Pure Love (Movie)

            After seeing clips of this movie all over my Facebook feed, I decided to check it out. This movie was so beautiful and touching. It gave me all the feels and even made me cry. The story is a nostalgic look on the past by a couple of friends. Radio DJ Bum Sil receives a letter that makes him remember his teenage years. His friends, listening to the radio, also reminisce on the past. They think back on friendships, first loves, and their youth. It was very touching watching the friends play together and support one another. It was very realistic and heartwarming in a lot of scenes. I enjoyed this movie greatly and would recommend this for others to watch. I won't get into detail with this movie because I think it is better to watch this and feel the full impact of it yourself without giving you any spoilers.

          It got pretty sad and depressing as it went on but it was still a wonderful watch nonetheless. 

Splash Splash Love (Movie version)

    

      This drama was very comedic and simple. It definitely isn't as detailed as many other time travel dramas/movies and it isn't historically accurate either. The main character got sent back in time to Joseon and got to meet the emperor and so forth. A lot of the historically inaccurate things probably could've been overlooked because it is a movie after all. But it seemed like the emperor would probably get killed off by assassins with the way he's running here and there and out of the palace with ease. That was my main concern. How is he able to just leave the palace? How are other people in this palace able to just leave? It's a palace with guards and rules and everything that would prevent the royal family from leaving so easily like that the way these characters were. At the same time, being the wife of an emperor would mean that she is heavily watched. Any contact with any other man would've been deemed inappropriate. That is why I think the queen is also not historically accurate but instead driven by emotions in this make-believe drama world. But enough of me nitpicking at how this movie isn't historically accurate. I'll dive into the synopsis a bit more and also my views on the story and characters. 

          It is a very light watch with very cute and fluffy characters. There wasn't much depth to the characters. The story revolves around a high school senior, Dan Bi, who hates math and has given up on her future dreams and even her SATs. On the day of her college entrance exam, she runs away from it and jumps into a puddle which brought her to the Joseon  Dynasty. There she meets the king and is mistaken as eunuch because she called herself a "gosam" (high school senior) which also meant a  eunuch. It was believed that she would help bring rain as the country suffered from a drought. The two begin helping one another as she teaches him more about the more advanced world and introduce the information of the future. 

           I liked the actress Kim Seul Gi because I've watched a couple of her dramas before and I am currently watching one she acts in. Yoon  Doo Joon plays the role of Joseon's emperor. It is a very light watch and a very cute friendship and then romance. It was comedic with the way modern day things were implemented and brought into the Joseon dynasty. 

Cheese In The Trap

Episodes: 16

Synopsis: 

Hong Seol (Kim Go Eun) is a very diligent student who has just returned to college after taking some time off to work part-time jobs to pay for her tuition. Consistently studying and doing her best in school, she strives to be the greatest and hopes to be able to help her family in the future financially.  Yoo Jung (Park Hae Jin) is an extremely popular student (a senior to many of the underclassmen) who has returned to college as an upperclassman after serving his mandatory military service. After Seol notices that Yoo Jung may not be as nice as he appears to be, Yoo Jung begins to make her life harder through small actions and through people. However, one day, Yoo Jung helped Seol get a scholarship that paid for her tuition and she begins wondering what kind of person he is exactly. As she falls in love and deals with school life and friends, the story unravels as she is caught in a romance with Yoo Jung and is also mediating relationships between him and his friend Baek In Ho. 

Review: 

         This drama definitely had a different feel than most dramas. This one combined romance with mystery. It felt like I was watching a thriller at times. This drama had a lot of creepy vibes and almost all of the characters appear to be slightly crazy in some way. In my opinion, the only normal people in this drama were the main character and her two friends. Everyone else all had this creepy element to them that made me think that some of them just weren't sane or mentally stable. It was either that or they were just kind of annoying. However, do not let this be a turn off as to why you won't watch this drama. This drama had a lot of its own appealing factors that allowed me to enjoy watching it. 

         I liked how Hong Seol isn't one of those typical Korean drama characters and the human relationships she holds with other people are also very realistic in my opinion. Hong Seol notices the small details of people and notices certain factors of their personality right off the bat without others having to hint at her. She noticed that Yoo Jung had two sides to him and how he hides behind a kind exterior while manipulating others and situations to get what he wants. She doesn't do what a lot Kdrama characters do which is talk about their thoughts out loud. Hong Seol was able to go about, noticing things, make her mind about things, and so forth while having the entire thought process in her head only. It made me really appreciate her character. Also, she is from a family that does not have a lot of money and so she struggles in a lot of aspects in comparison to her peers. However, she doesn't make it into a sobfest nor does she expect others to do things for her or fix anything for her either. She does everything through her own hard work and expects other people to know that and respect her character. As scary as Yoo Jung sometimes appeared to be, I did like him for certain factors. He was very smart and he was able to control situations without really getting his hands dirty. He had a side to him that was wary of people. He thought everyone had their own motives for things and so forth. He's also somewhat protective at times but also very supportive. He is manipulative (the drama does not try to downplay it) but there are so many other layers to him. Baek In Ho and Baek In Ha were also very interesting case as well. I really liked the difference between Yoo Jung and Baek In Ho because personally I felt that Baek In Ho felt more normal. The thing about a lot of the characters that you see in the drama is that they aren't really just side characters. They are all fueled by different things and all have different personalities. So it is very interesting to watch the characters interact and how some characters reach a breaking point based on the way they interpret things and so forth. I really liked that about this drama. 

      I really enjoyed the drama because it felt so realistic to me. This drama was also set in a college setting and it showed how much Hong Seol worked to get her good grades. It is somewhat motivating for the viewers to also start being as diligent and so forth. I would recommend this drama because the actors did an amazing job and the story line was very realistic. You'll meet all sorts of people in school or at work. Some people imitate you and follow you around, some obsessively like a person, some are manipulative with a kind exterior, some have traumatizing backstories, and some will make others do their tasks for them. This drama was definitely very interesting, realistic, and also somewhat creepy at times. I enjoyed it greatly. 

Reply 1988

Episodes: 20 

Synopsis: 

This reply drama takes place in the late 1980s as five childhood friends live together in the same Ssangmundong neighborhood of Seoul. They played with each other as children growing up and now reply on one another during their transitions from teenagers to adults. Each of the characters came from a different family background and it was interesting to see the way they bond with one another and how they resolve familial issues. Sung Deok Sun (Hyeri) struggles for attention as the middle child in her poor family. She's the goofball among their friends and also isnt the smartest of the bunch. Kim Jung Hwan (Ryu Jun Yeol) is obsessed with soccer and hopes to be a fighter pilot one day. He lives with his parents and his brother (who has been trying repeatedly to get into college). His family became rich overnight and he was the richest among his group  of friends. Sung Sun Woo (Ko Gyung Pyo) is the perfect son and perfect student. Living with his mother and little sister, he holds a lot of responsibility as he struggles with his family's financial issues and holds on to the memory of his past father. Ryu Dong Ryong (Lee Dong Hwi) is the son of the school's dean. Rather than being smart, he focuses on trivial facts such as girls and so forth. He struggles with his parents constantly working and not paying attention to him. Choi Taek (Park Bo Gum) is a genius baduk player who dropped out of school to be a professional baduk player. This drama follows these characters and their families around as they transition to adulthood and move on to new phases of their life. 

Review: 

      I definitely liked this a lot because this drama not only portrayed the times back then but also managed to show off the charm of the neighborhoods back then and the connections between people. The friendliness between the neighbors was endearing to watch and it made a lot of people, not only myself, look back on the simplistic ways we used to live and interact with one another back then. The scene with all the mothers calling for their children to come eat dinner from their doorsteps was very interestingly filmed and brought a lot of life to this drama in the beginning. I loved how all the families were portrayed differently as were the relationships the characters had with each other. The different ways families functioned and their different statuses in wealth and the jobs they did all played a role in making this drama so realistic. That's the thing with the Reply series. The characters and relationships are all portrayed very realistically---a slice of life---and the story lines are also very realistic yet endearing. It's the sort of drama that makes you see the romance in daily life.

     Once again this drama played with our hearts as we tried to figure out who Deok Sun's future husband is. It rotated between Choi Taek and Kim Jung Hwan throughout the drama. I liked both boys because they both really liked Deok Sun but in different ways. I liked the silent watchfulness of Kim Jung Hwan and the way he teased her when confronted on anything. They were playful and normal. You could see he tried to hide his feelings and sort of maintain their old way of friendship while slowly shifting to something more. I also liked Taek's kindness and the way he smiled so brightly around her. Even when he was tired or feeling down, he would always smile upon seeing her. Personally, I was drawn more to Taek but I do know a lot of people who rooted for Jung Hwan. For me, I was always on Taek's side. His simplicity, his smile, and the way he was always the nice, quiet type made me fall for him.
      This drama made me cry so much at the end. Not because it was sad but rather it filled me with nostalgia and gave me all the feels. I think this is probably my favorite Reply drama out of all the Reply dramas. And that says a lot because the Reply series are probably some of the best dramas I've watched. But this one really gave me so many feels and told me to remember to cherish my youth, my friends who are also in their youth, my parents who will never be as young as they are now, and so forth. Absolutely amazing drama about growth, life, and romance.