alice

along with lee min ho, ji chang wook, and kim soo hyun who just finished military service, there's joo won as well. and his first drama pick after finishing military service is this crime drama mixed with time travelling story. at first it sounds interesting, so i was waiting to finish start up first before watching this one. however, as i keep watching the drama, this drama became a little bit confusing for me. 

title: alice

cast: joo won, kim hee sun, kwak si yang, lee da in, choi won young

genre: crime mystery, sci-fi

it started in the year of 2050, where time travelling has been started. two ALICE agents were sent back to 1992 to look for "the book of prophecy" that was said to have the prediction how time travelling could end so they could prevent it. ALICE is agency that sent people back through time to find peace and closure from their past life so the end of time travelling is bad news for them. those two agents are yoon tae yi (kim hee sun) and yoo min hyuk (kwak si yang). they arrived at the scene a bit late, since the owner of the book has been killed by an agent from "the teacher" but they managed to secure the book. however, they didn't know that the child left behind was tae yi's child version. later tae yi found out that she was pregnant with min hyuk's baby, and time travelling could endanger the baby. min hyuk suggested that tae yi got abortion and got back to 2050 as they have finished their mission. however, tae yi secretly read the book of prophecy and decided to stay in 1992 and delivered her baby.

tae yi renamed herself as park sun young and named her son park jin gyeom. growing up jin gyeom was weird and later diagnosed with alexithymia, which means he had difficulty in recognizing emotion. that's why his classmates got the wrong impression about him, except for kim do yeon (lee da in), who later had long crush on him. in 2010, jin gyeom found his mother dead on her birthday, and from that day on, jin gyeom promised that he would catch the culprit. captain go (go hyeon seok) who was in charged of his case back when he was a high school student, looked after him after his mother's death and later helped jin gyeom to get into police academy and even became detective in his team in 2020.

jin gyeom stumbled upon weird cases, like a child that was abducted but the kid said that her mother was the one who abducted her, but in fact her mother was away in europe. then a murder case where the culprit said that he was a 5 years old boy in this time. that got jin gyeom suspected about something else behind all these cases. he then met "this dimension" yoon tae yi since he was suspecting time travelling had something to do with this case. "this dimension" tae yi is a professor in physic which is interested in time travelling. the new tae yi has striking resemblance with park sun young, so jin gyeom had difficulty separating this feeling.

together they worked on cases and found out that time travelling really existed. jin gyeom got send back to 2010, just to see his mother got killed again. however, he found out about seok oh won (choi won young) that helped his mother back then but got mistaken as the suspect in his mother's case. the current seok oh won was the one that keep the book of prophecy but no one knew about it except for jin gyeom's mom. however, later agents from both agency, ALICE and the teacher's got information about it and killed the current oh won and replaced him with the future oh won, the one who changed from helping jin gyeom to helping the teacher. captain go was changed too. the future captain go's wife was died and the director from ALICE promised that he would send him back in time to see his wife as long as he killed park sun young. but the future captain go couldn't do that and he replaced the current captain go who got killed on duty and helped protected jin gyeom. later, he got killed by future oh won. that's whe the future oh won told both tae yi and jin gyeom that their fate was sealed by the book of the prophecy. 

the last page of the book was ripped by current tae yi's father and gave it to child tae yi back in 1992. but after the incident, child tae yi lost her memory. jin gyeom has been travelling back to the past couple times and even brought tae yi with him the last time. there tae yi found out about the book of the prophecy and the last page that was ripped. at their last time travelling journey, both tae yi and jin gyeom met their past life, but the past jin gyeom was another person travelling from the future and he was the one that killed jin gyeom's mom in that time period. tae yi then started to get memory from jin gyeom's mom memory and she also got her old memory back. she remembered about fraction of the last page. she told jin gyeom that in that book, jin gyeom was the one that was not supposed to be born, but he was born through passage of time, thus he got special power in controlling the time. and he was the one that could end time travelling as well. jin gyeom's mom apparently found a way to close the time passage, but she also found out that if she closed it, then all time travellers were erased. at that time, tae yi didn't understand it, but later she understood that jin gyeom would be vanished if they close time passage. that's why jin gyeom's mom decided to sacrifice herself so jin gyeom would stay alive. she hoped that jin gyeom wouldn't meet current tae yi so they didn't get into danger. but her hope didn't come true as jin gyeom was working together with current tae yi. at the end, jin gyeom found out who the teacher is and then decided to go against his mother wish. 

what i like: 

- solid acting from all casts. no wonder since most faces are repeated faces that i keep seeing whenever i see korean drama.

- they remembered not to use touch screen phone in 2010 and use touch screen phone in 2020. however, i couldn't say anything about the clothing since i totally forgot how 2010 fashion should look like. 

- the plot is something else. every episode has a twist that got me really confused. the idea about time travelling and combined it with crime story is a bit new. 

what i don't like:

- the ending of course. i know it's a fantasy, but still the ending is weird. i get why jin gyeom should be killed to close the time passage, but why his mother too? 

- a bit plot hole about their time travelling. they have been going back and forth to 2010, wouldn't it be weird for some people? and what about what happened in the past could affect the future? like they killed the current seok oh won and replaced him with the future. ain't that weird? if they killed the current one, the future one should be vanished. and the current tae yi is not jin gyeom's mom, so that means jin gyeom could fall in love with current tae yi? oh so confusing. i know they talked about different time and dimension as well, but it's super confusing. and who's the real killer from jin gyeom's past? 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: for the first few episodes, yes. the last ones, not so much.

recommended for: those who like crime murder mystery mixed with sci fi as well, sci fi lover and time travel's story. those who don't mind watching confusing drama without any romance and almost no comedy thrown in. 

tunnel

after watching stranger and signal, somehow i saw tunnel and since i didn't have anything to watch at that time, i automatically saw it. it has similar vibe to signal as both were police detective story and had time travelling part as well. let's see which one is better.

title: tunnel

cast: choi jin hyuk, yoon hyun min, lee yoo young

genre: police crime story with a bit of fantasy, murder mystery

park gwang ho (choi jin jyuk) was a hardworking detective. but he got a serial murder case that he couldn't solve. he was determined to catch the culprit so when he was on patrol, he discovered someone suspicious and immediately chased him even to a tunnel in the middle of midnight with no back up. however, the culprit managed to smash the back of his head, leaving him unconscious. after waking up, he passed through the tunnel as well as travelled 30 years in the future. 

in the future, he automatically walked into the precinct where he used to work only to find that everything else was different. luckily, there was another park gwang ho that's supposed to transfer to the police precinct. he then met his new partner, kim seon jae (yoon hyun min). together they got involved in another serial murder case. however, now there were two suspects, so both of them were working together to catch the culprit. gwang ho thought that when he managed to catch the culprit, he would be able to go back to the past. at first, gwang ho was so old fashioned that everyone was suspicious of him, but luckily, the team leader in 2016 was his former junior 30 years ago, jeon sung sik (jo hee bong). 

to understand more about criminals, seon jae tried to get insight from a professor in criminal psychology, shin jae yi (lee yoo young). apparently, jae yi was the only daughter of park gwang ho, but both didn't know about it until almost at the end of the story. at first they thought the serial murder case that they were working on was done by the same culprit from 30 years ago. but jae yi found something wrong about both case. they managed to catch the new culprit, but jae yi still had feeling that the real culprit from 30 years ago hasn't been caught yet. that almost put her in danger as she began to suspect the real murderer from 30 years ago. 

around that time, gwang ho found out that the gwang ho in the future world was kidnapped and murdered by the murderer that he was chasing for 30 years, and that his partner was the son of the victim from the serial murder case from 30 years ago. and that jae yi was his daughter. then they found out that jae yi was kidnapped by the murderer. however, there was a time where gwang ho managed to go back to the past for awhile. he brought back the proof in the case to the past and he didn't bring it back to the future. but luckily jae yi remembered where it was because her memory was changed as the past was also changed. that's what gotten her kidnapped. anyway, they managed to catch the real culprit and it was surprising to seon jae as he was quite close to the murderer. and gwang ho was able to go back to the past to his lovely wife and unborn daughter.

what i like:

- solid story, however, there are some unexplained story about how the time travelling stuff. gwang ho was going back and forth because he was chasing the culprit, but at the end, the culprit is apprehended in the future. so how could he go back to the past? and in the past, he was missing and he wasn't able to go back to the police squad since his former team was disbanded, so how could he go back to the police department at last? he was pictured chasing a cow thief at the end and in the beginning of the drama, so how could he get his job back? however, the time travelling time story is pretty solid. they remember to change the memory of the past if the past is changed.

- all things in the past are from the past. like how they used land line in the past, and flashlight. they used bikes instead of cars as it was pretty expensive back then. the clothing was different as well.

- solid acting but i still think that jae yi's weird. however, the series is saved by choi min hyuk. 

what i don't like:

- i think i've said it about the plot hole. 

- tthe serial murder was the same as the one in the signal one, the one that's quite famous in korea. but i think the one in signal is closer in reality than the one in tunnel.

rating: 8/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: people who like murder mystery story and police story and don't mind it being mixed with time travelling story as well. 

start up

probably this is the latest korean drama hype at the end of 2020. among other dramas that aired around the same time, this is the one that people talked about mostly. no wonder because this drama paired nam joo hyuk and bae suzy. both were well loved by korean drama lover, so no wonder many people excited about their drama together. i'm not the kind of person that watch on going drama, so i waited until it was about to finish before starting watching it. and by that time, people were already talking about the second lead in this drama, that outshined nam joo hyuk. so let's see about it. 

title: start up

cast: nam joo hyuk, bae suzy, kang han na, kim seon ho

genre: youth life drama, romantic

it started with seo family. daddy seo/ seo cheung myong (kim joo hun) was an mere employee most of his life, and he decided it was time for him to start his own business. back then, starting up a company was not easy. he didn't have any money, he didn't have any connection, so he went here and there to start up his business. and mommy seo/ cha a hyun (song seon mi) didn't approve of his plan as she thought they would be starving without steady income. so she filed for divorce. leaving both seo sister to choose, whom they want to live with, their father or their mother. seo in jae (later changed into won in jae) chose to live with their mother, thus leading an easy life as their mother remarried with successful businessman and they got to live in the US for 10 years. while seo dal mi, the younger one, decided to stay with their father. 

unfortunately, when daddy seo managed to secure an investment, he got into accident and later passed away without having the chance to tell her daughters about his achievement. before dad managed to secure the investment, dal mi became lonely since her sister moved to the US and she got no friend. that makes grandma seo/choi won deok (kim hae sook) wanted to give dal mi a friend to cheer her. at that time, grandma just helped young han ji pyeong (kim seon ho), an orphan that has nowhere to stay, and only had a small amount of money. he couldn't open a bank account because he was still a minor, but he was considered a young adult so he couldn't stay in the orphanage anymore. grandma seo opened her store for ji pyeong to stay at night, so he could keep going to school. so, grandma seo asked ji pyeong to write a letter for dal mi, and soon enough, it did cheer dal mi up, and both ended up writing back and forth for awhile. but ji pyeong wrote the letter as nam do san, whose name he found in the newspaper, not as himself. ji pyeong also helped grandma seo opened up a bank account, but without telling her, he used grandma seo's account to buy stocks and since he's an investment genius, he doubled his money in short amount of time.

at that time, daddy seo was short in money, so grandma seo took out her money from the bank, emptied the account. while ji pyeong tried to rent an apartment but shocked when he found out that the bank account was empty. he thought grandma had taken his money to give to daddy seo and stormed out. he moved out to seoul for college, but luckily, grandma could tell him the truth and gave him back his money so he could pay for his college. that leaves ji pyeong heartbroken because he thought that grandma has taken his money. even grandma gave him new shoes before he left.

15 years later, everyone has grown up. in jae was back in korea, managing one of his stepfather's company, morning nature. dal mi is still struggling financially. she didn't go to college, so she struggled to get a steady job. ji pyeong has managed to finish college and joined an investment company, with flying colors in his resume. reality hit in jae as his stepfather kicked her out of her company and handed it out to her stepbrother. she decided to join sandbox. dal mi, also left her job because she was going to be hired as contract worker forever because of her education background, so decided to start her own business, dreaming she could be the next steve jobs. while do san (dal mi was looking for do san, so grandma asked ji pyeong to find him and ji pyeong managed to find the real do san just in time to meet dal mi) was a genius in computer engineering but he failed in business managing, so he decided to get investment by joining sandbox. but joining sandbox means he met dal mi and dal mi found out he wasn't a hot shot CEO, but just a mere nerd with the same dream as dal mi. ji pyeong, realized that he has feeling for dal mi, couldn't help but helping dal mi and do san's team in hackathon.

both dal mi and her sister managed to secure places in sandbox. but after winning demo day, dal mi and do san has to be separated because their company was disbanded by the investor due to achiring. ji pyeong couldn't help them in time. do san left for US while dal mi joined her sister's company and both grew their business. ji pyeong still popped here and there to help dal mi but he realized that dal mi has feeling for do san. after 3 years, do san and friends got back in korea, and managed to save dal mi just in time. but he was puzzled about dal mi feeling. would dal mi chose do san? or would she chose ji pyeong, the former do san in the letters that she adore? 

what i like:

- good background story about starting up a business and investment. as someone who has no background in business world, watching this series open up my eyes about what needs to be prepared if you're going to open a business. you need more than just money and ideas to launch your start up.

- solid actors. though i have to say that it's a shame that nam joo hyuk being outshined by his second lead, kim seo hun. husband says that the writer intentionally gives the second lead more powerful character while giving nerdy but still adorable character to nam do san/ nam joo hyuk. this leads to entire nation separated into two sides, #teamjipyeong or #teamdosan. 

- family story. though ji pyeong and grandma is not family by blood, but their relationship is adorable. how ji pyeong would go high and low for grandma and how grandma consoled him at the end. and how dal mi and in jae's mom finally realize about being a family. we also see growth in do san's family as well.

- professional business attire but nerdy stuff for the geeks. however, some people were baffling that as someone who didn't have steady job like dal mi, how could she bring dior handbag to in jae's events? but she's their brand ambassador, so it would be weirder if she didn't promote dior.

what i don't like:

- how at the end the writer decided to focus more on dal mi and do san's love story and didn't write more about business side, especially with in jae and ji pyeong being super excellent in their work. i think it's more interesting than watching dal mi and do san finally finding their love each other. i guess everyone could guess whom dal mi would choose at the end. 

- people in power keep doing things that they can do as they like. like in jae's stepfather who kicked her out after in jae successfully bring morning nature into success. and then threatened do san. and also in jae's step-brother tried to sabotage dal mi's self driving project. and not to mention alex from 2STO who disbanded samsan tech.

- why no happy ending for ji pyeong and grandma? the fact that they have to make grandma's blind at the end is so sad. but if grandma wasn't blind, then there won't be noon gil. oh well.. 

rating: 8/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: people who like light story about family, a bit about start up business life as well. people who are fans of bae suzy and nam joo hyuk. people who don't mind watching the second lead shines brighter than the main cast. 

Goblin

while waiting for finishing start up, let me catch up the reviews from all the drama that i've watched. it's been so many dramas that i've watched, so let's start with an oldies but goodies, goblin. i've been interested with goblin, but since there are so many people saying that it has bittersweet ending, i keep postponing it. but i decided to watch it to see what's people have been talking about.

title: goblin

cast: gong yoo, kim go eun, lee dong wook, yoo in na, yook sung jae

genre: romantic melodrama with a bit fantasy

kim shin/goblin (gong yoo) was a military general from goryeo dynasty. he was framed as traitor and was killed by the king. apparently, the king was his brother in law who wed his sister. unfortunately, in that event, the king also killed his queen, gong yoo's sister, kim sun. i don't know what was the background, but some people prayed that he would come back alive, but since he has killed so many people, he was cursed to be immortal, hence he became a goblin. he was back alive and lived through the centuries. it was quite a lonely curse, but lucky for him, there's a man with his grandson who stood by his side and managed his alibi in the world as he would need to die and then resume another identity in the world. this family also managed his wealth and anything related to the human world. however, the only way to put an end to his suffering is the goblin's bride, who would be able to pull the sword that's piercing through his body. of course there's no one else able to see the sword other than the goblin's bride. so he's been searching through centuries to find his bride just so he could end his misery. 

he's been helping people here and there, so without him knowing, he helped a mother from dying while being pregnant with a baby. both mom and baby were supposed to die, but they didn't. and later the mom gave birth to a girl, ji eun tak who was later told that she's the goblin bride. but she's also known as the missing soul as she was not supposed to be born. eun tak has been living a hard life. she was living alone with her mother and since she was a little kid, she could see ghosts so she got no friend because they thought she was weird. however, he mom passed away in accident when she was 9. she then was forced to live with her aunt and her family and they put her as slave to do the housework and kept pressuring her to give up her mom's insurance money which eun tak herself knew nothing about. fate brought her to goblin and the grim reaper. 

she was a joyful girl that the gloomy goblin couldn't push away. at that time, goblin has met grim reaper (lee dong wook) without knowing that grim reaper was the king in the past life. both stayed together in the same house when eun tak joined in. as eun tak had nowhere to go, goblin took her in so she could study for her university enrollment exam. as time goes by, both goblin and eun tak fell in love but since eun tak's fate is to be the goblin's bride, goblin realized that his fate is torn between ending his immortality or to be with eun tak. 

and there's the grim reaper (lee dong wook). he was punished to be a grim reaper because he did the greatest sin in his past life. he couldn't remember his sin, but after serving several time as grim reaper, he would be able to pass on and then reincarnated. to be human again if he's lucky. his main job was to bring lost souls to the after life. since he had no memory of his past life, he didn't remember that in his past life, he was the king that killed both kim sin and his brother, kim sun. however, he then realized that he's been fooled by the eunuch and he regretted to kill both kim sin and his bride, so he took his own life. apparently, that's the greatest sin that he's done. funny thing is, he then meet sunny (yoo in na), eun tak's part time's boss, and fell in love with her. he didn't know that sunny was kim sun in the past life. somehow, while the other forgot their past life, sunny still remembered her past, thus she had bittersweet love story with the grim reaper, but later she chose not to have relationship with him in this life. both then proceeded to the afterlife and then both reincarnated as actors, and later we saw that both has another chance in romance.

there's also yoo deok hwa (yook seuk jae). a chaebol heir and the only grandson in the yoo family. his family has been taking care of the goblin's matter in the world and they passed on the responsibility since ages. living together with goblin and grim reaper has its perk. he had to clean up their messes and it was really funny. anyway, later we'll see that sometimes the Almighty has taken his body for several times. 

anyway, the eunuch in the goryeo era has been living as a lost soul that grim reaper tried to catch, but he failed. and the eunuch found out about the goblin and eun tak. so he kidnapped eun tak to try to lure the goblin out. in the event to kill the eunuch, goblin decided to use eun tak's hands to grab the sword and pulled it out from his body. he then vanished. but he didn't go to the afterlife, but wander around until he was summoned by eun tak, 9 years later. though at first eun tak didn't remember anything about the goblin, but later she remembered and had their wedding. but again, fate didn't agree of them. grim reaper got eun tak's name so he knew that eun tak's is going to die. eun tak involved in an accident and died. leaving the goblin alone again. eun tak decided not to take the memory eraser tea and promised the goblin that she would find him again after being reincarnated. in the end we see that eun tak came back as a high school girl again, smiling at the goblin.

what i like:

- solid storyline. though it has a bit fantasy in it, but it was explained well. like how sometimes deok hwa was seemed different it was explained at the end.

- solid acting from all actors. both gong yoo and lee dong wook are considered high rated actors, so no wonder they are solid. and kim go eun was a newbie but she managed to deliver good acting. that cry though. 

what i don't like:

- age gap between gong yoo and kim go eun. though the storyline began when eun tak is still a senior in high school and then a university student, the age gap in reality is pretty big. they're careful for not starting the love story while eun tak is still a high school student, but still... and after reincarnated, their love story would still start while kim go eun is still in high school.  

- the open ending. so, goblin won't died now after his sword being pulled out? then he would live forever while eun tak isn't? so would their love story will stop after eun tak's died and then resume when she is reincarnated? in the story, human was told to have 4 lives. so after 4 lives, how goblin would supposed to live without eun tak? ain't that a more tragic curse?

rating: 10/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: people who don't mind bittersweet ending, cries a lot while watching this touching drama. who loves gong yoo, lee dong wook and their bromance. 

the good detective

i'm just waiting for start up to finish before i'll start watching it, so in the meantime, i decided to watch the good detective. i've heard somewhere that it's good, so let's hope it's not disappointing.

title: the good detective

cast: son hyun joo, jang seung jo, lee elijah, oh jung se, ji seung hyun

genre: crime mystery, police story

kang do chang (son hyun joo) is a veteran detective that hasn't been promoted yet even though he's worked as detective for many years. while oh ji hyeok (jang seung jo) is a rich boy that became detective more than people could guess. both of them, came from different background and had different investigating method, forced to work together as partner. unfortunately, they stumbled upon a new case that's connecting to old case.

park gun ho claimed to kidnapped lee eun hye, lee dae cheol's daughter. lee dae cheol is a famous criminal convicted of a murder of a young woman and a police detective. do chang was the one that's apprehended lee dae cheol, 5 years ago. now, lee dae cheol is facing an execution as the public is reminded that there are brutal criminals that's still alive and the victim's family is against the death penalty abolishment. park gun ho, apparently, was a warden where lee dae cheol is serving his sentence, and even tried to murder lee dae cheol once. but seeing that lee dae cheol didn't try to get back at him, he was convinced that lee dae cheol is innocent. park gun ho then tried to make a case with the police department to open lee dae cheol's case again, claiming that he was innocent.

do chang, suddenly facing new facts, became uncertain that he was making the right decision. he decided to help lee dae cheol getting a retrial. together with oh ji hyeok, they helped lee dae cheol to get retrial, and even found new evidence to prove lee dae cheol's innocence. later they found out that the real culprit was probably oh jong tae, oh ji hyeok's cousin, a chaebol that used to get everything. they also got help from jin seo kyung (lee elijah), a new reporter, whom ji hyeok liked later on. together, they put pieces and pieces, unfolding both police department and public prosecutor department's corruption to cover this case.

at first, they thought that jong tae killed both the young woman's victim and detective jang. but as the case evolved, they found out that both case had separate culprit. at first, we would see that despite all efforts put by do chang and ji hyeok, even the whole team 2, lee dae cheol's still being executed. but that didn't put an end to their work. they even became more enthusiastic in finding out who's the real culprit behind both cases. later they found out that seo kyung's boss, yoo jung seok, had a dark past. his older sister was assaulted by a police officer and then got suicide. the police officer then ran away, changed his name and went into hiding, so the police department couldn't catch him. jung seok apparently managed to find the police officer and decided to punish him himself. unfortunately, detective jang was nearby. was detective jang really killed by jung seok? or was it nam gyeong hyeok, detective jang's partner at that time? 

what i like:

- well put clothing style and makeup for the actors and actress. no flashy outfit for the policemen, no flashy makeup as well. polished look for the wealthy and in power. but i do feel lee elijah is too polished for a reporter.

- solid storyline, though it has twists and turns, but they cover everything up. a bit open ending as well, so they leave possibility for another season maybe?

- most actors and actresses are good, especially for oh jung se and son hyun joo. both are veteran actors, and it's a bit confusing for my mind watching oh jung se from being autistic in "it's okay not to be okay" to a evil chaebol in this drama. though i still don't like lee elijah's acting. but in some scenes she's okay.

what i don't like:

- how jang jeung soo was similar to park gun ho's at first. i can't separate those two at first. how confusing.

- nothing new about police and prosecutor corruption and how they would cover up those in power. but i guess it would keep good faith portraying that there are still people like do chang who would stand up against power and money and do what he's supposed to do even though there are no one supporting him.

rating: 8/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: people who like typical crime mystery drama, don't mind violent scenes (though they blur some really violent scenes), don't mind a drama without good looking actor or actress (lee elijah is the only pretty face in this drama, though you can probably count jang jeung soo too) and without a romance story as well. 

search:WWW

honestly, i was curious about this series because i saw a clip from this drama where the main actor teased the main actress. it's been awhile since i watched a romantic drama (this was after i watched crime dramas marathon from signal, tunnel and even the voice), so i became interested. but it's a bit forgotten until i have nothing to watch, so i decided to give this a try even though i never heard about it.

title: search: WWW

cast: im soo jung, jang ki young, lee da hee, lee jae wook, jeon hye jin, ji seung hyun

genre: romantic comedy, workplace drama

actually, i never see a drama that has so many main casts. usually there would be a couple of main cast with two supporting actors/actresses that would probably involved in a love triangle or love fight, but in this drama, there are three main actresses and there are three love stories as well. talking about something new.

anyway, there's bae ta mi (im soo jung), an executive in unicon, a web portal companies. she dedicated her youth to make unicon number one in web portal world. unfortunately, she got fired after a case involving deleting real time search rank regarding political issues around presidential election at that time. one of other director in unicon, song ga kyeong (jeon hye jin), is a daughter in law of a big corporate in korea (i forgot the name, KG group or KY group or something like that, and funnily, several other drama also use the same name to picture a big corporate in korea as well), whom mother in law is a supporter of incumbent. she ordered ga kyeong to delete the real time rank while ta mi against it.

long story short, ta mi was fired and she decided to cross boat. she joined barro, a rival of unicon in web portal companies world. she was determined to make barro number one, defeating unicon. there she met cha hyeon aka scarlett (lee da hee) that was against her at first, but later became her friends. shortly before her fate got worse, she met park mo gun aka park morgan (jang ki young) at a game arcade and being drunk, she slept with him and then met him again at unicon because apparently morgan was one of the music director that worked for unicon as well. sober this time, ta mi realized that morgan was way younger than her and decided to avoid him. but morgan was pretty insistent, and he won her heart later.

okay. i should talk about each couple separately since it's way too confusing to re telling it in a timeline. since ta mi is the main cast, let's talk about ta mi and morgan first. their relationship goes a bit bumpy because of two problems, their age gap and their view about marriage. ta mi realized that she was way too old for morgan, but she can't deny her feeling toward morgan. while morgan, madly in love, believes that age is just a number. however, ta mi consider career over marriage, and she saw that her career is nowhere near her goal, so marriage was not in her agenda. while morgan, though being adopted and found out that his mother is still alive and even remarried and had another son, was hopeful about marriage. he wanted to get married at some time. he believed that he might change ta mi's perspective about marriage. those differences made them fight over the same problems, and even though they were separated at first, but in the last episode we saw that both ta mi and morgan couldn't leave each other and decided to get back even though both of them realized that their problem is still there, nothing is resolved between them and that problem might arise. morgan's only argumentation was he was still young. he had lots of time to make ta mi changed her mind.

now move on to second couple. i think this is another drama that i root for the second couple more than the main couple (the other one is DOTS, i always like the second couple better than the song-song couple). cha hyeon was seemed fierce at work, but she was naive enough to be fooled by ta mi's ex boyfriend, pyo joon soo aka matthew. both of them worked at barro which makes thing a bit funny since ta mi tried to hide their relationship, while joon soo is a pain in the ass, narsissist bastard that dares to double date scarlett with another younger girl (later we'll see that joon soo chose his other girlfriend over scarlett). cha hyeon also adores ga kyeong since high school, and it breaks her heart when she saw that ga kyeong changed after being married. she was quite protective toward ta mi after realizing that ga kyeong was on the wrong side. however, we saw that scarlett is a fanatic drama lover, just like us. she was a fan of seol ji hwan (lee jae wook), an unknown actor that rise to his popularity thanks to a drama series. she met ji hwan accidentally and put him to hospital. their love story grew after that, but scarlett kept insisting that she was only a fan, while ji hwan couldn't dare make any move because he was glad that scarlett was one of his fan, the first fan in fact, but he couldn't deny that he had feeling for her. unfortunately, ji hwan had only a month before his mandatory military service, and luckily, scarlett confessed her feeling right on time. both of them were adorable until the end.

last, ga kyeong. her family was rich, but unfortunate thing happened and her family went bankrupt. to save her family's company, her father married her to the third son of KY group (or KG group or whatever), and both of them realized that their marriage is just a pact. ga kyeong's mother in law have kept her submissive and used her position in unicon for her gain. unfortunately, ga kyeong later found courage to fight her mother in law and demanded divorce. her husband agreed to her request, though both ga kyeong's parents were against it. later we saw how jin woo, ga kyeong's husband, had feeling for her and she realized it too at the end. he was preparing for the divorce even before she had the courage to say it. ga kyeong's decision made her mother in law furious as ga kyeong threatened to reveal that her mother in law was the one behind the deletion of real time search rank back then. at the end, we could see that ga kyeong went viral and told everyone to search for WWW in web portal to read all evidence around her mother in law corruption case. ta mi and scarlett was also seen to help ga kyeong ran away after her viral appearance in a tv station. however, there's no sweet end for this couple as jin woo kept his promise to make ga kyeong's divorce request came true. it's a bit ironic how they were divorced but they were just starting their relationship at the same time. 

what i like:

- this is a drama about girl power. this drama revolves around the life of three stong girls, and their problems. the men in this drama are just sweetener.

- fashion. gee.. lee da hee is something else. unicon was a strict company, so ta mi and ga kyeong's fashion are just around blazer and suits, while barro was pictured like google or apple, which was more relaxed, hence no fashion rule. so scarlett was pictured as fashionable person, which is suitable since she used to be a model. 

- this story brought up something new as the main problem in ta mi relationship is career over marriage. these days, there are so many girls that refuse to be married in order to be successful in their carrier, and not many parents accept that. so i guess this drama probably try to give some thoughts for older generation.

- love story between scarlett and ji hwan is hilarious. both of them are funny. i'd probably stop watching this drama if not for them.

- mostly the actors and actresses were good. the only one that i don't like is the mother in law. she was rich and powerful but she wasn't pictured as one in this drama. her clothing was too humble for a people in power. and her acting was a bit flat. but probably she was told to be expressionless. 

what i don't like:

- age gap between ta mi and morgan. oh my.. this is worse than lee jong suk and won bin's wife in "while you're sleeping" i guess.. though probably the age gap is similar. i don't hate couple that the woman is way older than the man, but somehow watching those two in the drama, is something else. 

future nike editing here: in the drama you could definitely see that ta mi is way older than morgan. but the second couple apparently has the same shocking age gap as well. both tami/morgan and ji hwan/scarlett has 13 years age gap! oh my.. either lee jae wook looks way older than he does or lee da hee is really good in making herself look young. i didn't realize this while watching the drama, but lately i googled lee jae wook, and i found out he was born in 1998 while lee da hee was born in 1985! oh my.. what a weird casting choice. 

- typical power problem. the rich controlled the poor and try to gain more power from government people. i guess it's the same everywhere, so it's a bit boring watching it again in a drama.

rating: 7.5/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: people that like girl power story, those who don't mind watching big age gap between the main casts, don't mind rooting for the second couple rather than the first one, and watching a drama that has a bit open ending without solution for some of the problems. 

record of youth

 this is the last drama that park bo gum would done before he went into military service. i never watched his drama before this, so i have no idea what to expect about this drama. but seeing that park so dam also played this drama, makes me want to try watching this drama. it's supposed to be an easy going drama, not complicated at all, which might sound boring, but let's see how it goes.

title: record of youth

cast: park bo gum, park so dam, byeon woo seok, shin dong mi

genre: life series (?), a bit romantic

this is a story about youngster fighting their way toward their dreams. sa hye jun (park bo gum) is a young model turned actor that comes from a working class family. his family doesn't support his decision to pursue acting career, except for his mother and his grandfather. his father kept comparing him to his older brother who went to university and got office jobs like his father had wanted, because his father thought office job is a stable job, which means stable income as well. hye jun was doing well in his modelling career, but there's a dark side that he kept secret from everyone. apparently, one of the designer had crushed on him, but hye jun turned him down politely. he also juggled many part time jobs to meet his need, so he was facing his rock bottom when he met ahn jeung ha.

jeung ha (park so dam) is an intern in a beauty salon. she is dreaming to become a makeup artist. her dream came a bit early thanks to won hae hyo (byeon woo seok), hye jun's childhood bestfriend/competitor as both of them were model turned actors at the same time. hae hyo has a rich family background, which help him a little bit. hae hyo forced the beauty salon to agree letting jeung ha to be his main makeup artist even though jeung ha has not been promoted yet. that request put jeung ha in feud with her senior in the beauty salon, which has been picking on jeung ha since forever. she is also a fan of hye jun, but at first she didn't admit it. and fate plays its part and make two of the falling in love to each other and then being in relationship. this leaves hae hyo a bit broken hearted since he also liked jeung ha secretly, but he decided to keep it to himself until the end.

hye jun then got help from lee min jae (shin dong mi) and she became his manager. she managed to get a supporting role for hye jun that surprisingly got him popular and that rocketed his career. thing also worked out for hye jun's grandfather, who got into modelling school thanks to hye jun and later got so many advertising jobs and got a lot of money from it. his grandfather also managed to make hye jun's father as his manager and gave him some money. that changed hye jun's father point of view about modelling or acting world.

but hye jun's popularity came with a price. he had to face so many false rumors from his previous agent together with a reporter that didn't know that the information was wrong. the scandal with the designer also got brought up since he committed suicide. hye jun even though he faced big risk in losing his advertising jobs because of the scandal, kept refusing to reveal the designer's last message to him in order to honor the designer. his relationship with jeung ha also took a hit, since hye jun's ex has been wanting to get back with him. hye jun's ex also became one of the legal team that managed hye jun's case, since hye jun's agent/manager is suing the reporter for public defamation. later they decided to break up.

hae hyo also took a hit. at first his career seems promising, partly because his mother gets her hands on several deals, including paying for his instagram's followers without hae hyo's knowing anything about it. later hae hyo career seems stagnant while hye jun's rocketing. and his mother got annoyed and asked to be in his life once again. later hae hyo found out that he would be nothing if his mother didn't do anything in his life, and that crushed him because he thought he had the skill like hye jun to make it work. while jeung ha, decided to leave the beauty salon, reconciled with her senior, and accepted her father's help with the beauty salon, but got in feud with her mother since her mother thought she was in relationship in hye jun because of money. she asked for money after finding out that jeung ha was in relationship with hye jun. and that gave her a bit reality check.

hae hyo decided to join military service just a bit earlier than hye jun. hye jun also decided to join the army, even though his career was on peak. while jeung ha kept working hard as a makeup artist. later at the end, we could see that hye jun reconciled with his father who has changed his mind, and his whole family got into a better term. but hae hyo's family just kept the same. though his sister got reality check about her relationship, but there's nothing changed if we're talking about his mother and father. while jeung ha was pictured to be successful at the end, and though they met again at the end, both hye jun and jeung ha finally came in term about their relationship. i guess it's true what hye jun said that all relationship makes them grow.

what i like:

- famous cameos! it's hilarious that the series that makes hye jun got his popularity is similar to "dr.romantic" and even seo hyun jin became cameo. other famous names that pops up here are kim hye joon, park seo joon, lee sung kyung and lee hye ri.

- easy going story that talks mostly about family and relationship. it gets real that even though in entertainment business, things don't always go easy especially if you're still starting up.

- there's a lot of parenting problems and relationship problem and those problems solver in this drama, so you can learn a thing or two.

what i don't like:

- a bit boring and flat. but that's life. that's real life. the scandals that becomes the center problem in this drama is cliche. hye jun's former agent defied the reporter to make false articles about him is nothing new. so there's nothing spectacular about this drama.

- several supporting actors are not that good, including hae hyo. i don't like his acting in this drama, but this is my first time watching him, so i might be bias. 

- a bit open ending. though both of them got in term about their relationship, people would still curious. now that jeung ha is on the same level as hye jun, would that make them back in relationship? would hae hyo makes a move? 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: not really

recommended for: park bo gum and park so dam's fans, those who likes watching popular cameos pop in, easy going story which might get a bit boring, something to fill your times while waiting for another promising drama to finish.

flower of evil

4 actors were doing their comeback drama this year. lee min ho, ji chang wook, kim soo hyun and lee seung gi. i've seen all their comeback drama, and i have to say, two were good, and two were not. lee min ho's and ji chang wook's are the one that falls short. the other two, were okay. if you're curious about their comeback drama, lee min ho's is "the king monarch", kim soo hyun's is "it's okay not to be okay", ji chan wook's is "backstreet rookie" and lee seung gi's is "flower of evil". this time, let's talk about "flower of evil".

title: flower of evil

cast: lee seung gi, moon chae won, kim ji hoon

genre: thriller, mix of crime mystery drama and a bit melodrama

"baek hee sung" (lee seung gi) was a family man that seems really loveable toward his wife and his daughter. he cooks well and he was really talented in his job. while cha ji won (moon chae won) was a police officer that also did well in her job. however, "baek hee sung" was hiding about his past from his family but later, his wife got caught in a homicide case that linked back to her husband's past. following the trails, she found out that her husband was not baek hee sung, but do hyun su, the son of famous serial killer. 

talking about do hyun soo, he used to live together with his sister, do hae soo. do hyun soo had antisocial personality disorder, but everyone didn't know about his problem back then, so they thought he was possessed and did ritual ceremony on him. he even got treated at a psychiatric hospital but they couldn't help him either. 

fast forward, do hyun soo has been living miserable life. after his father's death, he's been accused as the murderer of a villager where they used to live. so he's been living on the run. his roommate cheated on him and he got into an accident that changed his life. he got to live as baek hee sung because the person that ran into him in the car accident was in coma and their family wanted to keep the image as perfect family. later they found out that the real baek hee sung was do hyun su's father accomplice and the villager's murderer was do hae soo. unfortunately, after they found out the truth, do hyun soo got shot and he lost his memory. ji won has been trying to win his heart back, but hyun soo has been putting distance with her. but at last, his memory started to come back and his feelings toward ji won apparently was stronger than the memory lost. 

what i like:

- the storyline is interesting. we got curious whether or not do hyun soo/baek hee song was the culprit. at first they made him look like a murderer, but later we found out that he didn't have the heart to be that cruel. 

- main casts' acting are good, with the exception of do hae soo. i don't quite like her acting, but the rest are good. even the kid in this drama plays really cute. 

what i don't like:

- there are some things unexplained, like why the one that got hit survived and the one that hit the other was in coma. and why did baek hee song father need to put up a good family act while his son got into accident? that's not a bad thing right? 

- cha ji won's makeup is too much for a police officer. how come she never tied her hair in crime scenes? 

- i think pushing the ending to be happy ending is a bit too much. though seeing them getting back together would be good for their daughter, but pushing all the memories at the end of the last episode is a bit too much for my taste. 

rating: 8/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: lee seung gi's fans, those who like twisted crime mystery story with a bit melodrama mixed in it.

stranger 2

the first season of stranger got me curious every episodes. there's twist and turn all along the first season. but it ended with a bitter ending for hwang si mok, the main cast. somehow i'm used to "the good ones will triumph" kind-of-story, so watching how the righteous got transferred instead of getting promoted, it irritates me. anyway, i'm curious what the second season will bring. will it be as exciting as the first one? 

title: stranger 2

cast: cho seung woo (hwang si mok), bae doona (han yeo jin), lee joon hyuk (seo dong jae), jeon hye jin (choi bit), choi moo sung (woo tae ha)

genre: crime thriller mystery, police story, a bit political

ever since the corruption in the public prosecutor department made public, people started to lose faith in justice system. and the tension between the police department and prosecutor's office didn't help either. they were fighting over the right of investigative. both department leaked other side's weakness to the media, making the feud more nasty. especially after the chief of intelligence (police department) were accused to leak confidential data. people were getting more confused, which one is more corrupt, the police department or the public prosecutor department.

then came hwang si mok again. he was supposed to be transferred again to another small office when he came across a drowning incident. two teen boys drowned at the beach when there was thick fog everywhere. the warning line was cut but since the only witness claimed that he was drunk, he didn't give any help. however, somehow yeo jin found out that there was another couple at the same beach before the boys and the couple was the one who cut the warning line, took pictures and posted it online before deleting it after realizing that the boys who got drowned died. it all seemed to be a simple case, but somehow, the main prosecutor office dismissed the case only after 3 days. apparently, the couple was pretty rich and they hired an ex-judge to be their attorney. si mok thought that this was a special-treat case, filed a complaint that led him back into a mess and got his transfer suspended.

turned out his complaint got back to the main office and at that time, they were supposed to choose people that will represent the prosecutor department in joint committee between the police department and the prosecutor department to discuss the investigative rights. his name got aired once again and chief woo tae ha thought he was a good choice to become a member in the committee, so instead of transferring to another small office, he got transferred to supreme prosecutor office. 

meanwhile, chief choi bit (chief of reformation unit, yeo jin's supervisor) used the drowning case to make the public see that the prosecutor office didn't worth to gain the investigative rights. and seo dong jae (yep, he appeared again, as annoying as before) made a move to chief woo, telling him that he had some dirt on chief choi bit with the hope of getting promoted, and a bit irked when he found out that si mok once again got promoted instead of him. but chief woo put them on the same team, unofficially, to investigate the segok case, where there was a police officer got reported to have suicide while it could be homicide and the police department seemed to cover it up. they wanted to use the case to turn the table against the police department, but choi bit ordered yeo jin to investigate it as well and once again, si mok met yeo jin. 

on the side, there was hanjo again. yeon jae (former chief prosecutor's wife) tried to secure her place as her brother, sung jae, has been rising to take over the company. she hired the former ex judge who helped the rich couple to get away as one of her legal team. meanwhile, there was an uproar regarding assemblyman that's accused of corruption and it involved both departments. the prosecutor office was accused of dismissing the case that involving assemblyman's son while the police department accused of turning blind eyes since the assemblyman's son had several other cases but everything was dismissed. at this point, chief woo was clearly had connection with assemblyman, as well as chief choi bit. so i don't know which one is dirty at this point, or probably them both?

things got bad when dong jae got kidnapped. they thought the former police officers in the segok case was behind the kidnapping, but they were all cleared. later they found that dong jae submitted another case files to chief woo, a case about a dead lawyer in the middle of the road and the autopsy stated that he died because of cardiac arrest. but dong jae found out that the lawyer couldn't drink any alcohol, but there was alcohol traces found in his body. naturally, both si mok and yeo jin followed this new evidence. and they found out that both chief woo and chief choi bit as well as the former chief of intelligence were all involved in this case. and hanjo too, but at that time, both yeo jin and si mok hadn't found out about this one. on the side, yeon jae tried to cover hanjo's involvement in that case and she commented that only dong jae knew the truth. so who really kidnapped dong jae? 

again, there was another shocking turn as the one that kidnapped dong jae was someone else, someone that i never thought at first. but as the drama goes on, it became clear about why this person kidnapped dong jae. luckily, they found dong jae alive, but in bad condition. at the end of the series, we saw dong jae recovering and was about to give testimony about the dead lawyer's case. the kidnapper got arrested, both chief woo and chief choi bit had to pay for their dark past. even the current chief prosecutor. he was forced to resign as he was tied to hanjo again. 

yeo jin was promoted to the intelligence bureau and not transferred back to her former station, other police officers were mean to her before her future boss appeared and it was kim won hae (appeared in bong soon, signal and while you were sleeping as well) and he treated her well, so other police officers probably will follow suit. but that's not the case with si mok. though once again he managed to reveal the corruption in both department, he got transferred again to remote areas. oh well.. another open ending is giving us hope that there's a possibility of third season.

what i like:

- again, solid acting skills from all the casts. this time there were more well known casts in the series. 

- all clothing and makeup were suitable to the story. no flashy outfit or makeups as this is pretty serious drama. 

- twist and turn that keep you guessing, which one is right, which one is wrong, and how it would end.

cons:     

- why si mok had to suffer again? why not let him win a little? oh well...

- in this series, i started to feel that hanjo's involvement is a bit forced. but it's necessary if you see it until the end. 

- this time there's questions about the whole story. especially the segok case. the investigation of the suicide officer got interrupted with dong jae's kidnapping case. i still think it's weird that the captain said that he didn't know about the other's involvement in continuing the bribe while he was the one that suggested it in the first place. 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: those who watched the first season and love it. anyone that likes crime murder mystery or police story and doesn't mind watching a drama without any romantic scene. 

stranger

before watching signal, i started my korean crime drama series by watching strange. i saw my junior from medical school days getting excited about the upcoming stranger 2 in netflix. obviously i got interested as she had a good taste in movies. and turned out she was right. it was good. i had to wait until the second season is finished before continue watching the second season. although i never saw any of the casts before, aside from yoo jae myung, turned out they were good.

title: stranger

cast: cho seung woo, bae doona, lee joon hyuk, shin hye sun, yoo jae myung

genre: crime drama mystery, police story, politic-related drama

hwang si mok (cho seung woo) is a young, righteous prosecutor that had a medical history of hypersensitivity that lead him to undergo a corrective surgery while he was still a young kid. unfortunately, the surgery had a side effect. he lost his sense of empathy and lack of social skill. growing up, he managed to hide his condition while doing good in his job. working as prosecutor makes him prone to bribe but he managed to dodge all the bribes. but one time, he got introduced to a man by seo dong jae (lee joon hyuk) and later that man was found dead in his home by si mok because he had an appointment with that man.

because of that homicide case, he met with han yeo jin (bae doona), a police officer who was pissed at him at first, but amazed by his investigative skill, thus the two got closer even though the public prosecutor department and the police department was a bit tense at that time. when the police department found a clue about the culprit, suddenly the case went so smooth, that si mok became suspicious. his superior (yoo jae myung) also told him to close the case which got him even more curious. unfortunately, they had no other evidence, so they just investigated it quietly. 

then suddenly si mok's superior got promoted to chief prosecutor. many people commented that it was thanks to his father in law who was a well known businessman. but he made a stir after a news about a possible corruption in public prosecutor department broke out. he decided to form a special unit to bring anyone that's proven to be corrupt, whether it's the police or the prosecutor. and here si mok met with yeo jin again, together with eun soo (a young prosecutor that got backlash after people found out that the culprit that the police caught in the first homicide case was falsely accused and killed himself later) and yoon se won (another prosecutor that was seemed neutral at first).

together they made a stir both in the police department and public prosecutor department. they didn't know who's to believe because everyone seemed to be angry at them. the chief prosecutor then resigned from his position only to get another promotion at the blue house. seo dong jae then followed his mentor to the blue house because he made a trade with si mok to become an ear in the blue house as he knew that si mok was suspected their superior to be corrupt as well. their investigation somehow got related to the first homicide, so they were back investigating the same case again, only this time, following evidence of corruption. 

as the story goes on, we also find out that eun soo's father was a prime minister that was accused of corruption but his father denied that and even the bribe money that was found in their house as evidence later disappeared. later all the evidence pointed to former chief prosecutor's father in law as the man behind it all. but he was so powerful and so many people were backing him so si mok's team even got disbanded at first. shockingly, they found out the killer from the first homicide accidentally, and it was someone close to their teams! talking about surprise. another surprise was eun soo then got killed and it gave si mok a bit evidence to chase former chief prosecutor's father in law, then with another sudden turn, the chief prosecutor was the one behind all the crumbs that was left for si mok to find. unfortunately, he knew that he was involved in the same corruption case as his father in law, and he decided to take his own life rather than spending time in jail. sadly, though si mok finally caught the real killer and even made light all the corruption in the police department and public prosecutor department, he was considered as someone that betrayed their own, so he was transferred to a small public prosecutor department outside seoul. 

what i like:

- all casts were good, even the supporting ones. no wonder since mostly i've seen them in other drama.

- clothing and makeup were matched with the job. no flashy outfit and makeup for the police officers and prosecutors. both yeo jin and eun soo didn't seem to wear a lot of makeup, which is good since they were busy at their work.

- no plot hole. everything is explained well in the drama. the reason behind chief prosecutor got si mok to investigate the corruption case, to the culprit behind the first homicide.

cons:

- i was curious, which one does si mok like? eun soo or yeo jin? he seemed close and comfortable with yeo jin, especially after she found out about his condition. but he was pretty shocked after eun soo's death and even beat himself for not protecting eun soo. sometimes i hate that si mok couldn't express his emotion and the actor did good in portraying emotion-less si mok.

- since this drama also tells story about corruption, it's sad to see how even in other countries there's corruption in police department as well as justice department. and that the right one got demoted at the end even though he's the one that's right. somehow i wish si mok got promotion instead of being transferred. oh well.. but it leads to another season, so i'm not complaining much.

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: action thriller seeker, murder mystery lover, don't mind a drama that doesn't have pretty face casts. 

it's okay not to be okay

even before this drama was finished, people were crazy about this. no wonder because this is the first full drama that kim soo hyun would be playing after leaving military service. he did a cameo in "crash landing on you", but people want more of him, so that's why this drama was soooo hype. i obviously waited until it was almost two episodes left before started watching it, because i'm not good at waiting. and i'm glad i waited. it was worth to watch it marathon. 

title: it's okay not to be okay

cast: kim soo hyun (moon gang tae), seo ye ji (go moon young), oh jung se (moon sang tae), and many more

genre: melodrama, psychological drama

go moon young (seo ye ji) is a famous children's book writer but she has antisocial disorder that she has kept secret for years, that's why she can't express any emotion or feel any emotion. then there's moon gang tae (kim soo hyun). a psychiatric ward nurse that is super competent in his job but he has to move almost yearly because of his autistic brother. he has to care for his brother and all his patients with love and care, while he, himself, didn't get enough love from his childhood. moon sang tae (oh jung se) is gang tae's older brother that has highly functional autistic syndrome. he loves art and was fans of moon young, but he had nightmares about butterfly that had connection with their mothers' death. apparently, sang tae was the only witness of their mother's murder. coincidentally, moon young met gang tae, and since she saw him, she was interested in him and didn't want to let him go. that's why she followed him back to their hometown (apparently, they were both had the same hometown) even though she had bad memories about their hometown.

moon young apparently also has an antisocial disorder mother, so she never received any love from her mother. her father even tried to kill her mother. she was still young girl, so she thought her mother was died, but apparently her mother was disappeared and managed to stay alive and then changed her face and came back into her life and even threaten moon young, gang tae and sang tae. her father also tried to kill her since he was afraid that moon young would grow up to be like her mother, that's why she abandoned him in psychiatric hospital where gang tae moved into.

gang tae always tries to look tough, but deep inside he was craving for love. growing up, their mother always put sang tae first due to his condition and always demanded gang tae to keep his brother safe. due to sang tae's nightmare, they had to move everytime sang tae had the same nightmares. funnily, he has this one friend that keep moving with them and loyally help gang tae to take care of sang tae. after meeting moon young, he decided to open up more and later, she managed to change him almost completely.

while sang tae is a highly functional autistic that has good sense of art. somehow he likes moon young's book a lot and adores her. but when he found out that moon young loves gang tae and vice versa, he didn't want them to get together at first because he was afraid that gang tae would leave him alone. especially when he remembered that back in their childhood day, gang tae has once tried to leave him almost drown in a frozen lake, but later gang tae helped him and even left gang tae while gang tae tried to save himself after managing to help sang tae out of the frozen lake. this was when young gang tae met young moon young. moon young helped gang tae out of the lake, and somehow young gang tae had a crush on young moon young. but scary moon young's mom managed to scare gang tae off. but that's not the only reason. later they'd find out that moon young's mom had a part in gang tae's mom murder.

if you're into psychiatry or psychology, this is a good film to watch as in earlier episodes you will see the story of the patients in the hospital. they would suffer all kinds of psychiatry disease because of a reason. like the bipolar man, he was considered dumb in his family, thus he never felt love and that leads to his condition. and also a depression mom that saw her daughter got killed in accident in front of her eyes. and also how an abusive mom can make a little girl to have a split personality disorder. this is really a good drama to watch so we can get more insight about psychiatry or psychology condition and how to avoid it. especially in terms of child abuse. it seems normal for a mom to scold her child. but we never think that it could cause problem to the kids mentally. 

what i like:

- super acting skill from all the casts. even moon young's manager was the hospital director in "doctor romantic 2" and i would have no idea if i didn't see an information about him in some ig account that i stumbled into. and oh jung se. i was just finishing watching "when the camellia blooms", so i was shocked watching him changing style so quickly. witty and afraid of his wife in camellia, and brilliantly acting autistic in this drama.

- all the cast clothing/style was put together with great consideration. like gang tae always wear ordinary clothes like t shirt and jeans because he was always put in number 2 after sang tae, so growing up he tend to put others first and didn't think much about clothing. and he was tight in money because they keep moving, so no nice clothes. while sang tae was autistic so he wore striped shirt a lot. autistic people love repeated pattern, that's why stripes shirt. while moon young is famous in young age. she was egoistic and she had the money, so they dressed her super stylish and extravaganza. 

- i don't think there's any plot hole. everything is answered. though there would be questions about how moon young's mom managed to get away after being thrown away into the lake and still being alive. then how could she find the money to get plastic surgery and then get her nursing degree? 

- this drama offers something new. though basically this is a love story, but with those psychiatric stories, this drama clearly offers something new, something that people don't usually talk about. however, it's a bit troublesome that moon young's book is considered children book since her stories were quite dark.

cons:

- some scary horror scenes. gee... i always watch drama late at nights, so i hate to see jumpy scary scent at night. 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: all the cast's fans, especially KSH. people who doesn't like typical love story and want something new. don't mind scary scenes, or troubling scenes related to mental disorder. don't mind watching how small seo ye ji's waist is and how gorgeous they styled her in the drama.  

signal

i was just finishing stranger and then obviously netflix would give me more criminal mystery/police story in my recommendation list, so i watched signal next. and let me tell you, if you're not into romantic comedy, then you should try watching this and stranger first. 

title: signal

cast: lee ji hoon (park hae young), kim hye soo (cha soo hyeon), choi jin woong (lee jae han) and many more

genre: criminal mystery/ police story

a criminal profiler (park hae young) was a cynical police officer who lived in 2015. though he was a police officer, being a witness to a kidnapping case that turned into murder case then cold case and his own brother was wrongly accused by the cop, made him think that most cops were corrupt. the kidnapping case that he witnessed was about to reach its limitation date when he found an abandoned walkie talkie that was suddenly turned on and he could talk to another police officer on the other side. later he found out that he was talking to a detective from 15 years ago, lee jae han (choi jin woong). with some clues provided from the past, he was able to solve the kidnapping case and caught the kidnapper just before the limitation date of other crimes that was connected with the kidnapping case. 

because of this success, the police department decided to form a cold case team, led by detective cha soo hyeon (kim hye soo). secretly, she's been searching for her mentor/love crush, detective lee jae han. she didn't know about the walkie talkie at first, but after working together and there were some incident which couldn't be explained without telling the story about the walkie talkie, she found out about it. 

lee jae han himself was a quiet but hard working detective that was good at his work, but he stumbled upon some corrupt police officers and somehow it led to his disappearance. back when hae young just solved the kidnapping case, he heard gunshot sound from the other side, and in 1989, lee jae han was vanished. up until 2015. when the walkie talkie came alive second time, park hae young was talking to lee jae han from several years before, and he had no idea about hae young. together, they solved serial murder case that was inspired by true story, the hwaseong serial murders.

both of them worked back and forth through time. sometimes it worked, but sometimes they messed the timeline so they had to undo the future by making a different move in the past. but the main mystery was why jae han was targeted and then accused for being corrupt cop. both soo hyeon and hae young tried to solve hae young's brother case because they found jae han's note that it was his last case before he disappeared. they found out that jae han found a corrupt team inside the police department, involving his own team captain and an assemblyman from the past. the assemblyman is still alive in 2015, so both hae young and soo hyeon had to work against the assemblyman's men secretly. however, the ending is not conclusive, so many hopes that they will making the second season of this drama.

what i like:

- this is a good solid story. though it involves two different times, there's no hole in the storyline. the concept of changing the past also changing the future is seen in this drama. so there's no confusion why the future is changing and keep moving in the story.

- all the actors and actresses were good. solid performance from all the casts. though you'd see repeating faces like some fellow police officers who i've seen several times in other dramas. they also did a good job in styling the characters. no flashy outfits for the police officers and detectives, even the makeup is minimal (you'd notice the difference between this drama and bong soon. in bong soon, you'd see that min hyuk is definitely wearing base makeup, even ji soo). even when they're telling story from the past, they were carefully use landline phone and flashlights, and all clothing were from the past style. like what my mom used to wear back in the day. 

what i don't like: 

- an open ending. though it might be a good thing as it might open the possibility of continuing this drama into second season.

- typical "powerful people always win" type of story. but mixing it with time-travelling walkie talkie that connects two different times are good. it gives another vibe to the drama, but still not overly ridiculous. 

rating: 10/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: someone who likes criminal mystery story with a bit mix of fantasy/different time zone mode. doesn't mind a drama that didn't have beautiful actor/actress as its main casts. 

hospital playlist

as a doctor myself, i might be bias toward medical drama. somehow, whenever there's a new medical drama, i tend to watch it, though there are some western medical drama that i don't watch, but i think for korean drama, i watch most of them, especially if they're available on netflix. and the newest one is hospital playlist. i've seen some trailers and people who watch them while still ongoing, talked about it and praised it, so obviously i'm curious. but i'm not patience enough to watch it ongoing, so i waited until it was two episodes left, but i still had to wait for those two because apparently, this one is binge worthy. one factor why this drama is so highly raved by people even before it was aired was it came from the same director as the famous reply series as well as prison playbook. all dramas directed by this director were good that people keep recommending them. so let's see about this one.

 

 

title: hospital playlist

cast: jo jung suk, yoo yeon seok, jung kyung ho, jeon mi do, kim dae myung

genre: medical drama, life series? (i don't know how to classify this style of drama, hahaha)

this is a drama about 5 doctors that have been in friendship for more than 10 years since their medical school years. though at first they worked at separate hospitals, they came together and worked in the same hospital thanks to ahn jung won (yoo yeon seok). for the first two episodes, i was confused because of there are five main casts to be remember. and there were additional players. while for usual drama, the mains are only two or three and then several additional players. so if you are not used to watching a drama with lots of players, then you might get confused. but bear with it, it's worth it.

it started with ahn jung won. a pediatric surgeon who always wants to be a catholic priest. and in the first episode, the director of the hospital was sick and then passed away. at first they made it like there would be a fight for the crown, but apparently, we were wrong. they found out that jung won is the last son of the late director and both his brothers are priests, and both his sisters are nuns. so his mom does whatever she can to prevent him being a priest too. after his father's death, he found out that the VIP room costs a lot, so he decided to round up his friends to work as the VIP doctors. but, not all of them were agree. but he managed it anyway, and voila.. they worked together now and would practice in a band together. oh, he was the drummer and also sang. he kept a little secret from his friends that he was the daddy long legs in the daddy long legs program that helped people who didn't have enough money to pay for their treatment cost.  

then there's lee ik joon (jo jung suk). he's a general surgeon/ gastrointestinal surgeon. he was in a long distance marriage with a cute little son, but in the first two episodes, we found out that he became a single dad to his son. you would see the antiques of ik joon for being funny and lovable while still being brilliant in his work. not to mention his skill in music for being lead singer and guitarist on their band. later you'd found out that ik joon helped the only resident in the general surgery to get close to jung won. as the story went on, we found out that ik joon had a little sister that jun wan fallen in love with,  and ik joon himself had a long crush with song hwa, but he managed to keep it quiet until now. unfortunately, though ik joon finally confessed his feeling to song hwa, we didn't get to see her reply in season 1. hopefully ik joon's love story will unfold in season 2.

kim jun wan (jung kyung ho) is a cardiothoracic surgeon. he might seems cold at first, and a bit cruel, but later you'd find out that he was really care about his patients. he might not go high and low like jung won did, but he cared about them. he went to his patients' daughter wedding party and he was super anxious when his one of his patient finally got a transplant donor that he was worried he had fever that would cancel the surgery. he was also hard on his resident, but later we found out that he took care of his resident as well. at first he seemed to have bad luck on the romance department, partly because he had a bad taste in girlfriend. but later we found out that jun wan fell in love with ik joon's little sister and it was hilarious seeing him hide their relationship from ik woon. unfortunately, they were in long distance relationship at the end of first season, and things looked worrisome between them so, i do hope they have a good story in the second season. probably finally admitting their relationship to ik joon for a start? oh and by the way, he played guitar and sing a little too. i guess having an idol star girlfriend could come in handy..

then there's chae song hwa (jeon mi do), the only woman in the main cast. she is a neurosurgeon and a pretty good one. all of her colleagues pictured her as the perfect person, if there's one. she was punctual, great on her job, she was kind to her residents too. she had this thing about camping. it was quite funny seeing how she didn't buy a new shoes and keep using the same one for years even though it was a bit torn out, but she bought new camping stuffs though she never managed to go camping the whole weekend. however, she had big appetite and it was funny to see her compete with jun wan over food. and ik jun had her say a spell so she didn't get crazy over food. the only flaw about her was she couldn't sing, but they had to put her as lead singer on their band so she would sign to be one of the VIP's doctors. she also played the bass in the band. sounds so cool, right? unfortunately, as like any other love story, problem will arise from having only one girl in the group. we knew that ik joon was secretly liked her, but apparently, back in their college days, seok hyung was the one that confess his love for her the first time. even their friends didn't know about it until the current hospital director asked them on the first episode at jung wan's father's funeral. which shocked everyone, of course. oh well, i do hope things would go well between ik joon and song hwa though, as seok hyung has already decided to give up his feeling toward song hwa.

last one is yang seok hyung (kim dae myung). he's the only one that doesn't work in the surgery department. he is an obstetrician/gynaecologist. he was pictured as the odd one. he was very quiet, kept to himself, and he avoided the crowd. though at first people thought that jung won was rich because his dad was the former hospital director, but later we knew that he gave his almost all his money away in his daddy long legs program. so, their friends were shock when they found out that seok hyung was rich too. his dad was a CEO in some company, and he had a mistress, that's why his mom fell sick and after seok hyung was divorced, he lived together with his mom. he was a divorcee too, but he was already been divorced since first episode, but we didn't know why. but don't worry, at the end, he would probably had his love life get more explored in the second season because at the last episode, his ex-wife suddenly called him out of the blue, while he also just found out that his resident had a crush on him, but he told her to find someone else. but apparently the girl won't listen. anyway, as doctor, his patient also found him odd, but there's one scene that i like. when his patient found out that her baby has died in her womb and cried uncontrollably, seok hyung patiently waited for his patient to let out her emotion, and respected her time. he just waited, and somehow i think it consoles his patient though he didn't say anything. and all the other patients outside, though they were informed that the waiting time would be longer, they didn't complain (well, one of them did, but his wife told him to shut up), because they knew what kind of grief she was into. this is really beautiful, because here, the line in the OG department was crazy. almost every OG doctors have long lines of patients. and to make other people wait like that was an impossible thing to do, that's why people always see doctors as money making machine, and not someone that has compassion and empathy. doctors were rushed to see patient after patient and not given enough time to care more for their patient. by the way, seok hyung played the keyboard and sometimes sang too.

what i like:

- this drama truly pictures life of doctors. from their busy time, juggling between work, family and hobby. and also how works can get in the way in their relationship. and how exhausting it is to be a resident. there's a scene where song hwa's resident got lost track of time until he didn't know that it was morning already since he was always inside the hospital building and didn't see the sun at all. it was real. i was like that too back when i was a young doctor. we only remembered our night duty day and off day. and though all the main casts were good doctors, we can't deny that there are doctors who work for money like jun wan's colleague, or for publicity like song hwa's colleague. so this drama really pictured doctors' life.

- no antagonist. this is a life drama. whatever problems arise, it's natural to happen in day to day life, and not because it is in a drama. like seok hyung's resident when her partner was suddenly disappear, she was exhausted because she had to be in night duty almost every night. she was exhausted of course, but when her partner reappeared, she had mix feeling, between angry or relieve. and it's natural, and it does happen in real life.

- how all the main cast have almost enough screen time even though there are five of them, so we know them all proportionally.

- one drama with two outcome. not only the drama, but we also got a music band too. if you go to youtube, you could find them playing all their songs (only the ones that was played by the band, mido and falasol) live.

what i don't like:

- well, i don't have any problem with this drama, but probably some people might get bored because the drama has a bit slower storyline. but i don't mind. i enjoy the drama as it reminiscence of my old days.

rating: 10/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: people who likes medical drama, who doesn't mind slower storyline. this has a mix of a bit romance, but just a little bit. some laugh too thanks to jun wan and ik joon. if you decided to watch this drama, tell me which one do you root for, which one is your favorite. i bet many people adore ik joon, but he's a bit too flashy for me. somehow i'm rooting for jung wan. i'm hoping his relationship goes okay. and i want to see more of seok hyung too.