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)

Dramafever

Hello fellow Korean drama watchers! I'm sure this blog is pretty obvious about what this topic is going to be! Okay so I know many of us try to use different websites when trying to find and watch dramas whether it's being American, Chinese, Korean or Thai. This is the perfect solution to your mid life crisis, watch your dramas on Dramafever. You can seriously find almost any type of drama on there and if it's pretty knew it'll be on the top of the list so that it's fairly easy for you to find! Dramafever also offers a premium to members who decide to pay extra so that viewers can watch their dramas and variety shows without any type of interruption/advertisements and watch everything in HD form, it's kind of like Netflix in a way!

I love Dramafever just because everything is just so convenient because there's an app you can download whether it's on your phone, laptop, or television! It's very easily accessed and surprisingly the advertisements aren't very long which is a definite plus! Dramafever is one of my favorite apps on my phone because I just use it so often when I'm bored or on the run! 

Another good thing about Dramafever is that like I said before they have the main featured dramas on the main screen and 8/10 times they'll have most of the dramas if your browse through their search engine! Also when you exit the drama for something important, you can automatically log back in and resume from the place you paused from, but I'm sure many other sites do that. It's also offered in many different languages so that many people can understand it and it usually comes with 10 or more different language subtitles so that it's easily accessed to many groups of people who are interested in watching the same drama! If you haven't downloaded Dramafever on your laptop or phone, I would highly encourage that, but be prepared to be addicted to all the different drama choices! Don't get lost in obsession and be sure not to spend school/week nights up until 2 or 3 in the morning searching up different genres of dramas!  (366 words)

You're Beautiful (He's Handsome)

In 2009, the Korean broadcasting network, SBS, decided to air a new drama called, “You’re Beautiful.” It was given many awards just for popularity of the series and won Korea 6 different drama awards and that included the new actors and actress awards given to Park Shin Hye, Jang Geun Suk, Jung Yong Hwa, and Lee Hong Ki.  The genre is a romance and comedy. The original soundtrack is called “You’re Beautiful/He’s Handsome.” Down below is the link to the full soundtrack to "You're Beautiful," if you haven't yet heard their music in the drama yet! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB5_j0Lrm24

The story begins with twins, one boy one girl named Ko Mi Nyeo and Ko Mi Nam who are both played by Park Shin Hye. They grew up in an orphanage not knowing anything about their parents. As they grew up they went into their own separate paths. Ko Mi Nyeo went on to become a nun and on her way she was going to pick up her ticket for Rome when a strange man comes up to her saying that he's the manager for the popular boy band, "A.N. JELL." He tells Ko Mi Nyeo that her twin brother Ko Mi Nam just joined the band, but was seriously injured and was quickly sent back to America for a quick recovery. So the manager quickly persuades her to impersonate him just for a short time being just until he comes back. He told her that it shouldn't be a major problem for her because they looked exactly alike and no one could tell them apart. 

A.N.JELL band member, Kang Shin Woo (Jung Yong Hwa) was the first of the three to discover that Ko Mi Nyeo was a girl, but he secretly kept it to himself because he knew that if her identity was revealed she would be severely punished. Shin Woo tries to help her out without letting her know that he already knows her secret and not only that he also begins to start falling in love with her. 

Meanwhile A.N.JELL's lead singer and song writer, Hwang Tae Kyung (Jang Geun Suk) finds out her secret in the most oddest way and begins questioning her but she doesn't give away anything only that she'll only be there temporarily. Hwang Tae Kyung has the coldest personality out of the three members of the band and also has a problem with being a neat freak. Like he needs everything to be perfect and organized. To start off on a bad note he tries to kick Ko Mi Nyeo out of the band, but eventually feels sympathetic towards her when he finds out that she hoped to find her mother by appearing on tv with the band. 

Finally just to make everything a whole lot worse her secret is also found out by pop singer Yu Hee Yi (Uee) accidentally. When the reporters and paparazzi falsely reported that Yu Hee Yi and Hwang Tae Kyung were dating she used the information she knew about Ko Mi Nyeo's secret to make Hwang Tae Kyung pretend they were actually dating in front of the press. Hwang Tae Kyung thought Yu Hee Yi was repulsive for doing such cruel deeds to both of them and forcing them together, but that was the only way for her to achieve her plans by telling the media that Ko Mi Nyeo was actually a girl instead of a boy. 

After Yu Hee Yi keeps her promise when Hwang Tae Kyung agrees to actually date her for real just to protect her reputation, but after everything happens she really begins to develop feelings for Hwang Tae Kyung. Will he also reciprocate those feelings for Hee Yi or will he still continue to like Ko Mi Nam? Will her brother come back in time so that she doesn't have endure all this humiliation between her band members and Yu Hee Yi and the media? Will the rest of the media find out her true identity and will she return back to the nunnery? Find out by watching the series and figuring out all the juicy gossip between everyone! Have fun and enjoy! (691 words)

Heartstrings (The Korean drama)

Heartstrings will always be in my heart as one of the more modern/competitive Korean drama I've ever watched. Even though it's a few years old now, many people still watch it over and over again and it was considered the best single drama made in 2012. I would definitely recommend this drama to the youths around the world because Heartstrings is a youth melodrama about dreams, friendship and young love and this all happens in a performing arts institute. So this drama really made an impression to me that as long as you try and want to achieve your goal, go and pursue it and along the way rewards will follow. Although this is a drama about acting and going to Broadway, it's more about singing and performing with ancient and modern music combined! Follow where your heart leads you, because you'll definitely find your own destiny waiting for you in the near future.

       Western Music vs. Traditional Music

Starring in Heartstrings we have Jung Yong Hwa as Lee Shin, who plays a university student studying Modern Western Music. He's the lead guitarist and lead vocalist and is part of a band called "The Stupid." Lee Shin is well known for his good looks, his arrogant personality, and his extreme passion for music. Most of his peers see him as a distant and cold-hearted person, but little does everyone know that he actually has a soft side inside him hidden away. His main focus is music and anything other than that he could care less and doesn't really have dreams or plans for his future. He secretly has a crush on Jung Yoon Soo (So Yi Hyun), a dance professor at the university. But Lee Shin's feelings for Jung Yoon Soo change when he meets his musical rival Lee Gyo Won (Park Shin Hye). 

Lee Gyu Won is a bright and outgoing student who is also extremely passionate about music as well. Too bad it wasn't the passion for modern western music like Lee Shin. On the contrary her passion was for Traditional Korean Music because her grandfather was one of the top 3 traditional musicians of his age and his biggest wish was for her to become a traditional music prodigy. Lee Gyu Won wishing to live up to grandfather's high expectations works herself intensely and becomes a university student who doesn't know much outside her studies because she focuses herself on practicing so much while in school and out of school. Her group of friends are fans of Lee Shin's group, "The Stupid," she's forced to go to the band's concert with them and there she watches Lee Shin perform live and is immediately enchanted by him.


Not only is Lee Gyu Won the only won captivated by him, but also one of Lee Shin's bumbling and shy lead drummer boy, Yeo Joon Hee (Kang Min Hyuk) charmed by friend, Han Hee Joo (Woori), the university princess and chairman's daughter and he begins calling her his "Natasha" (goddess). However  she thinks of him and his childish acts very naive-ish, but Yeo Joon Hee fights between his growing feelings for her and helping his friends as she threatens their university lives.

 When the university has its 100th anniversary performance, both Lee Gyu Won and Lee Shin tell their groups to join. Everyone sees Lee Gyu Won's potential and talent, especially Kim Suk hyun (Song Chang Eui), a Broadway composer who turned into a music director. Fearing that Lee Gyu Won might outshine her daughter, Hee Joo's mother plans a plot with Im Tae Joon( Kee Jung Heon), one of the schools administrators; they plan to destroy Gyu Won's image forcing her to quit the performance.  So do you think Lee Shin and his band will figure out this plan and ruin the plot or will they just let it go and become the best musicians in the university? Will Lee Gyu Won's reputation really be ruined and will she just become a regular musician letting Lee Shin outshine their music and dangle their glory in front of her friends face becoming the school's best? 

Be sure to tune in and watch Heartstings because the drama has a great plot twist that will want you thirsty for more! (720 words)