Medical Action and Romance, STAT delivery.

How do you watch Doctor Romantic 2? Just hold your breath for 16 hours. It is that exhilarating. While with Dr. Romantic 3 I did not need to hold my breath, nonetheless, I could not hold back the tears as I watched compelling heart tugging medical situations being portrayed .

Every Doctor Romantic series in the three seasons has had stellar cast members, including well seasoned actors. However, the main component of the Doctor Romantic series is the medical thrills received from watching the deep dive into new and unusual medical cases. My favorite to date in the series remains Doctor Romantic 2, but Doctor Romantic 3 delivered the K drama goods, with two additions to the Doctor’s list of characters. With a series like this, lasting over 3 seasons, it should become harder to invent new personalities, each character with their own little quirks and and gifts. Nonetheless, our new additions have their own entertaining personality strengths and failures. I took a week and finished all 3 in the series and enjoyed every minute. I think that Doctor Romantic 1, 2, and 3 should be added to everyone’s Korean Drama playlist. There is a smoking OST, featuring Baekhyun from EXO and Seungkwan from Seventeen. Add these to your “playlist”. Pun not intended.

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This Great Drama Just Gets A Bad Rap.

ML Gu Jun-pyo (Played by Lee Min-ho from The King: Eternal Monarch)

Boys Over Flowers (2009) has a character which some feel is a most alienating figure in all of Korean Drama Land. I must confess that I don’t understand why. Gu Jun-pyo is self-centered and a pampered chaebol. His is pampered by his mother, his friends, and classmates. Everyone lets him have his way, that is until he meets a girl who kicked his rear end and knew how to say No! to him. He fell in love instantly. Gu Jun-pyo really did not grasp the gravity of his bad actions. This was the life-style he was given, and it had its perks. However, as soon as he met this girl that put him in his place, he allowed himself to be trained for the good. Bad Boy turns Good.

One of the most special scenes was when he almost froze to death waiting outside for this girl to arrive. She asked him why he waited for her outside instead of getting in out of the cold? He said to her that he had never ever had to wait, and he kind of like waiting for someone. The transformation of Gu Jun-pyo is iconic Korean drama. However, this drama is very polarizing in so many circles of friends, but without merit.

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To understand the Korean movie Dream, you have to understand Dark Humor.

The movie ‘Dream’ is a comedy that uses Dark Humor for laughs. Your brain has to have a reset for this movie, adjusted to humor that pokes fun at subjects normally excluded from comedy, because the subject is considered sacrosanct. The subject matter for laughter is serious, but the Comedy pokes fun at the nature of things. Dark Comedies may not do well with some audiences, because some may not get the jokes or some may not see these serious matters as something which should be used for humor. I hope most get the Dark Humor jokes and accept it’s intended hilarity in the movie Dream, because Dream is an upbuilding and motivating film which will have you cheering.

The movie Dream stars IU (Hotel Del Luna) who plays Lee So-min and Park Seo Joon (The new Captain Marvel movie) who plays Yoon Hong-dae. The cast entourage is great.

This movie ‘Dream’ is based on a true event of the “Homeless World Football (Soccer) Cup” held in 2010, and covers a documentary being made for it. The documentary has the main purpose of bolstering up the flailing careers of Soccer Player Yoon Hong-dae (Park Seo Joon) and Videographer Lee So-min (IU). The intentions are to make a tearjerker documentary, which will garner viewership and public attention to themselves. Along the way, their selfish quests becomes a quest to help the homeless achieve something important.

To be successful with Dark Humor, you have to deadpan (be deliberately impassive or expressionless) Dark Humor. You play it like it is not funny, but totally serious. Park Seo Joon deadpans his character so well. Who knew he could play Dark Comedy? The movie Dream left me belly-aching with laughter. It is certainly a movie to add to your Korean Drama list. The more you watch Dark Comedies the better you get at watching Dark Comedies. I was crying ‘Mr Queen’ tears of laughter. The movie ‘Dream’ eventually becomes a serious commentary on life as we know it. The homeless are real people too.

For me, and I know this will set off people questioning my abilities to judge, but this movie is a 10/10, and that is my final answer.


Note: Korea is becoming the nation putting out great Dark Comedies in film and drama. Here are other Dark Comedy films and dramas from Korea.

Korean Movies

Oscar Award Winning ‘Parasite’

International Award Winning ‘Decision To Leave’

Baeksang Arts Award winner for Best Actor ‘Sound of Silence’


Korean Dramas

Oasis
Snowdrop
Vincenzo
Prison Playbook
It’s Okay Not To Be Okay
Bad and Crazy
Gaus Electronics

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My Perfect Stranger was perfect to me

My Perfect Stranger mimics the American Movie series Back To The Future. Therefore, first take note that many teenagers and adults you see in the past in 1987 (the drama’s main time destinations) are people you see in the present/future before the time jump, only they are 35 years older. The common thread between those in the present/future and those in the past/1987 are our time travelers, who are our male and female leads. They remain their same age.

The Male lead is a famous News Anchor in the present who starts the Korean Drama journey by finding a car that is a Time Machine. As he jumps around time on joy rides, he discovers something important about his future. This takes him back to 1987 to find out more. Along the way, inadvertently, a perfect stranger is pulled into the past with him. Why is she so perfect for these strange happenings? There is a rocking OST as well.

My Perfect Stranger has a rich powerful approach to the theme of the little used concept of Back To The Future. Solving the many mysteries in the past is the driving force of what happens in the present/future, and puts the outworking of the story in overdrive. The powerful automatic steering from the acting, uses the coasting setting to build the storyline into a profound slow crescendo of the action. One will not easily guess the perpetrator of this Who Dun-nit and the Big Reveal will make you put on the brakes for a hard stop of disbelief. Go with this one. It is a Korean Drama that you should not let pass you by. My Perfect Stranger is My Surprise Hit thus far this Korean Drama Season of 2023.

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There is a hidden beauty in the symbolism of this drama and the nature of relationships.

The Story

Some people are missing the point of this drama, big time. This drama is about interpersonal relationships between men and women and how they communicate with each other differently.

When one interprets, be it foreign language or sign language, the interpreter has to break up the conversation into short segments and release the information they just heard into the language of choice. The interpreter in this drama could listen for three minutes of conversation and repeat back the whole conversation in the language for which she is interpreting. Her record is interpreting 10-12 minute segments of spoken words. That is remarkable. Most people can interpret only 30 seconds of conversation accurately.

What gets lost first with long segments of interpreted conversation, is emotions and intent. I have studied why the mother tongue is the language of the heart and why love and attachment is best perceived when listening in one’s mother tongue. To be able to transfer emotions and intent to another language, after listening to long segments of conversation, is close to impossible. I am intrigue by this subject material. The Chinese Drama ‘Our Interpreter’ sure makes this occupation of International Interpreter look very glamorous. The drama pits a high tech CEO launching a new interpreting application against a real live interpreter. Machine against Human. Who will win? The two were once lovers and they have not seen each other for eight years. Can love be reinterpreted?

What some may fail to grasp with this drama is how normal communication between men and women can get lost in translation. We blame it on the “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” syndrome. However, the base root of the issue is how emotions and intent are conveyed. Are matters made even worse over time? There is a hidden beauty in the symbolism of this drama and the nature of male and female relationships.

Quote: As a philosophy, it’s impossible for (emotions and intent) to be completely expressed and conveyed with words (When Interpreting). It requires one to feel, understand, and think about it with the heart.” From Our Interpreter.

There is an interesting side note to the Chinese drama ‘Our Interpreter’. There is a lot of English spoken in this drama, as foreign language is rendered into English. For fun, the viewer can listen to the Interpreter interpret the Chinese into English and compare it with the interpreted material in the subtitles. The human interpreter does a way better job, since she is touted to have the ability to interpret from the heart of the language she is interpreting. Someone should have been alert to make sure that the subtitled text was as good as the Interpreter.

‘Our Interpreter’ had me with their opening quote by George Gordon Byron. My mind realized that it would be stimulated. It is an intelligent drama which may not be everyone’s taste. However, this is my kind of drama, pitting two overachievers against each other and giving each a chance to make their best corrections.

Quote: “If I should meet thee after long years, how should I greet thee? With silence and tears”, George Gordon Byron.


Actors Corner

Victoria Song—I have compared her to the Korean Actress Jun Ji Hyun in the past. Her acting skills are most spontaneous and creative. I loved her in Find Yourself.

Chen Xing Xu—Acting since age three, Chen Xing Xu is a veteran actor. He also starred in The Starry Love.

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What can I say?

Frankly Speaking will not win awards for writing and storytelling, but it might win over your heart. It is more that a Comedy Romance, it is a Comedy. I found myself laughing hard at the silly jokes. Frankly Speaking is a lot of fun. The running “dad jokes” type situations may remind some of home.

Frankly Speaking is the story of an announcer who has lost his ability to filter his words. It stars accomplished Korean drama and film star Go Kyung-pyo (Marriage in Contract). What can I say about the story? It is stupid. However, I am laughing my rear end off. How do you rate this? I don’t plan to drop it. Frankly Speaking is a great laugh. When you think about it, Go Kyung-pyo was in the great Dark Comedy Decision to Leave. He was the funniest person in this comedy. Do you know how hard it is to act in a dark comedy. You have to pretend that it is not funny when it is funny. Go Kyung-pyo knows the comedy landscape.

Juxtaposition the comedy from Go Kyung-pyo with dramatic dramas Go Kyung-pyo has appeared in like Connect, Chicago Typewriter, and DP. This tells me that he is a great actor.

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The Adam’s Family Meets The Hallyu Wave (Everything Korean)

All the up front synopsis for the new Korean Drama Atypical Family that I read on the Internet seems to be wrong. The story is not outlined as projected by news sources. Atypical Family did not meet my 15 min “love it or leave it criteria”. However, there certainly was enough hidden back story revealed to let me know that there was enough paint on the canvas to make me stick around. This story is so very complex.

Revealed in the first episode, therefore, these are no spoilers.

1. The male lead has superpowers which he feels are a curse.
2. The male lead was married to his wife, who gave birth to their first child.
3. She died in a car accident, which appears to have been caused by her.
4. He could not use his superpowers to save his wife.
5. His mother forewarned him of this pending doom.
6. The death of his wife caused his depression, which caused him to loose his superpowers.
7. The whole family has superpowers, but they all have lost them, because of modern medical diseases.
8. The female lead is actually a grifter. She has been planted into this family by a thievery gang, because the family is rich. Her sole purpose is to steal money from this rich family and to give it to the thievery gang for which she works. She thinks that the information about the family is nonsense.
9. This drama is so weird. It is so atypical from the typical Korean Drama.
10. I see the paint on the canvas and it looks like an evolving masterwork.

Mind sufficiently blown. I can’t even figure this one out. Left very intrigued. I am so excited. Episodes post Saturdays and Sundays.

@ Edit: This is such a brilliant drama, from the mind of someone who got in a perfect lane of thought. I am going to drop spoiler explanations in the comment section below, to help those who might be puzzled. Look for them.

What is a spoiler? It is when the drama is bicycling in one direction and then makes a significant turn to another direction and you reveal this. It is very rare that the first episode will contain spoilers, because the drama has not had a chance to progress forward.

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Uniquely satisfying Fantasy Chinese drama with a huge twist (a twist which I won’t reveal)

Costume & Period, Romance, Time Travel Fusion, Gaming Drama

Unique Lady is about a young lady whose life amounts to only playing video games and studying. She is distraught over her pathetic love life, and gets trapped in a video game about “finding your person” in the Sheng-Yuan Dynasty. She has to cosplay play this video game all the way through, before she can exist. She is surrounded by gorgeous men all over the place, falling in love with her. So I thought that this would be a perfect brainless down-time Chinese Drama, with the emphasis on brainless. However, surprise! Unique Lady actual has an extremely engaging and intelligent storyline, which is well written and acted. I should have known that this drama was not run-of-the-mill when I saw the Chinese actors’ firepower lined up for this drama. To add to this viewing pleasure, Unique Lady also has a Season 2. In the 24 episodes for seasons one and two, there is a fan viewing commitment time of less than 18 hours. The same goes for season 2. Therefore, the Chinese Drama Unique Lady is Korean Drama Fan Friendly.

This Drama is taken from Lascivious Lady by Orange Light Game: Adapted from the novel Haose Qianjin by Qing Lanlan

You will get massive Dual Lead Syndrome with these main suitors. I could not choose.


Actors’ Corner


The heroine of Unique Lady is Lin Lou Jing (Played by Zheng Qiu Hong or Jade from Fairyland Lovers). She has four suitors in this dating video game, all four with totally different personalities. There is a digital System Conductor, which helps guide her through her game choices. Lin Lou Jing has only five attempts at finding Mr. Right and she must find someone whom she loves and who loves her, before she can exist the game.

The main suitors for Lin Lou Jing are Zhong Wu Mei (Played by Gong Jun or Simon from Begin Again) and Liu Xiu Wen/[Prince of Qiyu] (Played by Fang Yilun or Alen, who is dead ringer for Hyun Bin and appeared in The Long Ballard).

Gong Jun has an interesting backstory. His first day at University, his teachers took one look at him and told him he should be in Chinese dramas, because of his look. He was able to change majors and was sent to acting school. And the rest is history.

You can include in the mix of people with whom to fall in love, the Third and Fourth Leads.

Jiang Xuan Yu (Played by Yu Kai Ning from Cute Programer) and Hua Ying Chi (Played by Li Hao from Douluo Continent)

Have fun.

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Attitude is everything

There are hard hitting subjects sewn into the fabric of this entertaining High School drama, about the kids of the rich and super rich. The drama is Boys Over Flowers meets Weak Hero Class 1. Personally, I loved it. This school is other worldly in design. The Korean Drama has a high class flashy look and an attitude to match. This was a high octane ride.

Off the bat, there is an Assembly to introduce the new scholarship student, the odd man out in the school for the super rich. These students are so rich that they have car Valets. The drama has smoking music, interesting script, and fantastic cinematography. Young talent showed off their acting skills. All the dots of the story were connected in the end, to set-up things for Season 2.

For those who were waiting for the highly anticipated Korean Drama Hierarchy, it just hit NetFlix. There is a death covered in this Korean Drama.

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