Never Give Up, Dodo

I actually helped sub this on Viki. This drama was hilarious and really enjoyable and it was a little bit naughty at some parts. It's a perfect romantic comedy if you really want a good laugh. There are only ten episodes and each episode lasts about thirty minutes. It follows an engaged couple and shows their ups and downs as they prepare for their marriage.  It was amusing and I recommend you all to watch it. 

Also, Godfrey Gao stars in this and he looked really good. And the main lead's character (the girl) was so funny and unique. I really enjoyed watching them work together. 

Synopsis: 

        Qian Dodo has had many failed relationships. In high school, a fellow student that was very odd and witch-like (kind of like a fortune teller), cursed her to never be able to get married and that she'll be alone till the day she dies. From then on, Qian Dodo believes that her bad luck with marriages was all because of that witch. Time and time again, she was left alone at the altar while her fiance went and eloped with some other woman. She would then try to return her own wedding dress but the shop would refuse to accept it saying that her boobs are too small and the dress won't fit on anyone else. However, she still believed that she would be able to get married and was quite optimistic.

           This story takes place with her current fiance, Xu Fei. She believes that he is her good luck charm. They love one another and have fun together. They are preparing for their marriage to one another happily. 

       This drama shows their life together and their ups and downs and all these obstacles that they face along the way. It also showed some of their naughty role playing and sweet moments. It showed them learning from their experiences and loving each other more. A couple of their obstacles involve ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends, living the single life, meeting family, jealousy, and getting ready for the wedding. All the episodes were amusing, lighthearted, and touching. It had its small serious and realistic moments also showing how there are all these different sides to love and how they still cherish one another and so forth. This was a hilarious and great show and I hope that all of you make some time to check it out.  

Heirs

Review: 

Truth be told, when I first heard that this was an upcoming drama, I was excited. Personally, I had the thought that this was going to be like Boys Over Flowers..WITH A DIFFERENT STORY LINE. So admittedly, I was curious and excited. I got to say that this drama did meet my standards and I enjoyed it (especially in terms of character depth) but I have to say that there were also parts that I wish could have been changed a little. I'm going to get into the good and bad right now. 

1. Park Shin Hye is amazing at crying scenes. I have known that from all her past dramas...not to mention she played the child part in the sad Stairway To Heaven. As good as she is at crying scenes, her personality in real life is very lively and bubbly and carefree. But throughout the drama, I couldn't help but feel that her character really needed more spirit or strength. Cha Eun Sang seemed to always be crying and crying and crying. She's crying when she faces a dilemma, crying alone in a room, and  so forth. I understood some of her tears but I really thought it would've been amazing where she faces a really heart-wrenching situation and just grits her teeth and raises her head high and gets past it while we're all on the verge of tears. I mean how awesome would that be to see that amount of strength in a character? 

2. I love Lee Min Ho. But his character in this drama annoyed me. I'm not saying all the time...because there were many scenes where I was like: "Oh my gosh, this is so cute" and "Oh...how romantic." I was shipping them together at the very beginning when Eun Sang was in the US. But as it slowly went on, I found myself edging to Choi Young Do more and more. (Kim Tan shippers please don't hate me on this. I'm not saying in any way that I'm not satisfied with the ending, it's just my personal opinion on his character) His character felt really clingy to me. Like...without Cha Eun Sang, he couldn't live. And he constantly spoke of wanting to prove his worth and capability to take care of her to Cha Eun Sang...but time and time again, I was not impressed by his actions. I felt that he was all big talk and no action. It makes sense too. He's a teenager under the rules of his father. I just didn't like how he gave Cha Eun Sang a lot of empty promises. Also, I didn't like this about both the characters of Kim Tan and Cha Eun Sang. What is up with the wrist grabbing? And what is up with allowing him to lead you away? A lot of situations had to do with Cha Eun Sang and she should have been there to take care of it and finish it cleanly herself. But almost every time, Kim Tan came and grabbed her wrist and just dragged her away or outside before going back and dealing with it and not letting her deal with her own problems and stand up for herself. Not only that, I felt that he used a lot of sympathy. It was constantly about how his brother was cold and indifferent to him..but the truth is, the brother actually cared for him...only silently. And he always made it seem like his problems were much more bigger than any other character's on this drama. And to put this out there, they all had problems...whether we saw them or not.  

BUT. I will praise him for maturing throughout the entire drama. He learned to stand up for himself and he had a lot more courage and did things that would actually make an impact. And because of that, I applaud him of that. 

(And I do want to ask his stylists...why they made him wear such strange looking clothes throughout the drama. and the amount of make up in that scene where he confronted his father all worn out and all...he looked like he could have been Edward Cullen's best vampire friend or something.) 

3. Choi Young Do. I do admit I was leaning toward him through the entire drama. I liked his character depth a lot and I'll explain. But before I do that, I want to point out that he also used some sympathy points too with his mom who just abandoned him to a father who constantly had affairs. His father was only focused on winning and getting to the top at all costs (even if you have to use underhandedly methods and cheat). His father would hit him/slap him if he didn't meet the expectations. He was also marrying Yoo Rachel's Mom for a business alliance. 

But I felt that his character depth was stronger than Kim Tan's. 

One, because of his father's pressure and how he treated him, Choi Young Do was a feared bully at school. He brought people down. And because he wasn't sure how to react to Cha Eun Sang who he liked, he teased and kind of bullied her also just to see how he would feel for her. 

Two, he began to change from the bully he was. You could literally see him slowly improving himself as he opened up more to Kim Tan and his feelings and worked hard to find a way to beat his father at judo without cheating. And by the end, he was completely focused on finding what brought the best out of him, becoming a better person, and asking for forgiveness. 

Three, he was humorous and easy going. It's really nice to see that in a character. His sarcasm and remarks were some of the many highlights in this drama. 

Four, he treated Cha Eun Sang well most of the time. Other times, he was kind of mean like keeping her from falling in the pool and then just letting go. But he always said something to tell her to take warning. Like for the pool incident, he warned her saying that that was what Kim Tan would do to her, pretend to hold on to her and eventually let her go because of his engagement. 

Five, his own personal emotions and the amount of pain he had to go through knowing that no one really understood him. The best friend he once had is no longer as close as they once were. The girl he liked fell in love with his ex-best friend. The people around him at school are just scared of him. And he missed his mother's love.

4. Chan Young and Bo Na: This couple was another reason to keep watching because of their humor and Bo Na's personality.

5. Myung Soo (acted by Hyung Sik) appeared to be happy and carefree throughout the entire drama...but you see at the end that he might have had more to him than we (as an audience) know and we probably will never know what it truly was. 

6. I felt that they had a lot of potential on Kim Won's love life. The repressed relationship could have had a lot more going on and I felt like I wanted more from that couple and to know more about them because they were similar in some ways to Kim Tan and Cha Eun Sang. 

7. They had a lot of great OSTs in that drama. I think a lot of them would have fit a bit more and made the scene more sentimental than the epic: LOVE IS THE MOMENT. I heard that so many times that I couldn't help but just sing along to it even if it was a really touching scene. 

Special shout out to my friend with the initials C.L. who helped write this synopsis along with my help:

Synopsis           

          Whether you are an heir to a large business corporation or an heir to poverty, your worlds will collide with each other and create chaos. Cha Eun Sung lived in poverty with her mother in Korea while her big sister was studying in the United States. Cha Eun Sang takes jobs as a chicken delivery girl and a barista to help her mother pay the bills and she has a dark brooding hatred for the rich. Eun Sang’s sister, Cha Eun Seok calls their mother to tell her she is getting married and needs money for a wedding. Eun Sang takes this chance to go to America to start a new life with her sister but is sorely disappointed when she learns that Eun Seok is not getting married or going to school. Instead Eun Seok is a full time waitress living with an abusive man and is infuriated to find that Eun Sang has discovered her secret. Coldly treating her little sister, she digs through Eun Sang’s suitcase and takes the money. She then runs off telling her sister to go back to Korea, leaving Eun Sang shouting and crying after her.

All the while Kim Tan was sitting in the café looking at them from an open window and becomes acquainted with Eun Sang after he sees his American friend pick up a bag of bean powder from Eun Sang’s bag and his friend becomes hospitalized. This causes a run in with the police and Eun Sang’s passport is temporarily confiscated and she is forced to stay in Kim Tan’s house until it is returned. During her stay she has an unpleasant encounter with Kim Tan’s fiancé Rachel Yoo who demands that Eun Sang leave Kim Tan’s house immediately. Eun Sang eventually returns to South Korea with the help of her friend Chan Young and leaves a love struck Kim Tan behind.

            Kim Tan is one of the heirs to a large business corporation know as the Jeguk group and his fiance Rachel is the heir to a large fashion company, they’re the perfect couple…or is it just an alliance? After his encounter with Eun Sang, Kim Tan starts to have second thoughts about his marriage because he has completely fallen for Eun Sang. He was pretty nonchalant about his marriage before as he wasn’t concerned with it. He was more focused on his cold older brother.

            Eun Sang begins to attend a school full of heirs to large businesses, and upper middle class jobs thanks to Kim Tan’s father who wants her to realize that she and Kim Tan can never be together by observing the school’s high class environment. He wants her to realize that she and Kim Tan come from two different worlds and they can never be together. Kim Tan holds on tightly to Eun Sang and even breaks off his engagement with Rachel to be with Eun Sang. He follows her around in the school which makes it hard for her to avoid him. At home, he is unavoidable also. Her mother works as a maid for his household and they were allowed to live quietly and out of sight there (since the sister took the money away). When Kim Tan came home, she was really shocked to find out he was the second son of the Jeguk Group she hated so much. In school, the classes and groups are very well-distinguished. At home, lines are drawn. It just shows Eun Sang just how different her world is from Tan’s.  

            Rachel Yoo may seem like the worst person in the world but in a few parts of the drama you have no choice but to sympathize with her. Her mother is marrying a man for his money/alliance and she has gained an unwanted sibling, Choi Young Do. She hates Eun Sang for stealing away Kim Tan and she thinks that she is also seducing Young Do which is why during a camping trip she slaps Eun Sang but Young Do interferes and protects Eun Sang. Once she finds out that Eun Sang is actually poor she decides to expose Eun Sang’s lowly life by ordering a delivery of coffee to a party filled with their rich classmates just to let them all see Eun Sang come and deliver it. Kim Tan also reveals himself as an illegitimate son so in a way Rachel’s plan backfired.

            Choi Young Do is the heir to his father’s company and Kim Tan’s former best friend. After finding out about Kim Tan’s illegitimacy (when they were younger), he is infuriated and breaks off their friendship. Young Do falls in love with Cha Eun-Sang also. He’s in love with her but is not sure how to express it. So he does everything he can to grab her attention by tripping her and pushing her into a pool. But he also protects her and helps her when she is trying to let go of Kim Tan’s hand. At times he may seem like a jerk but he is actually the sweetest. He keeps many secrets for others and when he wants something he will use it as leverage but he will never tell another soul.

            Kim Won is Kim Tan’s older brother who doesn’t acknowledge his younger sibling and is indifferent towards him. His relationship with Jeon Hyun-Joo is very rocky because of his driven attitude towards the top and deep down he knows he is hurting the one he loves but he has no choice but to put it aside. As the drama goes on you see him warming up to Kim Tan and envies his courage in trying to make his relationship work with Eun Sang despite the pressure put on by their father. Kim Won realizes too late that it is lonely at the top.

            Lee Bo Na and Yoon Chan Young are the cutest couple because Bo Na gets jealous very easily because of Chan Young’s relationship with Eun Sang. Chan Young thinks it’s very cute and likes to tease her but Eun Sang gets annoyed because she has to constantly hear Bo Na tell her to stay away from her man. When she finds out that Kim Tan has returned from the U.S. she gets anxious that Chan Young might find out they were once in a relationship and she thinks that Kim Tan is back to win her heart so she keeps telling Kim Tan that she doesn’t like him and he should get over her. Kim Tan and Chan Young find this amusing. Though they seem like the perfect couple (and they are, to be honest), they also had their ups and downs just like any couple and they dealt with them all in their own ways...which is adorably. 

            The heirs are not as special and perfect as we think they are. In fact, they have a lot of pressure upon their shoulders. And the one who wears the crown will bear the weight of the crown. 

Lan Ling Wang

Episodes: 46

Okay, so I know it looks like a lot of episodes. But trust me, this drama is definitely worth watching. I highly recommend this because the character development, the plot, the chemistry between actors, and the acting were all amazing. The actors that acted in this drama were amazing and I have to say I truly enjoyed the antagonists' (king and Zheng'er) performance in this drama, absolutely amazing acting. The OST was also very beautiful and it kind of reminded me of BBJX's OST in some ways. 

Synopsis:

        General Lan Ling, according to history, was a very good-looking man. His face was so beautiful that he had to hide his face during battles. He was a great general and was basically a legendary war god of some sort. He was well-loved by the people which caused the crown prince (General Lan Ling's brother) to feel threatened. He is acted by Feng Shao Feng.Yang Xue Wu is the last priestess of her clan and lives with her blind grandmother. She's lively and is ostracized by the girls in her village and not many people liked her because she was always so wild and causing trouble. She is acted by Ariel Lin. 

        Yang Xue Wu's grandmother had warned her about General  Lan Ling and how she may have a tragic fate with him. However, time and time again, the two keep encountering one another and helping one another. Unconsciously, the two fall in love and Ariel Lin is caught in the war between  Northern Qi and Northern Zhou. She saved a man called Ah Guai who turned out to be the Zhou emperor Yuwen Yong. By saving him, he fell in love with her and their fates became tangled together.

         General Lan Ling also loved Yang Xue Wu but she kept rejecting him because she had saw a fate where he is with a woman named Zheng er. When it was time to select a bride for General Lan  Ling, it was very comedic as he constantly showed his affection more and more toward Yang Xue Wu. It was extremely cute and interesting to watch how she actually was quite well-loved and got chosen as the bride. Zheng er, one of the candidates, tried to get the General Lan Ling to fall in love with her. Zheng er had a crush on General Lan  Ling since she was a servant at the palace. He had helped her avoid getting in trouble with the guards for sneaking out of the palace and she forever remembered him. Now that she's recognized as the god daughter of some official, she is given the opportunity to marry General Lan Ling. However, the plan to get General Lan Ling backfired and she was sent to get punished. 

         Yu Wen Yong who liked Yang Xue Wu backed off when Yang Xue Wu clearly liked General Lan Ling. For the sake of her happiness, Yuwen Yong stepped aside promising that he will come and take care if she is mistreated in any way. Yang Xue Wu married General Lan Ling (aka Fourth Prince). They lead a very happy life together. They faced some hilarious moments and were very loving toward one another. Their servants were also loyal and faithful. His grandmother, the Empress Dowager, was an extremely kind, old woman who favored Yang Xue Wu. Fifth prince was a good friend to have around also (he was a bit of flirt; played by  George Hu). However, trouble occurs when Zheng er comes back to the manor saying that she will be a servant to pay off her debt towards what she had done. However, she had another motive...to get General Lan Ling. 

        Because she lived in the palace, she was very sly and knew to cover her tracks. She was very smart too and quick to catch on to things. She was also quite ruthless. She pretended to be innocent as she purposely did things and caused scenarios to have the Fourth Prince have arguments with Yang Xue Wu. As Yang Xue Wu and the Fourth Prince continued to fight, misunderstandings continued to build up and it made Zheng er seem like the innocent one. The last straw was when Zheng er set up a plan to catch bandits with Yang Xue Wu but then acted as if Yang Xue Wu was accusing her of being dirtied and so forth. Upset, Yang Xue Wu ran off heartbroken. However, when the fourth prince found out about the truth behind what Zheng er was trying to do to his relationship with Yang Xue Wu, he abandons her in the middle of nowhere.

         Zheng er got raped by two men passing by and then tried to commit suicide by hanging herself. However, she was discovered by the crown prince (who had a crush on her since they were younger) and is saved. She tells him that the reason she was like this was because of the fourth prince and Yang Xue Wu and she seeks revenge. The two work together to get revenge and also for the crown prince to successfully inherit the throne. Zheng er marries the crown prince (who later became the emperor after murdering his own father unwillingly). Zheng er was very ruthless, scary, and evil. She had the emperor in the palm of her hand. The emperor was just a bad ruler without his priorities sorted and he had bad judgement about things.

          Based on history, the emperor gets scared of General Lan Ling's power and influence over the citizens who love him so dearly. He ends up sentencing him to death by poison. In this drama, there was a twist to the situation which was really nice to see. I won't reveal too much because I feel like this drama is best watched when you find out things yourself. 

          The crown prince and Zheng er are supposed to be our antagonists. Though I was very annoyed with Zheng er's sly ways and how she tried to manipulate situations, you could still connect with her in some way. She liked a guy so much that she did stupid things and it lead to a point where she couldn't go back. You feel bad for her at times too and you realize she's not that bad of a person. But she's so ruthless as she tried to maintain her cold image, that you would get scared of her only to find herself struggling internally also. As for the crown prince, I had trouble bringing myself to hate him. Every time he did something bad, he felt conflicted and scared and he was told to do a lot of those things by his adviser and Zheng er. He felt very guilty and it makes it hard for you to hate him.  

         The Zhou emperor, Yuwen Yong, time and time again, proved he was a great man. Not only was he on good terms with General Lan Ling (only fighting because they are at war), he was also very caring towards Yang Xue  Wu. He was a great ruler who cared about his people and balanced everything quite well. He was a great character and  I adored him. Another character I absolutely adored was Xiao Dong. I thought I would hate him at first because he sold her to a brothel in the beginning (he needed the money because his grandmother was sick). However, he felt guilty about it and they got close afterwards. He worked in the manor as a servant and was totally loyal. I think he had a crush on Yang Xue Wu also but he said that he knows his place and will only watch over her. He was the best friend and most dependable person Yang Xue Wu had (other than Fourth Prince and Yuwen Yong). 

         All in all, this drama was amazing. It had a great story line, a very touching love story, and great acting and chemistry. The characters all had depth and some background. They all had flaws and their moments of vulnerability which made this drama so perfect. I highly recommend this and I think you will all fall in love with this drama and the characters. The acting was amazing and I have to say this is one of those dramas where you hate the antagonist but you understand/feel bad for them. Great drama! 

Just You

EPISODES: 21 

This drama was perfect in so many ways. It was funny, it was adorable, it as romantic, and it was just a great drama that kept me hooked. It was funny and light-hearted and it was also kind of realistic in some cases. It was a great drama to watch and it was very enjoyable. In every episode, there were scenes that had me laughing out loud and scenes that made me squeal. The story was amazing, the characters were fun to watch, the interactions were amusing, and the buildup to the relationship was adorable to watch. I was extremely pleased with the ending and I am so glad I came across this drama and I would recommend all to watch this because it was definitely make you smile. The chemistry between the actors were also very cute and fun to watch.


 Synopsis: 
     Cheng Liang Liang is a kind-hearted and naive girl. She loves roses and her goldfish (that she treats as a child). She is very warm-hearted and she loves her friends and parents. She is also extremely friendly to others and always smiling. Not to mention, one trait that I can really connect with, she loves to eat. It just so happened that one day, she discovers that someone had bought the house she was renting. Refusing to leave as she had just recently paid rent, she ends up having to live together with this person.  This person is Qi Yi. He's very cold and very demanding, he gave a lot of rules that she had to abide when living in his house. Some of those things include keeping the place clean and organized, and making sure that the bathroom is dry after she showers, and so forth.
     Not only does she have to deal with him at home but he just so happened to be the boss of the company where she works. Qi Yi believes that people can't work and be productive if they are dating at work, so he but up a dating ban. This made all of Liang Liang's co-workers upset. Liang Liang's best friend, Kate, who also works there just so happened to be dating Alex (another co-worker). So when her friends Kate and Princess (who doesn't work at the company but comes once in a while to send lunch and so forth) find out that Liang Liang and the Boss are living together, they immediately tell her to get the move on and make him fall in love with her. Maybe if he fell in love with her, he'll get rid of the dating ban!
      It was extremely cute and humorous watching Liang Liang take her friends' advice. However, throughout the drama, the two bonded and she caused a lot of trouble for him also. At first their relationship with one another wasn't too good, he wasn't used to her over-happy attitude and he didn't know how to deal with her energy. She was really persistant even though Qi Yi tried to ignore her a couple of times. It was really cute.  Overtime, he gets used to her and realizes her good qualities. They learn to live together without really disturbing one another. When Qi Yi accidentally fed Liang Ling's beloved fish the wrong thing, her fish dies. He tries to replace the fish so that she's not sad but Liang Liang recognized that this was not the fish she raised ever since she was a little girl. It was the first time, he saw just how passionate and how connected she was to things that she loved. A lot of people thought she was being overdramatic about it, but I think it shows that even though it is just a fish, the fact that she had it for so long and became deeply connected to it shows her character.

      New character additions were then shown.  The first one to appear was Dean. This guy is the best, to be very honest. He was very caring towards Liang Liang and he did show a bit of interest towards her. However, he took her feelings into consideration and he had a very unique friendship with Qi Yi. Throughout the drama, he was almost like Cupid. He would instigate jealousy from the guys so that the couples can work out their problems in the end. He's a really sweet guy and his addition to the drama made it more enjoyable. The second character addition, is the annoying ex-girlfriend of Qi Yi. The reason why Qi Yi is so so cold and against "dating" was because this ex-girlfriend (Jia Yu) had commitment issues. She made up a lie and left him on the day he was going to propose. Now she's back when Qi Yi has already built a steady relationship with Liang Liang (and finally smiling a lot more also). She wants to win him back and is making up another lie about the reason why she left and how she did it for him and so forth. She was extremely annoying throughout the drama and I absolutely despised her. I understood more about why she acted like that and why her character is like that but I didn't like her character for bringing so much sadness into the drama.
      This drama as the character interactions were cute. It was also nice to see how Liang Liang's parents and his parents all played a part in the drama. Qi Yi who had been looking for his mother for years, finally got to reunite his family (which was extremely adorable). I loved all the minor couples and the way the co-workers helped out one another like best friends would. It was a great drama, comedic, sweet, romantic, and really enjoyable. The ending was unbelievably satisfying (for the last episode, you have to finish watching the ending credits/song to see the ending) and perfect. Also their chemistry was amazing, they had a great relationship offset also, and their kiss scenes were pretty good.

Only part that was frustrating was that towards the end, all of the attention was focused on Jia Yu and Qi Yi was trying to be nice and help her get over her problems, but Liang Liang was left to struggle by herself. But other than that, I thought it was good. It made Liang Liang stronger and more likely to make a move and so forth. So I would highly recommend this. 

Master's Sun

EPISODES: 17

This was an amazing drama that I enjoyed. I loved it so much. It was so simple and natural. I loved the actors and the different stories behind each ghost. It was well done and the soundtrack was absolutely lovely and fun. I wished that it could've been longer but it was perfect just the way it is. The ending also made me feel good. Great drama and I would definitely recommend this. This was fun, cute, and the random ghosts that appeared kept the story interesting. It was a very nice drama to watch and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Synopsis: 

    Tae Gong Sil was involved in an accident a few years ago. After that, she was able to see and hear ghosts. She lived in constant fear and rarely slept. She didn't wash her hair and didn't look her best when she went out. Ghosts followed and chased her just to have her do favors for them. Before her accident and her ability to see ghosts, she was known as the Big Sun among her friends (Tae yang: Sun; Miss Tae). However, after the accident, she ended all connections with her friends. She lives in a rooftop room and cleans around the place where she's living. 

     One night, she came across Joong Won. He is the president of a shopping mall named Kingdom. He's arrogant and calculative. He is also very cold. It just so happened that whenever she touched Joong Won, the ghosts would disappear and she wouldn't see them or sense them. Because of his ability to keep her from seeing ghosts, she went to go find him at Kingdom. At first he didn't believe that she could see ghosts and figured she was just a bit crazy and didn't pay too much attention to her. But he came to realize that she could be a big help towards him and Kingdom. She starts off working as a part of the cleaning department at Kingdom and interacted with several ghosts within the mall. 

      As they get closer, Joong Won asks her to look for Heejoo (his ex-girlfriend who stole his money but died in a car accident). He was kidnapped then and had to read something (which traumatized him resulting him not being able to read).

So he has this bitter resentment towards his ex-girlfriend and wants Tae Gong Sil to help find out where his money is. He calls her the million-dollar radar. Throughout the drama, each episode was a different ghost story asking her for help. I loved the interactions between the ghosts, the individual stories, and the connection between the main characters. The acting was amazing and their chemistry was really unique and fun to watch.
         Her friends called Tae Gong Sil the big sun when they attended school. But there was also a little sun at the school. She's called Tae Yi Ryung and she's an actress now. She's pretty and a bit cocky. I was worried that I would hate her since she might cause problems between the main couple. Thankfully, she didn't pose too much of a threat throughout the drama and I got to say, I found her really cute throughout the drama. She liked Kang Woo and did everything to chase after him. As for Kang Woo, he liked Tae Gong Sil. He was really nice to her and she liked him at one point also. But I was really confused with his character because I wasn't sure if he was pretending to like her or actually liked her. At the end, I think he did truly like her but she already moved on.
        I loved this drama. It was fun, the ghosts were scary at first but they are actually not that bad as you continue on, the mini stories in each episode was very cute, the interactions between all the actors were enjoyable, and the acting was great. This definitely is one of my favorite dramas.

A Terracotta Warrior/Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior

This is a drama that takes place in three time periods with a concept of love and reincarnation. I really enjoyed this drama because the three stories were all unique and humorous in their own ways. I found a lot of the scenes very romantic and it was interesting to watch and see how they seemed to still have a form of connection to their past lives together. I enjoyed it and I always like these dramas that have to deal with different time periods.

Synopsis:

       Our story starts off in the Qin dynasty. Han Dong er is a girl of spunk and is the daughter of a teacher. She loves stars a lot and one day saw shooting stars fall from the sky. These shooting stars caused a lot of chaos for those working on the terracotta warriors. Meng Tian Fang is the general who kept a close watch on the making of the terracotta warriors. The next day, Han Dong er decided she wanted to go find the shooting stars. She found fragments of pieces as she went along and just so happened upon the emperor who was being chased down by assassins. She didn't know it was the emperor but tried to help him. However, she accidentally hit the emperor and got mistaken as an assassin instead by Meng Tian Fang. The emperor began to like her and knew that she had tried to save him so he demanded them keep her at the terracotta place. Scared, she managed to get away. She only came back, dressed as a man, to find her butterfly pendant and ended up working there until she got found out. 

        Overtime, Meng Tian Fang also came to like her, especially after finding out that she was a girl. So Han Dong er is in between this love triangle. However, she chooses Meng Tian Fang. They face a lot together. Meanwhile, people in the palace, were making an elixir of immortality. Han Dong er stole one of the immortality medicine. Meng Tian Fang and her fall in love and she loses her virginity to him. However, they get found out by the emperor. Infuriated, he punishes them and orders that Meng Tian Fang be turned into a terracotta warrior alive. Before wrapping him with cloth and then clay, Han Dong er went up to him and gave him the medicine. However, this medicine didn't play much of an important role besides that people wanted to have it. Han Dong er ended up accompanying him and got burned alive.

         Now, it is the early 1900s. Zhu Li  Li, a reincarnation of Han Dong er, is an aspiring actress. Her childhood friend, Lan Tian, is the reincarnation of Meng Tian Fang. They know nothing about their past lives. However, they are currently filming a drama together and it is the exact story of Meng Tian Fang and Han Dong er. The truth is that this drama wasn't actually for entertainment purposes. The director, a reincarnation of the emperor, wants to find the tomb of the Qin emperor and see if there are any "living" terracotta warriors. Zhu  Li Li and Lan Tian ended up actually falling into the tomb. Lan Tian notices a terracotta warrior that looks very similar to him and while observing, in a sudden moment, the spirit within the terracotta warrior entered Lan Tian's body. This was hilarious because it was actually Meng Tian Fang's spirit and he didn't know that Han  Dong er already died. So he believed that Zhu Li Li was the love of his life. There were a lot of moments where he didn't understand the world around him but he still protected her. Zhu Li  Li was beginning to fall in love with Lan Tian so she didn't understand why he became this "Meng Tian Fang." A lot of people believed that maybe he got hit on the head and believed that he was the drama role he was acting as, Meng Tian Fang. However, there were some people who believed he may just be a living terracotta. They enter the tomb which had a lot of traps and dangers. This story ends with Zhu Li Li taking a bullet for Lan Tian/Meng Tian Fang and Meng Tian Fang realized that the love that he knew wasn't going to be here even if Zhu Li Li was a reincarnation. 

          Now it's set in modern day China..or at least it was modern when this drama came out. They don't remember any of their past lives and they will not remember it to the very end of the story. But I liked it because it was like this. They start to find out more of the story of Han Dong er and Meng Tian Fang and also the story of Zhu Li Li as they tried to solve the puzzle of the living terracotta and protect the emperor's tomb. A Japanese man named Haneda claims he's the descendant of Xu Fu (who made the elixir) and wants to find it. As a lot of drama is involved in this as they try to figure things out, I felt it was also very light-hearted between the main leads. They don't know who each other is from their past lives but they still fell in love. And it was the sweetest ending ever because he said the exact same thing that Meng Tian Fang had said, that he would love her even if it was a thousand years later. And it shows that even though they don't remember their past lives, their soul remembers and that no matter what their love story won't change.  

Shining Days (璀璨人生) (Cui Can Ren Sheng)

This drama had an amazing concept and a great story line. It was very complicated with the relationships and it showed changes in the human character as they become colder and crueler over time. For most dramas, it's very happy and cheerful while focusing on the main leads' happy but conflicted relationship. Not in this case. This drama basically combined every bad possible scenario into one and it didn't entirely focus on the main relationship as there were some conflicts as she tried to find the person she could trust. It also shows how fate brought a couple back together after fifteen years and also how much emotional and physical turmoil they have to go through. It was absolutely amazing, the story of this drama. It made me tear up in the beginning first few episodes and was very dramatic throughout the rest of the drama. They had an amazing cast who really knew how to act and play their role. I loved how they all did an amazing job in portraying pain, betrayal, and how they are only thinking for their own benefit often.

I liked the story concept of it all. But I feel like it had a bit too many components that show the negative side of things. I felt it was unreasonably dramatic for a lot of scenes and that this drama could've been resolved in fewer episodes. I disliked how towards the end, the episodes showed so many flashbacks that it didn't really focus on the main story. The cast was amazing and did a great job in portraying the scenes and their characters. But since they are so amazing at showing their characters, I felt that more could have been done with this drama like to have less betrayal and for them to have some humorous moments. 

Synopsis:

         Though this drama starts off with a brief scene of a girl jumping off what looks like a bridge, our story actually starts many years ago. One woman called Yu Yue was madly in love with her fiance, Ye Ping Tao. She decides to let him meet up with her best friend. Her best friend is very wealthy and her name is Yang Man Ping. But it just so happened that Yang Man Ping liked the fiance and the fiance, wanting a better future and career for himself, marries Yang Man Ping. 

            Yu Yue is devastated as she cries and begs for her best friend to give her fiance back since she had nothing. But Yang Man Ping refused saying that she was pregnant and that she couldn't possibly let her child live without a father. They leave and Yu Yue tries to commit suicide. She gets saved by a couple of people and an old woman in the crowd, checked her pulse and told her that she was also pregnant. She was very solemn for many months, living with her brother. 

            Then this is what started all the drama in this series. It just so happened that Yu Yue and Yang Man Ping were in the same hospital giving birth to their child. Their children were born on the same month, day, year and in the same hospital. While Yu Yue was considering signing up her daughter for adoption, she overhears some nurses talking about the present they received from the Yang family. Hearing this, she goes to make sure that it truly is her ex-fiance and ex-best friend. It was. And in that moment, she did the craziest thing ever. She managed to swap the babies saying that she wanted her daughter to live a good life so that she won't end up like her, being discriminated because they were poor. And she swore that she will make sure that Yang Man  Ping's daughter doesn't get anything or be anything. 

          Our story immediately kicks into when the kids have grown to be children. Yu Fei is actually Yang Man Ping's daughter. Only Yu Yue knows the truth. Her brother, Yu Fei's uncle, doesn't even know. He treats her like a father would and takes care of her. He is a stunt actor hoping for a big break that never comes. Yu Fei is very filial towards her mother even though her mother casts her aside coldly time and time again. She constantly asks her uncle why her mother hates her so much and her uncle would say, "She doesn't hate you, it's just because you look like your dad and he abandoned your mother." 

             This was literally what her uncle thought was the case as he didn't understand how a mother could be so cold to her daughter. Yu Yue purposely started to work in the cafeteria at Ye Ling's school. Ye Ling is Yu Yue's biological daughter who goes to an elite school and practices ballet every day. She watched over Ye Ling and treated Ye Ling better than Yu Fei. Yu Fei went to the elite school every day after her regular school to help her mother out. She helped earn money by eating food that the other kids didn't like to eat so that she can help with their living conditions since Yu Yue has asthma. She just so happened to see Ye Ling get bullied by a girl named Xiao Hui for getting top place in ballet. She stood up for Ye Ling and from then on they became good friends. 

               Yu Fei was also friends with a boy that was very smart and was trying to be successful in the future called Yu Yang. They were very good friends. She also helped save a boy that was being kidnapped and they shared a strong connection with one another. The boy was called Zhang He Fan. They never met again after getting saved and they didn't even know what one another's name was. But Zhang He Fan fell in love with her and couldn't forget her and he would never forget her eyes. 

               Yu Yue also began to feel guilty overtime for treating Yu Fei the way she was. She decides to hide the truth when Ye Ling heads off to England with her family and promised to repay Yu Fei for how she treated her. 

               Now they are older and that is when everything gets out of control. I'll try to summarize this. So Yu Fei works hard but tries to not be successful. This is because Yu Yue had an asthma attack once (which led to her being thankful and sorry towards Yu Fei) and Yu Fei made a personal promise to herself saying that as long as her mother could wake up, she'll be willing to never be successful. Yu Fei is in a relationship with Yu Yang (the smart boy from her childhood). They are in love but they didn't have much money to provide for themselves. Ye Ling met Zhang He Fan overseas and since her eyes were similar to the girl who had saved him before, they dated for a while. But he still couldn't forget "the eyes" and broke up with her. But she was not able to let go. These four people meet again when Ye Ling and Zhang He Fan go back to China. 

            Yu  Yang ends up falling in love with Ye Ling and begins to abandon and mistreat Yu Fei time and time again. But for his own personal gain, he had to pretend to still be in a relationship with her and still care for her. He fooled her so that they got engaged and she even got pregnant, but he still was so cruel to her and tried to get her to get rid of the child. Ye Ling got hit by a car for Zhang He Fan and became temporarily blind. To repay her for losing her eyesight, they get engaged. However, on their wedding day, Yu Fei found out that Ye Ling had something going on with Yu Yang and Yu Yang told her that he didn't want her anymore. (Yu Yang was such the instigator of many problems). She asks about it afterwards and Ye Ling says it was because she was drunk and thought it was He Fan and begs Yu Fei to forgive her and not tell He Fan that her eyes did recover after the surgery. But He Fan heard it all and felt betrayed, so he left Ye Ling. Slowly, he finds himself going back to Yu Fei's side and promising to take care of her child also. Yu Yang and Ye Ling combine forces to torture Yu Fei. After many betrayals, lies, and people using one another, the truth is revealed about the identities of the girls. It brings more stress, betrayal, and lies. 

             Everything managed to get resolved after a long way around. It showed how some people will lie and use you and betray others to get something that they can benefit from. It's very hard to watch and it really breaks down on one's character. I basically just watched Yu Fei's character just get broken down bit by bit because of the betrayals around her. However it was nice to see that everyone found their own form of happiness in a way and what comes around goes around. I loved the acting but I feel the drama could have been improved in many ways.