when my love blooms

 i'm waiting for hospital playlist or any drama from jang ki yong to be played in netflix, but apparently it won't be aired until early to mid june, so i didn't have anything to watch for now. but recently i found out about got7 and was interested in park jin young. apparently he had a drama in netflix that i haven't watched yet and it was the same drama which yoo ji tae appeared as well. at first i was interested because of yoo ji tae, but it was jin young that made me watch it at last. oh well, let's see how it goes.

title: when my love blooms

cast: yoo ji tae, lee bo young, park jin young, jeon so nee

genre: romantic melodrama

han jae hyun (yoo ji tae) is a VP of hyung sung group who recently got out jail after being a scapegoat for his father in law. everyone was wondering what he would do next when suddenly he met his long lost ex-girlfriend, yoon ji soo (lee bo young). honestly, this drama is full of back and forth storyline, so it's a bit confusing going forward and backward all the time, so let's talk about it from the past to the present time.

back in his college days, young jae hyun (park jin young) was famous for being a defender for labor union. he was in law department and has been going on rallies to defend people who couldn't defend themselves. on one of his rallies, he saw young yoon ji soo (jeon so nee). when the rallies went awry, jae hyun helped ji soo before disappearing. since ji soo was in music department, she asked around the law department and got help from young young woo (byung hun). long story short, young ji soo was determined to date young jae hyun. 

however, their love story wasn't that smooth. since jae hyun has been in rallies constantly, it might affect his career. while ji soo, was apparently came from a high class family. her father was apparently the chief prosecutor at that time, and he was furious when ji soo was caught when she was in the same rally as jae hyun. jae hyun met her father, but ji soo father deemed jae hyun wasn't the right man for ji soo. facing opposition from ji soo family made their relationship became a bit like romeo juliet. at the first half of the series we could see that ji soo decided to leave jae hyun for his sake, under the oppression from her father but that's not the entire story on the second half. ji soo managed to disappear while jae hyun was in military service (a bit forced by ji soo's father) and couldn't find her after years. later, when his father ended his own life because he was accused of accepting bribe from the company and betrayed his friends in labor union, jae hyun's world collapsed. suddenly he couldn't find the meaning of all he's been doing these time. he's been defending the labor union while his father was accused of betraying his own labor union. determined to get the bottom of it, he decided to work as hard as he could and found the truth about his father's death. however, in the middle of his way, he met jang seo kyung (park si yeon), an heiress from hyung sung group and married her. they had a son, han joon seo (park min soo) who apparently was in the same school as ji soo's son, lee young min (go woo rim).

fast forward to present days, young min was a bright young boy that got scholarship so he could attend prestigious school. however, other students knew about his financial situation and they deemed he was not fit for the school and bullied him for being poor. young min has been hiding the bullying from his mother because he was afraid that his father, lee se hoon (kim young hoon) might use that reason to gain the custody right. however, he snapped when the other students, especially joon seo, kept bullying him and the headmaster had no choice but to call both parents. since seo kyung was away, jae hyun came to school instead and to his surprise, he met adult ji soo. jae hyun knew that his own son might be the reason young min snapped, but since joon seo didn't admit anything, jae hyun asked the headmaster to keep it quiet and didn't charge young min.

but when seo kyung and the CEO found out about it, they forced the school to kick young min out. the rest is predictable. jae hyun found out that ji soo has been struggling all these time, while he's been living in comfort. she had no stable job, and she was one of the hyung sung supermarket's branch owner before the contract was annulled. she has been helping the other women in the labor union to put rally in front of the company. ji soo also had divorced her husband because he was cheating on her but she didn't want to receive any money for both her and her son. her husband was her former lawyer, and still became a lawyer when he found out about ji soo and her past with jae hyun. he worked together with seo kyung to prevent ji soo getting back with jae hyun. at first his effort seemed to be working, but ji soo determined not to let anyone else stepping on her life, so his plan fell apart.

meanwhile, jae hyun has been working on a plan to let the truth about his father in law out. he also asked seo kyung for divorce but seo kyung didn't want to sign the paper at first and made ji soo suffered because of it. young min also suffered because joon seo once again bullied young min because he was afraid that his dad might leave his mom for young min's mom. at this time, young min decided that the school wasn't worth it and left the school with ji soo's approval. at this time, se hoon had no choice but to support young min's decision. however, he still didn't give up on ji soo entirely. his last effort was telling a father whose son has died because of suicide because he was accused accepting bribe from hyung sung group, exactly like jae hyun's dad and he believed that jae hyun was the culprit and after being told jae hyun's location, he stabbed jae hyun. at the end, jae hyun decided not to charge the man, and that man learnt the truth that jae hyun wasn't the culprit. at first, se hoon has been called as witness, but later the police told him that jae hyun knew the truth about se hoon's involvement in the case but decided to let it go. that shocked se hoon and changed him.

so.. back to the love story.. after jae hyun met ji soo's dad, ji soo dad told ji soo to left korea for germany, but ji soo didn't go and even run away with jae hyun for awhile. while running away, jae hyun was caught by the military police because of ji soo's dad and forced to fulfill his military duty. around the same time, ji soo's dad was furious of jae hyun, so when he knew that jae hyun's dad was reporting hyung sung CEO of corruption, ji soo's dad decided to help hyung sung CEO (present day jae hyun's father in law) and framed jae hyun's dad instead. on ji soo's birthday, when ji soo decided to visit jae hyun on his first military visitation permit, ji soo's mom and younger sister died because the mall collapsed. couldn't accept the reality, ji soo's dad mental health was shaken and he was caught accepting bribe as well. so in short time, ji soo's family lost their home, his dad was removed from the prosecution department, thus made ji soo left jae hyun without any explanation. back to present day, ji soo explained her reason for leaving and ji soo also found out that jae hyun decided to be with her even though he knew that her father was the one that's behind jae hyun's father's death. talking about complicated love story.

anyway, at the end, jae hyun managed to get the hyung sung CEO apprehended. he was put in jail. he divorced seo kyung but he resigned from the company. both seo kyung and her dad still had their shares in the company as owners, but they weren't allowed to involve in the management. while ji soo moved and opened her own piano school. jae hyun proposed to her, but honestly i couldn't see that they got married at the end. 

what i like:

- well, all actresses and actors are good. however, i still don't like park si yeon's acting though. she still seemed "extra". 

- at least there were some sweet memories during their youth days. i like how it was sweet between young jae hyun and young ji soo. if only the drama was only about their youth days... i won't be skipping the drama like crazy. fyi, i don't quite like the present plot, so i often skip the present days. but i never skip the younger days. 

what i don't like:

- this story is about infidelity and people are supporting it. gee.. i get that their love was sooo strong that even though it's been years they couldn't forget it. but for ji soo, she's divorced. but jae hyun was not. he was the one that made the decision to marry seo kyung when he couldn't find ji soo, so after finding ji soo, it's not right to leave seo kyung because he finally found his first and true love. at least he should divorce her first before pursuing ji soo again. 

- again, same plot about being the powerful stepped on the lowlies. ji soo dad and the CEO were plotting against jae hyun's powerless dad was one example of it.

- again, bullying story. 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: fans of park jin young, yoo ji tae and lee bo young. and don't mind about the infidelity part.

navillera

this year might be song kang year. after love alarm2, he started in navillera and later he would be in a drama with han so hee. i do like him as he always takes different roles each time he was in a drama. he doesn't limit himself to only romantic drama, but also some scary role in sweet home and now a ballerina. i do hope he would be an antagonist someday.. anyway, some people say navillera is underrated and it is a good drama, so let's see how it goes. 

title: navillera

cast: song kang, park in hwan, na moon hee, hong seung hee

genre: life story drama, inspirational story

shim deok chul (park in hwan) is a retiree in his 70th. he's saying goodbye to his friends one by one. one of his friend told him that he regretted not pursuing his dreams while he still had his health. this friend ended up taking his life, sending quite a shock to deok chul's life. he then decided to pursue his childhood dream when he was lee chae rok (song kang) dancing ballet in a studio. chae rok himself is a 23 year old ballerino who's struggled financially and still tried to make himself known in ballet world. he also had a dark past, with his dad was in jail because his dad assaulted his soccer club players while he was a coach there. he was in a slump when he met deok chul, but it was about to change.

deok chul appealed to ki seung joo (kim tae hoon), chae rok's teacher. but seung joo refused, stating that deok chul was simply too old to learn ballet. however, he decided to accept deok chul and made him chae rok's manager and in return, chae rok was the one who will teach deok chul ballet. chae rok didn't agree at all at first, but watching how determined deok chul was, he changed his mind slowly and started to help deok chul learning ballet.

those two started to build stronger bond when deok chul helped chae rok faced his old friend, yang ho beom (kim kwon). ho beom had been assaulting him since he hated chae rok because of his father. ho beom was in chae rok's dad' soccer club and he thought he had a good future as a soccer player when chae rok's father was put in jail. later he became no one since he had knee injury and he kept resenting chae rok and his dad for his fate. however, chae rok stated that his fate was his own, and not chae rok's or his dad's. he stated that ho beom could make turn in his life just chae rok did. meanwhile, chae rok and his dad's relationship was not that good either. his dad didn't tell him when he was released from prison and after being released he instantly went to the suburb to work without meeting chae rok at all. however, as chae rok started to become closer to deok chul, his relationship with his dad was getting better as well.

meanwhile, deok chul has been keeping his ballet learning a secret from his family. starting off as a poor family, deok chul has been working hard for years as postman. throughout the episodes, we saw how shim sung san (jung hae kyun), his first son, had to skip school because they couldn't pay the school fee just in time. for a fourth grader, it was such a big burden that made his mom heartbroken. later we also saw that sung san gave up baseball because he didn't want to burden his parents with baseball necessities like shoes and gloves that required extra money. however, choi hae nam (na moon hee), deok chul's wife was grateful that he managed to land stable job in some office and even managed to get high ranking in his company. however, after his success, he seemed to see others lowly, thus later made hae nam scolded him when sung san was in altercation with deok chul. shim seung suk (kim soo jin), deok chul's daughter, was struggling financially as well. her husband, young il, was struggling politician. he didn't win several elections because of his education background. they also didn't have any children. later seung suk told hae nam that they were going to give up trying to conceive.

meanwhile, shim sung gwan (jo bok rae) was deok chul's third children, second son. he quit his job as surgeon as he couldn't face another life lost on his surgery table. he was struggling as well as sung san kept criticizing his choice to pursue his dream to be a film director and not continuing his job as surgeon. there was shim eun ho (hong sung hee), deok chul's granddaughter, sung san's daughter. she was graduated and accepted as intern. fate made her met with chae rok. she became intern and got placed in chae rok's part time job cafe. both of them involved in several arguments before getting closer and became friends because of deok chul. however, she was struggling in her job as she didn't want to disappoint her father. but the job wasn't the right one for her. 

later, hae nam found out about deok chul learning ballet and told sung san. sung san was furious and told deok chul to quit as it might bring shame to the family. up until these days, ballet is still deemed to be suitable for female, and male dancers are still rare due to the shaming culture. sung gwan was the only one supporting deok chul. the other one was kim ae ran (shin eun jung), sung san's wife. she supported deok chul because deok chul understood her when she was in depression after giving birth to eun ho. she had to quit her job and stayed with eun ho by herself meanwhile sung san was in the office, being late because of his overtime. deok chul also supported her when she announced that she was going to work again since eun ho was an adult herself. sung suk was no choice but to agree with deok chul as it might affected yong il's image. however, yong il himself was not completely against the idea of deok chul learning ballet. however, after watching how sad deok chul was when he gave up the ballet for awhile, hae nam decided that she was going to support deok chul and even scolded sung san.

both deok chul and chae rok helped each other. even when chae rok was injured because of ho beom, deok chul kept by his side and helped him recover. but there was a sad truth behind deok chul's intention to learn ballet. he was suffering from alzheimer. he found out about it the day he saw chae rok in the ballet studio. watching chae rok doing ballet brought back his past memories that started to fade away. and being chae rok's manager, he decided to do his best and he took notes of everything. from his schedule to his dancing routine. at first chae rok thought that deok chul was being diligent, but later he found out that it wasn't the case. he couldn't decide whether or not telling deok chul's family, but when deok chul's condition was getting worse, he had no choice but to tell sung gwan. both of them keeping their eyes on deok chul, and keeping the condition hidden from other family member. but one day deok chul was missing and everyone couldn't find him. sung gwan told sung san and sung suk about deok chul's condition and was surprised when hae nam told him that she already knew, hence all the mackerel fish dishes lately. chae rok also told eun ho. together, the family decided to support deok chul and took care of him even though deok chul was thinking of going to nursery home, but his family stopped him as they wanted to take care of him.

at the end, sung san quit his job and decided to think about his dream. sung suk and yong il moved to stay close to deok chul and took care of their parents/parent in law, while yong il got back to college. sung gwan made his first documentary film about deok chul learning ballet. chae rok himself managed to recover, practiced hard for the competition and won. meanwhile, deok chul, despite his alzheimer, managed to do ballet on stage in a duo with chae rok. both of them managed to soar high. oh, i also forgot to mention that ho beom managed to get into soccer club, and chae rok's relationship with his father was getting better even though they kept living apart. eun ho also quit her job and worked in a radio station instead and she loved it.

what i like:

- can we give applause for all the actors and actresses in this drama? they were all impressive. even though i was not a fan of eun ho at first, but later she was okay. also sung gwan was a bit cold at first, but later he was getting better. 

- there are a lot of life inspiring stories in this drama. if you're quite crybaby, prepare a lot of tissue as there are a lot of heartbreaking scenes in this drama. and the stories are natural.. 

- through this drama we can learn that your gender, your age, your condition is not an obstacle for you reaching your dream. as long as you're persistent and not giving up, you can reach your dream. however, in this drama deok chul was quite reasonable about this condition. he knew that in his late age his body wouldn't as flexible as chae rok, so he didn't dream much. as long as he could present a simple ballet performance on stage, it would be enough for him. so i guess, make a reachable dream and be persistent about it.

what i don't like:

- only 12 episodes! can we see more? but then the story would seem unnatural.. oh well..

rating: 9.5/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: song kang's fans, those who like inspirational stories and wouldn't mind crying a bit 

vincenzo

i miscalculated my speed in watching dramas and watched vincenzo and then had to wait because they delayed it for a week. it's irritating especially since it was toward the end. having to wait for two weeks in a row is bothersome. anyway, if you've been waiting for song joong ki, then have fun watching it.

title: vincenzo

cast: song joong ki, jeon yeo bin, ok taecyeon, kwak dong yeon

genre: life drama with a bit comedy

let me warn you if you're waiting for a romance drama, then you'd better skip it. there are only two kissing scenes in the whole drama. anyway, if you're thinking is a straight thriller/ crime drama, you might be mistaken as well.

vincenzo cassano (song joong ki) is a italian-born-korean mafia lawyer known as consigliere who fled to korea after being betrayed by his "brother in the mafia". he decided to make plan for his retirement. during his time in italy, he's helped a chinese tycoon hid his gold. there were only two people that knew about the stash besides the tycoon himself. however, the tycoon died suddenly and no one seemed to know about his gold stash. so he contacted his previous colleague, cho young woon (choi young joon) and told him about his plan to dig the gold, which is stashed under the basement of geumga plaza. even though the deed was named under mr. cho, but there was this company, babel group that has been buying all land surrounding geumga plaza for a new development plan. the company has been persuading all tenants in geumga plaza as well, but they resisted. the tenants were getting help from hong yoo chan (yoo jae myung), a lawyer from jipuragi law firm. however, his own daughter, hong cha young (jeon yeo bin), lawyer from wusang law firm, was their opponent. and though the father has been fighting fair and square, that's not the case with his daughter. being in wusang, she's told to use all ways possible as long as they won the case. and so she did. she made her own father lost the first trial.

when vincenzo arrived and being introduced to the tenants by mr. cho, all the tenants plus yoo chan were suspicious of vincenzo's motive. but his action defending the tenants from the gangster that babel hired made them believe him a bit. anyway, after that, several misfortunate events started to happen. mr. cho was threatened in his own home that pushed him into signing off geumga plaza to babel gangster. and yoo chan was murdered in an accidents. the police concluded that it was a mere accident, but vincenzo was suspicious that it wasn't natural. however, her father's death was a shocking event to cha young. she found out that wusang has been tainted her father as a corrupt lawyer that accepted bribe. somehow that event opened her eyes and she realized how bad wusang was and quit her job at wusang and joined jipuragi. she decided to fight for the people her father has been fighting for. with the help from vincenzo.

this is where the story became interesting. instead of going the conventional way to win a case, both vincenzo and cha young invented tricks to turn things around for their favour. with help from the whole geumga plaza, they managed to turn around the first trial. however, things became a bit heated up because choi myung hee (kim yeo jin), a former prosecutor from southeast district prosecutor office, joined wusang as a senior lawyer. she was more ruthless than cha young's former wusang CEO, han seung hyuk (jo han chul). geumga team's first attack was babel chemical that produced opioid painkiller drug, the case that yoo chan lost because of cha young. they managed to burn down the warehouse with the help from the victim's family. that gave a big blow to babel. we also saw that the current babel's chairman, jang han seo (kwak dong yeon) was not the real chairman as he suffered a big blow from a masked man after the warehouse has burnt down. 

things became a bit complicated as vincenzo still have a hidden agenda, to dig the gold. and somehow the tenants found out about the gold from a stranger. the stranger claimed to overheard the conversation from the former workers whom obviously got killed afterward. at first the tenants laughed at the idea, but they became curious and started to search for the gold themselves. oh i also forgot to mention that vincenzo's arrival in korea was noticed by ahn gi seok (im chul soo), a team leader of international security intelligence service. he went undercover in geumga plaza to observe vincenzo. but as he kept doing it, he became mesmerised by vincenzo and helped him with his resource.

however, babel has been fighting back. the victim families were murdered. as well as the original gangster. they were almost killed as well but after they're safe, they stood against babel and defended geumga tenants. things got even more complicated when both jipuragi and geumga found out that there's a guillotine file hidden among the gold under the basement. the file had a list of all corruptors in the government, from the police department, prosecutor, even to assemblymen and their colleagues. also, mr.cho was apparently a worker from intelligence service as well. he was appointed to get the guillotine file but the prosecutor betrayed him. vincenzo and mr. cho was managed to get into the vault initially but they got into altercation for a bit but later they got along again as vincenzo found out about mr. cho background as intelligence officer. however, the only way to get into the vault was gone so they had to find another way. vincenzo hid the truth that he kept the file himself and planned to use it to fight babel. they also found out that the hacker that built the vault system has been near them all along. it was one of the tenants! 

long story short, things got more heated up as the real CEO showed himself. it was jang han seok (ok taecyon), former colleagues of cha young in wusang. he was even more evil and has been one since his school days apparently. together with myung hee, they made a scary pair. han seok managed to kill vincenzo's real mom. while han seo was jumping ship and helped vincenzo. seung hyuk was trying to save himself but ended up getting nothing. it's been back and forth betweeen geumga team and babel all over the season, and it wasn't until the last two episodes that vincenzo decided to take things into his own hands. han seok kidnapped both han seo and cha young, ended up killing han seo while vincenzo and cha young managed to escape. vincenzo then decided to go all out and kidnapped myung hee and burnt her to death. while han seok was killed by a slow and painful way, by a drilled that was piercing to his body slowly and got eaten by crows halfway. 

what i like:

- they managed to keep things between cha young and vincenzo just the way it is. though there were hints about their romance, but at the end, they end up make people guessing what's next for them. halfway i thought they would go the typical way and made vincenzo feel for cha young head over heels, but i'm glad they didn't do that.

- though vincenzo appeared as softie as first, at the end he kept his fierce killing way by giving painful death to both myung hee and han seok.

- the whole geumga gang is awesome. they seemed to be weird at first, but they were the comedians in the drama. they give a cheerful and uplifting atmosphere to the drama. their fighting spirit is something else as well. and not forgetting the former gangster crew. all of them are really entertaining.

- the storyline is interesting as well. each episode gave a twisting turn. sometimes geumga will win, and sometimes they will lose to babel. you'd be up and down throughout the drama. like feeling devastated when the family victims getting murdered but then shout in joy when realizing that han seo was just pretending all along and keep supporting vincenzo.

what i don't like:

- typical "people with money get the power" storyline. how han seok used his money to get away from murder charges years ago and even up until vincenzo arrived he kept winning his way using his money.

- corrupt people in the police department and prosecutor story again. this one is more devastating though. with people like myung hee using all her might to get the result that she wanted, even if it meant killing someone else. 

- cha young is a bit over acting sometimes. how a lawyer could act like that? i thought lawyers should be deadly serious in doing their job, but she was.. odd. oh well, maybe that's what the writer and director wanted, so i might be mistaken. however, my husband kept complaining that she wasn't a good companion for handsome song joong ki and kept saying that she's average. 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: absolutely

recommended for: fans of song joong ki and ok taecyon, those who like crime story mixed with some life story as well and don't mind the corruption behind it again, and not afraid of some gory scenes since there would be so much bloody scenes and don't mind the minimal romance story.

a love so beautiful

i don't know what's gotten into my mind when i decided to watch this. honestly this would be similar to "love alarm" since the setting is in high school, but i bet the love story is cheesier than love alarm one. after watching a few episodes, i found out that this is a chinese drama remake. i didn't watch the chinese version, so i won't make any comparison.

title: a love so beautiful

cast: kim yo han, so joo yeon, jo hye joo, jeong jin hwan, yeo hoe hyun

genre: youth drama, romantic drama

shin sol-i (so joo yeon) is a cheerful high school girl. she had forever crush with her neighbour, cha heon (kim yo han). they lived in the same apartment and both family has known each other since their childhood. she repeatedly told chae heon that she has feeling for him, but chae heon kept rejecting her. however, things are going to change when woo dae song (yeo hoe hyun) came as a transfer student and fell in love with sol i.

sol i kept trying to show her feeling to cha heon and even though on the outside he seemed cold, soon enough he had soft spot for sol i but he tried to hide it. he couldn't control himself when he saw sol i with dae song. burnt with jealousy, he said mean things to sol i and regretted it afterward. but when sol i was down and was thinking of transferring school, cha heon couldn't hide his feeling any longer and begged sol i not to transfer school. 

then we saw some good memories, some painful memories shared between cha heon and sol i. well, those memories were the usual high schooler memories, when they found out about their feelings, crush and dreams. on the side, we saw jeong jin hwan, their fellow classmates who have been forever liking kang ha yeong (jo hye joo). at first she didn't have any feeling for him, but later after watching his sincere actions for her, she couldn't help but falling in love with him. however, jin hwan apparently had a serious heart condition and at first he tried to hide it from ha yeong. but she kept her feeling even though she found out about jin hwan's condition. both of them made a cute couple. leaving only dae song behind. we also saw some of dae song's family problem. from his grandmother who suffered dementia, to his dad that he called as coach and not dad. he was also pressured to become a number 1 swimmer and he was facing a block when his shoulder injury got worse. however, with sol i cheering him up, he decided to go through physical therapy and started over.

sol i and cha heon push-pull relationship lasted until the last year of high school. being smart and always got number one in class didn't help much for cha heon. his mother wanted him to pursue mathematic academy, while heon had other idea because of sol i. he chose to be a doctor. things were different for sol i. her scores were not good at all, but she was good in art. she was worried she couldn't pass the college exam. and she was right. all her friends were accepted into college but she failed. heon cheered her up and told her to try again the next year, but into the art department. heon promised to help her. at this point, it was clearly shown that heon had feeling for sol i, but she didn't have the confidence to say so. but later on heon's dinner party with his fellow medical students, heon admitted publicly that she was his girlfriend. he even kissed her even though she was drunk. 

well, things were sweeter on their college days. heon and sol i was in love and publicly showed it. however, things were a bit different once they graduated. sol i couldn't land any jobs while heon got busier. sol i was harassed by her former colleagues as well, and when she was feeling down, she heard the news of heon going to be sent abroad. feeling betrayed, she didn't give heon any chance to explain and just left when heon had some emergency to take care of. she even moved without telling heon. on his departure day, heon hoped sol i would come to say goodbye, but she resisted. 3 years passed, heon decided to go back to korea. jin hwan was about to get married to ha yeong after surviving his cardiac surgery. meanwhile dae song had become a famous swimmer and he still had feelings for sol i. thinking that heon wasn't there anymore, he decided to get close to sol i again. unfortunately, they met at the hospital when sol i's dad was sick. 

long story short, heon decided to fight for sol i. it's a bit funny watching cool heon trying to win sol i's heart. even arranged a cheesy proposal for sol i. meanwhile, dae song proposed sol i and get rejected once again, but he decided not to let heon get away. if heon was serious about sol i, then he agreed to back down. meanwhile, sol i managed to land a contract of a book with the same title as the drama on her own. at the end, we could see that sol i got back with heon, while poor dae song left alone once again.

what i like:

- lightweight cheerful story about high school romance which grow into adulthood romance. 

- there's no villain in this story. there might be some misunderstandings between heon and sol i, but their love struggles was mainly because of misunderstandings and not some villains trying their best to set them apart.

- they also tell the story of each one struggles to transition from youth to adulthood. 

what i don't like:

- gee.. can't they pick someone else as main actress? i get that so joo yeon is cute and perfect to present a high schooler despite her age, but beside kim yo han, somehow i feel she's lacking.

- i believe this is kim yo han's first gig as main actor, and sometimes i feel his acting needs improvement. but i guess it's okay since he's quite good looking and managed to portray that cool act.

- i bet the problem between heon and sol i is quite common. when one of the pair succeed extraordinarily and the other is just plain, some misunderstanding might rise and one might feel inferior toward the other. 

- slow storyline. but at least they make each episode short, so even though it has many episodes compared to usual 16 episodes-drama, this one feels short to go through.

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: those who like youth romantic drama, fans of kim yo han, and those who doesn't mind slow storyline.

revolutionary love

i totally forgot which one that i watched first, this one or the chinese adapted drama. anyway, this is the second drama of choi si won and kang so ra that i watched. previously i watched si won in park seon jun's drama "she was pretty" and kang so ra from some drama with lee jong suk. anyway, i've seen the trailer several times, so i guess why not try watching it.

title: revolutionary love

cast: kang so ra, choi si won, gong myung

genre: romantic drama

byun hyuk (choi si won) is the second son of gangsu group dynasty. he's well known for his carefree, irresponsible and reckless behaviour. he had made lots of mistake in the past and this time was no better. he was accused of sexually-harassed a flight attendant, ha yeon hee (kim ye won). under byun woo sung (lee jae yoon)'s, byun hyuk's older brother, order, kwon jae hoon (gong myung) was sent to sweep things under the rug. however, it backfired as the video was leaked to the public. enraged by his latest scandal, his father kicked him out of their home. he hid at his usual hotel per jae hoon's order, when he saw baek joon (kang so ra). she was involved in an altercation with his previous girlfriend. and he was amazed watching how baek joon wouldn't back down even when she was accused of stealing. at the end, baek joon was proven innocent. unfortunately, byun hyuk was borrowing some hotel officer's clothes when he was roaming around and he was denied to his room and even kicked out of the hotel. but baek joon helped him without knowing his real identity. the fun began when baek joon asked her long-time friend to accept the stranger, when the friend was jae hoon. he was surprised as well when byun hyuk showed up in his apartment. he let hyuk stayed in his apartment to keep watch of him as well as to keep his good side in front of baek joon. 

things got a bit funny as hyuk decided to keep his cover as a low-life person in front of baek joon. jae hoon had no other choice than to follow. since hyuk told joon that he was fired as well, joon kindly got a part time job for hyuk. hyuk then realized how hard it is to be a part timer and how hard it is to earn some money. but his cover didn't last long as apparently, the flight attendant was in the same apartment as jae hoon and baek joon. since his cover was blown, hyuk had no other choice to admit about his identity. but he stayed firm saying that he was innocent and all was misunderstanding. he told the whole story to joon, who believed him, but told him to make amend with yeon hee. at first, he didn't know what to do, since his father and brother have been using money to solve all problems. but he found out that a sincere apology was the only thing needed. 

decided to make some change, hyuk decided to stay at jae hoon's and kept following joon wherever she went. they even got into cleaning part time job together, even when hyuk found out that he was cleaning the company building. his father was happy to see hyuk finally decided to be responsible of something. even though he didn't approve of joon. little by little hyuk did a change into the company policy even though he did it to help joon, but his good intention became beneficial to other part timers as well. worried that his position might change, woo sung told jae hoon to keep watch of hyuk and kept reporting to him straight. however, jae hoon started to realize the feud. at first he thought woo sung was sincerely wanted to help hyuk out of trouble, but he started to become suspicious as hyuk's case kept being leaked to the public even though jae hoon had swept it under rug. this made hyuk's name became bad in front of the shareholders and his father as well. the order made jae hoon realized that hyuk has been right all this time, that he was innocent but didn't get the chance to prove his innocence.

anyway, when hyuk made the wrong choice when he was trying to help joon, he had no other choice but to apply for a position in the company. together with joon, they studied together and passed the elimination test. however, during the interview, hyuk initially didn't pass, but joon passed. however, she didn't want to accept the position hence hyuk got the spot. being clueless about his job, joon helped him. but she found out the truth about her father, who has been wrongly accused by gangsu group and got fired. determined to make amend to joon, hyuk decided to work harder. though there was mishap here and there, joon and the cleaning crew helped him along the way. 

on the other side, there was this police officer who initially wanted to catch hyuk. but since the case was closed, he was transferred to another department. funny thing was, he moved into the same apartment as the others. it was funny when yeon hee got drunk and mistakenly thinking she was going into her apartment, when it was the police officer's. yeon hee was mistakenly thinking jae hoon was having a crush on her while the truth was jae hoon has been in love with joon since college days. and the police officers eventually got smitten by yeon hee. anyway. hyuk has been working hard to change the way the company was, while jae hoon has been working on something else. he was working together with the police office to reveal hyuk's father dark secret.

well, it's been a long fight, but at the end, hyuk finally found out the hard truth about his family. his father has been embezzling money by making another company to avoid taxes. this company was in charge of several smaller companies that handle packaging, raw materials and part timers. all his father cared about was money and position, and never thought of people. jae hoon decided to help the police officers to gather evidence against hyuk's father even though it meant endangering his life. but at the end, hyuk decided to take the matter into his hand and together with joon and the whole cleaning crew, he handed the evidence to the police and told his father to surrender. 

at last, hyuk finally managed to change the way the company operated. they changed into clean management now and treated people more humanly. hyuk and his brother got along now since they didn't have to fight for their inheritance and hyuk father was imprisoned for his wrongdoings. jae hoon confessed his feeling to joon but he didn't allow joon to answer, knowing that he might get rejected. joon decided to go travelling before deciding what to do next. at first she thought hyuk was angry with her decision but she was surprised finding hyuk sitting next to her in the same plane.

what i like:

- refreshing take at how the people managed to turn the table around and the people in power accepted the punishment at the end.

- how hyuk's mom is really nice. at first i thought she would be those rich moms who would do anything for their kids, but she was really nice toward joon even though joon's mom was mistakenly thought hyuk's mom was jae hoon's mom. 

- at least hyuk and jae hoon fought for joon fairly. how hyuk gave time for jae hoon to confess his feeling to joon even though he was worried that joon might accept jae hoon's feeling.

what i don't like:

- another rich family feud as background story.

- and not forgetting corruption, embezzlement and stuff which is usual.

- sometimes i think kang sora's acting is a bit too much, but it's still okay. 

- slow story progression, not too mention the problem is typical. nothing revolutionary if i have to say.

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: choi si won and kang so ra's fans, someone who's looking for a light romcom story.