Triangle Review

Title: Triangle

Genre: Family, Romance, Action, Crime

Episodes: 26

Broadcast period: 2014-May to 2014-Jul

Cast: Kim Jae Joong, Lee Bum Soo, Im Si Wan, Baek Jin Hee and Oh Yeon Soo.

This drama follows three brothers, separated as children, spread to different walks of life, and reunited by fate.

Jang Dong Soo (Lee Bum Soo) is a cop with a horrible temperament. As a child, he was separated by his younger brothers, which he feels guilty about. After another failed arrest on mobster Go Bok Tae, questions about his mental health arise, and profiler/psychologist Hwang Shin Hye (Oh Yeon Soo) is asked to asses it. The two had known each other in the past, and he had lived with her family after loosing his siblings.

At the same time, Heo Young Dal (Kim Jae Joong) a jobless gambler, devotes most of his time spending money, he had blackmailed from older women, on gambling. After being busted by Dong Soo, he is reluctantly put to work as an informant, to smoke out Go Bok Tae.

One evening Young Dal meets and falls for Oh Jung Hee (Baek Jin Hee), who works a dealer. There the two also meet Yoon Yong Ha (Im Si Wan), the adopted son of a rich CEO. Soon Yong Ha starts to get interested in Jung Hee, and a dislike for Young Dal.

As their lives entwine, fate decides to play a cruel joke on them, and the three become enemies…

In the past I’ve been complaining about too coincidental situations and relationships, but this time around, I didn’t feel annoyed at the fact that the three brothers “happened” to meet each other like they did. And I think it is because you know it from the start, so you are just expecting it. You wait till they finally share screen together, and hope they’ll know who the other one is. This made the “coincidence” seem less like a coincidence, but more like actual fate. I like that the three had different, some more realistic than the other, reactions to the fact that they are related. The three male leads are alright, though the main focus is Jae Joong - everyone loves an underdog - and most of the screen time belongs to him. But you still get the other stories. I didn’t like how little the females were involved, basically just for the love story aspect (three-way love story) and a little bit of the memory part, else they were useless.

The amount of gambling in this drama just bores me. I guess some people find it interesting, but for the average viewer who has no interest in it, I almost fell asleep. And it just took way too much time.

So all in all, an alright drama that focuses too much on gambling, and too little on the females…

☆☆☆ / 3 stars out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Prime Minister and I Review

Title: Prime Minister and I

Genre: Romance, Comedy, Family

Episodes: 17

Broadcast period: 2013-Dec yo 2014-Feb

Cast: Lee Bum Soo, Im Yoon Ah, Yoon Shi Yoon, Chae Jung Ah and Ryu Jin.

Kwon Yool (Lee Bum Soo) is a single father of three children and the candidate for the Prime Minister post of the Republic of Korea. Quite famous for being a good man and a great Politian, everyone seems to be interested in him. The news as well as the gossip magazines all have an interest in him: one of them is Scandal News. Working as a reporter there Nam Da Jung (Im Yoon Ah) is a perky woman who is forced to find out about the love life of the Prime Minister - basically making a scandal.

After several tries and failing all, she by accident meets Kwon Yools youngest son, and while taking him home is misunderstood by Kwon Yool and scolded. This scene is taken from a different angle and the next day blown out of proportion saying that the Prime Minster is having a relationship. In order to save her but also him, Da Jung declares that they are a couple, which temporarily saves them both.

But due to the nature of the Korean people and the pressure from the political parties, they both decide to make a contract marriage…

Okay, so I wasn’t really expecting much more than the typical nanny-boss love story (just made the roles different) and I was actually looking forward to a family drama, but somehow it didn’t really make me that happy. I mean the most I remember of this drama is Da Jung fighting the other rich women, the entire ‘secret’ which I kind of figured out a long the 6^th episodes, the second lead and his “manipulation for (lousy) revenge” and lastly the feud between the father and the brother-in-law. Though when I spend a bit more time to think small scenes do appear, some where I laughed a lot, others where I was touched, but overall it didn’t really leave me with an impression… and the ending just ruined the good feel with a useless cliché.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but it kind of felt ‘pressed’ as if they were trying to make an old type Korean drama, with a little fif of a cool woman and a prime minister…

So: to watch or not to watch? Well I won’t say it’s a complete loss to watch, even if I don’t remember much of the 17 episodes I have watched…

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Time Slip Dr Jin Review

Title: Time Slip Dr. Jin

AKA: Dr. Jin

Genre: Period, Medical, Time travel, Romance

Episodes: 22

Broadcast period: 2012-May to 2012-Aug

Cast: Song Seung Hoon, Park Min Young, Kim Jae Joong and Lee Bum Soo

This is the Korean version of the Japanese drama JIN.

One night, Jin Hyuk (Song Seung Hoon) wakes up in a forest dazed and confused. As he walks he stumbles upon people fighting with swords and dressed in historical cloths. Believing they are actors filming a period movie, he approaches, only to witness a man getting slayed in front him. When he is noticed the people start to follow him, and he starts to run and almost falls of a cliff. Yelling for help, a man saves him in the last minute, where after he passes out.  Few hours ago he had surgically removed a fetus-looking-a-like tumor, from a badly hurt patient. That evening had been preparing to propose to his girlfriend Yoo Mi Na (Park Min Young), who is a fellow doctor at the same hospital where he is. But due to a fight the two spilt up in anger, and Mi Na ends up in a car accident witnessed by Jin Hyuk, who ends up operating on her, though with slim chances. Being upset he goes to the rooftop, and sees his badly hurt tumor patient, follows him and ends up falling off the hospital building. Coming to his senses he finds himself on the cliff, with his savior (Lee Bum Soo). He informs him that he is in Joseon in the year 1860, 150 years in the past. Not believing, he is stunned by the view striking him, untouched scenery.

Now the questions are: how and why did he come here?

This drama is a partial copy of the Japanese drama JIN, like the entire storyline is almost identical, except for the third love interest - JaeJoong.  It might have been because I am so fond of the Japanese drama that I really found the Korean version boring, and long. The scenes that should have been exciting were not, and the romance was just bad - like I felt absolutely nothing, not even a inch. I really felt bad for the supporting actor, like Dr. Jin was the reason for his misery, mostly, and then he just walks back to his reality and gets the girl he wanted. Like ruined a life of two - probably more - people and just walks back as if nothing happened.

I thought the acting was mediocre, but have to admit I was astonished by JaeJoong. Actually thought he did a good job, and I didn’t want to watch it in the beginning because I though his acting was bad - how wrong I was. In my eyes, he - and the brother of the leading female character - was the star.

The drama is okay, you can watch it, I just wasn’t too excited in watching it - that might’ve ruined it for me, but generally good drama. I think, again my personal view, if the drama only had focused on the historical par, without Jin in it, it would’ve been way better.

☆☆☆½/ 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥/ 3 out of 5 hearts