Just finished Mouse on Viki.

I went into this show blind, not knowing anything about the premise and while it was excellent, I really wasn't prepared for this journey.

A crime/suspense thriller with the faintest sprinkles of science fiction, romance and comedy. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say it is a fascinating examination of serial killers and it may be the first time I've seen a K-Drama use the storytelling device of the unreliable narrator/protagonist.

If you like K-Dramas like Signal, Beyond Evil or even Strangers from Hell, I think you'll like this show.

It is brilliantly written, directed, acted and has a surprisingly fantastic soundtrack.

Highest recommendations!

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Great show!

I came across an amazing show called Queen of Masks on Viki. This character-driven melodrama/thriller features great suspense, twists and turns, great fashion, and four strongly written female characters, lead by the amazing Kim Sun-Ah and an ending I think will satisfy all fans.

Not sure why, but I've noticed that many K-Dramas with female-centered plots often get overlooked by the K-Drama fans/netizens, especially when it comes to ranking on fan websites for recommendations, which is a shame as there are so many strongly written female-centered K-Dramas, especially lately (i.e. Queenmaker, Queen of Masks). Please check them out if/when you can as I would love to see more stories like these.

This show is so underrated. Highest recommendations!

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Almost perfect show!

Just finished That Winter, The Wind Blows on Viki.I was initially going to watch and review Bad and Crazy, but I ended up not watching it as other shows caught my attention at the last minute and I wasn't in the mood for a buddy cop show.

I loved That Winter, The Wind Blows. A mellow paced, fairly lighthearted and tender romance melodrama and chaebol drama about gambler/con artist who falls in love with a blind heiress. The cinematography is breathtaking. The music, writing, direction and acting are excellent. Song Hye Kyo gives her best performance here and Zo In-Sung is wonderful. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to Park Bo-Gum. The ending felt a little rushed and unnecessarily open-ended, but it was satisfying enough. I recommend you watch the last 20 minutes of the final episode a few times. It's up to the viewer to decide. When I say "chaebol drama", I'm referring to that sub-genre of K-Drama that deals with elites. As you know, chaebols are family owned conglomerates in South Korea.

Highly recommended!

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Wonderful show!

Just finished Because This Is My First Life on Netflix.

Absolutely loved it!

A character-driven, light-hearted, but mature romantic comedy that is a social commentary on the institution of marriage, love itself, relationships and sexual harassment in the work place. Having not read the premise of the show, I went in blind and was pleasantly surprised at how maturely written the characters were. It is not one of those "love at first sight" type of K-Dramas. There are several couples in the show and we witness their love organically build in each episode while they're simultaneously questioning/analyzing their own feelings and whether they personally find marriage and carrying on tradition is suitable in millennial generation of today's South Korea.

The pacing of the show is relaxed, but as you get to know the dimensions of each character, the pacing begins to move quickly. While it is very funny and has its lovey-dovey moments, the fact that it is so intellectually stimulating (along with the most lovable pet cat in K-Drama history) so memorable.

Writing, soundtrack and acting from the cast are outstanding, particularly from Jung So-Min and Lee Minki who play an odd couple.

Absolutely highest recommendations!

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South Korea's answer to 50 Shades of Grey and I loved it!

Just saw this show on Netflix and personally loved it!

A romantic comedy about two colleagues engaging in an erotic BDSM relationship. Despite its' erotic themes/tropes, it may be the most mild and tasteful movie I've ever seen on the subject. If you're a conservative/squeamish viewer, there's no explicit nudity, and almost no vulgarity.

While it's a movie, it feels like a K-Drama in it's pacing with each scene taking it's time and focused solely on Jun and Seohyun's chemistry, which was excellent. At just two hours, it left me wishing it was a K-Drama as I felt the story could have been longer and would have been interesting to follow these characters for a few hours more. I found it to be hilarious and I found myself laughing to tears at certain parts.

It's very well done and receives my highest recommendation!

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Wonderful show about Korean Idol Entertainment Industry from Idol's Perspective

Just finished Imitation on Viki.

This is a solid show I would recommend to someone who is either a current K-Pop fan or a K-Drama fan that is curious about K-Pop and wants to journey down that Hallyu rabbit hole as well.

The cast is made of actors from so many groups: Ateez, SF9, T-Ara, I.O.I, Pristin, UKiss and more!

A fairly light-hearted, coming-of-age, slice-of-life romance drama with humorous elements about the highs and lows of the Korean idol entertainment industry from the idol's perspective. Rather than sensationalize the idol industry and culture in a good or bad way, the director/writer takes a balanced approach, showing some of the pleasant aspects (getting into a group and becoming successful, bonding with group members, fandom) and the unpleasant aspects (failure, group in-fighting, obsessive fandom). Perhaps the standout in this show is its depiction of how taboo it is to be in an open romantic relationship when you're an idol. As a new K-Pop fan, I had no idea how serious this was.

The acting is solid all-around and when you realize most of cast are being played by actors who are/were idols in real life, it's almost semi-autobiographical despite being based on a webtoon.

Highest recommendations!

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Wonderful show!

Just finished watching the K-Drama Dear. M on the app Rakuten Viki, which stars Jae Hyun of the amazing K-Pop group, NCT 127 is his debut as the male lead.

Absolutely loved it!

A character driven, light-hearted, but mature and grounded coming-of-age romance drama with comical elements that follows a group of roughly nine students on a college campus and explores various issues: one-sided attraction/love, two-timing, jealousy, the highs and lows of relationships, and living up to parents' expectations and one's potential.

On a lean 12 episode format, the story focuses solely on these students and their experiences with each other on the college campus. Similar to K-Dramas like Hospital Playlist and Our Beloved Summer, the pacing of this show is very relaxed. Each scene feels longer than the average K-Drama and we the audience are almost like a "fly on the wall", eavesdropping on these dialogue-heavy scenes, one after another peeling away more layers of these characters and their desires and emotions. For as dialogue heavy as the show is, there are so many subtle, non-verbal moments, where there is no dialogue but the tension between the characters are conveyed with facial expressions and gestures.

The writing and acting is solid across the board, with solid leading performances from Park Hye Soo and Jae Hyun of NCT 127.

Whether your a fan of NCT 127 or K-Dramas in general, I think you will love this show as it is so well done and features a very satisfying ending.

Highest recommendations!

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Perfect Halloween K-Drama!

This is the oldest K-Drama I've seen. My first 90's K-Drama. A psychological sci-fi horror. A love letter to films like Jacob's Ladder and David Cronenberg films, it's hard to believe this B-horror gem aired nearly 30 years ago on Korean television, presumably late at night. If you've never seen a 90's K-Drama, I implore you to check this out. I can say with confidence you've never seen a K-Drama like this. I don't know if this could get made today. It's so unconventional.

I hope we get more 90's K-Dramas going forward as they're the most daring and unconventional. Highest recommendations for the experience.

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Solid Show!

Just finished Reborn Rich on Viki.

Excellent show.

A chaebol-rivalry melodrama with slight elements of fantasy and romance. Without question, this show conveys the ruthlessness and ugliness of greed. The show has a consistently raw and serious tone throughout save the early episodes where the protagonist goes back in time and we see some epochal moments of world history that many of us who lived through those times in the 90's and 00's would remember (first generation K-pop group Seo Taiji & The Boys; Titanic). That's as light-hearted as it gets in this show. Most of the likable characters have almost no screen time in this show so you spend most of it with very unlikable characters, but the actors playing them are all excellent.

The most fascinating aspect of the show is the almost mentor/protege relationship between the characters played by Song Joong-Ki and Lee Sung-Min. Not sure I would call Song Joong-Ki's character likable, but you understand where he's coming from as he's getting revenge. Lee Sung-Min's character is a horrible person, but Lee's performance is so fascinating and 3-dimensional, you can't stop watching it. He chews up every scene he's in.

As far as the romance between Song Joong-Ki and Shin Hyun-Bin's characters, not sure if it was because the script didn't have enough scenes or they just didn't have chemistry, but I didn't buy into their romance at all. It felt more like a friendship to me than a romance. Both of their performances were strong.

Many were unhappy with the ending, but I found it to be very satisfying, albeit anticlimactic. If you K-Drama fans like a "happy ending", I think you'll be satisfied.

Highly recommended!

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Loved this show!

Just finished Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix.

Wow. My favorite 2022 release and currently #12 on my all-time best K-Drama list.

A hybrid of romantic comedy, legal and slice-of-life drama, this show is hilarious, educational and relatable all at once. Using a vignette structure for its script, while the main characters remain the same, each episode is a different story that has its own identity and touches on a variety of different topics; some as relatable as inheritance or sexual harassment to more esoteric ones such as intellectual property theft and hacking. Interestingly, there is an inverted experience between the titular character Woo and the audience: as we, the audience, learn more about Korean law (of which she is a prodigy) in each episode, attorney Woo learns more about the complexities of the human condition (of which many of us know whereas she initially has a blindspot).

Kang Tae-Oh does a wonderful job as the male lead in the show. While he is the official male lead, his character is more of a supporting character, serving as the kind, patient cheerleader for attorney Woo. It is an understated, but heart-warming performance. However, it is clear from the first episode that Park Eun-bin's Woo is front and center as she absolutely dominates every scene she is in. It is by far the show's greatest asset as I found it to be the best performance I've ever seen in a K-Drama. I found the character Woo to be the most lovable fictional character I've ever seen in a K-Drama.

When watching this show, it reminded me of Hollywood films about gifted protagonists overcoming some form of an impediment, such as Rain Man, Forrest Gump, and The Theory of Everything.

While I prefer my K-Dramas to be one season only and do not like the new trend of K-Dramas being renewed for more seasons, I can see why they did that with this show because of the vignette-like structure of the script. Not sure if you can ever re-capture the magic of the first season, but it'll be interesting to see more adventures from the lovable attorney Woo.

Absolutely highest recommendations! This is a definitive K-Drama that I'd recommend to anybody.

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Solid show!

Just saw Big Mouth on Hulu.

Fantastic show.

This show puts the "H" in hybrid: crime thriller, legal drama, prison drama, medical drama, political drama and chaebol drama. I've never seen so many genres packed into a single show and it does it so well. The first few episodes move slowly as they're setting up the characters, but then it turns into a rollercoaster with so many twists and turns that you're on the edge of your seat to watch the next episode. I found the ending to be very satisfying, especially the last 10 minutes.

Lee Jong-Suk and Yoon-ah of SNSD do fantastic work here and Kim Joo-hun gives an amazing performance.

Highest recommendations!

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Loved it!

Just finished Shooting Stars on Viki!

Excellent show.

A mainly light-hearted, character-driven romantic comedy with some serious moments. The highs and lows of fame, abandonment and anti-fandom are some of the issues/themes explored in the show. There are two serious subplots dealing with abandonment and anti-fandom (never heard of this before) that I found fascinating. Whereas most romcoms have a first and second couple, there are at least 4 couples here and they're all different with their own levels of cuteness that romcom fans will love.

The soundtrack is nice and serves the show well and of course, the cinematography, editing and direction are first class (all K-Dramas, actually) and acting is solid from the main and supporting cast. Each episode also moves quickly.

Lee Syung Kyung and Kim Young-Dae are solid. My favorite moments featured a supporting appearance by the excellent Choi Ji-Woo, who I recently saw in Winter Sonata. She brought such presence to her scenes and it took the story into a different and deeper place.

If you're a romcom K-Drama fanatic, this show has your name on it as you're going to love the ending. Highly recommended.

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Loved this show!

Just finished watching Winter Sonata on Viki.

For the uninitiated, this is the second chapter of the 4 part Endless Love Anthology series (Autumn in My Heart, Winter Sonata, Summer Sense, and Spring Waltz). I've only seen part 1 and now part 2. Both K-Dramas launched Hallyu and are excellent.

A character-driven melodrama about an ill-fated romance and the strain it puts on the main and supporting characters. The theme of the story is the idea that the sins of the parents fall on their children. I like how the first half takes its time to show how the romance develops while the second half is a rollercoaster with many twists and turns. It will be a journey, but I implore you to hang on until the final episode, which I found satisfying for this type of story.

The excellent soundtrack features one memorable tear-jerking ballad after another. The writing, directing and acting was excellent, especially in the second half. The fashion in this show is also notable.

Hard to believe this came out 20 years ago, but I see why it was such a big hit back then as it is an emotional journey you won't forget once you've seen it. It is worthy of all the praise it gets and receives my highest recommendation.

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A wonderful K-Drama for Hallyu beginners!

Just finished Cinderella and the Four Knights on Viki.

Not sure why it took me so long to see this as I absolutely loved it. Perfect to recommend to a K-Drama beginner.

A fairly light-hearted, character driven romantic comedy that belongs in the "flower boy" subgenre of romantic comedies. It reminded me a lot of Boys Over Flowers and Heirs. If you loved those shows, you'll love this one also.

The magic of the show lies in the chemistry of the main and supporting characters. Park So-Dam's character is among the most lovable characters you'll ever see in a K-Drama. The show is beautifully shot and its memorable soundtrack deserves a spot in the all-time top 10 or 20 list of any K-Drama fan.

Highest recommendations!

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