Believe In Love, which comes from the makers of 2009′s hit family series Sons of Sol Pharmacy, enjoyed a very strong first outing this weekend, with its first episode bringing in a 21.6% viewership rating (AGB Nielsen) on Saturday evening. In the same timeslot, its competitors brought in a 12.2% and 11.2% for SBS’s Laugh, Mom and MBC’s Gloria, respectively.

AGB numbers aren’t available yet for the second episode, but TNS gives 21.1% for Sunday. This bodes well for Believe In Love, which is already performing better than its predecessor; Marry Me started out with a 16.7% and averaged a 24.2% for its entire run, peaking with 34.8%. Meanwhile, Sol Pharmacy‘s first episode came in with a solid 18%, and went on to top 40%, so this is a good sign.

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Read the rest of Weekend drama Believe In Love makes strong premiere (335 words)

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Post tags: drama ratings, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House

After a pretty meh 2008, I was ready for the drama landscape to fire back up with 2009. And while there were a number of misses and disappointments — isn’t there always? — I was pretty satisfied with the dramas I watched in 2009. I still don’t think there were as many top offerings as, say, 2007, but I found a number of series to entertain me and satisfy my drama craving. There were a few selections early on that got me pumped for the year and things lagged during and after the summer months, but all told, I had an entertaining year.

(Okay, this is LONG. I tried to contain myself, really.)

SONG OF THE DAY

IRIS – “Empty” by Juni [ Download ]

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Read the rest of All Told, A Pretty Fun Year [Year In Review, Part 4] (7,596 words)

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Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Cinderella Man, Dream, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Style, Swallow the Sun, Tamra the Island, Triple, Will It Snow For Christmas, 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)

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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

Better late than never?

Rewatching this drama now, two months after it has ended, actually reminds me why I was so drawn to it in the first place. As a simple family comedy, there are no big stars, special effects, or cutting-edge stories — just relationships that are heartwarming and familiar and easily enjoyed.

SONG OF THE DAY

Rumble Fish – “Sorry” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Sons of Sol Pharmacy: Episodes 32-34 (2,778 words)

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Post tags: Han Sang-jin, Ji Chang-wook, Lee Pil-mo, Sohn Hyun-joo, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House

With the year coming to an end, that means it’s time to take stock of the past twelve months (well, eleven really) in kdramas. The broadcast stations will be holding their awards ceremonies at the end of the month, and I’m working on my wrap-up of 2009′s offerings — as are some very talented (and prolific!) drama-watching fans — which I’ll post up closer to the end of the year.

But this is your turn to weigh in on what you liked or didn’t. I didn’t do a year-end poll last year (after putting one up in 2007) and people seemed to really want one, so it’s back.

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Read the rest of How was 2009 for you? (1,304 words)

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Post tags: A Star's Lover, Accidental Couple, Angel's Temptation, Boys Before Flowers, Brilliant Legacy, Cain and Abel, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Dream, Friend, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Ja Myung Go, Job Well Done, Loving You a Thousand Times, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen of Housewives, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Strike Love, Style, Tamra the Island, Triple, year in review

With this batch of episodes, we head into some of my favorite territory, which coincides with the ending of one (tiresome) love line and the beginning (or elevation) of another, more interesting one.

SONG OF THE DAY

Sons of Sol Pharmacy OST – “말해요” (Say it)
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of Sons of Sol Pharmacy: Episodes 29-31 (2,640 words)

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Post tags: Han Sang-jin, Ji Chang-wook, Lee Pil-mo, Sohn Hyun-joo, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Yoo Hana, Yoo Sun

Recaps are back! Sorry for the wait, but you know how these things go. The show recently wrapped and claimed the slot as highest-rated drama of the year, but as far as recaps go I think we’re just starting to head into deeper plot territory with these episodes, now that we’ve got one brother (Sun-pung) happily married off and out of the way.

Sun-pung’s had the least dramatic courtship so I think it was smart to start off the series with his and Eun-ji’s romance — I know I was tuning in to the earlier episodes mostly to follow their development. I’m a little sad that the Sun-pung–Eun-ji relationship will probably recede now, since they are my favorite pair, but I suppose they need to make room for the others now.

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Read the rest of Sons of Sol Pharmacy: Episodes 26-28 (3,125 words)

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Post tags: Han Sang-jin, Ji Chang-wook, Lee Pil-mo, Sohn Hyun-joo, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House

As noted in the previous post about weekend drama ratings, Sons of Sol Pharmacy ended on a strong note. Its Sunday finale brought KBS a series (and year) high with ratings of 48.6%.

This also means that it has surpassed SBS’s Brilliant Legacy to claim top spot of the entire year out of all three broadcast stations (Brilliant Legacy‘s high was a 47.1%). There are three dramas that have broken the 40% mark this year; MBC’s Monday-Tuesday historical series Queen Seon-deok is the third.

I won’t get into plot spoilers about Sol Pharmacy‘s finale, but suffice to say that there were laughs and tears, and generally satisfying wrap-ups for the relationships of each of the Song family sons, as befitting the series’ emphasis on family and comedy. Next up in its time slot: Three Brothers (or Three Suspicious Brothers), which comes from the writer of Infamous Chil Princesses. Lee Jun-hyuk (A Star’s Lover), Ahn Nae-sang (First Wives Club), and Oh Dae-kyu (First Wives Club) star as the three brothers; the drama’s tagline reads, “Is family a yoke or a refuge?”

Via OSEN, Star News

RELATED POSTS

• Tentative starts for new weekend dramas
• The business of kdrama extensions and cuts
• Another Sol Pharmacy son gains endorsement power
• Sol Pharmacy son Lee Pil-mo enjoys sharp rise in popularity
• KBS orders extension for Sol Pharmacy
• The Sons of Sol Pharmacy House / My Too Perfect Sons

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drama ratings, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House

Yep, we as drama-lovers tend to have a love-hate (mostly hate, I think) relationship with drama extensions and, even worse, unexpected cuts. Even a good drama can be ruined in the end by unnecessary extensions — a long-running epic series may suffer less from adding episodes than a short drama whose story was never meant to go beyond 16 or 20 installments. I know that this trend stems from that pernicious habit of broadcast stations’ knee-jerk reactions to ratings, but as much as we hate that, I think we all kind of understand why a station places so much importance on ratings. Here’s an article that discusses the trend.

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Read the rest of The business of kdrama extensions and cuts (926 words)

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Post tags: drama ratings, Queen of Housewives, Queen Seon-deok, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Strike Love, Tamra the Island

KBS’s warm family drama Sons of Sol Pharmacy is doing 40% ratings and has given its cast heightened profiles. For known actors like Lee Pil-mo (Dae-pung) and Han Sang-jin (Sun-pung), this means an increase in popularity and more endorsement deals. For a newbie like 22-year-old Ji Chang-wook (youngest brother Mi-pung), it means a sudden shot to stardom out of obscurity.

Now Ji Chang-wook has scored his own advertising deal, and will appear alongside Gu Hye-sun as the new brand model for Shinhan Financial Group. They recently shot a CF together playing boyfriend and girlfriend, which shows an image shift for Ji. While he currently plays the sweet, timid (and “sissy”) Mi-pung in Sol Pharmacy, his new CF image portrays him as “wolfish” and assertive.

His drama role has also led to multiple offers for follow-up projects, as well as potential CF advertising deals. Ji Chang-wook made his debut in the 2006 film Days… [데이즈] and had a role in the 2008 drama I Like You [난 네게 반했어]

Via CBS.co.kr

RELATED POSTS

• Sol Pharmacy son Lee Pil-mo enjoys sharp rise in popularity
• KBS orders extension for Sol Pharmacy
• The Sons of Sol Pharmacy House / My Too Perfect Sons

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CFs, Ji Chang-wook, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House