My Girl

마이걸 (My Girl) is a South Korean drama series that was aired on SBS from December 14th 2005 to February 2nd 2006 and consists of 6 episodes.

Story: Seol Gong-chan's grandfather is sick. His wish is to find his lost grandchild, a girl who is not easy to find. In order to fulfill his grandfathers supposed last wish Gong-chan is looking for his cousin and meets Joo Yoo-rin on Jeju Island. Yoo-rin has a connection to his lost cousin. As his real cousin cannot be found, Yoo-rin, who is an excellent liar and actress, becomes Gong-chan's contract cousin. She is supposed to disappear after Gong-chan found his real cousin but miraculously his grandfather gets better and spoils Yoo-rin as he believes Yoo-rin is his granddaughter. Soon Gong-chan and Yoo-rin start to fall in love but as cousins it is actually a forbidden love. On the other hand Gong-chan's friend Seo Jung-woo also falls in love with Yoo-rin and wants to marry her. As Jung-woo is not related to her the grandfather, Seol Woong, also agrees to Yoo-rin marrying Jung-woo - but Yoo-rin rejects Jung-woo.
In the meantime Gong-chan's ex girlfriend Kim Se-hyun appears again as well. She became a famous tennis athlete and broke up with Gong-chan to achieve that dream but now wants him back and tries to get rid of Yoo-rin in every way one can think of.
This story is quite something. Contract marriage? Okay, cool. Well, not cool, but I understand how that is supposed to work. But contract cousins? If you really ask me about it this was bound to fail and again, one of my major issues with rom-com dramas, the plot was quite predictable in many ways but I did enjoy it. It has light hearted parts as well as more serious aspects to it and is definitely worth watching if you like rom-com. I sometimes found it a bit too much but then again that might be me. It wasn't hilarious but ridiculous in some parts but I found myself quite enjoying the latter half of the drama.

Cast: Lee Dong-wook as Seol Gong-chan. I swear to whatever I need to that I saw Lee Dong-wook in a drama or movie before but I don't remember which one and it makes me pull out my hair. (It's not Goblin, I know he's in that drama, too *cough* review upcoming *cough*.) I did enjoy many aspects of his acting in this drama, too, but sometimes it just went a tiny bit overboard and ended up in the extremely ridiculous field. I don't believe it is fully his fault but I feel like I need to mention it anyway.
Lee Da-hae as Joo Yoo-rin. I hated her character at first because it was too lively and too over-the-top all the time. She annoyed the hell out of me and usually these things don't change but again I have to say that during the second half of this drama it seemed much better. I was quite surprised when I found myself actually enjoying a drama I stopped watching in February because I hated it and then continued in.. maybe April? It might be because she seemed a bit more calm during the latter half.
Lee Joon-ki as Seo Jung-woo. Before I mention anything else, can we talk about that hairstyle? I was laughing so much! It might have been a trend back in the days but let's thank the gods of time that this is over. I quite loved his acting in this and probably forever will love him as an actor because of the very different but great characters he played in dramas. Even though many people don't like his acting, he was also one of the most realistic actors - his portrayal of Jung-woo was less ridiculous and more serious if I remember right and I loved that all the more.
Park Si-yeon as Kim Se-hyun. You probably know what I think about the second-female-leads. I was wishing for her to just disappear but things didn't work out as well as I hoped. Her acting was fine but the character was once again one of those terrible bitch characters (excuse me cursing, I don't know why but I feel like it today). I didn't even want her to die but to grow up and leave a man who didn't like her anymore alone. Is that really that difficult for females in K-Dramaland?
Other actors in this drama include Jo Kye-hyung, Hwang Bo-ra, Choi Ran, Ahn Seok-hwan, Byun Hee-bong and Jung Han-heon.

Soundtrack: Once again this was quite a retro soundtrack but a quite good with a song sung by Lee Ji-soo (formerly a member of BoM and BTL) and KARA. The soundtrack had emotional and energetic songs if I remember right and I certainly enjoyed the music.


6.5/10
This is such a retro drama and I loved it - partly. On the other hand until episode 10 I had real trouble to get through it so it wasn't really catching or particularly outstanding.
Yes, the idea of contract siblings is not a common one and gives the whole drama a unique touch but some parts were so cliché. And I wanted to kill the person who was responsible for Yoo-rin's outfits. We find a 2nd male lead syndrome and 2nd female lead syndrome and a lot of those misunderstandings were just dragging this drama (as they do in many rom-coms even today). It left me quite frustrated near the end of this drama but again, I did not hate it.

If you're into typical rom-com with an old school touch - watch it. If not.. I would not recommend it unless you're a huge fan of one of the leads.

Flower Grandpa Investigation Unit

꽃할배 수사대 (Flower Grandpa Investigation Unit) is a South Korean drama series that aired on tvN from May 9th to July 25th 2014 every Friday and consists of 12 episodes.

Story: Three detectives in their late 20's transform to 70 year old men overnight after getting in contact with a weird liquid. Only the fourth member of the team, Park Jung-woo, doesn't transform into an old man for an unknown reason. While trying to get back their youth and finding an option to become their original age again, the Grandpa unit together with Park Jung-woo and Jung Eun-ji solve crime cases with Lee Joon-hyuk's intellect, Jeon Kang-seok's strength and Han Won-bin's charm.

Cast: For obvious reasons - there are so many people in the cast that it is really difficult to name and rate all of them separately.
Lee Joon-hyuk was portrayed by Lee Soon-jae and Choi Jin-hyuk in the different ages. Personally I think they did show a difference in portraying the character. While Choi Jin-hyuk made Joon-hyuk seem more cold than Lee Soon-jae, they both made him a little bit sarcastic and therefore someone others would hate but I used to like especially for this. The difference in their portrayal doesn't really bother me much since it is something also about the actors and what the audience wants to connect with them.
Byun Hee-bong and Park Min-woo both acted as Kang Won-bin who made this drama hilarious in his own way. Being a flower boy in his first age Park Min-woo portrays the shallow and popular guy very well as a little arrogant and obsessed with his own looks and skin care. Byun Hee-bong did well showing the personal crisis he experienced when Won-bin noticed he got old - wrinkly skin and not the usually perfect hair style was a horrible thing for him. Both actors did well while showing the arrogant and shallow aspects - as well as Won-bin being after pretty much every beautiful female.
In the role of Jeon Kang-seok Jang Kwang and Park Doo-sik both did well. As the character is strong but not really bright he had his own moments to shine and make the audience laugh. The most interesting thing about him was the fact that the character loved A Pink which led to a really cute behavior and a lot of aegyo the actors showed.
Kim Hee-chul of Super Junior is in this drama as Park Jung-woo and I personally think his acting was really good in the emotional parts. He did a very good job in this series and I think I would watch other comedy dramas with him, too.
Lee Cho-hee as Jung Eun-ji was really good, too. Her love for food and her ability to tell smells apart easily seems just a little weird and not really useful for a crime part at first even though it is entertaining but she turns out to be very helpful. As for the acting it was very solid, it somehow worked together even though I wasn't blown away by her acting.
Kim Eung-soo as the leader of the investigation unit Kim Young-chul was very interesting in his grumpy acting while also at some point caring for team members and their safety. The acting was really nice to watch.
And I need to mention Lee Ki-woo as Park Tae-min. I can't help it but I think after The Virus I developed a small weakness for Lee Ki-woo as the intelligent but slightly... crazy doctor or scientist. I think he is doing well in those rather serious roles and I was so happy when I saw him in this drama that I was almost jumping up and down because I got so excited.
Other actors in this drama series include Park Eun-ji as Han Yoo-ra, Kim Byung-se as Choi Jae-wook and Park Hyo-joo as Jun Hae-jin.

Soundtrack: I personally did like the instrumentals in the drama but not so much the songs by K-Pop/K-Indie artists Ladies' Code, Rumble Fish and Sun Woo. It is not a big minus though since I loved the rest of the music.

In total this drama got a 8/10 rating from me. It is a good crime and comedy mix that offers plot twists and a good cast. BUT what leads to this not being perfect is about some aspects that made it too ridiculous to be taken seriously even in a minor way. Sometimes the outcome was obvious while they were still investigating which is a spoiler within itself. Those are some things that did bother me but in the end this drama was still a good, funny and somehow light watch but had his serious moments.
Recommended to fans of comedy and crime in one!