Trot Lovers Review

Title: Trot Lovers (트로트의 연인)            Year: 2014
Number of Episodes: 16
General Description: Jang Joon Hyun (Ji Hyun Woo) and Choi Chun Hee (Jung Eun Ji) are from two different worlds—- obviously needed for a k-drama to even have a plot. Anyways, Jang Joon Hyun is a famous and talented musician, who also happens to despise traditional trot music. While Choi Chun Hee, who is a down-on-her-luck, hardworking girl, also happens to have a gorgeous voice and natural talent for singing trot. Through a series of fortunate events, the two meet, and must work together to make her a star.
Personal Opinion: On a scale of one to cheesy, I would rate this drama as cutesy-cliche. The music in this show was great, and the cast was lovable and funny. But, overall the story was pretty basic and stuck to the average ingredients for a rom-com style drama: the evil but changes her ways rival, psycho-bitch moms, crazy back stories, and the sweet, charming second-lead who doesn’t get a chance. With only 16 episodes, it was pretty short. But, I think the show had a very fun feel overall, and I would re-watch for hilarious side characters and catchy tunes.

Title: K-POP The Ultimate Audition (K-POP 최강 서바이벌)

Year: 2012              Number of Episodes: 14

General Description: Ji Seung-Yeon (Ko Eun-Ah), a boyish looking girl, strives to achieve her dreams of becoming a musician and struggles to achieve her goal when she is kicked out of music school. Her best bet is to try out with her bestie, Ji-Woo (Kwak Yong-Hwan). The catch is the auditions are for new members of the popular boyband m2. The leader of m2 also happens to be Kang Woo Hyun (Park Yoo-Hwan), whom she had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting once before. The show follows Seung-Yoon and her misadventures of trying to hide her identity, while at the same time pursuing her dreams of becoming a hip-hop legend.

Personal Opinion: Overall the show was okay. The episodes alone were pretty cute, and they had some funny moments (like how Mino’s reactions to everything was “DAYYYYUUM”), but the ending and lack of plot really did it in for me. There was not anything major that the characters seemed to accomplish, and the show kind of just ends. I think if there weren’t two episodes missing then the end would not have been such a let-down. Good for watching quickly with a friend, especially if you are in the mood to see some cuties. My favorite part of the show? Park Yoo-Hwan smile dimple. (;

(This show is a part of the Oh Boy! Series of dramas, in which the main cast is filled with good looking gentlemen and popular stars galore.)

Movie Monday: Secretly Greatly

So, this past weekend I was crying over my inability to not watch "The Technicians" aka "The Con Artists" aka 기술자들 on Dramafever this past Saturday. Because of (1) my lack of funds and (2) my serious lack of funds. Basically another action-esque movie about thieves, action and chaos. The movie came out late 2014 in Korea, and early 2015 for some other countries, and was then released for a limited time on Dramafever. While I was crying over my serious lack of Kim Woo-bin and Lee Hyun-woo in my life, the tears subsided as I stumbled upon the k-movie, "Secretly, Greatly". I would not consider myself a Korean movie connoisseur nor a movie expert, but "Secretly, Greatly" was pretty darn good.

"Secretly, Greatly" (its Worldwide English title) is about a North Korean spy named Won Ryu-hwan. He was sent to live secretly in South Korea as a spy, for several years as a village idiot named Dong-gu. He is joined later by Rhee Hae-rang and Rhee Hae-jin, who were comrades from North Korea, sent to live in South Korea as well, as a rock star and a high school student (respectively). The sudden shift in activity with the placement of his comrades as well as other major incidents, lots of action ensues. I will not divulge any more information about the movie in case someone reading this wants to watch it, which I highly suggest.

The movie was fantastic! It had the perfect amount of heartwarming feels, combined with an intriguing plot line, great acting, and on the edge action scenes. The movie stars Kim Soo-hyun, who perfectly transitions from the goofy, not-so-bright Dong-gu to a savant spy within seconds. His acting and character portrayal was pretty fantastic! It also stars Park Ki-woong as Hae-rang, and Lee Hyun-woo as Hae-jin.The movie not only satisfied my secret love for a good action movie, but it also had a really good plot which kept me watching.

After watching the movie I wanted to see what others had to say about it online, and got distracted when I found out that it was based off a webcomic called "Covertness" by Hun. I then used my nerd power and internet saavy to look it up. I have not yet had the chance to get my hands on a copy of the books or read it online. But, from my experience where the originals are always better than the movie versions, I am expecting great things.

If anyone else has seen "Secretly, Greatly" feel free to comment with your opinions, and if you have read the original by Hun please tell me what it is like! I would love to hear from anyone if they are reading this post. And if you want to watch the movie, as of now (March 2015) they have it on Dramafever, so you can watch it for free!! (p.s. if you have watched "The Technicians" as well tell me how it was!)