Heart to Heart Drama Review

For a drama that I wasn't totally on board with at the beginning, I absolutely loved in by the end. The story was lovely, the characters were well written and the ending left me in a happy place without the writer putting a big pink bow and sparkles on it. As nice as bows and sparkles are sometimes, it's not true to life and some realism is dramas is always appreciated.

I was initially unsure about the drama because of the pacing of the first two episodes. It seems a little slow and weird and the two main characters weren't very likable. Ko Yi Seok was pompous and annoying and Cha Hong Do was an unbelievably useless human being. I can deal with one annoying character, but I don't want to have to deal with two. Looking back now, it was because these two characters were flawed that they were so good. They had so much growing room, and grow they did.

Heart to Heart - First Impressions

I feel like all is lost for me with this drama because I am firmly on the side of the second male lead. Ever since seeing Lee Jae Yoon in Golden Rainbow I've been a little in love with him even though I haven't seen him in anything else since other than Yoo Seung Woo's video "Hesitating Lips". I liked his character in that drama and he is also super handsome and he isn't the usual flower boy handsome either, he is a big guy with a very square jaw. He's also Korean-Canadian so maybe that means he also speaks English. Obviously we are perfect for each other.

What interested me most about this drama was the story line: our heroine Cha Hong Do (Choi Gang Hee) has a severe social phobia and blushes very easily and the only way she can function properly is by dressing up as an old woman. Then we have our psychiatrist Ko Yi Sok (Chun Jung Myung) who has some sort of special issue all his own that hasn't really been identified yet.

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