Golden Rainbow Drama Review

Since I stopped watching Cruel Palace: War of the Flowers, which I always berate myself for because I did like it, this is the longest drama that I have ever watched and it was even cut down by a few episodes. It was originally suppose to be 50 episodes but ended up being 41 instead. I definitely would have watched all 50 episodes had there been that many, but I'm glad that there wasn't. I think, had the drama continued, it would have lagged and become boring and that is always the worst way to end a drama.

This drama follows the story of that cute little family down there: Man Won, Baek Won, Young Won, Il Won, Yol Won, Shib Won, Cheon Won, and their dad Han Joo. They are all adopted children except for the twin Shib Won and Yol Won, and everyone thinks that Man Won and Baek Won are siblings until almost the end of the drama.  

About fifteen years after this scene the family has been reduced to this:

By looking at that picture you see that they are missing three of the children from the first picture. Two of the losses are really sad and one makes you cheer. Seriously, how is it that one person can suck so much? But I must say, the best moment ever happens in episodes 35 when we meet that cutie below. I was waiting for this moments for 23 episodes and when it happened, I may or may not have had a little party. It was a big deal, okay? And then, he turned out to be one of the coolest people ever!

 The main driving factor of their unhappiness stems from this man, Seo Jin Ki.

He and Han Joo, plus two others, Young Hye and Uk Jo, are all orphans that grew up together. Han Joo and Uk Jo became fisherman and Young Hye and Jin Ki married into the Golden Fishery company. For Jin Ki that turned out well, but for Young Hye not so much. Shortly before Young Hye gives birth to her daughter Ha Bin (later renamed Baek Won) her husband dies in a car accident and Golden Fishery's owner and Young Hye's Mother in Law blames her for the death. So, 100 days after Ha Bin is born, Young Hye is kicked out of the house, but without her daughter.

So, to make an already long story short, when Ha Bin is five she is "kidnapped" by Jin Ki, but she gets lost, then found by an eight year old Man Won whose grandma dies shortly after, then they are found by Han Joo and Uk Jo, Han Joo adopts them and eventually five other children.

Ten-ish years later the family is happy but poor and then Jin Ki comes and ruins everything, as usual, and you find that Uk Jo is the scum of the earth (one of the many in this drama) and Young Hye also comes back with grand plans of revenge against her mother in law. All these factors cause death, destruction, jail time, abandonment, general douche baggery, rifts between family and friends, but also one bromance and out future love line.

 

Moving forward another fourteen years and people are still suffering from the effects of all that stuff that went down before the time jump. Things do manage to get better for a while though which is a great breather for you heart which by this point is feeling pretty broken. The thing that made my heart the happiest was the reuniting of our lovely couple Do Young and Baek Won

 

They are definitely one my favorite couple of the year so far, the other being Min Joon and Song Yi. There is just so much happiness and teeth rotting cuteness when they're together you just can't help but love them. Jung Il Woo is also fantastic so that helps.

The second couple that is absolutely too cute for words is the second OTP. There were a lot of couples in this drama though, they could possibly be the third OTP. This couple consisted of Man Won and Hwa Ran who I mostly just called Little Polar Bear. She was seriously adorable and decided that Man Won would be hers no matter who he thought that he liked.

As for the ending of this drama, I felt that it was acceptable for the story that had been created. The two things that I had the most problems with was the three year jump epilogue and something else that I'm not going to talk about. Sorry. The reason that I didn't love the time jump was because I felt that it was a little heavy handed. I didn't expect it to happen even though it did kind of need to happen because of what happened before the jump that will not be mentioned. The reason that I didn't totally hate it was because all the characters got nice little endings which they deserve because by the end, they had all been through so much.

So, even though the ending wasn't perfect, it was a good ending that made you feel good which this drama definitely lacked in the last episodes. So much sadness.

As for whether or not people should give this drama a chance? Most definitely yes! Just be prepared for the length and feeling a lot of emotions.

~ Alora 

Golden Rainbow Half Way Mark Drama Review

This past weekend, Golden Rainbow aired episodes 28 and 29 and it has been that many episodes of awesome thus far. This is my first tackling of a weekend drama and I think that I picked a pretty good one. I can thank the lure of Jung Il Woo for that one. 

How can you say no to that face? Oh, that's right, you can't.

The story begins with the discovery that Steve Lee from City Hunter isn't actually dead. He faked his death and found his doppelganger, killed him, and took over his life. Unfortunately, he couldn't leave his days of baby snatching and butt kicking behind and it landed him in jail. 

After his release, he felt bad for his wrong doings and adopted children like they were going out of style and ended with the high number of seven. The cutest orphan being Young Won. Look at those dimples!

The young actors were around for the first 16 or so episodes before they "grew up" and were replaced by the older actors.

All those kids grew up well too. Especially Man Won. And yes, there are only four orphans here. What happened to the other three? I don't want to talk about it okay!

Along with getting older, we get more heartbreak but also more sweet moments which are dispersed very well throughout the show. There are also moments that you would like nothing more than to punch various characters in the throat. Seriously, there are some terrible people in this drama.

Let's not talk about that though because they suck and I try not to think about them. Instead let's talk about the cavity inducing sweetness that is the main couple.

I think that they are my new favorite main couple. The feed off each other really well and you can see that they genuinely like each other. It is also fun to watch Jung Il Woo's character mess with UEE's. He is much more forward to her shyness. He's kind of like a less douchey Cha Chi Soo.  

Then there is the second OTP which I am shipping like mad. If you don't, I'm sorry to tell you, but you are wrong. Man Won's other ship is so far under the sea it makes the Titanic look like it's still a serviceable vessel. Was that weird? Maybe.

There has been a lot of intrigue and changing loyalties in this drama so you are always questioning who is going to get stabbed in the back next. Most of the time it seems to be the "good" people, of course, but the truth is starting to come out and I am excited to see some people get knocked to the ground and maybe delivered a couple swift kicks as well.

Here's to the last 25 episodes!

~ Alora

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

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