Time Between Dog and Wolf (2007)

Time Between Dog and Wolf
개와 늑대의 시간
(Jul – Sept 2007)

who’s in it
Lee JunKi (Iljimae, My Girl, Hero)
Nam SangMi (ILPK, The Grand Chef)
Jung KyungHo (Smile You)

what’s it about
Lee JunKi plays Lee SooHyun, a haunted National Intelligence Service agent who follows in his father’s footsteps both in career and purpose. His father had been a spook agent stationed in Bangkok to bring down a crime syndicate shoveling drugs into Korea, a far-reaching triad with its base in Thailand. This investigation lead to his own murder as well as Lee JunKi’s mother (eventually). As a rookie NIS agent, Lee JunKi attempts to avenge his family by finishing the job his father had long ago started and also hopes to kill the man who murdered his mother. 

Another significant part of Lee JunKi’s childhood in Thailand is Nam SangMi, a fellow expat in Bangkok he’d developed a crush on as a young boy. The two were separated when both children left Thailand due to their respective family situations. After the death of his mother, the orphaned Lee JunKi is adopted by an old NIS colleague of his father’s and taken back to Korea.

Many years later, Nam SangMi and Lee JunKi reunite in Korea by chance through Lee JunKi’s adopted brother, Jung KyungHo, and find themselves rekindling their friendship and their mutual attraction. Nam SangMi is now an art dealer who has more of a connection to his parents’ murderer than Lee JunKi initially understands. All the while, the triad has expanded their base of operations into Korea and just as the couple’s feelings grow for one another, their secrets from one another also accrue, one big secret being Lee JunKi’s job as a super secret spy—one driven by torment and revenge.   

When Lee JunKi loses himself, both in identity and purpose, during a deep cover assignment into the crime syndicate he is desperate to destroy, the moral lines that separate justice and revenge, brother and enemy, love and hate become blurred—the balance between right and wrong becomes obscured by the lies and secrets between them all. 

commitment 
16 episodes

network
MBC

wildcard factor
Who isn’t fascinated by the dark underbelly of our society, the places where betrayal and blood is a way of life? Who doesn’t find a strange allure for the emotionally splintered people who live in that violent playground? Show me a person who isn’t, and I’ll show you a liar. The reason why we regular humans are unable to resist this kind of brutal escapist fare is because it is so far away from our own realm of reality but we understand on some level that these worlds are very real for others. Someone pisses you off? Well, bash his brains in, of course. Not for you or I, but for some, this is how their world works. These kinds of high-octane plots take place in an insane world populated by people equally mad, on both sides of the fight. They’re two sides of a coin, you see, these tales about organized crime and the intelligence agencies that try to bring them down. They are the two sides of humanity. Inevitably, moral lines will become muddied when dealing with a fight that occurs in the dark and that is what makes conflicts between cops and criminals timeless. That area of grey where black and white meet, that muddy area where the good guys and bad guys fight.

If you can get past the beyond-cheesy poster and the occasional tendencies for overdone melodrama, you may end up really enjoying this one, like I did. Not only was the drama actually decently written, it was exciting and thrilling to watch. In playing a tormented NIS agent caught between two worlds, Lee JunKi essentially got to play three characters and all of them were miserable people, but amusing to follow, especially if you enjoy the charismatic, macho-crying-only-on-the-inside type of heroes (which I do).

Besides, it was an opportunity to see Lee JunKi and equally handsome Jung KyungHyo play international spies that shoot bullets and missile-like glares at one another...well, I ask you, what’s wrong with that? Not very much, I assure you.

first impressions 

Wolf was unexpectedly surprising, but in a positive way. I hadn’t expected to enjoy any part of this at all and the only reason why I even bothered despite my prejudices against what I assumed would be yet another transparently melodramatic, half-baked spy story was my inability to say no to Lee JunKi. Having just written that, yes, it was melodramatic and sometimes half-baked, but the story wasn’t half bad either, in fact, I’d give it credit for at least recognizing its strengths and weaknesses and focusing on what it did well: Lee JunKi’s badassery. As expected, it does adhere to some of the usual genre conventions, but all in all, the emotional heart behind the characters manage to pull it away from becoming a boilerplate action dud. It definitely had its moments of clunkery, but the awesome swagger about it kept me coming back for more.

Hello! Miss (2007)

Hello! Miss
헬로 애기씨 / Hello! My Lady
(Mar – May 2007)

who’s in it
Lee JiHoon
Lee DaHae (My Girl, Chuno)
Ha SukJin (Merchant Kim Manduk)
Yun MiJoo


what’s it about
Lee DaHae plays Lady Lee SuHa, the young steward of her clan who is charged by the elders to uphold the cultural traditions of her family lineage, and more importantly, to preserve and maintain the family estate Hwanandang, a crumbling hanok manor. She is given little aid financially from the clan and finds herself in dire straits as the nearly bankrupt property is considered too high risk for any legitimate bank to offer a loan. The option to designate the entire place as a national cultural asset is available to her, but she loathes the idea of relinquishing control to the government regarding the manor’s every administrative decision.

Off and away in another corner of the peninsula, the aging founder and owner of Top Group, an aptly named company sitting at the financial top, wants to buy Hwanandang in order to live out his retirement in the master suite of the estate, a place he had once been a servant. He sends his grandson Hwang DongGyu to do the dirty work and wrest the property away from the current owners; played by Lee JiHoon, who is a young man not completely comfortable with his rich kid status and regularly switches identities with his assistant. As expected, it would only be over Lee DaHae’s dead body that she’d give up the place to the rich kid from Seoul. She scoffed at the notion of even relinquishing financial oversight to the government, it is highly unlikely she is ever going to agree selling her home to a corporate entity, especially one owned by a servant who stole their cow to start his enterprise (apparently a grave offense back in the day).

Ha SukJin plays the second heir to the Top Group fortune and Lee JiHoon’s cousin, but this good-looking operator is nothing like his cuz, the collected and responsible CFO of Top Group. Everybody has a black sheep in the family and this one is a model and a playboy, as they often are, and he takes an instant liking to the unique charms of Lee DaHae (by instant, we’re literally talking seconds). The love square is finished off by Yun MiJoo who plays an ambitious nipped/tucked model who’s got her eyes on success, which includes the handsome and rebellious grandson of Top Group as a part of her benefits package.

commitment 
16 episodes

network
KBS

wildcard factor
Do you enjoy the under-appreciated art of facial and vocal acrobatics and consummate overacting? If so, you’ll love Lee DaHae in this one.

after the first episode
oO < — that would be my eyeballs popping out of their sockets

Hana Yori Dango (2005, 2007, 2008)

Hana Yori Dango
花より男子
Season One 2005;
Season Two 2007;
Final Movie 2008

who’s in it
Inoue Mao as Makino Tsukushi (Goo HyeSun – JanDi)

Matsumoto Jun as Domyoji Tsukasa (Lee MinHo – JunPyo)

Oguri Shun as Hanazawa Rui (Kim HyunJoong – JiHoo)

Matsuda Shota as Nishikado Soujiro (Kim Bum – YiJung)

Abe Tsuyoshi as Mimasaka Akira (Kim Joon – WooBin)

Nishihara Aki as Matsuoka Yuki (Kim SoEun – GaEul)

(Equivalent Korean version Boys Over Flowers)

what’s it about
Real quick, I want to preface this review by saying that while I did watch Hana Yori Dango before Boys Over Flowers, the latter is still fresh in my mind and so I don’t think I will be able to resist making constant comparisons between the two…besides, this is a blog about Korean dramas so I thought it appropriate.

Here we go:

Makino Tsukushi (played by Inoue Mao) is a counter girl at a rice cake shop. She’s a simple girl but clear-eyed and undaunted by the hardships that come her way. She’s also a wrong-side-of-the-tracks poor girl attending an ultra privileged prep school by the title Eitoku High School. Things go awry for her when she butts heads with Tsukasa, the leader of F4, a quad of young men (yes, also students) who ‘discipline’ their peers under a “red notice” system. Simply put, piss Almighty Tsukasa off and you may get a red notice, and like a red card in futbol, this is not a good sending off. Basically, a crimson card dangling at the head of your locker means that the entire school will make your life at school a level in Dante’s hell, including beating the sh*t out of you. It’s quite frightening really. This school, for all its polish and shine, is quite lawless. Case and point, Makino almost gets raped by some overly-enthusiastic bullies…thankfully, violin-playing emoting hottie Hanazawa Rui prevents the worst from happening. Ah, did I mention he’s also a F4 member? But unlike their leader Tsukasa, this F4 guy isn’t that much into the intimidating and oppressing of people, especially women. Makino develops a crush on her pretty boy white knight. All the while, Tsukasa can’t seem to resist Makino’s unique oppositional charms. Apparently, a girl that hits him is a girl that keeps him.

commitment 
Season 1: 9 Episodes
Season 2: 11 episodes
Hana Yori Dango Final: Movie

network
Tokyo Broadcasting System

wildcard factor
Inoue Mao, who played Makino, was terrific. Truthfully, I liked her take on this character far more than Goo HyeSun’s portrayal. She had a believable strength about her even when she kept finding herself in ridiculous scenarios. Believable is the key word in that sentence, by the way.

Nishihara Aki’s portrayal of Matsuoka Yuki (Makino’s best friend) was also very good. I loved the character Yuki as much as I loved her equivalent in Boys Over Flowers, GaEul.

after the first episode
I’d seen some of the anime beforehand so I was prepared for the flowerly fluff nature of the storyline…while I did not finish the animated interpretation, I thought that I could finish this drama. The lead girl was cute and it seemed like the show was going to be a real fangirl stage show. Four cute boys and a strong girl? What’s not to like?

Dal Ja’s Spring (2007)

Dal Ja’s Spring
달자의 봄
(Jan – Mar 2007)

who’s in it
Chae Rim (Powerful Opponents)
Lee MinKi (Really, Really Like You, Evasive Inquiry Agency)
Lee HyunWoo (Attic Cat)
Lee HyeYoung (Queen of Housewives)
Gong HyungJin (Chuno)

what’s it about
As the story goes…you’re standing at a crosswalk minding your own, waiting for the light to turn green (aren’t we all just waiting for that light to turn green?) when all of a sudden love comes flying out of nowhere to knock you off your feet—in Chae Rim’s case, however, it also knocks her to the pavement and breaks her cell phone. This whirlwind arrives in the form of angular, runway model-turned-actor Lee MinKi. Not a bad reason to fall at all, literally and figuratively. Mr. Mystery waltzes into her life, young and vibrant and critical of her insecurities, especially her hang-ups regarding her age and her unrealistic notions on love. For someone younger, it becomes immediately obvious that Lee MinKi’s got more life wisdom under his sneakers than his noona (older woman to younger man).

Chae Rim is a buyer for a home shopping network and pretty good at her job, and she’s worked hard to become so capable, but she remains unlucky in love due to her overly romantic sensibility. After falling for the charms of a coworker who turns out to be a major player, she becomes the butt of pitying office gossip, so she takes on Lee MinKi as a ‘fake boyfriend’ for a month to resuscitate her female pride. The real loveline tangle arises when she meets the CEO of a new brand they’re selling, a man she suspects may be “the man of her destiny”…but what about Lee MinKi? Is he really just her ‘spare tire’ or, dare she hope, something more?

How do you calculate love, by counting the years of your life or by the beats of your heart?

commitment 
22 episodes

network
KBS2

wildcard factor
Chae Rim’s eyeliner…heh, just joking. Thick eyeliner and poofy hair aside, she’s adorable here as the prideful and determined thirty-something Oh Dalja still looking for that great romance that will sweep her off her feet. She had an obsession with her age and was quite the boy crazy woman, but surprisingly, Chae Rim was able to make this girl likable and not too pink and fluffy.

after the first episode
Even after only an hour, we really got a sense of who Chae Rim was playing. This was a girl who became a woman overnight and along the way, without her realizing it, she traded in a personal life for her job. She thought herself worldly but she was actually naïve, especially when it came to people and their motivations. As the popular refrain goes ‘a good deed never goes unpunished,’ her life was a lot like that, sometimes unlucky through no real fault of her own but due only to her desire to live earnestly. She tried hard [at everything] but her insecurities were the barriers she couldn’t seem to overcome. She was constantly sneaking glances around to see who was watching and how she was being judged. She was attractive and well-liked by her peers, but she didn’t see herself that way. She wanted love but didn’t believe she was worthy of it, not really. We know this because we were allowed to hear her inner dialogues via voiceovers. Basically, we had here an everywoman, someone we pitied and couldn’t wholly comprehend, but also a person we could not deny lives in all of us to some capacity.

The story was intent on focusing on Oh Dalja as a whole person, not just her love life, evidenced by the introduction of her family, friends and coworkers in an intelligent manner, not as passing bit players. They were as complicated as the lead. I liked it. This had a sly scent of something refreshing.

Witch Yoo Hee (2007)

Witch Yoo Hee
마녀유희 / Witch Amusement
(Mar – May 2007)

who’s in it
Han GaIn (Super Rookie)
JaeHee (Delightful Girl Chungyang)
Jun HyeBin
Kim Jeong Hoon (Goong)
Dennis O’Neil (Sweet Spy, East of Eden)

what’s it about
Han GaIn is a successful young woman with a reputation for being an ice princess, to phrase it politely. She’s not social and she’s not exactly likable upon first introduction. She’s also lousy at dating, as a good personality can factor into being considered dating material. Worse, like many females in the expanse of all known history, she’s still hurting from the loss of her first love, a dashing doc played by Kim JeongHoon, who is still hovering around in her gravitational pull. The term ‘when it rains, it pours’ applies here as two more men join the courting: old friend and American hottie Dennis O’Neil moves to Korea to accept a job (as head chef at a fancy restaurant) and simple-minded JaeHee crashes into her car, life, and home to become an indentured servant slash dating coach. Needless to say, both men end up having more than friendly intentions in mind.

commitment 
16 episodes

network
SBS

wildcard factor
It’s…boring, for one. Second, it’s really boring.

after the first episode
Reference wildcard factor.

1st Shop of a Coffee Prince (2007)

1st Shop of a Coffee Prince
커피프린스 1호점
(Jul – Aug 2007)

who’s in it
Yoon EunHye (Goong, The Vineyard Man)
Gong Yoo (One Fine Day, Spy Girl – film)
Lee SunGyun (Triple, Pasta)
Chae JungAhn (Cain and Abel)

what’s it about
Yoon EunHye is a girl who has a family that is financially challenged and to meet that challenge, she finds herself in a truly truly absurd gender-bending situation. Good for us, awkward for her. Not only does she pretend to be a garçon at a coffee shop, but the short-haired pixie finds herself being roped into her boss Gong Yoo’s blind dates (set up by his grandmother) pretending to be his boyfriend. Gong Yoo wants to shock his potential gold-digging female suitors out of his life because he’s actually got the hots for his cousin’s ex-girlfriend, played by Chae JungAhn.

As if pretending to be a boy isn’t difficult enough, she starts to get butterfly-feelings for Gong Yoo, who only sees her as a gawky younger brother. For now.

Aside from the main four characters, there are three delicious boys who are employed in the coffee shop. Not a bad way to flavor your latte, that’s for damn sure. Can you imagine your local coffee hotspot with these guys? Oh yeah, I’d be there every java-loving day.

commitment 
17 episodes

network
MBC

wildcard factor
Yoon EunHye was effortlessly engaging as EunChan. She does earnesty in the way that Han HyoJoo can only dream about (Spring Waltz, Shining Inheritance).

after the first episode
Tentatively excited. The premise laid the groundwork for a lot of interesting possibilities and the tone of the drama hinted at a lot of hilarity to come. While Yoon EunHye was believable as a boy, my hesitation stemmed from my concern at how the show intended to approach the obvious issue of homosexuality that would naturally be born out of such a plotline, which is not exactly a mainstream nor popular concept even in today’s modern society, and not just in Korea but the world as a whole. I was both hopeful and wary of the topic’s potential hot button and sensitive nature. I only hoped that it would be explored respectfully and in a positive manner, and if so, perhaps even spread a little tolerance. Anyhow, although it’s not the point of a romantic comedy to teach social compassion, there are just some subject matters that come laden with landmines and must be tread upon with care.

I Am Sam (2007)

I Am Sam
아이엠샘
(Aug – Oct 2007)

who’s in it
Yang DongGeun (Ruler of Your Own World)
Park MinYoung
TOP (IRIS, member of Big Bang)
Son TaeYoung (Kwon SangWoo’s wife – What? She is)

what’s it about
A doormat-type teacher, Yang DongGeun, pines for the love of an art teacher (Kwon SangWoo’s wife) while trying not to get killed when he’s coerced into teaching the headstrong daughter of a gangster played by Park MinYoung, the girl who made TOP and GD throw fists at one another (for a Big Bang music video, that is). For some reason that still doesn’t fully make sense to me, Yang DongGeun ends up cohabitating with this sassy female student…and yes, if you suspect we’re heading there, the place where the worst nightmares of parents await, you are probably right and also a professional kdrama watcher.

commitment 
16 episodes

network
KBS2

wildcard factor
TOP – so, what you need to ask yourself is this: how desperate are you to watch this idol hottie for 16 hours?

after the first episode
Please please please don’t tell me this is a student-falling-in-love-with-the-teacher story. I hate those!

Evasive Inquiry Agency (2007)

Evasive Inquiry Agency
얼렁뚱땅 흥신소 / Mixed-Up Investigative Agency
(Oct – Nov 2007)

who’s in it
Lee MinKi (Dal Ja's Spring, Really, Really Like You)
Ye JiWon
Ryu SeungSoo (Thank You, 200 Pound Beauty – film)
Lee EunSong

what’s it about
Not your conventional kdrama and when I say that, I really mean it. Four people spend sixteen episodes trying to solve the mystery of some gold leaf bars hidden in the wall of their work and residence, and the dead body that accompanies it. On top of that, there’s hardly any romance to speak of, which is downright unheard of in a kdrama.

commitment 
16 Episodes

network
KBS2

wildcard factor
No romance. A comedy, but not a romantic comedy. If the development of loooove is your favorite part of watching these things, this might be a stumbling block to your enjoyment.

after the first episode
I thought: man, this is an odd kdrama. Interesting…palatable…but strange. I kinda like it!