@cingdoc (46)
LOL... :D
yeah, where has samsookie run off to?

@anon (47)
Im Ggeok-jeong is an old sageuk drama (prolly 80 or 90's, forgot sorry, and I was the one who typed this into the Wiki article of "List of Hirostical Dramas", so stupid of me), so you're gonna work really hard to find the subs...as of WITHS2, ask any resident bloggers here, few of them (including JavaBeans him/herself) work at WITHS2...

We miss Samsooki - hope things are fine with him.

Is anyone watching Summers' Desire? Read the novel online very melo but highly addictive.

GIANT was good today. I'm going to miss the kid actors. It looked like there's some unresolved stuff with Mi-Joos storyline (which couldn't have happened when she was just a child) so I guess there will still be a little bit of flashbacks left, but now it's into the nitty-gritty adult world (well, there's still some comedic parts...)

Happy Memorial Day (to the US-OT-ers!), and best wishes to everyone who knows a service member. :-D

Yes, where is samsooki?
Hope he's good and healthy!

@janna
That was definitely all Min-woo. JS only slithered up a little later before MW made the lunchbox suggestion. JS then came out with a really bitchy snark about how KM has a big breakfast, but MW wore a really solemn face, he obviously didn't buy it.
So I sense more of a C, too.
I would say I sense a Wuthering Heights-esque story with Kang-Yun, but then no, it's so much better that that. Only it better not end tragically.

Off to watch the last ever episode with the kids, I'm so gonna cry, janna! Will miss those kids like crazy.

@janna
Episode 8 - OMO!
Where to begin?

I'll be writing a long summary here once I've properly digested this episode.

But about the adult actors:
I'm defo positive about the adult actors, but just a little bit taken aback by Park Sang-min. We've only seen a glimpse so far, but I don't see any of Kim Soo Hyun's version of SM in him.
KSH has a more taut, cat-like face, with eyes that have the ability to make you combust into flames should he glare at you. Park Sang-min looks too... cute and droopy, with no hint of that depth, or that threat (of unleashing hell!) that SM always carried .
Sure he can play a slicked up K-CIA officer sporting a solemn expression and shooting bad guys, but can he play Lee Sung Mo? That is the question.
Let's see! I may just eat my words tomorrow when I watch 9.

Lee Bum-soo looks really promising as KM, in fact I love him already. But I'm just wondering whether he'll be able to pull off the furious 'fruck off!'' eyes that Yeo Jin-gu did so wonderfully and everyone would just clear his way.

Park Jin-hee - great! I've heard only great things about her as an actress, and OMG! She's beautiful here. But I know I'll hate her character Jung Yun, I was already half-way there. (Bitch, don't make my KM cry!)

Joo Sang-wook: ''Hi, remember me? I'm Min-woo. Cho Min-woo.'' *SMIIIIIIIIRK*
(Wahhh... chincha! Why he be'z so haaaawwtt!?!?)
Ah-ah! Eyes off, Jung Yun! He belongs to Mi Joo!

Now for Mi Joo!
I can't say I'm not gutted that we still have to wait for her, judging by the time leap (10yrs?) she's still a teen, so it's only right they have a teen actress for her.
I think this is the part where she'll come out of the comfort of the orphanage and face the cold, harsh world. Bracing myself. I can't believe they're going to make us witness this.

@supah: They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But really SM? You ain't getting any younger. The dish isn't cold; it's already been taken over by mold.

Also, how in the heck has Min-woo gone _this_ long without seeing Kang-Mo? Did they send Min-woo off to America for some learning? Hmmm. Seeing teenaged Mi-joo and kind of older Min-woo is going to be awkward as heck. Mi-joos still clutching to those shoes in the preview. I think she isn't going to be happy whenever she does see Kang-Mo... she'll probably do anything to please Min-woo at that point. Superficial: Jun Yuns dress was really pretty, she's treating our dear KM like a brother though. (noooo)

Guess somebody got unfat. .....Drat. But the outfit totally gave me pause, haha.

@janna
Oh yeah, Jin-suk (CWIDTDODT2) totally got unfat, and is rocking the Clark Kent look. I suppose it is now the mid-80s so dodgy outfits galore. It's his poisonous tongue I'd be most wary of though.

Yeah, we understand Kang-Yun share this unbreakable bond, but I hate how platonic it is on her side, I remember she was attracted to him back when they were newly acquainted. Maybe it was because he seemed so dangerous and novel to her back then, that wench. If he ever leaves her she'll be SO lost.
Really breaks my heart to see him so devoted to her.
So that was the real value of that Beginner's English handbook was it?

I think after KM wasted MW, the humiliation must've been too much, so he left the country?

Yeah, SM! What's taking you so long?
Aargh! I'm sure the drama has ample reasons, but 10yrs is too long a time!

I think we may have to wait another 8-10 (?) episodes, at the next time leap before we can see MW and MJ meet. Unless they do meet now and it's a bit Memoirs of a Geisha-ish?
Shudder! Sorry, that's just triggering all kinds of horrible thoughts about MJ's fate.
Which also reminds me, SM at the gisaeng house! That HAD to be another K-CIA entry test! *screams* It was just so out of character for Cho to arrange something like that as well.

Just finished watching CU 18. Totally love it. There was so much plot I actually suffered from whiplash. I have quibbles about some of the plot devices e.g. Ki Jung turn into the big bad, KS running away etc but love the 4th of July movement of the central characters--I was resigned to getting a big existential nothing in terms of character movement and got a whole lot of something instead.

EJ opening herself up at the last episode totally reminded me of Room with a View where Lucy opens herself up to love and possibilities in Italy as she physically opens up her coat. What a here comes the sun scene after a long lonely cold angsty winter. I'm just hoping to God the writer or director doesn't piss all over it like in other past scenes where it actually didn't happen.

I actually teared in ep 17--I'm not sure if I'm feeling vulnerable lately or the scene was just that touching--when KH comforted EJ while they were looking for KS. There is something so fragile and poetic in the situation of someone who is your biggest enemy who also happens to know the most about you, who is so fatally flawed yet has the most experience and empathy to most appropriately comfort EJ that this scene just made me want to bawl in its craziness. Like EJ I was thinking "didn't this bastard just betray me?"

A bit of Kim Jae-wook and Joo Ji-hoon smexiness:-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoOg2mWqQzI

@ serendipity and hjkomo

The Great FOL watch of 2010 is officially on! (I also have to watch some Giant to keep Thundie company whilst she and the team subs it - if you guys hear wailing its probably from Thundie, that or her falling off the chair from time to time). I need some levity, so Yankee kun is my Cinnabon in all this misery.

Okay, today we start episode 1, then one episode a DAY (but I proposed we take a break on weekends). So the goal is to finish in 4 weeks (5 eps a week). Does that work for y'all?

My subs are awesome on my DVD set. Plus, langdon will hold our hand. I'll update once a week here on my thoughts. I'll try to keep it less Hyun Bin centric and talk about everyone else in that show as well.

I had such a wonderful weekend (like, it was too good to be true from Friday night onward) that I'm totally ready for FOL. Game On, chingus!

@cingdoc,

"LOST One Heck of a recapper/OT Commentator named Samsooki
(also will answer to Jihoonie’s Daddy, and will “perk up” to any mentionings of KJH or JNR)"

Word is that Samsooki is in the "Flash Forward" alt. reality of Dramabeans. There, he's the principal blogger of the #1 portal of Kpop "Bora Lives." Also, in this alt. reality, Kwon Sang Woo's career is alive and kicking, and he attended Cal rather than That Other School by the Bay.

Oh and Sarah's a hardcore Twihard in the alt world. ;)

@momosan,

"Interesting that people are saying that Bad Guy might be MSFFTS redux. I can see that it has some plot elements in common, and certainly opened in a similar fashion."

If Sexy Bastard continues wearing that hat (or if he's the reason why she died), then I think this could be a loose remake. There's proper remakes like BoF and Guy Who Can't Married; then there's loose remakes like Spring Day (Heaven's Coins) and Dal Ja's Spring (Anego.)

@thoughts on Personal Taste Finale (just got around to it),

Did they use tongue? O_o

In the Flash Forward alt. world, Lee Min Ho and Son Yeh Jin would be on We Got Married.

PT was made by the same producers as Lady Castle, and it shows. Like Lady Castle, PT was essentially two shows. The first half is Will and Grace in a Full House, where you had a counterpoint relationship and budding rivalry with Chang Ryul and In hee. The second half is the LMH/SYJ "shipper show."

Much was made about the cliches used, but the real problem was that the show didn't develop those cliches properly as required in a K-drama. Both rivals didn't have much to do in the 2nd half of the show. In Hee, who started out as personality/philosophical contrast to Kae-in, became the stalker borg. Chang Ryul, who was kind of a bastard but kind of a sad puppy, became "Kim Jisuk vs. His Wardrobe" battle (he lost that one.)

LMH/SYJ = favorite couple this year, so far. Even when the scenes were awkward, or when Jin Ho suddenly became "noble guy with the heart of a stalker", there was always a natural, casual, sweet balance in their chemistry. I mean, their chemistry was so good, sex between Jin Ho and Kae In cured Jin Ho's fever. WOWie!!

@ belleza

"[KSW] attended Cal rather than That Other School by the Bay."

Ha. Ha ha ha. Hahahahahaha, *wipes away tears of man boobies*, Nice one.

Seriously, I would give a loose nail to attend that seminar, just to see exactly HOW beefy KSW looks in real life, and if his smile/smirk is as smarmy up close or its blame it on the the camera, which added the veneer of sleaze, and he's actually a giant laborador in real life.

Re: PT - I was disappointed in myself for actually becoming so bored with the story, or lack thereof, that no amount of tongue kissing and or magic-cure-all-sex could induce me to watch the last few episodes. But this does set it up for SYJ and LMH to make a MOVIE together in the near future, where LMH is this traveling photographer who runs into SYJ in a field of poppies and she's lost her memory at the ripe young age of 27 and needs him to document her life so its a total A Moment to Remember part deux. I'd watch that. :-D

Out of sheer curiosity (the type that killed the cat), I watched ep.1 of Summer of Bubble's/Summer's Desire.

I can't believe anything can come along so soon to make TnK seem like a masterpiece. If fact, I'm wondering if I've been too harsh on TnK. Summer of Bubbles has the most WTF, inane, ridiculous story I've even stumbled across written by a 6th grader dreaming of princes, unicorms, and Edward Cullens.

And Peter Ho is as shudder-inducing as he always was, not an ounce of charisma on him. The charisma Huang Xiaoming has in buckets, but he's lost all his acting development from The Message and has regressed to his early RoCH and/or The Bund days (boy needs to pick better projects, please, I do like you), and Barbie, I still don't enjoy watching her act but she's not good, not bad, just Barbie being Barbie in this drama.

Anyways, watch at your peril. @ twin, see, I told you I would do a public service for everyone. *shivers* it is a bad bad drama. For every Year of the Rain (gorgeous, poetic, meaningful, heartfelt) there is a Summer of Bubbles (pointless, debasing and painfully contrived). Oh wells, TW-dramas need to step up their game for the second half of the year.

@momosan,

"you killed a dog in ep 2 you evil drama” mode, but I’ll lose my commission in the AoBL if I do not at least try to get over it."

My hunch -- and this really speaks to my hope in the storywriters investing in something new -- is that we're still getting pieces of the backstory. Even within the parameters of K-melo, there isn't sufficient motivation there for big-time revenge. I guess I'm kinda hoping for a Mawang type of mosaic there, where Oh Yeon Soo's character has prior history and is burying a lot.

Bad Guy wasn't anything that I was expecting. Usually, in revenge dramas, the director heavily leans our sympathies onto the main character; but here, the one person I feel most sorry for is Kim Jae Wook's character. Also there's something very "Johnny" (in a very good way) about KJK's performance as well. The way he is so elegant in his callous shell, the way he emotes "just say when" in the big crying scene, the way he langors in a sweater like a hungry (very) pretty boy starving for food and skinship. That impatience, that strut . So Johnny. :D

@ockoala,

"Seriously, I would give a loose nail to attend that seminar, just to see exactly HOW beefy KSW looks in real life, and if his smile/smirk is as smarmy up close or its blame it on the the camera, which added the veneer of sleaze, and he’s actually a giant laborador in real life."

Me: OMG OMG I'm such a huge fan of you and Choi Ji Woo!!
KSW: *smirk*
Me: I LOVED you in Winter Sonata!
KSW: *no smirk*
Me: I cried when you went blind!
KSW: Uhhhhh
Me: My grandmum is obsessed with you!
KSW: Uwwaaaa
Me: You were totally awesome in GI Joe!
KSW: *head down, walks away*

@ belleza

LOL! (KSW)

@ ockoala, hjkomo

Eek, Serendipity is silly and can't do math. In ten days' I'm bunking off to vacation in Europe, so actually, after all this time-table won't work for me. Ottoke Otteke? Can we up the ante and do two episodes a day? That'll probably be against doctors' advice. Or maybe I'll just have to double up and pretend I didn't.

Or I can bring along the DVD and wheedle the friend I'm staying with for computer access. I'm tempted to do that JUST to see the reaction of my friend who laughs at me when I say "Korean drama" because she thinks I'm trying to avoid saying "Korean soap opera" while watching Winter Sonata. Not to mention, the genteel elderly English couple I'm going to stay with in the country for a few days. WHAT they will make of FOL if I pop it into their dvd player after a day's bird-watching... I almost want to do it just to see the look on their face.

@ nycgrl

Sorry to hear about your bum presentation. I do feel for you -- been there, done that. I've had moments of public professional humiliation when I wished I'd never been born, but I DID recover and life did move on. :-)

@twin...
how sick a person am I when after your kind public announcement I cant wait to see see Summer's Scent?! I just told hubs I have to watch CU18 on laptop while he's driving coz I'll get carsick (and he's THAT simple to believe me)

told myself not to touch soompi....but If I were the cutest baby girl that wanted a rice crispie after chocolate cookie and choco cake and icecream and mama told me no for my tummy's sake...I'll still palipali nomnomnom it ...
and now to quote a comment on the preview of CU 19:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIfJgbnx9BE

'Not even gonna lie...I was squealing like a 5 year old girl who just received the pony that she's always been asking for and then was told she could eat cake before dinner too!'

yup I'm looping a utube clip in public..and squealing....

Giant 9 SPOILERS!!

@janna
Oh man!! I was really hoping I'd eat my own words about Park Sang Min playing SM, but no, ain't happening. Not anytime soon anyway.
But maybe Kim Soo Hyun does that -- he's just too good an actor that his follow on just can't match up. Go Soo barely pulled it off in WISFC. (For fanservice and well, the only other evidence I can pull up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXF_JPG3fns)
To give credit, PSM seems decent enough, there was a glimmer; his eyes were wonderful at the bar scene. It's just there's no fire. It's like 10yrs on, Lee Sung Mo really mellowed out. Yawn!
LSM was probably the character I was slightly more fixated with from the Lee children, him and Major Cho. Both of them were amazing together in initial episodes.
I'm going to hope on that glimmer - just re-ignite that fire Sung Mo!!
Alas, Cho's real son Min-woo takes that special spot now, huh?

And OMG! What's this? There was one Hwang family conection MIA, and she's back! Sans the blue eyeshadow. She's also the one SM is working alongside and shooting lingering glances at! (Holy smokes!!) I still care about SM enough to not want him to go down that route!
SM! So you know who she is, but do you even know what she did?

As for the rest of them - it's like they grew up but never changed at all. I love it!
The competitiveness and snark is back with force between MW and KM . Not the fun snark but the pissy, hurtful 'it's man-to-man-now' kind.
JY is still surprisingly, lovable.
Jin-suk is still a #1 %^&$!!!! (Die, Jin-suk,. diiiiiiieeeee!!!! Die of an STD!)
Kang Mo hasn't changed at all, in fact he's regressed, he's back to the ruffian lifestyle and street brawls. So heartbreaking. (Whyyyy? He's so much better than this! Is all this for her?)

Mi Joo: I was wrong, it is Hwang Jung Eum playing a 15/16yr old MJ after all. In a way I'm glad, she has a baby-face anyway. I would never have welcomed this idea usually, but she's playing the role convincingly enough. And she can sing, beautifully. She still has a lot of growing up to do but she's the female protagonist I'll be rooting for, not JY, cus she's a Lee. And her singing totally made me cry.

@supah: Was it really out of place for Cho to arrange that? Well...he probably thought: hey if you're going to shoot a gun and live in my house might as well cross off that other thing to make you a man. That girl was so pissed off, haha. Oh well. (If only So Ji Sub were ten years older, he could have played older SM. Just saying..)

Ep9: For the love of.....for my sanity, everyone please just keep a 2 ft minimum distance away from KM. Or at least his general head area before I flip out. Of course Jin-suk would call him a dog (takes one to know one, bro) but in his case he's obedient; not going around wagging his tail like you do. KM should have put the gloves on right then and there.

SM better fact check before he goes doing something stupid; I still can't believe Mi-joo isn't cynical (maybe she does this thinking KM might have passed away); KM you should have ran when you saw those cops. Oh, and Min-woo. Min-woo is still doing his Min-woo thing.

edit: we posted at the same time, haha. But yeah. SM is totally dull on me now. What.are.you.waiting.for?! Make a move, now.

@janna
Seriously how against the gisaeng was Cho, his mighty displeasure at their presence and not wanting them touching his cup and stuff?
Yet to congratulate SM on passing KCIA entry he arranges that for him?
Didn't he value him like a son? Cos that's the impression I had, especially the way in which he saved him.
I'm so glad they never glamourised it, but kind of showed it for what it was. It just left a sickly feeling. In spite of the fact nothing happened and he kicked her out of the room, still!

Yeah, Mi Joo isn't cynical at all, I guess the brothers have had their turn at toughening up/maturing the hard way, now it's her turn.

Oh Kang Mo! Why did you let that filthy STD-ridden flea bitchslap you, again?

Yeah... Min-woo, so amazingly the same.

@janna
Just want to quickly add, I can bet you anything MW doesn't really like JY that much, it's purely part of his competition against KM. It always was more about KM than JY right from the start.

@ Otomen lovers/watchers

so i finished this jdorama this past weekend. And whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought the OTP was super cute and the side characters all endearing and the ass-kicking super fun... i still felt like there was something... missing? I can't put my finger on it exactly, but i felt that some episodes didn't feel FINISHED.

****SPOILERS AHEAD!!****

Like when they're working at the beach hut - i felt that summer just kind of ended and the beach hut rivalry situation wasn't resolved. And the whole manga storyline with the dad. And how the mom doesn't ever really recognize that her son is an otomen and he never really says it either. There's just a lot of little things I felt were left hanging....

*****END SPOILERS*****

But... even with those little complaints, I still feel it was a fully enjoyable show and really loved it :)

Now onto Yankee-Kun 5 :) Hiroki is too freakin cute teeheehee...

@Serendipity/Mookie/epyc

Thanks for the hugs. I'm actually over my fail after watching CU 15-18. Episode 18 really really made my day. I was hopeful after watching it. I mean if one stubborn soul and one lost soul like EJ and KH can meet each other halfway on a two way street, all things are possible, right?

@Serendipity
So happy you liked MiSa. I agree I didn't like the ending as much as everything else about the kdrama especially SJS's acting and the overall acting from the support like Shin Goo & Lee Hye Young. I feel like SJS will always be Moo Hyuk to me like certain actors like Kim Sun Ah will always be Kim Sam Soon-- they are born to play these roles and only at point in their acting timeline are they ready to take it on. SJS around WHIB couldn't have taken on MiSa. There is a part of me that genuinely believes that there are no consistent great actors but actors who have the one or two great performances, who play the character they were meant to play like planets aligning for that brief moment every few years.

Also you hit the nail on the head about my Mawang vs Resurrection comparison. Mawang to me is not as good on the rewatch because what keeps the viewer committed is the tension of not knowing the plot points. Once you know the plot its like knowing the punchline to a joke or the ending of the "crying game". The journey is sort of ruined once you know the secret. Resurrection doesn't fail on the rewatch for me and is also highly maronthonable. You still root for Um force the 1st, 2nd and 3rd time around and you get on his "bus" for the entire ride.

@Ockoala
I don't care for Shin Mina's role in Mawang either and she has always been one of my chief complaints about Mawang. Though I do chalk some of it up to my personal bleh and meh about her I do think the writer has a tendency to underwrite the female roles to the point of disrespect. You'll see something similar in Resurrection but it works a lot better with Han Ji Min and her wooden acting actually works in that role. (BTW I like Mawang a lot but its not something you can watch lightly or rewatch-my opinion)

@mookie sama

OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must watch this raw first thing tomorrow morning on Tudou site!!!!!!!!!! I was running while you posted and just settle back. Oh, I must bookmark the link. . xxxooo

Thundie's Giant (harharhar, pun intended) first impression review dropped:

http://thundie.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/giant-episodes-1-4/#more-10113

I'm also got the first few eps with WITHS2's subs (yay).

Just you wait, Thundie, I'm coming, your comments section better be ready for me! :-P

@belleza

God I hated PT BUT that scene!!! I laughed like I never laughed before because yes apparently the sex is so good it cures him of his illness to the point he has the stamina to do the drinking interview the next day with the dad. Boy I wish I had SYJ's gift. I'd be the Florence Nightingale of the night and make money in my sleep.

@ nycgrl

I quite liked Shin Min A in Mawang, actually. I blame it on Mawang being early on in my k-drama watching days -- I hadn't watched the execrable Love to Kill, and I hadn't gotten tired of the Brave Oracular Heroine yet.

I quite liked Im Soo Jung by the end of MiSa. At least, she convinced me. I'm not sure she would persuade me to switch sides, though. On the other hand, Han Ji Won! I would totally switch teams for her! What HJW is doing in a movie with Mr BlockaWood is just beyond me. Come to me, to me! I'm a thousand times more interesting, I bet.

@supah: Some Dads (unfortunately, even today) take their sons to strip clubs so.. there's that. I think it's kind of Chos way of saying to let it all out now.
Cho probably wouldn't look too highly on someone if they are engaged to someones daughter, but still playing the field with someones sister, ifyaknowwhatimean.

Oh Min-woo. It's hard to know what he's thinking. I think he enjoys the back and forth with JY, and vice-versa. Like when JY took KM out to eat after he did well on his test, MW was more angry that _she_ was rewarding him, not that KM was in the general area. But MW ears do perk up when he hears KMs name. (He sure did like announcing who he was in that scene...so much grandeur) And as for JY...JY likes the attention; whenever she felt things for KM it was the same feisty deal. (I can sleep here, because you're mad ugly.) But KM has dissolved into the bend over backwards 2nd lead nice guy.. (even though he's still a street thug)

@janna
That gisaeng scene was upsetting, seriously it was. SM was on another wavelength entirely and not in the mood to have it forced on him.
At the time he was around 19-20? Sure, he was old enough but would Cho do that to his own son, MW?
SM finding someone for himself and feels good and willing is one thing, but for it to be arranged by someone father-like was traumatic. And he really was traumatised.
I actually felt awful for the girl too, the way she began stripping down all mechanically.
Maybe Cho dropped his unbelievably strict Eastern values after he dropped the Major/military title and embraced the sleaze when he joined KCIA (like his colleagues)?

Mad ugly? Yeo Jin-gu was a little heartthrob! LBS is actually not bad either. They're both totally hot when they're sad and/or infuriated.

I hated the cafe scene, really hated the dynamics and the way the three were seated. But I'm glad KM picked up the vibes.
I'm also thinking back to the time MW suddenly began study sessions at Jin-suk his pet dog #1's house and I can honestly say it felt like he'd only come to gloat and see whether or not his new rival KM is their servant or not. And then JY went and changed her frock thinking he'd come for her?

After KM had stepped all over MW and sent the school's reputation hurtling down (oh and ran back in and punched MW - Woooh!) he left with his head held high and then --- went straight back to shoe shining. But right then you knew he'd also vowed to let go of JY.
If only she hadn't found him and worn that needy expression and silently begged him to come back. Oh! His eyes in that scene! (I so cried!) Surely she saw his tears?

Alas! Because of that wretched moment, he's become her shadow, her bodyguard and I hate that.
I want the dignified KM back, show!

@ockoala
Thanks for sharing the link! I'd love to hear what you think of Giant too, but why do I feel a rant coming on? Heheh!

@serendipity

I've seen Shin Mina before Mawang mostly in movies and I've never been a fan, I think if you see her maybe in one role you might like her because she is cute and gives off a pureness. I think the first time I saw her was in Madeline with Jo In Sung. If you see her in many roles you start to feel like you've seen it before. Im Soo Jung I've seen in several movies before MiSa. I don't think I fell in love with her as an actress in Tale of Two Sisters but by Ing.. I did. I'd switch sides in a heart beat but MiSa wouldn't be the role that would make me.

If Im Soo Jung is an ethereal muse Han Ji Won is a warrior goddess. ISJ is muslin gauze while HJW is like fluid silk. I can admire and love HJW as an actress and as a confident sexpot but thats probably it.

@supah: Well, I don't think there's such a thing as standard eastern sensibility. There's always two sides to every coin. It's there, it happens. Would Cho take out MW? I guess we won't know because of the time jump. Anyways...

The "mad ugly" part was me trying to establish when KM tells JY he could sleep in the same room because she wasn't a pretty girl, it was kind of the same catty back and forth she likes to play with MW. Not that she likes to be put down, she just likes a good debate.

KM used to be a scrappy homeless dog. Now he's just a lap dog. I'm glad older KM hasn't lost that glare look he makes from time to time. I totally understand that contempt KM. I really do.

@celestialorigin-sama, @nycgrl, @lb_tmi @lovenyc52 (did I round up all CUwatchers in OT?)

pali go watch CU19, raw or whatever.
or if u dont mind being spoiled:
http://tvpot.daum.net/clip/ClipViewByVid.do?vid=AE4j5TqtOjE$

o ...langdon unni (IF u dun mind spoiler...)

ok I'm looping that all day today! GAHHHHH

@ supah

Rant? Who me? On Giant? No way, I'm predisposed to loving modern period epics, the TW and C-dramas do these all the time, and some are classics. K production values and acting being what they are, it's bound to be affecting. I loved the first half of Fashion 70s, enjoyed the kids section of EoE, and generally have issues when the drama veers into multuple directions or stalls itself.

I don't know when I can start it, but I'll let y'all know. thundie and I had the Great City Hall Debate of 2009, we do not think alike at all! (well, maybe 1 out of 3 times).

@ serendipity and nycgrl

Re: Shin Mina - I've only seen her in Mawang and Beautiful Days, and she played drastically different characters in both. In Mawang she was the ethereal madonna with otherworldly powers, in BD she was the bitch-daughter from hell working through her daddy issues.

I would never equate SMA with playing one type of character. I loved her performance in both dramas. I had issue with her CHARACTER in Mawang, not her or her acting. I agree with @nycgrl, the writer wrote a character to fit a plot requirement, not to give this woman living, breathing, feeling moments of humanism. She felt so very pretty, shiny and delicate, the perfect contrast to the dark, the wretched and the hopelessness that plagued our good lawyer and his doppelganger the good cop.

I'm still not ready to discuss Mawang, other than to say it was a very good drama. And SMA did the best she could do with the character she was given. To be honest, her very existence felt like a deux ex machina. But that's not her fault, and I lay my complaints at the foot for writer-sshi.

@mookie sama

I'm repeating myself from twitter. Kyaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! Thank you! I luv you! That sure woke me up. I'd better start my day, do all the admin. stuff I'm supposed to do so that I can find 1 hr to watch it raw. Since I'll be off to Japan again for J.Y. P's concert tomorrow, I must take care of certain things first , darn. Why am I not a morning person?

@janna
Gf, you're right about the whole eastern values thing, I was jus' trying to pigeonhole Cho's earlier disciplined behaviour and was failing miserably. How he seemed to follow a sort of code. So keeping that in mind it did seem off for him to do what he did. I also expected to kill off his beefy sidekick in a sneaky way, for selling him out for a chicken drumstick - had it not been for SM's quick thinking - he was *thisclose* to ruining everything.
Aaah well. That's the hypocrisy of the father-son duo for you. Min-woo's so against JY showing skin (eg. school bus scene when she fell on him and then the recent lift scene - he hasn't changed a bit) yet, he's pretty sneaky about other things. Maybe he has spent a couple of nights at the gisaeng place - courtesy of daddy dearest, who knows?

Hahah! Nooooo! How could I forget about the ugly comment? Aawww! That was such an adorable scene! I mean the scene immediately after with the candlelight. Kang-Yun 4evah!

I can't wait till Mi Joo grows up and distracts MW away from the lead OTP. Please hurry, MJ! (Btw, she's only meant to be 10yrs younger than MW.)

@ockoala
Hahah... I honestly wouldn't mind any objective views on it.
My own addiction with the show feels somewhat unhealthy, so I enjoyed reading Thundie's review. Even though I didn't quite agree with the majority of it but hey, the ending few sentences were my sentiments exactly.

If you liked the childhood portions of F70s and EoE, you'll love the first 8 episodes, they're much better made than the former two. But as much as I've loved every episode since I began watching it, I have to admit the first two episodes were quite potent in their tragedy (which had to be done to get the story started) and they kind of left me numb, but don't be put off by them.

excuse my stupidity.. but what is FOL?

@ lb_tmi

Sorry, I mentioned it way early on and then abbreviated to FOL subsequently.

FOL is Friends, Our Legend (2009) with Kim Min-joon, Hyun Bin, Seo Do-won, Wang Ji-hye et. co.

It's a drama remake of the uber-famous Korean movie Friend starring Jang Dong-gun and Yoo Oh-seung.

FOL ended up on a few best drama of the year awards at DB last year. It's a gritty, comsuming watch is all I can say up to ep. 1.5.

@mookie: Thanks. Aww. Clip of the week.

@supah: It's interesting. SM has become very, very paranoid. He looked a little more relaxed at the club, but that's when he had a firm eye on people around him.
I really want MW to know Mi-joo without any knowledge of who she is. She shouldn't be a calculated move like everything else in his life.

Oh and remember after that pretty girls comment KM got demoted from the couch to the floor. It's okay, he got to take an internal snapshot of her sleeping by candlelight. Fair trade.

@ockoala: Love to hear what you think about Giant, there's a lot of characters/episodes so there's a bunch to muse about.

"Now that you mention it, there is something Johnny about KJW’s performance. Esp. the scene on the couch and the sweater. Maybe because it’s a Japanese co-production, or because we’re all living in Kimutaku land with thinking about MSFFTS. "

One tell of a Japanese production is the way they use backlighting, strong natural light, and soft focus. That is, they use a lot, to the point where everybody seems to have a halo. Bad Guy doesn't quite do that, but a lot of the scenes have strong light, as such you get a very strong sense of time of day. They also like to use orange-red palettes in their lensing a bit more than HK and K-dramas (SBS dramas have a softer blue-purple palette), and they love to shoot on top of buildings. BG does that too.

@janna
Yeah, he's got the paranoia part down pat, but would it be too much to ask for, for him to have a vaguely threatening air about him? I really want to continue rooting for him, I neeeed more ''Fbuck yeah! Lee Sung Mo!'' moments.

Also, I seriously hope for the same. If she is just a calculated move, I'd die first. Our Mi Joo's far too precious for that kind of treatment. I'm placing all my hope on that one promo snap, everything else about the picture felt wrong but there was something undeniably tender about their clasped hands. OK, no more speculation or I'll wind up *really* disappointed. Haha!

@ mookie

omona @ the CU clip. must DL raw to watch in HD. nowwwwwwwwwwwww... alls i can say is FIIIINALLY!!!! :) thanks for that!

@ momosan

ya i was thinking maybe it was the editing too... but there would need to be more than another minute or 2 after the credits to 'finish up' the eppie's stories. oh well, still enjoyable!! maybe there'll be a season 2 and the unresolved stuff will be resolved? after all, what about the national kendo match?!?!?! and i kinda wanna see more of oharida and tonomine. they were a fun pair :)

@ockoala

Didn't see SMA in Beautiful Days but did see her in Volcano High, Madeline, parts of Love to Kill and Mawang and she has that sameness for me. She isn't bad but not very compelling.

In terms of FOL I'm more and more intrigued. I would love to see a badass gritty version of Hyun Bin.

Watched episode 5 & 6 of Mother (japanese drama) which can be quite draining. I had to pause it a couple of times and I'm not even a Mother. It's interesting that there is limited male characters; they're present, but the world doesn't revolve around them.