Codename: Jackal

자칼이 온다 (Jackal is Coming/ Codename: Jackal) is a South Korean movie released in November 2012.

Anyone in for some tied up Kim Jae-joong? Do I hear voices screaming "No"? Well, then this movie definitely isn't for you because we have a lot of tied up Jae-joong but I think many people are actually here for this.

Story: Bong Min-jung is hired to kill actor Choi Hyun. But since she appears not-so-smart it's actually a kind of complicated situation. The mission starts by abducting him at Paradise Hotel in Seongju. But in the same hotel the police is looking for the serial killer "Jackal". Hyun finds out that his ex-girlfriend hired Min-jung to kill him and tries to convince her to let him go because she got the wrong person.
After several attempts to escape a crazy fan sneaks into the hotel room, unties the ropes and takes him to her own suite but starts to torture him. Min-jung saves him from that fan. Then Angela, Hyun's lover appears, but is stabbed to death.
"Jackal" arrives and after Min-jung kicked Hyun which caused him to fall down and become unconscious. Min-jung fights with "Jackal" and it comes out that actually Hyun was never the target but just a way to contact the real target..

Cast: Song Ji-hyo can be seen as killer Bong Min-jung. She's so funny in the beginning but in the end you realize that she's actually really smart and her strategy was almost perfect. And yes, we have Kim Jae-joong as Choi Hyun. Did I mention tied up Jae-joong? Come on, I know we all want that (and he's not even included in my bias list). After all the dramas and movies he starred in I'm sure I don't need to talk about his acting skills. He can do well and he definitely did do well in this movie.
We have Oh Dal-su as Chief Detective Ma, Han Sang-jin as Team Leader Shin and Kim Sung-ryung as Angela.

Soundtrack: Jaejoong himself sang two songs for the soundtrack, "Stay" and "Kiss B" and I really enjoyed listening to those songs. But then again I really like Jaejoong's voice so.. if you don't like his voice at all the OST isn't for you at all.

My final rating is 7/10 just because I admit there were some parts I just didn't understand at all. The movie was more confusing than everything else I've watched because.. I seriously didn't understand anything and even the end left me confused. As for a movie I think everything should be clear in the end unless they want to leave me unsatisfied or definitely want to film another part. And the end definitely sounds as if they are thinking about a sequel. Anyways..

I did promise some tied up Jaejoong so - here you go~ Grab some popcorn and enjoy it!

All About My Romance

내 연애의 모든것  (All About My Romance) is a South Korean drama series that aired on SBS from April 4th to May 29th 2013.

Story: Kim Soo-young is newly elected into the national parliament as a member of the Great Korea Party, the most conservative party with the largest number of members in the parliament.
While trying to breaking into a room where the GKP No Min-young, a member of the minor party, hits him with a fire extinguisher and the two of them become known as "the fire extinguisher couple".
No Min-young entered the political world after her sister, a member of the parliament, died in a car accident.
Somehow the two of them start developing romantic feelings but after all their love is forbidden since their ideologies are too different...

Cast: So Shin Ha-kyun accepted the role of the male lead Kim Soo-young. He has a killer smile, that's true, and actually the rather cold politician can actually be such a charming man. I only think he looks completely different with his hair cut short in later episodes.
Lee Min-jung can be seen as Lee Min-young she's such a cute and cheerful woman in this drama and I would so wish for her to date Shin Ha-kyun for real! They make an awesome couple in this drama but then again, I shouldn't confuse actors and their characters.
Park Hee-soon acted as Song Joon-ha in this drama, and all I say is second male lead. That already explains everything else. He's doing an incredibly good job though, I like him. As the second female lead An Hee-sun we have Han Chae-ah. A rich child of a company she's not used to not getting what she wants and is deeply hurt because she cannot get Kim Soo-young.
Others in the cast include Jin Tae-hyun as Kim Sang-soo, Jang Gwang as Maeng Joo-ho, Cheon Ho-jin as Ko Dae-ryong, Gong Hyung-jin as Moon Bong-shik and Kim Jung-nan as Go Dong-sook. But there are so many characters in this one (regarding the drama is set in the parliament from time to time) that it's impossible to list all of them.

Soundtrack: Regarding the season in which this drama aired it's not surprising the title track is cute, cheerful and refreshing. The first track on the OST that appears in the drama quite often is performed by Baechigi and Shin Bo-ra and is called "사랑하니까 (Because I Love You)". Yes, after hearing it a few times in the drama one gets tired of the song but it is actually such a perfect song for the spring season that I can't help but listen to it. Tiffany of SNSD performed a nice ballad track for the OST, as well as Shin Yong-jae of 4Men. Those two songs appear in the rather sad and confusing parts of the drama but both of the tracks are pretty solid.
Another quite well-known track is called "I love you" and performed by Akdong Musician. The song as well as the MV is incredibly cute and once again perfect for the spring season and you should definitely check it out. And just because I have to mention it about cute, bubbly and spring as well - Dal★shabet performed a track for the OST as well and it's also worth listening to.


My personal rating is 8/10 but I really liked this one as well. It's just that there are too many characters and it's hard for me to follow the political stuff but it's actually a cute story and worth watching if you don't watch dramas only for young actors.

Winter Sonata

Welcome to this review of the oldest Korean drama I've ever watched.

겨울 연가 (Winter Sonata) is a Korean drama series that aired from January 14th to March 29th 2002 on KBS2.
It was one of the first Korean drama series that were aired in Japan, and there it was known as "冬のソナタ" (fuyu no sonata).

Story: The story starts with Kang Jun-sang transferring to a high school in Chuncheon because of the desire to find his father. He meets Jung Yoo-jin in school and the two of them fall in love. But one day a horrible accident happens and Kang Jun-sang dies.
Years later Yoo-jin and her highschool friends started working and most of them live in Seoul. Oh Chae-lin, a girl who had a crush on Kang Jun-sang, brings Lee Min-hyung from Paris with her - surprisingly Min-hyung looks like Jun-sang and Yoo-jin starts to wonder if it's possible Jun-sang didn't die back then.

Cast: At first we have Bae Yong-jun as Kang Jun-sang and Lee Min-hyung. Choi Ji-woo appears as Jung Yoo-jin. Her close friends are played by Park Yong-ha as Kim Sang-hyuk who's deeply in love with Yoo-jin and one of the first victims of the Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome, Park Sol-mi as Oh Chae-lin, Lee Hye-eun as Gong Ji-sook and Ryu Seung-soo as Kwon Yong-gook.
It's a good cast but I didn't know most of the actors before. It's not surprising though since most of them aren't that active today anymore (and Park Yong-ha committed suicide a few years ago, may he rest in peace).

Regarding the age, the drama is good. What is actually interesting is that sudden patterns and tropes even appeard in 2002, so roughly 15 years ago. Sure the style is kind of old school, yes, but it would so definitely work. Maybe we should sign a petition for a new version. (Just jokin', though I'm sure it'd be a huge success just by adding new actors and rewriting the story a little.
So my personal rating is 6.5/10 because it seems too old but I'm pretty sure it would work again today. So check it out if you're in the mood for some romance next winter!

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.

Her Lovely Heels

여자만화 구두 (Her Lovely Heels) is a short drama series that aired from February 24th to March 25th 2014 on SBS Plus. It consists of 10 episodes with a duration of 15 minutes per episode.

Story: Shin Ji-hoo is a young woman who holds onto painful memories of her first love. She has a secret crush on her co-worker Oh Tae-soo who does not believe in love but becomes interested in Ji-hoo due to some incidents.

Cast: We have Kara's Han Seung-yeon as Shin Ji-hoo. Let me clarify that Seung-yeon is my favorite member in Kara. But in all honesty, she sucks as an actress in this drama. I've criticized Park Shin-hye for boring expressions but the beautiful Seung-yeon does an even worse job regarding the facial expressions. Everything else is fine but you know - there's something missing.
As Oh Tae-soo we have Hong Jong-hyun. Seeing one of my favorite actors and one of my favorite idols acting in a drama together was actually the main reason for me to watch this. I know that Hong Jong-hyun is often criticized for his cold behavior, not only in this drama. But after some time it becomes obvious in this drama that Oh Tae-soo becomes a lot more warm. It's sometimes difficult, however, to think of the character because I see many things that remind me of people criticizing him on We Got Married in the aftermath.
Others in the cast include Jung Ka-eun as Lim Han-na, Yoon Jong-hoon as Choi Yeon-ho, Ji-hoo's first love. Since the drama is rather short and only focusses on the love story between Ji-hoo and Tae-soo there's only a good friend of Ji-hoo played by Park Jin-joo but we don't get to know the character's name.

Soundtrack: The OST consists of basically two songs. One sung by Urban Zakapa's Jo Hyun-ah, the other performed by Kara's Seung-yeon herself. And those songs aren't bad, typical love songs that are included in many other drama OST's but it's fine - it's a romance drama with a full duration of around 150 minutes.

After all this drama got a 9/10 rating from me.
The story is nice and cute, no unnecessary characters, most of the actors are doing a good job or their acting at least fits the characters' behavior, and it's only a little longer than a usual movie regarding the time it takes to watch this. The only negative aspect is indeed Seung-yeon and it hurts to mention her in such a bad way because I actually really like her but she did a poor job as an actress here. It could be an even better rating if she wouldn't have been this stiff.

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.

Flower Boy Ramyun Shop

꽃미남 라면가게 (Flower Boy Ramyun Shop) is a Korean drama that aired on tvN from October 31st to December 20th 2011. It's the first part of the Oh! Boy-series.

Story: Yang Eun-bi is a college student preparing for her civil service exam. She wants to become a high school teacher. She starts an internship at a high school run by Chasung company. On the way to school on her first day, she almost gets hit by a car and Cha Chi-soo saves her.
Cha Chi-soo is the only son of Chasung company's president. After returning from New York the only way he's allowed to stay in Korea is going back to school where Yang Eun-bi is his teacher.

Cast: At first we have Jung Il-woo as Cha Chi-soo. Yes, he is a pretty boy so I get why he was casted. And he's actually a good actor I think but I barely found any actors who weren't that good. I just feel like it has to be weird for an adult male to return to being a high school student.
Lee Chung-ah accepted the female lead role of Yang Eun-bi. What can I say.. Eun-bi is actually a naive but cheerful character. But she has this 'annoying female character' aura since she is TOO naive, TOO innocent and it takes a long time for her to expect something fishy.
And when it comes to typical Korean dramas, we need a second male lead, right? Lee Ki-woo as Choi Gang-hyuk appears at some point. He appears as the clumsy and lovable, faithful and honest male many women dream about. But then again, it's a Korean drama.. You know what to expect. But I admit that he did a good job in this drama, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Other members of the cast include Park Min-woo as Kim Ba-eul, Jo Yoon-woo as Woo Hyun-woo and Ho Soo as Yoon So-Yi.
Whenever it comes to this Oh! Boy-series I have to admit the cast kinda safes the whole drama for me. Some scenes are way too overacted and therefore incredibly funny but then again this is hat makes those dramas enjoyable.

Soundtrack: The OST will not attract anyone. Except for Jung Il-woo singing a song on the OST and C-REAL being featured on the OST I've never heard of any of the other artists. The songs are alright, it's a typical romance-comedy K-drama soundtrack, many people enjoy that a lot but there was no song that really caught my attention and that I've listened to after finishing the drama. I wouldn't say it's bad but nothing special either.


My personal rating is 8.5/10 though I have to criticize a few things. And those mainly go back to the fact that it's pretty much high on the list of the most typical Korean dramas. Basically every single typical pattern works for this drama.
Korean viewers love certain patterns and tropes.
The Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome, the Male-Lead-is-a-Chaebol-son who believes he can have everything just by spending money, the Protect-me-Female-Lead, the True-Love-Changes-a-whole-Character-effect.. I don't remember a piggyback ride but I think we have the wrist-grabbing as well. If this isn't your first or second drama you'll get what I mean - and if it is you'll find out a few things when watching a few more dramas later on.
Yes, it is good and funny, especially because of Eun-bi being superstitious but then again some parts are unnecessary and rather annoying.