2011 End of Year Reflection -- Part 2

So after reading other end of year reviews from other bloggers who are more familiar with the K-dramaverse, I came to the conclusion that I am really a green newbie in this arena. I'm a whole lot more forgiving about certain drama series than others and I realized that I understand the situation. Where I stand with Hong Kong drama series is the same as where all the veteran K-drama netizens stand with their Korean entertainment -- tired, picky, grumpy, seen that, been there, why isn't there anything more refreshing?, and so on and so forth... It's like there's a want for new blood (or something like that).

HOWEVER, I will not refute the fact that I am a very simple person and that any television viewing experience can easily become entertaining for me. Case in point: I watched Taiwanese Idol drama Brown Sugar Machiatto and actually enjoyed it despite its total lack of a story line or great acting. It was funny, it was cute and it had the element of The Cute and The Pretty. I got out of it what I had expected going into it: A whole LOT of FLUFFY.

I'm not professional enough to determine whether or not Hong Kong drama series are on par with Korean drama series, or if they're better or worse. In my opinion, they are by far NOT as great as the few K-dramas I've watched in the past five months (then again, it could be because of the refreshing new experience I got watching them). I won't a hundred percent say that Korean dramas are worlds better than the stuff that TVB (main HK TV studio) churns out because I HAVE already encountered few series that were somewhat questionable. And as for TVB, it has its moments where a gem is created; this is not a regular thing though. I have in mind a handful of personal favorites from TVB that I loved deeply, but then there is also that ocean of series that really just stunk and survived on loyal viewership. I mean, for the Cantonese speaking population, TVB is really all there is because their competing TV studio doesn't quite make the cut.

And so maybe this is why I've come to my K-drama obsession so quickly -- there are a lot of refreshing plot devices, great actors, beautiful settings, and a whole new culture to experience. The humor is quite different than Hong Kong's humor and, by far, the people are a LOT prettier (men included). TVB has its crop of great actors and actresses (few of which I find attractive, and yes I CAN get superficial), but they are often led astray by crappy story-telling and poor direction. And while I've always loved TVB, I know that they COULD stand on par with K-dramas (the ones what aren't trying too hard to BE K-dramas with their perpetual dramatic cliches or the ones that are more serious than senseless -- yea, lately, TVB has developed a need to try imitating the K-drama trend of angst and makjang, but they don't quite do it right).

Basically what I'm saying is that like the K-drama veterans, I'm a grumpy TVB viewer -- more demanding, less forgiving, extra pissy at the poor quality of recent dramas being produced. I'm not saying that were a K-drama veteran to start watching series from Hong Kong that they would be giddy with excitement, but I'm saying that because of my grumpiness, the fresh new Korean culture has been quite attractive for me, personally.

Nonetheless, I have my few classic favorites that may not be the best series in the world, but they definitely hold memorable places in my heart. This will be left for a later post at a later time wherein I walk down memory lane and recount the various series from Hong Kong which have captured my heart for good (meaning that I would definitely re-watch them again when I'm in the mood and still enjoy them fully). For now, we'll focus on the more significant K-drama obsession at hand and discuss briefly my experiences with K-drama in this year of 2011. First of all, I'll note the few 2011 drama series I've watched for this 'Part 2' of the End of Year Reflection. Because my ramblings have ended up getting rather long, I will follow up with a listing of all the K-dramas (including series from other years) that I've watched and how they rank for me (including the ones from 2011), and then include any other little blurbs about K-drama that might seem significant, for 'Part 3' of my long-winded-ness.

So without further ado on my extremely extended introductions:


2011 Dramas
I will be listing them in order of my viewing of them.


Heartstrings

Following the first Korean drama series I watched in 2011 (You're Beautiful) I followed through quite quickly with Heartstrings (aka You've Fallen For Me). I'm superficial when it comes to romantic comedies or any type of story line based on romance; Park Shin Hye and Jung Yong Hwa were charming in You're Beautiful and left me with that aftertaste for more of them. When I find a particular actor or actress who interests me, I search for other projects said actor or actress may have had in the past or will have in the near future (that's pretty much how I roll sometimes). And so imagine my contentment when I found out that they would be teaming up again in another series, nearly two years after their first collaboration. And better yet, I had just gotten into K-drama in 2011, which, omigod, ended up being the year that their newest series was due to be broadcast. A week or so after I officially finished viewing You're Beautiful, I climbed onto the Heartstrings bandwagon like the rabid fangirl that I am.

I've stated before: Heartstrings is really just a simple love story set in a youthful world of a college campus. It was fun and amusing in its own rights and I thoroughly enjoyed the most of it. Being one of the first K-drama series that I touched, the concept was fun and refreshing for me (because I'd just dropped off of a long line of shoujo manga and the like with bubbly, bumbling idiot female protagonists in every corner). Lee Gyu Won (Park Shin Hye) is a young woman who is anything BUT a bumbling idiot female protagonist; she's got zest, sass, ambition, dreams, and most importantly, she's got the charms of Park Shin Hye. And I loved that she was such a practical, down-to-earth type of young woman as the lead of a romance drama.

By all rights, Heartstrings really is as simple as a simple love story with side dishes of youth drama incorporated. The reason why it was fun was because it was about young people. The reason why it was heartwarming was because it showed a nice love line that made you smile at every and all antics. From Lee Shin (Jung Yong Hwa)'s development from jerk-face to perfect boyfriend to the build-up of our 100th Anniversary University Musical Performance, everything was just simple and fun.

And so it's rather unfortunate that the series ended up finishing on a rather lame note. Could it really have been that the production team was strapped for time after that unfortunate accident? Or was the series already starting to decline in its attractiveness? I don't know if there was really a way to tell. But one thing is for certain, the series really ceased to entice after the love line officially got its main couple to pair up; when Lee Shin confessed that he liked Lee Gyu Won, the story seemed to lose all of its steam after that. What was left was the anticipation of how the musical performance would pan out -- but even that ended up settling on dead weight (because we don't even get to see the entire performance).

Heartstrings is an entertaining series if you enjoy youth romance and lots of good music. For the most part, it didn't quite make it to the ending in a tightly wrapped package with a pretty bow on top. A lot of significant side plots were created and then resolved forcefully because it seemed like time was running out. However, as one of the first series I watched in my K-drama viewing experience, it's actually a rather memorable one.


City Hunter

Action, adventure, romance, revenge, justice, comedy (and angst)... With all of these genres packaged delightfully into an entire series, City Hunter ended up being one of my favorites for this year (and overall of most of the K-dramas I've seen total). Based on a manga of the same title, its only unfortunate downfall was advertising that connection as its selling point; because from what I found out among netizens, the Korean drama series itself was nothing like the beloved manga. I'll never know the difference considering I won't be enticed enough to read the original manga, but from what I ended up experiencing off of City Hunter... I'm not sure I really care.

As a series that starts off with suspense, action and a revenge plot to build its basis, City Hunter easily became so much more. I could go on about City Hunter; in fact I'm sure I did and ended up rambling on for far too long. City Hunter was my first Korean drama love. From the heroic and kickass hot Lee Yoon Sung (Lee Min Ho) to the spunky and fearless Kim Na Na (Park Min Young) along with the underappreciated, but beloved Kim Young Ju (Lee Joon Hyuk), this series boasted a lot of great story telling, direction and pacing, beautiful scenery and zippy camera angles as well as deep characterizations. The basic plot of hunting down five different baddies, one after another was also a really intriguing follow along -- although as I had mentioned in my discussion, I think I would have liked it more if the viewers could see the investigation more on Lee Yoon Sung's side, not knowing who the next target would be until he's revealed so that we could play detective too. Nonetheless, this wasn't just a series where you were intrigued by the suspense in the story line and awed by the action sequences; this was also a series where even the characters become relatable in such a way that you become invested in their plights -- even the supporting characters had background and lives of their own.

On top of all of that, character relations were quite complicated, but at the same time full of juicy detail and delicious excitement. You became attached to the love line, you "aww-ed" at the Yoon Sung/ahjusshi guardian/son relationship, you held your breath at the father-son struggle and intrigue, you grinned giddily at the potential bromance between secret hero and public defender, and then you cried for the hero's inner struggles and horrific revelations. And on the side, you had fun with all the side characters who lent to the growth of our hero. Everything about City Hunter hinged on Lee Yoon Sung's every action and reaction, but all of his actions were based upon his interactions with the rest of the world.

City Hunter is like crack for the K-drama addict's soul. It's not a perfect drama, but it really hits all the marks perfectly when you allow it to suspend you into its world.


Scent of a Woman

I really don't know what I can say about Scent of a Woman. It was a nice journey, to say the least, but in the end, the beauty of the series can easily be replaceable by any other melodrama masked as a rom-com about a dying woman's journey. Did I like Scent of a Woman? Yes. Will I remember it six, maybe seven months from now? I'm not sure the answer will be a positive one. Was there anything memorable at all about Scent of a Woman? Yes. Did I really care for most of them? Not really.

Uhm Ki Joon was a great asset to the series as the socially awkward, yet loving and caring doctor and friend to our heroine, and in fact, he's the only character who actually stood out among the rest. The beautifully shot scenes and the lovely soundtrack might be a factor that can be noted, but I may not be able to successfully detail why. Lee Dong Wook and Kim Sun Ah had great chemistry with all of their passion and breathtaking sensual-ness zeroed in on their tango scenes. As individuals, however, I'm not sure I would really say that they stand out.

Lee Yeon Jae's refreshing take on a dying woman's last few months of activity was actually rather nice, though. Instead of being melancholic, she chose to face her world and make the most of her life. Instead of waiting out her days until death, she chose to live until she died. There has been speculation about some of her actions: 1) Why didn't she just tell her mother about her cancer? It would have been less of an issue if she had just been honest? 2) Why did she choose to fall in love when she knew she was dying? It was unfair to Kang Ji Wook that he had to go through the pain of losing a loved one. Again.

While these thoughts had crossed my mind as well, I can't a hundred percent say that I'm resentful towards Lee Yeon Jae for all of this. For one, how easy is it to tell your own mother that you're dying; especially after she had already had to suffer through a husband with terminal cancer. Lee Yeon Jae's fear should be understandable; not everyone is a self-less noble who knows immediately what would have been the right actions to take. Maybe it would have been better if she'd told her mother earlier; but we don't know that that's a fact.

Secondly, everyone is entitled to live their life in their own flair until the day they die. Does a dying woman not have the right to fall in love? Lee Yeon Jae was acting selfishly, but she was giving herself a chance to be alive for once in her life. I can't completely condemn her for following her heart. Honestly, people were born to die; today I could get hit by a car, tomorrow you could fall off a building or have a heart attack. This is life. Knowing these things, we all still continue to live anyway. What makes anyone else's lives any different from a dying cancer patient's life? One happens to be shorter than the other, but by how much?

It's a controversial subject, I know, so I'll leave it at that.

Scent of a Woman was one of those experiences wherein it's awesome and exciting and touching, all at the same time while you're in that moment. I will agree that the meddling chaebol device was pretty much frustrating and unnecessary. There's no need for more angst when the main female lead is experiencing a natural angst of her own already. Setting all of that aside, the series itself wasn't too bad. But just as soon as the excitement is over... well, it's simply over. That's how Scent of a Woman felt to me: it came and went and now it's just a distant memory that I may or may not recall when in reflection a long time from now.


Warrior Baek Dong Soo

We all know how I felt about Warrior Baek Dong Soo. So let's make this short and simple because its not the prettiest picture I've ever painted (with words). I love action, adventure and martial arts combat. I love a good Chinese wuxia themed series. I love watching the "incompetent fool" to "seasoned hero" progression. And I love the side plots of romance, honor, brothership and justice. This is what Warrior Baek felt like to me as I cruised through each episode, one right after the other. It was an adventure in a world where there is no full out Black and White and where even the publicly acclaimed "evil" side has its own codes of honor and may not necessarily be the straight up "evil" side.

Baek Dong Soo (Ji Chan Wook) was the arrogant, unskilled brat turned great hero. He had a lot of unique, immature, cheeky moments during his younger (?) intervals of the series. It was one of those devices wherein it's only fun because you get to follow the brat as he matures and "levels up" through obstacles of heart, mind and physical training. These are the things that make up a great hero progression story line. And along the way, you get to meet all of his interactions: a love line, a brother-in-arms, an honor code, a master, an alliegance to a leader...

And it was ALL there in Warrior Baek Dong Soo.

But somehow, the progression hit a nice little snag as well as multiple time skips (which I realize were employed to force a new plot twist and a new story arc per each time skip). The obstacles became mere anecdotes that were never elaborated and the side plots for supporting and/or second main character growth hitched on the side of the road. While we continue to follow the protagonist and antagonist pair, the rest of the world started to simmer slowly until everything just boiled away without a trace and we're left with a scorched pan without even understanding why (the fire was turned off too quickly yet everything STILL disappeared).

Warrior Baek Dong Soo ended up a chaotic mess of "we're not sure where this story is taking itself, but we REALLY want to go from A to Z as we skip around some letters, leave others out and then also include some symbols and double digits." It got REALLY messy. Because as the viewer, you KNEW where the story line was leading, but when it never got to its intended location and instead detoured a few times before getting onto the wrong track or just simply falling off a cliff, things just started going terribly wrong.

I enjoyed Warrior Baek Dong Soo if only for the opening scene and the glory of Yoo Seung Ho's Yeo Woon. The bromance wasn't too bad either, but that's a moot point when the ending came into play. The setting was beautiful, shot with gorgeous background scenes accompanied by a score of wonderful music numbers and insert songs. And to be fair, the direction was also done very exceptionally well. It was the story line that pretty much broke it for Warrior Baek: lost story arc conclusions, incomprehensible build up, strange plot twists that lead nowhere... And the romance? Don't even get me started on the pathetic love lines.

The only reason I would ever rewatch this series, I think, would be for the action sequences (which were merely decent, at best), Yeo Woon, and the great Choi Min Soo. Was it memorable? Yea. Unfortunately it was memorable for all the wrong reasons, which doesn't make it a good thing.


Lie to Me

I am hesitant to talk about this series because I may end up ranting off onto an entire ten pages worth of Lie to Me hopes and disappointments. To be brief, as many would point out, it isn't easy to take an overdone cliche and turn it into a refreshingly unique story. The contract relationship has been done to death already, but we still love this device because (like my favorite cross-dressing love) it has potential to spiral into all sorts of amusing fun and delight.

Lie to Me had two great things going for it: Yoon Eun Hye and Kang Ji Hwan. In fact, I considered watching this series only because of Yoon Eun Hye and finally picked it up and sat through it because of Kang Ji Hwan. And so, as I have mentioned time and time again, I really, really, REALLY tried to like this series. I kept giving it more and more chances and I kept making up excuses for it.

Fact was, when all a series has is a premise without a well thought out story line, you end up like all the unfinished rom-com stories I have ever started writing -- you lose sight of where it is you SHOULD be going and come to a road block. But in the case of Lie To Me, we climbed over that road block and tried to force our way through the unfinished construction so that we can get to the other side of the bridge. And so you see only the road leading into the mess and the small strip of concrete on the other end. In the middle, it's just chaotic and unconnected and you wonder why you even bothered to travel this disheartening distance that the workers have no intention of fixing.

And THAT was Lie To Me in all its disappointing glory. On the off chance that such a series had been created for a two-hour movie and had cut out all of that awkward mess of scattered plots in the middle, I think the story would have fared a whole lot better and we would still be able to get out of it the fluff piece with Yoon Eun Hye and Kang Ji Hwan, but with more optimism and more forgiveness. I'm more forgiving when it's a movie with time restraints that creates the excuse of having no time for development of more plot -- Lie To Me could have totally used something like that.


Flower Boy Ramyun Shop

This is the newest drug on the market; it's like crack boiled into the soup base of its ramyun delicacies.

I'm not quite sure that I can completely give justice to the greatness that is Flower Boy Ramyun Shop without taking up five or six separate posts (just like I've been doing for the entire month). There is just so much about this series that makes it such a symbolic, unpredictable, unique piece of work filled with what javabeans likes to call the "Trifecta" of great drama creation: story, direction, and acting.

I've been in awe of the editing, the pacing and the smooth transitions from one mood to another from the first episode onward. There has been over-the-top hilarity which eventually slides into more melancholic mood swings which then throws us for a loop with some heartwarming moments. And never once have I ever felt awkward watching these scenes play out; okay, maybe once, but it wasn't really a big deal and it still worked even if it was only slightly awkward. But for the entirety of Ramyun Shop's greatness, I'm willing to overlook a few flaws here and there.

As for the story and the writing -- I don't remember the last time I've been this satisfied with every direction that a series has been taking since day one. My true love of this series has mostly to do with the fact that, while it employs a lot of common tropes and cliches, it doesn't drag them out into exhaustion. We start up one plot device as a short story arc and then we resolve it within two episodes (or less) and then we move onto another one. And as most would have never believed possible, each little story arc helps to progress the main story line forward as we watch the series' characters grow. On top of that, the attention to the smallest, most trivial details had me so impressed: from Ba Wool and Eun Bi's Coca Cola substituted for soju drinking scene, to that darn Pororo blanket that Daddy Cha ended up becoming jealous about, and also Chi Soo's continued vanity for his physical appearance.

I will admit that the main basis of the story line isn't exactly readily picked up by viewers who don't fall into Ramyun Shop's addictiveness immediately. Is it about a makeshift family banding together to run a little ramyun shop? Is it about a noona-dongsaeng romance? Is it about our spoiled, rich brat's development into a more normal, compassionate human being? Or maybe we're actually following the self-discovery of our main female lead as she learns to accept herself for who she is. Ramyun Shop is all of these items mixed together, I would say, and so, so much more. It might sound like a chaotic mess of a story line, but when it all comes together, everything falls right into place.

What takes the cake for Ramyun Shop is one factor whom I've been doting on since the moment he started becoming a temper tantrum of immature man-child: Cha Chi Soo played by the ever awesome Jung Il Woo. To talk about this guy, both actor AND character could take days because there is just so much love going into my impression of him. But there is no doubt at all that, if City Hunter was the crack that started me in on my K-drama addiction, then Jung Il Woo's Cha Chi Soo will be the supplier who's giving me the means to continue my addiction -- and happily at that. Of all the 2011 series I've seen (which are few) Cha Chi Soo is definitely my pick for favorite character, hands down.

I think the only unfortunate set back about this series (as if there really were a set back) is that in order to love it, you have to be sold on its comically created over-the-top world. Once you've entered it with all the love you have, there is really no turning back.


Me Too, Flower!

There was a quirkiness to Me Too, Flower! that had drawn me into it. It could have been the non-standard character roles of a cheeky and easily tempered heroine, a sardonic and also cheeky hero, or even the asshole of a shrink (also cheeky) who was delightfully likeable at the same time. Maybe it was The Pretty (a Yoon Shi Yoon young'un trying to act like an ahjusshi who's pushing thirty with all of life's experiences and who drunkenly points at little Jo Maru and calls the kid "Baby" when obviously he's the one with the eternally baby-looking face). It could have been the well-written recaps at Dramabeans by orangy911 which allowed me to understand the premise of the series before I even started watching it.

The idea of the female protagonist NOT being a bubbly dimwit, but on top of that having an easily tempered personality and possible mental instability was attractive -- her depression and sense of self-worthlessness is also a nice area to explore since all rom-com female leads have always been the standard bubbly, cheerful type of bunny sunshine optimism. The male protagonist with a dark past is an overdone cliche in a lot of stories I've read, so that part wasn't as intriguing -- however, the willingness of Seo Jae Hee to break down and show his weakness to Bong Sun was a refreshing concept from most recent episodes.

No matter what it was that had me watching Me Too, Flower! doesn't matter anymore. What mattered to me was that I was sold and I was hooked. Of course, I DO admit that the extremely non-standard hot kissing scene (though forced into the story line) did sort of motivate me to start watching the series from beginning to its current status.

To be honest, everything about Me Too, Flower! had been going alright -- in fact, I might be brave enough to say that this series is one of the better ones I've seen in a while. There were a lot of obvious editing issues when certain sequences ended up presenting a bit awkwardly (such as the forced kisses, which were also forced kissing scenes) but they were happily overlooked for the bigger picture. There is a lot to explore concerning the human mentality of emotions, and when your biggest enemy or rival happens to be your own self-conscious, it gets a little more enticing. I mean, who needs actual, physical human love rivals when Cha Bong Sun's own emotional instability starts rearing its ugly head against her chance at a happy love line? Of course, I will admit that I'm very forgiving in my drama series viewing (just like I've been quite forgiving about Seo Jae Hee keeping secrets even though I know that Bong Sun has every right to be upset with him for a long time to come).

The only unfortunate turn out of this series so far, however, is that it's starting to fall into a more standard rom-com progression, utilizing all the frustrating cliches that we love to hate. Noble Idiocy takes a swing, and even though it didn't last long, it still hurt. And now we're seeing the rise of the "evil female love rival" who'd been simmering in creepy possessiveness from Day One of the series and then subjecting one of the more potentially likeable side characters into that resentful chess piece position. We have a "Project: Break-Up the Happy(?) Couple" on the horizon (and I use the term "happy" loosely just because this couple really has more inner demon struggles than even any love rival can supply). Why another standard cliche that will only end badly for everyone involved? And then the other issue of our psychiatrist making the moves on his patient; while I like seeing the main male lead get all worked up and jealous over his girl, I really hope that our lovely Dr. Park will only remain as a good friend and lend an ear rather than try to worm his way into the fluffy romance.

And now finally the all aggrieved BIG MISUNDERSTANDING plot device, which leads into more little misunderstandings, which eventually build into "all the reasons why our main couple cannot be together even though they're hopelessly in love".

Needless to say, I'm getting frustrated, but I still want to see how the rest of the series pans out.

To put it simply: I'm a sucker for fluff. I know that the current angst and frustration is anything BUT fluff, but by golly if the main couple didn't have such crazy, goosebump inducing fluffy romance montages when they were happy together! I haven't been this giddy about a lovey-dovey couple in a LONG time, and at the risk of turning the series into a monotonous dribble of cute, lovey-dovey fluff and nothing else, I am really, really shooting for seeing more of Seo Jae Hee and Cha Bong Sun just amping up the adorable sweetness. In all honesty, this is what's keeping me glued to Me Too, Flower! right now: the rekindling of the love line after a frustrating non-break-up and The Cute factor. Jae Hee and Bong Sun just seem to fall into place together after they could finally admit their feelings for each other; it's only unfortunate that they suffer from a common relationship cancer (of sorts) called "Lack of Communication" thus leading to "Lack of Honesty" which will eventually develop into "Lack of Trust." If only they could climb over that barrier and be The Cute that this couple can manage, then I'd be extremely ecstatic.

What I wouldn't give to have a female lead NOT have the heebie-jeebies whenever her boyfriend gets force-kissed by a persistent home-wrecker. Then again, it wasn't like Jae Hee was trying that hard to resist; I mean, how much of a force is Kim Dal anyway? It also doesn't work in his favor that he's currently 2 for 3 on secrets kept and NOT revealed by himself to his girlfriend -- can't expect a girl to give you trust if you haven't exactly been very convincing.

Looks like this ended up becoming an update on my opinions of this series... Must learn to shorten ramblings in the future. My apologies... With few episodes left for me to watch, I've been struggling about writing more discussion articles to follow along with Me Too, Flower!'s progress.

On a side note, I'm not opposed to getting rid of the string puppeteer, Miss Creepy Possessive Representative, which would solve so many problems, so that our couple can focus on working out their own inner demons (which will probably take another five extra episodes to fight about) to bring the originally quirky and non-standard story line back on track.


Girl K

What can I say about Girl K? It was action-packed, it was dark, it was moody, and it really was just an adrenaline rush of excitement. It was carried by great atmosphere and acting and housed a spectacular break out performance by Han Groo in her first ever role in a drama series. It was everything you could have ever asked for in a story line following a teenage assassin. For all its brief glory, Girl K was an absolutely addictive watch carried from beginning until the end in fast-paced action and the strength of raw emotions.

And to be totally honest, I see Girl K more as a three-part extended movie rather than a three-episode mini-mini-series. Because Girl K reminds me of the action-packed, young girl kicking ass as an assassin movies (none of which I can recall right now). And I think its success is truly the abruptness of its crammed story arcs. And so I disagree with a lot of netizens that Girl K should have been a lot longer in order to elaborate on the little side plots that revealed themselves: the could-have-been cute high school love story, the revenge plot, the high school girl moonlighting as a trained assassin basis...

As it is, it gave you small bits and pieces of temptation and then left it there for you to interpret as you liked it. And it concluded rather nicely without too much dead space filled with unnecessary detail.

Because essentially, Girl K follows, more than anything, the revenge-motivated actions of our teenage assassin; once that's over, there's nothing else left for her. From the moment that she is set on avenging her mother, she has been able to see nothing else and so I'm almost too glad that her revenge was executed early and we give her a chance to rekindle a reason for continuing on with her life in the form of the BIG BADDIE, her biological father. This was a story arc that gave her reason and allowed her to continue on as well as allowing the viewers a hopeful open ended conclusion to Girl K's short three episode run.

There is one thing I DO agree with, however, and that is that it would be nice to see a sequel which would utilize our Girl K and her skills for some other reason. Maybe these three episodes could have been a prelude to a longer running episodic drama series in the near future, setting up Yeon Jin's training and knowledge of the darker aspects of the world, and then catapulting her into a young high school (or college, I guess) student moonlighting as an agent of some form.

I can see that happening and I would jump on that bandwagon pretty quickly.


Protect the Boss

I first picked up this series right after I completed Heartstrings. I watched the first episode and then I dropped it because it didn't quite pull me in. In fact, I never even really finished the entire first episode those few months back. After watching a movie that had Choi Kang Hee, I considered picking up Protect the Boss once more, but that was merely a flitting thought. And then I read about the raving of Kim Jaejoong's break out performance and saw a lot of the hype going around about how Protect the Boss was such a great series. It even got an extension (which doesn't always mean it's a good thing) but which means that the series was so popular that the production staff felt inclined to continue the hype by tacking on three more episodes.

So far, I've finished the first three episodes, and I must say, I'm quite sold on this world. I think I've been hovering around so many formulaic rom-coms in recent years that I grasp onto any chance that a drama series is NOT a typical romantic comedy with all the typical romantic formulas. I'm also a sucker for kick ass strong female leads, and so when No Eun Seul opens the series with a "gang fight" during her high school years, I wanted to like Protect the Boss. Why it didn't hook me in the first time around, I don't know. But I'm certainly intrigued by it now and am willing to sit through it despite all the mixed feelings that netizens are harping on about.

So far, I'm sold. Every character is so non-standard (ever since Me Too, Flower! I've been using this description too much, methinks) that it's actually pretty refreshing. Everyone seems to have an awkwardly insane (term used true to definition rather than for sake of slang complimenting) quality about them. No Eun Seul is already quite plucky as the fighting, easily tempered female lead with half a brain; Cha Ji Heon is the typical arrogant second (or third, I guess) generation chaebol son who has his OCD-laced, child-like tendencies of immaturity wielding the other half of that brain. Then there's Cha Moo Won who is like the omnicient gentleman, confident and reliable, but strangely turns sixteen years old in mentality at all the right(?) times when faced with Cha Ji Heon's own immaturity. Finally, Seo Na Yeon... well, let's just say that she's not that refined and classy young lady with that true to form holier than though attitude that most female love rivals are known for (nor what I'd expected). Instead, she's still the arrogant rich chaebol daughter, yet houses a much more comedic and screechy (causing my WTH blinkiness) unstable personality of a twelve year old brat who must resort to telling herself that she is "an educated person" so that she won't rush across the room and rip another girl's hair out.

Current impression of what I've seen so far: I'm liking it. I will continue to watch it. Because as outrageous as these characters seem to have been created, I kind of like the dysfunctional world they encompass. Cha Ji Heon's family also gives me that WTH vibe as well, but in a good way.

At risk of being flamed by JYJ fans, however, I DID want to mention that I'm not quite seeing the "breakout performance" of Kim Jaejoong -- yes, he performs decently, but it doesn't really seem as outstanding as everyone is making it out to be. Maybe I'm just not seeing that charm, or maybe he's being overshadowed (severely) by Wang Ji Hye's Seo Na Yoon, whom I am extremely loving as opposed to her role as Kim In Hee in Personal Taste.

***

And so there you have the 2011 K-dramas that I managed to watch within the past five months. While Me Too, Flower! has recently finished airing, I haven't had the chance to finish it yet, but I will be looking forward to the end (and hoping that things turn for the better). I will finish watching Protect the Boss fairly shortly as well as I'm quite enjoying the strangely weird characters; unless something else comes around to entice me, this will be the next series I finish. I make little mention about Tree With Deep Roots only because I haven't been following it even though I saw the first episode; everything I wanted to say about that first episode is included in my first impression post, so I would just be on repeat if I talked about it here too.

Soon will be Part 3 of this End of Year Reflection. It is unfortunate, however, that there's a possibility it won't be posted until after the new year. This is what happens when I'm drowning in ramyun, flowers, and laziness.

intro info: City Hunter (Korean)

시티헌터 - (Siti Heonteo)

Lee Min Ho as Lee Yun Seong
Park Min Young as Kim Na Na
Lee Joon Hyuk as Kim Young Joo
Hwang Sun Hee as Jin Sae Hee
Kim Sang Joong as Lee Jin Pyo
Chun Ho Jin as Choi Eung Chan
Kim Sang Ho as Bae Shik Joong

For more information on this series: City Hunter (Korean Drama)


City Hunter is an action packed, thrilling story about a young man, Lee Yoon Sung, who was raised for the sake of revenge by his adopted father Lee Jin Pyo. The series begins in 1983 when, due to political issues, a secret mission of twenty one men are sent to North Korea to carry out a massacre. Upon their completion, they were supposed to be able to return safely to South Korea via a submarine. Unfortunately, five South Korean government officials decided that the mission did not need to be carried out and so in order to keep it a secret, they decide to kill all the men on the mission. Of the twenty one men, Lee Jin Pyo ends up surviving and vows to return to avenge his fallen comrades by killing the five men who chose to abandon them. Somehow, he also ends up blaming the entirety of the South Korean government for the betrayal and will stop at nothing to prove that the entire government is corrupt and evil.

And so he goes to his friend Park Moo Yool's home where his wife had just given birth to a baby boy and takes the child away, telling the mother to forget about her dead husband and lost child and start a new and happy life. His ultimate plan is for the young child to grow up as a fighting machine as well as his pawn in his revenge plans.

Twenty eight years into the future, Lee Yoon Sung returns to South Korea after extensive training in survival, combat as well as seven years of education at MIT in America, to carry out his adopted father's revenge plan.

Included in this little epic adventure, of course, is the romance doomed to fail that cannot be left out. Kim Na Na is a young woman who's parents died in a tragic car accident ten years ago and meets with Yoon Sung in the Blue House (the presidential palace) where they both start working as part of the president's secret service. Lee Yoon Sung, with his PhD in computer technology enters the Network and Communications department while Kim Na Na with her 4th level Judo experience becomes a bodyguard to government officials. Having been tasked by a friend to look for Na Na and take care of her, there is no doubting that Yoon Sung soon finds himself growing attached to the fiery and head-strong young woman and eventually falling in love with her.

Of course, as all story lines such as these would go, Lee Yoon Sung is tasked by his adopted father to never ever put trust in anyone, never become attached to anyone, and especially to never fall in love.

I could probably go on about the story of City Hunter until the cows come home. In fact, I think I did in the actual review article -- for a nice long read with similar information from this current article, you can check that one out now, but there are spoilers galore in it. But anyway, City Hunter is a thrilling ride from beginning to end as you watch the characters interact with each other and develop as the series progresses. The hunt for the five men who betrayed Lee Jin Pyo and his comrades at the beginning of the story is exhilarating to follow along with, because we learn very early on that Lee Yoon Sung's idea of revenge is much different than his father's.

While Lee Jin Pyo wants to hunt the men down, find their corrupt activities and then kill them, Yoon Sung wants nothing more than to believe in the justice of a country that once abandoned twenty men in order to remain in power. Yoon Sung's idea of revenge is merely revealing to the public what terrible deeds that these men have done and then letting the government prosecutors deal with the rest. He feels no need to kill anyone, explaining that, in the future, when his revenge is over, he would love to be able to live a normal life. If he killed a person, then he knew that it would be hard for him to live that normal life he's always dreamed about. Because his murder would leave another young child to suffer the same life that Yoon Sung suffered, vowing revenge on the people who took away a father. Yoon Sung does not want that to happen.

And so this is what makes City Hunter so captivating. The meticulously planned out actions and the means by which Yoon Sung engages in investigation are so interesting to follow along with that you find yourself sitting at the edge of your seat wondering what this young hero will end up doing next. But of course, this is no Batman or Superman type hero that Lee Yoon Sung takes on the role of and he is human after all. Thus, while seeming to be a perfect fighter and an intelligent strategist, Yoon Sung still has his moments where he makes trivial or fatal mistakes which might end up costing him more time, or at the worst, someone's life.

Alongside his revenge are the various friendships and relationships he strikes up along the way. Despite his father's warnings to remain detached from other people, Yoon Sung cannot help but to butt in on Kim Na Na's life, as it seems she needs a lot of help to maintain survival. He cannot help but to step in when colleagues or friends require assistance. And he cannot just remain a shadow in passing.

City Hunter is a very entrancing series wherein I managed to run through every episode in so little time that I regret watching it so quickly just because of the fact that it finally ended and I have no more City Hunter to appease my desires. Of course, this is not to say that the series is entirely perfect; there are minor mishaps and mistakes that, as the viewer, you sometimes wonder if they couldn't have been avoided. But with an excellent cast and wonderful direction, even though City Hunter cannot be deemed as a perfect production as there are a few kinks that need to be ironed out, it is an amazing production that would captivate any viewer from beginning to end. There's a sort of charm to this series that overshadows any minor flaws that may have presented.

I'd love to insert a bias and say that it might have been Lee Min Ho's attractive heroic charm that drew me to continue following the series, but I know that there is just so much more to it than that. Simply the refreshing presence of a strong female lead role, played by Park Min Young, can make some story lines so much more bearable. While Lee Yoon Sung is the suave and charming, kick butt hot hero, Kim Na Na is the stable and well-balanced Blue House bodyguard who is simply trying to survive a hard life. Throw in a persistent, yet upright and good man, Kim Young Joo as the prosecutor who carries out justice in public where our City Hunter cannot, and we've got a complete crime thriller filled with loyal budding friendships, suspenseful investigations, and action packed wonders. Between the cast, the characters, the action sequences, the love story, and the suspense and even the atmosphere of this series, it is a definite good experience and I would recommend it to anyone interested in some action packed entertainment.

If you're a fan of Lee Min Ho already, there's no reason to skip this series. If you weren't a fan of him before -- much like myself -- this series will prove to you his talent, skill and undeniable charm. Just as well, Park Min Young's portrayal of Kim Na Na is wonderfully simple yet complex at the same time as she is not your typical female protagonist with a "damsel in distress" type of livelihood. Having spent ten years working to survive and being able to throw a large man over her shoulder in the first few frames of her appearance into the series, Kim Na Na is not a woman to be taken lightly.

The rest of the cast and characters were excellent as well, from the justice-bound prosecutor Kim Young Joo to the loyal and nagging Bae Shik Joong ahjussi and even the wonderfully beautiful president of South Korea Choi Eung Chan; everyone was brought to life so wonderfully that you wished the series didn't end. Special praise goes to the character of Lee Jin Pyo played by Kim Sang Joon, who was presented wonderfully tragic as a wounded man seeking revenge for his fallen comrades using his adopted son as a pawn, but at the same time displaying beautiful love for the son he raised for twenty-eight years. Even though this adopted father tortures and scars Yoon Sung in order to get what he intends to have -- bloody vengeance -- there is no doubt that he loves and cares for the son he'd raised into a man as he displays an array of guilty conflict upon seeing Yoon Sung's pain and suffering.

While awaiting a hoped for sequel to this excellently riveting series, I would totally recommend City Hunter to anyone looking for a fun and exciting thriller full of intrigue and emotion.

***

Related articles:
thoughts: City Hunter (Korean) - a more in depth look at the series in discussion

***

thoughts: City Hunter (Korean)

시티헌터 - (Siti Heonteo)

Lee Min Ho as Lee Yun Seong
Park Min Young as Kim Na Na
Lee Joon Hyuk as Kim Young Joo
Hwang Sun Hee as Jin Sae Hee
Kim Sang Joong as Lee Jin Pyo
Chun Ho Jin as Choi Eung Chan
Kim Sang Ho as Bae Shik Joong

For more information on this series: City Hunter (Korean Drama)

***

As a forewarning, this article includes quite a few spoilers that I had no choice but to include if I wanted to get my opinions across. But then again, a lot of other places that have blogged about this series, whether as a single post or an episode-by-episode follow-up, have given away even more details than I am willing to give away. Just be glad I'm still keeping some opinions to myself.

Nonetheless, you have been warned that I have included some details that may or may not ruin the story for you, but I DID graciously leave out some other very significant surprises that the series brought (even to me) that I never expected; especially something big that occurs in the last few episodes that sort of caught me by surprised, but that I should have seen coming.

Eventually, wikipedia is going to have an entire summary including the ending anyway.

Also, this particular article ended up getting much longer than I had initially intended for it to get. With so much going on in the series and so many opinions floating around in my mind, every time that I reread the post, I wanted to include a little bit more information here and there. I formally apologize for the long post and hope that in the future my thoughts articles will be less rambling. I make no promises, however, and hopefully everyone will just bear with me until I can figure out the best way to blog without going overboard.

Of course, for a less detailed article depicting a summary and brief thoughts without obvious spoilers, please refer to: intro info: City Hunter.

Nonetheless....

***

While strictly a fan of romantic comedy story lines, it's probably a bit of a wonder that I even picked up City Hunter at all, save for the fact that this series was also tagged as romance alongside it's main genre of action. Growing up with three boys is a good way for someone like me to have multiple genre interests outside of romantic comedies or romance dramas. I DO enjoy the occasional action movie or drama series as well as adventures and especially fantasy. But my main interest has always been in the romantic comedy area; second would by anything that has a bit of action, adventure or fantasy elements laced with a romantic side plot. Those romantic side plots really do wonders if they're executed correctly.

In fact, The Bourne Identity, which I will make a brief reference to later in this article, is actually one of my favorite movies because of the action, thrill, suspense and the top-notch story telling as well as excellently choreographed fighting sequences. The very brief romantic side plot was also a giddy bonus.

At the time that I started writing this article, there were still two last episodes left to be viewed, but wanting to get a jumpstart on my review, I wasn't too concerned with them anyway. After all, a suspense filled thriller like this can only be reviewed in one way-- without giving away too many of the turning points. If I want to keep my reaction on the ending at a neutral standpoint, then not having seen the ending while writing this article has it's advantages. Unfortunately, spoilers DO lie ahead and I have chosen to include some details of the ending after finishing the series.

City Hunter is full of engaging and exciting events that have you wanting to continue on until the very end. Even as I write this, I regret starting the series so early since it had yet to finish airing; it took me a total of two days to finish watching all 18 episodes that were available, and that's only because I spent a good amount of time loitering around and forcing myself to do other activities after watching the first five episodes. Otherwise, one day would have been all that I needed-- this is the impact that City Hunter had on me. Knowing that I would end up becoming anxious for the last two episodes almost immediately, I wanted to bide my time and watch the series slowly so as not to ruin my own state of anxiety.

Nonetheless, as soon as I started watching the next episode, I was so caught up in it that I kept pushing forward to the next even with the intention of taking another break around episode ten to drag out the experience a little bit. But in the end, I finished all eighteen episodes and, as I began to write this series' article, I anxiously awaited the last two episodes as I desperately wanted to know how the story would conclude.

THIS is how engaging the story line was for me and has absolutely nothing to do with the all too popular Lee Min Ho who seems to be the driving force of every other fangirl's intent on watching City Hunter. I will admit, however, that the romance plot plays a rather significant role in my continued pursuit too. With series like this that aren't based solely on the romance, it's a guess up in the air whether or not the main couple will end up together by the very end. For one thing, we are already given the impression that the main pairing, Lee Yun Seong and Kim Na Na would be a romance doomed to fail -- or at least that's the impression I got.

Case in point: The ending of episode one shows the two appearing in the same place at a fountain, doing their own thing, but not seeing each other (they do not know each other at this point). They don't interact with each other and in a small bit of slow motion play, the people move among and around the main couple in blurs as they continue on with their current activities. And then, without even any contact at all, Yun Seong walks away in that same, simple slow motion play. To me, it felt like a bad omen for the fate of this couple -- to be separate even after they get together.

With hopes that they DO end up together, happily ever after or the like, I could only anticipate the ending and hope for the best.

To date, I am still a newbie in the Korean drama arena. This is the fifth Korean drama series that I started watching. I have finished three others and am still in the middle of waiting for the next few episodes of currently airing Heartstrings to come forth. Needing English subtitles makes the wait even more agonizing. And so, before anyone else makes any assumptions, I did not pick up this drama series because I am a fan of Lee Min Ho or anything like that. I don't even really know who he is. But I can say that after watching his performance as Lee Yun Seong in this series, I've become quite interested in other series that he might have a starring role in. There's some sort of charm to his sometimes quiet, sometimes serious, and sometimes boyishly playful personality; whether it's a real part of him or a part of the character he is cast as. But no matter what it is, I'm thoroughly intrigued by this young man and plan on following his career starting at present. In fact, I plan on picking up Personal Taste sometime soon, probably as soon as I finish City Hunter; as for Hana Yori Dango, I have a personal vendetta against that particular story line and so it might be a while before I even consider it -- but we'll see.

I picked up City Hunter for two reasons: 1) For some unknown nonsense, because it was said to be based off of a popular Japanese manga, it held some sort of interest over me (don't ask questions, my mind is not normal enough for a proper answer), and 2) The genre of romance being tagged to it concerning a secret city hero and a strong female character was also a plus. Strange reasons, no? And then I was also thinking, "City Hunter... action packed... like a detective agency thing... hmm..." Of course, this is based off of what I read about the original manga.

Back to the City Hunter drama series, I can say that this is a difficult series to review, unlike the romantic comedies that I watch all the time. Romantic comedies, after all, have extremely predictable story lines no matter how original you try to make them. You can never give too much away in that genre when you're talking about them because there are few elements of surprise. Then again, as my brother says, the more stories you read, the more movies and drama you watch, and the more games with story lines that you play, the better you are at predicting what happens next -- because there are only so many ways to turn the plot in certain directions. It's the moment that you cannot seem to predict the next event that makes you thrilled to be watching a certain series. I don't think I've gotten the grasp of the typical Korean drama formula yet, but my bias has always been that they're major tear-jerkers and end tragically when given the chance, but have a lot of really good heart-warming scenes at all the right places.

City Hunter seems to boast these elements. There are plot devices used that are rather cliched from the beginning, but then there are small details and then the secrets on top of secrets that become revealed as the series progresses -- THESE are what kept me so transfixed on the series as a whole. When you think you know what's going on, something happens to make you wonder all over again. And revealing secrets, whether big or small, was what this series ended up doing throughout -- and so I can only reveal very little about the plot without killing the mood for everyone. There are so many details to keep in mind and so many characters to try to follow and determine whether they were significant to the plot or not.

The series starts off at a setting in 1983 involving an attack on a candidacy event wherein some of the candidates are killed, but the president is not. Convinced that this was an act of terrorism on South Korea from North Korea, a special team of soldiers is dispatched to North Korea to kill significant officials in retaliation. Unfortunately, partway through this mission, officials of the South Korean government decide that this military action should not take place; in order to cover up what they did, the twenty one men sent on the 1983 mission are killed in the waters of Nampo in North Korea where they thought that they were meeting their submarine ride back home. All but Lee Jin Pyo (Kim Sang Joong) are murdered by their own country and thus, Lee Jin Pyo vows vengeance for his comrades, targetting the five men who had chosen to keep secret this mission by sacrificing twenty lives. He procedes to abduct his friend, Park Moo Yul's newborn baby boy from his mother, leaving her a note that she should forget about her husband and child and go live a new, happy life.

Devastated by this, I think we as the audience knows that his plans for her won't happen so easily. Why on earth, I kept asking myself, would you taking away a mother's young child be a "happy" thing for her? Why would someone do that to a mother? The answer to that appears rather clear soon as the series progresses that Lee Jin Pyo has his own selfish desires of revenge at hand and intends to include the young boy in his plans. Of course, at the series' end, we realize that the plans for revenge run much deeper than what the viewers might have thought.

Raising the child he names Yun Seong in a remote area of Asia known as the Golden Triangle (which I'm assuming is somewhere near Thailand), Lee Jin Pyo begins his long term plans for revenge against the five men in the South Korean government who killed his twenty comrades. Lee Min Ho is cast as Lee Yun Seong who grows up being trained by his "father" in combat arts and survival while they run a drug trade for money. Yun Seong knows nothing about his family history while he is growing up until one day when Lee Jin Pyo is injured saving Yun Seong from a land mine and chooses to finally tell Yun Seong the entire history of how his father and nineteen other men died at the hands of their own country and so all these years, he has been planning to take revenge on the people who deserve it with Yun Seong to help him carry out this revenge. For the sake of the father who raised him and for the sake of his lost parents, Yun Seong chooses to take on this responsibility. He changes his rambunctious, wild ways, focuses on his training, goes to college at MIT to learn all sorts of cool things, and then arrives back in South Korea, 28 years after the Nampo massacre, and enters the Blue House (the President's palace) as an IT expert in the National Communication Network Team where he can utilize Korea's best technology and information database to find out what he needs to know to carry out his plans.

As most similar story lines like these go, Yun Seong is warned by his father that he cannot trust anyone and he especially cannot fall in love, because falling in love will make him weaker as well as put the people around him in danger.

This is where Kim Na Na (Park Min Young) comes into the story line to jump start the doomed romance that is to take place. Back in the Triangle, Yun Seong had saved a man named Bae Shik Joong who was about to be beaten for gambling problems. Because of this, he loyally follows Yun Seong, assisting him and cooking for him and taking care of his needs. The two form a very close kinship that Yun Seong describes as like having a mother, older brother and older sister in one package. Shik Joong ahjussi had on him a picture of a young girl whom Yun Seong immediately takes a shine to because she is pretty and he ends up framing and keeping the picture by his bedside, slowly growing an attachment to a girl he's never met before. Kim Na Na is a girl that Shik Joong knows, but won't elaborate on, except that when Yun Seong returns to South Korea, Shik Joong tasks the young man to look for and then take care of Na Na whenever he gets the chance. As part of the plot devices playing out, Shik Joong ahjussi's interest in Na Na's well being span into a much deeper reason than just feeling pity for her.

As fate would have it, not only does Kim Na Na also start working at the Blue House as a bodyguard, but time and time again, she comes across situations where Yun Seong is forced to step in and help her out. Na Na has lived a tragic ten years of her life ever since her parents were caught in a car accident that left her father in a coma and her mother dead. And so with a strengthened personality, geared to survive in life and keep the money coming in for her father's hospital bills as well as her own home, Na Na struggles through life, but doesn't mope about it. This fiery personality, a strong sense of responsibility, and some weird cheerfulness and optimism despite her circumstances seems to draw Yun Seong to her even more so than he had already been. I think her tragic loss of her parents and her struggle to survive also plucks at some chord in Yun Seong's heart, allowing him to relate with her on the similar matter of not having parents around. Heart-warming scenes where she somehow manages to lighten up Yun Seong's dark mood at certain points acts as a chisel to pick into his heart. Eventually, the two begin to slowly fall in love with one another.

The story then continues on to follow Yun Seong as he keeps his identity a secret and starts his revenge plans. Although he is working with his father, his idea of revenge is completely different than his father's "shoot to kill" ideals. Defying his father's intended killing spree, Yun Seong instead merely reveals the corruption of each man as he is found, publicly ruining that man and allowing the prosecution to take care of the rest. It is known fairly early on that Yun Seong has no intentions of killing anyone at all, unlike his father who would even shoot an innocent bystander to get what he wanted. It is commendable that Yun Seong has learned and fully understands the concept of a circular revenge cyle that only ends up causing more suffering and endless bloodshed. Because if his ultimate aim is to kill the men responsible for the Nampo mass murder, then that would leave one more innocent child to grow up contemplating the ideals of revenge. The cycles would never stop.

Of the five men who were responsible, the viewers already know that one is Choi Eung Chan, the current president of South Korea and another is a man who Lee Jin Pyo identifies as Lee Kyung Wan. The rest, he says, will have to be figured out after they punish Lee Kyung Wan. But for reasons of his own, Lee Jin Pyo only tells Yun Seong about Lee Kyung Wan and neglects to inform Yun Seong that there is another man's identity he already knows. After the corruptions of the first target, Lee Kyung Wan are revealed and he is sent to jail, Yun Seong's secret identity as the mysterious hero is endearingly nicknamed City Hunter.

As the IT expert at the Blue House, however, Yun Seong is simply a man who received a PhD at a young age, excels at computer technology, but is physically weak and cannot even take a punch. While the viewers all know that Yun Seong has already been trained to be a fighting machine, it's a little fun to watch as he allows the 4th level Judo Kim Na Na to throw him over her shoulder continuously during their training sessions at the Blue House. There's a particular scene in which Yun Seong secretly trips Na Na while she's about to smash him to the ground again, but apparently, the young man does not realize his own strength and ends up hurting Na Na's ankle to the point that it's hard for her to walk. I thought it was kind of funny. Yun Seong trained with elite experts in the Triangle after all and it didn't seem to occur to him that he's a lot stronger than normal city people.

Of course, I also found myself wondering how everyone would believe that a tall, physically well built young man was really that weak. He certainly doesn't look like he can't even flip a girl over his shoulder, or that he can't even take a punch.

Since I AM a newly joined Korean drama series lover, I have no previous biases about any of the actors cast in this series. Lee Min Ho does an excellent job of portraying the struggling, yet kick butt hot Lee Yun Seong. As the infamous City Hunter, he is awesome and cool and as the Lee Yun Seong working in the Blue House, he pulls off the arrogant MIT, spoiled rich brat personality rather well. It's the playboy image he's supposed to be projecting that doesn't come across as very believable. I'm not sure if it's his fairly serious expressions or just the fact that, as the viewer, you know that he has a heavy duty resting on top of his heart of gold that doesn't allow for such a lucrative activity in his life. Because Yun Seong is a nice guy after all despite his open claims to being a playboy and a rude, arrogant brat. Nonetheless, I admire the character of Lee Yun Seong, if only for the mere fact that he's not a one hundred percent perfect master mind; because as many have pointed out, he makes a few careless mistakes amidst some of his planning.

While a lot of people might feel like this is poorly written or poorly directed, I think there is almost an intention of allowing a few mistakes to be made on Yun Seong's part. They aren't fatal mistakes, but even if they were, it's only because Yun Seong is human after all. Yun Seong was trained by his military turned drug lord father on the ways of survival. He was not described as being the best of the best and while he does come across as being intelligent and pretty much prefect at everything, these minor mistakes that he makes come across as making him a bit more normal. He's not Superman or Batman. This isn't Bourne Identity where the guy was trained to be a perfect agent and killing machine.

Yun Seong was brought up with combative skills and took to learning his own education in order to fulfill a revenge plan. Of course, there are a few instances where I felt he was being a little careless and for his skill should have been able to avoid. But these were all in good timing, because if Yun Seong was good at everything and ended up pulling through all of his plans wonderfully, then he'd be an arrogant god and we wouldn't have those tragic conflicts he goes through time and time again. He would see that he's good enough to protect Na Na and all the people around him, and he wouldn't even worry about his father's threats.

Nonetheless, those instances actually helped to propel the drama forward.

Aside from that, I enjoyed watching the few instances where he tends to act like an immature, playful brat, getting easily tempered and having his own fits of tantrums when things don't go right for him. Or just laughing at random things that he finds as Na Na's misfortunes. They make for creating a cute inner personality underneath that cold and cool exterior that he's supposed to project as the secret hero City Hunter.

The character of Kim Na Na is one of the few that I actually like among female protagonists. Kim Na Na is a cheerful and good-natured young woman looking to survive in life for the sake of her home and her father's hospital bills. Na Na has been spending her life trying to make ends meet with several part-time jobs when the series opens. She later gets accepted into the Blue House which helps to solve some of her financial problems. Unlike a lot of other female protagonists portrayed in Asian drama, Na Na is very strong of personality and admirable as a person. She takes on her responsibilities like the best of them and she doesn't spend too much time crying over her disastrous life or a lost love to the point that her character loses resolve for anything else -- even when she encounters the heart-wrenching issues of falling in love with someone who cannot love her back, she still continues on with her life, working as a bodyguard at the Blue House and making money to move on. This is because she knows that she has no other choice and that a lost love does not mean that she has to stop surviving or drop all of her duties.

Park Min Young does a great job as the head strong and uniquely brave Kim Na Na who struggled with a tragic past, an emotional new love relationship, and her duties as a human bulletproof vest to the President. I'm glad that she's not a complete tomboy, but she's also not a hundred percent girly either. She's that right balance of a simple young woman living her simple life as a secret service bodyguard who happened to fall in love with a not so simple young man with a secret life.

It was fun watching the two main characters start to fall in love with each other, and because of the romance that was doomed from the start, every heart-warming and fun-filled scene depicting the two of them makes for those sweet little memories that you can look back on and smile about. Because Yun Seong's life was destined to never be a normal one, it's nice that he can enjoy a few light-hearted moments where he can laugh and be happy. While it's hard to tell whether or not Yun Seong starts off with a secret attraction towards Na Na, it's quite evident that because of the picture of Na Na he'd gotten from his Shik Joong ahjussi, he had already grown a small attachment to her; going beyond just looking out for her safety and welfare as Shik Joong asks for.

Because, knowing full well that he isn't supposed to fall in love, Yun Seong should have detached himself from Na Na as much as he could, but he still goes out of his way to do things for her that don't have to do with her safety or wellfare. But time and time again, after upsetting her or turning her away from him, he still continues to do things that waver her heart in his favor; despite the fact that Na Na was very determined to cut him out of her life believing that he was a terrible, arrogant playboy with no morals.

But then again, if he didn't grow attached to her, we wouldn't be able to watch a tragic romance unfold and be caught up in all the heart-wrenching ups and downs of this lovely relationship. Yun Seong's personality would seem too mechanical; his unhesitant caring for Na Na's welfare as well as her emotional stability and happiness shows that he's human and still quite a young man after all. He gets jealous when she's around the prosecutor, Kim Young Joo, and his heart is tested whenever she goes through problems with her life, and he's uncomfortable when she's outright upset with him and refuses to even acknowledge his existent.

Poor Lee Yun Seong is simply a young man wanting to fulfill his desires of being a normal person able to lead a normal life and have a normal love life; but conflicted with the fact that he could never have any of that.

As far as the rest of the characters go, they are portrayed rather well, but aside from Lee Jin Pyo, Choi Eung Chan and Bae Shik Joong, very little of the story line revolves enough around them to be significant. The rest of the Blue House staff is there for the sake of having minor characters, Jin Sae Hee's role was rather one-fold, and Prosecutor Kim Young Joo only had one vendetta that propelled his very existence in the entire series making him a very background type of character up until his significance finally shows in the end.

Even the inkling of a possible love triangle (or love rectangle if you include Sae Hee) seems to taper off almost completely and our main couple fall in love with each other effortlessly, without third party obstacles. It is a personal relief to me that the producers choose not to include an unnecessary love triangle or rectangle since this main couple's romantic turmoil is complicated enough as it is. The small inkling of Sae Hee being attracted to Yun Seong was forgotten and Kim Young Joo's interest in Na Na is revealed further on in the story as not being romantically linked. It was like that hint of a love rectangle was only there for our main couple to realize their jealousy at seeing the other with another person who might interfere with their romance.

Nonetheless, as I finished up the series, I found that I was a little disappointed in the role that Kim Young Joo was given. He's the city hero who doesn't need to hide from the public's eye. As a prosecutor, he is justified in all of his means, has sworn to uphold the law, and will do anything to bring down the corruption (as long as it is within his law-abiding power to do so). But because the government is corrupt to begin with, the tag team efforts of the City Hunter to bring all evidence and culprits to the prosecutor's office for Kim Young Joo to deal with was a rather intriguing idea. Unfortunately, Kim Young Joo, despite agreeing with what the City Hunter does, cannot seem to condone some of the unlawful actions that City Hunter takes to get there, even if no innocent bystander was hurt. The series doesn't elaborate much on a possible relationship between the prosecutor and the City Hunter being able to work together as a team to bring justice into a corrupt nation. For this, I am hopeful that maybe after Yun Seong finishes his revenge plans and chooses to become a full time City Hunter for leisure, he can collaborate with the prosecutor's office in this aspect.

Unfortunately, as I already stated, Kim Young Joo's character was rather one-dimensional. While he was a brave and admirable person with secrets of his own, his only plight seemed to be continuously chasing after City Hunter's shadows and picking up cases where City Hunter leaves him. Kim Young Joo's role was a little cheated from him, is what I'm trying to get at. His role was supposed to be so much more significant than what was given him, and it isn't until the end of the series that you realize just how much this guy was taken for granted. You find it heartbreaking, almost, to realize that the prosecutor could have been executed in a much more grand fashion throughout the series rather than just some annoying, justice seeking, workaholic man chasing after the shadows of the secret city hero just to lose out to him every time.

Bae Shik Joong was presented beautifully as the maternal slash paternal guardian and "spouse-like" character in Yun Seong's life. He presented the right amount of fear for his and Yun Seong's safety, but also projected an undying loyalty that would put even himself in danger just for Yun Seong. Shik Joong ahjussi was a wonderful man despite his faults and in spite of them and so I'm glad that Yun Seong had such a person to aid him through his struggles.

Lee Jin Pyo was hard to grasp as the main antagonist in this series. Because ultimately, despite his open declarations of war on Yun Seong, he still harbors fatherly love for the young man he raised for twenty eight years and the viewers can see that it hurts him to see his son turn against him or even face any life-threatening dangers. While Yun Seong might have started off as a pawn for revenge in Lee Jin Pyo's plans, it seems that there is no doubting the father and son relationship that reared its head on the two so naturally.

As for the president, Choi Eung Chan, he was simply a good man, trying to do good things, but held a terrible corrupt secret that would become his downfall. Nonetheless, as some have described, Choi Eung Chan was a beautiful man with great aspirations and dreams. Even as a person, I feel that his faults don't outweigh his greatness. So it's unfortunate that good people can make mistakes for a greater cause and be condemned in such a way.

Back to the rest of the cast, I especially enjoyed the strange little bodyguard and president's youngest daughter relationship. Choi Da Hye, the youngest daughter of the president starts off with an impression of being a bratty, snobby young girl out to make trouble for the two female bodyguards who are assigned to her, which includes Na Na. But the young girl turns out to be a simple bratty daughter, with no evil intents and only a strange knack of trying to run away from her studies since she's described as academically incompetent. This is a relief for me since the story line already has enough complications without having to add on a snobby young girl to make life worse for Na Na -- so it was rather refreshing that the girl turned out to simply be bratty and spoiled and that was it; and she even eventually starts to care for Na Na and the other bodyguard like friends -- albeit, in her own strange little way.

The music for this series is excellent, with rotating ending themes dependent on the mood of the episodes' endings, and then also a captivating instrumental score of background music and insert songs. Choreography isn't the best, as I have grown up watching action and have seen a lot of the best sequences; but, nonetheles, the action was great to watch. I found myself getting a burst of excitement watching Yun Seong's fight scenes because there are some movements that are very unique and cool. The fangirl in me swoons at his oozing of hotness whenever he shows off his fighting skills. The technology that is displayed throughout the series, from the touch screen phones to the navigation systems and the tablets are all really awesome to see. Yun Seong's house is amazing!

As an ending to this series' thoughts post, I'm intent to include the bias that has been built against this series due to the fact that it doesn't follow the story line based on the manga created by Tsukasa Hojo. People have been criticizing the characters, the story line, and pretty much the entire production.

While I have not personally read the manga or watched the anime, I cannot compare story lines or characters. But the Korean drama adaptation, as judging from how I had so quickly crunched through every episode within two days, goes to show that the series as a stand-alone is great in itself -- at least to me it is. Maybe there would have been less of a fuss if the producers had not connected their television drama series with the manga; after all, according to the hyper fans of the original City Hunter manga, the plot and the characters are apparently nowhere near anything like the manga. The series might have fought better being a stand-alone series with a coincidentally identical name to the manga.

Then again, I guess marketing had some ideas up their sleeves anyway. The City Hunter series might not have gotten as much attention without the hook line; and then with people who don't really care for similarities between the original, we remained with the series itself because it was very captivating throughout. According to the nearly perfect ratings of the series in Korea, it looks like despite the dissimilarities between manga and series, a lot of people still enjoyed the series up to it's grand ending.

I myself have always preferred that adaptations be similar enough to the original if not better. Movies that take the term "based on" and then change the story line usually don't fare very well. HOWEVER, that's not to say that adaptations are always bad if they don't follow the original. I've seen a few series and movie adaptations before that don't quite follow the book it was based off of and still manage to be rather outstanding -- able to be a stand-alone in spite of its connection with its book base. Sometimes, even at the expense of changing significant parts of the story line, the adaptation can either be better, worse, or just as good in it's own way.

In this case, seeing as how I've never read the manga or seen the anime, and seeing as how I will probably never get around to them, I'm fairly content with the way that the Korean adaptation was produced and directed. Once again, it proved to be engaging and exciting.

After all, the number one complaint seems to be the main character, Yun Seong, being based off of the original manga's Saeba Ryo not being the same type of character. In descriptions, while Ryo is described as having feelings for his tomboy partner, he is given the personality of a perverted skirt-chaser who will jump at any chance to have his women. While I was totally expecting this to take place for the main character in the series, Lee Min Ho really DOESN'T show off the penchant for being a player -- many have pointed out that he really does not look like he could be a player.

The series had started the atmosphere out with a possibility for him doing as much, going around and getting close to women in order to get information from them. Yun Seong knows that he's good looking and can attract women, so he uses this as one of his pawns, but he doesn't ever actually sleep with any of them nor does he even really play with any feelings too seriously. But he casts off his public image as Lee Yun Seong, the player for all to see. Openly, he's always boasting about having a girlfriend waiting for him or a date with some new girl or his one night stands. But never once has he ever really appeared with a random girl unless she was significant in giving him information that he needed to carry out his plans.

And I think, as a woman, I rather enjoyed this side of Lee Yun Seong as opposed to making him a true womanizer. It certainly DOES help fangirls all around continue to fall wrecklessly in love with him. After so many episodes of City Hunter, it REALLY is hard to see Lee Yun Seong in the role of a player. It would be pretty strange, in my opinion.

So, I'm just saying that everyone should take the series however you want to. The producers can't make everyone happy after all, and if this is the way that they have chosen to make their adaptation, then so be it. If you don't like the changes, then don't watch it. If you can put aside your biases for the original, then try to enjoy the series, because it is very excellent for action drama standards. If you know nothing about the manga or the anime, then don't worry about it because the series was a great experience to follow along with.

I'm thinking that the hyped up excitement that City Hunter had gotten as being the first live action adaptation of the manga might have given it too much expectation. And when that happens, the disappointment from fans of the original will definitely surface; but for those of us who have never even touched the City Hunter manga, this series was just like any other kick butt action series with a suspense-filled story line and actually, rather well-thought out characters.

And so what if Lee Min Ho might have been a popular pretty boy cast as the main character in order to pull in the ratings due to his fans? Just because he's good looking, does that mean he can't perform his role with the best of them? Lee Min Ho, as far as I'm concerned, truly brought out the character of Lee Yun Seong wonderfully. Lee Min Ho being good looking just happens to come as a bonus next to his great acting skills.

The one thing I figured would have been better and would have brought more suspense to the show would be hiding the identities of all the rest of the five men that Lee Jin Pyo and Yun Seong are targetting from the viewers. The audience knows early on in the series who all was involved in the betrayal at the beginning and it takes a little bit of the fun out of trying to figure out which man was part of the incident. The audience sometimes like to play detective alongside the main characters too. Nonetheless, the idea of our heroes finding out one by one which men were involved and then investigating and revealing their corrupt behavior proved to be rather interesting to follow along with. Unfortunately, aside from the President, the other four were blatantly obvious corrupt officials-- it was a little bland and you'd think at least one of them should have been a litte more inconspicuous about his bad deeds and make it hard to ruin him. At least one more of these men should have been the type who was wanting to turn over a new leaf instead of continuing his corruption, making it so easy to figure him out and so hard to pity when he loses everything. A bit of surprise for the viewers would have been fun.

City Hunter was an excellent experience and I am definitely not adverse to rewatching it again and again. As I close this article up, I have successfully finished watching the entirety of the series, including the last two episodes. I had prepared myself for both a happy ending and a sad ending and I can clearly say that it is a satisfying ending for me.

This coming up spoiler, you have been warned, hopefully won't be too much of a shock to people, but the news is all over the place anyway, and I'm sure wikipedia will end up summarizing the series in full soon, happy ending included. And so, yes, the series ends with a light-hearted and happy tone, though there was a slight sense of dissatisfaction that the end suddenly does a skip forward after the revenge plan's ultimate conclusion and our main couple, supposedly separated for a time, doesn't get that long-awaited for reunion that fans had anticipated -- it was merely a simple scene, lasting a whole of five seconds with two sets of smiles as Yun Seong and Na Na smile warmly at each other. And that was it. A little interaction would have been nice, like a hug or even holding hands or a few words.

And an explanation would have been nice as well. After Yun Seong was shot, there was the sense of the direction trying to make him out to be dead. Na Na appears in mourning, even Yun Seong's mother is wearing black and she is ready to leave the country with Shik Joong ahjussi to start life over again in America. Yun Seong is nowhere to be seen and there had been no sign of a jump forward in time. It is mentioned that Na Na's comatose father finally passed away which was why she was in mourning, and so I had my hopes up that Yun Seong had made it just fine and was waiting for Na Na somewhere else while the producers play tricks with fragile fangirl minds. And then they mention that Yun Seong and Na Na both no longer work at the Blue House with no explanation as to where Na Na plans to go now and where Yun Seong went either.

Then we finally see Na Na leaving at the airport when she spots Yun Seong walking down a different hallway and so rushes off to find him. When they finally see each other, we are given warm smiles from both parties, but there is no interaction aside from that. Because of this, viewers are conflicted -- at least I was conflicted -- about this supposed reunion. I personally and frightfully thought that Na Na was just seeing a ghostly appearance of Yun Seong in her own imaginations. There is no indication that that's not what was going on. Because this happens a lot in a lot of storylines and the viewers are left to interpret the ending as they will. If I hadn't come across an article where the producer assures all the menacing fangirls worried viewers that the intention for the ending was a happy one, showing that Yun Seong, indeed, survived the gunshot wound and was well and alive, I would not have finally accepted a satisfying ending with the foresight of a sequel.

I would have been disappointed with the series up until a possible sequel is suddenly sprung on me with Yun Seong and Na Na taking center stage once again in an all new story line for City Hunter. Maybe I would have been surprisingly giddy with excitement and revoke my dissatisfaction for the first ending. Who knows? I just hope there really WILL be a sequel to appease my need for more Yun Seong, more Na Na, more excitement, and more satisfying romance.

My only big question was: Where the heck was Yun Seong during this time jump and why do the two need to reunite? After he was shot, shouldn't Na Na have stayed with him? Where did he go and if Na Na hadn't gone chasing after him, was he just going to keep moving forward without her? The ending was good, but it also brought about a lot of questions that made my head spin.

As a few news sources indicate, the series ends in a way that has viewers anticipating a possible sequel to City Hunter, and so in response to that, this blogger is definitely in support of a possible second season. After all, how else would fans be able to continue their worship of such a great series, the kick butt hot Yun Seong, and the long awaited romance to unfold between our beloved couple?

Just for the action and the suspense alone, I would recommend this series to anyone. Park Min Young is pretty and spunky, Lee Min Ho is adorable and hot and cool at the same time, and the rest of the characters were portrayed very well. It takes quite a bit for me to become so stuck on a certain series, and not mind watching it a couple more times over, so there's no doubting that, in my own personal opinion, City Hunter is very unique and special. Hopefully, I'll be able to find another series similar to it that I'll like, with the right amount of action, romance, and suspense as this one.

While it didn't have as big a cult following as a series such as Iris did, it was just as loved, I am certain. So with Iris planning on an official sequel sometime this year, I'm hoping that soon, City Hunter will pick up the same intentions, with the same characters, played by the same actors. And then I can continue on with my life happily guzzling lovely Korean drama series without worrying about getting sick of them.