Tag: Park Hoon

Review: Soundtrack #1

Posted November 24, 2022 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Soundtrack #1

Starring: Park Hyung Shik, Han So Hee, Kim Joo Heon, Yoon Byung Hee, Park Min Jung, Park Hoon
Year Released: 2022
Number of Episodes: 4
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: South Korea
Director: Kim Hee Won
Screenwriter: Ahn Sae Bom
Where I Watched It: Disney Plus
Recommended By: N/A
Who I Watched It For: Park Hyung Shik

Two people have been friends for two decades, but a mere two weeks of living together blurs that fine line between love and friendship.

Han Sun Woo is a handsome rookie photographer with a warm personality, while Seo Eun Soo is a lively, straightforward, and honest person who openly expresses her feelings. Three years ago, she seized a chance opportunity to become a lyricist. Nowadays details of their relatable romance are subtly interwoven into her musical compositions.

This show was on my watch list the moment I knew that Park Hyung Shik signed up for it. I love me some PHS so I was going to watch this no matter what. I had to wait a bit before it showed up on Disney Plus but the minute that it did, I was on it. I watched the entire thing in one work day. It was short and it was sweet and I’m glad that I watched it.

Park Hyung Shik was as great as he usually is and I’m SO glad that he’s back from his military enlistment.

The Story

This drama is about two best friends. Sunwoo and Eunsoo. They’ve been best friends since they were nine years old and Sunwoo has been in love with Eunsoo for about that long as well. We follow along as they come to terms with their feelings for each other. Sunwoo, thinking that maybe it’s time to move on from Eunsoo to save their friendship and Eunsoo, coming to the realization that maybe the love that she’s never had was right there all along.

Main Male Lead

I am a sucker for an unrequited love story and my guy Sunwoo was in love with his best friend, all on his own. For years. Park Hyung Shik plays this role really well. I’m sure that I would enjoy watching him act in a toilet paper commercial but I was really soft for Sunwoo. He was a great friend. He was a good person. And seeing him step back from confessing his feelings for his best friend because she turned him down before he could ever say anything, made for an angsty romance that I thought Park Hyung Shik carried really well. He does those longing looks justice, haha.

Sunwoo was a talented photographer who had a shot for international recognition for his work and seeing him struggle with staying or going made my heart hurt for him. I was happy with his choice and I was a really big fan of Sunwoo so I was rooting for him from the jump. Loved him.

Main Female Lead

I haven’t watched a lot of things with Han Sohee but I did enjoy her in this one. Seeing her slowly come into her feelings for Sunwoo made the show all the more interesting. Sure, I thought that she took her sweet time coming into those feelings but all is well that ends well. I never doubted her feelings when she finally realizes that she’s in love with Sunwoo and was scared that she might be too late. It made their coming together all the more worthwhile since she suffered on her own just like Sunwoo did.

I did wonder how I would have felt if I didn’t share my best friend’s feelings and found folders and folders of pictures of myself on his computer. I had secondhand embarrassment for Sunwoo but Eunsoo handled that whole thing just like she handled everything else, clumsily but cutely. Go figure that this show was only four episodes and yet, it felt like it took forever for Eunsoo to come into her feelings. But when she finally realizes them and acts on them, I was so satisfied.

The Cast

There was only one familiar face included in this cast but it was a pleasant familiar face. I didn’t like him for Eunsoo but I did like seeing him again. I also enjoyed the couple that ran the restaurant that Eunsoo and Sunwoo frequented, I adored Eunsoo’s Mom, and I liked Sunwoo’s work friends (except the girl that tried to hit on him, haha) as well. Most of the screentime was spent on Sunwoo and Eunsoo so there wasn’t much left over for the rest of the cast but still, the cast did a great job with the time they were given and I enjoyed them all.

Final Thoughts

There were only four episodes in this entire drama but I never once felt cheated or felt that their relationship, their story, or anything else for that matter was rushed. It was like a long movie that hit all of the right buttons to make my heart happy. There were soft moments, more emotional moments, and a lovely romance that I really enjoyed from beginning to end. It’s another great addition to Park Hyung Shik’s acting resume and I definitely recommend it.

Final Rating

via GIPHY

4.5 out of 5

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Review: The King, Eternal Monarch

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

Male Lead: Lee Min Ho
Female Lead: Kim Go Eun
Also Starring: Woo Do Hwan, Jung Eun Chae, Kim Kyung Nam,Lee Jung Jin, Kim Yong Ji, Seo Jeong Yeon, Sojin, Kwon Yul, Jeong Hyun Joon, Kang Hong Seok, Park Won Sang, Park Hoon, Kim Wook, Choi Woo Sung
Year Released: 2020
Number of Episodes: 16
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Crime Drama
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Netflix
Recommended By: Kim Go Eun, Woo Do Hwan
Who I Watched It For: Kim Go Eun, Woo Do Hwan

Lee Gon mourns the tragic death of his father. Lee Lim goes on the run – and finds escape when he comes across a door to a parallel universe.

I’m not even going to front. I didn’t watch this show because of Lee Min Ho. I wanted to watch this show because of Woo Do Hwan. This guy is really good looking so watching him in another show (My first show with him was My Country: The New Age) was a must on my to-do list. I also saw that my girl Kim Go Eun aka The Goblin Bride was in this one so it was definitely going to be watched and I’m glad that I gave it a go because this reminded me of Goblin so it was a lot of fun.

So this show is a fantasy romance that takes place in a world with parallel worlds and a young King who can travel between those worlds. Lee Gon, the King of the Empire of Korea, is mourning the tragic death of his father, searching for the person who saved him on the night of his father’s murder, and plotting revenge against his father’s killer. When Lee Gon meets Jung Tae Eul, a police detective from the Republic of Korea, they come together to try to catch the bad guy and take him down once and for all. It appears that the bad guy is squatting in Tae Eul’s world so Lee Gon goes back and forth between their worlds to try to find him. It takes some time for him to get Tae Eul to trust him enough to help him. He knew immediately who she was when he first meets her but she didn’t know who he was so there was a struggle at the beginning with him trying to get close to her.

There’s a lot going on in this show and I was invested in pretty much everything. Trying to puzzle through chasing the killer down, the romance brewing between Lee Gon and Tae Eul, the going back and forth between worlds, getting to know both people from both worlds and just, you know, everything. As much as I was invested in all of those things, my favorite part of the show were these guys…

Woo Do Hwan’s portrayal of both Jo Eun Soeb and Jo Young rocked my mother freaking socks. Both of them charmed the hell out of me and it’s been weeks and weeks since I’ve seen this show and I still can’t choose a favorite. I thought Woo Do Hwan’s portrayal of the two characters was fan-freaking-tastic and I loved the hell out of both of them. I swear everything else took a back seat once these guys showed up on scene. They totally stole the show from right under both Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun. As great as they were, what I looked forward to the most while watching this was seeing what shenanigans Eun Soeb was going to get into and seeing his younger siblings interact with Jo Young.

The romance between Lee Gon and Tae Eul was subtle and in the background but I enjoyed seeing them come together. They complimented each other well and when we finally get to this scene, I was all about it.

Overall, the show did a great job of sucking me in with the charming cast, keeping me interested in the storyline and making me a little swoony with the romance. You can’t really ask for more in a drama so I’m a happy camper with this one. This one was definitely a good one so I recommend.

Listen to the OST

Final Rating

4 out of 5

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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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