The Most Dissapointing Korean Dramas

There are so many Korean dramas out there and obviously there will be the great ones...and the awful horrible ones...

I have seen a lot of dramas.. and I am really picky as to what korean dramas I will continue on with since there are just too many to watch that I only give a particular drama a max of 2-3 episodes to win my heart and to continue on.

I have dropped so many dramas (I give up really fast >.<)... but the ones I am going to talk about today are the ones where I stuck around for more than 10 episodes because I saw so much potential in it...too bad it really just became a hot mess..and I curse and felt so cheated that I actually stayed on for so long with the drama to see it just crash and burn....


Big

 Ahhh...Big...you had SOOOO much potential!!! with every episode I felt my soul died a little... it started out with such a BANG...and it was so fun... too bad it lost it's way and just waffle it self into a horrible ending...

Written by the Hong Sisters (writers for  both 'You're Beautiful' & 'My girlfriend is a Nined tail fox'), It's a story about how the souls of our main character (played by the handsome Gong Yoo) and an 18 year old kid got switched... and this uncovers birth secrets and of course laughs as to how an 18 year old teen adjust in a 30 year old man's body...

The first few episodes were so funny...and at the same time heart warming...but as the story progresses, the more draggy and ridiculous it got... the characters started making stupid bad decisions (to of course drag the story to 16 episodes) and there were so many loop holes to the story... I gave up half way, but I went back again to watch the last episode in hopes for at least a decent ending for this story ...but NOOOO... they gave such a half-ass illogical ending ever in Korean drama history...I went WTF when i finished it...it was just so ridiculously awfully written.

The Hong sisters dramas were always fun and may not be as well written as many other dramas, but It always had Heart... and that little something that made me become huge fans for all their written works..but oh my gosh... this drama was definitely their worse work...and I just felt like the writers changed half way because the 2nd half of this drama was just so not Hong sisters like...urghhs...Big was so bad....

Had loads of potential..but fizzled...

Rating: 3/10


To the Beautiful You

 

 

SM produced an eye-candied pack youth-idol drama... It is a remake of a Japanese manga (which had a Japanese and Taiwanese drama remake as well)

I really had high hopes for this drama because I LOVED the Japanese version of it... and the cast for this Korean remake looked really promising as well (except Minho..who cannot act...at all..but hey his pretty at least =_=)

So, Its about a girl who disguised herself as a boy and then went to an all boys high school....sounds ridiculous? yes, but that means hell loads of funny situation will arise..which would mean a Super FUN and interesting light hearted drama!!!

But...sigh... this drama really missed the mark... It tried to be all Melodrama which did not work for this story at all...it just became soooooooooooooo boring and sooooooooo fake...geez...

I stopped quite early with this drama because I just could not stand how boring it was...it was REALLY pretty and the cinematography was stunning...but other than that...it was just a *yawn*

Rating: 3.5/10


Flower Boys Next door

This drama was really good actually...and I finished the whole series...but it was disappointing because yet again... it became so damn boring after the half way mark..

The story is about a shut in girl and how her interaction with the hotties (who are her neighbors) helped her come out from her shell...and how she also changed the hotties ...

It's a simple story...but the characters were really well written (It's a TvN drama...so no surprise that their characters have depth... really love the works of TvN)... and the way it was shot was beautiful...

It was really perfect..but then..it just lost it's momentum half way..and it just went on and on and on with the same problem/ plot point... and it just seemed like a drag ...still entertaining... but sooo long winded... gosh... why did the characters suddenly become such fickle minded kids when in the start of the drama they were such smart adults...blah

Rating: 6/10


Boys Before Flowers

Ahhhh...the Overly Hyped Korean drama that can't decide what style it wanted to be...

I have watched the Taiwan, Japanese and China version of Boys over flowers ... and when I heard about the Korean version..I was all HELL YA HALLELUJAHHHH... because the other versions were quite good...

Let's just say I had a problem with the main girl (Geum Jan Di acted by Koo Hye Sun) ... She's suppose to be the typical poor girl but what I loved about her (from the other versions) is that she was really strong willed and a fighter for what was right....but in the Korean drama...she just acted like a little whiny fickle minded girl who was just weak and irritating(How she was written in the korean version was just not how she is suppose to be!!!!)... I really tried to like her..really.. but I just find her hell of annoying with one second going 'I AM A STRONG PROUD LADY' then later on crying and whining about some random shit and the boys must SAVE her....like in every freaking episode someone must save her!!!...seriously girl GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!!!

And I had a problem as to how half way through it went from a "bubbly fun" tone to a "melo- emo violin background music" tone... it's like it had bipolar or something....

It was pretty yes...but it was badly written and some of the acting was soooooooo awkward and horrible... geez... I can't believe how famous this drama got...so over-credited....but SO SO SO bad (OMG the ending...was just...so so BADDDDDDDDDD...)

Rating: 3.5/10



Secret Garden

Ahhh secret garden.... I actually liked this drama a lot.. It had the same formula again, with a strong willed poor girl vs. a rich asshole with some past trauma/family issues...but it was entertaining and yet again shot beautifully...

What really made me pissed about this drama was it's ending... like seriously What The F*ck... like seriously.... It was so stupid that I refused to accept it... NO NO NO... That ending didn't happen!!!

But all in all it was an enjoyable drama... (I know the main actor is handsome and romantic..but seriously the way he treat the main girl in this drama is so rough and borderline 'harassment' ...but hey...all fangirls had no problem with that=_=... as the saying goes : "you are NOT freaky if you are handsome..." ).. with plot holes here and there...and a horrible horrible ending... but oh well...sigh...can't' have everything right~

Rating: 6/10

Meteor Garden/ Hana yori dango/Boys over flowers

Ahhhh....Meteor garden....My very first Taiwanese show and I LOVE IT....

I remembered watching it with my parents, and we had soooo much fun watching it, and its the 'idol drama' which made me so interested in Taiwanese dramas (sadly now the standards of Taiwanese dramas are not very good T_T)

It's an adaptation from a famous Japanese manga 'Hana yori dango' which means boys over flowers. It's a very cliche kind of story, but I think it is one of the classic stories that establish the Poor girl Rich boy romance drama storyline that we see so much of these days.

So basically the story is about a Poor but Hardworking girl who somehow ended up enrolling into an elite only super Rich people only high school. She's the only 'lowly' class student there but she tries her best to not be noticed and peacefully graduate, well until she stepped onto the toes of the 'F4'. F4 which means 'FLOWER 4' (Pftttttt *rolls eyes* ) are 4 super duper Rich, famous and Handsome high school seniors which controls the school, and once you are targeted by them, you basically get bullied and outcast-ed by everyone in school until you quit school.So yeah, main girl is determined and take all the bullying, main hot head rich F4 guy falls for her, then another F4 guy too falls for her, then lots of bling bling and drama and what nots...hehe

So that's the summary of it, and even though it sounds like a story soooo overly done, but It is fun to watch and damn, the guys are hot!!!:P..... And, it is such a popular story until there are multiple versions of it, there's the Taiwan, Japanese, Korean, China and I think there was an Indonesian version of it as well (not really sure).

Ok, the first version was the Taiwanese version, and I think it is one of the versions that stayed really true to the manga....yes the production value wasn't that great, but hey, It was in the 90's and taiwanese dramas that time wasn't that well known yet. And I can't say anything bad about this version since it was the first version, the characters were lovable enough, and story flow was ok (the last few episodes kinda dragged)...so yep:D...plus this was THE drama that introduced Taiwanese dramas to the world (it was the talk among everyone that time!! it was like the Winter sonata that made Korean dramas famous)

 

The next one to follow was the Japan version 'Hana yori dango'. I think it was the best adaptation out of all because the acting and production was really good.... the main actor does not really fit the image of the character, but hey, he can act, so it was kinda convincing anyways even though he was one of the shortest out of all the other actors. Plus the main actress was soooo lovable, she was not overly overdoing the 'OMG,I'm poor AND cute AND totally awesome!!!like duh I'm the main actress'.... And the story was so well done and the pace was consistent (that's what I love about Japanese dramas, since it has only 9- 12 episodes for each series, they can't really drag the story, but only focuses on the important ,exciting parts!)...

And the OVERLY POPULAR version was the Korean adaptation 'Kkotboda Namja'... I had such high hopes for this version since I'm a big Korean drama fan, But I think this version was SOOOO over rated!!!!! The production was really really good since they had the budget for it, cinematography was awesome as well...but the storyline was like WTF AM I WATCHING!!!
Main girl was so annoying in this version, I'm not sure If it was the main actress trying to be overly cute OR that the director asked her to be like 'hey go overly cute and annoy the hell out of everyone!!'.....arghhh...Main girl in this version was SUCH a damsel in distress, and hell no man, she is NOT SUPPOSE to be such a person!!!...other than the main girl, the story was soooo 'korean-nized'...with all the super duper over sentimental drama in it...urghh...like DUDE, this is an adaptation FROM a manga...it's suppose to be Fun and Fluffy and Crazy...But NOOOO...let's just make it super drama with all the bling bling....sigh...
But it was popular, mainly because of the super handsome cast, well it does has the Most handsome F4 out of all the other versions....but meh....story still sucked...and the ending was horrible....my reaction was    0_o...   dafug did I just wasted my time watching....

There was a China version as well, but I only watched the first episode and then gave up. Not sure if it was good but I just hate the voice overs in Chinese dramas, It sounds horribly fake and I just could not finish the drama. But I did heard that this version was not bad as well.

Well yep, so all versions are different... I loved the Japanese the most for it's storyline and acting, Taiwanese one for it being the ORIGINAL one and it had so much different characters and side-stories, and the Korean one for ONLY it's really pretty Production value...plus the actors were nice to look at as well:P

Hehe... So yep, one manga and more than 4 different countries adapted it... so popular!!

The only other manga I could think of for having such a huge success is 'Hana Kimi' with a Taiwanese, Japanese and potential Korean version that is coming out soon (there's a China version as well, but it hasn't aired yet even though it was suppose to be aired last year, not sure what is going on with that)... so yep...excited for that !!!:D

Korean drama addiction and Jap-gender bender final decisions~~~

So...I think I've watch most of this season's k-drama(well at least tried one episode of each drama)...and I have to say there are A LOT of really good dramas~~~so many till I'm speed watching them...gah!!!my eyes hurt~~~so here are some dramas of the season that is great~~~

1)Scent of a Woman


When I heard about the storyline...which included cancer,poor girl and a rich guy...I was like "oh crap another I LOVE YOU BUT I HAVE CANCER SO I"M GOING TO DIE SAD LOVE drama"...but it stared one of my favourite actress Kim Sun Ah (who won my heart over in 'KIM SAM SOON', one of my favourite kdrama of all time)...thus I gave a drama a shot~~~

And my oh my...It was really good...It was really fresh, the cinematography so stunning, really great acting AND the story is interesting...But YES,it does involve having the main gal of the story having cancer(nope it's not the plot-twist...but it's what starts the story...so ya,thats new in k-drama land)~~~and what I love about the drama is the growth of each characters..espeacially kim sun ah's character...me love love love:D

2)Myung Wol the Spy


ahhh...a Spy drama....which is NOT my cup of tea (I watch dramas to relax...not to get all tense up on all the seriousness of politics/action/really really big plot twist)....so I never intended to watch it...but when It was labeled under the genre 'comedy/romance'...I just tried it and yep...it's definitely COMEDY:D

It is light,fluffy,romantic with the occasional action and seriousness(well it is a spy drama...)..but it is a good balance...its just all plain fun and the story itself is not to be taken seriously anyways (you watch it and you will know how rediculous the story is set up to be)...but it WORKS!!! its a really fresh idea for a drama and is definitely interesting~~~

3)Heartstrings/ You've fallen for me



Yep..this drama has two titles...the first being it's official english title..and the 2nd being the translation from the korean title....so confusing~~~~

So its a youth romance melodrama...staring park shinhye and yonghwa of CN-blue...which i LOVED from "you're beautiful"...so naturally i HAD to watch this drama..

The 1st 2 episodes of the drama was really promising...there's not much plot in it and it's basicly about the daily lifes and growth of characters who are studying in a music college...really simple yet sweet~~~and the bickering of the 2 main characters are so hilarious....

But once it reached the 4th episode...I was like forwarding speed watching the drama...why??coz there is REALLY NO substance in the story...i could just skip 20minutes of the episode...and yet the story has no development at ALL...and the story was really not 'focused', it tends to jump from one place to another with no flow and NO relevance to the main core storyline at all...and the characters started to lose their uniqueness and became a mess (they establish the characters in ep1-3...but once it reached ep 4, they just suddenly became a diffrent character)...

I really wanted to drop this drama when i reached ep 6....but I just gave it a chance...and OH YEAH...it did improve!!!!ep 7 & 8 finally had that feel of youth and romance and melodrama...it still was a drag in some parts but it improved a lot!!!(it seems the writers for ep7/8 changed...thank god for that!!!)

Not really a 'MUST WATCH FREAKING 100 TIMES I LOVE THIS FREAKING DRAMA' kind of drama...but its enjoyable and really fun to watch (plus it really has a light plot, so my brain don't feel so heavy after watching it~~~~lalala)

----------------------------------------------
Update on my last post about the japanese gender-bender drama...
1)Hana-kimi 2011 remake
* DROPPED-------sorry, I really can't stand it...It's just a really bad copy&paste version of the original...eventhough they changed it up abit...but still the change is not all that fun....:(

2) Ouran Highschool Host Club
*CONTINUE-----It is really fun and it does live up to it's manga/anime...really funny:D

3)Ikemen Desu Ne
*CONTINUE-----I really thought I was going to drop this drama..but I seem to enjoy it...well I do tend to skip over some parts because it was SOOOOO similar to the scenes from the Korean version....but aside from that...It is not that BAD of a remake...as the episodes goes...the characters and story are starting to be diffrent and actually quite enjoyable...surprisingly~~~I kinda like it:)

Add--->
4) IS~Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei~



So this is NOT a true gender-bender drama but the main actress does take on the role of both male and female....because in the drama, she/he is an IS (intersexual)...which means she/he was born with both male and female reproductive organs...thus having both male/female characteristics (but more to male...)

I love the actress Fukuda Saki...I think she takes on the character REALLY REALLY well...and compared to the other 3 actresses from the gender bender dramas...she is the MOST CONVINCING and pulls of being a male really well...

The drama is touching and it talks about IS (intersexual) which statisticly happens in 1 in 4000 births...which is alot but no drama so far has talked about this...so it's really interesting and does give us a look at how some with IS live with it.

Conclusion--->MUST WATCH

Overview: Japanese Gender-Bender Dramas

Spring has finally arrived~~~which means LOVE is in the air~~thus more 'romance' centered Japanese dramas!!!yooohoooo~~~~

So this season is the season of 'gender-benders' in Japan...meaning the main actress wears boy's clothes and disguises herself as a boy...and of cause she(or he) will fall in love with the main guy and the other guys will all fall for her and think they are gay since they fall for her(or he...so confusing~~~~)...

Well there are a total of 3 gender benders this season....which is A LOT!!!!but i like this genre since it's always hilarious...not very logical but just plain fun...so here are my reviews on these shows based on 1-2 episodes...

1) Hanazakari no Kimitachi e 2011 (remake)

2011 version

Original 2007 version

So....this is the remake of one of my FAVOURITE japanese dramas...Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (or HANA KIMI)...the original version came out in 2007...which is barely 4 years ago...so i have NO IDEA why they wanted to remake it...but since I was a big fan of it...So I was quite excited for it!!!

Story: So Its about the main girl Ashiya who enters an all boys boarding school (disguised as a boy of cause) to help her idol, high jump pro Sano to restart high jumping again after an incident...and ya, he so happens to be her roommate...

Yes yes i know the story is quite plain and ridiculous but what i LOVED about the show was its humor ,fun and characters...the story is okay-ish...but what make the show good was the jokes and really really funny actors...it's a really good laugh out loud romance youth comedy...nothing to take seriously...

BUT!!!!!!WHAT THE F*** !! THE REMAKE sucks!!!!!!!
1) They used the same sets, background music(yes they just copied the WHOLE soundtrack from the original!!!!), same concepts and its just like a REALLY REALLY bad copy of the original.

2) The main actress
In the original, the actress playing the main character was not really boyish at all,but at least she was kind of convincing plus she CAN ACT!!!!!AND she's naturally funny and lovable

In the remake...the main actress is Maeda Atsuko..which is a member of AKB48...and is REALLY REALLY REALLY BADDDDDD at acting...she is so out in your face a GIRL!!!! she did not even bother to lower her voice at all and sounds super duper high pitch girly...so.not.convincing.....

3) Characters
COPY COPY COPY of the original...all of them are just trying to mimick the original cast and its like akward acting with the characters being so flat and NOT intresting at all.

4) Story
Really really bad....*seriously angry of why the heck they want to remake it and make the story soooooo not true to the manga at all....*

Conclusion: *DROPPED

Ya...Sorry but I really hated this show...It's really like they copied EVERYTHING from the original without changing ANYTHING...and made it really really bad...and I am pretty sure they made this show to make AKB48 more popular (AKB48 is a pop singing idol group with 48 members which is really popular in Japan...and I have no idea why)...the main actress is from AKB48...another 4-5 actresses are also from that group AND the freaking theme song of this show is by ....u guess it...AKB-freaking-48....I am not hating this group but seriously...none of the girls can act...really CAN"T act...and since they are idols...thus they can't make 'ugly funny' faces or actions in their acting....so NOT funny....they are like...just pretty dolls standing there...=_=


2) Ouran Highschool Host Club


Based on a popular manga and anime(which are my favourites)...

Story: It is set in a rich highschool where the main girl is a scholarship student...she broke a vase in the hostclub and is forced to join to repay her debts...oh,and she got mistaken for a boy without her even pretending to be one....

Believe me....the story is WAY better than what I summarised...(I'm too lazy to type it out in detail)...and yet again,what made me love the manga and anime is the characters...the characters are really well written with a real depth in them...plus you get to see them grow throughout the series...

When I heard they were making my favourite gender-bender story into a drama I was really freaked out...excited yes but still really scared they will screw it up REAL bad...but to my surprise...the drama was actually enjoyable and the actors who play the characters are spot on like the manga/anime....so I really was happy with that:D

Sadly each episode is only 30mins!!!!grrrr....but for now the series look promising and it's quite funny~~~

Conclusion: will CONTINUE watching~~~Love it


3) Ikemen Desu ne (remake of korean drama 'you're beautiful')

Japanese Version


Original Korean version

Yes,another freaking remake...but AT LEAST this remake is better than Hana Kimi....but really???this is a COPY & PASTE JAPANESE VERSION of the original....everything is like deja vu...the characters,the music and the acting are IDENTICAL.....

Story: Main girl disguises as a boy to take the place of her twin brother in a popular band

Well,I did like the korean version...It was not THAT good, but it was enjoyable...and I guess they remade it into a japanese version was because the korean version was SUPER DUPER popular in Japan, more so than korea itself...so ya...*chi ching...money money money!!!*

I really am amazed how so alike the two versions are...seriously???Its like rewatching the korean version in japanese...with less handsome main actors...and the story compressed into less than 11 episodes (korean version with 16 episodes)....=_=....ARGHHSSSSS!!!!

Conclusion: uh....CONTINUE for another episode to decide wheather to drop or not...

Tips: IF you want to remake something...PLEASE remake it after the original version was released more than 6 years ago...and PLEASE don't copy the entire soundtrack and just change it into japanese.....and PLEASE make the characters yours actors!!!don't copy and paste EVERYTHING from the original!!!!GAH!!!!!




Verdict:

Most convincing 'I'm a girl pretending to be a boy' actress :
1)Ouran; 2) Ikemen desu ne ; 3) Hana kimi remake

Gender-benders this season are really disappointing...the 2 remakes are just lazy productions with no original or fresh ideas....GaAaAhhh!!!!so sad!!!!!

Shows galore!!!

It has been 3weeks since my exam was over...and since then I've been on marathon after marathon and marathons of shows...and I think my ass has melted into the shape of my chair ,my back has taken a slouching position and my eyeballs are getting gooey...sigh...life is good:D

So besides going out and hanging out with kawan-kawan...or pergi main main....oh and sleeping and wasting my time...I've been catching up on my shows....so here are some shows I've been seeing this 3 weeks...

1)49days(korean drama)


ah yes~~~I finished all 20 episodes of this show in 2days...I tried to watch it when it 1st came out...but I just could not get pass the 1st episode(didn't like the acting)...so I dropped it...but lots of my friends from uni highly recommended me this...so since I got time to waste and I wanted to find out what all the hype was about this show...thus I started again.....
and WOW...it is super addicting...I just could not stop watching it and I was quite surprise how smart it is(it is still illogical in some ways but hey...it's a k-drama for god's sake..and it makes more sense than alot of other k-dramas)

The story is kinda complicated but it's basically about the main character who got into an accident just right before her wedding and got into a coma,her soul got kicked out of her body and she had a deal with a scheduler(or angel of death)...which is to collect 3 pure tears shed for her from 3 diff ppl within 49 days...and if she succeeds, she will then get to awake from her coma...if not then death........and then there's ALOT of other rules and stories andcharacters...my summary kinda sounds stupid but trust me, it does make sense when u see the whole drama...haha

It has a really touching story and there is no stupid characters or stupid dragging moments...so yeah,it's one of the best dramas I've seen in a long time...well, that is IF you ignore the ending (yes!!!y must u go ruin the stupid ending writers!!!why must you go all out and use all the k-drama cliches at the LAST EPISODE!!!!grrrr... )but if you just forget about the last episode...then this drama is just AWESOME!!!!

2)CSI:Las Vegas
season 10-11


ahhhh....csi~~~even after so long...you still freaking rock!!!
So I've been a CSI fan (ONLY las vegas...I never liked miami or NY)since their 1st season....and I've followed all the seasons till season 5/6(stopped coz the tv channel showing it changed the timeslot......after that i just lost interest in it...)

yep,so I decided to start seeing it from the latest 2 seasons...well,obviously there is not much story development since most of the original characters are still there(yipee!!!) and the new recruits do make the story a bit more interesting...and hell yeah!!!the cases are still interesting!!!!so yeap...finished both seasons(which is like around 40 eps combined???)...and now starting from WAYYYYY back which is season 8 and 9.

3)Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso (Japanese drama)


So the story is about a famous tv-psychic-star who is a fake that is only pretending to be a psychic...who solves cases...
hmmm...sounds like a been-there-done-that story right???but still it's really interesting!!!There is not much story in this series...it's basically new cases every episode with a tiny bit of story of the main characters...so ya,its a really light and funny series(I really needed this to be happy after all those CSIs and sad k-dramas....)
Oh,and what makes this series work are the characters!!!they are sooooooo lovable and cute and interesting!!!!!that is what I love about j-dramas...they always do great jobs in making all characters freaking cute and damn funny/comical...i LOVE the main actress...she's really really hilarious~~~~

4)City Hunter (K-drama)


LEE MIN HO!!!LEE MIN HO!!!LEE MIN HO!!!LEE MIN HO!!!....what else can I say???hahaha..
so I started this show because I was really bored and it is like highly recommended by lots of drama websites...and yeah...was hooked after the 2nd episode...
I really don't like spy/serious/revenge/plot-twist/political series...because it is SOOOOOOOO boring for me AND tooooooo serious...I really can't stand shows without humor or a sprinkle of cuteness...but yet I find myself liking this show alot...
so part of the reasons i love it is because of leeminho(like DUH...)...and another part is I love the love story/romance part of it...*swooon*
So far there are only 10episodes out...so its' not finished yet...but so far I kinda like the plot and the characters...but i'm getting really tired of the political/revenge side story...it kind of drags in some parts...but still a good k-drama~~~

so yeah,
there are other shows(hk,taiwan,american,thai,korean,japanese dramas) that i've seen but I see those in bits and pieces...so not going to write about it here...there are too many series that i've dropped..then picked up again...then dropped....me too picky!!!

oh oh...and I've seen SOOOO many movies...(alot of old ones though)...like paul,unknown,rio,rango,pirates,hanna ect ect ect........

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~~~~~~~~I LOVE ME SHOWS!!!!!

oh,and summer is coming...which means a new batch of japanese dramas, korean dramas and anime are starting soon!!!!woooohooooooooooooooo~~~~~(how I waste my time and life...sigh *shakes head*)