javabeans: With Big recently over, A Gentleman’s Dignity coming to a close, and a slew of noona romances both on the horizon and on the shelf in dramaland, we’ve been wondering: What, specifically, is the deal with cradle-robbing teachers?

girlfriday: You mean besides being every high-schooler’s fantasy at some point?

javabeans: You clearly did not go to my high school. Shudders. The median age must’ve been past retirement and the median hair color white.

girlfriday: Well that’s depressing. But most people have ONE young hot teacher in their lives, right?

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Read the rest of Thing vs. Thing: Cradle-robbing Teachers (1,119 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 173 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Big, conversation post, featured, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, Gong Yoo, Jung Il-woo, Thing vs. Thing, Unstoppable High Kick

Well, it ends. Listen, my mother said that if I don’t have nice things to say… waitaminute, my mother never said that. Let the ragefest begin!

This show is basically a lesson in math. Turns out you can have great parts, but the sum can add up to less than those parts. I know! I didn’t know it worked that way either! But math is wily like that. And apparently, so are dramas.

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 16 (Final) (4,341 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 828 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

Oy, my head hurts. This wasn’t a straight-up bad episode, which I might have even been fine with, given the entertainment value of bad. (See: Dr. Jin.) Instead, it was outright incomprehensible, leaving me scratching my head in confusion and wondering if I suddenly lost a few brain cells in the story comprehension department, because I felt like everyone in the drama was acting like stuff made sense… only IT MADE NO SENSE. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. I don’t understand.

SONG OF THE DAY

Hey – “Une Dance” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 15 (4,237 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 241 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

Just when you think you’ve gotten through all the major revelations, more twists and turns come barreling through everyone’s lives like a tornado. The twists are cool, but the way everyone’s acting has me climbing the walls and losing my patience. Must everyone be on the path to noble idiocy? And if you get found out and keep going down that road anyway, doesn’t that just make you… an idiot? Thankfully Kyung-joon’s heartbreaking reactions keep me grounded in the moments, otherwise I’d just be throwing things.

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 14 (4,538 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 302 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

Major revelations come pouring out, including the birth secret, the link between the brothers, and even the mechanism of the body-swap. It’s a lot to take in, and our characters struggle to deal with the aftermath of having their minds blown fifty ways to Sunday… and try to figure out what this means for them now. What really matters when all’s said and done?

SONG OF THE DAY

Suzy – “그래도 사랑해” (But I love you anyway) from the Big OST [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 13 (4,285 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 204 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

Well it only took twelve episodes, but I finally love an episode of this show without reservation. Part of me is wistful at the what-could-have-been, and part of me is just grateful it came at all. It’s an episode full of emotional payoffs, clever connections, and lots and lots of fuzzy, funny warmth.

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 12 (4,820 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 230 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

On the heels of one big confusing realization comes another one, and our girl is left reeling with her head turned upside-down and around and totally unsure of what’s what. For the first time, I felt some sympathy for what it must feel like to be Da-ran, caught in the emotional in-between along with Kyung-joon and not having a clear answer on what the “right” thing to do is. We’ve been with Kyung-joon from pretty much Day 1 so she’s 11 steps behind him, but I’m glad I’m finally with her at all, since I wasn’t sure we’d get there.

SONG OF THE DAY

Bo Kyung & Shayne – “내게 무슨짓을 한 거야” (What Have You Done To Me)
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 11 (3,866 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 182 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

Now that Da-ran is cluing into her feelings, we get some great stuff – the right kind of angst, a flurry of confused feelings, and a lot of crossed wires between two people who swore not to love each other. Oops. This is why you should always leave a loophole in your fake contract marriages, people!

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 10 (4,579 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 272 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

Hurrah for major—or should we say, big—reveals, which throw a twist into the story. There are two significant developments in this episode, one of which we were waiting for as our main couple finally get onto something resembling the same page, and the other which frankly comes as a shocker. That excites me.

SONG OF THE DAY

Hee Young – “Are You Still Waiting?” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 9 (3,953 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 142 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

There are twists and turns and major decisions, some of which I wish we didn’t decide so hastily. We also start to unravel Kyung-joon’s backstory and the mystery of Yoon-jae and Kyung-joon’s connection. The way that’s being teased (one excrutiatingly teensy drop at a time), I certainly hope it amounts to something worth waiting for, that subverts our expectations. Please?

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Read the rest of Big: Episode 8 (4,777 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 261 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy