Thursday, February 23, 2017

MBC's No Sex and The City Upcoming Drama


I don’t know what the appeal of Sex and the City would be without the sex, but apparently we’re going to find out. A new drama called No Sex and the City is being planned for a fall broadcast on MBC, about three thirtysomething virgins who fall in love for the first time. The series comes from writer Lee Sun-hye, junior writer on Answer Me 1997 and 1 Night 2 Days, and will be directed by PD Lee Dong Yoon of Fated To Love You, Queen’s Classroom, and family drama All’s Well With a Happy Home, among others.

The heartwarming romantic comedy is about the friendship and love lives of three single virgins born in 1983. Their romantic lives begin when the boy they liked in their youth shows up one day. They live in Oksu-dong in rundown apartments, and the warm human drama will be about neighborly affection, and the meaning of home, family, and friendship. The series aims to be a realistic portrayal of single women and their road to maturity, and through each of the women we’ll explore their relationships with parents and their roles as daughters in this day and age.

The themes are certainly in keeping with the Answer Me franchise, so I can see it being the kind of drama that highlights the girls’ friendship more than anything, like The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, or the Answer Me 1988 ajummas if we’d met them when they were single. We’ve seen actual Sex and the City copycats like I Need Romance already, so I hope this one actually sets out to be different.

Title silliness aside, it sounds like the drama will be an uplifting story about true-to-life girlfriends, and I can see the potential for hilarity and relatable warmth in the premise. I mean, it’s literally no Sex and the City (you set yourself up for that one), but who knows, maybe it’ll be something better?

No Sex and the City is in the works to air in the fall Monday-Tuesday slot on MBC. So the potential lineup goes: Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People, followed by Lookout, followed by The King Loves, and then No Sex and the City in September.

I am so curious as who is gonna star in this romantic-comedy drama. But somehow I think Ha Ji Won is a good choice for this drama. Maybe Jun Ji Hyun would also be good. But it seems kinda impossible if we have two hits A-list actress line up for just one drama. I guess, Honey Lee is also a good selection because her acting is kinda good in my opinion. Yoo In Na is also a potential candidate for this. I feel like wanting to see One More Happy Ending

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Tomorrow With You First Impression

We learn a little more about the high stakes hinted at in tvN’s upcoming drama Tomorrow With You through the recently released highlight teaser. Originally, it was marketed as the love story between a handsome time-traveling investment firm CEO and a cheerful child star who grew up to be a photographer.
So I thought it was going to be a sweet fantasy romance in the vein of Oh My Venus with lots of fluff and warm fuzzy feelings. However, the latest extended teaser shows that there’s a thrilling mystery at play which may have life-threatening consequences. In the first teaser, Lee Je Hoon witnesses his body being carried on a stretcher while a portending voice tells him the exact time of his death: March 25, 2019, at 9:10 PM. Like any human being, his urge to live trumps everything else, and he uses his knowledge to change the future despite warnings against messing with time.

Lee Je Hoon (Signal) plays the CEO who seems almost psychic when it comes to future investments (well, I would be too if I could time travel like him). He is pretty happy-go-lucky about his supernatural power until he sees his own death in the future, and the one other person who dies with him. He seeks her out, thinking that she may be the key to undoing his future tragedy. When he messes with the space-time continuum, Lee Je Hoon complicates his own future and somehow ends up with a wife that his future self said he would marry. But it doesn’t seem like the start is that smooth.

The bride-to-be, Shin Min Ah (Oh My Venus), has no clue about her future husband’s abilities.
Eventually, he met with Bap Soon (played by Shin Min Ah) and even saves her life once, when he catches a glimpse of her getting hit by a truck, and then he discovers that he may have inadvertently saved her life before. In one of his far-fetched ideas, he believes that maybe getting married could be the changing variable to topple the morbid destiny he saw for them in the future. While Shin Min Ah was approaches by a cute younger man, she’s over the moon.
Of course not immediately — in a couple of encounters, we see how their budding chemistry takes them from awkward strangers to adorable lovers.
On one date he says, “Noona, you can’t like me, okay?” She answers in sing-song, already smitten, “I won’t like you~” As memories of her drunken night arise, Shin Mina yells at herself in the mirror for all her embarrassing moments the night before. She’d told her drinking partner things like, “Don’t like me, or you’ll get hurt,” “I’m not a loose woman,” and “I can be very alluring.” Morning-after Shin Mina hopes she didn’t talk about having pretty legs… only to have Flashback Shin Mina declare proudly, “My legs are very pretty, you know.”
Days later, she asks how he can skip over the handholding and go straight to wanting to live together, and he shocks her by saying he wants to get married.
The recently released stills show the newlyweds waking up together and having morning coffee like the picture-perfect couple.

But in the teaser we see that once they are married, her over-the-top aegyo makes his toes curl.
But this doesn’t seem to change their fates the way Lee Je Hoon expected, and people keep telling him to give up on Shin Min Ah in the present before things get worse. Although he doesn’t know why, his friends tell him that one day in the future, he disappeared without a word, leaving his wife to mourn her missing husband. 

From episode 1-4 which I have watched, things are going smooth. What a whirlwind of a premiere; my mind is still trying to catch up. I’d been looking forward to Tomorrow With You since time travel is a theme I typically enjoy. It’s that dimensions-crossing quality and the fear of possible doom by one wrong move that keeps me intrigued, and at present (hur), this drama stirs my curiosity.


I love how the story goes, specially the situation which Ma Rin (played by Shin Min Ah) was and how she dealt with the situation. I know that it is easy to ignore what other people said, but that was easy to be said than to be done. But seeing how she stands up by herself was something that amazed me so much because not so many people are able to do that! She is indeed amazing woman. I love Shin Min Ah's character her, despite her foolness in terms of dating.

Though I feel these four episode speed is a little bit faster for marriage, I found out that perhaps this story was intended to show us the true love as how So Joon (played by Lee Je Hoon) will eventually love Ma Rin selflessly. I do think that we needed these four episodes to work our way up to the romance, because no matter how motivated So Joon is by death and preventing future tragedy, we still have to believe in a baseline attraction and connection between them to lead to marriage, and in this episode I saw the sparks and bought into the romance wholesale. The proposal was insane, but then when he comforted her at her lowest point and bothered to read her crazy long email to understand her, and jumped through all those hoops to woo her, his progression from concern to attraction felt natural. The wedding was unnaturally fast, of course, but that’s motivated by something much larger and we need that to launch us into the backwards romance where love comes after wedding vows. As he also said that marriage is actually a life with a longtime friend which I assumed that he got married just to prevent his future death.

I like that Ma Rin has been so guarded until now (because So Joon really seemed like a crazy person most of the time, from her perspective), and the way she explains her lifelong fear of being loved and then abandoned makes perfect sense to me. It also terrifies me because I think she’ll break if she discovers that So Joon didn’t love her when he married her. It seems so unfair that he’s working with all this foreknowledge to get her to trust him and open her heart, so that by the time they’re getting married, she’s hopelessly in love while he’s nowhere near that level of emotional investment. I can’t help but be mad at him for that, even though this is exactly the position he needs to be in for his big comeuppance down the line. It’s just that my heart bleeds for Ma Rin, who is so vulnerable and relatable, and now completely head over heels in love under false pretenses, so I can’t help but feel protective of her.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

A True Meaning of Friendship

I may say that I have friends, not so many, but indeed I have several groups which I can considered to be part of it. Personally, since I was in primary school, I don't like the idea of having a group. It was like putting yourself only closed to several people, while I like talking to everyone and seeking for attention (not to say I don't). But, having a group means that you have to stick with that group all day at school. I end up having very few close friends which we become friend due to a more intimate relationship. It happened that we connect with each other and not in a group situation. It was merely a one-to-one approach.

However, as I get older and entered university life outside my comfort zone, I found out that having a group you can hang out always every weekend is something that I really want to have. While I finally had it, I really feel blessed having several people whom we all connect to and call it as a group. But this doesn't mean that I lose the other friendship which I had built in the past.

The thing that change over the time is that I realize that by entering 25 years old, you can't really count the number of close friends you have. You now classify them by acquaintances, friends, best friends, best friends forever or brother and sister for life.  I realized that quality is far away more important that just a mere number. Besides, you should be able to choose a friend who can supports and gives you good and positive energy vibes. That way, you can grow in a much better way.

While I was pondering much what is the true meaning of friends, I finally got the answers. A good friendship will allow you to look back to yourself and reflect back on what you can improve in your life. A good friend may not always compliment you, but they will surely supports you. It might not be in a good word, sometimes they push you from the back by giving you a slap on the face. But, there is clearly a difference between giving you a slap on the face sometimes or criticize you for everything you did always. So, be clear about it, because keep living in that situation won't even help your mental state and healthy.

I believe that a good friendship won't compare what you have done with what he/she has done. Comparing is not a healthy friendship and jealousy often leads to a negative feelings and bad mental health. A good friendship would support you either in good or bad times. They may give you advice which may not what you expect, but they won't compare, instead wanting you to improve. They may understand your situation, be considerate of you and care of you. Sometimes, when you had a constant fight with you friends, then consider yourself to get out from that friendship, because it is not worth the try. Why are you trying so hard to be friend with someone who doesn't even consider your situation and always pick a fight with you?


Wednesday, February 8, 2017

The Lonely Shining Goblin Final Thought & Review

With the ending of The Lonely Shining Goblin, our fantasy land has just landed and we are all back to the earth. No more fantasy, but at least we get a full and better understanding about God. I really like the idea of life and death in this drama particularly when reincarnation was the basic point of the story. Moreover, we have a better understanding now about goblin and grim reaper (which I always thought like the western culture where the grim reapers wear black cloak) while actually this drama incorporates a more friendly and imaginative idea of super cute grim reapers. I might say this is biased but I always feel the innocence of our Wang Yeo as a grim reaper before he finds out his memories, thinking that grim reaper is a innocent being.

That's a new logic to me that Grim Reaper is someone with heavy sins of killing himself (or we called suicide), and they are punished under the form of not being alive nor death. The biggest punishment is actually to desire a life they had abandoned once. This idea is really cool and I think I might get what our Kim Eun Sook means. While I don't really understand why Goblin was so popular in Korea, but I guess that's because Goblin has such close mythology with korean children when they are small and Goblin is perceived as supernatural character which can bring wealth to human being. It's just me who still need to check out the real story behind the famous Goblin and explore why it is so happening there.

I love the bromance between Lee Dong Wook and Gong Yoo, where forgiveness is a way to be peace and they end up as a good friend. That's so supportive in the matter of what has happened between them in the past. Besides, I also like the story when God was actually featured as a butterfly, without any form which can do anything. Sometimes, the rules there is kinda weird, for Him to play around with fate, but is that what He truly means? Fate is the question he ask and we should be the one looking for the answer? Okay? What does it mean? Does He mean whether there is fate between the character and the answer is something he couldn't even predict, because there are things that are out of His control, and maybe, by having a very sincere pray, one unpredictable door may open?

What captured me the most is how Kim Shin (played by Gong Yoo) went through 30 years waiting for Eun Tak (played by Kim Go Eun) to come back. Sometimes, there will be times he will feel tired or out of the place, but God may come in different forms to push you back on the track. That's so inspiring and I love this quote so much that God's advice and way might be from your friends or even strangers. I know that Eun Tak has three more lives, but what's gonna happen to Shin if Eun Tak completed all the lives? Then, Kim Shin will stay as the lonely goblin. Why God still put him under such punishment? Maybe we could get season 2 then? Wondering curiously.

In my opinion, this show is good enough, to even reach such ratings, with huge-scale budget on the costumes, CGs, background setting, storytelling, casts and storylines. But for me personally, I think I still love Secret Garden the best for Kim Eun Sook's drama. I like this drama much, but it doesn't make me can't wait for the episodes. I think, this drama could have done much much better if the story explores and explains more on how Gong Yoo and Kim Go Eun fell for each other, because I seriously don't see the chemistry. My impression of Eun Tak is still the high school girl, with her childish and a little bit forceful act as a teenager. Though she did best when she cried on the day Kim Shin left. She really did BEST, but I had a hard time in the beginning of the story, as if she is materialistic, wanting to have Kim Shin just because he is rich and can go travel around the world just by opening a door. Is it because she needs him, or she indeed love him? (though we all know that in the end she loves him sincerely, for her to be able to touch the sword.)

Thursday, February 2, 2017

The Lonely Shining Goblin - Episode 16 (Finale) Summary

Under falling cherry blossoms, Shin (played by Gong Yoo) asks Eun Tak (played by Kim Go Eun) to be his bride. She touches his face and says with happy tears in her eyes, “I will. I’ll be this shining man’s first and last bride.” He kisses her on the forehead sweetly.

That night, Eun Tak sits on her rooftop and tells Mom that she’s getting married, and promises to live well. The unni ghost who always follows her around gets misty-eyed at the thought of Eun Tak getting a happy ending, and she and her ghost friend are shocked when Eun Tak turns around and sees them.
The unni ghost materializes right by Eun Tak and grabs her in a hug, wailing that she’s been so lonely without her. She offers to make Eun Tak happier than the goblin and sticks to her side like glue.
Reaper (played by Lee Dong Wook) pours tea for a wealthy man and his driver, and the wealthy man sticks his nose in the air and refuses to drink the same tea as his servant, thinking he deserves special treatment. Reaper makes it clear that everyone gets the same tea in here, and no matter how powerful he was in this life, he can’t take any of that with him when he walks through that door.
Reaper says in a scary voice, “When you go through that door you’ll realize how powerful they are—the sins you’ve committed with your eyes, your mouth, your hands and feet, your heart. And what floor of hell they’ll drag you down to.” 
Shin waits for Eun Tak to get done with work, and Class Prez happens to walk right past him at the station. He sees a glimpse of her future, where she asks Eun Tak to go on another blind date. Eun Tak says no to the chef, but Class Prez says this time it’s one of her clients—he’s a chaebol, he’s handsome, and he’s young to boot. Is it Deok Hwa?
Shin scowls and mutters to himself, “Blind date?” Ha, I was hoping jealous goblin would make an appearance. Petty revenge is in order, so he snaps Class Prez’s purse strap with his goblin powers and sends all her belongings crashing to the ground. She cries over a broken compact, and behind her back, Shin sticks out his tongue like a child. And then he runs away while shouting for Eun Tak. 
He runs right into Eun Tak’s studio and blurts to her entire staff, “I’m Ji Eun Tak PD’s boyfriend. To be more exact, we’re engaged to be married. How’s this weekend for the wedding?” He gives her a wink and everyone’s jaws drop.
Shin takes her to lunch and Eun Tak wonders if someone else is coming, once she sees all the food he’s ordered. Shin says that he called Deok Hwa here to formally introduce her to the family.
Deok Hwa (played by Yook Sung Jae) walks in and takes one scan of the situation before reaching the obvious conclusion, but Shin surprises both of them by just announcing that they’re getting married. He asks if she prefers Saturday or Sunday, and Eun Tak asks why he keeps insisting on getting married this weekend.

“So that you won’t go on blind dates!” he says, as if that makes sense. Shin especially doesn’t want her going on blind dates with young attractive chaebols, and Deok Hwa points out that he’s really the only person in the whole country who meets all three criteria. He hands Eun Tak his business card, and she’s shocked to see that he’s a team leader now.
When she tells Deok Hwa her name, he recognizes it from the old letter that got sent to the old chicken shop. She calls him oppa like she used to and says there’s a lot he doesn’t know, as usual. Deok Hwa wonders if she knows what his uncle is, and she cuts him off to say that everyone knows a goblin or two, and he gapes.

He gets the feeling that everyone knows something he doesn’t, but Shin just puts food on his spoon and tells Deok Hwa that he’ll know once he’s grown up. Eun Tak wants food on her spoon too, and Shin mutters for her to go ahead and try going on a blind date. She counters that she’s going to be a married woman soon, and Shin grins to himself, thinking, She said married woman.
Deok Hwa tells CEO Kim about Shin getting married, and says he plans to marry first and have lots of kids. CEO Kim is happy to hear it, though he points out that marriage isn’t something he can do alone. Deok Hwa: “I have lots of women!” CEO Kim: “Yes, that’s the problem.” Deok Hwa’s reaction is hilarious, like he’d never considered that before.

CEO Kim asks if he’s ever met someone who makes his heart race just to think of her, who makes him cry when he misses her, someone he’d be willing to die for. Deok Hwa says no, and asks if CEO Kim has any plans to marry. CEO Kim laughs and says he doesn’t, because he’s already married with three kids. Deok Hwa is shocked and CEO Kim points out that he’s never asked until now, and that Deok Hwa still has no interest in other people and the world around him.

“So I’m waiting for your questions. The questions of a true adult—about the world, about the happiness and sadness of those around you,” CEO Kim says. Deok Hwa smiles and thanks him sincerely, and asks him to wait just a little longer: “I’ll work hard at growing up.” Aww. They clink coffee cups and smile.

On their way out after lunch, Eun Tak erupts at Shin for outing them all over the place without her consent, but he’s too busy being a paranoid backseat driver, acting like she’s trying to kill him. She asks where he keeps directing her to, but he doesn’t answer.
Cut to: Eun Tak in a wedding dress. The curtain opens in the dressing room and Shin is waiting on the other side in a tux. His mouth hangs open when he lifts his head to look at her, and he murmurs in disbelief, “You look so pretty.” 
She laughs and says he looks handsome too, and he tosses back that she ought to be used to it by now. She suggests getting married with freshly drawn water like in olden times. Eun Tak goes PPL shopping for a wedding gift and leaves a watch on Shin’s desk with a letter. She writes, “All of the roads we’ll walk together, all of the sights we’ll see together, all of the questions and answers we’ll share shyly, excitedly—in all of those moments, I love you. Your bride.”
At work, Eun Tak’s head writer says they got a love letter sent in from a listener, and she starts to read it. It’s Sunny’s goodbye letter that we saw her write, and right away Eun Tak recognizes who wrote it. She goes running out in the middle of the live broadcast, and just tells them to read the letter on the air. As soon as it gets read by the DJ, Shin swerves his car and starts speeding, and Reaper runs out of the house.
Eun Tak rushes home and discovers that Sunny has sold the whole building to a new landlord, and she’s already gone. There’s a letter in her mailbox, in which Sunny tells her not to cry, and that she hopes she was just a little bit of comfort to Eun Tak. Sunny asks her to take care of her stubborn brother, and to live a long and happy life together.
Shin arrives and Eun Tak tells him tearfully that Sunny remembered all this time, all on her own, and took care of her when she couldn’t remember anything. She asks why Sunny would leave, and Shin says it’s because she couldn’t forgive Reaper, so she chose not to see him again in this lifetime: “Because there is no greater punishment for him.”
Sunny (played by Yoo In Na) stands on the pedestrian bridge one last time with her bags packed, and says she’ll count 50 people and go. She counts the people who pass her one by one, until she reaches 49…Behind her, Reaper appears and starts counting as he cries, “One, two…” She turns to him with tears in her eyes and says that she won’t send word to him: “We won’t see each other again in this lifetime.” He nods, understanding what she means.

She smiles and asks if she can hug him one last time, and he pulls her into his arms. They cry as they embrace, and Reaper narrates, “And like that, we sought farewell in this lifetime.” But then he adds that it wasn’t until much later when he heard news of her.
In the wake of their parting, Reaper is a sobbing mess, crying endlessly in his room while clutching the scroll painting of his queen. Shin adorably makes him veggies and fruit and points out that the apples are bunny rabbits, just the way Reaper makes them when he’s trying to cheer other people up. That is just the cutest thing.
Reaper cries that Sunny left, and that till the end, she was good at leaving. He returns the portrait to Shin, saying that he should’ve returned it right away. But Shin says it was never his to begin with: “It was your regret, and your sin, and your longing.”
Shin thinks it’s right that Reaper takes it, and Reaper looks up at him with puppy eyes and asks if he can really keep it. Shin: “Yes, as long as you eat this.” Shin thanks him for keeping the candles lit at the temple for the last nine years while he was gone, and Reaper says he’s trying to face his sins head-on. Shin thinks it’d be nice if someone said to them: “That’s enough. You’ve done enough.”
Reaper meets with the reaper who was a court lady in Goryeo, and he shares a secret with her—that grim reapers are people who took their own lives. That’s the big sin they’ve committed, and he asks why she thinks that their punishment is to be neither living nor dead, and to usher countless people in death. He points out that they have no names and no memories, but they need homes to live in and food to eat. He says he was searching for answers, when one day it occurred to him: “That the things we’d given up—our names, the lives we threw away—were the very things I began to want. That when we long for life desperately, our punishment may be over.”
Reaper says he knows why she avoids him, and tells her that he’s sorry for borrowing her hands in choosing death. He admits his regret, and asks for her forgiveness with a solemn bow. He tells her to forget the past and guide souls well, and hopes that she’ll forgive herself someday: “What god would want is for us to forgive ourselves and discover an ardent desire for life.” She bursts into tears at his words.