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.

Flower Boy Next Door

이웃집 꽃미남 (Flower Boy Next Door/ My Flowerboy Neighbor) is a Korean drama series that aired from January 7th to February 26th 2013 on tvN. It's the third part of the Oh! Boy series.

Story: Go Dok-mi lives at Ocean Village's apartment #402. She works as a freelance copy editor and rarely leaves her apartment. She has been secretly watching Tae-joon who lives across from her.
Suddenly she finds herself surrounded by flower boys living in the same building.
Enrique Keum, a video game designer, just came from Spain to Korea and stays in Tae-joon's apartment. Web comic writer Oh Jin-rok and his assistant Yoo Dong-hoon stay in apartment #401. Fascinated by the shy women living in #402 he writes his new web comic based on observations. Also Watanabe who came to Korea to learn the special things about the Korean cuisine lives next to Dok-mi.
The men gather in front of her door because Enrique caught Dok-mi peeping into Tae-joon's apartment and the noise he caused in front of her house..

Cast: So we have Park Shin-hye as the female lead character Go Dok-mi. I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post but her expressions stay the same all the time. I really can't tell if it's about the type of characters she tends to play but it's really boring to watch her (or her characters).
As Enrique Keum we have Yoon Shi-yoon and yes, he's cute and a flower boy but then again his character is quite complicated and seems so childish and cheerful about 95% of the time - the other five percent of the complete time he's a rather sensible and somehow hurt character. Once again I feel like the expressions were incredibly overdone but then again it's probably what the producers want. Compared to Dok-mi it's rather easy to figure out his thoughts but he tends to hide them with his smile as well from time to time.
Oh Jin-rok was acted by Kim Ji-hoon who's a victim of the Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome again. Ko Gyung-pyo can be seen as his assistand Yoon Dong-hoon. Kouki Mizuta accepted the role of Watanabe and he's adorable, he seems more helpless than he actually is but he's willing to learn a lot. At last I need to mention Kim Jung-san who's the object of Go Dok-mi's affection as Han Tae-joon.


Soundtrack: The soundtrack might also be a gift to fans of Park Shin-hye who performed the song "Pitch Black". But then again the song isn't that special, there's nothing really great to me included in the soundtrack.
There's one really cute scene with Yoon Shi-yoon singing at a campfire though and I really like this song. The music is just used to highlight scenes in dramas, I know, but I would want a lot more of that.
The other songs are mostly romantic-cute songs. Once again, it's not bad but there isn't really any highlight.

After all this one got a rating of 8.5/10 as well from me.
Yes, there are some typical aspects and somehow either the female lead character Go Dok-mi or Park Shin-hye ruined it a little bit for me but it's a cute and funny rom-com drama. And I couldn't help but like Enrique as a character even more because of Dok-mi giving him a hard time. And the dog! Excuse me but it's fluffy and I love it.

Almost as much as I love and want the panda hat. Isn't it somehow awesome?
Now if those flower boys would live in my neighborhood I'd probably be interested in going out instead of spending my time watching Korean dramas, studying languages and writing drama reviews.

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.