Friday, March 30, 2012

KDrama Review 2 [Heartstrings]

Hello Everyone, I have another K-Drama review for you. Having loved seeing Yonghwa and Shin Hye work together in You're Beautiful I decided to watch another drama which features them and that drama is Heartstrings.

BE WARNED THAT THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

SYNOPSIS: Set at a university, we meet Lee Shin, a very talented guitarist and lead vocalist for a local band called "The Stupid." Shin is loved by all the girls on campus and is constantly getting confessed to, however with his cold personality he brutally rejects every girl that confesses to him. Unknown to the girls, Shin has feelings for the dance professor at the university, Jung Yoon Soo. Lee Hyu Won is a girl who has had traditional Korean music drilled into her since birth, since her grandfather Lee Dong Gun, whom she lives with, is a famous traditional musician. Shin and Hyu Won's paths cross when Hyu Won asks Shin's band to play at a benefit, however Shin ends up missing and causing problems. With both their pride hurt when they confront each other, a challenge is set up where The Stupid and The Windflowers(Hyu Won's band of traditional instrument players) are to battle it out with the loser having to be the other's slave for a month. Losing their bet, Hyu Won ends up Shin's slave and slowly began to like the self centered guitarist. At the same time Hyu Won is approached by Kim Suk Hyun, a director who recently returned from Broadway and is asked to direct the school's celebration production. Suk Hyun agrees and tries to get Hyu Won to participate as an actor instead of just a musician, however things turn awkward when Suk Hyun finds that his ex-girlfriend Yoon Soo is the dance teacher he must work with to put on the school's production.

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Jung Yong Hwa as Lee Shin [The narcissist guitarist]

Park Shin Hye as Lee Kyu Won [The empowered traditional musician]

Song Chang Ui as Kim Suk Hyun [The young broadway director]

So Yi Hyun as Jung Yoon Soo [The dance professor]

EXTENDED CAST

Woo Ri as Han Hee Joo

Kang Min Hyuk as Yeon Joon Hee (The Stupid's Drummer)

Lee Hyun Jin as Hyun Young (Actor who left but was brought back by Suk Hyun)

Im Se Mi as Cha Bo Woon (Kyu Won's friend and member of the Windflowers)

Lee Jung Hun as Im Tae Joon (Professor who is trying to ruin the performance)

Jang Seo Won as Lee Soo Myung (Suk Hyun's friend and Tech at the university)

Shin Goo as Lee Dong Jin (Kyu Won's grandfather)

Sun Woo Jae Duk as Lee Sun Ki (Kyu Won's Father)

Lee IL Hwa as Song Ji Young (Shin's Mother)

ACTING: To be truthful I was actually very disappointed, not so much with the acting, but with how the characters came across. Let's start with Shin, his character is cold to pretty everyone, expect for his family, his band mates, and Yoon Soo. All this would be fine if they would have had a reason for it, however we are never really given a reason as to why Shin is so mean to everyone, especially girls. He does mention something about getting annoyed by the girls confessing to him, however that hardly explains his behavior. Then after half the show with him being cold and not relatable we see a sudden change in his character which is almost completely out of nowhere as he begins to start liking Kyu Won, even though he previously said he did not like her. Then we have Kyu Won's character, who is constantly switching from being respectful, to a woman full of fury and this simply gets confusing. Everyone at her school seems to treat her like she is a very brazen woman who is strong willed, fiery, and does not care what other people think of her, as well as a bit of a tomboy. However these characteristics are not played up enough to make me get the impression of those things from her character. Honestly I wouldn't call it poor acting, I would blame the script writers for writing such confusing characters. Those things aside I was pleased with the majority of the casts. Shin Goo did a wonderful job as Kyu Won's grandfather, also Song Chang Ui and So Yi Hyun gave a very conceiving performance, and I also enjoyed Kang Min Hyuk and Woo Ri's performances as well.

PLOT OVERVIEW: I was not a fan of the plot at all, frankly I felt like they could have shown episode one and then just skipped to episode eight and it won't have hurt the show at all. I think far to many of the first seven episodes were focused more one what was happing between Yoon Soo and Suk Hyun, then what was happening between Shin and Kyu Won. Also the whole relationship where Shin is pining after Yoon Soo just seems so unnecessary, and is not really explained well as to how his interest in her really came about. There were also many characters who's backstories were never fully explained but it was like the writers started to talk about it and then simply forgot about them in the later episodes. For example

Hyun Young, it is this big issue that he left because he has stage fright, however I swear they never once said how he developed it. They should have at least shown a flashback or something to make his story have more of an impact.

ENDING: The ending was kind of disappointing, and I felt like they should have stopped right after the episode with school production. The fact that they wrap up, and solve, all the show's problems in that episode only to create a whole new one for the main couple who were finally happy with how things were. Only to have them break up and then within two episodes and get back together just felt really unnecessary.

SOUNDTRACK: I have to rate this in an odd way since the music in the show and the music on the actually OST differs in the fact that many of the songs in the show are not on the OST. Over all the music in the show was very nice and one of the main reasons I choice to finish the series. The OST however was very disappointing because a lot of the song in the show are not on the soundtrack. I believe this is probably because many of them were cover songs and they probably would have had to go through some type of copyright to get to put them on the OST. One of my favorites songs in the entire show was "If I Leave" by Lee Hyun Jin and it is a cover of a song, and I was so sad to see that it was not on the OST, I'll post a video of it below. Also both "Will Fix Myself" by Woori and "I Will Forget You" by Park Shin Hye(which is a cover a a CN BLUE song) did not appear on the OST.

RATING:(on a scale of 1 to 10, one being the worst thing i've ever seen and ten being a show I could watch every day of my like)
I would give this 5 stars out of 10, which I think is fair.

I put this rating simply because for more then half the show the main characters are understated and their relationship is really awkward. Also a lot of the time it felt more like Yoon Soo and Suk Hyun where the main characters instead of Shin and Kyu Won. There was also a major lack of activity from Tae Joon who is supposed to be the main villain however he only starts around the middle of the series. Having random characters that really didn't contribute much to the storyline, like Shin's mother and Kyu Won's father, that had a past relationship but it really wasn't that important, also killing off Shin's father early on made me almost wish that they hadn't shown him in the first place because he was starting to become a good character only to be completely forgotten for almost all the drama.

As always I encourage everyone to form their own opinion about a show or movie, these are simply my views and reflections of what I felt about this drama.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

KDrama Review 1 [You're Beautiful]

Hello Everyone, I'm really excited to start this new segment where I review K-Drama's. Today's drama is You're Beautiful.

BE WARNED THAT THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

SYNOPSIS: The story revolves around a fictional boy band A.N.JELL, the band consists of lead vocal Tae Kyung, lead guitar Shin Woo, and drummer Jeremy. The group has decided to add an additional vocalist, since Tae Kyung's voice is hurting him. The lucky new member is Ni Nam, there's only one problem, thanks to a botched plastic surgery he has to go to the USA in order to repair the damage. His agent, being the clever man he is, decides to seek out Ni Nam's twin sister Mi Nyu at the convent where she lives and ask her to stand in for her twin brother while he is getting treatment in the USA. After learning that her brother wants to become famous so that he might be able to meet with their mother who they have never seen, Mi Nyu's kind heart gives in and she agrees to stand in for her brother to prevent his dream from being ruined. And thus begins the crazy adventures of "You're Beautiful."

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Hwang Tae Kyung played by Jang Geun Suk [He is cold and narcissistic, however slowly with the help of Mi Nyu that's starts to change]

Go Mi Nam (Male) / Go Mi Nyu (Female) both played by Park Shin Hye [Mi Nyu is very kind and pure, having lived in an orphanage her whole life she knows little about the outside world in terms of fashion or who is famous. She works hard to make sure her secret is not discovered however her ability for getting into trouble doesn't help her in that respect.]

Kang Shin Woo played by Jung Yong Hwa [Shin Woo is the first to discover Mi Nyu secret, however he chooses to keep that information to himself and help her from the sidelines while acting like a big brother. Though things start to change when he begins to develop feelings for her, yet can't act on them since Mi Nyu doesn't know he knows her secret]

Jeremy played by Lee Hong Ki [Jeremy is fun loving and always ready to make everyone laugh, finding himself misunderstanding Mi Nyu at first. He believes that Mi Nyu(as Mi Nam) is trying to seduce all the members in the house including himself. So imagine his joy when he finds out that he is a she, only once he knows this he most confront his feelings for HER.]

EXTENDED CAST

Yoo He Yi played by UEE

Ma Hoon Yi played by Kim In Kwon (Mi Nam's Manager)

Wang Kko Di played by Choi Soo Eun (Mi Nam's Stylist)

President Ahn played by Jung Chan

Mr Kim played by Jang Won Young (Photographer)

Choi Mi Ja played by Choi Ran (Mi Nam's Aunt)

Mo Hwa Ran played by Kim Sung Ryung (Tae Kyung Mother)

Sa Yu Ri played by Bae Geu Rin (Fan Club President)

ACTING: Honestly the acting was spot on in this drama. There wasn't one character that I felt was forced, or one person who seemed to overact their role. Also each actor/actress selected for their role fit perfectly. My favorite would have to be Geun Suk his acting was really flawless. I could see and feel his character progress through the series. First starting off cold and heartless, then slowly through interaction with Mi Nyu, he starts to soften and become more caring. I also enjoyed Shin Hye performance, she was really cute and has my full respect because I swear she had to cry in like every single episode and she made it look convincing. Hong Ki was super cute and brought wonderful comic relief, and Yong Hwa was so charming and it just broke my heart that his character wasn't able to get the girl. UEE also made for a very convincing villain and In Kwon was just hilarious as Mi Nam's Manager. Also Jung Chan as President Ahn was really funny with his random english words and charming smile.

PLOT OVERVIEW: Overall the plot was very solid. The series managed to wrap up every lose end, and trust me there were a lot of loose ends to wrap up. The only thing that really bothered me was that Mi Nam and Mi Nyu were never seen talking to each, either in person or over the phone. And it seems kinda odd that Mi Nyu was so willing to put her dreams on hold for a brother who it seems like she has had very little contact with.

ENDING: The ending I was somewhat pleased with, I suppose as a hopeless romantic I wanted a little more romance, however I still happy that there was in fact a happy ending, because their is nothing worse then sitting through 16 episodes only to have one of the main characters get killed off or something like that.

SOUNDTRACK: The sound track is amazing!!! And even more impressive is the fact that the majority of the soundtrack was actually sung by the cast.

미남이시네요 (음악감독판) [ost]

Tracks

Disc 1

여전히 (Still) by

(Lee Hong Ki) 이홍기