Thank You Review

Title: Thank You

AKA: We Were There / There We Were

Genre: Social, Melodrama, Comedy, Romance

Episodes: 16

Broadcast period: 2007-Mar to 2007-May

Cast: Jang Hyuk, Gong Hyo Jin, Seo Shin Ae, Shin Sung Rok and Choi Kang Hee.

Min Ki Seo (Jang Hyuk) is an arrogant and cocky surgeon, who also is the son of a rich CEO. He lives every day with only the goal of being the best, until he one day, gets told that his girlfriend Ji Min (Choi Kang Hee) is sick. While visiting her, he finds out that she has last stage cancer, and that she has agreed to accept her fate, but this only furies Ki Seo who decides to take her back home to do the surgery to save her. Unfortunately even he is not able to save her, and this makes Ji Min decide to go to a small island called Blue Island. There she wants to meet a little girl called Lee Bom (Seo Shin Ae), whom she by accident gave HIV, by giving her infected blood. Guilt-ridden she wants to visit Bom and her mother Lee Young Shin (Gong Hyo Jin), and apologize, but dies while riding with Ki Seo.

Unable to get over Ji Mins death, Ki Seo decides to quit his job as a doctor and decides to help his mother in business. Here he meets Choi Suk Hyun (Shin Sung Rok), a hardworking manager of his mother’s company. In order to make Ki Seo become good, his mother decides to have Suk Hyun show Ki Seo the ropes, and one of the first jobs is getting all the land from the inhabitants of Blue Island.

This leads to Young Shin and Ki Seo meeting again, even having Ki Seo living with them, but things get more complicated as the father of Young Shins child happens to be Suk Hyun…

This is one of the few gems hidden beneath all the idol/pretty actors, with a good storyline and good actors, though it has one big problem: it is way too conservative. I’m not talking bed scenes or kisses, but conservative in the typical Korean drama. And what I mean by typical is the early 20s late 90s Korean drama with the loud boyfriend, jealous ex, overprotective male personas and most of all the long annoying stars with the hints of happy smiles (that take over 2 minutes of the screen time). I was hoping by the end it would change a bit, but it didn’t, so a little disappointed me.

On the other hand it has some things that I really like: Young Shin (I know she seems typical but I really found her more amazing than the rest of the female cast), the second female lead actually being nice and likeable and lastly the entire theme of the drama - social discrimination. Me likey! They really go beyond the casual discrimination, by actually talking about fear of the unknown, which by the way is so awesome.

Jang Hyuk and Shin Sung Rok are kind of the dull elements here, not because of bad acting but because I dislike ridiculous “jealous in love” characters. So yeah, whatever. All in all a good drama.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

The Queen's Classroom Review

Title: The Queen’s Classroom

AKA: Class of the Queen

Genre: Drama, Social, School, Comedy

Episodes: 16

Broadcast period: 2013-Jun to 2013-Aug

Cast: Ko Hyun Jung, Kim Hyang Gi, Chun Bo Geun, Kim Sae Ron, Seo Shin Ae and Lee Young Yoo.

This drama is the remake of the popular Japanese drama with the same name.

Shim Ha Na (Kim Hyang Gi) is a bright girl with a bit of a goofy personality, always smiling. Looking forward by sharing class with her best friend and it being her last year of elementary, she greets her class with joy and optimism. But when the class meets their new homeroom teacher Ma Yeo Jin (Ko Hyun Jung), the class is thrown into despair, and the one with the shortest straw is Ha Na.

Ma Yeo Jin is a cold and never smiling woman, who with her tyrannical ways makes her student gang up on one another, and favors the smartest students. She makes the class take tests every week so that the two bottom students become class presidents, having them do the cleanup jobs every week. The students with the worst results and the ones that are slowest in most things are ridiculed and made fun of by her. Any form of resistance is made futile by bulling them without any resistance from the teacher’s staff.

Since day one Ha Na’s personality makes her not only an easy target, but also very individual, so she doesn’t get manipulated as the rest.

Now she is stuck in a fight she didn’t sign up for, and Yeo Jins relationship with the principle seems understanding… What is going on?

I was really excited when I started watching this drama, because I was completely sucked in the amazing acting of these children. Even though people really liked Kim Sae Ron (because of her new drama High School Love On) but I really was captivated by Kim Hyang Gi. Yes she was the lead actress; however I found every scene she was in believable and honest – as if she really ends up in this situation. The rest were good too, another reason why I don’t find they should use idols as actors, unless they know how to act (TO CLEAR UP: many idols are used because of their fame even if they can’t act - this doesn’t apply on all idols though).  The actress playing the ‘witch’ was quite good, though I felt they kind of didn’t make her story that important (dunno if that is bad or good).

About the story, well I can’t say I hated it because it was almost identical with the Japanese one, except maybe the ending and some of the last episodes.

So to sum up: a good remake with great future potential.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

GTO 2 Review

Title: GTO 2

AKA: Great Teacher Onizuka Season 2

Genre: School, Human drama

Episodes: 11

Broadcast date: 2014-Apr to 2014-Sep

Cast: AKIRA, Yamamoto Yusuke, Shirota Yu, Sano Reno, Higa Manami, Katayose Ryota and Tayama Ryosei.

After losing his house Onizuka Eikichi (AKIRA) is forced to move, and is invited to move to the high school he graduated from in Shonan, to act as a temporary teacher. The homeroom teacher of the class 2.A is Fujikawa Honami (Higa Manami) who is a good teacher, but believes in befriending the students rather than disciplining them, and thinks that every class has a certain ‘feel’: if bothered it would make everyone feel awkward, even the teachers. Moving with him to Shonan is his two best friends Danma Ryuji (Shirota Yu) and Saejima Toshiyuki (Yamamoto Yusuke).

Even though there aren’t any delinquents at the school, Onizuka meets different kinds of students with normal problems, but also students who try to solves their problems or hide them, making matters worse for everyone involved. So the great teacher decides to take matters in his own hands, and make the kids his students - by teaching him life the Onizuka way.

Compared to season one this season is much scarier and realistic. It is not as funny as season one, and it kind of gives you the chills of a real life situation. I know I like school dramas, but these kinds of realistic stories are making everything sad. Even though the GTO stories are dramatized, a bit too situational and too much of a happy ending, these stories could without a problem be real life situations. I like it, but it makes me sad… does that make sense?

The cast was fantastic - I mean the young actors are beyond good, and superb at their acting (comparing them with idols), of course there a bit of small things they should change, but that they are going to do great in the future.

All in all: a great drama and really interesting.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Black President Review

Title: Black President

Genre: Social, Comedy, Business

Episodes: 11

Broadcast period: 2014-Apr to 2014-Jun

Cast: Sawamura Ikki, Kuroki Meisa, Kuninaka Ryoko, Kadawaki Mugi and Nagase Tasuku.

A ‘Black President’ is a CEO of a company that only focuses on money: as in the sense of treating the employees as tools to get money - that is Mitamura Yukio (Sawamura Ikki).

The CEO of a well-known textile company, Mitamura Yukio doesn’t really have much of a social life, yet he is a very well-off and talented business man. And yet he decides to apply for a business major at a University, and surprisingly he gets accepted. As the oldest student, and older than some professors, he doesn’t really fit in, but that doesn’t hold him back. He tries to befriend the assistant professor Akiyama Kyoko (Kuroki Meisa) who not only is thrown off by his age, but also by mean personality.

Shortly enough he decides to join the film club duo to unknown interest, and even though the group doesn’t like him they reluctantly have to let him join.

Soon his ‘black business’ ways  start to emerge and change the students and the lives around him, which leads to Akiyama deciding to go against him: expose him to the world as the Black President he is…

Okay, so this drama is basically about business AND involving students? I don’t know what and why they thought it would be a good idea? I mean it’s not badly acted, just very boring. Too many uninteresting situations, and it’s really not funny. I thought it would be funny! The lead is not just an anti-hero he’s also very unlikeable, and has absolutely no growth (character growth). It is one of those dramas you need an open mind and a diverse interest pool, which I apparently don’t have. The younger cast was pretty good, except one of the leads, but the most interesting is Meisa (and I am no fan of hers).

All in all - I wouldn’t recommend it, but a lot of different people liked it, so something has to be okay about it…

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥ / 2 out of 5 hearts