Chinese Drama: The Early Spring (A Mature Exploration of Love, Ambition, and Personal Growth)
Many Chinese dramas feature workplace romances; many stories follow a cold executive who falls for a bright, determined young employee. On paper, The Early Spring seems to fit that mold, but in reality, it is much, much richer. What makes The Early Spring unique isn't simply the romance between Jin Bo Ran and Sun Qian, nor is it solely their remarkable chemistry. The drama succeeds because it understands that a meaningful life is built upon multiple relationships. Romance mat
The Scandal : A Beautiful Adaptation That Never Escaped the Shadow of Its Predecessors
I went into The Scandal with tremendous anticipation. The source material, Dangerous Liaisons, is one of the most enduring stories about manipulation, desire, revenge, and emotional destruction ever written. The challenge for any adaptation is not simply telling the story again but justifying why this version needs to exist. Unfortunately, while The Scandal is visually elegant and contains some strong performances, it never fully answers that question. The problem is not that
Persona: Sulli -- Netflix Documentary
Persona: Sulli is a compelling Netflix documentary about Sulli (Choi Jin Ri), who began her career as a child actor in 2005, before...
Daily Dose of Sunshine -- Netflix Drama
Wow, just wow, I am overwhelmed by this drama. What a gem! The story, the acting, the cinematography, the imagery, the colors, the...
Tell Me That You Love Me -- Drama Review
Five minutes in to Tell Me That You Love Me, a Korean series based on the 1995 Japanese TV series Aishiteiru to Itte Kure, starring Jung...
Dr. Romantic Season 2: Series Review
Becoming a doctor is a privilege, not just for the rich and powerful but for all those who desperately need it. Why and how one decides...
Taxi Driver 2: The Important Message in the Second Leg of Revenge Taxi
This second journey of Taxi Driver and our beloved team of Avengers is reprised by the ever so enigmatic Lee Je Hoon as Kim Do Gi, Kim...
Divorce Attorney Shin -- Drama Review
I love Cho Seung Woo as the corky Hwang Shi Mok in the Stranger series. It is the best he has ever done as an actor. Still, I would be...
Call It Love -- Drama Review
I was unprepared for how much I liked this drama, especially since I've been in a somewhat prolonged slump in K-drama, so this was a...
Island Part 2: Episodes 7 & 8: The Past Shapes the Future
It's terrific to have Kim Nam Gil (Van) on my screen again. I hadn't realized how much I missed him until I saw him. It is also good to...
Love to Hate Him -- Series Review: unexpectedly delightfully .
I am a huge Kim Ok Bin fan. The first time I saw her was in The Villainess, and she was brilliant -- a true villainess. And I have since...
Voice 4: Judgment Hour -- Series Review
To think that this season is based on a true event is mind-boggling; that a Dong Bang Min existed in this lifetime is horrific. To...
Sweet Home Season 1 -- Series Review
My favorite characters in this series were Jung Jae Heon (Kim Nam Hee) with his samurai sword, Han Du Sik (Kim Sang-Ho) with his...
The Glory Part One -- revenge is best served cold, indeed: Series Review
The Glory; what a drama; I was not planning on watching this series, as I am not much of a Song Hye Kyo fan. But a trusted friend told me...
Island - Episodes 3 & 4: The Priest, the Savior and the Anti-Hero
Fighting evil with evil in the multiverse of madness is an intriguing concept that works beautifully for Island. Many say there are no...
Island – Episodes 1 & 2: Lustful Demons
Okay, I am a complete sucker for anything Sci-fi and/or fantasy, and those two genres combined in a series featuring Kim Nam Gil in any...
Big Bet - Episode 1 and 2: From Rags to Riches
Watching this series was a no-brainer as nothing keeps my attention like a thrilling action crime series. The series tells the story of...
The Man from Nowhere -- a 2010 Korean Movie Review
The Man From Nowhere stars Won Bin as Cha Tae-Sik in a movie written and directed by Lee Jeong-Beom. The film follows the story of a...
Higashino Keigo Samayou Yaiba -- Series Review
To give an introduction to this, astutely eye-opening six episode drama, Higashino Keigo Samayou Yaiba is adapted from the 2009 Japanese...
May It Please the Court -- Episodes 1 and 2 Review Only: Is Justice Really Blind
I am a huge crime/law/courtroom drama buff, and May It Please the Court does not disappoint in its opening. I decided to watch this drama...
My Liberation Notes -- Episodes 10-16 (final): Life is What We Make It to Be
This drama takes me places I only imagined, and I love it for doing that. Let me just start by saying I love that Gu is a big boss. That...
My Liberation Notes -- Episode 6, 7, 8, 9: Relationships are Hard
Week to week, I live vicariously through this drama. It says and does the things I want to say and do, and I love it. It's fascinating...
Our Blues -- Episodes 3 & 4: Never Judge a Book by It's Cover
I love that Our Blues gives us snippets of our main characters, followed by plenty of individual time and space to get to know them, not...
My Liberation Notes -- Episodes 3 & 4: Free Your Mind, and The Rest Will Follow
Change is hard. We hear that often, so much so that we start to believe it, yet we know that without it, nothing ever gets better....
Tomorrow -- Episodes 5 & 6: The deeper the love, the deeper the pain
Tomorrow gets better, by the week, the fantastical forces, and editing, directing are superbly done. The Lee Soo Hyuk and Yun Ji On fight...
Our Blues -- Episodes 1 & 2: Soul Searching: Finding Oneself
I knew of Our Blues over a year before its release, and was excited by its star-studded line up. How often can one boast they watched a...
My Liberation Notes -- Episodes 1 & 2: Dead-end Life
There is so much to say about My Liberation Notes, starring Lee El (Yeom Ki Jung), Lee Min Ki (Yeom Chang Hee), and Kim Ji Won (Yeom Mi...
Tomorrow -- Episodes 3 & 4: Saving Souls
I read somewhere that the business of saving souls has no ethics, and I found myself agreeing with that statement as I watched Goo Ryun...
Tomorrow -- Episodes 1 & 2: Suicide Is Not a Choice but a Desperate Cry For Help
Tomorrow, the drama is finally here, and it has everything I like. From the beautifully talented Kim Hee Sun to the pleasing Rowoon, to...
Pachinko: A Limited Series -- Episodes 1 - 4: A Generational Saga
I'm finally out of my drama slump. Pachinko is here, and it doesn't disappoint one bit. The different synopsizes I read don't do it much...
Through the Darkness -- Episodes 7-12 (Finale): Through the Darkness Comes Light
I loved that this drama focused on the profiling techniques to identify and help capture vicious criminals, and the heavy weight and...
Juvenile Justice (Drama Review) -- The Effects of Juvenile Delinquency and the Role Society
Per the synopsis of this drama Juvenile Justice follows the story of Shim Eun-Seok (Kim Hye Soo), an elite judge with a cold and distant...
Thirty-Nine -- Episode 1 & 2: Long-time Friends are Family that We Choose -- First Week Review
Within the first five minutes of Thirty-Nine, I was already hooked, not just because it features Son Ye Jin, Jeon Mi Do (how I've missed...
Love and Leashes (Movie Review) -- What is a Pervert?
I loved what this movie addressed, how it addressed, and why it addressed. It is bold and to the point, without being vulgar. More...
Uncle -- Episodes 7 - 16 (finale): Family is Where Life Begins and Love Never Ends
Just as I start to think things couldn't get worse for Ji Hoo and his family, they do -- drastically worse. I know I shouldn't be...
Through the Darkness -- Episodes 5 & 6: Fighting Crime through the Biases
It brought me great satisfaction and relief to know that Soo Hyun's killer suffers in prison, not only because of the prison sentence,...
Through the Darkness -- Episode 3 & 4: Through the Darkness to the Truth
Through darkness comes light, through fear comes love, and through pain comes triumph.” ― Lilly Atlas, Acer. All predators are evil, but...
Live: A More Humane Side of Policing -- Series Review
I've been meaning to write a review of this series for a while, but never got the chance until now. Like every Korean drama I randomly...
Through the Darkness -- Episode 1 & 2: Are Serial Killers Made or Born?
Where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy -- St. Francis of Assisi. Kim Nam Gil as a...
The Silent Sea -- Moral Simplicity: Series Review
When I read The Silent Sea's drama plot, I was intrigued. And then I found out the cast and immediately knew it was a drama worth...
The One and Only -- Episodes 3 & 4: Coping with Death in all its Forms
This drama is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I love how the drama beautifully balances the darkness in it with some fun moments,...
Uncle -- Episodes 3 - 6: Family is where Life Begins and Love Never Ends
I can't stop pondering what would cause some people to think pretending to live a perfect illusion of a life makes them superior to those...
The One and Only -- Episodes 1 & 2: When You Know Death is Coming for You
Everything about The One and Only is emotionally hard to watch, from the terminally ill to the violence and abuse, but most of all the...
Melancholia -- Episodes 11 - 16 (Finale) : Greed, & the Mathematics of Love
It's crazy that even four years later, everybody was still threatened and jealous of a potential relationship between Yoon Soo and Baek...
Uncle -- Episodes 1 & 2: When the Uncle meets the Nephew
When I first heard the British sitcom Uncle was to get a South Korean (S.K.) remake with the same title, I was beyond excited, especially...
Chimera -- Episodes 11--14: Chimera: the past and the present
I like Jae Hwan as a character a lot, and it's why I sometimes find myself frustrated by the choices the writer makes for him. For a...
The King's Affection -- Episodes 19 & 20 (Finale) No Evil Deed Goes Unpunished
I decided to watch this drama firstly because it's a sageuk, and secondly because of Rowoon and Park Eun Bin, and the story at its...
Happiness -- Episodes 9-12 (Finale): There is Human in Humanity
How can one resident building hold so many devious people, from the creepy lawyer to the psychotic killer, and the con artist resident...
Melancholia -- Episodes 9 & 10: Pitless Ambition
I loved teenage Seung Yoo, but adore the adult version of him even more. The way he came flying out of the restaurant to come between...
