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.

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.

Killjoys - TV Show [Syfy]

Cowboys in space… somewhere I heard or read it being called that and truthfully I might almost agree with it, except I don’t know much about cowboys other than that they ride bulls and wear brimmed hats and carry pistols. Yes, my knowledge about ends there. Still would I call Killjoys something close to space cowboys, maybe…?

The TV show has gotten me into the idea that a lawless space town might be interesting to live in though. The show follows a group of bounty hunters who fly through space looking for convicted felons to bring back to what they call the R.A.C and they do it with style.

But that’s not all they do as they also complete other missions like delivery and other miscellaneous tasks that have them forced into some sticky situations. But lucky for our group they aren’t an ordinary bunch as you find a trained assassin, an ex-soldier and his techie brother on board and together they are capable of almost doing any job that comes their way.

The show is pretty cool when it comes to the overall feel of it. It has some kickass action scenes and epic technology displayed for your viewing pleasure as it takes you on a ride through its rough universe that has clearly seen some better centuries.

The acting could be better, but it’s not horrendous and the female lead is gorgeous so I doubt many would complain, especially when the people behind the show seem to find almost any reason to get her to take her clothes off.

The character development is choppy as well as the storyline but the kinks can almost be forgiven when looking at the cinematography and the growth of the characters as each of the actors get more comfortable in their roles.

Overall, I can say I like the show, but I can see a potential chance of it being cancelled after maybe a season or two. I would hope not, but who knows, right? Maybe I’m wrong, I hope I am but I guess we’ll see.