Story in a Nutshell Despite naming Show after the mystical animal that represents justice, Show is not a fusion sageuk (hopefully) and relates a story of the underdog ascending the royal throne. Jung Il-woo returns to the small screen after his mandatory military service as Prince Yeo-ning or Lee Geum, the future King Yeongjo. Because his mother was a lowly court maid, he lives a … Continue reading Haechi – First Impression
Story in a Nutshell Kim Hye-ja (Han Ji-min) picked up a magical watch at the beach when she was a little girl, and she used the watch to turn back time whenever she needed. The catch is, it made her appear older than her actual age when time returns to the present, and that gave her and her family some trouble. She had since stopped … Continue reading Dazzling/The Light in Your Eyes – First Impression
It should be ItemS, given the number of magical stuff appearing in show… Main cast: Joo Ji-hoon (from Kingdom) as Prosecutor Kang Gon. He is a stellar prosecutor, on his way up to Seoul Office. His only kin is his niece, Da-in, who is in his care after her parents (Gon’s brother and sister-in-law) die in a crash. Jin Se-yun (from Gaksital) as Detective Shin So-young. Being a profiler (and … Continue reading First Impression: Item
Story in a Nutshell A remake of the Japanese drama of the same title, Jin Goo takes on the role of Go Tae-rim, an unconventional lawyer who boasts of a 100% win rate. Tae-rim also goes by the nickname “Kwae-tae” which means strange behavior and he literally is strange. Obviously there’d be reasons behind his strangeness and his mysterious feud with his mentor, and that … Continue reading Legal High – First Impression
This is OCN’s venture into drama-movie again — Trap only has 7 short eps (so expect it to be ACTION-PACKED), over 3 weeks. Main cast: Lee Seo-jin (from Marriage Contract) as Kang Woo-hyun. A famous news anchor who recently announced his early retirement to spend more time with his family. He met with a series of horrific events while on a trip with his wife and young son. … Continue reading First Impression: Trap
We have two romcoms that debut about the same time this year — Romance is a Bonus Book and Reach for Sincerity. The two can’t be more different. Reach is very fast paced, with the narrative wasting no time setting up the two conflicting leads who will eventually fall in love…and we don’t even have to wait that long for their romance to begin, since ep2’s ending … Continue reading Romance is a Bonus Book: Reads really like a novel
Whatever “passion” Clean has fizzled out in the later half of the show. Due largely to 2 reasons: the typical Kdrama’s tropes of mindless “self-sacrifice” (which include (but is not limited to) needless departures, useless disappearances and unexplained cold shoulders), and the slightly more atypical stop-go of Clean‘s schedule. We had at least 3(?) weeks of non-broadcast, due to Chuseok, due to soccer and soccer … Continue reading Final Review: Clean with Passion for Now
The Goblin dream team — Lee Dong-wook and Yoo In-na — is back! And in a seriously funny romcom (if ep1’s pace keeps up), so much so I really dunno how they kept to their roles in Reach. Main cast: Lee Dong-wook (from Goblin) as Kwon Jung-rok. The “Ace” of Always Law firm, who had to suffer having the bimbo Yoon-seo as his secretary. Yoo In-na (from Goblin) as Oh Yoon-seo / Oh Jin-sim. … Continue reading First Impression: Reach of Sincerity
Do me a favour — watch the original Luther which Bad Detective is loosely based on. Tbh, I gave up on Bad after ep6 or so, cos there were just too many ANNOYING Kdrama element(s) that spoiled the debut. I had praised the debut — for its shock factor (which was adapted from one of the cases in Luther), which I’ve mentioned is very “un-national mainstream … Continue reading Final Review: Bad Detective
Story in a Nutshell Kim Bo-mi (Lee Yuri) and Lee Bom (Uhm Ji-won) cannot be any more different from each other: Bo-mi is an ambitious news anchor, crude and messy while Bom is satisfied with being a housewife, extremely polite and considerate and keeps her house speckless. We don’t know much of Bo-mi’s private life, except that she was originally named Bom-yi or Bom-two, as … Continue reading Spring Turns to Spring – First Impression
Coffee Friends — a new food variety venture from PD Na Young Seok — sees the reunion of Reply 1994 actors, Sohn Ho-joon and Yoo Yeon-seok running a cafe in Jeju together. They were selected by Na PD to host this food-tertainment programme after successfully running a coffee-cafe food truck for charity recently. While the premise of Coffee isn’t new (Na PD did a similar restaurant-themed variety featuring the Journey to the West … Continue reading First Impression: Coffee Friends
It’s been a long while since I last wrote half-time comments for any dramas, but Show is so good and thought-provoking that I have to write something about it. Not just the acting, the writing and directing is impeccable. Every scene was thoughtful and nothing felt like a waste of time (or filler scenes, if you would), which is something I felt had been missing … Continue reading The Man Who Become King – Half-time Comments
One thing I must say, our Cinderella here…has a lot of spunk and pride. Main cast: Lee Na-young as Kang Dan-yi. Divorced for a year, she is basically penniless. But she refuses to ask her dong-saeng, Eun-ho, for help. Lee Jong-suk (from While You Were Sleeping) as Cha Eun-ho, a famous author. He has been secretly nursing a crush on Dan-yi (since young). Synopsis: Flashback to 7 years ago, when Eun-ho … Continue reading First Impression: Romance is a Bonus Book
I’m totally glad for my high tolerance of ridiculous because Show turns out to be one of the more heartwarming offerings out there these days and I’ve grown attached to the islanders. There is also decent character growth that is so very missing from most other dramas, so that sets Show apart from others. Yoo Baek (Kim Ji Seok) came a long way to heal … Continue reading Drama Review – Top Star Yoo Baek (tvN, 2018)
It seems like yesterday (er, wait it WAS) that I wrote the First Impression. Well, 6eps are very short in Kdrama sense. But even then, there were times in Kingdom I felt that it was 6eps too long. I suppose I didn’t find the modern zombie dash that was Train to Busan as weary as Kingdom, cos all the running and screaming were condensed within 2+h. And … Continue reading Final Review: Kingdom (Season 1)
A Netflix original, which is (in kooriyuki‘s terms) an almost remake of Train to Busan — well, you have human eating zombies here too (only dressed in hanboks). [kooriyuki: not mine, netizens’. I’d been scouring Twitter for netizens’ reactions.] Main cast: Ju Ji-hoon (from Along with the Gods) as Crown Prince Lee Chang. His claim to the throne is getting perilous as the King falls ill to a mysterious sickness and everyone (barring Minister … Continue reading First Impression: Kingdom
I am watching this (albeit ffwd-ing past those bits of (YAWN) palace politicking) solely for Yeo Jin-goo. I already am quite impressed with his portrayals of Lee Hun — the King, versus Ha Sun — the Clown. While the characters in Crowned are physical doppelgängers (someone need to do a DNA/ paternity test here!), they can’t be more polarised — not only in terms of social … Continue reading The Crowned Clown: sab’s venture into saguek (gasp!)
Skip straight to the comments part (right after the first picture) if you don’t want any spoilers! Spoilers: The little girl in green dress was actually Cha Woo-kyung’s (Kim Sun-a) real younger sister Cha Se-kyung, who was beaten to death by their stepmother Heo Jin-ok (Na Young-hee). She was buried at the fireplace of their father’s house. The Se-kyung who was in coma at the … Continue reading Final Review – Children of Nobody (Red Moon Blue Sun)
