Love Story in Harvard

Ah… romance on campus. Unlike American movies, this drama does not involve your typical students playing pranks on roommates, partying all night, drinking just to get drunk, or students who never seem to need to study. It is after all an Asian drama and we all know Asian kids study hard (or die at the hands of their karate fighting parents!).

With the prestigious Harvard University as the backdrop, the drama starts off by introducing Kim Hyun-woo, an international student here to represent South Korea at Harvard Law. He is proud, he is smart, he is funny, and he believes in justice. Your typical hero. Yes, he has an accent and can’t speak very well in English, but he does have a heart-melting smile!

Enter the serious and top of the class student, Hong Jung-min. Your typical rival. Complete with the wanting on Hyun-woo for his father. Always the best in everything he does and he knows it. Great in class, great on court (haha he’s a lawyer AND a basketball player!), and great with the ladies. He knows he’s got game and he will do anything to be the best. Too bad his English is worse than Hyun-woo’s… Maybe that’s why he doesn’t get the girl, the girl being the lovely Kim Tae Hee, who has the two men throwing daggers at each other whenever possible.

Even though for a good chunk of the drama you have to endure the unfortunate accents of our Korean actors, it did help how the writers were able to create a lot of situations where the actors thankfully also get to speak in Korean. The fact that they are eye candy also helped. :p The non-Korean actors on the other hand… they could speak English, but acting? TT______TT Thankfully the writers end the love story at Harvard and bring us back home to Korea where the rivalry between Hyun-woo and Hong-min continues in both their professional and personal lives.

Don’t get me wrong, so far the drama is playing out quite well even with all the accents and the bad acting from the supporting characters. The romance and rivalry between the three main characters is interesting to watch and so is the challenge Hyun-woo faces in dealing with the dreaded professor. However, while I thanked the writers for taking us back to Korea, where our actors could comfortably speak in their native tongue, I also realized 15 minutes into the episode that the drama’s plot would go downhill from there… Because that’s when all the melodrama starts! Complete with the evil white man, opposing parents, near death crashes, and cancer.

My bad. There’s no cancer.

Yes, so why did I keep going until the end? Because I invested so many hours watching the two fall in love and I wanted to see how their relationship would end! Grrrr… TT___TT

Skip this drama. If you do watch it then I suggest only watching up to episode 6.

p.s. – I would repeatedly bang my head against the wall whenever that aweful theme song played!

Loveholic

Story: Has anyone else done this before? Watch a whole drama by fast forwarding it? You know where you go through each episode in like 15 to 20 minutes just so you don’t have to torture youself over the draginess? You could just stop watching altogether, but the drama has that tiny amount of something that interests you enough to try at least going through it fast. Like turning a novel into a comic book.

And so, I turned Loveholic into such. A slow novel into a fast-paced comic book. Why? I had to see whether the two leads end up together! Sadly, that’s the basis for most of the dramas I continue with. I can’t help it. I just love love! lol

As for the story, it’s really bad. It suffered from what many other dramas suffer from: trying to be everything at once. There’s the romance, there’s forbidden love, the guy and girl living together due to unusual circumstances, the age difference, the psychotic lover, the goody goody girl, and a plethora of other sub-plots that just contribute to the whole chaos that is Loveholic.

Acting: I don’t know. I’ve never seen these actors before except for the ‘goody goody that wants the lead guy, but can’t have him’ girl. She was also the ‘annoying little sister-like tomboy who wants the lead guy, but can’t have him’ girl in Snow Queen (with Sung Yuri and Hyun Bin). Yep, I didn’t like anyone in this drama.

Music: Don’t remember, so I give it a pass.

Satisfaction: Even though I went through it like crazy, it still ended up being a waste of my time. Yea, yea. Some of you will say that it’s unfair of me to judge the drama when I went through it like Superman reading a book. BUT in defence I’m telling you that I did watch the important scenes. Anyway, be happy that I didn’t give it a mark like Stairway to Heaven!

Soulmate

Story:
I really don’t think the synopses online do justice to the drama, but I can’t think of anything better either. The drama explores the concept of a soulmate and it does fairly well. Like the previous reviewer mentioned before, this drama defintely had a direction, which is quite clear from the beginning to the end.

If this drama looks like it’s serious then don’t be fooled because the comedy in this is just incredible! It’s a perfect mix of comedy, romance, and just flawless drama.

One thing that I felt was a bit disappointing was that the drama was too short. An extra one or two episodes should’ve been dedicated to the main soulmates because we just don’t get to see them together long enough. I won’t take off marks for that though because I think the directors wanted to show us that the two soulmates don’t need time to get to know each other since they’re soulmates, which means they’ve known each other forever. SDW says that in the drama too.

Acting:
I thought everyone was fantastic and hot! You really end up loving or hating the characters. I especially loved Min-ae, Yu-jin, LSK’s brother, LSK, and SDW. Ryohei could’ve been a little less stiff, but he acts well when he’s with Min-ae. ;D

Music:
I don’t think there will be anyone who WON’T like the music. It’s catchy, fresh, trendy, and definitely eclectic. Every song selected had a purpose in the drama. I downloaded them and am currently …addicted.

Overall:
I have to say that this is probably the best k-drama I’ve watched so far. It is along the lines of Orange Days and One Litre of Tears. I really recommend that you watch this! I know it will end up in your top dramas list.

Dal Ja’s Spring

Story:
What I really liked about this drama was how it dealt with each character’s story and personality. Every character was important and every character had a LIFE! They weren’t there JUST to prop up the main leads like most dramas.

The drama also takes a very interesting look at the lives of working women, which I really loved! The thematic elements of each episode was also pleasing. You can tell a LOT was put into making each and every episode unique.

Although the drama is a bit long, I am glad to let you know that it is well worth it. The plot moves forward, lessons ARE learnt, and everyone begins a new day.

Acting:
Superb! I loved each and every character, which really showed to me how hard everyone worked on this drama. From Oh Dal Ja to the mafia Grandpa, every single one was truly fantastic and made themselves felt.

Special mentions go to Chae Rim (Oh Dal Ja), Lee Hye Young (Wee Seon Joo), and Gong Hyeong Jin (Shin Sae Do)!

Music:
Wonderful songs to listen to and they all had a purpose as well. Songs were chosen very well to suit specific moods and moments. There were songs for laughter, songs for romance, and songs for heartaches. Wonderful OST!

Satisfaction:
It took me a long time to pick-up on the drama again. I don’t really know why I took a break from it after epi 16, but I’m glad i came back to watch it. The drama is full of hilarious and touching scenes. There are even parodies of other dramas that you should look out for! This drama is really a gem of a story and will remain a special one in my mind. Definitely give it a go. Happy watching!

Stairway to Heaven

Since this drama seems to be on a lot of people’s top 10 list, I decided to give it a try.

What a bad decision on my part. I couldn’t even get through half of it. Everything seemed to go downhill for me once the older actors came in. I thought the kids were much better than the older actors and I felt their characters (the younger versions) more so than their characters when they are older.

Sigh… my first k-drama really was a disappointment.

Story:
Very cheesy.

Acting:
Thumbs up to the child actors.

Music:
Nothing noteworthy.

Overall:
Pass on this drama. Many fans might hate me for this…