KDRAMA
FINISHED Moorim School (16/16): The Moorim School isn't focused solely on high academic scores. The school teaches its students virtues including honesty, faith, sacrifice and communication. The teachers and students at the school come from different countries and each have their own stories.
I was in the mood for a school drama so I started this one with literally no idea what it was about and to my surprise this turned out to be a fantasy drama with magic. It felt a lot like a Harry Potter show except with martial arts instead of actual magic and I ended up enjoying this show though it felt like there was more episodes than the plot required cause it felt like nothing happened for so long and then suddenly the last two episodes came around and it was like reveal after reveal. I mean it was a ton of fun for those episodes but it made the rest so hard to sit through cause it drives me mad when villains are winning over and over and the heroes are consistently falling into traps until the end. I really enjoyed the school aspect though and I loved our main character Shi Woo and his romance with Soon Duk as well as his friendships with the other students and his mentor/mentee relationship with the Headmaster. I didn't really care for Chi Ang as a character cause he had such a huge inferiority complex and was the kind of second male lead who I hate where he knew the girl he liked was into someone else but refused to back down like damn grow a brain moron. At one point he even asked her what she'd do if he forced her into being with him and she was like I'd kill myself and I'm like how many times does she have to reject you for you to give up?? I loved the fight scenes and the awesome ability Shi Woo inherited from his father and the reunion scene he had with him. Overall I'd give this show a 8 / 10 cause I liked a lot but I was also kinda bored at times.
Romance Is A Bonus Book (8/16): Cha Eun Ho is a successful and handsome writer who is also the youngest chief editor at a publishing company. He has a calm demeanor and remains reasonable at work. He then becomes involved in the life of his childhood friend, Kang Dan Yi who was once a popular copywriter. She is now divorced, a single mother, unemployed and struggling in life though still attempts to find a job, but even with her once good career, she cannot. However, in a desperate attempt to find a job, she lies about her background and begins to work as a temporary worker in the same building under none other than Cha Eun Ho. As they become involved in each other’s life more than often, a love story begins to unfold.
Do you ever just think to yourself what a flip-floppy person you are? Well that's what I thought after I watched the two episodes that aired this week. I literally cannot decide if I think our main couple has chemistry or not! I started this show thinking that it would be like Fight My Way in terms of a long time friendship that felt like more but I just can't stop seeing Eun Ho and Dan Yi as siblings. It probs has to do with how up until episode 8 there was no flirting or sexual tension to be see anywhere and it broke my heart how Dan Yi refused to see Eun Ho as anything but a little brother. She actually called him a little brother for episodes on end and it made me sad. After episode 8 though I do feel a little more of the tension and I have always liked the idea of a couple being each other's safe harbors in a storm but the relationship feels so one-sided. Eun Ho does anything and everything for her and she does nothing for him. It's possible that it's cause her life is a mess and his is pretty smooth sailing but still I'd love to see her do stuff for him too. I also hope that now that Eun Ho has basically spilled his feelings that she'll start to feel them too or at least realize she feels the same way cause she already mentioned that he's the most important person to her since he's the one she thinks about before anyone else. On the plus side there's no second lead syndrome here cause I really can't stand Seo Joon. He just seems creepy to me for some reason and I don't like the vibe I get off of him. As always my favorite parts of these episodes were the relationships between the office workers. I loved watching the scene where Dan Yi, Ms Go and Ms Seo went clubbing and then got drunk and had a sob session. For the first time in a long time (probably since Age of Youth tbh) the female friendships in this show actually feel like real friendships! What girl hasn't got drunk and told her life story to other girls they barely know?
What a disappointment of a finale. I had heard last week that Choi Jin Hyuk was not going to be in the final 4 episodes due to scheduling conflicts and my heart had sunk cause his dynamic with Sunny was my favorite thing about this show and it made me wonder how the show would wrap up without their male lead and if that meant that Sunny didn't end up with a happy ending and if Wang Sik died. To my displeasure the show puttered on to a dissatisfying close which really sours the whole show for me cause I had enjoyed it so much for so long! We spent so many episodes trying to redeem Hyuk or at least make us pity him and I have no idea why cause he was the worst and no amount of sad backstory or pity towards his childhood could change that for me! It made no sense cause it's not like Sunny or Wang Sik were going to forgive him for his crimes so why bother especially since Wang Sik didn't even feel like the main lead of the story towards the back half with his lack of air time compared to Hyuk. I hated that Wang Sik died and that Sunny cried more for Hyuk than Wang Sik and that we ended on the note that this show was actually a tragic love tale between Sunny and Hyuk as if he didn't try to murder her multiple times! I am glad that everyone in the Imperial Family got their comeuppance in the end and I was mostly indifferent to the monarchy being disbanded. I even liked that Yu Ra and her guard were able to live happily ever after but seriously there really didn't feel like there was enough story for the show to extend four more episodes and it leaves me a bit bitter cause we could have had an actual ending if it had ended on time like it was supposed to. Overall I'd give this show a 8 / 10 which sucks cause it was a 9.5 at the start and then a 8 for most of the second half and only dropped to a 7.5 cause of my heavy disappointment in the conclusion.
Raise your hand if you are also watching this show and squealing every time the main leads are together! Honestly they're so much more precious than I expected them to be! I love watching how natural their romance feels and how it's building slowly at a pace that makes sense. Yoon Seo is the first person to really worry about Jung Rok and he's fascinated by her kindness and the mood swings keep him constantly wondering what she's thinking which builds his affection towards her too. It's a little less obvious on Yoon Seo's part why Jung Rok is so appealing to her but I think his kindness and compassion reach out to her too. I was living for how jealous Yoon Seo got over Jung Rok going to lunch with Yeo Reum and then how upset Jung Rok was about it and how he tried so hard to figure out why she was upset. It was also super fun seeing him jealous of Yoon Seo's manager but I was a bit disappointed that his jealously was resolved in two seconds while had basically four episodes of Yoon Seo being jealous. I kinda wanted to see a scene where Jung Rok is pouting at home and Se Won is super confused about what's happening. I was also a little surprised that the case with the wife killing her abusive husband was already solved cause I thought it would be a season long case since it has been in the background since the first episode. I did like how it was portrayed and damn if I didn't feel horrid for everyone involved. The abusive husband was the monster but everyone else was getting punished.
CDRAMA
I decided to check this drama out cause I kept hearing that it was the best modern day cdrama out there and I loved Yang Yang in Martial Universe and I love stories set in college so I was super down to check it out but after finishing this drama, I'm torn. There was so much that was fun about this show and so much I liked but one major thing that just didn't work and that took away from my enjoyment of it. I really loved the world that the show built and the creative use of gaming. I loved that there was no real villains but antagonists that actually acted like human beings and were led astray or did something out of spite instead of pure evil like a lot of drama villains do. I loved the side characters especially Nai's roommates though Wei Wei's were sweet too. I loved that there were no misunderstandings or dumb breakups in Nai and Wei Wei's relationship and that he was literally the embodiment of perfection as a man and a boyfriend from start to finish. It's here that I have to say my struggle with this show and that struggle is that I didn't really enjoy Nai and Wei Wei as a couple. On paper they are adorable and I still like the idea of them but in actuality, the two had zero chemistry between them and poor Yang Yang was trying his damn hardest but Zheng Shuang looked like she was either in pain every time they kissed or was attempting to act as a piece of wood. She had the personality of a rock when they first started dating and though she relaxed as the show went on, it was not cute and pulled me out of the show every time it happened. On the other hand, I loved the hinted at relationship between Mei and XO! I was stunned when I first started seeing sparks between them cause asian dramas don't usually do gay relationships but as the show went on, it was pretty clear what was happening even if it was never spelled out. Overall I'd give this show a 8 / 10 and I have to say, I was a little disappointed that I didn't love this show like everyone else did though I shouldn't have had such high expectations after hating Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms which everyone loved too...
xoxo Allie
