Moonlight Drawn By Clouds Review

Title: Moonlight Drawn by Clouds

AKA: Love in The Moonlight

Genre: Historical, Comedy, Romance

Episodes: 18

Broadcast Period: Aug-2016 to Oct-2016

Cast: Park Bo Gum, Kim Yoo Jung, Jin Young, Chae Soo Bin, Kwak Dong Yun, Kim Seung Soo, Jun Mi Sun, 

Hong Ra On (Kim Yoo Jung) is a young woman during the Joseon Dynasty who disguises herself as a man named Sam Nom to support herself by ghostwriting and giving relationship advice to lovelorn men. A love letter that Ra On writes for a client brings her in contact with Lee Yeong, who is the Crown Prince Hyo Myeong (Park Bo Gum), the first son of King Sunjo (Kim Seung Soo) and heir to the throne, as well as his trusted guard Kim Byung Yeon (Kwak Dong Yeon). Through a series of events, Ra On gets sold into the Royal Palace as a eunuch and is assigned to work for Royal Consort Soo Ki (Jun Mi Sun) and Princess Young Geun (Heo Jung Eun). Ra On becomes embroiled in a political power struggle with Queen Kim (Han Soo Yeon) and her father, Prime Minister Kim Hun (Chun Ho Jin), who somehow manage to keep King Sunjo in a perpetually weakened, hallucinogenic state. Prime Minister Kim is grooming his grandson, Kim Yoon Sung (Jinyoung), to take over the throne but that would put the young scholar in direct competition with his childhood friend, Lee Yeong, to become the next king. With Ra On and Byung Yeon by his side, can Lee Yeong fight the power-hungry ministers to claim his rightful place in history? 

This just became one of my favorite drama this year. 2016 has really brought alot of different kdramas, and i’m lovin’ it! And with those dramas, a lot of young, new and talented actors/actress’ are coming to the spotlight. The personal acting chemistry between Kim Yoo Jung as young, fearless and joyful Hong Ra On and Park Bo Gum as Crown Prince Lee Yeong is the heart of the drama. The youthfulness and impressive acting skills of Kim Yoo Jung ( who is only 17) interacting with equally talented Park Bo Gum (who is only 23) is a marvel that lingers in the mind long after we have turned off our computers. One thing this drama has teached me is that politics is a dirty dirty game, but our crown prince knew how to play it! I seriously loved everything about this drama, the acting, storyline, the directing and of course the OST! This is a drama I highly recommend, saeguk fan or not, this appeals to your every need ;)

☆☆☆☆☆ / 5 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥♥ / 5 out of 5 hearts

Warm & Cozy Review

Title: Warm and Cozy
AKA: Jeju Island Gatsby
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Mystery
Episodes: 16
Broadcast Period: May-2015 to Jul-2015
Cast: Kang Sora, Yoo Yun Suk, Lee Sung Jae, Kim Sung Oh, Seo Yi Ahn, Jin Young, Ok Ji Young, Lee Jung Moon, Lee Han Wie

Is an enduring romance between an angry ant and a lazy grasshopper possible? Lee Jung Joo (Kang So Ra) has worked tirelessly for five years for a clothing company to try to improve her station in life. But despite all of her hard work, life keeps throwing curveballs at her and she is left with no job or boyfriend. Angry at the world, she ends up on Jeju Island to start over and rebuild her life. Baek Gun Woo (Yoo Yeon Seok), on the other hand, has always had a comfortable life. As chef restaurateur of a restaurant called Warm and Cozy, he doesn’t have to work that hard to succeed because his family has always paved the way for him to succeed. But falling in love with the scrappy Jung Joo may be the toughest challenge he has faced in his carefree life. Can the two opposites find love in the scenic island of Jeju?

Apparently, the Hong sisters wrote this drama, but as far as I know all their works are mostly enjoyable and fun, plus they are pretty well-known in South Korea. However, this drama couldn’t have been more boring. I found myself struggling to get through it. Now the story sounds simple, but with the Hong sisters I expected it to be easy, to be fun, to be effortless. Yet, it was anything but. Kang So Ra was the perfect Jung Joo, since she’s the best when it comes to naive and clumsy characters (except for Misaeng, still can’t forget her in that one). However, I didn’t enjoy Yoo Yun Suk’s acting as much as So Ra’s. He was okay but not that outstanding, and definitely lacking for a main character. The characters from Jeju did an amazing job and I enjoyed the secondary characters acting as well. It is sad for a drama if the only thing you can say was good, were the cast. I could go on and on about how dull and repetitive this drama is, but I won’t. Instead, I implore you to simply not watch it. If you like a drama with character development, where there’s something to look forward to every week, and where the leads don’t fall into a recycled formula each episode, don’t waste your time with Warm and Cozy.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥/ 2 out of 5 hearts

Perseverance Goo Hae Ra Review

Title: Perseverance Goo Hae Ra
AKA: Sing Again Goo Hae Ra
Genre: Musical, Romance
Episode: 12
Broadcast Period: Jan-2015 to Mar-2015
Cast: Min Hyo Rin, Jin Young, Kwak shi Yang, Henry, Park Kwang Sun, Yoo Seung Eun, Shim Hyung Tak, Jang Young Nam

The female main character, Go Hae Ra (Min Hyo Rin), who is always unlucky with whatever she does decides to be a songwriter like her dad to make her deceased father known to the world. Her father died of a heartattack on her birthday, and that leaves her mum and her alone. Because of some financial trouble, her mum decides to seek out her old best friend, who is also a single mother with two boys. Kang Se Jong (Kwak Shi Yang), who is a genius student at KAIST, and his fraternal twin, Kang Se Chan (Jin Young), these three kids grow up to be best friends. They experience failure and breakdown after they participated in an audition as a team, which they finally overcome. The drama unfolds a complex but romantic love story amongst the three characters.

After watching the first two episodes you get the feeling that you just found the perfect drama. The story unfolds and you get excited about what is going to happen. But oh boy! What a huge disappointment this drama is, the next ten episodes it’s just going down and down. This is a typical teenage musical about young people trying to succeed on the big stage. Every character has their own problem to overcome and despite the differences, friendship grows. Its been a long time since I last completed a drama that I found so dreadful in terms of writing/acting. I think the short episode count is probably to blame. I thought it’s only 12 episodes and kept on hoping it would get better, but on the 11th episodes it just didn't. Total waste of time. Throughout the drama you get the feeling that it was a low budget drama, and the actors were all B-rated, of course they had their charms but it was just not a convincing character. Especially Min Hyo Rin, I was disappointed in her the most, she had such a poor acting ability she pissed me off 90% of the time. Anyway, I won’t end it with just criticism, so I’m just going to say that the “music videos” in the drama was excellently done, and they made me want to rewatch some of them again after the drama.

☆☆ / 2 out of 5 stars

♥♥ / 2 out of 5 hearts