Tag: Kim Soo Hyun

The Wednesday Five: K-Dramas I’m Thankful For

Posted November 23, 2022 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.

It’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. and this week’s Wednesday Five will feature the K-Dramas I’m Thankful For. These dramas are special to me in one shape or form.

1. Itaewon Class

Starring: Park Seo Joon, Kim Da Mi, Ahn Bo Hyun

I feel like I talk about this drama a lot but it really can’t be helped. I’m grateful that I watched Itaewon Class because it introduced me to the world of Korean Dramas. It was my first one and you never forget your first one. This drama was such a great introduction and I’m a massive fan of all things K-Dramas now because of this show.

2. Goblin

Starring: Gong Yoo, Kim Go Eun, Lee Dong Wook

I’m super thankful for this show because it made me take notice of Gong Yoo and introduced me to Kim Go Eun. I saw Gong Yoo in Train to Busan first but I spent so much of that movie wanting to smack some damn sense into him that I didn’t fully appreciate how beautiful he was. LOL. No, but for real. When I watched him in this show, I was drooling all over the place. I was also ugly crying too. This man is fine as hell and made this show for me.

3. Dear My Friends

Starring: Go Hyung Jung, Kim Hye Ja, Na Moon Hee

Some of my favorite stories are stories that really make me sit up and take stock of my own life. Stories that make me reflect on how I’m living my life right now and if I’m doing all that I can to live a happy and healthy life. This was one of those dramas. Watching this drama made me miss my Mom and worry about my Dad. It made me want to be a better daughter and be more present in my Dad’s life. It made me want to treasure each day that I still have my Dad in my life and I’m thankful for that.

4. It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

Starring: Kim Soo Hyun, Seo Ye Ji, Oh Jung Se

I hadn’t intended to watch this drama. The dark theme and the female lead didn’t interest me at all but holy cow am I glad that I watched it. This was another drama that had me deep in my feelings and made me see things from several different perspectives and the life lessons that I learned from watching this one were such good lessons to learn. I’m grateful for each lesson, too.

5. My Mister

Starring: IU, Lee Sun Kyun, Park Ho San

This drama was my introduction to IU. I adore her to pieces so that alone would make me grateful but it was such a great drama as well. This is probably one of the dramas that cemented my love for all things Korean dramas. The overall story being told is woven so well and the emotional pull this one had on me was pretty great. I absolutely adore this drama and am so glad that I watched it.

What are some Korean Dramas that you’re thankful for?

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Review: It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

Posted January 5, 2021 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: It’s Okay to Not Be OkayIt's Okay to Not Be Okay
Starring: Kim Soo Hyun, Seo Ye Ji
Year Released: 2020
Number of Episodes: 16
Recommended By: Nobody
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Format: Online Stream
Source: Netflix
Buy It: Amazon
five-stars

A story about a man employed in a psychiatric ward and a woman with an antisocial personality disorder, who is a popular writer of children's books. The drama tells the story of Moon Kang Tae, a community health worker at a psychiatric ward who doesn't have time for love and Go Moon Young, a successful children's book author who suffers from an antisocial personality disorder and has never known love. After meeting one another, the two slowly begin to heal each other's emotional wounds.

This drama was the first one that I watched while it was releasing episodes each week. I was so used to binge-watching all of the k-dramas that I watched so having to wait a week between episodes took some getting used to (I was so spoiled) but oh my holy shit (in Jungkook’s voice), this show was so stinkin’ good. Like, one of my top shows of 2020 good.

This show was a lot darker than I’m used to but I was here for every single thing that went down. In the beginning, I was super confused about just what was going on and why we were supposed to root for a freaking crazy lady but once I was all caught up and not confused anymore, I was all the way in. I was Team Moon Young all the way. I ugly cried through every single episode from like the third episode on.

This story follows Ko Moon Young, Moon Gang Tae, and Moon Sang Tae as they finally deal with old wounds and work to overcome a dark past. Gang Tae has grown up taking care of his autistic older brother Sang Tae. After their mother died when Gang Tae was twelve years old, he and Sang Tae have lived on their own. They’ve moved from place to place, trying to stay out of the system and stay together. For so long, it’s been just the two of them but when they come across a girl from their past, Ko Moon Young, she worms her way into their lives and starts wrecking Gang Tae’s carefully crafted life. He works and then he goes home and takes care of his older brother. He doesn’t have any time for anything more but Moon Young is making him want things he hasn’t let himself think about or want ever. He’s all filled up with responsibility and he’s been holding all of those day-to-day burdens for him and his brother for so long, he is not willing to add another person to his life to care about. Staying away from Moon Young proves to be difficult because for the first time ever, he wants a life just for himself.

The romance between Gang Tae and Moon Young was such a hard one to get through because just when they were finding happiness, something would happen that would yank Gang Tae back to reality and every single time that it happened, it was so much harder for him to readjust. He went from feeling nothing and living his life for everyone else to feeling strongly for a girl that is part of the dark past that he is running from. Gang Tae was the very reason that I ugly cried my way through this show. Every time he was yanked back to reality, my heart broke for him. Every time he smiled, something bad happened and because of that, he stopped smiling. So with Moon Young coming into his life and showing him what he could never have, makes him mad. He’s mad at her for making him feel, he’s mad at his Mom for dying, he’s mad at Sang Tae for not being able to take care of himself and he’s mad at himself for feeling the way that he feels where Sang Tae is concerned.

There was a lot going on and I thought that every single part of this story was handled well. The character development between each character was well written and the romance between Gang Tae and Moon Young was handled so well and don’t even get me started on the relationship that blossomed between Sang Tae and Moon Young. They were at the top of my favorite parts of this show. With how dark this show was, there was still a surprising amount of humor throughout. At least for me. I cackled just as loud as I ugly cried. Each episode felt like a season finale where I was blown away time and time again. This show was extremely well written in my opinion and the cast did such a fantastic job of bringing their characters to life. I enjoyed every aspect of this show and can’t recommend it enough. This show was damn good and I highly recommend it. Just…chef’s kiss.

Final Grade

5 out of 5

five-stars

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Eye Candy Friday: Moon Gang Tae

Posted October 23, 2020 by Rowena in Features | 0 Comments

Eye Candy Friday is something that I’ve been doing since I first started my personal blog way back in 2003. That first personal blog is long gone but I’ve never really grown out of the eye candy phase. I’m always up for some eye candy. Whether it’s a character from a book (male or female, I don’t discriminate), a character from a movie or TV Show, if I loved them and want to gush about how much I loved them, you’ll find them here. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

This week, I’m featuring Kim Soo Hyun as Moon Gang Tae in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. Gang Tae was a very compelling character that I completely adored and ugly cried getting to know. He was like a single father who took care of his autistic older brother, Sang Tae. His Mom was a single mother and when she died back when Gang Tae was 10 years old, Gang Tae had to grow up and be the caretaker for the both of them. So they moved around a lot until Gang Tae was old enough to not be in the system anymore. He shouldered so much responsibility at a young age and spent his entire life living to take care of his brother. He never had a life of his own and nobody has ever cared enough to want to make him happy. Until Ko Moon Young came back into their lives.

He hardened himself against developing relationships because relationships came with more responsibilities and he had enough already. But man, seeing him fight his feelings for Moon Young and shoulder the burden of caring for his older brother all alone hit me every single episode. It was hard to see him push everyone away until there was only him and Sang Tae but he had a great support system in his squad that wouldn’t leave him alone and he had a great supporter in Moon Young.

He was also so stinkin’ gorgeous, I mean check it out…

This guy is someone you guys should know. He’s everything that we love in our heroes in our books and his story was equal parts heartbreaking and joyful. Gang Tae had me captivated from episode one and by the time episode 16 came around, I was a complete mess over this guy. Absolutely loved him. And that kiss in that last picture? MOOD!

Until next week…enjoy!

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Review: Crash Landing on You

Posted July 23, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Crash Landing on You

Male Lead: Hyun Bin
Female Lead: Son Ye Jin
Secondary Lead: Seo Ji Hye, Jung Kyung Ho
Also Starring: Kim Soo Hyun, Lee Shin Young, Choi Ji Woo, Yang Kyung Won, Yoo Soo Bin, Tang Joon Sang, Kim Yeong Min
Year Released: 2019
Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy, Romance
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Netflix
Recommended By: Nobody

Yoon Se-Ri (Son Ye-Jin) is an heiress to a conglomerate in South Korea. One day, while paragliding, an accident caused by strong winds leads Yoon Se-Ri to make an emergency landing in North Korea. There, she meets Ri Jeong-Hyeok (Hyun-Bin), who is a North Korean army officer. He tries to protect her and hide her. Soon, Ri Jeong-Hyeok falls in love with Yoon Se-Ri.

Crash Landing on You is the second Korean drama that I watched during quarantine. I was riding high on my love of all things Itaewon Class that I wanted something else to watch immediately and Chase came again with another clutch recommendation in this one. I started it and though it took me a couple of episodes to get into this show, once I got into it, I was all the way into it. I have to say that though I loved the hell out of the romance between Ri Jung Hyuk and Yoon Se Ri (a super swoony slow-burn romance), it was these guys that totally made me fall head over heels in love with this show. These guys are serious squad goals.

Squad Goals

So this show centers on Yoon Se Ri and the North Korean army guy who risks his life so many times to try to get Se Ri safely back to her home in South Korea. You see, Yoon Se Ri is a South Korean heiress who is also the CEO of her own bestselling beauty products company. She’s got quite the colorful family and when a paragliding accident lands her in North Korea (yeah, she really did leave South Korea on a paraglider and landed all the way in North Korea, haha), she is spotted by Ri Jung Hyuk. Ri is part of the North Korean Army and he is FOINE. Check him out…

So Se Ri and Ri try so many different ways to sneak Se Ri back into South Korea without the North Korean government finding out. It takes them quite a while to finally get it right and throughout it all, they’re growing closer and closer. Not only are the two of them growing closer but Ri engages his friends to help him get Se Ri back home safe and sound and Se Ri gets close to them as well. There are so many different things going on in this show and it took me a while to untangle all of the threads to make sense of everything but things do unravel and they do make sense and I thought the writing was pretty darn great. I laughed a lot, I cried quite a bit and I adored so many of the characters. So many squad goals here from Ri’s boys to Se Ri’s old lady crew in North Korea. They were all super great characters that added life to a pretty colorful story.

I did feel bad for the secondary love story here because damn, they deserved better than they got but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment too much. This is a fabulous show that will stay near and dear to your heart long after you finish it. I highly recommend this one.

Listen to the OST

This OST is bomb as hell. There are so many songs that I adored while watching the show and all these months later, I’m still enjoying this soundtrack. It’s a good one so have yourself a listen.

Final Rating

4.5 out of 5

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The Weekly Recap (147)

Posted July 20, 2020 by Rowena in Features | 6 Comments

The Weekly Recap is a weekly feature on the blog where I recap my week in books, in movies, and in TV Shows. If you’re ever curious about what I’ve been up to, these are the posts for you.

It’s been a pretty quiet week for me since Brenna’s been in Colorado for the summer and I don’t have anyone annoying me at every turn. It’s been nice. LOL. I also had some time to catch up with my siblings on Friday with my sister from Vegas in town. We received some bad news about my cousin’s husband, who died from covid-19 this week so that was a bummer. It’s amazing to me that people are pissed about having to wear masks in public here in California. SMH.

Anyway, I didn’t do much but watch Korean Dramas this week but it was still a good week.

What I’m Currently Reading
The Weekly Recap (147)Shine
by Jessica Jung
Published by Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse on September 29, 2020
Genres: Young Adult
Point of View:First Person
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges:2020 Goodreads Challenge, 2020 New to Me Challenge

Crazy Rich Asians meets Gossip Girl by way of Jenny Han in this knock-out debut about a Korean American teen who is thrust into the competitive, technicolor world of K-pop, from Jessica Jung, K-pop legend and former lead singer of one of the most influential K-pop girl groups of all time, Girls Generation.
What would you give for a chance to live your dreams?

For seventeen-year-old Korean American Rachel Kim, the answer is almost everything. Six years ago, she was recruited by DB Entertainment—one of Seoul’s largest K-pop labels, known for churning out some of the world’s most popular stars. The rules are simple: Train 24/7. Be perfect. Don’t date. Easy right?

Not so much. As the dark scandals of an industry bent on controlling and commodifying beautiful girls begin to bubble up, Rachel wonders if she’s strong enough to be a winner, or if she’ll end up crushed… Especially when she begins to develop feelings for K-pop star and DB golden boy Jason Lee. It’s not just that he’s charming, sexy, and ridiculously talented. He’s also the first person who really understands how badly she wants her star to rise.

Get ready as Jessica Jung, K-pop legend and former lead singer of Korea’s most famous girl group, Girls Generation, takes us inside the luxe, hyper-color world of K-pop, where the stakes are high, but for one girl, the cost of success—and love—might be even higher. It’s time for the world to see: this is what it takes to SHINE.

I didn’t get any reading done this week. A couple of pages at most but I’m liking what I’m reading so far in Shine by Jessica Jung. Those K Pop stars are no joke and their schedules and training are intense. I’m really interested in seeing where this story takes us. I just need to make time to read.

What I Got

Shine by Jessica Jung
Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

What I’m Currently Watching

It’s Okay to Not be Okay (2020)
Suits (2018)

This week’s episodes of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay were emotionally packed and I ugly cried through both of them. I am really, really loving this show and both Seo Ye Ji and Kim Soo Hyun did such an amazing job engaging my emotions with their acting skills that I am so here for the both of them. I cannot wait to see where the rest of the season takes us but if the first part of the season is any indication, it’s going to be a crazy ride that I am fully on board with.

I started the Korean version of Suits last night and I am super duper excited about it. I adored the American version of this show and the Korean version stars my #3 boo thang, Park Hyun Sik. I completely adored him in Strong Woman, Do Bong Soon and Juror 8 so when I saw that he was on the Korean version of Suits, I knew that I had to find the show and watch it wherever I could. I’m so glad that it’s on Netflix. I’m on episode 5 and so far, I’m really enjoying it. It’s very familiar to the American version but with its own Korean charm and I love me some Park Hyun Sik so I’m all in.

What I Watched

It’s Okay to Not be Okay (2020)
Cheese in the Trap (2016) | 2.5 out of 5
My First First Love (2019) | 4.25 out of 5
My First First Love 2 (2019) | 4.5 out of 5

This week was a good week in K Dramas for me….with the exception of Cheese in the Trap. That show started off so well for me and then it went downhill and kept right on going downhill until it ended and I was like WTF? Wasn’t a big fan of that of that one.

I did really enjoy My First First Love and My First First Love 2. I need to watch more shows and movies with Ji Soo in it. He’s such a delight.

Eye Candy Friday

Park Saeroyi
Itaewon Class (2020)

What I Reviewed

Movie Review: Train to Busan | 4 out of 5
Korean Drama Review: Itaewon Class | 5 out of 5

What I Posted

The Weekly Recap (146)
5 Things I Did During Quarantine
Eye Candy Friday: Park Saeroyi

What Made Me Laugh

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