Gye Baek Review

Title: Gye Baek

Genre: Period, Historical, Romance, Revenge, Melodrama

Episodes: 36

Broadcast period: 2011-Jul to 2011-Nov

Cast: Lee Seo Jin, Cho Jae Hyun, Oh Yeon Soo, Song Ji Hyo, Cha In Pyo, Hyo Min, Lee Hyun Woo and No Young Hak.

Due to the Queen being of Silla blood, an elite group of assassins try to kill her and the Crown Prince Ui Ja on a regular basis. This has prompted the King of Baekje to assign his most loyal and skilled swordsman Moo Jin (Cha In Pyo) to guard them.  But due to unforeseen events, the Queen dies to save her son, and Moo Jins wife dies while giving birth to a son, Gye Baek.

Several years later, Gye Baek (Lee Hyun Woo) now a youngster, works odd jobs, so he can take care of his drunk father. Here he meets merchant-in-training Eun Ko (Park Eun Bin), whom he immediately falls for. Moo Jin, who has lost his arm, has remarried, so the past is unknown, and Gye Baek believes his stepmother and stepbrother, are his real mother and brother. Though mourning, Moo Jin meets the Crown Prince Ui Ja (No Young Hak) again, now a regular Prince due to the new Queens (Oh Yeon Soo) son taking that title and sees right through his pretense, about not caring about the past.

While trying to uncover the truth, and helping Ui Ja, Moo Jin dies, while Gye Baek witnesses it. Filled with anger, Gye Baek blames Ui Ja for the murder of his father but ends up as a hostage of Silla. As years pass, Gye Baek (Lee Seo Jin) lives only for one sole purpose: to kill the man, who killed his father, unaware that there is more to the story than meets the eyes…

Yeah, I know this is very detailed, and yes, I did spoil a bit, but I tried to stay off the details, so if you decide to watch it, you will get several surprises and you will notice the details I left out.

Out of all the historical dramas out there, this one is the first one where I was in awe of the quality of the costumes - like the first 10 min seemed extremely well. I don’t now much about the uniforms of Baekje, but I know that the armor was iron, and it kind of looked like iron. In most dramas I can see that they are made of plastic (or whatever it is) but I didn’t in this one - at least not in the beginning. Also, it might be because I had the first episode in HD quality (I think 1080p), that might have something to do with it too. What I mean is, it was nice to see that there exist good costumes out there, like realistic ones anyways.

This is also one of my first dramas where the lead actors are over 30 years old, as they (directors, or whoever casts these actors) usually have young actors doing quality and popular dramas. And they were all ‘veteran’ actors, with skill, which was extremely nice to see. I have to admit, I was amazed by Song Ji Hyo. I never knew she could act mean or evil - she can officially do both. I liked her in this, and she is very good at acting. Though I noticed that she was tired (haha, blaming RM for that). The rest were good too.

The lacking thing in this one is both pace and extreme character development, which I couldn’t really comprehend. Though the fact that these developments are the reason the story end as it did.

But all in all, an alright drama that made me emotional, and confused at the same time.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop Review

Title: The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop

AKA: Laurel Tree Tailors / Bay Tree Tailors

Genre: Family, Comedy, Drama

Episodes: 54

Broadcast period: 2016-Aug to 2017-Feb

Cast: Lee Dong Gun, Jo Yoon Hee, Cha In Pyo, Choi Won Young, Hyun Woo, Shin Goo, Kim Young Ae and Oh Hyun Kyung.

This drama follows four men, who get affiliated with a small tailor shop called “Wolgyesu Tailor Shop”.

Lee Man Sool (Shin Goo) is the second-generation owner of the Wolgyesu Tailor Shop. After being unable to get anyone to take over the shop, he decides to leave his family, leaving them with a letter. His son Lee Dong Jin (Lee Dong Gun) is wealthy manager in a clothing company owned by his wife’s diseased father. Due to internal conflict he is outed of the company and returns home. Here he meets Na Yeon Sil (Jo Yoon Hee), a seamstress that was supposed to get married, but her fiancé was arrested on the wedding day.

Due to the vacancy of a tailor in the shop, Bae Sam Do (Cha In Pyo) a former pupil of Man Sool, finally manages to persuade his aggressive wife Bok Sun Nyeo (Ra Mi Ran) to close down their chicken shop, to start living in the Lee household. At the same time Lee Dong Sook (Oh Hyun Kyung), the daughter of Man Sool and sister of Dong Jin, persuades their mother to let her first crush and forgotten singer Sung Tae Young (Choi Won Young) live in the house, only to create even more havoc. Kang Tae Yang (Hyun Woo) is the youngest of four, who is the childhood friend of Yeon Sil. After getting dumped by his longtime girlfriend for a rich CEO, Tae Yang decides to join the company - which happens to be the company Dong Jin was fired from.

Soon enough the four create an alliance and together they fix the issues surrounding their family and new home…

I remember reading about this drama long before it came out, and I was more than excited to watch it because of two of the leads, Cha In Pyo and Lee Dong Gun. Besides the fact that they are great actors, I have never seen them act together in a movie or drama - which made it even more exciting. Unfortunately, I felt quite confused in the beginning, because of the huge number of plots entwined in the main plot - making me forget not only names, but also the relationships between the characters, both kinship and other. This made me forget about the two leads, as I tried to wrap my head around it, and when I finally figured it out, they all kind of became less ‘famous actors’, and more their characters. The story and screenplay were great, even though I felt the acting could’ve been a bit better, I was satisfied with the overall.

So, all in all, it is a good family drama that made me laugh, and happy.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

The Flu Movie Review

Title: The Flu
Genre: Human, Action
Origin: South Korea
Release Date: August 14, 2013
Cast: Soo Ae, Jang Hyuk, Park Min Ha, Yoo Hae Jin, Ma Dong Seok, Lee Hee Joon, Cha In Pyo, Lang Sang Yeob

A group of illegal immigrants are smuggled from China to South Korea inside a shipping container, but when it's opened in the affluent Seoul suburb of Bundang by traffickers, it's discovered that all of the immigrants are dead, except for one man, a carrier of a deadly strain of H5N1 (avian influenza, or bird flu). As the man escapes, he quickly spreads the virus to nearby residents. Mir (Park Min-ha), daughter of a single mother Kim In-hae (Soo Ae), meets the man, named Mossai, and gives him some food and tells him to wait as she calls rescue worker and paramedic Kang Ji-goo (Jang Hyuk). However as he arrives, Mossai is nowhere to be found.

I was able to watch this movie while travelling, and only because it was the only movie I had in my tablet. However, oh boy I wished I watched it sooner, it was better than I expected. It totally gave me the chills. Somehow, it kept your attention to the very end and had a good story line. When you’re finished with the movie, it still stays with you on your mind, and you start looking at people coughing and wonder if... Just kidding! The acting was top-notch especially Park Min Ha. She may be a child actress but she brought her character to life, I’m seriously amazed by all the child actors in Korea, some of them are better than the adults. One scene with Park Min Ha crying made me cry so hard (watch the movie to find out) that I had to look away from the screen & took a break for a moment to recompose myself.  If you like medical, disaster and action type movies then you'll probably like this one.

☆☆☆☆☆ / 5 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥♥ / 5 out of 5 hearts

Bunji Verdict

This is another movie I had to watch, because of the references made by Korean tv. Though I never really paid much attention to it, I felt it had been out there and around me for quite a long time, but I didn’t want to watch it, as I am not the biggest fan of overhyped movies. That said, I loved this! I was afraid it would be a wannabe Hollywood epidemic movie, but I LOVED that they kept it (for the most part) Korean. I really have no flaw to mention in this movie, except the fact that the last 8 minutes made me cry so much, I was all swollen, but that is because I was unable to look away from Min Ha’s acting… seriously amazing!

I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just end like this: 100% recommendable.

☆☆☆☆☆ / 5 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥♥ / 5 out of 5 hearts