Romantic Dr. Kim aka Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim

I was feeling torn about continuing on with My Horrible Boss today as I knew it was going to be funny but also very angsty (probably not the right word) so I downloaded a few other first episodes on my Netflix app and tried out Romantic Dr. Kim while I was at the gym. Within two minutes, I was, like, wtf? because it was all BAD THINGS! BAD THINGS! when the description of it hadn't led me to believe that at all:

Boo Yong-Joo was a famous surgeon with the nickname of "Hand of God." He suddenly disappeared and nobody knew exactly why. Boo Young-Joo is now known as Teacher Kim and he calls himself the Romantic Doctor. He enjoys his life in seclusion. 

Kang Dong-Joo became a doctor to win somebody over and Yoon Seo-Jung become a doctor to be recognized by somebody. After they meet Teacher Kim, they learn about life values and comfort from love.

Um, yeah. After one episode, that doesn't sound at all like what it seems like. The show begins with a young Kang Dong-Joo at the hospital, where his father has just been admitted. However, a senator has also come and the doctors go to assist that man instead, even though his father was there first. His father dies. Dong-Joo basically loses it. He returns to the hospital later with a baseball bat and lays waste to some medical equipment. A Dr. (not the same one that didn't operate on his dad) comes out and disarms him, tranquillises him, and then patches him up. Guessing this is Dr. Kim. When Dong-Joo wakes up, that Dr. tells him to get back not with his rage, but by being better. Okay, Confucius.

Swoopy fast forward through time and Dong-Joo (played by Yoo Yeon Seuk) is now an intern at that same hospital after having been top of his class. The residents aren't fond of him because he refuses to run errands for them and they think he thinks too much of himself. One of the residents that he butts heads with is Yoon Seo Jung (played by Seo Hyun Jin...from the Beauty Inside though I completely couldn't place her at first...this character is so very different). She's in her last year of residency and Dong-Joo thinks she's hazing him by giving him all the "bad" patients in the ER, including one with a masturbatory aid...er...stuck in an unfortunate place that Dong-Joo has to remove. Gross.

But she performs some surgery wizardry, saving a guy by holding an artery closed as he was about to bleed out, and Dong-Joo is smitten. Though we only realise this after they have another "moment" when he backs her up in a risky call and they save another patient (though she gets in trouble for her unorthodox approach) and he grabs her and effing kisses her (out of nowhere) in a storage room. I had a serious WTF are you doing, man? moment and so did she, though she also obviously liked it...though she then pushes him away after they kiss some more. And tells him she's dating someone after he confesses he likes her and wants to sleep with her (wow, so forward for a Kdrama lead!).

That someone is Dr. Moon, who Dong-Joo sees picking her up from the hospital later that night. Then Dr. Moon proposes to her WHILE IN THE CAR at a stoplight (seriously? who does that?). Then they get in a car wreck right after he puts the ring on her finger. They rush to the hospital where Seo Jung looks like the more injured one but she tells Dong-Joo to see to Dr. Moon because he's the one that hit his head. So Dong-Joo, having had a verklempt moment after seeing the new ring on her finger, goes to find Dr. Moon...who he finds having an intense conversation with a nurse who had also seen said ring...obviously, he's been two-timing Seu Jung...then Dr. Moon collapses and dies. So much WTFery going on here. Then Seu Jung escapes the hospital during the funeral and goes HIKING with her broken arm and whatnot (?????) and falls and breaks/twists her ankle and is lying there all Oh WOE IS ME and thinking about how right before the car wreck, she'd told Dr. Moon about Dong-Joo's love confession and how her heart fluttered. Then she passes out or falls asleep and Dr. Kim (presumably) somehow randomly stumbles across her in the middle of the freaking woods and carries her out of there. End first episode.

Whoa. None of that was what I expected. At all. I mean, WUT. On the plus side, all of the acting was good. The medical stuff...er, mostly okay and very intense, though also a bit suspect. But, yeah, this seems way more angsty and crazy than what I expected to see. It's interesting, though. Not sure if I'll continue on with it now or save it for another time as I was hoping for something significantly lighter than this(!).

My Long Awaited Love Story

After trying the movie version of Love020 (and it being a relative success), I thought another movie would be the way to go. Or I was being lazy. Who knows. So when I saw the Japanese movie, My Long Awaited Love Story, waiting in my follow list on Viki, I said why not? Yes, I haven't had a huge amount of success with Japanese stuff (other than Minami-kun), but I was willing to give it a try. Maybe I'd have more success with a movie vs. a drama.

So, Riko (played by Mikako Tabe) is an otome game designer (though weirdly, the word "otome" never comes up in the movie?). That might actually be the thing that drew me in initially. She's hired as a freelancer at a software/app company to help develop a new otome game. The boss, Soichiro (Takahashi Issei), is at first very dismissive of the whole game genre. He's a brusque guy and not at all good with the ladies (or, heck, probably people). Riko, even though she designs romance games, has also sworn off love after being bitterly disappointed during her school days.

Soichiro has had a crush on Momose, a lady working at his company, for a couple of years and through circumstances, winds up asking Riko for some help in becoming a "better man" and wooing Momose. So. Yes. This is totally a take off on Cyrano de Bergerac. And, as if it wasn't obvious enough, they even have Riko reading the book at about the 2/3rds point in the movie. Hit us over the head, why don't you?

Of course they spend a lot of time together and become friends. Then, as Momose is becoming more receptive to Soichiro after his tutoring, Riko realises she is falling for him herself. For his part, he hasn't yet realised that he's more in love with the idea of Momose rather than the real woman and that Riko is the one he's comfortable and happy with. It comes to a head when he (trope alert!) goes over to Riko's house to help her when she's sick and she just can't take his niceness anymore and tells him she can't bear to watch him together with Momose anymore and is cutting ties.

Then there's a bit of drama out of nowhere where a younger upstart guy at the company (who is also after Riko, though he'd never really shown any interest up until this point), gets the Board to kick Soichiro out of his own company and takes over. There were absolutely no hints about this at all, so it was a shocker but not so much in a good way but in a WTF is going on way. And Momose realises that Riko is actually who Soichiro is thinking of and bows out not altogether gracefully by telling him she doesn't want to be with non-CEO him. That was also weird, as the subtext was that she realised that he and Riko love each other. And there's the final big scene at the end where, even though they've never actually dated or kissed or anything, Soichiro proposes to Riko.

I know I just sounded like I didn't like it, though I actually did really enjoy it. It was very, very cliche and some of it made no sense BUT there were a lot of really good things as well. Riko was a joy as a woman who could stand up for herself and be honest. It was nice to see her overcome her past "trauma" (i.e. seeing the asshole guy again at her school reunion), though they stuck a bit of a saviour thing in there too as Soichiro shows up at the end to bail her out after she'd had her ass-kicking moment. I thought the actress was charming and fairly understated but believable. She also had a great moment after he proposed to her and she's, like, kind of yes but also kind of wtf are you doing, we haven't even kissed yet and makes the first move.

Soichiro as a character was actually great because he was a guy who could admit when he was wrong and was capable of asking for help and, perhaps most importantly, to take the lessons to heart and learn and grow. It's a nice character arc and the actor had a great, expressive face that captured the character well. Neither of the characters were perfect, but they were perfect for each other. The growing friendship between them was nice to watch. Plus, he's got a nice smile once he loosened up.

The upstart handsome guy wasn't really developed enough and him turning into the "big bad" didn't make a lot of sense, story-wise. Momose was okay. No one else had anything of significance other than the cafe owner, and I rather wish they'd used him more because he was an interesting character.

So...at only an hour and a half and packed full of cliches and tropes, this was still a nice movie. It succeeds in spite of all of those things, mostly on the strength of the two leads. I also personally really enjoyed all the bits about the making of an otome game. Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Er, possibly. It's short enough that I could see maybe doing that. Little dude might even want to watch it with me. It's about the right level of romance for him and there are a couple of funny scenes he would get a giggle out of (and the whole game/app development stuff). So...I'll call it a success!

Love 020

I thought I'd try something different while at the gym today. I'd been interested in possibly seeing Love 020 (a Chinese drama) for a while as the premise sounded interesting -- gamer girl + computer-y guy. But some of the clips I'd seen of it looked interesting and some...well, not so interesting.  But then Netflix got the movie version (also Chinese) and I thought, hey, less than 2 hours vs. 22 hours (30 episodes!!). So I gave it a go.

Well, I'm glad I went for the movie version over the drama version. I read this comparison afterwards and it's pretty much what I suspected (from the clips I'd seen of the drama).

First, the pros: the movie is visually stunning. They did a very nice job with the CGI both in the real world vs. the game world. It wasn't clunky at all, which is something I was worried about. In fact, it was fairly seamless. Cheesy, perhaps, at times, but nicely done.

The lead actors... Xiao Nai, the male lead, is played by Jing Boran and he did a nice job with it; subtle but sweet. Given my track record with Chinese/Taiwanese dramas, I appreciated his acting chops. It was understated but had a lot of warmth. Yang Yang, the actor in the drama, is more classically handsome but in an almost too-perfect, kinda smarmy way in the bits I'd seen. Jing Boran's version is the one I'd rather know personally.

Then there's Angelababy (?? apparently that's her name??) as WeiWei was really lovely and animated. She's a believable gamer girl and super adorable. The drama's actress, Zheng Shuang, has more of an unapproachable, slightly wooden beauty about her from the bits I'd seen. So, all in all, I'd say I prefer the actors in the movie version. I wouldn't even mind trying out a drama with either one of them in it...though I've had such bad luck with Chinese language dramas I dunno if I will. Maybe. We'll see. I often feel guilty that I prefer the Korean ones when I am half-Chinese...

But there are cons...the drama (probably, since I haven't seen the whole thing) did a better job at character development and plot. I would hope, anyway. The movie version is far too rushed and there's no real conflict (that isn't solved within 5 minutes). So, as a story, it's merely so-so. Though I'm guessing that the drama would probably have driven me nuts...at 30 (!) episodes, that's just TOO much. That said, the movie is definitely a purely feel-good romance with very little angst. It's a confection. Sweet and light and not filling.

So, am I glad I watched it? Yeah. It was very sweet and satisfying, in a light beer kind of way. I might even watch it again with Little Dude because he'd love all the game sequences and it's age appropriate for him. And it's short. There's no way he'd make it through the drama.

I haven't even talked about the story, have I? Well, there's not much to say. Girl meets boy. They fall in love. Boy defends girl (though she also defends herself, yay). Boy has a hiccup in his professional life. Girl helps him out and is useful. They live happily ever after. It was enough. Too easy, maybe, but enough. Wait, pleasant. That's the word I'm looking for. It's a very pleasant movie.

Edit: Little dude liked it, especially the in-game sequences. I knew he would.

I'm a Dilettante at times...

After (finally) finishing Birth of a Beauty, I wasn't really sure what to watch next. I watched about 5 minutes of the second episode of Her Private Life. Nothing wrong with it, but I just wasn't in the mood.

Then 2/3 of Fated to Love You's first episode...though, admittedly, I had already sort-of watched it on a low quality version I'd found on YouTube. I'd really wanted to see it after watching Jang Hyuk in Wok of Love because the bromance in that one was so much better than the drama. It had finally popped up on Netflix recently...but that was after I'd seen some reviews/clips of it wherein everyone mostly liked it...but I was a bit spoilered by learning that at some point they have their inevitable break up/separation and it's partly because she gets in some kind of accident and loses their baby. And...just...I dunno. There are some things that are too painful. So I'm ambivalent about whether or not I want to see it. I realise that Jang Hyuk will provide a lot of laughs in the show and there will probably be some nice moments as well...but do I want to sit through the horribly depressing dead baby bits?

And so I watched about 10 or 15 minutes of My Girlfriend is a Gumiho which has three actors I really like: Lee Seung Gi, Shin Min Ah, and No Min Woo (aka ICON) but it wasn't grabbing me (though I am sure I will watch it some time). Maybe it was too silly for my frame of mind? Or because it starts off where she's already his "girlfriend" but she threatens to eat him? I dunno.

So I decided to try My Horrible Boss kind of randomly (aka Ms. Temper and Nam Jung-Gi). Well, probably because I'd already downloaded the first episode. Let's be honest.

It has Yoon Sang-Hyun (of Shopping King Louie and Secret Garden) playing Nam Jung-Gi. And he's the male lead. Never seen him in the lead role before...he's usually some bizarre, over the top second lead character. Here he's still a bit over the top but in the opposite direction -- he's the guy that really, really wants to keep his head down and just support his family and not cause waves. He's timid and easily swayed though he's a bit Walter Mitty in that he sometimes imagines what he would do IF he had the guts to do it.

The female lead is Lee Yo-Won playing Ok Da-Jung. She's known as Ms. Temper and has been thrice divorced, even though she's pretty young. She scares the bejesus out of Jung-Gi. She's tough. Merciless. But obviously hurting underneath -- the whole woman in a man's world thing.

There are a lot of ridiculous scenes already in the first episode and I don't know that I was in the mood for that type of thing, but it pulled me in anyway, probably because of Yoon Sang-Hyun...because he is able to play a character of great pathos and depth, even when it's for laughs. There's also a number of other actors I've seen in other things (and liked), like Chansung and Hwang Bo-Ra (What's Wrong with Secretary Kim) and Yoo Jae-Myung and Kim Sun-Young (loads of things).

Though I'm kinda wondering if there's going to be any romance in this one. Or will it all be played for laughs? At least it's only 16 episodes...though they are fairly long ones. Ah, meh. Now I'm wondering if I want to keep on with it right now or try something else that will be more happy/touchy-feely. Crap.

Edit, later that day...So. I wound up watching the end of Thirty but Seventeen again. The more Kdramas I watch, the more I appreciate that one. Yes, it had some of the most ridiculous plot coincidences EVER but it also has one of the sweetest endings ever. I just really needed something I knew I was going to like today.

Dangerous Fellows

I hadn't played any otome for a while, mostly because I'd come to the point where the ones I was playing were all getting boring because of repetition (all the Shall We Date? ones) or I didn't have the time/energy (Mystic Messenger...because I can't miss a phone call but I need more sleep). But I randomly came across an ad for one from a company I hadn't tried before and I thought I would give it a shot.

It's called Dangerous Fellows and it is -- also not one of my normal things -- a zombie survival game as well. It's by LucyDream which looks to be a Korean company. I'm on Episode 10 out of 25. The basic story is that you play a teenage (18?) girl. One day, some mysterious virus hits the world and you are separated from everyone you know and love. You've been surviving on your own for a while, hiding out in abandoned houses. How? Not really sure. You've got some pluck, but you also seem to fall apart pretty easily.

Then you make a trip to a grocery store to get more food and wind up being saved from zombies by a handful of handsome dudes. You know the kind, all the archetypes. The nice one, the strong/silent type, the grouch with a soft side, the sarcastic one, etc. etc. They take you back with them to the school they've been hiding out in, where there are some other people as well, including an old friend of yours and a bitchy girl that immediately takes a dislike to you and wants to kick you out for no real reason other than, I guess, there needed to be some kind of antagonist in this game other than the undead. Actually, that's probably my big complaint so far...it's supposed to be a "zombie survival" story but most of the storyline is really just about this bitchy girl Scarlet accusing you of every bad thing that happens for no apparent reason. Why bother having a supernatural life or death setting if you're not really going to utilise it?

Anyway, there are decision points where you can earn hearts with the guys. You can also "fix up the school" to earn hints, candy bars (which you can feed to a guy to earn hearts) and other stuff, or puzzle pieces (and if you complete the puzzle, you get stuff). Tickets are needed to unlock certain premium content and rubies are needed to unlock more in-depth/premium storylines/CGs. You can earn some free rubies every day.

Pros: the interface is nice, the general design is good and easy to navigate, the story itself seems mostly okay (other than I was immediately over the bitchy girl), the love interest guys are reasonably interesting. Also, there are a lot of points it lets you watch a video ad rather than having to spend rubies, like to get hints. Graphics are well done, though fairly simple. It's made in Unity.

Cons: there are times when the translation is a bit clunky (though not as terrible as some I've seen by any means) and the premium content stuff is ridiculously expensive to unlock. Like, there are three sets of clothing to buy at different times and they all cost 450 rubies and you need all three sets at different story points (from what I have gathered). Watching videos gets you maybe 15 free ones a day. I have 160 at the moment from doing standard free stuff (following on Twitter & Facebook earned you a bunch) but none of the earn massive amounts of free ones really work for me because it's very US-centric (maybe...it's weird...once I clicked it and it gave me UK-ish options, but all the other times were US ones so it seems to be something funky with the app).

I don't mind paying for content to support the developers if it is good but I'm not sure how the quality of the premium stuff is at this point and I don't want to buy any if it is crap...so I need to earn enough rubies to try out a bit first. BUT, that said, the in-app purchase for the "all-in-one package" is £25.99! I've bought entire MASSIVE otome games on Steam for a fraction of that. You can get a "one guy" package for £8.99 (which actually gives you 2 tickets, 10 hints + 450 rubies + 1,800 rubies) though you wouldn't know the appropriate place to use those things unless you use a walkthrough.

I did look for some reviews and did see one spoiler-y thing...it sounds like everyone dies in the end if you don't unlock a premium ending. Which is kinda crappy. So...I'm not sure yet. You also don't really put yourself on a "path" to any one guy as the story seems to progress the same no matter what. At least most of the decision point questions make sense and aren't the typical "no choice seems better than another" thing. Though one of the problems with this approach is that none of the guys particularly stand out either and I don't see any particular reason for her to go for one over another (sorry, I like character development in my otome....)

I'm thinking I'll probably play through all the way without buying anything first to see how it seems--and how many free rubies I can accumulate--and then I'll decide from there whether or not to actually spend any money to get a good ending. I'll update this later after I've played through.

Edit: Welllll...okay. I made it all the way through without spending anything. And the normal ending is...everyone dies. And it's pretty much the fault of the leader of the dudes (Lawrence), who is also probably behind all of the dodgy stuff that's been going on the whole time (people disappearing / being killed / etc.) And...he's one of the romanceable options? Erm...okay. Anyway, it's also the fault of the MC because she makes some ridiculous decisions--especially after she's warned by one of the people who disappears that it's probably Lawrence! And she sees him kill some random crazy non-zombie dude (saving her from him, but still).

So.

I am slowly working my way back through it to earn enough rubies to get to a good ending...probably with Ethan, as he's the character that it is easiest to get "hearts" with. That way I can check out what some of the premium stuff is...but I kinda doubt based on the default ending quality that I'll spend any actual money on this one. If it was a more reasonable price, maybe.

I did try and download another one of their games called Mystic Code which is similar in design but seems to have more content and voice acting. However, I've only made it about a chapter in because it's confusing both in interface and storyline and I dunno if I have the energy to muddle through it. Or if it would be worth it.

Will update this again if/when I finish a "good" ending.

Edit: Welp.......I finished a "good" route with the Ethan character and I use that term loosely. I did use some rubies on a couple of things to get enough "hearts" but I didn't purchase any; they were all free ones earned via the ads/daily reward. The extra bits you get (like, at one point you give him a candy bar) provides...well...not really much of anything extra. Nothing romantic, nothing dramatic. Bare minimum of additional sceneage. Nothing to write home about and nothing that really progresses the story much either. There's no hint at any point from the MC that she feels anything for any of these guys other than "oh, yay, it's good to have people around" rather than being all alone and running from zombies.

And...as for the end itself...pyscho Lawrence disappears. Everyone else dies in a wave of zombies. And you and Ethan are trapped in the school, moving ever higher up the building to try and avoid them (what you're eating to stay alive on, I have no idea, as you were low on food before). The most romantic thing that happens is the MC rests her head on his shoulder. They talk at the very end about maybe trying to make it to the safe zone and Ethan confesses he wants to keep her safe. That's it. It's quite short. So...yeah. Disappointing.

I mean, yes, I get that it's a zombie survival thing BUT it's also an otome. This is like the absolute bare minimum of romance. And, ultimately, the big enemy here isn't the zombies but a psycho dude. And the lesser evil is a bitchy blonde girl.

So I was very MEH about this and decided to look up the other endings. I thought, hey, Ethan is obviously the "intro" character as he's the easiest to get hearts for. Maybe Harry or Zion or Eugene will be better (and why you'd want to go for Lawrence, I dunno) and have a more meaty story. So....looks like everyone else dies in every other ending other than your chosen guy. And, while you might make it to the safe zone in some of them, you're always feeling guilty about the people left behind. And you never find out what happened to your friend Judy. And the romance basically is you might hug. If you do the Lawrence route, you find out he had a psycho crush on you from 2 years ago when you gave him an umbrella (wtf???). And apparently there's some sort-of alternative ending you can unlock where not everyone dies, but it doesn't actually sound any happier either.

Bleh.

I really wanted a lot more out of this one. The design is nice. The character design/art is good. Good interface/easy to understand. But the story is ultimately really lacking. It's like they didn't give it enough adventure for a survival story and there's definitely not enough romance for an otome. And it's not really a very re-playable one as the stuff you unlock really doesn't add a significant amount to the story. So this was a bust. Pity.

Edit: So, I was cleaning old games off my phone and decided to open this one up one last time and it seems that they've made some major updates, including adding the ability to text with the LIs. However, whatever else they did somehow lost all of my progress and stored stuff. :-( If it had kept all my stored items, I'd have given it another go, but I didn't want to start all over again when it was hard to tell how much difference the new stuff would make to the story.  But, if someone happens to stumble across this, I guess just know that it at least appears better. So maybe it is!

My Little Lover aka Minami-kun no Koibito

Because I'm a glutton for punishment and I had this saved as a download in my Netflix app already, I have also started My Little Lover. Which sounds kinda racy until you realise it's quite literal; the main girl character shrinks down to tinier than a Barbie doll. I didn't realise going in that it was a Jdrama and not a Kdrama and I do have to say that so far (two episodes in) that it's the only Jdrama I've tried that hasn't made me (yet) want to scratch my eyeballs out. So that's a bonus. Apparently it's also fairly popular -- it's based on a manga and it has 4 adaptations?

So...the story so far...Chiyomi and Minami-kun were childhood best friends but have grown apart. Actually, mostly he's grown to be sorta taciturn and grumpy, probably stemming from his dad abandoning him and his mom. Chiyomi has grown up to be sweet and shy and misses the days when they were friends. So...for this fateful day...1) she sees the popular rich girl cozying up to him and it makes her sad; 2) she gets confessed to by a good guy friend who seems, let's be fair, really quite a good match for her; 3) Minami says some awful things to her; 4) she gets into a fight with her parents about wanting to not go to university and how she wants to go to Tokyo to try out for a dance group (as a parent...um, yeah...I'm kinda with them...). After running off in a storm, she winds up in this cave in the park that was their special place. She makes a sort-of wish that things were back how they used to be when they were young. (This is my one disconnect so far...she's just had this lovely nice cute guy confess to her and Minami has treated her pretty shittily for the last few years...why is she dwelling on him? I suppose that's the story but ah, well).

When she wakes up, she's tiny. Minami happens to be the one who finds her (as he's out searching because he feels guilty) and she talks him into hiding her because she can't face her parents as she is. There's an episode where the whole town thinks something horrible has happened to her but she finally calls and tells them she's in Tokyo for the tryout just to get them not to worry. So they're mad instead of horrified? I dunno about that logic. But, hey, plot-wise it thrusts them together as he continues to hide her in his room.

There are only 10 episodes and it's definitely a teenybopper drama. But so far it seems pretty cute and like I already mentioned, I haven't yet wanted to burn it with fire like most of the Jdramas I have tried. So we'll see. I have hope.

Edit: Okay, I finished this while taking a break from Birth of a Beauty. It's the best Japanese Drama I've tried so far and I did enjoy it. It's not groundbreaking or amazing or even incredibly well acted, but it has a good heart and is very sweet. Taishi Nakagawa as Minami-kun is very sweet and definitely shows the most character growth...actually, he's probably the only one who shows any significant character growth. Chiyomi grows up (haha literally, in a way) a bit but she mostly stays the same as she started out. He's the one that changes and in that way this is really more a story about him than it is about her. Of course, he wouldn't have grown without her. I suppose you could think of her as the catalyst.

He's best in the quieter moments -- his gaze upon her slowly softening as the show progresses...particularly well done considering that he was likely staring at nothing in those scenes or some kind of doll stand-in. Or in the very emotional ones. Though he (and the rest of the actors, especially the young ones) doesn't fare as well in long conversations where a lot of his dialogue was literally "What?" and "Uh...." The lead actress, Maika Yamamoto, was okay as well, though again not amazing. She was better than the "other girl" Erina Nakayama as Sayori...who was quite awkward, especially in the scenes where she had to show a sense of humour. She was ok in the crying bits. Though I was glad they didn't turn her character into standard drama bitchy girl and instead gave her some pathos. Mirai Suzuki as Riku (the guy who didn't stand a chance with Chiyomi) was actually quite lovely and did a good job in his emotional scenes. At any rate, they all showed promise and I wouldn't mind checking them out again sometime. Taishi is also in a live action version of Your Lie in April but, honestly, I don't think I could ever watch it because the anime was heartbreaking enough as it was. He plays Ryota, which I can totally see. He has a nice heart.

And, amazingly, they even did okay as far as the touchy-feely scenes where they were more believably physical (kissing, hugging) than in any other Japanese drama I've seen (and many Korean ones). There weren't any of those super slow motion super awkward scenes that a lot of them have that make me cringe.

And bonus that this one was actually a good length. Ten episodes was perfect. It wasn't too long. It didn't drag things out forever. It was long enough to have some character development beyond just the leads (Minami's father, Sayori's family drama, Chiyomi's parents...) but didn't dwell on the side stories so much that it would overshadow the main story.

So...am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Hmmmmm, maybe in a few years. Overall, it was very satisfying and provided enough closure. They even got married at the end after graduating high school -- unusual in any teen drama, but it is kind of a fated love story thing so it didn't even weird me out. They were always the only ones for each other.

Her Private Life

I thought I'd start another Kdrama given how iffy I'm feeling about Birth of a Beauty. So I started one I've been seeing lots of good press about: Her Private Life. It features Park Min Young (from What's Wrong with Secretary Kim -- where I did really enjoy her). This time she plays a competent museum curator who has a secret life -- she's a serious fangirl for a Kpop guy. It pairs her with Kim Jae Wook (playing Ryan Gold, an artist who can't currently create but who is also a critic(?) who is going to wind up the director of the museum she works at (after the current director/owner/whatever) played by the always ridiculous Kim Sun Young has some legal "issues."

There are bound to be shenanigans as she tries to hide her secret life. Besides the director/curator connection, Ryan Gold is also trying to track down some art by an artist that is owned by the aforementioned Kpop star. Apparently, he saw it and couldn't create anymore. No idea why.

Just one episode in and...well, as I've seen on Twitter and in news, I am really liking Kim Jae Wook. I've never seen him in anything before and he has something interesting about him. Haven't really seen them interacting enough together yet (other than in clips) to see how their chemistry is. As far as Park Min Young, it kinda feels like a very similar performance to What's Wrong with Secretary Kim. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing yet. Not sure about the story yet either. There really hasn't been enough set up to really hold an opinion yet. But I will watch some more episodes. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the first episode seemed cute enough but it also didn't wow me. I'm going to give it a few more episodes.