My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (Korean Drama)

Cha Dae-Woong is a normal college student with ambitions of becoming a rising action star. Accidentally one day he releases a gumiho, which is a legendary fox with nine tails who was selaed inside a painting by the Samshin grandmother. Trying to flee the scene he has caused, Dae-Woong tries to run out but the he suffers a life threatening fall and is saved by the gumiho who gives him her fox bead. Apparantly if a gumiho gave a mortal their fox bead something miraculous would happen. 

When Dae-Woong finally awakens and meets the mysterious girl, he first treats her as a mentally ill, before finding out that she is a gumiho in a mortal form. According to legends he's heard he believes that gumihos eat men's livers, so Dae-Woong is freaking out and the gumiho takes this chance to take advantage of his fear by sticking to his side. He names her "Mi-Ho," and keeps her happy by always buying her beef and hiding her true identity from society, because people would go hysterical knowing that a legendary nine tailed fox was let loose. 

One of Mi-Ho's dreams is to become human so she makes a deal with Dae-Woong. She says she'll lend him her fox bead to increase his strength and speed, so he could do difficult stunts and with exchange he will have to help her become human. As time passes, they get to know each other better and Dae-Woong is charmed by hoe Mi-Ho looks at the world with childlike wonder. 

And then enters Park Dong-Joo, a half human, and a half supernatural being, whose cover identity is working as a veterinarian. Dong-Joo tells Mi-Ho that she'll be able to turn human if she follows these instructions carefully: must drink Dong-Joo's blood then place a fox bead inside a human's body for 100 days. Once she does this, her supernatural gumiho self with die slowly. Her gumiho energy slowly empties away while her bead will live in the human life for up to 100 days and take in Dae-Wong's energy. When she reclaims the bead, she will become fully human. Mi-Ho happily aggrees and Dae-Woong accepts her bead. 

However, Dong-joo deliberately withheld the information that this process will result in the human's death. Mi-ho and Dae-woong thus fall in love without knowing the consequences of fulfilling her goal: in 100 days, Dae-woong will die if Mi-ho becomes fully human, but Mi-ho will die if the bead isn't returned. (412 words)

The Classic Part 2 (Korean Movie)

As the movie switches back to talking about the past, Joon-Ha is guilt-driven over his friend's attempt suicide and Joo-Hee's own guilt. When determined to stop causing Joo-Hee anymore trouble and hurt, Joon-Ha joins the army and goes Vietnam. While he's fighting in Vietnam, he looses his vision while trying to retrieve the necklace Joo-Hee had given him so many years before. Upon returning to Korea, Joon-Ha and Joo-Hee meet. While trying to hide his blindness, he tries to convince her that he has married and that she should move on with her life without him.

Though brokenhearted that their relationship cannot continue, she does move on and ends up marrying Tae-Soo, Joon-Ha's friend.  After they have been married for several years, Joo-Hee has a young daughter, Ji-Hye. Joo-Hee is then approached by the friends of Joon-Ha who relate Joon-Ha's last wish. He last wish is to have his ashes scattered by Joo-Hee in the river, where they first met. She later finds out that he was never married or at least not until he confirmed that Joo-Hee married Tae-Soo. She was then notified that Joon-Ha had a son, and she's heartbroken and cries.

Back in the present, Ji-Hye's story unfolds itself. Sang-Min reveals the feelings he has for her and those are the same feelings she has for him. Also the movie reveals that them taking shelter together was no accident. Sang-Min purposely left his umbrella behind so that he could join her under the tree during the storm. She tells Sang-Min her mother's similar story and tears stream down his face. Why do tears stream down his face? It's because he lifts the necklace from his neck and places it around hers. It's the necklace that Ji-Hye's mother had given to Sang-Min's father when they first met by the river. So then the circle is completed. Joo-Hee's daughter and Joon-Ha's son completed the love story which their parent's had failed to complete!  (366 words)

The Classic Part 1 (Korean Movie)

The movie begins with telling parallel love stories between a mother and daughter. The part of the story with the mother is told in multiple flashbacks. 

That classic starts with present day, the daughter, Ji-hye, cleaning up her house and she finds a box full of old letters and a detailed diary that told the story of her mother, Joo-Hee. Ji-Hye reads one of the letters and then it starts the flashback to her mother. The flashbacks are then interwined with her own story in which she falls in love with one of her fellow classmates, Sang-Min, who is involved with the school production.


Then the movie flashes back into the past with the mother visiting the countryside as a student and meets Joon-Ha. They both go exploring in the countryside, playing near a river. The river then became their special place. One day when a storm approaches Joo-Hee twists her ankle and they struggle to find a shelter place under a tree. After the storm passes, Joon-Ha then carries her on his back and they struggle home. When coming back home they encounter angry parents. Before they're forced to separate, Joon-Hee gives him a necklace, which he keeps close to him as a precious reminder of their time spent together.

Unfortunately, a third party prevents the deepening of their relationship. Joon-Hee has been promised to be a bride to bee to Tae-Soo, Joon-Ha's friend. But Tae-Soo finds out their attraction towards one another and helps them communicate in secret by using his name in place of Joon-Ha's in their letters back and forth. When Tae-Soo's father finds out, however he beats Tae-Soo. Tae-Soo tries to commit suicide so that will allow Joon-Hee and Joon-Ha to be together.


Back in the present, Ji-Hye falls for Sang-Min in which her best friend Soo-Kyeong is also interested in, but Sang-Min doesn't seem to notice. I remember in a cute scene that was similar to her mother's was that it begins to downpour and Sang-Min uses his coat to coverr both of them and escorts her to where she needs to go. Though the moment is precious she only believes that he helped her was only out of his generosity and not that he had any feelings for her on his part. (398 words)

Heirs (Personal Review)

At the beginning of 2014 last year, I was so pumped up and excited for this new drama  many of my friends were mentioning to me about called, "Heirs." I was like okay it has two of my favorite actors/actresses acting in the drama so why not take a chance and have a stab at watching it right? So began to watch it and Heirs talked about friendships, love triangles, and enemies, just like other Korean dramas would right?!

In the beginning of the drama it introduces 18 year old, Cha Eun-Sang who lives with her deaf mother. Her mother works as a part time house maid for a rich family. Eun-Sang's mother communicates with the family by writing what she wants and needs on a notepad with a pen. So life's all good right?! It is all good until one day they receive a letter from her sister who lives in the U.S informing Eun-Sang and he mother that she's getting married and that she need money sent over there. Eun-Sang's mother tells her to take money out of her own saving account and as a result Eun-Sang is enraged with the decision that her mother has made because of her sister.

So pretty much she arrives in America and knows nothing about it's culture and everything, but she does try to find out where her sister lives and when she goes up and knocks on the door her sister lives in and finds out she's living in a dirty house with a violent boyfriend and it turns out that her sister lied to her about getting married and she dropped out of school and works at a restaurant. She finds the place her sister works at and takes the money Eun-Sang brought for her wedding and leaves without saying good-bye to her sister. 

After that I was just like oh the plot was kind of interesting, but after reading the synopsis and all I decided that it was going to be a waste of time, I knew the story was going to have some cheesy ending. But as I continued to watch a little longer I just couldn't stand the plot cause it just got so much more worse and a lot of different characters kept coming in. So if you're fairly interested in this drama go for it and watch it, don't let my opinion drive you away from watching a drama you might like. (408 words)

Innocent Man

"A man is betrayed by the woman he loves. To exact revenge, the man uses another woman who lost her memory."

Kang Ma-Roo is a promising medical student and lives with his younger sister Cho-Ko, who suffers from poor health. Meanwhile, Han Jae-Hee is a reporter at the CBS broadcasting company. Both Jae-Hee and Ma-Roo come from poor family backgrounds, but try extremely hard to achieve their dreams. One becomes a doctor while the other one becomes an anchorwoman. 

One day Ma-Roo comes home and finds his sister extremely sick and while he's trying to help her he suddenly receives a phone call from Jae-Hee telling him to quickly rush over to her. Cho-Ko sincerely begs him to stay with her and not to leaver her, but Ma-Roo still ends up rushing to Jae-Hee. When he arrives he finds her shaking and besides her lies a dead man's corpse. Ma-Roo figures out what has happened and tries to calm her down and counsels her to turn herself into the police. Upon hearing this news, Jae-Hee is devastated because if she turns herself in she would have wasted her whole life in trying to achieve her goal which she has finally reached now. Jae-Hee ends up calling the police, but Ma-Roo hangs up on the police and he kisses Jae-Hee and then goes into the motel room and attempts to wipe away Jae-Hee's fingerprints. He quickly tells her to leave and that he'll stay behind and take the blame and turn himself into the police for her.

Meanwhile, Eun-Gi is the rich heiress to the family that owns the large corporation Taesan. She's been groomed and trained to become the successor and shows very little emotions. When she pulls her car over in front of the house she sees her father hug a woman and the woman he hugs just so happens to be Jae-Hee. She tells Eun-Gi, "You have no idea what I did to protect you, what I just did to the main I care the most for in my life."

6 years later, after serving a 5 year prison sentence, Ma-Roo travels to Aomori, Japan to retrieve the money from a woman who swindled from his friend. Ma-Roo seduces the woman and retrives the money stolen from his friend and at the same time, Eun-Gi and her now stepmother Jae-Hee also happen to be in Aomori, Japan.

On the way back to Korea, Ma-Roo waits to use the restroom. Just as the restroom door opens, Eun-Gi comes out and collapse onto Ma-Roo. He lays her on the floor and just walks back to his seat. Eun-Gi's condition continues to grow worse and people start crowding around her and when Ma-Roo looks back again he sees that she really is in a terrible situation. So he feels really compelled to help save her and because he remembered he was a doctor before he felt like it was the most rational thing to do. While helping her condition, he asks for Eun-Gi's guardian. By that time, Jae-Hee walks over to the scene and tells him that she is her mother.

What will now happen to Ma-Roo and Jae-Hee now that they have reunited? What kind of relationship will Ma-Roo have with Eun-Gi? Will Jae-Hee end up choosing money over love? Help support our love for INNOCENT MAN! (557 words)

Mischievous Kiss (Korean Drama)

Ok ok, I know what ya'll are thinking, this drama is going to be some cheesy love story that you'll want to end by the middle of the first episode. WRONG! This drama has actually been one of my favorites since I've started watching Korean dramas. So the name of the drama may be a little misleading but you can't judge the book by it's cover, but for this matter you shouldn't judge the plot by its title. Does that make any sense? Well if it doesn't make sense, just ignore that fact because that's besides the point. Mischievous Kiss was based on the Japanese shojo manga, Itazura Na Kiss (Love in Tokyo). Dramafever recently released the Japanese version of Mischievous Kiss along with the Taiwanese version It Started with a Kiss. If you perhaps prefer to watch it in either Japanese or Chinese that's ok too because the plot is very similar and won't differ in many events. It's just that if you decide to watch it in Chinese, the version will be longer and there will be two seasons. 

Mischievous Kiss begins with a clumsy high school girl named, Oh Ha-ni who is at the bottom of her class and has a crush on a popular and genius male student, Baek Seung-jo. Ever since she ffirst laid eyes on him she's decided to confess her love to him through a letter, but ends up being embarrassingly rejected. Seung-jo tells her that he hates stupid girls and returns the letter, having corrected all the spelling and grammatical errors marking the letter of a D-.


Well as bad as being rejected from the school's popular genius, fate also intervenes in her life when an earthquake just so happens to ruin her house and while her house is being rebuilt her father has a very close friend and his son just so happens to be Baek Seung-jo. Having the end up being the result she's determined to impress him somehow while he remains insensitive to her feelings and finds her quite annoying. But in the midst of all this heartbreak for her, Seung-jo's matchmaking mother helps Ha-ni and becomes determined to get them both together.


During her time staying with the family Ha-ni somehow blackmails Seung-jo into becoming her tutor to become part of the top fifty ranked students in their high school, Seung-jo reluctantly agrees and over the weeks he tutors her, Ha-ni's feelings blossom more over him and his feelings also grow more but doesn't show as much and yet he's still confused by feelings. When the final results come out, Seung-jo tells her to look at the placing and she's shocked to find out that she ranked #50 on the list. Their high school is filled with heartbreak, anger and confusion. Her unrequited love remains for him slowly and gradually, and Seung-jo begins to find her company more enjoyable. After being involved with several other dramatic incidents pertaining to Ha-ni, Seung-jo grows more closer to her. When it comes to the graduation party later that year Oh Ha-ni says that she'll forget him and will no longer be interested in him in front of his whole senior class, he panics a little and "strings" her along by kissing her on their graduation night to renew her feelings for him and announces that he has decided to attend the same University as Ha-ni.

Seung-jo and Ha-ni graduate high school together and move on to university. There Seung-jo meets Yoon Hae-ra, his female equivalent. While Ha-ni's classmate Bong Joon-gu still harbors his feelings for her, she continues to break his heart. While Seung-jo enjoys having Hae-ra as his company Ha-ni is the one who still likes him, despite the fact that he is always with Hae-ra and has stated that he lives to tease her. Hae-ra ends up falling in love with Seung-jo and he doesn't mind that to say the least they begin working together at a restaurant which makes Ha-ni super jealous.

Whose company will Seung-jo enjoy more? Hae-ra or Ha-ni? Will his feelings for Ha-ni continue to grow or will he continue to work will Hae-ra as amazing more or less perfect partners for school? Will he end up having his future bound to one of these ladies? Be sure to watch Mischievous Kiss!!

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playful_Kiss, ,  http://asianwiki.com/Mischievous_Kiss
 (717 words)

Full House (Korean Drama)

When I first began watching Korean dramas mid 2012, I never thought I would be binge watching Korean dramas episode after episode. That was when I was first introduced to Full House, a 2004 drama, not the American drama. But what really caught my eye was that this would be a drama that I could understand. This drama wouldn't exactly be a love triangle, but it is just not to the extreme like other Korean dramas are. Full House made me understand that through time relationships can change and you can learn to love someone even if it is/was a forced marriage. The genre Full House is put into is a melo-romantic drama which combines a melodramatic, romantic, and comedic drama all in one. If you just so happen to glance upon this post, I hope that many of you will decide to try out Full House!

To start us off a few main characters you might need to know so that it doesn't get too confusing for us.

• Han Ji-Eun (Song Hye-Kyo)-an optimistic and cheerful girl aspiring to become a writer
• Lee Young-Jae (Rain)-a popular actor in Seoul and is especially good around girls
• Kang Hye-Won (Han Eun-Jung)-a childhood friend of Young-Jae and became a fashion designer
• Yoo Min-Hyuk (Kim Sung-Soo)-director of a large media company, close friends with Young-Jae, ladies' man

So basically how the story starts out is that Ji-Eun lives in a house called "Full House," built by her deceased father. One day, her two best friends trick her into believing she has won a free vacation. But being the naive and gullible girl she is she gladly accepted and they give her some extra money and sends her off to Shanghai. Little did she know that once she left her two friends would sell her house so that they could make a profit off her humongous house. Anyways once she gets on the plane she is seated next to one of Korea's famous actors, Lee Young-Jae. Through many challenges and other obstacles happening in Shanghai she ends up acquainted to him during her "not so fun" of a vacation.

Upon returning to her house she finally finds out that her friends betrayed her, but it was too late. She had to find the buyer of her house and the buyer of the house just so happens to be Lee Young-Jae (Plot twist. Bet ya guys didn't see that coming!) Through many different negotiations he finally lets her have her house back but with a condition she has to be his maid and so they both have to sign contracts with each other.

But because a specific event happens when they happened to be both invited to a party, Young-Jae finds Hye-Won being more close and intimate with his other friend Min-Hyuk he knew that she had liked him for a long time, but he liked her since childhood and in order to make Hye-Won jealous. Young Jae kisses Ji-Eun in front of all the paparazzi and then declares that he will marries Han-Ji Eun. They end up setting up a wedding contract for the marriage to last six months and within that time period.

Will they end up getting married for real this time or will other obstacles be in their way? Will Hye-Won find an opportunity to get back with Young-Jae? Or will Min Hyuk end up in the triangle because he'll be getting involved with Ji-Eun in her writing and he'll be publishing it? Will this end up being a love triangle or a love square?

http://www.dramafever.com/drama/277/Full_House/

(593 words)

My Girl (Korean Drama)

A few weeks ago I re-watched My Girl for the third time in human history! Why would you re-watch something over and over again? BECAUSE it was that good. I mean not only was the drama good, the plot, music, characters and acting was superb. The chemistry between the leads were a great match and for me that was good enough. My Girl was first released in 2005 and was categorized as a romantic comedy. It also was a huge hit during 2005 and it also placed number one in its showing time slot and reached rating of a 24.9%.

Contract dating? Contract marriage? Both Joo Yu-Rin and Seol-Gong-Chan won't even live in the same room. Wait hold on a sec, contract siblings? Can they even figure out whether or not they want to be contracted siblings or a contracted couple? As a native of Jeju Island, Joo Yu-Rin lives with her father who has a major addiction to gambling. Since she must carry her father's debts, she must have some skill in order to survive right? That skill is lying and grifting. When he father manages to escape the island in order to hide from his debtors, Yu-Rin is determined to fine a ways to support herself and clear her father's debts by selling oranges illegally picked from a hotel orchard. But one day, she meets Seol Gong-Chan, the heir to the L'Avenue Hotel Fortune.

In order to grant his dying grandfather's wish, Gong Chan basically highers Yu-Rin to act as his grandfather's long lost granddaughter. Each month he offers a monthly salary as a plus, he asks her to try to act at what she does best. Not wishing to lie to an elderly dying man, but yet very desperate for money she takes up on his offer and begins to play his long lost granddaughter.

Through fate, however, the grandfather is made happy and that also helps him to completely recover. But since Gong-Chan and Yu-Rin have to live under the same roof and have to be claimed as cousins, they slowly develop love between each other knowing they can't fall in love because the family believes that they're actually long lost cousins nothing can happen between them.

But can fate change? Will Seol Gong-Chan ever find his real cousin? Can Yu-Rin and Gong-Chan's love ever be possible in the end?

http://www.dramafever.com/drama/117/My_Girl/

(394 words)

Pinocchio (Korean Drama)

              

As the New Year 2015 rang in a couple of days ago along came a whole new list of Korean dramas I've also wanted to watch this year. Many of  them including; Angry Mom, Blood, Heard It As A Rumor, Jekyll, Hyde, and Me, Three Summer Nights along with a few other ones that aren't as popular. But the Korean drama that I'm most looking forward to watching most recently is Pinocchio. Pinocchio is a romantic comedy genre, so if you're into that kind of stuff you should try it out!

Okay I know what many of you are thinking why this Korean drama is called Pinocchio. That was the first thing that popped into my head as well. As I was doing my research like I always do before I decide which Korean drama may be suited for me, I found out that the title of the drama is called Pinocchio because one of the main characters has Pinocchio Syndrome and that means she hiccups every time she lies. Personally I think this drama will be a great start to my K-drama disease. Another reason why I was looking forward to watching Pinocchio was because it had a few of my favorite actors and actresses taking a role in it! Down below is the first episode of Pinocchio. If you're board and have nothing else to do during your free time, why not take a stab at it and see if it was worth your time, or you can just skip around different episodes and try it out!
                                         
                                            http://www.viki.com/tv/23066c-pinocchio

Since Pinocchio hasn't completely finished broadcasting and filming this was all the juice I could find about the synopsis. The drama begins with a child, Ha-Myeong (Lee Jong-Sul) growing up in a decent family having a firefighting father, mother and older brother. Both he and his older brother both possess higher than normal intellectual skills and are proud of their father. A sudden fire decides to happen and it ends up destroying his family and his mother dies because of the fire shortly after. The plot doesn't really mention what happens with the father and the older brother but we can assume that they both died in the fire. Ha-Myeong are scooped out of the ocean by a stranger (Byun Hee-Bong).

The man that rescued Ha-Myeong out of the ocean turns out to be In-Ha's (Park Shin Hye) grandfather. In-Ha's grandfather believes Ha-Myeong is his eldest son Dal-Po, who died 30 years ago. Ha-Myeong is then adopted into the family and ends up changing his name to Dal-Po. Since they're living together they have a weird relationship as uncle and niece, even though they're about the same age.


In-Ha has what's called a Pinocchio Syndrome which is whenever she lies she gets the hiccups. In-Ha and Dal-Po get along well until he learns that In-Ha's mother (Jin Kyung) is the reporter that covered the fire incident that destroyed his family. After learning that he tries to keep himself distant between her, but at the same time he begins to develop feelings for her.  (Ugh why doesn't he seriously just make a choice, either to distant her or fall in love with her. Don't let feelings control him.)


A few years later, Dal-Po and In-Ha's family move to Seoul and In-Ha attempts to become a reporter like her mother. Soon In-Ha meets her mother for the first time in years at a job interview for a MSC Broadcasting Station. Her mother is the interviewer and though she failed miserably for the job interview her mother also rejects her for having the Pinocchio Syndrome. A little while later Dal-Po becomes a taxi driver and that somehow leads him to meeting In-Ha's mother. He then becomes very curious of her job and also wants to become a reporter.

             
So tell me my fellow non-watchers of Pinocchio, do you think Dal-Po's decision will move his feelings farther away from In-Ha because he has some contact with her mother? Will he also reject In-Ha because of her Pinocchio Syndrome? Be sure to stay tuned to later news and happy watching!
(685 words)