Showing posts with label Son Jong Hak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Son Jong Hak. Show all posts

13 October 2015

My Beautiful Bride Review

Title: My Beautiful Bride
AKA: Areumdawoon Naeui Shinboo
Genre: Thriller, Romance, Melodrama
Episodes: 16
Broadcast Period: Jun-2015 to Aug-2015
Cast: Kim Moo Yul, Lee Shi Young, Go Sung Hee, Ryu Seung Soo, Park Hae Joon, Son Jong Hak, Lee Jae Yung

The storyline is about Kim Do Hyung (Kim Moo Yul) whose fiance, Yoon Joo Young (Ko Sung Hee), vanished from the surface of the earth and he found himself in an everlasting journey between the past and the present in order to find her. There’s a violence and power hierarchy when it comes to the world of the underground. The first step are the loan sharks and if they can’t get the amount of money the debtor owes them the Shadows take charge of the overall situation. Everything started three years ago when the leader of Shadows, Song Hak Soo (Lee Jae Yong), was caught by the police force after a massive operation under the command of Cha Yoon Mi (Lee Si Young) and Park Hyung Sik (Park Hae Joon). While searching for his fiancee, Kim Do Hyung quickly finds himself against the Shadows.

OCN indeed! Cruel City style indeed. Bloody, intense, heavy, noir till the end. It's exactly what I adore and love. I decided to watch it impulsively and just fell in love with it. It gives you this happiness and a thought that I did well watching it.  Oh boy what a surprise it was, reading that it was the same director as the one behind Cruel City that directed this drama. It made me draw parallels between those two. The dark world there is deep in society, a man fighting for what he believes and a woman that is desperately entangled in that world. Damn was I impressed and freaking hyperventilating half the time? YES, because of all the fighting and racing. I didn’t know how cool a man in a suit riding a mountain bike after a car before I watched Kim Moo Yul in action. At first I was not sure why they picked this actor, I mean, I don’t know him (and that’s very rare!!! Unless he was a rookie/newbie), when I looked him up, he had a lot of work and apparently a well-known person (shock). Although he was kind of a stranger for me at first, I slowly fell for his acting! He is not that handsome when you see him at first, but he becomes more and more charming and real throughout the drama. The girl and the rest of the cast were amazingly good too, I don’t think there were one single person that didn’t give it their all because you could even feel threatened by the gangsters behind, so definitely thumbs up to them. One thing that bothered me was how they tried to prolong the drama, before I started I really wondered how they were going to fill up 16 episodes, with him trying to rescue the girl. And as expected it did feel stretched out in the end, but somehow you kinda overlook it because of all the action. All in all, great OCN.

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Bunjis Verdict
Hmm, OCN keeps disappointing me. This is yet another one that I could have avoided watching.
As far as police and thriller dramas go, this one had a good starting plot, and then suddenly ended becoming a mafia/gangster/wanna-be-underground’ish war. It started very intriguing where any person watching would become very confused and even doubt your own eyes and yourself. I thought it was well-thought, until episode 4 (or somewhere after that). It just goes downhill, and ends with something as ridiculous as all-on war between gang mobsters. I know it was a sub-plot to begin with, but it ended by becoming the main plot? Also, I understand if you must do that, but it just feels like a desperate attempt to make it scary.
BUT! Besides that, I gotta say the acting was on point, so was the dialogue. So, if you like mobster movies, and like thrillers, this is a definite pick. Plus, it has a bit of mystery which makes it watchable.
To sum up: an interesting and intense police action drama, with a “bit” of gangster in it.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

21 September 2015

Scholar Who Walks The Night Review

Title: Scholar Who Walks The Night
AKA: Scholar of the Night
Genre: Fantasy, Historical, Romance
Episode: 20
Broadcast Period: Jul-2015 to Sep-2015
Cast: Lee Jun Ki, Lee Yoo Bi, Shim Chang Min, Lee Soo Hyuk, Kim So Eun, Jang Hee Jin, Lee Soon Jae, Son Jong Hak

Set in an alternate Joseon dynasty, Jo Yang Sun (Lee Yoo Bi) is the daughter of a nobleman whose family loses everything when her father were framed for treason. To make ends meet, Yang Sun begins cross-dressing as a male bookseller, and meets the handsome and mysterious scholar Kim Sung Yeol (Lee Joon Ki). Sung Yeol is a vampire, and he continues to be haunted by the long-ago death of his first love Lee Myung Hee (Kim So Eun) once he meets Myung Hee’s present-day doppelganger: Choi Hye Ryung (Kim So Eun), an aloof nobleman’s daughter. Meanwhile, the evil vampire Gwi (Lee Soo Hyuk) resides in the royal palace and uses his powers and political machinations to prevent the Crown Prince Lee Yun (Shim Chang Min) from ascending the throne.

What’s up with all the vampire stuff in dramaland lately?! Saeguk AND vampires jut the cup of tea I longed to watch… until I actually started watching it. The storyline was good, interesting. The idea about this evil despicable vampire living under the palace, playing with the king and his ministers like puppets were genius. Even the character were dreadful. However, the whole drama is about vampires, so why make them so weak?! I just couldn’t get excited about it at all! Then the nonsense about if they don’t drink blood at full moon, they will die… is this a vamp-werewolf fusion? I don’t like it, never, just stupid. Then Lee Jun Ki, why did you choose this drama, It totally made a black spot on your career, you need to pick a whole other project next time. I don’t want to give up on you yet. And now, Lee Yu Bi, she's a good actress but I just didn't like her character in this drama. No offence to her, but I hated her character so much I just wanted to skip all her scenes. Lee Soo Hyuk and Kim so Eun were brilliant together, I guess they were the most successful and magnificent choices made by the production. In conclusion, I was disappointed much, but I managed to finish it ;)

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Bunji's Verdict
Compared to the last Lee Jun Ki drama this one was a bit better, though I am getting tired of his period dramas. I don’t understand why it has to be period dramas all the time, and I am kind of missing the “Two Weeks” Lee Jun Ki now. Anyways, I said better, not necessary good. This drama is too coincidental and is too much “Manhwa” - this is why I dislike Manga/Manhwa adaptions, they never work!  It has too many ‘cartoonish’ elements and as I say, everything and everyone is too coincidental. Even though every actor fits their character perfectly: Jun Ki looks like a handsome undead, so does Soo Hyuk. And they couldn’t find anyone looking more like prince Yi San than Chang Min. Unfortunately, everything else about this drama is a mess. I have to disagree with Kamji - the background story is dumb, I mean it takes them so long to figure anything out.  The characters have no consistency and have bad growth. And I also disagree with Kamji on the second couple. - they were SO boring. Everyone was to be honest. I also felt that the lead actress was an idiot, SPOILER ALERT: Jun Ki’s character changes sooooo many times in front of her, and what she doesn’t notice? What the…
Anyways... My rating is based on the actors and their constant fight to “fix” this drama, unfortunately they fail, but watching them is quite worth the watch - and also I have to give their seriousness some credit.
All in all, not something I would recommend, but the acting is alright and worth a shot in this drama

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars
♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts