run on

gee.. me postponing the reviews means either the drama is bad or weird or not interesting, or i'm just lazy. anyway, i'm currently watching vincenzo, which means i had to finish the other two dramas i've watched before. the first one should be run on. honestly i don't know anything about the drama when i watched it. i never watch any shin se kyung's drama before, so this is the first time i watch hers.

title: run on

cast: im si wan, shin se kyung, kang tae oh, choi soo young

genre: romantic drama

ki seon gyeom (im si wan) is a sprinter. but he was no ordinary sprinter. his mother is the famous actress yook ji woo (cha hwa yeon) while his father is an assemblyman ki jung do (park yeong gyu). his sister is professional golf player, ki eun bi (ryu sun young). just like other rich and famous family, his family is a bit dysfunctional. his father was too focus on his political career, while his mother didn't want to get dragged by her husband's career and decided to make her name known to the world, thus she kept accepting acting jobs. he was in good relationship with his sister, but since she was busy with tournaments and stuff, they didn't get to meet often. especially now that he is in the national track team.

while oh mi joo (shin se kyung) is a struggling translator. trying to get jobs here and there, her latest translating job worked well as the film goes to international indie film festival. however, people only talked about the director, which apparently was her ex-boyfriend. she then got annoyed by her former professor since he was quite sexist in comment. couldn't resist herself, she got back to the professor and ran away from the gathering. she bumped into seon gyeom whom strangely helped her get away from her ex who chased her so she could say sorry to her professor. unfortunately, she regretted her impulsive action and she was begging to her professor since she needed some translating job to keep make some living. he then appointed her to become the assemblyman's son' translator.

however, before her official meet, she met seon gyeom again by accident. she was chasing a deceptive fake gun seller when the thief bumped lee young hwa (kang tae oh). seon gyeom was there as well and he borrowed tae oh's painting tube and threw it to the thief. tae oh immediately ran off since he didn't want to get in trouble with the police. while seon gyeom had no choice but to be the witness for the case. wanted to thank seon gyeom, mi joo asked for his number and promised to buy him meal to show her gratitude. things became a bit merrier when seo dan ah (choi soo young), seon gyeom's agency director, found out that the assemblyman hired mi joo behind her back. intrigued to find out what kind of person mi joo was, she met mi joo only to bicker one another. however, she approved of mi joo to be seon gyeom's translator.

long story short, things became interesting when seon gyeom decided to stand up against his fellow team mates who have been bullying their junior, another fellow team mates, kim woo shik (lee jung ha). he assaulted the bully with hope that his case would end up in disciplinary committee table so he could give hope to woo shik so woo shik got some courage and stood up against them and brought all the evidence to their coach. then the bully would be punished. however, assemblyman decided to make a stop to the case which enraged seon gyeom. with the help from mi joo and dan ah, seon gyeom managed to let the case out in public. however, he decided to retire from the team and the coach fired woo shik at the end. the assemblyman was angry at mi joo for not obeying his command, and fired her as well.

well, you can predict the rest. seon gyeom got kick out of the house, so he stayed at mi joo's place for awhile. both became interested in each other. later seon gyeom's father found out about their relationship and confronted mi joo to leave seon gyeom. they broke up for awhile but seon gyeom begged her and won her heart back. at the side, we could see another story about dan ah family. she was the original heir to her father's dynasty, but her father had two other sons from other women aside from her mother and made the first son legally older than dan ah so he could inherited the company. however, dan ah had been fighting him tirelessly and at the end, she could beat him with the help from her second step brother, seo tae woong (choi jae hyun), an idol that adored dan ah. 

dan ah saw young hwa's painting at a cafe and became interested in young hwa's work. initially she wanted him to paint her something so she could beat her first step brother. but young hwa was falling in love at the first sight. he cutely and slowly made dan ah fell for him. however, when dan ah's father died, young hwa decided to step back from their relationship so dan ah could focus in winning her father's inheritance. when dan ah finally got her place, somehow they met again. at the end, both couple got back together, but there were no clear explanation about young hwa-dan ah relationship, while seon gyeom and mi joo's was official. 

i forgot to tell you that in the process, assemblyman ki tried too hard to keep his position and even used eun bi to portray that he was a good father. however his plan fired back at him and he lost his position. seon gyeom's mom for the first time stood up against her husband and asked for divorce to protect her kids. but at the end we saw ex-assemblyman came to ji woo's movie premier and wanted to make amend with her. 

what i like:

- well... at least it is a happy ending story.

- i like the second couple chemistry better. it's cute watching soo young and tae oh together. 

- at least here we see seon gyeom is fighting against bullying even though it meant he would lose his position. he knew he had some privilege and he used it to do good for other. and he didn't mind to work when he got kick out of the house. 

- at least shin se kyung can really talk english fluently without korean accent.

what i don't like:

- some actors and actresses are stiff. like seon gyeom. maybe they wanted him to be a bit weird and stiff. but still... too weird. and most foreign actors were stiff as well.

- weird conversation. i don't know if this is only translation problem, but in the first episodes you would see that seon gyeom and mi joo's interaction were weird. like they are talking in their own languages but still connected somehow. 

- another hierarchy problem. like how mi joo at first stood up against her professor but later took back her comment since she had to get some work, and the professor is powerful enough to not give her any translation job. 

- another political/family dysfunction. can't assemblyman's family or rich family be a real happy family for once?

- slow pace story. and what kind of problem is that? mi joo asked for break up just because his father told her to back off and hurt her feeling. it's kind of lame.

rating: 6.5/10

binge worthy: no

recommended for: fans of im si wan, shin se kyung, kang tae oh and choi soo young, those who like slow pace drama and a bit flat climax. 

do you like brahms?

i was waiting for either vincenzo or navillera, so i have to watch something else in the meantime. i blame kim min jae for making me curious about this drama. it's not popular considering it came out around the same time as mr.queen and true beauty. but i guess it's worth a try.

title: do you like brahms?

cast: kim min jae, park eun bin, park ji hyun, kim sung chul, lee yoo jin, bae da bin

genre: romantic drama

chae song ah (park eun bin) was a music major student in violin department. she was older than her classmates because she had graduated from business major before going back to school. despite her family's disapproval, she persevered. however, she still came last in her class even though she worked hard. she was about to play in her first orchestra when the conductor decided to kick her out. she wanted to play badly and begged the conductor but he kept on humiliating her. that's when she met park joon young (kim min jae). joon young dropped his music book to stop the conductor from humiliating her even further but she kept getting kicked out from the orchestra. later joon young saw her when she met her friend and when she was going back and protecting her violin case from the rain. 

joon young himself was a piano genius that has been playing piano since 6 years old. he won several piano competition that sent him abroad. however, he came second in chopin competition and people start to question his career. his personal life was complicated as well. his father had a habit of being in debt, his mother kept covering from him and asking money from joon young. he used his prize money to pay his father's debt but he didn't know that behind him, his liaison with kyung ho foundation and the foundation CEO's granddaughter has been helping his father as well.

fate brought them together. song ah decided to work at kyung ho foundation as intern during summer break, and joon young who announced that he would go on sabbatical for a year, only agreed to perform on kyung ho's anniversary concert thus he had to practice sometimes at kyung ho's building. song ah herself asked permission to practice during her lunch break, so she had to coordinate with joon young so both of them wouldn't step on each other toes. she was about to get to her practice when she heard joon young played "traumerei" and that moment she felt consoled by his music. anyway, several occasion led us to think that joon young started to have a crush on song ah.

however, problems came when both of them met again at the airport. song ah picked up her mentor as well as her friend, yoon dong yoon (lee yoo jin). she liked him and thanked him for teaching her violin, but her best friend, kang min sung (bae da bin) also like him as well. that's why song ah has kept her feelings to herself. meanwhile, joon young picked up his best friend, a cellist, han hyun ho (kim sung cheol). but he was surprised when he saw CEO's granddaughter, lee jung kyung (park ji hyun) was there as well. hyun ho and jung kyung has been in relationship for the past 10 years, however, at joon young's last recital, jung kyung stopped by and suddenly kissed him after the recital that made joon young confused as he liked jung kyung but he was aware of his condition, so he decided to put some distance between them. talking about double love triangle... 

anyway, song ah was put in charge for the trio (joon young, hyun ho and jung kyung) so she met him quite often. that made jung kyung a bit jealous as she saw joon young's attention for song ah. she decided to confess her feeling but joon young declined her. however, hyun ho who didn't know about it at first, found out about it and broke up with jung kyung, leaving the trio on the line. while song ah, after the internship, got back to school and had to decide what to do next. she started to question her choice as well as her feeling as she started to like joon young. she confessed her feeling to joon young, but he told her to wait as he wanted to clear his mind and feeling first. on the side, song ah's professor suggested her to apply for master program and told her that she would be her mentor, only to let song ah did petty tasks as her assistant but she didn't do anything to help song ah improved as violinist. she even let song ah ran here and there to prepare for her chamber concert, making song ah thinking that she was included in the chamber as well but at the end told song ah that she was just her assistant.

while joon young had to face the truth about his father once again. he had to make money to cover his father's debt as he didn't want to keep indebted to the CEO and jung kyung. but jung kyung who tried to tie joon young, kept paying his father's debt behind joon young's knowledge. his agency also ended his contract with the foundation, leaving the foundation in jeopardy as well. however, joon young made his move for song ah and decided to confess his feeling. even he went public about their relationship. however, the piano genius couldn't be with the mere violinist. his new manager told him to break up with song ah or at least kept their relationship quiet. but joon young refused it. the new manager then turned to song ah and pressured her to think about joon young's career. making song ah even downhearted since she found out that jung kyung also made her move to win joon young. joon young himself tried to enter tchaikovsky competition but he had to face his former mentor whom he didn't like. at the end, the mentor betrayed him (he uploaded joon young's playing traumerei to youtube while joon young has promised song ah that he won't play the song again. joon young was playing it for one last time when it was recorded and he tried to take it down before song ah listened it, but jung kyung told song ah about it and made her question joon young's feelings for her) and he decided to sever their relationship for good. 

song ah herself was feeling down as she couldn't seem to play her song well. her piano accompanist bailed out on her suddenly. joon young offered to play as her accompanist but song ah refused. joon young himself had promised jung kyung to be her accompanist for her recital to win the professor position in the university. however, she was in feud with her former professor and she had to pull back her application for the position. while hyun ho at first persuaded by the CEO, applied for the professor position as well. but last minute he pulled his application and accepted the offer to play cello in an orchestra abroad. song ah at the end decided to break up with joon young, making them both suffered and got sick.

when joon young was able to pull himself back, he decided to withdraw from the competition and started to play music he didn't want to play before, brahms', song ah's favorites. on the CEO's funeral, song ah met joon young again. didn't want to lose song ah, he offered to play as song ah accompanist on her recital. song ah herself decided she won't play violin again after the graduation. it's quite a shame though as her performance with joon young was quite awesome. anyway, joon young confessed his feeling again on his recital (they were both graduating at the same time, so he had to hold a recital as well) through his music and his words. all songs in his programme were brams, clara and schumann. and after thinking a lot after her recital, song ah decided that she still had feeling for joon young. 

at the end we saw joon young and song ah were still going strong. song ah worked for the foundation and joon young kept playing piano again. hyun ho and jung kyung were okay, but they were not back together. the trio was still playing at the concert, only this time for the CEO memorial.

what i like:

- how joon young was quite sure of his feeling. even though he looked shy, but he made all the first move. from trying to be with song ah with the ice cream scene, to accompany her to his hometown. even he was willing to go public about their relationship. i guess it's a shame that jung kyung kept interfering with joon young-song ah's relationship.

- how they try to portray that music is a kind of language. it can comforts you and even speaks your feelings. applause for both kim min jae and park eun bin as they both played the instrument in the drama, though maybe not all scenes, but mostly they played it themselves. 

- also they really portrayed the ugliness in the classic music world. how all moms tried to get the best mentor for their children and pushed their children to practice to win competition or to get scholarship. and how music genius can turned to be ordinary as time goes by. 

what i don't like:

- too many problems. like the double love triangle. gee.. can't they make it more simple? and also all the tricks between the professors. too many politics.

- sometimes i feel some supporting actors and actresses were not natural. like the one of the moms in the drama, and even jung kyung. 

- the drama feels flat. even the conflict is just that. not exploding or whatever. my husband was beside me when there was this scene of joon young and song ah involved in an argument. when it was ended, my husband asked "is that all? that wasn't barely an argument!" hahaha.. 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: not really

recommended for: kim min jae's fans, those who like slow pace drama and soothing (unlike penthose, TWOM) and classical music.