K-Drama: World of the Married (9.5/10)

I know I am late to the party on this one. I didn’t watch this show when it first aired. This is because I am single, which is mostly fine with me, for a lot of reasons, but what single person gets enthusiastic about a show called World of the Married?

Obviously, I didn’t read the summary. I just judged a book by its cover and I am so glad I decided, months later, to watch it anyway. It is MY FAVORITE SHOW OF 2020.

Here’s is the summary for anyone that did what I did and didn’t read it before:


Ji Sun Woo is a family doctor and is married to Lee Tae Oh, with whom she shares a teenaged son. Lee Tae Oh, with the financial support of his wife, has established an entertainment company and dreams of becoming a famous director. They seem to have everything; successful careers and happy family life. But that perfect image will soon be shattered when one spouse betrays the other, and those that serve to protect them. (Source: JTBC Worldwide)

What the summary doesn’t tell you is that the show is about a betrayal which causes a series of events that are CRAZY and displays how difficult it is to be betrayed, unloved, unappreciated or to go through a break up, especially when your spouse has moved on. And how difficult it is for the kids when their world as they know it ends and their parents are too caught up in themselves to notice.

From the first episode I was all in! It had the best cliffhangers. So good that I had to know what would happen next and marathoned it.

The story focuses on the two spouses, one who was loyal and the other who cuckolded them, the person they did it with, their family, a couple who unexpectedly got caught up in the spouses drama, the spouses neighbors and people at the hospital where the wife worked.

Almost every character was both good and awful. Thinking about others occasionally, but mostly about themselves. The spouses were a successful doctor living the dream and a film director producer who relied on his wife for funding and was the lucky loser among his friends because his wife always stepped in and supported him.

Other characters included the couples teenage son, who bore the brunt of their issues, the interloper in the spouses marriage who was immature and had no guilt over breaking up a family, the wife’s best friend who was sometimes supportive, but usually selfish and shady, the wife’s boss who was an open misogynist, the couples neighbors who had their own marital issues that took many episodes to work through and a couple in the throes of domestic abuse.

It seems like this show would be a heavy lift to watch with all the emotional stuff and family issues, but it’s not. This show stays interesting all the way through. Because it was interesting and exciting and did I mention crazy? It had cheating, tears, blackmail, rags to riches, violence and near death experiences.

There were only two things I did not like about it. One was the characters black and white views around who would have custody of the kid when there were so many compromises available. The other was the ending.

Obviously, I won’t tell you what it was. And I didn’t hate it. In fact it could have been so much worse. It was good, but a little wonky, overly dramatic and yet a little lacking, in my opinion. I felt like the writers had other better options and were probably just exhausted at the crazy ride they had taken themselves on while writing the drama. Or maybe they had different ideas about the ending and compromised in the end. I don’t know.

I do know that even with my criticisms this was the best drama I have seen all year. The writing was excellent. The acting was amazing. The production was great. Overall, I give it two thumbs up 👍🏻 👍🏻

Best Songs from K-Drama OST’s

These are all of my favorites which I figured I should share with you 🙂

Goblin

Favorite Song: “Stay With Me”

Singer: Chanyeul & Punch

2nd Favorite Song: I Miss You

Singer: Soyou

 

Her Private Life

Favorite Song: Almost all of them

Singer: Almost all of them

Moon Lovers: Scarlet Ryeo

Favorite Song: Can You Hear My Heart

Singer: Epik High ft. Lee Hi

Touch Your Heart

Favorite Song: Make it Count

Singer: Chen

 

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Favorite Song: Double Trouble Couple

Singer: MAMAMOO

Man to Man

Favorite Song: Destiny

Singer: Park Bo Ram & Basick

Because This is My First Life

Favorite Song: This Life

Singer: Moon Sung Nam

I Am Not A Robot

Favorite Song: Do You Know Me

Singer: Stella Jang 

Oh My Ghostess

Favorite Song: Leave & Gimme a Chocolate

Singer: Park Bo Young & Jo Jong Sook

*Best actor sung K-Drama OST songs

Arang and the Magistrate

Composer: Kim Hyeon-jong

*Best instrumental K-Drama OST

K-Drama: Abyss (0 impressions ☹)

Y’all, Abyss is out and I am so excited I can’t stand it. The leads are two of my favorite actors, Park Bo Young, who is good in everything and Ahn Hyo Seop who killed it in Thirty But Seventeen and in Queen of the Ring, which is one of my favorite lighthearted k-romances of all time. How could they not be great together? I think that’d be impossible.

BUT I can’t watch it yet 😢 😢 😢 because there is no way I can watch the first episode and then wait, patiently, for the next one. I am not that girl. It is a lesser of evils to wait until 3-5 episodes have dropped, so at least I can watch knowing that I will see a little of what happens next.

Waiting will only be a little less painful, and about equal to the pain I felt when I maturely decided not to take a whole donut from the box my co-worker brought in to work this morning.

Please think good thoughts for me while I try to pretend Abyss didn’t come out yet 😉

The plot is below:

“Abyss” is about a man and a woman who tragically die and are given another chance at life through soul-reviving marbles in a magical abyss.

Go Se Yeon was a tough, accomplished, and an unrivaled beautiful female prosecutor who worked in the Seoul District public Office but gets into a fatal accident and dies. However, due to the mysterious magical marble—Abyss—Go Se Yeon is revived, but now in a totally different appearance. Go Se Yeon now possesses a common appearance based off of how “good” her spirit was in her previous life.

Cha Min was the highly intelligent heir to Korea’s top cosmetics company but was also a smart, humble, and a kind-hearted man. Although he has both the brains and an astounding amount of wealth, he considers himself unattractive and is insecure about his looks. Like Go Se Yeon, Cha Min gets into an accident and dies. Due to the mysterious magical marble—Abyss—he comes back to life with a different appearance as an exceedingly handsome man just as bright as his spirit he had in his previous life.
Go Se Yeon and Cha Min begin to work as a lawyer and an administrator at a private law firm and decide to investigate the magical incident. Romance blooms in the office as the two intertwine together to accept their same fate.

K-Drama: Her Private Life (1st Impressions)

I didn’t expect to like this drama as much as I do. I am not much of a fan girl, so I didn’t think I would relate to the plot. But I have been excited to see how Park Min Young and Kim Jae Wook are together. Her drunken scene in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim is everything and who doesn’t love the Waffle Guy in Coffee Prince. And Robin’s post about the show got me hyped enough to start watching while it’s still airing instead of waiting til it ends so I can binge the episodes if it’s addictive. And now I cant’t wait for next weeks episodes.

So far this drama has just the right amount of comedy, intrigue and chemistry. I have not been able to guess episode to episode what would happen next with the leads, the gallery they work at or with the idol the leading lady is such a fan of.

I’ve enjoyed it a lot so far. The only things I am not a fangirl of (get it ha ha) are the dramas incorporation of love triangles and misunderstandings, which may have enlarged the script and increased the show count, but aren’t, in my opinion, adding anything beneficial to the plot. That said the show so far is great and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

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.

Kim So-Hyun

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.

K-Drama: You Who Came From the Stars – Yay or Nay?

So, I started the Korean drama You Who came from the Stars because so many people said it was good, but after watching the first episode, I am struggling to continue.

The main female character, who is an actress is so dumb even her fans think she’s a moron. She is also entitled and mean to her assistant (sidenote: I am not ok with this since I was once the assistant to a C-list celebrity who was not always nice, and it was miserable).

The main male character is an alien whose been on earth for 400 years, but has somehow failed in FOUR CENTURIES to learn any patience for the opposite sex, or to understand them.

It is also revealed in the first episode that the characters are fated (as they are in pretty much every k-drama). It turns out that the guy saved the girl’s life after she dangerously, stupidly and inexplicably ran away from her rich, attractive childhood suitor. She was almost hit by a truck, but the alien used his magic, alien powers to save her. When the suitor (now an adult) proposes, she turns him down because she says she has to meet the guy who saved her. I really don’t understand this logic. Or the fact that her and the alien already met and even though he can move objects with his mind,and see the future, he has no idea it’s her.

I just don’t know how this is going to get better and I worry that I could invest hours of my life I can’t get back in something I don’t even like (see Innocent Man post for the last time I did that).

What to do, what to do…