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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Moonlight Drawn By Clouds

Episodes: 18
Synopsis:
Hong Ra On is a young woman during the Joseon Dynasty who disguises herself as a man named Sam Nom. She ghostwrites for people and also offers relationship advice for men. As she brings people together, she also ruins other relationships in the process. As people try to find her to get "revenge," she is brought into contact with the crown prince through a love letter she helped write for a client. Through a series of events, Ra On ends up getting sold into the Royal Palace as a eunuch, gets accepted by chance, and is then assigned to work for Royal Consort Soo Ki and Princess Young Geun. As the crown prince enjoys her presence and realizes she is a girl, he begins to order Ra On to be his own personal eunuch. As a political power struggle ensues, Ra On will have to try harder to hide her identity, maintain her relationship to the crown prince, and also learn new things about herself and politics.

Review:
           This drama is originally a web novel. I read somewhere about how much this story means to the author because she wrote it in secret after promising her husband to watch over her newborn baby for the first few years. She wrote this to regain her own identity and she came to discover, that with the birth of her child, she was able to write in a new style that was more happy and colorful than her previous works. She must not have realized how popular her story would get nor did she imagine that her writing be turned into a drama as it has today. So I'm actually very proud for her in regard to that and figured it'd be nice to include a bit of the story behind the making of this story. Now, I'll give my review about the drama.
            This drama is a cross-dressing drama where the girl character is dressing up as a boy in order to survive on the streets and she ends up becoming an eunuch for the crown prince. While I do not enjoy dramas that have oblivious boys wondering if the girl is really a boy, I enjoyed this one because the male characters were pretty fast on catching on with the situation. Also, the fact that Ra On had to hide her identity and become a Sam Nom is a big factor in relation to her history as well as how it ties into the story. Therefore, it is easier for me to follow and not feel frustrated by the boys in the drama.
          There were some scenes in this drama that I found were pretty slow for me but the scenes were all extremely aesthetically appealing.
          I really liked the actors in this drama. I have been following Kim Yoo Jung from when she starred as a child actress in dramas to now, where she is the main lead. It has been a pleasure of watching a girl grow up alongside with me (and do more things with her life in comparison to me haha). I also loved Park Bo Gum as the prince because he is the perfect mix of intensity and softness mixed in one. The chemistry between the two was amazing and all the scenes they filmed together were beautiful.
          One downside of this drama is that things moved really slowly for me. I started to get bored with the drama toward the end. It didn't appeal as much and there was more "setting up" the storyline than anything actually happening.

Lie To Me

Episodes:16 
Synopsis:
Gong Ah Jung is a young woman who is a government employee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. In order to not lose face in front of a friend, she lies about being married and this lie begins to spread like wildfire. Soon everyone is gossiping about her supposed secret marriage to Hyun Ki Joon, the wealthy president of World Hotel. Ki Joon begins to be burdened by this lie as well as he has to constantly address these rumors. Thus, he decides to get Ah Jung to correct the situation by revealing that she had lied. However, when things don't go as planned, Ki Joon decides to take legal action against Ah Jung. They begin to bond more and more in the time being and the two find that they could mutually benefit from this situation if they pretend to be married for a short while and then divorce. Ki Joon is still bitter about the rumor and says he will continue to follow through with the lawsuit after this pretend marriage. The two begin to fall in love in this pretend marriage and when his ex-fiancee returns from France, he questions his commitment to her as he is becoming increasingly fond of Ah Jung.

Review:
I watched this drama a long time ago and I don't really remember the details nor do I remember how I felt about it. I do recall enjoying it and thinking that it was an interesting drama. However, I do not want to state any more opinions on this as I don't really recall this drama.

The Third Love (Movie)

           It is actually kind of hard to gather my thoughts for this movie. I'm very half-half about this movie. I enjoyed it for the most part but there are things that I didn't enjoy. Some scenes could've went differently and some scenes seemed a bit over the top. This movie definitely had potential to be this bittersweet type of movie but by the end I wasn't sure how to approach this. The ending was definitely not satisfying for me because it showed me how sometimes even the best relationships don't get "happily ever afters" and that love isn't always answer. 
           This movie tells the sad love story between Zhou Yu and Lin Qi Zheng. Zhou Yu is a young and beautiful lawyer who lives with her friend. Her friend is obsessed with Lin Qi Zheng, the boss at her company. As her best friend dives into a self-made fantasy about how she and Lin Qi Zheng are dating and even attempts to commit suicide when he wasn't reciprocating the "love," Zhou Yu decides to take things into her own hands. In order to help her friend, she goes to the company to confront the young and rich CEO to get him to make himself clear to her friend and to fire her so that her friend can move on. Lin Qi Zheng is extremely confused by Zhou Yu's angry outburst for he had never even interacted with her friend before. Realizing this, Zhou Yu goes back to apologize and the two begin meeting each other more often for work. They slowly begin to fall in love while trying to keep it hidden from Zhou Yu's delusional friend. However, Lin Qi Zheng is from a rich family and the two were never meant to be as they were worlds apart. As friendships fall apart and traumatizing events happen, the two can only go on separate paths despite all the beautiful and loving memories the two made together. 
           I enjoyed the romance for the most part and that is the main focus in this movie. It is realistic, it is a slice of life for a lot of couples, and the chemistry between the actors were crazy. This movie is a Chinese movie but the male character is played by the Korean actor, Song Seung Heon. He also talked in Chinese but I'm pretty sure it is dubbed for the most part (thankfully in a way that isn't that obvious). Fun fact, the actors in this drama (Liu Yi Fei aka Crystal Liu) and Song Seung Heon are actually dating in real life and they are both outstanding actors and I have looked into many films that they have done. If you are to watch this, just be prepared for scenes that seem a bit "extra" and be prepared to not get the ending you hope for.