Due to life, this blog has been horribly neglected with postings. We are actually very busy doing video and blog show reviews for Dramafever but I just never remember to post here. So, I started a facebook page so that it will be easier to share the crazy thing we enjoy and laugh at. Take the link and like us.
https://www.facebook.com/asthekimchiturns/
Also, here is the Pinterest board where I put all the video drama club episodes Dramafever Video Drama Club
have fun and come join us!
Taleena and I give our top picks for a must watch drama of 2015
When I first heard that Vixx was making its first sub unit, I was so excited. The teasers wetted our appetite and built anticipation. When LR released Beautiful Liar it was beautiful and haunting and I just loved it.
Continue reading Beautiful Liar and the bipolar nature of breaking up
So much is going on!!
After a year of volunteer recapping for Dramafever, I was able to apply to join their news team in December. The last 3 months have been a whirlwind and beyond awesome. This blog has experienced serious neglect because both Taleena and I are working for DF news.
We are both still recapping shows for DF but we’re also producing news articles. Both of us are enjoying ourselves immensely. I love being able to tell people that I get paid to write about my hobby. The look of jealousy on their faces is a balm after having lost my previous career and struggling so long to find something my new circumstances will allow me to do.
I love it. I can’t believe I get paid to do this. Make sure to look at our articles, as there are bonuses for individual views. We’ll try to remember to post them here. lol
Also, our current Drama Club recaps can be found on the recaps page. We are currently reviewing Blood, Kill Me Heal Me, Dear Mom and Hyde, Jekyll and Me
Its been a crazy week in Kdrama land. The fall season shows have gotten started and life is getting crazy for Taleena and I. I’ve joined her on Modern Farmer’s DC and also started the Mr. Baek DC. Between us that makes 6 drama clubs we are doing weekly. That’s ten DC articles a week, not counting Taleena’s weekly articles with DF. You can find the links to the newest DC episodes on our Recaps and Reviews page.
Mr Baek is the newest to start and the first two episodes had me laughing so much. I’m not sure how they got 5 minutes of nudity past the censors, but if you are squeamish about that sort of thing, I say skip the start of episode 2. lol Lots of comedy and humor in this show. These duck lips have made an impression. *chuckles*
Modern Farmer showed us both care and comedy. Nobody can tease us more mercilessly than our friends. lol Also, I want to know more about Kang Hyuk story. Just what happened to him 8 years ago?
Tomorrow’s Cantabile continues to take us on an emotional ride between joy and pain. Park Bo Gum stole our breath with his heart stopping smiles. Nae il and Yoo Jin teach us that music can be a more intense love language than any kiss or hug. But has Yoo Jin just betrayed Nae il?
Say I Do Again is half way through and best friends are proving to be more twisted and psycho than any enemy. Can Xin Kui and Zhen Yang find a way to save Dun Hua , Mars and their own hearts?
Greatest Marriage is driving us all crazy. These characters need a lesson in being valid human beings.
High School Love On is providing more teen angst than you can shake a stick at.
If you haven’t started watching Pride and Prejudice you are missing out. The first 4 episodes have been outstanding. Its an excellent crime drama and we’ve just found out that our Male Lead is involved in the death of our Female lead’s little brother. Ooooh boy. I just might have to start a review of this one on my website.
As a singer, I appreciate songwriters. While anyone can make a song, I hum all sorts of things, crafting a good song that others will actually want to listen to is not so easy. Songs often carry a musical signature that identifies the author of the song. Everyone knows a John Williams piece when they hear it. Taylor Swift also has a sound you can’t miss. Madonna and Micheal Jackson also have signature sounds. As I become more familiar with Kpop, I’m starting to hear those similarities as well. Some are more glaring then others. The idea of this post started when I heard Speed’s new tune, Don’t Tease Me produced by Shinsadong Tiger.
When I heard, I loved it. I loved the beat and the tone of the song. However there was something very familiar about this song. I couldn’t place it but I was getting flashes of something else and it took me a few hours to place it. I finally had a memory flash strong enough to remember that the chorus sounded strongly like a part in Block B’s NalinA sung specifically by P.O. Take a listen and see if you can hear it. Start the video at 1:00.
I knew Speed wasn’t copying their sound so that could only mean the songwriter/producer had to be the same. While I couldn’t find anything concrete that said Tiger worked on both, if you pay attention to the first minute of the Block B video, you’ll see one of the “team” names is “team tiger”. Between that and the similarities of the songs, I’m going on a limb to say its the same guy.
Songwriters will let many groups use their music, and that’s great for them. Just watch out when the songs sound the same. I’ve already seen a few comments where people were talking about copycat sounds and that’s not the groups fault nor the songwriters fault. Just something to keep in mind.
As a bonus, I’m including a link to the stunt practice Speed took part in so they could do the more amazing stunts in this dance. These kids have some skills.
I have a thing for blue eyes. I can’t help it. I see them and I quiver. So my liking of Asian flower boys has always been a bit of a dichotomy because I don’t get all that excited by dark eyes and hair. But, pair dark hair with blue eyes and I’m melting like butter on a hot griddle.
HOWEVER… Super Junior released a song in December called Blue World. I don’t know how I missed this one till now, but its a fun video full of my favorite color splashed all over the place. Nice song, good beat, danceable. However, those little stinkers in editing took that dark vibrant shade of blue and flashed it through their eyes. *Whimper*
My favorite member Kyuhyun with blue eyes. This is mean torture for this Ajumma. This boy was already beautiful to begin with. *sigh*
If you also like blue eyes, there is an artist who photoshopped Kpop Idols, both sexes, with blue eyes and those pictures were shared by another on Pinterest.
Here’s Super Junior’s Blue World
I was watching a new video today. Key from Shinee and WooHyun from Infinate collaborated on a new mini album called Toheart. Since I love both groups, I happily clicked to watch the first video from the album. It didn’t take me long to realize…… wow, I’m so not the targeted age group. ROFL!
This adorable video is clearly aimed at the teen crowd. As a DJ, I’d play this in any junior high/middle school dance. I really liked the 1950’s feel to the sets and wardrobe. There was such an innocence to this whole video that I even commented on youtube: “Are they even old enough to shave? ”
This video however, did remind me that being older, I don’t necessarily respond to certain videos the way the target audience is expected to respond because, after all, I’m not the target audience. I’ll give you a few examples of this.
Super Junior “Sexy Free and Single”
Undoubtedly Super Junior is comprised of some seriously handsome young men. Their songs tend to be aimed at the High School/College age group. And while I love the eye candy and excellent dancing afforded in this video, as a single woman my age, I hear that chorus and I think, “Jerk! Thanks for the warning!”. *chuckles* The lyrics themselves are are on the clean side, which is what I love about kpop, but the message of the chorus to my jaded dating ears is “Its all about me and let me use you for the night”. While a 20 year old girl might be open to these lines just because the guy is cute, not so much for me since I know these type of guys aren’t worth my time.
The next example is Gdragon’s Michigo.
This song has no redeeming quality whatsoever. My DJ response is “meh”. Its a club song, and not even a very clever club song. I’ll talk about the lyrics in just a moment. Every artist has two types of songs. There is the music they make when they are using all their creativity, and then there are those songs you just do because you know they are going to make money. This song is a cheap example of this. This song probably took Gdragon all of an hour to think up and I’m probably being generous at that.
Now to the lyrics and video content…. This is a very imaginative video. All of Gdragon’s videos are. However, the first time I saw this I couldn’t understand why there were so many groin innuendos in it. And not even sexy groin innuendos, just blatant, in your face, look at my size innuendos. Pink elephant between his legs, big hands and feet, dancing in a urinal, getting spanked by mom and dad, getting worked over by the embarrassed doctor….ehem. Yeah… Curious, I then went and looked up the lyrics. Oh….its about a guy wanting his willie jerked all night long. Lovely. If I was 20 years old, I would have probably swooned and thought how beautiful and sexy Gdragon is, because lets face it, the boy has a very pretty face. Being twice that age… *evil chuckles* I had a very different response. I watched the video again and started laughing. There is only one question I have after watching this video….. who got laughed at? This is a male compensation video if there EVER was one. Now, I’m not saying that Gdragon would have been the one laughed at (giving the idol the benefit of the doubt) …. but clearly somebody on that production team was feeling insecure. lol
Being a Kpop fan is fun. Fun music, fun videos, the artists themselves are usually humble and nice, which is a nice switch from the blantant meglomania of some american artists. But it also comes with a lot of humor because I’m not a teenager and so I’m going to respond a little differently on occasion then what is intended.
I will end this post with my favorite Kpop song that is all eye candy, good music and excellent dancing.
I had a lot of fun this last week introducing a friend of mine to Kdramas. He’s a manly sort of guy, likes his southern rock, works as a welder, not the sort you’d think would at first want to even watch a show with pretty men in it. lol
However, when I found out that he liked anime, I realized, I had an opening. Considering his age, close to mine, and his manly man type of nature, I suggested that he might really like a show called Gentleman’s Dignity.
Why was this my first suggestion?
The easy answer is that this is a clever drama that caters to those of us who count as Gen X’ers. This drama is also told from the perspectives of the 4 men. Yes, you get some of what the ladies are going through too, but only in regards to how it impacts the men.
I love this drama. Its one of my all time favorites. The little vignettes before each episode are mostly about things that are quirks for men, but they are all age related. For a woman our age, we all know men like these four and I laughed and laughed. When they made fun of things that pertained to anyone our age, I laughed even harder. When the men hurt, you hurt with them, this was also true for my male friend.
He liked the different female characters when they were tough and when they were cute. He really identified with Jang Dong Gun’s character Do Jin. He liked that he was a take charge type of character that knew what he liked, what he wanted and kept working towards it. The charcter of Yi Soo, Do Jin’s love interest, quickly got on my friend’s nerves, ( “He should drop her and keep walking) but he still kept watching. He liked that Do Jin was an alpha male type of character and he really identified with him when Colin shows up to complicate the story. When Do Jin cried at the idea of losing Yi Soo my friend’s response was , “Oh sh*t, he’s crying!”.
He also liked the character of Kim Dong Hyeob played by Kim Woo Bin. He starts off as a trouble maker, but then you find out that he’s in a tough situation just trying to do his best and you can’t help but respect the kid.
What it all boils down to is finding something that peaks your guys interest. I went for an age related comedy, you might have a guy who likes action more, so maybe City Hunter or Iris or Two Weeks might be a good suggestion. If nothing else, have him try Gentleman’s Dignity and see if he likes it.
I leave you with the text I got after he finished it:
“I liked it. As Korean shows..a bit too dramatic and not the right kind of communication but all in all, I really enjoyed it. They love American culture that is for sure. I would love to dress like those guys in some case..I cant wear turquoise or white pants tho.”
ROFL!!
Sometimes I am watching a K-Drama and I just can’t help but yell at the screen, “What are you doing! You clearly should choose the second banana!” K-Dramas thrive on making their leads cry with broken hearts and the aching possibility that someone else may steal away the loves of their lives. If the lead hero is not being driven away by evil relatives or suffering from a brain tumor, a second banana is there to make the lead work to secure his love. Sometimes, though, the main lead is not right for the heroine. Why do you choose the young pretty boy over the hunkalicious CEO who will give you a giant rock? Why aren’t you choosing the sweet playboy who is reforming his ways for you? Weh? WEH? WEH?! Aigoo.
Sometimes you love the second banana AND the lead. If second bananas are REALLY lucky there is another person calling them “Oppa” at the end of the series. Sometimes though, they are left crying sadly until they are cast as lead banana in your next drama. Here are six supporting leads we were hoping had a shot at the girl. You can’t help but cheer them on, even though they are trying to rival Pretty Lee Min Ho:
1. Yun Ji Hu in Boys Over Flowers.
“One will be your soul mate, the other your husband.” Never has a fortune teller had more chilling words for a heroine. Poor, lucky Jan Di she got Ji Hu and Pretty Lee Min Ho, I mean, Jun Pyo.
2. Lee Joon Gi as Seo Jung Woo in My Girl. 
This second banana made all the right moves. He used his words. He led her to his many stepped thinking spot. He played his hand as well as he could, but there is just no beating your good looking cousin with dibs and a snow globe.
3. Kang Ha-Nuel as Jung Sun Woo in Monstar.
He’s handsome, rich, smart, carries a torch for Min Se-Yi for years, and plays cello so smooth and fine I had to go take lessons. Maybe if I play cello too he’ll come duet Nocturne with me. Luckily a certain gangster’s daughter with a rocking set of pipes will make him some sweet fashions and soothe his sad heart.
4. It’s an embarrassment of riches for Park Min Young in Sungkyunkwan Scandal. While I don’t fault her for choosing charismatic Park Yoo Chun (with a beard – mrrrrow!), a corner of my heart cheered on Song Joong Ki’s mischievous smile. 
5. Lee Tae Seong as Bong Joon Gu in Playful Kiss.
Oh Ha Ni should be commended for her tenacity but Joon Gu would have cooked delicious noodles for you adoringly forever and he got along fantastically with your dad. I wanted Joon Gu’s noodle dream to have been realized.
6. Ryu Jin as Ji Seong Il in Baby Faced Beauty.
A handsome, rich guy, who shares your interests, whose little girl loves you, whose sister is a good friend – and you pick the guy who is 7 years younger than you with a overbearing dad? A guy moreover who is pressured into proposing because he is stubborn? Daniel Choi was cute and endearing as the lead here, but sign me up for Mr. Ji!
My K Drama friends tell me I have left out Kim Woo Bin as Choi Young-Do in the Heirs, but I think we all agree he needs to be saved for our favorite bad boy list.
