Ok, I admit, Clean is hilarious. And it’s probably the first show where the PPL is not on cosmetics, coffee and Subway. For once, we see vacuum cleaners and anti-bacteria sprays sponsoring a drama. (heh, quite an improvement actually to show something USEFUL in a drama) While I find the germaphobic Sun-gyeol funny in his extreme need…
God’s Quiz – Reboot: Tame?
Was just discussing with kooriyuki the other day that Quiz is so… mild. (ok, in kooriyuki‘s words, she’s kinda disappointed in this 5th instalment) Maybe 4 years ago, the body count in Quiz (and the bizarre ways they died) topped most other Kdramas’. Even those police procedurals. But recently, we have all become immune to violence in Kdramaland — just look at…
Bok-soo is Back/My Strange Hero – First Impression
Story in a Nutshell Kang Bok-soo (Yoo Seung Ho) and his two best friends from high school run a small company that helps their clients run any errands (perhaps except murdering people). During an errand, Bok-soo gatecrashes a wedding to whisk away the bride who is their client, he re-encounters his crush in high school,…
Review – The hymn of death
Story: Kim Woo-jin (Lee Jong-seok) was a talented playwright and writer studying at the prestigious Waseda University. He was also the in-charge of Dong Woo Hee Theater that was going to perform in cities of Joseon to raise money for Dong Woo Hee. One fellow member, Hong Nan-pa (Lee Ji-hoon) then introduced Yun Sim-deok (Shin…
Priest: The demons within
While the faceless (and nameless, yes!) demon in Priest has proven to be more of the escapist than Park Il-do and Minions in Guest, I do find that both shows make use of the underlying theme of “‘demons’ within us” as the basis for possession. The victims in both shows are people who are facing hardship,…
Final review – Where stars land (Fox Bride Star)
Spoilers: Due to an accident during his teenage years, Lee Soo-yeon (Lee Je-hoon) was physically handicapped in his left arm and leg. It was only a year ago when Dr. Jang (Park Hyuk-kwon), the owner of Fox Bride Star cafe, helped to installed the prosthetic arm and leg for Soo-yeon to enable him to work…
First Impression: Bad Detective
I have not watched the original Luther from BBC, but I did read good reviews about it. Seems like the trend in 2018 is to remake UK shows. Main cast: Shin Ha-kyun (from Pied Piper) as Detective Woo Tae-seok. He is “bad” in the sense that he doesn’t follow protocol, and is a bit of the old-school policeman who…
Clean with Passion for Now – First Impression
Story in a Nutshell Just like any other typical Korean romcoms, our male and female leads are polar opposites of each other but through various hijinks and interactions, they fall for each other. Jang Seon-gyeol (Yoon Kyun Sang) is the CEO of a cleaning company, whose staff are mostly flower boys. Seon-gyeol also is ridiculously…
First Impression – SKY Castle
Story in a Nutshell Billed as a satire/black comedy, Show chronicles the lives of a group of rich elites who live at a place called SKY Castle. To be exact, there are only 4 families (and a fifth, which exited by the end of Episode 2) on the compound. The husbands are all either doctors or…
First Impression – Children of Nobody (Red Moon, Blue Sun)
Story: Cha Woo-kyung (Kim Sun-a) is a counselor at the children centre. She seemed to be living a perfect life with doting husband, an obedient daughter and a baby soon to be delivered. However, she met with an accident one day that changed her life. A boy suddenly appeared at the highway before her car,…
First Impression: Memories of the Alhambra
I am still trying to figure out what genre Alhambra falls into — romance? thriller? fantasy? or a mix of everything? Main cast: Hyun Bin (from Hyde, Jekyll and Me) as CEO Yoo Jin-woo. He owns an IT company, J-One, that invests in futuristic technology, including a pair of contact lenses that allow users to experience Augmented Reality (AR). …
Happy to Die: The Office Romance
While the OTP (one-sided) romance is starting to bud, there’s a parallel “romance” going on between Jin-sang and his co-workers. Having been transferred against his will (after being nominated as the Most Hated Director) to the restaurant branch that is making the least profits, Jin-sang surprisingly thrived pretty well there. Although some credit must be…
First Impression – Top Star Yoo Baek
Story in a Nutshell As the title goes, Yoo Baek (Kim Ji Seok) is a famous actor (with an attitude to boot) who finds himself shipped to a small isolated island by his manager (the ever fantastic Jo Hee Bong), in an attempt to keep Baek away from the spotlight after he was caught speeding…
Review – Room No. 9
Story: Eulji Hae-yi (Kim Hee-sun) was a lawyer at a top law firm with 100% success rate in court. However, she often used underhand methods such as bribery to maintain her success rate. She would make use of any opportunity to be promoted to senior partner. Her boyfriend, Gi Yoo-jin (Kim Young-kwang), was a doctor…
First Impression: Priest
Exorcism seems like the IN thing to round up the year for OCN. Following hot on the heels of The Guest, we have another posession-exorcist drama Priest. Main cast: Yeon Woo-jin (from My Introverted Boss) as Priest Oh Soo-min. He’s an exorcist in training, after having seen for himself how his mum died while being possessed by an evil…
Fluttering Alert: The Same-old
This is classic Kdrama romcom. We have an OTP who are related (without their prior knowledge) in the past, and are currently forced into a pretend-real relationship. There are also the usual Daddy Issues (and Mummy Issues), we have a frozen faced second female bitch (whose actions defy logic), the chaebol in-fighting — you name…
Final Review: The Beauty Inside
Beauty is one warm fuzzy show which leaves me feeling rather contented that there are still people who stand up to scums and scoundrels in the world, that there is still kindness, loyalty among friends and lovers who take you as you are, warts and all. Although a remake of the movie with the same…
Drama Review – The Ghost Detective
Story in a nutshell: Lee Da-il (Choi Daniel) joined Han Sang-seop’s (Kim Won-hae) private detective agency after being wrongfully dismissed by the military. The agency was on the verge on closing down when they received a lucrative assignment to look for a rich businessman Lee Kyung-woo’s (Park Ho-sun) daughter, who went missing with 2 other…
