thanks and more power…

East of Eden…. 50 episode was too much for someone who has a very short attention span when it comes to kdramas (I drop 80% of dramas I attempt to watch). Not to mention, birth switch, revenge, quadrangle, or was it a heptagon? However, Lee Da Hae and Han Ji Hye were my biggest motivation.. actually, mostly just Han Ji Hye. It started out frustratingly depressing, however Kim Bum’s acting was amazing for his age and experience. As soon as he left, DongChul was never the same for me. Han Ji Hye, no matter how big of a fan I was, was horrifying with the bawling and the shrieking… reminded me of her “mother” in Likable or Not, who was too annoying, it made me want to pull my hair out. However, by ep 10-14, there was a change in the story, thus the sudden development in characters.. and HJH’s acting turned 180 degrees. Their little love triangle story became unconventional, it finally started to get interesting. But then, as we all have heard of how PD and network may have favored one person’s request over the other.. how they wanted to glorify the comeback of that certain actor.. the other little love story went in circles too many times that it left me all dizzy and bored. From experience of getting a sudden shock with 10-14, I was holding on and hoping it will get better.. 20 episodes later, nada.

Since there were many characters in the drama, there were many subplots that had to be covered. In the end, they were not covered.. they were forgotten by PD/writer and just slowly faded away.. later on, came up with some pathetic excuses. I wonder, do these neglected actors/actresses feel any insult by the change of plans and priorities? The only characters that I was holding on were sabotaged. HJH’s victim turned determined wife/mother/business woman was turned to “shrewd,” “ambitious”, and “selfish” bitch..at least that’s what the writer wanted to show.. then later turned back into a victim. Park Hae Jin who stepped up his game in the acting arena was marvelously getting better by each episode.. however, with the sabotage in his character (just one among others sabotaged too… Yoon Jeong Heon).. by ep 40+, he himself ended up confused with all the writing .. that once impressive actor, turned stiff/wooden/stoned..After putting up and understanding the little screentime they’ve got since they’re not leads.. I can’t believe that their characters had to be sabotaged to glorify the lead, to show he’s the most loved, the most righteous, most loving, most selfless.. (etc) character in the entire history of kdramas. The last sentence is probably the best summary I could give you of EOE. And for someone who stuck through 56 long episodes (I was dying each time they announce it being extended)… I say this is an EPIC FAILURE.

I once rejoiced that Park Hae Jin’s important scene is EOE’s peak real time rating… out of all 56 episodes. You explained already why this drama is unwatchable. Rating-wise, maybe there are more ppl out there who just wanted to see this through the end after investing so much time. I should’ve known better that this is not an ensemble cast.. but it’s a cast that would have to be sacrificed for the sake of one or two people.

As a fan of PHJ and HJH, it’s a pity.. they did so well, and matured so much through this drama.. but I just hate the drama so much (both in front and behind the camera). I would end up just disregarding the latter half.. or just focus on their little story.. If not, explanation of why EOE suck will never end.

Not only did I find certain person/people distasteful.. but I’m actually scared at that person’s power/arrogance/selfishness.. well, most scared of the power.. how far others have to go to please him.. scared for the future costars and colleagues.. very scared… Hopefully they will be well-liked so they don’t experience being stepped on by some big name.

I recently finished watching 3 Dads 1 Mom. After reading all the comments, I noticed that no one had watched that show or made any comments about it.

My brother… of all people… recommended it to me because he is a huge Eugene fan while I am a huge Jae Hee fan. I have to admit, the first part of the series was just plain annoying. Anyone who is stupid like Eugene’s character should not be a mom… which is why she is so lucky to have 3 other guys behind her back. Overall, I know the story line at the beginning was not very good but I have to say, give it a chance, watch it all the way through because the story does pick up and get better! You see all of the character’s change for the better just because the baby Ha Seon came into their lives!

For how I enjoyed it, I would give it an 8/10. It was definately hilarious! I laughed at every episode. For the drama itself, probably an 8/10 for the terrible beginning but it regained momentum at the end.

This drama is definately not the stereotypical Korean drama with romance, cheating lovers, unrequitted love, cancer, and amnesia. BUT I enjoyed watching 3 dads 1 mom because of the family values it emphasizes! Sorry for being old-fashioned but society these days has lost it’s values and excitement in children for some reason.

I miss Kang Ji-hwan, I hope, he’ll make a new drama that will show again his expertise in acting… “I LOVE YOU” Kang Ji-hwan!!! Good Luck…

from your Number 1 fan in the Philippines
Claudette Faye R. Cartabio

i m a big fan of sun ah. i would like to think that 2008 is her final year in her degree course..timing wise, may to aug 08 might have been a school break for her, so embarking on WIAN at that time might have been a good idea to her…a mistake though not the biggest mistake in her acting career. She herself admitted that Naked Christmas was her worst project ever. WIAN was not an UNwatchable drama for me but it would have been better as a movie…purely for entertaining value and hence shortened the dull pain to a mere under 2 hr episode. It went downhill after ep 6.
I am glad though that she redeemed herself by taking on a short project with Rain.
Anyway, so looking forward to her upcoming dramas for 2009 : City Hall and After Wedding Banquet?

I can see why no one bothered to comment on You R My Destiny. I only caught it around ep 90+ and even then, i didn’t bother to watch every episode…and probably dropped about 30 episodes. Then I happened to tune into one of those actors (Lee Jihoon) trying to promote it and said that the plot is thickening and getting better. I was a sucker and fell for it…my mistake. Picked it up again and I have never felt so cheated in my life. Watched the KBS Award and Yoona got the award for best actress in U R My Destiny?! For what!! Omo..i still have a splitting headache from this drama.

I sincerely hope 2009 has better dramas to offer. I am an escapist when it comes to dramas/movies. Dislike all the doom and gloom for a drama in a world where there is already plenty of it. Aza! Aza!

I actually enjoyed a few of the dramas I watched this year. (I don’t think there will be a drama that I love more than MNIKSS)
-On Air (although the pairing wasn’t what I had expected), it made me love Kim Ha Neul as an actresses. I still remember this one scene where she had to bawl like a kid for Ticket to the Moon.
-East of Eden. Surprisingly, I didn’t enjoy the first 4 episodes as much as everyone else did. I liked the story afterward. It’s a big commitment to watch 56 episodes of a drama. I’m glad I stuck to it though (I didn’t watch some episodes due to lack of time but I’m picking it up)
-When it’s at Night. I’m not going to lie and say I thoroughly enjoyed this drama. There were some very boring parts because I really don’t care much for retrieving artifacts, etc. The description of Sun Ah’s character was sexiness, which I didn’t see except in episode 5 where she dressed up. I watched this drama for Sun Ah. She’s my favourite actress and I missed her since MNIKSS. It’s disappointing to see her comeback drama to be a flop… I hope she will get better roles/dramas later on (City Hall!)

Now onto dramas that I couldn’t continue on watching…
-I started Iljimae because of Junki, but I didn’t continue after episode 4.
-Same with Powerful Opponents… it became less engaging after the 10th episode and not enough character development.
-Robbers, I like Lee Da Hae, she’s the reason why I decided to watch it in the first place. I enjoyed her crying scenes, but I despised Jang Hyuk’s character, so I couldn’t continue.
-Worlds Within: this was a highly anticipated drama for me. The first episode failed to capture my attention. I tried watching it several times, still couldn’t get into it.

I’m hoping for better drama in 2009.
currently anticipating City Hall

First on my MUST WATCH list is Hong Gil Dong. I love the intensity of Kang Ji Hwan’s acting as well as his sense of humor. Sung Yuri totally improved her acting too and she really does play the goofy, over the top role well. Also true that Jang Geun-seok’s acting was mostly flat on this one. Or was it just his role that was supposed to be one-dimensional. Still one of the best dramas for 2008.

After Hong Gil Dong, I checked out Three Dads and One Mom because of Jae Hee (one of my favorite actors since Delightful Girl Choon Hyang). I actually enjoyed the bonding of the three men. They were hilarious when taking care of the baby and watching her grow up. What was bad about it was that none of the three men actually had any chemistry with Eugene. This is a should watch drama.

Also watched Iljimae afterwards since the summary was like Hong Gil Dong and starring Lee Jun Ki. I loved all the dramas he’s done so far so of course I couldn’t miss his new one. However, I was a bit disappointed at the drama (the editing was so bad I couldn’t follow what was going on the first few episodes). The PD kept jumping all over the place. I did like the action scenes on this one especially acted well by Jun Ki. But again with the messed up ending. I mean what did happen.

Tried watching Robber because Jang Hyuk did so well on Thank You and Lee Da-hae from My Girl and wanted to forget her Hello Miss disaster. The beginning was funny. The acting was superb. What made me not enjoy the drama was the over dramatic storyline so I dropped it halfway through.

When those dramas ended or not finished, I didn’t know what to watch next so had to look at D-addicts again for something. What I found surprising was Last Scandal. It totally belongs in the MUST WATCH list. It has all the cliches of a Korean drama, but the acting is top notch that I can’t help watching the next episode. I started watching it after all the episodes have already been subbed. It’s never too late to watch this awesome drama. And yes I am sad to find out that this will be Choi Jin-shil’s last drama after her untimely death.

Then for the fall season, browsing through the Korean blogs news site, D-addicts, there were so many anticipated dramas. What I planned to watch were East of Eden, Kingdom of the Wind, Painter of the Wind, Beethoven Virus.

East of Eden belongs in the unwatchable or barely watched category. Yes I did try the first 4 episodes especially with most of the cast I’ve grown to like when seeing most of their older dramas. Found out about Kim Bum (cute Yi-jung of BOF’s F4) here and his intense acting role. But even with the best of the best acting in a drama, it totally reminded me of many Korean tragic dramas which I’ve come to hate ever since I’ve watched too many of the early days (ok I’m talking about the first two years I’ve been watching Korean dramas in general so it’s maybe not that long ago). Korean tragic dramas are those where the good guys always get treated so poorly and do not do anything for their circumstances while the bad guys prevail. Another aspect which totally made me drop the entire drama was the # of episodes planned for it. Dude, if I have to watch a drama with 50 episodes of crying, why not just scrap it now.

Don’t need to say much, but Excellent for Kingdom of the Wind and Painter of the Wind.

However, this may be a shock to some people but Beethoven Virus so far belongs in the still watching even if it kills me list. Ok, I’ve only seen the first 4 episodes then stopped. I have all episodes downloaded but need to find the will to watch it. What got me annoyed was when Du Ru Mi suddenly started having a crush on the Evil Maestro (what did she see in him?). I’m talking about the episode where they had their first public concert and she didn’t want him to leave. That was too early to be mesmerized because he only treated her like trash.

The still watching drama because the subs are going way too slow are Gourmet and Every Night. First Gourmet is a very unlike any Kdramas I’ve seen. It reminds me of Yakitate Japan, Hikaru no Go or Shounen sports animes where they have contests, rivalry and good food with an awesome cast. I haven’t seen much of Kim Rae-won since My Love Patzzi (well I did try watching Which Star Are You From, but I totally need to make time for that and have the patience to watch something boring). Yet, this drama is enjoyable because of his honest, feel good acting.

Every Night with Kim Sam Soon and Lee Dong Gun belongs to the Watchable category. It also has a different take of Korean drama. The focus isn’t on the love story (sorry must say that Lee Dong Gun and Kim Sun-ah didn’t have much of a chemistry but their bickering scenes were hilarious), but Korean historical artifacts. I like learning about culture and restoring them has never been done in dramas before. It’s different and unpredictable. I actually liked the mystery-ness of it all.