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.