Tag: Kim Tae Ri

The Wednesday Five: K Movies I Love

Posted December 7, 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.

This week’s Wednesday Five will feature five K-Movies I Love. I’ve watched quite a few Korean Movies and the movies listed below are my favorite of the bunch.

1. Midnight Runners

Where to Watch: Viki
Starring: Park Seo Joon, Kang Ha Neul, Sung Dong Il

This movie was hilarious as hell. Like, I really, really loved this movie. I laughed out loud so much that I watched it three more times in the same week. I just couldn’t get enough of it and just thinking about it now brings a smile to my face so if you are in the mood for something fun, definitely give this one a shot.

2. Twenty

Where to Watch: Viki
Starring: Kim Woo Bin, Lee Jun Ho, Kang Ha Neul

This is another fantastic comedy that had me dying the entire time that I was watching it. I laughed from the moment it started to the very last scene. There is much to love about this movie and the friendship between the three main leads was just fantastic. So much love this for this movie.

3. Little Forest

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime
Starring: Kim Tae Ri, Ryu Joon Yeol, Jin Ki Joo

I watched this movie just a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. The movie itself moves at a slow pace but I enjoyed that about the movie. Kim Taeri leads this movie and her character was interesting to me. You can tell that she’s going through something and returns to her hometown to heal and seeing her journey from the lost girl she was when she returned and seeing her figure her shit out day by day was a nice, enjoyable watch and it brought me a lot of comfort with all of the shit up in the air in my own personal life right now.

4. Seobok

Where to Watch: Viki
Starring: Gong Yoo, Park Bo Gum, Jo Woo Jin

Two of my faves head up this movie and I enjoyed the heck out of the entire thing. I’ve watched this one a couple of times because it was just a good watch. I liked seeing both Gong Yoo and Park Bo Gum on the screen together and the story was just one that was easy to fall into and I liked it so much.

5. Silenced

Where to Watch: Netflix
Starring: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu Mi, Kim Hyun Soo

I wouldn’t say that this was a movie that I absolutely loved because of how dark it is but it was a compelling movie. It was a movie that broke my heart and made me so angry but I was glad that I watched it and it’s one that I recommend everyone to check out.

what are some of your favorite k-movies?

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Review: Twenty Five, Twenty One

Posted July 26, 2022 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Twenty Five, Twenty One

Starring: Kim Tae Ri, Nam Joo Hyuk, Bona, Choi Hyun Wook, Lee Joo Myung
Year Released: 2022
Number of Episodes: 16
Genre: Contemporary, Romantic Comedy, Romance
Country: South Korea
Where I Watched It: Netflix
Recommended By: N/A
Who I Watched It For: Nam Joo Hyuk, Choi Hyun Wook

In a time when dreams seem out of reach, a teen fencer pursues big ambitions and meets a hardworking young man who seeks to rebuild his life.

Na Hee Do is a member of her high school fencing team. Due to the South Korean financial crisis, the high school fencing team gets disbanded. Getting through all the difficulties, she becomes a member of the national fencing team.

The South Korean financial crisis also causes Baek Yi Jin’s father’s business to go bankrupt. This leads to a life change for Baek Yi Jin, from living the life of a wealthy person to a poor person. While studying, he works part-time jobs like delivering newspapers. Later, he becomes a sports reporter for a broadcasting network.

I wanted to watch this show because both Nam Joo Hyuk and Choi Hyun Wook were in it. I was still riding high on my love of Racket Boys and wanted to support Choi Hyun Wook’s new project so as soon as the drama dropped, I was on it.

This drama follows a young protagonist who is determined to be the best fencer in South Korea. She meets a young man named Baek Ye Jin and becomes fast friends with him. Na Hee Do was such a vibe. I loved the hell out of young Hee Do. I also loved the hell out of young Ye Jin. Seeing them meet, bicker, and then become friends before developing romantic feelings for each other was a whole lot of fun. I adored the first half of this show. Seeing high school Hee Do battle her Mom to be able to keep fencing and seeing Ye Jin struggle to find his place in the world now that he wasn’t the rich kid anymore made tuning in every week a lot of fun. Things were hard for Ye Jin but I loved that he didn’t give up and he just kept right on grinding, even though he kept getting kicked down. I loved the friendship that blossomed between him and Hee Do, too. The faith that Hee Do had in him gave him the wings he needed to find his footing. I cheered for the two of them on their own and I cheered for them together.

The romance between these two was one for the books. I adored every moment they shared with each other when they were young. I was oohing and ahhing over every journal entry right along with Hee Do’s daughter. I kept hoping that they would somehow find their way back to each other even though current Hee Do and Ye Jin didn’t seem to keep in touch at all…and that’s where a lot of my issues with this show started and ended. The reasons they broke up and couldn’t be together made no sense with the kind of relationship that Hee Do ended up in. So they had this intense love affair and were each other’s whole world but couldn’t be together because they couldn’t do the long distance thing….and then Hee Do grows up and has a husband that works abroad? How does that make any sense? Grrr….I’m still not over my attitude about that. It sucked that we spent an entire season cheering for a couple, only for them to not end up together in the end. And the reason is just too stupid for me to understand.

Now, aside from my attitude over how everyone ends up when they’re older, my very favorite thing about this show was these guys…

This squad was everything. I absolutely adored these guys. It took me a little bit to warm up to Yu Rim but once she joins the squad, I came to really love her. Things were hard for her and my heart hurt for the sacrifices she felt she had to make for her family but I loved that she was just Yu Rim to these guys and even though I was really shipping Ji Woong with Seung Wan, I wasn’t mad that he ended up with Yu Rim.

As much as I loved everyone in this show, my favorite character was Moon Ji Woong. Hee Do was great. Seung Wan was great. Ye Jin was great. Yu Rim ended up being great. But Ji Woong? He was the best. He was funny. He was sincere in everything he did and I absolutely loved his man crush on Ye Jin. Every time he showed Ye Jin how much he loved him, I laughed so much. I loved how he showed up for his friends and I really loved the way that Seung Wan showed up for him. They were the definition of best friends and I really enjoyed their relationship.

There was a lot to cover in this drama and I thought the actors handled their jobs incredibly well. Had this had a better ending, this would have been very high on my favorite dramas of 2022 list. But I couldn’t get over that ending and the second half of the show made me want to kick a wall so while the first half was great, the second half wasn’t and that bummed me out.

The OST

There’s some great music on the OST though I haven’t added any of the songs to my k-drama playlist. Maybe that’ll change, I’m not sure yet.

Final Rating

via GIPHY

3.5 out of 5

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