Adventures in Asia

Wow, it’s been a few months! Holiday season, finishing the term and moving to a new city put my drama-watching on hold for a while. But I’m back to blogging now! And I just finished an excellent drama! Two of the actors from my favorite drama ever, “Secret Garden,” returned to my screen (and my heart) in “I Hear Your Voice”: Oska (Yoon Sang Hyun) and that musician kid who had a crush on Oska (Lee Jong Suk). This time they play the two male leads (both straight) and deliver some amaaaaazing acting. In “I Hear Your Voice” (also called “I Can Hear Your Voice”), female lead Jang Hye Sung is a bored lawyer intent to become a Public Defender for the money. Also in the running for the position is hard working, idealistic Lawyer Cha (that is, Oska!). Meanwhile, senior in high school Park Soo Ha has the uncanny ability to hear others’ thoughts, which he’s been able to do ever since he was injured in the car “accident” that killed his father. Jang Hye Sung happened to witness that i...

My glorious return to romantic comedy kdrama was rather anticlimactic with the oh-so-predictable “ Flower Boy Ramyun Shop ,” so for my next drama I watched cop show / romance “Who Are You” (2013). Plus, one of the leads is 2PM’s Taecyeon, whom I hadn’t seen since his singing and dancing days in “Dream High.” Good to see you again, T! “Who are you?” Police officer Yang Si Ohn wakes up after a six-year coma with no memories of the day she fell unconscious. Assigned to the Lost and Found Unit, she starts working with T, er, Cha Gun Woo. Since waking up, she as the ability to see ghosts, conveniently of people who’ve been murdered, which results in her solving closed cases. But the ultimate mystery still looms: What happened that day six years ago? Who is the handsome spirit with sad eyes who occasionally appears? This drama is a brilliant combination of mystery, suspense, action and romance, with a side of ghostly heebie-jeebies. The plot was downright delightful (especially ...

After a relaxing vacation States-side, I’m back to Asia, back to teaching, and back to watching kdrama! And my first drama since being back was sure to be historic. My curiosity about the so-called Prince of Asia had peaked, especially after reading about his charms online and constantly running into cardboard cutouts of him in Caffé Bene. He starred in my first kdrama, “You’re Beautiful,” and I felt it was time to see him again. Thus I started Jang Keun Suk’s latest, “Bel Ami” (or “Pretty Man”). This drama was, in fact, historical for me, but for a quite different reason. It can be marked down as the first kdrama of my watching career that… I QUIT. I can only put up with so many hours of every woman on screen ogling over and clinging to an arrogant, gold-digging pretty boy. I can put up with even less pathetic female lead, who has a degree but no job, no self-esteem, who pools her miniscule earnings to buy things for said pretty boy who’s never so much a...