#kim mi kyung

[kdramaladies]

Then, if the sea takes away my grandma, who will protect my mom? WELCOME TO SAMDALRI (2023) dir. Cha Young Hoon

[myfavoriteskdramas]

Death's Game, TVN, (2023-2024).

[coreancitizen]

Welcome to Samdal-ri, ep 1

[somanykdramas]

WELCOME TO SAMDAL-RI

GENRES: Drama, Romance

SUMMARY: When life gets too tough, its important to have a place you can go where people believe in you for who you always were.

THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Convenience store hideouts, corporate abuse, haenyeos, amusement park failures, dog mascots, weather forecasting, old flames, flashy sports cars, loss and forgiveness, crooners, drunken kisses, and dolphins.

HOT TAKE: I'm always hesitant to watch these small town slice-of-life dramas since I know they're going to be slow and drawn out, but you know what? I've never regretted sitting through one yet. There's something just very soulfully soothing about casual strolls, nosy-yet-supportive neighbors, and honest dialogue and communication, and this show is no exception.

Nevermind best kdrama kissers: I want a list of best kdrama huggers, starting with the King, Ji Chang Wook.

[yourann]

"Don't resent Mi-ja."

Welcome to Samdal-ri (2023) | 웰컴투 삼달리 Episode 15

[passionforfiction]

Death's Game

Started it today and ended it today. This 8 episode long series is too intense to leave it for later. I binged watched it like I haven't done so in a while. It is the kind of series that is best to go into it without knowing much, unless you read the webtoon. I haven't read it yet, but it's a really short webtoon so I think I will probably read it.

Anyway, this series is not for the fainted heart. It has a lot of triggers and it can be gruesome and gory in some points. However, if you don't mind it, watch it. It is really good. It keeps the audience in suspense and it makes us cry.

The cast did an amazing job! Each person felt like it was Yi Jae.

[kdramachingoo]

Welcome to Samdalri was really a treat to sore eyes....

The visuals, the waves, the sunsets, the refine acting of the FL and ML, the Ahjummas, best friends and loving sisters along with loyal employees was absolute perfection.

[gloris-stuffs]

Death’s Game:

Decir que este drama es una joya, realmente, se queda corto.

Tuve la suerte de previamente leer el webtoon, pero lo leí con trampa, me contuve y no leí el final… Es quería sorpréndeme y debo decir lo conseguí, ahora sé que el director realmente fue ambicioso y logró gracias a eso, una de las mejores series que he visto.

Yo quería o me imaginaba que sería como tomorrow, y después de verla diré algo contradictorio … es igual y muy diferente al mismo tiempo. Igual en el sentido del profundo mensaje que te deja, sin embargo siento que es mucho más potente el mensaje de Death’s Game, porque va de menos a más y te deja sin aliento desde el 7mo capítulo, pero no es hasta el 8vo (en donde tú ya pensabas que entendiste, y la verdad, realmente no habías entendido nada), donde da su golpe de gracia con un giro en la historia que te llega hasta la fibra más profunda y sabes no importa tú idioma, tú creencia, tú país, porque es un mensaje transversal a cualquier cosa.

Death’s Game es conmovedora y única, con unas actuaciones realmente sobrecogedoras (y espero se adjudique más de un premio a la indiscutida y secreta protagonista de la obra), y es que al mirar en retrospectiva, si te fijas tiene de todos los géneros: acción, misterio, romance, venganza, policial, sobrenatural, gore 💉🩸🩸🩸, con muchas muertes y de una forma inesperada dándole mucho sentido de amor a la vida. Lo escribí en mi Ig, esta serie es una ODA A LA VIDA y no es cliché.

Debo decirte que nunca había derramado tantas lágrimas por un mensaje tan profundo y hermoso, no puedo expresarte lo bien que te vas a sentir cuando finalices, se la recomiendo a todas las personas que puedan estar en un momento Blue, yo hoy me siento aliviada y feliz aún, y espero que con mis palabras logren transmitirte un ápice de la emoción tan linda que entrega.

Espero te animes y la veas por Amazon Prime video… O por esas partes medias ilegales, pero por favor, disfrútala.

Pd:

Para no hacer spoiler sólo decir que en el último capítulo vi la mejor actuación femenina de drama desde que me hice aficionada a las series y cine coreano, realmente merece ser premiada, y le digo que si de mi dependiera, le doy el Oscar a la serie y a la actriz sin dudarlo.

[angelfeed]

[learninggreekblog]

Finally watching Healer

After watching KDramas for many years I’ve finally watched this classic which seems to be on a number of must-watch lists. I hesitated to watch it because I’d seen Park Min Young in Her Private Life, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim and Forecasting Love and Weather and could not discern much difference in her acting in those three roles. 

Watching If you Wish upon Me pushed me to check out Ji Chang Wook’s other work and I decided to start with the highest rated one, Healer, in spite of the fact that Park Min Young was in it. Am I ever glad I did! I really liked this drama a lot. And I even liked Park Min Young in it a lot.

Another revelation was Kim Mi Kyung (the hacker, aka Ahjumma). I’m not sure there’s an actor that’s been in more dramas in my list of watched KDramas. Sadly, she always plays a secondary role as a mother, and it seems her characters are always much older than she is in real life (I’m looking at you, Doctor Cha). What a delight to see her play a very different role in Healer.

Let me put this out there to the KDrama gods: That woman needs a starring role in a KDrama immediately that doesn’t revolve her solely being a lead’s mother! Please and thank you.

[magicalbiscuiteggszine]

그너의 사생활 ♡ In case any of you have We Heart It, here’s a little article I wrote about one of my fave K-dramas 🤩

[kdramaladies]

WELCOME TO SAMDALRI (2023 - 2024) dir. Cha Young Hoon

[lane-ys-world]

Death's Game - Where Death toys with you until she's bored...

“The most painful death to a mortal, is one that is foreseen”

In every culture there is a certain disdain for suicidal ideation. So much so that most religious or cultural leaders will warn that the afterlife will more than likely be unpleasant if one chooses to cut their life short as that is not in the plans of their maker(s).

Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, could have prepared me for what happened in this drama.

Death is usually portrayed as a formless entity. It is something that happens, not something that speaks and breaths. It is certainly not something that dolls out punishment… is it? In most utterances death is an event, an occurrence, something that life heads towards or culminates to. There are not many cases where death, itself, is given a face.

The last drama I can correlate this one to is Doom At Your Service, but Doom (Myul Mang) was more the end of all there was. The end of a day, the end of a life cycle, the end of a memory. Not so much death.

In this drama, Death has a face, a name and a mean streak a mile wide. There is one subtle catch though. You only ever meet Death when she comes for you. You are never intended to meet Death before the time she has set forth. You do not control the timing of the end of your life, that is her function and she takes her work very seriously.

“You are guilty of coming to find me before I came to find you.”

So, what happens when an individual decides that they can no longer take their existence and chooses to exit stage left? Death. And when you meet her she gets to choose the punishment for not just throwing away your life but also making her work overtime because you weren’t meant to meet as yet. So, in retribution for your insolence, she gives you a choice… find a way to live or into the fiery pits you go. So now the question becomes “How do I live when I’ve already died?” 

On a sunny day we see a man walking, cellphone in hand with a big smile on his face, down a busy street. He seems excited about the day and it’s infectious. Choi Yi Jae, our main character, is going into an internship interview today and is feeling pretty freaking chipper about it. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and he has no intention of squandering it.

He’s nearly to the building his interview is set to be in when someone runs past him, into oncoming traffic, stopping in the middle of the busy street and getting hit by a car. The impact forces the man to fall back onto the pavement, right in front of Yi Jae, and he inevitably passes on. This causes Yi Jae immense emotional turmoil and he flunks his interview.

Seven years go by and life doesn’t seem to be getting any better. His latest interview has not panned out, he is suspecting his girlfriend of cheating and his landlord throws him out for being behind on rent. Nothing seems to be going how he wants it to be, so he decides he’s about had it and he jumps off the ledge of a high-rise…

But then he wakes up on a plane?

“Humans always struggle to live only after they die, not while they are still alive…”

Turns out, he’d met Death and the terms of his punishment had been set out. His punishment was that he would be sent back to Earth twelve times. He would be expected to adopt the lives of the bodies he inhabits and if he could survive the imminent threat of death in that body, Death would allow him to finish living that life and dodge going to hell altogether. Sounds easy enough, right? All he has to do is live. All he has to do is survive.

This concept seems easy enough on paper but in practice, Yi Jae realizes how deep the waters he’s treading actually are. There are some rules that Death makes him aware of before sending him back the first time: He’s not allowed to kill anyone and he is not allowed to kill himself.

In his first life Yi Jae seemed obsessed with the idea of making money. He felt that the culmination of wealth would be the only way he could prove his worth and so that was all he focused on. He needed to get the best internship at the best company, land the best job in said company and work his way up the corporate ladder and, when that didn’t pan out exactly how he wanted it to, he started to spiral. So, you would think with the massive do-over he’s been granted he would just try to enjoy living but, alas, that is not to be because you can take the man off of his destructive path but apparently all you’ll be doing is giving him another chance at running down that same path.

So it begins...

“Do you still think death is the end of it all? This is only the beginning…”

Life one, he is placed in the body of a CEO on a plane that is set to explode. He fails at that life. Life two, the body of an extreme sports enthusiast mid-air, with no parachute. Fails at that one too. Life three, a high school student who was about to jump off a building because of how badly he was being bullied. He almost succeeds with this one but inevitably gets his head bashed in by his bully. Life four, he is put into the life of a mafia enforcer who is being interrogated for theft and kidnapping. The body of a national boxing prospect turned murder convict, a baby that was abused by their parents, a model that gets hit by a car, a serial killer that gets killed by another serial killer, a police officer who dives off a roof to protect his partner, and so on.

In a good sixty percent (60%) of these lives he died due to greed but he kept weaving the lives together. Any time he died he would reincarnate with the distinct thought that if he could make money in this life then he would live well in the next life. Until his target shifted from money to revenge.

Yi Jae was constantly being warned by Death. The purpose of your reincarnation is to live, he was told. Try not to focus so hard on Earthly luxuries and just live, he was warned. He was even warned that the closer he got to his final reincarnation, the more painful the death would be. He took all this for granted and just kept on messing up over a bag of money. A bag, might I add, he inevitably gives away anyhow!

By the time he has decided that he actually wants to live, that he’s ready to try and power through this thing called life, he’s just about forgotten who he actually is. He’s been in so many different bodies, been called so many different names, looked at so many different faces in the mirror that remembering who he is is proving difficult. And back to the spiral we go.

“But if you manage to avoid the deaths they face, you could carry on living…”

Death gives him one final warning at the end of his eleventh (11th) reincarnation. This final reincarnation would hurt the worst. He didn’t believe it, nor did he much care until he looked in the mirror and saw, gazing back at him, a set of eyes so similar to his own.

His last life would be that of his mother. She had already passed away and he was now left to live the life of the person he had hurt the most in his first life. Before waking up in this last life Yi Jae had resigned himself to going to hell, to ending this torment as quickly as possible but he could not bring himself to end it quickly in this body, in this his last chance at dodging hell, because he knew that his mother would have never wanted him to give up that easily. But would he be able to live this life with the threat of death constantly hanging over his head? Would this be the life that made it possible for him to understand why Death was so angered by his disregard of his own life or of the lives he impacted with his choice? Or would this be the life that tipped him further over the edge, now that he was truly alone?

“Your soul will enter the bodies of 12 people facing imminent death. And you will end up dying regardless of which body you wake up in…”

In his seventh (7th) life he decides that he wants to tell his ex-girlfriend what really happened to him because he was confronted with her grief for the first time. Unable to hold himself back, he approached her with a new name, a new face, but he knew what would interest her. He told her a story, his story, but as though he were coming up with a novel – fiction.

He told her of all his past lives, laid out how and where and when he had met Death, explained how he was still trying to just survive… but all this as though it was fictitious, as though he were planning out a storyline for a character. She engaged, intrigued by this insane story but she kept him at arm’s length. To her, he was a fan with an interesting story to tell and she wanted to help him plan it out so he could write it well. She was still grieving, still processing the mere thought of her lost love so there was no way she was even entertaining the idea of this man as anything other than a project, a welcomed distraction.

Days after meeting one another, Yi Jae decides that he cannot keep lying to her any more so he comes clean. He tries to break it to her as gently as is possible that the main character of this story he’s been telling her is actually him. She doesn’t believe him, at first, but then he starts recounting things that only the two of them would know – inside jokes, future plans, the works. She believes him and for a split second we all forget that this isn’t some great love story but actually the seventh circle of hell - however we are quickly brought back to our senses when they get pancaked against a nearby wall by a drunk driver.

The driver steps out of his car after reversing away from the lovers who are now sprawled on the pavement and, almost nonchalantly, tells his passenger to make the mess go away.

Yi Jae, feeling disheartened, angry and aggrieved hears this and realizes that the driver is without remorse.

The driver just so happens to be the owner of the company that Yi Jae was meant to interview at seven years ago. But then, from his past lives, Yi Jae starts to recount other moments with this exact person. A moment from when he was a mafia enforcer being told to put a bomb on an airplane that would end up killing a CEO… a moment from when he was an extreme sports enthusiast where he was offered an obscene amount of money to dive out of a plane without a parachute… a moment from when he was a boxer where he was offered the opportunity to become nationally recognized if he took the fall for someone else’s crime…

Slowly but surely Yi Jae comes to the conclusion that this man is a monster and that monster has just taken the life of the person he loved and he was going to do whatever it took to get back at him for it.

So, when Yi Jae is reborn as a serial killer, he sets a trap for the monster and watches as he goes from predator to prey.

“The pain that death brings you will only get worse from now on”

The deaths the Yi Jae had to endure were almost biblical. For the life where he felt he could outsmart death, he was burned alive – essentially being given a taste of hell. For the life when he felt bigger than death, like he was invincible, he was quickly and painfully brought back to Earth. For the lives where his ego got the best of him, he died from head trauma.  For the life where he was too trusting, he died from a knife to the gut. He died in ways that make the audience question what the point of everything is.

If he’s going to die even when he’s trying to help someone, when he’s trying to save someone, when he’s trying to be the good guy, what is the purpose of anything at all?

It is only in his final life, where he stops trying so hard to do anything at all that he finally gets to live. His punishment there? Living isn’t really living if you’re constantly looking over your shoulder waiting for death to come knocking. The constant fear of when he would keel over or when he would be struck by lightning kept him from engaging with others for fear that they weren’t trustworthy or that they would inevitably die because of him. His punishment was realizing the depths of the fear, the sadness, the sheer loneliness he inflicted on the people he loved by jumping off that building and in the end he was the one who was left all alone.

When this drama starts the quote “The most painful death to a mortal, is one that is foreseen” is writing on the opening screen. If you really think this statement over, there truly is nothing quite as terrifying as knowing that your death is near and you have no way to change or stop it from happening. You are bound to go crazy, to a point, trying to figure out when it could be or what you could do to circumvent it. But knowing that death is coming and accepting that death is coming are two completely different trains of thought. Knowing that something is coming gives one the idea to try fix, change, plan for the coming event. Accepting that something is coming is living in each moment as though it were your last, because what if it is…?

[xbethelight]

[somanykdramas]

DEATH'S GAME: PART 1

GENRES: Drama, Supernatural

SUMMARY: Caught in a game of punishing resurrection, a man who took his own life tries to find meaning in hanging on.

THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Pillar demons, citron tea, hundreds of cover letters, finding meaning in the mundane, fated connections, bullies, prison, male models, car chases, MMA, chair-fighting, gut-wrenching regret, hopelessness, redemption, and a dizzying number of A-list celebrities.

HOT TAKE: Episode 4 of this show broke me, hard. Although the plot is simple and a bit repetitive, every single acting performance is stellar. The character connections made with each new story gives the overarching experience real depth and emotion, and I can't wait for the second part coming in 2024.

[yourann]

"Forgiving her doesn't mean you'll forget your wife."

Welcome to Samdal-ri (2023) | 웰컴투 삼달리 Episode 15