my ajumma notes

Somewhat unusual, with the comedy and the side plot more interesting than the romance, which was, sadly, bland and predictable. Hilarious Seok Ji-won ( Joo Ji-hoon ) Lee Ki-ha (Kim Hyun-mok) Ji-hoon and Hyun-mok are funnier than Rowoon and Hyun-mok in The Matchmakers ; without this pair, I probably would have dropped the show. Moderately funny Grandpa Yoon (Kim Kap-soo), with his smirking and some amusing lines Mildly funny Dad Seok Gyeon-tae (Lee Byung-joon) Teacher Byun (Yoon Seo-hyun) VP Kang (Baek Hyun-joo) Disappointing The love stories Seok Ji-won and Yoon Ji-won I don’t know why Seok JW likes her.  Student Yoon JW isn’t a nice person – smug, vain and self-centred.  She’s mostly just putting down Seok JW or swinging her hair around and looking pretty.  Teacher Yoon JW is boring, and again, I don’t know why Seok JW likes her again/still.  It felt like he was carrying over his teenage affections into adult life.  When she asks why he...

Heart-warming, tear-jerky, sometimes funny, well-acted!  There were lots of plot-lines, because there were all sorts in ‘heaven’ and in ‘hell’, so it is challenging to manage and keep everything together.     Having a strong lead couple helps!  Hae-sook (Kim Hye-ja) complains about her and Nak-joon ( Son Suk-ku ) looking like mother and son, but it never feels like they’re mother and son.  Throughout the show, you think of them as a couple.  Well done, both! Ryu Deok-hwan, playing the pastor, is impressive portraying different emotions and moods, especially when he has to come to terms with Hae-sook's identity.  However, he has major question marks.  How is he an adult here when he died as a child?  In fact, how did he become more mature and perceptive than many others? People probably found Som-yi ( Han Ji-min ) exasperating, puzzling, disturbing or even hateful.  Smart plot move to make us w...

Probably I should keep a closer eye on the art scene here, learn a bit more and move beyond just looking out for people painting flowers and landscapes.  Besides the Impressionists , there were a couple of smaller displays to enjoy.     Fernando Zobel: Order is Essential (National Gallery Singapore) This is the first solo exhibition of works by Fernando Zobel (1924-1984), a Filipino artist with a cosmopolitan spread in his experiences and art. Zobel's interpretation of van Gogh's A Wheatfield with Cypresses Penitentes Also on display were works by artists connected to him and by other Filipino artists. St. Thomas Aquinas, Alfonso Ossorio (Zobel's relative and friend) San Vicente Ferrer (artist unknown) Jose Joya And yes, order in art, please. Verse: A View of Things to Come (The Arts House)   A very interesting collaboration between art and poetry (my friend FS tells me it’s called ekphrastic poetry), with the artwork done by former prisoners and poems b...

National Gallery Singapore was conceptualised in the early years of this century, officially opened in 2015 and became another grand building I did not step into .  This one is a grand  old  building, more accurately,  two  grand old buildings (built in the late 1920s) – the old Supreme Court and City Hall – now functioning as one.   It was the Impressionists who brought me here!   With extremely poor knowledge and conventional preferences in art, this is no surprise, I suppose.  I do like the Impressionist style for its pretty, float-y feel, and I like knowing what I’m looking at.  For example, if it’s a tree, I need to know it is a tree, and if it’s the sea, I need to know that’s what it is.  This exhibition is just right for me!   Visit to a Museum, Degas, 1880 Enter... People were enjoying Renoir Pissarro, Monet, Renoir Monet more Monet, and probably the seats as well and some hands-on work Amo...