I was going to watch Strangers From Hell but it honestly started getting too gruesome after two episodes so I decided to not continue watching it.
The first drama I completed was Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency. It is about Gae-Tong (Gong Seung-Yeon) who is woman that has lost her family and is looking for her lost brother. She doesn’t have much and does odd jobs to make money. Lee Soo (Seo Ji-Hoon) is a blacksmith who lives with his father and wants to marry Gae-Tong and he wants to do it the right way so he hires The Flower Crew Matchmaking Agency who is the best agency and when they finally accepts him he disappears on his wedding day. Gae-Tong starts to work at the agency with Ma Hoon (Kim Min-Jae) who is the leader and Do Joon (Byeon Woo-Seok) who is an information broker and lastly Ko Young-Soo (Park Ji-Hoon) who is in charge of the fashion and makeup.
The drama started with Gae-Tong having a character that seemed over the top and somewhat overacted but I figured her character would change with time and she does calm down after a few episodes. It seemed more like a comedy in the first few episodes but the comedy doesn’t seem to stay throughout the rest of the drama. The theme then gets serious and the whole political games that come through with the palace affairs. I feel like they didn’t really want to pick a genre so they tried all of the them. Or they just had a hard time balancing the genres.
Honestly I couldn’t connect to the characters and nothing felt sincere and I just couldn’t buy into the emotions that they were trying to portray. I think the only story that almost made me feel something was Ko Young-Soo but they didn’t even spend much time on it because he is a side character and I feel like they could have gone more into his story. I just feel like this was a typical type drama that just didn’t have much heart.
The second drama I completed was Melting Me Softly. It is about a Ma Dong-Chan (Ji Chang-Wook) who is a PD on a variety show and decides he wants to do a experiment Cryonic Freezing and decides to take part and gets Ko Mi-Ran (Won Jin-A) to participate with him to be frozen for 24 hours. Problems arise and they only become unfrozen 20 years later and they must keep their average core body temperature at 31.5 degrees Celsius.
Honestly this drama made me feel uncomfortable with them waking up 20 years later and him meeting his girlfriend who is 20 years older and it just is weird. Maybe the idea of waking up and everyone you know has aged and they keep pointed it out the whole drama just made me feel weird because it really makes you aware of how cruel aging really is. It made me think about things that I don’t really want to and the whole science stuff seemed weak and got a bit boring after a while.
Again I could not connect to any of the characters. I just couldn’t really feel their pain or felt like their characters were not fleshed out that much and everything felt shallow. I got bored in this drama and the whole separation that happens at the end just felt like the show was never going to end.
I have to say they did have one shower scene that I thought was wow and kinda impressed with the kissing that was happening. It was certainly unexpected and got my attention compared to a lot of dramas where I forget that they even kissed.
It wasn’t a terrible drama but I didn’t think it was a very good drama. I could not connect well with the characters and I feel like it didn’t delve deep enough into the issues have being gone for 20 years. I guess it was supposed to be a more light hearted drama but I feel like it was a bit hollow and empty with the main characters. I was disappointed with this drama.
The third drama I watched was The Tale of Nokdu is about Jeon Nok-Du (Jang Dong-Yoon) who has been kept very sheltered and wasn’t allowed to go to the mainland and forced to stay on the island and is well learned in martial arts and is a good swordsman. Nokdu and his family gets attacked by a group of female assassins and he chases her to the capital and eventually finds himself in the widow village and has to dress up as a woman to stay and try to find the secret that his father has been keeping from him. It also stars Dong Dong-Ju (Kim So-Hyun) who meets Nok-Du in the capital because she wants to kill the King but is unable to so she meets Nok-Du back in the widow village where she lives next to in a gisaeng house because she is an apprentice gisaeng.
I really thought that this drama would be a good comedy as Nok-Du has to dress up as a woman and try to hide that he is a man. Unfortunately I feel like the comedy was so short and then went into trying to be another drama surrounding the palace politics and it just felt same old, same old story line. In theory it seemed like it was a good, interesting drama but again I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters and didn’t feel much empathy or sympathy for the characters.
Even the romance just fell flat for me and it just felt like it was boring and I almost started preferring the bad guy to win. It felt like it was hard to really understand the characters and the reasons they did things just didn’t seem terribly believable and somewhat forced. The chemistry between the main characters wasn’t terribly electric either. It is a fine drama but I just couldn’t get very invested into this drama as well.
The fourth drama I watched was Extraordinary You. It is about the world of comic books. Eun Dan-Oh (Kim Hye-Yoon) is a student of a rich family and goes to an elite school. There she is in love with her fiancé Baek Kyung (Lee Jae-Wook) who does not like her back and even treats her cruelly. Dan-Oh has a heart condition that causes her problems as she can’t be like regular students and she starts getting weird symptoms such as memory loss and being able to see what is going to happen in the future. She meets Jinmiche who tells her that she is in a comic called “Secret” and shows her the book and she finds out she is not even the main character but an extra. Dan-Oh becomes aware that she has her mind and it differs from the book and goes on a quest to to try to change the comic book. This drama is based on a webcomic called July Found By Chance and I have read part of the comic that is translated online. So I was really excited because the webcomic is really interesting to have read so far so I don’t know how the webcomic ends.
I really enjoyed this drama, I think it was the only drama that I actually looked forward to this past two months. I felt connected to the characters and could feel an emotional connection and the unfairness that the characters were feeling. I really enjoyed the fantasy of the story and felt like it was a fresh idea. I know that people will say that it is similar to W but only the part of it being a comic is similar but the story was not the same at all. I really liked both of these dramas but it focused on completely different aspects of being inside a comic book. I feel like the story was well done and kept you interested throughout the whole drama. I thought it was able to have humor and serious themes well done and was well balanced. The acting was good and it was fun to make fun of the typical romantic comic as it dealt with all the cheesy lines that the characters would have to say. It was fun that some of the characters had become self aware and whether or not they had to agree with what they were saying.
I am not sure what to think about the ending because it seems sad even though it was technically happy and I wonder what happens to the characters between comic books. What if the author doesn’t decide to draw some of the characters anymore. That was the only plot hole that I feel like needed to be explained or dealt with. Also I don’t think they ever explained what happened to Baek Kyung in the ending? or maybe I missed it? Not sure but I wished they would have had an ending for him that could have left him happy.
I think this is the only drama that I would recommend from this round of dramas. After the dramas I was wondering if I had become tired of Korean Dramas because I wanted to quit so many and wasn’t sure if I would be able to continue but I started watching some new ones and I think it was just a coincidence that I didn’t enjoy this round of dramas!
Upcoming Dramas
1. Psychopath Diary
It is about a office worker that witnesses a murder and picks up the diary of the murderer and while running away he gets into a an accident and loses his memory. He then finds the diary and starts to believe that he is a psychopathic serial killer. I have watched a few episodes and it captured my attention, I think it is an interesting concept of what happens when we don’t have any memories how could we be shaped if you become a clean slate.
2. Chocolate
The drama is about a boy that gave a girl a meal and later inspired the girl to become a chef. He wanted to become a chef but because of different circumstances he grew up to be a neurosurgeon and they get to meet again as adults and strangers. I have seen two episodes and it is an intense drama and I have been completely sucked into it!
3. Crash Landing On You
An heiress to a conglomerate ends up in North Korea after a paragliding incident and there she meet a North Korean army officer and he helps hide her and take care of her. I am a bit nervous that there won’t be enough of a story for this drama but I hope since it has some big names that it will be an interesting drama.
4. Selection: The War Between Women
This drama is about a woman who is murdered and her twin sister decides to take her place as Queen to find out who is killed her sister. This drama I am most scared to start as I am not sure since I have watched the whole switcheroo so many times in movies and tv and feel like it has been overdone and if it isn’t done well, I scared I will become bored very quickly.
