Descendants of the Sun

태양의 후예 (Descendants of the Sun) is a popular South Korean drama series that consists of 16 episodes that aired from February 24th to April 14th 2016 on KBS2.

Story: Yoo Si-jin is a Captain in the Korean army and specifially in the special forces. He catches a thief with Sergeant Major Seo Dae-young one day and sends him to a hospital with the medical notes written on the thiefs arm. Soon they figure out Seo Dae-young's phone was stolen and go to look for the thief who is in big trouble at the moment.
Kang Mo-yeon is responsible for the patient and suspects Yoo Si-jin and Seo Dae-young of beating him up but a CCTV record shows the truth.
Because of a wound that needs to be treated Si-jin decides to drive one and a half hours to the hospital where Mo-yeon works in order to see her and get treated by her specifically.
The two of them start to date but their dates don't go well due to their jobs - emergencies just keep on happening and eventually they break up.
Si-jin is transferred to Urk for eight months with his unit. Haesung Hospital is supposed to send a medicube and doctors who volunteer.
Instead of volunteering Kang Mo-yeon is sent to Urk as the leader of the team as a punishment by the director of the hospital for personal revenge. Eventually, Si-jin and Mo-yeon meet again and work together in a country devastated because of war and starvation.

Cast: Song Joong-ki as Captain Yoo Si-jin is incredibly popular everywhere. His acting was good, he managed to balance the cute charm and the tough and loyal sides of Yoo Si-jin quite well. I personally did like his acting in this drama and think that the role suits him well.
Song Hye-kyo as Kang Mo-yeon did well, too. I personally saw her in one other drama before and was honestly not that impressed with that so I wasn't too happy about her being in this drama. But she is a good actress and she did deliver her parts nicely, especially as the professional doctor saving someone's life. (I considered her English pronounciation to be a little weird though.)
Jin Goo as Sergeant Major Seo Dae-young mainly impressed me with his strict discipline when acting in military bases. I guess he has to be my favorite character and actor in this drama because I really enjoyed watching his scenes.
Kim Ji-won as Lieutenant Yoon Myeong-ju. She is a great actress and I really liked her in this series, too. The romance between her and Seo Dae-young was really good and they did have a good chemistry on screen.
Kang Shin-il as Lieutenant General Yoon and Myeong-ju's father was for a long time the typical father in many stories you personally want to just ignore. But he changed and it made me like him a little bit more. Of course as an actor the character was portrayed well.
Other actors in this drama include (prepare for a long list): Kim Byung-chul as Colonel Park Byung-soo, Park Hoon as Sergeant Choi Woo Geun, Choi Woong as Staff Sergeant Gong Chul-ho, Ahn Bo-hyun as Sergeant Im Kwang-nam, Kim Min-suk as Private Kim Ki-bum, Lee Seung-joon as Song Sang-hyun, Seo Jung-yeon as Ha Ja-ae, Onew as Lee Chi-hun, Park Hwan-hee as Choi Min-ji and so many more that it would take me years to name all of them.

Soundtrack: When I came to Korea, the soundtrack for this drama was played all day in the Ewha shopping street, especially in spring, and I started listening to the songs before I even knew that they belonged to this drama. Some of my favorite songs are Mad Clown's and Kim Na-young's "다시 너를 (Come Again)", and K.Will's "말해! 뭐해? (Say It! What Are You Doing?)". I honestly love both songs in their own ways a lot. But also "Everytime" by EXO's Chen and Punch is a song I really came to like a lot.


I honestly did not plan to watch this drama this year. Or to review it in 2016. But after hearing about the big hype and seeing Song Joong-ki's pictures at every corner in Seoul because of this drama I think I had to find out what it was about.
I personally rated this drama as an 8/10 which might surprise some people since it is so damn popular and has so many fans.
Let's say I do get the hype but I can't really follow it. I loved the military and the medical scenes. I loved the romance between Seo Dae-young and Yoon Myeong-ju, and I really liked Song Sang-hyun's and Ha Ja-ae's story a lot. But the main story was cheesy (I like cheese but somehow.. so much cheese that you feel too full after some time).

It is far from bad but also some plot-twists especially in the end didn't do much for the story so I thought they just started dragging it. However, a bonus is that I finished this quite fast actually and didn't start to skip scenes.

Bad Guys

나쁜 녀석들 (Bad Guys) is a Korean drama series that aired from October 4th to December 13th 2014 on OCN.

Story: The title 'Bad Guys' basically describes the team perfectly. Commissioner Nam Goo-hyun asks former detective Oh Gu-tak to help solving a serial murder case. Oh Gu-tak chooses gangster Park Woong-cheol, professional killer Jeong Tae-su and psychopath and serial killer Lee Jeong-mun as the 'bad guys' who are the best for this job.

With Park Woong-cheol's strength , Jeong Tae-su's skill and Lee Jeong-mun's intellect. Mix those together right and there won't be a criminal under the sun they can't catch.

Getting out of prison whenever they have a case, the team members decide to do something useful with their abilities - and figure out the truth behind a serial murder case.
Detective Yoo Mi-yeong is there connection to the police and helps to solve the cases though she's an ambitious person willing to do a lot to get promoted.

Cast: At first we have Kim Sang-joong as Oh Gu-tak, the 'Mad Dog'. Just the way he was planning everything through the first two episodes made me feel uneasy about the character, I could never guess what he was up to. But then again, as an actor, Kim Sang-joong deserves all my respect for playing this role that well.
As Park Woong-cheol we see Ma Dong-seok. Yes, the character isn't the smartest person on earth.. definitely not, but strong and therefore a good addition to the team. About Ma Dong-seok - I don't remember him playing any other main roles before and this one was really good as well. It somehow suits him, and I can't really explain why.
Jo Dong-hyuk accepted the role of Jeong Tae-su. Except for him being hot and classy as a contract killer (I can't help it, I just loved the serious businessman-look he was wearing all the time.. and I'm still a young woman after all), I think his characters' history was one of the most interesting I've ever seen. And there was one scene (I seriously cannot spoiler too much about this) when I was really crying because of his loss.
As genius psychopath Lee Jeong-mun we see someone who might be the reason for many girls to watch this: Park Hae-jin. Now, after watching this, I'm definitely impressed with his skills. From a second male lead desperately in love in You Who Came From The Stars his character in this drama is a psychopath who was one of the youngest serial killers ever. There's a huge difference and I love the fact he's not sticking to one of the character types but actually tries something new - and definitely succeeds.
Others in the cast include Kang Ye-won as Yoo Mi-yeong (I came to dislike her character from time to time..), Kang Shin-il as Nam Goo-hyun and Kim Tae-hoon as Oh Jae-won (and I hate making good guesses about something fishy sometimes).

Soundtrack: One thing OCN is incredibly good at are sound effects. Sometimes the music and the sounds they used were just creeping me out. God, I hate you for doing that, OCN, I hate you all so much. But then again, when it comes to a series like this, it's necessary. Cute or cheerful songs or heartwrenching ballads wouldn't support the rather dark atmosphere.

As an overall rating? Ha ha, funny, you can make a guess. It's OCN Original and I have nothing really negative to say about this series.
10/10.
The only thing I wasn't happy about were the melodramatic happenings during the last episodes. But then again, this is also a charming point of this series - the way the characters change.

I'm still laughing about the person who had the idea to censor knifes, but not guns, in a drama that's rated 19+. Like, come on.. we all know there's a knife and we all know someone gets stabbed. So why do you have to censor the knife when this is a series for adults..? Tsk. I don't get it. It's somewhat cute.

Did I miss out on anything? Well, this series deals with the dark sides of human souls in the end. If you have a weak heart, this series probably wouldn't be a good recommendation. Otherwise, go ahead and give it a shot because it has a different charm with being impressive especially when it comes to plot and character development.

And did someone mention a possible Season 2?! Yes, please! Just.. OCN, please don't make me wait four years or something..