Monday, 20 June 2016

New K-Drama Alert: Lucky Romance

Image source

Lucky Romance was the drama I was waiting for all spring. When drama after drama failed to catch my interest, I kept thinking "At least there will be Lucky Romance!" Quirky plot, Ryu Joon Yul soothing my broken post-Answer Me 1988 heart—what more could I possibly want?

As it turns out, a lot. Sigh.




What It's About: Shim Bo Nui (Hwang Jung Eum) is convinced that she leads an unlucky existence. In order to bring more luck to the life of a loved one, a shaman tells her she must sleep with a man born in the year of the tiger. Enter Je Soo Ho, a smartypants game designer who just so happens to be born in the year of the tiger.

Episodes watched: 4

First Impressions: I know I already said this, but sigh. I wanted to like this show so badly, and I just...don't. It's not that there's anything actively bad about it. There isn't anything particularly good about it, either.

It's an MBC romcom that feels like it copied and pasted the scripts of the last five MBC romcoms to make a dull, unimaginative Frankendrama. Every single scene and character feels like it was pulled from another series, making it difficult to connect with the characters and leaving me wondering if tvN might have been a better fit for the premise.

Take Bo Nui's storyline, for example. It's bad enough that the drama opens with her literally wearing a Cinderella-esque kerchief over her hair as she washes floors, just in case we didn't catch the message that this is yet another poor, hardworking heroine. (To be fair, it turns out that she's a genius computer programmer, which is cool, but she's still the epitome of the Candy character in more ways than I care to count.)

Juuuuuust whistle while you work...
Oh yeah, and she's also the most nurturing human on the planet, so when her super creepy new neighbor keeps trying to bust into her apartment, she immediately forgets how creepy he's being the second she spots a tiny cut on his hand. It's almost like I've seen Hwang Jung Eum being a poor hot mess exploding with mothering instincts somewhere before....(In case you don't catch the drift, it was She Was Pretty. Remember how she clipped her boyfriend's nails for him, just like his mommy used to do?)

Then, of course, we also have Mr. Richey McGrumpygenius, who is so rich that he can win a bunch of money and not even care, and so grumpy that he can't give more than mono-syllabic responses to anyone. And a math genius, of course, because falling in love with a regular billionaire is so passe in Korea these days.

Sure, the setup is a cliche, but it's not like I don't watch and enjoy other dramas that follow traditional drama setups. What makes this series so disappointing is that it never quite moves past the lazy premise to give us anything to set this series apart. Where Another Oh Hae Young, for example, excels in making its characters feel real with troubles that strike you in the heart with their familiarity, this drama (at least so far) relies on external plot devices to try to get us to care. Everyone—and I mean EVERYONE—has a sad backstory. It's like the one-upmanship of pain. Oh yeah, your dad may or may not have abandoned you as a child? Well, I apparently killed my parents and almost killed my sister with my terrible fate!

Don't forget to feel sad for me! I'm too talented at things, and I don't know how to swim!


That's a lot of words to say this show is boring. I'm just so disappointed in what could have been. They had a solid cast and source material that sounded funny and sexy—so why is it so unfunny and unsexy so far? It's a shame, but I think this might be a cautionary tale on what happens when the powers that be decide to play it safe.

Where to watch
Viki (Viki Pass only)




Playfull Kiss

Playful Kiss - 장난스런 키스

How can a girl at the bottom of her high school class ever hope to capture the attention of the smartest, most popular boy? Ha Ni (Jung So Min) is smitten with Seung Jo (Kim Hyun Joong) from the moment she lays eyes on him on the first day of school. He is the total package – tall, athletic, good-looking, and the envy of all the students because he always gets a perfect score on all his exams. But Ha Ni’s affections are not returned, despite her energetic efforts to get his attention. Fate throws them under one roof when an earthquake destroys Ha Ni’s family home, and they live temporarily in the home of her father’s childhood friend, who turns out to be Seung Jo’s father. Will Ha Ni ever be able to get Seung Jo to think of her as anything more than a nuisance? “Playful Kiss” is a 2010 South Korean drama, that is based on the Japanese manga “Itazura Na Kiss” (“Mischievous Kiss”), which also has been adapted in Taiwan as “It Started With a Kiss” and its sequel “They Kiss Again.”
Genres: Comedy, Korean Drama, Drama, Romance 
Cast: Choi Won Hong, Kim Hyun Joong, Lee Tae Sung, Jung So Min, Lee Si Young 
Original title: 장난스런 키스 
Volunteer Channel Team: the PKer team  
Broadcast Network: MBC 
Broadcast Period: 2010-09-01 to 2010-10-21 


Plot

A clumsy high school girl named Oh Ha-ni (Jung So-min) who is at the bottom of her class has had a crush on a popular and genius male student, Baek Seung-jo (Kim Hyun-joong) ever since she laid eyes on him on the first day of high school. Ha-ni decides to confess through a letter, but is rejected rudely by Seung-jo, who tells her that he hates stupid girls and returns the letter having corrected all of her mistakes.
Fate intervenes when an earthquake ruins Ha-ni's family's newly built home. While the house gets rebuilt, Ha-ni and her father are invited to stay at the home of her dad Oh Ki-dong's (Kang Nam-gil) childhood friend, who happens to be Seung-jo's father Baek Soo-chang (Oh Kyung-soo). Ha-ni's feelings for Seung-jo are rekindled, and she is more than determined to impress him. Seung-jo remains insensitive to her feelings and finds her a complete nuisance. However, Seung-jo's matchmaker mom, Hwang Geum-hee (Jung Hye-young) helps Ha-ni a lot.
Seung-jo and Ha-ni soon graduate high school and go to university. There, Seung-jo meets Yoon Hae-ra (Lee Si-young), the female Baek Seung-jo. While Ha-ni's classmate Bong Joon-gu (Lee Tae-sung) still has, despite many incidents that have continuously broke his heart, feelings for Ha-ni. However, Seung-jo is still the one Ha-ni likes, despite the fact that he is always with Hae-ra and said that he lives for teasing her. Hae-ra falls in love with Seung-jo and they begin working together at a cafeteria, which makes Ha-ni jealous.
Ha-ni's feelings continue to grow just as the friendship between Seung-jo and Hae-ra does too. When Seung-jo's father becomes hospitalized, Seung-jo takes over his father's gaming company temporarily. He is introduced to the investor's granddaughter at an arranged marriage meeting, who turns out to be none other than Hae-ra. With everything going on, it seems impossible for Seung-jo to like Ha-ni. Joon-gu also doesn't give up on trying to win Ha-ni's heart, and one day, he takes his crush one step further by proposing to Ha-ni. Afterwards, Ha-ni walks back to her father's noodle shop in the rain to find Seung-jo standing there with an umbrella, waiting for her. Seung-jo claims to be curious about her answer for Joon-gu, knowing that he had proposed, but Ha-ni refuses to tell him. This leads to an argument between the two, causing Ha-ni to have an outburst, which is interrupted when Seung-jo suddenly kisses her.
The new couple walks back home and announce that they're engaged. During their honeymoon, they encounter another couple. The woman flirts with Seung-jo in front of Ha-ni and fakes an injury so that he will inspect her (Seung-jo mentioned that he is studying medicine). Ha-ni gets jealous, and she and Seung-jo argue. After Ha-ni leaves the room, the woman tries to get Seung-jo into bed, but her male companion returns and tells them that Ha-ni had left the hotel. Then Seung-jo realizes that the woman was faking and goes to find Ha-ni.
Chris, a British-Korean girl, enters their lives. She speaks Korean fluently and has a crush on Joon-gu. But Joon-gu says he only has room for Ha-ni in his heart; it is later revealed he was in denial, and has begun to have feelings for Chris.
Ha-ni tries to switch her major to nursing to be closer to Seung-jo, but her grades aren't good enough. On her way to a date with Seung-jo on Christmas Eve, she witnesses an accident. Despite the risk of arrest if it's done incorrectly, Ha-ni successfully performs CPR on the person and accompanies her to the hospital. It makes her late for their date, but finds Seung-jo waiting for her. Meanwhile, Min-ah becomes a famous cartoon artist, and Joo-ri becomes friends with a guy newly discharged from the military who comes to her salon everyday for a trim. The finale ends with Ha-ni and Seung-jo making out in the company car.

Cast

·         Jung So-min as Oh Ha-ni
·         Kim Hyun-joong as Baek Seung-jo
·         Lee Tae-sung as Bong Joon-gu
·         Lee Si-young as Yoon Hae-ra
·         Jung Hye-young as Hwang Geum-hee, Seung-jo's mother
·         Oh Kyung-soo as Baek Soo-chang, Seung-jo's father
·         Choi Won-hong as Baek Eun-jo, Seung-jo's brother
·         Kang Nam-gil as Oh Ki-dong, Ha-ni's father
·         Hong Yoon-hwa as Jung Joo-ri, Ha-ni's friend
·         Yoon Seung-ah as Dokgo Min-ah, Ha-ni's friend
·         Choi Sung-joon as Kim Gi-tae
·         Jang Ah-young as Hong Jang-mi
·         Bye Bye Sea as Bong Joon-gu's followers
·         Hwang Hyo-eun as Song Kang-yi, Ha-ni's homeroom teacher
·         Song Yong-shik as Song Ji-oh
·         Moon Hoe-won as Head Teacher Hwang
·         Choi Sung-gook as Wang Kyung-soo
·         Yoon Bo-hyun as Tennis team captain
·         Abigail Alderete as Chris



You can view episodes on links below:

Dream high 2 Korean drama

Dream High 2 - 드림하이2

Genres: Comedy, Korean Drama, Drama, Family & Kids, Music 
Cast: T-ara, Sistar, After School, Ailee, JB / Im Jae bum, Jeong Jin Woon, Kang Sora 
Original title: 드림하이2 
Broadcast Network: KBS 
Broadcast Period: 2012-01-30 to 2012-03-20 

Plot

Like its predecessor Dream High, it follows a group of students at the Kirin High School of Art stars who pursue their dream of becoming K-pop stars. However, it has a slightly different plot with a completely new group of students.
After going into financial bankruptcy, Kirin High School is taken over by Oz Entertainment. The company then transfers its own young trainees to circumvent a law requiring under-age entertainers to study for a set amount of time. Then, competition brews between the troubled students at Kirin High and the newly transferred Oz Entertainment trainees.
Although Shin Hae-sung (Kang Sora) enters Kirin High School with a high exam score, she has a poor score in performance. She meets and befriends fellow students, Jin Yoo-jin (Jung Jin-woon) and JB. Yoo-jin, who originally got into the entertainment industry as a child actor, is now troubled by his dreams of becoming a pop star as he tries to cope with the pain of his parent's divorce. JB, a member of a famous group Eden, develops feelings for Hae-sung and dates her later on.
Rian (Jiyeon), a member of a famous girl group called "HershE", chases after JB, who was once her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Yoo-jin, who also likes Hae-sung, tries to separate the couple with Rian. Later on, Rian and Yoo-jin give up and remain close friends.
Hae-sung later becomes a famous composer and director, JB ends up as a trainee, Rian become a Hallyu idol and Yoo-jin become a rock music teacher at Kirin High School.

Cast
Main
·         Kang Sora as Shin Hae-sung
·         JB as Jang Woo-jae (I:dn Member)
·         Jinwoon as Jin Yoo-jin
·         Ji-yeon as Rian/Lee Ji-kyung (HershE Member)
·         Hyorin as Nana/Kim Jae-hee (HershE Member)
·         Park Seo-joon as Si-woo (I:dn Member)
Kirin Students
·         Ailee as herself (HershE Member)
·         Jr. as Jung Ui-bong
·         Yoo So-young as Park Soon-dong
·         Kim Jisoo as Park Hong-joo
·         Jung Yeon-Joo as Lee Seul
Kirin Teachers
·         Park Jin-young as Yang Jin-man (English Teacher)
·         Kwon Hae-hyo as Joo Jung-wan (Principal)
·         Kim Jung-tae as Lee Kang-chul (President)
·         Choi Yeo-jin as Ahn Tae-yeon (Vocal Teacher)
·         Park Kahi as Hyun Ji-soo (Dance Teacher)
Cameos
·         Kim Soo-hyun as Song Sam-dong (ep 1)
·         IU as Kim Pil-sook (ep 1)
·         Toxic as band performing with Yoo-jin in Hongdae (ep 1)
·         MYNAME as OZ Entertainment idol group (ep 2)
·         Boyfriend as themselves (ep 2)
·         PSY as trainer coach (ep 5)
·         Yeeun as herself (ep 9)
·         miss A as themselves (ep 15)
·         Park Jin-young as himself (ep 16)
Extended
·         Yoon Hee-suk as Shin Jae-in
·         Hwang Mi-sun as Rian's mother
·         Jung Kyu-soo as Hae-sung's father
·         No Jung-ui as Shin Hae-poong (Hae-sung's sister)

You can view episodes on links below:
it is youtube playlist link

For subtitles:
For download:
From torrants
1)    for HD Episodes
2)    for low size Episodes

Boys Over Flower

Boys Over Flowers is one of the biggest Korean drama hits of our time, sweeping ratings and awards across Asia in 2009 and 2010. Jan Di is an average girl whose family owns a dry cleaning store located near the luxurious and well known Shin Hwa High School. After saving a boy from jumping off the roof of Shin Hwa High School, Jan Di is admitted into the school on a swimming scholarship. At school, Jan Di tries to avoid confrontation with the four richest and most spoiled boys known as the F4, because she knows what happens to those that stand against them. However, when Jan Di's friend, Oh Min Ji, accidentally gets ice cream on the leader of the F4's shoes, she's forced to declare war on the leader of the F4, Goo Joon Pyo. What will happen though, when she falls in love with someone from the F4 and Goo Joon Pyo starts feeling something for her too? Will the love triangle disrupt F4 and change their lives forever? Get ready for addictive drama, romance and comedy at it best.
Genres: ComedyKorean DramaDramaRomance
Cast: Park Soo JinKim So EunKoo Hye SunKim Hyun JooLee Min-hoLee Min JungKim Hyung JoonKim Kyu JongHan Chae YoungLee Si YoungKim Joon, , Kim Hyun Joong
Original title: 꽃보다 남자
Broadcast Network: KBS2
Broadcast Period: 2009-01-05 to 2009-03-31 


Plot

Hardworking Geum Jan-di (Ku Hye-sun) attends the exclusive Shinhwa High School. She finds her shallow, privileged classmates unbearable, especially the notorious F4. Rich, handsome, and arrogant, Goo Jun-pyo (Lee Min-ho), Yoon Ji-hoo (Kim Hyun-joong), So Yi-jung (Kim Bum), and Song Woo-bin (Kim Joon) are the kings of the school and no one, not even the teachers, dare challenge them. No one, that is, except Jan-di. Angry at their rudeness, Jan-di tells off F4 leader Jun-pyo, bringing a world of trouble upon herself. The proud and persistent Jun-pyo falls hard for feisty Jan-di, but she shares a connection with the quiet, sensitive Ji-hoo. Caught between the two friends, Jan-di's heart is torn.

Cast
·         Ku Hye-sun as Geum Jan-di
·         Lee Min-ho as Goo Jun-pyo
·         Kim Hyun-joong as Yoon Ji-hoo
·         Kim Sang Bum as So Yi-jung
·         Kim Joon as Song Woo-bin
·         Kim So-eun as Chu Ga-eul



You can view episodes on links below:
it is youtube playlist link

For subtitles:

For download:
You can Also Download It With the help of Youtube Downloader By using above link  or By using http://www.keepvid.com/

From torrants
1)    for HD Episodes

2)    for low size Episodes