Tag: Kim Woo Bin

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: Our Blues

Posted October 27, 2022 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Our Blues

Starring: Lee Byung Hun, Shin Min Ah, Cha Seung Won, Lee Jung Eun, Uhm Jung Hwa, Han Ji Min, Kim Woo Bin, Kim Hye Ja, Go Doo Shim
Year Released: 2022
Number of Episodes: 20
Genre: Life, Drama, Melodrama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Where I Watched It: Netflix
Recommended By: Park Jimin
Who I Watched It For: Park Jimin

“Our Blues” takes on an omnibus-style drama, which tells the story of diverse characters that are somewhat interconnected, in one way or the other.

Lee Dong Suk, a guy born on the beautiful island of Jeju, sells goods from the mainland in his truck for a living. He meets Min Sun Ah, a girl with a mysterious past, who has come to Jeju to escape that life.

Park Jung Joon, a ship captain, falls in love with Lee Young Ok, a diver with a bright and bubbly personality.

Jung Eun Hee, a fish shop owner, reunites with her past lover Choi Han Soo. They cross paths in Jeju Island when he returns back, after realizing that city life is not for him.

I went into this drama because of Park Jimin. Jimin was singing one of the songs on the OST so to support my fellow Bulletproof Boyscout, I put this drama on my to watch list. I won’t lie. This show started off really slow. The first couple of stories dragged for me and I wasn’t sure that I’d continue because I had to hype myself up to watch the new episodes in the beginning but boy am I glad that I kept with it. With each passing week, I cried a little more and then when Jimin’s song with Ha Sung Woon finally makes its debut? I cried EVEN MORE. The song matched the couple’s story so well that I came to love the song even more as well.

There’s a lot of characters to follow in this show but I loved each and every story, every character, and just the entire town. Lee Young Ok’s character was hard to root for. She was so mysterious, so frustratingly hard to get to know that it turned me off but as her story starts to come to light more and more, I hated her less and less. While I didn’t completely understand the reasons she did the things that she did to and for her sister, in the end, I was glad that she found a home and I was glad that she could stop running from her life.

Each character in this show had a story to tell and we saw them all. Big stories, little stories, stories told through other stories, the way that the writers meshed them all together was pretty great. I can’t tell you which story was my favorite because it’s a tie between the pregnancy story and the granddaughter coming to stay with the grandmother. I cried the most in those two stories but each story was pretty great in their own right. All of the actors did a fantastic job of bringing their characters to life and I loved that each character shined in their own way and added to the village that I came to know and love in the end.

There’s a lot to love with this drama. Lots of great acting, a fantastic OST, and a lot of pretty eye candy to look at as well. The pacing is on the slower side but I thought it worked well with the kind of drama that this was. Everything comes at you but the overall feel of the drama is slow, steady, and oh so good. I really enjoyed this one and I think y’all will too.

Final Rating

4.5 out of 5

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Review: Uncontrollably Fond

Posted September 23, 2021 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Uncontrollably Fond

Starring: Kim Woo Bin, Bae Suzy, Im Joo Hwan
Year Released: 2016
Number of Episodes: 20
Genre: Contemporary, Drama, Romance
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Viki
Recommended By: Kim Woo Bin
Who I Watched It For: Kim Woo Bin

People change but can the heart adapt? Sin Joon Young and No Eul were in love in their younger days. But uncontrollable circumstances separated them and they went their separate ways. Joon Young is now a superstar actor and singer, while No Eul became a producer-director of documentaries. When their paths cross again years later, Joon Young discovers that No Eul is now a very different person than he remembered — materialistic and willing to do anything to get ahead. Is there any hope for Joon Young and No Eul to rekindle their past relationship?

I won’t get into what this show was about, you can read all about it above in the drama blurb. I’m just going to jump right into my thoughts.

This was the first drama that I’ve watched Kim Woo Bin as the main male lead. It won’t be the last, at least I hope it won’t. His character in this show pissed me off at least twice in every episode but I couldn’t help but love him anyway. I hated the way that he treated No Eul in the beginning and his asshole attitude made me want to punch him in the nuts many times over but for some reason, I’m sure his good looks helped his case plenty (gah, I’m so shallow!), I still felt for him. I wanted to smack some sense into him and then hug him better. His character was complicated and his story was a hard one to get through but I thought Kim Woo Bin’s acting was fantastic and I ate up every scene he was in.

Bae Suzy was the female lead in this one and she was another fantastic addition to this cast. I loved her character, I loved the complexity that she brought to No Eul’s character and I just thought she was a great noona to her younger brother, No Jik (even though there were times when he didn’t appreciate her efforts). I also wanted to punch her in the gut more than once each episode. I kept giving her a break though because she was dealt a really shitty life hand and I don’t think I could have survived what she did. As each episode passed, I grew to love her character more and more. My heart hurt for her and though she did stupid things that pissed me off in the beginning, I’m glad that I stuck around because she was one of the strongest characters in the entire show and I really admired her.

The second lead made me want to punch a hole in a wall. I don’t think that I’ve watched a drama where I was so adamantly against the second lead. Everything he did pissed me off and it was like every chance he got, he did something else that made me want to punch him in the dick. Even in the end, I don’t know that I completely came to like him but I didn’t hate him either.

Kim Woo Bin’s Mom in this show pissed me off. It’s one thing for her to be disappointed and hurt with his life choices but for her to take it as far as she did? Manipulating and spreading those hateful comments? That’s stupid, immature, and just flat-out mean. You don’t do shit like that to your kids, no matter how disappointed you are in them. When Joo Yeong finally let his Mom have it, after enduring five years of his mother’s manipulation, I was a giant ball of tears…and even after their big blowout, she still pissed me off. She was such a terrible person. She cared more about the man that left her than her own son. She made him feel like an outsider in his own family and considering everything that he was battling in this show, with every episode where she didn’t back him, it made me hate her more and more.

I’m telling you, this show was so damn messy and I’m not typically the audience for that kind of shit cause I can’t get through shows like Penthouse and Sky Castle (though I’ve tried) but as mad as this show made me, I was compelled to continue. I needed to see how everything came together and I needed to see it all through to the end. I ugly cried through so much of this show that I had to keep pausing to catch my breath and wipe my face cause I couldn’t see the screen. There was much to unpack throughout the entire course of this show and piecing each piece together kept me going but it wasn’t without its drawbacks.

This show touches on a lot of subjects that had me sitting up to take notice. There was much corruption in the people that are supposed to uphold the law and seeing the rich feed on the poor made me just as mad as the characters did. Despite all of that, I watched every episode and I’m not sure what that says about me. Haha. Was the show good? Yes. Was it hard to get through? Also, yes. Would I watch this show ever again? Probably not because that ending? I’m still sorting through how I feel about it. So if you’re in the mood to cry your eyes out, and rage watch something then this is probably the show for you.

Final Rating

2.75 out of 5

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