My Princess

Hehe...for once I'm fast...I just finished My Princess (MBC, 16 episodes), which just aired its epilogue yesterday in Korea.

My Princess Synopsis: (from DramaWiki)
An ordinary college student, Lee Seol, finds out she's a princess. The grandson of Daehan Group, Park Hae Young, is put in charge of educating Seol on proper etiquette.

Cast:
Song Seung Hun as Park Hae Young
Kim Tae Hee as Lee Seol
Park Ye Jin as Oh Yoon Joo
Ryu Soo Young as Nam Jung Woo
Lee Soon Jae as President Park Dong Jae

My comments:

My Princess is an enjoyable but pretty forgettable drama since I don’t think it will leave a long lasting impression. I watched this drama more for Ryu Soo Young since it’s his comeback after military services. Unfortunately, his character was not the most interesting. I’m not a fan of Song Seung Hun and Kim Tae Hee from their previous works but they were adorable as a couple in My Princess. Since the first episode they were cute together and they remained cute until the end. Whenever they are on screen together, it’s good. But when they’re not, it could be bland.

It was an unconventional love square in this drama. It’s nice to see Jung Woo not having romantic feelings for Lee Seol but still helping her whenever she’s in trouble. Yoon Joo is not your usual clingy secondary female lead where she does evil things just to separate the main couple because the guy doesn’t love her back. Yoon Joo was annoyingly expressionless throughout the drama but I like that her character was honest and frank from the start that she was against the restoration of the monarchy. I quite like her open ending with Jung Woo.

I didn’t care much about the whole voting of the restoration of the monarchy and all the dirty tricks from Yoon Joo to pull down Lee Seol. But, it’s nice to see Yoon Joo getting busted by either Hae Young or Jung Woo whenever she tries to harm Lee Seol. I just felt disappointed how they dealt with Hae Young’s dad. Dad was in the dark for so long as one of the many reasons why our main couple cannot be together and he didn’t even appear and have a chance to clear his name and he just gave up his inheritance like this too. Isn’t it a simplistic resolution?

Song Seung Hun and Kim Tae Hee are very charismatic and likeable in this drama and I would like to see them doing more rom-coms in the future. My surprise of this drama is Kim Tae Hee because everything I saw her previously, she was this glaring beauty with perfect and impeccable make-up and wardrobe but here she had so many embarrassing moments, which I found cute nad endearing. Song Seung Hun must gain a lot of new fans after this drama, portraying the prince charming at the rescue of our clumsy and naive princess.

* Opening credit of the drama

Hyunhaetan Marriage War

Hyunhaetan Marriage War Synopsis (from MBC Global)
Dae-cheon and Takako are lovers who decide to get married. However, Dae-cheon's father, who is a fishing boat captain, dislikes the Japanese while Takako's father has an unfavorable opinion of Korea. So Dae-cheon teaches Takako how to talk in a heavy, folksy Korean accent and tells her to limit what she says to his father to only four words. He then introduces Takako to his father under the name "Choi Do-ja", which is a girl's name in Korea.

Thinking that Takako is Korean, his father approves of their marriage. But later on, Dae-cheon's father learns that Takako is Japanese and becomes infuriated...

Cast:
Im Joo Hwan as Kim Dae Chun
Akiba Rie as Shibata Takako
Baek Il Sub as Kim Dal Man
Hakuryu as Shibata Masao


My comments:
Hyunhaetan Marriage War is just 2 episodes so it’s harmless. It was okay, not the best nor the worst. Luckily this drama was short because I don’t think I can continue if it was much longer. It’s like they put all the usual elements of any other K-drama of usual 16 episodes and crammed into 2 episodes. And they still managed to make the second episode boring, long and repetitive. It didn’t really leave much an impression beside that it had some funny moments here and there (some from the rivalry of the fathers). Im Joo Hwan was adorable dorky here and his Japanese co-star, Akiba Rie, was cute but that’s it. No sparks in this couple but understandable since it’s really a short drama with a common plot.

Cyrano Agency

Cyrano Agency Synopsis: (from AsianMediaWiki)
The Cyrano Agency consists of four people from a theater troupe who offers a unique cupid service for lovelorn clients. The company intricately devises and implements schemes, custom tailored to match the interests of their intended target, for the ultimate goal of obtaining romance for their client. The boss and mastermind behind the agency is Byung-Hoon (Uhm Tae-Woong).

Things take a strange twist at the Cyrano Agency when a new client named Sang-Yong (Daniel Choi) enters their office. Sang-Yong is a straight-laced financial trader who is rather inept with personal relationships. He has fallen for a free spirited woman named Hee-Joong (Lee Min-Jung) and seeks out the Cyrano Agency's help. The boss for the Cyrano Agency, Byung-Hoon, then notices that Hee-Joong is his ex-girlfriend with whom he has really never gotten over…

My comments:
Cyrano Agency is an average romantic comedy that viewers can watch at ease because it wasn’t complex or anything. I didn’t care about the courtship of Hee Joong by Sang Yong with the help of Cyrano Agency because the whole thing was cheating. I fail to see what is romantic when the makeup, costumes, encounters and dialogues were scripted for the big moment: the confession or the proposal. I was more interested in the past between Byung Hoon and Hee Joong as they had the ‘he said/she said’ about the breakup. Nothing surprising though. I did crack up at that failed attempt to smack Byung Hoon with the bottle of wine.

Tamra, The Island

I finished Tamra, The Island (MBC, 16 episodes) just last night...

Tamra, The Island Synopsis (from AsianMediaWiki)
Set in the 17th Century, Jang Beo-jin (Seo Woo) is a young female diver on Tamra Island. She doesn't particularly enjoy her situation and dreams of one day leaving the island. One day, to her shock, she discovers a young blond haired man laying on the beach. The young man's name is William (Pierre Deporte) and he is a shipwrecked British citizen. Another young man named Park Kyu enters the island under the disguise of one of the many convicts sent to Tamra Island. In actuality, Park Kyu (Lim Ju-Hwan) is a budding government official known as a Seonbi. These three young people then become involved in a hilarious love triangle.

Cast:
Seo Woo as Jang Beo Jin
Im Joo Hwan as Park Kyu
Pierre Deporte as William Spencer
Lee Sun Ho as Yan Kawamura
Lee Seung Min as Seo Min
Byun Woo Min as Jang Won Bin

My comments:
I heard that Tamra, The Island originally had 20 episodes but due to low ratings, it suffered cuts to 16 episodes. From the 16 episodes version that I saw, frankly speaking, the only character I cared about was Park Kyu. Beo Jin annoyed me, William annoyed me; therefore, the love triangle annoyed me. Not only that but the villain Madam in Red was annoying with her only sly scheming expression throughout the who drama. I didn’t care much about the political intrigue and the illegal trade happening too.

What I liked were the cinematography and the OST of the drama. Man, those diving scenes were gorgeous shots and I enjoyed watching the interactions between the leads and the villagers and how they bonded. It was heartwarming how they all work together at the end to prevent the ship of the villains going to the one of the East India Company. As I said before, the love triangle annoyed me. Although Beo Jin was at times cute and adorable but at some point she just cried too much (although actress Seo Woo aced in her crying scenes). It took Beo Jin really long enough to figure out who she finally loves. And the end was just like that? I kinda felt cheated.

My heart went to Park Kyu with his repressed emotions and he did so much for Beo Jin and William only to get hurt continuously. It’s my first time seriously watching Im Joo Hwan (I didn’t get very far in Boys Before Flowers to see him appear and my attention wasn't on him in A Frozen Flower) and I’m pretty impressed with his performance in this drama. His expressions were spot on and I cried in a few of his scenes. Hwang Chan Bin/Pierre Deporte as William didn’t do much to me but his “Park Kyu/F**k you” pun will have quite a lasting impression. It was indeed hilarious and it wasn’t censored!

* Random observation: lead actor Im Joo Hwan and I share the exact same birthday; same month, day and year!

* Opening theme of the drama

New Year Feast

This is a random post but I just want to share the [blurry] pic of the Chinese New Year Eve's dinner we had last evening. The multi-layered pot of various meat and veggies. Mmmm...

Playlist of early February

- 因為愛情 – Faye Wong & Eason Chan => I had goosebumps when I first heard it, the voices blend so well together...what a heavenly duo!

- 因為你 – Khalil Fong => I like the earnest simplicity of this song. Hope that April comes faster for the release of his new album...