Duelist

Also known as 형사 (Hyeong-sa), produced in 2005, and the Korean word actually translated to The Detective but the posters seem to contain the English word already. It was borrowed off a friend (and she said she needs it back soon but I kinda doubt her understanding of soon now). I wasn't too interested in viewing it until tonight when I decided to sit down, take a rest and watch something.

Synopsis: The story is very simple really, the woman is a member of the police whereas the guy is an outlaw. The story begins with the woman, named Nam Soon, and members of the police tailing a group of counter-feiters of money in the act of transaction with another person, but before they could act a man in mask who they presumes is a performer, stops the transaction by killing the counter-feiters, strikes the horse cart, made the counter-feited money scatters on the ground and runs away. But unable to capture the man the investigation continues. And soon Nam Soon and the man (only known as Sad Eyes) meets again and a certain bond develops. But in the end it's really a complicated love story really. Anyway that's all I could afford to say for more information I suggest you go and check out the Wiki's version of the synopsis.

Casts: Kang Dong-Won as Sad Eyes, Ha Ji-Won as Nam Soon, Ahn Seong-Gi as Detective Ahn

Review: As soon as I laid eyes on Kang Dong Won's character's face I melted. For real! I giggled like a little girl so much thank god I was watching it in my own room. But besides that very unreliable review I have to say I quite like the cinematic approach the director, Lee Myeong-se, took with the movie. Like the review in Wiki said it was very impressionistic with "extensive use of slow motion, freeze frames, multiple images, and varying perspectives." The story isn't laid out too well but the weaponry choreography should be taken notice of in this movie. It was choreographed beautifully, I personally like the choreograph of the sword dance by Sad Eyes in front of the Defence Minister and the fight scene between Nam Soon and Sad Eyes. With that aside the film is often not too melodramatic or even violent (so don't expect any sword fighting or extreme violence) there's a bit of quirk, humor and wit; the film is certainly not a reflection of that period in Korea's history it feels more like a modern espionage set in periodical time. I thoroughly enjoy the cinematography of this movie and don't expect too much violence or even much of a story, I think the most important element in this movie is the direction and the overall feeling of the movie, it almost feels like watching a moving painting for me, it was very inspirational I must say.

Ratings: 3/5 stars

Post Script: Maan everytime they did a close-up shot of Kang Dong-Won I seriously melted *sigh* if only I can put that shot in here, I couldn't take a screenshot because it won't let me so I guess you just have to watch the movie yourself. And by all that I meant Kang Dong-Won is sexy in this movie XD oh yeah...

Super Rookie

Also known as 신입사원 and New Employee, the first time I saw an episode of this series is when I went to Hong Kong and being unable to understand Cantonese I did not take the series very seriously. I finally revisited this series when I stumbled onto it on the world wide web. The other reason why I wanted to watch this series is because of Eric Mun from Shinhwa (a Korean singing group), and no not because I like him from the band, I just know that he was starring as the main male lead in Super Rookie. So when I had my semi-break period in between end of Autumn and Winter semesters I watched it.

Synopsis: Kang Ho is a 30-year-old man without any job. He rarely holds onto any job and often skip from one job to another for scraps of money. One day due to a high-school friend's reunion he was utterly humiliated for being unemployed among all the high-earning buddies (along with a friend of his), he decided he would take a chance in applying for a job at LK Corporation (a supposed biggest and most prestigious company in Korea) with this friend. Through a computer error and luck he was employed by the company even though he has the wrong qualifications. The series go through his trial and tribulation of making it into the big corporate world with his wit, luck and sheer determination. The series delves deeper into the other characters' difficulties as well, we have Bong-Sam who is a successful LK employee who came from a sad background but ruthless in his way of working, Mi-Ok who is always tormented by her boss, Sung-Tae who graduated from the prestigious Seoul University but still unable to find work, even Kang-Ho's dad who is unemployed and always get oppressed by his wife (Kang-Ho's mom) and Kang-Ho himself.

Casts: Eric Mun as Kang Ho, Han Ga-In as Lee Mi-Ok, Oh Ji-Ho as Park Bong-Sam and Lee So-Yeon as Soo Hyun-Ah.

Review: What can I say? I am in love with this drama, it doesn't have the too much cluttered feeling and excessive use of flashback, which Korean dramas seem to have most of the time (well at least the ones that I watched anyways). It also speaks on so many level regarding trying to make it into a large corporation solely on your ability and experience not qualifications, it might not speak too much about western countries but it does reflect a lot on Asian countries. Not only that the series delves deeper into the different difficulties people have to deal with regarding employment, social humiliations, oppression and life itself. The series speaks to many different levels of dynamics and societies, insights into these people were also done on a personal level, allowing us the viewers to understand each characters, not just Kang-Ho's trial and tribulations. On another note, Eric Mun in this series is just adorable as the slightly cocky, innocent and brave man trying to find his way into the world. Even though his character is always comical he doesn't give out the feeling that it was too overdone and exaggerated. The plot was always a surprise and edited very well, each episode wasn't left hanging too much but it always makes you beg for more (as in my case). I enjoy this series tremendously and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys feel-good dramas.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Post Script: I just absolutely fell in love with Eric Mun now, he's adorable XD



Post Post Script: There's also a sequel to this called Super Rookie: Secret Agent. Though I'm not too sure on the details since the pictures don't really appeal to me. Apparently it's based around the same concept of the character landing a prestigious job as a high-class secret agent through error in the employing process (correct me if I'm wrong, I wasn't too sure) and Eric Mun also comes back as the lead character, the story is completely different to the prequel, the sequel is based upon the same concept as the prequel but the story and characters are completely different. Also in this drama Eric Mun will be donning cropped hair because of the requirements of the character. (boohoo he cut off his gorgeous long locks TT__TT)

A look-alike?!?

This actually won't be a review post but rather an oddity that I somehow discovered while watching one drama and found something quite interesting that somehow reflects on another drama. I have to say I'm writing this when I'm barely awake and my intellectual level is at crisis level. Anyways, getting straight to the matter, I'm currently watching a Taiwanese drama called Smiling Pasta and somehow the lead male character, He Qun aka Nicholas Teo reminds me of the drama Full House's lead, Bi. AND to make matters even more interesting someone said that Smiling Pasta is very similar to Full House. Also I can't help but smile that another similarity that is almost disturbing to me is that Nicholas Teo and Bi looks very similar!!! If you don't believe me look at their photos below. I deliberately pick photos that have them donning similar hair styles and err... styles so you will see what I mean.

SEE WHAT I MEAN?!? Don't they look surprisingly similar?!? (btw if you still don't know who's who, the top one is Bi aka Rain while the bottom one is Nicholas Teo)

Anyway I just thought I might point out this one bit of suspicion. Hehe and just to think that there's always another person that almost look like us somewhere out there *shiver*.

And so this is it for now. I shall go on with the reviews sometime later coz right now I'm enjoying my time too much :) and busy with uni of course... Drama is just another form of escapism as one friend put it, and it's just another form of denying the fact that we got projects and exams due in the upcoming weeks I add :)