Sunday, November 15, 2015

Where Have I Been?


Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been too often of an occurrence that I've gone MIA on this blog. I apologize. Life has been bullying me for the past few months. Not exactly sure if that's ever going to go away, but I'll try to visit this blog more than just once every couple of months now.

And since I have been gone, I figure what perfect way to tell you what I've been watching as of late. It's not very impressive. It's not much at all, really. But an update is an update, so let us begin.

On the drama front, I've been absolutely terrible. It may have to do with the fact that there aren't really any dramas I'm excited for in the past months. I started quite a few of them, actually, but ended up dropping them because they were less than stellar.


One of the earlier dramas I did finish but fail to update in this blog is Ex-Girlfriend Club starring Byun Yo-han and Song Ji-hyo. The drama is about a webtoon artist who wrote about his ex-girlfriends only for them to end up showing up in front of him when the webtoon was picked up to film as a movie. It's a 12-episode drama, though not intentionally so at first. Although in hindsight it was a blessing that they shaved off the extra 4 hours. Ex-Girlfriend Club is more slice of life than the typical rom-com fare. But the reason why I think the cut was the savior of the drama was because the drama didn't really have much to tell in the first place, especially in regards to the OTP.

While I did think Myung-soo (Byun) and Soo-jin (Song) were cute, I absolutely adored the ex-girlfriends. The cat (Jang Ji-eun), the lion (Lee Yoon-ji) and the fox (Hwayoung) brought so much energy and laughter that balances the mellow calm that is the cheetah and his bear. Many times over the girls were the ones who stole the show and I would've cared less about the drama had they not been as great as they were.


Second drama I've finished in the past couple of months is Oh My Ghostess starring Park Bo-young and Jo Jung-seok where she plays Bong-sun, a timid assistant cook nursing a crush on the charismatic star chef, Sun-woo. With the help of a certain virgin ghost (Kim Seul-gi), she becomes a different person in order to get the heart of the chef.

So. I loved this drama. It was funny and cute and heartfelt. The whole cast were amazing and perfect for their roles. Park Bo-young is freaking adorable and brilliant playing a "bipolar" Bong-sun. Jo Jung-seok, whom I was pretty meh about in the past (I didn't watch King2Hearts), is now all of the sudden so very hot. And of course, the lovely Kim Seul-gi is always great to watch.

The testament of how great the drama is is the fact that my younger sister, whose taste is more Japanese anime, watched it along with me. I don't know if she's doing it because I was watching it on our big TV or what, but perhaps the drama did reel her in. Besides, the drama is adorable. Mostly because of Park Bo-young and Kim Seul-gi but Jo Jung-seok has his moments too. Sadly, perhaps because of the resolution problems with our TV, a lot of the night scenes were literally pitch black. It was horrible. But that's a small complaint for such a wonderful drama.


The last drama I've watched was She Was Pretty which stars Hwang Jung-eum as a swan turned duckling who was reluctant to see her formerly-chubby-now-hot childhood friend (Park Seo-joon) so she asked the help of her beautiful best friend (Go Joon-hee) to go in her place instead.

The first time I saw the premise, I rolled my eyes. How superficial, I said. But after looking forward to every episode each week, I have to say that the drama is lovely. I think what I love most about the drama is that there's a lot of self-reflection for the characters, not just blindly following a hot guy or the pretty girl like some dramas tend to do.

Aside from that, I love the relationships in this drama, especially of the two best friends Hye-jin (Hwang) and Ha-ri (Go). It's so rare to see female best friends in dramas who seem to have genuine interest in each other, with neither of them holding the sidekick status, which is the norm. I also love Choi Si-won's portrayal of the eccentric Shin-hyuk. In the past I acknowledged Si-won's handsomeness but seeing them in action in a role that is so charming really changed my perspective on him. So good for you, sir.

As for the dropped/unfinished dramas, well, there are a few alright. Off the top of my head there's Divorce Lawyer in Love and The Time We Were Not in Love, two failed attempts at romantic comedy. The former had leads with little to no chemistry in a plot line that was confusing and unnecessary. The latter was frustrating and pales in comparison (to put it nicely) to the wonderful original version (which I adored). I almost forgot about Warm and Cozy. Basically I won't watch a Hong sisters drama again, unless it stars Gong Hyo-jin. Also Yoo Yeon-seok is way better as evil or morally ambiguous. Chilbong was his miracle.

Others include Valid Love, which I think I might finish since I only have 2 episodes left, but I always find myself lacking in emotional energy to even attempt watching it. Same goes with Heard It Throught the Grapevine which seems a bit too intense for me at the moment, or ever. There's also Producers which I think I'll finish at one point since both Gong Hyo-jin and Cha Tae-hyun is in it and I can't miss out.

I also watched one episode of The Lover and Twenty Again. They both seem to have strong fan love but they're not for me, I don't think. A similar fate goes to Six Flying Dragons, although I don't think it's even 10 minutes of the first episode. While I'm excited for the drama, I just find the 50-episode number daunting. I don't know if I want to commit to such a big number.

So that's what I've been watching in the past several months. There's also a list of movies but at the moment I haven't been reviewing movies in general because they tend to be more difficult than dramas. It's weird but despite the lengthier time of dramas, some movies have more nuance which makes for more difficult explanation. I'm making excuses for myself.

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