my ajumma notes

Agency (2003)   Lee Bo-young is a wonderful actress, and that worked against this show for me.  She was so intense, portraying Go A-in fighting her personal difficulties and so naturally fighting office politics with her own manipulative shrewdness and scheming.  That was more angst and politicking than I wanted to endure.   lovely queen swats away the company snakes It all got far worse when Han-na ( Son Na-eun ) and the rest of her Kang family appeared.  The grandfather is ridiculously biased and full of himself, the father is so unsure of himself, and the brother is a pathetic victim of the silly practice of pitting the children against each other.  Han-na is thinly delivered, annoying, childish and strangely styled.  What was up with all those huge bows in her hair?! no match at all for the queen Special mention to Han Joon-woo (dead fiance in Be Melodramatic ), playing Park Young-woo, young man with brains and ability but...

A charming set of cute couple stories set against the backdrop of palace intrigue, also exploring attitudes towards marriage, matchmaking, destiny and love.  With that scheming-rivalry-ambition thread, a different title might have been more reflective of the plot.  Nevertheless, the matchmakers and friends were highly entertaining, and I’m glad the point was made more than once that while it’s great to find the ‘perfect match’, one doesn’t necessarily have to be with THE one.  Matchmakers The writer(s) did Rowoon a huge favour by making Jung-woo funny, bright yet pitiful, in a way that was suitable for his abilities.  Also, his height and imposing stature are the best foil for this sheltered ‘talent’ (knows everything, thinks of everything, could pick up swimming and fighting just by reading up on them!) who is prone to lovesickness!  This interesting character is further enhanced by him appearing in pink a lot of the time, riding a donkey(!...

It’s not easy to like a show where the acting and script are not always in top form, but I liked it! Beom-woo is a rather predictable character but Kang Ha-neul does a wonderful job being funny, silly, emotional, fed up, and so on.  Never expected he'd fit comfortably in a comic role! On the other hand, Yeon-joo, played by Go Min-si, unfortunately is the weak link, mostly flat and boring in character development and delivery.  A saving grace is that she is so pretty, and she and Beom-woo are a photogenic couple.  The secondary characters and cast easily outplayed her.  Kim Shin-rok is especially impressive as Myung-sook, who, like Beom-woo, comes across with her full range of emotions and expressions.  Choon-seung (played by Yoo Soo-bin) and Yoo-jin (played by Bae Yoo-ram) are suitably funny and silly.   Mean mother Han (played by Oh Min-ae) is as mean as she was intended to be, and brother Sun-woo (played by Bae Na-ra) goes through at ...

Cute dogs!  Cute Hae-na!  Cute Hae-na’s family!  Cute couple!  Cha Eunwoo’s cute face! All the dogs deserve praise and of course the two main ones should be singled out for more doggy treats!  However, there was too much use of CGI and the dogs looked too fake in those moments. Park Gyu-young (Han Hae-na) is delightful in this and so is Cocoa, as well as Hae-na’s voiceovers when she is in dog form.  I think there is a template used for actresses people don’t like – it says that so-and-so will never be a good actress, she has only one facial expression the whole time and has no chemistry with the male lead.  I saw a couple of such comments about Gyu-young for this show, but I’ve seen almost exactly the same points made about Shin Se-kyung , Moon Ga-young , Nam Ji-hyun ,  Park Eun-bin  and Jo Bo-ah .  Gyu-young is not at the level of these other ladies but she's doing fine! Eunwoo (Seo-won) is the o...