Rain’s freaking-ly awesome drama.

This stars Rain, Lee Na Young, Daniel Henney, Lee Jung Jin and Yoon Jin Seo.

It just recently ended on KBS2, but is still airing on KBS World.

The drama revolves around Ji Woo (Rain), who is a private detective in Korea, and Jin Yi (Lee Na Young), a heiress to a large fortune but is hunted for it. The two travel around East Asia as they search for the one who has been hunting Jin Yi and killing her family. Do Soo (Lee Jung Jin) and So Ran (Yoon Jin Seo) are with the Police Department hot on the trail of Ji Woo. And Kai (Daniel Henney) is a successful businessman and Jin Yi’s lover, set on protecting her using his own means.

I found the drama terribly good.

Note: TERRIBLY…

Especially the first few episodes where they were forever running. Like, seriously. Dramabeans’ title for the drama is Runaway: Plan B actually. She felt that it was a more literal translation of the drama’s Korean title: 도망자: Plan B / Do Mang Ja: Plan B. And I could definitely feel it. But when looking at the phonetics of the title, it is quite similar to the Chinese title 逃亡者.

Anyways, back to the story. After getting the running, and RUNNING out of the way, the plot got quite interesting.

And well, if you haven’t watch it, I would recommend it, however, don’t expect too much logic in it. Although Rain’s awesome facial expressionS are definitely worth it.

To watch:

With English subtitles, here.

With Chinese subtitles, here.

The Dramawiki post, here.

Also known as 도망자: Plan B / Do Mang Ja: Plan B / Runaway: Plan B / 逃亡者B計畫 / 逃亡者Plan B.

Oh, and several people cameo-ed at the beginning of the drama, namely Lee Da Hae, Oh Ji Ho, Han Jung Soo, Lee Jong Hyuk, Ahn Suk Hwan, who were in the previous drama of the same production team or director, the quite awesome Chuno. MBLAQ cameo-ed as well, and they sang two songs from the Original Sound Track, Running & Running and Bang Bang Bang. Although I can’t actually remember MBLAQ’s cameo, but, well.

Also known as 剑雨.

A movie starring Michelle Yeoh 杨紫琼 , Jung Woo Sung 정우성, Shawn Yue 余文乐, Barbie Hsu 徐熙媛 and Wang Xueqi 王学圻. I guess it can be said that it is an international movie, with actors and actresses from different Asian countries.

A wuxia film set during the Ming dynasty.

This tells of how a top assassin of a gang, Drizzle (Yeoh), tries to live a normal life after a job done. She changes her face and her name to Zeng Jing and moves to a city. There, she earns her living by selling fabric. Soon, she meets Ah Sheng (Jung), a messenger, whom she soon marries. However, he is not really who he says he is.

Wang Xueqi plays leader of the gang, Shawn Yue is another member and Barbie Hsu plays an assassin trained by the leader soon after Drizzle disappeared.

Although there are lots of sword fighting sequences in the movie, it was really quite believable. There were no heavy visual effects as compared to Storm Warriors II, which I must say was a total waste of time. Anyways, this film was enjoyable as there were not too many gory scenes even though it is still a fighting movie. The romance part was simple but nice.

This gave me another reason for my love of Michelle Yeoh. She carried the movie really well, even though she has aged, but she ages gracefully, with poise and style quite evident in the movie.

I am not familiar with Jung Woo Sung, but after I watched this movie, I goggled him and realised that he will be in the upcoming drama Athena: Goddess of War, which I have been waiting for a long time. And so. Can’t wait. He was great in the movie as the simple husband to Zeng Jing, but he harbours a great pain which only got revealed at the peak of the movie.

Barbie Hsu, hmm~ not really a fan of hers, but she has been making splashes recently in movies. She was the main actress in the so popular Meteor Garden which shot her to fame. Her subsequent dramas were quite well received as well actually, her latest was 2010′s Summer’s Desire with Huang Xiao Ming and Peter Ho. But in recent years, she moved on to films. One of them was Connected, with Louise Koo, quite good I must say. And Future X-Cops with Andy Lau, which I haven’t watched yet.

All in all, a really great movie to watch when time stands still for that 120 minutes or so.

The movie is in Mandarin, but on tudou.com, there is both English subtitles and Chinese subtitles, but it is quite small.

To watch: at tudou.com.

Ps: I posted several of the posters, but if you notice, it depends on the country which shows the movie. Say for example, the first, is probably the one that is put up in Malaysia because I can see the Golden Screen Cinemas logo and because Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian so they put her in the middle (Haha~); and the second, probably in China, because almost everyone is shown; and the third is obviously the Korean poster, if the words didn’t give you a clue, Jung Woo Sung definitely did; and the last, I don’t know, maybe China too, or Taiwan.

Oh~ Trailer:

Anyways, Sungkyunkwan Scandal is the drama of the year to watch.

This just finished airing actually, in Korea, but if you have KBS World, then it is still on, the 15th episode will be airing on the 29th November 2010.

This drama stars Micky Yoochun (of DBSK, and now JYJ, this is his debut), Park Min Young (I am Sam), Song Joong Ki (OB-GYN), Yoo Ah In (The Man Who Can’t Get Married) and several others.

This is set in a Joseon-era school that is attended by the scholars and noble young sons of the day — and one young woman, Kim Yoon-hee (Park Min Young) who sneaks in posing as her brother, thus taking his name: Kim Yoon-shik, and subsequently finds herself in romantic entanglements with her fellow classmates.

The fellow classmates  are Lee Sun-joon (Micky), son of the Left Minister (I would think similar to Prime Minister,or head of the political party that is in power), obviously rich and lives a sheltered life; Goo Yong-ha (Song Joong Ki), a wealthy merchant’s son and resident playboy; and Moon Jae-shin (Yoo Ah In), son of the other political party leader, always butting heads with Sun-joon.

This is my first saguek drama actually, and not a proper one at that, but I actually understood, more or less, what was going on, especially the parts where it is a little similar to history. However, this does not fully follow history.

Almost like Hana Kimi + You’re Beautiful + allotherdramaswhichhasagirlposingasaguy… = a whole lot of fun.

I absolutely love this drama, it was really good and heart-warming. I don’t think that there were any parts in which I wanted to skip.  The characters were really awesome, and those portraying them were even more awesome. They allowed me to feel what the characters themselves were feeling.

The supporting characters were also great.

Cho-sun, a gisaeng who falls in love with Kim Yoon-shik.

Student Council President + his minions, War Minister’s son, don’t quite remember his name.

Ok. I have no idea what else to write about, I could go on and on and on about the whole beauty of the drama. Bah~ like how cute is this:

Oh, the drama also has really beautiful sceneries.For example:

This is actually an adaption of a novel, which is available only in Korean, but there is a blogger, who is seriously awesome, who is translating certain parts of the novel; at Bad Milk.

To watch:

With English subtitles, Mysoju. And with Chinese subtitles, xiaoli.cc.

A drama which just finished its run on KBS.

A story about how a boy (Yoon Shi Yoon) found out that he is the illegitimate son of a bread company owner, who is then sent to live with his father by his mother. The father already have a wife, a son and two daughters. The wife and son loathes him, but he worked really hard to be able to stay there. However, when he found out that his mother is sent far far away, he leaves the family to look for his mother. After 12 years, he still has not found his mother, he has turned into a drifter(?) looking for his mother all over the place. By coincidence, met his half-brother (Joo Won) and his childhood sweetheart (Eugene). He then strives to gain his father’s approval by baking the world’s greatest bread, while the half-brother also strives to gain his father’s affection using any and all sorts of methods.

A very moving drama. 30 episodes and all. I love it. The over-dramatics and everything. Haha~

I could only find with Chinese subtitles, so, xiaoli.cc.

Lots of cuteness, fun-ness and liveliness, with a little little bit of sadness. But all in all, a really fun drama to watch, especially when in need of laughter.

Overall-y, I totally enjoyed it.

Choi Si Won can act, that is all that I can say. I didn’t have much expectation for him, and so I was thoroughly surprised to say the least. He could carry the drama, with his acting, his charisma, and when the need arose, his abs. Total hot-ness overload.

Chae Rim, this is her first drama that I watched. Not totally amazed by her, but I have read that this does not show us her full potential. But, liked her character quite a lot, funny at times, but also endearing as well. She allowed me to feel her emotions and such.

The story moved at a pace that was quite consistent. Although there were times when I felt like hitting my computer screen when it was dragging for too long. Perhaps whenever the ex-husband was on? Couldn’t stand him at all, but I must say that his expressions are freaking hilarious.

The two girls as the daughters were adorable. Very cute. But they could definitely act.

Hmm~ I don’t really know what else to write about actually. This is my first time doing this sort of stuffs. Just my personal opinion. I hope that I will improve, and post more regularly. Haha~

And, if you haven’t watch this, I definitely recommend it. Not a deep drama, quite shallow and predictable actually, but fun nonetheless.

To watch:

With English subtitles -www.mysoju.com

With Chinese subtitles – xiaoli.cc

Athena: Goddess of War, the IRIS spin-off that has been garnering lots of attention, will be premiering quite soon. I will post more details really soon.

The teaser and MV for the theme song from the Original Soundtrack, Park Hyo-shin’s “널 사랑한다” (I Love You).

Enjoy.

PS. Sorry for the lack of posts, will seek for forgiveness soon.

Credit: Javabeans

Korean name: 나쁜 남자.

Starring Kim Nam Gil 김남길, Han Ga In 한가인, Kim Jae Wook 김재욱, Oh Yun Soo 오연수 and Jung So Min 정소민 .

Broadcast network is SBS and premiered on 26 May 2010, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 Korean time.
This is scheduled for 20 episodes. And due to the World Cup, SBS had stopped airing this drama for 2 weeks as they had exclusive rights to broadcast the football games – or something like that -, and so, will be longer than 10 weeks counting from 26 May.

This is a story about a man’s quest for revenge. Gun-wook (Kim Nam Gil’s) plots revenge against Haeshin Group, a chaebol family, RICH family, who took him in thinking that he was the father’s illegitimate son, but then threw him away when they found out that they mistook him for Tae-sung (Kim Jae Wook).

Trailer:

The trailer opens with Kim Nam-gil’s narration: “The thing about cats is… they don’t just bite a mouse once and kill it. They pretend to let it go and play around with it, and finally kill the mouse when they get tired of it.” This is his way of describing his revenge plans for the Haeshin Group — which is the company to whom Tae-sung (Kim Jae-wook) is heir.

Kim Nam-gil’s Gun-wook meets Tae-sung in Japan, who challenges him on the bridge, “Now that I’ve told you to try and kill me, are you afraid? I said, kill!” Further complicating things is their intertwining fates with Jae-in (Han Ga-in).

To watch, at Mysoju for English subtitles and at Xiaoli.cc for Chinese subtitles.

To read Javabeans episode summaries, starting from episode 1.

And drama summary, here.

I started this drama because I needed something dark and mysterious, after watching happy ones like Oh! My Lady and Prosecutor Princess (which I will comment on really soon…), this is really really good. I love it, although it is only on its 7th episode. Although I feel that there are loopholes in the whole revenge plan, I am still so looking forward to it.

A point to note, I find it weird that Tae-sung is the heir to the group, because the father has another son, who is older than Tae-sung, so I don’t know. Unless it is the older sister’s (Oh Yun Soo’s) husband or something.

Anyways, due to the long study break/holiday, there are lots of dramas waiting out there for me. So, I will put those that have attracted my attention and hopefully have the time to watch them. Also, I will be posting about some of the dramas that I have watched during my break time, reviews and what-nots. I hope you continue to follow this, although not updated as often as others, and enjoy the little opinions that I have on Korean dramas, Japanese dramas, the many many movies and everything in between.

Not a movie or a drama, but a CF. But I think it is a really good short short short movie.

I am not quite sure of the details, but what I do know: 2PM’s members are in it (I think not all though) and their song – Tik Tok, featuring Yoon Eun Hye. This is a beer advertisement for the brand Cass and I think the longer version is their music video.

Anyways, the videos:

2PM – Tik Tok MV feat. Yoon Eun Hye

These are the ones available now, I hope a third part is coming out.

60 seconds CF:

30 seconds CF – Nichkhun’s:

30 seconds CF – Taecyeon’s:

Don’s ask me what the 60 and 30 seconds ones mean. I only find both the 6 minutes ones good. I have just added them out of random-ness actually. Haha~

The third and last drama to premier on 31 March 2010, on MBC, Wednesdays and Thursdays 21:55.

This drama stars Son Ye Jin 손예진, Lee Min Ho 이민호, and Kim Ji Suk 김지석.

This is actually a novel, but it is only available in Korean. However, Javabeans is doing a general review on it, here (scroll down until you see the title ‘Personal Taste the novel’), which I have read, and it is quite fun and entertaining. The drama differs in some way from the book though.

Jeon Jin Ho (Min Ho’s) is a straight guy who pretends to be gay in order to become a roommate to his female friend, Park Kae In (Ye Jin’s). His hobbies include organization and ironing, and he’s known for his stoic poker face. He’s a stickler for cleanliness, but he also has a talent for figuring out a women’s feelings. Kae In is very trusting even though she has a habit of being betrayed. However that doesn’t stop her from giving people the benefit of doubt and Jin Ho is no different. How will Kae In react when she finds out that her gay roommate is not actually gay at all and that he has fallen for her? - credits Javabeans.

The drama summary, here.

And to watch, on Mysoju, when it is ready.

Trailers:

I seriously wonder how people in Korea are going to choose which drama to watch lah. Haha~ But I will definitely have no problem at all. Wait till exams are over, then ALL OUT -  first in line would be Oh! My Lady, Prosecutor Princess, then Personal Taste and finally Cinderella’s Sister. Oh! My Lady and Prosecutor Princess is definitely a MUST, but the other 2 will depend on varying factors, especially if Javabeans is doing the recap of episodes then can see whether it will be worth it or not. At the same time ‘quench’ my thirst for dramas. Haha~