Triangle Review

Title: Triangle

Genre: Family, Romance, Action, Crime

Episodes: 26

Broadcast period: 2014-May to 2014-Jul

Cast: Kim Jae Joong, Lee Bum Soo, Im Si Wan, Baek Jin Hee and Oh Yeon Soo.

This drama follows three brothers, separated as children, spread to different walks of life, and reunited by fate.

Jang Dong Soo (Lee Bum Soo) is a cop with a horrible temperament. As a child, he was separated by his younger brothers, which he feels guilty about. After another failed arrest on mobster Go Bok Tae, questions about his mental health arise, and profiler/psychologist Hwang Shin Hye (Oh Yeon Soo) is asked to asses it. The two had known each other in the past, and he had lived with her family after loosing his siblings.

At the same time, Heo Young Dal (Kim Jae Joong) a jobless gambler, devotes most of his time spending money, he had blackmailed from older women, on gambling. After being busted by Dong Soo, he is reluctantly put to work as an informant, to smoke out Go Bok Tae.

One evening Young Dal meets and falls for Oh Jung Hee (Baek Jin Hee), who works a dealer. There the two also meet Yoon Yong Ha (Im Si Wan), the adopted son of a rich CEO. Soon Yong Ha starts to get interested in Jung Hee, and a dislike for Young Dal.

As their lives entwine, fate decides to play a cruel joke on them, and the three become enemies…

In the past I’ve been complaining about too coincidental situations and relationships, but this time around, I didn’t feel annoyed at the fact that the three brothers “happened” to meet each other like they did. And I think it is because you know it from the start, so you are just expecting it. You wait till they finally share screen together, and hope they’ll know who the other one is. This made the “coincidence” seem less like a coincidence, but more like actual fate. I like that the three had different, some more realistic than the other, reactions to the fact that they are related. The three male leads are alright, though the main focus is Jae Joong - everyone loves an underdog - and most of the screen time belongs to him. But you still get the other stories. I didn’t like how little the females were involved, basically just for the love story aspect (three-way love story) and a little bit of the memory part, else they were useless.

The amount of gambling in this drama just bores me. I guess some people find it interesting, but for the average viewer who has no interest in it, I almost fell asleep. And it just took way too much time.

So all in all, an alright drama that focuses too much on gambling, and too little on the females…

☆☆☆ / 3 stars out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Pride & Prejudice Review

Title: Pride and Prejudice
AKA: Lawless World
Genre: Drama, Human, Legal, Romance
Episodes: 21
Broadcast period: Oct-2014 to Jan-2015
Cast: Baek Jin Hee, Choi Jin Hyuk, Choi Min Soo, Son Chang Min, Lee Tae Hwan, Choi Woo Shik, Jang Hang Sun

Young prosecutors form a legal team. They are passionate and obsessive about solving cases and fight injustice, even If they have to go against the higher authorities. They all have different personalities and come from different backgrounds, they are forced to learn how to cooperate and adjust with each other. Han Yul Moo (Baek Jin Hee) comes from a poor family, she thrives to become a prosecutor to solve the case about her murdered brother that led her family to desperation, after meeting the handsome prosecutor Goo Dong Chi (Choi Jin Hyuk) she finds new clues that leads him being a suspect. Now she has to work together with him to prove that he is the one that killed her brother. Goo Dong Chi is an intelligent and righteous prosecutor, and does what he can to help the weak and poor people, how would he react when he finds out that one of his colleagues is trying to gather evidence against a crime he has been involved in 15 years ago?

Where do I start with this one… I fell in love with it in the beginning. I think this has been a great year for Choi Jin Hyuk. The intertwined stories of 3 very different prosecutors and a detective keep you on your toes as they unravel the secrets of each other’s pasts. The passionate performances from the powerhouses like Choi Min Soo and Son Chang Min… whew talk about some great drama actors!
 Even though this show falls into the legal category it doesn’t feel overly legal-ish, and probably most people who like typical Korean romantic dramas would have a good time watching it. Overall I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice far more than I expected, so I would definitely recommend it.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½out of 5 hearts

Empress Ki Review

Title: Empress Ki
AKA: Qi Empress
Genre: Romance, historical, action, melodrama
Episode: 51
Broadcast period: 2013-Oct-28 to 2014-Apr-29
Cast: Ha Ji Won, Joo Jin Mo, Ji Chang Wook, Baek Jin Hee, JinYi Han, Kim Young Ho

Goryeo, the former korea, was politacillay and economically governed by the Yuan. A big and powerful kingdom, which was ruled by an emperor. For over decades the Yuan have been kidnapping girls from Goryeo to be concubines in their palaces, in one of these quests Ki Seung-Nyang (Ha Ji Won), a goryeo girl, was captured alongside her mother. While the goryeo king tried to save her, her mother was killed by the yuan soldiers, leaving her with hatred towards them.  Years later she started to work for the Goreo King, and so they gave her a mission to protect Yuans Crown Prince. Despite her hatred towards Yuan, her loyalty for Goryeo was stronger, so she carried out the mission with all she got, protecting him was not easy.
Unfortunately the Yuan deceived her and brought her back to their palace as a concubine, she started out as a palace maid, and worked her way through until she married the Emperor (The crown prince she once protected) to become an Empress, this is a story about her loves and political ambitions as she is torn between the two nations.

At first I really didn’t wanna watch this drama, because of the number of episodes. I ususally do watch dramas with 50+ episodes, but those are family, easy-to-watch dramas. This was a historical drama, and there weren’t a good summery of it, so I really didn’t know what I was expecting. The only reason I started was.. dum dum badum tss… JI CHANG WOOK. Yup, I’m obsessed by his acting, and he was my driving force until the ending. He amused me, made me cry, at some point I even got scary of him, all this just proves his acting abilities.
Back to the drama, I think because I wasn’t expecting anything I fell easily in love with it. The story was good, and it was really realistic, the drama sucked you into its own universe and spit you out again leaving you as an emotionally wreck.
Another thing I really loved about this drama, was all the colors, I know it sounds weird, but if you’re used to the normal joseon, or mid 1900 historical dramas, you get used to boring colors (brown, grey, black), but this was packed with so many colors it literally bombed your mind, all the Yuan dresses and their decorations… woah.
All in all, you should give this drama a chance !

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Jeon Woo Chi Review

Title: Jeon Woo Chi

AKA: Woo Chi

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Period, Romance

Episodes: 24

Broadcast period: 2012-Nov to 2013-Feb

Cast: Cha Tae Hyun, Uee, Lee Hee Joon, Baek Jin Hee, Kim Gab Soo and Sung Dong Il

Lee Chi (Cha Tae Hyun) is a reporter in mid-Joseon, and lives life freely and without care, seems carefree and lazy. But underneath his presence, he hides a secret: he can use magic. He is Jeon Woo Chi, student of Hong Gil Dong, who is looking for his master’s killer Ma Sook (Kim Gab Soo) and his friend who betrayed him Kang Rim (Lee Hee Joon) who took away his love and fiancé Hong Moo Yeon (Uee) by poisoning her with magic - basically hypnotizing her. When a man is supposedly killed by a tiger, Lee Chi checks it out and finds traces of Kang Rims trade mark magic. Lee Chi loses the trace shortly after, but when a young girl Lee Hyun Ryung (Baek Jin Hee) steals a bag with some form of seeds from a smuggling ship and her father takes a bite, falling in a form of hallucination/coma, Lee Chi cures him. Soon after a slave, Bong Soo (Song Dong Il) whom lost money to Lee Chi while gambling, is accused for murder, Lee Chi goes to save his own butt, but finds out that the same poison he cured, was used on Bong Soo to make him confess, Lee Chi realizes that Kang Rim is somewhat involved, and follows him…

When I started watching this drama I was surprised how different it was, than the usual Korean drama. It was light, interesting and unique, but after the first half, it turned 180 degrees and it was as if the first part never really happened. And the Wuxia/flying/superpowers idea is a good for a change, makes you curious, or me at last. That aside, I had mixed feelings about the lead couple, not because I preferred a supporting-lead couple, it was just very different. Though the couples around were brilliant: I have a thing for queen-king love stories, and those innocent love stories :) Acting wise, mainly good, just occasionally odd, not bad, just odd, which was supposedly part of the drama. Lastly I would like to comment about the length: I don’t mind 24 episodes have done way more, but it is as if they really did everything to make it extra-long, adding extra stuff. But it’s not draggy like those other dramas, and not as stuffy (depends on how you see it and what interests you).

All in all recommendable for the playful soul. 

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts