PS. I’m still updating my Twitter, so come follow if you want!

-Lady Castle has been renamed as Take Care of Agasshi and stars Yoon Eun Hye(duh), Yoon Sang Hyun of Queen of Housewives as the butler with whom she falls in love, and Jung Il Woo of Return of Iljimae as her rich, icy fiance(bummer. I was really hoping prettiness Woo would be the drama lead. But Sang Hyun looks decently good-looking and at least he’s not a drama newb so we shall see)

-The trailer for China’s version of Boys Before Flowers came out-

and, as one of my friends so succinctly put it, “It makes Korean BOF looks like a masterpiece but you know what is sad? I am going to be watching this. It’s nice to see, however, that we have a clear winner for the most unattractive F4 (pardon me, H4) ever.”

-The trailer for high-profile Lee Byung Hyun/Kim Tae Hee/half the big-name stars in the K-entertainment world-starring upcoming drama Iris has finally come out English-subbed it in high quality.

-Brilliant Legacy’s most recent episode(22) hit the 40.1% mark, making it officially a huge success.

And, in honor of that, here is a delightful MV someone made.

Spring Waltz is beautifully shot, carefully arranged, filmed in stunning locations around the world and set to hauntingly lovely classical and indie music(Loveholic’s “One Love” is the main theme). It is so sophisticated and restrained, in fact, that I am sick to death of it. Spring Waltz is so consumed with how it looks and feels that it forgets about the part where it’s supposed to draw viewers into the plot and lives of the characters portrayed. You get the feeling that Yoon Suk-Ho, the drama PD, was so focused on the surface aspects of this film, on painstakingly creating a beautiful look and sound – which he succeeds at so well(filming locations include picturesque, snow-drenched Salzburg and Hallstat in Austria) – that he forgot to put emotional heat and heart into the film, with the result that it feels like a still canvas, a painting – beautiful to look at, but not alive. His characters seem almost like puppets, wandering on and off screen without any clear idea where they are or why they’re here. There’s a deep sense of disorientation in the drama’s first few episodes, springing partially from the fact that all the characters are in Austria, a place not native to them – but instead of being a symbolic echo of the characters’ sense of dislocation, as other works such as Lost in Translation have done succesfully, the disorientation feels at once overt and unintentional. It’s as if, in trying to tell us that his characters are lonely and emotionally locked away, Yoon Suk-Ho instead makes us also feel the chill of that winter, so that instead of feeling sympathy or empathy with his characters we just get gradually depressed. Such at least was my impression after watching the first 5 episodes.

And who could blame him? you say. Yoon Suk-Ho, who almost single-handedly launched the Korean wave with Winter Sonata and Autumn Fairy Tale, famed drama PD, of immeasurable renown…and that I think is exactly the problem. He got complacent – became so fixated on bringing out certain facets and aspects of this fourth drama in his Seasons quartet – especially the theme of winter versus spring – that it was some time before he got around to realizing that he should be bringing his characters, not just their setting, to life. If I could meet him, I would tell him in one sentence what he needs to do: Stop being so clever and get on with the story.  It doesn’t help that all the actors, with the exception of Daniel Henney(and don’t even get me started on his acting ability/screen presence) are relative newbies and clearly didn’t quite know what they were doing(I’m watching Han Hyo-Joo in the currently-airing Brilliant Legacy as well and I assure you, the difference is incredible, and lies not just in the difference in her roles – she grew a lot as an actress). It’s not that any of the actors are terrible – in fact Han Hyo-Joo seems just fine so far -but Seo Do-Young as lead Jae Ha/Su Ho possesses all the expressionless reserve and icy calm of the traditional emotionally cut-off hero(who will be opened up by heroine) without any of the saving graces of charisma or extreme good looks(he’s pretty, but in an extremely boyish way, and not exceptionally so). While Daniel Henney…well, I said I wouldn’t talk about him, so I won’t. Let me just say that I personally find him annoying as both an actor and a character, and I cringe whenever he comes onscreen.

However, I think I’ve talked myself into sounding like I dislike Spring Waltz more than I do. I don’t hate Spring Waltz. I don’t even really dislike it so far. It’s more that I’m disappointed in it – I am disappointed in its pace, its lack of forward plot movement and chemistry and fire between the leads. But Spring Waltz isn’t all bad – I really really like the set-up: an icy genius pianist who finds his childhood love again and falls for her outgoing, warm personality – and I’m interested enough in all the great possibilites of that set-up, as well as a few hints of future things the drama has dropped – to keep going, even after 5 episodes of boredom. Which must say something. And it’s not that the beautiful setting and soundtrack detract from it, on the contrary they’re one of the few things keeping me going. I just wish I didn’t have to fall back on them. For now, the verdict is still out.

And no, I won’t be doing episode summaries of episodes 4 and 5 – they were too boring and honestly nothing happened in them. Daniel Henney is nice to Eun-Young and starting to fall for her. Eun-Young is artsy and crafty and loves beautiful things(and looks beautiful while staring at beautiful things). Jae Ha is emotionally closed off and kind of a jerk, especially to Eun-Young, but is perpetually trying to decide whether he’s actually a bad guy or a good guy at heart(or so his actions impy, anyway). Lee Na is still being idiotic and chasing after Jae Ha(I’m sorry, but I have little patience for her character. Who fixates that much and for that long on someone she obviously knew in what, elementary school? Middle at most? It’s childish and immature in the extreme). The only thing of note which happened is that at the end of episode 4 Jae-Ha realizes that Eun-Young is his childhood friend, and in episode 5 he pursues her and finds out where she lives, but the two still don’t meet(see what I mean? 5 episodes! and no significant interaction between the main leads!)

and, because I love em-

You know, I personally don’t find Bae Soon Bin’s character Junse compelling at all in this drama, but I’d be excited to see him in other roles. See following picture for proof positive of his um, acting potential.

I thought this sequence of caps was hilarious – the first is an actual scene from the drama and the next is a behind-the-scenes

Aw. So adorable!! The more I see of the actors behind this drama the more I like them, particularly Lee Seung Gi.

And here, in one cap, is why Eun-seung and Hwan are both meant to be together and the cutest couple ever . Matching expressions!

You can watch online on Viikii or download the RAWS from Aja-aja and the softsubs from D-Addicts

Spoilers and photos of this weekend’s upcoming Shining Inheritance/Brilliant Legacy have been released, and while the (frelling) site won’t let me save or hotlink the photos, Eun Sung’s can be found here(Han Hyo Joo is so my new girl-crush, along with Lee Soo Kyung) and Woo Hwan’s here(Lee Seung Gi gets both cuter and more hot every episode – how is that possible? He’s one of those rare actors – along with Gong Yoo – whose smile transforms his entire face)

Spoilers for episodes 19 and 20 follow

Ep 19

ES is shocked that the step-mother took the share of the life-insurance that was entitled to ES and EW. Seeing that ES isn’t home yet at night, Hwan cannot hide his concern. ES confronts step-mother about the life-insurance, but seeing how the step-mother strongly denies the claim, ES fires back saying that it is all thanks to her that she met grandmother and has the opportunity to receive her inheritance. Step-mother becomes very worried.

Ep 20

ES does not tell her side of the story after step-mother lies to the whole family. ES leaves grandmother’s house for good, and seeing ES in this situation troubles grandmother and Hwan. Hye Ri and Jun Se, who know the truth, suggest that they spill the truth to grandmother and fight the stepmother through the law. However, ES says that it will be no use. ES eventually decides to hand in her resignation paper for her job at the 2nd branch, but grandmother wants her to reach the goal of the store. The step-mother realizes that Hwan, despite all her lies, still deeply trusts ES at heart and is shocked and furious.

Translated by: heesoup @ soompi.

____________________________________

“Hwan still deeply trusts ES at heart” heeee!!! oh, I am so in love with this drama.

I’ve seen somewhere between 30 and 40 dramas in my 2-year drama watching career, and out of all of them, the following are my personal favorites. Not the best, or the most creatively/artistically successful, but simply the ones that made me smile, laugh, occasionally cry, and most of all just had a spark of magic that made me fall deeply in love with them, whatever their flaws. These ones remind me why I watch dramas when I’m flagging after a spate of bad ones.

Now, with no further ado, I give you my top 5(next 5 to follow later).

1) Mars (Taiwanese)

Synopsis: Han Qi Luo(Barbie Hsu), an introverted art student, and Chen Ling(Vic Zhou), a popular playboy, attend the same college. One day, meeting by chance, Ling asks her for directions to the nearby hospital. Qi Luo draws him a map on the back of one of her sketches and gives it to him, then runs off. Finding the sketch later, Ling is unexpectedly drawn to it…and so begins one of drama’s great love stories.

My take:  Mars may not be the drama by which I judge all other dramas, as it’s in a genre all its own, but it would certainly be extremely extremely difficult for another drama to topple this one out of the #1 place it’s held for 2+ years. I think it was the 5th drama I ever watched, directly after finishing Coffee Prince, and the 2nd Taiwanese(after Meteor Garden). And it single-handedly set up two of my greatest drama-related passions: Vic Zhou and Taiwanese dramas. From the moment that the seemingly heartless playboy walks in on Barbie Hsu being harassed and under cover of casual conversation lets a dark, dangerous side of him show, frightening the harasser so much that he runs away, I fell fast, hard, and deeply, and have never recovered since. Mars has my heart. Often dark, it never pulls its punches, yet it’s got this lovely light romantic feel to it too, as well as an incredible emotional depth and psychological complexity. The acting is superb; both Vic Zhou and Barbie Hsu not only completely and seamlessly integrate with their roles but they also have intense, exquisite, sometimes so-good-it-hurts chemistry(they ended up in a 6-yr or so RL relationship after the drama) as a carefree, daredevil playboy with a tortured soul and a shy, traumatized artist with a past. It is essentially a story of two broken people healing each other. It sags a bit in the middle, with too much repetitiveness/focus on a minor character, but the beginning and end, and so much in between, are amazing beyond all reason. They are probably my favorite OTP of all time.ALL time.

Why you might not like it: if you’re the sensitive type who’s easily affected by dark themes, I wouldn’t recommend it, but really – I have stayed away from Snow Queen, A Love to Kill, etc etc., because they were too dark for me, so how bad can Mars be?

When it gets good/Got me! moment: Er, any given scene in the first episode, but probably one of the scenes halfway through it(the first episode, I mean).

Fav scene/s: when he finds her after the girls beat her up, and when he meets her on the road the morning after their argument and they make up, and when she asks him to help her wipe away those memories, and you know what follows:)

2)The First Shop of Coffee Prince(Korean)- It was super super hard deciding the rankings of the next three in this list -#1 has been #1 for 2 years and will probably remain that way for a long time, but #s 2,3, and 4 could all be interchanged with each other. However, coming in at #2 is much-loved, wildly famous/popular Coffee Prince, starring Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-Hye.

Synopsis: Yoon Eun-Hye plays a girl who’s had to grow up with a man’s responsibilties in order to keep her family going after the death of her father, and when a wealthy, irresonsible coffee-shop owner mistakes her for a boy and hires her to pretend to be his boyfriend so that his family will think he’s gay and let him off the marriage hook, a whole series of events are set in motion, starting with her going to work at his male-employee-only coffee shop, and continuing with him starting to fall in love with her, which is a problem because he still thinks she’s a guy!

My take:Coffee Prince is just standout in Korean dramas – it’s well-written, well-acted, well-directed, with a lovely soundtrack featuring indie artists and stellar performances from both Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-hye; it’s funny, offbeat, and angsty, doesn’t drag until perhaps the very end, has a cast of charmingly quirky(and good-looking!) supporting characters, has an unconventional romance trope(guy falls in love with girl whom he thinks is a guy), and even more importantly has that extra spark of magic that just pulls a whole drama together and makes it out-of-the-world amazing.

Why you might not like it: the cross-dressing theme/gay undertones between a guy and a girl might be too weird for some people, particularly guys(my brother loved the drama but that element ruined it for him). Or if you dislike either of the two main leads. Or if you have simply no taste. (kidding…I think).

When it gets good/Got me! moment: end of 2nd episode

Fav scene: it’s tied between The Kiss(you know the one;) and the bumping-into-each-other on the street as they’re both picking up what she dropped

Watch online on Mysoju or Veoh
Or download soft-subs for RAWS

3)The Lawyers of the Great Republic Korea (Korean)

Synopsis:
My take:If all dramas were like Lawyers of Korea, I would spend my lifetime staring at a computer screen with a silly smile on my face. It took me a little while to fall completely for it – 2 episodes, but when I did, I fell fast and hard, with a crash that could be heard for a hundred miles. Yi Kyung and Min Gook have the best OTP dynamic I’ve seen outside of Mars, and make up one of my favorite OTPs overall. It’s the small moments, the exquisitely-handled romantic scenes that pepper almost every episode, that lift this drama above average, but it’s not just that; Lawyers showcases one of the most stellar writing jobs I’ve ever seen, with each scene, particularly in the latter half of the drama, unfolding with such perfection and character-and-OTP consistency, that it left me in awe, and a plot that, while refreshingly non-angsty, managed to constantly surprise me. There are a beautifully few number of tears and over-the-top twists in Lawyers, but that doesn’t mean the characters and their lives aren’t compelling – on the contrary, the fact that it was all about character development kept me riveted through 16 episodes. It also has one of my favorite drama tropes- forced proximity-and reminded me often of Full House, and during two specific scenes of My Girl and Mars.

Why you might not like it: if your taste is for drama! drama! and then more drama! or for angsty weepfests, this might not be the drama for you, as it’s all about understated(but incredibly compelling) romance, or if you get impatient easily, as it doesn’t hit that got me! note until a little ways into it.

When it gets good/Got me! moment: The end of the 2nd episode, when she finally makes up her mind and steps forward and speaks up for him, and he turns and watches her as she acts with such assertiveness and courage as if he’s seeing her for the first time(and liking what he sees).

Fav scene: there are so many, many to choose from, but I’d say the two that standout are when she lies on his arm, the first time when she falls asleep and the other time when they’re outside staring at the sky

Watch online on Mysoju or download RAWS(or watch online) from Veoh and softsubs from D-addicts
4)DEVIL BESIDE YOU(Taiwanese)

DBY is one of those hate-em or love-em dramas(often dependent on whether you hate or love Rainie Yang) and I fall in the latter camp. I know some people who love the other Mike He/Rainie Yang drama Why Why Love a good deal more, but for me this was the first drama I saw them in and one of my first Taiwanese dramas ever, and while it could be argued that WWL has a more consistent plot, DBY has my heart. It was love at first fight when Qi Yue(Rainie Yang), after gathering all her courage to hand a letter of confession to her long-time crush Yuan Yi(Kingone Wang), hands it by accident instead to bad boy Jiang Meng(Mike He), the school troublemaker known as “the Devil”. The exchange sparks the Devil’s interest and he begins pursuing her, to her horror, which becomes even greater when she realizes that he’s the son of the man her mother’s going to marry and that they’ll be living in the same house from then on…

My take: DBY starts out, in the first ep, over-the-top and strident, but recovers its pace an episode or so into it and reveals itself as an absolutely lovely, funny, delicious romantic comedy, with a chemistry-laden OTP and a gorgeous attention to relationship detail. DBY has several of my favorite drama tropes – forced proximity(they live in the same house), bad boy/good girl(and in this case, he really is a bad boy in that he tends to do whatever the hell he wants regardless of circumstance), reasonably well-handled male jealousy, male bonding, hurt/comfort/grief, tons of OTP time, etc. Oh, and a plus? There are TONS of passionate, thorough, excellent kisses(I’ve always wondered – do the drama writers/directors feel comfortable having RY get passionately kissed because she always looks and seems so innocent? nothing can “corrupt” her in audience’s eyes? Because generally twdramas are highly restrained about their kiss types – but MH and RY never hold back, in fact tongue could so easily be used in these types of kisses…) that make me melt inside. Whatever else its flaws might be, DBY hardly ever falters in its OTP interaction. It’s definitely one of the best Taiwanese dramas I’ve seen.

Why you might not like it: You hate Rainie Yang. Which, I can kind of understand in spite of my love for her, in which case you probably won’t enjoy this. Or , Mike He’s mullet bothers you too much(don’t worry – he still manages to be hot). Or, you can’t stand over-the-top Taiwanese dramas…which again, I can understand, but bear in mind that in this one all the cheese/soap-operay-ness is balanced out by the delicate, delightful OTP scenes/moments.

When it gets good/Got me! moment: You know, I need to re-watch this because I haven’t seen it in a long time, and it’s hard to remember specific moments, but I’m thinking, maybe the scene in the first or second episode in which he goes to hit her and kisses her instead.

Fav scene: When he throws open the door suddenly and she’s charging forward to hit him and he kisses her instead. Then shuts the door and gets back on the phone with her, that smile playing around his lips…:)

Watch on Mysoju or download softsubs to go with RAWS

5)HANA KIMI(Japanese)

Synopsis: Based on the popular manga of the same name by Nakajo Hisaya, Horikita Maki is Ashiya Mizuki, a Japanese girl in the U.S. who one day sees the young athlete Sano Izumi (Oguri) compete in the high jump on television. She begins to idolize him, and decides to move to Japan to attend the same school as him. However, Izumi goes to an all-boys school, so Mizuki disguises herself as a boy to achieve her dream of being with her idol.

My take: The only and only Japanese drama on my top-10 list, HK is one of those dramas in which I fell in love within the first two minutes. One scene into Hana Kimi, I knew that I was going to LOVE it, and settled down for a long, glorious ride. Hana Kimi is ridiculous – and I wouldn’t change a second of it. Delightful, delicious crack from beginning to end, it includes everything from male cheerleaders dancing to Avril Lavigne to unresolved UST between nearly every single one of the cast members  to Sano pretending that a girl’s bra is his in order to protect Mizuki from having her identity found out. But it’s not just crack – it wouldn’ t be one of my favorites if it was. The main reason I marathoned it obsessively, during finals week no less, was because of the love story – that understated, brilliant, chemistry-laden relationship between Sano and Mizuki, in which he slowly, definitively falls in love with her and the two dance romantic-tension lines around each other as roommates, Sano dealing with his intimacy issues and standoffish nature and Mizuki dealing with being at an all boys’ school and hiding her heart and her identity(or so she thinks) from Sano. My main problem with jdramas tends to be how little physical interaction/definitive romance there is between the main couple, and Hana Kimi suffers from this to some extent(though less so than many other jdramas) but for once I didn’t really care. I loved them too much. And the other thing is, HK isn’t just crack and love stories, it’s also an incredibly well-written, compelling friendship story, so much so that I would really call that part of it great media. The friendships between the boys at the school with each other and with Mizuki are amazing, and amazing handled, hitting me in all the right spots. In summary, Hana Kimi is one of the most laugh-out loud adorable, addicting dramas I’ve ever seen.

Why you might not like it: If you can’t handle over-the-top comedy or tongue-in-cheek humour, or you don’t think Oguri Shun is hot(what planet are you from again?). Because let’s face it, it’s not his best acting job. From what I hear, he was dealing with approximately 5 different projects at the time and walked around set perpetually sleep-deprived(which might explain a few things…you’ll understand if you’ve seen the drama). But either way, you can still fixate on Ikuta Tomu as Nakatsu, the hilarious, incredibly endearing secondary character, or one of the many other hot boys that populate every corner of this drama(seriously guys. It’s an all-boys school in which you have to fulfill a certain hotness quotient before getting in. how awesome is that?)

When it gets good/Got me! moment: the second Sano appeared on the screen, namely when his hand appears through the door waving Mizuki’s shoes around scornfully

Fav scene: when Sano strolls out and tells her that she can’t go because she hasn’t seen him officially high-jump yet

Watch on Mysoju

Download mp3

The interview is below.

To my extreme pride, her English has gotten distinctely and noticably better:)

I mean, we all know I love KHJ passionately, but I’m quite entertained by he how seems to have amped up the sexy/hard-ass side ever since BOF, as if he’s playing the two-edged sword of allowing himself to be more in the spotlight/play up more obviously the sex-god side of himself because of the popularity from BOF, while simultaneously rejecting that role by being in every way the opposite of his sensitive, reserved, clean-cut BOF character.

The song is just as catchy as SS501′s usually are, however, with that lovely forward driving beat I really love about them.

And, in almost more exciting news, my recent Shining Inheritance love, star Lee Seung Ki, has released his first single in over a year(yes, he has a legitimate career as a singer aside from his new-ish acting career). And I quite like it, though it’s not written by him so I’m not quite sure what that counts for.