Marriage, Not Dating Review

Title: Marriage, Not Dating
AKA: Marriage without love, Anticipate Marriage
Genre: Romance, comedy, family
Episodes: 16
Broadcast period: 2014-jul to 2014-Aug
Cast: Han Groo, Yun Woo Jin, Jung Jin Woon, Han Sun Hwa, Huh Jung Min, Yoon So Hee, Im Ye Jin, Park Joon Gyu

Gong Ki Tae (Yun Woo Jin) is a wealthy, handsome plastic surgeon, who doesn’t believe in marriage. He believes that his life is perfectly planned, and being single is the only option he accept. However, his family is badgering him to marry. But as fate wants it, he meets Joo Jang Mi (Han Groo), while she is proposing to his best friend Lee Hoon Dong (Huh Jung Min). This is where Gong Ki Tae gets a brilliant idea, and wants Joo Jang Mi to act as his fiancée, because he know his family would never accept her as their daughter-in-law and he would never fall for her. His plan would be a success, if not his family were so desperate for him to get married, that they accepted Joo jang Mi, and the wedding preparations started.

When I first heard about this drama, I was so happy and thrilled to see Yun Woo Jin as the lead actor, and I hoped this would be his break-out drama, I only remember him from Ojakgyo Brothers, and he didn’t really have a big role there, but it was enough for me to fall for him.
The summary of this drama made me even more excited and I looked forward to a hilarious drama. Maybe that’s why I was disappointed, I expected more than what I got.
The first 2 episodes were really exciting and amusing, and I couldn’t wait for the lead actors to be a couple. But it ended out as a really dragged out drama, so much that the main chemistry between those two disappeared. I ended up just watching the drama, because I had to finish it. But if you are a big fan of 2AMs Jinwoon, and you need a drama just for fun, then this is a pretty good choice, just don’t make the same mistake as me and expect a whole lot, because you’re not going to get it.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥ / 2 out of 5 hearts

Arang and the Magistrate Review

Title: Arang and the magistrate

AKA: Arang / Arang Magistrate Story / Arang: Magistrate’s Chronicle

Genre: Historical, Comedy, Romance

Episodes: 20

Broadcast period: 2012-Aug to 2012-Oct

Cast: Lee Jun Ki, Shin Min Ah, Yun Woo Jin and Yoo Seung Ho.

“The time was the middle of the Joseon period. Man's ambition reached far extremes, the world became chaotic, and nature became distressed. In the midst of such chaos, the boundary between this world and the world beyond ceased to exist. The dead stayed to roam about freely. The ghosts of the dead can see the living, but the living cannot see the dead. However, there was one man who was able to see ghosts. In search of his mother, who disappeared three years ago, he sets out for Miryang.” (taken from the introduction)

While looking for his missing mother in the mountains, Kim Eun Oh (Lee Jun Ki) meets a ghost called Arang (Shin Min Ah), whom he pretends not being able to see. He is used to being asked favors from ghosts since he’s able to see them, so he pretends not to hear nor see them. Arang tells him her story thinking he doesn’t hear her, of her waking up as an ghost on her way to the Styx River(on the way to the afterlife, the dead must cross the river), not remembering who she is and how she died, she manages to run away.

Later on she realizes that he is able to see ghosts, so she decides to make him into a Magistrate of the very city he is in, without him knowing it. Eun Oh, now a magistrate, refuses to help her, until he notices a hair pin that belonged to his mother in her hair. Now the question is why is his mother’s hair pin on a dead woman’s head? He reluctantly agrees to help her, but soon they find out that it is not a typical death, and the entire city seems off somehow…

It’s actually good, honestly. I don’t like historical or period dramas if you wish, mainly because I don’t get any of the society and whatever that involves. Actually the entire “after death” was much easier to understand, even though it was my first time hearing about it, than the society of the Joseon Korea. Like, it’s so easy being called a traitor, heck death happens ALL the time, by simply 2-3 words, ridiculous. Anyway.. I love Shin Min Ah, I love Lee Jun Ki, and I love them together, LOL. Good actors make good drama, so I did look forward to it, and enjoyed it. I have to admit, I was bored when the “bad guys” came on screen, but all in all, pretty enjoyable. Also I found myself on edge, and totally hyper of the Magistrat, while he kicks ass - politically aswell as physically. Hehe.. To sum up, I recommend!

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts