Shows I could not finish – despite their leading ladies/man

No argument that these are capable leads and among my favourites. However, I usually need the entire package to work at least fairly well and the packages didn’t. I could only manage one or less episode of these shows.

Mine, starring Lee Bo-young (2021)

This could have been my first Netflix series. Too ostentatious and knotty in the end.

The luxurious setting is really something – lush furnishings in that compound of mansions, lots of stylish clothes! There is an exciting combination of characters – gregarious, tortured, retiring, downright idiotic, with the hint of mystery behind each one, and both hidden and overt tensions among them. When one of the servants is dismissed, she cries about having to leave, “because there’s something happening here every day!”

I liked how Lee Bo-young is a sprightly character here (at least in episode 1), but the mother-in-law’s pet peacock practically did it for me.

16 episodes, tvN

One Spring Night, starring Han Ji-min (2019)

Ji-ho is an interesting character and well played by Jung Hae-in. I would have liked to see more of his single dad scenes. Han Ji-min, ever youthful and soulful, portrays well Jeong-in’s frustration in her relationships with Gi-seok (Kim Jun-han) and with her parents. However, I couldn’t take the dragged-out melodrama and how arrogant and unreasonable Gi-seok and the parents are, plus… the show is 32 long episodes long! My goodness…

how to get involved with the pharmacist who sells you the hangover drink

32 episodes, MBC

Black Night: the Man Who Guards Me, starring Shin Se-kyung (2017)

Se-kyung is lovely, so is Seo Ji-hye, and Slovenia is stunning!! However, there was too much fantasy, some characters having lived 200 years and all. Also could not get over the thought of Kim Rae-won and Se-kyung as a couple. No... ...

20 episodes, KBS2

Touch Your Heart, starring Lee Dong-wook (2019)

Lee Dong-wook is perfectly the grumpy, no-nonsense lawyer Jung-rok and Lee Sang-woo is also here as best friend Se-won. However, I couldn’t tahan Yoo In-na’s over-acting of Jin-shim. Since she’s half the relationship, I couldn’t go far.

also, was she taking a leaf, and more, from Prosecutor Princess?

16 episodes, tvN

Comments

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan...

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the ...

When the best man doesn't win

Speaking of 'sway' spurned lovers, the latest one I've come across is in Love Revolution ( only 12 episodes!), a J show I recently watched. Heroine of the story is pretty, 30-ish Smart Doctor, who is dying to fall in love and get married. She meets Aspiring Actor and Broadcast Journalist (right). She falls for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks. It's obvious from the start (to the audience but not to her) that Aspiring Actor is nuts about her. But... she has fallen for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks already. No doubt, Smart Doctor and Broadcast Journalist must be given credit for their love that stands the tests of time, separation and misunderstanding, but the one who loves most in the show is undoubtedly Mr Aspiring Actor. What he does/does not do because of his undying love for Smart Doctor: Y does not pursue her at first because he is still struggling to survive in this small-time drama group and he knows he doesn't have much to offer Y resp...

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