2015 Year in Review

2015 Year in Review – Korean Dramas

First post of 2016, and it will be a look back at the dramas I have watched this past year. Most of these were released prior to 2015, but like I do with most things in life I procrastinate my Kdrama watching, it's part of my charm. I watched most of these dramas in the first quarter of the year and then I took a very, very long break before I started up again when Oh, My Venus, starring Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub, started in mid November. Apparently, my girl crush on Shin Min Ah is alive and strong and I must of missed how incredibly sexy So Ji Sub was when I watched Master's Sun because damn that boy man is all kinds of steamy.

I watched twenty-one dramas in 2015 not counting the two web dramas I threw in there just for shits and giggles. Seventeen of those I watched from January to April, and then my hiatus from Kdramas began. During this time, I watched some American television. Caught up on some old favorites, Teen Wolf and Supernatural, and realized that American shows don't hold the same appeal as Asian dramas. I mean who in the holy hell has 10 years to devote to a show, well almost 12 now with Supernatural. I got so spoiled by dramas that were all neatly told and finished with one season that waiting to see will or won't they just no longer appeals to me. Sure, I'll still catch a show here and there, mostly once they've been canceled, so I can marathon that shit on Netflix, but I'm no longer excited or looking forward to shows that air in the U.S.

So, with a giddy heart I began watching Oh, My Venus, and promptly remembered how much I fucking hate waiting for new episodes. To fill the time between new episodes I watched some dramas that were already finished and easily available, hello Hulu. Starting from the beginning, in 2015 I watched:

1. A Witch's Romance

Cute and entertaining, older woman, younger man. Not too many cliches and a very satisfying ending.

2. Pinocchio

Park Shin Hye finally learned how to kiss. A very enjoyable drama starring one of my all time favorites, and a new one.

3. School 2013

Speaking of new favorites, Lee Jong Suk along with Kim Won Bin make this bromance drama.

4. Healer

This drama was everything I wanted City Hunter to be.

5. Master's Sun

Way better than I thought it was going to be; the only downside is that fact that So Ji Sub doesn't have black here in this one.

6. Full House (Thai)

Dare I say, better than the original.

7. King 2 Hearts

I loved everything about this drama except for the fucking villain. I wish M would go choke on some donkey balls.

8. Heart to Heart

This might just be my favorite drama of 2015. I found the first episode annoying, but it pulls you into the story and by the end you want just one more episode of the two protagonists.

9. It's Okay, That's Love

A drama that dealt with heavy issues without getting weighed down.

10. Good Doctor and 11. Emergency Couple

Two medical dramas, both of which were meh.

12. I Need Romance

A drama so bad that I couldn't make myself watch the next two installments, although they feature completely different casts.

13. Let's Eat

Yummy food and zany characters. I still can't make myself watch the second one.

                                     

14. Marriage Not Dating

Entertaining without ever becoming boring.

15. I Hear Your Voice

Another older woman, younger man drama. There might be hope for me yet.

16. Love Myself or You

The only Taiwanese drama I finished in 2015, although I tend to enjoy them, for some odd reason I have really hard time getting into Taiwanese dramas.

17. Cunning Single Lady (Sly and Single Again)

Regardless of what you call it, this drama was pretty entertaining, but just boring enough that it started my almost nine month break from Asian dramas. So, maybe it wasn't all that entertaining.

And then, came November with the start of Oh, My Venus, and I was hooked again.

18. My Love from Another Star

Why??? Why did I wait so long to watch this wonderful drama. Yeah, it was everyone was fucking saying how wonderful it was and I didn't want to me disappointed, Kill Me, Heal Me.

19. High School; King of Savvy

This would have been an okay drama if it wasn't for the characters. I don't understand why they had to give the main heroine the brain and emotional maturity of an elementary student. She was such a weak ass person I just wanted to slap her.

20. She Was Pretty

She gave me the biggest second lead boner. Seriously, who wouldn't pick Choi Siwon???

21. Oh, My Ghostess

Funny, and romantic and at time suspenseful; this drama was such a great watch.

So, there are the twenty-one dramas I watched in 2015. I also watched Dream Knights featuring GOT7 and EXO Next Door. This were shorter web dramas less than 15 minutes per episode, so like a movie just divided into chapters. I really enjoyed both of those because they were light and fun, and because both GOT7 and EXO are a bunch of cuties. And, I may have become a bit obsessed with So Ji Sub, but look at him. Can you blame me?

White Christmas (2011)

Are monsters born or are they created?

White Christmas, written by Park Yeon-Seon who also wrote the ever so lacking Wild Romance, is a psychological study in trying to answer whether the people society deem as monsters are born already being monsters or if they are created through a series of events in their lives.  It is a different breed of Kdrama, and an exciting one.
The story starts off on Christmas Eve when the school is emptied out save for seven(plus one) students and a teacher who have stayed behind to spend the winter holiday in the school after each of them received a letter with a cryptic message on it.  The letter taunted them about past sins against a fellow student.  

The seven of them are joined by elmo haired Kang Mi Reu or Mad Mi Reu, played by Woo Bin and I'm not kidding about the elmo hair.

 

Doctor Kim ... up to no good.

Doctor Kim Yo Han joins the party after he is involved in a car accident and is forced to seek shelter from the snow at the school.  For the bulk of the drama these nine people are the players in an experiment that sets out to prove everyone has a monster inside them and under the right circumstances we are capable of monstrous actions.  It is a journey that is portrayed beautifully in this drama.  The drama itself looks beautiful from the snow covered landscape, to the school, to the students; the fact that it deals with evil makes the beauty starkly stand out. 
I loved this drama mostly because it was so different than the usual drama that I watch, but also because it had no unnecessary moments.  At eight episodes every episode was important and added to the whole.  The only gripe I had about the drama was the incompetence of the police only the last episode and didn't detract from the overall greatness of the drama. 
Are monster born or are the created?  The drama answers the question, but sometimes the answer isn't the one we want.

First Episode, First Impression: White Christmas

Title: White Christmas (화이트 크리스마스) also known as Monster (몬스터)
Network: KBS2
Episodes: 8
Starring: Kim Sang Kyung, Baek Sung Hyung, Kim Young Kwang, Lee Soo Hyuk, Sung Joon, Kim Woo Bin, Kwak Jung Wook
Aired: Jan. 2011 - March 2011

I've been in what can only be described as a drama slump the last couple of weeks.  In fact, the last Korean drama I watched was two weeks ago which was the first episode of 7th Grade Civil Servant, and since then nothing.  Not the ending to That Winter the Wind Blows not the second half of 49 Days, nothing.  I have watched Great Teacher Onizuka, which is a Japanese drama but even that took me almost three weeks to get through, if you like Japanese dramas, animes, or mangas I recommend GTO in all three of it's incarnations.  I posted over on /kdrama about my problem and I got some really great recommendations to get me out of my slump; most of which I will get to, but the one that jumped out at me was White Christmas.  I had been wanting to watch this drama for a while now, but never really got around to it.  Finally, I'm going to sit down and watch the first episode.

"Prison" there is no way I would stay behind, no matter what.  I've read The Shining; I know how this ends

Just finished the first episode of White Christmas and honestly it took me longer than it should, but that is mostly due to outside distractions.  I'm going to try really ultra hard not to give away any spoilers.  The drama special, since it's only eight episodes, revolves around seven students (plus one) at the elite Susin High School, or "prison" as it is lovingly referred to, who stay behind over Christmas break after getting a letter written on black paper and in a black envelope which reads:

   You tainted me, made me pitiful.
    You made me a monster in the corner.
    You silenced me.
    You ridiculed my false hope.
    You took the only thing I had and put it around your neck.
    I held out my hand and you let go.
    You deleted me from your eyes.
    Finally, you overtook me.
    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
    After 8 days, walk up the path by the zelkova tree.
    Under the clock tower you will see someone dead.
    The night that Jesus was born, I curse you.

No, thank you very much, me and my happy ass would be on the first bus out of dodge if I got a creepy letter that sounded like a bad poem written by an emo kid on LSD.  The first episode does a really great job at introducing the seven students you get to know them a tad as they try to figure out what they all have in common to have gotten the same letter.  As the first episode goes on the questions of whether monsters are born or created is posed, and if they are born should they be punished when they can't help themselves, and if they are created should the people responsible for creating them be held accountable?  And according to all the synopsizes that I read, this will be the central point of the drama.  Just the mere fact that this drama will try to answer such a philosophical question already sets it apart from other Kdramas.

My only slight beef with this first episode is that it makes it obvious that someone isn't who they say they are.  I'm sure this is on purpose; we are supposed to know the "monster" right away, right?  Not the moody one that wrote the torrid poetry, but the one that sneaks into your house at night under the guise of a friendly neighbor.  Cuz seriously that psychiatrist dude sends out creepy vibes like you would not believe.

This first episode piqued my interest enough that I had to force myself not to go ahead and just forge forward with episode two.  It hit all the right notes to engage me into the narrative. So, I will most definitely be watching the rest of this drama not not solely for the Eye Candy.