You know you watch too many Korean Dramas when...

1. When you find yourself calling your husband "Obo" or your boyfriend "Oppa"
2. When watching an American made film or TV show you find yoursel marveling at how good the English speaking actors are.
3. When watching an American made film or TV show you keep wondering where the English sub-titles are.
4. You catch yourself saying "Aiigoo" rather than "Oh my!"
5. You catch yourself bowing to people when you greet them.
6. When you think Kimchi is really good even though you've never tasted it before.
7. When all your favorite actors are Korean.
8. When you find yourself recasting popular films with Korean actors.
9. When ou find yourself constantly illustrating conversation with friend and family with excerpts from the latest drama you are watching.
10. When someone asks where you are or what you are doing and your friends and family reply without hesitation: "At her computer watching Korean Dramas!"

I have a completely new outlook on chocolate now...

One of the new dramas I’m watching is loosely based … actually VERY loosely based on the movie Big with Tom Hanks.  You know the one, right? Well … that’s not important … anyway, in this drama an 18 year old boy’s spirit (or whatever) gets switched into this um … grown man’s body.  The boy, once he’s in this person’s body starts to show off said body to the man’s fiancé.  He pulls up his shirt to show off a VERY muscular torso and says “Look! Abs like chocolate!!” … ooooh yummy! Now I enjoy chocolate even more.





The drama is cute, so far.  It's a Hong Sisters drama, which means it's guaranteed to be funny.  The first episode wasn't so much, but the second was laugh out loud funny.  Up to this point the 18 year old is making little or no effort to behave like the grown man whose body he inhabits.  His antics have been adorable and in moments like above, down right sexy.  I hope this drama continues to be as enjoyable as it has started out to be.

In the Beginning...



Goong



For a long time my daughter had been trying to get me to watch Korean Dramas with her.  For some reason, I was under the impression that Korean Dramas were not unlike American soaps… which I loathe for one major reason: the characters you spend weeks and even months rooting for, once they find resolution in their relationships or goals … suddenly those things they fought so hard for become nothing.  The thought of watching the same thing only with sub-titles made my blood run cold. 



Padam Padam



I declined frequently and often.  I finally agreed after she begged me to watch just one with her… she chose Goong, because she hadn’t seen that one before and she thought it might be good… so starting in August of 2011 we began watching an episode or two now and then…

Unlike American Soap operas, the Koreans do their television series from beginning to end as one story.  They are basically a romantic novel on TV. Each episode is a chapter and the story has a beginning, middle and end.  While they have the same melodramatic quality as Soap Operas, the Korean dramas each come to a more or less satisfying conclusion.  The k-dramas are also, for the most part, very moral, which is refreshing in a modern day romance.  Relationships between men and women are chaste, but no less passionate.

Kimchi Family (aka Fermentation Family)

Anyway, after watching the first series with her I was hooked.  I’ve been watching them almost exclusively, since.  By exclusively, I mean, I haven’t watched much TV or gone out to very many movies since I’ve started watching these things.  I’ve also started this blog about k-dramas… Since I keep boring everyone I know about them, it might be a nice outlet.  Anyway, if you are curious about what I’m talking about you can view them several places, but dramafever.com is my favorite.  I have a premium account there so I can watch them commercial free. 

Wild Romance

… I only recommend ones that are rated 4 stars or better.  My current favorites are “Padam Padam” and “Kimchi Family.”  Neither of those dramas are finished and I’m watching them as episodes get subtitles added and are posted.  I’ve also gotten hooked on Wild Romance which I touched on in a previous post.  It’s simulcast like Padam Padam and Kimchi Family.

Bad Hair – Great Character

I started watching Wild Romance this week and discovered two new actors to add to my watch list: Lee Dong Wook and Lee Si Young.

 Lee Si Young plays Yoo Eun Jae, a tomboyish, baseball loving bodyguard.  There’s absolutely NOTHING pretty or remotely attractive about this character.  She sports a short tousled mane of hair that would look good on a flower boy, but does nothing to enhance her looks (more about the hair in a moment).  She can sneer, spit and be as raunchy as any guy.  She is also a bodyguard with 7^th degree blackbelt in Judo.  Her initial introduction to Lee Dong Wook’s character includes throwing him over her shoulder on his back.

Eun Jae’s hair … well … it’s not pretty.  She does have ‘cute’ moments, in spite of the hair, but mostly when she’s sporting a hat or when her hair is plastered down for whatever reason.  Her most hilarious hair moment is when she confronts another character, Oh Man Suk as Jin Dong Soo, with the most amazing demonstration of bed head I’ve ever seen.  Furthermore, Dong Soo doesn’t appear to notice.  I wonder how many takes it took for him to keep a straight face.  She also faces doen Dong Wook’s character, Park Moo Yul, with the same bad hairdo and since their relationship to this point has been nothing short of perpetual hatred… he doesn’t make the slightest hint of a reaction.  All I could think was how he could let this amazing opportunity for insults to slip by.

Maybe it’s because these guys are men, and men don’t really notice such things as hair.  Or maybe they were so stunned that their minds blanked it out completely.  They were still able to hold straight faced conversations with Eun Jae, so I’m thinking me must really have more than a one track mind, it’s just that they are unable to access more than one track at a time.

It got me wondering about this actress, Lee Si Young.  The only two dramas she’s in on DramaFever.com are Kingdom of the Wind and Playful Kiss.  Kingdom is on my list to watch, but I’m not in a hurry to watch another historical drama right now, so I ventured in to watching Playful Kiss.  It’s a cute, high school drama that I won’t review right now, but Si Young plays a femme fatale, Yoon Hae Ra, and is absolutely drop dead gorgeous.  The contrast between Yoon Hae Ra and Lee Eun Jae is so astonishing it took me a while to recognize they were the same actor.  I love when they do that.  Lee Si Young, you win a top grade actors award in my book.

In contrast, Lee Dong Wook is eye candy.  For now that’s enough.  I’ll watch one of his other Drama Fever videos after I finish Playful Kiss.  I believe it would be La Dolce Vita or My Girl.  Not sure at this time which I’ll watch; maybe My Girl, it’s shorter.

That’s all for now, TA!

Angels Over Flowers

Some of you may know who Kim Bum is... one of the original Boys over Flowers pretty boys.  He played So Yi Jung, the Casanova of the F4 pretty boy club.

 I thought he was cute in Boys over Flowers and his character was somewhat interesting, but since I'm not really in to pretty boys, I didn't pay much attention to him.

 Then I saw him in The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry as Ha Min-jae ... and still thought, meh, sweet, but too pretty.  I might enjoy ruffling his perfectly coifed hair, but that's about it.

 ... but along comes Padam Padam, where he's a scraggly, dimwitted, sweetly insane ex-con named Gook Soo, who thinks he's Kang Chul's (the main character) guardian angel... and ... well ... I'm smitten.  He's adorable!  ... and gosh darn it if he doesn't actually sprout wings!

All About Korean Dramas

... actually, that's not true.  I don't know squat about Korean dramas.  I just know I enjoy watching them.  I intend to ramble on a bit about the k dramas I watch and comment on the plot, characters, actors and general impressions.  I've already watched quite a few on dramafever.com.  Let's see ... not counting ones I haven't completed yet there are forty. 

1. Young Love Jae In
2. Me Too, Flower!
3. I'm Sorry, I Love You
4. City Hunter
5. Spy Myung Wol
6. Personal Taste
7. You're Beautiful
8. The Painter of the Wind
9. Pasta
10. The Snow Queen
11. My Princess
12. Tree With Deep Roots
13. Flower Boy Ramen Shop
14. The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry
15. Dream High
16. Full House
17. What's Up Fox?
18. Cinderella's Sister
19. Queen Seon Duk
20. Yi San
21. Can You Hear My Heart?
22. Secret Garden
23. Baker King Kim Tak Goo
24. Dong Yi
25. Beethoven Virus
26. 49 Days
27. Thank You
28. Attic Cat
29. My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox
30. Heartstrings
31. Hong Gil Dong
32. Iljimae
33. God of Study
34. Shining Inheritance
35. Warrior Baek Dong Soo
36. Jumong
37. Sungkyunkwan Scandal
38. Coffee Prince
39. Boys Over Flowers
40. My Lovely Sam Soon

That's sort of in reverse order ... My Lovely Sam Soon was one of the first and  Young Love Jae In was the last one I completed. 

I'm also currently watching:

1. Padam Padam
2. Crime Squad
3. Kimchi Family
4. Bachelor's Vegetable Store
5. What's Up
6. Wild Romance

... yes, all at the same time... sort of.  All of them except Crime Squad are being simulcast and dramafever.com only dishes out a couple episodes at a time.  Since I can watch a minimum of 5 episodes a night I easily keep up with them all and add a fully uploaded one to fill in while waiting on the next episodes to get subbed and uploaded.

I'm hoping to fill in the time between episodes to comment, berate, croon over and blather on about them so I can avoid boring my poor friends and family who have absolutely NO interest in hearing about them.  I'm hoping a few lovely people out there will find this blog and give me feedback and comments.  I would enjoy finding others who enjoy k-dramas as much as I do.

Ta for now.