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Final Review: Meloholic

My Year in Review has already gone out, so you should know how I feel about Meloholic. It isn’t a BAD watch. But it is not great either. A word of warning: don’t watch in public areas, cos you will be inviting eyebrow raising from people who happen to be peeping over on your screen.

Yes, I still have issues with the over the top raunchiness. The narrative is actually pretty straightforward.…

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First Impression: Hwayugi (A Korean Odyssey)

What a show to end 2017! I’m loving every 80+ minutes of the debut ep.

Main cast:

Cha Seung-won (from You’re All Surrounded) as Woo Hwi-chul. The Bull Demon King. In the original folklore, he is both Wukong’s friend and nemesis. In Hwayugi, he is the long suffering frenemy of Oh-gong’s.

Lee Seung-gi (from You’re All Surrounded) as Son Oh-gong. The deposed Monkey God who is “serving time” on…

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Just Between Lovers - First Impression

Just Between Lovers – First Impression

There is no fanfare nor over the top situations, just like its title suggest, it’s just between lovers. Show had a very simple synopsis – a story about normal people who hid their traumatic past and carry on living as if they were not in pain. Our leads are exactly that: Kang-doo (Lee Joon Ho) and Moon-soo (Won Jin Ah, she both looks and sounds like Soo Ae I’m surprised they’re unrelated) are…

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First Impression: Bad Guys, Vile City

Although I knew Bad is a spin-off and not a sequel of the 2014’s (has it been 3 years?!) version, I still went in with SOME expectations. Especially in terms of stylistic delivery. And omg, was I very wrong…

Main cast:

Kim Moo-yul (from My Beautiful Bride) as Prosecutor No Jin-pyeon. He accepts a transfer to another district in order to avoid having to answer to his sunbae’s widow — for not…

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'Tis the year of awesome dramas...and others

‘Tis the year of awesome dramas…and others

I have long learned that viewership ratings has no correlations to the overall quality of a drama and again this year reaffirms this belief of mine. As usual, there were sleeper hits and overhyped dramas that failed to deliver and I’d say some of the former really took me by surprise while the latter…let’s just not talk about them.

Presenting, the dot plot of dramas in 2017:

Disclaimer: This is…

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Prison Playbook: Looking below the surface

Prison continues to surprise me (pleasantly) with its myriad of quirky characters that I forget at times they are prisoners. Though to be fair, other than Min-chul (who is serving life sentence for gang related crimes), the others in Je-hyuk’s cell are petty thieves and small time crooks. So they aren’t your murderers or rapists, but the “milder” kind of criminals.

And then we find out that 2 of…

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sab’s 2017 Kdramas’ Review

Again, the disclaimers: the list is not exhaustive and limited only to shows I have caught. And as I’m not a sageuk fan, the genre is unlikely to be listed here, unless it is a fusion-sageuk.

Also, I’ve not included shows that are currently airing (as of mid-Dec 2017).

The die-die must watch (translate: Excellent)

1. Weightlifing Fairy Kim Bok-joo

Reason: very cute show, a good relaxant after a…

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I Am Not a Robot: Object-Subject

Robottakes the Candy-Chaebol theme to a next level, by objectifying the Candy in person. Candy (aka Ji-ah) becomes the robot Ah-ji (I will come to that later). However, as in the Candy-Chaebol Kdrama storyline, the men in the show are in for an (un)pleasant surprise when they find out they have a gotten more than what they have bargained for. It is no sweet subservient Candy they (think) they are…

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Final Review: Black

sab: Black really needs that extension, even with its slightly draggy middle. The mysteries around the protagonists, and everyone else for that matter, are so complicated that we do need extra eps to tie up all the really loose ends.

As it is, I’m not surprised that Black is Joonie-oppa. In fact, I was surprised that midway through Black, Moo-gang is NOT Joonie-oppa. Though I do like how the…

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I'm Not A Robot - First Impression

I’m Not A Robot – First Impression

So cute. I can’t find any other synonyms to Yoo Seung Ho, especially in a romcom, and throw Chae Soo-bin in the mix? It’s cute overload. The story is straightforward – our hero Min-kyu (Yoo Seung Ho) is an uber rich orphan, not to mention likely a geeenius businessman and he has only one problem: acute allergy to human touch. Enters a team of robotics engineers headed by Hong Baek-kyun (Eom…

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Two Cops: Bad Cop, Good Cop

It’s the teething period for Soo-chang and Dong-tak, as they must learn how to navigate around using the same body (poor Dong-tak), and at the same time, learn to rely on and trust each other. We have seen how well they can work together, with Soo-chang’s ability to connect with people (and also his connections with the underworld band of thieves and small time criminals), and Dong-tak’s…

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First Impression: Black Knight: The Man Who Guards Me

I’m not quite sure of the approach Knight is taking – it’s trying to be a fusion sageuk thingy with a Goblinish landscape mixed in with a dash of the melos. As it is, I am quite confused with ep1, will see how it goes.

Main cast:

Kim Rae-won (from Doctors) as Moon Soo-ho. A successful businessman who strangely invites bad luck on business partners who cross him. He lost his dad in a factory fire…

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Drama Review - Witch's Court (KBS, 2017)

Drama Review – Witch’s Court (KBS, 2017)

Ah Ma Yi Deum. She has got to be THE dramaland heroine of the year. No other beats her sass, badassery and confidence, nor does anyone wear a bright red lipstick as pretty as her. Jung Ryeo Won shouldered the entire drama and it is difficult to imagine anyone else as Ma Yi Deum.

Show isn’t necessarily bad and it’s not difficult to understand why it enjoyed high ratings. I guess most of us as…

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Final Review: Mad Dog

Typical of the underdogs’ narrative, you won’t expect Goliath to win the game. The only question at the end of the show is the casualties count in the underdogs’ team. I’m glad to report though, the count for Mad Dog team is nil. I’ve come to love our little hotch-potched team led by Kang-woo and Min-joon, and that the narrative focuses just as much on their bonding as well as the group’s…

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Doubtful Victory - First Impression

Doubtful Victory – First Impression

Everytime I watch a drama, I suspend my disbelief so as not to tear my hair out and also enjoy the show better. Doubtful Victory (or Mysterious Il-seung) requires a fair bit of suspension of disbelief and it actually helps to do so while watching. This doesn’t equate to Show being terribly written, but sometimes there’s constraints in telling a story and certain logical fallacies or convenience…

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Prison Playbook: Humanising the Monsters

Besides the deadpanned funniness which Je-hyeok is giving us, I do like how Prisonun-demonises the criminals who are locked up. True, some of them clearly deserves no sympathies from us (or Je-hyeok), such as Gundal, who is a rapist, and is set up since get-go to be the typical annoying bully type. But the other criminals, even the one on death row, appear less monstrous and somehow… incongruous…

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Black: So many ends to tie up

As I mentioned earlier, Blackhas one convoluted plot, surrounding a dubious insurance company, sex trade of minors, politics, and your usual murders. So it isn’t surprising it needs an additional 2 eps to tie everything up together. As of ep16, much of the spider web has been undone, and we sort of see where all the incidents link up. Royal Insurance’s with its pedophilic Chairman, who started…