Korean Drama : When the Weather is Fine

Alternative Title

I'll Find You a Beautiful Day

Year Released

2020

Genre

Slice of Life

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 60 minutes per episode

Starring

Park Min-young, Seo Kang-joon

Storyline

Mok Hae-won (Park Min-young) struggles to live in Seoul as a cello teacher. She returns to her hometown at Bookhyun Village and meets her neighbour Im Eun-seob.

Hae-won and Eun-seob were once classmates in high school. Eun-seob is now a bookstore owner of Good Night Book Store and he organises a book club which gathers the people in the village with same interest.

After getting know of Eun-seob, the cold Hae-won begins to feel warmth for the first time. Together, the pair starts to heal each other of their own past hurts.

My View

A drama about love, forgiveness and healing. Though WTWIF looks like a simple romantic drama, it is about friendship and family's love. 

It is about acceptance, how you decide to let go, open up and embrace others.

After watching tons of crime and thriller dramas, those slow-paced lovely dramas calm me down.

I truly enjoy every moment of this show.

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Where Stars Land

Year Released

2018

Genre

Melodrama

No. of Episodes

32 - running time of 30 minutes per episode

Starring

Lee Je-hoon, Chae Soo-bin, Lee Dong-gun, Kim Ji-soo

Storyline

The story depicts the daily working lives of employees at Incheon International Airport. Mainly the Passenger Services team, Security team, Transportation team and Mooring Management team.

Each team has a role to play when it comes to emergencies happening around the airport.

My View

I enjoyed every single bit of this lively drama making me want to work in an airport as well.

I actually ship for the second lead couple Oh Dae-ki and Na Young-joo from the Security Services team.

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Tunnel

Year Released

2017

Genre  

Crime, Thriller

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 60 minutes per episode

Starring

Choi Jin-hyuk, Yoon Hyun-min, Lee Yoo-young

Storyline

Park Gwang-ho (Choi Jin-hyuk) is a detective from Hwayang police station who time travels from 1986 to 2016 while chasing a serial killer through a tunnel.

There, he meets Kim Seon-jae (Yoon Hyun-min) who is a lieutenant in Hwayang police station. Together, they get to know criminal psychological professor Shin Jae-yi (Lee Yoo-young).

Gwang-ho continues to chase after the serial killer as he thinks this is the only way for him to go back to 1986. 

My View

Tunnel's plotline is extremely exciting that I'm having goosebumps at times when watching it.

Since the story is that amazing, I don't even want to write any spoilers here.

Rating

5/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Awaken

Year Released

2020 - 2021

Genre

Mystery, Thriller

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 70 minutes per episode

Starring

Namkoong Min, Kim Seol-hyun, Lee Chung-ah, Yoon Sun-woo

Storyline

Team leader Do Jung-woo (Namkoong Min) heads the special team of Seoul Metropolitan Police agency together with inspector Gong Hye-won (Kim Seol-hyun). 

FBI investigator Jamie Leighton (Lee Chung-ah) has been invited to join special team as well. They are trying to track down serial killer Moon Jae-woong (Yoon Sun-woo) who has been making the victims commit suicide by having lucid dreams.

All of the victims play a part supporting a foundation in experimenting serum of immortality. They use young children below 14 years old as test subjects at White Night Village. 

However, a tragedy happened one night where everyone killed each other in the village. A few children manage to escape and survive until they are adults. Now they are plotting revenge against those evil scientists and members of White Night foundation.

My View

The idea of killing people by making them have lucid dreams is somewhat creative to me. It's like one is unable to differentiate between reality or fantasy.

Rating 

5/5 Stars

 

Korean Drama : Trap

Year Released

2019

Genre

Thriller

No. of Episodes

7 - running time of 70 minutes per episode

Starring

Lee Seo-jin, Sung Dong-il, Lim Hwa-young

Storyline

The story starts with anchorman Kang Woo-hyun (Lee Seo-jin) as a victim to a group of "hunters" while on vacation with his family. His wife and son are kidnapped and taken as baits. Woo-hyun has to decide if he is to save his wife or son.

Detective Go Dong-kook (Sung Dong-il) works together with profiler Yoon Seo-young (Lim Hwa-young) to track down the group of serial killers.

My View

There is a little twist here and there but not that much of an impact. Perhaps, it is due to only 7 episodes which feels pretty rush.

How I wish everything just ends instantly but the ending is a cliffhanger.

Rating

3/5 Stars

 

Korean Drama : Beyond Evil

Year Released

2021

Genre

Thriller

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 70 minutes per episode

Starring

Shin Ha-kyun, Yeo Jin-goo

Storyline

Lee Dong-sik (Shin Ha-kyun) is a sergeant at Manyang Police sub-station of Munju Police Station. He was a suspect of his twin sister's killer 20 years ago. Dong-sik lives his whole life trying to catch the real murderer.

Han Joo-won (Yeo Jin-goo) is a detective from International Crime Investigation team of the Foreign Affairs Department in Seoul. He is transferred to Manyang Police sub-station to find out a serial killer he is investigating.

My View

The most disgusting part about society is those who know the truth but choose to remain silent. 

Some did it for their family while others are just plain greedy.

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Goodbye Mr. Black

 

Year Released

2016

Genre

Action

No. of Episodes

20 - running time of 65 minutes per episode

Starring

Lee Jin-wook, Moon Chae-won, Kim Kang-woo, Yoo In-young, Jeon Gook-hwan

Storyline

The story tells about how Min Seon-jae (Kim Kang-woo) who has low self-esteem due to his ex-convict father Min Yong-jae (Lee Dae-yeon). Seon-jae lives with Cha Ji-won (Lee Jin-wook), Cha Ji-soo (Im Se-mi) and Yoon Ma-ri (Yoo In-young).

Seon-jae is jealous of Ji-won who is loved by his family. On one ocassion, due to manipulation from Baek Eun-do (Jeon Gook-hwan), Seon-jae tries to cover up his own faults. However, he is found out by Ji-won's father Chairman Cha Jae-wan (Jung Dong-hwan). As a result, Chairman Cha was being shot dead.

When Ji-won tries to find out the truth of his father's death, he is being framed as a murderer. When on the run in Thailand, he meets Khaya (Moon Chae-won) who saves his life. Ji-won escapes his life and names himself as Black.

Khaya later moves back to South Korea with Kim Ji-ryoon (Kim Tae-woo) and renames as Kim Swan. Swan becomes a reporter at Panda News to expose the wrongdoings of Sunwoo Group. She reunites with her father Baek Eun-do shortly and her real name is Baek Eun-young. Eun-young loses her childhood memories during the Tsunami incident in Thailand years ago.

My View

GMB IMHO is an extremely good drama in terms of how each episodes flow. The plot is not boringly slow at times unlike some dramas. Every scene brings me through steadily.

Kim Kang-woo expresses himself skillfully and I love Jeon Gook-hwan as well. His first drama which I had watched was Empress Ki and I thought his character as El Temur was great.

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : The Man in the Mask

Alternative Title

Masked Prosecutor

Year Released

2015

Genre

Action

No. of Episodes

16 - runing time of 70 minutes per episode

Starring

Joo Sang-wook, Kim Sun-a, Uhm Ki-joon

Storyline

Ha Dae-chul (Joo Sang-wook) is a prosecutor by day and a masked vigilante by night. He meets Yoo Min-hee (Kim Sun-a) who is a female detective of the violent crime division.  

Dae-chul also has a half-brother, prosecutor Kang Hyun-woong (Uhm Ki-joon).

My View

I guess the plot does not really captivate me as I started fast-forwarding a lot of scenes starting from episode 2.

Rating

1/5 Stars

Korean Drama: The World of the Married

Year Released

2020

Genre

Family, Romance, Thriller

No. of Episodes

16 + 2 specials - running time of 80 minutes per episode

Starring

Kim Hee-ae, Park Hae-joon, Han So-hee

Storyline

The plot starts off with a perfect life follows by suspicion, betrayal, lies and manipulation. After which is a comeback, revenge and fear. 

Then there is emotional breakdown, dilemma and suicide. Finally, the show ends with reflection, letting go, a lot of patience and forgiveness.

My View

The first episode left me swearing a lot. If betrayal by your other half is not enough, there are those people who keep their silence about the truth.

Another part that makes me curse was when Lee Tae-oh (Park Hae-joon) and Ji Sun-woo (Kim Hee-ae) had a fierce fight which landed Tae-oh a police's constraint order.

In the end, all of them realise what is the most important thing in their lives. Eventually, they get to move on in peace.

Rating

5/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Pied Piper

Year Released

2016

Genre

Action, Crime

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 65 minutes per episode

Starring

Shin Ha-kyun, Jo Yoon-hee, Yoo Jun-sang

Storyline

Joo Sung-chan (Shin Ha-kyun) signs a contract and becomes negotiator for K-Group Chairman Seo Geon-il (Jung Gook-hwan). In return, Chairman Seo lends a large sum of money for Sung-chan's mother's surgery. However, she passes away before getting treatment.

Yeo Myung-ha (Jo Yoon-hee) decides to join Crisis Negotiation Team to reach out to helpless citizens. She believes that by listening earnestly to those in need may ends in a different result. She is one of the victims from New Town Development (by K-Group) 13 years ago. Her parents died in an explosion during rioting.

Yoon Hee-sung (Yoo Jun-sang) is the anchor of TNN Night News channel. He used to be a reporter but makes a deal with Press Director to hide the truth about kidnapping case involving K-Group employees. Sung-chan was the negotiator back then and his girlfriend died because of his negotiation negligience.

A mysterious man named Pied Piper who always make calls by whistling first. Next, he will inform the police department on any upcoming kidnapping, explosion cases etc. 

My View

PP is a very different kind of crime drama. Yes, it is still to expose the bad deeds of higher-ups like any other dramas. But the way the plot is written unravels extraordinarily. 

One of the cases involving a suicide by a helpless lady certainly impresses me. 

Pied Piper's real identity stuns me as well.

Rating

5/5 Stars