This drama begins in very romantic scene, an innocent 23-year old girl Woo In (played by Jo Yeo Jung) fulfilling her 10 year promise,  appearing at the school field gathering hoping that everybody remembers the promise that they made with each other. Unfortunately in today’s world, no one appears except her childhood sweetheart Sung Soo (played by hallyu star Kim Jung Hoon).

As the drama goes, both of them going through practically everything, experiencing life and grows together.

Let’s fast forward to 10 years later. What will happen to a relationship after 10 years? Will it turns stale? With each other become bored with each other? Or has love slowly creeping into ones heart?

Nobody knows.

Sung Soo, a movie director, works with a young beautiful actress become close to each other and eventually affection grows between them. When Woo In finds out about this, she asks Sung Soo about his truthful opinion of the young lady. Though wanting to know the truth, Woo In still cannot overcome the actual truth that Sung Soo has started to feel for the young actress. She starts to check on Sung Soo and feel anxious, angry and jealous with slightest suspicion.

The drama takes a slight turn when Woo In’s subordinate Sung Hyun (play by Choi Jin Hyuk) express his love to Woo In. Slowly, Woo In feels that her heart starts to fill with love all over again but somehow this feeling is familiar to her? Isn’t this the same feeling she has gone through with Sung Soo 10 years ago, everything is romantic, exciting and alive again. But then she starts to reminisce those romantic and passionate moments she shared with Sung Soo.

With Woo In’s two female friends Seo Yeon (play by Choi Yeo Jin) and Hyun Joo (Choi Song Hyun) who carries extremely different characters, this story is reflecting today’s love life in the city pretty well. Relationship between people is getting more diverse for man and woman.

There are times where temptations are around, it will only somehow fulfill the romantic moments. Love between two lovers will eventually manifest as friends and family too. And trust between two person is developing over time.

Critic’s Ranking:

The story begins with an 18-year old Ha-roo (played by actress Min Hyo-rin) who aspires to be a great figure female skater and wants to be back in ice skating again. In order to go after her dream, she decided to move to Seoul where her elder stepbrother Shin Hwal (played by actor Lee Jeong-Jae) lives. Due to the painful experience happened 5 years ago, where Shin Hwal lost his father and Ha-roo lost her mother, Shin Hwal does not welcome Ha-roo with an open heart.

With the help of Shin Hwal two best friends cum housemates Hae-yoon (play by Lee Seon-gyoon, from the hallyu hit “Coffee Prince”) and Hyeon-tae, Ha-roo barely manages to stay in Seoul.

Hae-yoon, Hyeon-tae and Shin-Hwal works at the same advertising company but due to a misunderstanding and accusation, three of them left the company one after another to set-up their own company in their living room. Even though there are a lot of obstacles, they start from scratch, instead of the norm tv ads, they turn to paper ads.

To be back as a skater, Ha-roo trains hard to perform the difficult ‘triple axel jump’ skating style. Even though ‘spiral’ is the easiest style for a figure skater like Ha-roo, it is still not easy for her to maintain the style in a prolong period. From this drama you will get to see how hardworking a figure skater has to be in order to be successful.

The love blossom between Ha-roo and Shin Hwal is somehow precious and yet subtle. It is a brother-sister but also the man-woman kind of love. Although, the ending of this drama is not as expected as it should be, it turns out pretty well.

I would say, the ending of this drama is not conclusive enough but somehow you will just like it as it is shown, this is how an 18-year-old should live the dream of her own towards her university life.

Critic’s Ranking:

Five years ago, Kang-jae was just a senior in a university when he met Mi-soo (played by Lee So-yeon) and falls deep in love with her. Without the blessing of the family, they decided to elope together. But at that unfortunate night, Kang-jae did not turn up at the meeting point. The reason is Mi-soo father had appealed to Kang-jae not to take her daughter away. In order not to break his promise with Mi-soo, Kang-jae purposely let himself involve in an accident.

From that day Kang-jae disappeared, Mi-soo live her life like a rebel, drinking until late at night and is thinking of committing suicide every single day. Although she is a daughter of a millionaire but she treasures all her things. When she thought Ki-dong (played by Kim Ji-hun) she stole her bag, she fought it with all her strength.

 As a co-incidence, Ki-dong is found to be the chosen husband for Mi-soo. There are quite a few silly incidences with both of them. With Ki-dong has a long time girlfriend and Mi-soo who is still in love with Kan-jae, both of them are never thought to be together even until the 10^th hour of the drama. Although it appears that Mi-soo and Ki-dong does not belong to each other but on how both of them had cared for each other’s family has already say it all.

Kang-jae who had gone through multiple surgeries since his accident had worked hard to seek Mi-soo’s father blessing in order to be with Mi-soo. To Kang-jae, Mi-soo is his one and only person that he wanted to marry but to his surprise Mi-soo had started to fall in love with Ki-dong.

All the scenes that Kang-jae appears are really emotional, I would say his acting skill is really superb, and how he has brought out the character is really perfect. If you have watch “My Girl” before, the same sympathy you have towards Lee Joon-ki (played by Seo Jeong-woo), you will feel it here or even more.

This drama has a good ending with each of the character finds their own happiness at last. But still, somehow, you will wish that Mi-soo has chosen Kang-jae over Ki-dong. Yes, a small regret here on the ending.

 Critic’s ranking:

For the last one to two years, the storyline on Korean romantic comedy has been revolving around young guys and women. Even before starting to watch this drama, by reading on the synopsis, I knew this is will be an exciting and thrilling drama.

 This drama revolves around a bachelor Jae-hee (Ji Jin-hee as main actor) who had just turned 40, has everything including a home called his own, a prestige career as owner of an architecture firm and of course he is a guy with extremely good taste for fine things. Why, such a man with an excellent background but still remain a bachelor, unbelievable right?

 The issue with Jae-hee, he leads an isolation life, his concept in life is

“he would rather stay at home having a home-cooked steak instead of eating out; rather stay at home during holidays instead of going into crowding places; and after bathing he would not go out”

Well, with these habits he is not the worse guy, right? How about taking care of every single detail at home from a drop of the wine on the table to how the way a towel should hang? Now you get what I meant.  This is a guy with extreme good taste but only lives for himself, I would not consider he is living a selfish life, but the way he handles his things at home I would say it is skeptical, annoying and a pain the ass.

 How would a woman doctor Moon-jeong (played by Uhm Jung-hwa) in her prime almost reaching 40 finds him as a soul mate? Right?

 There are a lot of comedic scenes in the whole drama, although the story line is very different compare to other romantic comedies, there are lacking of touching scenes.

With the existing of a younger woman in her mid-twenties Yoo-jin (played by Kin So-eun) has also bring out the difference of lifestyle and worries for women at different ages.

 Overall, it is a good drama to watch as it brings out the life of successful singles in the city life, having dinner alone; watching dvds at night; asking workmates for dinner and etc and you would get a few good laughs too.

Critics Ranking:

This romantic comedy revolves around a few couple of housewives who tried to work their own husband up the ladder in a company “Queens Food”. For the first few hours in this drama, you will see, in such a bad economy how competitive is for the people who are working in a big corporation and how their wives had put their heart and soul into helping their husband in their career.

The main actress Ji-ae (played by Kim Nam-Joo) was a very renowned gal at her high school days. Doesn’t this sound familiar?  I am sure that every single gal who has watched this movie has gone through this pace of life, where there is this particular gal in school who is famous, a dream gal for the guys and the envy of the gals. Ji-ae is married to Dal-soo (played by Oh Ji-ho) who was then thought will become successful since he was the number one student in Seoul University. However, their life does work out as expected, instead of living a luxury life, Ji-ae has to work to support her family even to the extend of selling her marriage ring.

Things become worse when Dal-soo has to work under Joon-hyuk, a manager in “Queens Food” (played by actor Choi Cheol-ho) who was dumped by Ji-ae 15 years ago in high school. Situation become even nastier, when Bong-soon (played by actress Lee Hye-young) who is the most unpleasant gal with extremely low self-esteem in school end-up to be the wife of Joon-Hyuk. As expected, Bong-soon makes life difficult for Ji-ae.

With the rich and famous loveless couple Queenz Food president Tae-joon (by actor Yoon Sang-hyeon) and wife Eun So-hyun (by actress Seon Woo-seon) comes into picture, the relationship between Ji-ae and Dal-soo turns even bitter.

 Some pretty touching scenes in this drama:

Tae-joon who has everything alomost pleading with Ji-ae in episode 19:

Tae-joon “Really? There is nothing between us?”

Ji-ae “What?”

Tae-joon “For the last few days, I feel like I almost become mad, even breathing has become difficult, this is the first time that I felt without siblings I am very lonely, now my life is very ardous, but looking at you, my breathing has become soothing, my head no longer in pain and I don’t feel lonely anymore, I feel like there is an energy to keep me going, nothing can compare to this.”

Will Ji-ae still stick with her husband Dal-soo then?

 With doubts in Ji-ae’s heart at Dal-soo in the last episode:

“Lately I have been thinking if I have ever love Dal-soo all these while, after thinking very seriously, I hope that  Dal-soo will become successful;  I wish he can earn and bring back a lot of money;  he can sustain a high position in the company, not despised by other people; in a family, all of us can eat and sleep well; I hope that he can be a good parent; he is too warm-hearted, I nag and scold him a lot; is this really love?”

A very typical housewife who hopes for the well-being in a family, right?

There is not much concentration on Oh Ji-ho playing as Dal-soo as a leading actor but with the couple Joon-hyuk and Bong-soon, (both actor Choi Ceheol-ho and actress Lee Hye-young) really brings out the laughter in the audience especially in the last few hours in the drama. I would say the image on actress in So-hyun (by actress Woo-seon) is very pretty while the main actress Kim Nam-Joo who played Ji-ae really dress down a lot in the scenes.

 Overall, I would see that this drama is more suitable for people in their 30s and above.

If you are looking for thrill, unnecessary jealousy then this drama is not for you. This drama is all about marriage and even partnership in a marriage life. 

Critic’s rating:

Do not expect immediate emotional engagement in this drama. But BEWARE because this story will just grow deep rooted into your heart with the pieces of classical music without you knowing it. An unconventional romantic comedy, with full of heart warming scenes.

The story did not begin with the main actor but a lady name Rumi (played by actress Lee Ji-ah) who is working in one of the government department with the dream of becoming a violinist playing in an orchestra. This comes to her with a chance when she was asked to organize such function but she was con and all the sponsored money was gone. So, with her own hand she organize an orchestra with just a retired orchestra clarinet member, a flute student, a cellist housewife and two violinist who plays at the wedding plus a genius trumpet player Gun-woo (played by actor Jang Geun-seok). Of course it is not the best chamber orchestra in the country but how the members persevere of making the whole orchestra works is really heart warming.

The music conductor Kang Ma-ae (played by Kim Myeon-min) is a world rated conductor who is egoistic and strict in nature. He is someone who does not know how to express his emotion in a positive way and a loner. Although he doesn’t have the best character but deep down he is a sensitive and warm-hearted person.

His principle of being a top conductor “the conductor has to understand how the feeling of the composer is when the music was written no matter if the person is Beethoven or Mozart”.

You are right, this drama is all about classical music, well, classical is usually found bored but with the genius Ma-ae conducting the orchestra you will, I will say definitely will taste the difference in it. Just watch and listen you will never have another chance to watch a conductor that is so handsome in an orchestra. You will certainly love him when he is on stage conducting especially on the piece “Beethoven 9^th Symphony-Ode to Joy”.

This is not a drama that you would rush to finish in a few days because the urges to sit back and listen to the orchestra is the add-on plus in this drama.

Famous quotes from this drama:

Rumi “Teacher, there must be something great about me else I will not be born in this world.”

Ma-ae “Why haven’t you realized that everything had already come to an end for you and your orchestra?”

Gun-woo “Why is it the end? We have just started, if we continue to walk towards the path there shall be be roads ahead.”

Ma-ae “Then you may need to fail for 99 times before you reach the destiny”

Gun-woo “We are just following your path”

This is how the teacher-student relationship between Ma-ae and Gun-woo.

This drama had brought in other perspective in orchestra like money, power and politics but overall I would say it is a drama that brought classical music to another level by making this drama unique all the way.

Critic’s Ranking:

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Beethoven Virus (MBC TV Drama)

If you are a “Kim Sam Soon” fans, you will notice immediately that there are two major changes on Seon-Ah, first she has slim down a lot and she came back with  a very professional look.

This round Seon-Ah is Sin Mi-Rae, who has been working as a secretary for 9 years. While awating for the opportunity to be promoted she is holding a tiny role and doing odds job like brewing coffee for the rest of the team. Does this sound familiar?

As always be assured she is as hardworking as before in the role of “My name is Kim Sam Soon”. With all the hard work and thanks to the available apportunity, she is then promoted. Surprise to many people she is elected as the mayor of the small town she is living. Of course, she will not have done it without Jo-Gook help (played by Cha Seung-Won) the youngest state congressman. There is where the relationship flowers.

Jo-Gook who is cold and a strategist has never thought that he will love the so-so lady Mi-Rae. He was only helping Mi-Rae to the Mayor position in order to control her as a puppet with the pupose of having an un-lawful factory built in the town.

Before watching this drama, viewers should watch “My name is Kim Sam Soon” first or else you will miss some jokes in this drama. For example, Mi-rae  mentions that her ex-boyfriend looks like Hyeon Bin, isn’t this sound familiar? You can expect some similarity in both Sam Soon and Mi-rae characters. Seon-ah acting skill  is definitely better than the last round and Jo-Gook who is mature and handsome enough to help Mi-Rae overcoming a lot of dificulties from behind has made them a compatible good-looking couple all together.

All time couple with a guy helping a gal on her career and growing to lover her character as well. You can expect lots of laughter and some heartfelt tears in this drama, you won’t be dissapointed. Happy watching!

Critic’s Ranking:

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The City Hall (SBS TV Drama)

 This is not the first time that the super famous Japanese comic book had turned into a foreign drama. Even though there are differences but this Korean series had successfully made F4 looks extremely rich especially in the character of Joon-pyo (stars by Lee Min-ho) the leading actor in this drama where in one of the scene Joon-pyo arrives at school by helicopter, this must be very eye capturing compare to other foreign series.

Yes, this is a Cinderalla beautiful story where an ordinary girl like Jan-di (Goo Hye-seon as the leading actress) admitted to a rich and famous school and gets entangled with the famous F4 ended up being in love first with Ji-hoo (played by Kim Hyun-jeong) and then Joon-pyo the richest and idol of the school. Of course we are not talking about the school basketball nor baseball leader here, what we are looking here is the heir of the Korean multi-billionaire from the gigantic “Shen Wa” while Jan-di is just the only daughter of a small laundry shop owner. This drama shows a big contrast between the rich and the ordinary folk but this drama also brings out the warmth of Jan-di family.

This romantic drama really start with a big bang, you can expect some waves and few HIGHs especially in the first few episodes when the relationship between Jan-di and Jun-pyo has just begin. The second last part are really heart wrenching with the separation of the two follows by the sincere Ji-hoo who always stands by Ji-dan side when she is down. Relationship between Ji-dan and Ji-hoo who turns from potential boy-girl relationship to friends must have tears millions who likes Ji-hoo.

 Overall, the happy scenes are too few to be true considering of the characters of Joon-pyo and Jan-di are pretty comedic sometimes but probably this is the way to capture the emotional side of the audience as well.

Critic’s Ranking:

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Boys Over Flowers (KBS TV Drama)

Isn’t it too ridiculous for a 33 yr-old dating a 24 yr old guy? Well, before watching this, you will never believe that such relationship will work. For your info, we are not bias we just don’t feel it is right, WAIT, don’t think of any comment first, read about this first.

Frankly, the 33 yr old Byeong-Hee also does not believe herself either, when she found herself falling in love with her best friend younger brother Cheol-Su. How can a woman her age willing to give up a good potential boyfriend who has a car, an apartment and a good career like Hee-Myeong and choose the one who is 9-years younger Cheol-Su who lives in the basement of her sister?

Yes it is a big contrast, a huge contrast here, but you will find yourself grow to love Cheol-Su more and more in each episode. Trust me! After we finish watch this we knew another Hallyu STAR is born.

Cheol-Su though is young but he is a very confident young man with very good mechanic skills. He has the charm with the x-factor (you will get what I mean after you watch this drama). Well, you can imagine how bold is he when he tries to woo Byeong-Hee and how he tries to convince her that their relationship will work. Of all the dramas till today we have watched, this is the character we like most because he knows who he loves right from the very beginning and keep working hard to win the woman of his dream overcoming the opinions of others and barriers.

As for Byeong-Hee, when you are a single woman with a so-so career and you meet the first man who has everything like Hee-Myeong, how can she let go? Of course she thought that she was in love with him, a guy who has everything with the right age. But Cheol-Su ask her to listen to her heart just for once. (This is the most beautiful phrase). How many gals out there really listen to their hearts nowadays? Love usually comes with career, house and etc.

This is one of the romantic story that didn’t involve money, power and prestige, it is just a simple pure love story that many envys. Just indulge in this drama and you will know what I mean.
This is also a good drama to remind all that love is for the heart not the mind.

Critic’s Ranking:

Is this another memory loss typical Korean Drama? You would have expect lots of tears in this drama. Wrong! Why?

Because this is not just another romantic comedy.

In this story, it will be the opposites, where the lady is filthy rich, we are talking about super rich here, just the first few scenes you will feel how rich is Anna Jo.

Anna Jo, has everything. Well ordinary right? But, she is a far from adorable lady. Why? Because she is a proud, unruly and unbearable person. Though after the drama, I find that she is actually an exquisite lady but she is just too demanding, from her workers to her only family, her husband.

So when she went missing in a yacht trip, her husband somehow happy that he is finally free from her grip. Though her husband feels guilty about his own feeling but when he thinks about how bad she treat him, he is free of all guilt.

After missing and losing her memory Anna met her enemy Cheol Su. Cheol Su was mistaken as a freak and was beaten by Anna before. He wanted revenge so he takes Anna home and treat her like a maid.

As usual in all drama, he falls in love with Anna. Anna changes a lot during the time she stays with Cheol Su, she learns to cook (great funny scene here watching her cooking), clean the house (fantastic way of putting things away here) and also to maintain the whole household for Cheol Su and his nephews.

The touching part is where she starts to change and fall for Cheol Su who is just an ordinary guy with a very small construction business and treats every cents as his life. The stingy Cheol Su starts to spend for Anna unknowingly that he himself has fallen for her.

It has a nice ending but really breaks my heart when Cheol Su starts to miss Anna. The couch that she had slept before, the place where she had hid her money, the dog that she used to walk, all small gestures, he remembers clearly. This is really a very heartbreaking scene.
 
Well, it is pretty true that people do change for their loved ones, after watching this drama it makes me believe that love conquers all.

Critic’s Ranking: