I adored this drama. I thought it was so cute and it never failed to make me smile. It is the Seinfeld of
rom-coms. Nothing really happened, there were no evil mothers, long
lost loves coming back, nor amnesia, and yet the characters were able
to grow and develop and become complete and beautiful people at the end.
Having given myself a week so as to not gush all over this drama, I
can honestly say that I still feel like gushing. From beginning to end
it was one of my favorite dramas, it might even replace one of my top four or maybe I’ll just bend to the masses and make it a top five. Now,
I’m not blind to the shortcomings of the drama, but I loved this drama
so much I am able to gloss over the shortcomings like the ones I talk
about here, and the lack of romantic scenes. Now the lack of romantic
scenes is one of my personal gripes with kdramas but I’ll leave that for
another post.
For those who haven’t watched, you could go do that now, or for those
who haven’t made it to the finale, I must warn you there will be
spoilers.
The drama starts with what I think is one of the cutest openings I’ve
seen. We see our main female lead Go Dok Mi waking up from where she
had been asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor and then we see her spy
on her neighbor across the way and imitate his daily routine in a
completely cute, stalkery, creepy way.
Go Dok Mi is a modern day Rapunzel, she, however, is locked up in her tower by choice. She doesn't like to venture out into the outside world and wants to have a little interaction with others as humanly possible. Her little world is her apartment, the travel shows she watches on t.v., and the neighbor she spies on with her funky yellow binoculars. This little world is about to be turned upside down by the arrival of our male lead Enrique Geum.
Enrique is a game designer who is ruled by his inner child. He's as happy go lucky as it comes, talking a mile a minute, always smiling, and enjoying life or the polar opposite of Go Dok Mi. He arrives from Spain to play "cupid," and along the way he stumbles upon Dok Mi and decides that it is his responsibility to make sure she goes out and starts experiencing the real world. He may not have sequestered himself inside an apartment, but Enrique is just as lonely as Dok Mi except he hides it under a layer of laughter and words. The third side of our love triangle is Jin Rak. I have to admit that at first I wanted Dok Mi to end up with him because they are so similar, but as time went by I realized that with Jin Rak Dok Mi would never grow as a person. Where Enrique wants Dok Mi to go out and experience the real world, Jin Rak is content to have her continue to live in her own world; he just wants to be able to step into it with her. Which seems ahhh, how romantic, but really is just fear that holds him back and would hold her back as well.
I truthfully really did enjoy this drama I didn't fast forward through any of if which is nothing short of miraculous. I think the whole drama had a very mellow feel to it. It wasn't exciting or edge of your seat worry about what would happen next, and to me that was the beauty of it. I didn't have to worry about a big misunderstanding breaking up the main couple because believe it or not these characters actually talked to each other. There were no ungrounded accusations flying, no crying over hurt feelings and refusing to communicate clearly people said what they were thinking and what they felt, with the exception of Do Hwi, and that was a breath of fresh air. This drama was extremely entertaining, as I've come to expect from TVN. It was heartfelt with well rounded characters that drove the story forward without the contrived issues that other dramas throw at their main couple. And most importantly, this drama provided the mostly entertaining secondary pairing ever.
*Disclaimer: My view of this drama may be slightly skewed due to my long standing infatuation with Park Shin Hye and my new found gay girl crush on Yoon Shi Yoon.
They're adorable, right??
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I love all dramas equally, well
that was all right lie because truth be told I love Flower Boy Next Door(FBND)
more than all the rest. At the time I wrote that post, this one, I
already had twinges of favoritism toward FBND, but I tried to ignore it
because I was afraid of being disappointed. But now that the drama is
over, I can honestly say that I was not disappointed and I enjoyed every
single one of the sixteen episodes. They each added to the overall
drama and showcased the growth of the characters. Now, I’m not say that
this was the perfect drama, came close though, but it was a damn good
one. There being no such thing as perfect FBND did have a couple of flaws.
Such as Do Hwi, the whole issue with who the owner of the building was,
and the stalker panda hat girl/fanclub losers.
I never really gave a rat's ass about the whole building issue or who the owner was. I must admit that I kinda thought it was the security guard because he was just a little too involved in the what happened in the building with the demonstration and what not. I think I would have preferred if they fleshed out the relationship between the security guard and the older lady rather than spend any time with the mystery of the owner.
Although, I do see the importance of having Do Hwi as a character, she is the key to explaining why Dok Mi hides herself away, I think the last we should of seen of her is when she tried to hurt Dok Mi by inviting the scumbag teacher to her party. Since then she's just been wasting airtime that could have been taken up by one of my favorite side characters, Kim Seul-gi the webtoon editor.
The other waste of time and space was the whole panda hat girl stalker, fan club idiots. They truly served no purpose other than to give me a minute to go refill my water bottle. They just were not needed. I was kinda okay with the older stalker lady mostly because that developed into something that kinda sorta dealt with Enrique's work the game addiction angle, but the panda hat girl should have maybe had one appearance and that is stretching it. It was just not needed. Dok Mi had enough issues with Enrique leaving or even being able to ask him to stay without added the outside interference.
I feel about Korean dramas much the same way a mother feels about her children. I love them all equally, but definitely have my favorites. There’s the first born, the misunderstood rebel, the youngest, and of course the one that breaks your heart. If you have never watched a Korean drama, I suggest any of the following four. Each and everyone of these dramas will get you addicted for different reasons. They each tell a story ranging from first love, to love that can transcend any obstacle, and to love of best friends. The following are my current personal favorites. The might change as I watch more dramas but this is a good starting point for anyone to enjoy something a wee bit different that what is currently offered on American television.
No, these dramas are not ordered in favorite to least since I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, rather they are in the order in which I watched them. Be warned, there will be spoilers.
Boys Over Flowers(2009)
Truth be told Boys Over Flowers, a remake of Japanese Hana Yori Dango, will always be in my top five list for the very simple reason that it was my first. Like first love I find it very difficult to let go of these one. I probably will never rewatch it but the memory of that first weekend is still strong. The story revolves around Geum Jan Di a poor girl that gets a scholarship to attend ShinHwa School, a school that is home to the richest of the rich and the richest of these are the F4(flower 4). She, of course, is the only student to go up against this group of rich bullies. The two most important members of F4 are Goo Jun Pyo, played by a curly haired Lee Min Ho, and Yoon Ji Hoo, played by the beautiful Kim Hyun Joong. Geum Jan Di crushes on one but eventually falls in love with the other, you know the one that acted like an ass and treated her like a possession rather than a person. Boys Over Flowers wasn’t only my first drama it was also my first time experiences second lead syndrome but more on that later. This drama is cute and sweet and for a first timer exactly what was needed. It delved into a majority of the Kdrama tropes. Poor girl rich guy, unrequited love, amnesia, among many more. And beyond the main story arc it also has a subplot dealing with Geum Jan Di’s best friend and another of the F4 So Yi Jung, played by oh so got Kim Bum, which is just heartwarming. For a long time this was the drama I would recommend to people to get them interested in Korean dramas because even with its flaws it still has some really good eye candy and a firm albeit predictable plot. My Lovely Sam-Soon(My Name is Kim San-Soon)(2005)
There is absolutely nothing in this drama that should make it a standout. The plot is the same as countless other dramas, the cast isn’t uber beautiful, and for the most part the scenery is pretty meh. And yet, this drama comes together perfectly. There is not one thing that you can point at and say yep, that’s exactly why this is good. The whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. The chemistry between the actors, the dialogue, the intensity of the drama just makes you forget that you aren’t watch anything new. The story revolves around Kim Sam-Soon a rather average looking female, in fact in the show she is considered chubby and is subconscious of her stomach when trying to have some sexy time with the male lead. Sam-Soon is a pastry chef that lands a job at an up-scale restaurant run by younger man Hyun Jin-heon, played by, he gets a lot hotter as he ages, Hyun Bin. The first few minutes of the first episode took a few tries to get through, but I am so glad I did. What followed was a solid story about two very different people coming together without sacrificing what is important to them. In many dramas the lead heroine starts off strong and spunky and then fizzles when she confesses her love, but with Sam-Soon you get a heroine that starts off strong and spunky and never lets that go, she becomes stronger because of the love she found and that in itself is rather refreshing. The First Shop of Coffee Prince(2007)
I love everything about this drama. The main characters, the supporting cast, the story, everything about this drama works. The story is the most common out there boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy refuses to acknowledge said love until he can’t fight it any more and it all cumulates in a beautiful kiss except through all of this boy thinks he has fallen in love with another boy. Choi Han-kyul, played by Gong Yoo, is the playboy son of a rich family which has decided that he needs to marry, and to make this happen they start setting him up on numerous blind dates. Han-kyul really doesn’t want to get married so he hires tomboy Ko Eun-chan, played by Yoon Eun-hye, thinking she is actually a boy, to pretend to be his boyfriend and break up his dates. Eun-chan needs the money so never tells Han-kyul that she is well a she. Eun-chan then starts working at Han-kyul’s coffee shop, which only hires young men(princes), she continues to play the part of a male. Slowly the two start to get closer and closer and feelings start to develop from both of them. You see Han-kyul struggle with his increasing attraction to another man. He fights it until he can’t any longer deciding that love transcends even sexuality. His acceptance of his feelings explode in one of the best Kdrama kisses of all time called through out the web as the “alien kiss.”
It’s after this kiss that everything comes to light and you the two leads try to get over such a huge lie. Beyond the main story, you also a wonderful supporting cast that gives the story depth and makes this drama very well worth the watch.
Shut up Flower Boy Band(2012)
This is the second drama in TVN’s “Oh Boy” series, following Flower Boy Raymun Shop, which casts a slew of young, very attractive actors to lead the dramas. And the actors in this drama are nothing short of Eye Candy, which just happens to be the name of the band they are all a part of. This drama centers around these five friends which after the tragic loss of their lead singer, Joo Byung-hee played beautifully poignant by Lee Min-ki, need to find a way to stay together and honor the memory of their lost friend. Sure, there’s the rivalry between them and the other band at the school they attend. It’s the fight between the two side of the tracks. The boys of Eye Candy all come from meager backgrounds and all they have going for them is their friendship. This drama is about friendship, laced with some of the best music to ever grace a kdrama. It is unlike any other drama I have ever watched. It is gritty and beautiful, it heartbreaking and spirit lifting. This drama is a glimpse into the lives of these young men, and that glimpse is enough to make you fall in love with them, to wish them all the best, to want to comfort them when things fall apart, to want to cry alongside them when they lose their friend, and to celebrate with them when they realize that regardless of where life takes you their friendship endures and strengthens each of them. Here's a fan made trailer.
