What Dramas Am I Watching This Week?

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

Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol (10/16): "Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol” is a romantic comedy about a pianist named Goo Ra Ra who hits rock bottom after her family’s sudden downfall. After she finds her way to La La Land, a piano academy in a small village, she ends up crossing paths and falling in love with the tough and mysterious Sun Woo Joon, who seems to be hiding a lot of secrets. Goo Ra Ra is an immature and mischievous pianist. With her bright laughter and sunny disposition, she’s a simple, confident, and lovable person, having the charm of making anyone laugh no matter how difficult the situation. Goo Ra Ra also enjoys making jokes and acting unpredictably even during serious moments as she has lived a life without fear, being able to gain whatever she wanted with money. Something happened that caused her to become bankrupt. She doesn't have anything now, and she is frustrated with her situation. Sun Woo Joon doesn't care what other people think about him, but he has a warm heart. He is free-spirited and doesn't have a specific dream or goal for his life. He makes ends meet by working part-time jobs. Goo Ra Ra and Sun Woo Joon meet at the small private piano academy LaLa Land in a country village.

So this show has officially lost my interest and I can't even entirely blame it on this week's episodes cause if I'm honest it started losing my interest from almost the moment we found out that Joon was a minor. Having said that, I'm not going to drop this drama though cause like a car accident I can't help but want to watch it to the end just to see what happens and I'm really curious about whether or not there will be a time skip ahead now that Joon has returned home. I spent the last few episodes just waiting for Ra Ra to find out that Joon's not 24 like she thought and wondering what would actually keep them apart long enough for Joon to be aged up especially after they started dating and after this week it seems we've got our answer. Ra Ra wasn't exactly angry when she found out that Joon was 19 but she did end up calling his mom cause she probably sees him as the kid he is now and thinks that he shouldn't have runaway from home. At some point the mom will probably tell Joon that it was Ra Ra who told her where he was so he'll think that Ra Ra hates him and therefore won't contact her again. Then boom time skip happens and we meet our characters again after Joon's a doctor and Ra Ra's a fairly famous piano teacher like I guessed before. In other news the stalker was fine after Joon beat him up so I'm sure that he'll come back to kidnap Ra Ra again, and the thug that Joon's mom hired woke up too but he's got amnesia and I definitely think he and Sook Kyung are going to have a love line. Speaking of love lines, Ha Young and Seung Gi are definitely starting to head towards a romance too and that's absolutely precious.

Kairos (4/16): Living a precarious life as a part-timer at a convenience store, Ae Ri strives to support her mother who is on a waiting list for a heart transplant. Unfortunately, her mother’s worsened physical condition leads her to forgo the long-awaited opportunity for the transplant, and just like that her mother disappears. Things were already chaotic enough for Ae Ri when she receives a phone call from a strange man claiming to be from the same world but 31 days in the future. Ironically, he desperately asks Ae Ri for help. Seo Jin, a father and a husband of a close-knit family, has been living a successful life as the youngest person to become a director at a construction company. One day, it all crumbles down with the kidnapping of his daughter and his wife’s suicide. On the verge of breaking down, he is given an opportunity to restore everything that was lost under one condition, help from a strange woman. To bring his daughter and wife back to life, he makes a phone call as the clock strikes 10:33.

If I'm being honest, I was kinda meh about checking this drama out when I first heard about it cause I'm really not a huge fan of Shin Sung Rok which is why I didn't actually check this drama out last week when it aired but then I started to hear murmurs about how this drama reminded audiences of Signal which is my favorite non-romantic kdrama of all time and it caught my attention enough to want me to check out this show. So far I'm not sure that it feels like Signal per say but it does feel a lot like the twdrama Meet Me @ 1006 or Nine: Nine Times Time Travel with how we're following two civilians who can only communicate at once a day and will work together to unravel some mystery. I actually was really shocked that neither of our leads ended up being cops which I do think sucks a little cause I am already worried that if there are no smaller cases for our leads to solve then the mystery might end up dragging over 16 episodes. Here's my theory for now: Yoojang Construction are the ultimate bad guys like in the case of every single chaebol company in kdramas. Do Kyun is the CEO's actual go-to-man in terms of doing sketchy things. I have a feeling that Ae Ri's dad also died from a Yoojang Construction situation which is how her mom is connected to this whole thing and maybe she had been planning on working with Kim Jin Ho to expose Yoojang before Yoojang figured it out and got Taek Gyu who's probs the actual hitman to kidnap or kill her. Maybe Seo Jin was starting to get too close too Yoojang's secrets or Do Kyun really was just too jealous of his success but either way he and Taek Gyu probably instigated Kim Jin Ho into killing Seo Jin's daughter which yes seems like a step too far but clearly the whole thing is leading to Seo Jin losing everything from his family to his career and even his reputation. I'm not sure how the affair with Hyun Chae fits into this whole thing but it's also possible that she was just another byproduct of Do Kyun's greed and really knows nothing. It's clear that she and Seo Jin didn't have a great marriage and Seo Jin was an asshole for most of it who didn't care about her happiness as long as he did well in his work so who could blame a girl for finding a little joy (though a divorce would have been better.)

Private Lives (10/16): Swindlers come across a secret of the nation and try to reveal the secret. They must go up against a large company by using all of their skills. Lee Jung-Hwan is a team leader for the major corporation. He looks like an ordinary company employee, but he is a mysterious figure. Cha Joo-Eun is a swindler, who has the looks of a sweet & innocent woman. She supports herself with her crimes. Jung Bok-Ki is a professional swindler. She often targets other swindlers. She is elegant and also charismatic. Kim Jae-Wook is Jung Bok-Ki’s partner in crime.

It finally happened guys!!! Joo Eun and Jung Hwan finally met up again after all the secrets were let out and it was fascinating cause the two clearly still love each other and would die for one another but at the same time they're putting their pride first which is why they're not exactly together romantically but they are working together. At this point I seriously need a giant conspiracy map in order to say who's running what scam and who's on what side cause every week we get more and more tangled but in the end I'm fairly certain that Edward is running the show. He's working both GK and the police in order to get his revenge and the thing is that he really doesn't care who gets hurt. Like he personally doesn't have a stake against Joo Eun or even really Jung Hwan but he will use them to get what he wants. I was hoping that he would join the trio to take down GK but now it seems more like the trio will take down Edward and GK though I'm not sure where Bok Ki will fall cause he clearly loves her and she loves him but they seem to place other things above it. I think the show is going to end up switching tones after this week cause now that everyone knows everything, they can start scamming and I'm not too worried cause GK despite everything isn't as all powerful as they think they are and they're really underestimating our squad. I mean we have grifters, fighters, hackers, and even a cop on their side. I will be interested to know what exactly Myung Hyun does with the information that Jung Hwan is alive but I wonder if he would be kind and let it go as long as Joo Eun returned the insurance payout cause no matter what he says, I do really think he's got some sort of personal feelings involved.

Search (6/10): Yong Dong Jin is a conscript sergeant in the South Korean armed forces. He is also the military’s leading sniffer dog handler and is just one month away from receiving his long-awaited discharge. But with just weeks to go until he can rejoin the civilian world, a mysterious case threatens to suck him into a long, troublesome intrigue. In the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the area between North and South Korea, a suspected murder in bizarre circumstances piques the army’s attention. The army leaders decide to form an elite search party to scour the DMZ for clues, enlisting Yong Dong Jin and his keen-nosed dogs. Also joining the team will be Son Ye Rim, a relatively green but highly promising soldier who received much of her training in the United States. However, as the party begins to investigate, its members quickly begin to realize that whatever it is they are hunting does not appear to be human…

You know for a hot second there I was like oh guys Dong Jin is clearly smart enough not to leave evidence of a major conspiracy alone and thought he would have definitely brought at least the tape part of the camcorder with him but based on the previews for next week it looks like no he really did leave the whole thing there for Joon Sung to find and destroy like an idiot. I'm still voting on the fact that Dong Jin's dad was the Captain Jo at the time who wanted to tell the truth but as we find out, he was murdered and blamed for killing all his teammates. This really shows you what a complete asshole Lee Hyuk is cause they could have killed him using the North Korean guns and just had him be another casualty but nope he decided the trio left alive needed to become heroes. What's interesting is that Han Dae Shik doesn't seem to altogether agree with what happened with how obviously he feels guilt towards Dong Jin's mom but then again I doubt that he'd be okay with letting the truth out either. I'm curious as to why he hasn't realized yet that Dong Jin is Captain Jo's son cause it really feels like a normal bad guy move is always to do a background check but maybe both he and Lee Hyuk still think that Dong Jin is nothing more than a pawn rather than the player he actually is. Part of me is also hoping that Joon Sung kept the tape as insurance cause that's the only other thing I can think of as how the truth will come out. We lost one of Dong Jin's friends this week and though we did manage to take down one target, as it turns out I think there's actually going to end up being another zombie werewolf out there and this one will be Ye Rim's dad. I wonder if the serum and the way to corral him will work though cause he's older and clearly stronger.

Start Up (6/16): “Startup” is set in South Korea’s fictional Silicon Valley, called Sandbox, and tells the story of people in the world of startup companies. Seo Dal Mi dreams of becoming Korea’s Steve Jobs. She’s an adventurer who doesn’t own much, but has a grand plan for herself. She also has experience in a wide range of part-time jobs and is a person of great vitality. Nam Do San is the founder of Samsan Tech. He was once the pride of his family as a math genius, but for the past two years, he’s been going nowhere with his company’s investments. It turns out that Seo Dal Mi remembers him as her ‘cool first love’, and he decides to begin a startup in the hope of turning Seo Dal Mi’s misunderstanding into reality. Han Ji Pyung begins a startup company to pay off his debt. A team leader at SH Venture Capital, his astonishing investment skills and sharp tongue earn him the nickname, “the Gordan Ramsay of investments”. Though he’s prickly to most others, he’s softer than anyone to one special person who granted him a great favor in the past. Lastly, CEO Won In Jae has everything society respects: the educational background, beautiful appearance, and money. She considers her background as a second generation chaebol a weakness and does everything she can to create success on her own and be acknowledged for her skills. However, she ends up being used and thrown away by her father, and in order to stop being a disposable piece on her father’s chess board, she throws herself into a startup.

Okay can I take a minute to rant about Ji Pyung? Since this show started I tried to be gentle with my comments about him cause I wasn't sure if it was my normal hatred for second leads that was clouding my judgment or if there really was something about him that was poking me like a tag under a shirt but after this week I have to say that my first judgment about him might have been correct. I straight up think he's an asshole. Like yeah Kim Seon Ho is super attractive but you need to be able to separate the actor from the character. He's rude to everyone and only nice to those have some sort of benefit to him like Dal Mi's grandma or Dal Mi herself cause he likes her. A lot of people claim that he's harsh cause he wants what's best for Samsan but I sincerely disagree. He does not give a single shit about Samsan succeeding or failing and flat out doesn't believe in Do San's potential despite Do San showing him over and over again that he's a diamond in the rough and that Samsan just needs a little polish. Like fine yeah let's say Ji Pyung is an investor and has no reason to want to care for Samsan at the start but the problem is in the fact that he keeps inserting himself in Samsan and Do San's life (out of his interest in Dal Mi) and it's like at that point if you're a mentor, you need to step up no matter your personal biases. That's why I'm so pissed that he became Samsan's mentor cause I wanted them to go with Alex a person who would be a real mentor that would want to see them succeed without the constant condescension that Ji Pyung gives out. I mean yeah he's right in the end but it's like none of these people have any experience in building or running a company so that's LITERALLY your job to help!!!! It's totally possible that the show will go the route of making Alex a bad guy in order to make Ji Pyung look better in our eyes but meh until it happens, I'll believe the best in him. Having said all that, I do really really adore Do San and Dal Mi and I love how much of a badass team they make. I like that they can inspire one another to reach new heights despite everyone around them judging them and honestly they're such a dynamic duo with Dal Mi being the idea person and Do San doing the work. I guess I should comment on In Jae and what a complete bitch she is for not only using the same idea that Samsan Tech used in the Hackathon but also stealing Dal Mi's story to use to get into Sandbox but I really shouldn't be surprised cause that's the type of character we've given her. I'm also not sure what to think of the revenge story we're setting up but I can't imagine that the person is out for Do San cause the boy has literally never done anything bad in his life until now with the lying to Dal Mi so it's probs a huge misunderstanding. Raise your hand if you too think it's the male twin that joined Injae Company!

Tale Of The Nine-Tailed (8/16): The story features the mythical nine-tailed fox, or gumiho, Lee Yeon who has just settled in the city. Able to transform into human form, he goes about cleansing human spirits, all the while creating havoc. Enter the talented television producer Nam Ji Ah whose current show features urban myths. With nerves of steel, she will stop at nothing to secure unusual, if not dangerous, subject matter to showcase. She sets her sights on Lee Yeon who appears just too good to be true; irresistibly handsome, intelligent, fit; in fact the ideal guest. But his heartlessness will render doubt in her that he is indeed of this world. Step-brother to Lee Yeon is the captivating Lee Rang, reputed to be the most dangerous of all gumihos living among humans. Despite being half-human himself, he harbors a deep-seated contempt for all people. For sport, he will unleash his seductive prowess upon his human-du-jour, by promising to grant them their wishes, only to trick them into paying a hefty price for their earthly desires.

Okay so straight up I can't even lie anymore: I'm pretty much just watching this show for Lee Rang and the secondary romance between Shin Joo and Yoo Ri. Look Ji Ah is no damsel and I love her brain and how she's able to put things together but seriously Yeon is just so boring to watch and I kept waiting and waiting to see if his character would develop more but nope we're pretty much as deep as we'll get with him. I also have no interest in the main romance which is super sucky but I think oddly enough the two had more chemistry when they were fighting or being reluctant partners. I did really enjoy that Yeon ended up playing the Spirit of Darkness from the start and it was completely badass the way he revels in his power but my interest tends to go towards Rang of all people. You all know that I was trying not to love him as much as I do cause his type of character isn't usually one of my favorites since I tend to think they're a little pathetic and honestly maybe it's the way Kim Bum is playing him but Rang is just so raw and emotional and my heart bleeds for him despite my brain being like don't fall for a bad guy's sob story! I was living for how he finally reconciled with Yeon but then it's revealed that Rang is dying but also he's magically tethered to doing whatever the CEO wants and it super sucks cause he's trying not to be a bad person but literally no one can help him including Taluipa who's probs the biggest hypocrite in this show. She seems to judge everyone for their actions but refuses to see why people did what they did. The Spirit Of Darkness was going around killing humans and that's apparently fine cause when Shin Joo went to ask for help, she forced him into a slave contract before she would help. When Rang came to tell her that he's being blackmailed into killing Yeon, she goes well then die and I'm sitting here like but if someone commits suicide you said that they can't be reincarnated so why in the hell would you advise someone to take that action??

The Spies Who Loved Me (5/16): Kang Ah Reum is a wedding dress designer who has been married twice. Her two husbands harbor many secrets and Ah Reum gets swept up in them. Jun Ji Hoon disguises himself as a travel writer, but he is actually a secret agent for Interpol. His job as a secret agent is a way for Jun Ji Hoon to support himself financially. He is currently divorced. He was married to Kang Ah Reum, but they divorced without Kang Ah Reum learning about his secret life as a spy. Kang Ah Reum now works as a wedding dress designer. She met Derek Hyun after her divorce and they eventually married. Her current husband works as a diplomatic official and seems gentle and warm. His secret is that he is actually a cold-blooded industrial spy. Derek Hyun treats his wife sweetly, but, for his job as an industrial spy, he will do anything. He loves Kang Ah Reum sincerely, but he also hides his true self from her.

So this week we only actually got one episode rather than our normal two which is low key sucky cause it's my second favorite show that airs on Wednesdays/Thursdays! I also don't love when this happens to kdramas cause then the release schedule gets screwed up and we're left on cliffhangers that aren't meant to be cliffhangers and it's all just a struggle! Having said that I did really enjoy what we got this week! My favorite thing about this show is the way Ah Reum and Ji Hoon talk to each other like full grown adults and I'm just so impressed with how the chemistry between the two really does feel like two exes who had been in love but due to circumstances they had to split up and yet after meeting up years later, they're still in love. It also helps that Ah Reum now knows all of Ji Hoon's secrets and Ji Hoon has matured enough to know where he made his mistakes. Is it any wonder Ah Reum is falling for him again?? On another note, is anyone else super confused about the players in this mystery or is it just me? From what I can gather, Ji Hoon and his crew are working for Interpol to hunt down Helmes, a group which hires industrial spies (for what end I don't know yet) and of which Sophie and that stalker (who's name I don't know) used to be a member. In the end she changed her mind about spying and turned to Interpol for help though she didn't trust them and got killed by Helmes (probs Derek) and now the stalker who loved Sophie is out to find her killer. I'm also assuming that Derek is a part of Helmes cause I think the fact that they dated is probs a cover story like Ji Hoon cheating and it would explain why Sophie never liked him and why she warned Ah Reum not to trust him. Doo Bong is the one person that doesn't fit in with the rest but I also wonder if that chaebol is also part of Helmes based on how interested he was in finding Sophie's killer.

CDRAMA

Begin Again (6/35): It tells the story of a domineering female CEO and a warm doctor who turn a fake relationship into reality due to practical reasons. Having exchanged their 'I do's', they start on a new chapter of their lives as they learn to fall in love. Lu Fangning is the general manager of Luning Group, a large corporation in the business of home furniture. Lu Fangning is a woman who has it all - talented, beautiful and rich. Nearing her thirties, Lu Fangning succumbs to family pressures and decides that she urgently needs a husband with whom she will have a child. Coincidentally, surgeon Ling Rui appears in front of her. Ling Rui is not only blessed with good looks but also has an angelic heart, which makes him the perfect candidate in the eyes of Lu Fangning. She schemes her way to his life and they finally become husband and wife. Lu Fangning eventually realizes the error in her ways and strives to be better. However, keeping a marriage is not as easy as it seems.

When I first read the description for this show, I was hesitant to check it out cause though one of my absolute favorite tropes is a contract marriage/arranged marriage that turns into love, I've been burned one too many times this year with modern cdramas. Then I started to hear that this drama was hilarious cause it swapped the male and female roles and dude I jumped on board and so far I'm having a blast! There's nothing new about the story this show is telling but I am living I tell you living for the male and female role swap! In this drama it's the female lead that's the domineering CEO type while it's the male lead who's the soft sweet family-driven one and I cannot tell you how hilarious it is seeing the normal plot-points of a cdrama being played out from the opposite point of view. I do have to admit that a lot of the circumstances in this show were really a struggle to watch cause what kind of sexist show is this that Fang Ning was told over and over again that she must get married and have children in order to run the company?? None of the board members believe in Fang Ning just cause she's a woman despite being super competent and her ideas being well thought out and even the only other woman on the board was going around being like you're not married or have kids so what do you know about life?? Ugh gag me with a spoon. As for the childhood connection, I do think that it's going to turn out that Ling Rui and Fang Ning actually haven't known each other as kids but at least he can't blame her for his misunderstanding cause it's not like he bothered to talk to Fang Ning about it. Also as a sidebar I've actually never seen Simon Gong in anything but man oh man is he waaaay too pretty for this world!

FINISHED Qing Qing Zi Jin (40/40): During the days of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 CE), Chinese arts and culture are experiencing a golden age. Poetry is highly prized – and the rewards for becoming a prominent poet are great. Luo Qiu Chi is a talented young poet – a poor scholar from a troubled background who is dreaming of a life full of art and writing. He is forced to leave his family home and hide his true identity in order to pursue his poetry dreams. Fortunately, he one day meets a female scholar named Wen Ren Jun. She decides to help him as he attempts to pass the tough entrance test for the prestigious Zhu Xiu Academy. He manages to gain admission – but now the going really gets tough. He forms a bitter rivalry with the Zhu Xiu Academy’s star pupil. And then he must truly prove his mettle when he is selected to take part in a fiercely competitive poetry competition against the top scholars of a rival kingdom. Luckily, Wen Ren Jun and other newfound friends are ready to help Luo Qiu Chi duke it out against the best young poets in the land.

So the finale for this show aired this week and it's really very sad cause if I look at this show as a whole there's really nothing that it did wrong but there's also really nothing that would make me say this show is amazing. The chemistry between our leads was there and our female lead was a perfect combination of naive without being an idiot and a badass but like Maiden Holmes, I'm left with a meh feeling about the whole thing and isn't that worse than hating a show?? As I suspected last week, Shu'er's mom was actually the real one behind all the fraud. Her brother really did ask for Qiuchi's exam scores in the place of his but she was the one to send killers after Qiuchi and the one to kill her brother to make it look like suicide. She bribed Prince Kang into letting her daughter free after trying to poison Qiuchi at the games and to marry Ah Juan off to the Prince of another kingdom just to make sure she wasn't happy. In the end though I do think all the bad guys got their just desserts with the Madame going to jail, Shu'er going mad, and Yuanzhi ending up mad and in jail after losing the woman he loved as well as the women he was playing with in order to get ahead in society and even being revealed as the poisoner of the Academy students. I loved that Qiuchi and Ah Juan finally got married though I do wish it would have happened sooner cause it would have prevented us from going down the arranged marriage scare too. The reveal that Qiuchi was a bandit was also a little too late in the game but in the end he also got pardoned, took the imperial test, and became an official. Overall I think this drama deserves a 6.5 / 10 cause it was very middle of the road.

The Blooms At Ruyi Pavilion (20/40): Fu Rong who's the second daughter of the Fu family unexpectedly had the ability of "foreseeing dreams" after a serious illness. She predicted that she would marry to Prince Su, Xu Jin, and finally suffered the fate of being buried. However, Xu Jin also has the ability of foreseeing dreams. Although Xu Jin also predicted the same tragedy, he doesn't want to avoid it but try his utmost to change the destiny. These two people begin the sweet game of "framing one another."

We're halfway through this drama now and we're exactly where I thought we would be. Rong'er and Xu Jin are drowning in misunderstandings and Duke An is fanning the flames as hard as he can. As I suspected Rong'er was convinced into thinking Xu Jin was the killer and I cannot tell you how hard I rolled my eyes into the back of my skull cause of course it's time for that cliche trope of the female lead refusing to trust in what she knows about the male lead and instead take the word of some random person. The description she got of the killer was a man in white and she decides on damn Xu Jin is clearly the only man in the capital that can wear white! Fortunately it seems as though she's realized fairly quickly that he couldn't have been the killer after all though of course that's not what Duke An is planning so I low key fear that her maid that used to work at Ru Yi Pavilion is not long for this world. Now all this I was expecting and could handle but what's exasperating is how Xu Jin and Rong'er are refusing to use their words and letting their pride speak for them. Rong'er cannot tell Xu Jin that she's allergic to peanuts or that she snuck out to get him some wine or that she thinks that he's looking for a real wife which makes her sad and jealous. Xu Jin on the other hand can't say to her that he loves her and only wants her as his wife for his whole life and that he's not interested in any other woman cause he's too prideful to confess to Rong'er who he thinks doesn't love him. I'm just hoping that this whole thing doesn't go on for too long but this show has already sucked the enjoyment right out by making Rong'er a concubine and following her horrible future dreams.

xoxo Allie