THE SHORT VERDICT:
An earnest, honest high school drama that isn’t just about high school.
Pulsing with teen angst on the one hand, yet also dealing with more universal issues on the other, School 2013 is about growing up, and about friendship, hope, love and loyalty. Things that all matter, whether you’re a teenager or an adult.
A wonderful, engaging watch that manages to overflow with heart, in the midst of the angst.
Guess what, y’all?!?
Starting this week, I’m going barefoot with my friends Stephanie and Cherry Cordial for a bit, over at the DramaFever Blog!
What does that even mean, you ask?
Essentially, we’re gonna be writing a series of joint posts on Barefoot Friends, one of the new k-variety kids on the block. And we’ve been invited to do it on the DramaFever Blog.
Uh-huh. We now have something of an actual blogging gig other than our own blogs.
Surreal. But kinda cool.
So most of you know me as a total Gong Yoo fangirl by now, and while the Gong Yoo love is still firmly in place, I do also have a lot of love for Jang Hyuk.
In fact, Jang Hyuk holds a pretty special place in my heart.
I once was a pretty big Park Shi Hoo fangirl, and Jang Hyuk was the one who managed to unseat my Park Shi Hoo love and get me to cast aside my Park Shi Hoo fangirl loyalties, which were, once upon a time, pretty strong.
Once I discovered Jang Hyuk, I was pretty fixated and proceeded to spend the next 7 months of my life spazzing over him. Until Gong Yoo showed up on my screen and stole my heart.
It’s little surprise, then, that my second k-love confession post is about fabulous, delicious Jang Hyuk. ♥
Come squee, ogle and swoon with me ^^
THE SHORT VERDICT:
A family drama that is equal parts comic, sweet, heartwarming and romantic.
Yes, that’s right. Romantic.
Ojakgyo Brothers is kind of like an omnibus. It feels like multiple short romance dramas packed into a large, generous, value-for-money family package.
For the 58 hours you spend on this drama, you get a whole lot of entertainment value. This drama had me in stitches and in tears, as I laughed, cried and melted into a puddle of goo by turn.
With a little something for everyone, it’s a lovely drama to unwind to at the end of a long day.
Today’s post is inspired by a question from one of the blog’s regular visitors, MelloYello.
In one of our chats, she asked me what it means to “ship” someone.
As I answered her question, I realized that a lot of the words that we use here in the dramaverse might actually be quite confusing for the relative newbie.
Don’t worry. Help is at hand, so that you’ll never feel caught unprepared again.
THE SHORT VERDICT:
A show that’s really good right away, and – gasp! – actually stays that way throughout its 28 episodes. That’s a rare, rare feat in dramaland, as we know all too well.
Gaksital is a show that manages to take a political context and ground it in the personal experience and emotion of our characters, and then by extension, help us to care about that political context in a way more visceral that I expected.
I found Gaksital intense, gripping, and gut-wrenching in some of the best ways. And I don’t even usually like shows with political contexts.
So most of you would have noticed that lately, things have been looking kinda different around here ^^
Gone is the constant, static photo of Gong Yoo on my blog header, staring at you with smitten, puppy-dog eyes (aw. Now that I talk about it, I kinda miss that smitten face. Maybe I should bring him back..?)
Instead, the blog now has 38 – OMG. THIRTY-EIGHT!!! – rotating headers, and I, for one, am kinda completely floored by this new development.
See, I made those headers myself. And here’s the thing. I never thought I’d know how to make a header. Never.
Ok. Let’s backtrack a little.
THE SHORT VERDICT:
Old-school, classic kdrama of the romantic, melodramatic variety, circa 2001.
Although not quite as wildly popular as Winter Sonata or Autumn In My Heart, Beautiful Days is actually a pretty good watch when you’re in the mood for retro melo.
Yes, it’s angsty, but it’s not depressingly so.
Plus, our male lead is a very smoldery Lee Byung Hun oozing oodles of machismo. If you like your kdrama heroes of the manly man variety, you might want to check this out.
THE SHORT VERDICT:
Less slick and less stylish than the first season, this second season is grittier, darker and way bloodier.
While I missed the finesse of Season 1, Season 2 did give us more meat in terms of character development and team & relationship dynamics.
The episode-to-episode crimes generally also showed more complexity compared to those in Season 1.
Most importantly, Season 2 gave us more time with our favorite vampire prosecutor – and who can argue with that?
It’s hard to ignore the latest news that has rocked the k-ent world: Park Shi Hoo accused of raping a 22-year-old trainee. As the scandal continues to brew, and as more and more facts and “facts” get reported by the media, the discussions and comments among netizens has likewise exploded.
I’m not writing this post to speculate about the truth of the case.
Rather, the varied responses across the different sites and comments sections that I’ve visited have given me food for thought.
There’s one scandal, but there is such a wide variety of responses.
