Money Flower

 

Director: Kim Hee Won [김희원]

Country: Korean

Released: 2017

Genre: Business; Corruption; Hidden Identity; Law; melodrama; Revenge; Romance; Tragic Past    

    Managing director Kang Pil Joo is envied by many inside the Cheong A Group where he is known for his intelligence and high-performance. He keeps his real identity a secret from the Cheong A Group founding family and serves them as an obedient servant but he is actually grooming them for his scheme. His plan was to make Mo Hyun fall in love with Jang Bu Cheon for his revenge, but he finds himself falling desperately in love with her free-spirited personality.

    The “Money Flower” portrays a story of interlinked relationships between Pil Joo who is capable of bringing down Cheong A, Mo Hyun who seeks love and a young Cheong A Group scion named Boo Cheon. These characters all come to the fore as money dictates their lives in a web of desire, greed, and love. (Synopsis taken from Dramacool website)

    Jang Hyuk and Park Se-Young are leads:

 *****What can I say about this drama without giving it away?  This was an incredible ride, the actors, writing and directing were superb! Every episode pretty much ended on a cliff-hanger.  It kept me on the edge of my seat and there was never a dull moment.  I found this drama to be better than Eve or Queen of tears and that is saying a lot as those were amazing.  It will even have you hating the characters so much and then you turn around and cry for them!  What a thrilling ride.  I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in a wild ride with a touch of romance (wish there would have been more but oh well). 10/10 review don’t miss this one, it is a hidden gem!

Link to show here: https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/money-flower

Closest Love To Heaven (Kyo no kira kun)

 

 

Country: Japanese

Released: 2017

Genre: Drama, Friendship, Romance, School, Youth

Genre: Drama; Friendship; Romance; School; Youth;

A love story nurtured by a high school girl named Okamura Ninon who fell in love with the handsome boy, Kira Yuiji. Having been bullied in the past, Ninon finds it difficult to engage with other people, therefore she keeps her bangs long and maintains a safe distance from her surroundings. Ninon was being ridiculed for her love of birds and to her defense came Kira, the most handsome and popular boy in class. Everyone admires Kira, yet nobody knew he felt lonely and was suffering from a heart disease. Ninon learned about the secret and promises that she'll stay by Kira's side for the remaining year of his life. Ninon together with Kira's friends, Kazuhiro Yabe and Yahagi Rei, they form a bond of friendship making Kira's remaining 365 days bright and meaningful. (synopsis taken from Dramacool website)

Lots of cute kids!

Based on a manga

She is so shy in the beginning that her bangs cover her eyes!  Its totally a manga concept lol.

He is a little heart breaker.  Once she cuts her bangs he sees really how beautiful she is. It is lovely to see.

She promises that she will stay with him the whole year.  They go to the zoo, she plans a birthday party for him with all his friends, when it is her birthday as well.   We find out that there is a dangerous surgery available for him but in the past, he has turned it down. 

 I think there is a reason to have it now!

 

*****This was such a lovely show, Not to mention they are both so stinking cute! It’s a real feel-good movie about a boy who really saves this lonely shy girl and breathes life into her while his life is almost over.  She in turn saves him by giving him hope and a reason to live. I recommend this sweet movie 100%. 8/10 

Show link here: https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/closest-love-to-heaven-kyo-no-kira-kun

Eve

  

Country: Korean

Year: 2022

Director: Park Bong-seop

Platform: Netflix

    Eve tells the story of a chaebol family's ₩2 trillion wrongful death lawsuit that shocks the entire nation, of which, at the center of the lawsuit is Lee La-el (Seo Yea-ji), the daughter of the chaebol family who seeks vengeance against those that killed her parents when she was a child. The deaths she witnessed.

    Horrendous acts of violence in which she watched her father tortured and forced to sign over his prospering tech company shares.

    So, The young girl is now an adult her and her stand in  mother have been plotting revenge for the past 10 years.  She targets the husband of the Chaebols daughter.  Very interesting.  We also find out that the chaebols daughter is OCD and scared of her father, which manifests in the way she is teaching her daughter to be a bully.  Her husband hates her and her father which will make it easy for the FL to use him.

But Mr. CEO is very sus of her stating everyone wants to use him for something.  She is getting under his skin however and she catches feelings for him.  

    The cinematography is nice in this series, they catch the subtle touches and glances well.  Very sexy scenes.  He is helping her reach a glass…… 

    We learn that their fates are to meet again as they were both in Costa Rica at the same time.  Being trained by the same Tango master.

    There are a lot of heart pounding scenes, which made this drama so exciting to watch!  That's an "I'm sleeping with your husband and there's nothing you can do about it" look.

    She literally drove that witch to screaming and fits of tantrums.  So great! It is so rewarding to see this woman who had FL’s mother and father killed get her just rewards!  She is literally taking everything away from her.  Now her father needs to taste it!

Ironic daddy is going to die like all the people he has killed lol.

What a fantastic tale of revenge, I will not give away the ending but have your tissues handy, it is a doozy.

****My take on this drama.  Go watch it!  You will not be disappointed.  The storyline was well thought out, the acting was superb even by the child actors.  It was very well cast and just the right length.  I watched it on Netflix. 9/10 only because I wanted more of the ending.

Flex X Cop

 Jin Yi Soo has everything in life. Being a third-generation conglomerate, he never requires others’ assistance. However, things start changing when he gets entangled in a case.

Jin Yi Soo joins the violent investigative team at the Kangha Police Station that specializes in catching robbers. He aims to use his wealth and personal connections to his advantage. He works under Detective Lee Kang Hyun. Kang Hyun is dedicated and a smooth-talker and doesn't care for Yi Soo's presence when they begin working as partners.

Director: Kim Jae Hong [김재홍]

Country: Korean

Released: 2024

Genre: Action, Comedy, Detective, Romance, Drama

Great cast of familiar faces!

 

    I Loved this series so much!  It reminds me of the other series Ahn Bo Hyeon recently did called Military Prosecutor Doberman.  They solve mysteries and cases that ultimately lead back to their own stories. 

    This series centers around the mystery of his mother’s “suicide”, his relationship with his father as he is illegitimate, his half-brother who loves him and step mother who always treated him poorly.  He is a rich kid who never grew up.  He is suddenly kicked out of the family because his extra-curricular activities and forced to work for the police force violent crimes division.

    He learns to be a team player and care about the people he works with.  There is a lot of humor in this series as well as tears.  The story line develops at a nice pace and the people he surrounds himself with are wonderful for his healing process.

    The female lead Lee Na Yoon does a great job of being a no-nonsense cop and highly respects her team mates.  Her own story revolves around her father who is a disgraced police captain that was falsely accused of taking a bribe.  All their histories interconnect later as you dive deeper into the story.  The leads chemistry is fantastic and their relationship grows at a gradual pace.  

 

He has just saved her life.

    Her father was the officer that found the male leads mother and showed him kindness while in distress.  The female leads mother shows him so much of a mother’s love that by the end she is the only one who can give him solace.  It was such a lovely, touching scene.

In fact, rewatching it for the screen shots made me cry all over again!

    There is so much I could say about this drama but am afraid of giving anything away.  I heard there will be a second season so I will be waiting for that for sure. 

****I highly recommend this drama.  The cases they solved were interesting, the acting was top notch, the buildup in all the different relationships was a natural progression.  I give it a 10/10 for sure and will rewatch this later!  Here is the link if you want to watch it: https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/flexxcop

 

Perfect Marriage Revenge

 

 

Adapted from the webtoon "The Essence of a Perfect Marriage" (완벽한 결혼의 정석) written by Young (영) and Lee Beom Bae (이범배), and illustrated by Je Ri Bol (제리볼). 

Country: Korean

Released: 2033

Genre: Drama, Revenge, Romance

____________________________________________________

    This has Marry My Husband vibes all over it!  It was released in the same year, Very interesting.  I loved that movie.  So far the first episode was really good so hopefully it will continue in the same direction.  The OST is so good for this drama! 

    FL is Jun Yoo Min and ML is Seong Hoon who is so sexy! I don’t see enough dramas with him in them.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not Truck-kun! LMAO

    Ok so in a nutshell (without giving too much away)she died and came back to her life a year earlier. Because she was treated like Cinderella, abused, poisoned, and unloved. When she came back for revenge she dumped her good for nothing man, stole the man her sister wanted, took control of her life. Her new man is truly a prince and has already caught feelings for her.  He swooped in and saved her from her family and asked her to marry him. (There are several plot twist coming!) 

    That first kiss had crazy chemistry, he devoured her!

    He is such a good man he realizes early on that she wont eat anything anyone cooks for her (because she was poisoned as a child) and tastes everything for her first.  He is so tender and protective of her it breaks your heart how much she had been through.  His family pulls her in and gives her so much love that she starts to heal.  It was so touching.

    We learn as well that he has some trauma that literally paralyzes him, He is terrified of the ocean.  We learn later why.  She also starts to heal him. .  She is really fighting back this go around.  I like to see that since she was so abused by everyone.

***Spoiler***

    Its a little hard to see in this picture but when she came back to the previous year after dying she had a time stamp on her wrist of the date she died.  They both have date tags on their wrists!   Ahhhhh did not expect that!

***End of Spoiler***

    There are so many plot twists in this series, I don’t want to name in order for you to watch them for yourself.  This show kept me riveted to my seat all the time.  Of course evil mommy got her come-uppance (is that a word?) 

And then literally thrown to the curb!  That was SO satisfying.

The evil mommy and her daughter were excellent actresses I have to say because you really hate them.

****My review for this drama is really a 10/10.  I was nervous as I stated in the beginning that there was a similar series out in the same year called Marry My Husband but it was completely different in story lines and they both worked!  I highly recommend you watch them both! I will definitely put these on my to watch again list. They can be watched here:

Perfect Marriage Revenge

Marry My Husband

Cursed In Love (Watashitachi wa Douka Shiteiru)

 

Adapted from the manga series "Watashitachi wa Douka Shiteiru" by Natsumi Ando.

Director: Inomata Ryuichi [猪股隆一], Akashi Hiroto [明石広人] and Komuro Naoko [小室直子]

Country: Japanese

Released: 2020

Genre: Childhood; Drama; Food; Murder; Mystery; Psychological; Revenge; Romance; Suspense

Synopsis: Hanaoka Nao’s mother Yuriko is a single parent and a live-in confectioner at Kogetsuan, a traditional Japanese confectionery shop of long standing. That is how Nao meets Takatsuki Tsubaki, the 6-year-old son of the owner of Kogetsuan, and they become each other’s first loves.

     However, Tsubaki’s father is stabbed to death by someone. Nao’s mother is arrested as the suspect based on Tsubaki’s statement. Nao is kicked out while her mother passes away while under interrogation. Now daughter of a murder suspect and son of the victim, Nao and Tsubaki separate with ill feelings for each other. 

    More than 15 years later, Nao and Tsubaki are reunited at a competition on Japanese confectionery. Tsubaki takes an interest in Nao’s creations and asks her to marry him at their first meeting without realising that she is his childhood friend. Nao hides her identity and decides to get into Kogetsuan through her marriage to Tsubaki in order to prove her mother’s innocence. Little does she know that all sorts of adverse circumstances lie in wait. Despite being made sport of by cruel fate, Nao and Tsubaki are drawn to each other. What is the truth of the case 15 years ago?

__________________________________________________

    Interesting story so far.  Boy meets girl when young, her mother “kills” his father, so he says.  15 years later girl meets boy in a little bake off, of confections.  Boy doesn’t recognize girl and asks her to marry him on the spot to help him save a failing family confectioner company.  She crashes his wedding and pisses everyone off and agrees to marry him. This tale is steeped in Japanese tradition which makes it even more interesting!

The sweets are beautifully made.

After the competition that brought them both back together, He asks her to marry him Not knowing who she is.   He reads her palm more than once and references that she has the line of Mount Apollo: Mount of Apollo is under the third finger on the palm and represents love for beautiful and artistic things

The bride he almost married if Noe hadn't crashed his wedding.

    His grandfather believes that he is not his fathers’ son.  His mother is a viper!  So, he swears that he will not leave the family business to his grandson. Hello! DNA tests exist for a reason!  He also forces them to share a room by accusing her of deceiving everyone, in order to steal the company. Meanwhile viper mommy has hired a background check to be done on new daughter-in-law.  The powdered sugar is going to hit the fan now!

Always gotta be one spiteful bitch in the mix. Lol  Boy does she ever do a great job!

    This series had a lot of twists and turns.  The sweets were so beautiful

    The name of the shop that everyone was fighting for is Kogetsu An which means bright white moon.

     The shop that she opened in competition with his was named Hanagasumi - this is the Japanese word used to describe the scene with many blossoms - literally translated as the “flower haze” Sakura-fubuki- this means “cherry blossom snowstorm”. Often cherry blossom petals dance in the spring wind, which from a distance can look like a storm of pink petals!

 

**** I really enjoyed this short series.  It was rich in tradition, beautiful kimonos, and sweets.  I did’t want to reveal too much of the plot because there are a lot of twist in it and I did not want to ruin it for you.  I rate this 8/10.  Has a happy ending!

This can be watched here: https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/watashitachi-wa-douka-shiteiru

 

Wedding Impossible

 

Adapted from the webtoon Wedding Impossible

Country: Korean

Director: Kwon Yeong Il

Released: 2024

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama, Contract Marriage

Stars: Kim Do Wan, Park Ah In, Bae Yoon, Song Sang, Moon Sang, Jeon Jong, Kang Na Eon

Synopsis: Na Ah Jeong works as an extra actress. She's talented as an actress, but she has not been recognized for her work at all. She has experience acting as a married woman, but in real life, her dating life is on the back burner due to her difficult reality. She has a male friend named Lee Do Han, whom she has known for 15 years.

Do Han is the son of a chaebol family that runs the LJ Group. He is pushed to get married by his family, but he has a secret that he can't marry. Do Han turns to his friend Ah Jeong and asks if she would act like his wife and daughter-in-law of his family. She accepts the offer and prepares to play the first leading role in her life as Do Han's wife.

At that time, she has an unexpected disrupter. That person is Lee Ji Han, who is Do Han’s younger brother. Ji Han has ambitions to make his older brother, Do Han, the successor of the LJ Group. Ji Han works hard to achieve his goal, but his plan is disrupted by his brother's sudden wedding announcement. Ji Han now tries to prevent his brother's wedding and he brings Yoon Chae Won into the picture as his brother's potential bride. (taken from Drammacool)

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     Alright so I did not really care for this series so much.  It had its funny, sad, and romantic moments but they were few and far between.  Thew first 2 episodes were so boring I almost stopped watching it!  It did finally start to pick up.

    Little brother Jihan hates to love her and tries everything to get her off his mind lol.  He went to a catholic priest, prayed like a Buddhist, folded a 1000 paper cranes ect just to get her off his mind.  Those were quite comical.  Their chemistry is really good, I didn’t care fort the actress.  She is kind of lackluster and unappealing. 

    The two brothers have 2 other half siblings who hate them (surprise) and are vying for grandpa’s company (surprise).  The oldest sister, I guess was great at her role because every time I saw her smug face I wanted to scratch her eyes out! Lol

    It was just a hot mess that I am not sure I can unravel.  The cute actors that made cameos in the end are: Kim Beom from boys Over Flowers, who has aged nicely.

And Lee Soo Hyeok from King of High school, isn’t he cute?

*** This is my review- At least it had a happy ending! Not sure how I feel about this drama to be honest. The beginning was really boring I almost stopped watching. It did pick up by the 3rd episode however and started getting better. Then it was a hot mess again until the last 2 episodes. The special appearances by the 2 male actors in the end was a nice surprise tho! My rating is a 6/10.  If you would like to watch it here is a link: https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/wedding-impossible

My Roommate Is a Gumiho

 

 

Released: 2021

Director: Park Joon Hwa

Country: Korean

Genre: Romance, comedy, fantasy

Summary: About a female college student named Lee Dam who accidentally swallows the marble of a male gumiho (a mythological nine-tailed fox) named Shin Woo Yeo, who was close to achieving his goal of becoming human. If a human swallows the marble, they can only live for one year, and the marble will break, preventing the gumiho from becoming human. Thus, Shin Woo Yeo suggests living together to Lee Dam, beginning their unexpected romance.  (taken from Drama Cool)

    Male lead is Bai In Hyeok, I don’t think I have ever seen him in much but he was pretty good in The Story Of Park’s Marriage Contract.  He is kind of cute in a cold stand-offish sort of way.  The Female lead is Lee Hye Ri, this is the first time seeing her.  She is cute and a good actress so far.  They have good chemistry that is for sure.

    Choi woo, Kang Han Na, and Park Kyeong are supporting actors.  I have seen many things with Park Kyeong and she is usually pretty funny!

    I really like Lee Dam, she is not your typical dumb, helpless female lead.  She has a brain and ends up freaking Shin Woo Yeo out a few times!  It’s usually the freaky supernatural being that is like that but funnily enough she does it right back at him haha.

 

    When she realizes that she can’t be touched by any man born in the year of the lion because it saps her strength, she won’t let the 2^nd ML touch her.  Which in turn creates confusion for that playboy. The ensuing scenes are hilarious and only proves to attract him more.

    She ends up sick and must go on a date with him for a school project.  Mr. Gumiho takes her place by morphing into her.  It’s pretty comical.

 This series has some beautifully poetic moments:

Gumiho is reciting a poem to her “To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter."

(from Gabriel García Márquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera")

    Interestingly, the follow-on sentence to the quote re Fermina Daza is:
"He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”
Shin

    Woo Yeo has not missed a single gesture or indication of Lee Dam ... if he approaches her as a gumiho coming to the end of his 1000 years ... what will happen ... will the spell be destroyed

 Another poetic moment where she confesses her love to him….he tells her at first you were just a passing shower but I’m still standing in the rain.     She tells him “I think I’m in love.  Its soft and hot. I can’t either swallow it or spit it out.” Then he ruins it by saying she feels like family to him sort of like a niece.  Obviously, this pisses her off so the next day she calls him uncle loool.  He hates it.

                                            He can't figure out what he did wrong hahaha.

    In Episode 7 he finally decides that he has used her enough because he loves her, he will set her free.  He takes the marble back and wipes her memory of him.

    Unfortunately, there is a Mountain Spirit who has taken pity on him and wants him to succeed in becoming human but he messes things up completely.  I love this actor so much especially in Love In Contract. With Park Min yeong.

    He has tied a red tread of destiny to her and the playboy. Complicating matters with Gumiho. Also we find out her memory wasn’t wiped!

   They finally realize that he needs more humanity to turn human but it was too late. The playboy confesses but realizes there is no hope and leaves to run his father’s company abroad.  There is a very touching goodbye scene.

   When the male lead discovers he does not have long he starts to get his affairs in order and at the last-minute swoops in to save her life and then dissipates…This had strong Goblin vibes to me.

   The 2^nd couple were so cute.  I love that she got a great guy and that he finally found Somone who loved everything about him.

*** This was a nice drama, at times it felt there was too much going on that didn’t need to be there but it was still a beautifully poetic story that has a happy ending for most of the characters. 8/10 rating.  This show can be watched here: https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/frightening-cohabitation

  Please leave a comment or a review request below. 

Thank You,

Auna

Our Blues

Network: Netflix

Country: Korean

Director: Kim Kyoo Tae

Released: 2022

Genre: Drama, Romance

Description: The story of the lives and struggles of a diverse community of hard-working blue-collar characters living on Jeju Island.  All of their stories interconnect with each other as they all grew up or went to high school together.

    The first plot of characters are Han Su (Cha Seung Won) and Eun hui (Lee Jeong Eun).  They flash back to high school where she is this awkward unpopular girl who has a crush on the popular boy.  She plucks up her courage on a school trip and professes her love to him and kisses him. 

    I really loved the interactions with them both because he stood up for her when the other kids were teasing her about him and he always called her cute.  It warmed my cynical heart.  Flash forward to when they are in their forties and meeting again for the first time.

     He is this tragic, dejected father who is in debt up to his eyeballs and proceeds to take advantage of this friend’s affection for him.  I was really hoping she would finally get her happy ending with him but he turned out to be an asshole trying to use her for money yet she still wanted to help him.  I really felt her heartache when finally saying goodbye to her first love.

    Another ongoing story line is about two men In Gwon and Ho Sik who were friends since junior high school and always had each other’s back when the other needed them.  They have a falling out in their late 20’s that make them hate each other and are always at odds with each other.  

    I love their story line because the emotions are very raw between them.  They are single fathers, In Gwon has a son and Ho Sik has a daughter that fall in love in the last year of high school.  They are both smart kids who have bright futures.  That is until they get pregnant. 

     It was heartbreaking to see these fathers fall apart from this devastation and what it meant for their stubborn kids who refuse to have an abortion.  I think I cried the whole time for them.  The father’s eventually repair their rift and really step up for their kids. When they say it takes a village to raise a child its really true in this case. The acting is outstanding in this drama!

                                        **I really want to see this family happy at the end of all of this…….

    Dong Seok (Lee Byeong Heon) who is the illegitimate son of a woman who was a mistress and was regularly beaten by his father’s legitimate sons, helps a young girl Seon-a (Shin Min Ah) who lives with her alcoholic father and his brother who often fight after a night of drinking.  Her father ultimately drove his car into the sea and killed himself while his daughter watched.

    Dong Seok’s mother, who is dying of cancer is trying to get her sons forgiveness but he will not even acknowledge her and calls her Aunty as he never felt loved by her.  He doesn’t realize his mother is sick which breaks my heart.

He has a love hate relationship with Seon-a.  Seems like she always did things to disappoint him or maybe he just didn’t understand her.  She comes back into his life and tries to commit suicide by jumping off the end of a jetty.  He hates her but still shows up for her time and time again.   

     We find out that she had been married with a young child but suffered from depression so was unable to take care of her child and ultimately because she will not seek help her husband divorces her and get custody of their child.  This causes her to go back to Jeju and ultimately jump off the pier. 

   He really shows up for her in every way to help her with her depression and to get custody of her son.  He falls for her all over again.  I would love to see this couple get together.  They are so good for each other. He really cut to the heart of the matter when he told that she needed to live because if her son saw her kill herself he would follow in her foot steps as she follows her fathers footsteps  (basically in a nutshell).

**I really love this actor Lee Byeong Heon but its really irritating that he plays younger rolls and all of the female leads are like 10-15 years younger than him.  It doesn’t suit him at all.

     Jung Joon (Kim Woo Bin) who is a hot young boat captain and Young Ok (Han Ji Min) who is a pretty mysterious Haenyeo. She shows up in town having moved around a lot and tells inconsistent stories about her past.  Their relationship heats up but he’s not sure he can trust her because everyone around him is telling him not to.

    There are some side stories with minor characters about loyalty, an abusive wife, child abandonment and a sibling with a disability.  I was pleasantly surprised to see several down syndrome adults in this series.  It’s the first time seeing that in a K-Drama.  The story about loyalty in friendship really got me in the feels about how we can take advantage of longtime friendships or people that are always in our lives.  It’s a great reminder to be honest and kind to those people.   

  ** My overall rating is 10/10 they really tackled a lot of social injustices in this series, The acting was top notch and writing even better! If you don’t have Netflix this can be watched here:

  https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/our-blues