2011 K-dramas favs

2011 K-dramas that I completed: My Princess (MBC); Dream High (KBS); Sign (SBS), Crime Squad (KBS); 49 Days (SBS), Best Love (MBC), Baby-Faced Beauty (KBS); City Hunter (SBS); I Need Romance (TVN); Heartstrings (MBC); Scent of a Woman (SBS); Protect The Boss (SBS); Girl K (CGV); Poseidon (KBS); Flower Boy Ramyun Shop (TVN); Vampire Prosecutor (OCN) Total: 15

2011 K-dramas that I didn’t finish: Paradise Ranch (2 episodes, SBS); Midas (SBS, 4 episodes); Manny (4 episodes, TVN); Lie To Me (1 episode, SBS); Spy Myung Wol (1 episode, KBS) Total: 5


Favorite drama: A tie between City Hunter and Protect The Boss. These two dramas gave me the longest withdrawal period. After finishing these two dramas, every drama seems to be incomparable for at least two months. City Hunter kept me at the edge of the seat all along while Protect The Boss gave me a very complete feeling by the end by caring for every character.


Favorite male character: Lee Yoon Sung (Lee Min Ho in City Hunter) => Yoon Sung ah, why is your life so tragic? My heart still aches for you whenever I think of you.


Favorite female character: Seo Na Yoon (Wang Ji Hye in Protect The Boss) => The fact that I pick a secondary character says something. Although I really like No Eun Seol from the start of Protect The Boss but I love Na Yoon more by the end. I was really hoping that she would have a good ending herself.


Favorite alternate pairing: Cha Ji Heon and Cha Moo Won (Ji Sung and Kim Jae Joong in Protect The Boss) => The Cha-Cha cousins! These two are just like you usual K-drama couple but with two guys. They bicker, they fight, they hug, there is a piggyback moment and there is the asleep head resting on the shoulder moment. BROMANCE all the way!

Favorite couple: N/A => Surprised? Even myself I’m surprised by the lack of answer…

2011 Favorite moments of K-dramas:

- Dream High => The kids dancing to SNSD
- Protect the Boss => all the Cha-Cha cousin fights
- Best Love => Dokko Jin’s rendition of Heartbreaker
- City Hunter => Lee Yoon Sung’s kickass fighting scenes
- Heartstrings => When Kyu Won sings for Hee Joo

Favorite OST songs:
- Dream High – Suzy, JOO, Kim Soo Hyun, Wooyoung, Taecyeon (Dream High)
- Because I Miss You – Jung Yong Hwa (Heartstrings)
- So Give Me A Smile – M Signal (Heartstrings)
- You Are So Beautiful – Kim Junsu (Scent Of A Woman)
- More Than Anyone In The World – Lena Park (Spy Myung Wol)
- Just Let Us Love – A Pink (Protect The Boss)
- I’ll Protect You – Kim Jaejoong (Protect The Boss)

Vampire Prosecutor

Vampire Prosecutor Synopsis: (from KoreanDrama.org)
Prosecutor Min Tae Yeon (Yun Jung Hoon) is bitten by somebody and becomes a Vampire. Tae Yeon rejects the life of a vampire and he survives by drinking the blood of dead people and still lives as a righteous prosecutor .

Tae Yeon also uses his new founded abilities as a Vampire to prosecute powerful persons normally thought above the law. A mysterious case then occurs and the evidence points to a Vampire as the perpetrator. Tae Yeon now knows that he is not the only Vampire. He also ponders why he became a Vampire and what truths may lie behind their motives.

Cast:
Yun Jung Hoon as Min Tae Yeon
Lee Young Ah as Yoo Jung In
Lee Won Jong as Hwang Soon Bum
Jang Hyun Sung as Jang Chul Oh


My comments:
Vampire Prosecutor (OCN, 12 episodes) is a slick, cool and stylish procedural drama. The premise is fresh with a vampire prosecutor who is not afraid of the sun, who never feeds on living humans and who can use his abilty to solve cases. It took me a few episodes to warm up to the drama and characters. However, the cases are each very interesting with mostly unexpected twists. There are still a few unanswered questions that I would like to know. How come detective Hwang knows that Tae Yeon is a vampire? So, is it Tae Yeon who turned the bartender/doctor hyung into a vampire or bartender/doctor hyung was already a vampire in the first place?

While I predicted correctly the identity of the main bad guy fairly early, the whole story behind it is still a good surprise. The ending is very satisfactory, although not complete but it gives us hope for a second season. The team has great camaraderie with each character having some mysteries behind them and it was touching that they are there for each other and showing loyalty to Tae Yeon when he was on the run. Tae Yeon and Soon Bum ajusshi make a lovely duo in solving cases. I usually complain about lack of romance in crime dramas but I think that in Vampire Prosecutor, it is appropriate. A romance between a vampire and a human is done to death lately everywhere and just seeing Tae Yeon Jung In subtly caring about each other is enough.

Yeon Jung Hoon owned Min Tae Yeon as the badass, aloof and vulnerable loner vampire. Lee Young Ah is cute as the meddling and perky junior prosecutor who always felt left out. Hopefully, there is a season 2 for Vampire Prosecutor…

* Opening credit of the drama

Flower Boy Ramyun Shop

Flower Boy Ramyun Shop Synopsis: (from HanCinema)
Yang Eun Bi (Lee Chung Ah) is a University student preparing for her civil service exam with the dream of being a high school teacher. She accidentally encounters Cha Chi Soo (Jung Il Woo), the an arrogant son of the biggest food conglomerate in Korea. Both of them ends up working at a ramen shop runned by the lazy Choi Kang Hyuk (Lee Ki Woo).

This romantic comedy deals with "pretty boys," who with good looks and individuality, operate a ramen shop with lively college girls and experience the happenings of daily life.

Cast:
Jung Il Woo as Cha Ji Soo
Lee Chun Ah as Yang Eun Bi
Lee Ki Woo as Choi Kang Hyuk
Kim Ye Won as Kang Dong Joo


My comments:
With a title like Flower Boy Ramyun Shop (TVN, 16 episodes), expect eye candies. I might be in the minority who wasn’t head over heels over this drama. Sure, it’s breezy, young and fresh; it has the Coffee Prince (which I wasn’t head over heels as well) vibe. The characters are quirky with Eun Bi’s fiery temper, Ji Soo’s immaturity, Kang Hyuk’s ability to sleep anywhere, Cha daddy and his jaccuzi. However, I just couldn’t connect with the lead characters emotionally. While I like the ending overall, the whole drama just left me empty.

While I adore Jung Il Woo as an actor, his character Cha Ji Soo irritated me more than charmed me. Sure he had his cute moment such as the concept of ‘jealousy’ is so alien to him that he has to look at the dictionary for its meaning…hehe! I was a Kang Hyuk supporter all along and he had his moments which he can hold on to Eun Bi but he just wasn’t persistent enough (or he was too noble) that he lost his chance. Maybe because the fact that Ji Soo is still a student and that Eun Bi was his intern teacher for some time; therefore, their romance was a bit bothering. Also, a lot of the characters are still high school but you never see them going to classes. How weird…

Flower Boy Ramyun Shop had its hilarious moments such parodying Secret Garden, having Gong Hyo Jin playing a cameo with the the music of National Treasure Girls playing at the background [watch Best Love to understand]. I prefer to watch the side characters such as Ba Wool, Hyun Woo, Dong Joo and the coach, etc. So this drama was enjoyable but not memorable.

Recent purchase

I recently bought the boxset of City Hunter (one of my fav of this year) via Amazon and I'm happy that it cost less than any True Blood boxset hehe...


I'm just waiting for Protect The Boss to get released so I'll have the complete collection of my favs of 2011.

Jay Chou - Exclamation Mark

I bought Jay’s Exclamation Mark album last week but I listened it once and found it disappointing so I discarded it for a while. I put the songs in my ipod this week and on a few additional listens, it’s not bad but the problem I have with this album is that almost each song is like a replica of his previous songs. I don’t know if that was Jay’s intention or not.


For example, Mine Mine, I would love it if it itsn't so similar to 我不配, which was better. 水手怕水 is like a sister song of 牛仔很忙. Now, 公主病 is the twin song of 陽光宅男. I do like 迷魂曲 and 皮影戲 though.

Currently not watching anything

No K-dramas to watch currently as the ones that I really want to see are still airing. I have The Good Wife S.2 and Grey's Anatomy S.7 to catch up but for some reason, I'm unmotivated...

Meanwhile, I went to see Breaking Dawn P.1 in theatre today and I found myself cringing most of the time. It doesn't help that there were a lot of giggly teens around but I can't blame them because there were some 'unitentional hilarious' moments...Err...

Poseidon

Poseidon Synopsis: (from DramaWiki)
Kim Sun Woo, who spent his school days as a troublemaker, decides to make a change in his life and joins the sea special attack team, which is called Poseidon. Sun Woo works as a promising commando, but he unexpectedly becomes entangled in an unsavory incident after 2 years. He is demoted and is sent to a maritime police office in Gunsan city. Sun Woo's passion cools down and he slowly loses his vision as a maritime policeman. Then one day, Jung Ryul, who has formed a new crime investigation section in Incheon city, visits Sun Woo and asks him to join the team...

Cast:
Lee Sung Jae as Kwon Jung Ryul
Choi Si Won as Kim Sun Woo
Lee Si Young as Lee Soo Yoon
Han Jung Soo as Oh Min Hyuk
Jung Woon Taek as Lee Choong Shik
Kil Yong Woo as Oh Yong Kap


My comments:
I read comments that Poseidon (KBS, 16 episodes) was boring and uninteresting; therefore, I lowered my expectations. I didn’t think it was that bad, although for sure it’s not a masterpiece. It reminds me a bit of H.I.T (a crime drama that I really liked back then), but just less spectacular and suspenseful. Maybe I was too spoiled by City Hunter earlier but if you compare, the actions scenes in Poseidon are rather bland.

One thing that Poseidon did successfully was keeping the mystery about how many moles there are within the coast guard bureau. When the first mole is exposed, it gave me some surprise but too bad they didn’t follow up what happened to this character. I’m confused, is he really dead or he remained hidden somewhere… If you watch until the end, there are actually some surprises and twists regarding the moles and I have to admit that the last mole gave me the most shock. Out of all the people, he’s the one that I never suspected. Also, what are we supposed to make out of the “6 months later” ending scene?

If you are looking for romance in Poseidon, look for other alternatives. The romance part is minimal, despite how Sun Woo and Soo Yoon met was cute and the chemistry was there. They supported each other during hard times and all, but their sparks died as the drama progressed as I got the partner/colleagues and best buddies vibe more. It doesn’t help that Soo Yoon got weak and annoying towards the end. I kept on thinking where’s the tough girl who always shouts threats like “You wanna die?” to Sun Woo. The subtle hint of romance between Leader Kwon and Leader Hyun seemed nonexistent.

Acting wise, everyone was serviceable, no one really stood out or acted super badly. Therefore, Poseidon is sure not a memorable K-drama offering of the season.

* Opening credit of the drama