Asian Insanity

Chilling Romance

Interesting romantic comedy with a scary twist… 

Synopsis: Ever since she was young, Yeo-ri, has had the unnatural ability to see ghosts, and when they do appear, usually when she has company, unexpected things occur to the people around her. Yeo-ri chooses to isolate herself from the outside world but is approached by a street magician named Jo-goo, who offers her a job in his show. One year passes, and Yeo-ri ends up playing a part in the magician’s horror-themed act, in which she plays a ghost in a closet. Every day, Jo-goo’s staff successfully close the show and invite Yeo-ri for drinks, but she always rejects their offer. She is fully aware what will happen if she gets close to people. When eventually Yeo-ri opens up to Jo-goo about her tragic and lonely life, things start to change for the both of them. Can Jo-Goo help her find a way out? Or will he be chased away by the ghosts like all of the other people in Yeo-ri’s life?

Now.. the synopsis isnt quite accurate. The ghosts often show up when she is by herself. Tormenting her quite often as they are quite scary. Yeo-ri started seeing ghosts after an accident where the bus she was in with her class ran over a bridge into water, and she almost drowned. 

The synopsis calls it an unnatural ability for her to have this ability, yet, the people around her seem to be able to see the ghosts just fine…? Yea… that made me extremely confused. But the premise is cool, the ghosts who torment her, need her help, they need her assistant to pass over.

Anyway, despite her constant refusal at joining her coworkers for dinner she accepts once and her boss, Jo-Goo becomes concerned about her once she drinks 30 bottles of soju and ends up drunk… and this is where the fun begins.

He starts getting closer to her and even sets her up with one of his friends… who even tho he was an ex-marine, still cant handle the ghosts even tho just 5 minutes before says he can and breaks her heart. This was very short lived and very sad imo. I can understand, but the man had no balls at all… all talk and no action.

The closer Jo-Goo gets to Yeo-ri the more he falls for her. I find this odd and very predictible, and a bit psychotic because event tho he has a near death experience because of Yeo-ri (and the reason she is tormented by her BF from school) he still has fallen for her and wants to be with her. But honestly, thats what makes this movie so endearing. 

I will mention this tho. While Jo-Goo is getting closer to Yeo-ri, he has a GF, who happens to be in France at the time. When she returns, she trusts that nothing has happened between them, yet, and realizes that they are no longer in love. o_o Thats it. End of GF. This. Never. Happens. I guess it was the easiest way to get rid of the GF, but still…. completely unrealistic.

I was never bored watching this, and highly recommend it. Although, if you get scared easily, do be weary. I was not expecting the ghosts to be as frightening as they were and had to close my eyes sometimes. Im not a scaredy cat, not by a long shot, but I was watching this at nite, and I tend to get nitemares easily… TT

Now, the ending had me laughing my ass off when Pil Dong is talking to the ghost of Yeo-ri’s friend from school…. really that guy is hilarious to begin with in some of the other dramas ive seen him in…. but really. icant.

Score: 8

Shut Up Flower Boy Band

oh.my.ffffff.gawd. the music in this drama. asdfjksd;fjk;lfgj;kfgj;s!

Synopsis: Eye Candy is a six member underground rock band led by Byung Hee. When the group transfers into the prestigious Jungsang High School, they find their rival, Strawberry Fields. This is a story about the two rock bands and how they deal with friendship, relationships, and their passion for music.

hmm… accurate synopsis. 

Now, I cannot express my love for this drama. My love for the music produced in this drama. I personally have very few grips and they only come at the end. 

Starting out you have “Eye Candy”, an underground group with a bit of a following that are a bit rough around the edges. That are transfered into a high and mighty school because their current school is shutting down. 

Once there they meet some trouble with the popular band at school “Strawberry Fields” and as a result, the leader of “Eye Candy”, Byung Hee, who was the backbone of the group… is killed. Now…. I dont really have a problem with this persayyyyyy…. I mean I understand it considering how the story goes after Byung Hee is killed… But really? The boy is brilliant and an amusing anecdote to the drama… and hes killed in like the first couple episodes… TT

Now even though Byung Hee is killed and its thoroughly devastating to the group, Ji Hyuk presses the group on to compete in a concert battle in Byung Hee’s honor. Even though it doesnt go as planned, it still is beneficial for them.

I havent even touched on Soo Ah yet… Soo Ah is the girl Byung Hee picked as his muse as soon as the group transferred to the preppy school. Forever followed by the leader of “Strawberry Fields”, Seung Hoon… who she thinks of as only a friend. But even before Byung Hee dies, you can see the connection starting to form between Ji Hyuk and Soo Ah. Sadly, their relationship starts to cause Ji Hyuk some trouble when he comes under the spot light after the record deal, and eventually both of them reluctantly part ways …

I have to say that, I enjoyed watching the ups and downs of their relationship and was never annoyed by their interactions. 

I want a lollipop…. >.< !!!

The band members were played out very well… I did get some what annoyed with Ha Jin a couple times, but really that was his personality. I really enjoyed watching Myung Soo play Hyun Soo in this drama. His interactions with Ye Rim were fun to watch. Im glad she won him over in the end… lol

Now to my grips. At the end of the drama, they sped the drama up in the last episode and Ji Hyuk is now a solo artist. I was a little irked at the type of music they chose for him to play as a solo artist. The music he created with “Eye Candy”, even the second song “Wake Up” that he created on his own, since the first single was Byung Hee’s, was utterly brilliant, and is my absolute favorite… now when I heard his solo single, I was kind of shocked and kind of upset. I guess they wanted to portray Ji Hyuk as wanting to create music that was entirely different from “Eye Candy”… but… I dont think that that was necessary. /shrug. Thats my really my only issue with the drama… other than that… I absolutely loved it.

Score: 9 

My immediate advice… the soundtrack for this drama…listen to it. now.

Dream High 2

sequel to Dream High and…. in my opinion, Im not sure it lived up to the original. 

Synopsis: This Drama will deal with new students instead of the first batch student and follows idol stars who are about to have nervous breakdowns and troubled students from Kirin High School of Art.

Lame synopsis. I didnt want to have to go through the plot… but I guess I now have to.

Dream High 2 starts 2 years later back at the school, which has now turned into some sort of dump. The classes are all horrible, the teachers cant teach, the students are all lacking… Enter Haesung, a girl who wants to be a singer yet cant sing. 

The swindling yankee from Dream High 1 is now a big Entertainment CEO, and has 2 groups under his belt, I:dn and Hershe. Due to the Korean laws of the idols needing to be in school, the CEO takes over the school and has the idols move into the dorms, pushing some of the other kids out, and forcing the idols to compete against the kids of the school for a Super Idol position. 

Am I making sense? I hope so, cause this plot is severely botched and shortened.

Anyway…. that being said… the idols and the kids from the school also known as “B class” are forced to compete against each other and that is pretty much the entire show. Intermingled with Idol scandals and relationships and striving for their dreams. 

Now Ill get into my issues. 

The pendant. They added it in as just something that got passed around. It had no explanation. It seemed that maybe they were expecting everyone would have watched the first Dream High and understood the importance of the pendant. It felt like it had no real importance, and kinda pissed me off when I saw it. Just take it out of the drama if you arent going to make it an important part.

Haesung. You have a girl who dreams to be a singer, but cant sing. Valid character. She is a major fan of JB… and then they end up liking each other an dating later on in the drama. She tends to let people walk all over her and doesnt have a full grasp of her surroundings… At least this is how I saw her character. Yet, she finally had a firm grasp 8 years later…. It was hard to see that within 8 years her and JB had nothing… as much as they liked each other at the school and as much as they went through… nothing.

JB. The idol with a plain girl syndrome who cant let go of the girl he used to like. He seemed to still have feelings for Rian, yet was interested in Haesung. The back and forth was frustrating. He was willing to throw everything away for Haesung. Now, the accident, was something I wasnt willing to accept, but I guess it was something they felt needed to be added to the drama to make it different.

Yoojin. The rebellious rocker. G-MINOR! God damn I loved the ending. I want to say  he was my favorite character, maybe because I felt that he was he most put together. He knew where he stood, what he wanted, even tho he didnt understand his feelings for Haesung, and wanted to become an idol so that he would shine in her eyes, and then later realized that that was not what he wanted…. he still felt like a put together character to me. 

Rian. Her character annoyed me the most. Actually, thats not true… she might be tied with Nana. Lazy and comfortable in her place as an idol at first then when things got shaky she panics. She acts like a spoiled brat, and yes, I know this is all her character, But I really couldnt stand watching her. It was literally painful for me. Her attatchment to JB that she couldnt admit until she saw he liked someone else… Someone who only tried when it was going to be taken away from her. 

Nana. Forever stuck in a love triangle and never choosing between them. Really? I have nothing to say to you.

I dont have any complaints about the other characters. Now Ill get into the plot issues. 

I felt that the plot didnt have the same drive. And yes Im going to compare. Just to state in as a starting point you have Dream High 1, a group of students trying to succeed and debut. 

In Dream High 2, you have a group of Idols competing against students who normally might not be able to succeed and debut. And thats pretty much the whole drama. Or at least how I felt. 

Sure you have the love triangle, the idol relationship scandals, the father/daughter issues, the rebellious student, the power hungry CEO, etc etc… But really… the entire drama was pitting Idols against normal students who had dreams of becoming Idols. 

It didnt entice me, or excite me to watch another episode like its predecessor. Unfortunately. 

Now, the time jump at the end of the drama felt like they were rushing to finish it. 8 years? Talk about a random number of years. The entire ending felt disjointed. Especially when they were going to have an audition for the ending and the only normal student who ended up making it was Haesung’s sister??? 

I just have to say that Im pretty disappointed in this drama. Im not sure what I expected, but it wasnt this.

I have one thing to say tho. JYP auditioning to JYP…. was the most brilliant THING EVER!!!…. omfg. I laughed my ass off. srsly.

I want to give this a good score I really do. But I cant.

Score: 5