Aum Rak (2006) - Review

Another collaboration between Ann and Ken, a pairing I loved in Sood Sanae Ha. This is three years prior to Sood Sanaeha, so both the leads are younger and a bit less refined, but they remain charming. This is a more funny and easy lakorn, exactly what I needed in the summer time.

What is this about:

Pat (Anne Thongprasom) is a beautiful but head-strong model. During Pat’s first magazine photo-shoot, she meets a fast-mouthed photographer, Chen (Ken Theeradeth), who predicts she will never be famous in the industry. However, despite Chen’s “prediction”, Napat turns out to be a huge success. In their econd meeting, due to a drinking competition during the party, both Chen and Pat get badly drunk and end up in bed together. It isn’t long before Pat realizes that she is pregnant.

My review:

Pat (Ann) is a famous model, who is arrogant and a bit childish and wants to focus to her carrier. The last one doesn’t go as planned after the accidental one night stand. Her attempts to get rid of the baby are funny because it is obvious that she doesn’t really want to, that she actually wants a family despite what she says. Since, she and Chen have started on the wrong foot and she believes him to be irresponsible, she decides to keep her baby but she will find another father to raise it with. However, she is quite famous and all, the news spread so she was forced to marry with Chen – insert cohabitation shenanigans. Her biggest flaw is that she thinks she can manage everything on her own and she doesn’t accept help from anyone, especially Chen. It takes her a while to realize what a great guy she accidently found on Chen – to her credit his childish ways half of the time didn’t help  -  but she sees the light in the end.

Chen (Ken) is a photographer who likes to flirt with the models. He seems like a playboy and irresponsible and childish (the last one is partly true), but in reality he is sweet and sensitive. By lakorn standards he is quite unique, because from the first moment he realizes his mistake he accepts the responsibility. This is not something we see often in lakorns, so we much cherish it when it happens. Not only he doesn’t shy away from his responsibilities, he actually wants to have this baby and be a father (!). Chen’s character is hot-tempered and childish, the exact opposite of Din in Sood Sanaeha, and the actor brought a lot of physicality into his role.

Anna is Pat’s best friend. Basically she is the only person Pat allows to help her. She is much more sensible that Pat and secretly she helps Chen win over Pat. Firstly, she wants the baby to be with both its parents and sees that Chen wants the baby. And secondly, she is in love with Pat’s old flame and Chen’s adversary. 

Mark is Pat’s old flame and current father nominee. He is absolutely bland, both the actor and the character. He took a turn to the dark side but not too deep and not for long. The only thing that I remember from him is that he looked like Korean. 

Jasmine is another model that hates Pat just because. She is very typical lakorn second lead, therefore forgettable. Only her makeup and general styling can make your eyes hurt.

And last but not least, Chen’s aunt is the same actress as Din’s mother in Sood Sanaeha. How much I love her cheeks. Here she is less sweet, since is determined to have a grandchild and becomes very rude sometimes. 

The scene where they wake up the next morning is hilarious

This lakorn had a very progressive storyline for its time and when it broadcasted it made a huge splash. Honestly, this is the lakorn with the most sexually active couples I have seen so far. Granted, the couples are married and they want to have children, but still, this is new. Meanwhile, it draws a parallel story with these couples that want to have a baby and they can’t, whereas Pat and Chen accidently got one. Even though, the story feels refreshing for a lakorn, it follows several standard points like the over the top humor, childlike behavior, annoying second leads. So, if you thought Sood Sanaeha too silly or over the top, I wouldn’t recommend this. 

This is what I mean by over the top humor

 Why you should watch:

• Ann and Ken pairing.
• Lots of comedy.
• A storyline that is not usually seen in lakorns.

Why not to watch: 

• Over the top humor.
• If you don't like lakorns.
• Early 2000's fashion - it can get ugly.
• Not enough romance between the leads.

Final verdict:

7/10. Nice comedy, with a winning pairing – they really can’t go wrong – and a semi-fresh story. But I wanted a bit more romance and the silliness to be dialed down. I don’t complain though, because I had fun.

Continue reading →

Dropped like a hot potato - Damo (2003)

I would love this to pieces. It would enter the hall of fame of my favourite dramas. But the director had to constantly move the camera in the fighting scenes and as a result destroy this drama for me.

Honestly this has everything to become a classic and timeless story, and for many it is a classic. The story revolves around a woman who works for the police office to help investigate crimes that involve women. She has a tragic past where her family was killed and was separated from her older brother. Her commander takes her under his protection and they grow closer to each other. She then meets the leader of the outlaws who is her older brother, but they don’t know it. I know I didn’t describe it really well, but this is a compelling story about duty, love and betrayal, where the writer has crafted three dimensional characters and a full world. And it feels very Korean. Nowadays, dramas tend to be very polished and modernized, but this is has so many details that make it so Korean and it is charming. 

Ha Ji Won was great here

I heard that this is the drama that catapulted Ha Ji Won to stardom and, after seeing it, I can say rightfully so. She was rough around the edges, but she emitted so much raw emotion. This is one of her finest performances. I think that she hasn’t surpassed her performance here in many of her later works. Of course, the rest of the cast did an excellent job too. The two leading men were convincing and the supporting cast had also their charm.

The commander

And the brother

The sole reason why I didn’t enjoy this drama while I loved certain pieces is the directing. I think the director tried to be very contemporary – this is one of the first fusion sagueks – but he didn’t have either the skills or the budget or both. After a point his style became very tiring and I didn’t pay attention anymore. So this is not dropped per se, I let it play in a corner while I did work in my laptop. But it equal to being dropped in my book. 

It is a miracle I managed to snapshot a scene where it wasnt blurry

Continue reading →

Dropped like a hot potato - Successful story of a bright girl (2002)

This is a new series of posts, for all the dramas I dropped recently and don’t indent to finish watching. 

It is one of the classic Korean dramas that made more or less Jang Hyuk and Jang Nara famous. I was prepared for the awful early 2000s fashion – I haven’t watched a series/movie that has escaped from that - and more predictable story line. I’ve watched old movies and dramas and if they had that extra factor to make them timeless, I loved them to pieces. And this is where the problem lies with this case. Successful story of a bright girl didn’t age well. 

It sets the tone and expectations from the first minutes, where a girl dreams of fighting school boys to protect her prince while the swan lake music plays in the background. Try to picture that. We have the standard jerk male lead, Ki Tae, and the standard country pumpkin female lead, Soo Ki. Their first meeting is with him falling with a parachute into the bathtub she is washing herself outside the yard of her house. He certainly knew how to make an entrance. Anyway, her parents have a huge debt so she agrees to work as a housemaid to repay that, because her bold and brave parents run away. So, we have several shenanigans between out hot-tempered hero and the equally hot-tempered heroin.

One of my biggest complains is the lack of chemistry. In the reviews I read, they compiented about the chemistry between Jang Nara and Jang Hyuk. I didn’t see it. At all. I could have watched this drama despite all the other misgivings, if the chemistry worked. But it didn’t. I understand that this is an older drama and things were less explicit then than now – if you can say that now they are explicit in comparison. For me, the body language didn’t show that. 

Here the actors were pretty much newbies, so the acting is the strongest, however the direction isn’t doing anyone any favors. And when we have the fashion and the music combined, well then, my eyes hurt a bit. When it comes to writing this isn’t a very eventful drama. An episode can pass by and almost nothing that moves the plot or the characters happens. And the characters are one dimensional and not that charming or winning. And in the second half it went to corporation drama territory, which was blah.
I think I wrote too many words for a drama I didn’t even like. If you want to watch it proceed at your own risk.

Continue reading →

City Hunter (2011) - Review

My comeback review is a very well known Korean drama, City Hunter. If you asked me how I can not have watched it before, you would be right. But as it always happens with me, I full my hard drives (yes plural) with all the dramas I want to watch and some are forgotten in some dark corner. This past few months I am trying a massive hard drive clean up and I have rediscovered some of the dramas I wanted to watch for the longest time.

What is this about:

In 1983, 21 South Korean military operatives are sent into North Korea on a secret mission. After completing their mission, they are executed by their own side by a government cover-up. The sole survivor, Lee Jin Pyo, takes his best friend’s son and raise him as his own to take revenge on the men responsible. Some twenty years later Lee Yoon Seong returns to Korea with one goal in mind: to find and bring down the five men responsible for the murder of his father. While bringing these men down, he also brings justice and he is given the nickname “City Hunter”.

My review:

It is considered one of the most popular kdramas and rightfully so. It had a combination of things, directing, writing, acting, and that extra x factor that makes everything click together and I think it is a very nice choice if you want to introduce kdramas to someone who like adventure/romance. It is very Korean, but at the same time it has a more international appeal, I think, due to the very skilled directing.

Yoon Seong aka City Hunter

Yoon Seong (Lee Min Ho) is more on the cleaner side of heroes/vigilantes. He has a weak arrogant persona in the day and a more heroic in the night, reminding a bit of Clark Kent/Superman, Bruce Wayne/Batman, a trope I simply love. The reason why this hero grew to me was his reason for not killing his enemies. He wanted to bring these people to justice so that their families will know the truth and won’t want to retaliate. Would this character benefit from a better actor? Probably yes. But I have to say that this is one of the best Lee Min Ho’s performances, maybe the best. The role had so many layers, from playful kid, to dutiful son that wants his father’s approval, to a hero, and he made the effort to embrace all of it. Really I miss the rawness Lee Min Ho showed in his acting here.  

Jin Pyo smiling at his best friend before hell broke loose

The other important character (and maybe more important that the city hunter himself) is Jin Pyo (Km Sang Joon). He was the emotional and intellectual force of this show. His story is tragic, one of the most tragic ones I have seen in dramas, and has scared him deeply to the point of no return. He treats Yoon Seong only as a tool to revenge, even though he supposedly raised him as his son. He wants the men responsible for the death of his comrades dead and he will do anything to achieve that, even break poor Yoon Seong’s heart. 

Yoon Seong’s relationship with his mother (Yoon Ye Hee) is a rocky one. Jin Pyo stole her little baby so he can train him as a human weapon and she is left alone to deal with the consequences. When Yoon Seong returns to Korea, he is with the impression that she didn’t want him, so it took him a while to know the truth and to deal with his own feelings. 

Nana (Park Min Young), the female lead, has her own heartbreaking story. But the reason why I love her is that she is honest with her feelings and has her own sense of right and wrong. She doesn’t convince me as a bodyguard, but her personality is so winning that I am not going to let it bother me that much. 

Prosecutor Yeong Ju (Lee Joon Hyuk) is the epitome of passionate advocate of law and justice. He wants to believe in the system and tries his best to work with it to bring the bad people to justice. But he is not a crystal white prosecutor. He has his own secrets that play significant role to why he behaves the way he does. One could say that he is the other side of the coin when it comes to City Hunter. While City Hunter uses not so legal ways to find evidence, Yeong Ju uses what City Hunter gives him to enforce the law. Their core beliefs are the same and, if they could get past their differences, they could be a team to be reckoned with. Also, I loved the intensity the actor brought to his character and I honestly can’t picture anyone else in his shoes.

City Hunter literally delivered the corrupted politician in a box

But all these talented actors could be wasted if the writing was not so good. But it is good. It is very good. Besides the strong multidimensional characters, what impressed me was the handling of revenge. In these types of dramas, usually there is a bid bad that our hero tries to overthrow and after twelve-fourteen episodes we have the resolution which can sometimes be anticlimactic. After so many hours of watching, was he beaten only in like twenty minutes? Here the writer used a group of five people as the bad guys, so the hero beats them one by one in the course of the drama. This resulted in a sense of progress, he is not trying to outsmart one guy for sixteen episodes, but five of them, one at a time. Also, it led to the bad guys being delivered to the prosecutor in sometimes funny ways. 

It had some beautifully shot scenes in Thailand

Last but not least, the directing made all of these work. The director was sure about what story he wanted to say and how to say. He did have a problem with effective cliffhangers in the first part of the drama, but he improved. He delivered one of the strongest first episodes in dramaland and an equally strong final episode, which is not an easy accomplishment. The final five minutes or so are a bit choppy, though, but I won’t fault the directing due to live shooting. Of course, the director had an expensive production behind him to support his vision and it really shows in the first two episodes.

One of my favorite scenes in the whole drama

Why you should watch:

• A revenge drama done right.

• Great writing. The writer created a full world with multidimensional characters.

• The revenge is not centered on one person, but five, thus creating progression and climax.

• It starts out strong and it finishes out strong – this is not always the case and should not be treated as guaranteed.

• Lee Min Ho delivers a raw performance, maybe his best. His hero is also very well written.

• We have the father of the decade in the face of Jin Pyo – excellent performance by Kim Sang Joon.

• Strong confident direction that delivers not only intellectually and emotionally but also visually.

Why not to watch:

• Well, if you are not into this type of dramas.

Final verdict:

10/10. One of the best dramas in revenge/action genre. I even recommended it even to those who don’t like that much the genre or Korean dramas in general.

Continue reading →

Friends The great legacy (2013) - Review

The sequel to the classic movie “Friend” from back 2001 took 12 years to come. I think it worked for the best, because the director was conscious about the things he wanted to say and how to portray them.

What is this about:

Directed and written by Kwak Kyung Taek. Star Yu Oh Seong, Kim Woo Bin, Joo Jin Mo.
17 years after the end of the previous movie, Lee Joon Suk (Yu Oh Seong) is released from the prison and he faces a different world from what he remembered. In prison he meets Choi Sung Hoon (Kim Woo Bin), son of one his high school friends and they form a father-son bond. Together they will try to change the status quo in the current leadership of the gang.

My review:

I think the best equivalent to this sequel is Godfather II. Like Coppola, Kwak Kyung-taek changed the focus from the four teenage friends of the first movie and their coming of age tale to Lee Joon Suk’s tale of regret and redemption. With the introduction of Choi Sung Hoon, he created parallels between different generations of gangsters.

Lee Joon Suk (Yu Oh Seong) is a born leader. He comes out of prison, sees that he is replaced by Eun Gi and starts to plan how to take back the leadership. But at the same time he is filled with guilt and regret about the last movie’s events and wants somehow to redeem himself. This is where Sung Hoon (Kim Woo Bin) enters, reminding him of himself and his bestfriends. Yu Oh Seong is a wonderful actor and, like a good wine, he became even better with time. He managed to express so much emotion and complexity with his eyes, face expressions and body language, without overacting. Kudos.

Choi Sung Hoon (Kim Woo Bin) is a rebellious and troublemaker young man. He has his reasons for his violence, namely a lack of proper father figure. In Joon Suk he finds the closest to a father and he formed a heartwarming relationship (kinda) with him. As much as I like Kim Woo Bin, he posed more often than he acted in this movie. Honestly, I expected more intensity from him.

Friends 2 is Kwak Kyung Taek’s work as much as the first one was. Yes, it is more polished, better camera work, higher quality image. But it still has its director’s unique style of storytelling and world building. What I found interesting was the parallel between Joon Suk and Sung Hoon. The first represents the old school gangster, who builds families and loyalty means more to him than money, while the second is newer generation that thinks everything can be bought with money. Different views, different eras.  What stayed the same is how gangster life is presented. Many times we see on the silver and small screen gangsters being glorified and shown as really cool guys. Here, they are tragic figures that cannot break free from the circle of violence.

Why you should watch:

• One of the best gangster movies.

• The unique directing of Kwak Kyung Taek.

• Very good performances from most of the actors – Yu Oh Seong is excellent as Lee Joon Suk.

• Well choreographed fight scenes.

• Those who liked Godfather II might enjoy it.

Why not to watch:

• If you don’t like gangster movies.

• The direction is not for everyone.

• It has a lot of violence and mention of sex and drugs.

Final verdict:

8/10. A thoughtful sequel to the classic that doesn’t recycle the success of the previous, but delivers its own theme. Yu Oh Seong carries the movie on his shoulders masterfully and deserves your time watching this movie.

Continue reading →