Having finished this, I must say this is one of the more realistic depictions of this common drama theme/plot - the poor girl w/the rich son. The humor - dark satire - had me rolling :D The acting/ensemble cast, the writing, the look of this drama all were superb.
This is not a light, fluffy romcom, nor a makjang melodrama. It's a dark satire that pokes holes in a cliched plotline, while focusing on the toll corruption takes on families and people, from the lowliest to the upper echelon. I enjoyed watching this very much and am sorry to see it go, and wish they hadn't cut 2 episodes.
This fully deserved the Baeksang Award :D

Read More

This show basically follows typical Western episodic standards, rather than having an overarching plot. Thus it differs quite a bit from the normal Asian drama. In a crime show I enjoy this since each murder investigation has it's own story. I found the investigative part of this drama among the most realistic of the Asian forensic/police dramas that I've seen, as well. Not surprising since the story comes from the memoirs of an actual Chinese forensic investigator. The main actor does a fine job portraying Dr. Qin. The other two main characters do an adequate job, nothing spectacular but not annoying either.
All in all, if you are a fan of CSI type crime shows, this one is likely to engage your interest. The various crimes solved actually occurred, which makes them more interesting than so many of the fictional, contrived murders littering the drama landscape.

Read More

This drama just wowed me all the way thru. I laughed EVERY single episode LOL
The premise sets up the whole show in the first episode - it's semi-serious but with some tongue in cheek at first, but then it just dissolves into fun LOL once our hero decides that diary is his!
Yoon Si Yoon just does this duality thing perfectly - his ability to morph into whatever movie psycho he finds useful to 'recall' his past as a 'predator' had me laughing through out. So smoothly done, the time perfect, lovely to watch! And the music fit the action as well.
Our REAL psychopath, again, very well acted indeed. Kudos to Park Sung Hoon for bringing this character to life, with his confused looks and hidden glee LOL The writers created a well-rounded character here, with motivations and weaknesses, rather than a pure evil, flat stock villain. We understood why he behaved the way he did, without sympathizing with him much (although his DADDY, well, enough to drive anyone to some kind of hell)
I loved our two wanna-be detectives - the lead girl did such a great job! That character showed lots of strength and resolve, while her partner was not just a foil for jokes but a fun character on his own merits.
I also loved the soft-hearted gangster LOL
Our little Victon boy Jung Su Bin did quite well in the few parts of the drama where his character had a main part. That made me smile :D
The plot moved along nicely, hit all the major issues & in the end resolved almost all of them, and managed to never change into some makjang mess in the middle - every time I thought it might, the writers turned the tables & amused me :D Someone in a review lamented this - but in fact it's a strong point of this drama - it is a COMEDY after all!!!!
I highly recommend this drama and I may actually put it on my rewatch list :D

Read More

I loved this drama. I find it so sad and telling that so many people didn't. I'm sorry that it's so hard to follow for some people. Perhaps it shows the dismal literary education given in public schools nowadays...
As another person said, this tale is reminiscent of the Bronte sisters - as of course the writers throw in viewers' faces through out LOL I wonder how many of those watching EVER read Wuthering Heights?
At any rate, those pretending our heroine didn't grow weren't paying attention. She was misled from the very beginning about the characters of both these men, which led to her making the original choices she did. Her original self never questioned her perception of reality, dying without truly understanding either man.
I have to interject here that I think the 1980s version of our detective, despite what we find out in the last episode, was basically a good, decent man who would have been horrified by his reincarnated self's actions. In fact, when that prosecutor decides to redeem himself, I think it's because he did get his memories of his previous incarnation back. I had been totally in sympathy with our 1980s detective, but when he reappeared as that self-righteous prosecutor, so willing to bend the rules and manufacture evidence just because HE had decided someone was guilty? Oh, no. Hated him and even wondered if HE was the reincarnation of the supposed serial killer.
Speaking of that tortured soul of a '2nd lead' ? Well, HE had been led around by the nose by that father of his! I'd been convinced that he'd hallucinated his father, at first - that he'd killed his abusive father & then developed 2 personalities. I kept that idea for at least a third of the drama because the writers did a very good job of leading us down that rabbit hole! Another red herring - at first it seemed as if our heroine had gotten the heart OF that 'murderer'.
Now, our leading lady is not as quick to judge as her previous self. She does think about things more thoroughly, without accepting everything at face value. She lets herself get drawn in by our prosecutor, but she hasn't a clue about his real character in the present. With our reincarnated 'murderer', however, she does gradually find out what he's like - she's drawn to him because she feels pain & pity every time she sees him.
Those people whining about 'stalker stalker' - BOTH these guys 'stalked' this woman, you know. Also, it was out of fear for her safety, not out of some 'stalker perversion'. But some people simply fail to see nuances at all.
Bottom line, the entire drama shows how the main female lead slowly figures out the TRUE characters of both these men, and also which one cares deepest for her, and also which one SHE truly cares most for! I found this journey to be somewhat hard to follow at times, and some questions remain unanswered (our detective from the 1980s didn't die from being knifed - those guys in black suits came & dragged him off somewhere, & bashed his head in with a rock - this NEVER gets addressed properly). Also the whole 'switching of the artificial insemination donor' is just brushed off a bit too easily.
However, I did indeed like the ending - found it satisfying. Our reincarnated heroine put her past behind her, knowing that she'd not been fully informed in that life, and faced the future with the man who truly loved her enough to die for her (while giving her to his rival). That's just soul-fulfilling.

Read More

Comedy & Crime

This drama is NOT to be taken seriously. SIG is his usually wonderful self, this time bouncing around as a shaman, who is secretly trying to avenge his friend's murder. He used to be a profiler & uses that in his fortune-telling. The team at Cafe Minamdong is just fun, although those who hate slapstick, exaggerated comedy will not like them.
The police team are also fun, although the two junior detectives were a bit over the top even for me. I liked the female lead (really, people! WTF is wrong with her? She's a cop, going after criminals!), and the older mentor just is one of those seasoned Korean actors that brings verisimilitude to every role he takes.
The mystery has an interesting twist - I wondered after about the 8th episode, but it didn't fully reveal itself until nearly the end, and did so in a very good way. I've watched a lot of dramas with this kind of thing before that have not done this as seamlessly or logically, frankly - playing with the audience or using shock value (or both, like Mouse ). This one did it well.
All in all this was just a fun, refreshing drama for me to watch - nothing heavy, satisfying action, very few true plot holes or logic fails (other than some over the top kinds of comedic situations), and just, SIG being very funny & appealing throughout.
I find all the negative reviews ridiculous, frankly.

Read More

Why is it that TV & film writers feel the need to make drastic changes to the source material whose popularity provided the reason to make the drama? I'm talking major PLOT changes - especially endings! Which brings us to this drama.
I enjoyed the beginnings - quirky, good cast, interesting storyline, et al. I found that as the story progressed it did somewhat lose track of the beginnings, but not terribly, and the main love affair kept on track very nicely. It differed enough from the real history of this king that I didn't worry about the kids (shown in the first episode) too much & just wondered about the resolution.
Well. What resolution, I ask myself after finishing this? What happened? How? I don't know. I highly suggest one NOT watch the last 10 minutes of the final episode. Make up your own ending & watch the credits roll. Go read the book, which has a satisfying, logical ending. Don't expect to have any questions answered by this sageuk :(

Read More

Wow - if you like drama, especially makjang, this is very good. Lots of hate to spread around, & conflicts about who ends up w/whom, etc. The acting is superb, the main characters endearing (I'm sorry, I just cannot buy into all the hate for Jang Mi), the story has some very realistic elements imbedded in the usual over-the-top plotline, and the ending is highly satisfactory. I much prefer shaded characters to the two-dimensional good or bad types - and every single person in this drama (even the evil daddy) has a blend of positive & negative. Read the comments & you can tell, since there are fierce debates about the evilness of almost every character LOL Even Cha Dol (the main lead & supposedly perfect boy) has his moments (especially in the beginning) So I do indeed recommend this to anyone who loves long family dramas :D

Read More

This remake of the KDrama did not have Jang Hyuk or Kim Jae Wook, so that meant they really had an uphill road to climb for me to really like it.
But I have been bothered more & more by Lee Ha Na - I always did like her but not so much now. This really became obvious as I watched this version - because I MUCH prefer the Thai actress!!!
That said, the story is pretty much the same. I feel some details were left out of this one, but it wasn't terribly noticeable until the last episode, where our killer's back story wasn't filled in as much, nor was the hunt for his lair as exciting. Not sure why since both had the same number of episodes.
Our male lead did a great job of being a crazy obsessed cop, & our killer really outdid himself - neither were quite as good as the Korean leads, but they still managed to put their own unique take on their characters.
I found this very watchable, and entertaining - I'd highly recommend it to anyone, in fact.

Read More

I love the original KDrama, Tunnel. Plus my friends keep talking about how Thailand remakes of KDramas are excellent. So when this popped up on Netflix, I thought 'why not give it a try?'
I binge watched the first 10 episodes and finished the entire thing in 3 days. So yeah, amazing remake LOL
The two main leads just nailed it. Totally believed in their characters. I prefer the second lead and the lead girl here over the ones in the KDrama, in fact! Although Choi Jin Hyuk is irreplaceable LOL
The storyline remains enthralling and compelling, as do the emotional tugs on the heart. The villain might be even more chilling in this one, at least more actively menacing. The entire atmosphere of this remake just fit the story excellently.
I solidly support this drama and highly recommend it :D

Read More

I like police procedurals and this one did a good job with it. As has been said, no romance except a past one motivating several characters, which made the focus more on the team working together against the bad guys. But that's fine, since it's rare w/KDramas. I do prefer well-rounded characters w/fully developed personal lives, but in a suspense thriller police who-done-it that's not necessary for me to enjoy the story.
The plot made sense, without many holes, and noone acted so completely stupid that I yelled at the TV. So often in these police/spy dramas, you're just going 'call for BACKUP! Tell someone where you're going' etc - but not so much in this one - maybe one incident. But I have to give creds for tight, consistent, logical story-telling :D
And for really awesome fight scenes! Especially Kim Bum fight sequences, but Team Leader there had awesome moments, and so did our lone girl detective, who was blessedly no push-over!
So I recommend this drama to those who prefer action & suspense. Also, this is one to get your male friends/family to watch if you want to show them KDramas are NOT all soaps LOL

Read More

This is just the sweetest little drama - I totally loved it :D The interaction of the dad & son felt so totally real - which comes from this being based on a real life story of course :d The plot included a lot of atypical scenarios (ie pretty little boy having a female persona may be normal enough & also some fangirls' dream, but not seen very often in dramas - just one example). The use of Final Fantasy (which simply has gorgeous graphics - best on the beautiful scale in my opinion) really emphasized the relationship between father & son, plus the inner growth of the father. Gamers everywhere can empathize with this. Plus the subtle humor throughout truly added to the enjoyment.
I highly recommend this to anyone who is a gamer or who knows one!
The fact that Mama is totally into KDramas (HOYA!!! I saw HOYA!) thrilled me :D I immediately identified with her LOL

Read More

I'm impressed. This drama manages to bring us a classic tragedy, something rarely seen anymore. The tragic hero with the fatal flaw, the misunderstandings where the viewer can easily understand how if only xyz had happened everything could have turned out well, the star-crossed lovers, the sense of inevitability at the end :D Right out of the Greek tradition. Shakespeare would love it.
I'm so very happy this did NOT go the same way as the Japanese drama did. Dark, twisted surprise endings are forced endings, and I hate contrived conclusions.
Tragedies and comedies are deeply entwined, BTW. In the classic ones (again, think Shakespeare) the comedies could go horribly wrong at any given moment, while the tragedies could end well 'if only'. This is a reflection of reality, and gives us that cathartic release - there but for luck go I.
That's exactly what this drama gave me. The real tragic figure is the cop who adopted the little girl. He made a mistake, and tried to rectify it, but his tragic error lay in not being honest with her. That continued when he finally found the other child - he was never honest with Moo Young either, until forced. If he'd told either of those kids the truth, the story could have ended well.
Kudos for an excellent adaptation!

Read More

It is my sincere opinion that despite all the love/hate floating around about the drama, it really had only one true problem - this was a 20-24 episode drama shoved into a 16 episode one.
Think about it - the most consistent criticism? The logic leaps, lack of explanations and editing. Well, to me, that is not having enough time to explain what's going on adequately. We had to guess.
I think given this, the writers did leave enough clues TO figure it out, despite the rushed feeling.
I enjoyed this drama - the production values, cinematography, acting and OST were excellent, and the story very interesting. Again, biggest problem I had with it was that sense of being rushed, of things left out or not fully explained.
Still, the ending did indeed wrap up EVERYTHING I wanted it too - which thrilled me :D
BTW, I thought the two leads had excellent chemistry :D

Read More

Everything a Rom Com should be

This drama exemplifies why I watch KDramas more than any other TV shows, and why I say that South Korea does RomCom better than anyone else.
The story takes us into a field (startups, tech companies, etc) and gives us a glimpse of what that's like. But make no mistake, this story is a ROMANCE. and the two leads (plus our second lead) live up to that wonderfully.
The premise is interesting (the letters - it's very much lifted from Cyrano de Bergerac) and highlights a major weakness in the second lead - it was the girl's GRANDMOTHER who asked 'Good Boy' to write them - in order to cheer up her granddaughter. Good Boy there had no real interest in the girl other than to please the grandmother.
This is apparent when later on, when he COULD have just admitted he was the one who wrote the things, he instead hires the guy whose name he stole to represent him. So he complicated his own life, which bites him in the derriere later as he comes to care for the girl.
I loved the romance, the actors, the secondary characters, the ending. Fun, logical, no major angst, decent ending that made me smile, a WEDDING photo!!!!
I'm sure there were inaccuracies about the computer industry, and that these kids had a much easier, more polished path than your average person in the industry. But it's expected from a romcom - this wasn't a show where you wanted gritty reality at all. Most of us watching these shows want enough reality to actually believe this kind of thing might happen, and then we just want to enjoy the romance. For those of you wanting grit etc, don't look to romcoms LOL

Read More