연남동 키스신: Who Kissed Me?

So I haven’t been watching dramas or movies in general because I am trying to finish a Korean variety show called Witch Hunt on Netflix because it has English subtitles and it is getting removed from Netflix.

But I got curious about this web drama on Youtube and started watching it and finished all 12 episodes in a day. The whole drama is only about 3 hours long rounded up, because each episode is around 15 minutes long. You can find it on Youtube if you search “Who Kissed Me?”, the channel’s name is 라이프타임 or “Lifetime” in English.

Usually web dramas are really cringy and hard to watch because of the acting. I think usually newbie actors are casted and their acting is either very exaggerated or have no emotions. But I think this cast was just right! Although for such detailed descriptions of kissing the kiss scenes were very PG-13.

Highly recommend for those that like the best friends to lovers storyline and like korean dramas!

-Rebecca

My synopsis:

The drama is about a girl that drinks too much at a school club’s get together and then kisses someone. The kiss was so good that she went on a quest to find the guy, but all she remembered was the feeling and bits and pieces of the night. She is also introduced as the God of Kissing because since young she research, watched and read about it. But in reality, she has never kissed anyone before and that night she doesn’t remember is her first kiss.

My storyline:

She wakes up and writes down the details of the kiss in a notepad thinking that it was a dream, but she sees a bandage on her hand and realises it wasn’t a dream.

She then tries to narrow the suspects down with the bits and pieces she remembers of the night. Day after day she is trying to put the pieces together, suspecting her junior, her senior and her best friend’s girlfriend even. She creates all sorts of scenarios in her head and when she is convinced that it is her junior she kisses him. Suddenly she realises that it isn’t him because it wasn’t what she felt the previous time.

She then goes back to square one and has no clue who it was. In the middle of the drama there is also a small part about the other relationship problem her best female friend is facing. One day, talking to her best male friend, she jokingly puts her glasses on him and she feels a sense of dejavu. The gears in her brain start turning and after a while she solves the puzzle and confesses to her best friend, who in turn rejects her.

That night they kissed he was dumped by his girlfriend because she said she did not want to kiss him anymore because he did not love her. She left him with many questions and halfway through the drama, she tells him he loves his best friend.

The story ends like any cute cliche puppy love teenage drama with the best friends getting together.

My feelings:

I would even watch it again. It is one of those cute dramas that give you butterflies in your stomach because it is so cute. It is a more “adult” topic but it is innocent at the same time. The kiss scenes could be more intense though but still I think because of the background music in the main scene, it was sufficient.

I am also watching another web drama but that one has very awkward acting in my opinion by the main characters and the side characters are much more natural to watch. But that might be how the character’s personas are…

This drama has cute, sad and relatable moments if you are a innocent teenage girl that is infatuated with the idea of a perfect kiss. Not saying that I am one, but it was fun to watch and listen to the dialogues. I highly recommend it to those who like Korean dramas and cute teenage romance.

According To Our Butler

I watched a movie again to make myself feel better and transport myself to another world…

My synopsis:

This is a story about an heir becoming the head of the house right after he comes back from studying abroad. His father and his butler are overseas, leaving him and his new butler to guard and run the house. The heir, Kaei, together with his butler, Kisaragi, are on a journey of learning about each other when things start to happen one by one to Kaei’s helpers.

If you are a rational movie watcher that always asks why… Do not watch this movie.

If you like suspense and unpredictable plot twists… Do not watch this movie.

If you have run out of things to watch and just want to kill time, you can give this a try.

– Rebecca

My Feelings:

Usually I watch Japanese movies when I want something carefree and exaggerated but I usually watch romance movies. It is just my opinion, but I do not recommend this movie unless you have nothing to watch.

It is a short 1.5h movie that has no climax and evokes no feelings in me. There was not much to relate to in terms of the characters. I think they were all quite shallow with the main character being the most defined. Kaei is an innocent boy, that they have acting very mature with very idealistic thoughts. Somehow everyone agrees with him and they reach a happy ending where 2 boys are protected. I still do not understand the ending, Kaei also did not look angry or sad at all when he was confronting the culprit. He was more angry and sad when he thought that his butler threw away the necktie he gave him.

I enjoyed the first part when Kaei was trying to run the house and they (him and his butler) were getting used to each other and having power struggles. I enjoyed the scenes of family-like helpers and Kaei. The first half of the movie was interesting and cute to watch.

Towards the end, there was a problem and then they needed to find a solution. But the acting was so plain and no one was scared or angry or really had any emotions except the daughter of the chef.

I found the plot very weird, although understandable. It can really be described as rich kid problems, they have nothing better to do then to hold grudges about not being looked for in the family after some incident with a painting in their childhood. I mean you didn’t become bankrupt or anything and you are successful now, did you really need to hold such a grudge and plot revenge?

Even after such careful plotting, you are suddenly feeling better after being confronted and being told that they kept both paintings to protect both of us? You are comfortable and at peace enough to admire your previously hated painting?

The movie was unrealistic, boring and overall did not really make sense to me. But this is my opinion and I am pretty sure other people liked the movie, but it is not my style.

Mrs Everything by Jennifer Weiner

I know this is a blog about movie and series/ dramas reviews but I think I will add in the additional book review because I am trying to read more book this year and write abit more 🙂

My Synopsis:

This is a book set in the mid 1900s, where women were boxed into stereotypes and where skin of colour was harshly discriminated against. It tells the story of 2 drastically different sisters that went through life with their problems/ mistakes and learnt to forgive and let go.

Recommended for those who like books about families and the bond between sisters.

Beware of the constant betrayal of men and stereotyping of women in this book.

– Rebecca

My version of the story:

So the two sisters while drastically different somehow switched their lives in the middle. The life each of them thought they would be living the other seemed to be living. Jo a lesbian at an era where that was unthinkable. Bethie this at the start seemingly perfect girl gets broken by all the men in her life. They both experience all there is to life, going through every mistake, every bad thought, everything that could go wrong in the book.

Jo is my favourite character, she was so true to herself in the beginning but she became tired. And I related so much to that, she was tired of tiring, tired of hoping, tired of putting in the effort when others didn’t. I emphasised with her the most and thought she was honestly the best mom that the daughters could hope for even though they may not think so. This also helped me understand my mother, maybe she did the best she could do, but children always don’t see the full picture.

Bethie on the other hand, I found her to be very weak. She was fragile, she was young when she was first touched. Jo saved her, and that was the beginning of Jo’s curse. Bethie could not or would not be saved by her own mother. Jo always had to come to the rescue but she didn’t outrightly blame Bethie for her downfall. But Bethie, she just could not help by tormet Jo in the later part of the book about how unhappy she seemed with a man. With her great intentions, she was trying to get Jo to realise how she could be happier. However, in my opinion this would just be very annoying if I was Jo, I was finally trying to be happy, to be content but you keep reminding me, telling me and putting things into my head that I am not happy.

The book ends in a very realistic manner, but abit abrupt with the sudden illness. But I guess that happens throughout the book also, which highlights that life is unpredictable. It was a very realistic book that brought you through the lives of the two sisters, helped you understand what they were thinking and also why they did what they did.

It also highlighted the power of family, the power of love and the love of parents. Parents, they do their best, they may not always be the ideal parents children want them to be. But, they are trying, they want the best for their children, even if it does not seem so.

IN LIFE, YOU NEED TO BE BRAVE

YOU NEED TO FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR THE MISTAKES YOU MAKE

YOU NEED TO LOVE YOURSELF AND PROTECT THOSE YOU CARE ABOUT

The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos

So I watched another movie… what is new?

My Synopsis:

To cut things short, it is a movie about the police being incapable of catching bad guys and they made a deal with prison inmates to catch them. It all started with a attack on a prison bus transferring prison mates, killing of police officers and escaping prisoners. Its a predictable action film, you know the drill.

My feelings:

Overall I love a good action film and to me Korea has one of the best. Their fight scenes are always entertaining to watch and very artistic. I also love watching Ma Dong Seok in these types of movies haha the way they depict him as being invincible.

The plot twists in this movie are predictable but a plot twist none the less. But some details in the movie happen too fast or I can’t really connect the dots. But this happens to me in most Korean movies, so maybe its just the difference in culture and interpretation.

There isn’t much more to this movie then action and bad guys that are not really bad guys.

Honestly, if you like action movies then watch this for the fun of it. If you are looking for a movie that would blow your mind, give you deep thoughts on life, be super comedic or any of the above, this is not it.

P.S. I Still Love You

I managed to stay off netflix or at least not finish a series in a day or two 🙂 CLAP FOR ME!

My Synopsis:

So this takes place after the first sensational teen movie which I loved. Peter and LJ are together and this movie describes their relationship’s ups and downs. Peter is the all popular jock and has had such a public previous relationship and that starts to take a toll on LJ. To make things worse, the last letter was read and John Ambrose replied her letter and just so happened to start volunteering at an elderly home with her. LJ starts to become insecure and her feelings waver…

My feelings:

Honestly, the movie had all the scenes that I expected it to have. It is a predictable cute teen flick to watch, but compared to the first movie, I felt this was less developed and that they were trying to add too many elements into the movie.

They added in a love interest for LJ’s dad and her best friend and tried to patch up the friendship between LJ and Gen. There was alot going on which was nice to see but not enough time was taking to address or really touch on everything. This led to the ending being very sudden, I could also feel like it was ending when suddenly Peter appeared and then they kissed and it ended. I really hoped there would be more of a build up to the end but it just ended. I get the sudden realisation of LJ actually loving Peter but to me it was just not very satisfying.

With that said I would still recommend fans of the first movie to still give it a watch. And personally I would rewatch it just for the cute moments and Lana’s acting haha she really acts like a 16 year old all innocent and cute haha.

Spinning Out

So I tried to stay off Netflix but I failed and finished a series (10 episodes) within a day. I honestly do not know how I did that…

My Synopsis:

Spinning out is a series centered around a girl named Kat and her family, her mom and her sister Serena. They are a family of figure skaters and they excel at it.

It takes us through her training journey starting from after she had a fall at Sectionals that cracked her skull open. We soon find out about her mother’s mental illness – bipolar. We also find out that Kat also is bipolar.

Spinning out is a story that encompasses true love, one-sided love, familial love, friendships and betrayal and also touches on the bias against people of colour.

10/10 Recommend!

Even is a tear jerker at the end of the series!

Actors are great and the figure skating scenes are beautiful.

– Rebecca

Storyline *Spoiler Alert*:

So Kat wants to continue skating but her mother suddenly stops sponsoring her and puts all her time, money and attention on her sister after Kat’s fall. She has a fall out with her mother and moves out of the house into the resort’s staff room because she is friends with the manager of the bar.

She and Marcus (manager of the bar) go out on date after she takes her first step into letting people into her life. She was also supposed to go to London with her boyfriend after she failed a test required for her to coach, but she decided to stay and become Justin’s (the male lead) partner. Justin had tried to get her to agree but she said no, and he got himself another partner. But his partner was a “handful” and Kat got Justin’s mother (Mandy) on her side to help her convince Justin’s father to let her be Justin’s partner.

After standing Marcus up a few times, he gets tired of waiting. Some where along the way, Justin and Kat fall in love and they skate well. Marcus also gives up his spot in medical school to do what he loves – Skiing.

There are friendship fights in between with Kat and Jenn (her best friend), random mother maniac episodes, and other scenes in between but I am focusing on Kat’s main events from my memory.

Kat then suddenly feels the pressure to skate well. She stops taking her bipolar medicine and this builds up fast. She has so much energy that she puts into up-ing the difficulty of her sectionals routine. After sectionals she starts to act not herself, there is a scene where she is so hyper and finally it all bursts when she throws a huge party and gets into a fight. It ends up with her in the bath tub repeating the same words over and over, Justin being let out of jail and Marcus stuck in jail over the weekend.

She manages to get herself together and her mom tried to hide her illness from the others. But Dasha’s announcement of her not being Kat’s coach anymore was what caused Kat to tell the truth. She came out to everyone involved and came clean about her illness.

The last episode she is at Nationals. She finally knows she loves Justin and they reconcile. Her sister is a wreck because she thought a doctor who slept with her loved her. Her best friend doesn’t believe that he slept with her and is just lying. Her mother had to come clean to Mitch (Serena’s coach and her boyfriend) that she cheated on her.

Basically anything that could go wrong went wrong. It ends of with her mother and sister asking her to skate. Her sister says that they need it, “something good”.

Reflections:

It really showed me family. I mean they are a messy family but they stuck through it. They all flared at each other, but at the end of the day they had their backs.

I was also crying balls during the last few episodes because Kat had to come clean. And also relationships were patched up. It goes to show the truth does go a long way. And, so does sincerity.

I also realised that Netflix cancelled the series after just one season. I would have loved another season. But it ending here gives it an open ending. Not sure how they would patch that up. But, I would like to think that Kat and Justin crushed their routine and won first place! Serena and Carol (Kat’s mom) may not get their happy ending just yet. But, I can imagine an epilogue where they are doing fine, with Serena being on the ice and Carol watching her from the sidelines.

They may not be in relationships in my fantasy ending. But who needs guys, am I right? In the end they have each other and they are family.

You: Season 2

Once again… I’m addicted to watching dramas so here I am

My Synopsis:

So this season carries on from the first with Joe being on the run from Candace. He changes his identity, finds another house and also other love interest. Only this time he is trying to do it the “right” way.

It might seem like he is trying to change but in reality he isn’t, he is still making the same moves as before. He may even be more psychopathic than before as the clears the obstacles in his way even more efficiently and without as much guilt as before.

If you liked You: Season 1, this is not to be missed! It has all the great points of season 1 but even more unpredictable.

You will see the development of Joe and the good that he can be.

– Rebecca

Storyline *Spoiler Alert*:

He seems to have a guilty conscience as he sees the “ghost” of Beck from time to time, reminding him of the hurt he can cause to a loved one. He also is very remorseful, continuously saying sorry to Beck for hurting her. I think he really did love her in his warped way…

Then he meets Love. She seems to understand the hurt he feels and emphasizes with him. She makes him feel like he is good, that he won’t hurt her like he did with Beck.

He is seen to hold himself back from being with her to prevent history from repeating. But even with Love, we see the parallels in their romance story with him and Beck.

Twists and turns really happen in this season. And the biggest twist happens at the second last episode. The last episode is really the ribbon on the present, it ties all the strings together and ends at a cliff hanger preluding to a third season. It also shows that Joe maybe did not change at all.

Reflections:

It makes us think are we who we make ourselves to be or are we solely a compliation of our past mistakes or our broken families? Are we all broken? Can you fix someone broken?

Joe sees himself, he sees what bad he has done when it happens to him. He realises what Beck must have felt, what others probably saw him as. But in the end he is not punished per se via the law, it shows him going scott free. This begs the question of will there be justice, were his actions actually justified?

He was actually getting better, learning to trust, learning how to be friends. But it all crashed near the end, where he lost everyone but the one that was most like him. And now he is returning to his old stalker self, what would happen next?

You: Season 1

So… didn’t think I would be writing again so soon, but I couldn’t get off my Netflix account.

My Synopsis:

This is a story about a broken man with wrapped ideas of protection and love. He is painted as this psychopathic person but also caring towards others. In my opinion, if you put yourself in his shoes you would see the justification, but his actions are no where acceptable in the normal society.

It’s a thrilling psychotic romance drama that allows you to step into the mind of the characters with intense monologue.

Highly recommend!!!

Storyline *Spoiler Alert*:

He was once scarred by his previous girlfriend and this leads him to stalk his next lead before getting into the relationship. As he stalks he finds competition for her attention and seeks to take them out with the help of modern day technology. This also draws to attention our digital footprint and how technology is scary. It made me think about what I was posting and how much of my life I was posting.

He seems to see everything others cannot see, his gut feeling never wrong. He does take out all the “evil” in her life but using the wrong methods. He ultimately loses her trust and love when his anxious and normal gut-feeling self realises that she lied to him and cheated on him.

In the end what saves him from being in jail is the innocent soul Paco, who helps him because he is his life saviour. He was the one that cared for him when no one else did and gave him a fresh start on his life. He probably reminds Joe of himself when he was younger and wanted to help him out. My fear is that that little innocent kid would turn out like him too. Monkey see, monkey do right?

Reflections:

Sometimes we hang around the wrong people and we never see it. But, would we be grateful if someone helped us out this way?

I think life is everything we make out of it, our actions, our mistakes, our thoughts, they are all lessons in the dance called life. You have to practice, you have to fall, you have to memorise the steps.

So much goes into the dance, but you need to take the first step, you need to go through the process, and what comes out in the outburst of emotions and shivers you get at the end of a performance.

Must watch Korean Dramas (my favourite dramas to date)

Hi, so I’m Rebecca, a 22 year old that loves lazing in bed and watching Korean dramas and movies. With the trending Netflix, more English speaking based dramas and movies got added to the mix. I’m using this platform to document what I have watched and try and brush up my writing skills. Not sure if anyone would read this but here it goes…

(in no particular order)

1.Prison Playbook

I watched this last year before I embarked on my exchange program to Korea and I can say it changed my life.

I used to say my favourite drama was “I Can Hear Your Voice” because it had Lee Jong Suk in it but this drama topped it. It takes you through a journey of a famous baseball player that landed in jail overnight. There he faces alot of different problems and we get to see the interactions between the prison inmates and him. It really showcases the different personalities that everyone has and the good and bad in people.

You can never really predict what would happen in this drama. Just when I think I have the character down, they surprise me. It isn’t some happy to go lucky drama where all characters have a good ending. It is more realistic and that makes it so much more enjoyable.

2.I Can Hear Your Voice

To be very honest, I watched this so long ago that I do not really remember why I liked it. But I remember I really fell in love with Lee Jong Suk’s character. The couple scenes were so cute. The drama also had me on the edge of my seat with all the twists and turns with the antagonist and other complications that most Korean dramas have.

But I highly recommend watching this if you havent!

3.Hello, My Twenties!

This drama I remember watching during the period of my big exams. It describes the lives of 5 strangers with very different personalities living in a sharehouse and their interactions from strangers to sisters. There is alot of monologue and calm moments, rather than continuous suspense. But, it will really have you relating so much to their thoughts and actions. There is also suspense driven into the storyline because of a childhood incident and forgotten memories and other things (but this is all I can say without spoiling it)…

You won’t regret it if you are looking for a modern day, realistic drama that you can watch that you can watch on the fly.

There is also a second season but I enjoyed the first more… they also removed on original character, added in another character and replaced an actor. So that ruined it abit for me.

4.Beauty Inside

To be honest, usually I watch dramas because of the male lead. But this was a drama that I only recently watched because I did not have anything else to watch but it was really good.

Seo Hyun Jin really has good chemistry with every partner she acts with. Throughly enjoyed this with the humour and the sad moments.

It is really a fantasy drama with her changing her appearance every month for a week. Though the storyline is different from the movie that was released years ago, I enjoyed this more than the movie. I think it is also because there was more time the main female character could interact as herself more. It also really melts your heart when you see people recognising her even though she has changed in appearance and how her friends and boyfriend stands by her through the tough times. When she stands up for herself and still has a heart of gold when others treat her badly really makes us proud of the character and personally makes me reflect on how I treat others.

I hope to be as strong and kind as the character one day.

*Spoiler alert* That episode when she was trying to clear her name to a director really left an impression on me. Even when he was treating her so badly and listening to rumors about her, she kept her calm and manners. She put down her ego and took every chance that she had to try and convince him. In the end of course she succeeded but I can only imagine what the character would have felt, to feel so desperate and put in all that effort just to feel that you did your best, but your best may not have been enough, but you are proud of yourself for trying all the way.

[Well that is all for now… I will be posting drama and movie reviews one by one or in a list as I watch them from now on]

My First Blog Post

REVIEWS, WRITING

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. On this blog I am going to review dramas, movies and books that read from now on. [Ignore that my URL only says cinematics]

I love entertainment in general and by writing I hope to share my recommendations, document what I have watched and also improve my writing.

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