Ryeo (aka Moon Lovers)

Episodes: 20

Synopsis:

Scarlet Heart started off as a Chinese internet novel. After the story got turned into a Chinese drama, it was an instant hit among the viewers in China and other Asian countries. Korea also enjoyed watching the Chinese drama and after a few years producers decided to make the Korean version of Scarlet Heart. This drama is called Ryeo and it is also known as Moon Lovers. The story revolves around a girl who ends up traveling back in time into her previous incarnation's body after "dying" in the modern world. As she interacts with the princes of that time, she finds that the history she knows is as it is because of the things she said, influenced, and acted upon back in the day. Not only is she caught in the political battle and power struggle as the princes fight for the throne but she is also caught in numerous love triangles. This drama follows the basis of the characters, the plot line, and the history from the Chinese internet novel/drama but also adds in it's own twists and turns. It is similar yet very different from the Chinese drama all at the same time.  

Review:

             For those who have followed this blog since the very beginning, you would know that I am a huge fan of the Chinese drama Bubujingxin and that I recommend it to almost everyone I meet. When I found out that the Korean version was going to be a thing, I was excited yet worried that it would disappoint me. The thing with Korean dramas is that it is more widely watched by international fans compared to Chinese dramas so I know that for many people, Ryeo is their first encounter to the story of Bubujingxin and I know it is going to have similarities and differences to the Chinese version. I don't mind differences because that gives the Korean drama it's own charm. However, I was worried about it disappointing or not having good acting or not showing the true intensity in some of the scenes. For example, the Korean remake of Fated to Love You was a huge disappointment to me because I watched the Taiwanese version a long time ago and the emotions involved with the characters in each scene hit closer to home than the Korean version did (they made the guy too nice when the whole point of the drama was that he was a dick to her and that you're supposed to feel bad for her). Similarly for BBJX, I cried in so many scenes as the drama went on and I truly applauded the acting of these actors because they did such a great job. I hope that this is the same case for Ryeo and that they're able to get the audience to follow along with the story and feel everything these characters may be feeling.

           One point I want to note is that Ryeo is not based on Korean history as they are using the Chinese history as the storyline. In BBJX, they actually followed real Chinese history and made it so that the main character (who got transported  back in time) caused the way history was made. In Ryeo, they are using the same storyline with their own twists and they are also using new ways to express the characters such as by making the 4th prince a lot darker and more mysterious. I found it interesting when they changed the backgrounds of some people, altered their personalities a bit, or even adding in childhood trauma to the 4th prince. It was nice to watch. It felt like I was watching a drama that was similar to the plot line of BBJX because they made it very unique to itself. 

             I actually really enjoyed this drama because it followed the general plot of the original story and the characters acted out based on the original guidelines for what their personality was like as well. However, despite following the Chinese drama, this drama also made it it's own by adding in scenes and changing the way scenes play out. I truly enjoyed it. There were some scenes that were very unexpected because it didn't happen in the Chinese one and the ending is just as heart-wrenching in it's own way as the Chinese one was.
          The actors all did an amazing job. The main characters had amazing chemistry and IU did a great job as Hae Soo. Lee Jun Ki definitely had me head over heels throughout the entire drama and his backstory makes their relationship even more beautiful. Also, the idea of him having a scar was not seen in the Chinese one but using that, you can see how much Hae Soo means to him because she covered the scar for him and wasn't scared of it. The OSTs were also absolutely beautiful. They are happy yet sad at the same time--especially when you go back and listen to it after watching this drama.
         I would highly recommend this Korean drama but I would also highly suggest that you watch the Chinese version first so you can compare and contrast. You may come to like both dramas as much as I did. Ryeo is done in a very fantasy-like, cheerful way where the story adapts to the main character  and a lot happens within a few episodes without much buildup whereas for BBJX it was definitely more realistic and hit closer to home because you get so involved in the life and story. BBJX also takes its time to let the story slowly unravel. The characters in BBJX also followed mannerisms of the time whereas Ryeo made the characters seem more modern. I really enjoyed the Korean drama but I feel like I definitely enjoyed Ryeo more because I was able to compare and contrast with the original. All in all, I was not disappointed by Ryeo and I greatly enjoyed it. It was cheerful, fun, fast-paced, and almost fantasy-like. It definitely was very comfortable to watch and the way scenes were shot were very aesthetically pleasing.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND! AND I HOPE WE GET TO SEE A HAPPY ENDING SOON--WHETHER IT'S FROM A FEW SPECIAL EPISODES OR A SECOND SEASON! I'LL BE WAITING!!!
(P.S. If you're feeling sad about the 10th prince, I highly recommend you watch the Chinese version because he gets a happy ending there since he stayed out of politics--because he didn't really understand it. Haha!)

Alice: Boy From Wonderland (Movie)

         With less than a week from Halloween, I decided to watch a horror movie that seemed pretty interesting. In this movie, Hye Joong is a graduate student who has bad nightmares which keep her from being able to daily tasks and go along with her life. She knows that she has once killed a person and can't seem to shake it off as it continuously haunts her in her dreams. As she constantly feels unwell, she is unable to remember things or do things well. People around her begin to look down on her and criticize her as well.
         She ends up going to a doctor but they find nothing wrong with her. Her aunt makes Hye Joong goes to a shaman to help take care of her problems and to stop these nightmares from happening. The shaman tells her to go to a place called Wonderland. Wonderland is a villa where Hye Joong and her family had vacationed when she was younger. Hye Joong doesn't remember much of her childhood and so she has to retrace her steps back into her past. She is to find something that she lost within the 15 days that she is there so that her nightmares can go away. If she fails to do so, all will die--herself, her aunt, and the other characters that she is to meet.
         There she meets a young man named Hwan and a woman named Ryun. Hwan is constantly by Hye Joong's side and speaks of her as though he is familiar with her from the past. He is often frustrated by the fact she doesn't recognize him. While living here, she notices strange things and strange figures showing themselves and so forth. At the same time, she also gets these flashbacks from when she was younger of being in the house and they begin to correlate with the figures she sees in the house. As she starts making an effort to find what she has lost in the house and trying to piece things together, she has to deal with the other characters in the movie. Ryun is constantly looking for her when she's alone, prepared to kill her, but Hwan is trying to protect her. As the movie goes on, reality and dreams seem to blend and blur together. The truth also slowly comes out as well as Hye Joong remembers. As it went on, it got extremely twisted but it was still nonetheless interesting.

Secret Garden

Episodes: 20

Synopsis:
Gil Ra Im a stuntwoman. Despite doing hard tasks that most people can't do and despite dressing like a tomboy, she is a young girl at heart. She gets involved with the CEO of a luxury department store , Joo Won, after he mistook her for the actual actress. After leaving a strong impression on one another, Joo Won cannot forget his meeting with Gil Ra Im and continuously goes to find her. Their fates are intertwined with one another and they get closer as they experience a strange body-swapping moment with one another. Throughout the process, they interact with other people and help other people see the power of love. It is a comedic and interesting drama.   

Review:

           I finally got around to watching this drama after years of finding it hard to get into. However, this time, I pushed through and I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Sometimes dramas are considered good/bad depending on the time you watch them. As you grow as people, you may find some plots likable and others unlikable. My first time watching this was hard for me to get into this drama but now I really liked the plot, the characters, and so forth. However this does not mean that there are some parts to this drama that I didn't like and certain elements of the character that I didn't like as well. 

         I really liked Ra Im's character because she's such a strong person both physically and mentally. She also treats her friends very well too. However, under her tough exterior, she's a woman at heart and likes being complimented for her hard work, likes girly things at times, and also is very cute. However, this plot felt slightly stereotypical where they start off with bad impressions of one another, the girl likes someone else, the guy likes her after never having a crush before, he's rich, he's cool, he saves the girl and helps her out, and she ends up falling in love with him. The only interesting element was that they added in a few episodes where they changed bodies which was humorous and interesting and unexpected.
        I also love the side characters as well. The relationship between Ah Young and Secretary Kim and the relationship between Oska and Yoon Seul were so nice to watch and the three relationships all had different dynamics. I loved all the relationships portrayed in this drama and a lot of the characters were so fun to watch. I did find Joo Won's mom a bit harsh, to be honest. But she is still pretty funny and I thought it was realistic how she still didn't accept them but accepted the grandkids they gave her.  Oska is my spirit animal--"Do you want my autograph?"
              The songs and OSTs were also so pretty though and this drama had some of my favorite songs as their OST. I would highly recommend you watch this because the last episode made me so happy. The entire drama made me happy (in all honesty). 

W : Two Worlds

Episodes: 16

Synopsis:

Oh Yeon Joo is a resident doctor whose father mysteriously disappears from his drawing room one day. Her father, Oh Sung Moo, is the popular cartoonist who draws/writes a well-liked webtoon series called "W." When Yeon Joo goes to her father's house to figure out where he could have gone, she is sucked in to the world of "W" when the main character, Kang Cheol, reaches out of the tablet and pulls her into the story. From there, she ends up saving Kang Cheol's life as he had been stabbed. However, when she exits the story, she finds that she has been included in the webtoon and the webtoon was uploaded with her in it. Everything she did in the world of "W" appeared in the webtoon. This began to cause more occurrences of her transporting back into the webtoon without warning and also situations in which the question lies in the idea of how much is created by her father and how much of the story is driven by the character's own free will. 

Review:

           This drama is absolutely amazing! The plot is so unique and fascinating. This drama really sucks you in from the very beginning and I knew from the start that this drama had great potential. I hoped that the ending would not disappoint me because of how amazing the beginning was. The concept and the idea of an artist creating a world and no longer being able to control them because they became characters with their own thoughts and opinions was probably one of the most unique and insane things ever. There were so many times that I got scared because of how unpredictable and intense some of the scenes were and there were other times where I couldn't stop laughing at the characters. The main character, Oh Yeon Joo, is so full of life and so funny. Her reaction to being sucked into this webtoon is basically what everyone would be like and I loved her interactions with Kang Cheol.

              This drama was nothing that you could predict. It was filled with different twists and turns throughout the drama. It surprised me each time. As it went on, there were times of innocence and romance that reminded the viewers of how this drama originally started and then there were also many moments of corruption and darkness. The drama began to take interesting, dark, and twisted turns and it definitely kept the viewers on their toes. I really enjoyed it as I watched this drama because it felt like it would take forever for us to reach the "happy ending" the audience is all hoping for. A lot of my friends and myself included have been keeping up with this drama. It is such an amazing drama considering the recent drama slump that the kdrama world seems to be having lately. This drama was the kind of drama that had everything a viewer looks for in a romance and a thriller. At the same time, none of these things were overdone without a plausible cause or reason. 

              I also must applaud the amazing actors in this drama. I have always been a fan of Lee Jong Suk and he has once again confirmed the fact that he can act very well and look attractive throughout the entire drama. I also greatly enjoyed Han Hyo Joo's performance as well because as I watched some of the BTS scenes and interviews, she reminded me of the actual character she played in this drama. She was so natural and fun to watch. She had amazing chemistry with Lee Jong Suk. The actor who played the Dad and the Real Culprit was absolutely amazing. The way that he was able to act both roles so well and be able to switch personalities so quickly in one scene was really admirable to me. This is a romantic comedy in some scenes, a thriller in others, a serious and touching drama in another sense, and also a drama filled with amazing actors. I would highly recommend this drama to everyone I meet. However, I can understand if some people do not like this drama because it does have a lot of twists and turns and as a viewer you always have to be on your toes and get ready to understand situations despite being confused at first. However, as I watched this myself, I personally found it easy to follow along with this drama. So I definitely think that you should all watch it and decide for yourself! 

Doctors

Episodes: 20

Synopsis: 
Yoo Hye Jung has a rough childhood with an abusive family setting. She grows up dealing with challenges as though she doesn't care about them and appears to be emotionless. After being sent to live with her grandmother who helped guide her on to the right path by showing her love and affection, Hye Jung begins to work hard in school and even makes friends at her new school. She even started having dreams as to what she wanted to do in the future. However, when a medical malpractice occurs to the one closest to Hye Jung she does the only thing that makes sense to her. Work hard, find out the truth, and demand the apology that she never received. Throughout the process, she bumps into her love interest once more and has to confront her biggest rival Seo Woo personally and professionally.

Summary: 

         The character that Shin Hye played was very unique.  In the beginning, I was a little turned off by the character but yet also fascinated. Often our characters aren't shown as bratty, emotionless, cold-hearted, mean, or tough. Park Shin Hye's character, Yoo Hye Jung, was a tough, emotionless character who rebelled in ways like not going to school, wanting to appear older, or shoplifting. Her personality was not likable as she was rude to those who tried to help her and cold-hearted to those around her. She is basically the image of a rebellious child who does not trust or believe that those around her are there for her. She believes that everything she is doing is right and refuses to listen to anyone else which is why she is so flippant toward everyone. The one thing that was admirable about her in the beginning were her fighting skills. However, behind that unlikable character, there is a child who only wants to be accepted,to be loved, and to be guided. All it needs is the right amount of care and love and the right discipline.
            I really liked her grandmother for trying to teach her that there are people who are there for her and that there are people who are willing to show compassion and guide her on to the right path of life. At her age, the grandma shouldn't have had to worry about raising her grandchildren to be better people but she chose to take Hye Jung in because she knew Hye Jung's parents were not good for her at the moment and not actually worrying and helping her. Because of her grandma, Hye Jung begins to work harder to change herself for the better. Her grandma also tries to do her best to show love and care for her granddaughter via words, actions, and so forth. It is a very intimate and loving relationship between the two. I was heartbroken by episode 3.
          I don't know how to feel about the teacher because in the beginning he felt like an older brother or even a parent in the way that he was teaching her right from wrong. I liked how their relationship progressed and how they were mutually supportive to one another. However, I still couldn't get the fact that they were once teacher-student before. I guess it is normal in some sense since their relationship only started after she became an adult and a doctor...but I guess it was still slightly unsettling. However, I did enjoy their interactions. He was genuinely kind and supportive to her as she was to him and it is those kind of relationships that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
          In her new school, I also liked the friend she made in the beginning. She had saved the girl from getting bullied and thus the girl began to idolize and like Hye Jung as a friend. She was incredibly innocent and cute. Her character was like a little puppy dog. We've all heard about bromance dramas. This is one with sismance! I also liked that it ended with friendship with Seo Woo despite years of rivalry and petty remarks back and forth. It made me feel some kind of ways that they went from best friends to rivals to friends again. This is the kind of drama that makes you feel good as it goes on. 

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!