Episode 20 – The Greatest Ending Ever.

Last episode, Mayor Shin Mi Rae faced BB’s awesome threat of literally destroying Inju City and everyone in it. And so Mi Rae had no choice but to sign the MOU and Authorization, the documents that would allow the building of a toxic waste recycling plant in Inju City – an act condemning the city to a slow death rather than a quick one. Mi Rae worked out a deal prior to the signing however, resigning her position as Mayor and only going through the motions of signing even though she had no authority to sign anything. This allowed Jo Gook the time he needed to secure hard evidence of the Dae Han Group’s intentions as well as getting legislation passed to prevent future toxic waste recycling plants from being built on Korean soil. The combined actions of Mi Rae and Jo Gook have saved Inju City, but the cost was steep. Mi Rae is no longer Mayor and is probably going to jail for fraud, losing everything she owns including her freedom.

Jo Gook looks at Mi Rae with profound sadness. Why couldn’t she have just hung on for just a little while longer? Mi Rae notes, eyeing Go Hae, that she had no choice as there were too many lives on the line. She had to act.

SONG OF THE DAY

Park Sang-woo – “사랑하고 사랑합니다” (I love you and I love you) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of City Hall: Episode 20 (Final) (4,160 words)

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Post tags: Cha Seung-won, City Hall, Kim Sun-ah

Episode 19 – Invictus: The End of Mayor Shin.

Mayor Shin Mi Rae, in a stunning move, refuses to sign the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) contract or any authorization to begin selling the land to Dae Han Group. The landowners are beyond riled up, spitting mad at potentially losing their chance at becoming rich. Go Hae is furious, being made to look like a fool by a simpleton mayor, not to mention the hundreds of man-hours of work that went into this project already. And Jo Gook is crushed, seeing that all of his efforts to protect Mi Rae seem to have gone up in smoke. All Mi Rae has done is place herself in danger again, but this time, Jo Gook has nothing left to offer BB, to spare Mi Rae from being crushed like an ant.

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Read the rest of City Hall: Episode 19 (5,006 words)

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Post tags: Cha Seung-won, City Hall, Kim Sun-ah

Episode 18 – “It’s not your fault I am leaving.”

What does it take to break Shin Mi Rae? What her enemies just don’t understand is that Shin Mi Rae is actually two separate people: the protector and the woman. To break Shin Mi Rae, you cannot just put up a political filibuster or trump up false charges like what Joo Hwa has done. And you cannot just wave an engagement ring in her face like what Go Hae has done. To break her, you have to break both the protector and the woman. Jo Gook, sacrificing his own hope for happiness and love, has purposely only broken the woman in Shin Mi Rae but has left the protector alone – what he knows better than anyone else is that Mi Rae the Protector will now grow even stronger. And Jo Gook knows that Mi Rae will need every single ounce of strength to fight what is coming. This is a time for war, and what Inju City desperately needs is their Wonder Woman.

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Read the rest of City Hall: Episode 18 (3,679 words)

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Post tags: Cha Seung-won, City Hall, Kim Sun-ah

Episode 17 – Trial By Ordeal: the Judgment of Shin Mi Rae.

While the concept of trial by ordeal is probably most easily associated with Medieval Europe, equally loathsome practices were institutionalized in ancient China and Korea as well, all of it based on the idea that to get to the truth, one must exact and another must endure great pain. What’s more, the “cost” of truth is evident even in mass contests, as in any conflict opposing sides battle not just for material gain but also for the right of moral suasion. The adage goes, “winners write the history books” and so “truth” is often based on which side is able to sacrifice more for victory. Last episode, Shin Mi Rae, fresh from the happiest day of her life, has found that the simmering political and personal conflicts that she has been fighting have reached boiling points. She has been arrested at the behest of unknowns, charged with bribery and corruption. In order to win the fight for the truth, Mi Rae, as Mayor and as a woman, must pass through her trials by ordeal. There is no other way.

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Read the rest of City Hall: Episode 17 (3,810 words)

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Post tags: Cha Seung-won, City Hall, Kim Sun-ah

Here we are! The last of the year-end review series.

This post is something new, but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. Although each of us reviewers has our personal favorites, which we outlined in our personal reviews, it’s a different thing to move past preference and try to be objective in a sort of Dramabeans Awards — hence, these Editors’ Picks.

We voted in rounds, first nominating all potential candidates, then narrowing them down to a small pool of finalists, then culling that to one or two picks. As a result, not all of us got picks that we may have personally felt were most fitting, but we all respected the process and the opinions that led us to these selections.

SONG OF THE DAY

Queen Seon-deok OST – “아라로” (Araro) by I.U. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of 2009 Editors’ Picks [Year In Review, Part 6] (4,806 words)

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Post tags: Accidental Couple, Again My Love, Assorted Gems, awards, Boys Before Flowers, Brilliant Legacy, City Hall, Friend Our Legend, IRIS, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Story of a Man, year in review, You're Beautiful

My pick for Drama of the Year: City Hall.

I’ll start of with an admission.  When javabeans asked me to give my thoughts on 2009, I was pretty excited, and agreed without much thought.  After all, 2009 was the best year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had.  But then it hit me: 2009 was also the only year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had. lol. And so, even given the number of dramas as I have seen this year (probably topping 50) I feel a bit out of my league.  How can I be critique-ing with any legitimacy?  

Nevertheless, I do think a newbie’s perspective on dramas is not necessarily a bad thing - since everything is new to me, it is tougher for me to be jaded.  Like when I saw Save The Last Dance For Me (my third k-drama ever!), I spent days afterwords thinking about what it would be like to have amnesia and then a second round of amnesia where I would forget what I had promised to remember while being forgetful the first time time around…

So while I can’t do an expert review, since I’m not an expert, I can give a newbie opinion on what worked for me, and what didn’t.  First though, a little background on me so that you know where I am coming from.  Sample of pre-2009 dramas that I liked:  My Love Patzzi, Who Are You, Full House, Save The Last Dance For Me, Two Outs In The Bottom of the Ninth, and Super Rookie.  These dramas tend to mix cuteness and heart together in a way that Western television shows still haven’t figured out how to do consistently.  I think it has something to do with the soundtrack songs that act as demi leit motifs and burrow the sentiment of the drama into your heart and mind. I mean would Full House have been as good, without “I Think I” by Byul? Or how good would Save The Last Dance For Me have been, without Edward Chun’s breath-y lyrics?

And taking it up a notch, here is a sample of pre-2009 dramas I loved:  Goong, Coffee Prince, Bad Family, Dal Ja’s Spring, Hong Gil Dong and My Girl.  Even more than the first group, these latter dramas did more than just create a nice balance of cuteness and heart; these dramas created a love story so palpable and real that, if you wanted to, you would need both hands to reach out and hold onto one.  And lastly, my first and still favorite drama of all is My Name is Kim Sam Soon, which combined everything – the cuteness, heart, love story, wonderful acting and a kickass OST.

Enough with the old, however. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on 2009 (oh, btw, hit “play” for the mp3 so you get the full technicolor and sound effects of this review. if the song ends, and you’re not done reading, then just scroll back up and hit play again. hehehe!):

SONG OF THE DAY

City Hall OST – “웃어봐” (Laugh) by Chae Dong-ha [ Download ]

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Read the rest of A Newbie Reviews 2009 [Year In Review, Part 3] (3,980 words)

© samsooki for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 155 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Assorted Gems, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Friend Our Legend, IRIS, Job Well Done, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Tamra the Island, Temptation of Wife, year in review, You're Beautiful

Have you watched The Good, The Bad, The Weird? If you haven’t and the movie is available for rent in a store near you, pick it up and invite a few friends over. It’s truckloads of fun and will fit in perfectly with the fêting and feasting this time of the year. Moreover, you’ll find yourself clutching your sides because he who plays “The Weird” is so funny. Between the figurative good, bad and weird in the movie, I’ll take whoever makes me laugh the hardest.

Likewise, in a year where I watched fewer dramas but finished more of them, my favorites were the ones that made me squeal and giggle. As the months passed and it became apparent that this was going to be another so-so year, I lowered my expectations and decided a good drama need not be perfect in every aspect. All I asked was that the writing was alight (not necessarily crackling in every scene), that it worked my laugh muscles, and that it wouldn’t leave me with hives or a nauseating hangover.

SONG OF THE DAY

You’re Beautiful OST – “Promise” (A.N.JELL version) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of The Good, The Bad, The Middling [Year In Review, Part 2] (8,683 words)

© thunderbolt for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 147 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Again My Love, Assorted Gems, Brilliant Legacy, City Hall, Hometown of Legends 2009, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, Loving You a Thousand Times, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Smile, Strike Love, The Man Who Can't Get Married, year in review, You're Beautiful

Episode 16 – “Love Like Your Heart Has Never Been Broken.”

One of the things that I love about this drama is the fact that the characters get right back up if they are knocked down. This goes for Mi Rae (of course), but it also goes for almost everybody else. Jo Gook, Go Hae, Joo Hwa, BB, Boo Mi… all of the characters suffer serious body blows (albeit from each other) but they keep getting back up. It takes a good deal of courage, strength and hope (or spite, hehe) to get back on your feet once you’ve been knocked down, and of course, this is all part of the emotional journey affectionately known as the City Hall Rollercoaster.

“Love like your heart has never been broken” is a quote from William W. Purkey, and fans of Kim Sun Ah will recognize this quote immediately as being used in the immortal drama series, My Name Is Kim Sam Soon. We are given an imperative to explore the human spirit’s ability to overcome loss, and with Kim Sun Ah as the intrepid explorer, in this drama and in MNIKSS, we have our wonderful guide.

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Read the rest of City Hall: Episode 16 (3,530 words)

© samsooki for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 41 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cha Seung-won, City Hall, Kim Sun-ah

Episode 15 – “The Price of Victory.”

As amazing and as fun as Episode 14 was to watch, I feel like Episode 15 is deeper, stronger, all-encompassing.  I know that many of you have wondered how I would recap this highly emotional episode, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure how to do it when I started.  Sometimes, you can get too close to the characters.  Sometimes you can get too involved and all you want to do is just watch and not write.  We tend to reveal our inner selves as we write, and writing this recap certainly reveals a lot about the way I think. This episode is titled “The Price of Victory,” because sometimes, when you win at any cost you can actually lose.

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Read the rest of City Hall: Episode 15 (4,528 words)

© samsooki for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 61 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cha Seung-won, City Hall, Kim Sun-ah

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Read the rest of City Hall: Episode 14 (4,036 words)

© samsooki for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 78 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cha Seung-won, City Hall, Kim Sun-ah