The Suspicious Housekeeper

수상한 가정부 (The Suspicious Housekeeper; formerly known as House Keeper Park Bok Nyeo) is the South Korean remake of the Japanese drama series 家政婦のミタ (kaseifu no mita; I'm Mita, Your Housekeeper). It was aired on SBS from September 23rd to November 26th 2013 and therefore consists of 20 episodes with an average duration of 60 minutes.

Story: Woo Sun-young, mother of Han-gyeol, Du-gyeol, Se-gyeol and Hye-gyeol and wife of Eun Sang-chul suddenly passes away. 49 days after her funeral Sang-chul tells his children that he hired a housekeeper to help them out while he is busy at work.
Park Bok-nyeo is an extremely serious person that never smiles, has all sorts of things in her bag and does everything she is ordered to do - going as far as killing when she is ordered to do that.
All of a sudden the family receives letters that their new housekeeper is a murderer. The children try to figure out what happened on their own after a fight with their father but even though they keep on following Park Bok-nyeo, Du-gyeol, Se-gyeol and Hye-gyeol fail to find out about her secrets. Bok-nyeo threatens to quit when the children won't stop asking her private questions so that the family who learned to appreciate their housekeeper as a kind of second mother, especially Hye-gyeol, stop and ask Bok-nyeo to stay. But the curiosity stays for sure.
At first this story really sounded interesting to me, especially the title. I never watched the Japanese version so I can't compare them at all and didn't know what I was getting myself into. This story itself is like a rollercoaster - at first it goes up all the way just to let you gain speed during the first drop. When that excitement disappears you have some time to calm down and just let it flow before it picks up speed again to get you to a second exciting point - and after that it slows down and slowly takes you to the end. This was my impression after 11 episodes and after finishing it I can say that the second "drop" is actually really interesting and probably one of the reasons why I kept watching. The main problem I have with this drama, however, that the slow paced parts of the track are just too much. There are so many stories and you know they are just supposed to make this drama longer. It cannot keep up its pace for 20 episodes and that makes it lose some quality.

Cast: Choi Ji-woo as Park Bok-nyeo. Thinking about it Park Bok-nyeo is not the most exciting but probably the most developed character. The background story and the effects she experienced all make sense and I couldn't help but pity her. As for the acting, I think it was outstanding. I see why people might disagree with me but emotionless acting to me would be incredibly difficult. Always maintaining the exact same expression for - just guessing, I don't remember the exact episode - 10 episodes is extremely hard to do. Still, the chemistry (not in a romantic way) she had with the children, especially the youngest daughter, made it seem as if there were some feelings shown. It is difficult to explain but it really impressed me.
Lee Sung-jae as Eun Sang-chul. As a character I still don't know what I should think about him but the development the character went through - from a terrible husband and father to an actually caring person who tries to do what could be best for his children - was a huge step. So I kinda admired the character in that way. From one of my most hated characters he made it to one of my favorites. As for the acting, it seemed true to its nature. Lee Sung-jae was good in this role but I wish he would use stronger facial expressions from time to time. However, it was still a solid and actually good performance.
Kim So-hyun as Eun Han-gyeol. Han-gyeol is a typical teenage girl going through puberty and her first love while being the oldest daughter of the household and somehow taking the role of the mother and a student before Park Bok-nyeo starts to work for the family. The rebel character actually suited Kim So-hyun and her expressions, especially the huge problem with her father, were good. I enjoyed her acting in this drama and don't think they could've found a better actress for this role.
Chae Sang-woo as Eun Du-gyeol. As the oldest son he feels like he needs to act as the head of the household when his father is gone. However, his biggest issue is that he feels like he can't do anything and that gives him quite a hard time. I would say he is going through puberty as well and has to find himself and his dreams. Chae Sang-woo did well in this role, playing sometimes the tough guy and sometimes the emotional boy Du-gyeol is according to his age. So he was good in this role.
Nam Da-reum as Eun Se-gyeol. The younger brother is the opposite of Du-gyeol. Se-gyeol can't fight but is extremely good at studying and wants to make his deceased mom proud while being probably the most rational sibling in this drama. I really imagined Nam Da-reum to be Se-gyeol. Maybe it just suits his character, maybe he's just a good young actor but Se-gyeol was great.
Kang Ji-woo as Eun Hye-gyeol. The youngest sibling, Hye-gyeol, suffers the most after losing their mother. Her character is heartbroken and accepts Park Bok-nyeo as a "second" mother soon. While sometimes children can be quite annoying it was heartwrenching to watch her in this drama. Kang Ji-woo is incredibly cute but she did so well in this drama and was either getting along quite well with Choi Ji-woo or they both are just great actresses. I sometimes wonder how child actors even manage to deliver really good performances but she did.
Other actors in this drama include Wang Ji-hye, Song Jong-ho, Jung Moon-sung, Park Geun-hyung, Shim Yi-young, Kim Hae-sook and Jang Seo-won.

Soundtrack: Actually the soundtrack of this drama doesn't include many songs. About the instrumentals I really loved the one playing everytime Park Bok-nyeo was about to appear - I guess it's one of the Park Bok-nyeo themes.
As for the songs sung for this drama by idol singers my favorite is "Twilight" by Yoo Sung-eun. Except for that, Lim Kim sang a song titled "부탁할게요 (I'm Asking You)" which I personally liked, too. The song I can't stand, however, is sadly the one on the drama performed by Kim So-hyun and the band. I don't know why but I'm not a huge fan of her singing or the song.


5.5/10
I see why the rating might seem bad but it's mostly because of the long times without anything happening that was worth noting. I found myself on my phone way too often while just listening to what was said but this drama failed to keep me focussed. Now you can say that it is just not the perfect drama for me - while I love the mystery and suspense I found myself bored by the daily life of the family and the hint of romance that were supposed to be there but probably wasn't. And for the story itself 20 episodes were too much, 14 to 16 would've been completely fine. The length however might be the main problem about the episodes that were just used to fill in without anything, really. Plus, I personally found the first two episodes incredibly boring so I wasn't sure if I should continue watching at all. I'm still glad I did though as this drama has more to it than one expects.
Recommended to fans of family and melodramas. According to what I heard and read the Japanese version is much better so if you know and liked that maybe you should skip the Korean version as most people were disappointed.

Monsters

MONSTERS is a Japanese crime series that aired on TBS from October 21st to December 9th 2012. The series consists of 8 episodes with an average duration of 45 minutes.

Story: Kosuke Saionji is designated to the best investigation team and is close to fulfilling his dream but he ends up assigned to Heihachi Hiratsuka, a top class detective who was working alone, he needs to take care of because of Hiratsuka's loud and impolite personality and his possible secrets in solving crimes. Every episode follows another crime and the investigation led by Hiratsuka.

Cast: The very first thing I need to say about this series is that it seems to be satirical. Everything is just a little overdone from acting to the way the cases are shown. In its own genre mixing up comedy and crime it is not bad but if it was a real crime drama it would lack some seriousness. This shows extremely well in the eccentric character of Heihachi Hiratsuka played by Shingo Katori. His acting in the eccentric way is good as well as some of the serious parts are great, too. As an actor I don't remember being familiar with Katori but I enjoyed his acting in this drama.
Tomohisa Yamashita as Kosuke Saionji is the helpless subordinate type of character and I honestly don't think this drama shows the strong side of his acting but it is a different side of what I've seen in most dramas he was starring in (that I watched so far of course).
Other characters were rarely in the focus as this drama just evolves around these two but other actors in this drama include Kenichi Endo, Tomoya Warabino, Daisuke Kikuta, Tatsuya Hino, Tomoya Shiroishi, Yasukage Hinaka and Makoto Otake.
 
Soundtrack: I totally loved the soundtrack and the music played in the episodes. I can't really explain why but I think it did highlight the atmosphere very well.


In total I rated this drama as 8/10 as it is not a full crime drama but includes comedy so the eccentric and over-the-top parts were intended to be that way. The crimes in each episode were interesting but sometimes it was a little obvious what might have happened. I would recommend this if you like the type of satirical crime dramas but if you only watch this for Tomohisa Yamashita you might be disappointed as this is not his best drama.

Jiu

ジウ　警視庁特殊犯捜査係 (jiu: keishichou tokushuhan sousakei; Jiu: Special Investigation Team) is a Japanese drama series that aired from July 29th to September 23rd 2011 on TV Asahi and consists of 9 episodes.

Story: Motoko Izaki and Misaki Kadokura couldn't be anymore different. One is a tough fighter, one of the strongest in her police unit SIT and prefers to take action to protect people. The other is a gentle and calm girl also referred to as "Miss Cannes" and wants to be responsible for negotiations - her job is talking. After an important incident both of them are transferred to different units and work to track down the mastermind behind the plan. All that is known about him in the early stages is the name "Jiu", a good-looking young man with blonde hair usually appearing in white clothes. But is he really behind all those deeds? And why do people follow him if they aren't doing it for money?

Cast: I know what people want to hear but I will just start off with Meisa Kuroki as Motoko Izaki. She is actually a singer if I'm informed correctly but she rocks her role in this drama. As a tough and fit woman Izaki is definitely someone I would look up to. Mikako Tabe as Misaki Kadokura on the other hand is the gentle and kind, naive girl who tries to get along with everyone. I know that this type of character does have a certain difficulty to it so I respect the actress but it is just the type of character that is popular among males for the fact that they are so cute and usually willing to follow.
Yu Shirota as Takashi Amamiya is a character that is just suspicious from the beginning. I don't fully know why but I never trusted his intentions in this drama, just the beginning and the first episode made me doubt everything but he added something to the story that was important. As for the acting, it was very secretive and mysterious and totally worked with the overall atmosphere.
Yukiya Kitamura as Hiroki Azuma did a good job overall trying to protect Kadokura while trying to solve the case of Toshinori and track down Jiu, the mysterious man he sees behind all the happenings. The acting was good but seemed a bit hesitant to me from time to time.
And lastly, yes, I have to mention Kim Myung-soo or L depending on what you want to call him as Jiu. Now first some questioning: Why in the world did they name the drama after a character that rarely appears until episode 7 or 8? And why did they need to use a Korean idol in an all Japanese drama? While I don't really mind it, let me talk about my theory: Attention. They just wanted attention from Korean fans of Infinite by making him the character that also gives the story the title. What they get especially on MDL are bad ratings by disappointed fans and I do believe that many people will just watch his scenes specifically. Anyway, I considered his acting to be good as far as he was shown but then again most of the time I think he had to stand somewhere with no expression on his face.. which can be difficult to but I got a feeling that he's good at standing somewhere with an emotionless face.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack is hardly memorable. The only thing I remember is the ending. Seriously, Lady Gaga? Edge of Glory? Now it is one of the songs I don't hate but I don't get how this is connected to the drama at all. Plus, since it plays while the last minutes of the episode are airing, it was sometimes too loud so it interrupted the dramas flow.


I personally didn't find this drama to be as boring as many other people but then again I didn't have that high expectations. However, sometimes I just wanted to scream because of the side characters. It seemed more like a piece played in theatres. A person finished a sentence, and the next action takes place two or three seconds later - they obviously waited and sometimes too long so it was just obviously faked.
But then again the mystery in the plot and the characters made up for some negative stuff which is the reason for this drama getting a 7/10.
I DON'T recommend to watch this only for L/Myung-soo.

Psychometry

사이코메트리 (Psychometry; also known as The Gifted Hands) is a South Korean movie with a runtime of 108 minutes that was directed by Kwon Ho-young and released in 2013.

Story: Yang Chun-dong is a rather unsuccessful detective. One day he takes on the case of a missing child but is unable to find her for one month. He is the only one willing to work on it so there is no special task force but alone he is unable to find the girl alive. 30 days later she is found dead at a playground not far from her home. Trying to find the murder Chun-dong remembers an encounter with a young man in an alley. The graffiti painting the men created looks exactly like the playground which of course leads to the man, Kim Jun, as a murder suspect. But since he was suspended, Yang Chun-dong investigates only with the help of Yang Soo. Soon the two know that Kim Jun has a secret but only his highschool classmate Kim Seul-gi can give Chun-dong a hint on what is going on with Jun.

"Psychometry, also known as token-object reading, or psychoscopy, is a form of extrasensory perception characterized by the claimed ability to make relevant associations from an object of unknown history by making physical contact with that object."

When another girl, Yoon Da-hee, disappears, Yang Chun-dong decides to use Jun to find the little girl before she dies.

Cast: So at the very first we have Kim Kang-woo as Yang Chun-dong. I admire this actor in crime series since Missing Noir M and this role is totally different but very well played. The struggle with the past and the determination to find Da-hee while also protecting Jun are portrayed in a way it kept me hoping for the best.
Kim Jun was played by Kim Bum and he is literally my favorite actor since I started watching K-Dramas. So of course I had to watch this movie and he didn't disappoint me at all. His acting involving the psychometry power was a little bit as if he was obsessed - but I have no other idea on how else it could be portrayed so he honestly got even more respect from me now.
Lee Joon-hyuk played Yang Soo and while he personally isn't a very likeable character I think the acting was good, too. It is just that Yang Soo wants money and is responsible for a bad situation Chun-dong is in so that is how Yang Soo gets dragged into this case.
Kim Seul-gi isn't a major character in this series - but I recognized Esom right away and in her very short scenes she also did a solid job but of course as a side character she is not really important and only appears in a few scenes.

And little Da-hee was played by Kim Yoo-bin. She is so cute I was really praying for her safety until the end. It is hard for me to rate her acting but it seemed like children would really behave that way so it was good, too.


This movie. I just hated it on many levels during the last minutes because it was so exciting. I don't quite know why but it has potential to be one of my favorite movies. The supernatural effect, the suspense, the bromance (no, it is not even close to gay and doesn't disturb the movie), the mystery and the thrill - it was a great movie and deserves its rating with 9/10 quite well. I love it and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested either in supernatural or crime or.. both?

Mimi

미미 (Mimi) is a South Korean drama series that aired on Mnet from February 21st to March 14th 2014 every Friday at 11PM. The series consists of four episodes with a duration of 70 minutes each.

Story: Han Min-woo is a webtoonist who recently gained popularity because of "December 8th" but he suffers from a partial loss of his memory. All memories until December 2003 disappeared but it feels like the webtoon he's working on tells his own story. To be able to complete the story he tries to restore his memories of his first love that were erased by someone to save him from the pain. While he finds out what has happened, the viewer watches his past self as well as Mimi as high school students and understands what exactly happened.

Cast/Acting: Han Min-woo is a quite complex character who had to deal with loss before. Shim Chang-min actually did a good job portraying him though I'm not familiar with his acting itself. I enjoyed seeing him in this series after all. Moon Ga-young as Mi-mi was quite good as well, though my personal feelings towards her character changed within 30 minutes in the last episode (some humans are just stupid and not romantic but hey, that's my opinion) but her acting throughout this drama was solid.
Jang Eun-hye portrayed by Shin Hyun-bin was good in the beginning as well. While the acting was okay, in the end I felt like her character was just the most senseless one in this series. Yes, sure, there had to be a love story with a happy ending but besides for that I missed something about character development and the importance of her character. She didn't seem like a main character/actress at all.
Jung Ji-soon delivered as one of the side characters, to be more exact he was the team leader Min-woo was working with.
The last actor I really NEED to mention is Baek-hyun. No, not the one from EXO though someone confused them already (I had a good time laughing about wikipedia) but his voice and charisma as the "umbrella guy" is no joke. I loved him and I'm looking forward to maybe see him in more dramas.

Soundtrack: The actual soundtrack only includes one song performed by two singers, it's just a male and a female version. "슬픔 속에 그댈 지워야만 해 (Because I Love You)" was performed by Wendy and Chang-min and isn't a bad song but I found it rather boring after listening to it a few times. The other songs are actually a part of the S.M. The Ballad Vol.2 project. I personally loved and still love Yesung's "내 욕심이 많았다 (Blind)" to death and it really works well with this drama.
After all, the music in this series is really good and nothing else was to be expected since that's what Mnet is known for.

I decided to rate this drama with a 6/10 though. The story was nice but I personally missed some logical aspects and just started complaining about why some characters just started acting the way they did. The drama itself lost the mysterious aspect after the first episode, especially due to the flashbacks it possible to guess what's actually behind everything. So if you're looking for something mysterious with a hint of romance this drama just fails to deliver the mystery part at some point and develops into a typical tragic love story. But what really bothered me the most is how they actually just put Eun-hye in this drama while her character lacks sense, there was literally no reason why another woman had to be there. She didn't support the romance between Min-woo and Mi-mi nor did she have any impact on the whole mystery.
However, the music, the scenery and the acting itself saved a plot that was actually based on a good idea but not delivered the way they could have. It's beautiful to watch if you're in the mood for some tragic first love and don't want to spend much time on it.

Secert Love

시크릿 러브 (Secret Love) is a South Korean drama series that aired on Dramacube network from June 13th to July 11th 2014. The series consists of 5 episodes telling different stories. It is also known as KARA's Secret Love because a member of Kara starring in each of the episodes.

Story:
1. Min Ji-hye is a model who lost her longterm boyfriend Jang Hyun-jin because of a car accident. In a bar she gets offered to travel to the past and stop them from meeting to save Hyun-jin. However, the price she has to pay for changing the past is high: She has to give up all of her memories involving Hyun-jin.
2. Lee Hyun-jung is diagnosed with cancer and the doctor tells her she only has three to six months left to live. She writes a bucket list and starts to do what she really wants to do before her time has come. One day she meets Yoon Joon-moon who's currently a soldier and has three months left until his discharge. When he finds out that Hyun-jung will probably die he decides to help her fulfill her wishes.
3. Park So-yeol collapses on a highschool festival one day and is brought to the hospital. There she meets Hyun-joon, a man who's a lot older than her. But the two of them start going on short trips together and So-yeol finds herself becoming attracted to a man only she can hear and see...
4. Melly/Mary Jung comes back to Korea after hearing that her birth father died. While she never met him as far as she knows, she has to solve a puzzle in order to receive the money he left behind. The only hint she got is Tae-yang, a boy she has been playing with when she spent one week in Korea years ago.
5. Park Sun-woo is helplessly in love with her senior Woo-bin but got turned down for four years. After graduating from university she starts working for the same company. One night she makes an earnest wish that she'll end up with Woo-bin. Her guardian angel Chun Sa-nam has to help her and can only return to heaven when her wish came true.
All of the stories are completely different and, as far as I know, written by different writers, too. What bothered me the most, though, is in fact, that cancer played a huge part in two of five stories, while another deadly disease is mentioned in another episode. Now if someone really has seen people deal with those diseases or lost beloved ones.. I don't like how often they used this without considering that the repeated use might hurt people a lot.

Cast: 1. Han Seung-yeon as Min Ji-hye did a far better job in this series compared to Her Lovely Heels. I liked her acting overall, in some scenes I still thought she seemed to be a little cold but she has improved her acting. Yeon Woo-jin as Jang Hyun-jin was excellent in this series, I really enjoyed his acting and the end of this series almost made me cry because of him.
2. Goo Ha-ra as Lee Hyun-jung was a lot better than I expected her to be. I somehow found her acting a little bit too much from time to time as well but since it was my first time seeing her in a series I think it was a solid performance. Kim Young-kwang as Yoon Joon-moon was good as well but his character changed within five minutes completely. Sure that's because they lacked time but it could've been portrayed better.
3. Kang Ji-young as Park So-yeol simply delivered. I was impressed with her acting, especially in the end. There's nothing I can really criticize about her. Bae Soo-bin as Hyun-joon was a good counterpart and his acting especially when he finally learns the truth was simply awesome.
4. Nicole Jung as Melly/Mary Jung was pretty much alright. I can understand her feelings towards the father she never had but then again in the end she took the shocking message who her father was and why he died to lightly though. Humans are different but I would've imagined something more emotional, especially since she seems to have quite a temper. Lee Kwang-soo as Tae-yang is a chaotic personality in need of money. He seemed goofy but has a serious side to him as well that was kind of interesting to watch.
5. Park Gyu-ri as Park Sun-woo is probably one of the characters I really disliked at first but came to like in the end and her acting was good. She might be one of the few female idols I like to see in K-Dramas. Ji Chang-wook as Chun Sa-nam or Guardian Angel No. 2013 (this sounds so weird though) did a great job. Especially when complaining about humans and scolding Sun-woo.


Rating this series as a whole is rather difficult to me so I somehow calculated an average that happened to be 7.5/10. There are some things I feel I need to mention.
Some things (for example the disease-topic) became repetitve. Of course the writers just used topics that are typical for K-Drama but it's actually annyoing to see how often it's used.
Even if episode 3 deals with this topic, it managed to be memorable and is my favorite episode of this series.
Episode 5 was probably the most interesting one for me since I loved the angel-part of that. I sincerely hope for a longer series probably dealing with the topic of guardian angels or fallen angels since aliens and vampires already were a topic in K-Drama.
Why didn't I mention the soundtrack? Well, it didn't do much for me in this series and I felt like there were loads of different songs involved so I decided to just leave it be.

And I just HAVE to mention how much I loved the settings in Ep. 1, 4 and 5. Those pictures shown are really beautiful.

How would I rank the episodes based on my personal preference?
1. Kang Ji-young/ Bae Soo-bin - Ep.3
2. Park Gyu-ri/ Ji Chang-wook - Ep. 5
3. Han Seung-yeon/ Yeon Woo-jin - Ep. 1
4. Nicole Jung/ Lee Kwang-soo - Ep. 4
5. Goo Ha-ra/ Kim Young-kwang - Ep.2

Death Note: The Last Name

Death Note: The Last Name is a Japanese movie released in 2006 based on a manga series:


Story: As in the first movie, Death Note, L and the team of detectives trying to find kira. Light joins the special unit after the death of his former 'girlfriend' Shiori. Now being placed next to L, he wants to get rid of the ones in his way. As L is still suspicious he decides to observe Light closely.
Suddenly another kira appears and needs to be found. Both owners of the Death Note's together would be even more dangerous since one of them is a good strategic player while the other seems to see the name of the victim..

Cast: Okay, so I have no idea what I should really put on here. The main cast is of course the same as in the first movie. Kenichi Matsuyama as L and Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami. While in this movie Light seems to be more insane than in the first one which makes the acting more intense it's as good as in the first movie as well.
And let's not forget about Erika Toda as Misa Amane. While I love her style I think she's a little bit too psycho in a different way due to a trauma. All she wants is to be loved after all.
And there's Nana Katase as Kiyomi Takada who would do basically anything for her career.


I personally really liked how things involved. Many things were easy to understand because of the connections between the characters. Nothing seemed to be just fate but a plan carefully made.
The story is a little bit too crazy later though. This might be a spoiler but Light seems to have gone completely mad.
So my personal rating is a 7/10 which is not as good as the first movie but still not that bad.

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.

You Who Came From The Stars

별에서 온 그대 (You Who Came From The Stars/ My Love From Another Star) is a Korean drama series that aired on SBS from December 18th 2013 to February 27th 2014. The drama consists of 21 episodes, a special episode was aired on February 7th 2014 as well.

Story: Do Min-joon is an alien who came to Earth 400 years ago. In the past he experienced that his extraordinary abilities can cause him a lot of trouble so he's trying to stay on his own without getting involved with humans too much.
Actress Cheon Song-yi ends up in his class in university and by chance also moves into the apartment next to his so the two of them get to meet often. Since Cheon Song-yi is the reincarnation of a girl Do Min-joon used to know he tries to protect her as good as possible and therefore has trouble hiding his true identity..

Cast: Kim Soo-hyun accepted the role of the cold-hearted alien Do Min-joon. What can I say? He's good and he knows that.. now I really want an alien invasion because come on, those abilities are like super cool, plus, his body isn't getting older. At least in the drama. Jeon Ji-hyun can be seen as Cheon Song-yi. She's pretty, and the role of an arrogant top star is definitely made for her, it was indeed realistic. Her acting therefore is great! Park Hae-jin as Lee Hee-kyung is the heir of a company and has been in love with Song-yi for ages. He actually does a really nice job as well seeming like a lovesick fool from time to time but he's cute the way he is. Yoo Se-mi played by Yoo In-na has been Song-Yi's best friend for a long time and she has been in love with Hee-kyung for a long time as well. So in this drama we have a love triangle that's more complicated than the usual triangles are.
But every drama with more than 10 episodes needs a crime story in the background, right? What makes it more complicated in this drama is, that the people involved are siblings of some of the main characters - or close friends.
Lee Jae-kyung, Lee Hee-young's older brother, played be Shin Sung-rok is involved in the whole thing as well and finds himself in a conflict with Do Min-joon because of it (a war he obviously can't win if you ask me). On the other side is Oh Sang-jin as prosecutor Yoo Seok, Yoo Se-mi's older brother.
As you might see by reading this cast/character part the relations between the characters are way more complicated than they seem to be. All of the actors were amazing though so the cast is a huge plus for this drama, I just feel like a correlation chart would take about half of my wall because there are so many characters and they all are somewhere connected to almost everyone else..

Soundtrack: The soundtrack is love, okay?
It's just the typical effect for me - the most played song in the drama which happens to be "My Destiny" by Lyn happened to get on my nerves like nothing else after some time. Personally, I'm in love with the two songs performed by Kim Soo-hyun himself, "너의 집 앞 (In Front of Your House)" and "약속 (Promise)". But sure with vocalists like Huh Gak, K.Will and Hyorin singing songs for the soundtrack it can't be that bad.

So at the end of the day the drama is good. Yes, it's a basic and romance-comedy drama and it's definitely worth watching it. But my personal rating is 8.5/10 though. Yes, I like it but I don't get the hype about this. Someone please tell me why like everyone said it was soooo amazing and definitely the most amazing drama ever and so on and so forth. I can only guess that it's like this because of Kim Soo-hyun and Park Hae-jin (they both make fangirl hearts flutter) and Jeon Ji-hyun and Yoo In-na for the fanboys (they ARE pretty, omg..)

What made this drama as successful as it was? I'm really curious but we'll probably never know.

The Master's Sun

주군의 태양 (The Master's Sun) is a Korean drama that aired from August 7th to October 3rd 2013 on SBS.

Story: Tae Gong-shil who was called "Tae-yang" (which means 'Sun', just in case you didn't notice that while watching the drama) when she was younger because of her bright mind is involved in an accident and wakes up with the ability to see ghosts. Ghosts go to see her and ask for favors which makes her life a lot harder so she can't go to university. Also drinking alcohol is a baaaaaaad idea because some crazy ghost might take control over her body. One day she meets chaebol Joo Joong-won who spent his whole life making more and more money. Because of a trauma in the past he has built a cold exterior that no one, not even his father, can get through.
In the first episode while being out to help a ghost Gong-shil jumps into Joong-won's car. Though he was not willing to take her back into town, Joong-won gives in when she fearfully screams because of a ghost appearing in front of her. Tae-yang realizes at some point, that, whenever she touches Joong-won, the ghosts just disappear. And so he becomes her 'secret hideout'.
The love story that evolves around those two definitely is not one we've seen 20 times before. Tae-yang's ability to see ghosts makes things a lot more difficult and puts them in danger from time to time as well.

Cast: The main cast consists of So Ji-sub as Joo Joong-won (who makes a perfect cold-hearted chaebol, it's really easy to believe he really behaves that way) and Gong Hyo-jin as Tae Gong-shil/Tae-yang. If you want to see a bunch of charisma, here you go~ they make a great onscreen couple and it's also really easy to believe that Gong Hyo-jin is really a confused, lost and desperate young woman who is so definitely not willing to let go of her secret hideout!
Seo In-guk can be seen as Kang Woo, who's the poor second male lead - or not so poor in the end because of the second female lead (and why are those second female leads either annoying as hell or just bad characters? Can't there be someone who's less annoying?) Kim Yoo-ri as Tae Yi-ryung. Not to forget: We see Choi Jung-woo who acts in a lot of SBS dramas as Kim Gwi-do (and basically the first person to ship Joong-won and Tae-yang, I always imagined him standing there like a cheerleader) and L or Kim Myung-soo who appears in a few scenes as the younger Joong-won.

Soundtrack: The OST is.. okay, let's just stay with this. Except for me not being a huge fan of Gummy (why is she featured in this many OST's anyways? Not hating, just wondering) my personal highlights were Hyorin's "미치게 만들어 (Driving Me Crazy)" and Hong Dae Kwang's "너와 나 (You and I)". Though I actually like the song itself as well, I just don't feel like Melody Day's "All About" fit the story or the drama and actually this song was so annoying while watching the drama.
Other artists who recorded songs for the OST include T-Yoon Mi Rae and Seo In-guk.

Though it does have some flaws - I'm not even denying that it's one of my favorite K-dramas and therefore has a rating of 10/10. Yes, we do have some typical things - Second Male Lead-Syndrome, bitchy second female lead, traumatic events in the past, love triangle (one should think this gets boring someday but it obviously still works relatively well) - but at the same time it is different from what I've seen in K-dramas before. Maybe it's because of the touching stories some ghosts tell, maybe it's simply because the whole story is about a woman who's able to see ghosts and therefore - pardon me - ends up like a crazy mess. Oh, and maybe it's just because we seriously want to know how
THIS

ended up like THIS

But this drama made me realize that I'm weird. The story of a dog's ghost made me cry an ocean but Ep. 12 (? You'll know what I mean when you see that scene) leaves me completely emotionless like "Oh, yes, good job, you did protect her, now what?"

Secret Investigation Record

조선X파일: 기찰비록 (Joseon X Files: Secret Book / Secret Investigation Record) is an historical Korean drama that aired on tvN from August 20th to October 29th 2010.
It consists of 12 episodes that are relatively independent.

Story: In 17th Century Korea (Joseon Dynasty) strange things happen. Kim Hyung-do's former mentor Lee Hyeong-wook is sent to prison for "aggrandized his report with mendacious claims of a bizarre flying object” and “divine retaliation against His Majesty’s alleged lack of virtue." To save his own and his mentor's life, Kim Hyung-do needs to find an explanation and create a demonstration to a public that's terrified by an Unidentified Flying Object. At the end Kim Hyeong-do becomes an investigator for the secret Shinmuhwe.
During the next episodes the hero and his team consisting of his assistant Heo Yoon-Yi, a librarian, and Magistrate Jang Man is sent to various places to solve mysterious cases about supernatural objects, diseases and phenomena as well as ghosts.

Cast: Kim Ji-hoon did a really good job as Kim Hyung-do in this one. I've never seen a drama with him before but well, I think acting in a historical drama isn't that easy anyways. Im Jung-eun can be seen as Assistant Heo Yoon-yi. Damn, I like her character. Either she's a badass hot librarian or just a perfect not-so-nerdy bookworm but she's really really good. Jo Hee-bong can be seen as Magistrate Jang Man. Sometimes a little cowardly, always trying to save Kim Hyung-do once he's in trouble, so.. a plucky coward? To be honest I had to laugh about Magistrate Jang because it was just completely overdone from time to time. He seemed not to be that smart.. Last but not least I have to name Kim Gab-soo as Ji Seung who's the leader of the Shinmunhwe (if I remember right, however, he's the one collecting the records so.. I don't know how to describe that.)
YES, the acting was good and usually fit the story. It was relatively nice to see only four characters directly involved in the story, it wasn't too complicated.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack supported the drama. No modern pop music, no modern ballads, just some instrumentals and an effective use of silence as well. Nothing I could really criticize about this.

My personal ranking is 6/10 though. The first point may be that I'm usually not that experienced when it comes to historical dramas. Followed by the second aspect which was like "What the heeeell..." because of the effects. While I think they looked like some of the effects used in the 1990's and kind of old school others say those were awesome. Third thing is.. that I seriously couldn't take some things seriously because even if you do believe in the existence of aliens it's completely absurd.
I think the combination of a Korean historical drama and the X Files just didn't do it for me, I think it's more about the story than the actors who are indeed doing a great job.