record of youth

 this is the last drama that park bo gum would done before he went into military service. i never watched his drama before this, so i have no idea what to expect about this drama. but seeing that park so dam also played this drama, makes me want to try watching this drama. it's supposed to be an easy going drama, not complicated at all, which might sound boring, but let's see how it goes.

title: record of youth

cast: park bo gum, park so dam, byeon woo seok, shin dong mi

genre: life series (?), a bit romantic

this is a story about youngster fighting their way toward their dreams. sa hye jun (park bo gum) is a young model turned actor that comes from a working class family. his family doesn't support his decision to pursue acting career, except for his mother and his grandfather. his father kept comparing him to his older brother who went to university and got office jobs like his father had wanted, because his father thought office job is a stable job, which means stable income as well. hye jun was doing well in his modelling career, but there's a dark side that he kept secret from everyone. apparently, one of the designer had crushed on him, but hye jun turned him down politely. he also juggled many part time jobs to meet his need, so he was facing his rock bottom when he met ahn jeung ha.

jeung ha (park so dam) is an intern in a beauty salon. she is dreaming to become a makeup artist. her dream came a bit early thanks to won hae hyo (byeon woo seok), hye jun's childhood bestfriend/competitor as both of them were model turned actors at the same time. hae hyo has a rich family background, which help him a little bit. hae hyo forced the beauty salon to agree letting jeung ha to be his main makeup artist even though jeung ha has not been promoted yet. that request put jeung ha in feud with her senior in the beauty salon, which has been picking on jeung ha since forever. she is also a fan of hye jun, but at first she didn't admit it. and fate plays its part and make two of the falling in love to each other and then being in relationship. this leaves hae hyo a bit broken hearted since he also liked jeung ha secretly, but he decided to keep it to himself until the end.

hye jun then got help from lee min jae (shin dong mi) and she became his manager. she managed to get a supporting role for hye jun that surprisingly got him popular and that rocketed his career. thing also worked out for hye jun's grandfather, who got into modelling school thanks to hye jun and later got so many advertising jobs and got a lot of money from it. his grandfather also managed to make hye jun's father as his manager and gave him some money. that changed hye jun's father point of view about modelling or acting world.

but hye jun's popularity came with a price. he had to face so many false rumors from his previous agent together with a reporter that didn't know that the information was wrong. the scandal with the designer also got brought up since he committed suicide. hye jun even though he faced big risk in losing his advertising jobs because of the scandal, kept refusing to reveal the designer's last message to him in order to honor the designer. his relationship with jeung ha also took a hit, since hye jun's ex has been wanting to get back with him. hye jun's ex also became one of the legal team that managed hye jun's case, since hye jun's agent/manager is suing the reporter for public defamation. later they decided to break up.

hae hyo also took a hit. at first his career seems promising, partly because his mother gets her hands on several deals, including paying for his instagram's followers without hae hyo's knowing anything about it. later hae hyo career seems stagnant while hye jun's rocketing. and his mother got annoyed and asked to be in his life once again. later hae hyo found out that he would be nothing if his mother didn't do anything in his life, and that crushed him because he thought he had the skill like hye jun to make it work. while jeung ha, decided to leave the beauty salon, reconciled with her senior, and accepted her father's help with the beauty salon, but got in feud with her mother since her mother thought she was in relationship in hye jun because of money. she asked for money after finding out that jeung ha was in relationship with hye jun. and that gave her a bit reality check.

hae hyo decided to join military service just a bit earlier than hye jun. hye jun also decided to join the army, even though his career was on peak. while jeung ha kept working hard as a makeup artist. later at the end, we could see that hye jun reconciled with his father who has changed his mind, and his whole family got into a better term. but hae hyo's family just kept the same. though his sister got reality check about her relationship, but there's nothing changed if we're talking about his mother and father. while jeung ha was pictured to be successful at the end, and though they met again at the end, both hye jun and jeung ha finally came in term about their relationship. i guess it's true what hye jun said that all relationship makes them grow.

what i like:

- famous cameos! it's hilarious that the series that makes hye jun got his popularity is similar to "dr.romantic" and even seo hyun jin became cameo. other famous names that pops up here are kim hye joon, park seo joon, lee sung kyung and lee hye ri.

- easy going story that talks mostly about family and relationship. it gets real that even though in entertainment business, things don't always go easy especially if you're still starting up.

- there's a lot of parenting problems and relationship problem and those problems solver in this drama, so you can learn a thing or two.

what i don't like:

- a bit boring and flat. but that's life. that's real life. the scandals that becomes the center problem in this drama is cliche. hye jun's former agent defied the reporter to make false articles about him is nothing new. so there's nothing spectacular about this drama.

- several supporting actors are not that good, including hae hyo. i don't like his acting in this drama, but this is my first time watching him, so i might be bias. 

- a bit open ending. though both of them got in term about their relationship, people would still curious. now that jeung ha is on the same level as hye jun, would that make them back in relationship? would hae hyo makes a move? 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: not really

recommended for: park bo gum and park so dam's fans, those who likes watching popular cameos pop in, easy going story which might get a bit boring, something to fill your times while waiting for another promising drama to finish.

flower of evil

4 actors were doing their comeback drama this year. lee min ho, ji chang wook, kim soo hyun and lee seung gi. i've seen all their comeback drama, and i have to say, two were good, and two were not. lee min ho's and ji chang wook's are the one that falls short. the other two, were okay. if you're curious about their comeback drama, lee min ho's is "the king monarch", kim soo hyun's is "it's okay not to be okay", ji chan wook's is "backstreet rookie" and lee seung gi's is "flower of evil". this time, let's talk about "flower of evil".

title: flower of evil

cast: lee seung gi, moon chae won, kim ji hoon

genre: thriller, mix of crime mystery drama and a bit melodrama

"baek hee sung" (lee seung gi) was a family man that seems really loveable toward his wife and his daughter. he cooks well and he was really talented in his job. while cha ji won (moon chae won) was a police officer that also did well in her job. however, "baek hee sung" was hiding about his past from his family but later, his wife got caught in a homicide case that linked back to her husband's past. following the trails, she found out that her husband was not baek hee sung, but do hyun su, the son of famous serial killer. 

talking about do hyun soo, he used to live together with his sister, do hae soo. do hyun soo had antisocial personality disorder, but everyone didn't know about his problem back then, so they thought he was possessed and did ritual ceremony on him. he even got treated at a psychiatric hospital but they couldn't help him either. 

fast forward, do hyun soo has been living miserable life. after his father's death, he's been accused as the murderer of a villager where they used to live. so he's been living on the run. his roommate cheated on him and he got into an accident that changed his life. he got to live as baek hee sung because the person that ran into him in the car accident was in coma and their family wanted to keep the image as perfect family. later they found out that the real baek hee sung was do hyun su's father accomplice and the villager's murderer was do hae soo. unfortunately, after they found out the truth, do hyun soo got shot and he lost his memory. ji won has been trying to win his heart back, but hyun soo has been putting distance with her. but at last, his memory started to come back and his feelings toward ji won apparently was stronger than the memory lost. 

what i like:

- the storyline is interesting. we got curious whether or not do hyun soo/baek hee song was the culprit. at first they made him look like a murderer, but later we found out that he didn't have the heart to be that cruel. 

- main casts' acting are good, with the exception of do hae soo. i don't quite like her acting, but the rest are good. even the kid in this drama plays really cute. 

what i don't like:

- there are some things unexplained, like why the one that got hit survived and the one that hit the other was in coma. and why did baek hee song father need to put up a good family act while his son got into accident? that's not a bad thing right? 

- cha ji won's makeup is too much for a police officer. how come she never tied her hair in crime scenes? 

- i think pushing the ending to be happy ending is a bit too much. though seeing them getting back together would be good for their daughter, but pushing all the memories at the end of the last episode is a bit too much for my taste. 

rating: 8/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: lee seung gi's fans, those who like twisted crime mystery story with a bit melodrama mixed in it.

stranger 2

the first season of stranger got me curious every episodes. there's twist and turn all along the first season. but it ended with a bitter ending for hwang si mok, the main cast. somehow i'm used to "the good ones will triumph" kind-of-story, so watching how the righteous got transferred instead of getting promoted, it irritates me. anyway, i'm curious what the second season will bring. will it be as exciting as the first one? 

title: stranger 2

cast: cho seung woo (hwang si mok), bae doona (han yeo jin), lee joon hyuk (seo dong jae), jeon hye jin (choi bit), choi moo sung (woo tae ha)

genre: crime thriller mystery, police story, a bit political

ever since the corruption in the public prosecutor department made public, people started to lose faith in justice system. and the tension between the police department and prosecutor's office didn't help either. they were fighting over the right of investigative. both department leaked other side's weakness to the media, making the feud more nasty. especially after the chief of intelligence (police department) were accused to leak confidential data. people were getting more confused, which one is more corrupt, the police department or the public prosecutor department.

then came hwang si mok again. he was supposed to be transferred again to another small office when he came across a drowning incident. two teen boys drowned at the beach when there was thick fog everywhere. the warning line was cut but since the only witness claimed that he was drunk, he didn't give any help. however, somehow yeo jin found out that there was another couple at the same beach before the boys and the couple was the one who cut the warning line, took pictures and posted it online before deleting it after realizing that the boys who got drowned died. it all seemed to be a simple case, but somehow, the main prosecutor office dismissed the case only after 3 days. apparently, the couple was pretty rich and they hired an ex-judge to be their attorney. si mok thought that this was a special-treat case, filed a complaint that led him back into a mess and got his transfer suspended.

turned out his complaint got back to the main office and at that time, they were supposed to choose people that will represent the prosecutor department in joint committee between the police department and the prosecutor department to discuss the investigative rights. his name got aired once again and chief woo tae ha thought he was a good choice to become a member in the committee, so instead of transferring to another small office, he got transferred to supreme prosecutor office. 

meanwhile, chief choi bit (chief of reformation unit, yeo jin's supervisor) used the drowning case to make the public see that the prosecutor office didn't worth to gain the investigative rights. and seo dong jae (yep, he appeared again, as annoying as before) made a move to chief woo, telling him that he had some dirt on chief choi bit with the hope of getting promoted, and a bit irked when he found out that si mok once again got promoted instead of him. but chief woo put them on the same team, unofficially, to investigate the segok case, where there was a police officer got reported to have suicide while it could be homicide and the police department seemed to cover it up. they wanted to use the case to turn the table against the police department, but choi bit ordered yeo jin to investigate it as well and once again, si mok met yeo jin. 

on the side, there was hanjo again. yeon jae (former chief prosecutor's wife) tried to secure her place as her brother, sung jae, has been rising to take over the company. she hired the former ex judge who helped the rich couple to get away as one of her legal team. meanwhile, there was an uproar regarding assemblyman that's accused of corruption and it involved both departments. the prosecutor office was accused of dismissing the case that involving assemblyman's son while the police department accused of turning blind eyes since the assemblyman's son had several other cases but everything was dismissed. at this point, chief woo was clearly had connection with assemblyman, as well as chief choi bit. so i don't know which one is dirty at this point, or probably them both?

things got bad when dong jae got kidnapped. they thought the former police officers in the segok case was behind the kidnapping, but they were all cleared. later they found that dong jae submitted another case files to chief woo, a case about a dead lawyer in the middle of the road and the autopsy stated that he died because of cardiac arrest. but dong jae found out that the lawyer couldn't drink any alcohol, but there was alcohol traces found in his body. naturally, both si mok and yeo jin followed this new evidence. and they found out that both chief woo and chief choi bit as well as the former chief of intelligence were all involved in this case. and hanjo too, but at that time, both yeo jin and si mok hadn't found out about this one. on the side, yeon jae tried to cover hanjo's involvement in that case and she commented that only dong jae knew the truth. so who really kidnapped dong jae? 

again, there was another shocking turn as the one that kidnapped dong jae was someone else, someone that i never thought at first. but as the drama goes on, it became clear about why this person kidnapped dong jae. luckily, they found dong jae alive, but in bad condition. at the end of the series, we saw dong jae recovering and was about to give testimony about the dead lawyer's case. the kidnapper got arrested, both chief woo and chief choi bit had to pay for their dark past. even the current chief prosecutor. he was forced to resign as he was tied to hanjo again. 

yeo jin was promoted to the intelligence bureau and not transferred back to her former station, other police officers were mean to her before her future boss appeared and it was kim won hae (appeared in bong soon, signal and while you were sleeping as well) and he treated her well, so other police officers probably will follow suit. but that's not the case with si mok. though once again he managed to reveal the corruption in both department, he got transferred again to remote areas. oh well.. another open ending is giving us hope that there's a possibility of third season.

what i like:

- again, solid acting skills from all the casts. this time there were more well known casts in the series. 

- all clothing and makeup were suitable to the story. no flashy outfit or makeups as this is pretty serious drama. 

- twist and turn that keep you guessing, which one is right, which one is wrong, and how it would end.

cons:     

- why si mok had to suffer again? why not let him win a little? oh well...

- in this series, i started to feel that hanjo's involvement is a bit forced. but it's necessary if you see it until the end. 

- this time there's questions about the whole story. especially the segok case. the investigation of the suicide officer got interrupted with dong jae's kidnapping case. i still think it's weird that the captain said that he didn't know about the other's involvement in continuing the bribe while he was the one that suggested it in the first place. 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: those who watched the first season and love it. anyone that likes crime murder mystery or police story and doesn't mind watching a drama without any romantic scene. 

stranger

before watching signal, i started my korean crime drama series by watching strange. i saw my junior from medical school days getting excited about the upcoming stranger 2 in netflix. obviously i got interested as she had a good taste in movies. and turned out she was right. it was good. i had to wait until the second season is finished before continue watching the second season. although i never saw any of the casts before, aside from yoo jae myung, turned out they were good.

title: stranger

cast: cho seung woo, bae doona, lee joon hyuk, shin hye sun, yoo jae myung

genre: crime drama mystery, police story, politic-related drama

hwang si mok (cho seung woo) is a young, righteous prosecutor that had a medical history of hypersensitivity that lead him to undergo a corrective surgery while he was still a young kid. unfortunately, the surgery had a side effect. he lost his sense of empathy and lack of social skill. growing up, he managed to hide his condition while doing good in his job. working as prosecutor makes him prone to bribe but he managed to dodge all the bribes. but one time, he got introduced to a man by seo dong jae (lee joon hyuk) and later that man was found dead in his home by si mok because he had an appointment with that man.

because of that homicide case, he met with han yeo jin (bae doona), a police officer who was pissed at him at first, but amazed by his investigative skill, thus the two got closer even though the public prosecutor department and the police department was a bit tense at that time. when the police department found a clue about the culprit, suddenly the case went so smooth, that si mok became suspicious. his superior (yoo jae myung) also told him to close the case which got him even more curious. unfortunately, they had no other evidence, so they just investigated it quietly. 

then suddenly si mok's superior got promoted to chief prosecutor. many people commented that it was thanks to his father in law who was a well known businessman. but he made a stir after a news about a possible corruption in public prosecutor department broke out. he decided to form a special unit to bring anyone that's proven to be corrupt, whether it's the police or the prosecutor. and here si mok met with yeo jin again, together with eun soo (a young prosecutor that got backlash after people found out that the culprit that the police caught in the first homicide case was falsely accused and killed himself later) and yoon se won (another prosecutor that was seemed neutral at first).

together they made a stir both in the police department and public prosecutor department. they didn't know who's to believe because everyone seemed to be angry at them. the chief prosecutor then resigned from his position only to get another promotion at the blue house. seo dong jae then followed his mentor to the blue house because he made a trade with si mok to become an ear in the blue house as he knew that si mok was suspected their superior to be corrupt as well. their investigation somehow got related to the first homicide, so they were back investigating the same case again, only this time, following evidence of corruption. 

as the story goes on, we also find out that eun soo's father was a prime minister that was accused of corruption but his father denied that and even the bribe money that was found in their house as evidence later disappeared. later all the evidence pointed to former chief prosecutor's father in law as the man behind it all. but he was so powerful and so many people were backing him so si mok's team even got disbanded at first. shockingly, they found out the killer from the first homicide accidentally, and it was someone close to their teams! talking about surprise. another surprise was eun soo then got killed and it gave si mok a bit evidence to chase former chief prosecutor's father in law, then with another sudden turn, the chief prosecutor was the one behind all the crumbs that was left for si mok to find. unfortunately, he knew that he was involved in the same corruption case as his father in law, and he decided to take his own life rather than spending time in jail. sadly, though si mok finally caught the real killer and even made light all the corruption in the police department and public prosecutor department, he was considered as someone that betrayed their own, so he was transferred to a small public prosecutor department outside seoul. 

what i like:

- all casts were good, even the supporting ones. no wonder since mostly i've seen them in other drama.

- clothing and makeup were matched with the job. no flashy outfit and makeup for the police officers and prosecutors. both yeo jin and eun soo didn't seem to wear a lot of makeup, which is good since they were busy at their work.

- no plot hole. everything is explained well in the drama. the reason behind chief prosecutor got si mok to investigate the corruption case, to the culprit behind the first homicide.

cons:

- i was curious, which one does si mok like? eun soo or yeo jin? he seemed close and comfortable with yeo jin, especially after she found out about his condition. but he was pretty shocked after eun soo's death and even beat himself for not protecting eun soo. sometimes i hate that si mok couldn't express his emotion and the actor did good in portraying emotion-less si mok.

- since this drama also tells story about corruption, it's sad to see how even in other countries there's corruption in police department as well as justice department. and that the right one got demoted at the end even though he's the one that's right. somehow i wish si mok got promotion instead of being transferred. oh well.. but it leads to another season, so i'm not complaining much.

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: action thriller seeker, murder mystery lover, don't mind a drama that doesn't have pretty face casts. 

it's okay not to be okay

even before this drama was finished, people were crazy about this. no wonder because this is the first full drama that kim soo hyun would be playing after leaving military service. he did a cameo in "crash landing on you", but people want more of him, so that's why this drama was soooo hype. i obviously waited until it was almost two episodes left before started watching it, because i'm not good at waiting. and i'm glad i waited. it was worth to watch it marathon. 

title: it's okay not to be okay

cast: kim soo hyun (moon gang tae), seo ye ji (go moon young), oh jung se (moon sang tae), and many more

genre: melodrama, psychological drama

go moon young (seo ye ji) is a famous children's book writer but she has antisocial disorder that she has kept secret for years, that's why she can't express any emotion or feel any emotion. then there's moon gang tae (kim soo hyun). a psychiatric ward nurse that is super competent in his job but he has to move almost yearly because of his autistic brother. he has to care for his brother and all his patients with love and care, while he, himself, didn't get enough love from his childhood. moon sang tae (oh jung se) is gang tae's older brother that has highly functional autistic syndrome. he loves art and was fans of moon young, but he had nightmares about butterfly that had connection with their mothers' death. apparently, sang tae was the only witness of their mother's murder. coincidentally, moon young met gang tae, and since she saw him, she was interested in him and didn't want to let him go. that's why she followed him back to their hometown (apparently, they were both had the same hometown) even though she had bad memories about their hometown.

moon young apparently also has an antisocial disorder mother, so she never received any love from her mother. her father even tried to kill her mother. she was still young girl, so she thought her mother was died, but apparently her mother was disappeared and managed to stay alive and then changed her face and came back into her life and even threaten moon young, gang tae and sang tae. her father also tried to kill her since he was afraid that moon young would grow up to be like her mother, that's why she abandoned him in psychiatric hospital where gang tae moved into.

gang tae always tries to look tough, but deep inside he was craving for love. growing up, their mother always put sang tae first due to his condition and always demanded gang tae to keep his brother safe. due to sang tae's nightmare, they had to move everytime sang tae had the same nightmares. funnily, he has this one friend that keep moving with them and loyally help gang tae to take care of sang tae. after meeting moon young, he decided to open up more and later, she managed to change him almost completely.

while sang tae is a highly functional autistic that has good sense of art. somehow he likes moon young's book a lot and adores her. but when he found out that moon young loves gang tae and vice versa, he didn't want them to get together at first because he was afraid that gang tae would leave him alone. especially when he remembered that back in their childhood day, gang tae has once tried to leave him almost drown in a frozen lake, but later gang tae helped him and even left gang tae while gang tae tried to save himself after managing to help sang tae out of the frozen lake. this was when young gang tae met young moon young. moon young helped gang tae out of the lake, and somehow young gang tae had a crush on young moon young. but scary moon young's mom managed to scare gang tae off. but that's not the only reason. later they'd find out that moon young's mom had a part in gang tae's mom murder.

if you're into psychiatry or psychology, this is a good film to watch as in earlier episodes you will see the story of the patients in the hospital. they would suffer all kinds of psychiatry disease because of a reason. like the bipolar man, he was considered dumb in his family, thus he never felt love and that leads to his condition. and also a depression mom that saw her daughter got killed in accident in front of her eyes. and also how an abusive mom can make a little girl to have a split personality disorder. this is really a good drama to watch so we can get more insight about psychiatry or psychology condition and how to avoid it. especially in terms of child abuse. it seems normal for a mom to scold her child. but we never think that it could cause problem to the kids mentally. 

what i like:

- super acting skill from all the casts. even moon young's manager was the hospital director in "doctor romantic 2" and i would have no idea if i didn't see an information about him in some ig account that i stumbled into. and oh jung se. i was just finishing watching "when the camellia blooms", so i was shocked watching him changing style so quickly. witty and afraid of his wife in camellia, and brilliantly acting autistic in this drama.

- all the cast clothing/style was put together with great consideration. like gang tae always wear ordinary clothes like t shirt and jeans because he was always put in number 2 after sang tae, so growing up he tend to put others first and didn't think much about clothing. and he was tight in money because they keep moving, so no nice clothes. while sang tae was autistic so he wore striped shirt a lot. autistic people love repeated pattern, that's why stripes shirt. while moon young is famous in young age. she was egoistic and she had the money, so they dressed her super stylish and extravaganza. 

- i don't think there's any plot hole. everything is answered. though there would be questions about how moon young's mom managed to get away after being thrown away into the lake and still being alive. then how could she find the money to get plastic surgery and then get her nursing degree? 

- this drama offers something new. though basically this is a love story, but with those psychiatric stories, this drama clearly offers something new, something that people don't usually talk about. however, it's a bit troublesome that moon young's book is considered children book since her stories were quite dark.

cons:

- some scary horror scenes. gee... i always watch drama late at nights, so i hate to see jumpy scary scent at night. 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: all the cast's fans, especially KSH. people who doesn't like typical love story and want something new. don't mind scary scenes, or troubling scenes related to mental disorder. don't mind watching how small seo ye ji's waist is and how gorgeous they styled her in the drama.  

signal

i was just finishing stranger and then obviously netflix would give me more criminal mystery/police story in my recommendation list, so i watched signal next. and let me tell you, if you're not into romantic comedy, then you should try watching this and stranger first. 

title: signal

cast: lee ji hoon (park hae young), kim hye soo (cha soo hyeon), choi jin woong (lee jae han) and many more

genre: criminal mystery/ police story

a criminal profiler (park hae young) was a cynical police officer who lived in 2015. though he was a police officer, being a witness to a kidnapping case that turned into murder case then cold case and his own brother was wrongly accused by the cop, made him think that most cops were corrupt. the kidnapping case that he witnessed was about to reach its limitation date when he found an abandoned walkie talkie that was suddenly turned on and he could talk to another police officer on the other side. later he found out that he was talking to a detective from 15 years ago, lee jae han (choi jin woong). with some clues provided from the past, he was able to solve the kidnapping case and caught the kidnapper just before the limitation date of other crimes that was connected with the kidnapping case. 

because of this success, the police department decided to form a cold case team, led by detective cha soo hyeon (kim hye soo). secretly, she's been searching for her mentor/love crush, detective lee jae han. she didn't know about the walkie talkie at first, but after working together and there were some incident which couldn't be explained without telling the story about the walkie talkie, she found out about it. 

lee jae han himself was a quiet but hard working detective that was good at his work, but he stumbled upon some corrupt police officers and somehow it led to his disappearance. back when hae young just solved the kidnapping case, he heard gunshot sound from the other side, and in 1989, lee jae han was vanished. up until 2015. when the walkie talkie came alive second time, park hae young was talking to lee jae han from several years before, and he had no idea about hae young. together, they solved serial murder case that was inspired by true story, the hwaseong serial murders.

both of them worked back and forth through time. sometimes it worked, but sometimes they messed the timeline so they had to undo the future by making a different move in the past. but the main mystery was why jae han was targeted and then accused for being corrupt cop. both soo hyeon and hae young tried to solve hae young's brother case because they found jae han's note that it was his last case before he disappeared. they found out that jae han found a corrupt team inside the police department, involving his own team captain and an assemblyman from the past. the assemblyman is still alive in 2015, so both hae young and soo hyeon had to work against the assemblyman's men secretly. however, the ending is not conclusive, so many hopes that they will making the second season of this drama.

what i like:

- this is a good solid story. though it involves two different times, there's no hole in the storyline. the concept of changing the past also changing the future is seen in this drama. so there's no confusion why the future is changing and keep moving in the story.

- all the actors and actresses were good. solid performance from all the casts. though you'd see repeating faces like some fellow police officers who i've seen several times in other dramas. they also did a good job in styling the characters. no flashy outfits for the police officers and detectives, even the makeup is minimal (you'd notice the difference between this drama and bong soon. in bong soon, you'd see that min hyuk is definitely wearing base makeup, even ji soo). even when they're telling story from the past, they were carefully use landline phone and flashlights, and all clothing were from the past style. like what my mom used to wear back in the day. 

what i don't like: 

- an open ending. though it might be a good thing as it might open the possibility of continuing this drama into second season.

- typical "powerful people always win" type of story. but mixing it with time-travelling walkie talkie that connects two different times are good. it gives another vibe to the drama, but still not overly ridiculous. 

rating: 10/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: someone who likes criminal mystery story with a bit mix of fantasy/different time zone mode. doesn't mind a drama that didn't have beautiful actor/actress as its main casts. 

hospital playlist

as a doctor myself, i might be bias toward medical drama. somehow, whenever there's a new medical drama, i tend to watch it, though there are some western medical drama that i don't watch, but i think for korean drama, i watch most of them, especially if they're available on netflix. and the newest one is hospital playlist. i've seen some trailers and people who watch them while still ongoing, talked about it and praised it, so obviously i'm curious. but i'm not patience enough to watch it ongoing, so i waited until it was two episodes left, but i still had to wait for those two because apparently, this one is binge worthy. one factor why this drama is so highly raved by people even before it was aired was it came from the same director as the famous reply series as well as prison playbook. all dramas directed by this director were good that people keep recommending them. so let's see about this one.

 

 

title: hospital playlist

cast: jo jung suk, yoo yeon seok, jung kyung ho, jeon mi do, kim dae myung

genre: medical drama, life series? (i don't know how to classify this style of drama, hahaha)

this is a drama about 5 doctors that have been in friendship for more than 10 years since their medical school years. though at first they worked at separate hospitals, they came together and worked in the same hospital thanks to ahn jung won (yoo yeon seok). for the first two episodes, i was confused because of there are five main casts to be remember. and there were additional players. while for usual drama, the mains are only two or three and then several additional players. so if you are not used to watching a drama with lots of players, then you might get confused. but bear with it, it's worth it.

it started with ahn jung won. a pediatric surgeon who always wants to be a catholic priest. and in the first episode, the director of the hospital was sick and then passed away. at first they made it like there would be a fight for the crown, but apparently, we were wrong. they found out that jung won is the last son of the late director and both his brothers are priests, and both his sisters are nuns. so his mom does whatever she can to prevent him being a priest too. after his father's death, he found out that the VIP room costs a lot, so he decided to round up his friends to work as the VIP doctors. but, not all of them were agree. but he managed it anyway, and voila.. they worked together now and would practice in a band together. oh, he was the drummer and also sang. he kept a little secret from his friends that he was the daddy long legs in the daddy long legs program that helped people who didn't have enough money to pay for their treatment cost.  

then there's lee ik joon (jo jung suk). he's a general surgeon/ gastrointestinal surgeon. he was in a long distance marriage with a cute little son, but in the first two episodes, we found out that he became a single dad to his son. you would see the antiques of ik joon for being funny and lovable while still being brilliant in his work. not to mention his skill in music for being lead singer and guitarist on their band. later you'd found out that ik joon helped the only resident in the general surgery to get close to jung won. as the story went on, we found out that ik joon had a little sister that jun wan fallen in love with,  and ik joon himself had a long crush with song hwa, but he managed to keep it quiet until now. unfortunately, though ik joon finally confessed his feeling to song hwa, we didn't get to see her reply in season 1. hopefully ik joon's love story will unfold in season 2.

kim jun wan (jung kyung ho) is a cardiothoracic surgeon. he might seems cold at first, and a bit cruel, but later you'd find out that he was really care about his patients. he might not go high and low like jung won did, but he cared about them. he went to his patients' daughter wedding party and he was super anxious when his one of his patient finally got a transplant donor that he was worried he had fever that would cancel the surgery. he was also hard on his resident, but later we found out that he took care of his resident as well. at first he seemed to have bad luck on the romance department, partly because he had a bad taste in girlfriend. but later we found out that jun wan fell in love with ik joon's little sister and it was hilarious seeing him hide their relationship from ik woon. unfortunately, they were in long distance relationship at the end of first season, and things looked worrisome between them so, i do hope they have a good story in the second season. probably finally admitting their relationship to ik joon for a start? oh and by the way, he played guitar and sing a little too. i guess having an idol star girlfriend could come in handy..

then there's chae song hwa (jeon mi do), the only woman in the main cast. she is a neurosurgeon and a pretty good one. all of her colleagues pictured her as the perfect person, if there's one. she was punctual, great on her job, she was kind to her residents too. she had this thing about camping. it was quite funny seeing how she didn't buy a new shoes and keep using the same one for years even though it was a bit torn out, but she bought new camping stuffs though she never managed to go camping the whole weekend. however, she had big appetite and it was funny to see her compete with jun wan over food. and ik jun had her say a spell so she didn't get crazy over food. the only flaw about her was she couldn't sing, but they had to put her as lead singer on their band so she would sign to be one of the VIP's doctors. she also played the bass in the band. sounds so cool, right? unfortunately, as like any other love story, problem will arise from having only one girl in the group. we knew that ik joon was secretly liked her, but apparently, back in their college days, seok hyung was the one that confess his love for her the first time. even their friends didn't know about it until the current hospital director asked them on the first episode at jung wan's father's funeral. which shocked everyone, of course. oh well, i do hope things would go well between ik joon and song hwa though, as seok hyung has already decided to give up his feeling toward song hwa.

last one is yang seok hyung (kim dae myung). he's the only one that doesn't work in the surgery department. he is an obstetrician/gynaecologist. he was pictured as the odd one. he was very quiet, kept to himself, and he avoided the crowd. though at first people thought that jung won was rich because his dad was the former hospital director, but later we knew that he gave his almost all his money away in his daddy long legs program. so, their friends were shock when they found out that seok hyung was rich too. his dad was a CEO in some company, and he had a mistress, that's why his mom fell sick and after seok hyung was divorced, he lived together with his mom. he was a divorcee too, but he was already been divorced since first episode, but we didn't know why. but don't worry, at the end, he would probably had his love life get more explored in the second season because at the last episode, his ex-wife suddenly called him out of the blue, while he also just found out that his resident had a crush on him, but he told her to find someone else. but apparently the girl won't listen. anyway, as doctor, his patient also found him odd, but there's one scene that i like. when his patient found out that her baby has died in her womb and cried uncontrollably, seok hyung patiently waited for his patient to let out her emotion, and respected her time. he just waited, and somehow i think it consoles his patient though he didn't say anything. and all the other patients outside, though they were informed that the waiting time would be longer, they didn't complain (well, one of them did, but his wife told him to shut up), because they knew what kind of grief she was into. this is really beautiful, because here, the line in the OG department was crazy. almost every OG doctors have long lines of patients. and to make other people wait like that was an impossible thing to do, that's why people always see doctors as money making machine, and not someone that has compassion and empathy. doctors were rushed to see patient after patient and not given enough time to care more for their patient. by the way, seok hyung played the keyboard and sometimes sang too.

what i like:

- this drama truly pictures life of doctors. from their busy time, juggling between work, family and hobby. and also how works can get in the way in their relationship. and how exhausting it is to be a resident. there's a scene where song hwa's resident got lost track of time until he didn't know that it was morning already since he was always inside the hospital building and didn't see the sun at all. it was real. i was like that too back when i was a young doctor. we only remembered our night duty day and off day. and though all the main casts were good doctors, we can't deny that there are doctors who work for money like jun wan's colleague, or for publicity like song hwa's colleague. so this drama really pictured doctors' life.

- no antagonist. this is a life drama. whatever problems arise, it's natural to happen in day to day life, and not because it is in a drama. like seok hyung's resident when her partner was suddenly disappear, she was exhausted because she had to be in night duty almost every night. she was exhausted of course, but when her partner reappeared, she had mix feeling, between angry or relieve. and it's natural, and it does happen in real life.

- how all the main cast have almost enough screen time even though there are five of them, so we know them all proportionally.

- one drama with two outcome. not only the drama, but we also got a music band too. if you go to youtube, you could find them playing all their songs (only the ones that was played by the band, mido and falasol) live.

what i don't like:

- well, i don't have any problem with this drama, but probably some people might get bored because the drama has a bit slower storyline. but i don't mind. i enjoy the drama as it reminiscence of my old days.

rating: 10/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: people who likes medical drama, who doesn't mind slower storyline. this has a mix of a bit romance, but just a little bit. some laugh too thanks to jun wan and ik joon. if you decided to watch this drama, tell me which one do you root for, which one is your favorite. i bet many people adore ik joon, but he's a bit too flashy for me. somehow i'm rooting for jung wan. i'm hoping his relationship goes okay. and i want to see more of seok hyung too.