Tag: Alchemy of Souls

The Wednesday Five: Strong Male Leads that I Love

Posted March 15, 2023 by Rowena in Features | 0 Comments

I’m a list person. I have a list for every single thing in my life from a to-do list, a list of books that I want to read, a running shopping list, and in the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing different k-entertainment lists that I’ve been keeping track of. You’ll be seeing my top 5 lists of stuff like my current celebrity crushes, my favorite k-drama female protagonists, my favorite k-drama male protagonists, my to-be-watched k-dramas, and you know, stuff like that. I love me a strong female lead but I’m also here for the strong male leads that be kicking ass too.

This week’s Wednesday Five will feature my favorite strong male leads that I love from all of the k-dramas that I’ve watched so far. I talk about all of these guys a lot on the blog, with the exception of Han Ji Hyuk from The Veil but just let it be known, I hella love all of the guys on this list. These are the guys I’d choose to put on my team if I needed to kick ass.

1. Kim Do Ki from Taxi Driver

Where to Watch: Viki
Starring: Lee Je Hoon

2. Jang Uk from Alchemy of Souls

Where to Watch: Netflix
Starring: Lee Jae Wook

3. Yeon Shi Eun from Weak Hero, Class 1

Where to Watch: Viki
Starring: Park Ji Hoon

4. Ko Dong Man from Fight for My Way

Where to Watch: Viki
Starring: Park Seo Joon

5. Han Ji Hyuk from The Veil

Where to Watch: Viki
Starring: Namkoong Min

Every single one of these guys kicked some serious ass in their respective shows. They’re all fine as hell and I’m a huge fan of their characters. If you haven’t watched any of the shows that they’re in, pleasea fix that if it’s your jam. Lots of action, mystery, suspense, and hot guys!

Who are some of your favorite strong male leads?

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The Monthly Recap: February 2023

Posted March 7, 2023 by Rowena in Features | 0 Comments

The Monthly Recap posts are a way for me to take a look back and reflect on my previous month in Korean dramas. I always lose track of what I want to watch and I need these posts to keep me honest with my damn self because I be forgetting shit.

February was a short month and I didn’t watch a whole lot of dramas. I think there was a week where I didn’t watch anything outside of Seventeen in the Soop. Now that the shows that I was excited to start have begun, I’m hopeful that my March drama watching will be pick up. So let’s start this recap, shall we?

Monthly Stats

Dramas Completed: 6 | Dramas Dropped: 2 | Dramas Still Watching: 5
Dramas Reviewed: 6 | Boyfriend of the Month:
Favorite Drama: Love to Hate You | Least Favorite Drama: Strangers Again

What I Completed

Seventeen in the Soop 1
Alice in Borderland
First Love
The Interests of Love
Seventeen in the Soop 2

Of all the shows that I watched in February, my favorite watches weren’t even dramas but both seasons of Seventeen in the Soop. They were shows for resting and healing from hectic schedules and seeing Seventeen enjoy themselves and relax was very healing for me as well. I enjoyed those shows so much that I searched out other kinds of shows that aren’t just dramas and am watching a traveling show with Lee Je Hoon and Ryu Jun Yeol.

What I Dropped

Trolley
Strangers Again

These two shows are my first dropped shows of the year. I wasn’t in the mood for Trolley and am still unsure if I’ll go back to it but I didn’t want to finish Strangers Again and that bummed me out since I was really looking forward to that acting pair together. Oh well.

What I’m Still Watching

Our Blooming Youth
The Heavenly Idol
Taxi Driver 2
Jinny’s Kitchen

What I Reviewed

May I Help You?
Summer Strike
Alchemy of Souls 2: Light and Shadow
Would You Like a Cup of Coffee?
Unlock My Boss
Money Heist: Korea – Joing Economic Area, Pt. 2

Actors that Stood Out

Boo Seungkwan: I am super soft for Seungkwan from Seventeen. I adore his personality, I love how funny he is, and just everything about him. He was such a delightful part of watching Seventeen in the Soop. He made me laugh so much and with every passing episode, I loved him more and more.

Yoon Jeonghan: Jeonghan is a lot funnier than I thought he’d be. I thought that he would be a more serious and quiet but he’s not at all what I thought. That scene in Seventeen in the Soop when Mingyu is rowing him in the boat is hands down, my favorite part of the entire first season. I laughed so much and Jeonghan is me. I love him. He was a bright highlight for me in February.

Kim Ji Hoon: I enjoyed Kim Ji Hoon as Denver in Money Heist so seeing him play a completely different character in Love to Hate You was such a treat. His character was one of my favorite characters of the month. Love, love, love him.

How was your month, in all the things? Did you read or watch anything good (or bad)? Share in the comments, I’d love to catch up!

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The Wednesday Five: Strong Female Leads that I Love

Posted February 22, 2023 by Rowena in Features | 0 Comments

I’m a list person. I have a list for every single thing in my life from a to-do list, a list of books that I want to read, a running shopping list, and in the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing different k-entertainment lists that I’ve been keeping track of. You’ll be seeing my top 5 lists of stuff like my current celebrity crushes, my favorite k-drama female protagonists, my favorite k-drama male protagonists, my to-be-watched k-dramas, and you know, stuff like that.

This week’s Wednesday Five will feature Strong Female Leads that I Love. These aren’t just the strong female leads that have been through it and lived to tell the tale. These female leads are strong of mind, might, and strength who could kick your ass. I’d want each and every single one of these women on my team when going into battle. If you’ve watched these dramas and are familiar with these characters then it’s pretty self-explanatory so this is just going to be a straight up list. Enjoy!

1. Naksu from Alchemy of Souls

Where to Watch: Netflix
Played By: Go Youn Jung

2. Do Bong Soon from Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Where to Watch: Viki
Played By: Park Bo Young

3. Yoon Sae Bom from Happiness

Where to Watch: Viki
Played By: Han Hyo Joo

4. Yoon Ji Woo from My Name

Where to Watch: Netflix
Played By: Han So Hee

5. Jang Man Wol from Hotel Del Luna

Where to Watch: Netflix
Played By: IU

Who are you choosing to fight along side you in battle? Share in the comments!

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The Weekly Recap (192)

Posted February 20, 2023 by Rowena in Features | 2 Comments

I didn’t do much this week. Stayed home, watched my shows, streamed my groups, caught up with my Dad and Brenna. I pretty much kept to myself. My sister has some guests staying with us for a little bit so I’ve been getting to know them but aside from that, I’ve just been hanging out at home. It’s time to start planning my next family trip and this time we’re going to TX for my nephew’s high school graduation. Looking at tickets to fly out there and how much it’ll cost to stay out there is enough to make me sad so I’m not thinking about it today. Maybe tomorrow, haha.

I did start planning how I’m going to decorate my room for this year. I’m really big on collages and family pictures, kpop merch and posters so I’m waiting for a couple of Seventeen albums to come in so that I can start putting my room together. I’m low key excited to see how my plan comes together. It’s gorgeous in my head so let’s see if it’s gorgeous when all is said and done. Wish me luck! I’ll post pictures once I’m all done, I promise.

Now, let’s get into all of the things that I did last week…

What I Watched

Love to Hate You (2023) | 4 out of 5
j hope in the box (2023) | 5 out of 5
Unlocked (2023) | 3.5 out of 5
Your Place or Mine (2023) | 3.5 out of 5

I watched my first movies of the year this week and while I loved J-Hopes documentary, I only liked Unlocked and Your Place and Mine. They were fine watches but they won’t make any of my best of lists at the end of the year.

Our Blooming Youth: So far, this drama is just okay for me. What’s keeping me going are the main leads. Park Hyung Shik’s visuals is serving though. He looks really good and even though I’m not completely hooked right now, I’m going to keep watching it because between him and Pyo Ye Jin, I’ll keep on soldiering on.

Run BTS: I heard this is going to be the last episode for a while and that made me sad because these episodes bring me so much joy. This episode wasn’t any different. Seeing everyone together, having fun and making each other laugh is always so much fun. This episode kicks off the first of two episodes where the boys are playing mini field games. In this week’s episode, the boys played fencing and volleyball and I cackled throughout the entire episode. From Jin’s practicing and still being so terrible at volleyball to him starting every rumor under the sun about Suga and the many sports he’s been doing lately, to V’s goofy way of playing both sports and still being super good, the episode delivered what it was supposed to deliver. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s episode and then I’m sure I’ll be super sad.

Crash Course in Romance: While I’m liking this show, I don’t think I’m liking it as much as everyone else seems to. It’s one of the better shows that I’m watching right now but it’s not my favorite. I am liking the high school characters, I’m also enjoying the romance between the main leads, but the murder plot has me scratching my head because I honestly don’t really care about that part of the show but I’ve been side-eyeing the assistant for most of this show so I’m not at all surprised at the turn of events where he’s concerned. And I still want to fight that one Mom. You know which one…this one.

She is the absolute worst and I better see her get her comeuppance. Grr.

The Heavenly Idol: I wasn’t completely blown away with the first two episodes of this show but I’m going to power through since I’m curious enough about the main male lead. The main female lead looks like Kim Taeri and Beomgyu from TXT to me. Really gorgeous but I don’t remember her from anything that I’ve seen before so I’ll keep on watching this one to see if it gets better.

Taxi Driver 2: The Rainbow Deluxe Taxi Service is back in business, bitches! I’m super pumped (*in J-Hopes voice*) to see my boo thang in action again. Kim Do Gi and Ahn Go Eun are back!!! The first two episodes were fantastic and has me so hyped for what else is to come. I haven’t been this excited for a show since Alchemy of Souls 2 ended. Kim Do Gi spent his time getting prettier since the last time we saw him. *swoon*

What I Reviewed

Summer Strike | 3.5 out of 5
Alchemy of Souls 2: Light and Shadow | 4 out of 5

What I Posted

The Weekly Recap (191)
The Wednesday Five: Dramas I Dropped Recently
Eye Candy Friday: Bang Jung Seok from Fan Letter, Please

Eye Candy Friday

Bang Jung Seok

Fan Letter, Please

What Made Me Laugh

Honestly, the thing that has made me laugh the most is everything surrounding SM and HYBE.

There you have it, my week in review. How was your week?

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Review: Alchemy of Souls 2: Light and Shadow

Posted February 16, 2023 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Alchemy of Souls 2: Light and Shadow

Starring: Lee Jae Wook, Go Yoon Jung, Hwang Min Hyun, Shin Seung Ho, Yoo Joon Sang, Oh Na Ra
Year Released: 2022
Number of Episodes: Drama, Fantasy, Historical, Romance
Country: South Korea
Director: Park Joon Hwa, Bae Hyun Jin
Screenwriter: Hong Jung Eun, Hong Mi Ran
Where to Watch: Netflix

Jang Uk returns from death, and three years later, the story of the mages unfolds anew. Jang Uk becomes a hunter of the soul-shifters when a young woman, a prisoner in her own home, seeks his help to reclaim her freedom.

After a short break, Alchemy of Souls returned to finish things up and my best friend and I were here for it all. We were here for finishing out the story, and seeing where all the characters ended up and we weren’t mad about the female lead change either. That made sense to me. It worked for the story that was being told, and if I had a gripe about anything in this season, it was that we never got a Naksu vs. JinMu showdown. Everything else? It worked and I enjoyed it a lot.

One thing that I enjoyed about this season was that I didn’t need to watch the first season again to remember where we were in the story, what to expect, or anything like that. Therese and I were able to just jump right into the new season and go from there, so that was good.

The Story

Season 2 of Alchemy of Souls picks up three years after the first season ends. Things look really different in Daeho. Yul is still sick from that damn blood bug that homegirl put inside him last season. Dang Gu and Cho Yeon are separated. Prince Go Won is on the outs with Jang Uk, who has the ice stone and is killing soul shifters left and right. Jin Bu Yeon is back and she’s locked up in the dungeon at Jinyowon. When chasing a soul shifter brings him to Jinyowon, he uses his new powers to sneak in and comes across Bu Yeon. These days, Jang Uk has little time and desire to interact with anyone and it shows when Bu Yeon pleads for his help in escaping her prison. Not being able to completely ignore her, he helps her in the funniest of ways and does not expect to keep running into her wherever he goes. Before he knows what’s what, Jang Uk pretends to marry Bu Yeon and even though he had his reasons for wanting to marry her, loving her was never in the cards for him. Not when he was still drowning in guilt for failing to protect Mudeok, his long lost love.

The more time he spends with his fiance, the more things start to click into place until Jang Uk has no choice but to stand up against the very evil that took his love away from him.

Male Lead

Jang Uk is a lot darker than he was in season one. It makes sense since my guy is heartbroken and dealing with the burden that came along with his new powers from the ice stone. He had no intention or plans to save everyone in Daeho, along with everyone else in the world. He didn’t care about anything or anyone and once he found out that there was a person with divine powers that could put him out of his misery, he planned to make her his wife so that she can destroy the ice stone in him and in turn, probably destroy everything else too. Gone are the days when Jang Uk would have thought to do the right thing and use his powers for good. He doesn’t want any of the responsibility so he wants out.

I’m not going to lie. I spent a good deal of this season pissed at his fine ass. He kept hurting my girl, Bu Yeon, over and over again. But alls well that ends well because once he finally gets over himself, his grief, and gets to know Bu Yeon, he falls in love again and seeing him struggle made my heart hurt for him. Even while I was mad at him for always being so mean to Bu Yeon, I never blamed him for the way that he acted. Even though he didn’t want the responsibility that came with his powers, he dealt with everything that was thrown at him. He grudgingly stepped in when he was needed and even though it would have been so easy to turn to the dark side, he didn’t and he was still a really good friend to his loved ones. No matter how mad I got at him, I still loved him most and if that ain’t love, I don’t know what is.

Female Lead

A lot of people were not a fan of the female casting change but I wasn’t one of them. I started the first season because Go Yoon Jung was in it. Sure, she was only in it for a handful of minutes and I ended up loving everyone else, it was her that brought me around to wanting to watch it. So I was waiting for her return this season, quite anxiously too.

Bu Yeon was the light to Jang Uk’s dark. She was bright, bubbly, and completely adorable to me. I loved that she was determined to get out of that dungeon. I loved that even when the chips were down, she never stayed down. She got right back up and learned to fight another day. I loved that she was so self aware. She knew she was pretty and she also knew that she was a bit of an airhead but didn’t let that stop her from trying to figure out her future outside of her mother’s clutches. I loved how completely sure she was of her love for Jang Uk and even when she realizes that Jang Uk already gave his heart away, I loved that she was prepared to love her all by herself for the rest of her life. She didn’t begrudge him his feelings even if his feelings hurt her. When her memories started coming back and she was so confused about who’s memories they were. If they were hers or if the memories were part of her power somehow, I enjoyed the angst that came with having to wait week after week for more clues to put everything together. As Bu Yeon, I enjoyed her even though I waited all season long for Naksu. It was Naksu that I was invested in and it sucked that after all this time, we never really got to see her.

The Cast

Man, it was so good to see everyone back in action. From the Crown Prince to the Parks, Maidservant Kim, the Seo’s, and hell, even the damn Jin’s. I didn’t miss JinMu’s ass and he annoyed the ever loving shit out of me in this season but it was still good to see everyone again. This season Master Lee and his constant air of mystery annoyed me. I was like, dude we don’t have a lot of time to fuck around, what the hell do you know and who are you telling the truth too because you were telling a lot of stories that conflicted with what you told others. I did like seeing everyone come together to save Yul. I also liked seeing Maidservant Kim and Park Jin being so cute and in love with each other. I loved seeing them worry over their kids and I cried when they all banded together to battle the bad guys and they got caught in the middle of it all. All of the powerful mages were a lot of fun to see in action. I’m gonna miss all of them for a long time.

Final Thoughts

As a whole, this show served the goods. Was it perfect? No. Did that matter to me? Not entirely. Sure, there were a lot of loopholes left when everything was said and done and I was bummed about that because I really wanted a Naksu and JinMu showdown. I wanted Naksu to somehow be able to clear her name and live as her true self, either Naksu or Cho Yeon. I didn’t want her to stay a Jin. Overall, I loved these characters too much to stay mad about not getting the exact show that I wanted. I loved the chemistry between all of the different characters both on screen and off. These characters became very dear for me and I had a hard time saying bye to all of them. All of these actors have made themselves a permanent spot on my favorite actors list and I will be heartily supporting their upcoming and future projects for as long as I amble. So while it’s not perfect, I still loved it and would recommend.

Final Rating


via GIPHY

4 out of 5

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