Secret Garden

Secret Garden (시크릿 가든) is a 2010-2011 Korean romantic/fantasy drama that has the basic framework of any other Korean romantic drama, but adds things that makes it different and just that much more refreshing. It stars Hyun Bin, Ha Ji Won, Yoon Sang Hyun, Kim Sa Rang, Lee Philip, Lee Jong Suk, Yoo In Na, and Kim Sung Oh. The summary is as follows:

The drama tells the story of Kim Joo Won, an arrogant and eccentric CEO who maintains the image of seeming perfection, and Gil Ra Im, a poor and humble stuntwoman whose beauty and body are the object of envy amongst top actresses. Their accidental meeting, when Joo Won mistakes Ra Im for actress Park Chae Rin, marks the beginning of a tense, bickering relationship, through which Joo Won tries to hide a growing attraction to Ra Im that both confuses and disturbs him. To complicate matters further, a strange sequence of events results in them swapping bodies.

You know what bothers me? Even though summaries give you a hint of what goes on, it's really not that accurate. I don't know why I started this drama, but I do remember that I began it approximately two weeks before my arrival date in Korea (yes, I'm in Korea now and have been for the past two weeks). No wait, I was stuck on hulu.com for dramas because of the good quality of the videos; the commercials I could ignore and if I could see the pores on the actors' and actress' faces, all the better. Anyway, the summary didn't really pull me in though it did intrigue me. What? Romance and some fantastical idea all in one? O_o So I decided to try it out.

First off, the acting's superb. The switching of the bodies showed their talent and when Joo Won reverted back to his 21-year-old self, that was a testament as well. The plot was great as well, even though it seems a bit generic at first. I mean, it's a poor, orphan girl who gets noticed by some privileged guy. Then you learned a bit more: it's a stunt woman (who's pretty kick-butt if I may say so) who has a firefighter for a dad with a CEO for a lover and to-be husband. There are plot twists and I love how the roles are reversed where you see the guy going against the very fabric of his being and chasing after the girl. It's so romantic. Personally, the 17th and 18th episodes are my absolute favorites and you know what? The ending isn't all happiness and butterflies in a meadow full of blooming flowers. They're together (which is what's important - it seems like the main theme was how love could surpass all in the end solely by itself) and it shows a bit of life after marriage, but - well, you'll see. ^^

Anyway, I highly recommend it. One more thing: the body-swapping seems completely random at the beginning, but it all makes sense towards the end (sort of). :) It also links in references to fairy tales via Disney princesses which is sweet.You can watch it on hulu (but as hulu doesn't stream outside of the US, I finished it here).

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

Sungkyunkwan Scandal (성균관 스캔들) is a 2010 Korean period drama; a romantic comedy following a girl who disguises herself as a man in order to make ends meet and the group of friends she meets while masquerading in a Confucian school, known for producing government officials. It stars Micky Yoochun, Park Min Young, Song Joong Ki, and Yoo Ah In. The synopsis is as follows:

Sungkyunkwan Scandal is set in Sungkyunkwan University in the late Joseon era during the reign of King Jeongjo, revolving around the exploits and love stories of four youths. When her younger brother's illness worsens and their family is in danger of being evicted from their house for lack of money, Kim Yoon Hee enters the school under his name, disguised as a boy in her desperation to support him. There, she becomes friends with the intelligent and upright Lee Sun Joon, the playboy Goo Yong Ha and rebellious Moon Jae Shin.

First off, what drew me to this drama was not the cast - though I surely grew to love them as the drama progressed - it was the plot. I'm a sucker for girl-masquerading-as-a-guy plotlines and having a straight guy question his own sexuality and all the humorous events that ensue in due course. That being said, although I know of DBSK and I do like some of their songs, I don't know much about them. Now, I can say that I definitely know Yoochun, though. ^^ My favorite's still Yoo Ah In... but that's not the point. There were a lot of comments about Yoochun's lack of acting skills, or so I remember when it had first started airing. Even so, I didn't see it as a hindrance. I still loved the drama and it tickled me funny. He's not the most expressive guy, but when is that important? The message got through. Cute moments are plenty but it also touches upon the more serious topics of social and gender equality, which was fairly nonexistent in the time setting of the drama.

I have to say it wasn't all that painful to watch, romantic-wise, so don't be afraid to watch it if you hate the roller coaster ride of feelings romantic dramas tend to take you on. There's unrequited love, for sure, but I seriously had no love for the other girl - she annoyed me - though I did feel for the other guy. It wasn't unbearable, though, since that left him all to myself. ^_^ Anyway, I love the plot and the plot twists and the riddles here and there; it keeps you guessing. There is action as well, so it's not all fun and games and such. As usual, I'm surprised she stayed a secret for that long, but it is a drama, so it's a given. All in all, I really did enjoy this drama - the filming, the message(s), the plot, the eye candy...

I watched it on hulu, since the videos are high quality, though there are commercials.

Playful Kiss

Playful Kiss (장난스런 키스), or Mischievous Kiss, is a 2010 Korean romantic comedy and the Korean version of the Taiwanese It Started With a Kiss (2005) as well as They Kissed Again (2007) and the Japanese Itazura na Kiss (1996). It stars Kim Hyun Joong, Jung So Min, Lee Tae Sung, Lee Si Young, Jung Hye Young, and Kang Nam Gil. It also features Korean indie band Bye Bye Sea (안녕바다) that I rather like. The summary is as follows:

Based on the popular manga, Oh Ha Ni is a clumsy student who falls for the perfectionist, Baek Seung Jo. However, Seung Jo is indifferent towards her and rejects her love. When Ha Ni's house collapses, she and her father moves into his long-time friend's house. It turns out that Seung Jo is the friend's son and Ha Ni is given the opportunity to be near the guy she loves. Will she be able to move Seung Jo's heart?

When I first caught wind that a Korean version of ISWAK would be coming out, I decided that I absolutely had to watch it; there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Of course, this doesn't mean that I wasn't apprehensive. ISWAK took us on for a long ride and there were plenty of moments where I experienced a lot of second-hand embarrassment, courtesy of the female lead, but I guess it was her "charm." It doesn't hurt that Kim Hyun Joong would be playing the male lead either. ;) The ratings for the drama weren't very good at the beginning due to other popular dramas (i.e. Kim Tak Gu) and some comments weren't very positive about Kim's acting, but I still went on with it and I'm glad I did.

The drama pretty much squeezed most of the events from ISWAK and a part of TKA into 16 episodes when compared to the 40 or so total episodes of the Taiwanese version combined. Because it was shorter, it wasn't that painful watching Oh Ha Ni finally catch Baek Seung Jo's eye, but I feel that the ending could have ended with more closure. Then again, I was watching this drama with the Taiwanese series in mind which was much longer. The acting wasn't horrendous - isn't he supposed to be a cold and stoic guy anyway?? - and I felt that the foreign girl, Chris, was rather likeable and her Korean sounded much better than the foreign girl in the Taiwanese version, but I'm not an expert in Korean so that's just how it sounded to my inexperienced ears. ;) The last episode didn't leave you hanging - it did show snippets of everyone else's love life, which I thought was cute, but it really was just a hint. Hints are nice, but I also like nice, long stories that show you everything; you tend to get more involved. ...On the other hand, it's a good thing that Playful Kiss was shorter. I really can't have my Internet lagging for too long. >.>

To sum it up: if you love ISWAK and want some semblance of it back, you should totally watch this. If you haven't watched ISWAK, you should still watch this (as well as ISWAK). If you're just lazy and don't want to go through the 40-odd episodes of ISWAK + TKA, then you should watch this just to get a good idea of the plot. When you have and decide that you want to see a more in-depth version, then watch ISWAK. :] This seriously hooked me in, haha. And even though it took me a year to complete ISWAK and TKA because it was that painful to watch the girl for the first couple of episodes, it really is a good series.

I watched it on hulu because the quality was excellent as well as the subtitles. I attempted to watch it on MySoju and DramaCrazy but the videos kept on getting all wonky. :/

My Darling is a Foreigner

My Darling is a Foreigner (ダーリンは外国人/Daarin Wa Gaikokujin) is a 2010 Japanese romantic comedy film based on a manga of the same name written by Oguri Saori, based on her own life experiences with her foreign husband. It stars Inoue Mao and Jonathan Sherr. The following is the synopsis:

"My Darling is a Foreigner" tells the quirky story of a Japanese woman and an American man as they enter into a relationship and eventually marry. Saori is a manga artist. She meets language geek Tony, who has arrived in Japan after falling in love with the language. As the couple become closer, Saori is inundated with strange questions about the language from Tony. Are these weird questions a trait of his foreign background? Or is it because of his linguist preoccupation? More importantly, can their relationship survive?

I heard of the film early last year and I'm happy that I finally got to watch it. :) I love how the story is told, seemingly with parts of it in a documentary-type format with a few other real life (?) mixed couples amidst the story of Saori and Tony. It's really cute and I'm pretty impressed with Sherr's Japanese, though from what I saw, he is based in Tokyo so it would make sense. It was a little shorter than I expected (only 6 parts on dramacrazy) but it does a good job of going through realistic problems that may occur between a couple from different cultural backgrounds as well as things that may occur regardless of racial/cultural differences within the time allotted. I also love how the term "foreigner" is seen as something to be displaced - after all, the word "foreigner" is generally used for the minority group, so it's interesting to see it change when Saori meets his family and is, in turn, the foreigner. But then you see the line blur a bit when the two sides come to the middle as they take steps to accept one another.

I especially love what Saori's mom said about being foreign doesn't mean that a relationship wouldn't work, since being in a relationship is about compromising. Well, she said something that amounted to that, haha.

All in all, this is now a favorite of mines (so cute!) and all I have to say is that you must watch it!

You can watch it here.

Lady Daddy

Lady Daddy, also known as Dad Likes Women (아빠가 여자를 좋아해) [HanCinema, AsianDramaWiki], is a Korean romantic comedy/melodrama that was aired in early 2010. It stars Lee Na-young, Kim Ji-seok, Jung Ae-yun, Kim Hee-su, and Lee Pil-mo. The summary is as follows:

In the comedy "Lady Daddy," a young child from a divorced family searches for his father. What he doesn't know is that his father is now a woman after having sex reassignment surgery. His father Ji-hyeon (Lee Na-Young) was a medical student but is now a photographer ...

And this one as well:

Ji-hyeon (Lee Na-young) is enjoying a perfect life as a beautiful photographer following a sex-change operation, until a young boy claiming that she had fathered him comes knocking at her door. Trouble ensues as Ji-hyeon tries to act like a conventional dad while her boyfriend (Kim Ji-seok-I) grows increasingly suspicious.

I'm supposed to be doing homework, because the stuff never ends even after graduation, so I automatically happened upon a movie that sounded like it had tons of potential - this one. Honestly, the main reason was because it touches upon the sensitive topic of sex change, not to mention how it's a Korean film. Next thing you know, I had opened up a window for it and I was watching it. I have to say I loved it. The acting was great, the interactions were adorable, and Lee Na-young makes a really, really feminine guy. I commend the fake mustache and goatee, though. :) There are tons of laugh-worthy scenes as well as ones that make you just a little frustrated, but it does touch sex change fairly well, even though it was mostly a background thing, albeit an important topic. Scenes from life before the change occurred in flashbacks and the fact that the "guy's" dad wasn't approving of it at all represented the This Is All Wrong side. Then there's the best friend from high school to stood by her side all the time and the idea of love regardless of what's on the outside was a big message towards the end. For a majority of the film, though, it's mainly about the dad-turned-female getting along with her new-found son and I absolutely loved the onomatopoeias. ^^

You can watch it here.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, or 誰かが私にキスをした/Dareka ga Watashi ni Kisu wo Shita in Japanese, is a 2010 film that was a joint-American-Japanese production with American and Japanese staff and actors/actresses and based on a book of the same name. It stars Horikita Maki, Matsuyama Kenichi, Tegoshi Yuya, and Anton Yelchin. The summary is as follows:

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd know about her mom's new family. She'd know about her dad's fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads... And now she can't remember the first 4 years of her life.

I honestly decided that I absolutely had to watch this when it came out due to several fairly simple reasons: (1) it stars some of my favorite Japanese actors/actresses [well, Tesshi's just special because I used to be very much obsessed with NEWS], (2) I loved Anton Yelchin in Star Trek [2009] and I wanted to hear him speak in un-accented English, (3) I wanted to hear all of the Japanese actors/actresses speak in English, and (4) I wanted to see how the co-production came out. In the end, their acting was pretty good and I was impressed since I know how hard it could be to act and show emotion at the right moments in a language you're not familiar with, but they did it. Tesshi's English is still pretty interesting and the strongest out of all of them, which reminded of Tegomass's song, Miso Soup. Even so - thumbs up for it! :) It's also interesting how they portray "normal" high school students. Well, mainly, my interest pertains to Kenichi, since he tends to go for the interesting roles and I keep on seeing him as L, because he's an amazing L.

The way it was filmed was pretty interesting - I keep on seeing pictures popping up everywhere now - and the plot was very much that of a female high school student attending an international school and her life, though it focuses more on school because, well, school is life. It goes through some romance and friendship and it really makes me wonder what the book's about, but it was entertaining and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I suppose it spoke about change? O_o It's too late for me to think up of a good, rational theory as to the hidden meaning of the plot, but perhaps I'm just thinking too much. Anyway, just know that the acting's great, the English that is present is good (the English-subbed version also subs the English spoken by the non-native speakers, which is largely unnecessary), and the plot doesn't make you think much, but it's interesting enough that it keeps you going till the end. Perhaps it's not something I'd go for if I were to pick a book up for leisure reading, but I like it all the same.

You can watch it here.

King of Baking, Kim Tak Gu

King of Baking, Kim Tak Gu - or Baker King, Kim Tak Gu (제빵왕 김탁구) - is a 30-episode long, 2010 Korean family and romance drama with a ton of melodramatics thrown in, as if that's a surprise. ;) It stars Yoon Shi Yoon, Eugene, Joo Won, and Lee Young Ah. The following is the synopsis:

Kim Tak Goo is the eldest son of Goo In Jong, the president of Samhwa Enterprise, a legend in the baking industry. Although he is an extremely talented baker and seemed destined to succeed his father as president, Goo In Jong's family plotted to rob him of his inheritance because he was born to In Jong's mistress. Tak Goo's determination to become number one in the baking industry drives him to rebuild his career from scratch despite the many trials he faces.

This is actually one of the few dramas that I decided to watch while it's still airing; in fact, the last episode aired last Thursday and I just finished it late last night when I found out that the subbed version was finally out. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, based mainly on an article I found that speculated on how one of the OST songs was sung by Kyuhyun of Super Junior and then another article that confirmed it. ^^ Anyway, I decided to give it a try and I had to admit that the first three or so episodes were a little too melodramatic for me, but I kept on going. It was just heartache after heartache, obstacle after obstacle - but then again, the entire drama appeared to be that way with the exception of half of episode 16, which was probably my favorite. I think what made it different was that the first couple of episodes detailed the background information of the four main characters of the younger generation and followed three of them as they grew up. I do like how we got to know everything as it "happened" and not just through flashbacks, though those did occur, but at the same time, it was like a hammer just banging down on the head of the nail, not letting up for one bit. It was when the kids were all grown up that I got really into it. ^^;

The drama basically follows around the members of a certain dysfunctional family due to the idea of competition and the idea of "I must win, for if I don't, it means I lose" that half of the members had as their motto. There was a ton of that between the mothers as well as the brothers, though it was more one-sided when it came to them. It was sort of frustrating as it was basically one person trying to one-up the other while the other may or may not do the same all in the name of revenge and/or being the Top Dog. Then there was the love from within the "sides" that enabled all of it. Even so, I loved every minute of it; I even ventured to watching some parts of the raw episodes in an attempt to know what would happen next. It really was torture to wait for the episodes to air in Korea, then get subbed and released. There was a moment where the Chinese-subbed versions were released days before the English versions so I just stuck with those -- until they stopped, that is. Anyway... like I said, it was a ton of frustration wrapped up in a 30-episode drama with a sprinkling of light-hearted moments as well as some budding romance and love triangles all about. There's also a lot of bread that made me want to make bread, haha.

Anyway - and here are some spoilers - it actually ends happily. Well, for most of them, at least. The last episode had quite a bit of waterworks, though not as much as there could have been. The "evil" characters got their dues for the most part and those that were "evil" but only due to circumstances eventually found their happiness as well. However, it struck me as odd as how the two main rivals acted like they were best of friends, exchanging sidelong glances and secret smiles. Don't get me wrong; it made the fangirl in me all giddy, but at the same time, the more realistic part of me was all like, "What? Is this some alternate universe?" I could see it happening, but not without a longer timespan in between - there wasn't even a subscript that stated "[Insert Number Here] Months/Years Later" - they were just happily working together. Perhaps I'm just thinking too much and making it more complicated than it is, haha.

In short: I loved this drama and it was pretty good. The acting was good, the plot was very nice (though the backstabbing never seemed to stop), the romance was there but it wasn't the focal point, the characters were well-developed and some were very complicated (i.e. Ma-jun, Yu-kyung), and the bread was delicious. Well, at least they looked it. If you're one of the ones that goes for good ratings, it ranked as the number one drama for its timeslot from the 6th episode onwards.

You can watch it at both MySoju and DramaCrazy.

Rinne no Ame

Rinne no Ame (輪廻の雨), or Rain of Reincarnation, is a 2010 Japanese tanpatsu showcasing bromance. :) It stars Yamamoto Yusuke (Atashinchi no Danshi, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e) and Seto Koji (Atashinchi no Danshi, Koizora). The summary is as follows:

The Brothers, Kohei and Shuhei Mikami were abandoned by their father, after the mother passed away years ago. The intellectually disabled Shuhei is working in a factory, where he is violently abused by the manager on a daily basis. When Kohei finds it out under unpropitious coincidences, he kills the man in affect and deprives money. He buries the corpse in the mountains with his younger brothers help. During the criminal investigation is it Shuhei who soon draws the attention of the Detectives on the Mikami brothers through his diffus behavior and words. Even through he is unable to comprehend the murder of his older brother and doesn´t understand the situation, the Police uses Shuhei as deciding factor in arresting the culprit.

I heard this was a tearjerker and so I tried it out. First off, it was short - really short. Like within-an-hour short. That was good since I have to go to bed now. Anyway, this drama special won many awards and when you watch it, you know why. I mean, the two act really well. You'd pretty much think that Seto Koji was actually 'intellectually disabled' if not for the fact you know he's acting, as it's a drama and all. Second off, it's all about the love between two brothers who had a hard life - an abusive father, a mother who died early, the fact that one of them was 'intellectually disabled' and was abused by his boss - but they loved each other. For such a short program, it did a fairly good job of showing what happened in flashbacks and you can see the struggle that the older brother goes through when his life gets further complicated due to his younger brother, who doesn't even know that he did anything. The ending is sad, though cut off somewhat abruptly, letting you figure out what happens next yourself (unless there was more), but it all comes together once again via brotherly love - bromance. <3

It's short and sweet as well as intense; it does deal with a murder after all. If you've got a little bit of time and want to see superb acting, go for it! However, although I did feel for them, there were no waterworks on my end. In fact, my eyes remained pretty dry. O_o Or maybe that's because I'm sleepy that they feel like they need re-wetting drops, haha.

You can watch it at dramacrazy.

Picture taken from here.

Down With Love

Down With Love (就想賴著妳/Jiu Xiang Lai Zhe Ni) is a 2010 Taiwanese romantic drama starring Ella Chen, Jerry Yan, Kelly Huang, Michael Zhang, Chen Zi Han, and Amanda Zhou. The summary is as follows:

Xiang Yu Ping, an expert divorce and inheritance lawyer, is seen by others as cold, selfish, and ruthless. After Yu-ping’s older brother dies in a car accident he has little choice in taking in his brother's two orphaned children, Fei and Ting. Every nanny he hires to care for them is either scared off by the mischievous children or ends up falling in love with him. Fed up, Yu Ping asks his secretary, Yang Duo, to find a nanny that meets his requirements. Having lost all their wealth when their mother passed away and being abandoned by their father after racking up heavy debts; Yang Duo can not ignore the fact that she needs the money and recommends her younger sister, Yang Guo, for the job; assuring Yu Ping that her tomboyish sister will not fall in love with him by lying that she does not like men at all.

This has been on my list of dramas to watch ever since I heard that Ella was going to star in a drama. And I finally finished it yesterday afternoon. I have no complaints when it comes to the acting although some of the characters seriously got on my nerves - but when is that something new when it comes to dramas? There were your normal ups and downs as well as comedic antics that occurred that made one go "aww" and any other variations of said phrase. There seemed to be people pairing off every which way and a main love triangle that just kept on adding people onto it that I almost got a headache when friends asked me about the drama - I'm just not good at explaining things - but I highly enjoyed it.

However, one thing I noticed was that none of the sites I went to were set on agreeing with the amount of episodes the drama contained; some said 16 whereas others listed 25 episodes for it. Then I remembered that while it was airing, some episodes were leaked and I also read somewhere that the leaked version was 28 episodes long but what was actually officially released totaled to 16. O_o I have no idea if it's right or not but either way, I think the fact that the drama was leaked rushed the ending. On that note, I'd like to elaborate and say I really loved the drama although it had its fair share of infuriating parts as per usual, but then it suddenly seemed to end and everyone came together in a happily ever after epilogue set 6 years later. Basically, it was rushed. I wish they could have spent some more time on the ending and perhaps even elaborated more and such on their courting and even the wedding ceremony itself instead of a kiss and then - bam! - she has a 4 year old son and is pregnant with her second child.

You can watch it at Drama Wiki (28 listed episodes but only works up to 16) and My Soju (16 episodes). Although the ending was a bit of a flop, I still recommend it. ^^