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. :/

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.