Hwarang: The Beginning Review

Title: Hwarang: The Beginning

AKA: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

Genre: Historical, Youth, romance, Comedy

Episodes: 20

Broadcast Period: Dec-2016 to Feb-2017

Cast: Park Seo Joon, Go Ah Ra, Park Hyung Shik, Choi Min  Ho, Do Ji Han, Kim Tae Hyung, Jo Yoon Woo, Kim Ji Soo,

Queen Jiso (Kim Ji Soo) has ruled the Kingdom of Silla as regent since King Beopheung passed away, keeping her young son Sammaekjong(Park Hyung Sik) hidden outside of the capital Seorabeol and safe from enemies and assassins. As Sammaekjong comes of age, nobles, citizens, officials and Sammaekjong himself have all grown impatient for the queen to cede power. However the powerful nobles that tried to usurp power in the Kingdom continue to eye the throne and Queen Jiso fears the consequences of her ceding it. In order to break the power of the nobles, who have grown accustomed to their privileges under the bone rank system, Queen Jiso plans to create a new elite, the Hwarang, that will cut across the existing power factions, and to bind them to Sammaekjong and the throne. As this new elite of male youths bond and grow they are unaware that within their number is their future king, Sammaekjong, and Kim Sun Woo (Park Seo Joon), a commoner with a secret even he is not aware of.

A really surprisingly good drama. I got hooked really fast and couldn’t let go. I can’t deny all the pretty actors didn’t have an effect but oh well. They knew how to get their fans hooked. The storyline progressed fast, however you figured out the ending pretty quickly. Which was a little turnoff, but nevertheless you continue for the sole purpose of just watching the pretty actors. Go Ah Ra is a good actress, but she’s not on a wow-level I think, or maybe this performance wasn’t her best. What I like the most is that Park Soo Joon managed to get over the fact that this is about pretty soldiers, after all it is called Hwarang; the flower knights. It was like he didn’t use that as his main goal, but more found depth in his character. Which is why I’ve started to like Park Seo Joon more as an actor, he managed to stand out without using his good looks to his advantage but rather excellence acting. I’m looking forward to more projects from him. All in all a good drama, that I do recommend to all period drama fans.

☆☆☆☆   / 4 out of 5 stars♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon Review

Title: Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Comedy, Thriller

Episodes: 16

Broadcast Period: Feb-2017 to April-2017

Cast: Park Bo Young, Park Hyung Shik, Ji Soo, Ahn Woo Yeon, Shim Hye Jin, Yoo Jae Myung, Jeon Seok Ho,

Do Bong-soon (Park Bo Young) was born with superhuman strength. Her strength is hereditary and passed along only to the women in her family. Her dream is to create a video game with herself as the main character. She desperately wants to become a willowy and elegant woman, which is the ideal type of her crush, In Guk Doo (Ji Soo), a police officer. Thanks to her strength, she gets the job of a bodyguard, to a rich heir Ahn Min Hyuk (Park Hyung Sik), the CEO of a gaming company, Ainsoft. Contrary to Guk Doo, Min Hyuk is an odd man who is playful, a little spoiled, and has no regard for rules, and dislikes policemen. He has recently received anonymous threats, blackmails, and has even been stalked at an occasion. One day, a series of kidnapping cases break in Dobong-dong, the district Bong Soon lives in, and she is determined to catch the culprit after her friend was targeted. Under the help and training from Min Hyuk, she manages to control her strength to use it for good causes.

A light drama with a lot of comedy. Although I started it being skeptic, it kind of grew on me. I loved the melo romance, and the funny background story. The new aspect about her being so strong actually worked out to be a really good idea. And of course Park Bo Young did a lovely job with this kind of carachter, it was a little bit similar to the one in Oh My Ghostess, but there is a fresh element. Although I looked forward to Ji Soo’s part, it didn’t appeal to me as much, he is a good actor and everything, but it was out of context. And of course Park Hyung Shik, he did a decent job, but I think what stood out the most here is how he carefully took the chemistry between the leads to another level. It felt like he did all the job. To sum it up, a very recommendable drama for this summer.

☆☆☆☆  / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥(1/2) / 3 (1/2) out of 5 hearts

High Society Review

Title: High Society

AKA: The Privileged

Genre: Romance, Family

Episode: 16

Broadcast Period: Jun-2015 to Jul-2015

Cast: UEE, Sung Joon, Im Ji Yun, Park Hyung Shik, Yoon Joo Sang, Go Doo Shim, Lee Sang Woo, Yoon Ji Hye

Jang Yoon Ha (UEE) is the youngest daughter of a chaebol family, but she longs to find a man who will love her and not her wealth. So she goes to work at a food market and pretends that she comes from a poor background. Meanwhile, Yoon Ha’s manager is Choi Joon Ki (Sung Joon), a man who is determined to succeed to leave his destitute upbringing behind him. He even begins to think that marrying a well-connected woman will finally give him the lifestyle he desperately seeks. In her job, Yoon Ha makes fast friends with her co-worker, Lee Ji Yi (Im Ji Yun), and also meets Yoo Chang Soo (Park Hyung shik), the heir to the mall conglomerate where the food market is located. Chang Soo is very accustomed to his well-to-do lifestyle and enjoys having women fawn all over him because of his wealth. That’s why he is intrigued by Yoon Ha’s complete lack of interest in him.

I had waited so long for this drama to complete so I can watch it at one go, so believe me when I say that before I started I already had this feeling of loving it. Don’t know why, maybe because it had what I’ve been looking for in a drama. Rich and powerful chaebols, and finally this time the main handsome guy is the poor one (he is not that poor, but this time it was the girls family that opposed). I think it was my big anticipation for it that made the drama good, not the actual drama. The story was exciting and entertaining at the beginning, but somehow it fell in a loop, where the same problem occurred again and again. It kinda gets tiresome in the end, I just wanted to skip till the end, but Sung Joon didn’t let me :b He really did become this ambiguous man who wanted power and respect for his family, the character it is. I really liked him in the beginning because, you really couldn’t figure out if he was the good guy or the bad guy who turns good. He keeps making you change your mind on him all the time, I liked that. Uee has definitely made progress as an actress, and as a person who have watched all her projects/dramas, I can tell she really overcame the “Idol-turned-actress” title and became a real actress. Both couples had chemistry and a good vibe, but as I started with, the same problems kept occurring so it really didn’t make any progress towards the end. To conclude, I liked it, but not my favorite. 

    

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ 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