K-Drama: Love Revolution (9/10)

Love Revolution is a light. fluffy, teeny bopper webtoon-based web series, full of idols, that has an overall rating of 8. I don’t know if anyone else will love it as much as I do, and maybe I shouldn’t love it so much, but I do.

I LOVE IT SO MUCH! FOR SO MANY REASONS.

Here is a short(ish) summary of the show:

_{Gong Ju Young is a 17-year-old high school student who thinks he has found love at school when he falls for Wang Ja Rim at first sight. But winning her heart won’t be easy. Wang Ja Rim has earned a reputation for being cold and aloof – and, at first, seems totally unimpressed by Gong Ju Young’s garish displays of affection. But Gong Ju Young won’t be deterred so easily. Persistence is the key, he thinks – and, over time, Wang Ja Rim starts to open up to her classmate.}

_{Gong Ju Young’s best buddy since elementary school is Lee Kyung Woo. Will he prove to be a help to Gong Ju Young in his quest for Wang Ja Rim’s heart – or a hindrance? And could Wang Ja Rim’s closest friends, including the popular Oh Ah Ram, also play a role in bringing the duo together? (Source: Viki/mydramalist.com)} e

The reasons this show gets a hard-to-earn 9 rating from me:

It is addicting. I haven’t been this excited for a new episode of a show all year. The last time I felt like I absolutely couldn’t wait to watch the next episode was World of the Married.

It is unique. The lead male and female roles are essentially gender reversed. The girl Wang Ja Rim, played by Lee Ruby, is aloof and not into public displays of affection, while the boy chases after her adoringly, acting cutesy, giving her terms of endearment and hoping to confirm that he is as liked by her as she is by him. The lead boy Gong Ju Young is played by Park Ji-hoon of the now disbanded group Wanna One. He plays the role perfectly. I don’t know what methods he used to practice, but I assume it was observing girls trying to get a guys attention and commitment, and mostly failing at it.

It is very cute. Ju Young and his obvious crush is pretty adorable. The episodes are also very cute. The characters feelings stay the same throughout the show, but each episode is a new story. My favorite is one where Park worries about his height relative to his crush’s since she is growing faster than him.

It is very funny and quirky. I have laughed every single episode. There are so many funny moments.

The romance is sweet — and a little angsty. It is so easy to root for most of the characters to get their happy high school ever afters.

The characters are great. Second lead Yang Min Ji is my favorite character, followed by second lead and a half Oh Ah Ram, played by Im Da Young of Cosmic Girls. Min Ji is thoughtful, even while making a wrong decision, and a good friend. Ah Ram is funny and a boxer who can beat up all the boys, if necessary. She loves to eat and nothing stands between her and food. I like all the second lead boys too. I may have swooned a little over character Lee Kyung Woo, played by Kim Young Hoon of the Boyz. He is sarcastic and slightly thoughtless (sadly) and is a better looking version of the very charming eighties star Andrew McCarthy who stole my heart in Pretty in Pink. The other boys, Kim Byung Hoon, played by Ko Chan Bin and Ahn Kyung Min played by Ahn Do Kyu are slightly nerdy besties, and also very likable.

A lot of credit goes to the director Seo Ju Won and writer Kwak Kyung-Yoon.

The worst things about this show are:

The pink lip gloss Ji-hoon (yes, Ji-hoon, you heard me right) wore in every episode. I know kpop boys love them some makeup, but it was so distracting, and not his color.

The fact that it’s over (tears 💧💧💧). I wish there could be a hundred, no a thousand more episodes or shows just like it.

A-Drama: Never Have I Ever (10/10)

Never Have I Ever on Netflix is my new favorite show. Too bad I finished it (insert very sad face). Now I have to hope beyond hope that they have a sequel on the way. Or I can impatiently twiddle my thumbs until I forget most of the plot line so I can watch it again (my personal rule for re-watching movies and shows).

The show is great because it’s really, really funny. I wouldn’t expect less from producers and writers including Mindy Kaling, a guy who wrote for The Onion and a guy who worked on Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who is America. I laughed through every single episode.

It’s also heartfelt. And it’s a teeny bopper rom-com, which is where my heart lies entertainment wise a lot of the time – probably because I enjoy them. but don’t get that personally invested (except for Dance Academy, that was a 150% investment lol).

Never Have I Ever starts off with a dramatic scene where the main character Devi’s father dies in front of her and she becomes paralyzed for months after that. This is definitely not the way a comedy usually begins, but it shares just enough of Devi’s heartbreak for viewers to understand her angst and empathize with her, even when she’s in the wrong.

Devi is a funny, loudmouthed, first in her class teenager who swears and says indecent things on the regular. She is an Indian American that relates a little more to American culture and considers her mom to be overbearing and overly critical.

Every episode is Devi trying to find her place in the world, more specifically her high school and the LA valley where she lives. Devi is also navigating friendship, how they work and how they survive with her two multicultural teenage dork friends.

What Devi wants more than anything is the school stud Paxton and she does some crazy things to try and get him. She also has an arch nemesis, her rich, obnoxious, academic rival Ben.

What sets this apart from other teeny bopper shows is definitely the humor. It’s a little raunchy, so if you’re under 16 be aware. And there are scathing jokes thrown in that are completely nuanced, so I don’t know how many people will get them. One of my favorites is when Devi tells someone that her volunteer experience includes reading Bill O’Reilly books to veterans. This is hilarious if you know that some American veterans love the former Fox News Host and his bestselling novels even though the books are trash and he is a total perv and %$&@#.

There is also a lot of mainstream humor. Usually it’s when Devi says something without meaning to, like saying “damnnnn” out loud when her school crush sits down in front of her in class (damnnnn in the catcall whistle you’re pretty hot kind of way) or a scene with a coyote that I won’t give away. I especially loved Devi’s cousin Kamala mentioning that all the Riverdale actors were really the same age as Devi’s mom since I rant during the shows and on this blog about how old high school and college age actors really look, example: Noah Centineo who has to be at least 35.

Also the show has narrators, including Andy Samberg and someone totally unexpected. Listening to them do crude teeny bopper talk is hilarious.

Here is a preview:

Truly, this show is sooo good. As mentioned above I give it 10/10 and recommend it 100%.

C-Drama Comedy: Proud of Love (8.7/10)

I’m constantly having The Big Boss withdrawals because, as I mentioned in another post, I love the show so so much. To help curb my withdrawals, I recently watched C-Drama Proud of Love which has some similar elements to The Big Boss.

Proud of Love stars Vivian Sung, star of the much vaunted movie Our Times and Tong Meng Shi of historical drama and Basketball Fever fame. It is about a body switch between college students, a plot line I never get tired of.

What makes this different from other body switch shows is the following:

The characters don’t conform their personalities and mannerisms to the body and identity they were switched to, so they pretty much act like themselves while inside the other persons body.
There is a focus on the realistic effects of switching genders, like when the guy (He Zhi Zhou) in the female (Shen Xi’s) body gets his first Aunt Flo or when Zhi Zhou gets aroused as a guy for the first time (in the boys locker room -whoops! 😳)
This show is also a little more explicit than most c-dramas with lots of body talk and some about sex.

Truth is, calling this a drama is wrong, It is much more of a dramedy. and it’s very best feature is that it had me laughing the whole way through. All the akward moments, and the great acting by Sung and Tong made the show hilarious. Note: Big Boss is still the king of LOL moments, by far, but Proud of Love is definitely funny.

Honestly, with the exception of a few special effects, there was only one thing I didn’t like about the show. They made their second lead too lovable. He is played by Darren Chen who played Hua Ze lei in Meteor Garden. And unlike that drama, where I was ambiguous towards him and his character, he is adorable in this and watching his character be sad made me sad. It is the only reason I’ve resisted watching Season 2 because I can’t decide whether the endless funny makes up for the sads from his sad face.

I highly recommend this if you like dramedy and you don’t get easily embarassed since there are dozens of akward situations where you will likely be peeking out from behind your hands. Because I love to laugh, even at the akward stuff, I give it a pretty high rating overall, which is 8.7/10.

My B-Day & C-Drama Comedy: The Big Boss (9.9/10)

Yesterday was my birthday, and it validated something for me. I am completely arrested development i.e. a kid at heart. The only reason you dont see me skateboarding down the street, playing on a big wheels or hanging at the mall with my friends is that I am adult 😦 which means responsibilities and public shaming if my inner kid comes out too often.

I am technically told old now to watch high school shows or read YA (young adult) fiction and yet I persist because I have apparently never passed that age mentally.
I’m like Tom Hanks in Big, a kid parading in grown up clothes. Because of this, I have no idea how I’ve somehow become a good parent and professional. It’s magic.

Anyway, what did I want to do more than anything yesterday? The answer: Watch one of my favorite shows. One whose viewer demographic is most likely half my age because it’s based on a manhua, and about school age kids, but it makes me laugh – A LOT!

It’s a Chinese show called Big Boss, which is about a girl named Ye Mu Xi who is basically a fun slacker who cant seem to get away from her very smart neighbour Liao Dan Yi, who she considers her shadow, and her enemy. Plus the hijinks they and their classmates get into.

Every episode is hilarious (makes me LOL) and very cute. I love the lead character,
Ye Mu Xi, maybe because she reminds me a little of myself at that age or maybe because she’s just awesome. I will be a fan of Eleanor Lee who plays her forever. The lead boy is completely lovable despite being overly serious and studious. Maybe because he refuses to give up on Ye Mu Xi. Plus he (or more accurately the actor Huang Jung Jie) is really good looking. I say this as someone who isnt blind, not as a cougar or anything (which I am not, except for 6 out of 7 days of the week;). I think they might be my favorite on screen duo.

The OST is also really good.

I really want to recommend this show to you all, but honestly if you aren’t 16 or suffering from arrested development like me I have no idea what you’ll think of it. Me, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT and am only sad that it doesnt have endless seasons, because I would watch them all! So I’ll have to be satisfied repeatedly marathoning it every year until I grow up 😉

K-Drama: Bring it on Ghost (9.2/10)

Lately I’ve been trying to watch the dramas whose summaries didn’t really do it for me when I first read them, since I’ve recently learned the life lesson that they are usually much better than they seem like they’ll be.

This is why I finally watched Bring it on, Ghost, plus it’s directed by Park Joon Wa who is a gift to us all.

I adored this drama. So much.

As part supernatural thriller, part mystery, part romance, part comedy with some action sequences and dysfunctional family dynamics thrown in it stayed interesting until the very end. And sweet. And funny.

I didn’t think I was much for the supernatural type stories, but this one was so much fun to watch.

The friendships and romance all grew organically the way they do in the very best dramas, the ghosts were both funny and scary,and the actors were all great in their roles.

Lead actress Kim So-Hyun is everything good. Funny, sincere and a badass, and omg is she pretty. She’s looks like a doll.

Actor Ok Taec Yeon was good too. And his black suit was on point!

I also love Kang Ki Young’s acting, in this and anything he’s in.

If you’re like me and the plot summary didn’t float your boat when you read it, give it a chance. I promise that you won’t regret it.