Liebster Award Nomination

Since this blog is a little baby blog, one of my favorite things is when I get a comment. It means that whether on accident or on purpose, someone saw something of interest and not only that, but they took a moment out of their day to say that they liked something. It always gives me the warm fuzzies and makes me want to send out internet love to those people. Now, to make things even better there is something called the Liebster Award that helps small blogs gain more attention which I think is a lovely thought. We could all use new internet friends.

I have been nominated by the blog IKurate who compile recaps, first impressions, and reviews of different dramas. This is something I am always in need of when I am writing something about a drama and I am missing a picture that I want. Thank you recappers who are better at taking screen shots than I am! I also really like their blog lay put. It's easy use and it's pretty. What more could a person want?

Word of the Day: Noona Slayer

Noona Slayer n. 1. A younger man pursuing a romantic relationship with a significantly older woman. 2. The Korean male counterpart to the American female "cougar." ex. I didn't think I'd like Lee Min Ho as a noona slayer, but I did. 

Here in the US, pop media has been obsessed and scandalized with the idea of "cougars," an older woman pursuing a much younger man. But for Korean pop media, it's the much younger man who is pursuing the older woman. Hence the origin of "noona slayers." These different terms seem like opposite sides of the same coin, but "noona slayer" infers that the relationship is male initiated while "cougar" implies that it is female initiated. Probably the biggest difference is that in western society, cougars are still considered slightly scandalous but no one bats an eye when Korean dramas cast younger men with older women. That is, unless the guy is very young, in which case the actress is then considered a pedo-noona. Now for the fun part.

My List of Top 10 Korean Noona Slayers!

1. The Telepathic Noona Slayer. Since I Hear Your Voice is ending this week, I'm listing them first. Lee Bo Young is 10 1/2 years older than Lee Jong Suk.

Noona Slayer Rule # 7- The age difference goes away completely when you are both dressed like high school students

 2. The Time Traveling Noona Slayer. Lee Min Ho and Kim Hee Sun in Faith have a whopping 10 year age difference. It's weird at first, but I promise, after episode 13 or 14 you totally forget about it.

Kim Hee Sun, how do you not run your fingers through Lee Min Ho's hair all day long? Also, how do you keep your hear so shiny and perfectly made up in ancient times?

3. The Most Adorable Noona Slayer Ever. Yoon Shi Yoon. How can you not melt when this boy smiles? You can't. It's impossible, even for this very uptight police woman, Lee Ji Ah, in Me too, Flower! ( which is the worst name ever for a K-drama). But, more importantly she is 111/2 years older than he is.

She started her period while he was still in diapers.

4.The 'My Baby Needs a Mama' Noona Slayer. In Oh My Lady, Choi Siwon discovers that he has the most adorable daughter (Yoon Shi Yoon level adorable). So what does he do? He falls in love with Park Chae Rim, the nanny. 

Park Chae Rim, you could also be Siwon's nanny since you are 9 years older than him.

5. The Body Switching Noona Slayer.Ok, so Lee Min Jung fell in love with little Shin Won Ho, who is almost 10 years younger than her in Big.

You can't blame her cause most of the time he looks like Tom Hanks... oops I meant Gong Yoo. Sorry, I've haven't seen it yet.

6. The 'So What if You have 6 Months to Live!' Noona Slayer. If your dying wish is to fall in love with a crazy hot guy, may I recommend Lee Dong Wook who was 6 years younger than his Scent of a Woman costar, Kim Sun Ah.

Yes, please protect her face from premature aging. You know what, protect it from regular aging as well.

7. The Dating Contract Noona Slayer. If you didn't want to fall in love, you shouldn't have written a contract to be in a fake relationship. Everyone knows that! Unfortunately Hyun Bin and Kim Sun Ah found that out the hard way in My Lovely Sam-Soon. 

What is 7 years or 15 pounds when you really love someone?

 8. The Student-Teacher Noona Slayer.  Okay, so Lee Chung Ah opened the door originally in Flower Boy Ramyun Shop by mistaking his age and calling him oppa, but Jung Il Woo happily ran through that door to win her heart. Funny that this drama, more than any other that I've mentioned is specifically about  noona slaying, but Lee Chung Ah is actually only 3 years older than him.

Your babies would be so attractive, they would come with a warning label.

9.The Original Gangster Noona Slayers.The opening lyrics of SHINee's debut song  literally begins, "Noona you are so pretty." After 5 years of honing their skills, they are the most practiced and professional noona slayers on the list. I love them so much. 

Slaying noonas since 2008.

 10. Real Life Attempted Noona Slaying Fail. I saw this in the news recently and I had to include it. You remember Ah Sun Young from Dream High? She played Mr. Kang's alcoholic sister. Well, in Dream high she was a bit of a cougar... at least in her imagination.

Well it turns out that she was recently approached by a real life noona slayer. According to her, he was a male idol 12 years younger than her that bragged about how he was going to win her over. Apparently he was very persistent and she had a really hard time shaking him loose. Check it out.


Now it's your turn. Leave a comment and tell me which noona slayers I missed.

~Autumn

Word of the day: Bromance

Bromance n. 1. A nonsexual relationship between two males who are close

I know, I know, NigaHiga practically owns the word bromance (if you don't know why, go here). Unfortunately I am not friends with a Korean celebrity, so you'll just have to deal with me. Sorry.

In this post I am going to be listing my top five bromances.

5. Rooftop Prince

Joseon Power Rangers unite!

I think what makes this quartet so fun is that they are all so different from each other. You have king, a warrior, a scholar, and a eunuch who has information on everyone. He's kind of like a Korean, non-backstabbing, Lord Varys. 

My favorite character is Chi San (the eunuch), he is adorable. This drama also introduced me to Lee Min Ho (in the green). These guys were so fun to watch because they are shot 300 years into the future and all they have is each other. It is also fun to watch the relationship change and the king realizing that having subjects is not as fun as having friends.

  4. Boys Over Flowers  

Woo Bin, Yi Jung, Joon Pyo, Ji Hoo

Oh Boys Over Flowers, how I love you. These guys were fun to watch, especially when they were being exasperated by Joon Pyo's stupidity. They knew where their loyalties lay and were not afraid to tell one another when they needed to 'suck it' (I just got caught up on Psych). As usual with bromances that contain multiple people there are some highlight players, namely these two. 

Woo Bin and Yi Jung

These two are definitely the comic relief in the drama and they are always the first ones to tell Joon Pyo that he is being ridiculous. I think that Yi Jung is also the only person who really understands Woo Bin. They are both kind of outcasts who are perceived as one thing but that is not who they truly are. When Woo Bin has his little break down mid drama, Yi Jung is there to smack him around and tell him to stop feeling sorry for himself.
 
3. Flower Boy Ramyun Shop 

Don't catch a cold

Oh my gosh, what are you?

I mention Ba Ool and Hyun Woo in my post about Flower Boy Ramyun Shop and here I am talking about them again. These two were so fun to watch because in the beginning Ba Ool was totally freaked out about Hyun Woo's mother hen personality. If I were in his place I would probably be a little weirded out too.

By the end of the drama though, when they find out that they may have to 'break up' it's really sad and they can't imagine doing it. Ba Ool does try to be all manly about it, but Hyun Woo understands him enough by this point to know that Ba Ool is also sad. These two balance each other out, Ba Ool helps protect Hyun Woo and Hyun Woo reals Ba Ool back in when he is in danger of doing something stupid, which is often. 

2. Shut Up! Flower Boy Band 

Eye Candy

There is so much man love in this drama it kills me. For some of these boys, the band is all they have so they all take care of each other. Episode after episode it is about their relationship with each other and how far they are willing to go to protect and build each other up. Getting into specifics though, my favorite bromance in this drama is between these two guys.

Kyung Jong and Ha Jin

Every time they came on the camera I knew good things were going to happen. Kyung Jong was totally the wife in this relationship keeping his womanizing pretty boy husband in line. Even the other characters talked about their relationship. In one of the episodes these two fight and *cue dramatic music* don't sit next to each other during dinner! The other members then shuffle themselves and force the two to sit with each other because everyone was weirded out about it.

Kyung Jong is also the cutest thing that I have have ever seen. He's just so little and then he has the Satoori dialect. I just want to put him in my pocket and take him home!

1. Sungkyunkwan Scandal 

Moon Jae Shin and Goo Yong Ha

Of course these guys are going to be number one, I don't think I have seen any other bromance come close to what they have, except for the Eye Candy boys. The reason I loved them so much is because Yong Ha knew how uncomfortable and annoyed Jae Shin would get when he would put on the wife hat. Even though Jae Shin would bat Yong Ha aside, you know that he loved him. Yong Ha also risked his life and his status to protect Jae Shin when Jae Shin  was injured or just as general back up so that he could get safely back to where ever he needed to be.

Well there you have it, my favorite bromances. There will be a lot more in the future as I continue to watch dramas both old and new and who knows what will happen to these top five. It is going to have to take quite a bit of bromancing to beat these top two spots though. Who's your number one bromance?

~Alora

Flower Boy Ramyun Shop

This drama was so wonderful!! It started well and it ended well which is more than a lot of other dramas can say. It never took itself too seriously either, how could it with all the constipation jokes? Each episode brought something new and the drama never lagged.There was so much 'right' in this drama it was ridiculous.

Something I have noticed about this drama as I have started watching other dramas is that it echos Secert Garden quite a bit. Even without having seen that drama, I knew the sparkly tracksuit in the fantasies was a little nod toward it.

Do you know who made this tracksuit?

 As I get more into Secret Garden though, I notice that Ramyun Shop also uses the 'the rich emotionless lead is starting to FEEL things!' plot line. There is also the similarity that the male lead starts to see the female lead everywhere. Joo Won isn't as crazy as Cha Chi Soo though, but then again, I'm not sure anyone could be as crazy as Cha Chi Soo......

Just an average day for Cha Chi Soo

I also like how this drama gives us a powerful female lead who is able to overcome her own self doubts and, in the end, is able to rescue herself and her man.....with a plunger.

I don't want to listen to your crap!

Another thing that I like about her character is that, even though she is strong in the end, she is also strong and independent in the beginning. She does have her moments of self doubt -- who doesn't -- but she gets back on her feet pretty quick. When watching this drama I never wanted to smack her for moving from a strong female character into a blubbering pile of uselessness. I can excuse her this time though

What are you to doing?

Speaking of her man, I love Cha Chi Soo so much. I don't care what my friends say (and they all do) he's awesome. Sure he's a jerk, but I love him for it. Jung Il Woo did such a good job playing his character it was ridiculous. I have a friend who holds a personal vendetta against Jung Il Woo now because of this roll. I told her to watch The Moon that Embraces the Sun and this is what she posted on my wall

She's a jerk

Something that happens a lot in this drama are misunderstandings. Not that that is a big surprise when it comes to Korea dramas, but these ones are some of my favorites. There's the main one that sets up our story, Cha Chi Soo is actually six years younger, not older, than Eun Bi, Cha Chi Soo running into the same stall an Eun Bi in the beginning, the ahjumma's thinking that Eun Bi is a loose woman (watch that here), and Cha Chi Soo attacking Eun Bi because he thinks that she is going to overdose (spoiler, it's constipation medicine)

 
There is also a lot to look at in this drama. One of the best things to look at happens in episode five when Pillar finally shows his face and all his gleaming muscly goodness

Let's look at another one, shall we?

You sir are hot. Therefore, I shall stare at you

Even though these two didn't get together in the drama, they are together in real life as of a few months ago. Now whenever I watch clips of this show, that is all I think about. Cha Chi Soo is putting on the moves and Pillar is looking sad, but in the back of my mind, I know it is all a lie! Pillar and Eun Bi are having a secret affair to the side that no one knows about!

Just give it time, you'll eventually win

This drama also has one of my favorite bromances, Ba Ool and Hyun Woo. They are so deliciously awkward it's wonderful. I also like how in the end they become such good firends. They are still complete opposites, but they compliment each other very well.

I think that this picture sums up their relationship quite well

The drama was wrapped up very well too. It's wasn't all tied up with a triple knotted bow which made it nice. The writers gave the audience room to create their own endings for all of the characters. None of the relationships are perfect which is something that you see all through out the drama, so I'm glad they carried that theme until the end. As for relationships open to interpretation.....

I would watch the crap out of this drama. Someone make this happen!!

Should you watch this drama? Is that even a question? Of course you should. This drama is freaking amazing! I don't care what you are doing with your life right now, just stop and go watch this. Don't ask questions, just go.

What am I watching? 

Cruel Palace: War of the Flowers - My first 100% sageuk, it's going well

Secret Garden - I've heard a lot about it and it is pretty good

~ Alora