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

Dr. Frost Review

Title: Dr. Frost
AKA: Doctor Frost
Genre: Crime, thriller
Episodes: 10
Broadcast Period: Nov-2014 to Feb-2015
Cast: Song Chang Ui, Jung Eun Chae, Sung Ji Roo, Lee yoon Ji, Choi Jung Woo, Lee Hi Jin, Yoon Jung Hoon,

A psychological thriller about a professor (Song Chang Ui) in the field of psychology who are regarded as a genius, he cannot feel certain emotions due to an injury he sustained as a child. Yon Sung Ah (Jung Eun Chae) gets appointed as his assistant, and start counselling sessions at the university. Because of some mystery deaths, together they start solving crimes for the police department that leads to some psychological disorders. While they solve these crimes their past mysteries begins to surface.

I’m very interested in psychology, so this drama was like sent from heaven to me, and especially happy about that it was OCN that picked it up and not another broadcast company. OCN really knows how to make their original dramas. I really liked this drama, the suspense, mystery and the various psychology disorders that were shown, were all very interesting. I had to read about some of the diseases after every episodes. The only thing is that 10 episodes were just not enough! I felt like they started something but never really finished it, all the characters were incomplete, they all had interesting backgrounds, but they never really did anything about it. Although every OCN drama ends at a cliffhanger, you can’t do anything but anticipate a second season, (please! *crossing fingers*). The cast although didn’t really leave any impression, some of them were familiar but some were new faces for me. I don’t know what to think of Song Chang Ui, he did a good job with his "no-emotion" character as Dr. Frost, but I can't say that his acting was extraordinary. Sometimes he just can't convince me about Frost's coldness and emotionless. Let us not talk about Dr. Frosts assistant, I really didn’t like her. But all the other actors were good, especially the patients in all the cases in every episode. It’s a nice drama, it suits a nice rainy Sunday were you just want to be home.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Bunji's Verdict

Another OCN drama on the forget list. I am quite disappointed in these dramas lately, and it takes quite a lot of energy not to enjoy psychology crime dramas. I know I was upset about Reset, but I am also quite upset with Dr. Frost because of the same reason: it really is boring. I am a huge fan of psychological/behavior analysis dramas. So much that I actually started studying psychology on my own, and there is one thing I gotta say (as a psychology enthusiast): there is no way in hell so many unique mental disorders are in the same town/city, and let alone all be witnessed by the same physician. You might disagree and say that mental illnesses are quite common, more than we already know, and yes true, but the ones introduced in the drama are as rare as catching Ebola. I mean they are mainly textbook illnesses that do happen, but for few people spread out all over. Then again, it is a drama – and it has to be interesting I guess.

The actors were okay, not that they really were able to use their potential as this drama is written very weakly and the same goes to the screenplay. But they manage, and make it watchable to a degree in in with made me finish all 10 episodes. The drama as a whole was too slow and not that enjoyable.

All in all a okay/watchable drama, with decent actors – though bit boring plot.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out 5 hearts

The Great Seer Review

Title: The Great Seer

Genre: Historical, Period, Politics, Action, Romance

Episodes: 35

Broadcast period: 2012-Oct to 2013-Feb

Cast: Ji Sung, Song Chang Ui, Ji Jin Hee and Yoon Ji.

When the head priestess of the royal court sees the eternal land Ja Mi Won, the prophet with the holy eyes Mok Dong Yoon (Choi Jae Woong) is sent out to find it. When he finds it though, the prophecy says that the true heir of the land, the future king, is the only one that’ll be able to have it.. in 50 years’ time. Pressured by rebels and the Ming Dynasty, the king orders the prophet to be tortured for the location, and that goes on in 10 years, but all in vain. With a chance to flee Dong Yoon does so, but is followed by the princess and the love of his life Young Ji (Lee Sung Yun) follows him and demands the map of the land so her brother can get the power he is entitled. As the two spend time together and the enemies are closing in, the princess buys Dong Yoon time by following the guards back, but as it turns out she is pregnant with the prophet’s child. In order to save herself and the child she marries the man Lee In Im (Jo Min Ki) who has wanted her almost all his life, but has had an affair with the priestess underling. She also becomes pregnant, and as time pass the two give birth to sons, but In Im is determined to kill the son of the man his wife loves, though is a split second Dong Yoon manages to survive, and the princess takes the priestess son in as her own.

11 years pass and the king believing he has the eternal land has announced independence from the Ming Dynasty, and as time passes he becomes more and more paranoid with his underlings. When the priestess murders the head priestess in order to become it herself, she and Lee In Im decide to plot a coup d’état against the king, and when they hear that Dong Yoon is in the town they try to find him and his son in order to kill them both. At the same time a general Lee Sung Gye (Ji Jin Hee) famous for his military abilities surfaces and enters the palace, leaving much havoc wherever he goes. Will 50 years manage to pass in order for the Ja Mi Won to surface? And what are the roles of the two children born in the strife of their parents in this?

Sorry about the major summary, but you know with these period dramas, they really start at the episode 10 marks. Okay, so this is one heck of a drama, besides it being made extremely well, the storyline and the characters are very well written. Though I really didn’t like the choice for many of the actors (hint: lead actress) the general story is not only interesting, but it’s very close to the historical part - which I did not expect since the ‘good’ guys aren’t as good in real life. But they did add the bad part, which makes the story amazing but the character less likable.

Another thing that made me intrigued is that the secrets that usually take forever to be revealed are revealed in matter of episodes, and some are never told. So it depends on who watches it to distinguish what you would think of it. I liked it, because it made it more real.

All in all a fine drama might be one of the only period dramas I actually genuinely like.

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Heartstrings Review

Title: Heartstrings
AKA: You've fallen for me / Neon Naege Banhaesseo
Genre: Romance, music
Episodes: 15
Broadcast period: 2011-Jun-29 to 2011-Aug-18
Cast: Jung Yong Hwa, Park Shin Hye, Song Chang Ui, So yi Hyun, Woo Ri, Kang Min Hyuk, Lee Hyun Jin, Im Se Mi . . .

Lee Gyu Won is the granddaughter of a famous Pansori singer, one of the top 3 traditional singers and therefore Lee Gyu Won has been taught to play the gayageum, a traditional instrument, she is also in a band called "Windflower". She is raised with discipline, her grandfather kicked her father out of the house because he had a passion for western/modern music. At school there is the "prince", Lee Shin, the guy everyone wants to be with, he is the leader of a band called "The stupid". Those two make a bet to see who will have more supporters, the modern vs the traditional. The two of them learn new things about those two genres of music and work together, end up liked each other.

This drama was so lovey-dovey, it was almost too much! I cant believe Im saying this, me who likes those dramas, it had lots of those cute couple moments. I guess the drama is more about the music, the collaboration between traditional and modern (the music is just AWESOME and if you like traditional korean + modern then watch this drama) than about love, or like the forbidden love because Lee Gyu Won's grandfather is like NO-NO modern music! But still it wasnt exciting like "aaa~eotokae". It reminded me a bit about dream high, but i guess there a just a few similarities, like competition, singing, acting and doing music. It was really cute and the actors are great too. I can recommend this drama if you just wanna relax and watch and dont want all those complicated ones that get you dont see a way out of lol. Its really simply and i gotta say dayyum like my jaw dropped when the two bands played together (i also enjoy traditional korean music kekeke)

☆☆☆☆/ 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥/ 4 out of 5 hearts

Bunji's Verict
Out of all Korean youth love stories, this is defiantly the freshest, but somehow it does not work for me… Why? I think there are a lot of wrongs, one of them is the main actress; she’s seriously become one of my least favorite actresses, I mean she can’t act… Or is it just me?! Yonghwa seems to try to act, but I guess if you throw a fish on dry land it’ll fight till the end.. And that drummer, who is also a member of C.N. BLUE, Minho I think he’s called, was not that great (I’m comparing him with other cute character actors…).. To be honest, if I were to choose the star in the drama it would be Yonghwa, even though he showed complete rookie performance…
BUT! It’s not all that bad, in the matter of the fact, it’s pretty good, and almost realistic..
I just felt like punching the director for doing this ‘great potential drama’ halfheartedly.. He just combined all possible clichés, and tried to cover them, FAIL! I felt that Yonghwas character used too much time, 7 episodes, on his first love, and woopty, suddenly fell for the main actress without any special reason, well at least he should have shown more of a love interest and in the previous episodes to be somehow conflicted between his first love (like he was going crazy over her people!!) and the lead. Omg, and not to mention how loose his character was, DIRECTOR = STUPID!
Anyhow, it’s sweet (sometimes an little too much) and has this amazing music.. If you feel like watching, do so, if not, give it a shot, Yonghwa deserves it :)

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts