Here we are, Part 5!

As girlfriday said in her review, I’d also like to thank guest bloggers Dahee Fanel and thunderbolt for participating in this year’s year-in-review roundup. A particular thank-you goes out to GF herself for being so game to jump into this whole world of crazy with me, and I think you’ll all agree when I say that Dramabeans is better for her addition to it. I never fail to get a huge kick out of her wicked humor, or for Dahee’s frank and bold insights, or thundie’s thoughtful eloquence. We don’t always agree, but that’s exactly why I love hearing the differing points of views.

Most of all, thanks to the DB readership — that means you! — who have been so supportive, vibrant, and often laugh-out-loud funny. We don’t take you guys for granted, rest assured, and are honored by the community you’ve built here. It’s like a second home, which sounds like a metaphor but actually isn’t because with all the hours I spend here, it really IS one.

So here’s the last of the reviews! With that, we bid adieu to the past year and look forward to lots more laughs, craziness, and yes, head-pounding-WTF-ery in the new year. Bring it on, 2011.

SONG OF THE DAY

Standing Egg – “First Christmas.” The song’s a day or two late, but no matter: Hope your Christmas (or other seasonal holiday) was merry! [ Download ]

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Read the rest of 2010 Editors’ Picks [Year In Review, Part 5] (5,374 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 379 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baker King Kim Tak-gu, Cinderella's Sister, Coffee House, Eom Ji-won, featured, Giant, Jang Hyuk, Jejoongwon, Joseon X-Files, Jung Bo-seok, Kim Gab-soo, Kim Hyun-joong, Lee Mi-sook, Micky Yoochun, Moon Geun-young, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, Personal Taste, Rain, Runaway, Shin Mina, Sohn Ye-jin, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, year in review, Yoo Ah-in

I have to say, 2010 was a downright awesome year. It was the year of bromance, the year that Santa came in August, the year when guys had perms and noonas ruled, the year of the sparkly tracksuit and hoi-hoi, the year that makgulli made a comeback. But most importantly for me, it was the year I joined Dramabeans and got to know all of you. So thanks, for all the encouragement, the thoughtful commentary, the dissenting voices, the snark, and of course…the fangirling. It’s been a helluva year for this recapper, and I for one couldn’t ask for anything better for Christmas than one giant, crazy, Dramabeans family.

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Read the rest of Objects in mirror are closer than they appear [Year In Review, Part 4] (8,432 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 153 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Bad Guy, Baker King Kim Tak-gu, Cinderella's Sister, Coffee House, Dr. Champ, Drama Special, featured, God of Study, I Am Legend, Mary Stayed Out All Night, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, Pasta, Personal Taste, Playful Kiss, Prosecutor Princess, Queen of Reversals, Runaway, Secret Garden, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, year in review

This has been an exceptional year for kdramas. Just ask Kim Gab-soo, if you can catch him in an idle moment, that is. The man appeared in ten dramas this year, a number that is mind-boggling in itself and one which is bound to make Bae Yong-joon’s fans wail.

But it isn’t just the sheer volume of Kim Gab-soo awesomeness that we could feast on that makes 2010 a heady year. No, for me it was how many dramas were jostling for first place that makes this year especially exhilarating. Not since 2007 have I seen such quality or liked so many dramas in a span of just twelve months. Altogether I watched more than twenty but will exclude from this year-end review the ones that I dropped or put on hold after 1-3 episodes. That leaves me with fifteen dramas, arranged from least-liked to the one that owns my heart this year.

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Read the rest of Heady with a chance of ho hum [Year In Review, Part 3] (9,579 words)

© thunderbolt for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 145 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chuno, Coffee House, Comrades, Dr. Champ, featured, Giant, Jejoongwon, Joseon X-Files, Mary Stayed Out All Night, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, Oh My Lady, Secret Garden, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, Wish Upon a Star, year in review

It’s that time of year again, when we look back and size up the past twelve months of dramas. This is my fourth year (this is my fourth year?!) doing this, and it’s always one of my favorite posts to write, because while I love to analyze and parse dramas to within an inch of their lives via recaps, I also enjoy looking at them through a holistic lens, to survey the forest as well as the trees. Plus, I eagerly anticipate what my fellow drama-loving friends have to say. I know that we’ll always have differences of opinion, but that’s the fun of it.

As in past years, this’ll be a multi-part series, with five posts in total. If you’d like to check out past Year In Review posts, you can get there by way of this handy link — linky! — or via the recap index.

Without further ado, let’s get this show on the road.

SONG OF THE DAY

Cinderella’s Sister OST – “Smile Again” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of A year of surprises and disappointments [Year In Review, Part 1] (7,921 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 184 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bad Guy, Cinderella's Sister, Coffee House, Dr. Champ, Drama Special, featured, I Am Legend, Joseon X-Files, Mary Stayed Out All Night, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, Oh My Lady, Personal Taste, Playful Kiss, Runaway, Secret Garden, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, Wish Upon a Star, year in review

It’s December, and you know what that means around these parts: Time to reflect on the past year and see how the dramas stacked up! And boy, were there a lot of them.

As in previous years, I am planning a multi-part series (with special guest bloggers, natch!) to wrap up the year, which we’re busily writing up now — keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks! If you want a refresher on how previous years have gone, here’s this handy tag to take you right to them.

But before we tell you what we thought about the dramas of 2010, this is YOUR turn to weigh in and vote for your favorite shows, couples, bromances — and, yes, your big disappointments — in what we’re calling the Beanie Awards. They’re in your hands; give ‘em out with care!

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Read the rest of 2010 Beanie Awards: Vote for your favorite dramas of the year (1,194 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 679 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bad Guy, Baker King Kim Tak-gu, Chuno, Cinderella's Sister, Coffee House, Comrades, Daemul, Dong Yi, Dr. Champ, featured, Giant, God of Study, I Am Legend, Jejoongwon, Joseon X-Files, Mary Stayed Out All Night, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, Oh My Lady, Pasta, Personal Taste, Playful Kiss, Prosecutor Princess, Road No. 1, Runaway, Secret Garden, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, Wish Upon a Star, year in review

Next in the Dramabeans Glossary series is jondaemal, which can be described as “polite speech” or “formal speech.” (Jondae means “honorific,” while mal is the suffix for “speech.”)

Just as oppa and noona are two terms that are closely related, so are jondaemal and its casual counterpart banmal; girlfriday will follow up with the latter term. There will be some necessary overlap in our entries because they’re really two sides of the same coin, but I’ll focus more on the polite side while girlfriday will explain the familiar side.

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Read the rest of Glossary: Jondaemal (1,659 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 81 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bad Guy, Cinderella's Sister, My Fair Lady, Soulmate, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry

Go Hyun-jung and Chun Jung-myung in What’s Up, Fox

Today’s Korean word of the day is: Noona. Got a cheeky younger man in your life? Turns out there’s a reason he calls you what he does. Notorious noona-killers Chun Jung-myung and Kim Bum help give us a lesson on the ins and outs of the Korean language, and the pitfalls of dating a noona.

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Read the rest of Glossary: Noona (777 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 98 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, What's Up Fox

New toy! I’ve been wanting to try a podcast for ages, but lacked the technical wherewithal (and time) to fiddle around with it till now. But I’ve brushed up my techie skills and persuaded girlfriday to join me in this venture, and together we took a stab at our very first Dramabeans podcast.

I apologize in advance for moments when I get too close to the mic — I don’t think it’s TOO bad, or at least I hope it’s not, but I will definitely keep this in mind if/when we try the next one. Also, if you’ve got questions or suggestions for future editions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

You can listen through the player below, or if you’d like to put it on your mp3 players or take it elsewhere, you can download the sucker: [ Part 1 ] and [ Part 2 ]

We hope you enjoy what we have to say!

 
Part 1: Wherein javabeans and girlfriday discuss old-school dramas, Feelings, Lee Jung-jae, recapping, cliches and tropes, the dreaded wrist-grab, women and repressed sexuality, Pasta, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, Kim Bum, Boys Before Flowers, relationships, and Personal Taste:

(Note: It may take a moment to load. You can adjust volume up and down with the bars on the left of the audio player.)

Part 2: Wherein javabeans and girlfriday discuss Personal Taste and Cinderella’s Sister (through Episode 12, although with very few if any spoilers for later episodes), and Sandglass very briefly:

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Read the rest of Dramabeans Podcast #1 (475 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 222 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Cinderella's Sister, Feelings, Jealousy, Kim Bum, Pasta, Personal Taste, Sandglass, Taecyeon, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry

Before we get into the final recap, I want to give a hearty thanks to girlfriday for recapping this drama with me. I’ve never shared recaps for a series before, and I found it even more fun than I thought it would be, and also a learning experience (to see what she picked out that I didn’t, for instance). Fear not, this is not her last recap, though I won’t yet announce for sure what comes next.

Since this is the finale, this recap contains comments from both me and girlfriday; you’ll find hers in blue, for ease of distinguishing between us.

SONG OF THE DAY

The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry OST – “사랑을 열다” (Opening love)
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry: Episode 16 (Final) (5,492 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 101 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Choi Chul-ho, Eom Ji-won, Kim Bum, Lee Pil-mo, Park Jin-hee, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, Wang Bit-na

Meltdown! Hey, if my 24-year old boyfriend were hanging out with a popstar who calls him oppa, I’d be gnashing my teeth on raw pasta too. Or making a voodoo effigy. To each her own. There’s trouble in paradise this week, as we close in on the finale, and all our couples are put through the proverbial wringer.

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Read the rest of The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry: Episode 15 (5,183 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 61 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Choi Chul-ho, Eom Ji-won, Kim Bum, Lee Pil-mo, Park Jin-hee, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, Wang Bit-na