Memorials/ Into the Ring review

 

Drama name: Memorials/ Into the Ring/ The Ballot 

Country: South Korea

Year: July- Aug 2020

Saw the advertisement trailer on KBS Asia during the time it was aired, but didn't manage to watch it. Just kept it in mind but I forgot the drama title. ^_^V Had to ask for help from a kdrama expert in the Discord server that I am in, haha.. she gave me the answer right away after I described the trailer. Many thanks! 

So,what's this drama about?

Goo Se Ra is a late twenties early thirties woman who is still struggling to find and hold a job. She has been job hopping for almost a decade and it shows on her resume. She has a fiery personality and that always lands her into trouble with the working culture in South Korea. Apart from that, she is also known as "Garden Tiger Moth" online, who is infamous for her numerous complaints to the local municipal council to fix or repair stuff on the streets. 

Meanwhile, Seo Gong Myung is a strict no nonsense kind of guy who used to work in the local district finance budget department. Because he spoke up against the budget, he was demoted to the municipal council office instead. There he was given the task to settle "Garden Tiger Moth" 's complaints. One night he finally meets her in person while checking out her complaint. 

The rest of the story goes on with Se Ra running for the district representative post with all the obstacles she has to overcome together with Gong Myung by her side. 

Overall thoughts

It is a light hearted rom-com that skims the surface of politics. The female lead character is very much like Fight for my way female lead, which I don't really like because she seems to be screaming a lot in the show. The male lead is a quiet strong type so it sort of strikes a balance. (The saying goes opposites attract!) It was an alright watch, nothing heavy or any evil villain in this drama. 

Best parts of the drama

The bookshop cafe which was Goo Se Ra's campaign base. The cinematography of this drama is quite artistic, with low angles and wide lens. It's either you love it or hate it, I remember reading some commenters who disliked it. For me, it works while filming the exterior of the building as it gives a dynamic view... 

Se Ra's secret place to hide and re-collect her thoughts... Sunset Land or something... I wonder if the neon signage is on all the time?! :D 

Se Ra's family residence, again you can see here the low angle wide view works... 

The childhood best friends become lovers relationship between Se Ra and Gong Myung... Lots of sweet moments and kisses for the hopeless romantics... 

The friendship between Se Ra and her two besties... They stuck with her through thick and thin... 

This weird scene where small kids were driving cars at night... I was like what is this... and then realised it was a park where kids can learn how to drive... Haha! Lots of other comedic scenes as well in this drama... 

Some yummy food for the foodies... 

Special mention

Haha, this trio from the district representatives members... They always work together as a team. Kinda like the three stooges! 

Conclusion

The biggest bad guy in this story is Gong Myung's father. Gong Myung decides to spill the beans about everything and that totally destroyed his father's reputation and ambition to be the Chief of Mawon. Se Ra manages to keep her job as the district representative until the end of term. 

Lots of different endings for the various district reps... one was banished to the rural area, one of the three stooges finally decides to step out on his own and the best part was one of Se Ra's friends will be running for the district position the following year. Haha, yes it's another round of campaigning! 

Meanwhile Se Ra herself was no longer allowed to be involved in politics...Gong Myung made her sign a cheesy declaration in her notebook...But it doesn't end there, she finds herself being recruited to fight the cause of polar bears! 

Like I mentioned earlier, this is a light hearted rom-com... The issues they tackled regarding urban development and environmental damage was good. However, the political part of this drama is merely on the surface only. In real life politics, there will be lots more bribery, slander, accusations, murder and the like. I did enjoy this drama as it resembles our own political scene here, with the district representatives. I guess it is the same for almost every country... corrupt politicians that squander the taxpayers' money. 

Thanks for reading this and stopping by! Will leave you with Se Ra and Gong Myung... 

*Image credits Dramabeans, own screenshots and Google search* 

Extreme Job review

 

Movie name: Extreme Job

Country: South Korea

Year: Jan 2019

Someone recommended this k-movie in the kdrama Discord server that I am in. Made a bookmark to watch it and finally gotten around to it earlier this year. 

So,what's this movie about?

A team of five detectives who has a very poor performance in bringing in the crooks are at the risk of being disbanded. In order to save his team, the leader Chief Go decides to tackle a drug lord named Mubae whose right hand man had been released from jail recently. If they manage to bust the gang they would be promoted and not lose their jobs. 

The story goes on with how Chief Go and team tries to infiltrate the gang by doing a stakeout at a nearby fried chicken restaurant. However, the restaurant is not doing well at all and the owner is about to sell it. The team decides to take over the restaurant to continue with their mission to nab the drug lord. 

Overall thoughts

It is a really funny action movie. Although some may not like the slapstick comedy and overly dramatic action fight scenes (somewhat reminiscent of Hong Kong action movies!) I still think it is an entertaining watch. 

Best parts of the movie

Definitely the stakeout and take over part... haha, they were eating fried chicken and the original owner thought they were a bunch of jobless losers... The part where they were defining their relationship to each other while trying to get the restaurant ownership deal... 

After acquiring the restaurant, their struggle to maintain the fried chicken business and continuing their mission on Mubae... The part when they finally got an order from the drug den, they were dismayed as the place had been vacated already... alas! 

Story goes on

Their fried chicken business went too well and caught the attention of a local TV producer. The team offended the producer by denying him an interview. They couldn't get caught on TV with their superiors seeing them! Unfortunately for them, the producer decided take revenge by smearing their shop saying that their fried chicken is fake, being bought from other shops and served to customers instead. The news went viral and Chief Go's superiors came to know about it. All of them were fired from their police jobs. So sad! 

However, the team had some sort of dumb luck... haha, their restaurant's popularity caught the attention of Mubae's right hand man. He came up with the proposal to use the restaurant delivery service to deliver drugs to customers. It was like the drug guys came to Chief Go in the end! Chief Go didn't know anything about it and proceed to sign with them since they lost their jobs as policemen. 

It was not until one of them realised that their restaurant food chain is not doing well but still there seem to be many deliveries. The team went to investigate and found out that Mubae had been using it for his drug activities. 

Conclusion

Rescue mission time! Detective Ma was missing and the rest of the team had to go rescue him. Meanwhile, the drug lord Mubae was having his own business deal with another drug guy. This is the final showdown when Chief Go and team versus the bad guys. 

Lots of kick ass fights later, the team finally defeated all the bad guys. Haha!! Love the scene where all of them sitting on the couch waiting for the police to arrive. It's a happy ending, all of them got their jobs back and promoted... 

It is a light hearted comedy movie that you could watch. Was a good recommendation indeed. Haha, I really laughed a lot! And the fried chicken does look delicious. Will leave you with Chief Go... 

*Image credits own screenshots and Google search* 

Good Casting review

 

Drama name: Good Casting
Country: South Korea
Year: April- June 2020

Heard about this drama through the K-drama community, was excited for its release as I thought it would be a female version of Terrius. Luckily it was aired on my local cable TV channel so I was able to watch it every week as it was being aired. 

So, what's this drama about?

Baek Chan-Mi is a NIS agent and she was in charge of an operation to catch the mastermind behind a syndicate which was leaking valuable information to China. Chan-Mi is a crazy mad hat person and she goes all out in every situation without care for her team members. This resulted in the death of a member in her team and the target that they were after escaped. 

Chan-Mi was then demoted as team leader and she spent two years as an unwanted NIS agent doing obscure missions. She was deeply affected by the death of the team member and she was obsessed in finding the killer which goes by the name, "Michael." 

Chan-Mi's ex boyfriend who is also a NIS agent recruited her for a new mission that requires her to go undercover in a tech company. However, she is straddled with two other female agents that will be her new team members. 

The story goes on with the trio infiltrating the company to get information and finally catching the elusive "Michael." 

Overall thoughts

As I mentioned earlier, I thought this would be another spy drama like Terrius. Turns out that this is a Korean version of Charlie's Angels! Haha! It was an entertaining drama with lots of comedy, action and romance as well. However, you will need to leave your logical brain behind for most of the parts and just enjoy the show as it is... 

Best parts of the drama

Baek Chan-Mi herself... I found myself falling in love with her crazy character from Episode 1 itself. When she beat the crap out of the other prison inmates... Everyone was afraid of her, thinking she is some psycho mental person... XD 

The Wash and Clean van... haha, it's so cute and it was their mobile operations truck...  Seriously who wouldn't suspect a cleaning van parked outside a building all day... XD

Celebrity Kang's house and cars are really nice... Haha, he was screaming when his personal assistant decided to call it quits and drew on all of his cars... 

I also liked the comic style narration while they were explaining each operation... 

Some yummy looking food too... 

There were some cute plushies featured in this drama as well... the huge duck was really hilarious... 

Notable scenes

The bodyguard moment with Celebrity Kang and Im Ye-Eun... haha that was really funny and sweet! 

Another funny scene was at the laboratory of the bad guy... He thought it was a ghost in the air-con vent.. XD 

Conclusion

After countless operations and close shaves... Chan-Mi finally closes in onto Michael... It was a flurry of action and comedic scenes.... to a sad scene where the loyal right hand man dies... Man, why did he have to die? 

They managed to capture Michael which turns out to be the lab guy. But the syndicate lives on as he was killed while he tried to escape from the hospital. Don't worry guys, there is a happy ending for all the ladies! Celebrity Kang and Ye-Eun becomes a pair, Hwang Mi-Soon and her family becomes better... and the main leads Chan-Mi ends up with Yoon Seok-Ho... I really liked their relationship it was so sweet. 

The drama ends with an open ending, with another mission to accomplish... 

A light hearted drama with lots of comedy, action, romance and some espionage all mashed together... :D Sang-Yeob is good looking as ever... I did enjoy watching this show but not enough for a repeat or second season. The chemistry between the three ladies was really good. I loved all of them... I'll leave you here with the sassy trio. Hope everyone is doing well. I still have a lot of drama reviews but I'm just too tired to compile. Haha... take care everyone. 

Kkondae Intern Review

Drama name: Kkondae Intern/ Old school intern
Country: South Korea

Year: May- July 2020

Stumbled across this drama on my local cable TV channel. It was airing a re-run of She Was Pretty and I was watching it, when it ended they started this show. I did see it airing earlier this year but I was not interested at that time as the episodes were already quite advanced and I don't like jumping into a drama mid-way. Glad they had a repeat airing and I could watch it properly again. 

So, what's this drama about?

Ga Yeol Chan is a recent graduate who managed to get an intern job at a ramyeon company. He started off full of enthusiasm but was shot down by the manager, Lee Man Sik. Mr Lee is a kkondae, meaning an old man with dead old school mindset and values. Yeol Chan was a constant target of hate from Mr Lee who made his life a living hell. One day, Mr Lee asked Yeol Chan to visit an old man who had a lawsuit against their ramyeon company. 

That old man had threatened suicide many times as he had lost the lawsuit. So that night when Yeol Chan arrived, he managed to stop the man from hanging himself. However, after that night's meeting, the old man tried to kill himself again. 

Yeol Chan was accused of killing that old man and Mr Lee pushed all the blame unto him. Yeol Chan had no choice but to resign. He wanted to jump off the bridge at the Han river that night but didn't. His life changed that very night when he saw a neon signboard of spicy chicken from the bridge. 

Fast forward five years, Yeol Chan is now a successful manager at another ramyeon company. He seemed to be the coolest manager and a very sporting boss until Mr Lee arrives at his department as a senior intern. It was payback time! Yasss... 

The rest of the story goes on with Yeol Chan dealing with Mr Lee as well as keeping his job at the ramyeon company. 

Overall thoughts

It was quite an uneasy watch especially the first two episodes. Mr Lee was really mean in the beginning and throughout the rest of the show the writer didn't show much transformation of his kkondae character. Instead, they focused more on Yeol Chan making it a negative for him most of the drama until the end. 

Best parts of the drama

Yeol Chan's penthouse given by the current ramyeon company he's working for: 

The CEO son's mustang and Yeol Chan's company car... 

As with a ramyeon company drama, you will definitely expect a lot of ramyeon eating! And a lot of yummy food scenes... 

As this is a comedy genre drama, it does have some funny scenes although some may find it offensive... 

Let's not forget the cute doggie in this show! 

Notable scenes

There isn't much romance in this show, which is good in my opinion... but I know some viewers were disappointed. However, I felt that the male lead and female lead was not compatible. She suited the CEO's son more with the age gap and level of mindset... 

The scene where Tae-Ri rejects Yeol Chan and calls him a kkondae... 

My favourite scene would be the rescue... Haha!! For once I actually like the CEO's son... He looked so badass there... 

Conclusion

Yeol Chan was finally promoted to be the Managing Director of the company. However, it had been the plan by the Chairman/ CEO all along to use Yeol Chan to get rid of the enemy and place his son as co-Managing Director. Yes, this is reality. Bosses only will do things for their own family and not care about the employees who worked their butts off for the company. 

Yeol Chan decides to quit and start his own business but went bankrupt within a two years. I didn't like this part but again it is reality, it's not easy to start your own business. The drama ends with an open ending where Yeol Chan meets Mr Lee again at another ramyeon company. One position is an experienced general manager and the other is a senior intern post. 

The writer left the audience guessing who is applying for which role. Most commenters wrote that their roles have reversed. Meaning that Yeol Chan is now the senior intern and Mr Lee is the experienced general manager. 

This show is just alright for me. I didn't enjoy it much because of the negative feeling most of the drama. Even though in the end Yeol Chan became a "better" man... I felt that this script was solely written for Mr Lee. (Kim Eung-Soo) He is a good actor no doubt. I wouldn't recommend this drama unless you have some spare time to waste and want some laughs in between. You could watch it for the bromance between the two male leads rather than the romance. 

Okay, that's about a wrap. Thanks for reading and stopping by! Until the next drama review, which I don't know when... haha! Stay safe. Take care