Drama review: Love and Redemption (琉璃)

This is another great xianxia drama after Ashes of Love and instantly becomes my top list of most favorite cdramas of all time. You might find it similar with Ten Miles of Peach Blossom too since they are under the same genre. LnR is indeed this year's summer hit, being an underdog before it aired. It stars Chengyi as Yu Sifeng, Lize Palace's disciple whose main rules are not to have contact with any women and has the best skills out of all whereas Yuan Bingyan acts as Chu Xuanji, Shaoyang Sect leader's daughter who doesnt have six senses (colour blind, no sense of taste or smell, doesnt feel pain, cant cry, dont know love) making her difficult to train her martial art skills. At the age of 16, both of them met in a tournament arranged by Shaoyang Sect; all disciples from five sects are sparred with each other. Sifeng is Xuanji's first friend besides her sister and Shaoyang sect disciples, made her very happy and treasured him a lot. In the other way, it's also the first time for Sifeng to have contact with woman, and Xuanji's actions and words towards him makes his heart wavers. They promise to meet each other again after four years but who knows their fates are playing along with them. Fast forward to four years later, Sifeng is not the same person Xuanji used to know, but she doesnt understand what happens. Sifeng was told to wear the Lover curse mask by his leader because he insisted he wouldnt ever forget Xuanji and the curse can only be lifted if he finds true love. But dont worry, the story is not just as simple as that. Xuanji and Sifeng were born on the same day and same year; is there any connection about it? To make the matter worse, their fate are connected with each other since previous lives. Who is God of War and Star of Mosha? Xuanji also can easily lift his mask. Why? Is she his true love? The answers is not as what you expected lol you need to watch it ok!! At first I thought it would be an ordinary xianxia drama, but many of my mutual friends at twitter recommend this if you like Ashes of Love and my sister recommends it too. It goes up beyond my expectation; all my guesses are mostly wrong. It is full of plot twists, and I think it gives a very satisfying ending. Sifeng is indeed the most selfless male protagonist I've ever watched; he sacrifices everything for Xuanji and never had any bad intention. It's really painful to watch him being blamed for everything he hadnt done. Their chemistry are also amazing, making me smile ear to ear watching both of them being romantic. Highly recommended if you like xianxia drama AND please do not search for any spoiler because it will ruin the whole drama. Welcome to the club and enjoy!
Rate: 9.5/10
NB: During the final fanmeeting, the director said let's meet at Love and Redemption season 2! Hopefully he can bring all original casts pleaseee #promise

Synopsis:
The leader of the Shao Yang clan hosts a magic and martial arts tournament for young apprentices. His daughter Chu Xuan Ji, who has been deprived of the use of her senses, has been entered in the competition – even though her skills are far from advanced. Also taking part in the competition is the Lize Palace’s star student Yu Si Feng. Students are forbidden from embarking on romantic relationships with one another. But when the two meet, they first become firm friends…and then start to develop much deeper feelings for one another. After a dispute between other students, Chu Xuan Ji is injured and the two young students become separated. To make matters worse, Yu Si Feng is cursed with a spell that forces him to wear a mask that will only fall away if he can find true love. But four years later, their paths cross again – and the duo slowly begins to learn that their pasts (as well as their futures) may well be intertwined, with heavenly forces very interested in their fate. (cr viki)

Official trailer:

Love and Redemption 12th life? Hint for second season? Watch below:

Drama review: Hospital Playlist (슬기로운 의사생활)

Hands up to the best kdrama of the year!! I just finished it this morning and of course it easily becomes one of my most favorite kdramas of all time. Hospital Playlist is a slice of life medical drama with no antagonists but truly portrays what's happening inside the hospital. They are also applying the new airing format in the drama world, only 1 episode a week in cable tv with duration more than an hour. If you feel familiar with the quality and vibes of the show, yes this is produced by Shin PD and Lee Woojung writernim who collaborated before for the famous Reply Series and Prison Playbook. The story starts with five people who first known each other in the first day of orientation in year 1999 and became best friends. Jo Jungsuk act as Lee Ikjun, professor of Hepatobiliary Surgery Dept, the real insider and the most genius one. He stayed in the club partying all night during medical school but still managed to be the best student when he graduated. Jung Kyungho acts as Kim Junwan, professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery Dept, known as Thanos as he is cold blooded and strict to his students and patients merely showing no emotion. Next is Ahn Jungwon acted by Yoo Yeonseok, professor of Pediatric Surgery Dept, known to have an angelic heart and always wanted to be a priest as a way to serve his God. Kim Daemyung acts as Yang Seokhyeong, professor of Obgyn Dept, the outsider who prefers to do everything alone and prioritizes his mom over everything. The only woman, Jeon Mido as Chae Songhwa, professor of Neurosurgery Dept, the pillar of the group who balances all. Five of them work in the same place, Yulje Hospital now and the timeline of drama sets in year 2019. They have a band practice every weekend in Seokhyeong's old house, one of the scenes I always wait for each episodes. The teamwork is truly awesome; I cant even describe how much they understand each other and synchonize perfectly in everything they do. As a health professional myself, Im amazed at how detail they set the medical scenes are such as how they do the surgery procedure, scrub before going in the OR, insert the ET, what intern usually do in the hospital, etc. It's so mindblowing that I kept on reminiscing my medschool moments since I also experienced similar things happened in the drama. Shin PD is known for the details and hints in his directing so I read about the conspiration theory in twitter and it's totally enhance the fun of watching it. The main actress, Jeon Mido, is a well known musical actress and this is her first tv drama but she nails it! I like how she is portrayed as a tone deaf one in the group when she  is actually really good at singing lol It's planned to be a three-season drama and next season will be in 2021. This is not your typical kdrama; some complain it's quite slow progress in the beginning but it's the characteristic of Shin PD's dramas. You should just stick with it and will feel the excitement along the way. Highly recommend this one!

Rate: 100000000000/10 (see how much I like it)

NB: They play all the instruments by themselves and the songs are the remake version of korean popular old songs. Oh they also release new poster for each episodes!

Synopsis:

A drama depicting the stories of people going through their days that seemingly ordinary but actually special, at the hospital, a place known as the microcosm of life - where someone is being born and someone's life meets their ending. The five doctors are long time friends of 20 years who started their undergrad in 1999 in the same medical school, and now they are colleagues in the same hospital. The drama will also deal with a story of a band formed by the group of doctors. (mydramalist)

Official trailer:

Drama review: Extracurricular (인간수업)

This drama is indeed a hidden gem, I must say. Portraying about an unusual theme, Extracurricular is a Netflix-produced series telling about a high schooler named Oh Jisoo (Kim Donghee) who seems to have a perfect student life. Unbeknownst to his teacher and friends, he is running an illegal business which is providing security for underage human sex trafficking. The team consists of him and a retired military officer went broke, but he doesnt recognise Jisoo since he uses a voice changer application when contacting the officer. Jisoo is known as "Uncle''. This security system is used by wearing a bracelet which can be pressed by the client if they feel threatened and they will be rescued (remember their client is underage sex worker). He did all of these to save money for his university tuition fees. One day Jisoo's phone is lost; he panicks because all his work records' are inside it. Actually his phone is being picked up by Bae Gyuri (Park Joohyun), his classmate and insider in his school. After he knows about it, he gets angry and wants to take his phone back but Gyuri requests to join his team to make more money. He agrees to it unwillingly so that he can start back his business. Thing starts to go wrong when one of their client is his classmate, Seo Minhee, who wants to make more money but doesnt want to work thinking of telling the police about her job. Another thing happens when Jisoo is being caught by the gangsters and to release him, they request for a joined work between him and their business. I watched Extracurricular without any expectation, and finished it with a wow. They are discussing about this unusual theme bravely which I appreciate a lot. It happens in the society, but none really talks about it. Money can really changes people's perspective of life. Both Jisoo and Gyuri take risks to make more money but everything goes beyond their expectation. It's an open ending though. I first knew Kim Donghee from Itaewon Class. To be honest, his acting is not my preference as I thought his expression and acting were limited but he changed my perception through this drama. All of them are considered new actors (except Jung Dabin who is a child actress before) but acting wise they are really good portraying the characters here. Highly recommend it if you like crime thriller genre~

Rate: 8.5/10

Synopsis:

"Extracurricular” is centered around three high school students who start committing crimes to earn money and the unpredictable dangers they face as a result. Kim Dong Hee will portray Ji Soo, who goes from a model student to a criminal after committing an unthinkable act. Jung Da Bin as school bully Min Hee, who gets caught up in Ji Soo’s crime. Park Joo Hyun will portray Ji Soo’s dangerous partner in crime Gyu Ri, while Nam Yoon Soo will appear as Min Hee’s boyfriend and the school’s most popular guy Ki Tae. (soompi)

Official trailer:

Drama review: Someday or One Day (想見你)

Just finished this drama and I looooove it! It's been ages since the last time I watched a good Taiwanese drama. It tends to have different genres compared to mainland cdramas; they focus more on idol dramas. I accidentally found about Someday or One Day when I browsed on drama fan accounts on Instagram. Searching for the reviews, it's highly rated by many drama lovers and there's Alice Ke as the main lead; of course I need to watch it! She's been one of my favorite actress since Marry Me Or Not in 2015. The story starts with Huang Yuxuan (Alice Ke) in 2019, who has lost her boyfriend for two years, Wang Quansheng (Greg Hsu) and still couldnt move on. She believes he's still alive since there's no news about him after the airplane accident. One day, a mysterious package is sent to her consisting of a walkman and a cassette of Wu Bai's Last Dance. Listening to it inside the bus, she is thrown back to 1998 and lived as Chen Yunru, a highschooler in Tainan, having the exact same face but different personality. Yunru is a timid girl with no friends except the popular Li Ziwei (also Greg Hsu) and Mo Junjie (Patrick Hsieh). Junjie liked Yunru, but Yunru confessed to Ziwei she liked him. Ziwei rejected her to respect his bestfriend. She was surprised to see Ziwei having the same face with her boyfriend but lived with a different name. Having no clue why she could be back to 1998, she tried to figure out what happened in the past with the help of Yunru's diary she got from Yunru's uncle in 2019. Yunru died in 1998, and her uncle gives her the diary hoping she can prevent her death and searched for her killer. Living back and forth between 1998 and 2019, Yuxuan changed Yunru in a good way; she became the happy and outgoing girl who rose to be one of the favorite girl in the school, made lots of friends, and joined the basketball team. Ziwei and Junjie were confused because she definitely wasnt the friend they knew, but both of them kept quiet while trying to figure out what happened. After some time, she told them about the truth that she came from 2019 and named Huang Yuxuan searching for her boyfriend Wang Quansheng, but of course no one believed her. The story goes on with Yuxuan trying to find the connection between her and Chen Yunru, and what happens between Wang Quansheng and Li Ziwei. Ziwei starts to fall in love with the new Chen Yunru because of her bright and lovable personality. Another thing happens in the present is that Junjie died in 2009 because of suicide in the exact same place Yunru died, and Ziwei had a car accident making him unable to walk normally. I watch this drama meticulously because many people say they are giving clues in tiny details but still I need some time to understand how everything connects. It's highly addictive in a unique way; there's friendship, love, family, murder, and mystery about what is happening in this time traveling period. Alice Ke's acting as both Huang Yuxuan and Chen Yunru are amazing because they have completely different personality; Yuxuan is a firm and outgoing woman, knowing what she wants in her life while Yunru is a very timid and introvert girl, trying to live her life and making no one realize about her existance in this world. Greg Hsu isnt also a newcomer, but this drama is probably the breakthrough for his career. His emotion is delivered well to the audience although this is his first main lead in drama I guess. Patrick Hsieh also acts really well, not to mention how the chemistry between Alice, Greg, and Patrick are the perfect for one another. Finished watching it in four days, I finally understand why it gets a lot of hype and currently is the most watched Taiwanese drama. And there's even an extra scene after the ending which satisfy me a lot! Highly recommend this one. Happy watching~!

Rate: 9/10

Synopsis:

The year is 2019. The 27 year-old Huang Yu Xuan terribly misses her boyfriend Wang Quan Sheng, who has been missing for two years and is presumed dead. Her birthday wish for this year is to "see him." The year is 1998. The 17 year-old Chen Yun Ru is in love with a boy who doesn't feel the same way for her. Her birthday wish for this year is to "become the girl Li Zi Wei likes." One day, Huang Yu Xuan receives a walkman and a music cassette from an unknown person. She falls asleep listening to its songs and wakes up to see Wang Quang Sheng sitting by her side. She believes she has finally been reunited with her boyfriend, but there's a very big twist. She learns that she is no longer a 27-year-old woman but a high schooler named Chen Yun Ru, who is in the hospital recuperating from a head injury. The year is now 1998. And the man by her bedside is not her boyfriend after all, but a schoolmate named Li Zi Wei. Trapped in what appears to be the past, living another person's life, Chen Yun Ru's death in 1999 will be her death if she doesn't figure out how the girl landed in the hospital. All the while, Li Zi Wei finds himself strangely drawn to the girl who used to be Chen Yun Ru, despite the fact that he knows his closest friend Mo Jun Jie has had a crush on her. Can true love find a way to bridge a seemingly insurmountable time gap? (mydramalist)

Official trailer:

Here's the extra scene:

Drama review: Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim Season 2

 

Yes Kim sabu is back! To be honest I was watching it in the wrong order lol I watched the second season first because everyone said it's good, then around ep 6 I decided to watch the first season which made me totally in love with both seasons. The star of the drama is of course Kim sabu, not to mention how I love all Doldam Hospital's staffs and happy to see most of them are back for the second season. In this season, the newcomers are Cha Eunjae (acted by Lee Sungkyung), a second year CS fellow who is ambitious and always thrive to be the best in her field and Seo Woojin (acted by Ahn Hyoseob), a second year GS fellow who is being outcasted by every hospital because of his malpractice in the past. Both of them are classmates and rivals at med school and now working togethed at Geodae hospital. Cha Eunjae has a panic attack whenever she's inside the operation room and always nauseous or faint before the surgery starts. This happened first during med anatomy practical session and she fainted when Seo Woojin was about to start the dissection. Because of this she was sent to Doldam Hospital to calm down and manage her situation. As for Seo Woojin, he ran out of the hospital because everyone was degrading him. Kim sabu met him once at Geodae and offered him to work at Doldam Hospital because they were out of staff right now and promised to help him paying all his debts. Eunjae and Woojin met again at Doldam, working as teammates and once again Kim sabu taught them about humanity, friendship, and love. I personally like it but couldnt help to compare with season 1 and I must say I like the main actors more in previous season. Seo Hyunjin adn Yoo Yoonseok are perfect match with each other and radiate all positive vibes thorughout the drama, whereas Lee Sungkyung and Ahn Hyoseob do a great job as a newcomer here. Not to mention Yang Sejong is doing a cameo as Dr Do In Beom. I miss him a lot! His character is annoying but lovable and you cant hate him at all. This will be his last acting in drama as he is expect to enlist military soon this year. During wrap up party, they said they were ready for another season and Im more than excited to see Kim sabu and Doldam staffs again! Hopefully they can cast Dr Yoon Seojung, Dr Kang Dongjoo, and Dr Do In Bum again for the next season. Totally in love with this drama!

Rate: 8.5/10

Synopsis:

Three years following the events of Dr. Romantic, Kim Sa-bu (Han Suk-kyu) comes to Geosan University Hospital to recruit a general surgeon. He finds Seo Woo-jin (Ahn Hyo-seop), a doctor with a troubled past who is ostracized by his fellow doctors, and offers him the job. In the meantime, Cha Eun-jae (Lee Sung-kyung) is suspended after making another mistake in the operation room and has no other choice but to follow the two doctors to Doldam Hospital. (wiki)

Doctor Do In Beom is back!

Official trailer:

Drama review: Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim Season 1

I know Im late to just finished this drama yesterday, but it didnt appeal me much in the past. Starting to watch it since Im watching the currently airing season 2 and it's awesome. Medical drama always has its charm to attract me, perhaps because I could relate about the workload and environment they portrayed in the drama. After finished watching the first season, all I could say is I like it more compare to season 2. The veteran leads, storyline, characters, their acting, etc propose a perfect formula to the whole drama. The story tells about Han Suk Kyu as Master Kim (alias for dr. Boo Yong Joo), a triple board surgeon specialist in General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Neuro Surgery, who suddenly disappears from the world and no one knows where he is. Seo Hyun Jin acts as dr Yoon Seo Jung, a CS fellow has a trauma from her past where her fiance died in a car accident on the day she was proposed. Yoo Yeon Seok acts as dr Kang Dong Joo, a GS fellow who was badly treated in the past because of his poor family background and he desired to be the best in his field. Master Kim works in Doldam Hospital located in suburb area and that's the place where three of them meet. Dr Yoon runs to the forest to escape from the fact that her fiance has died and injured herself; that's how Master Kim finds and takes her to the hospital to give her emergency care. She then devotes herself to work in the hospital to learn more from Master Kim. Dr Yoon and dr Kang met when she was her senior and he's an intern in Geodae Hospital's emergency unit. He fell in love with her because of her unique personality but then she suddenly disappeared and no one knew why. Five years later he is a GS second year fellow, getting transferred to Doldam Hospital because he failed a surgery on a VIP (being trapped by the hospital's director). Annoyed when first arrives in Doldam, he is surprised to find dr Yoon working in the hospital and even more surprised after finding that Master Kim was the one who helped him in the past. Story unfolds about how they try to help each patients and fight against the power of money, teaching them about humanity, friendship, and love. I love how they try portray each cases as real as possible, since in some medical dramas they dont really describe about the treatments or even carelessly do it only for the drama. I learn a lot while watching it and even amaze at how they can diagnose the disease in mere minutes??? In real life, we are delayed mostly by incomplete facilities which cant be compared to what they have in Korea. Some equipments are even rare to been seen here in my workplace. Han Suk Kyu's acting as Master Kim is beyond awesome; he is portrayed as rough outside but warm inside his heart. No wonder he got SBS Daesang in 2016. The romance  is only a bit between Seo Hyun Jin and Yoo Yeon Seok and it isnt the main point of this drama. All the medical staffs work in a harmony and most of them are back again in season 2 although dr Yoon, dr Kang, and dr Do are absent. If you havent watch it, I highly recommend this drama! Definitely a great drama to start my 2020~^^

Rate: 9/10

Synopsis:

A story about Boo Yong-joo (Han Suk-kyu), a genius and triple-board certified surgeon, who was once at the top of his field and used to work at Seoul's top hospital, Geosan University. After a traumatic incident, he disappears and changes his name to Kim Sa-bu. He begins working at a small hospital named Doldam, located in Gangwon Province. He guides Kang Dong-joo (Yoo Yeon-seok) and Yoon Seo-jeong (Seo Hyun-jin) to become great doctors by teaching them to fight against power and money for the sake of patients. (wiki)

Official trailer: