Doctor Stranger

Episodes: 20
Synopsis: Park Hoon is raised in North Korea for most of his life after his father, a heart surgeon, was sent there for a top-secret operation and is not able to return to South Korea. After experiencing traumatizing events in  North Korea, Hoon becomes an accomplished surgeon and manages to escape to South Korea. As he adjusts, he also desperately tries to keep in touch and find his girlfriend from North Korea so that she could come join him. In the process, he meets new people and catches the eyes of many others as he struggles to find his girlfriend and to avoid getting killed off.

Review:
          I actually watched this drama a long time ago but never got to this review.  I actually enjoyed this drama a lot in the beginning. It was filled with suspense, action, and romance. I also liked it because Lee Jong Suk was acting in it and he's the ultimate eye candy. However, as the drama went on I started getting bored of the consistent action and always be suspicious of everyone around them. It seemed so weird to watch the girl that he loved before seem to almost butt heads with him and it felt weird that her character seemed to completely shift 360 degrees. It got tiring after a while. It was a drama with great potential but as it went on it started to get boring. A lot of people rave about this drama and so I feel kind of bad that I didn't fall in love with it like they did. I loved the first few episodes because it was so intense but the drama just felt too repetitive for me.

Time to Love (movie)

             I was really excited to watch this drama because the Chinese title for this is literally "The New Bubujingxin." And my favorite drama of all time is Bubujingxin aka Scarlet Heart. (It is also why I'm extremely excited for Ryeo because it is supposed to be the Korean version of BBJX). However, I want to make a note that this movie has nothing to do with BBJX. The only thing similar to the drama was that it involved time traveling and the girl was called Ruo Xi in the historical time period. I did not enjoy this movie like I thought I would. I just had a difficult time getting into it and spent most of my time confused by the drama. I also found it weird in a lot of ways and I didn't think a lot of things made sense. The attire and the setting was not historically accurate and it felt more fake. I was so confused when a carousel appeared out of no where with no one to push it or anything. It just felt too modern and wrong for a time travel drama. I can accept the things where the girl introduces new things into the past since she came from the present but it got to a point where the movie just seemed like a make believe rather than something plausible like the drama BBJX.
          If you watch this movie, I highly recommend that you think of it as a fun, fake movie and just enjoy whatever romance or eye candy they give you. Other than that, I would not recommend this movie as I did not enjoy it. But shout out to Shawn Dou (14th prince) for looking cute in this drama!

The Rise of A Tomboy (Movie)

         I wanted to watch this movie because the actors from Shan Shan Comes to Eat (aka Boss and Me) and did a fantastic job together. I knew that the actors, Zhang Han and Zhao Li Ying, had amazing chemistry together and looked extremely compatible. In the drama, they played a very realistic couple with their cute inside laughs and serious moments as they took on their relationship and life together. This movie and the characters they played this time around are very different from the drama. This movie was very comical and the characters were also very lively and funny as well. Ii loved seeing Zhao Li Ying act as the tomboy and watch Zhang Han be the one who is always just doing his own thing and following along with her pace. It was actually really interesting to see how they were able to adapt to new roles so easily and so well. 

       The movie starts off with two students at the University of Sydney. He Xiu Wu is trying to perfect a true love formula that allows people to find their perfect matches in the most efficient time possible. She is doing this to try to reduce the number of divorces and broken families. However, she lacks funding to do this research and her formula does not seem to work as she tried it on her roommate Lily and her formula failed. Thus she decided to use herself as an experiment to try to prove that her formula works.

        She meets Ye Si Yi by chance. Ye Si Yi is an amateur composer from Beijing and is kind of the opposite of the tomboy, He Xiu Wu. Ye Si Yi is doing everything he can to profess his love towards his crush and pop star Sun Qiao Qiao but nothing is working as Sun Qiao Qiao is constantly using Ye Si Yi as a rebound. Sun Qiao Qiao also used Ye Si Yi's song to rise to fame. When He Xiu Wu goes to Beijing for her experiment to work, her luggage is lost and she ends up living with Ye Si Yi for the time being. She then bumps into Sun Qiao Qiao constantly and also into Sun Qiao Qiao's boyfriend, Ge Yang (Jung Il Woo), who later would hired her to use her true love formula and to provide her with the funding she needs. When both Ge Yang and  Ye Si  Yi fall in love He Xiu Wu, she is faced with a dilemma about following what her equation produced or what she wants, 

     This movie revolves around He Xiu Wu attempting to complete her true love formula. The question is when it comes to love--is she going to follow her heart or follow her most trusted mathematical equations? 

          This was an amazing movie and I genuinely enjoyed this a lot. Highly recommend. 

Zhen Huan Zhuan (The Legend of Zhen Huan/Empresses in the Palace)

Episodes: 76
Synopsis: 
          This drama follows a young girl named Zhen Huan as she enters the palace to be one of the emperor's many concubines. As she gains the favor of the emperor and moves up in social ranking within the palace walls, she has to face numerous challenges and schemes that threaten everything she has. She has to learn to use her wisdom and wit to hold on to the emperor's favor and to deal with the other women in the palace.

Review: 
        This drama was extremely popular when it came out and I recently just watched it. This drama follows a clever and beautiful girl named Zhen Huan as she lives the life of the emperor's favored concubine. It was extremely interesting to watch the way she deals with problems and the interactions she has with all the other wives in the palace. This drama focuses mostly on what goes on within the palace and what goes on with the emperor's women and it was such a fascinating drama. At first, I was interested and liked watching it. As it went on, it scared me how scary these women can be to scheme, manipulate, and hate on one another. All the drama within the palace roots down to jealousy whether it is of affection from the emperor or of the power other people hold.
       This drama shows that despite being admired by many for being the wife of an emperor and for living a life of luxury, the women of the palace are often plagued with feelings of doubt, jealousy, and loneliness. There is the constant worry of one day losing the favor when one gets favored the worry of never getting favored when one doesn't get favored. These negative feelings and ambition for more power and affection cause these women to start competing with one another, acting cautious around friends, and fighting off plots that other women set up.
        In this drama, the most arrogant and hateful characters can't be hated because they are so human. If you take into consideration what they have to deal with in the palace and all the feelings they suffer with, you can see why they did the things they do. When they explain themselves and their feelings, your heart breaks for them because the palace just isn't as glamorous as it seems and being highly ranked or most doted on isn't the safest thing at times.
         I also like how this drama has things like affairs because I've always wondered if all these women were loyal to the end even when the emperor didn't visit them or when they start to lose feelings for the emperor. I also liked how it focused on women and just how smart, virtuous, powerful, and witty women can be. Despite the ugliness of competition, these women were all smart, well-respected, and many of them got more powerful as they continued life in the palace. It was nice to watch.

Mirror of the Witch

                                    

Episodes: 20

Synopsis: 
The Queen is unable to conceive a child and so she visits the shaman Hong Joo to help her conceive an heir. After using dark magic and sacrificing another woman's life, twins are born to the queen. But the children are cursed and the only solution was to have the boy's curse moved to the girl as well and then kill the girl as an infant. Hong Joo may have helped the queen but her ultimate goal was to bring down the royal family. The king realizing that sacrificing the princess may have dire consequences asks his loyal subject to save the princess. The princess, Seo Ri, is saved and is then raised by the father of Poong Yeon without ever knowing about her identity or of the curse. She was raised in seclusion (like Rapunzel) and always surrounded by talismans that protected her from the evil shaman. One day she goes out of the protective barriers and the curse becomes reactivated again which leads to Seo Ri's life being endangered and for her to learn the truth about herself and how to lift the curse. As more people get involved, the more lives are endangered or lost. As she tries to change her fate and lift the curse, she is helped by Heo Jun, Poong Yeon, and a couple of other people. 

Summary:

       This drama had a "The Moon Embraces the Sun" vibe but it was a whole lot darker and creepier. In the beginning, it felt like "The Moon Embraces the Sun" because there were shamans, a death, a curse, and a killing of a princess. However, this drama showed a lot of gruesome scenes such as finger nails breaking when the curse took hold and so forth. I actually liked the creepy vibe because it gave the drama more suspense. It was also very interesting to watch the good fighting against the evil and it was nice to see the little "protect the princess" squad form as the drama went on.

       The acting was fairly good throughout the drama in my opinion. All of the characters had their flaw, their own fears, and their own insecurities but many of them were able to be selfless enough to help others and work to lift the curse and help with the greater good. The antagonist was also very good at acting and you really start to hate her or be scared of her because of her psychopathic, manipulative ways. At the same time, the curse was also very creepy because it was literally a little dark cloud with a childish, cackling voice that enters the bodies of people in very weird places (LOL). 

         I feel like a lot of drama would never have happened if the Lord trusted his family with the truth and also telling the main character the truth as well. Because only few people knew of the curse and her princess identity, their ignorance as to what they should do and what they can't do caused a lot of drama throughout the show. I also loved how this drama showed the main character moving on and becoming stronger with those who truly support her by her side. It also showed people that struggled to let go of the past and refuse to see that people have to grow and change. It was an interesting contrast between the two "love" interests (even though I find it hard to see the brother--not related by blood to the princess--as a love interest). Not only did I enjoy a lot of the characters but I also loved the chemistry all the actors had when acting together. The romance was so innocent and carefree and the two main characters were so supportive of each other all the time. The drama was pretty enjoyable for me. The ending was also beautiful and so bittersweet. It gave me all the feels. 

Penny Pinchers (Movie)

   

       This movie is about two people who live next door to one another. One is unemployed and always bluffing to attract women. His name is Chun Ji Woong and he is played by the actor Song Joong Ki. The other is a woman who lives in a frugal manner and saves money in every way she can.She is called Gu Hong Sil and is played by the actress Han Ye Seul. The two are complete opposites. When Hong Sil hears that Ji Woong was going to be evicted, she tries to help him and at the same time get him to help her reach her financial deposit goals at her bank. However, things don't turn out so well even as the two get closer to one another.  

       This was a movie that was filled with comedy. There were also some sexual jokes that were made such as when he ran to go buy condoms but didn't have enough money and so forth. Personally, other than the comedic scenes, this movie was really boring for me. I wasn't that interested in the story line nor was I that invested in the characters of this movie. I found the characters kind of annoying even though I loved the actors. I feel like this movie would've done better if it had more depth, character development, and an interesting story line. 

Oh My Ghostess

Episodes: 16
Synopsis:
 Na Bong Sun (Park Bo Young) can see ghosts and because of it she rarely sleeps at night and is often very timid. She works at the Sun Restaurant which is run by the chef Kang Sun Woo (Jo Jung Suk). Kang Sun Woo was once a pushover as a child but grew up to be a cocky, confident fellow and often finds Na Bong Sun's timid personality a bit frustrating. Na Bong Sun has a crush on Kang Sun Woo but hides it away and watches him from afar. Shin Soon Ae (Kim Seul Gi) is a high spirited ghost who has amnesia about her past and how she died. She wanders about trying to go to heaven peacefully and believes the one thing holding her back is because she is a virgin ghost. Thus she begins to enter the bodies of attractive women to seduce men but was unsuccessful in all cases because the men would all fall in. That was until she entered Na Bong Sun's body and found they were compatible to each other. The two then strike a deal that Na Bong Sun will let Shin Soon Ae use her body to lose her virginity and Shin Soon Ae would help Na Bong Sun seduce Kang Sun Woo.

Review: 
This drama reminded me of Master's Sun in a way since the main character can see ghosts and can't really sleep because the ghosts come to see her or bother her. The ghost reminds me of Arang from Arang and the Magistrate because she's very quirky and sassy. I loved this drama because it was very fast paced, comical, cute, and funny. It is also nice to see characters be so sexually open as the ghost was literally trying to seduce a man the first half of the drama so that her soul could go to peace of not being a virgin. As it went on, it was so interesting to see more of the spirit world and physical world tie in here and there. There were a lot of themes going on about friendship, family, life, and death. It was a very beautiful drama and it did not focus on the idea of losing a virginity too much. I felt like that goal was more for the comedy effect and it worked because it was funny.
        I liked how this drama tried to tie up a lot of plot holes that wouldn't have worked out well. For instance, I felt a bit suspicious at first and I thought: "If Kang Sun Woo falls in love with Na Bong Sun...he's not really in love with her but is instead in love with the ghost." Thankfully, the writers took care of that in a very mature way and allowed the drama to continue successfully along the way. I also liked the relationship that Shin Soon Ae had with everyone and how she used Na Bong Sun's body to establish the same connections to her past life. I like how in a way Shin Soon Ae got Na Bong Sun to watch over her remaining family as well. It was very touching.
       There was also a lot of character development as well. The once quiet and timid girl was possessed and befriended by a confident, loud ghost. The two learn from one another and slowly Na Bong Sun also begins to find her voice with a little help of Shin Soon Ae. I was also fairly satisfied with the ending as it was touchingly sad at first and then it ended on a very happy note. I liked this drama a lot as it was light-hearted with great characters and amazing actors. (Props to Park Bo Young for being able to portray two roles both so well. When she acted as the ghost, she really did give off that vibe).