W-Two Worlds Review

Drama name: W-Two Worlds
Country: South Korea
Year: July- Sept 2016

I stumbled across this drama while viewing the free session on my local cable TV. It was Episode 3 and it caught my attention, so I went online to search for it. It was a new drama and I was instantly hooked! This is the first drama where I literally "chased"... Yes, I stayed up to watch the livestream on Youtube. I was that crazy! :D It was really fun waiting for the livestream, reading the chats and being a part of a global live audience! But the drawback was there were no subs since it's livestream so I didn't understand a single word. :( On average, the viewer count was around 4k. For the last episode it went up to 10k! Daebak!! 

Sorry it's taken me this long to write the review. :) I needed some time to recover from this drama and I was also busy doing other reviews too. ;D Let's jump right into it now, shall we?!

So,what's this drama about?

As with the drama title, it is a story of two worlds, both existing and running concurrently. The real world and the world of manhwa (comic book world). 

Kang Chul is the lead character in the comic book entitled, W. The author is Oh Seong Moo. W is the no.1 comic/ webtoon in Korea for many years. Kang Chul's story starts as him being the Olympic champion in the mens shooting singles. Not long after that, his family was mysteriously murdered. All of them were shot at point blank range, leading the prime suspect to be Kang Chul as no one else has that ability to shoot so well. Kang Chul was arrested, accused of murder and thrown in jail. However, he was acquitted later for insufficient evidence. 

Kang Chul wanted to end his life after that, as he found no hope in continuing his life since his whole family was gone. He went to the bridge and jumped off it into the Hahn river to commit suicide. It was that very moment when he jumped that he realised he wanted to live and then he clung onto the railing. He wanted to find the killer of his family.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the W author, Oh Seong Moo is a struggling artist. His drinking habit and lack of success in his career takes a toll on his marriage. His wife filed for divorce and the custody of their daughter. 

It was that very night when his family left, he was drinking and decided to end the W comic. He drew Kang Chul committing suicide and drowning in the Hahn river. However, the next morning he awoke to find Kang Chul still hanging onto the railing. 

Shocked and thinking that he was drunk drawing (Haha, I created a new term!) He distinctly remembered drawing Kang Chul dying in the water. But seeing that he didn't die, Mr Oh decided to save him. 

With that, W comic soared to success and Mr Oh's career took off. However, he was still struggling with his drinking addiction and he noticed that his creation, Kang Chul seem to have a life of his own. Each time he draws something, it will change by itself. He thought he was going crazy. Little did he know that Kang Chul indeed was alive and writing his own story.

Mr Oh realised that he had no control over Kang Chul anymore so he decides to kill his character. He was afraid that his creation will one day come to kill him. (What?!) Mr Oh tries to kill Kang Chul through his many drawings.

Mr Oh's daughter, Oh Yeon Joo is now all grown up. She is a trainee heart surgeon, struggling to keep her job as her superior Professor Park thinks that she is incapable to do anything at all. However, she is saved as her father is the famous author of W, which Prof Park is a huge fan of. 

One day, her father's assistant called to inform that her father was missing. She heads over to her father's studio to have a look. The next thing she knew was that she was in the W comic world and finds herself meeting Kang Chul. He was injured and lying in a pool of blood and she saves him. 

The story goes on with Oh Yeon Joo going in and out of the comic world because of Kang Chul's strong questioning of his existence. He will eventually find out the truth and the two worlds will collide. 

Overall thoughts?

The first half of the series was so thrilling. Each episode will keep you on the edge, guessing what's going to happen next. But when it reached midway, the plot just went haywire and all over the place. If you are familiar with football, you would have heard of the Brazilian samba. The story was exactly like that going here and there... 

Best parts of the drama?

Definitely a lot of cool features in this fantasy thriller drama. Firstly, Kang Chul's penthouse... You will love the interior. :D 

Kang Chul's sweet ride...a red lotus: 

The comic graphics and transition between the real and W worlds: 

Notable scenes:

The meeting between creator and creation. Mr Oh and Kang Chul's showdown: 

Funny moment with Professor Park a.k.a. Crazy dog at the cafe: 

Scary moment with the no-face killer and then he had a face (Because he stole it!) 

Fashion

Kang Chul is a multi-millionaire so he dresses really well of course. ;) Anything he wears he turns it into a model fashion. Even chequered or traffic light suits... :P

Conclusion

To be honest, the story was all over the place by the time it reached the end your mind is a total mess of events. :D There are two endings, one for the W comic and one for the real world.

In the comic W, the readers see Kang Chul dying at the bus stop after being shot by the bad politician. It seems like justice was not done to that bad guy or any happy ending at all for Kang Chul. But the readers accepted the ending as a sad but believable ending. (Wtf?!)  

In reality, both worlds continue to co-exist. The W world shows Kang Chul actually didn't die. He was saved by his best friend bodyguard and went to jail for two years. I'm not clear why he went to jail, was it because he broke out of jail or that he killed the no-face killer guy in the car collision shoot-out part. The story only shows that Kang Chul was cleared from the uncle's murder. I'm also not sure if he was cleared of his family's murder but I think it was when the no-face killer shot everyone at the studio, the killer admitted it I think. ?!

Kang Chul returns to the real world after that two years but it has only been a week in the real world. Oh Yeon Joo thought he was dead and was so heartbroken. She kept going to the bus stop where she last saw him and fainted out of exhaustion (or heart brokenness?) It has a happy ending when she woke up to find Kang Chul next to her.

Mr Oh never returned to the real world. He decided to end his life in exchange for Kang Chul's freedom. It was a really sad ending imo, that the father gave his all for his daughter's happiness.

As I was doing this review, I read up some new comments. Apparently there will be a season 2 of W. My initial reaction was WHAT??!! I'm not really looking forward to it. I just feel there are too many loopholes and if there is really a season 2, I hope that the writer will do a less Brazilian samba plot. :D

I guess there's only one reaction that describes this entire drama. That is Prof Park's reaction... and yes, I totally agree with him! ;P

Entourage Korean Review

Drama name: Entourage
Country: South Korea
Year: Nov- Dec 2016

I saw the promo ad on my local cable TV (Yes again! They are promoting their Korean pack) and I was super excited that there is a Korean version. I didn't watch the original version even though it was advertised heavily on HBO last time. 

So,what's this drama about?

The story revolves around a young actor named Cha Young Bin. He has three best friends, Ho Jin, Cha Joon and Turtle. Ho Jin is his best friend cum manager; Cha Joon is his cousin, also an actor but not a famous one and Turtle is jobless. They all live with Young Bin in his penthouse and hang out together all the time.

Young Bin belongs to a talent management company which is run by Mr Kim Eun Gab. Mr Kim is always hard at work finding roles for Young Bin but Young Bin has his own opinion which puts his manager, Ho Jin in a difficult position most of the time.

The rest of the story goes on with the struggles faced by Mr Kim and Ho Jin in the entertainment industry just to get Young Bin the roles that he wants. They will face powerful people behind the scenes and their friendship will be stretched to the limits. 

Overall thoughts?

As I have not watched the original version so I can't compare them both. However, I do think that they did manage to capture the overall vibe with this series. It is not the usual Korean drama story with romance and all that. The show is a little bit slow, it gives you a relaxed, chill out feeling and it maintains consistency throughout the series. 

Best parts of the drama?

There are a lot of nice bits that made this drama work. It starts out with the glitz and glam of the movie star world at the Busan Film Festival, also the hometown of Young Bin and his friends... 

Then there are the wild parties and fast cars... 

Not to mention the celebrity cameos... I only recognised a few of them, especially those from Running Man (Because of Kwang Soo of course!) 

Young Bin's penthouse is to die for... (Haha! I just love the interior as usual! ;D) And the sweet Evoque he bought for Ho Jin as a present for becoming a real manager... 

Some nice scenery from Jeju Island... 

More awesome cars... (Why yes, I love cars too.. how did you know?! ;D) Amber's Suzuki car is too cute! It has left-hand drive which is perfect for us here... and check out that Rolls Royce with suicide doors!

Notable scenes

Joon and Turtle's scenes were hilarious. They have such good chemistry together. But I must admit halfway through the series I got a bit tired of them, especially Joon... Nevertheless they did a great job entertaining us! 

The bromance. Yes, the four of them posing together for most of the time. I absolutely love it! I'm so envious of their friendship. Where to find besties like them??!! 

Conclusion

Young Bin did manage to star in the movie he wanted so much, "Lim Hwa Su". Although the movie did not manage to beat the other movie, "War Terminator" but it did score a very high premiere screening number of about 480,000 viewers. It was a good result and everyone celebrates and it ends there with the future uncertain but they'll certainly continue to work hard and push forward to success. 

Ironically, it's the total opposite in real life for this drama. This drama did not do well at all in South Korea. One of the factors would be the time slot, it was aired at 11pm at night and also the plot without the usual cheesy over the top romance. Some were even bashing the actor of Young Bin, Seo Kang Joon for taking this role and that he should stick to rom-coms. 

I'm just thinking that is precisely the story of Entourage, he did a brave thing for doing this drama. Even though it flopped, I think he did a great job of portraying Young Bin. Not only him, but the entire cast of Entourage acted really well. Mr Kim and Ho Jin definitely stole the show. It's a shame their efforts were not recognised in their home country, but I think internationally this drama did pretty well. Maybe someday South Korea would be more open to these kind of dramas. 

Party on, you guys deserve it! Rock on! ;D

Metro of Love Review Episodes 15- 17

[Episodes 15 - 17] Couple #6 : Welcome to the Happy Days

Fang Ru is a twenty something young lady who basically bums around all day and hopes to go to the US someday to further her studies. 

Allen Thompson is also a twenty something young man who came over to Beitou, Taiwan in order to follow the footsteps of a famous violinist, Tomoo Yamada. The reason he is doing that is because of his ex-girlfriend who loves this violinist. He hopes by doing this he would win her heart back. 

Fang Ru's grandmother runs a small hot spring hotel. One day, she had a fall and it will take months for her to recover. Fang Ru offers to help run the hotel as she thought with the money she can finally make her US trip come true. However, she didn't know that her grandmother's hotel is not doing well at all and has a lot of debt. (What's up with all these Taiwanese dramas with debts yo?!) 

Fang Ru quickly learns of the debt and was fretting on what to do... Along came Allen Thompson, who was looking for a place to stay. He offers to work in exchange for food and lodging. Fang Ru thought it would be excellent to use Allen to help boost the popularity of the hotel. She asks Allen to start moving heavy stuff, cleaning up the place and take selfies while he was doing all that. 

Allen stumbles across an old violin while cleaning out the whole hotel. Upon inspecting it, he realises it had Tomoo Yamada's signature on the back. Super excited, he offers to buy the violin from Fang Ru. Fang Ru, taking advantage of Allen again demands a deposit of USD20,000. Allen gives her the money and pledges to work hard so he can have the violin. 

Despite all their efforts, the hotel was still empty and running a lot of debt. Fang Ru's grandmother returns and Fang Ru finds out that the violin belongs to her grandmother. The grandmother refuses to sell the violin as it is her symbol of love. Yes, turns out that Fang Ru's grandmother's first love is Tomoo Yamada. Mr Yamada is Fang Ru's grandfather. 

Allen was okay about not being able to buy the violin so he asked Fang Ru for his money back. But Fang Ru had already used his money. He was really upset and decided to leave. All seemed lost for Fang Ru because the bank people had also come and demand closure of the hotel within a month. 

Allen had a change of heart after saying good-bye to Fang Ru's grandmother and decided to come back. They had only one month left so everyone worked their best to restore the hotel. Allen wrote about Fang Ru's grandmother's love story but he accidentally posted it on the hotel's Facebook page instead of Tomoo Yamada's fanpage. His story made the hotel famous overnight and many people came including Tomoo Yamada himself. Yes! Wow! 

There was a sweet moment of reconciliation between Fang Ru's grandmother and Mr Yamada... Apparently the grandmother's close friend had been the cause of their lost of correspondence all these years. Mr Yamada does a solo performance and announces that all the profits he earned from the song he composed in Beitou to be donated to the hotel, saving it from closure. 

There were some really funny moments with Fang Ru and Allen. Although Allen did leave Beitou, he came back a year later and it ends there with the suggestion of a new relationship blossomed from friendship. 

Overall thoughts?

Another hilarious story, I had plenty of laughs from Fang Ru and Allen. This story was told in a narrative sort of way, engaging us the audience as the third party. It is a light-hearted love story, with comedy and not too much sad moments. The grandmother's love story was the real story behind these few episodes. 

There were quite a number of scenes in the metro line. From Allen's arrival to his departure, there was also a PSA scene as well. Also, the red haired girl is seen here again at the parting scene of Fang Ru and Allen. Actually, Allen appeared in the red hair girl's episodes as a tourist asking for directions. I guess this is how the directors tie in the different love stories, as they were all running concurrently and only now we get to see it in depth. 

We've reached the end of all the episodes available so far. I do hope the final episodes of this Metro of Love series will be subbed and uploaded soon. I'm looking forward to the next story, the male lead looks like an eccentric hobo style guy.