God's Gift - 14 Days Review

Title: God’s Gift – 14 Days

Genre: Suspense, Mystery

Episodes: 16

Broadcast period: 2014-Mar to 2014-Apr

Cast: Lee Bo Young, Cho Seung Woo, Kim Tae Woo, Jung Gyu Woon, Baro, Han Sun Hwa, No Min Woo and Kim Yoo Bin.

Kim Soo Hyun (Lee Bo Young) had it all: a successful career, a prosecutor husband and a beautiful daughter Han Saet Byul (Kim Yoo Bin). Though a little rough, Soo Hyun is a loving mother and has a loving relationship with her husband. Everything changes when her daughter gets kidnapped. After a failed investigation, her daughter’s body is found by the river, and Soo Hyun becomes depressed. Unable to forgive herself, she decides to kill herself by drowning. At the same time former detective, now turned private investigator Ki Dong Chan (Jo Seung Woo), is caught by the mafia for investigating their boss. He is shot and thrown into the same river at the same time, but miraculously wakes ups, and saves Soo Hyun. The two emerge from the water, and soon find out that the world aren’t as they left it. They have both returned two weeks before the kidnapping of Saet Byul. 

At first Soo Hyun thinks of it as a dream, but as things seem to repeat themselves, she realizes that she needs to figure out how to save her daughter. And with the involvement of Ki Chan, they soon find out that there are more secrets behind the kidnapping than they initially thought…

This drama is one of those drama that took me so long to finish, mainly because the hype has settled down and the reviews weren’t that positive. When I started it, I was amazed by the acting (especially Jo Seung Woo, who I am a fan of) and the suspense, but very soon I noticed why it got disliked – the storyline just goes downhill fast. I don’t know what they were thinking while writing it, but it just was way too much. Too many secrets and too many twists, leading up to a climax which was dumb and completely out of the blue. Even the acting couldn’t save this one.

I remember finishing and kind of wondering, why did I watch this? I didn’t find it bad, yet it felt like a waste of time. But that is what you get with overly hyped drama I guess.

To sum up: not recommendable, but good acting from everyone involved.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥½ / 2½ out of 5 hearts

Oh My Venus Review

Title: Oh My Venus
Genre: Romance, Drama, Comedy
Episodes: 16
Broadcast Period: Nov-2015 to Jan-2016
Cast: So Ji Sub, Shin Min Ah, Jung Gyu Woon, Yoo In Young, Sung Hoon, Henry Lau, Jung Hye Sung, Jin Kyung,

Kim Young Ho (So Ji Sub) is a personal trainer to Hollywood stars. Despite his family's wealth, Young Ho suffered a devastating injury in his childhood, but he believes any problem can be overcome by patience and determination. Kang Joo Eun (Shin Min Ah) was once an ulzzang in her teens, semi-famous for her pretty face and enviable figure. Now a 33-year-old lawyer, she has gained a lot of weight since. After getting dumped by her boyfriend and being told by her doctor that she has health issues, Joo Eun hires Young Ho to challenge her to diet and lose weight.

Wow, did I enjoy this drama? I would say a little too much! Welcome back So Ji Sub *clap clap*! It is the cutesy romance drama I’m always looking for but can never seem to find. There is so many cute scenes, you actually get enough of it in the end (I know, it sounds impossible, but…). To be honest, I felt as though the first couple of episodes were somewhat boring. However, I stuck with it because So Ji Sub is one of my favorites, and after that I fell in love with the cast as a whole and the storyline. It picked up later on in the drama, and the unfolding situations made me holding my breath every week. The last three episodes though, were kind of drama-free, (The writers may have run out of ideas) so it was pretty much focusing on the relationship and chemistry between the leads. All in all a very nice drama, not my favorite though, but a recommendable one! It’s funny how two of the most talked about dramas (this one and She Was Pretty) from the end of 2015 are both about turning pretty again.

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥/ 4 out of 5 hearts

Birth of a Beauty Review

Title: Birth of a Beauty
AKA: Minyeoui Tansaeng
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episode: 21
Broadcast Period: Nov-2014 to Jan-2015
Cast: Joo Sang Wook, Han Ye Seul, Ha Jae Sook, Jung Gyu Woon, Wang Ji Hye, Han Sang Jin, In Gyo Jin, Han Jin Hee

Sa Geum Ran (Ha Jae Sook) is an ordinary ahjumma, an overweight woman who married a handsome man Lee Kang Joon (Jung Gyu Woon). They have been married for 8 years, he studies abroad while she is supporting him and his family, one day she discovers through a program Change, that her husband is actually in Korea and became a successful businessman and most importantly, he had an affair with a beautiful woman (Wang Ji Hye). When she decides to go to press with this information, she gets into an accident which she survives. That was the turning point in her life, she then decides to go under the knife and change her whole appearance and her identity. The one person that will help her is the mysterious man with a heartbroken syndrome, Han Tae Hee (Joo Sang Wook).

Okay, an interesting story, I admit. It was really good, I liked the comedy and the easygoing plot I even started rooting for the main couple. That lasted for the first 10 episodes… then it started to go downhill. I don’t know what happened; did someone take over for the writers work? Did the production team change? The concept of the drama was okay, shallow, but fine. I personally loved 200 Pounds of Beauty, and the concept is kinda similar. But the drama was such a mess, it preached and tried to show a lot of messages, like “be yourself” and stuff like that, and in the other hand it showed plastic surgery is the cure for all your problems, lol, talk about double standards. Now for the couple, as I said I loved this couple for the first 14-ish episodes, no joke, these two carried the show with a pleasant blend of chemistry and wit. Remember when I said I loved the first 10-ish episodes. All of that was true - until the writers realized that they were dealing with 20 episodes instead of 16, and then they got an episode extension on top of it, and they just threw in the towel. I won’t spoil anything, but let’s say it was like they all got amnesia (no one got amnesia), they freakin all forgot their characters, somehow they all changed for the super typical Korean draggy characters. Thanks for nothing. I’m giving this drama 2½ stars and hearts, because it really started out good, but sadly it left the audience feeling like idiots (for watching it).

☆☆½ / 2½ out of 5 stars

♥♥ ½/ 2½ out of 5 hearts

SIGN Review

Title: SIGN
Genre: Medical, mystery,
Episodes: 20
Broadcast period: 2011-Jan-05 to 2011-Mar-10
Cast: Park Shin Yang, Kim Ah Joong, Uhm Ji Won, Jung Gyu Woon and Jun Kwang Ryul.

Yoon Ji Hoon (Park Shin Yang) is a pretty arrogant and rude forensics doctor, but he is very righteous and hates to lose. When leader of the boy band VOICE mysteriously dies, he is put to do the autopsy, but strange things happen, and for some reason is not allowed to do it. The vice-director Lee Myung Han (Jeon Kwang Leol) decides to do it, which is not only weird but something unusual for such a ’typical’ case.
Go Da Kyung (Kim Ah Joong) works for the police, and is assigned for this case, but is shortly after ignored. For some reason the higher ups refuse her to continue working this case, and on top of that she is criticized by Ji Hoon.
One year later, after stealing the corps, and making Da Kyung join the autopsy, Ji Hoon is degraded from his post into the southern district, he meets Da Kyung again, different this time she has become a forensics doctor, and for some reason idolizes Ji Hoon. But the past of the unsolved ’idol death case’ keeps haunting both of the, so they decide to investigate in secret.

This drama has three things I don’t like: tons of conspiracy, constant showdowns, and well corpses… Besides that, it’s pretty good. The story and cast were better than expected, though it somewhat was weird.
The reason my heart rating is so much lower than my star rating is, I really really don’t find conspiracy entertaining, which this drama is completely packed with. People may like it, because it is interesting, and for some reason the world loves when the lead actor suffers…

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts