Korean drama reviews and other Asian goodies
Archive for June, 2011
City Hunter episode 12 preview
01 year ago
Oh wow, Episode 11 had such a cruel cliffhanger. Here’s the translation of the preview, courtesy of Soompi:
Shik Jong Ahjussi: How can she be that pretty! My heart is going to burst!
Seems to be Kim Jong Shik’s secretary’s voice: There is someone who want to donate for the scholarship anonymously.
Kyung Hee: My name is Kyung Hee and I don’t want my name to be known.
Jin Pyo: I’ll take care of Kim Nana. We need to get rid (of her).
Yoon Sung: Save Nana!
Young Ju: It’s not to late. Confess please.
Kim Jong Shik: I do not want to.
Young Ju: What if I bring to you the law’s stance?
Yoon Sung: Why did you do that?
Jin Pyo: because it is our fate.
Yoon Sung: You ruined my life like this…I will never forgive you even if I die.
Oh. The. Angst.
As I watch the preview, all I can think of is this: Where the hell is Nana?!
Way to be cruel, producers….
City Hunter episode 11 preview
11 year ago
Lee Joon Hyuk as Kim Young Joo, the ardent prosecutor who is doing all he can to bring the City Hunter to justice. It would be a pity if he is turned into a Javert-like character.
Translation of preview from Soompi:
Jin Pyo: The men who killed Moo Yeol also killed your son.
Kyung Hee: You said he was alive!
Jin Pyo: I lied!
Young Joo: I want to see my father apologize for all his wrong doings
Jong Shik: And if I refuse…
Yong Joo: Then I will show you the consequences of the law that I work to protect
Nana: Punishing people like Kim Jong Shik…that’s the power of law. Right?
Yong Joo: I have something to tell you
Yoon Sung: Where did Lee Kyung Hee patient go?
Nurse: She disappeared after a man with a cane visited her.
Jin Pyo: If your identity is revealed, you will have to die.
Yoon Sung: If you get in the way, I won’t forgive you.
City Hunter’s episode 11 preview shows that lies will be built upon lies as Yoon Sung’s bad daddy will tell yet another lie to keep Yoon Sung, aka his weapon of revenge, in line. And although many folks in the City Hunter community do not like the prosecutor Young Joo, I love him. He’s just a righteous man who is caught up in circumstances he doesn’t understand, and I hope the writers will not go all Les Misreables with the story and turn him into Javert. He has a sense of justice and righteousness, yes, but he’s not rigid like Javert is. My hope is that he teams up with Yoon Sung to take down the Gang of Five, but that could get complicated since (highlight to read) one of them is his dad.
I’m hooked, I tell you, hooked to this show. This is probably one of the best Korean dramas I’ve watched. Writing the proper review for the paper now, so stay tuned – it will be published next week.
So if some of you lucky folks have One HD (I’d kill to have it, but my apartment complex is not equipped for the service) you should try tune in.
Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung’s marital drama
01 year ago
by DramaQueen
in News
Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung during happier times ... or was this staged too?
I’m usually not the sort who follows gossip about celebrities’ marriage woes, knowing that a lot of times, it’s all a shadow puppet game conducted by PR machines.
Years ago, I attended the Troy junket in New York city, and a reporter asked Brad Pitt how his marriage with Jennifer Aniston was. (Back then there were rumours about them going splitsville.) Pitt gushed about how he loved her, and spoke fondly about her daily routine etc. I remembered thinking, “Huh. Sure.” And at the same time I felt sad that celebrities had to discuss their private lives with strangers that way.
Sure enough, Pitt and Aniston were no longer a couple a few months after the junket, what with the whole Angelina Jolie thing …
So, the latest wayang kulit involves Hong Kong superstar Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung. After months of “will they or wouldn’t they“, the two have announced that they’re going to divorce.
Here’s the latest to the saga: Cecilia Cheung had an explosive interview with Oriental Daily News, saying that Tse was the one behind the rumours of her being a gold digger and that he was a neglectful father :
He’s never cared much about the kids. Whenever he’s at home, it’s like the kids are invisible to him – he pretty much ignores them! The only reason he wanted me to have kids was so he could tie me down – he actually doesn’t even like children!
Yeowch.
Good luck with the lawyers, kids. You’re going to need it!
City Hunter episode 10 preview and how to watch the show “live”
31 year ago
Too impatient to wait for the show to air on TV and wanna watch it live with the Koreans? You can! Just:
- Log in to Soompi forums’ official City Hunter thread and someone will be live blogging the show during telecast.
- In the forum there are links to stream the show live on your computers. Thanks to laggy Malaysian broadband speeds, that’s nigh impossible for me to do, but you may be luckier.
- Just an hour later links to watching the show raw, without subtitles, were up. Ah, the power of the Internet!
I’m not sure if I want to continue doing this though. It’s not exactly good for my sleeping habits 
City Hunter episode 9 preview (English subtitles)
01 year ago
I’ve never been more glad for an assignment – I’ve been tasked to review the Korean drama series City Hunter, which will premiere on Astro’s OneHD on July 4 (Mon – Tue, 9.05pm), and I’ve taken to the task gleefully.
It doesn’t hurt that City Hunter is played by Lee Min Ho (Boys over Flowers, Personal Taste) who is not just fine to look at, but have acting chops to accompany his looks too.
But City Hunter is not one of those pretty, empty shows – it has a great story (so far), the leads have great chemistry and the episode cliffhangers are absolute killers. Case in point, episode 8 ended with an intense cliffhanger (judging by the recap at dramabeans) and fans (including this one) are frantic to know what happened after the tense few minutes of episode 8.
Malaysia kdrama fans, looks like a winner is coming to our TV screens in July!
Korean drama review: Save the Last Dance for Me
31 year ago
20 episodes
Starring: Eugene, Ji Sung, Lee Bo Young and Ryu Soo Young
Aired: October-Jan 2002
Story: Eun Soo (Eugene) runs a small inn with her father. One day, she finds a man (Ji Sung) who has completely lost his memory. She takes him in and calls him Baek Chang Ho. Together, they form a new family of sorts, running the inn together. They fall in love, and marry, but tragedy strikes immediately: Eun Soo’s father passes away on the night of her wedding, and soon after Chang Ho disappears.
Eun Soo, desperate for some clue about her husband, leaves for Seoul, and finds him, but Chang Ho doesn’t remember her at all. He’s now Kang Hyun Woo, heir to a large company … and now her boss.
They both do not realise that Hyun Woo is in danger. Someone wants him dead – that is why he was attacked and left for dead in the first place.
LOL Plot: Ah. Amnesia. How I love you. Especially if you come in twos. Despite the ridiculousness of the double amnesia, Save the Last Dance for Me is still insanely addictive. (See reasons below.)
What I love: The whole anticipation of “Will he remember her?” Ji Sung and Eugene have sizzling chemistry, and I heart the two of them. And when the moment happens it is heart-meltingly good. Plus, Hyun Woo has some major (and understandable) daddy issues. His too-strict father who insisted that he give up his dreams to be his company heir certainly learnt his lesson quickly when he lost his son. Seeing the two patch up is rather gratifying.
Also, the conspiracy against Hyun Woo kept things interesting, though the villain’s infatuation with Eun Soo was totally weird and unnecessary. (But it’s a kdrama! We have to have a love triangle! Someone shoot me now…)
What drove me nuts: I get that the journey between our two lovers isn’t going to be easy, but it frustrated me to no end that Eun Soo kept their relationship a secret till the very end. Her martyr-ish tendencies drove me bat-shit crazy, and the last few episodes was totally unnecessary to me – just episodes to demonstrate what a selfless, devoted, martyr-ish woman Eun Soo is. Bleah!
Still, I do adore this show because of Ji Sung … he just melts my heart, y’know?
Watch-o-meter: A must if you’re a romantic. Still a must if you’re not. (Self-confessed unromantic speaking here.)
Rating: 3.5
Korean drama review: Oh! My Lady
71 year ago
16 episodes
Starring: Chae Rim, Choi Si Won, Lee Hyun Woo and Park Han Byul
Aired: March-May 2010
Story: Yoon Gae Hwa (Chae Rim), a 35-year-old divorced woman and single mum, meets superstar Sung Min Woo (Choi Si Won) when she cleans his home. This chance encounter leads her to stumble on Sung’s biggest secret: he has a daughter he never knew he had!
Min Woo, concerned about his reputation, decides to hide the kid and enlists Gae Hwa to not only take care of the kid but act as his housekeeper. (The task is made more perilous as they have to evade a rather nosy and determined reporter who is determined to unearth some dirt on Min Woo.) Gae Hwa in return presses Min Woo to join a musical so that she can get a job with the production company that produces the musical.
Now, Min Woo may have the draw factor, but he is quite a terrible actor. He realises that the musical may be his chance to prove that he can be more than a pretty face. Gae Hwa, on the other hand, is more eager for him to connect with his daughter, Ye-eun….
What I like: The little bunny who played Ye-eun. She’s a cutie! Also, I’m a sucker for stories about spoiled, pampered men who realise that they have to grow up quickly because they now have someone to depend on them. And it didn’t hurt that Choi Si Won has one hot body (his abs are obscenely sculpted), which the director made sure we saw at every opportunity. Thanks, director!
What worked: The slow bonding between Min Woo and his daughter. The growth of Min Woo as a responsible adult.
What didn’t work: I get it, Oh! My Lady is supposed to be a romance, but we have a problem when the two leads have zilch chemistry. Maybe it’s because Min Woo keeps calling Gae Hwa an ahjumma or maybe (this is probably the reason) the writers didn’t really work to develop Min Woo’s growing attraction to Gae Hwa. Whatever the reason, Min Woo and Gae Hwa’s romance at the end felt rushed, forced, awkward and unreal. It felt like a tagged-on plot element, as if the writer suddenly remembered: Oh wait, these two were supposed to fall in love! Right! Let’s get on it quickly!
I cringed through the last episode. It’s like watching a nephew fall in love with his aunt …
Watch-o-meter: It’s worth a look, though I won’t be surprised if you won’t feel inclined to watch it again. Watch it for the interaction between Min Woo and his daughter.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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