How the mighty have fallen…

As soyjoy mentioned in her last recap, watching an episode twice makes the shortcomings glaringly obvious. This definitely isn’t a masterpiece that needs to be seen more than once. It’s not surprising for a 50-episode series to be drawn out, but I think some plot development/movement is in order. Fortunately, Lee Chun Hee’s entrance has infused a bit of energy and his love interest has been revealed, giving me some hope for the future. I still enjoy the goofy and sweet moments, so all is not lost.

[Just a little housekeeping note: Unfortunately, our 3rd partner in crime had to bow out, leaving 2 of us for the recaps. With the good ratings, I fully expect to see 50 episodes of Smile, leading to our decision to recap 2 episodes together going forward.]

SONG OF THE DAY

Smile OST – “안녕 내 사랑” (Goodbye, My Love) by Melo’ Breeze [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Smile: Episodes 7-8 (3,332 words)

© dw4p for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 33 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Choi Jung-yoon, episode recaps, guest bloggers, Jung Kyung-ho, Lee Chun-hee, Lee Min-jung, Smile

Hello! I’m Gallivanter, the other half of the Nazreal-Gallivanter team. I’m so happy to be given this opportunity to spread the love on my favorite drama from this summer. But, if I’m going to be retrospective, I don’t know that yet.

Episode four starts to get a little more serious. Not a lot, but some as our characters are now familiar with each other, and no longer care about the language barrier. Or is it that the show no longer cares about making jokes about Korean-English? Either way, I’m thankful. Tamra has all the makings for a quality drama; cinematography, acting, writing, the history and plot, but it’s the unnecessarily silly things that hinder Tamra, and I’m hoping episode four is a sign we’re moving away from that.

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Read the rest of Tamra the Island: Episode 4 (3,451 words)

© Gallivanter for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, guest bloggers, Tamra the Island

This episode is not so much a series of small lol’s as a crescendo towards one, raucous, side-splittingly hilarious scene (Thank you, Lee Chun-hee!!). In my opinion, it’s the funniest scene in this series so far.

Overall, the snappy pace and light fun of this series are getting a bit bogged down, but we do get a lot more Jung-in/Hyun-soo quality time in the latter half of this episode (yay!). In recent episodes, the two carried on about the slapper and traded barbs as they adjusted to the new two-family dynamics, but the actual relationship between the two of them for its own sake hadn’t developed much. Here, we get lots of “I care for you” looks from Hyun-soo toward Jung-in, which I appreciate even if he hasn’t actually mentally processed this yet.

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Read the rest of Smile: Episode 6 (4,499 words)

© soyjoy for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 36 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, guest bloggers, Jung Kyung-ho, Lee Min-jung, Smile

Although Tamra the Island has finished airing, gallivanter and myself have volunteered to continue Javabeans’ efforts to offer recaps to Dramabeans readers. So, in the next weeks, we’re hoping to share detailed recaps, thoughts and opinions on this little treasure of a drama.

Now a side note for Tamra: Unfortunately the powers of MBC decided to cut the original 20 episodes to 16 episodes and by Episode 10 we start seeing the weird effects of crazy editing to keep the storylines flowing. What we’re also hoping to do is recap the original episodes once the DVD release comes out. It’ll be interesting to do a comparison between the editions and look at how much more of the characters/plot/themes we see in an extra 4 hours of viewing time- watch this space!

Otherwise, it’s easy to write about Tamra retrospectively but this could spoil it for first time readers/watchers so we’ll try to recap as we watched it the first time round, keeping the surprises and discoveries fresh.

We really hope you enjoy the recaps; happy reading!

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Read the rest of Tamra the Island: Episode 3 (3,796 words)

© Nazreal for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, guest bloggers, Hwang Chan-bin, Im Joo-hwan, Seo Woo, Tamra the Island

Hullo! I’m soyjoy, and I’ll be your guide through episodes 5 & 6. The three of us “Smile” recappers are rotating weekly, so hopefully our stylistic differences won’t throw you off. Luckily, we’re all in agreement that this is an endearing and enjoyable series, so at least the commentary should be pretty consistent in tone!

I think Lee Min-jung is adorable; she’s the reason I started watching the drama, then quickly got sucked in. She’s refreshing and spunky, and, like javabeans and dw4p, I’m really enjoying her in “Smile.” That said, I think Episode 5 is Jung Kyung-ho’s time to shine. He carries the scenes so well, from understated moments like the one above, to the wildly contorted facial expressions he makes in Hyun-soo’s goofier moments.

And off we go…

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Read the rest of Smile: Episode 5 (3,235 words)

© soyjoy for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 31 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, guest bloggers, Jung Kyung-ho, Lee Min-jung, Smile

This episode had a quite a bit less hustle and bustle compared to the first 3 episodes, but showcased a subtler side. It still had its energy, but maybe with a little restraint. I missed Jung-in a little bit, but appreciated the bits of tranquility.

I’m hoping that the directing will take a hint. Most of the drama to this point has been talking heads just capturing dialogue. While I love close ups of an actor’s facial expression, moderation is usually a good policy. The screencap above is one of the very few wide angle shots – Hyun-soo and Jung-kyung’s first date – and you can feel their awkwardness, in contrast to the other couples in the scene. It’s really a beautiful way to convey their emotions in a NON “I-need-to-hit-you-over-the-head” way.

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Read the rest of Smile: Episode 4 (2,347 words)

© dw4p for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, guest bloggers, Jung Kyung-ho, Lee Min-jung, Smile

Hello all! To help alleviate some of javabean’s lovely recap work, 3 guest bloggers (including yours truly, dw4p) will be taking over the Smile (Smile, You) series. This is my first time doing recaps of this nature, so I may have some growing pains… bear with me!

Just a quick synopsis: Smile stars Lee Min Jung (Boys over Flowers) as Seo Jung-in, a rich and bratty girl who is about to marry to a rich and bratty boy, Lee Han-se (Lee Kyu Han of My Name is Kim Sam Soon and Que Sera, Sera.) When Han-se’s family finds out that Jung-in’s family is bankrupt, they decide to annul the marriage. (He literally leaves her on the highway on route to their honeymoon.)

Kang Hyun-soo (Jung Kyung Ho of Ja Myung Go) is a professor, just back from studying abroad, who runs into Jung-in in her torn wedding dress. We also find out that Hyun-soo’s grandfather was the Seo family’s loyal driver. (Eventually, the Seo’s will move into the Kang’s family, but that’s to come later.)

The star of the series is really Lee Min Jung and she shines. Her character is abrasive and harsh, but she does a great job of making Jung-in likable. We also see a bit of her vulnerable side come out in this episode which I find endearing. (See screencap above.)

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Read the rest of Smile: Episode 3 (2,436 words)

© dw4p for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 39 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, guest bloggers, Jung Kyung-ho, Lee Min-jung, Smile