Discovery of Romance

연애의 발견 (Discovery of Romance) is a South Korean rom-com drama that was aired from August 18th to October 7th 2014 on KBS2. The 16 episodes have an average duration of 60 minutes.

Story: Han Yeo-reum is in love with her boyfriend of more than 1 year, Nam Ha-jin, who works as a plastic surgeon. However, as she catches her boyfriend going on a blind date arranged by his mom, she eventually meets her ex-boyfriend and owner of a construction company, Kang Tae-ha, and their phones get exchanged. The day after the meeting, Yeo-reum calls her phone while she is drunk and ends up spending the night at her ex-boyfriend's house. Of course she ends up getting caught and her best friend Yoon Sol as well as their roommate Do Joon-ho, who is a close friend of Ha-jin, try to help her out. But suddenly the small woodcraft company Sol and Yeo-reum own together has to work with Tae-ha's construction company so of course they run into each other quite often.
This story is something I personally haven't seen often in K-Dramas yet but I'm pretty sure I have a bunch of stories with the "second chance for the first love"-story line on my list of dramas I still intend to watch. Now was this drama refreshing? Yes and no. I did enjoy the interviews even though it was a little bit awkward at first. But the actual story is not the most unique nor exciting one I've ever seen. I would personally say that this drama is a light, quick watch (I finished it within two days but I'm currently on a drama marathon anyways).

Cast: Jung Yoo-mi as Han Yeo-reum. I was totally surprised to see her in this drama to be honest because she looks totally different on the posters. I still don't know how I should rate her as an actress for sure but her acting wasn't bad. The main problem was that she seemed to be sad or annoyed most of the time. Maybe that's a trait that the writer gave to the character though but it doesn't make it really easy to watch her in this drama.
Eric Moon as Kang Tae-ha. I don't know why but most of the time I found Tae-ha to be a very funny character that was portrayed well. I can't really say anything about Eric's acting that bothered me, he did a good job.
Sung Joon as Nam Ha-jin. I know I've actually watched quite a few dramas with Sung Joon, thank you very much to anyone who wanted to point that out. It's an accident he usually acts in dramas I want to watch sooner or later and I can guarantee that more of his dramas will be on this blog. I really think he is an amazing actor as I liked him in almost all roles I've seen him in so far and this one is no exception, I totally adored his character and his acting. I don't think I need to explain exactly what I mean.
Yoon Hyun-min as Do Joon-ho. I really enjoyed Yoon Hyun-min's acting. Do Joon-ho is a lovable idiot and sometimes his behavior made me facepalm but after all it's adorable even though he also has a serious side when he tries to protect the relationship between Yeo-reum and Ha-jin. The acting was good enough to make me believe almost every line so it's all good and I'm looking forward to seeing him in the future.
Kim Seul-gi as Yoon Sol. Kim Seul-gi also is definitely a good actress that can take over different roles but usually her characters seem to be a little bit grumpy and moody. Sol is no exception, she's picky and gets drunk often. The only thing that bothered me in the long run to be very honest was her voice, I don't know why. However, I think she also did a good job in this drama.
Yoon Jin-yi as An Ah-rim. She seems to be the nice girl living next door. The acting was fair enough but something just didn't work for me. I don't know what exactly it was but something literally bothered me about her acting in general. While she was still not bad I do believe it could've been better.
Other actors in this drama include Lee Seung-joon, Kim Hye-ok, Gu Won and Sung Byung-sook-

Soundtrack: I think the soundtrack, the artists and the titles were well chosen. I can't really point out a song that fit the drama more than the others but I do have to admit that "어린애처럼 (Like A Child)" by Shinhwa's Shin Hye-sung (신혜성) really hit me in that moment and had me sitting straight up. I absolutely love Hye-sung's voice so I had to put this here.


6.5/10
As I mentioned before this is a light watch in between, something romantic and fun but it does have some weaknesses mainly in the story. There are hardly any memorable scenes so I don't really know what I should do or say about this specifically. The story itself is not totally bad but I found my thoughts wandering off many times because it wasn't as catchy as other dramas can be. It is still not bad.
Recommended to those who like romantic comedy dramas that are not too long and who might be interested in the emotional struggle between past and current love.

Hyde, Jekyll, Me

Okay, at first I feel like I need to warn all of you. You will read my personal opinion on this drama below (I think I should change the style a bit but you will see that soon) but I've read quite mixed reviews about this drama.
This is solely my opinion in this entry. I see why some people maybe don't like it at all but I've seen much worse.

하이드 지킬, 나 (Hyde, Jekyll, Me) is a South Korean drama series that was aired on SBS from January 21st to March 26th and consists of 20 episodes. The drama is based on a webtoon.

Story: Gu Seo-jin is the Director of an amusement park called "Wonderland". He's very cold and rude towards most people while trying to please his father. Only very few people know that he suffers from DID, more commonly known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Robin, the second personality, is the total opposite of Gu Seo-jin; polite, always smiling, caring and "saving others is just his personality". Five years ago, Robin disappeared after an incident but suddenly he struggles to come through again on the same day Jang Ha-na arrives at Wonderland.
Jang Ha-na came back after spending five years in the USA to take her fathers' position in Wonder Circus, one of the attractions at Wonderland. Gu Seo-jin plans on closing the circus and firing the people working there but Jang Ha-na fights back as much as she can. Right on the day she arrives the fate of Gu Seo-jin and Jang Ha-na becomes more and more entangled as Ha-na is the only witness in the case of Dr. Kang Hee-ae, Gu Seo-jin's psychologist. Ha-na is the only one who saw the culprit and suddenly Gu Seo-jin needs her to find the doctor and finally get rid of his second personality.
- I personally don't know much about DID and how treatments work or the way people behave but I believe that this was just one point of the story and it was not totally ridiculous what happened, at least if you're not an expert. There is much more to it and while the writing could've been better it was quite nice to not have a purely evil second female lead. Also, the side stories where not the best but definitely interesting enough to make me finish this drama within 4(!) days. It is true that it loses its pace towards the end it turns more into a melodrama than the comedy drama it is supposed to be though. 

Cast: Hyun-bin as Gu Seo-jin and Robin. I'm not really sure what I should tell you about his acting. While he did have some chemistry with the female lead Robin and Ha-na seemed more like kids playing around in the beginning. Also, the character Robin seemed just overacted but that might be because of the writing. So between Ha-na and Robin there was no romantic chemistry whatsoever. On the other hand Gu Seo-jin's change was well-portrayed, and he did have a way better chemistry with her than Robin. I don't know, maybe two totally different personalities were a little bit too much for Hyun-bin as an actor but he was way more realistic as Gu Seo-jin, and it was way easier to believe it. He definitely improved towards the end as Robin, too, but I think it was not the best role for him.
Han Ji-min as Jang Ha-na was - excuse me for being straightforward - bad. Between 70% and 80% of the time she looked lost and dumbfounded. I kinda see that her character might have been confused often because of Robin and Gu Seo-jin but this definitely was not a good role for her. As mentioned above she does have some chemistry with Gu Seo-jin but it's not strong. Also, I did mind her character being a little bit slow and stupid partly. Again, something to criticize about the writing but it could've been slightly better if they chose another actress.
Lee Seung-joon as Secretary Kwon Young-chan was one of my favorite characters. He's caught between a fear of losing his job and his sympathy for Robin who was like a younger brother to him. As the responsible person trying to connect Ha-na with both worlds his acting was sometimes too much (I know, I'm repeating myself but writing - can't blame him for that) but in total his performance was one of the best ones.
Sung Joon as Yoon Tae-joo was the better villain in this. As he is a charismatic actor in a strong role he managed to shine in his spot as a side character. Now if you plan on watching this you won't understand why I wrote "villain" but just wait. At first I wasn't really suspicious of him but in the end this is a K-Drama and he started to seem too nice at some point.
Hyeri as Min Woo-jung was totally not my style. As a quirky, playful little girl she took over an annoying part at first but I believe she was supposed to be like that. She would be the one that is the closest to a second female lead but not as bad as others. I also think she had a great chemistry with Eun-chang.
Speaking of Lee Eun-chang, Lee Won-geun did a pretty good job in my opinion. Being part of the circus he met Min Woo-jung and eventually became the person watching over her. He was a ray of light more than once and definitely did a good job.
Han Sang-jin as Ryu Seung-yeon was - again - simply bad. Now I don't want to believe that it was actually the actor but the character and the way it was portrayed in the webtoon. As a villain I can't take him seriously, the music, the acting - he just seems like the "I-want-to-be-a-villain-and-I'm-jealous-as-hell-but-I-can't-do-it"-character you see in comics. A villain that is bad at being a villain.
Other actors in this drama include Lee Deok-hwa, Kwak Hee-sung (who is quite good-looking btw, need to check him out!), Oh Na-ra, Shim Eun-jung and Lee Joon-hyuk.

Sountrack: The very first thing I would like to say is that the instrumentals in Han Sang-jin's scenes were terribly chosen. No, it was literally horrible. It made the comic-like villain come out even more and it would've been funny if it didn't make me facepalm all the way through.
As for the songs sung for this drama there are two songs you keep hearing all the way through: Baek Ji-young's "Because of You" and Park Bo-ram's "Falling". I can't say that I didn't like the songs (I even have Baek Ji-young's song stuck in my head) but they are also not really special. To be very honest those songs are the typical ballads you hear here and there and everywhere in K-Dramaland. The only thing that really stood out was Snuper's "하이드 지킬 (Hyde Jekyll)". While it is for sure not the best OST song it is the most listenable outside of the drama and the most unique showing also Snuper's cuter style.


7.5/10
I know many people will actually have a "What in the world..."-moment now reading my rating. I did have things to criticize, mainly about the characters and the writing but also the soundtrack. But as I mentioned in my very short, small written introduction I have seen worse and I legitimately enjoyed this drama until episode 16 at least. Well, I enjoyed the majority until then. After that it did make a melodramatic turn that I personally didn't like that much but it's still okay and it was obvious that things needed to be resolved.
I don't know who I should recommend this to. As I also mentioned above it might depend on your expectations but many people dropped this drama, found it too slow-paced or simply poorly written. I checked some profiles on MyDramaList (sorry not sorry) and some of them seem to like dramas I loved as well while others who liked this drama didn't have much in common with me at all.
I'd say: If you want to watch this, keep your expectations low. Maybe that's the whole point, that after reading so many bad reviews my expectations were so low that I found this to be way better than I expected. And maybe that works for other people, too.

I Need Romance 3

로맨스가 필요해 3 (I Need Romance 3) is a South Korean drama series that aired on tvN from January 13th to March 4th 2014.

Story: Once again this drama revolves around a woman in her 30s and her relationships as well as her 'friends' - which are more colleagues in this case. Shin Joo-yeon works at a home shopping company. Because of some bad experiences she just accepts break-up's. She turned out cold and pretty calculating. When Allen Joo returns from the States after 17 years he can't believe that the cold woman is the same person as the girl he knew while growing up.
Lee Min-jeong, Joo-yeon's colleague, finds herself in a love affair and ends up as a pregnant single woman while Jeong Hee-jae and Lee Woo-young end up with some romantic issues as well. Since all of them are working together, the chaos is perfect when Oh Se-ryeong, a woman Joo-yeon was friends with earlier, appears. Se-ryeong was dating Kang Tae-yoon on whom Joo-yeon has a crush without noticing.

Cast: People asked me "Why do you watch it if you just found the first two seasons 'okay' or 'bearable'?" Well. Excuse you. There are four damn good reasons just in the cast. Firstly, Kim So-yeon as Shin Joo-yeon. That woman is my idol. I loved her more in IRIS and Two Weeks but she still did a good job in here, and just by looking at how different her roles in those series are I can assure you that she is indeed an amazing actress. But her chemistry with Nam Goong-min whom I really liked as well as Kang Tae-yoon could've been better. I don't think I could detect any chemistry between their characters at all. At least compared to the chemistry between Shin Joo-yeon and Allen Joo/ Joo Wan played by Sung Joon. While both of them are good at acting I couldn't really understand Allen's character that well though but then again I feel like that's me and there might have been a reason as to why he behaved that way after 17 years.
The character I hated the most in this drama turned out to be Oh Se-ryeong played by Wang Ji-won though. Geez, I wanted to beat her up. Badly. So annoying but I found myself actually liking her during the last episodes. Now I wonder what made her character change that much. Maybe I missed out on something. Maybe she changed because of hoping to get Tae-yoon back. Or maybe the writer just thought it would be a good idea. I really don't know about that.
Actually one of the reasons to watch this drama is Park Yoo-hwan as Lee Woo-young as well. I definitely hope people will stop referring to him as "Yoochun's brother" once and try to see him as an actor. He did well in this drama, especially with Yoon Seung-ah as Jeong Hee-jae. That clumsy but somewhat shy and loveable couple made this drama totally cute from time to time - and funny. Just let me mention the word "group chat" and you will understand after watching this.
Lastly we have Park Hyo-joo as Lee Min-jeong, a woman who has no intention to get married or think about having a family - until she finds out she's pregnant. And Ahn Min-seok played by Yoo Ha-jun is trying hard to become a good father even before the baby's born. He definitely deserved more time, both together with Park Hyo-joo or alone just because his acting and his character were really cute and seemed a little innocent and clueless.

Soundtrack: Thinking about it carefully, I did like one song. Well, two if we count "Now and Forever", the Allen Joo produced (at least they said so) which was originally performed by Jo Jung-hee. Sung Joon's "사랑이 웃는 것 (Love is Smiling)" made this soundtrack good to me. Now there's nothing wrong with all the other good singers included on the OST just like G.O or Lee Hyori but I sometimes just found myself thinking "Wow, that song's pretty boring..". As a huge fan of music that was and still is a deal breaker for me.


After all this drama got a rating of 8/10 from me. Except for the fact that I didn't like the music I just felt like there's nothing really memorable about the story. It didn't make me laugh too hard nor did I feel really depressed. It's enjoyable but nothing special
But I think it's not the I Need Romance we've seen in the first two seasons. Starting with the first episode, this series has a completely different feeling to it. It focusses more on the male lead than the first two series. In this one, the women aren't friends who've met each other back in school and started to work in different feels, the basically know each other because of working together. And while this is actually a charming point it just doesn't belong to the I Need Romance-series fans might expect.  
So if you want to watch this because you loved the first two seasons - be warned.

Lie to Me

내게 거짓말을 해봐 (Lie to Me) is a Korean drama series that aired from May 9th to June 28th 2011 on SBS.

Story: Gong Ah-jung is a woman in her late 20's. Her best friend stole her first love, and when she meets her best friend and her first love who got married one day, she tells the lie that she got married before as well. Without mentioning whom she got married to, the small lie develops into a big issue and rumors are spread of a civil service officer being married to World Hotel's president Hyun Ki-joon. In order to avoid the truth being exposed, the two of them come to an agreement. Signing a contract, the two of them are married for a certain time to protect Ah-jung's pride and to help Ki-joon to sign with Chinese investors. As if it'd be as easy as it sounds.. Yoon-joo, Ki-joon's ex-fiancee appears, and also his younger brother comes back and so the chaos evolves.

Cast: The two main characters Gong Ah-jung and Hyun Ki-joon are played by Yoon Eun-hye and Kang Ji-hwan. Those two actors have a great chemistry and I really hope I'll see them once again in a drama that might be a little better to show off their great chemistry and abilities. Sung Joon appears as the second male lead character Hyun Sang-hee, Ki-joon's younger brother. While I totally fell for his character in the first few episodes, it seems as if the writer's simply forgot about him later and his acting seemed a little bit.. forced? The same issue appears when it comes to Oh Yoon-joo played by Jo Yoon-hee. Probably the last two characters I'd count to the main characters are Chun Jae-beom played by Ryu Seung-soo and Hong Soo-hyun as Yoo So-ran. To be completely honest those two seemed to be way more important characters than Sang-hee and Yoon-joo somehow, and I admit that I loved to hate So-ran but I seriously don't get who thought about the sudden change of her character.. what in the actual world happened?! Oh, right, the write changed after episode 10 I think..

Soundtrack: The OST is one of the better parts of this drama for me. I'll tell you more about what I personally think about this drama later but M to M's "안녕 정말 안녕 (Goodbye, Really Goodbye)" is pretty much awesome, beautiful and definitely not overused. Probably one of the best drama OST song's I've ever listened to. Comparing it to other ballad songs used in different dramas I definitely fell for this one. I also really liked Kim Hyung-joon "이 밤이 지나가면 (Midnight Passes)". Except for a few really adorable things about the theme song by Yoon Eun-hye and Kang Ji-hwan themselves called "Lovin' Ice Cream" (who in the world thought about that title? geez) and the OST itself I personally feel like the ballad songs were definitely the better choices in this drama.


Conclusion? If someone dares to mention "Lie to Me" around me it's the best to hide because my only reaction by now is:
YES! I'VE MADE IT! HA! I'VE FINISHED THIS DRAMA AS WELL.

Honestly, I've never dropped a drama I've started - not even You're Beautiful which has a really critical review and the lowest rating I've ever given a series - but I was so close to just stop watching this.
I readily admit that this drama has it's up's and down's - and I admit that the kiss scenes are pretty much awesome (I would've loved to add a gif of one of those scenes but such a spoiler would be unfair). What is sad, is that the down's appear about 100 times more often than the up's.
In fact I feel like I would have to rate two parts of the drama. I remember until episode 8 everything was fine. Episodes 9 and 10 were okay. But following episode 10 I found myself thinking "Why am I even doing this to me?.."
The first part definitely deserves a rating about 7.5 or 8/10 because it's cute and funny, a typical romance-comedy serie, nothing special in the plot but at least entertaining.
The second part therefore would get a rating of 1/10 maximum just because there are some cute things about it - but the characters completely change, the story loses it's natural and adorable flow.
Just look at this.. ew. Ah-jung was so strong before and then suddenly people ask her what's wrong and that's her answer? Ew, ew and ew.

As for the rating, the average of those makes 4.5/10. The last episodes ruined that drama for me, I just didn't want to watch it but I kept telling myself that it might get better. In the end. And well, at least the scenery was beautiful from time to time, so there were actually interesting things to look at.

At least it is not completely bad - it also might appeal to those who are new to K-Drama - but I refuse to even consider watching this again. Yes, some scenes, maybe in youtube compilations. That's all.

Anyway, this is just my opinion. Maybe I've finished too many K-Drama's before and couldn't deal with this because it's so much of a typical K-Drama (look at the entries about 'tropes' I've written earlier - everything is included in this one) but also be reading other reviews I've seen some mixed opinions. People either love it or they hate it. Easy as that. I belong to the latter category.

And this picture is perfect to show me while watching it..

White Christmas

화이트 크리스마스 (White Christmas) is a Korean drama special consisting of 8 episodes that aired in 2011 from January 30th to March 20th on KBS2 and let me tell you one thing - every review I've seen so far said that this one is one of the best Korean dramas the writers had ever watched. And I fully agree with them! But let's start this slowly.

Story: Soo-sin is a private school in the mountains of Gangwando. The area is isolated, all students and the staff stay in dormitories and there is a good reason: The students can't do anything but study so the top 0.1% attend Soo-sin.
Usually everyone's leaving for Christmas because the eight day holiday is the only holiday they have all year. Park Moo-yul decides to stay because of a hateful letter he received a few days ago. In the end, seven students and a teacher remain in school.

Cast: This drama is actually one of the first dramas that helped some actors gain attention. First would be Sung Joon as Choi Ji-hoon, followed by Baek Sung-hyun as Park Moo-yul, Hong Jong-hyun as Lee Jae-kyu and Kim Woo-bin as Kang Mi-reu. This was one of the dramas that actually helped some of them to get into the spotlight and it was also the drama that made me a huge fan of Hong Jong-hyun while my respect for Baek Sung-hyun grew as well.
Other included in the cast are Kim Sang-kyung as Kim Yo-han, Kim Young-kwang as Jo Young-jae, Lee Soo-hyuk as Yoon-soo, Kwak Jung-wook as Yang Kang-mo, Esom as Yoon Eun-sung and Jung Suk-won as Yoon Jong-il. Because it's set in an isolated school those are all characters that appear.

Soundtrack: I.. I do not remember the soundtrack.. I know there was music played, yes, but I don't remember a thing. Why? Because it all just fit together too well, the music highlighted the story but didn't try to get into the spotlight so I just noticed the smooth flow.

Another straight 10/10 drama. Probably the only one I've watched about three times now. The story is perfect, the cast is perfect, the setting is perfect and I just love this. And like I mentioned in the introduction, almost all people I've talked to loved this drama as much as I do. Watch it, it's only about 8 hours (sadly) so you can't go wrong if you like some psychological thrillers.

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.