taxi driver

i've heard good stuff about this drama, but i was watching doom first since i want to take a break from intense drama, and i heard that taxi driver is quite intense. this is the second drama of lee je hoon, oh wait, scratch that.. the third drama that i watched (the others are signal and move to heaven, and both are good). i bet this one is another good one since i keep hearing people praising this drama.

title: taxi driver

cast: lee je hoon, esom, kim eui sung, pyo ye jin

genre: crime story/life story

kim do gi (lee je hoon) was an officer in the special forces. he was the only son and he lived together with his mother. however, when he was on a break, he found his mother killed by a serial murder. he felt helpless and lost his way. that's when he met jang sung chul (kim eui sung). sung chul was a CEO of a taxi company, but he had another project on his "rainbow taxi" company. rainbow taxi acted as a front for his secret organization that helps victim's family to get revenge since they couldn't get it by law. sung chul recruited do gi to be the taxi driver that delivered revenge based on the client's demand. they didn't work together. with the help of ahn go eun (pyo ye jin), a cashier/computer hacker that joined the rainbow taxi to avenge her elder sister's suicide, and the technician duo, choi kyung goo (jang hyuk jin) and park jin eon (bae yoo ram) who both joined the company to avenge their brother/sister's death.

unfortunately, the team's case overlapped with kang ha na (esom)'s case, a prosecutor from seoul northern district office. ha na was straight and she wanted all criminals to be punished fairly by law, thus she didn't approve of some of the rainbow taxi's team work even though they worked against the criminal as well. she believed no matter what the reason was, the criminal should be judged by the law. thus she started to chase after the team after a main suspect from her case released from custody but kidnapped on his way home after being released. after that they stumbled on several cases, making ha na became suspicious of do gi.

there are some cases in the drama, but one by one we saw the connection between the cases and the crew member of rainbow taxi. from the killer of sung chul's parents, to go eun's sister ex-boyfriend that apparently contributed to the sex tape that was recorded without her sister's knowledge. the drama also presented a true story of a company worker abuse by a famous IT company CEO. they used a real story as background, but the rest i don't know for sure. in the drama, they connected the IT company to the illegal sex video cloud in which go eun's sister sex tape was stored. 

they also took care of bullying case gone bad (gee.. the bullying portrayed here was quite severe as the victim got into accident) and the last case was about the real killer of do gi and sung chul's parents. this was their last case as their previous case went awry. the suspects that have been kept in underground prison managed to escape thus creating some problems along the way. ha na's colleague ended up getting killed while trying to capture the devil twins of the loanshark lady whom sung chul got in agreement with to keep all his prisoners. after that incident, ha na was tempted to use the rainbow taxi's service. all the rainbow taxi's crew promised that after catching the twins, they would give themselves up. but the story of the real killer was put over sung chul's desk. fortunately, they didn't have to do anything since the real killer did the damage himself. he injured his own son who apparently worked as prison guard in the same prison thus he failed to visit his dementia mother that got his mother into accident for seeing someone as her son and tried to follow him. sung chul at first didn't want to reveal the son's identity, but at the end, he did and it gave a big blow to the psycopath. 

after that case, the whole team seemed to be on their separate ways. sung chul kept being a taxi CEO since his prosecutor friend decided not to accept him surrendering himself and chose to be removed from his position and became a defender for victim's family, working alongside with sung chul again. do gi travelled around the world, but at the end we saw he got a call from sung chul, asking for his return. the mechanic duo went back to their previous workplace, but later we saw they got a message from their rainbow taxi's beeper. while go eun passed her civil service exam and became a patrol officer and still helping rainbow taxi. while ha na still worked as a prosecutor, but at the end we saw her join forces with rainbow taxi crew. could this be a sign for second season?

what i like:

- excellent acting from all actors and actresses even the supporting ones. though i don't quite like the supporting actors and actresses from the IT company period. it seemed ridiculous that punks worked for high-earning IT company. 

- interesting story without any plot hole, though since there are so many cases in the drama, i was confused with the names as usual. too many supporting roles as the cases opened and closed one by one.

what i don't like:

- some scenes don't make sense, like the hacking part, all scenes involving accidents and explosions. well, at least the effects are better than vagabond, but still.. 

- can we say that the secret lair under sung chul's house is a bit too much? won't the neighbor at least complained and told the police that they saw the black taxi coming to and going from sung chul's house when being questioned? 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: totally yes

recommended for: thrill seeker and crime story lover. maybe lee je hoon's fans that wanted to see him in action again. 

doom at your service

i might be a little bit to late to jump in the wagon, but i'm a bit hesitant about this drama. mainly because i don't get fantasy theme. sometimes the ending or the explanation don't get me. i do know that fantasy means it might be irrational ending, might be unthinkable, but still, it irks me. anyway, people has been hyping this drama mainly because this is the first drama that seo in guk played in after he finished his military service? i do adore park bo young though, so i'm about 50-50. call me weird, but i watched some spoilers first before deciding to watch this, and i'm more drawn into the second couple, so i decided to give it a shot.

title: doom at your service

cast: seo in guk, park bo young, lee soo hyuk, kang tae oh, shin do hyun

genre: love story drama mixed with fantasy

tak dong kyung (park bo young) is an editor for a web novel company. her life was pretty ordinary, but one day she got a bad news. she had glioblastoma and her doctor (as well as one of her writers) told her that she only had three days to live. not only that, she found out that her boyfriend apparently was a husband and about to be a father. the official wife confronted her in public and other people captured the moment and soon it became viral. she was scolded at work because of the case. however, when she chased a pervert that spied on her, she passed by myul mang (seo in guk) by chance and somehow the pervert fell into a sinkhole, created instantly when myul mang ignited his lighter.

couldn't believe her bad luck, she drank and when she saw a shooting star, she wished for the world to be doomed. such a wish is an interesting thing for myul mang, whose name means doom. he was a messenger between gods and human, and wherever he goes, dooms follow. anyway, his existence is quite important for the world to be in balance, and on his birthday, he gets to choose a human's wish to fulfill. when he heard dong kyung's wish, he decided to fulfill dong kyung's wish.

myul mang then appeared in front of dong kyung and made a contract with her. in 100 days, he would take awal all dong kyung's pain (he put on a special bracelet as a sign, but she has to recharge the power around midnight by holding myul mang's hand) and in exchange, after 100 days, she would died and the world would end. but if she decided to revoke her wish, the person that she loved the most would die in exchange of her. at first dong kyung didn't know what kind of deal she's getting into. but as time goes by, she knew it and tried to revoke it but she was afraid that her younger brother, tak sun kyung (dawon) or her aunt (wong hee jin) got killed instead. so she was on a mission to love myul mang in order to revoke her wish or to find a way to get around her contract with the doom.

well, the rest of their story is predictable. myul mang and dong kyung both got interested in each other and fallen in love as usual. and though the god figure in the drama has tried to interfere with their love story, she failed and thus at the end, doom was vanished, but somehow he became alive again, only this time as a mere human. don't ask me how since i skipped most of their parts because the fantasy idea doesn't get me. anyway, no love triangle for the first couple, but love triangle for the second couple, which is interesting.

na ji na (shin do hyun) is dong kyung's best friend as well as another writer in dong kyung's company. she used the pen name lee hyun because of her first love, lee hyun kyu (kang tae oh). back then, he left her because he was going to study in japan after he failed his swimming scholarship. he was embarrassed to admit his failure and chose to runaway, leaving ji na behind. apparently, at that time, hyun kyu had a tutor that also allowed him to become his housemate, cha joo ik (lee soo hyuk). when he saw ji na waiting for hyun kyu even though it was raining, he couldn't stand it and then somehow ended up kissing her, leaving her stun and left just a moment before hyun kyu finally got out from the apartment. ji na always remembered joo ik as the one that stole her first kiss.

years later, they met again when dong kyu was on leave and left her writers into joo ik's hand. one of them that had to be followed up was ji na. both were surprised when they saw each other again. joo ik was determined to show his feelings for ji na. while ji na was surprised meeting joo ik again. so far her career as a writer was not spectacular. her novels were usually about romance, but the main actor was based on one same person, hyun kyu, thus she used the pen name lee hyun (left the kyu part, but it was pretty obvious). she was further into the dilemma when hyun kyu popped up again in her life. didn't know which one to choose, she decided to give hyun kyu a second chance before deciding which one to choose. hyun kyu himself, didn't want to lose ji na second time, tried his best to win ji na, unknowingly that joo ik also liked her. well, at the end, it was quite sad as ji na decided which one to choose, hyun kyu decided to let her go and bowed down so joo ik could step up. 

what i like:

- park bo young and seo in guk make a good couple. their chemistry is quite natural. 

- i truly like joo ik's character in this drama. he's the main reason i managed to finish the whole series. anyway, in this drama, he looks like a webtoon character. 

what i don't like:

- well, i bet the explanation on how myul mang managed to live again as human at the same age as he was before might be ridiculous, but again, this is a fantasy drama. it might not be reasonable. 

- as someone who's living poorly most of her life, dong kyung has an unexplainable wardrobe choices along with several accessories. there's almost no repeat on her outfit. 

- can't they tone down the brightening base for joo ik, ji na and dong kyung? they all gorgeous, so at least tone down the makeup a bit.

rating: 8/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: fans of seo in guk and park bo young, fans of love story mixed with a bit fantasy. fans of kang tae oh and lee soo hyuk.