ha. While I personally liked Han Yoon-jae more that might be because he was in more scenes - a caring teacher always trying to support his students. Kang Min-ha, Jae-min's mother, was a respectable person, too. She didn't try to force her son into seeing her. She just accepted his wishes though it was obvious how glad she was when he finally met her again.

OST: There were basically two songs included in the soundtrack I sincerely loved and still love. One of them is "끌리는 여자 (Attracted Woman)" by Monsta X's Kihyun and Jooheon. It's a beautiful and light song that captured the atmosphere in quite a few of the scenes, not some overly dramatic sad love song. And then there's Hwanhee's "아프다 (Heartbreaking)", the kind of rather sad but beautiful songs performed by a great vocalist.

In total this drama received a 7/10 rating from me. The first few episodes were okay, the parts playing in back in the Joseon Dynasty were awesome (I loved that, they could've turned that into another drama..) and the last high school part was also nice but nothing too special. The ending was a rather open one but did not leave too many questions. It's something short and fun to watch and plays with tropes while I did see some critical ideas in this drama as well. (E.g. bullying someone because he/she is different.)
Something short, light and nice to enjoy between melodramas I'd say~.

ToGetHer

愛就宅一起 (ToGetHer, also known as Superstar Express) is a Taiwanese drama series that first aired on CTV from February 15th to May 3rd 2009. During the following months it aired on various other broadcasting stations.

Story: Mars is a star who has to face a crisis after a few scandals. Since the articles weren't telling the truth he feels like the bad treatment following those articles is not fair. One day because of him not earning enough money anymore his company asks him to move out of his apartment and he starts living with the quiet student Chen Mo Mo, who only has interest in her manga Prince Kashaba, and her sister Chu Chu. While Chu Chu is overly excited, Mo Mo doesn't even know who he is. It turns out that Mars and Mo Mo not only go to the same school but are also classmates so they meet quite often and fight a lot. Mars only wants to get back his status as a star and works hard. However, Mo Mo and Mars become closer while they're supporting each other more and more..

Cast: The second Taiwanese drama I've watched and again there's Jiro Wang in it as Mars/ Zhuang Jun Nan. Regarding his character.. well, I have to admit that at first he was full of himself and an arrogant star. Nothing we haven't seen in other series involving idols but that still doesn't mean that it's too bad. I love the way his character changes though and I enjoyed seeing the actor actually portraying that change well. Jiro Wang in fact is a familiar face (as some of you who have been reading my blog for some time) know but I think seeing his emotions displayed in this drama gives a good impression of his acting.
Next there's Rainie Yang as Chen Mo Mo. Personally I've known Rainie Yang as a singer since 2012 so I don't really know if the quiet, shy character of a person that's often forgotten and left behind suits her but I enjoyed her acting in this one in general as well though I really didn't like Mo Mo at first and thought that it was just overacted because her character was supposed to be that way.
George Hu as Wei Jia Sen was a far more complex character simply because he has the intelligence of a boy. While mental health issues weren't a topic Asian drama talked about for quite some time (if I remember right) I found the way Wei Jia Sen was portrayed rather interesting though as a character some of his scenes were annoying simply because of his behavior. However, the actor did well in fact so there's nothing I would criticize about him since I've never met a person showing that behavior. (Note: As far as I remember we don't get to know what happened to Jia Sen or in which way his physical and mental conditions lead to his lack of development. I'd guess it's more of a mental health problem than physical health.)
Linda Liao as Chen Chu Chu was unbearable to me sometimes. Mo Mo's sister seems to love gossip, is noisy, a little shallow and worries about completely different things than Mo Mo but causes a huge problem but runs away. Regarding the fact she's supposed to be the older sister she's more of a teenager than Mo Mo. The acting was nice but then again I don't feel like it was extremely diffcult. Probably except for the fact that Chu Chu always seems to be really energetic.
The last person I want to name on here is Jin Qin as Ke Yi Zhi who was a supportive and incredibly cute friend even willing to risk his job at times. We all need a manager/ co-worker/ friend like him in my opinion since he's loyal and worries about what might be best for Mars and not only for economic purposes.

Soundtrack: I really liked the soundtrack after all, there's no song that really got on my nerves. But I loved the opening song as well as the ending song of this series, "越來越愛 (Love You More and More)" and "默默 (Silently)" by Fahrenheit. Especially the ballad, Silently, or also pronounced as "Mo Mo" was really nice and I loved Jiro Wang singing the song in the drama series himself.



So now that I've said a lot of positive things about the soundtrack and the actors, what's my rating? A 6/10 doesn't seem to low at first but I was really struggling on judging this.
Now there might be some spoilers included when I'm explaining what I personally didn't like about this series so if you don't want to read those, just skip this part now.
The first point was the chaos. I didn't really get the point of the first episodes and they just seemed randomly put together. I know that Taiwanese production companies probably can do better.
Secondly, certain characters disappeared at some point, and were never to be seen again. If there would be an explanation why it would make sense. But for example for Ivy she just appears and suddenly disappears though she signed a contract and is therefore under the same company as Mars. Same basically works for Ben.
Speaking of Ivy before, why did they even have to come up with the story of an ex-girlfriend? Things were complicated enough before and it would've been complicated enough without her as well so why did she have to appear in about two episodes (maybe? I'm not even sure anymore).
And what really got on my nerves that they could've ended everything with episode 10. But then again only to be able to produce a few more episodes they added a family story including cancer, a car accident and - oh, scandal! - an idol caught dating. Those are just things that appear in basically every second or third K-Drama at least. I don't know about Taiwan but it doesn't have a feeling to it that makes it that different. At some point I was just able to laugh it off because it was ridiculous.
Those are however things I need to consider when rating a series but that doesn't make it entirely bad.

Twenty Years Old

Just a short writer's-note: This was my 50th K-Drama so it is a milestone~ Yay! ♥



스무살 (Twenty Years Old; also known as 20's) is a South Korean drama series consisting of four episodes with a duration of 20 minutes that aired on January 6th and 7th 2014 on tvN.

Story: This short drama series tells the story of Kim Hye-rim who fell for one of her seniors but one night he tries to take her to a motel and her romantic love story ends. After being home for a few days her best friend and housemate Oh Ga-young takes her to a concert of popular idol group BEAST. Ga-young really likes member Lee Gi-kwang who was one of Kim Hye-rim's classmates in middle school.
After the concert, Hye-rim and Gi-kwang meet again and the story of their past becomes relevant again as Gi-kwang shows interest in Hye-rim after four years.

Cast: I think the first person I just need to talk about on here is Lee Gi-kwang as.. himself. Well, yes, it makes sense that his acting therefore wasn't too bad because after all.. who knows a character better than actually the person who is or was the model for this role? That does not mean that I don't think he might be a good actor but probably his role in this one wasn't the hardest to play but then again I don't really know his personality. His acting in this was just okay, pretty much okay and nice but nothing special and he might not be the best idol-turned-actor of all time but I will probably check that out some time later.
Secondly, there's Lee Da-in as Kim Hye-rim. She's pretty but I just came to laugh about how innocent and naive a young woman can be. But that means her acting was in fact believable though it seemed ridiculous how innocent she acted.
Other actors in this drama include Kim Hye-ji as Oh Ga-young and Kim Dong-seok as Kim Tae-woo.

Soundtrack: Is there even a soundtrack besides some of BEAST's songs that are playing in this series? There were a few tracks I've noticed but I don't know the titles or anything about the soundtrack in general. The music is supporting the drama itself and it doesn't have a bad impact on the rating but it is not outstandingly good as well.







A 6/10 might seem to be a kind of low rating to those who have read a few reviews but for me this is solely based on one important factor: the story. The story itself delivers the feeling of a fanfiction, there is literally nothing outstanding about it. It's a story 13 year old girls think about and publish something similar on myfanfiction.com or asianfanfics or I-don't-even-remember-how-many-sites-exist. It simply lacks individuality, the special factor. The character design is alright, the story has the usual elements teen-dramas include.
Character development is difficult to show in such a short series so this didn't really influence my rating.

For fans of BEAST and in general short idol stories this is a cute love story but if you're looking for something more special, this drama might not be the one you should watch. It only has the length of a movie though so it's not a waste of time if you decide to watch this.

Pianist

피아니스트 (Pianist) is a Korean drama special that aired on November 27th 2010 on KBS2.

Story: Oh Je-ro is a musical genius and wanted to learn how to play the piano but works at a piano factory as a tuner to support his sick father instead. He thinks the name his father gave him sounds like "Oh, Zero" and symbolizes the lack of hope for his future. One day he meets Yoon In-sa and falls in love with her. When she was younger In-sa dreamed of becoming the world's best pianist but had to give up her dream as well and works part-time as an elementary school music teacher. When the two begin their love story they eventually start healing each others souls.

Cast: The cast includes Choi Minho as Oh Je-ro and Han Ji-hye as Yoon In-sa. Choi Phillip took the role of Han Jung-woo, and those are basically the three involved in the love triangle. The acting wasn't that good but not that bad either. But regarding a rather typical story one shouldn't expect too much, it doesn't really need the best actors to portray those characters.

Soundtrack: The piano pieces are quite nice, but besides those I don't remember an OST because it is only a drama special. Nothing more I could tell you about that.

My rating is 7/10, it's not that great but also not bad and something nice to watch if you're bored and need to kill time. Around 70 minutes aren't that much but I think they definitely couldn't have made this longer even if they wanted to because it would be like many other dramas out there. However, as for Minho's acting debut, I think this was decent enough.

Monstar

몬스타 (Monstar) is a Korean drama series consisting of 12 episodes that aired from May 17th to August 2nd 2013 on Mnet and tvN.
Just a fun fact: I've watched one episode of this drama on TV when I went to Busan in July 2013.. and it is hard without subtitles but actually kind of funny as well.

Story: Yoon Seol-chan is a member of the popular K-Pop group 'Men in Black'. Once he pushes one of his crazy fans and when it gets viral his reputation becomes really bad. Trying to avoid further scandals his agency tells him to attend a school. In the meantime Min Se-yi who came from New Zealand as a transfer student manages to get attention at school for both, her musical talent as well as her odd behavior. A lot of misunderstandings make things harder for Seol-chan, Se-yi and their classmates but they find out that their interest in and love for music is something they all have in common.
Basically it's about music, love and friendship during times when everything's confusing for young adults.

Cast: Many people did watch this drama because of the main cast. Yong Jun-hyung as Yoon Seol-chan attracted many of BEAST's fans. Do I need to say anything else? Maybe it was because of his role but I really couldn't describe his acting as outstandingly good. But then againAnother idol in the main cast is Kim Da-hee as Kim Na-na. But many people never heard about GLAM before.. well, at least before Da-hee's blackmailing scandal. However, I really liked her acting and her character in this drama and I seriously would've loved to see her in more dramas but I think that's never going to happen. Kang Ha-neul as Jung Sun-woo is also part of the main cast. Come on, he's an actor, and personally I think he's a quite good actor in general but I admit that this is definitely not one of his best dramas as well, it's just 'good', not really 'great'.
Others in the main cast include Kim Min-young as Sim Eun-ha, Park Kyu-sun as Cha Do-nam, Kang Ui-sik as Park Kyu-dong and Moon Yong-suk as Ma Joon-hee. As you might notice most of them are rookie actors but did a nice job regarding their lack of experience. And come on - someday we need a new generation of actors when all the current stars are in the military. I really want to see some of those again in more dramas. Oh, and we have Ha Yeon-soo as the female lead character, Min Se-yi!

Soundtrack: It's a musical drama.. so it does make sense that the OST is actually quite nice. Almost all songs are performed by the actors themselves except for one really really good track called "흩어진 나날들 (Scattered Days)" by Park Hyo Shin (he's a quite popular Korean ballad singer, if you haven't heard about him, check out his songs!) Nearly all songs are fun and easy to listen to, it's more like a bubbly-poppish style. If you like that kind of music, you'll love the OST to death.

At the end of the day my rating is 7/10. I mean it's a good drama but made for teenagers who experience their first love and the importance of friendship. I would recommend it to those who like music though and it's at least not a waste of time but nice to watch.

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.

The Strongest K-Pop Survival

K-POP 최강 서바이벌 (The Strongest K-Pop Survival / The Ultimate Audition) is known under fairly many titles. The drama originally aired from March 19th to May 1st 2012.

As far as I've heard it was originally planned as a drama with 16 episodes. However, the aired version has 14 episodes.

Story: Ji Seung-yeon wants to become a hip-hop legend and some events seem to make this possible. The only obstacle - she has to dress up as a guy and has to live with the other guys as well. The "M2 Juniors" meet the group M2 while they're being trained by Sunny Entertainment and Seung-yeon happens to meet Kang Woo-hyun who hides a rude and selfish personality behind musical talents and a charming smile.

Cast: The main cast consist of Go Eun-ah as Ji Seung-yeon, Kwak Yong-hwan as Kim Ji-woo, Seung-yeon's best friend, and Park Yoo-hwan as Kang Woo-hyun. While I didn't know any of the actors before Park Yoo-hwan looked somehow familiar. Searching for some info about him I've read that he's Park Yoo-chun's younger brother (and somehow only called Yoo-chun's brother often by English online magazines (AKP *cough*)).
There are also many idols included in the cast or not that typical idols but still singers - there's Song Min-ho more commonly known as Mino of Winner. Back then he was a member of B.o.M, a pretty nice ballad group that disbanded around 2013 if I remember right. Why I'm saying this? Because fellow B.o.M member Maeng Se-chang joined him. Also soloist ALi acted in the drama as vocal teacher Park. And Kevin Kim of ZE:A was another idol included in the cast.

Soundtrack: Regarding the cast including quite a lot of vocalists I think everyone can guess that the soundtrack wasn't completely bad. I admit I don't remember any song clearly though but I remember that I did like the songs M2 Junior performed in the drama.

To me this was a 9/10 after all but there could be multiple reasons like simply me being into music dramas. Also the friendship between the members of M2 Junior becomes pretty strong in the end. Though I am not a huge fan of genderbend I really liked this one.
Oh, well, and yeah, I do have a thing for Park Yoo-hwan and Jin Hyuk..
If you like music OR want to see Mino shirtless - watch this. After all it's fun and cute and pretty good.

You're Beautiful

미남이시네요 (You're Beautiful) is another Korean drama that aired in 2009, to be exact from October 7th to November 26th on SBS. Unlike Boys Over Flowers this one wasn't a remake but later, in 2011, a Japanese remake called Ikemen desu ne (美男ですね) was produced. In 2013 a Taiwanese remake followed.
I know that many, and I mean many, people loved this drama a lot. So actually I thought "Well, it has to be good". Obviously my expectations were too high and I've seriously thought about dropping this one a few times. To be honest I can't really explain why, but maybe after writing the full review I can understand myself what made me feel that bored.

Story: I've mentioned before that gender-bend stories aren't that uncommon and maybe this time I thought it was kind of boring because I've finished another drama with that characteristic not too long ago.
Basically a girl, Go Mi-nyeo, has to replace her brother, Go Mi-nam, in a band, A.N.JELL. Since they're twins it's possible but Mi-nyeo isn't a huge fan of the idea. Later she agrees anyways because that'd be an option to find their mother. Once again there's this bad and moody male lead, Hwang Tae-kyung, a nice supportive character, Kang Shin-woo, and the bright and cheerful Jeremy. As the story evolves Hwang Tae-kyung becomes attracted to Mi-nyeo but wouldn't admit it. At the same time Mi-nyeo likes Tae-kyung. Oh, and then there's Shin-woo who likes Mi-nyeo but unfortunately is stuck in the role of the second male lead and - therefore - the friendzone. Like you might notice there are many typical elements again.
While watching a lot of problems occur but what I really didn't understand: Though they're twins actually Mi-nyeo and Mi-nam would've different voices, especially because they're fraternal twins (Obviously, otherwise they'd have the same gender). Actually the fact that they have to be fraternal twins means as well that they would not look exactly the same. F**k logic? Yeah, true, one can be like this, sometimes it works for me as well but since I'm pretty much into voices I actually thought about that difference at first.

Cast: The cast consists of quite popular actors or singers, depending on whom we're talking about. First there's Jang Geun-suk who acted as the male lead Hwang Tae-kyung. Though I'm not a huge fan of his, mainly because of the characters he's playing, I think he did a good job in here. As the female lead we have Park Shin-hye as Go Mi-nyeo. No, I don't hate her, let me clear this up first but I think her acting is incredibly boring. Same expression all the time and she always gets those clumsy, helpless, "damsel in distress"-characters which I happen to dislike. It's not her fault, I know, but this is also just based on my personal opinion.
The other two band members are played by actual singers. Jung Yong-hwa as Kang Shin-woo and Lee Hong-ki as Jeremy. I was actually cheering for Shin-woo a lot, I would've hoped for a better ending for him but after all - you might know what happens to second male leads and if you don't you'll find out soon enough. Jeremy is less serious and an incredibly playful character which made it a lot of fun to watch him but sometimes he reminded me of a monkey (don't ask me why, I don't know myself and am laughing about it).

Soundtrack: Well, the soundtrack included tracks by all those named above. I only think it's quite sad Jung Yong-hwa didn't have any solo track while Park Shin-hye had two, Lee Hong-ki as well I think, and Jang Geun-suk had like three or something. To be honest I don't remember any song clearly and that is what I think is quite surprising since I'm a huge music lover. I only remember that Miss $ made a song called "하늘에서 내려와 (Descend from the Sky)" with Oh Won-bin and since it was performed by Miss $ it has to be good.


So, I was really wondering about how I should rate this since it has been one of the most popular dramas and maybe it was partly my fault to watch similar dramas like To The Beautiful You and Boys Over Flowers before but I think there might also be some things about the cast, the typical story and the soundtrack that just I simply can't remember.
I think 4/10 is still a nice rating compared to what I've just talked about. Though compared to most dramas that get quite good ratings it's actually not that good.

Shut Up: Flower Boy Band

닥치고 꽃미남밴드 (Shut Up: Flower Boy Band) is the second part of tvN's "Flower Boy" series and aired from January 30th to March 20th 2012.
Now you can make a guess why I wanted to watch this so bad. Is it about L? Hm, probably but also because I love everything connected to music. And since this one involves music I sincerely loved it!

Story: The whole story evolves around the members of a band called "Eye Candy". When their school gets closed they have to transfer to another school, Jungsang High. After a confrontation with the leading band of Jungsang High, Strawberry Fields, they decide to continue going to highschool.

Cast: The main cast includes Sung Joon as Kwon Ji-Hyuk who becomes the male lead after a tragic incident, Kim Myung-soo (L) as Lee Hyun-soo (excuse me, I was dying from time to time because of that smile), Lee Min-ki as Joo Byung-hee, Lee Hyun-jae as Jang Do-il, Yoo Min-kyu as Kim Ha-Jin, Kim Min-suk as Seo Kyung-jong and Jo Bo-ah as Im Soo-ah.
I can't remember disliking any acting though it has been a while since I've watched it. Though some characteristics might seem quite faked.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack was one of the best soundtracks ever. Sung Joon's "무단횡단 (Jaywalking)", "Wake Up", "오늘은 (Today)" and "몰라야 할 말 (Words You Shouldn't Know)" are all quite good songs. "Love U Like U" sung by Kim Ye-rim and Kim Myung-soo is an awesome duet track included in the soundtrack as well.


After all this was a quite good drama I enjoyed a lot but it was somehow confusing after the first few episodes but once I understood what actually happened it was easy to follow. 8.5/10 would be my rating. And I think once I've watched all dramas on my list (which will probably never happen, Korea, y u produce so many awesome dramas?) I would definitely watch this again and again and again.