Virtual Bride - Kdrama

Cliché, that’s the word that comes to mind when I think about this drama. Cliché and not taking itself seriously enough, Virtual Bride takes you on an interesting ride as you observe the world where mother-in-law’s are horrible human beings who really need to relax a little and the people around them seriously need a reality check on how they deal with them. Needless to say this drama poked a few sore spots as it exaggerated some points and I’m guessing a bit of cultural differences also comes into play here but we’ll get to that in a minute.

The drama follows an idol seemingly at the end of her career that is given an ultimatum by her boss to join a new program - which other idols seem to be avoiding- or get kicked out the company. Obviously she chooses the program which is the daughter-in-law’ program and is set around a family who specializes in making soy sauce and kimchi.

Our idol sets off to meet her new family that she has ‘married’ into and soon the fun begins as she learns that being a daughter-in-law in their household is much harder than assumed. The other members take to her kindly enough as they observe her strange antics and it isn’t long before they all start to get along pretty well….most of the time. 

But what is a kdrama without a little romance? Enter the eldest son of the family who technically has ‘married’ our idol without his knowledge. Our idol dubs him aptly as the ‘math pervert’ as he so loves his numbers and figures, but of course being a professor at a university this doesn’t seem too strange.

The two kick it off interestingly enough and their relationship blossoms quite sweetly, though admittedly a bit quickly. Obviously things don’t go smoothly and lots of situations occur throughout the course of the drama, but overall the pairing is sweet and fairly innocent.

The other members of the family also each have their own situations that make the drama interesting to watch. From scandalous affairs, to being scammed and having to deal with other unreasonable mother-in-law’s, the drama delivers quite a group of intriguing individuals that keep you interested in more than just the blossoming love story.

As far as kdramas go, this was a fairly short drama to watch and I guess that explains the various ‘rushed’ elements of certain things. But given more time the drama would have fallen flat and boring so I’m glad it was cut short. The acting could have also been slightly better, but at least there was chemistry between the characters and the family was enjoyable to watch. As for the cultural differences that have me questioning if all mother-in-law’s are the spawn of dark things best left unsaid, I’ll have to raincheck on that as I realize that Korean family culture is far more close-knit and complex as opposed to western family culture and to speak of it requires many words and wine, lots and lots of wine. 

Overlord - Anime

After days of nothing but studying it’s always good to get loose and enjoy some free time with something you love and had I been a gamer I probably would have been 48 hours into some hectic gaming session, or better yet the next best thing is some anime about gaming seems to be the cure for a quick fix for my little nerdy heart. Enter Overlord, the anime that brings another gaming world to life.

Aside from being another anime that makes me question why I am not a hardcore gamer, Overlord proves to be yet another intriguing story based on a character that gets pulled into a world of gaming and left to his own devices. The premise reminds me of anime like Sword Art Online and Log Horizon and thus has me anticipating quite a lot from it while still keeping me slightly wary as to the fact that yet another anime took this route. Still I won’t complain as long as it delivers and to some extent I have to say it sort of does.

The story revolves around our lonely hero who is logged into a seemingly outdated game that has had most of its players now moved on to other commitments while he roams alone as a dark lord in his castle built by him and his friends. In the final hours that he spends in saying farewell to the game and all the memories made there something happens that has him waking up unable to leave the game.

Along with his inability to log out he discovers that all the NPCs (Non-Player Characters) have somehow come alive beyond their usual selves. Curious to the extent of the change our hero explores the world further and discovers that the game he once knew has changed into a more real world than it was before and that he was now more than just a character in a game.

Intrigued by these changes our hero then takes on the name of his previous clan as he decides to embrace his new world and maybe even conquer it.

Though the introduction to world is a bit flimsy and the story basically jumps right into the plot of being stuck in a game, the overall idea is familiar. Still that kind of laziness grates a bit, however, the story does make up for it in character development of our hero as he slowly realizes he has now become this ‘overlord’ of sorts and we see his personality change to that of his new persona.

Another treat is the NPCs who have now become their own individuals as they serve their master. The varying personalities are fun to watch and their extreme devotion to their overlord is a source of great enjoyment.

So I’ll admit it’s a shaky start to liking the anime at first, but it draws you in as you continue to watch and enjoy the antics of the group who wants to take over the world they’ve been thrown in.

Rokka no Yusha - Anime

As a fan of the adventure genre in anime I was totally looking forward to what Rokka no Yuusha had in store for me and I have to say from the beginning it had me drawn in with the idea of the six heroes’ story line. But somewhere along the line I got lost on the way and the story just felt like something was missing for me. I don’t know about others but to me the whole thing seemed a little rushed as the anime jumped right into taking our characters from out of nowhere and straight into adventure. No development and minimal introduction, right off the bat.

Don’t get me wrong, the story is still interesting. We have our protagonist who is determined to be chosen as one of the ‘six braves’ chosen by some god to fight the demon god and protect the land and he sets off to find the other potential braves in an effort to get his journey started. In the process he gets jailed for his efforts and constant claims of being the ‘strongest man’ alive but to his luck he meets another brave who frees him and so their journey to meet the others begins.

As you can see, it’s a story triggered by chance meetings along the main mission to get to the demon god. But the way it’s done is so cut and dry as the characters playout their fairly predictable roles along the way. No focus is given to a single character therefore no development is really seen. It’s quite irritating. But I still watch it because I’m hopeful that maybe there is a plot device in all this that I’m failing to see.

I have to admit though, despite the lack of character development, the characters are already quite interesting on their own. So it’s not like I don’t want to get to know them, I do. It’s just that the anime isn’t giving anything away accept for brief flashes and repetitive behaviour that barely adds anything to what’s already obvious.

Ah well, I guess not every anime can be perfect, but at least it’s watchable and like I said, I’m hopeful…or maybe naïve, I’m not sure anymore which one, but I guess it doesn’t matter after I’ve already spent the time watching all these episodes.

Hwayi: A Monster Boy - Movie

It’s been a long time since I watched a gripping psychological drama that had me on the edge of my seat as it forced my brain into following every detail of the story as it played out, but my does it feel good to get lost every now and then in one. Hwayi: A Monster Boy had me lapping up its story line with some eager eyes and it gave me something to enjoy. The relatively gruesome thriller could probably stand as one of the most bloody and uncensored Korean-based pieces of media I have set my eyeballs upon [to date] and I loved every minute of it.

The story is a dark toned one that has you follow a young boy raised by a group of criminals who aren’t the type to think twice before pulling the trigger. But despite being raised and trained by his fairly ruthless fathers, our teenage boy retains a rather innocent temperament as well as an artistic view of the world. We see him roaming the streets in a uniform as he longs for a normal life and especially the relationships that come with it.

But things don’t stay easy going for our boy as a job that his fathers have taken brings out the boy’s past and hidden secrets are revealed and mistakes are made as the boy is confronted by a rather cruel reality that has been hidden from him all his life. Things escalate from there, not only as the truth is revealed but as the boy is forced to follow in his adoptive fathers’ footsteps, an act that brings about the first crack in his already troubled psyche as things go south and quickly.

The show is well planned out and the pacing of how the events unfold is genius as you follow the story of the poor boy whose life is torn about in the most twisted of ways. The action is also pretty good and gruesome in all the right places. The acting was also on point as it breathed some amazing life into the scenes and brought the whole thing to life, so I have to give props to the actors, especially our lead guy as he brought home the troubled teen act.

One thing I also liked about the movie was its realistic expectation, in the sense of what you expected would happen to the actors. There were no ‘in the nick of time’ saves, or perfect shots all the time. Bullets missed and time was not messed with throughout the movie, especially there at the end. The drama was kept to a minimum which was pretty cool in my books.

All in all, a good psychological and suspense movie with some sweet action spots to wet the taste buds with.