听雪楼 (Ting Xue Lou) – Listening Snow Tower

To Watch:
Youtube

Cast:
Qin Jun Jie as Xiao Yi Qing
Huang Yi as young Xiao Yiqing
Yuan Bing Yan as Shu Jing Rong
Huangyang Tian Tian as young Shu Jingrong
Han Cheng Yu as Jia Ruo
Lin Yuan as Chi Xiao Tai
Yuan Li Lin as Ming He
Zhao Dong Ze as Gao Meng Fei
Jessica Hsuan as Hua Lian
Bai Shu as Huang Quan
Li Ruo Jia as Zi Mo
Zhang Tian Yang as Nan Chu
Fu Meng Ni as Xie Bing Yu
Zhang Yang as Hong Chen
Guo Zhe as Bi Luo
Lu Fang Sheng as Shu Xie Wei
Luo Tian Ze as Third Young Master Lei

Genre:
Wuxia, Fantasy, Romance

Plot:
Shu Jingrong is the daughter of an expert swordsman, who also happens to be the wielder of the infamous demon’s sword. At the beginning of the story, Shu Jingrong’s father is attacked by the leader of the Blood Moon sect and struck with a dangerous poison that causes him to lose control of himself. Yi Qing’s father, the leader of the Listening Snow Tower, comes a moment too late and Shu Jingrong’s father kills himself to prevent himself from hurting his daughter.

Now an orphan, Shu Jingrong mourns the loss of her father and loses the will to live. It is with the kindness of Yi Qing and Jingrong’s future master, Bai Dai, that she eventually joins the Sand Valley and becomes the third disciple.

Years later, the Blood Moon sect once again has a great revival, its influence reaching far into the martial world causing evil and corruption. The Listening Snow Tower, a pillar of righteousness throughout the land, is also wrought with internal strife and diminished strength. Yi Qing returns to the Listening Snow Tower after spending years in training and rehabilitation of his weak body. Once again the Listening Snow Tower tries to regain its righteous prominence and destroy the Blood Moon sect.

Shu Jingrong and Yi Qing’s lives once again intersect, eventually leading to Shu Jingrong joining the Listening Snow Tower. Will the Listening Snow Tower prevail in it’s fight to destroy the Blood Moon sect once and for all? Will Yi Qing ever meet his mother again, whom is imprisoned by the leader of the Blood Moon sect? Will Jingrong and Yi Qing’s love ever bloom?

Review:
I really loved how this drama started out. It definitely excelled in cinematography and set design. The slow mo martial art shots of the fighters flying through the air and rain were artistic masterpieces. The story also started out on an interesting note. As you may know from all my reviews in the past, I am a huge fan of a strong heroine. Listening Snow Tower didn’t really do it for me. I think they really tried but in the end I felt disappointed. The music, costume design, and sound effects were also great complements to the overall drama.

My main gripes about this show were how slow everything had to be and also how nonsensical the story got all the time. The acting was underwhelming and I couldn’t really get into any character. The same things seem to happen over and over again and there was barely any character development. Probably the most change in a character was from Huang Quan. Yi Qing seemed to always have a sick and expressionless look. He portrayed most of his expressions with his eyes and ended up just switching between two or three types of gazes. Shu Jingrong had a bit more emotion and a bit more range but seemed pretty stiff throughout as well. The supporting cast were all decent but were just that, supporting cast. The actresses playing Ming He and Xiao Tai were just angry, childish, and sad all the time. Jia Ruo was stiff as well. I think maybe they were aiming for a slow paced and moody drama. They definitely succeeded.

There were many scenes where I had the urge to fast forward. After a certain number episodes, talking scenes became repetitive. Characters would look at each other for long periods of time, stare silently into the distance, or drink tea or wine very slowly before saying a line. I think it would have been okay if it didn’t happen so often.

Finally, the story made absolutely no sense sometimes. It almost seemed like places in the drama were miles apart, then sometimes hundreds of miles apart. Traveling through forests to rescue people took minutes. Characters did things that absolutely made no sense. I think at some point all the main characters had some sort of obsessive disorder. There were times where the Blood Moon sect had only one or two good fighters, but the Listening Snow Tower could never manage to win with five or six strong fighters.

I really wanted Shu Jingrong to become an expert swordsman and to be one of the strongest fighters, but she never seemed to quite reach that point. She was always getting captured, sick, poisoned, or rescued. At a certain point I almost lost interest in the drama, but I managed to stick around until the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed the first few episodes and also the overall feel of the drama. I felt immersed in the Wuxia world and many of the fight scenes were breathtaking. As the drama dragged on it seemed to taper off. This is one problem with long Wuxia dramas is they get repetitive and we lose character development. The drama becomes plot driven and things begin to happen just to take up screen time.

Rating:
3.0/5.0

별난 며느리 (Byulnan Myeoneuri) – The Eccentric Daughter-in-Law

To Watch:
DramaFever

Cast:
Kim Da Som as Oh In Young
Go Doo Shim as Yang Choon Ja
Ryu Soo Young as Cha Myung Suk
Kwak Hee Sung as Cha Dong Suk, Choon Ja’s second son
Kim Yoon Seo as Kim Se Mi, Choon Ja’s second daughter-in-law
Kim Sung Hwan as Cha Il Goo, Choon Ja’s husband
Park Woong as Cha Joo Bok, Choon Ja’s father-in-law
Son Eun Seo as Cha Young Ah, Choonja’s daughter
Ki Tae Young as Kang Jun Su, Choong Ja’s son-in-law
Kim Bo Yun as Jang Mi Hee, Jun Su’s mother
Baek Ok Dam as Lee Ha Ji

Genre:
Comedy, Romance, Family

Plot:
Oh In Young is the leader of a fading idol group. As a result of her dropping popularity and overall performance, the CEO of the entertainment company Kang Jun Su gives her one last chance to recover. He sends her to Yang Choon Ja’s home to film a reality TV show about being the “Daughter-in-law” of the family. Initially Oh In Young despises her fake “Mother-in-law” with a vengeance and tries to quit, but her desire to remain in the entertainment industry keeps pushing her on. Choon Ja does not get along with her fake “Daughter-in-law” as well. She constantly gives her a hard time and can never see her as the wife to her eldest son, Cha Myung Suk. The story also follows the ups and downs of the other family members of the household including Choon Ja’s father, daughter, and son.

What happens when In Young and Myung Suk begin to develop feelings for each other? What will happen when these warm feelings of having a family hit In Young at the core?

Review:
The drama was very short and sweet. It was very formulaic and predictable but I had a lot of fun watching it none-the-less. I’m normally not one to finish comedies, but I think this drama had a good balance of drama and humor to keep me engrossed. Even though In Young and Myung Suk and Choon Ja had a lot of the camera time, I felt like the creators of the drama spent a good amount of time covering the stories of the side members of the family, almost as intensely as a daily drama would. For the most part I focused on the main story line so I had skipped over some of the side story lines as I did not find them that interesting and sometimes almost weird.

To be honest I’m not certain that this was a great drama, but I sure had a great time watching it. I won’t say the acting was spectacular, but I was really loving Kim Da Som’s performance. She had a really great all around character and she rose from adversity into the entertainment industry (and you all might know by now I’m a sucker for strong-willed female leads). Throughout the drama we really see her true character through her interactions with the other family members. It’s so touching because she really cares about the people and she really loves Myung Suk. She is always genuine and even though she isn’t the smartest girl on the block, she has a high level of empathy and she is also a talented taster. I would have loved to see that point developed more in the drama as opposed to showing more side stories. I wouldn’t have minded at all if they had run the 12 episodes into 16 episodes.

The other characters in the drama all did a great job. The story line with Jang Mi Hee just got plain weird and a little scary. They took “Momma’s boy” to an extreme. Thankfully that plot line got resolved otherwise I would have had a bruise on my forehead. I wasn’t impressed by Ryu Soo Young’s performance. He played the typical nice guy eldest son mama’s boy with a nerdy twist, but he actually didn’t seem very nerdy beyond the fact that he loved to spew math references all the time, which I don’t think is normal for math geniuses. They are usually more introverted but I guess the professor part explained that.

Overall it was Da Som who sold the show. I loved watching her. She had a very human side to her and yet she was full of genuine compassion and always said what was on her mind. If you want a quick drama to skim through, I would definitely recommend this one. If you usually like to watch the whole thing through, there might be a lot of formulaic story line to muddle through. The show definitely started off a little quirky and more comedic, but as it progressed it got increasingly more serious and meaningful.

Rating:
4.0/5.0

The K2

To Watch:
DramaFever

Cast:
Ji Chang Wook as Kim Je Ha
Choi Seung Hoon (최승훈) as child Kim Je Ha
Song Yoon Ah as Choi Yoo Jin
Im Yoon Ah as Go Anna
Lee Yoo Joo (이유주) as child Go Anna
Jo Sung Ha as Jang Se Joon
Kim Gab Soo as Park Kwan Soo
Lee Jung Jin as Choi Sung Won
Shin Dong Mi as Kim Dong Mi

Genre:
Action, Political, Revenge

Plot:
The presidential election is just around the corner and politician Jang Se Joon and his wife Choi Yoo Jin are gunning for the candidacy. Little do we know that Choi Yoo Jin is holding Jang Se Joon’s daughter as a hostage to control her husband.

Kim Je Ha is a soldier abandoned by his country and a mercenary for hire overseas, but due to political conspiracy, is forced to live on the run. He tries to live his life simply but an incident with Jang Se Joon and Park Kwan Soo tosses Je Ha back into a life of danger and revenge.

What will happen when Jang Se Joon’s daughter Go Anna returns to Korea? Will Anna discover the truth behind her real mother’s death? Will Je Ha find his revenge or will he will he choose to protect Anna?

Review:
Recently there has really been a down trend of Korean dramas capturing my interest, but I saw K2 get released on DramaFever and instantly loved it. Okay, I’ll be honest, actually I saw that Im Yoon Ah was casted to play a role and I just had to watch it. I was a huge fan of her in Prime Minister & I and was intrigued and a bit excited by the action/melodramatic premise of the show. I’ve heard great things about Ji Chang Wook lately but I never quite could finish watching his shows: Tornado Girl, Baek Dong Soo, and Smile Dong Hae.

In the end however, it was Song Yoon Ah’s performance as the cruel and calculating Choi Yoo Jin that really captured my attention. Song Yoon Ah played her part perfectly and by the end of the drama we come to see that she is only human, driven to extreme circumstances to protect what she believed most important. The sheer amount of emotion she conveyed in every scene was absolutely amazing. A slight change in her eyes, a subtle curve or tremble in the mouth, these all came together seamlessly. This is not to degrade the performance of the other cast members. Ji Chang Wook, Jo Sung Ha, and also Im Yoon Ah also complemented each other brilliantly. Mad props for Kim Gab Soo who plays the conniving assemblyman. He was by far one of the best politicians I have ever seen in a Korean Drama. His antics always made me chuckle but the best part about it is that it’s not meant to be comedic but rather a more unique and fresh way of portraying his corrupt and two-faced nature.

I couldn’t quite see the character that Im Yoon Ah was supposed to be. Her child hood trauma seemed to play into the story often but I couldn’t quite see it reflected in her character and her behavior. She didn’t seem as socially awkward as someone would have been had they undergone the same experiences she did, but she did play a consistent character at least in the sense of how she wanted to portray Anna. I felt like she was very naive for someone who had been controlled all her life, especially when Choi Yoo Jin’s brother Choi Sung Won tried to use her. By the way all the Choi Yoo Jin and Choi Sung Won scenes were brilliant as well. They made such a great pair of bickering siblings. All their words had deeper meanings and every conversation was like a battle of wits.

The music, action scenes, and overall progress of the drama were well put together, and if you are a fan of any of the cast members, this drama is definitely a sure win. There were indeed many places where I did not enjoy but that was mostly the story development in the final episode, which I explain later but read it only if you don’t mind the spoiler. The drama as a whole keeps you in suspense, and at a certain point, I can’t remember exactly when, but I started to root for Choi Yoo Jin. She became a character we could all relate to in some aspect, and even though she was ruthless she had her reasons.

I think if you just watch the drama for it’s action and superb acting you will enjoy the show immensely, but the overall story had some inconsistencies and annoyances that wanted to make me bang my head on a table.

Spoilers Stop Reading Here & Skip to the Rating
Probably my greatest gripes about this drama is how the show ended and also how Kim Je Ha’s character fell in love with Anna so quickly. Kim Je Ha has sort of a bodyguard complex. He is a protector of the innocent and the weak and has a compassionate heart toward those who are kind to him, but I couldn’t fully believe that he could fall in love with a woman just by watching her in security cameras.

The last episode of the drama almost made it seem like they were trying to create an epic finish but instead failed epically to deliver a believable ending. Just to be clear I will list them out.

1. Why didn’t they just drag out the bomb and dropped it into the elevator?
2. They could have rolled Choi Yoo Jin out of Cloud9 easily.
3. Why didn’t Je Ha bring backup into the underground basement at JSS.
4. Why did Se Joon and the Yoo Jin’s secretary come into Cloud9 without weapons?

So many things just didn’t make sense. I understand the writer has more experience and probably had a reason for doing everything but this is how I would have ended the drama.

1. Drag the bomb into the elevator and drop it down to explode harmlessly underground.
2. Choi Yoo Jin survives and becomes a real mother to Anna, who forgives her.
3. Se Joon becomes president and becomes a wise leader and treats Yoo Jin better.
4. Bring down the JB group.

I didn’t think that Yoo Jin had to die. I think the drama had set her up in a position near the end to redeem herself, and Se Joon too.

Rating:
Episodes 1-15: 4.7/5.0
Episode 16: 2.0/5.0