Top 5 Gong Hyo Jin Dramas

Top 5 

Gong Hyo Jin Dramas

Gong Hyo Jin is in no way an unknown face K-Dramaland. Her dramas somehow always manage to make it onto people’s favourite lists, so chances are if you’ve already dipped your toes in the K-Drama water, it's likely you've already encountered her. Gong Hyo Jin has a knack for picking great projects (there have been some duds also, but we’ll ignore that for the moment), and tends to play her characters with a straightforward, likeable attitude. Her chemistry with her costars tends to be pretty explosive- making for some delightful, addictive romances. Regardless of if you liked or loved (or heaven forbid disliked) the drama, shows with Gong Hyo Jin always remain memorable.

5: Jealousy Incarnate

It’s not my favourite drama- far from it. But the fact is, when considering a ‘Top 5’ you can’t ignore the opinion of the masses. And according to the masses this is a fabulous drama. Gong Hyo Jin’s character does feel a little similar to other characters she’s played, but the effect was still nice. In a world so full of Candy heroines, Gong Hyo Jin always feels like a breath of fresh air- and she continues to be that way in ‘Jealousy’. She brings the humour in a fantastic way, but what really sells the show is her adorable bickering dialogue with Jo Jung Seok. The two get along like a house on fire, and that alone is worth the watch.

4: Master’s Sun

Gong Hyo Jin plays another plucky heroine, with the small addition of seeing the dead. The show really captures Gong Hyo Jin’s wonderful ability to bring out the earnestness of her character in the midst of a comedic scene. While there can be some hilarious ghost shenanigans going on, Gong Hyo Jin’s character never feels like a ridiculous cartoon character. She plays the part (as she usually does) with a delightful mix of humour and sincerity, and it gives the show a great deal of heart. Also, she’s got wonderful chemistry with the lead, So Ji Sub.

3: The Producers

Definitely one of my favourite Gong Hyo Jin dramas- the mockumentary style seems as if it was made for her. It totally capitalises on her straight-faced humour, and somehow it’s always funny to see her blatantly state something in interview, and then act the complete opposite (unknowingly of course) once the cameras were turned. The writers seemed well aware of what Gong Hyo Jin’s strengths are, and so the story and character just suit her perfectly. The character’s overplayed and often misplaced confidence becomes doublely hilarious when paired with bright-eyed honesty that Gong Hyo Jin exudes. And let’s not forget the love-lines. There are love-lines everywhere so Gong Hyo Jin gets to rub her chemistry on everyone. She has an adorable noona-romace line with Kim Soo Hyun, and a comfortable, hilarious friends-to-lovers line with Cha Tae Hyun. It’s icing on the cake that Cha Tae Hyun is such comedic gold- when you put the two together the result is marvellously hysterical.

2: The Greatest Love

This is one of Gong Hyo Jin’s funniest works in my opinion. While much of the humour comes from the wackiness of her costar Cha Seung Won, Gong Hyo Jin plays her character with the same straight-faced humour she’s known for, which provides a solid base for the comedy to work around. She grounds the series in reality and gives it a sincere tone, while allowing full room for Cha Seung Won’s antics. What sets this drama apart from the rest is the constant banter between the two characters that is laced with humour, wit, and often deeper meaning. While the comedy is what makes the drama stand out, the romance is what gives the show an addictive quality, and Gong Hyo Jin is charming throughout. 

1: Hello My Teacher

I still remain completely and totally baffled as to why this drama is so wonderful. It really shouldn’t be when you look at it on paper, and yet whatever Top List I’m trying to make, I always want to sneak it on because I LOVE IT. The ridiculous chemistry between Gong Hyo Jin and Gong Yoo is probably what did it. The drama is fairly early on in both their careers, so the casting director probably didn’t even know what an absolute gold mine he was hitting when he put them together. The whole story becomes hilarious and heartwarming just because the two leads make it so. No one else in the drama really matters, and doesn’t that just go to show what great actors they both are- they completely monopolise screen time and story, yet make it into a highly successful drama rather than a total flop.

What are your favourite Gong Hyo Jin dramas?

Legend of the Blue Sea

Legend of the Blue Sea

6/10

Legend of the Blue Sea

Genre:                                     Episodes: 20                           Year: 2016

Romance

Comedy

Fantasy

Synopsis:

In the Joseon era, a man named Dam Ryung rescues a captive mermaid. In the present day, Heo Joon Jae is a con-man who swindles money off those who have become rich through illegal means. While abroad, a strange girl ends up in his room, and Joon Jae takes pity on her and looks after her. Unknown to Joon Jae, the girl is actually a mermaid who was washed ashore in a recent storm.

Cast:

Jeon Ji Hyun (Shim Chung/Se Hwa)

Lee Min Ho (Heo Joon Jae/Dam Ryung)

Lee Hee Joon (Jo Nam Doo)

Shin Won Ho (Tae Oh)

Lee Ji Hoon (Heo Chi Hyun)

Shin Hye Sun (Cha Shi Ah)

Sung Dong Il (Ma Da Young)

Hwang Shin Hye (Kang Seo Hee)

Shin Rin Ah (Yoo Na)

General Thoughts

When the drama was good, it was very, very good- but when it was bad it was dead boring. It took me a good 8 or so episodes before I really started feeling any sort of affection towards the series, and I mark that up to nothing really happening. Sometimes I can enjoy a drama that has nothing going on beyond the characters and their relationships (Weightlifting Fairy), but other times it just bores me to tears. Or cussing.

This drama is like an attractive man who's cr*p in bed- nice to look at, but frankly a bit disappointing

I will admit, the endless stream of stills, posters and promos got me insanely excited, not to mention the actors and writer- Park Ji Eun of ‘The Producers’ and ‘My Love from the Stars’- both of which I loved. Obviously it was hard not to go in and compare ‘Blue Sea’ with ‘My Love from the Stars’ as they had so many other things in common beyond the writer- same lead actress, same mythical creature twist (alien/mermaid), same blend of a Joseon timeline and a modern timeline.

Jeon Ji Hyun is a total star

I foolishly expected a drama of the same sort of quality, and while ‘Blue Sea’ isn’t a bad drama, it has none of the wonder, sparkle or addictiveness that ‘My Love’ had. While Jeon Ji Hyun delivered an incredible performance as our mermaid on land, I wasn’t a huge fan of the character herself. She was innocent and a bit daft- which added a lot to the comedy, but sadly lessened the impact of the love-line. Chung’s childish adoration, or even obsession, with Joon Jae felt less like deep, emotional love, and more like a teenager crush. She didn’t know Joon Jae- she just instantly fell for him and he could do no wrong. It was a lot like the fluffy love in ‘My Girlfriend is a Gumiho’, and I was just expecting something with a bit more substance. On the other hand, Joon Jae’s love for Chung was lovely to watch develop. We were always shown that Joon Jae had a pretty soft interior and didn’t like turning away from Chung when she so obviously had no idea how to live on land. Joon Jae has a sweet progression from annoyance to protector to love, and his sincerity is always felt- even in the more comedic moments.

Lee Min Ho looks like one hell of a snuggler

I find Lee Min Ho to be a little overhyped, but he portrayed his character well, and did much better with the comedy than I thought he would. While I didn’t really fall in love with Joon Jae, I believed his emotions and understood his actions, and could even sympathise with him most of the time- and a lot of that comes from Lee Min Ho’s ernest portrayal of the character. The side characters were criminally underdeveloped.

Um, hello- where's my bromance?

The three con-men were pretty much the first people we saw (both in advertising the drama and in the actual drama), yet they don’t really get any development or screen-time. I absolutely loved the conflict that was brought in at the end that questioned Nam Doo’s loyalty to Joon Jae, and Chung by extension- but that really only came into play in the last few episodes. And poor Tae Oh probably gets less than 20 lines. That’s like one line an episode. If that. Why is everyone so against giving Shin lines? He’s a great little actor with an adorable pout and I wish people would just let him do something. Also, his love-line with Shi Ah was one of the most unwanted things I’ve encountered in a long time. It felt weird, and we’d established that Shi Ah is nasty and two-faced (by her treatment of her housemaid before and after she found out she was Joon Jae’s mum) so why force poor Tae Oh to have her? Sigh.

Shtaaaaappp iiiittttt

I generally like Lee Ji Hoon, and I loved him in his role here. He has a wonderful ambiguity about him where you can never quite tell if he’s good or evil. As it was, Chi Hyun didn’t know himself whether he was good or evil, and Lee Ji Hoon showed amazing ability in portraying Chi Hyun’s conflicted feelings of love and abandonment.

But changing his hairstyle was a bit of a giveaway that he was now a 'bad dude'

The main villain, Evil Stepmom, was a bit of a stock standard K-Drama villain, but at least she made things happen. To be honest, I didn’t really care about Joon Jae’s father and whether he lived or died, but at least his death (and thus Joon Jae’s revenge) made something happen in the story that went beyond ‘the mermaid likes Joon Jae’. I kind of wish the relationship between Stepmom and Da Young had been explained a bit better, as it was mostly just up to our own imaginations to fill in the blanks. They were children at an orphanage, then murderous adults, and we weren't really shown how the two got there. I would happily swap some silly Spain episodes for a bit more backstory on our villains. The Joseon part of the drama was endlessly interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed whatever time we spent in that timeline. It was an interesting twist to have Dam Ryung just as aware of Joon Jae as Joon Jae was of him. The past timeline ensured we had the beautiful, bittersweet, tragic love story that K-Drama seems to love so much, and the present timeline gave us the happy ending we were all wanting. Also, the way the timelines worked together to reveal whether Nam Doo was a bad guy or not was just absolutely perfect.

Pure brilliance

What Was Great:

No Noble Idiocy:

There was the chance for noble idiocy at every turn, and thankfully no one in this drama took it.

This is so much better than forced separation

The idea was tossed around a bit, and we could see both Joon Jae and Chung considering it, but at the end of the day no one buggered off under the delusion that they were protecting the other. Sure, Chung did bugger off- but that was because she was going to die (more on this later). Having a set-up like this one (mermaid’s heart only beats if the man continues to love her) is basically every noble idiot’s dream. Chung could have left saying Joon Jae would be too sad when she died, and Joon Jae could have pretended not to love Chung in some stupid attempt to send her back into the ocean and stop her heart from hardening. But instead, they choose to stay together and do cute couple things and just generally be adorable. Yay. 

It’s Pretty:

Everything is lovely to look at. The scenery is stunning- particularly in their overseas shoot, and the cinematography is just beautiful. The Joseon era was particularly lovely, and had a real magical air about it. Jeon Ji Hyun is of course very beautiful, and makes for one gorgeous mermaid. She did a fantastic job of looking at home in the water- rather than being uncoordinated, she moved through the water very gracefully. The soundtrack was nice and complemented the prettiness that was on screen well.

So nice to look at

What Wasn’t:

The Beginning:

For the first half of this drama I was pretty darn angry. Because nothing seemed to have a point, even though the drama seemed to think it did.

Sure, it was a little fun- but by Ep. 3 I was expecting some sort of plot

We had a whole bunch of episodes in Spain- but then these all get erased from Joon Jae’s memory, and the only part of it that actually mattered was Joon Jae meeting Chung and telling her to come to Seoul. Like, c’mon. You could have put that in one or two episodes- do I really need to see them escaping from random hoodlums for a whole episode? And even when Chung gets to Seoul, beyond a few fish-out-of-water jokes there wasn’t much going on. Sure, Joon Jae was starting to like Chung and whatever- but we’ve all seen it before. In Spain. He just doesn’t remember. But I sure do. Really, until it was revealed that there was an actual threat out there (not just Chung’s heart maybe not working anymore), I had zero investment in the series. I mean it was all pretty and cute, but it was the life-and-death, get-the-ending-we-didn’t-get-the-first-time stakes that I was really interested in.

The End:

The last episode stank. What a stanky episode. I liked everything about it, but the fact that she erased everyone’s memory just made it stupid.

'Please don't take my memory.' Proceeds in taking memory.

It basically rendered the whole drama pointless. Sure, she met Joon Jae and he hadn’t forgotten her (somehow), but every other relationship I watched Chung forge and enjoyed watching develop was completely erased.

Joseon ending was far more dramatic

What. The. Hell. And it wasn’t even for a good reason. Not to mention that it totally negates the earlier message the drama was sending. In Joseon, Dam Ryung criticised Se Hwa for taking his memory without permission and says he would have much rather been alone with the memory of loving her than have no recollection of it. It’s the whole old ’tis better to have loved and lost the never to have loved at all’ thing all over again. And Chung seems to finally have got the message when she refused to erase Joon Jae’s memories of his dead father even though he asks. Then right at the end Joon Jae specifically asks Chung not to take his memories and she tries to do it anyway! Why? Whyyyyy?! And then she seems all upset that no one remembers her when she returns three years later- like, what did you expect? Ohhhhhh, so frustrating. I can live with Chung returning to the ocean for her body to recover (even if it would have been nice to know that was why she went back before she went), but taking the memories of her friends without their knowledge was just stupid, and quite frankly selfish.

Re-watch?

Goodness me, no. The beginning and the last episode thoroughly irritated me.

You guys totally just could have bought a house by the sea at the start and skipped all the angst in between

The Greatest Love

The Greatest Love

8/10

The Greatest Love

Genre:                                 Episodes: 16                            Year: 2011

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Gu Ae Jung was once the popular leader of a famous girl group, but after the group disbanded her image was ruined. Meanwhile, Dokgo Jin is a popular actor at the hight of his career. Ae Jung continues to meet Dokgo Jin in a series of chance encounters, and their relationship turns from general dislike into a begrudging friendship.

Cast:

Cha Seung Won (Dokgo Jin)

Gong Hyo Jin (Gu Ae Jung)

Yoon Kye Sang (Yoon Pil Joo)

Yoo In Na (Kang Se Ri)

Lee Hee Jin (Jenny)

Im Ji Kyu (Kim Jae Suk)

General Thoughts:

I see now why the Hong Sisters have such a good reputation. The writing for this drama was fun, witty, and the dialogue really made the relationship between our two leads much more enjoyable. Two thumbs up.

Fun and funny

Having one of our leads being a famous celebrity is nothing new, but I must say that I enjoyed this scenario much more than I have enjoyed the celebrity aspect of K-Dramas previously. For starters, the Entertainment Industry wasn’t treated as the greatest thing ever, nor was it treated as this horribly dark place with a shiny exterior- it was just a business with a lot of employees, each trying to get ahead in their careers. Like any other workplace there were nasty people in it, but there were also good, likeable people in it. One of the better aspects is that the President of Dokgo’s company wasn’t an evil, money-hungry woman- she was a business woman, and even when she was slightly meddlesome, it was clear she was intervening out of a desire to do what was best for both Dokgo and Ae Jung- which is always nice to see.

And boy, 'fans' can get pretty darn nasty

A large part of this drama’s conflict is the idea of image, which is an interesting idea to explore. Despite being a wonderful, lovely person you can have a bad image, and good image is what you really need to be successful. It was interesting that the drama treated the celebrities images as a tangible thing, rather than an abstract concept. It was something to be traded and given away- but also something that could be taken from you.

Ahh...the things you'll do for a good image

The biggest conflict was definitely how the relationship between our leads would impact their images. Other dramas I’ve seen haven’t really managed to snag what is so important about image, but ‘Greatest Love’ did an excellent job. It was always understandable why the two didn’t want to run headfirst into this relationship, because without image neither of them have a way to make money and support themselves- because their image is their career. It was much more interesting to have the conflict between our two leads as something internal rather than external. While the problem itself was purely external (how will the public respond), it was the way Dokgo and Ae Jung handled that problem that sparked much of the interest. It wasn’t as though they were two people deeply in love separated by some great external force- they were just two people who liked each other but weren’t sure how to go about it, as the relationship would have a negative impact on not only themselves, but the other person as well. The entertainment and investment came not from if they would move forward together but how they were going to move forward. The push-and-pull paired with witty dialogue was wonderful to watch and drew us in as an audience.

The pull made all the push worth it

Despite not having a lot of showy plot (there were no huge fights, or dangerous villains or mysteries to uncover), the show was extremely entertaining from beginning to end, and much of that credit has to go to our leads. Cha Seung Won and Gong Hyo Jin were just superb.

Half the fun is just waiting to see what ridiculousness he'll do next

They perfectly sold the relationship between the two characters and made it feel real- despite the occasional absurdities of their characters. I mean, what man that age can’t differentiate between his heart beating and liking a woman? But Cha Seung Won sold the character and his slight ridiculousness, and the humour that resulted from his confusion made it easy to overlook the over-simplified reasonings of Dokgo Jin. He was just hilarious. He never gave a half-hearted performance and really dived into the comedy. Gong Hyo Jin played a nice stable character for his silliness to bounce off of, and actually made the humour seem more real. Alone, Dokgo Jin seems ridiculous, but paired with the world the Hong Sisters created and Ae Jung, it becomes quite plausible that he’s a man that turns into a bit of a weirdo when he’s alone or around people he’s comfortable with. The show gave us a very understandable world filled with likeable, funny characters that really dazzled, and the whole thing was just an extremely enjoyable, fun ride.

What Was Great:

The Cast:

Cha Seung Won and Gong Hyo Jin are just perfect. Usually one of the leads tends to sparkle a little bit brighter than the other, but the two here were so perfectly matched. Not only did they have a heap of romantic chemistry going on, but their comedic chemistry was also firing on all cylinders.

They suit each other like it's nobody's business

The two really bounced of each other’s energy in the comedic scenes (of which there were so many), and so the humour just seemed to build and build as the drama went on. Not only that, but they were both able to so perfectly undercut a comedic scene with a moment of real sincerity, which gave the show a lot more heart than your standard rom-com.

Pretty sure he pinched this move off Kim Jong Kook

Yoon Kye Sung did an amazing job as the second male lead. Despite Pil Joo not being that exciting on paper (he’s your typical nice guy second lead), Yoon Kye Sung gave him a whole heap of personality that a different actor probably wouldn’t have been able to generate. He gave Pil Joo a bit of a dorky, nerdy air about him, so he wasn’t just a dreamy doctor- he was a dreamy doctor who was a bit too in love with his job and seemed just a tad detached from the world around him. He was also never simplistically nice- Yoon Kye Sung clearly showed Pil Joo’s pain and heartache, but also his dislike for Dokgo. A couple of times he teetered on the edge of doing something douchey to discredit Dokgo or make himself seem better to Ae Jung, but after some quiet deliberation he always made the nice guy choice. He might not have ended up with the girl, but man he made one hell of an adorable, endearing character. If I didn’t find Dokgo so amusing yet sincere, I probably would have ended up on the Pil-line. These three leads were really the heart and soul of the show, and it was the interactions between these characters that held a lot of the show’s entertainment- be it comedy or conflict.

A Multitude of Metaphors:

I probably didn’t even grasp the meaning of half the banter that floated around in this drama, but what I did catch on to was so, so, so funny.

Never before has a potato held so much meaning

Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of push-and-pull relationships as I tend to find them a bit tedious- ‘I love you but I won’t go to you blah blah blah’. But pairing the push-and-pull dynamic with a bunch of hidden meanings becomes far more interesting. When characters straight-up say what they mean and the relationship still doesn’t move forward it can be a little exasperating, but when they communicate their feelings through metaphors it somehow becomes much more enjoyable. Sure, if handled badly the metaphors would probably still be exasperating, but here it was all handled in a funny, witty way, and there was always forward movement on one end of the relationship.

Because you for sure need a heart monitor to make sure you're in love

There were potatoes and flowers and heart-beats and cartoon characters and Pororo and cars and broken machinery and superheroes, and I don’t even think the writers could keep track of how many metaphors they put in there.

What Wasn’t:

Some Small Plot Weaknesses:

The strength of the show was really its characters and cast- not so much the plot. With so much going on between the two leads, and even the second leads, it didn’t really matter that there wasn’t a heap of other external stuff going on. However, there were a couple of times it was a bit obvious that the plot was really only being held up by the greatness of its characters.

I so prefer angst-ing together to separation angst though

The whole National Treasure Girls plot seemed pretty thin to me. I was expecting something huge to have happened to explain why Ae Jung’s old manager hated her so much, but there wasn’t a lot of substance to it. While the situation behind the girl group’s breakup was sufficient, the manager seemed a bit too obsessive and butt-hurt about something that didn’t seem to impact him all that much. It was also pretty weak how we didn’t get to be a part of Doggo’s surgery. A lot of the series had Dokgo protecting and supporting Ae Jung, and I really wanted her to be with him during his surgery- or at least during his recovery. The idea of Dokgo dying played a pretty important role in getting the two together and admitting their feelings for each other, so it did seem a little weird that we went from the middle of Dokgo’s heart surgery to two months later with not a lot of dramatic tension behind it. We’d been building up to this moment for several episodes, so even if we didn’t really think our main man would die, it felt odd not to have a big recovery moment.

Re-watch?

Potentially. These days I rarely watch things twice as K-Dramaland keeps churning out so many new things I want to watch. Even if I don’t watch the whole thing again, I might come back for an episode or two.

When potatoes and flowers don't work, a snog always gets the message across

Ma Boy

Ma Boy

5/10

Ma Boy

Genre:                                      Episodes: 3                             Year: 2012

Romance

Comedy

School

Synopsis:

Jang Geu Rim dreams of becoming a famous singer and enters one of the best arts high schools. Tae Joon, a popular idol who Geu Rin has a crush on attends the same school, but Tae Joon is in love with Irene, a young model. Geu Rin becomes Irene’s roommate and discovers Irene has been hiding a secret- Irene is actually a boy.

Cast:

Kim So Hyun (Jang Gue Rin)

Sun Woong (Irene/Hyun Woo)

Min Hoo (Tae Joon)

Kim Hye Ji (Hye Ri)

General Thoughts:

When you consider it next to high budget, mainstream K-Dramas, ‘Ma Boy’ really isn’t all that good, but when you go in knowing what to expect it can be a right good time. Obviously I wasn't expecting a mind-blowing drama, and was happy to watch the cute, silly, fluffiness that this drama was- that is after all why I started it.

Is this our heroine? No...no that's our hero

It’s kind of like K-Drama’s version of Disney Chanel or Nickelodeon- juvenile in a fun way without being plain stupid. It’s got a little bit of story, and our main man Hyun Woo (more often referred to as Irene) even gets a nice little dose of character development. Our heroine is pretty stock standard, but it’s nice to see Kim So Hyun in her early days- she’s only 13!

Look at how tiny she is!

The acting is pretty green all round, but it fits well enough into the show. The reason it works so well is that everything is on the same level. It’s not an amazing story with terrible acting or a terrible story with amazing acting- it’s just pleasantly mediocre. The kids all act well enough for their age, and it kind of adds to the enjoyment watching them because you get a nice dose of secondhand embarrassment. The kids act everything out with such conviction- even the most ridiculous scenes, and you can really tell they’re just having a marvellous time. There were probably loads of outtakes and I bet the set was just a really enjoyable place to be. When the actors are obviously having that much fun filming, it really translates. There’s very little emotional investment, but that’s okay because nothing really happens. Some small-scale stuff goes on, but it’s not played up like it’s the end of the world (the way some dramas ramp up every tiny situation), so it’s fun to watch the two leads dance around the main concept- our hero pretends to be a girl most of the time. Which is hilarious in all kinds of ways. Only in Korea could you pull of something like this- because Sun Woong is actually alarmingly believable as a girl. He’s so very pretty. He actually reminded me a lot of Sulli when she was crossdressing as a boy in ‘To the Beautiful You’.

You have to admit...the resemblance is kinda uncanny

His height and his broad shoulders were a bit of a giveaway, but once the wig was on it was totally understandable that people thought he was a girl.

Weightless and cute and fun

I mean really, if I only saw his face with the wig on I’d probably think he was a girl to start with. I actually really liked that it was the boy crossdressing this time around, as it’s so often the girl disguised as a boy (probably slightly easier to pass off), and as far as I’m aware this is the only K-Drama that has the boy dressing as a girl set-up. The concept is fun and creates some funny moments, but it’s never blown out of proportion- neither of our leads’ lives are going to be ruined if the secret got out. It’s pretty low-key all around, but it’s still an enjoyable watch that will give you a good laugh. Obviously if you’re not someone that likes kid shows I wouldn’t recommend it to you, but if you’re one of us who secretly delight in short, childish TV every now and then, it’s a fun little show.

What Was Great:

Everyone is Nice:

There’s no large and scary Big Bad in this series. The kids can be a little mean sometimes, but their evil schemes are pretty harmless. It’s exactly like watching a children's cartoon or something where locking someone in a dark room for a couple of minutes is the hight of revenge. Which kind of only adds to the fun- because nothing’s really going to go wrong- and let’s be honest, it would just be completely ridiculous if it did.

Even the Mean Girls were pretty low-level mean

The fan clubs are played more for comedic effect rather than any sort of actual drama, with all the drama coming from Geu Rin and Irene/Hyun Woo. Even our second male lead is so helplessly nice- just trapped in his own little world where he’s the star of everything and everyone loves him, and he’s so sweetly troubled by how immensely popular he is and saddened that he’ll have to break someone’s heart- when in reality the two ‘girls’ he likes are really one girl and a crossdresser who are actually falling for each other. Tae Joon is just pure hilarity.

Wow, fantastic baby

What Wasn’t:

Do I care that nothing happened? Not at all.

Unsubstantial:

It’s hard to point fingers at things that aren’t good about this show, because honestly I expected a whole lot of it to not be very good. I could sit on my high horse and say the plot was terrible and the acting immature and blahdy blahdy blah- but for what it is it’s actually very good. I’m aware that I’m watching something that is geared towards pre-teens, and so I can enjoy it as such. Even as a juvenile show the plot was probably a little lacking, but the fact remains that it’s still enjoyable. The whole show carries a light-hearted, nothing-really-matters air that I know a lot of people probably wouldn't enjoy- but on a slow weekend with nothing to do I'm not above watching fluffy, non-sensical K-Drama. Really, bonus points for it actually being funny and entertaining.

Re-watch?

Maybe. The show really is a good laugh even if it’s just pure silliness. It’s only three episodes, so it’s high on the list of things to watch if I ever need a mood lift.

Sweet and fun- the best parts of a childish romance