Claymore

 Here are the TV shows I've watched since July:

The Atypical Family (2024)

This was entertaining. Do Do-hae is a con artist who has been tasked with marrying the eligible bachelor in a wealthy family. The family, unbeknownst to her, has superpowers, but due to modern lifestyle issues, can't use their powers. The matriarch, Man-heum, can dream the future, including lottery tickets and stocks, which is why they're wealthy, but she now has insomnia and can't dream. Her son, Gwi-ju, can travel back in time to times he was happy - but his wife died, and all the happy events of his life have been tainted, and he's now an alcoholic. His sister, Dong-hee, can fly- but she's massively overweight, and can't fly anymore. And his daughter, I-na, thought the family doesn't know, can read peoples minds if she looks directly into their eyes...but she's short-sighted, and wears strong glasses. Very amusing! Lots in interesting time travel twists (did Gwi-ju save Do-hae from a fire at school? Or will he?)

Love in the Moonlight (2016)

This highly rated series set in the Joseon Era features the amazing Kim Yoo-jung (in her first lead role) as a young woman, Ra-on, raised as a boy. Due to debts, "he" is sold off to the royal palace as a eunuch, and she manages to cleverly avoid the eunuch process. She becomes a personal servant to the unpredictable prince, Yeong, and starts to fall in love with him, and he to her (though he doesn't know she's a woman). What the prince doesn't know is that Ra-on is the secret daughter of the leader of an uprising a decade before, and the prince's father is still terrified of another uprising. This was a great series, lots of fun, with good characters.
 
Clean With Passion For Now (2018)

Jang Seon-kyul is a man with a phobia of dirt and bacteria, and he runs into Gil Oh-sol, a young woman who is messy and untidy, when she joins his cleaning company. It's a pretty entertaining series, but Kim Yoo-jung (again) takes the show. Lots of good supporting characters too. The only thing that irked me is that the male lead, Yoon Kyun-sang, is a little odd looking - he is tall, but his head seems too small and his hips too wide.

Backstreet Rookie (2020)

Another series starring Kim Yoo-jung, as Saet-byul, a woman who has been a bit obsessed with a handsome man, Dae-hyun (played by the excellent Ji Chang-wook), she meets in passing when she was at school. Years later, she applies at his convenience store as a part-timer, and she proves to be excellent. Dae-hyun is dating a wealthy woman at the time. Things get very much more complicated, with a rival for Dae-hyun's date, Saet-byul's sister going off to a talent agency, the sisters losing their home, and a budding romance between Dae-hyun's friend, a reggae soft-porn comic writer, and Seat-byul's friend, the writer's biggest fan. I loved the characters in this show, and it was so much fun. 

The Heirs (The Inheritors) 2013

This is a show about a group of wealthy heirs at an exclusive private school. Eun-sang (played by the talented Park Shin-hye) is a poor young woman who runs into Kim Tan in LA, where he's been exiled by his family. Back in Korea, Eun-sang's mute mother, player by the prolific Kim Mi-kyung, works for Kim Tan's family, and they grant a scholarship to the school to Eun-sang. The show is complex, but there are a lot of good characters, and it was very highly rated.

She Was Pretty (2015)

As a child, the pretty and popular Hye-jin befriended the overweight boy Sung-joon, but then he moved away. Years later, he has returned to Korea from the US, and wants to meet up. He now now handsome and well-off, while Hye-jin got her dad's prominent freckles and frizzy hair. When she sees what he looks like, she sends her beautiful friend in her place, and Sung-joon and the friend start seeing each other. Meanwhile Hye-jin gets a job at the glamour magazine that Sung-joon now runs, and works there still in love with him while he things she is just a clumsy, idiotic intern. She reminds him a bit of his childhood friend though... A good show, and I enjoyed it.

Reunited Worlds (2017)

A senior schoolboy, Hae-sung, is dating Jung-won. Jung-won is preparing a birthday party for him, and sends him to the school to delay him. There he stumbles on a murdered schoolboy, and as he's rushing to get help, he is killed by a car, and subsequently framed for the murder. His siblings, who he'd been looking after, fall apart. 12 years later, he wakes up, still 19, in the school grounds. His girlfriend and his best friends are now 31, and his siblings are not doing well. He comes back into their lives, and tries to fix everything that's gone wrong, while trying to solve the 12 year old murder mystery that can exonerate him. He finds out he only has limited time there. This was a good show, and I liked the plot and characters a lot. the weakest point, I thought, was the male lead, Yeo Jin-goo; I like him a lot, but he only seemed to have two expressions when the show was on in 2017.

I'm currently watching Romance in the House (which is only two episodes in), and the highly-acclaimed Alchemy of Souls.

Here are the TV shows I've watched since January:

Welcome to Samdal-ri (2023)

This stars one of my favourite actresses, Shin Hye-sun, as a fashion photographer whose life falls apart; she returns to her childhood island where she meets up with her childhood friend, now a weather forecaster after his mother died in bad weather. Nice romance, and some good subplots with other characters.

My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho (2010)

An aspiring action star accidentally releases a magical gumiho, a nine-tailed fox, and she gives him her fox bead that enhances his physical abilities, while she wants to become human. The story is amusing enough, but the male lead is a bit of a bastard at first, and the meat-loving gumiho is a little dim.

My Demon (2023)

This was a lot of fun. An heiress (played by a ridiculously talented Kim Yoo-jung - she's 24, and has done 24 movies and 33 TV series!!!) makes a marriage contract with a demon who has lost his powers; he helps her against her predatory family, while she, by proximity, helps him with his powers. This series has some really nice k-pop songs in the soundtrack.

Abyss (2019)

This was so entertaining! A wealthy but unattractive man is accidentally killed by aliens. They revive him with a device called Abyss, but it revives him with looks matching his soul; he is suddenly tall and handsome. The model-like woman he's always liked but who rejected him is murdered by a serial killer; he revives her with Abyss, but she is revived is a short, cute woman (in fact, a clone of a local lawyer); she's not happy, of course. They have to somehow track down the serial killer (oops, he got revived too!) while negotiating looks that don't match their official identities, especially when the lawyer who looked identical comes back to Korea...after major plastic surgery. Lots of fun.

Forest (2020)

A doctor is sent out to a rural hospital in a forest, close to an emergency response unit. A financier with childhood trauma who runs an acquisitions company wants to develop the forest area as a resort, so he goes undercover in the response team to see how to persuade them to relocate, and he ends up renting part of the house the attractive doctor is renting. There are, of course, lots of background issues in the area, and financial machinations. It was amusing that both leads were left-handed; I knew about Jo-Bo-ah, she's been in a few series I've enjoyed). It was interesting, but did drag on a little, I thought.

Doona! (2023)

A beautiful but troubled k-pop idol takes up residence in a shared house and strikes up a relationship with an engineering student there. The female lead, Bae Suzy, was in fact a k-pop star turned actress. The series is short and sweet, but a little frustrating and meandering at points.

Doctor Slump (2024)

This was such a good series. A brilliant plastic surgeon, Yeo Jeong-woo, has a patient die on the operating table, and his life is destroyed; he's forced to move in to a cheap rooftop flat. He discovered that his downstairs neighbour is Nam Ha-neul (played by the always-excellent Park Shin-hye), a brilliant anaesthesiologist; she has resigned from her work suffering from severe burnout and depression. The two of them were high school rivals, but but they start coming together to help each other. I really enjoyed this. Great characters and a good story.

Queen of Divorce (2024)

Kim Sa-ra, a lawyer, is framed by her wealthy husband, and goes to prison. When she's released, she starts a company that focuses on divorce, while she struggles to get access to her son. She gets Dong-Ki-joon (played by Kang Ki-young, who I've seen as a supporting actor in heaps of series, including one I'm watching at the moment), a lawyer, to help her, and they start liking each other while solving peoples' marriage problems and getting to the root of her husband's evil deeds (and his mother's!). Lots of fun. 

Hi Bye, Mama! (2020)

I watched this on a whim, and was absolutely hooked! Cha Yu-ri died in a tragic accident the day before she was due to give birth; her baby was saved. She spends the next 5 years as a ghost, watching her husband fall apart, watching her daughter grow up but fall behind her peers, watching the pain her parents and her best friend suffer. Finally, angrily, she curses the gods, and she becomes mortal again...except she has 49 days to get back to her place in the world, or she gets taken up to heaven. Her husband has remarried...but his new wife loves Yu-ri's daughter, and does her best for her, and is a good person. Her husband, a surgeon, has PTSD, and can't do operations anymore (he was busy with a surgery when his dying wife was brought in). Then there are the group of ghosts who all have their own tragic stories. The series makes one think about the pain one leaves behind, and what you make of your life before you die. It was thought-provoking, and sweet. I loved this series so much. heatherbubbles , watch this! Something a bit sad was that the actress who played Yu-ri's younger sister died a couple of years ago of unspecified causes. :(

I'm currently watching Queen for Seven Days, and Doom at your Service.

My latest bunch of Korean TV series I've watched this month:

It's Okay to Not Be Okay



Kim Soo-hyun plays Moon Kang-tae, an orphaned psychiatric caregiver; he takes care of Moon Sang-tae, his autistic older brother, brilliantly played by Oh Jung-se. Seo Yea-ji plays Ko Moon-young, a violently antisocial but beautiful and very popular author of creepy children's books. There were some really good supporting cast members too. The characters end up in a town with a psychiatric hospital where Kang-tae works, and Moon-young pursues him romantically. There are of course secrets in their backgrounds. Incidentally, five childrens' books were created as part of the series; they were sold, and became bestsellers.

All in all, a good series, but there was one issue: the male lead character was so surly and uncharismatic it was hard to imagine anyone being interested in him. It was 4 episodes before he smiled; a good thing, because there's something a little weird about his mouth. Moon-young was amazing though. One amusing bit, considering that she's a bit of a psycho: at one point, Kang-tae picks her up as she's walking forlornly along the road in the rain, and he suggests they stop at a motel so she can warm up. The motel they stop at is "Bates Motel"...


Missing You



Two 15 year old kids become sweethearts; Soo-yeon is the outcast daughter of a murderer, and Jung-woo is the son of a wealthy gangster. Due to a family conspiracy involving Jung-woo's family (his grandfather's mistress and her young son Hyung-joon), Jung-woo is kidnapped, along with Soo-yeon, who tries to rescue him. Soo-yeon is raped, and Jung-woo manages to escape, leaving her behind. She's presumed to be dead. Jung-woo moves in with her family because of his hate for his father, and becomes a detective, convinced Soo-yeon is still alive.

14 years later, Soo-yeon, now called Zoey Lou, returns to Korea along with Harry Borrison (Hyung-joon), who has been looking after her all this time. Soo-yeon recognises Jung-woo, but want to mess with him because she blames him for leaving her. He doesn't recognise her, but is confused.

It gets complicated; there's a serial killer, family machinations, and family relationships. I really enjoyed the series. The child actors in this 2012 series, Yeo Jin-goo and Kim So-hyun, have turned out to both be incredibly talented actors as adults; Jin-goo was the male lead in Hotel Del Luna. The one peculiar bit was the music. It was mostly orchestral music, but not generally well-synced to the action. Soo-yeon gets raped (off screen) to a violin solo that sounds like it came straight from Schindler's List. In fact, a lot of the music could have come from that.


Pinocchio



This was such a good series, not only fun, but educational, showing how news reporting can be twisted. There's a building fire, and a number of firemen die. Because of the news reporting, the captain, whose body has not been found, is blamed, and under media pressure, one of his son's disappears, and his wife kills herself and her young son, Ki Ha-myung. He's not dead though, and is rescued and raised by an elderly man, who thinks Ha-myung is his son who died 30 years before, and who adopts him. A while later, the man's younger son and his daughter, Choi In-ha, move to the island after his divorce from (as it turns out) the news reporter who destroyed the boy's family. In-ha has "Pinocchio Syndrome"; she hiccups whenever she lies. In-ha and Ha-Myung grow up together, and eventually move to the city, where both get jobs as reporters; Ha-myung with great reluctance, and he thinks they're all evil, and In-ha with difficulty because she can't lie.

They end up exposing crimes and a decades-long conspiracy involving several characters. The actors are all superb, especially male lead Lee Jong-suk, who I have seen recently in Romance is a Bonus Book, and who is dating singer IU, and Park Shin-hye, who is incredibly prolific in the industry. You can't help liking most of the characters, even the very sympathetic serial killer.


Twenty-Five Twenty-One



I loved this series so very much, one of my favourites. It's a series about the romantic lives of five characters between 1998 and 2021, somewhat focused on the world of fencing, and rightfully is one of the highest-rated Korean dramas. It's mostly told as a flashback as Na Hee-do's daughter reads her diaries.

Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri) is an 18yo fencer, once a prodigy but now in a slump, who moves to a new school to continue fencing. She worships fencing gold medallist Ko Yu-rim. Her mother, a news anchor, is always absent. She starts to fall in love with Baek Yi-jin. She has an anonymous online friend, "Injeolmi", who supports her and confides in her.

Ko Yu-rim (singer Kim Ji-yeon) is a gold medallist fencer, also 18, who intensely dislikes Na Hee-do, and treats her with disdain. She comes from a poor family, but is highly renowned for her fencing. She has an anonymous online friend, "Ryder37", who supports her and confides in her.

Baek Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk) is a 22yo man whose family lost everything in the IMF crisis, and he is working multiple jobs to support himself and his family, who are all split up. He becomes a reporter.

Then there are a few friends with their own ambitions and relationships, and also the disgraced fencing coach.

The relationships are all so lovely, and the characters are likeable and understandable. The fencing competitions are fun too; they focus entirely on sabre; I can't remember if women could compete in epee back then.

Something I really liked was the focus on important things in each era; for example, the crushing financial problems in Asia during the 1998 IMF crisis, 9/11 (Baek Yi-jin is in New York), and even Covid in 2021. Of course there are pagers and flip phones in 1998, and all the tech of the time. Kim So-hyun, who plays the older Na Hee-do in 2021, is a renowned musical stage actor who has played the female lead role in many musicals, but especially Phantom of the Opera.

One of my top 5 Korean series.


My Love from the Star



In concept, this is interesting. Do Min-joon (Kim Soo-hyun) is an alien who was stranded on Earth 400 years ago, and he has great wealth and knowledge, and what could be called superpowers. He will finally be able to return to his planet in three months, but starts falling in love with Cheon Song-yi (Jun Ji-hyun, who also played the lead in Legend of the Blue Sea, which I really enjoyed). Song-yi is a famous but haughty actress who has just moved in next door to Min-joon.

Unfortunately, I hated the main characters. Min-joon, played by the same lead actor from It's Okay to Not Be Okay, has the same problem here in that he is completely uncharismatic and unlikeable. On top of that, he gaslights Song-yi constantly about his powers or things that he does, doesn't communicate, and lies to her all the time. Song-yi, apart from being haughty and arrogant, is also totally dimwitted. Frankly, neither character is really likeable, and I had to slog through this series, despite how much acclaim it got. Thankfully the supporting cast are good, and the villain, Lee Jae-kyung, is deliciously evil.

Some more Korean TV series watched:

My Golden Life



My Golden Life is a 52-episode epic, but it's totally worth it. It stars the extraordinary Shin Hye-sun as Seo Jian, a young woman who has been struggling in contract jobs to support her family; she has a twin sister, Jisu. Then it's discovered that she is actually the real daughter of a really wealthy family who went missing 25 years before. Grasping the opportunity, she moves to their home, only to find them cold, strict, and obsessed with appearances. The one person who treats her reasonably decently is her "brother". Some time thereafter, it's discovered her adoptive mother lied, and the real missing child was her sister Jisu. She's kicked out in disgrace, and both families start imploding. Jian ends up on a mountainside trying to kill herself. 

The series covers the lives of all the members of the families, with a number of people's stories entwined (for example, Jisu has a crush on Jian's friend who has a crush on Jian). It's really such a good series, absolutely worth watching. Shin Hye-sun is the master of playing characters with emotion but especially characters who are bleak and broken.


King the Land



King the Land is very different. Sa-rang is a concierge at the King Hotel, trained in exception customer service with a smile, who gets promoted to the hotel's VIP area, King the Land. Won is the heir to the conglomerate that owns the hotel and general manager, recently returned to Korea; he threatens his aunt and uncle who want to run the conglomerate. Won starts liking Sa-rang, and they end up in a relationship. What's really nice about this series is that the two main characters are really good to each other; they communicate, they're loyal, and they do the right thing. No drama. I really enjoyed this series.


Nevertheless



Nevertheless is a shorter series, only 10 episode, thank goodness. It was OK, but the characters are way too angsty, and they don't talk to each other, leading to lots of miscommunication. I actually found that rather annoying, even though the characters were quite interesting. It's basically about the romance between sculpture students at an art university, one of whom can't trust men any more, and the other who can never commit to anyone.


Tale of the Nine-Tailed



Tale of the Nine Tailed is a bit of a mixed bag. Lee Yeon is a 1000 year old gumiho (nine-tailed fox, a mythical mountain deity) who has been looking to the reincarnation of his dead love for centuries. Ji-ah is a brilliant TV show producer who tracks him down after seeing unexplained events. It's quite an interesting story, but there's a fight with the Serpent, an evil villain, that takes far too many episodes. The mysteries in the plot are good though, and the supporting characters are excellent (as are the lead characters).


I'm currently watching Romance is a Bonus Book, which is superb.

I just watched three Korean TV series starring Shin Hye-sun, with the last episode of See You in My 19th Life coming out just in time last night. She is amazingly good.

Still 17



I loved this series so much. Woo Seo-ri, an aspiring violinist who had been accepted to an academy in Germany, was in an accident when she was 17, and was in a coma until she woke up 13 years later. Her guardians are nowhere to be found, so she tries to go back home. Her home, however, is now owned by Gong Woo-jin, a man still tortured by guilt because he believes he was responsible for the girl he liked (Seo-ri) being killed in an accident 13 years before - but he had her name wrong. Shin Hye-sun plays the role so well of a 17 year old girl in a 30 year old body, trying to come to terms with the loss of nearly half her life, wanting to find her aunt and uncle, and wondering if she can play the violin again. Woo-jin and his nephew are reluctant hosts of this strange homeless woman who knows things about their house.

The series is moving and thought-provoking, with lots of lovely moments. Very highly recommended. 


Angel's Last Mission: Love



The whole premise of this is a little jarring. Kim Dan is an angel who has been given a final mission before he can go to heaven: he needs to find true love for ballerina Lee Yeon-seo. Yeon-seo is a ballerina who was blinded in a stage incident, and she is bitter and abusive to everyone. Kim Dan starts falling in love with her himself. There's more to it, and crime and plots, and family and ballet, and a fallen angel who is the creative director of Yeon-seo's Fantasia ballet company. Shin Hye-sun is, of course, excellent, playing a bitter woman to a T; unfortunately the character of Kim Dan, the angel, is weak and a bit ridiculous. He, of course, gets quite angry with the vengeful Deity, and his superior, Archangel Hu, keeps trying to guide him on the right path. All in all, worth watching, not not as good as some other series. I did like the choice of the ballet being performed in the series: Giselle, which deals with some similar plot points.


See You in My 19th Life

This series was emotional and moving, and I think talked a lot to the grief of people left behind after tragedies. Shin Hye-sun plays Ban Ji-eum, a woman who remembers all of her previous reincarnations, and is in her 19th life. In her 18th life she was Yoon Joo-won, a girl wise beyond her years (duh) who formed a bond with a boy a few years younger, and they were close friends. She was killed in a tragic accident, and now, in her 19th life, she wants to find the boy, Moon Seo-ha, who was in the accident with her in her 18th life. She finds that Seo-ha, Joo-won's sister Cho-won, and Joo-won's mother are all still struggling with the tragedy even 24 years later, and she has to deal that herself, and decide whether or not to reveal herself. 

There are lots of goosebump moments, and lots of moving and emotional scenes. It makes on think about tragedies and those left behind. It's also an interesting thought experiment on the nature of personality and memory in connection with reincarnation. Shin Hye-sun plays the role amazingly, as a woman of 24 (and Hye-sun is 33 herself) who has the maturity of a woman with several lifetimes' of experience, and who knows exactly what she wants. It's quite cool that she uses the experience of her previous lives, as a warrior, a flamenco dancer, a trapeze artist, a musician, and much more. It was nice to Cha Chung-hwa in a supporting role; she's been in several other series I've watched. Moon Seo-ha is played by Ahn Bo-hyun, who was in Her Private Life; he is good too.

I've now seen Shin Hye-sun in several series:
In The Legend of the Blue Sea she plays a supporting role as a researcher with a crush on the male lead
In Mr. Queen, she plays a man in the body of a queen from 200 years ago
In Still 17, she plays a 17 year old girl in a 30 year old body
In Angel's Last Mission: Love she plays bitter, blind ballerina
In See You in My 19th Life she plays a woman with knowledge of all her previous lives.
That's quite a variety of interesting roles....

More Korean TV series watched.

(ML = Male Lead, FL = Female Lead)

My Mister (2018)



This series was just amazing. It's neither romantic nor a comedy; it's about the struggles of several people in the same neighbourhood and company. Acclaimed actor Lee Sun-kyun plays Park Dong-hoon, a moral and ethical structural engineer at a large company that is experiencing political issues. He supports his jobless brothers and mother, and his lawyer wife is having an affair with the company CEO. The CEO, trying to eliminate Dong-hoon's boss, has a bribe sent to the boss to discredit him, but instead of going to Park Dong-un, it goes to Park Dong-hoon. A young temp recently hired at the company, Ji-an, played by K-pop star IU (who starred in Hotel Del Luna), is a woman broken by life, desperately trying to support her disabled gran. She sees opportunities to get money from the CEO by doing dirty work, starting with getting Dong-un and Dong-hoon fired.

The series is moving and complex, and highlights caring people and neighbourhoods, and the difficulties of family and relationships. 

Coffee Prince (2007)



Coffee Prince is an older series. Han-gyeol is a layabout coffee company heir; his grandmother forces him to set up and run a renovated coffee shop. He runs into a tomboy, Eun-chan, who he mistakes for a young man, and he hires "him" to act as a gay lover when he is forced on blind dates, and then hires "him" for his coffee shop staffed by young men. There's a parallel storyline featuring two friends who fall in and out of love, with the male played by the star of My Mister, Lee Sun-kyun, 11 years younger. Han-gyeol starts having feelings for Eun-chan, confusing him terribly since he's sure he's not gay. The series was a lot of fun, though I did think Eun-chan was played as bit of a dorky idiot for the first few episodes.

Business Proposal (2022)


Shin Ha-ri, a food researcher, is asked by her best friend to go on a blind date in her place, and put the prospective date off by acting weird. The antics don't work, however, and Ha-ri discovers that the date is the company's president, Kang Tae-moo. He, not knowing who she is, decides to employ her as a fake girlfriend so that he doesn't have to go on the blind dates arranged by his grandfather. She spends her time trying to dodge him at work (difficult, because she does excellent work), while he starts getting feelings for her. Meanwhile, her best friend starts falling for Tae-moo's best friend and company secretary. This was a fun series, and at only 12 episodes, a bit shorter than most. There were some interesting food concepts mentioned...like white kimchi ravioli.

Currently I'm watching Mr Queen, which is hilarious.

It's really interesting how tastes can change. For example, in my teens and even up to about 10 or 15 years ago, the fiction I read was almost exclusively science fiction and fantasy, preferably large fantasy series. I still read the occasional one, but mostly my reading now is British procedural crime thrillers, preferably with some romance.

If you'd told me even ten years ago that I would now be watching almost exclusively subtitled Korean romance-dramas, I think I'd have gawped at you. And yet, here we are.

Some of the reasons:

• The Korean dramas seem to be technically far better done than US or British TV series. Cinematography is clear and perfect, sound is far better (less emphasis of music or sound effects overwhelming voices).
• The plots are planned at the start, can be complex, but since most series are 16 or 20 episodes, there isn't this thing of season after season of scriptwriters writing the most desperate things they can to meet the weekly deadline. The Korean TV hangs together.
• The romances are generally pretty sweet, and there's a good chance you'll be getting a happy ending to the series. Frankly, I think we get enough real-world and gritty in our daily lives, thank you very much.
• I don't know if it's the acting or direction (both, likely), but the acting is superb. The actors tell stories with facial expressions, with a quirk of the lips, twitch of the nose, or narrowing of the brow - you know what they're thinking or feeling.
• There's character development. The characters change and grow throughout the series. And not just the main characters; many of the character have their own stories, and they grow too.
• There's often an element of destiny - the characters met as children, or have significant back stories, etc. I really like that. Not just the main characters too; many of the supporting characters have their own backstories.

Anyway, here are some I've watched recently.

Young Lady and Gentleman (2021)



This one is a massive 52 episodes, with hugely complex plots going on (several plots involving various people). Basically, it's about a widower in his 40s who needs a live-in tutor. The tutor who gets the job has her own backstory, has been brought up by her dad since her mother abandoned them. There are multiple relationship stories going on, villainous characters (with their own reasons), and so much more. It was a lot of fun!


What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? (2018)



Kim Mi-So has been the secretary to the Vice Chairman for 9 years, and knows and manages everything. One day she resigns, to pursue her own life, and he's horrified. Turns out there's a bit of a backstory to them as children which she's blanked out (amnesia is a big thing in Korean dramas!), and he wants to win her over. Of course, several other plotlines going on with other characters. This was so much fun! The lead actress, Park Min-young, is absolutely superb.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010)







This might well have been the most enjoyable TV series I've ever watched. It's a historical drama set in Korea's Joseon dynasty, around 1790CE. A woman supporting her mother and brother was educated by her late father, and she makes money on the side by doing assignments and sitting exams for university students and those writing the civil service exams. Since women are not allowed to, she disguises herself as a young man. A young noble, thinking that this man, "Kim Yoon-shik" (her brother's name) is knowledgeable and talented, fools her into writing the entrance exam to the Sungkyunkwan university, and so she goes to university, in disguise because women are not permitted at all (the penalty is death). There she needs to integrate with her two roommates and keep her secret from the scholars, the staff, and the king himself.

In amongst that, there are political machinations, her young nobleman is getting terribly confused because he's feeling romantic feelings toward "Kim Yoon-shik", as are a couple of others, and some scholars are suspecting that Kim Yoon-shik is actually gay. Homosexuality is proscribed too - offenders will be expelled and their names forever erased. The series deals with topics like that, as well as some interesting political issues.

If you look carefully at the pictures, you'll see that "Kim Yoon-shik" is in fact played by the same talented actress as Secretary Kim.

So much fun. I was depressed for a couple of days after it finished, knowing there won't be any more of it.

I finished watching a rather fun TV series. Hyde, Jekyll, Me is a Korean TV series from 2015. It's a bit of a drama/romance, I guess. Director Gu (Seo Jin) is an emotionless, ruthless, cold director of Wonderland, sort of a Korea Disneyland. Ha Na is the owner of the Wonderland Circus, and has recently returned from the US. Seo Jin,due to childhood trauma, suffers from dissociative identity disorder: he has a second personality, Robin. Robin hasn't been around for 5 years, due to Seo Jin's control, and he is kind, emotional, and a famed webtoon artist (who disappeared 5 years ago...). Seo Jin's psychiatrist supposedly has a cure for Seo Jin, but she is kidnapped, and Ha Na was a witness. Ha Na starts falling in love with Robin, and caring for Seo Jin. 

I really enjoyed it, and more than just the entertainment, there were some interesting questions on identity. For example, Robin is a different person, but he shares a body with Seo Jin, generally awakening at night. Seo Jin and Robin have had to learn to live with each other, despite hate and jealousy.

Hyun Bin - who starred in Crash Landing on You - is brilliant as Seo Jin and Robin, and Han Ji-min plays Ha Na excellently too.