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.