The first drama that I have finished is called Rich Man which is a remake of the Japanese drama Rich Man, Poor Woman in 2012. The story is about a Lee Yoo-Chan(Suho) who is a demanding and programmer with vision for an IT company called Next In but he is unable to distinguish faces which can make his job hard for him. It also stars Kim Bo-Ra (Ha Yeon-Soo) who is recent college grad and is looking for a job and her special skill is that she has a strong memory recall. She gets hired at the company to use this special skill.
I didn’t have high hopes for this drama because I wasn’t so sure how Suho was going to carry a lead role as I have not seen him act in any dramas. I have watched Yeon-Soo act and I kinda think that her acting is adorable and was happy to be able to see her act again. The acting may not have been the best but I didn’t really find it distracting so it was fine, although Suho was always constantly squinting or pretending to type things on the computer. The storyline did have some lulls that I found a bit boring at times and the relationships that were developing just seemed a bit weird and vague. I have to say there wasn’t that much chemistry between the two leads, it felt like they were more like brother and sister or something.
I did like the mystery that was presented at the beginning and how all the characters were connected and I liked how it developed but once it was all figured out I think that was when I was a bit tired of the drama. I did not watch the Japanese original version but I did hear that people liked it better than this version. It does make me curious about the original but I don’t like watching the same storyline again. I liked some parts of this drama but not all of them so I found it a bit lackluster. I also did care for the whole stabbing people in the back and then try to make it all work together at the end. I also felt like some of the side characters were annoying as well. I wish they delved more into the facial recognition problem, I feel like they could have worked more with that problem and the struggles he faced with it. It is fine if you just want to watch an easy going drama and don’t want to get to invested into it and just like a time killer. It was not the best drama this season but it was fine.
The second drama that I finished was About Time, not to be confused with the movie about time traveling. This drama is about Choi Michaela (Lee Sung-Kyung) who is an aspiring musical actress that has the ability to see how long people are going to live by the clocks that only she sees. The problem is that Choi Michaela own clock doesn’t have very much time left until she meets someone that has an affect on her clock and finally she has some hope who is Lee Do-Ha (Lee Sang-Yoon) a CEO of a Musical Theater Company.
This drama seemed to get a lot of hate from the viewers and I really don’t know why, I really liked this drama. This drama played on our emotions very well and it had me crying and laughing. I wasn’t so sure about the male lead since he looks so much older than the Choi Mika but I really started to like him and found him really cute. I feel like the acting was done very well in this drama of all the characters and I really felt myself being emotionally invested in this drama.
The problem with the drama is the ending since the theory of the clocks is a bit muddled and I feel like they did not explain how it worked and basically just left us with that is a mystery and that we have to just accept it which makes me think they just copped out the ending because they didn’t know how to make it work together. I was at least happy that they didn’t do a tragic ending although that probably would have left more of an impact. The second problem with this drama was that I think there was supposed to be a love triangle with the character Jo Jae-Yoo but the original actor Lee Seo-Won had to drop out because of a sexual harassment claim and Kim Dong-Joon had to fill in and re-shoot all the scenes so I think that character was much weaker than what was hoped for and it lacked the impact.
Overall I really enjoyed the drama and it made me feel a lot of feelings and I was always excited to watch it every week. It is a happy ending so you don’t have to worry about a tragic and depressing end. I wish there was a better explanation but I still found it enjoyable and endearing!
The third drama that I finished watching was Wok Of Love/ Greasy Melo and this drama had very good ratings. This drama is about Seo-Poong (Lee Joon-Ho) who is talented Chinese chef who works at an expensive Chinese hotel restaurant and he expects that he will get promoted but instead he is fired so he swears he will take revenge on the restaurant and decides to join up with loan shark Doo Chil-Seong (Jang Hyuk) who owns a Chinese restaurant across the street from the hotel. It also stars Dan Sae-Woo (Jung Ryeo-Wan) who is a young woman who comes from a wealthy family until her father goes to jail and she needs money for the first time ever and she has to take a loan from Chil- Seong and decides she will work in Seo- Poong’s kitchen.
I thought it was a decent drama it had an interesting story line but it felt like there was something lacking, maybe it was the chemistry between the leads or maybe it was just too long. I feel like Seo-Poong seemed to young for Sae-Woo or something. I normally don’t care for Jang-Hyuk in dramas and shows but I thought this was the perfect character for him. The ending was really rushed as well it felt like they didn’t know how to end it properly and just kinda threw it together. It felt like there was no real completion and that made me a bit sad.
Also I didn’t like the dynamic of the ending, I don’t like that they ended up back at the hotel, I liked the warmth of the little restaurant and the dynamic was just weird at the end. Not to mention he kept on staff all the people that deserted and backstabbed him and even begged them to stay. I just felt like the drama just kinda lost it’s direction toward the end and I just did not find myself getting emotionally involved in the struggles they were having. In the end I just kinda felt like a strange drama and that the characters were also kinda weird. They also had the mother character playing two roles which I still don’t get the point of that?
The acting wasn’t bad and at times it was fun and interesting, but other times the characters could be frustrating to me.
Overall it is a decent drama, was fun at times, and really made you hungry!
The fourth drama I watched was The Undateables/Handsome Guy and Jung-Eum. This drama is about Hoon-Nam (Namgung Min) who is considered a love guru and is able to solve all things wrong with love but has never been in love and is a CEO of a toy museum. It also stars Jung-Eum (Hwang Jung-Eum) who has been in some painful relationships and ends up becoming a love matchmaker but has recently been struggling and so she tries to turn to the love guru Hoon-Nam but she has to convince him to help her after she has made a bad impression on him from a series of misunderstandings and accidents.
I was excited about this drama because I enjoy Namgung Min since he always plays great characters but I was disappointed after the first episode but I think it was mainly with Hwang Jung-Eum since it seemed like she was overacting quite a bit and it was hard to watch at first. It did get better since I decided to stick it out and her character does calm down.
I did enjoy this drama but it was very predictable and there wasn’t that much emotional connection with any of the characters. I would say it was more of a superficial drama that was lighthearted and could warm your heart with the sweetness. I have to say I did enjoy the side stories of the characters that she was trying to match up, they were cute and interesting. This was a good warm hearted drama but very typical and safe.
The drama is a pretty predictable romantic comedy that wasn’t anything new or different but had some fun moments. It is a good drama for something light hearted and something that doesn’t make you think too much!
The fifth drama that I finished was What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim/ Why Secretary Kim. This drama is about Lee Young Joon (Park Seo Joon) who is the vice president at his family’s company and he is considered selfish, handsome, egotistic and narcissistic. His secretary Kim Mi-So (Park Min-Young) has worked for him for years and she knows exactly how to take care of him and she decides she is going to quit her job which Young-Joon can’t figure out why. This drama is based on a webcomic with the same name.
I wasn’t sure if this drama looked very interesting but it actually was a fun drama and all the characters are interesting. It has a intriguing mystery that keeps you interested and confused for the first half of the drama. I have to say they do delve into more mature parts in relationships that I rarely see in Korean dramas and it does feel realistic that they have feelings of lust but it usually doesn’t get shown to us that clearly. I can’t say I really liked that they had to show us, I feel like it should have come in the last episode after getting married or something. I felt like that would have been more appropriate in the last episode because it just seemed weird for the last episodes. I feel like they did not communicate that well with each other and it seemed like that wasn’t the best way to portray how to take that step together. I understand that it is realistic nowadays but I didn’t really care for it that much.
I also found that the whole mystery intense scene that I didn’t really connect or have that much empathy with the characters. I did not become that emotionally invested in the struggles that the characters were having which I found strange. I also think they did way too many flashbacks of the mystery intense scenes from the past that it felt very repetitive. So I feel like it had all the ingredients to make a great drama but it felt like something was lacking but it is still a good drama.
I love the humor in this drama that comes from all the side characters and Young-Joon they had many funny moments that were very enjoyable to watch. I think there were many heart fluttering moments that were enjoyable and the chemistry was really good. There were rumorsA that Seo-Joon and Min-Young have been dating for three years so it does make you wonder if any of it is real. I think if you are looking for a romantic-comedy you will definitely enjoy this drama. There was even a report that came out that Park Seo-Joon and Park Min-Young were dating but later it was just alleged report that they were dating. I think that is a sign of a good drama and chemistry if the audience are trying to find proof that they are dating! No party has confirmed that they are dating, but who really knows!?
The last drama I watched was Are You Human? This drama is about Nam Sin (Seo Kang-Joon) who is from a rich family that runs a prestigious company and after an accident is in a coma and his mother Oh Ro-Ra (Kim Sung-Ryoung) has been separated from her son for most of his life has made a robot that looks exactly like Nam Sin and so they decide to hide that Nam Sin is in a coma and get the robot to stand in as his replacement unknown to mostly everyone around him. His bodyguard So-Bong (Gong Seung-Yeon) becomes an important part to keeping this secret and they start to develop a relationship.
I feel like this robot genre has really been done this year a lot and I hope they will take a break from it! Technically this was filmed in 2017 so it was made probably before the other robot dramas. I did not like the first couple of episodes maybe because it was shot abroad in Czech Republic and it was like the story line wasn’t as important as showing off they had filmed abroad. Maybe it was because they were trying to set up the story line quickly but the first episodes didn’t really pull me in or keep me that interested but I decided I would keep watching and gave it a chance. I am glad I did because it did become more interesting and appealing and I started to enjoy the drama. It really made me confused about how they could end this drama as I feel like it was impossible. The ending still didn’t solve the basic question of how can you replace a robot as a love interest compared to a real person.
I found myself feeling disturbed or just not accepting the fact that she is going to choose to love a robot and instead I found myself looking for love interest in the other characters. I kinda was hoping that the human Nam Sin would somehow have linked up his brain with the android and then was able to live through the robot and therefore he could have become the love interest. Instead they made the human Nam Sin a terrible person and made the robot to be the hero which I think is still strange to me, like are they trying to brainwash into accepting robots into our society! I don’t know this was an overall strange drama and I found all the characters kinda weird by the end. Characters killing, trying to kill and changed personalities. I think it was doing pretty good for the middle with some twists and turns but I felt the ending was lacking and I can’t seem to accept the robot love.
I did enjoy Seo Kang Joon, I liked him in the variety show “Roommates” and he did a good job in “Cheese In The Trap” and I thought he did a good job portraying two characters so he was enjoyable enough to watch. I of course enjoyed seeing Lee Joon-Hyuk again as he does a good job being a stiff person. Gong Seung-Yeon also did a good job but I found her character somewhat annoying for parts of this drama but I don’t think it was her fault. I think it was interesting how they did try to tackle the robot love subject it was similar to “Borg Mom” which again doesn’t really address the problems of being romantically involved with a robot.
If you like robot dramas then this drama will work for you! It has love, mystery, rich families, backstabbing and robots.
The next dramas that I am watching are:
- My ID is Gangnam Beauty-: Based on webcomic with the same name, I have watched a few episodes and it is really good so far! A college student has undergone plastic surgery because she wanted to enjoy her life as an ordinary person instead of feeling ostracized by her looks.
2. Thirty but Seventeen: A seventeen year old gets into an accident and wakes up from a coma as a thirty year old and has to figure out what to do with her life and find her uncle and aunt. I have watched a few episodes and this is a good romantic comedy so far!!
3. Familiar Wife- This is an interesting drama so far it is about a salary man who is living a tough and unhappy life and he gets a chance to rewrite his past and be with the wife he wanted.
4. Life- It is about a businessman who acquires a hospital and he wants it to make some money and so he makes some decisions that make the staff unhappy and so the doctors are trying to expose the dirty business of making money. It seems like a slower paced drama but the acting seems to be really good.
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