The Wedding Scheme

Rating: ****


Genre: Romance, Comedy, Family
Episodes: 16
Cast: Kang Hye Jung, Lee Kyu Han, Lee Young Eun, Lee Min Woo


SYNOPSIS:
"A mother of four daughters and the president of a kimchi factory decides to embark on a grand marriage scheme for her children... by having them cohabitate with four eligible bachelors."


REVIEW:
After getting multiple people telling me how wonderful this show was, I decided to finally take a gander at this show.  Funny, cute, and addicting, this was well worth the watch.  When I first read the synopsis, I though that it was two people that were plotting a marriage scheme for their children, but I later realized that the president of the kimchi factory and the mother were the same person.  That kind of made it a little less fun, as I would have liked to see two scheming parents, but it was still fun.

What did you think of this drama? Comment below!


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Extravagant Challenge

Rating: *****


Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 15
Cast: Choi Si Won, Lee Donghae, Bianca Bai, Ivy Chen, Allen Chao


SYNOPSIS:
"Sixteen year old Mogami Kyoko sacrificed her life to support her boyfriend, Sho, so he could become a successful singer. One day, Sho suddenly breaks up with Kyoko, leaving her with nothing, and Kyoko vows revenge. She decides to delve into the entertainment world and become even more successful than Sho to get back at him. Kyoko therein meets Ren, another actor in her agency, who helps motivate her to become a top entertainer."


REVIEW:
One word: daebak!  Or, should I say jincai?  Or, maybe even sugoi desu?  I really cannot decide which language to use.

Extravagant Challenge, the Taiwan version of the Japanese manga Skip-Beat, is really the fusion of Asian film.  A Japanese story, Taiwan producers, and two Korean actors make for a good mix of cultures.  Although I cannot stand dubs, I was happy enough with the story that I really didn't mind.  The story was funny and the acting wasn't bad.

Although I have not really read the original manga, and cannot verify how close it is to the original storyline, I can say that the story is very funny and lighthearted.  They kept the original anime-like style, but didn't lose their acting skills completely while doing it.  I'd definitely recommend this for anyone who wants a lighthearted, short drama.  Then again, I may be biased due to my love for Siwon.

What did you think of this drama? Comment below!


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Wild Romance

Rating: ****


Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 16
Cast: Lee Dong Wook, Oh Man Suk, Lee Si Young, Kang Dong Ho, Hwang Sun Hee


SYNOPSIS:
"Everything starts on the birthday of Eun Jae's dad. Eun Jae ran into Park Moo Yul, who is the 2nd baseman of 'Green Dreamers', when she is drunk. Eun Jae who is a fan of 'Blue Seagulls', starts a fight with Moo Yul who led the 'Green Dreamers' to victory. The next day, internet is on fire with the video called 'Humiliated Park Moo Yul'. Because of this video, career of both Moo Yul and Eun Jae, who recently got a job as a bodyguard, are in danger. In the end, they decided to put on a show against the public! They lie that Eun Jae is Moo Yul's private bodyguard and the video was recorded when Eun Jae was giving a self-defence demonstration to Moo Yul. Like this, Eun Jae becomes real bodyguard of Moo Yul. It seemed like everything worked out just fine, but the problem is that they can't stand each other's existence..."


REVIEW:
Comedy?  Romance?  Hmmm....  Not completely sure.  I guess there is a romantic relationship, and some funny scenes, but it didn't make me laugh very much.  Maybe it's the actors?  I really don't know, but I wouldn't say it was funny enough to be called a "comedy."  Ridiculous?  Yes.  However, not THAT funny.

I think they should add "mystery" to this drama or something.  The whole thing is about finding who the creepy fan is that keeps sending him stuff.  It's not a bad drama to watch, it's just that the only character I actually liked was the "Robot", played by Kang Dong Ho.  That guy just makes me laugh every time.  If it weren't for him, I might not have made it through the series.

What did you think of this drama? Comment below!


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Romance Town

Rating:***.5


Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 20 
Cast: Jung Gyu Woon, Kim Min Joon, Lee Jae Yong, Min Hyo Rin, Sung Yu Ri


SYNOPSIS:
"The story of domestic help who work for rich households. No Soon Geum is one of these housekeepers; despite the master-maid heirarchy, she's bold, fearless, and unafraid of doing hard work in order to support herself. As a child, Soon Geum had dreamt of living a grand life in a Cinderella story, complete with her own white knight, but that dream had faded as reality took over. However, she reaches a turning point in her life when she is hired as a maid for the rich and handsome Kang Gun Woo."


REVIEW:
Although the show was worth watching, I have to say that this series has the worst title I have ever seen.  Originally, the title was going to be "maids," which was not that great.  However, there were many complaints about it because the word apparently isn't a great word in Korea.  Truthfully, I really don't know what the big deal is about the original title, as I know very little Korean or it's history.  Anyway, they decided to change it to "Romance Town" instead because of the complaints.  Let me just say that the title only got worse.  Seriously, it sounds like a soap opera.  Maybe this drama is actually supposed to be a soap?

Anyway, as far as comedy is concerned, I wouldn't get too excited.  Although the drama is interesting, there is practically no comedy.  You're better off watching the news if you want comedy.

The thing I hated the most about it, though, is the end.  Can someone say "WTF?"  It's fine if a drama is a little unrealistic, but this one just takes the cake.

What did you think of this drama? Comment below!


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Love Or Bread

Rating: ****

Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 12
Cast: Joe Cheng, Ariel Lin, Bryant Chang, Wu Jian Fei, Zhang Jia Hui


SYNOPSIS:
"Joe plays a person who looks rich and elegant on the outside but is in reality poor."






REVIEW:
What to do?  I thought I reviewed this drama months ago!  Why is it not in my review blog? 0,o  I mean, I remember watching it.  I'm so lost. T.T  See, this is what happens when you are lazy and don't review the drama right after you finish.  You just assume that you reviewed it already, so it never gets done.

This drama is wonderful.  I can't remember too many details, as it's been too long since I've seen it, but I enjoyed it.  I tried watching this several times, but it never really clicked.  I don't know why I didn't watch it before.  In any case, that's all I have to say about this drama.  Well, except for "Why does he have her pet in the last episode?" 0,o

P.S. Can you spot the "I <3 Ariel" hat in the last episode?

What did you think of this drama? Comment below!


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Lie To Me

Rating:****


Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 16
Cast: Hong Soo Hyun, Jo Yoon Hee, Kang Ji Hwan, Yoon Eun Hye, Sung Joon


SYNOPSIS:
"Gong Ah Jung, a level 5 Ministry of Culture official, gets entangled in a web of lies when she mistakenly lies that she's married to Hyun Ki Joon, a hotel manager from an affluent family. Their relationship is further complicated when Ki Joon's ex-fiancée and a close friend of his brother's, Oh Yoon Joo, reappears in his life."


REVIEW:
I really liked this drama.  I really do not know what more to say about it, though.  There's nothing overly unique about the storyline, but there's also no real errors in it's production.  The first ten episodes were addicting.  During that time, I was completely addicted to this show.  It's one of those shows that gets you hooked real quickly.  After the first ten episodes, though, there were a few episodes I contemplated just skipping altogether.  Truthfully, one episode was barely worth watching because I could tell exactly what was going to happen.  However, I did end up watching all the episodes, and I am glad to say that it was worth the time I spent to watch it.

What did you think of this drama?  Comment below!


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Hello! Miss

Rating: *****

Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 16
Cast: Ha Suk Jin, Lee Da Hae, Lee Ji Hoon, Yun Mi Joo, Ryan

"Lee Soo Ha, 38th granddaughter of the Jae Ahn Lee clan and owner of the clan manor Hwa Ahn Dang, is trying to save the place from going bankrupt. Hwang Dong Gyu, oldest grandson of the president of TOP Group, is trying to buy Hwa Ahn Dang because his grandfather, who was once a servant at the manor, cannot rest in peace unless he spends his last days in Hwa Ahn Dang's master suite. Hwang Chan Min, Dong Gyu's playboy cousin, is his rival in business and love. Enter Seo Hwa Ran, a model who has a secret history with and a secret plan for Hwa Ahn Dang (and Chan Min), and Lee Joon Yong, Soo Ha's brother and Chan Min's friend who can't forget a girl from Hwa Ahn Dang he knew when he was a kid... This drama is adapted from the novel, "Kimchi Mandu."

I've tried to watch this drama several times, but the first episode was so boring that I could never get through it even though so many people have said what a wonderful drama this is.  I finally got around to watching this recently, though, and I have to say that I absolutely love it!  The female lead is hilarious as Lee Soo Ha.  The facial expressions she gives on camera are priceless.  I think I would watch this over and over again just to see her expressions.


I think the reason I like this the best, other than the comedy, is the simple fact that it isn't as cliche as most Korean dramas.  The lead male character isn't a cold rich guy who treats the main girl like dirt.  I can finally watch a drama without having to see a female character get continually spat on by the male lead.  I really hate it when they make the female take crap from the male and she still falls for him.  It makes me want to murder the writer.


All in all, this is a wonderful little drama to check out if you ever have time.

Only You

Rating: ***.5

Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 16
Cast: Han Chae Young, Hong Soo Hyun, Jo Hyun Jae, Jun Hye Bin, Lee Chun Hee

"Cha Eun-jae (Han Chae-young) decides to go to Italy to learn how to become a chef to attain her childhood dream of making Italian food. She adores spaghetti and all sorts of pasta ever since she was a little kid. In Italy, she meets Han Lee-jun (Cho Hyeon-jae), who is an heir to a family fortune and has come to Italy in search of his mother. They go out and get to know each other for only six day but she falls madly in love with him. Six years pass and in Korea, she meets Han Lee-jun once again... The drama takes place in Italy and is a story of how a young girl finds her way to the heart of a rich young man, who is obsessed with cleanliness."

 Although this drama is nice, it's kind of annoying in my honest opinion.  There's nothing wrong with the drama or anything, I just didn't enjoy the story all that much.  I guess that's my own personal opinion though.  The genre says it's comedy, but I didn't really find it that funny.  For those of you that like Romance and Drama genres, I recommend this drama.  However, if the main reason that you watch drama is for the comedy, I would say that there are better comedies out there than this one.  It's a great drama to watch if you're bored, though.  It's short and sweet with a decent plotline, even though it's a little bit predictable.On

Fairy From Wonderland

Rating: ****

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 39
Cast: Ariel Lin, Hu Ge, TAE, Dou Zhi Kong, Lv Yi

"This drama is a retelling of the well-known love story between a goddess and a mortal.
Goddess Xiao Qi commits a major crime. She is punished by having her powers stripped away and is banished to the mortal realm. She can only regain her goddess status by accomplishing 100 charitable acts. Dong Yong rescues her and teaches her what it's like to be a mortal. However, she also learns how to love even though love is forbidden between goddesses and mortals. When their love affair is discovered, heavenly guards descend onto the mortal realm to separate the two lovers. However, they are willing to do anything to stay together."

As someone who has never heard or watched the story before, this drama is entirely new to me.  That being said, I cannot say whether or not the drama stuck with the story or not.  The main problem with this series, though, is there are two versions.  The one I watched wasn't the 39 episode series, but the shorter one.  That being said, I think you should be careful when finding the episodes.  Although the scenes that were cut were virtually meaningless, they forgot to remove flashbacks that contained deleted scenes.  That really irked me.

Although Ariel Lin and Hu Ge seem to match their characters pretty well, I have to wonder if they ever think of acting as other types of characters.  Ariel always plays a spunky girl and Hu Ge always plays a nice (but a little naive) guy.  Does anyone know of a drama or movie that they have done that wasn't the same type of character that they always play?  It really kind of bothers me when I see an actor stuck in the same role time and time again.  For me it says that they have no desire to improve upon their acting.  Although I like the main actors, I feel that they could grow as actors if they just stepped out of their comfort zone.

 As far as the actual drama was concerned, I liked it.  There's this one point about love that I really liked from this drama.  The drama basically says that you can still love someone even if you say you don't.  You see, no matter what we say, it won't change our feelings for other people.  We can deny love a million times, but that love will not change.  True love stays the same whether you want to love that someone or not.  Even if loving someone is tough and gives you great pain, feelings don't easily change.  Just because you decide not to be with someone doesn't mean you stopped loving them.  I think the only thing I can't really decide on is the ending.  I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, or if I like it at all.  On one hand it's sad, but on the other hand it's kind of happy.  It kind of made me want to know what happened next in the story.

Question: Didn't they say he could be reincarnated into a god?  What happened with that?  Is that just a translation error?

Funny Note: Something is missing on Episode 11 at 7:01

Rent a girlfriend back home for new year

Rating: ***

Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 25
Cast: Joe Easy, Yuan Zi Fei, Xue Jia Ning, Du Chun, Diana Peng

"Chu Xiao Xiao, is an independent, liberal thinking, wealthy, college student raised by a single mother. When her family goes bankrupt and her mother goes missing, Xiao Xiao is forced to find a job to pay off creditors. Sun Yi Wei is the serious and stubborn son of a prestigious ancestral family. He graduated from Qinghua University before studying abroad and returning to work at a prominent Beijing IT company. However, Yi Wei is now over 30 years old and his family is starting to pressure him to get married by sending him off to matchmaking sessions. When Xiao Xiao and Yi Wei first meet she beats him up over a misunderstanding. Needless to say, it was hate at first sight. To stop his family's meddling, Yi Wei tells them he already has a girlfriend. Thrilled, they demand he bring her home for Chinese New Year. So, Yi Wei needs to find a girlfriend, and fast. His best friend suggests he put out a personal ad online to rent a girlfriend. To his surprise, it is Xiao Xiao who responds to the ad. The pair make a contract and Xiao Xiao becomes Yi Wei's fake girlfriend for two weeks of New Year celebrations. But can the couple who can't stop bickering really convince his family they are in love? Or will playing house finally heal Yi Wei's broken heart? This adorable and touching romance is told with a unique blend of modern China and ancient tradition."


 For every drama I actually finish watching, I want to say that the drama was good.  However, this drama kind of left me hanging.  The reason I watch romantic comedies are not for the romance, but for the comedy.  I want to say that I loved it, but there were so many things that I just couldn't stand about it, so I'm going to have to give it three stars.

As for why I gave it three stars, I think I should start out by saying that the storyline wasn't all that original to begin with.  Normally I wouldn't be too picky about a cliche drama if the drama was well written and well produced, but I didn't like how the story was shown.  The first 7-10 episodes of this drama were very humorous and enjoyable.  However, when I got halfway through the drama, I got kind of bored. It was like this great beginning where everything was going great, and then halfway through the drama just flatlined.

It's not that the story doesn't have merit, I think that the characters were very well rounded and the dialogue was good.  However, I didn't feel that the two main characters had much of a relationship at all.  There were like two loving glances, two hugs, and two kisses in the whole drama.  There was very little to show that the word "romance" is supposed to be one of the genres.  Instead of actual emotion being showed, they just had a lot of cliche scenes like sprained ankles, drunken girls, and white knight rescues.  I won't even begin to discuss the ending, as I would spoil it to no end for the viewers who wish to see how bad it really is.  Truthfully, I kind of want to put it as a two.  If it weren't for the first few episodes of me laughing my butt off, I probably would have given it that rating.


I also have to say that the way they showed this drama is really weird.  The beginnings and endings of each episode are very foreign to me.  I know you're probably saying to yourself "Well, actually TO, it is foreign to you.  It's a Chinese drama and you're American, what do you expect?", but that's not what I mean.  I've watched enough dramas to know that it is standard to end an episode in a cliffhanger or at the end of a scene in order to make the viewer want to watch the next episode.  However, this drama always stops the episode in places you would never expect.  It's almost as if they filmed the entire series, split it into twenty-four equal pieces, and then slapped the opening/ending titles onto it.

I think I might be a bit over critical when it comes to Chinese romantic comedies as there are very few I actually adore, but I cannot help it.  In this drama, I don't see anything worth re-watching.  Do your self a favor and stop watching this drama half way.  Don't blame me if you don't take my advice and end up falling asleep at your computer.


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How I rate dramas

Single Princesses and Blind Dates

Rating: ***.5

Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 30
Cast: Jimmy Lin, Dylan Kuo, Zhao Jing, Hong Xiao Ling, Chen Yan Fei, Xin Zi

"The 25 years old Le Tong Tong (乐彤彤) has two best friends Lala (拉拉) and Bamei (八妹). Three days ago, the conversation between the bride-to-be Le Tong Tong and her fiancé was recorded by the office’s hidden camera. The video about their breakup immediately was spread in the office.

Then came the shocking news that the young and beautiful newcomer in the Advertising department will replace Tong Tong as the bride. The humiliated Tong Tong tells a lie that she already has a new sweetheart. Everyone in the office, except Tong Tong’s two best friends Lala and Bamei, is full of expectations to what will unfold. Tong Tong comes up with the “Blind Dating Plan” overnight and vows to find a husband who is N times better than her ex. She will even give up all chances for promotion and will spend all her vacations and evenings in six months on blind dates. The story of the single princess and blind dates unfolds."

Although this series was charming and worthy of a viewing, there were some things that could have been a lot better within the series. Most of them were just from the production of the drama and not the story itself, though. For instance, unless I am mistaken, they used dubs for the main character instead of having the female lead's voice. Truthfully, I don't think they should have done this. If the actor cannot properly speak, then they should find another actor that can. I mean, the acting wasn't very good anyway, so why did they do extra work by voicing over it? When someone voices over the audio, it creates audio that is too clean. There is no background noise to it, and it makes it very unnatural. Not only that, whoever did the voice dubs has the most annoying voice I've ever heard. I think I've heard her voice before in another series, but I cannot remember the name of the series.

Another production mistake was the spelling of Carey's name. In the first episode, her name was spelled Carry, but around episode 29 they suddenly started spelling it Carey. (I'm not talking about the subtitles here. Both of the spellings of her name is on the original film.) Not only that, but Carey was shown eating a non opened chocolate bar. Like the actor pretended to open it and eat it, but it was obviously never opened.

I also have to point out that Fang Yan seemed to know things that he wouldn't have been able to know unless he was stalking Tong Tong. At first I didn't find him creepy at all. However, as the story went on, he got more and more creepy. I think that the writer didn't consider how the character would know these things.

In any case, I believe this drama was pretty good. Even though there were numerous problems, I still enjoyed it.




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How I rate dramas

Calling Big Star (Calling for Love)

Rating: *****

Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 14
Cast: Charlene Choi, Chen Zhi Kai, Mike He, Zhang Yu, Zhou Cai Shi

"Bo Ye is a reluctant big star who entered the entertainment industry to support his family. Now that he has earned enough money and his contract about to end, he happily starts planning for the next stage of his life. Around the same time, unfortunate financial downturn struck his agent, his sister and his best friend. Feeling obligated to help them he contemplates on renewing his contract. Totally depressed by this thought, he buys a lotto ticket hoping that he can win the big one and save him from this dilemma. As luck would have it, he wins the jackpot but loses the ticket before he can cash it. Now he is chasing after a taxi driver, De Xing, all over town in order to get it back."

This is another drama that I have probably passed by a hundred times without even being slightly interested in. I don't know, I guess the plot just didn't sound all that interesting. However, once I watched the first episode, I was instantly hooked. As you know, I'm quite biased when it comes to Mike He. Mike is probably one of my favorite actors from Taiwan and I love him dearly. Actually, I think I've seen Charlene Choi before as well but I really am not sure. The acting was decent and I loved the storyline much more than I had thought I would. Again, because I'm completely biased, I just have to rate this five stars.



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How I rate dramas

Smiling Pasta

Rating: ****

Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 17
Cast: Cyndi Wang, Gino, Jian chang, Joyce Zhao, Nicholas Teo

"Xiao Shi is a girl who has gone through many short relationships, 17 to be exact, not one lasting more than 3 months hence, she was cursed with a three-month curse. After being dumped by her 17th boyfriend, the world looks grimmer than ever. At that time, a famous idol, He Qun runs past, bumps into Xiao Shi, and they end up "kissing" on the street. Paparazzi swarmed by and to avoid a bad reputation, He Qun’s manager declared Xiao Shi as He Qun’s girlfriend of one year and fiancée. Thus, a love contract was made. This story is about how the couple learns to like each other after having disagreements in the beginning, as well as fighting the injustices the media throw at them. Will Xiao Shi finally break her 3 month curse? "


Although I haven't watched this drama in a while, I assure you that Smiling Pasta will make you smile. It is a very cute little drama. The drama is lighthearted and is an easy watch... Although there is plenty of drama to go around, it wasn't annoying enough to make me want to shut off my computer. (Though the paparazzi were really annoying.)

Like all dramas, it isn't perfect. There were some things that weren't realistic. For example, there was a kick ball contest in front of the whole school. Obviously, this school doesn't uphold academic standards such as making their students attend class. There were many more problems that I'm sure I forgot, but it really can't be helped as it has been more than a year since I last saw it.

Although it is off topic, Cyndi Wang always reminded me of the Wendy's mascot when she was wearing red pig tails. What do you think? Am I crazy for thinking she looks like "Wendy"?

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How I rate dramas