Ex-Girlfriends Club Review

Title: Ex-Girlfriends Club

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Episodes: 12

Broadcast period: 2015-May to 2015-Jun

Cast: Song Ji Hyo, Byun Yo Hyo, Lee Yoon Ji, Jang Ji Eun and Hwa Young.

Kim Soo Jin (Song Ji Hyo) is a movie producer at a small film company, while dreaming of becoming noticed for her hard work. This dream is shattered when her CEO of the company makes the company go bankrupt and runs with all the money. The only way she'll be able to get the company back is to work with the last movie deal she had put in motion: a movie based on a webtoon called Girlfriend Buffalo/Buffalo Girlfriend - a story about the authors three ex-girlfriends. She soon finds out that the writer is called Bang Myung Soo - which is her first love and ex-boyfriend.

The two agree on making the movie, and in a drunken frenzy decide to call the three girlfriends: Na Ji Ah (Jang Ji Eun) is an elegant divorcee owning a restaurant, Jang Hwa Young (Lee Yoon Ji) a bossy and demanding manager at a famous movie company, and Go Ra Ra (Hwa Jung) an actress known for her looks and her aloof personality. As the four meet for the first time and the three ex's refuse to allow this movie to get going, as they want create their own characters - so Hwa Young buys the movie rights.

Things become even more confusing as Hwa Young's current boyfriend is the CEO of the famous company, but unaware of Hwa Youngs past - so the 5 have to pretend to be friends...

Hmm, I found this funny, cute and extremely over-the-top ridiculous, which made it really fun. The leads are good at playing opposite each other, but the supporting actors, the ex-girlfriends, are really good at keeping up with the leads. There are actually several thing I could point out here which were annoying, but the most annoying one was the lead actress, Song Ji Hyo. I like her and she was the main reason for watching this type of drama, but she seriously let me down. I am not sure whether it is because of the bad character, or Ji Hyo's bad acting that made the female protagonist so dull and boring that I really didn't feel like watching her. Maybe it is because the other three actresses where strong characters that the character drowned.

Okay not to ruin it for you, and you might not agree with me, so as whether you are to watch it or not, I would say, give it a try - it really is good for the laughing muscles.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Kamji's Verdict:

I loved it. So interesting and hilarious, and the actors were all awesome! Song Ji Hyo daeebak! Where do I start explaining this feeling. It’s not one of those dramas that just have all the feels and tension and excitement, no. But it’s easy to follow, the story unfolds gradually, there is no secret or backstabbing what so ever (maybe a liiiitle in the beginning, nothing serious though), the chemistry between the leads is amazing. PLUS the chemistry between all the exgirlfriends are so speciel I loved it, yeah it sounds weird, but the writers did a god job with the story so you can’t really do anything than love them. Last time I watched Byun Yo Hyo was in Misaeng, and I gotta say he got them charms :b Ehm-ehm.. I mean the talent for acting. 

All in all a really nice drama, soooo damn sad TvN decided to cut it down. Just because the ratings in Korea are bad, doesn’t mean us overseas fans won’t like it. They should stop doing that seriously. 

☆☆☆☆ ½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ ½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Dr. Frost Review

Title: Dr. Frost
AKA: Doctor Frost
Genre: Crime, thriller
Episodes: 10
Broadcast Period: Nov-2014 to Feb-2015
Cast: Song Chang Ui, Jung Eun Chae, Sung Ji Roo, Lee yoon Ji, Choi Jung Woo, Lee Hi Jin, Yoon Jung Hoon,

A psychological thriller about a professor (Song Chang Ui) in the field of psychology who are regarded as a genius, he cannot feel certain emotions due to an injury he sustained as a child. Yon Sung Ah (Jung Eun Chae) gets appointed as his assistant, and start counselling sessions at the university. Because of some mystery deaths, together they start solving crimes for the police department that leads to some psychological disorders. While they solve these crimes their past mysteries begins to surface.

I’m very interested in psychology, so this drama was like sent from heaven to me, and especially happy about that it was OCN that picked it up and not another broadcast company. OCN really knows how to make their original dramas. I really liked this drama, the suspense, mystery and the various psychology disorders that were shown, were all very interesting. I had to read about some of the diseases after every episodes. The only thing is that 10 episodes were just not enough! I felt like they started something but never really finished it, all the characters were incomplete, they all had interesting backgrounds, but they never really did anything about it. Although every OCN drama ends at a cliffhanger, you can’t do anything but anticipate a second season, (please! *crossing fingers*). The cast although didn’t really leave any impression, some of them were familiar but some were new faces for me. I don’t know what to think of Song Chang Ui, he did a good job with his "no-emotion" character as Dr. Frost, but I can't say that his acting was extraordinary. Sometimes he just can't convince me about Frost's coldness and emotionless. Let us not talk about Dr. Frosts assistant, I really didn’t like her. But all the other actors were good, especially the patients in all the cases in every episode. It’s a nice drama, it suits a nice rainy Sunday were you just want to be home.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Bunji's Verdict

Another OCN drama on the forget list. I am quite disappointed in these dramas lately, and it takes quite a lot of energy not to enjoy psychology crime dramas. I know I was upset about Reset, but I am also quite upset with Dr. Frost because of the same reason: it really is boring. I am a huge fan of psychological/behavior analysis dramas. So much that I actually started studying psychology on my own, and there is one thing I gotta say (as a psychology enthusiast): there is no way in hell so many unique mental disorders are in the same town/city, and let alone all be witnessed by the same physician. You might disagree and say that mental illnesses are quite common, more than we already know, and yes true, but the ones introduced in the drama are as rare as catching Ebola. I mean they are mainly textbook illnesses that do happen, but for few people spread out all over. Then again, it is a drama – and it has to be interesting I guess.

The actors were okay, not that they really were able to use their potential as this drama is written very weakly and the same goes to the screenplay. But they manage, and make it watchable to a degree in in with made me finish all 10 episodes. The drama as a whole was too slow and not that enjoyable.

All in all a okay/watchable drama, with decent actors – though bit boring plot.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out 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

Wang Family Review

Title: Wang Family

AKA: The Wang Family / Wang’s Family / Family of King / Royal Family / King’s Family

Genre: Family, Romance, Comedy, Melodrama

Episodes: 50

Broadcast period: 2013-Aug to 2014-Feb

Cast: Jang Yong, Kim Hae Sook, Oh Hyun Kyung, Jo Sung Ha, Lee Tae Ran, Oh Man Suk, Lee Yoon Ji and Han Joo Wan.

This story follows a family with four generations.

The Wang family is a typical Korean family with a head, vice-president of a school Wang Bong (Jang Yong) and his money appreciative wife Lee Ang Geum (Kim Hae Sook). Together they had 4 daughters and one son: Wang Soo Bak (Oh Hyun Kyung) the oldest and mother favorite, who got married wealthy to a business man Go Min Joong (Jo Sung Ha), and doesn’t know any form of house holding. Wang Ho Bak (Lee Tae Ran) the second oldest who had a shot-gun wedding due to her pregnancy with jobless Heo Se Dal (Oh Man Suk), and worked as a slave for many years so that her family could get an apartment. Even though she is the hardworking one in the family, her mother seems to dislike especially her. Wang Gwang Bak (Lee Yoon Ji) is the second youngest who gave up her teaching job so she could follow her dream as a writer, but meets mechanical engineer Choi Sang Nam (Han Joo Wan) and sparks fly.

The story follows the three sisters as they are confronted with subjects as love, marriage, divorce, infidelity, poverty and status…

I started this because I like the actor Oh Man Suk, and I ended up finishing because of Lee Yoon Ji. It is one of those drama where we get a lot of problems because of the family and they all get involved in every issue. Honestly I don’t dislike this theme, but I kind of get annoyed along the way. Though it first happened around episode 35 in this drama, I kind of got bored along the way.

The family and the characters are vibrant and they are both likeable and frustrating at the same time, which sometimes makes you want to either kill them or hug them.

I liked it, and I got myself a new favorite actress which is nice.

So to sum up: a good daily drama with interesting characters.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts