Tag: 2016

“Hello, My Twenties!” (청춘시대): Season 1

Jae-Ha Kim

“Hello, My Twenties!” follows the lives of five college roommates ranging in age from 18 to 28. Eun-jae is a meek freshman who’s too shy to ask an upperclassman to return her pen and much too afraid to tell her roommates not to eat all of the homemade preserves her mother sent her off with. Ye-eun is a culinary arts student who’s more interested in her inattentive boyfriend than anything else. Ji-won is an eccentric journalism major (haha!) who says she can see a ghost in their apartment. Yi-na has a series of older, rich boyfriends and doesn’t seem to be studying much of anything other than her shoe collection. And at 28, Jin-myung’s live revolves around working three part-time jobs to pay for her tuition and pay off her family’s bills.

“Train to Busan” (부산행)

Jae-Ha Kim

“Train to Busan” does a great job at depicting how people deal with death during unthinkable times. When your loved one is infected and your only option is to perish (as human beings) with them or kill them so that you (and others) can survive, what would you do?

“Signal” (시그널)

Jae-Ha Kim

“Signal” makes you ponder the consequences of altering life. Is it fate for a person to die at a certain time, no matter how horrific that death might be? And knowing that saving someone’s life in the past could create catastrophic results in the future, would you still take that chance?

“One More Time” (헤어진 다음날)

Jae-Ha Kim

“One More Time” was Kim Myung-Soo’s first lead role. Best known to K-Pop fans as L from the group Infinite, he certainly had the look of a singer-songwriter-guitarist down pat. With a better script and direction, he could’ve really done something with this part. But as it was, Tan was an unsympathetic character who was old enough to be responsible, but too immature to give up his rock ‘n roll lifestyle to pay off his considerable debts.

“Goblin: The Lonely and Great God” (쓸쓸하고 찬란하신 도깨비)

Jae-Ha Kim

There are few things in life that would be more difficult than to watch generations of loved ones grow old and die, while you live on for centuries without them. Such is the case with Kim Shin, a dokkaebi (goblin). For more than 900 years, he has been cursed to live a life of loneliness as atonement for all the enemies he killed during his days as an unbeatable general. Yes, his victims would’ve slain him if they had the opportunity. But, as God says in the narration, they were all precious creations, as well.

“Uncontrollably Fond” (함부로 애틋하게)

Jae-Ha Kim

What would you do if you knew that you had three months left to live? Would you spend it with the ones you love, or would you try to right the wrongs in which you played a part? That’s the dilemma for Korea’s top Hallyu star Joon-Young, who is dying. I don’t feel bad about revealing this bit of information, because it’s revealed early on in this series.

“Doctor Crush” (닥터스)

Jae-Ha Kim

“Doctor Crush” is full of bad characters full of bad intentions: the money-hungry father-son duo trying to take over the hospital; Ji-Hong’s uncle, who steals his inheritance and then dumps him off at an orphanage; Hye-Jung’s father, who abandons her; and even Hye-Jung’s raison d’etre for much of the series: revenge.

“Descendants of the Sun” (태양의 후예)

Jae-Ha Kim

Production on “Descendants of the Sun” began just three months after Song Joong-Ki finished his mandatory two-year military duty in Korea. He displays an easygoing flair in the role of the charismatic leader of the Alpha Team. Even bulked up (for him), Song is slight of build and baby faced. At times, I wondered whether someone like So Ji-Sub would’ve been better cast in the role. But, what he lacks in brawn, Song makes up with magnetism. He has one of those faces that the camera loves.