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tomorrowsdrama · 4 years

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Give me your romance drama recs / drama update

I’m in the mood for a romance drama but am kind of stumped on what I should watch, so PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR RECS! It can be kdrama, jdrama, cdrama (just maybe not contemporary cdrama since those really aren’t my bag), whatever. Or even a period English piece. I’m watching Do You Like Brahms? and really enjoying that so I wouldn’t mind something similar. Of course, I am also down for something more adult/steamy. Dysfunction is fine but it needs to have a happy ending. I guess I’m feeling kind of sappy. The key is that I want to swoon/feel those butterflies.

To kind of give you an idea of what I’ve watched/am watching:

Currently Watching

Do You Like Brahms? - LOVE LOVE LOVE. Slice of life and sweet romance done right. When Song Ah and Joon Young smile at each other, I smile along with them. Adorable and sweet without being twee. An undercurrent of melancholy without being morose/a kill joy.

My Beautiful Bride - I’m loving this and highly recommend it for anyone who likes thrills, action, and a HOT male lead single-mindedly devoted to his otp, who will go to the ends of the earth to be with her. He literally lives only to make his otp happy. While his love for her is what drives the plot of the story, this isn’t necessarily a romance drama. I mean, sure, I swoon and my heart flutters when I see him beat a group of gangsters to a bloody pulp with nothing but his fists and a key. And trust me when I say my hormones rage like crazy whenever he’s onscreen. But I’m looking for a more ordinary kind of love story to add to my roster of dramas. My Beautiful Bride is like two straight shots of the strongest whiskey in a shady dive bar - it’s intense, exciting, and totally gets me amped up. However, sometimes I need a break from the Johnnie Walker and slight sense of danger and want a nice, soothing, cup of warm tea instead.

Cruel City/Heartless City - So I know I just said I needed to mellow out my current watch list but I just LOVE this drama. It’s got a great otp but again, its main focus is not romance. Although, it does have one of the hottest kiss scenes in recent years. If you thought Jung Kyung Ho was nothing but a lanky, beta, weenie, this drama will totally change your mind. Plus, this is a re-watch so I don’t have to pay attention to everything.

Finished

Flower of Evil - I fully expected to not like this drama before it started because of the terribly misleading promos. The only reason I checked it out was because I liked Moon Chae Won and Lee Jun Ki. And boy am I glad I did! I love me a devoted otp who also stop to take the time to make out. The way Ji Won saved Hyun Su by just being herself and loving him and the way Hyun Su devotes his entire life to taking care of Ji Won and being a good husband to her - *chef’s kiss*. OH, also, Kim Ji Hoon’s glorious long hair.

My Unfamiliar Family - I don’t usually watch family dramas, but this was a nice little surprise. The romance was sweet. The healing family trauma aspect was heartwarming and done very well. Not overwrought at all. Some of the red herrings/misleading endings threw me a loop but overall, I enjoyed how they resolved the misunderstandings and conflict. The re-discovery of love between the parents was nice to watch. Really easy and enjoyable watch with a great slowburn friends to lovers pairing. I identified with the female lead a bit too much sometimes heh. Fun fact: The actor playing the dad also played the king in The King and the Clown who was obsessed with Lee Jun Ki’s character.

Dropped

When I Was the Most Beautiful / When I Was the Prettiest - This drama was so disappointing, it kind of upset me to be honest. The first two episodes started off so promising. My early 2000s dysfunctional jdrama with questionable teacher/student relationships loving ass thought I was finally getting a return to the good ol’ days (before anyone says anything, no, I do not condone teacher/student relationships in real life). I mean, they had Ji Soo, the king of playing high school students with impossible one-sided crushes who you want to root for, playing a high school student with a one-sided crush on his art student-teacher. We also had renowned hottie Ha Suk Jin playing his older brother and Im Soo Hyang playing the woman in between the two hot brothers. It had all the makings of a wonderful throwback to the old school dramas. But instead, we got stuck with whatever the hell this drama is. Anyway, disappointing!

The Merchant: Gaekju - I love Jang Hyuk. I love sageuks. I love Jang Hyuk in sageuks. But this story just wasn’t working for me and there was not enough shirtless Jang Hyuk to keep my attention.

Kinda Watching On/Off

Me Too, Flower! - An old drama that I randomly picked up because I wanted to watch something with Yoon Shi Yoon. I am only watching this because of the Yoon Shi Yoon-Lee Ji Ah pairing because frankly, the rest of the drama kinda bores me. Something I put on after work when I don’t want to be too involved/don’t need to concentrate too much.

Angry Mom - I started re-watching portions of this drama because of how pissed off I was about When I Was the Most Beautiful and the disappointment I felt when I foudn out Kim Hee Sun was playing Joo Won’s mom instead of lover in Alice (although from the looks of the posts in the tag, maybe she’s gonna be both? hahaha). This is Ji Soo’s break out role and for good reason. His crush on Kim Hee Sun’s undercover high school student mom is adorable and not creepy at all because (1) He doesn’t know she’s an ahjumma (a bit of suspension of disbelief is required for this drama because no matter how great KHS looks, high school student she is not); and (2) it’s completely one-sided and not reciprocated by KHS at all. Sigh, I just want to watch KHS in a hot noona romance and Ji Soo in a good romance where (1) he gets the girl and (2) the plot is not completely asinine.

Stopped Watching but Really Need to Return to

Ever Night S1 - Ok, I literally have less than 10 episodes left of this drama but for some reason I keep on putting it off. I have a real problem finishing dramas I love. Aside from the fact that I get easily distracted and hop from one drama to the next quite often, I think it’s also because I don’t want the drama to end. I know there’s a second season, but it just doesn’t seem the same. Anyway, I should just buck up and finish this drama already.

Novoland Eagle Flag - I took a break because the angst was just non-stop and I needed something a bit lighter.

Six Flying Dragons - I binged like 10 episodes one day and took a break to give my poor eyes and brain a rest. Then, in true me fashion, I got distracted by some other drama and now I can’t remember where I left off.

Mr. Sunshine - I love Lee Byung Hun as an actor and I am also a big fan of Byun Yo Han. This is also the hottest Yoo Yeon Suk has ever looked to me. But I kind of lost interest when it became apparent that all three male leads were going to be in love with the female lead. I like the female lead just fine but it’s kind of annoying how everybody is in love with her. I know this is a quality drama but honestly, I don’t think I will return to this unless I have nothing more interesting to watch.

#drama update #drama recs #do you like brahms?#my beautiful bride #cruel city #flower of evil #my unfamiliar family #when I was the most beautiful #the merchant gaekju #me too flower #angry mom #ever night #novoland eagle flag #six flying dragons #mr. sunshine #kdrama

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rottenbrainstuff · 4 years

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Rotten recommends anime

I am organizing my big (half-unwatched) collection of pirated anime that I downloaded in the early 2000s and as I go through this mess, I realize that I snagged quite a few little gems that I don’t think people have really heard of. So here I am, sticking them all in your face, please track down and watch some of these, because they’re good. A lot of these aren’t available to buy anymore (which makes me sad, because I actually have money now) but I think most are still out there somewhere on good bittorrent trackers and streaming cartoon sites if you know where to look, (and you know where to look right???) so there’s no excuses!

A quick preface: you kids these days don’t know how good you have it. I don’t mean this as an old woman screaming at the kids who won’t get off their technology, I mean this as someone who watched the internet grow from a baby to the amazing information distribution tool that it is now, and I want you to PLEASE PLEASE take a minute to appreciate how good things are! Every title I’m going to recommend to you here over the next few days, I downloaded in early 2000. There was no goddamned crunchyroll back then, no goddamned youtube, no goddamned reliable and efficient bittorrent, even. If you wanted to be a weeb back then you had to work for it. You had to do google research and make friends with the groups who were ripping and subtitling stuff, you had to learn how to use IRC, you had to download these files from IRC one at a time and it took all freaking day, and that was IF the fserve you connected to didn’t disconnect at any point and you had to start allllll over again later. It’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL how easy it is to find things these days, and how everything is EVERYWHERE. IN THAT VEIN THOUGH KIDS: a streaming website is not a library. Netflix is not a library. If you love something, you NEED a copy of it, physical or digital. It WILL disappear. Us kids who worked hard downloading our crappy tiny grainy files one day at a time, we understood that, but I worry a lot that kids these days don’t understand the importance of archiving their stuff, and in 20 years they’re going to be sad because everything they loved when they were younger is gone.

(or am I the only one who likes to go back and watch old things over and over?)

so THAT BEING SAID, here is the first title I want to recommend to you:

Hare + Guu

(aka, jungle wa itsumo hare nochi guu) (this is apparently a weather report pun)

Basically, Hare (Hale?) is a regular nice kid who lives in the jungle and goes to a regular nice jungle school and plays video games and cleans up after his lazy (alcoholic?) mom, and everything is nice, until his mom brings home Guu to live with them. Guu is a mysterious young(?) girl(?) who swallows things and they live in the strange dimensional world inside her stomach, among other weird abilities, and it seems like her entire mission in life is to annoy Hare as much as possible.

That’s it, that’s the whole show.

There’s chest hair, there’s alcohol, there’s assassins, there’s unplanned pregnancy, there’s family drama, there’s violent substitute teachers, there’s a crazy old woman trying to assault the perverted doctor, there’s depressing goth anthropomorphic cockroaches, and always always, there’s Guu. There are three series, an increasing amount of weird introduced characters, and **extremely catchy** opening songs.

Hare + Guu is one of those shows where the genre doesn’t quite exactly overlap with what we have in North America. Yes it’s about a ten year old boy, the character designs are cutesy, and there’s lots of episodes about him just trying to navigate everyday challenges with his school and his friends, but it’s also got a lot of adult humour (both the perverted and the existential kind) and the crazy nonsense turns the plot takes make it really interesting. The japanese voice actor for Hare is is extremely funny, I find it so amusing to listen to her scream and speak in rapid-fire, I think it’s a great series, and it never really got popular in North America ever. It wasn’t the very first fansubbed anime I watched back in 2000, but I think it was the first one that really hooked me and showed me the kind of cool things you can find if you go digging around for less popular titles.

Guu’s name (she eats things, remember) is usually spelled in katakana like this: グゥ but, if you spell it in hiragana like this: ぐー it looks like a mouth with teeth eating a little pacman pellet. tee hee

Go watch!

#rotten recs #old anime #hale + guu #hale nochi guu

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dreamingsushi · 3 years

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True Beauty - Episode 6

So it’s a little late and I am a little tired, but I figured I could treat myself with another episode after doing some really boring homework. I must I’m quite proud of myself for being on top of game. But it’s just been one day since school started so... yeah... let’s not get too happy too soon.

Jugyeong does her best to comfort Suho and he now knows she remembered that day too. Right then, the fire alarm is ringing and people are coming to the rooftop because there’s a fire. But... WHY THE ROOFTOP? If there’s a fire you should get out and away of the building, not going higher up, if the building collapses because of the fire, you’re dead. Anyways, it’s a false alarm, everyone goes back down and Suho keeps protecting Jugyeong cause people are pushing pretty bad. Then they go their own way, because Jugyeong still thinks of what he said earlier. It’s so pitiful. It’s obvious that he didn’t mean that. And not just because Eun Woo isn’t exactly the best actor.

Jugyeong is not the only one thinking back on that. Seojun is also thinking about it. I guess he feels bad.

On his way home, Suho bumps into his father. The father is so greasy btw. Like, I’m glad my father isn’t anything close to that. Anyways, big star father wants to attend the teacher conference. Suho tells him not to, because he doesn’t want to be known as his son. And he just leaves. The hate is there.

Next day at school, students get their grades and Jugyeong’s are... pretty bad. But her mom and her homeroom teacher still manage to get out in peace. When Jugyeong comes, mom is ready to snap, but controls herself. And she forgets it all when Suho’s dad appears. And then she yells “I’ll buy you with money!” Probably a quote from his movie. Then she asks for an autograph and many women also asks for it. He signs on Jugyeong’s report. Which is so funny. Because, it’s such a bad report suddenly becoming precious xD In the cafeteria, a classmate asks Suho for an autograph for his mom, since she’s a fan of his dad. Suho leaves, probably angry because he didn’t want people to know who is his father. Since he dislikes him so much. Seems like Seojun dislikes him very much too. Which would make sense since he’s the CEO of the company in which was Seyeon.

While Jugyeong is looking for her mother, she happens to witness Suho confronting his father. But then the mom comes over, fangirling over the dad. So awkward. Suho leaves when his dad starts talking to Jugyeong and her mom asks for a picture too... Oh boy. But then again. You’ve not seen me sitting far away on the balcony of the One Great Step Tour, almost dying to see Dongwoo on the screen. I hope I would faint and be too shy to ever be like the mom, but eh. You never know. I could do that. But I did “meet” celebrities at work and I treated them like any other customer. So maybe I’m immune. Who knows haha.

So Suho’s dad kicked Seyeon out of the company. And didn’t feel bad at all about it. No wonder Seojun hates him.

Jugyeong’s mom is throwing away all of her make up to punish her for having bad grades. Meanwhile, Soo Jin gets scolded hard by her dad because she only got second place. I guess they want to picture her as OCD, since she always washes her hand like crazy? I’m not so sure, because they kind of changed the character from the webtoon.

Gowoon treats Jugyeong to thank her for her help and asks her to teach her make up. So they go over to her place. Seojun is there and didn’t know that he wasn’t alone, so he’s doing his thing, half naked haha. The look on his face when he sees Jugyeong. Then he keeps moving, pretending like there’s nothing until he’s out of site xD That was a funny one. She rawrs him when he thanks her for helping Gowoon. He wanted to walk her home.

Suho goes to the comic shop, probably looking for Jugyeong, but she’s obviously not there. But then, her mom comes in and as soon as she see Suho she’s all honey-dewy. So when Jugyeong gets home, Suho is over. Oooops. He’s been invited over for dinner. So the mom asks for the big table and her brother takes Suho to get it. He warns him not to mess with his sister. He can be a decent brother, sometimes. When they are about to install the table, Suho breaks one of the legs. Jugyeong and her brother fight as always, and as if things couldn’t any more embarrassing, Hee Gyeong comes back home completely drunk, again. She causes a power outage while tripping on an electric wire and the embarrassment is infinite.

The next, big sis is taking lil sis to the sauna. Bad timing, Seojun is there with a friend too. So she escapes and her sister makes her go buy hamburgers. Then, she bumps into her bullies from back then and runs away, leaving her waller behind. When she’s about to go get it back, Suho takes it away from those nasty girls, which startles her and makes her angry too. She didn’t want his help since he said it’s bothersome. Poor baby girl. He hides her too from Seojun’s friend and lends her his cap. He hugged her also. That was adoraaaable <3

When big sis comes back home, she sees the teacher getting tattooed eyebrows from her mother. Poor teacher. He tries to run away, still with plastic wrap on his face. She chases him to give him an umbrella, which they end up sharing. And then she kisses him. They’re cute.

Jugyeong gets “kidnapped” by some thugs that are acquaintances of Seojun. They’re using her as a bait. He gets their phone call after confronting Suho who pulled some strings to help Seojun’s mother surgery. Jugyeong manages to videocall her friends secretly so they would see she has been taken away on her way to the academy. Suho and Seojun also both rushed in to save Jugyeong. Suho is the one to find her and he charges in to save her. Why not call the police in the first place... guys be guys. Seojun joins the fight. And even Jugyeong attacks with a tambourine haha. The friends also come over and join the fight hahaha. Nobody thought calling the police would be a good idea. Or maybe in Korea they wouldn’t do anything about it? I don’t know. Well, they’re still kids. Seojun definitely caught feelings for Jugyeong, but she only has eyes for Suho. Poor baby. Even though he has been kind of a jerk so far.

And that’s enough for tonight. Sometimes, a drama doesn’t need to be that good. This is just enough for me to enjoy and I am thankful for it. Good night!

#true beauty #moon ga young #im jugyeong #choi eun woo #lee suho #hwang in yeop #han seojun #park yoona #kan soo jin #webtoon #webtoon drama #kdrama #k-drama #korean drama #drama review #drama recap #drama reaction

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andoqin · 3 years

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K-Dramas of 2020

Well, like the general mood of 2020, the dramas this year were uh, certainly an adventure. I was going to put all the dramas I watched this year here, but uh. This turned out longer than expected so I’ll guess I’ll separate K-dramas at the very least.

Putting this behind a cut because Long.

Completed:

365: Repeat the year: I barely remember this one, but I gave it 8/10 on MDL, maybe I should lower that, because honestly all I remember are the time-travel meet up set and the main actors.

CHIP-IN: A short who-dunnit, which has interesting characters, although the show was very wise to be capped at 8 Episodes, because the “mystery” was pretty predictable and also starting to wear thin. Still, the younger cast was stellar and I hope we get to see them in more.

Diary of a Prosecutor: The cases in this drama were actually legit interesting to me and I found the politicking surprisingly not bad. People were flawed in very human ways, but the drama gave us enough time with our main characters to enjoy getting to know all of them.

Do you like Brahms: Contender for worst drama of the year for me, good lord I hated the way this tanked its story line, its characters and the romance. Is it believable that the main characters might act this way? ... Debatable. Is it entertaining to watch? Hell fucking no. Don’t watch this one, unless you like stupid misunderstandings and non communication.

Extracurricular: Short action-y show on Netflix that makes me hopeful for what Sweet Home might be.

Flower of Evil: Lee Jun Ki gets to suffer prettily. That is All. Okay Moon Chae Won and LJK were great together, but it got almost makjang-y by the end.

Hospital Playlist: Delightful Slice of Life Medical show, that despite its delightfulness never quite got me. Very enjoyable and at 12 episodes it doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it didn’t stay with me either.

Hot Stove League: Pretty entertaining and as a drama about sports management seems reasonably accurate? (Not that I’d know of course).

Hyena: Flawed as heck in some aspects (the lawyer-plotting got lulzy and boring at the same time), but oh my god some of the HOTTEST chemistry this way from sunday. Joo Ji Hoon and Kim Hye Soo just crackled anytime they were on screen together and Joo Ji Hoon as the high powered lawyer who falls head over heels in love with KHS’s character who is more reluctant to act on those feelings is just *chefs kiss*. Also didn’t suffer the Dreaded Plot Denuement of 2020 (DPD2020). Sure the latter half wasn’t as tight as the beginning, but it stuck the landing and that’s all that matters.

Into the Ring: Weird camera angles and sometimes overly sharp edited shots aside, this had a solid romance, great characters, great romance and almost made me want to get into community politics lmao.

It’s Okay Not To Be Okay (Psycho But It’s Okay): The first half of this show is just *amazing*, the way the scenes transition is pretty much film-like and the main character trio is stunningly well acted. Sadly the story with the mom is resolved in the weirdest fucking way, but the drama decides to do the smart thing and just forget about it once that’s done and the finale made me cry ;_;.

Itaewon Class: Sadly also suffered the DPD2020. I was really into the first half, loved the way the characters found support in each other, plus: a main trans character! Handled really well! Also iconic OST. I was one of the few people who was into the romance of the main couple, but the way the latter half of the plot developed was just completely nonsensical and felt like the writer was just trying to tie off the lose ends as much as possible.

Kingdom Season 2: The first season was stellar and this continues the trend! Although it doesn’t quite reach the highs of the first season I am still so looking forward to season 3! More Joseon zombies please!

Money Game: I... apparently watched this, and looking at the logo there is some vague feeling of “Yeah this is familiar”. But nothing else...

Mr. Heart: Okay-ish BL drama that has it’s cute moments but nothing that made me go “Ooooh”. I am glad SK is getting in on this trend though!

My Holo Love: So all of those Robot/AI shows that came before that I’ve seen and had the premise of “Oh no, I’ve fallen for a ROBOT” when it either turned out their object of affection was either human or actually a robot, but their human counterpart was so shitty that no sane person would like them worked pretty well for me. This one didn’t. From what I remember the heroine does very much fall for the holographic version of this guy, but the human version is *different* and yet whoops the main couple is still human/human. Granted you can’t really do romantic kiss scenes between a girl and nothing, but the switch-over felt abrupt and the way our main lady just transfers her affections to the dude never sat right to me.

Mystic Pop Up Bar: Quite a few dramas this year went with 12 eps, and were all the better for it. Hwang Jung Eum is incredibly hit or miss with me (mostly it’s miss honestly), but in this one she’s used really well and I liked the way the premise was used!

Private Lives: I recently wrote a longer post about this, but honestly another victim of terrible writing and maybe DPD2020.

Stranger 2: Love! Not as much as Season 1, but man this writer is *so* good at writing smart and interesting plots and looking at things from many different angles!

Tale of the Nine Tailed: Flawed but man do I ever love the OTP. Like really really love it. Plus it stuck the landing for me in a way few dramas did in recent months.

The School Nurse Files: So weird. So fucking weird. And yet, so very entertaining. Thanks to its short length ( I think) some plot threads felt very much unceremoniously dropped, but it has a canon lesbian couple!

The World of the Married: Makjang to the Nth degree, got kind of exhausting by the end, but Kim Hee Ae is so good.

Train: Yoon Shi Yoon gets to suffer prettily!

When the Weather is Fine: Kinda mellow and sweet and I wish I could live like the main character does (just have a bookshop in the middle of nowhere and still no money issues??? The Dream) but for that also not super memorable.

Where Your Eyes Linger: SK’s first major Webdrama I believe? Cute and as a foray into this genre not bad, but I hope this is just a taste of things to come.

Dropped:

Hi Bye, Mama: So many people loved this, I couldn’t get over the basic premise and the way my brain tried to tie the logic in this together made my head hurt. The King: Eternal Monarch: Maybe KES dramas just aren’t for me, I didn’t like the plot or the main couple. Woo Do Hwan and Kim Kyung Nam were amazing though and please please I beg both of you do more stuff.

18 Again: Nope. Lee Do Hyun is pretty, but the setup drove me bonkers and I pretty much liked no one.

Zombie Detective: Yikes no thank you. Complete mismatch of tones I wanted and the drama gave me.

Romantic Teacher Dr. Kim 2: Zzzzzzzzz. I found the first one mildly entertaining at least but this one just made me fall asleep immediately.

Black Dog: Yeah I watched like 2 Episodes of this and lost interest.

Search: I’ve watched like 6 eps and I know there’s zombies, but I couldn’t tell you much more tbh.

Start-Up: I watched 2 episodes in the beginning, didn’t think I’d want to live watch this and then just popcorned the tag until it got insufferable with the ship wars and this dropped out of my watch list pretty immediately.

Record of Youth: Pretty much the same deal as with Start-Up only in this case there wasn’t so much a shipwar as the tag showing me that this drama would *not* be my bag at all.

Still Watching:

Kairos: Hmmmm timey-wimey stuff. The FL is this close to losing me though. The fact I thought it plausible that she would murder someone just based on a TEXT from someone else says it all. (She didn’t, thank god, and seems to have found a few of her lost braincells, but by god she was frustrating).

Birthcare Center: I like what it’s trying to say and the main character and her husband are very cute, but a lot of the side characters don’t really interest me. It’s only an 8 ep drama, so I might finish this.

The Spies Who Loved Me: Honestly I’m this close to dropping it. Only my intense love for Yoo In Na and fondness for Eric are keeping me going. But she might not end up with Eric and I’m gonna be mad. Honestly if they just went OT3 I’d be really cool with this, but despite the small advancements in dramaland, they aint ready for that yet.

Lies of Lies: I watched 2 eps and I might continue (the premise seems hilariously makjang and sometimes I’m into that, but it’s *very* much on the backburner)

The Uncanny Counter: Delightful Webtoon vibe, with some great visuals and actually nice action. I’ve only seen 2 eps so far but at least they don’t want to make me poke my eyes out or make me fall asleep. Let’s hope it avoids the DPD2020 plague.

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thekoreanlass · 6 years

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Somehow I often stumble across Ji Hyun Woo’s dramas and I just stay for good, enjoying his acting and the entirety of the drama. For some reason, he’s a magnet of good content and he’s just undeniably a really good actor in the present time.

The last time I watched him was during ‘Angry Mom’ and even then he was really good at portraying the teacher role while concocting a potential romance with Kim Hee Sun’s character in the story, which went down the pipe in the end. Anyway, that drama was good, nonetheless, since it focused more on school and politics, good parenting. and justice.

Now, as soon as I heard the team up between Ji Hyun Woo and Lee Si Young for the medical romcom drama, Risky Romance (also Life and Death Romance), I became really excited, looking forward to another superb performance by not just him but also Lee Si Young.

Risky Romance is Ji Hyun Woo and Lee Si Young’s reunion drama since acting together in 2010 KBS2’s ‘Becoming a Billionaire‘ drama series.

The Story

Risky Romance tells the story of a genius neurosurgeon, Han Seung Joo (Ji Hyun Woo), who has a great desire for winning and an empathetic endocrinologist, Joo In Ah (Lee Si Young), who is obsessed with hormones.

Ha Seung Joo used to be a very warm and understanding person until he witnesses the death of his close friend and gets himself into an unexpected car accident, which transformed him into a person with anger management problems with extremely fluctuating emotions. He lashes out at others whenever he is angry and nothing can stop him now.

Throw in a perky endocrinologist, Joo In Ah, that is very obsessed with hormones that she can discuss it to anyone all day without getting tired of it, and the drama will surely spiral to even more chaos as she determinedly follow Han Seung Joo around, begging him to take a blood test with her to know the level of his testosterone. Joo In Ah strongly believes that Han Seung Joo’s abrupt change is because of his malfunctioning hormones; the overproduction of testosterone means more male dominance and anger.

But because Ha Seung Joo is a stubborn prick with a level one-hundred pride that would stop him from taking the test to deny Joo In Ah’s claim, he does everything to defy her even as far as going below the belt and crossing the line.

Plus, for some unfounded accusation after seeing her picture in his dead friend’s belongings, he deduces that Joo In Ah is the reason why his friend is dead and eventually he turns into an even more asshole towards her, wanting to take everything from her even if Joo In Ah looks like she couldn’t even harm a mosquito.

What Ha Seung Joo doesn’t know is how wrong he was and that his plot for revenge is soon going to backfire at him in the most devastatingly comic fashion. Falling in love has never been more intense than this hormone-centric medical romcom drama!

What I like about the drama?

The drama has been interesting since the beginning, creating a more unique way of joining the medical drama trope with less hospital politics and less operating room scenes–that are rather taxing to watch if you don’t have a medical background or you’re not really into it or you don’t want to be bothered by so much technicalities–and instead with topics revolving around hormones and how it affects our chemistry and emotions.

I guess, the creator’s intention is to make the viewers more comfortable with a medical drama by talking about hormones and something more relatable, which is romance. Add a punch of comedy, some mystery and drama and voila!–you get that less typical drama you might be looking for.

To me, however, it is something new but not so new, yet I must admit that the story is extremely fun while throwing in an extreme case of love-hate relationship between a very angry Han Seung Joo and a gentle sheep like Joo In Ah. They just exude the kind of chemistry that is very natural that it makes me want to overlook Han Seung Joo’s extreme asshole personality that will definitely throw you off guard if it happens in real life. I mean, I’m definitely not going to talk to Han Seung Joo if I’m Joo In Ah since he’s just a mean bully that doesn’t deserve my attention. He’s like a high school kid begging for attention with nothing else good to do in life but make her life a living hell.

Gladly, as good to be true as it sounds, Joo In Ah is a saint that easily forgives. It’s her strong suit even if sometimes she looks like a pushover, especially whenever she just allows Se Ra to trample over her. I guess, that’s what makes their contrasting personalities compatible. That they are different so they can fill in each other’s shortcomings. Joo In Ah is like the sponge that buffers Han Seung Joo’s anger and maybe she’s key to him returning back to his old warm and understanding self. After all, one can only be as angry. Hormones may malfunction and fluctuate, but just like Joo In Ah told Han Seung Jo, it’s a matter of control over those hormones.

The reference to medical stuff and the realness in their acting plus slapstick comedy is a total yes for me.

What I don’t like about the drama?

Joo Se Ra – she’s a total bitch who is ambitious and wants to take everything that is Joo In Ah’s even if the latter is only showing her good. She blames her stepsister for stepping into the family registry and for being extremely better than her and for their parents’ death. She’ll be damned once she finds out though she’s the reason why they were out that night and in car that drove them to their deaths and not Joo In Ah, who took the blame for Se Ra.

Is it just me or Han Seung Joo has done more whining than investigating what really happened to his friend and who caused it while he raided the Joo sisters home? It’s just annoying that I find this true while Cha Jae Hwan was the one doing all the research for him. Now, Seung Joo lives in blissful ignorance while in a constant battle with his wits about whether to trust In Ah or not because he’s not really doing what he aimed for while Jae Hwan is the first one to know everything.

Honestly, the drama is also frustrating in a lot of aspects. But what really annoys me is how Seung Joo could throw tantrums when all he needs to do is ask Joo In Ah about what she knows and everything should have been solved. He wouldn’t be such an asshole to her once he realizes how stupidly wrong he was about her.

Hospital politics just sucks. It sometimes make me think whether this happens in real life and if it does, then are these surgeons and doctors only playing with people’s lives? I do hope, though, that this is more false than true.

Characters

In terms of their characterization, I think the two leads are a natural. Both are frustrating at some points, but all that gets washed away whenever something really good happens and they just have these moments when they open up to each other without them realizing.

Plus, Joo In Ah is a bona fide hormone-obsessed doctor with some fun fact that will really make you laugh and amazed at how easily words flow from her mouth and how it gives her a keen eye at diagnosing someone. She’s empathetic and really kind and Lee Si Young’s gentle features show that.

Han Seung Joo is a little spit fire that is more talk and childish ploys to bully Joo In Ah which is both infuriating and amusing at the same time. He’s a ticking time bomb that is more comedic and silly-looking than annoying when angry, which is his saving grace. Gladly, Ji Hyun Woo is naturally likable.

On the other hand, I find the other characters still difficult to watch, especially Se Ra who is cunning and vicious in her own little way whenever she’s thinking about her bitterness towards In Ah. You can probably call her the modern version of Cinderella’s stepsisters or something.

Then there’s Cha Jae Hwan who looks really adorable, but fails to be the better person the moment he realizes how Han Seung Joo looks at Joo In Ah who he also has feelings for. Other than that, I am still waiting for the day that he’ll step up to his father and not cower towards him. Your parents can only break you so much, but even if you live for their dear approval, I think he’s old enough to learn to break away from what’s truly holding him down.

Why you should watch it

Risky Romance may be just one of those typical medical romcoms that’s trying to be at least slightly different from the rest, but anyone who is looking for something light and dramatic at the same time will really love this more character-focused drama despite some of its characters being a little frustrating at times and its hospital politics side drama that will want you to question authority.

Plus, you just can’t help but keep an eye on a very angry male lead who’s a few seconds from being arrested. Just glad we have a really good-natured female lead who will buffer his anger.

Rating

Thumbs up to this love-hate romcom. It’s the first time I’m seeing real action between a love-hate relationship so I’m giving this drama a 4.3 out of 5.

On going: Review on ‘Risky Romance’ – Love story raging with hormones Somehow I often stumble across Ji Hyun Woo's dramas and I just stay for good, enjoying his acting and the entirety of the drama.

#2018 #comedy #Ji Hyun Woo #Lee Si Young #MBC #medical #popular #recommended #review #Risky Romance #romance #Romantic Comedy #thekoreanlass

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