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

Time Slip Dr Jin Review

Title: Time Slip Dr. Jin

AKA: Dr. Jin

Genre: Period, Medical, Time travel, Romance

Episodes: 22

Broadcast period: 2012-May to 2012-Aug

Cast: Song Seung Hoon, Park Min Young, Kim Jae Joong and Lee Bum Soo

This is the Korean version of the Japanese drama JIN.

One night, Jin Hyuk (Song Seung Hoon) wakes up in a forest dazed and confused. As he walks he stumbles upon people fighting with swords and dressed in historical cloths. Believing they are actors filming a period movie, he approaches, only to witness a man getting slayed in front him. When he is noticed the people start to follow him, and he starts to run and almost falls of a cliff. Yelling for help, a man saves him in the last minute, where after he passes out.  Few hours ago he had surgically removed a fetus-looking-a-like tumor, from a badly hurt patient. That evening had been preparing to propose to his girlfriend Yoo Mi Na (Park Min Young), who is a fellow doctor at the same hospital where he is. But due to a fight the two spilt up in anger, and Mi Na ends up in a car accident witnessed by Jin Hyuk, who ends up operating on her, though with slim chances. Being upset he goes to the rooftop, and sees his badly hurt tumor patient, follows him and ends up falling off the hospital building. Coming to his senses he finds himself on the cliff, with his savior (Lee Bum Soo). He informs him that he is in Joseon in the year 1860, 150 years in the past. Not believing, he is stunned by the view striking him, untouched scenery.

Now the questions are: how and why did he come here?

This drama is a partial copy of the Japanese drama JIN, like the entire storyline is almost identical, except for the third love interest - JaeJoong.  It might have been because I am so fond of the Japanese drama that I really found the Korean version boring, and long. The scenes that should have been exciting were not, and the romance was just bad - like I felt absolutely nothing, not even a inch. I really felt bad for the supporting actor, like Dr. Jin was the reason for his misery, mostly, and then he just walks back to his reality and gets the girl he wanted. Like ruined a life of two - probably more - people and just walks back as if nothing happened.

I thought the acting was mediocre, but have to admit I was astonished by JaeJoong. Actually thought he did a good job, and I didn’t want to watch it in the beginning because I though his acting was bad - how wrong I was. In my eyes, he - and the brother of the leading female character - was the star.

The drama is okay, you can watch it, I just wasn’t too excited in watching it - that might’ve ruined it for me, but generally good drama. I think, again my personal view, if the drama only had focused on the historical par, without Jin in it, it would’ve been way better.

☆☆☆½/ 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥/ 3 out of 5 hearts

The Jackal is Coming Movie Review

Title: The Jackal is Coming

AKA: Code Name: Jackal

Genre: action, comedy

Origin: South Korea

Release date: 15 November 2012

Cast: Song Ji Hyo, Kim Jaejoong, Oh Dal Soo, Han Sang Jin, Kim Sung young . . .

Bong Min Jung (Song Ji Hyo) is a female killer on a mission. She was hired to kill the famous singer and actor Choi Hyun (Kim Jaejoong) by his ex-girlfriend. Min Jung follows Choi Hyun to the unfamous hotel “Paradise” with the alias of a Japanese tourist. At the hotel, Choi Hyun was planning on meeting Angela, the wife of a CEO, whom he has an affair with, but is held hostage by Min Jung. In the beginning Choi Hyun thinks this is another act by his sesaeng fans and tries to prove that he isn’t the famous hallyu star, but several things happen and the two end up helping each other. All meanwhile the detectives are in the same hotel waiting for the killer Jackal to strike, searching the whole hotel and end up chasing the man they think is Jackal the killer all over the hotel. But in the end the story is more twisted than it seemed.

This movie is SO Korean. And I’m talking about those weird Korean movies with the weird characters and weird situations. Throughout the movie I wasn’t really satisfied and actually disliked it, but it’s Ji Hyo and Jaejoong so I wanted to give it a shot. If it were some unknown actors I would probably have given up in the beginning. But I guess it actually turned out to be pretty alright, the actors did do a good job and the ending was pretty alright. But it as an action comedy it wasn’t really my cup of tea I guess. But it isn’t a movie I would tell you not to watch. Because it does have some scenes I had to rewind and watch again because they were pretty hilarious. 

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥  / 3 out of 5 hearts  

Bunji's verdict
I am not sure about the rating since I really don’t what to rate this movie. It gave me huge laughs, confused me, occasionally bored me, and took me by surprised honestly. But it doesn’t leave me all into it, and the fact that this movie only happens in a 2 days span is not much help. As I watched this, I so felt bad for the lead actor, like poor guy - even though he was a prick - meeting 3 woman who make that night pretty hell. I wish there was more story behind, or after; I just felt a bit incomplete when it finished. JaeJoong and Song Ji Hyo do a great job, really entertained me and made the movie worth the time.

All in all, a decent movie :D

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½/ 3½ out of 5 hearts