Jang Yeong Sil Review

Title: Jang Yeong Sil

AKA: The Great Scientist Jang Yeong Sil

Genre: Historical, Period

Episodes: 24

Broadcast period: 2016-Jan to 2016-Mar

Cast: Song Il Gook, Kim Sang Kyung, Kim Young Chul, Park Sun Yeong and Kim Do Hyun.

Born Eun Bok, Jang Yeong Sil (Song Il Gook) was the son of a noble man and a giseng. Living as a low-class servant, Yeong Sil meets his father Jang Sung Hwi (Kim Myung Soo) as a youngster. His father notices his intellect and brightness, and decides to introduce him to the world of astronomy. Unfortunately, due to the change to Joseon from Goryeo, the government (and king) is very strict about the newly made rules. Sung Hwi realizes that his son will never be able to utilize his potential in the world of class difference and decides to leave him for Yeong Sils own good. This leaves a heartbroken Yeong Sil, but doesn’t ruin his love for astronomy.

While being hated, and envied by his former master Jang Hee Je (Lee Jee Hoon), Yeong Sil decides to work as a smith, only to be patronized by the magistrate.

Everything changes when Lee Hyun (Kim Do Hyun) one day notices Yeong Sils abilities and takes it to the king: at first King Taejong (Kim Young Chul) refuses the idea, but soon enough his son, Crown Prince Se Jong (Kim Sang Kyung), decides to work with him. This sparks hatred and jealousy from the noblemen, making life much harder for Yeong Sil…

One of my favorite stories from the Joseon period; the story of the genius slave dreaming of the stars. It is also the story of King Se Jong, but in this case his rise to power and all involved was pushed a bit back. Though I was annoyed at the invented character, the princess (Se Jongs sister), I was able to watch all of it with a smile.

The overall storyline was good, and quite close to the real story, of course there were a few dramatizations and a few things left out – but all in all close.

Casting Song Il Gook as the lead was good, but I still can’t imagine Jang Yeong Sil looking like him… But then again, he kind of felt right. I watched the King Se Jong drama a few years back, and I was a bit nervous to see who they would cast as Se Jong since the cast was superb last time, and to my amazement both Se Jong and Tae Jong were the exactly same actor! I don’t know how they did it, but thank God, they did! Made me enjoy it more.

So, to sum it up: a good story with a nice hint of historical correctness.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

What Happens to my Family? Review

Title: What Happens to my family?
AKA: What’s wrong? We are Family, This is Family
Genre: Family, romance, comedy, drama
Episodes: 53
Broadcast period: Aug-2014 to Feb-2015
Cast: Yoo Dong Geun, Kim Hyu Joo, Kim Sang Kyung, Park Hyung Shik, Son Dam Bi, Nam Ji hyeon, Seo Kang Jun, Yang Hee Kyung

Every family has its difficulties, but what happens when the head of the family is not being appreciated? Cha Bong Soon is the father of 3 kids, together with his sister and her family, they live together under one roof. He own a tofu shop, and is a very gentle and easygoing father, most important he loves his kids very much. The oldest daughter Cha Kang Shim is in her late 30, she is single and a hard working secretary for the chairman at a big company. She is demoted to be a secretary for one of the directors in hope that she can help him be more human. The second child is Cha Kang Jae, the coldhearted son who became a respectable doctor despite his poor family, he rarely speaks to his family and is very ashamed of them. One day the hospital’s director offer him to marry his daughter and secure his position at the cancer center.
The youngest of the three are Cha Dal Bong, he is the failure of the family, when he finally gets a job he realizes he has been tricked into a pyramid scheme. He can’t tell his family, so he seeks help from a girl he just met, but recognizes her as ‘the girl from his past’.

Finally done! It has been a long ride since August, and 2 episodes every week was killing me. Not that it was so good I couldn’t wait, I just couldn’t wait to finish it and wipe it out of my memory. It’s hard to actually summarize my feelings and opinions for a 50+ episodes, it had it all, good and bad things, but mostly bad, in my opinion. I kept noticing the bad acting and although they are all known as pretty good actors, they just felt so awkward together. That is a biiig minus for a family drama in my opinion, the most important thing should be the interactions and feelings between the family members, but all I saw where the awkwardness between them. It’s not a serious drama, its more to the comedy side, there didn’t go one episode where I didn’t laugh at least once, I love comedy dramas, but the storyline just didn’t match with the humor, I guess it ridiculed the whole point. I loved the head of the household; I could really feel his pain and desperate hope for his kids. This drama really empathized with what many single parents are going through to raise their kids and how society is actually looking down on them. Maybe that was the whole point with this drama, to make people realize the struggle. The drama itself wasn’t very exciting or anything, but somehow you still continue to watch it every week in order to know what happens next with this family.

☆☆☆ ½/ 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

The Great King Sejong Review

Title: The Great King Sejong

AKA: King Sejong The Great

Genre: Period, Family

Episodes: 86

Broadcast period: 2008-Jan to 2008-Nov

Cast: Kim Sang Kyung, Lee Yoon Ji, Kim Kap Soo, Lee Chun Hee, Lee Won Jong, Cho Sung Ha, Lee Hyun Woo and Park Sang Min.

This story revolves around the entire life of the 4th king of Joseon, one of the two with the title ‘great’, King Sejong.

As the third son of the third king of Joseon, Prince Choon Nyung (Lee Hyun Woo) has been raised not to be too involved in politics, but due to his natural curiosity and good heart, Prince Choon Nyung believes to find that the books on Confucius are the ones that are correct: that the citizens of Joseon are pure and righteous. His teacher on the other hand decides to give the prince a lesson and tells him to walk down to the city, instead of keeping his nose in the books. Accepting the challenge Prince Choon Nyung walks down the city and for the first time ever realizes how, not only poor, but grotesque all the people of Joseon are. And with the Ming dynasty in the city, the rebels are trying to destroy the treaty that the king made. In utter shock the prince returns home and tells his father about the situation in the empire, only to have the king use that knowledge and punish the citizens – as they are ‘complaining’ against the king. Once again Prince Choon Nyung decides for his own and rings the bell of complaint, this furies the king and he decides to punish Prince Choon Nyung by executing one of his closes friends.

This makes Prince Choon Nyung retreat completely from politics, but due to kind heart and jealous family, he is pulled into a whirlwind of betrayal and lies…

Out of all the Korean period dramas this one makes most sense – might be because I knew the history behind it – but it still was good in the sense that made a person like me (one that is not so much period drama fan) like it. The story of the great King Sejong is one of the most curious ones, as I never really understood their love for him, and I know that they do exaggerate in period dramas, but I sort of understand this one and it fits the history part of the king’s life. I mean I am kind of history biased, but they really are almost at point – though with a bit of creativity in the spots that have a kind of unclear story.

As far as acting, besides being a Lee Yoon Ji fan I haven't really seen works of any of the actors (of course Lee Chun Hee but that’s it), so it was kind of being thrown into a drama with "unknown" actors and a lot of “back-actors”: the actors that have supporting characters in almost every drama. The drama was okay acted, but not really that amazing though. And kind of weird yet beautiful love stories.. I guess that is those day time period drama, a lot of episodes with kind of mediocre acting, though that didn’t make it less good, just made it kind of regular.

So sum it up: an interesting drama with an honest approach to the actual historical events, but on the other hand mediocre acting.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

White Christmas Review

Title: White Christmas
AKA: Monster
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Psychological
Episodes: 8
Broadcast period: 2011-Jan to 2011-Mar
Cast: Kim Sang Kyung, Baek Sung Hyun, Kim Young Kwang, Lee Soo Hyuk, Kwak Jung Wook, Hong Jong Hyun, Esom, Kim Woo Bin, Sung Joon and Jung Suk Won.

This drama special is about 7 students and one teacher of Susin High School, an independent private school with the 1% of all Korean top students. Anything except studying is forbidden, and they are rating by points they get while attending school.
On a 8 day vacation - from the 24th Dec, 7 students: Park Moo Yul (Baek Sung Hyun) the schools ‘goody’ known for good behavior and has never broken a rule, Yoon Eun Sung (Esom) known as the prettiest girl in the school and liked by everyone, Yoon Su (Lee Soo Hyuk) known as ‘Angel’, because his father donated loads of money to the school and like that managed to occupy a spot, Choi Chi Hoon (Sung Joon) the schools smartest kid never leaving the number one spot at school ranking and the one Moo Yul is struggling to beat in any test, Jo Young Jae (Kim Young Kwang) hated by all students for his patronizing personality and ‘bully’ attitude, Yang Kang Mo (Kwak Jung Wook) who films everything and everyone, but has a handicap, he has and earplug, and lastly Lee Jae Kyu (Hong Jong Hyun) the only one that doesn’t seem to fit in the bunch since no one knows him. The teacher Yoon Jong Il (Jung Suk Won) got the task to take care of the students during the break, but is shortly joined by a psychologist Kim Yo Han (Kang Sang Kyung)who was involved in a car accident close by, and seeks refuge at the school, with a slight head injury.
None of the students like each other and try to stay out of each other’s ways, they at one point find out that they all got a mysterious black letter, written exactly the same way. At first most of them are treating it as a joke, but as time passes by, Moo Yul gets interested in it, and is surprised that all 7 are involved. While trying to figure out the letter, another school mate happens to be at the school, Kang Mi Reu (Kim Woo Bin), the schools dare-devil, who is suspended and wants to make Young Jae, whom he believes is responsible for it, pay for it. All that is put aside, when someone is murdered, and the telephone lines aren’t working.
Now they are stranded in the middle of nowhere, and with a murderer amongst them…

I’m sorry, I was really trying to cut it down, and it somehow became too reveling, then I wrote a lot, and yeah, less revealing: P Any ways, this drama is brilliant, with a brilliant cast (no idols) and amazing storyline. Though I have to admit, I have no idea how on earth it managed to escalate that fast without me rolling on the floor crying. Seriously, like every episode made my stomach turn, not being nauseous, but scared (in a good way) because I really would never know what I’d do in their position. I didn’t like the actress, though she grew on me, and some of the other actor did annoy me in the beginning, but as you watch them you simply wish for their well-being. I really recommend this, sincerely. It is very psychological, but it uses 8 episodes too the very fullest, and the tension does not let you down in any way. The only reason it’s not completely full rated is that there are times when I just knew what was going to happen, like 80% of the time that is.

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Kamjis Verdict
Hmm, I really don’t know about this. Would you be surprised if I say I didn’t quite like it… First of all the show is anything but a traditional kdrama.  It isn't romantic.  It isn't funny.  It isn't melodramatic, either.  It's bleak, terrifying, heartbreaking, and disturbing all at once. The one thing that made this series work so well was the cast.  This drama possibly had the best cast I have seen on any kdrama--ever.  I don't say that lightly.  It was a cast of mostly teenagers, but each and every character (okay, with one exception) was layered and complex.  Even the villain of the series had interesting moments of depth that steered clear of caricature.  While I didn't like all of the characters, I grew to understand them.  The cast members were phenomenal at portraying characters who were so human that you hurt for them.
I think maybe what ruined the show for me was that everyone kept saying how dark and terrifying it is… but it wasn’t. I mean everything was perfect, the cast, the plot (I liked), how it was directed, most of the things was good. I just can’t put my finger on one negative thing, so why did it leave me with an unpleasant feeling that it wasn’t that great? I guess I’ll just ponder over that for now.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts