Boys Before Flowers

So this would mark the second drama I ever started and finished while it was airing. In fact, it just finished yesterday. ^_^ Anywho, Boys Before Flowers (or Boys Over Flowers/Kgotboda Namja/꽃보다 남자), the Korean version of Japan's Hana Yori Dango and Taiwan's Meteor Garden, is a romantic comedy, of sorts. It still amazes me how there's now three versions of the same basic plot out there, but they're still fairly different from one another. This stars Koo Hye Sun, Lee Min Ho, Kim Hyun Joong, Kim Bum, Kim Joon, and Kim So Eun. The summary, taken from DramaWiki, is as follows:

Jan Di is an average girl whose family owns a dry cleaning store located near the luxurious and well known Shin Hwa College. Jan Di meets the four richest and most spoiled boys known as the F4. After saving a boy from jumping off the roof of Shinhwa High School, she is admitted into the school on a swimming scholarship. Jan Di tries to avoid confrontation with the F4 at all cost because she knows what happens to those that stand against them. However, when Jan Di's friend, Oh Min Ji, accidentally gets ice cream on the leader of the F4's shoes, she's forced to declare war on the leader of the F4, Goo Joon Pyo.

In addition to being amazed at how there are now three versions, it also pleases me to say that I did not get tired of this. Every Wednesday, I would go to MySoju and watch the two episodes and after I finish them, I mentally berate myself for watching it and having to wait another week for more. I mean, even though the general plot is present throughout all three versions, each version lends their own flavor through the different actors and the different ways they go through the scenes. It's pretty refreshing - not the mention the eye candy. ;)

The entire drama series seems to go through almost every scene that took the other two dramas two "seasons" to go through but there was one question it left me with: whether or not there'll be a sequel.

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD]

The last episode was pretty sweet and I found it odd that Jun Pyo's mother didn't really butt in much - in fact, it was pretty much smooth sailing. There was a section that reminded me of an epilogue and it followed every character to see what they were up to and though a wedding seems to be hovering in the future for Jun Pyo and Jan Di (as well as the relationship between Ga Eul and Yi Jung), nothing was quite set. In fact, the last scene interrupted Jun Pyo's proposal to Jan Di and then F4 and Jan Di stands side by side looking towards the sunset. Pretty nice, I know, but not quite the concrete, rock-solid ending. I mean, it could stand as is, I suppose... O_o I guess I'm sort of torn in half whether or not I want a sequel or not.

[END SPOILERS]

Oh wait... haltness! I just took a little break and decided to research on it. According to this little article, the second season of Boys Over Flowers is confirmed and will be airing in February 2010.

Now I'm just curious what they plan to add in that one...

There's a total of 25 episodes and you can watch them here.

Full House

Full House (풀하우스) is a Korean romantic comedy drama broadcasted in 2004. I guess I'm on an 'old dramas' watching spree. haha... anyway, it stars Rain/Bi, Song Hye Kyo, Han Eun Jung, and Kim Sung Soo. The summary (taken from DramaWiki) is as follows:

Han Ji Eun is a naive writer who got swindled out of everything she owned including her house by her best friends. Stranded in China, She managed to borrow money from an actor Lee Young Jae to return to Korea. On her return, she found out that her house was bought by Lee Young Jae. In an attempt to get her possessions back, she entered in a contract marriage with Young Jae for one year. In spite of losing all, Ji Eun manages to be cheerful and takes things in strike and the business relationship between the two becomes personal as they start to rely and care for each other. Based on a popular manhwa of the same title.

So, before I watched this, I heard of it many times - and I also heard that Smiling Pasta was the Taiwanese version of it. After watching it, there's the same concept of a marriage contract between a relatively ordinary girl and a celebrity, but the rest is generally its own. I had also heard of Rain (aka Bi) from all the "Rainism" craze but I wasn't really included. After I watched it, he's adorable and some of his facial expressions are just plain cute. The female lead is very pretty as well. Anywho, the acting was pretty well done and there were a good number of cute moments, but, of course, a good number of it was the frustrating misunderstandings (or the plain refusal to stay for a little longer to understand it), but that's just a part of dramas.

I can understand how the drama won a good number of awards. :)

There's a total of 16 episode and you can watch it here.

Iljimae

I just finished Iljimae (일지매, 一枝梅), a historical Korean drama, that I had started a couple of days before I left China. Iljimae is a name given to Korea's version of Robin Hood and stars Lee Jun Ki, Han Hyo Joo, Lee Young Ah, and Park Shi Hoo. I actually picked it up in China because I saw Lee Jun Ki's face on the cover, then from what I could understand from the Chinese summary in the back, it sounded interesting. Well, I have to say that I'm glad I got it. Here's the summary (in ENGLISH - lucky you) taken from DramaWiki:

Set during the Joseon Dynasty, Ryung acts as a useless gangster in the marketplace by day but at night he is a chivalrous robber who robs corrupt government officials to give to the poor. After each robbery he leaves behind a wooden branch from a plum tree at the site of the robbery to take responsibility for the robbery. The poor citizens only know him as Iljimae. Bong Soon is a hilarious girl with good martial art skills and lives as a swindler. She only loves Ryung and sacrifices her whole life for him. Eun Chae is a government official's daughter and is good in nature and usually helps miserable people. She meets Iljimae once by chance, and their sweet love story begins. However, her love puts Iljimae in a dangerous situation because an Imperial Guard also loves her.

First of all, there's a whole lot more to the story than the summary that's given. The main basis for the story is revenge and there's this entire background story that's not given to you in its full entirety until the end of the drama (and it's 20 episodes long). Also, everyone in the drama is interconnected in some way through the past and into the future. It's rather interesting and not a bore. The romantic aspects of it are not central to the plot, just a little something on the side (but there isn't much of it if you're into full-blown romantic stuff). In short, I totally recommend it! :) AND Lee Jun Ki is an awesome actor (actually, the entire cast makes their character come to life as well). Even so, the ending gives the audience something to think about. In fact, I'm still thinking about it. haha...

You can watch this on MySoju, but it's not up on CrunchyRoll because of copyright laws.

Who Are You?

My sister and I finished watching a Korean drama, Who Are You? (누구세요) today. It's a relatively new romantic comedy starring Yoon Kye Sang (the significant other), Go Ah Ra (the main female character), Jin Yi Han (the other guy), and Kang Nam Gil as the father. Oh! And Lee Un is also in it though it's a small-ish part (he was also in Coffee Prince). Anyway, the story is mainly a romantic comedy but it has a bit of a supernatural feel to it. Basically, it's about a father who dies prematurely and leaves his only daughter an orphan, but he can't bear to leave her like that, so he is given a deal where he can take over a person's body for three hours a day. This person happens to be rather cold - and then they eventually figure out that the father's death was not a case of suicide, it was murder. Then the drama takes off on that road. :) The actors are cute. I liked the drama for the most part, but some parts (like in most every other drama) made me cringe. I mean, gosh. It's just unnecessary to sing and dance so obnoxiously! -ahem- Anyway, the romance is rather cute and somewhat slow going - but it's well-worth it. :)

Anywho, it's 16 episodes long and I watched it on MySoju.

My Girl

My sister and I just (finally) finished watching a Korean drama named My Girl (마이걸). It's 16 episodes long and aired in 2005. It's also one of the more popular Korean dramas, and I have to admit, it is pretty good. The actors are all pretty good looking; it stars Lee Dong Wook, Lee Da Hae, Li Joon Ki, and Park Si Yeon. Here's the summary from DramaWiki:

When Gong Chan (Lee Dong Wook) meets the lively and beautiful Yu Rin (Lee Da Hae), he finds out that she has connections to his missing cousin, who his grandfather has been searching for a long time. He asks Yu Rin to lie about being his long missing cousin until he can find his real cousin. She says yes, but soon their feelings for each other get in the way of their plans. Gong Chan's friend Jung Woo (Lee Joon Ki) falls for Yu Rin while Gong Chan's ex girlfriend, Seo Hyun (Park Si Yeon), a pro tennis player, tries to win him back. Will the two ever tell each other how they feel? Will Gong Chan ever find his real cousin?

The entire story was somewhat typical of an Asian drama - but it had a twist towards the end, so at the same time, it was also rather refreshing. I personally felt sorry for Lee Joon Ki's character and I found him similar to Hana Kimi's Jin Xiu Yi/Shuichi Nakatsu and Bull Fighting (Dou Niu Yao bu Yao's) Jin Zi Cong. I also admit that Lee Joon Ki is rather cute. :D

Anyway... we watched episodes 1 - 15 on MySoju, and episode 16 on aznTV (NOTE: you need to download WinAMP in order to watch their videos). The episode 16 link on MySoju was broken (aka the video had no subtitles) and it took a long time to find one that worked with our slow internet connection. >_<>

Goong

My sister and I just finished watching Goong (궁), also known as Princess Hours, Palace, and Imperial Household in English. It is also my second Korean drama to date. :) I'm still getting used to the language, but I'm starting to get a feel for the romanised Korean. Anyway, it stars Yoon Eun Hye from Coffee Prince, Joo Ji Hoon who is a model (and rather cute, if I may say so myself), and Kim Jeong Hoon (who I took a great liking to - his character was tragic though). The following is the summary from DramaWiki - the one from Wiki has a lot of spoilers.

Goong is a story about young love in face of tradition, politics, and intrigue. In the imaginary world, modern-day Korea is a constitutional monarchy and the Royal Family lives in a grand Palace, the Goong. Story opens with the sudden death of the reigning the King. Faced with the decreasing popularity among the public for the Royalty, a grand wedding for the Crown Prince, Lee Shin, is decided to be the best publicity move to improve the image of the Royalty and at the same time prepare Shin for immediate succession. The intended bride? The headstrong, awkward, and sweet spirited Shin Chae-kyung that just happens to go to the same exclusive art school. Chae-kyung was betrothed to become the next Crown Princess by her grandfather and Shin's grandfather.

After 14 years of living in England with his mom, Lee Yul appears all of a sudden. He is Shin's cousin as well as the former Crown Prince. Everything seemed to be going normally until Chae-kyung's optimistic spirit wins the heart of internally lonely, Yul. As the Crown Prince Shin and simple-minded Chae-kyung's relationship appear to developing deeper feelings, a series of scandals are exposed to the public right after the pair were officially announced married. Will love prevail all in a world of political pressures and martial hardships? Or will being in the spotlight of the public be too much for the young newlyweds to endure?

This entire drama spanned across 24 episodes (my longest drama to date - I never watched Meteor Garden) and I found it painful. Not in the bad way though! Eun Hye's character was very embarrassing to watch at times and it made me cringe. Also, the heart wrenching that is mandatory in romance dramas was present throughout the drama. It was well-done, though, and was cute and sweet at many times - not to mention funny! If you have time to spare and is up for a bit of drama, go for it! Also, it's interesting to see Eun Hye as Chae-Gyung as opposed to her character in Coffee Prince - they're completely different!!

Oh yes, and the soundtrack's pretty good as well. :)

Now... my dilemma is what drama to watch next.

Note: it is hard to find this drama online because it is copyrighted. Even so, you can find it here.