Korean Drama : Hwarang

Year Released

2016 - 2017

Genre 

Historical Period 

No. of Episodes

20 - running time of 60 minutes per episode

Starring

Park Seo-joon, Park Hyung-sik, Go Ah-ra

Storyline

A 'faceless' King Jinheung (Park Hyung-sik) who has been hidden since young by his mother Queen Ji So (Kim Jee-soo) after the late King Beopheung passed away. Moo Myung (Park Seo-joon) who is a cheonin and becomes Ahn Ji-gong's (Choi Won-young) son, Son Woo to avenge the death of his friend Mak Moon (Lee Kwang-soo). Mak Moon was the real son of Ahn Ji-gong but separated from his father since young due to Queen Ji So.

Both Jinheung and Son Woo join as Hwarang which is established by Queen Ji So to later on act as an army to support King Jinheung. They both fall in love with Ahn Ji-gong's daughter, Ah Ro (Go Ah-ra) who is a physician looking after the Hwarangs.

My View

While the drama has my favourite veteran actors Choi Won-young and Kim Won-hae, the stroyline just somehow falls short and does not have that much of an impact for me. It feels like the villian Park Yeong-shil (Kim Chang-wan) was easily defeated without a proper fight. 

I actually shipped for Park Hyung-sik and Go Ah-ra instead but oh well. 

Rating

3/5 stars

Korean Drama : Bad Guys 2: City of Evil

Year Released

2017

Genre

Action

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 65 minutes per episode

Starring

Park Joong-hoon, Joo Jin-mo, Yang Ik-jun, Kim Mu-yeol, Ji-soo

Storyline

Plot is about a group of prosecutors, detectives and an ex-gang member who team up together to crack down corrupted powerful connections within the government bodies.

My View

Loved all the fighting scenes and little of twist here and there. One part which touched my heart so much was when ex-prosecutor turned lawyer Min Tae-shik (Lee Yoon-hee) forgave Han Gang-joo (Ji-soo) for trying to kill him years ago.

Rating 

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation

Year Released

2020

Genre

Crime

No. of Episodes

12 - running time of 70 minutes per episode

Starring

Cha Tae-hyun, Lee Sun-bin, Jung Sang-hoon, Yoon Gyung-ho, Ji Seung-hyun

Storyline

A team made up of Detective Jin Kang-ho (Cha Tae-hyun), TV programme Fact Check PD, Kang Moo-young  (Lee Sun-bin), ex-profiler turned pyramid scheme sales person, Tak Won (Ji Seung-hyun), ex-pathologist turned funeral director, Lee Ban-seok (Jung Sang-hoon) and ex-gangster turned bar owner, Teddy Jung (Yoon Gyung-ho) where they solve crimes together.

My View

Overall an okay plot and I'm only impressed by the first case at how they managed to get the fingerprints of a murderer.

Rating

3/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Graceful Friends

Year Released

2020

Genre

Family, Mystery

No. of Episodes

17 - running time of 70 minutes per episode

Starring

Yoo Joon-sang, Song Yoon-ah, Bae Soo-bin, Han Da-gam, Kim Sung-oh, Kim Hye-eun, Jung Suk-yong, Lee In-hye

Storyline

Plot revolves around a group of university mates who are there for each other even if it means to cover up for murder. Their relationship seems to be going strong but some of them have past unspeakble secrets. Due to jealousy, one started to plan the unthinkable.

My View

Not too bad a drama and I enjoy watching with all these veteran artistes. Hope to watch more of such genre.

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Watcher

Year Released 

2019

Genre

Crime, Mystery

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 65 minutes per episode

Starring

Han Seok-kyu, Seo Kang-joon, Kim Hyun-joo

Storyline

Detective Do Chi-kwang's (Han Seok-kyu) goal is to watch over other bad police officers and catch them. Kim Young-goon (Seo Kang-joon) joins Chi-kwang's team to find out his mother's murderer from fifteen years ago. Though his father, former detective Kim Jae-myung (Ahn Kil-kang) was imprisoned for being the murderer, Young-goon is still doubful about the truth.

Former prosecutor and now lawyer Han Tae-joo (Kim Hyun-joo) is determined to get her revenge when she was being attacked during her re-investigation about Young-goon mother's murder case. The trio work as a team to locate actual killer and a ledger about bad deeds of high-ranking police officers and prosecutors.

My View

Though the plot moves on steadily slow, I don't find it boring at all. The drama is so confusing that I don't even know what the confusion was. This makes me even more curious to find out what's next.

Watcher is well-written and you will definitely miss out the gist of it if you fast-forward a little. 

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : It's Okay to Not Be Okay

Year Released

2020

Genre

Family

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 1 hour and 15 minutes per episode

Starring

Kim Soo-hyun, Oh Jung-se, Seo Yea-ji

Storyline

Moon Sang-tae (Oh Jung-se) and Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun) lost their mother to a murderer since young. Due to Sang-tae's autism condition, the police could not take his statement as a witness to the scene. The trauma haunts Sang-tae for life and Gang-tae has a difficult time taking care of him.

Ko Moon-young (Seo Yea-ji) was brought up without her parents' love. Her only way to communicate with the world is through her fairy tale stories. She longs for warmth and ends up living as a family together with Sang-tae and Gang-tae.

My View

A story about healing, love and warmth. Usually, the loneliest people attract each other as they understand the pain one is suffering from. 

Rating

5/5 Stars

 

Korean Drama : Dazzling

Alternative Title

The Light in Your Eyes

Year Released

2019

Genre

Family

No. of Episodes

12 - running time of 60 minutes per episode

Starring

Kim Hye-ja, Han Ji-min, Nam Joo-hyuk, Ahn Nae-sang, Lee Jung-eun, Son Ho-jun

Storyline

Kim Hye-ja (Han Ji-min) found a golden watch by the beach during her childhood days. She realised that she could turn back time by adjusting the watch. Downside was that she grew older whenever she used that watch to change her past and stopped for a while.

When her dad, Kim Dae-sang (Ahn Nae-sang) was met with a car accident, she turned back time multiple times until she saved his life. However, she changed into an old Kim Hye-ja (Kim Hye-ja) and no one recognised her.

Hye-ja learnt many life lessons while coping with her 'new' life in another perspective. She decided not to harbour any hope on going back to the past since it meant she had to exchange something precious from her life.

My View

Unexpected plot twist here and this drama made me teared so so much. I had to re-play some of the scenes multiple times each day just to have have a good cry again. Dazzling it's a gem hidden under a rock and you need to watch it.

Rating

5/5 Stars

 

Korean Drama : Rugal

Year Released

2020

Genre

Science fiction

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 65 minutes per episode

Starring

Choi Jin-hyuk, Park Sung-woong, Jo Dong-hyuk, Jung Hye-in, Kim Min-sang, Park Sun-ho

Storyline

Police officer Kang Gi-beom (Choi Jin-hyuk) was rescued by founder of Rugal, Choi Geun-chul (Kim Min-sang). Gi-beom's eyes were being gouged out by members of Argos and Rugal planted a pair of artificial eyes to save him. Gi-beom survived the attack and joined Rugal in order to avenge his wife's death.

Rugal members consist of team leader Han Tae-woong (Jo Dong-hyuk) who was an ex-Argos member, betrayed by his own gang. He had robotic arm installed in place of his broken one. Lee Gwang-chul's (Park Sun-ho) internal organs were being replaced as well since they were damaged. Song Mi-na (Jung Hye-in) who was Gi-beom's junior and her father worked with Choi Geun-chul in the past.

Together Rugal track down all Argos members especially Hwang Deuk-goo (Park Sung-woong) who carries out illegal experiments using innocent human lives to create terrorist attacks.

My View

Rugal is not too bad and I initially wanted to rate 3 stars but given those efforts put into the action scenes, I give them a 4. Another science fiction drama that passed my 1 & 2 stars mark. The first one was Duel which changed my mind on how bad science fiction dramas were.

A cliffhanger at the end so probably there would be part 2. Is it a Netflix kind of thing that their series usually come with 'to be continued'?

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Duel

 

Year Released 

2017

Genre 

Science fiction

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 60 minutes per episode

Starring

Jung Jae-young, Yang Se-jong, Kim Jung-eun, Seo Eun-soo

Storyline

Detective Jang Deuk-cheon (Jung Jae-young) entangles with two men who look exactly the same, Lee Sung-joon and Lee Sung-hoon (Yang Se-jong). The two are involved in the kidnapping of Deuk-cheon's daughter Jang Soo-yeon (Lee Na-yoon).

Reporter Ryu Mi-rae (Seo Eun-soo) gets to know Sung-joon while trying to find out about her mother, Ryu Jeong-sook's (Kim Bo-jung) life as a nurse before her death.

My View

I'm extremely surprised that a Science fiction drama sits so well with me this time. Usually, they just get rated one or two stars. Not even Ji Chang-wook's Melting Me Softly makes me change my mind. 

Love Duel's plot twist and how things being uncovered, glad that I watched it till the end. But one thing that bothered me was how did Sung-joon recover from his illness. Lol a mystery right there.

Rating

4/5 Stars

 

Korean Drama : Detectives in Trouble

Year Released

2011

Genre 

Crime

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 70 minutes per episode

Starring

Song Il-gook, Lee Jong-hyuk, Song Ji-hyo, Park Sun-young

Storyline

Jung Il-do (Lee Jong-hyuk) heads the team in Gangnam Police Homicide Division. Among its members are Detective Park Se-hyuk (Song Il-gook), Nam Tae-shil (Sung Ji-ru) and Shin Dong-suk (Kim Joon). Se-hyuk has been trying to find out the reason for Il-do who shot a criminal five years ago as this incident inadvertently killed Se-hyuk's daughter.

My View

Reason why I watched this drama was due to the fact the crimes featured were based on true stories. But I feel like I'm watching those old HK TVB series. 

The only plus point is that dramas in those olden days (ten years ago probably) do show the victims' bodies covered in blood etc. Nowadays, they are being masked out unless we are watching from Netflix.

Rating

2/5 Stars