Rewatchable

I used to write review posts every time I finished a series. These posts documented my transition from anime to Japanese drama to Korean drama, which is pretty much what I stick with now. There seems to have been a drastic rise in Chinese dramas lately, but I haven’t yet felt the desire to explore them. To be honest, I used to really enjoy writing review posts, but slowly it turned into a chore and eventually I just couldn’t be bothered anymore. I’m fairly certain I stopped writing reviews when I started using Viki, so the first drama that I didn’t write a review for must have been “The Heirs”.

Wow. So long ago. I wish I had dates of when I started and finished watching each series. Mydramalist only tells me alphabetical list.

I have been thinking for a while about writing a post about the Asian dramas I have enjoyed since stopping my review posts, but I figured that would take me ages. So, instead, here are 5 dramas I would rewatch and recommend to anyone for a first time viewing.



Chicago Typewriter
Three resistance fighters from Japanese occupied Korea in the 1930’s are reincarnated in modern day Seoul. The series follows a writer, his ghostwriter and a book lover as they start to remember their past lives and solve the mystery of what happened. It’s a really interesting story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and I found the history of it so fascinating.

Descendants of the Sun
The captain of a Special Forces Unit has a chance meeting with an old girlfriend when she volunteers in a war torn country with her team of doctors and they are stationed together. Various things happen, and every episode is the perfect mix of danger, romance and hot guys running around topless. Also, Onew is in it.

Healer
A second rate reporter discovers ‘Healer’, a mysterious illegal errand boy run foul of dangerous people, and through various chance meetings, strives to discover his true identity. Again, it’s a lot of action, blindfolded kisses and general addictiveness.

Secret Garden
Classic romantic body swap. I did actually review this one, and wasn’t too impressed at the time, but it’s a story that has really stuck with me and I often think about watching it again. The sit up scene *sighs wistfully*.

W - Two Worlds
The daughter of a missing famous webtoonist is sucked into the world her father created, and the only way out is to make the chapter end. Over time, she finds herself being pulled into the cartoon more and more as she struggles to find her father and the identity of a mysterious character who keeps trying to kill the main character. Lots of action, lots of laughs, a huge amount of chemistry and one that keeps you hooked episode after episode.



I actually started this post with no idea if I had 5 dramas or 3 or 20, but somehow it magically worked out at 5. Score.

Rooftop Prince

So my last drama review post started with a statement that I would now like to retract. I said that it had taken me so long to watch To the Beautiful You that the days of powering through a drama were long gone. I was feeling a little disheartened with the whole Asian drama genre, it was repetitive, lacking in originality and frankly, was boring me. I just wasn't feeling it anymore. Rooftop Prince has changed that.

It's a pretty complicated plot, especially at the beginning and the end, but to try and sum it up, the stroy starts in Joseon, Korea 300 years in the past. The crown princess is discovered poisoned and drowned in the lake, and the crown prince sets out with some trusty friends to discover her killer. Cut to Korea in the 90's, and we meet Pak Ha as she and her father meet her new mother and sister. Pak ha clearly dotes on her new sister Se Na, who just as clearly couldn't give a crap ... to the extent that she locked her sister in the back of a truck and watches as it drives away. Cut to modern day America, and now Pak Ha meets someone who looks suspicioulsy like the crown prince before she gets a call sending her back to Korea because they have finally found her long lost albeit somewhat dead father. Look-a-like Prince gets thrown off a boat in the middle of the sea by jealous cousin Tae Mu. Cut back to Joseon, and team Prince get ambushed, and somehow find themselves in modern day Seoul on the roof top of none other than Pak Ha.

Phew. From there, its basically the Joseon boys getting used to modern day Seoul, Prince getting mistaken for assumed dead Look-a-like Prince, and Tae Mu and Se Na (who is Look-a-like dead Princess) crapping themselves that they will be found out. Obviously Prince and Pak Ha fall in love, but the Prince is so blinded by the thought of Se Na and his murdered princess that he takes a while to realise it. It was a hilarious and heartbreaking series, all rolled into one, and it was amazing.

I even forgot to screengrab, thats how involved I was.

It was something new, something exciting that I haven't seen before, and as such, it not only held my attention but also left me wanting more. Yeah, sure it was a little predictable, you knew that the baddies would get their comeuppence, and the goodies would fall in love, but the way the plot took you there was quite unexpected. It wasn't until quite near the end that I started to suss out what had happened in Joseon, although it didn't make it any less intriguing when I had. Yes it was confusing, especially with different characters with the same face appearing in every era, but it wasn't unmanageably so.

 

It was hilariously funny, especially when Pak Ha, burdened with 4 apparent lunatics, decides the best way to handle them is to steal their Joseon clothes and put them in tracksuits of different colours, or when they can't figure out simple things like rotating doors. The characters were really well done, and as usual, I liked the back ground characters more than the mains. They just have all the fun without getting bogged down in the drama too much. No underdog here though for Pak Ha's attention .... well there was, but he was batted out of the park so quickly he barely got a look in. I do feel sorry for Look-a-like Prince though, having his identity and pretty much everything else stolen by a 300 year old Royal, even if he does, like everyone else,sort of get a happy ending. Well, people in Seoul at any rate. Joseon not so much.

I laughed. I cried. We all know how I judge things on how they make me feel, and its been a long time since I felt involved enough in a drama to cry. I miss it already, and I only finished it a moment before I started writing this post.

Next up is Love Rain, and I'm actually going to watch it this time rather than let it get pushed down my watch list by other dramas climbing the charts unnaturally quickly. Well, unless it's already been beaten out by tomorrow.

Resignation

It's weird watching a Korean TV show and having Boyzone pop up in background music. You kind of think they wouldn't have spread much further than the UK and Ireland, maybe America at a push, but South Korea? Impressive. In other news, its really depressing when yet another doctor says they cant help and you just have to live with it. Laptop has shut down in a huff again, and I can't really be bothered to mess around with iPhone posts, so that's all you're getting this evening. <3 x

Fiction

I know I've said it before a thousand times, but real life would be so much better if it were like fiction. More exciting things would happen more frequently, everyone would get a happy ending, and you'd never have to do the mundane or disgusting things, like pay your bills and go to the loo. You wouldn't have to worry about the future, because its already planned out for you so you know its going to work out one way or another. Also, it would be amazing to look so perfect all the time. Even when you've had a rough day or been on some adventure, you would still somehow look flawless.

Maybe I am discontent with my own reality so that I can't help but fantasise about how nice living in make-believe would be. I mean sure, I am working with purpose now, but what do I do after the summer? I have to find a real job or else start my business, which I am not sure I am in the right place to do. Other than that, I don't really want to spend the rest of my life single, even though it is looking that way now.

Basically, a rich man needs to sweep me off my feet and look after me for the rest of my life, meaning I have financial freedom to do what I please, rather than what I should do. So basically, like Secret Garden. Or Boys Before Flowers/Hana Yori Dango. Or even City Hunter, just with less guns.

The fact that I want my life to be an Asian drama probably means I should watch less of them, but guess what I am going to do now instead?

<3 x

Mary Stayed Out All Night.

Hmm I seem to be getting through dramas quite quick these days. They are just so easy to watch that the time seems to fly by, and yet you are always left wanting more. Today, I decided to stop on the dresses just because I knew that the last episode of Mary Stayed Out All Night was waiting for me. In the end, I had a bath instead, but still, my point is I literally spend all my free time and even some not so free time watching Asian drama.

I sound like an obsessed fanatic.

Yup.

Anyway, yes, this was a good series. Kinda predictable, but it was fun and interesting. I found it more interesting because the main character has a small obsession with dramas, and also because the whole story develops alongside pre production of a fictional drama. While I realised its very unlikely to be realistic, if everything else that happens is anything to go by, I still cant help but be intrigued by the whole behind the scenes thing they had going on

Mary has been downtrodden throughout her life by her debt-dodging father and Mu Kyul is a struggling indie musician. When Mary accidentally hits Mu Kyul whilst driving, she ends up taking care of him to ease her guilty conscience. Suddenly, Mary's dad tells her she is to be forced into an arranged marriage with Jung In, a similarly downtrodden son of an overly ambitious father who is determined to have Mary as his daughter in law. Mary and Mu Kyul pretend to be married to avoid the real marriage, even though they barely even like each other ... and you know what happens next. No matter who the woman is, if there are men around, they will fall in love with her. At least in Asian drama, anyway. Having said that, this is the first Korean drama that I have seen that doesn't literally pair everyone off.

Mu Kyul and Mary in a bin. Yeah, that's the sort of show this was. the two leads in a bin represents the drama much more accurately than the poster. Mary in a mini skirt and heels? Unlikely. It was layers layers layers with a layer over the top.

Mary's character was really cute, and I think she was well cast for the role, as the actress is probably the cutest Asian actress I have ever seen. Tiny and with her round little face and wide eyes, she was the literal representation of innocence. That doesn't mean I forgive her though. Poor Jung In. He was super nice, rich, hot and he loved you (eventually), and yet you choose the penniless stubborn playboy who mostly just made you cry. Sure, he's pretty, but he is mostly grumpy and selfish. Oh wait, I'm talking to fictional characters again. I think I just had a major soft spot for the guys that get left behind.

I'm going to leave it there, as I should really be getting to sleep. Basically, it was funny and I liked it. Next is City Hunter. I've wanted to watch this for about a year, so I'm really looking forward to it. Lee Min Ho!

<3 x

Engrish

I was just watching Personal Taste, and laughing almost hysterically. Then it occurred to me had someone asked my why I was laughing so much, the reason would not be the funny situation brought about due to the plot of a guy pretending to be gay, but simply 'because they are talking English.'

Not in a racist haha-they-think-they-can-speak-english-but-they-can't-because-they-are-korean sort of way. More like haha-oh-my-god-they-are-speaking-the-same-language-as-me way. Like when you see your favourite celebrity wearing the same dress as you have just brought, that sense of 'awesome, they are just like me, that makes me cool.'

Already I'm thinking I should delete this post because I sound like a lunatic.

It just amused me, OK?

I guess I'm so used to watching things that are in a foreign language that when my own language is used, it takes me by surprise. It's a novelty.

Having said that, the way they speak is pretty amusing. Even hearing them use non-asian names is odd, you get so used to the style of the names, and the honorifics, that to come across someone just called Joe makes you pause for thought. Hearing a non-native English speaker saying something like 'Yo yo yo man, lets go!' or 'What you talkin' 'bout?' is always going to be a little weird when it isn't coming out of some American douche's mouth. 

Although to be fair, I bet some people learn English through watching American TV shows, just like how I am picking up Japanese and Korean from Asian drama. So if I should like an idiot speaking colloquially in a foreign language, then I give my full permission for the native speakers of that tongue to laugh hysterically at me as well.

I'm going to stop there, before I dig myself any further into a hole.

<3 x