Cinderella Man Review

Title: Cinderella Man

Genre: Romance, Chaebol, Melodrama

Episodes: 16

Broadcast period: 2009-Apr to 2009-Jun

Cast: Kwon Sang Woo, Yoona, Song Chang Eui and Han Eun Jung.

Oh Dae San (Kwon Sang Woo) sells clothes at a market, and dreams of turning his little store in to a big clothing line. He is smart and talkative which helps him when he need to butter up to customers and other salespeople. When a fellow store keeper, from the same market, falls ill, the daughter Seo Yoo Jin (Yoona) of the store keeper returns from Paris, only to have him pass away shortly. Due to the financial issues, and partly to blame for the financial issues, Dae San decides to help Yoo Jin and her mother get on their feet again. This leads Yoo Jin and Dae San to become close.

At the same time Dae San meets Lee Joon Hee (Kwon Sang Woo), a rich chaebol of a fashion empire, who looks exactly alike him. Joon Hee asks Dae San to impersonate him for a week, so he can leave the business without having to worry about his competitor and cousin Lee Jae Min taking his place.

Due to his natural ability to do business, Dae San becomes a bother to Jae Min. And when Jae Min befriends Yoo Jin, the empire doesn’t become the only thing they each fight for…

This drama was one of those I downloaded ages ago, but never really got around to watch. Besides it being almost 10 years old, I gotta say it’s alright. Though I felt it was very cliché and had the unnecessary jealousy. I mean most of the dramas that are like this one, are so male dominant. The lead actress only serves as the love interest for the two male characters, and to be honest both are boring love stories.  And the fact that it was Yoona, didn’t make the character better. The casting was also mediocre, mainly because the characters were 2 dimensional - even the male lead who did try but failed.

Besides that, I kind of enjoyed the storyline, though it was very cliché. I do like a badass revenge plot, but it must be well crafted - and this one is alright.

So, all in all an alright drama, to watch because of the story and not romance.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Golden Cross Review

Title: Golden Cross
Genre: Drama, Revenge, Romance, Thriller
Episodes: 20
Broadcast period: 2014-Apr to 2014-Jun
Cast: Kim Kang Woo, Lee Si Young, Um Ki Joon, Han Eun Jung, Jeong Bo Seok, Lee Dae Yeon, Jung Ae Ri, Jo Hee Bung

Golden Cross is a shadowy society that dominates the Korean economy and marketplace, with its deep financial power, only 0,2% of the elites know of this secret society. Newly graduated prosecutor Kang Do-Yoon (Kim Kang Woo) gets entangled into one of Golden Cross’ deal, when one of their plot gets his beloved sister brutally murdered, and coldly accused his father for it. Do-Yoon vows to get revenge from Seo Dong Ha (Jeong Bo Seok), the powerful man behind the organization. It only get more complicated when he finds out that Seo Dong Ha is the father of the woman he loves, his colleague, prosecutor Seo Yi Re (Lee Si Young). Despite her father Yi Re is a rightful and truth-seeking prosecutor, who does not leave any doubt in her cases. Meanwhile her father Seo Dong Ha, supports a protégée, businessman Michael Jang (Um Ki Joon), whose greed and ambition soon makes him challenge his mentor for the top spot. A clash of wills, fortunes, and egos commences.


From the beginning I decided not to watch this drama actually, that was because there were a lot of other dramas I wanted to watch instead, and the casting and plot didn’t really interest me so it never got on my list. But recently I read somewhere that Golden Cross was one of Koreas most underrated drama ever, and sometimes it’s true, never trust the Koreans rating system :b Anyway, so I watched it, aaaaaand… Damn, i gotta say, whoever said the drama were underrated spoke the truth. It was really exciting and good. When I watched the few first episodes, I said they destroyed my faith in humanity, and now they have the rest of the drama to restore that faith. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it wasn’t completely restored.
I loved the love story, they make me wonder if it’s possible to love a person that much.
The one I feel the most bad about is Um Ki Joon, ottokaae how is he going to restore his image, omo, he played the most hateful character ever. Here is a fun fact about the drama :b That character was supposed to be played by Park Si Hoo, but because of his scandal KBS decided to replace him. Despite his scandal I would rather have Park Si Hoo play it !

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Successful Story of a Bright Girl Review

Title: Successful Story of a Bright Girl

AKA: Cheerful Girl’s Success Story / A Bright Girl’s Success Story

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Episodes: 16

Broadcast date: 2002-Mar to 2002-May

Cast: Jang Na Ra, Jang Hyuk, Han Eun Jung and Ryu Soo Young.

Cha Yang Soon (Jang Na Ra) is a happy and rather naïve high school student living on the countryside. Because of her parents’ swindling tendencies, everyone who has been swindled goes looking for Yang Soon demanding their money back. So she decides to accept a job in Seoul as a housekeeper in order to pay back.

Han Gi Tae (Jang Hyuk) is a newly appointed CEO of his late fathers’ cosmetic company. Arrogant and cocky has made his cousin Oh Joon Tae (Ryu Soo Young) jealous of the success and believes he is entitled to the company. But he is keeping it to himself, dreaming of overthrowing Gi Tae.

One day while parachuting, Gi Tae falls into the bathtub of Yang Soon, and the two bicker, which eventually leads to remarks and hostility. What both don’t know is that they meet again as the housekeeping job Yang Soon landed is no other than Gi Tae’s house.

When Gi Tae suddenly and cruelly is betrayed by the people he trust the most, he is surprised to find help from no other than his house maid Yang Soon…

This is one of the most recommended love stories and Korean dramas on the drama addict web, and I really don’t know why. I’m usually open to all kinds of dramas, and I tend not to let my emotions get in the way, but this was one loooong drama. I never knew 16 episodes could feel like this. Maybe I was expecting too much because I like both actors (Jang Hyuk and Jang Na Ra), but it really didn’t work at all. It made me remember why I don’t like old Korean dramas. There are way too many clichés, way too much unnecessarily jealous fighting and just too much pretending not to like each other. Also too little actual genuine ‘love’, like I didn’t feel it at all. The only thing I did like was what happened at the beginning, but that was also the grandma who was center, and you gotta admit, if a grandma steals the limelight you really need to step up the game.

LOL, all in all, probably a classic and if I had watched it 12 years ago I would have loved it, but now that I have watched so many dramas, this just was not unique enough…

☆☆☆ / 3 out 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts