Tag: Ji Seung Hyun

Review: Descendants of the Sun

Posted September 10, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Male Lead: Song Joong Ki
Female Lead: Song Hye Kyo
Also Starring: Jin Goo, Kim Ji Won, Onew, Kim Min Seok, Lee Seung Joon, Hyun Kyu Ni, Lee Yi Kyung, David McInnis, Kang Shin Il, Jo Jae Yoon, Jun Soo Jin, Kim Byung Chul, Seo Jeong Yeon, Jasper Cho, Ji Seung Hyun, Park Hwan Hee, Ahn Bo Hyun, Park Hoon
Year Released: 2016
Number of Episodes: 16
Genre: Contemporary, Drama, Romance
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Hulu
Recommended By: B Nice
Who I Watched it For: Song Joong Ki

Some relationships are fated, despite the challenges of time and place.

Yoo Shi Jin (Song Joong Ki), the leader of a Special Forces unit, meets trauma surgeon Kang Mo Yeon (Song Hye Kyo) in a hospital emergency room after Shi Jin and his second-in-command, Seo Dae Young (Jin Goo), chase down a thief on their day off.

Shi Jin is immediately smitten with Mo Yeon, and he asks her out on a date. But Shi Jin keeps getting called to duty when he is with Mo Yeon, and the two also realize that they have conflicting views about human life (he will kill to protect his country and she has to save lives at all costs). They decide to break off their budding relationship as a result.

Dae Young also tries to break off his relationship with Army doctor Yoon Myeong Ju (Kim Ji Won) because her father, Lt. General Yoon (Kang Shin Il), thinks Shi Jin is a better match for his daughter.

Shi Jin and Dae Young are then deployed to the fictional war-torn country of Urk on a long-term assignment of helping the United Nations keep peace in the area. After repeatedly being passed over for a promotion because of her lack of connections, Mo Yeon gives up performing surgeries, loosening her principles somewhat to become a celebrity TV doctor and caring for VIP patients at the hospital. But when she refuses the sexual advances of the hospital chairman, Mo Yeon is picked to lead a medical team to staff a clinic in Urk! There, Mo Yeon unexpectedly reconnects with Shi Jin.

“Descendants of the Sun” is a 2016 South Korean drama series directed by Lee Eung Bok. The entire series was pre-produced prior to airing, which is a departure from how Korean dramas are typically produced. The stars and production team spent one month in Greece to film much of the series’ storyline. The drama also is the first project for Song Joong Ki after finishing his mandatory two-year military service.

I watched this show at the recommendation of my friend, B Nice and then I found out that she didn’t even watch it but heard it was good, haha. I still watched it though and though the overall romance was a good one, I struggled with connecting with what was going on and the female lead. I also thought that the male lead was a bit over the top at times but he didn’t annoy me the way that the doctor heroine did.

This show is about two people, who meet and before their romance can take off, the hero does. She’s a doctor and he’s in the military so it’s hard for them to get together because either she’s getting called into surgery or he’s getting called onto missions in faraway places that he can’t even tell her about. So there are some struggles, obviously. They also find out that they have different views on things and then there are more struggles so they call off their budding romance before it grows into anything deeper. They go their separate ways but are brought back together when Mo Yeon is assigned to lead a medical team to run a clinic in Urk, where Shin Jin is stationed. When the two reconnect, sparks fly and the story really picks up.

There’s also a secondary romance between Shin Jin’s buddy Dae Young and an army doctor, Yoon Myeong Ju that is filled with a whole lot of drama. Dae Young’s not the partner that Meyong Ju’s father would have chosen for her and he is very vocal about it. So vocal, in fact, that he consistently abuses his powers at work (he’s one of the higher-ups in the military) to move Dae Young around to make sure that he can’t be with his daughter. Dae Young, of course, doesn’t say any of this to Yoon Myeong Ju, he just goes wherever he’s sent and puts up with the abuse from her father. He kept getting pulled in different directions and his life was thrown upside down at every turn because of his girlfriend so that was some special kind of drama in itself and it drove me just as crazy as the main romance.

I will say that both sets of couples have chemistry in spades. I completely bought everything they were trying to sell and this was my introduction to all of these actors so I was impressed that they can make me feel every single emotion under the sun. I went from happy, to pissed off, to sad, back to happy, back to pissed off, back to sad for all 16 episodes but there was a whole lot of humor from the other characters sprinkled in that my overall experience with this show wasn’t all pissed off.

I’m glad that I watched this show even though it wasn’t my favorite. It introduced me to a bunch of actors I’d like to see in other shows and movies so I’m glad about that. However, this show is made up of a whole lot of stuff that pissed me off that I can’t rate it higher than 3.25 out of 5 stars. I had high hopes that things would turn around but in episode 15, the heroine and the hero were still pissing me off that by then, it was too late for me to absolutely love them. Still, this was a solid drama.

Listen to the OST

Final Rating

3.25 out of 5

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Review: My Country: The New Age

Posted August 20, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

My Country: The New Age

Male Lead: Yang Se Jong
Female Lead: Kim Seolhyun
Secondary Lead: Woo Do Hwan
Also Starring: Jang Hyuk, Hong Ji Yoon, In Gyo Jin, Ji Seung Hyun, Young Nam Jang, Ahn Nae Sang, Kim Yeong Cheol, Yu Oh Seong, Park Ye Jin, Kim Seo Kyung, Lee Hyo Je, Lee Yoo Joon, Shim Wan Joon, Kim Dong Won, Kim Dae Gon
Year Released: 2019
Genre: Historical, Political TV Shows
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Netflix
Recommended By: Chance

At the end of the Goryeo period there are those who lead the charge to proclaim a new age, among them two friends who become enemies when they disagree on the direction of their country.

I watched this show at the recommendation of my nephew, Chance. He’s different from Chase. He’s more into political thrillers, historical movies, and what not so because I had such a great reaction to Chase’s recommendation, I thought I’d give Chance’s a go too. While I enjoyed this one, Chase wins in the recommendation department.

This show is a period piece that follows our main lead, Seo Hwi, and his best friend, Nam Sun Ho, as they struggle with the cards that life has dealt them. The show centers on them, their friendship and the different directions their lives take them. The power of friendship is seriously tested in this show and I was here for it.

My boy Hwi really went through it. After his father dies in disgrace, Hwi is left to care for his younger sister and it’s just the two of them. They struggle through life because they’re poor and they’re banking on Hwi getting into the military so that he can really start making money to care for his sister. She’s sick too so that’s another obstacle that he has to figure out every time she runs out of medicine. Through everything that Hwi goes through, you can see him struggle with his dignity and at times, his integrity. It would be so easy to let his guard down and really do whatever it takes to, shady or not, to get what him and his sister need but that’s not what he’s about. It’s not the son that his father raised so with his head held high, he deals with whatever hardship comes his way as best as he can.

My other boy, Sun Ho wasn’t poor, he actually grew up rich but his life wasn’t a walk in the park. For one, he’s the bastard son of a high ranking member of the military and Sun Ho spends a whole lot of time trying to win his father’s approval but he always comes up short. His friendship with Hwi and Hwi’s younger sister are the highlights in his life and he thought that they would always be by each other’s back but fate wouldn’t have that and the older they get, the further the distance between them becomes but you can see that though Sun Ho means well, his actions don’t always come across that way so the connection between him and Hwi is tested hard. It wasn’t enough for their lives to divide, they had to fall in love with the same girl to further complicate their already complicated friendship.

This was my introduction to Woo Do Hwan and Yang Se Jong and I was super happy about that. They acted their tails off in this show and I really connected with both of their characters. I really loved Hwi in this show so he was the one that I rooting for to get the girl but Woo Do Hwan won me over completely that I made a list of shows/movies he was in and I’m making my way through them.

This show is filled to the brim with political thrills and a whole lot of suspense that had me at the edge of my seat but it also left me frustrated through a good portion of the episodes because damn, they really kicked Hwi down and held him there with their foot on his neck. I got so mad at the bad guys and super frustrated with Sun Ho’s actions throughout the entire show. I did enjoy the romance and thought the female lead was a boss who was a perfect fit for Hwi. These Koreans are loyal as hell to their loved ones and I really dug that in this show. No matter what was going on between Hwi and Sun Ho, their shared love for Hwi’s sister was never questioned and Sun Ho did his best to care for her while Hwi was away and I really dug that. This show really engaged my emotions because I happy sighed just as much as I ugly cried and while it wasn’t my favorite show, it was still an enjoyable one and one that I would recommend to those looking for a historical political thriller. Lots of eye candy, too. 🙂

Listen to the OST

Final Rating

3.5 out of 5

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