So here's what I'm watching this week! Of course the list is split by country and the amount of episodes I've seen so far are written below! There will be spoilers from now on so if you aren't caught to the episode number on list, you might want to go watch that episode and then come back! If you're interested in previous reviews, click here and if you want to see a list of my Favorite Asian OTPs and Ships, click here!
KDRAMA
365: Repeat The Year (20/24): A story where ten people get the chance to go back in time by one year, but unexpectedly mysterious situations start to arise when their fates are changed and twisted in the process. Ji Hyung Joo is a detective in the violent crimes division. He used to be part of the traffic police but was promoted when he arrested a wanted criminal. It's been seven years since the change, and he's a talented individual who always knows how to relax. Though he is happy at first to have the chance to go back in time by one year and "reset" his life, he begins to search for the truth when a series of mysterious events befall on the group of people he goes back in time with.
I'm torn this week about how I feel cause on the one hand I'm heartbroken that the serial killer ended up being Sun Ho cause I adored his relationship with Hyung Jo but on the other I'm so proud for having guessed the killer correctly! I know some people get pissed when a murder mystery show all but lays out the clues for you before the reveal but I personally think that's the best type of writing cause big twists should be visible in hindsight not out of nowhere to shock the viewers. Unlike with Memorist, the mystery here is understandable and easy enough to follow along with which is why it's so fun to watch. When a story is too convoluted, you're just wading through a pool of confusion and who wants that?? I still don't entirely understand how Sun Ho managed to kill the first few victims and make it look like such clear accidents especially the victim that died of a heart attack but I'm too far in the game to care now! It's also interesting that he figured out the truth of the reset before Hyung Jo told him and that he used it to pick his targets but I'm still really confused about Lee Shin's role in all this cause once again how does any of this help her daughter? I wondered for a second if Sun Ho would go kill Lee Shin cause she was the only one to know the truth of who he was but maybe he's saving her for later or he's worried that it'll be hard to grab her. Either way I think Hyung Jo was smart for letting himself be arrested cause obviously Sun Ho is trying to pin the whole thing on Hyung Jo and if Hyung Jo is in the police station then he has the perfect alibi so that Sun Ho has to stop killing or else his whole staging ploy will be for nothing. I can't imagine how horrible Hyung Jo feels about all this cause it was basically all his fault that all the other resetters died since he saved a serial killer.
A Piece Of Your Mind (10/12): An innovator in the world of artificial intelligence programming, Moon Ha Won has made quite a name for himself in the AI industry. The founder and brain behind the popular portal site, M&H, Ha Won is a man everyone knows. A man devoted to his work, everyone knows he doesn’t take what he does lightly and expects his employees to follow suit, but he’s also known as a kindhearted, rational thinker, who never gets angry and never loses his cool. An ideal man, with a soft heart, Ha Won believes that when it comes to love, having even a small fraction of his love’s heart is enough to sustain him. But that theory is put to the test when Han Seo Woo wanders into his world. A classical music recording engineer, Seo Woo hasn’t had the easiest life. With no family to support her, and no place to call home, Seo Woo has spent the majority of her life wandering and alone. Despite her difficulties, Seo Woo has managed to keep an open and optimistic mindset, believing that all things happen for a reason. Wandering down the path life has laid before her, Seo Woo soon finds herself crossing paths with Ha Won. As the two begin a journey together, they come to find that sometimes two different halves really can make a whole.
Can you believe that the finale for this show is next week? It's so funny cause when I love a drama I'm always shocked when it comes to an end unlike when I hate a drama and I'm like is it STILL going?? With the shortened season, the plot is flying from one point to another at lightning speed. Ha Won and Seo decided to date, and live together in the course of two episodes and yet it's been 10 and we're still dancing around the fact that In Wook was Ji Soo's husband! My emotions are all over the place after this week and I don't know where to start. In Wook as it turns out just randomly hated Ha Won back in the day (and the show made a point of highlighting the fact that there was no real reason why In Wook hated him) and because of that he told Ha Won's mom that Ha Won was coming home so she waited for him and died in a snow storm rather than going to a shelter. After Ji Soo found out she wasn't sure if Ha Won should know or not and sent letters to Ha Won and Soon Ho's grandmother but the letters weren't found until now. What pisses me off more than In Wook's actions (cause I get that he was a kid and probs didn't mean for her to die) is the way everyone and their mother is trying to "manage" Ha Won from Soon Ho to Hoon to even Seo Woo. I hate that everyone knew everything before him and that Soon Ho in particular chose In Wook's side but blamed the whole thing on "love" and fate being a bitch. Like girl please Ha Won isn't pissed at In Wook cause he's Ji Soo's husband but because he knows that In Wook knows something about his mom's death and I don't care if In Wook had zero part in her death, Ha Won has the right to ask! Soon Ho had been annoying from the moment she appeared on this show and she's just been continuously getting worse. Like who picks a guy they've met for like a few months over a family member they've known for 14 years??
FINISHED Coffee Prince (17/17): Choi Han Gyul is the grandson of chairwoman Bang of Dong-in Foods, a company that has a thriving coffee business. He has never had a job and does not care for responsibility. Han Gyul is hung up on his first love, Han Yoo Joo, who only sees him as a friend.Go Eun Chan is a 24-year-old tomboy who is often mistaken for a guy. Her father died when she was 16 years old and since then she has taken over as the breadwinner in her family. When Han Kyul and Eun Chan meet, he, not knowing that she is a girl, decides to hire her to pretend to be his gay lover so that he can escape the blind dates arranged by his grandmother. After getting an ultimatum from his grandmother, Han Gyul takes over a rundown old coffee shop, later renamed "Coffee Prince," to prove that he's capable, both to his grandmother and to Yoo Joo. In order to attract female customers, he only hires good-looking male employees. Eun Chan, desperate for money, continues to hide her gender to get a job at Coffee Prince.
Having watched Mary Stayed Out All Night last week, I felt that it was only fair to check out other oldies but goodies and this is another one of those classics that I heard was a must-watch but I was hesitant cause honestly guys I'm starting not to love all the drama troupes that I thought were kinda funny when I first started watching dramas. I've never really been a huge fan of body swaps or gender swaps but I figured why not try anyway and overall it was a mixed bag. I ended up enjoying this drama more than I thought but it took until the secret came out about Eun Chan before I did. I had hardcore SLS during the first half of this drama and idk the way Han Gyul treated Eun Chan was kinda gross even though I know logically that he thought she was a dude but once he found out the truth and Han Sung got back with Yoo Joo, I started to see why people thought this show was so cute and why they shipped the main leads. I did totally understand Han Gyul's anger cause Eun Chan really was selfish about the whole thing and once the other guys in the coffee house starting figuring it out one-by-one, she really should have told Han Gyul the truth. It's always better to come out with the truth earlier rather than later! All the guys in the coffee house were pretty cute though I wasn't a huge fan of any of their love lines but I did love that despite Han Gyul coming from a rich family that there was practically no monster-in-law antics. His family was actually really sweet and despite a few hiccups, they gave Eun Chan the chance she deserved to prove to them that she was more than a simple gold digger or someone who was using Han Gyul. The ending was super cute though it was kinda hilarious how Eun Chan still didn't want to get married after two years. Overall I'd give this show a 9 / 10.
Find Me In Your Memory (22/32): The story revolves around a man with hyperthymesia, a condition that gives people the ability to remember an abnormally vast amount of their life experiences in vivid detail, and a woman who has forgotten the most important moments of her life. The two people with similar scars fatefully cross paths one day and come to love each other. Jung Hoon is an anchor of a news show which has the highest ratings. Jung Hoon’s handsome face and perfect body figure make him look good in a suit. Unlike his gentle appearances, he becomes a tyrant all of a sudden and starts asking aggressive questions to whoever it is. Because of hyperthymesia, he remembers every single thing happening in 365 days a year ever since his childhood. He can’t forget the memory of the woman he loved, Seo Yeon, who disappeared 8 years ago. A rising star who attracts everyone’s attention, Ha Jin, appears in front of Jung Hoon at that moment. Despite all the attention, Ha Jin doesn’t waver and keeps her confidence. However, she has a secret that her memory is fading away. The man who cannot forget and the woman whose memory is fading away. Will they be able to overcome their difficulties, understand each other, and fall in love at the end?
We finally wrapped up the whole stalker storyline and now we're moving into much deeper and darker territory in terms of plot and this is what I wanted from this show even if part of me just wants to live in the happy bubble that is Jung Hoon and Ha Jin happily dating! In terms of the stalker, it was Director Ji and I actually laughed out loud when it turned out to be him cause it's like poor Ji Il Joo is pretty much typecast as the stalker villain type role in everything and like part of it is how good he is at being creepy but it sucks for him cause every time I see him on screen I'm like that's him he's the bad guy! We also finally learned why Yoo Sung Hyuk is so sketchy and as it turns out he's planning on writing a book on Jung Hoon and basically exposing him to the world to make bank and all I can think is that can't be legal right? Jung Hoon can totally sue him for doctor/patient confidentially or something right? Anyway Yoo is pissed now cause Jung Hoon is dating Ha Jin and in his book Yoo's basically been claiming that Jung Hoon will never get over his first love aka Seo Yeon cause that's the way hyperthymesia works but with Jung Hoon dating someone else, it makes him look like a liar or incompetent. He's obviously going to try to break them up somehow but Jung Hoon thought about it over and over and I don't think anything will change his mind now unless Ha Jin leaves him so I don't exactly worry about Yoo. Tae Eun is also worried but more for Ha Jin's sake cause he's afraid that if she remembers Seo Yeon that she'll become suicidal again but like I said before I really think that this time will be different cause Jung Hoon will be by her side. In terms of his feelings I really do think that he's no longer in love with Seo Yeon cause the way his illness works means that he can remember all his memories perfectly but that has nothing to do with his emotions. Emotions can change and grow and I think that the more time he spends with Ha Jin, the more he's falling in love.
Hospital Playlist Season 1 (7/12): A drama depicting the stories of people going through their days that seemingly ordinary but actually special, at the hospital, a place known as the microcosm of life - where someone is being born and someone's life meets their ending. The five doctors are long time friends of 20 years who started their undergrad in 1999 in the same medical school, and now they are colleagues in the same hospital. The drama will also deal with a story of a band formed by the group of doctors.
I can't help but feel like nothing actually happened this week and that makes my review feel a little empty and strange. Ik Jun helped a patient realize that her husband cheating isn't the end of the world and used his own marriage as a metaphor. It super sucks that the show is clearly setting him and Song Hwa up cause like I said I loved him and Ah Ra but given that she hasn't appeared again since her cameo, I don't think she was meant to be more than a funny moment. Jun Wan and Ik Sun are happily dating and it's funny cause Jun Wan is much more dorky than I expected him to be when he's into a girl and I keep wavering about whether I think it's funny or weird that he's hiding it from Ik Jun. I also really expected more from the whole golf bribing pharmaceutical thing than we ended up getting but I really should have thought that Jun Wan would be smart and never get caught up in something like that. I was also disappointed that though the episode started with a focus on Min Ha and the fact that she was about to be fighting with another resident, that the episode didn't actually follow that. It would have been really interesting to have another look at what makes the best doctor: someone who spends all her time connecting to patients or someone who works hard in order to make sure that they get treated before they get comforted. I did really like the whole thing with Suk Hyung's mom though and a bigger part of me than probably is okay is like yes girl refuse to divorce his ass and make society hate him and his mistress and their kid cause I'm vengeful like that. I'm also fascinated with how it looks like next week we might be focusing a little more on the residents and their life problems cause most medical shows barely have the time to focus on their leads let alone the side characters.
Memorist (14/16): Dong Baek has an extraordinary ability. He can peer into the memories of whoever he touches. With his supernatural power, get it done attitude, and eye-pleasing looks, he is fervently revered worldwide as a superstar detective. However, when his punches meet with suspects before words, he can be a bit of a headache to his comrades. Starting from the age of twenty, Han Sun Mi is the youngest to have passed the bar exam, obtain a doctorate in criminal psychology, and become a senior superintendent in the police force. Having solved five cold cases that even a detective with supernatural powers couldn't do, she is a genius profiler. She has a secret that drives her to do what she does. These two highly-skilled professionals meet their match—a serial killer with abilities that transcend theirs combined. It's going to be a fight worth watching.
The problem with this show as I've stated over and over has been with it's writing and though I do have to say that the best part of a murder mystery is always when the detectives figure out what's going on, a good murder mystery will reveal small pieces of information as the mystery builds rather than save it all until the end which is kinda what I'm feeling about the reveals this week. It's honestly irritating as hell that some of the main players in this game haven't even appeared until now! Let's start with what we learned. About 40 years ago Min Jae Gyu's mom was killed by his half sister Hwang Pil Seon and then 20 years later her son Bang Joon Seok along with 7 of his other friends raped and killed Yoo Ah Yeong and then killed Moon Yong Kang's brother. The deaths were covered up with the help of Deputy Chief Lee and a few others and so The Eraser as it turns out was Yoo Ah Yeong's father aka the fire station chief that we met a few episodes back and has been working with Min Jae Gyu and Bang Joon Seok in order to get their revenge on the people that ruined their lives. We still don't know how The Eraser is connected to Baek or why he's obsessed with taking him down other than the fact that his abilities might expose his identity but I'm low key worried that it'll have to be thrown in the same never be answered pile as to why the reporters all hate Baek too. Like the reveal that Deputy Chief Lee was talking out of his ass about Baek being The Eraser makes total sense cause he's in Hwang Pil Seon's pocket and she's pissed that he has his powers so for them it's better that he dies but the reporters have nothing to do with Baek and all we got was some flimsy excuse about how Baek makes them look bad or something weeks ago. The best part of this week though was Se Hoon being the complete angel he is and can I just say that I'm so thankful that he's going to end this show as a good person who loves Baek and not another heartbreaking evil cop partner like in 365: Repeat The Year???
Meow, The Secret Boy/Welcome (20/24): A graphic designer in her mid-twenties, Sol Ah harbors dreams of becoming a web-based comic author and has always had a love-hate relationship with cats. But Sol Ah’s life changes fast when she brings home a friendly feline. It turns out, however, that this is not any old cat. Named Hong Jo, he can take human form. Hong Jo becomes exceptionally fond of So Ah, and goes to great pains to hide his human identity from her. He soon proves that he will do anything that is required in order to stay near her. Will Hong Jo manage to keep his identity a secret? And what could be in store for this remarkable feline-human duo as their relationship deepens?
After this week I wonder if this drama bit off more than it could chew. I think some writer was like "you know what would be fun? If I did a reverse Fruits Basket situation where instead of a human cursed to be a cat, if it was a cat that turned into a human!" I say this cause I can't help but feel like this show is going to have one of two endings. Either it'll be one of those super vague notes where it's like well all the problems we laid out earlier are real and everything but we're just going to ignore them so we can say the finale is a happy one and it won't matter what will happen in the future cause you won't see it or there's going to be some sort of deus ex machina to turn Hong Jo into a human permanently. I can't decide if one option is better or worse than the other. The one thing I hated about Search: WWW was the main couple who refused to agree on the whole marriage idea and it's like on the one hand I get the idea of living for the here and now and not the future but at the same time you can't ignore the future entirely! On the other a sudden magical way to turn Hong Jo fully human would be annoying cause it was never seeded earlier! Maybe it would have been best if Sol Ah never fell in love with Hong Jo and if she ended up with Jae Sun so that Hong Jo was just there to be her spirit guide of a kind. Are we supposed to believe that once Hong Jo dies that Sol Ah and Jae Sun will get back together? I also can't help but feel like the reveal was waaay too late in the game cause the finale for this show is next week and we barely got any antics from Sol Ah and Hong Jo and the whole human/cat thing!
Rugal (8/16): Kang Ki Beom is an elite police officer whose attempt to bring down Argos, a nationwide criminal organization, results in a group of masked assailants from Argos killing his beloved wife and child and cutting out both of his eyes. Kang wakes up in a hospital only to find himself accused of murdering his family members. The NIS then approaches him with an offer to become a member of Rugal, a special team organized by the NIS. He receives two artificial eyes with Rugal's biotechnology built into them and with them gains unique new abilities with which to take down criminal organizations. Kang Ki Beom and Rugal set out on a mission to wipe out Argos.
We're halfway through this show and I'm disappointed to say that this show isn't anything like what I hoped it would be at the start. Maybe I should get used to the idea that kdramas never actually do revenge stories the way I like. They seem to enjoy constantly having the heroes with their backs to the wall and barely hanging on by a thread only to make an astounding win in the final episode and it's exhausting cause I get tired of watching the villain be this omnipresent force that knows all. Every single move Rugal makes, Deuk Goo has already seen, studied and counterattacked and it's like why can't we have one show where the heroes are the ones to be setting up things behind the scenes and attacking in small doses before leading to a big win? It's like Mi Na said this week, Rugal has done absolutely nothing since they started except for loose their doctor, expose their tech, and show Argos everyone who's alive and working at Rugal. Even Ki Beom working with Ye Won was exposed this week and even if the show is trying to tell me that it was Ki Beom's decision to burn that bridge, what was the point? Rugal gained nothing and actually lost a piece from their board! It still feels like Deuk Goo has no bigger plan in place other than creating chaos but we learned this week that he might actually be in love with Ye Won and I high key want her to use Ki Beom and make Deuk Goo marinate in his jealously but I'm not sure if Ki Beom "working" with Ye Won will continue now that everything's been outed. Then again Deuk Goo never told Ye Won how he knows Ki Beom and how he's a cop so maybe there's still a chance? It was also interesting to find out that Mi Na and the Chief have known each other for years and that he was like a father to her.
xoxo Allie
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