Twenty Again - Kdrama

It’s always interesting watching something that drags the feels from deep within and reminds you that you are human. In a recent kdrama that finished I watched just such a drama that did that and more as it took me on a rollercoaster of emotions as it covered an interesting scenario and taught some very curious life lessons on the way while tugging at the heart strings and I must say I enjoyed every minute of it.

Twenty again is something I would classify as a mature drama as it dives into the interesting plot of a woman in her late thirties who decides to go to college for various reasons, one of them being that she is diagnosed with a terminal illness, or at least she thinks she is for a little while there in the beginning of the story.

Now with only that to go on the story sounds somewhat heavy and almost too serious for a good afternoon binge session, but it actually isn’t as the comedy and acting of the show puts a spin on things with the way they deliver everything and despite expectation you’ll find yourself drawn into quite a pleasant story that, though it starts a bit slow there in the beginning, picks up rhythm and flow as it unfolds quite hilariously along the way as our protagonist decides to live the way she wants and slowly begins coming out of a very closed shell she had been living in that had been created by a suffocating marriage.

The story is captivating as you follow the teen mom, Ha No Ra, who has grown to be a dependent woman who barely knows much about the world around her. It’s quite fascinating as you get to watch her come out of her closed shell as she interacts with the world that has been kept from her by her narcissistic husband, Kim Woo-Chul.

The character development that can be observed as you watch her step out into the world and reconnect with it is very noteworthy. What is also very intriguing to watch is the people around her that become confused by her actions as she begins to change from the docile individual they thought she was to new person she now feels it’s okay to be again. It’s especially interesting to see how the husband, who is having an affair, reacts after the change as he finds himself falling in love with her all over again.

Along with the self-discovery there also gets thrown in a cute little romance between Ha No-Ra and Cha Hyun-Suk, a friend from her school days who secretly had a crush on her before she ran off with Kim Woo-Chul. The two bring a lot of comedic relief to the show and the cute factor explodes with his obsessiveness over how much he frets over Ha No-Ra but convinces himself he doesn’t want to. His conflicting states make for highly entertaining scenes and very cliché outcomes as he pursues her. It is truly adorable.

Overall the show is very enlightening and filled with life lessons that would benefit anyone who is willing to listen and the story is well written and enjoyable to follow as you find yourself growing attached to Ha No-Ra’s journey and rooting for Cha Hyun-Suk all the way as things progress between the two. I will definitely say I enjoyed watching the show and would recommend it to anyone looking for a heartwarming story to fill the days and give a brief cry here or there.

Attack on Titan - Movie

I’ll be honest, when it comes to live action movies there exists a certain expectation from the fans of the anime they are based off of for the content to at least resemble the original stuff at the most basic level. For that reason I have to say that my recent experience watching the much anticipated Attack on Titan was then partially met. They had titans and 3D maneuver gear that allowed for some pretty epic scenes and delivered a platter of awesomely placed action cinematography that almost makes you forget there were just a few things off course about the whole thing.

The truth of it though, was had I gone into watching this not knowing the anime as I did, the movie would still have been pretty amazing, slightly confusing – yes, but still enjoyable. The overall story stayed the same as it followed the history of humanity being nearly wiped out by the flesh-eating titans, leaving a small percentage of humans to gather behind these walls in an attempt to survive against them.

Enter our brooding protagonist who, due to a significant loss, vows to kill the titans. In order to do so he joins the survey corps, a military-like group who train with the hopes of surviving against the threat that is the titans. The movie doesn’t do much to explain the different divisions so it’s a bit of a guess game as you watch on and try to figure out what’s going on, but as not much emphasis is put on them I guess the focus then shifts to the characters, which could have been better portrayed in my opinion.

What I did notice was that character development lacked a bit as the movie seemed to assume the audience already had an image of some characters while it focused on introducing its original characters and creating what I can only say was some very unnecessary scenarios. These scenarios actually had me staring dumbfounded at the screen and asking ‘W.T.F’ as I tried to accept that they actually happened.

In any case, the CGI was still pretty good in most of the scenes and the fighting was epic. Though the original story suffered some grating changes as it made it to the big screen, there were other scenes that made it in that could almost make up for the few blunders. The acting wasn’t perfect for everyone, but it was far better than expected.

Obviously I’ll watch the second movie, because what has been started must be finished. But I guess in the end, if I were to give it a rating it would probably be about four boxes of popcorn and maybe one large coke – if that means anything.