Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
“My Demon” begins in Joseon. Gu-won (Song Kang) makes a deal with an indigent fisherman. This demon will ensure that the fisherman has prosperity and food for the next decade. But, there’s a catch. In return, the fisherman will give his soul to Gu-won.
As with “The Killing Vote,” this K-drama centers on the intersection of criminals and their corrupt police counterparts — all of whom benefit from the quid pro quo exchange.
This second season of “The Uncanny Counter” is good enough. But it is also a reminder that K-dramas are traditionally made to finish after one season. With the influx of Western streaming sites that have figured out how lucrative Korean shows can be, there have been more shows going into their second (or even third seasons). And while I was one of the viewers who had hoped for a second season of this series, I acknowledge that it may have been best to just leave things as they were.
The “Green Mothers’ Club” revolves around a group of moms whose lives are spent pushing their young children to academic excess. They spend money they don’t have on after-school hagwons for extra tutoring. And they clique together and take turns turning on whichever mom has been deemed the weakest for that week. Ultimately, the young lives they’re trying to elevate are the ones who suffer.
The early episodes of “Payback” held promise for a truly compelling thriller with the always great Lee Sun-kyung in the lead role. Lee plays Eung Yong, an ambitious man with a photographic memory when it comes to numbers. But the storylines get progressively more convoluted as the show progresses.
There’s a lot going on in this second season of “Alchemy of Souls.” The spineless King from the first season returns with a greed for power; the real Queen battles her soul-shifting nemesis; the Crown Prince — who had previously been smitten with Mu-deok — is attracted to Bu-yeon (and rescues a turtle to please her); and Jin Mu — the half brother of Jinyowon’s leader, Jin Ho-gyeong, enforces a reign of terror on everyone, including his sister.
“The Glory” had so much promise — a strong leading lady (Song Hye-kyo), a skilled screenwriter (Kim Eun-sook), the backing of Netflix’s money, and the promise of a scintillating revenge thriller. And yet at the end of the eight-episode first season — stop doing this, Netflix! — I found myself underwhelmed.
“Remarriage & Desires” is a revenge drama that focuses on a woman whose husband is cheating on her. After he asks her for a divorce, he learns that his mistress embezzled money and set him up as the fall guy — and falsely accused him of sexual assault to further incriminate him.
“Business Proposal” relies on the love contract trope, where a man hires a woman to be his pretend girlfriend. Almost all of the men are drop-dead gorgeous and would have no problem finding a real-life partner. But real relationships also come with real problems that these men don’t want to deal with.
Sang-eun (Park Min-young) is a stunning young woman who has carved out a niche for herself marrying men. Nope, she’s not a gold digger. Her relationships with her clients are platonic and are based on a meticulously-worded love contract. Well educated and discreet, she is the perfect girlfriend/bride for men who need a well-heeled partner to show off.
“The Law Cafe” is a cute K-drama centering on a couple that has always been in love with each other, but doesn’t realize it. Or, rather, is unwilling to acknowledge it. Jeong-ho is a former prosecutor who quit his job after a scandal was covered up. Yu-ri is his fearless childhood friend — also an attorney — whose passion lies in helping powerless people get justice.
“When My Love Blooms” started off so strong and promising that I had high hopes for this years. You usually can’t go wrong with Yoo Ji-tae and Lee Bo-young in the lead roles. But while the actors did a great job of embodying their complicated roles, I ended up not appreciating either character very much.
This second season of “Hello, My Twenties!” is entertaining, but suffers a bit from too-much-going-on syndrome, as well as the recasting of a central character.
“Seoul Vibe” is full of backstabbing, murder and mayhem. Director Moon Hyun-sung does a commendable job at keeping the plot moving, but he knows that the wild car chases are the key to this movie.
“The Roundup” is an action-packed sequel to the 2017 film “The Outlaws.” Often times brutal and very bloody, the movie also has its share of slapstick comedy thanks to its affable star Ma Dong-seok.
I enjoyed “Shooting Stars” for what it is: a cute romance with two incredibly attractive lead actors. But I also acknowledge that there are some problematic moments that mar parts of the series for me.
In this review, writer Jae-Ha Kim unpacks the Apple TV+ series Pachinko, its faithfulness to the book by Min Jin Lee, and why unnecessary plot changes can serve an adverse purpose.
“The King: Eternal Monarch” was Lee Min-Ho’s comeback drama after finishing his mandatory military service in 2019. Beautifully shot and well acted by the lead actors, the series nonetheless is a bit of a hot mess when it comes to the meandering plot.
If there was a test that determined whether your unborn child carried a psychopath gene, would you trust it enough to terminate your pregnancy? Or would you believe that regardless of your child’s genetic makeup, you could raise him to be a good person who wouldn’t grow up to be a killer? Would you trust nurture or nature?
In 2008, South Korea held its first ever trial by jury in Dageu. In that trial, jurors deliberated for two hours before deciding that the 27-year-old man accused of robbing and assaulting a 70-year-old woman in her home was guilty. “Juror 8” is not a fictionalized version of those events. Rather, it’s a story about a man who plead guilty to murdering his mother and the first Korean jury that will determine his sentence.