How Are You Bread

How Are You Bread

4/10

How Are You Bread

Genre:                                 Episodes: 5                     Year: 2020

Romance

Synopsis:

Noh Mi Rae, a variety show writer, is tasked with hiring pastry chef Han Do Woo as a guest on a new program. Han Do Woo is famous for his How Are You Bread, which is said to grant wishes.

Cast:

Suho (Han Do Woo)

Lee Se Young (Noh Mi Rae)

Moon Ji Yoon (Patrick)

Han So Young (Do Do Hae)

General Thoughts:

Yeah look, this drama wasn’t great, but it wasn’t super awful either. This drama is a bit of an odd one as it has actually been floating around for years. It was announced, casted, and even filmed right when I first started getting interested in Korean Dramas- all the way back in 2016!

It took a while, but it's aired at last!

For four years this little show has been hovering around and only this year was it able to secure a network to air on. It makes me a little sad for all the people who put so much love and effort into the show, as it really isn’t that bad for what it is, and I have seen far worse shows have no problem securing a network.

More baking, less writing please

So props to the team who worked to get this show aired. As for the content, it was an easy enough show to get through, but there wasn’t really anything special or unique to it. It had a lot of ideas going on, but they weren’t exactly new concepts. I love bakeries and patisseries so I was sucked in seeing a show that was centred around these concepts. I didn’t expect the drama to go into the baking side of things too much (which it didn’t), but I maybe would have liked a bit more focus on Do Woo’s magic bread- seeing as that was the whole catch of the show. Apart from the first episode which showed a line going down the street, Do Woo’s bakery was always empty. Instead, the drama chose to focus on the baking competition program. This had the upside of furthering the revenge plot between Do Woo’s father and President Bang, but the downside was that the show looked kinda lame. I don’t think I would tune in if that was airing on my TV.

Perhaps if I knew more about what their relationship was, I'd care more about who wins the competition

In the acting department, Lee Se Young did a great job as the leading lady. Suho was less convincing as the leading man, but I didn’t judge him too harshly considering that this was basically the first thing he filmed.

Their sad destiny can't be sadder than wasted pastries

The cold, cool charisma works well for being a K-Pop star, but when switched over to acting it can make his characters seem a bit too arrogant or emotionless. I’d like to see Suho try out a character that’s a bit more down to earth to see if that can help him relax into his acting a bit more. The chemistry between Suho and Lee Se Young was good enough, but to be honest they didn’t really have that many scenes together that had a romantic undertone. More often than not there was a sort of angsty vibe between the two of them (resulting from Mi Rae’s memory loss), so their relationship lacked the cute, bubbly feeling that most new romances have. I didn’t really buy the idea of Mi Rae and Do Woo being a love separated by destiny (what even is that- why would destiny bother?). The ending did a good enough job of wrapping the idea up and putting a cute flavour on it, but it was pretty random. I was a bit confused by Patrick’s presence throughout the show, and found the whole concept of the memory wiping due to constant accidents a bit cringey, but the show was able to resolve it in a nice enough way that kind of made up for the weirdness. 

Doesn't this guy have better things to do than go around telling people they shouldn't like each other?

What Was Great:

Lee Se Young:

I know that I have criticised her acting in the past, but she did a great job here. Unfortunately one of the best ways to recognise a good actor is to put them in a drama with some not so good actors,

Girl had a lot of crying scenes for a 3 hour show

and that’s what happened here. While it’s a shame that this drama didn’t have a lot of great actors in it, it did serve well to showcase Lee Se Young. She was able to bring both an innocent and a sadder vibe to her character, and was essentially the emotional gauge of the show. She did a good job at elevating Suho’s performance in scenes that they shared together, and I think if the show had opted for a less experienced/less competent actor, it would have suffered for it. Lee Se Young brought a sense of professionalism to this drama, and lessened the sense that this was an amateur show. She had to do a lot of crying while eating sweets, which must be pretty whacko to act out, but I thought she did it splendidly, which really sold the idea that there actually was something special in the bread that Do Woo was making. 

What Wasn’t:

Too Many Ideas:

There is such a thing as too much, and in this case it was too many ideas. There were a lot of interesting storylines going on in this show- a father and son having a fallout over traditional Korean vs Western cooking, a revenge plot, a destiny twist, an amnesia situation, a baking show, magic bread, and a hardworking love.

Just give me a cute love story and I'll be happy

The issue here is that ‘How Are You Bread’ had only 5 episodes (at about 45 minutes each) to tell aaaaaall of these different plotlines. And it just wasn’t enough. So what ended up happening is that each idea was dabbled in a little, but none of them were fleshed out to their full potential. Instead of one really great plot, we had several not so good ones. I think the show might have done a better job if it had picked just one or two of the stories it wanted to tell and really delved into that. 

Recommend?

Nah- it isn’t quite short enough to be one evening’s worth of quick story, and it isn’t quite good enough to be anything else.

Now I want pastries...

Rich Man

Rich Man

3.5/10

Rich Man

Genre:                                                  Episodes: 16                                    Year: 2018

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Lee Yoo Chan is the CEO of an IT company, but is arrogant and rude. He suffers from an inability to recognise faces, only being able to recognise the face of Kim Boon Hong, a girl he met years ago. Despite being smart, Kim Bo Ra struggles to get a job after graduating collage, but manages to get a job at Yoo Chan’s company by using the name Kim Boon Hong.

Cast:

Suho (Lee Yoo Chan)

Ha Yeon Soo (Kim Bo Ra)

Oh Chang Suk (Min Tae Joo)

Kim Ye Won (Min Tae Ra)

Park Sung Hoon (Cha Do Jin)

Yoon Da Young (Park Mi So)

Han Jung Hoon (Lee Dong Ha)

Lee Jae Jin (Kang Chan Soo)

Choi Kang Il (Nam Chul Woo)

Kim Min Ji (Kim Boon Hong)

General Thoughts:

This drama was in no way shape or form a good drama. As a person who likes to complain, I tend to enjoy having a good rant after watching a bad show, but ‘Rich Man’ has left me kind of exhausted and lifeless.

Sad to say, but I just wasn't a fan

I had a hard time categorising what this show was supposed to be. Comedy? But it’s not funny. Melodrama? But it’s not dramatic. Romance? But there’s no actual romance (until the last episode). It was just in this weird no-mans land were it wasn’t one thing or the other. It was just…nothing. Which sounds harsh, but it’s true.

Do I care about the company? Not at all.

Even though I have sat down and watched all 16 of these episodes, I fail to see the point of this drama. Because it wasn’t a cute romance that made me happy and giddy, it wasn’t a hilarious comedy that made me laugh out loud, and the plot really had…well…no plot. Tae Joo just turns against Yoo Chan for kinda unclear reasons, and then Yoo Chan has to rebuild his company. And then he does. And where back to where we started and Tae Joo and Yoo Chan are friends, and Next In is back up and running and…why did I have to watch this happen? Why did this show make me sit through 16 hours to get right back to where we started? Sure, Yoo Chan is less of an asshole, but he’s still kind of an asshole. Not to mention his dramatic personality change happens in the span of about two seconds in the second to last episode. It’s not like we got a slow, steady character development here. I haven’t seen the original Japanese drama but I heard that the Korean version changed up the plot and characters a bit to stop it from being a direct copy. I won’t lie- a part of me wishes they’d kept it a direct copy, because despite not having seen the original, I highly doubt the Korean version is an improvement. The plot just struggled along, not quite sure what it was trying to do, and not really giving satisfactory answers to any of its plot points.

Our 'hero' was even dating a different girl for 90% of the show 

The drama tended to hyper focus on a mystery or plot and then wrap it up really quickly with very minimal explanation. First it focused on the Boon Hong thing, then on Yoo Chan’s relationship with Tae Ra, then on Next In falling apart. There was very little to actually fill up the drama’s 16 episodes, and so I found myself rapidly losing interest in the story and its characters.

Sorry, but no

It always felt like the show was spinning its wheels and taking too long to solve issues, and there was just no spark that kept me engaged. The cherry on the top of this rather disappointing cake is that the acting was pretty crummy. The only comments I saw commending Suho’s acting (in fact it seemed the only people watching this drama) were from hardcore EXO-Ls. Which is fine- an idol you like is starring in a drama, fangirl away! Lord knows I do when it's an idol I adore. But from an unbiased perspective, Suho’s acting wasn’t good. It wasn’t insanely bad either, but it definitely didn’t make the drama any better. Suho has the charisma and the presence of an idol, but as a lead in a drama with rather shoddy plot, that just isn’t enough. His arrogant acting was believable enough, but I really struggled whenever Yoo Chan had to show either an extremely happy or extremely sad reaction, as Suho just didn’t have the ability to make the scenes feel authentic. He has great potential, but acting in a drama is very different to a music video or musical, and I really wish he’d taken on smaller roles to build his confidence and experience before jumping right into a leading role. To be honest Ha Yeon Soo wasn’t much better.

These leads suit a bubbly, frictionless rom-com. Not...whatever this drama was trying to be

For an actress I’m aware of and recognise, she actually has very little experience. She was good at being cute and charming, but similarly to Suho, any scene that required any real emotion from her felt very lacking. The chemistry between the two leads was pretty much non-existent, which probably contributed to how unentertaining I found he drama to be overall.

She was pushy and possessive, but at least she wasn't hateful

Kim Ye Won was probably the best actor in this series, but her character was rather dislikable and had little substance. However, unlike other actors, I found Kim Ye Won was at least able to add something a little bit of her own to her character that made Tae Ra feel more layered and detailed than other characters in the show. Oh Chang Suk wasn’t bad, and I liked hm when he was playing the mild-mannered good-guy, but his character had such a randomly sporadic shift in dynamic that I don’t think anyone could have acted it believably. The directing I found to be pretty okay, but not outstanding, but the problem here is definitely with the writing. The two writers behind this drama have almost no experience with dramas (as far as I’m aware), with one being involved mostly with movies, and one being pretty much new blood with no credentials. And it shows. There was not enough plot to span 16 episodes, and the characters were written as flat, 2-dimensional beings. The relationships between the characters felt awkward and insincere, and nothing in the events of the plot or the personalities of the characters felt remotely authentic.

An accurate depiction of chemistry levels

And while I’m sure the soundtrack had more than two songs on it, ‘Hard for Me’ and ‘Real Love’ felt like they were just playing on repeat, and I got real sick of them real fast. They weren’t even bad songs, they just played them way, way, way, way, waaaaaaay too often.

What Was Great:

Side Characters:

I don’t even mean the side characters here. I mean the side, side characters. As in the more or less nameless employees at Next In- particularly the three boys on the Big File team. Chan Soo was an absolute delight, 

Do Jin was pretty fun too

and I adore Lee Jae Jin in these cute and fun roles. He has an energy that grabs me right away and makes me want to know more about his character. Steve was also a character I found myself wanting to know more about, and these two characters provided most of the successful comedy in this show. Steve’s ‘confusion’ with using formal and informal speech was a hoot, and the guys on this small team just added a lot of warmth and heart into an otherwise dull workplace setting. I wish the writers had expanded their characters more, and that we’d seen more of what made these smaller characters tick. Lord knows we had the time for it. I mean, that romance for Chan Soo in the last episode came out of absolute nowhere- I would have adored seeing that relationship hinted at and then start to grow. Or maybe the writers would have just spoiled that too, and we should just be glad that these dynamic, smaller roles weren’t completely ruined.

What Wasn’t:

Basically All the Main Characters:

Pretty much everybody sucked. Yoo Chan was a self-absorbed, entitled asshat who cared about no one but himself. When he was kicked out from Next In so unceremoniously I think the writers were trying to evoke a sense of sadness and sympathy. But all I felt was a vicious sense of justice.

Looks like karma to me, buttwipe

I mean, this guy has been firing his employees out of the blue with no explanation for how long now? It only felt like he was getting what he deserved when he got fired himself. No sympathy from over here. And while Bo Ra was quite likeable at the start, she was on a steady downwards trajectory. Yoo Chan is in a fairly serious relationship with Tae Ra, but Bo Ra never sees that as a sign that he’s off limits.

You are literally the 'other woman'

I think the drama was trying to push that she and Yoo Chan had such a strong connection that no one could come between them, but honestly it just felt like she was being a bit of a b*tch and using her knowledge of Yoo Chan’s past experiences with her friend Boon Hong to steal him. Yeah, yeah, I know you can’t ‘steal’ a person, but Bo Ra’s decision to not acknowledge or respect Tae Ra’s relationship with Yoo Chan felt extremely conniving and really lowered my opinion of her. That’s classic b*tchy second-lead material right there, only this time it’s in our lead. Not cool. Tae Ra herself was actually not bad, but she was pretty annoying at times. Her insistence on trying to monopolise Yoo Chan felt competitive and controlling, and while I agree that Bo Ra was way out of line, Tae Ra could be pretty snitchy about it. I liked her way more when she was focused on trying to bring out the best in a young, undiscovered artist. Even if that whole plot line was a bit random. Her brother and Yoo Chan’s best friend, Tae Joo, was sweet and sensible and kind. Until he wasn’t.

Care factor- Zero

The drama really threw his character under the bus in order to create some ‘tension’. I say tension sarcastically as by the time Tae Joo’s character turned on Yoo Chan and revealed his harbouring animosity I’d already pretty much clocked out of this drama and was just watching it to get through it. By the end of the show I suppose we can say that they’re all better, kinder people. But their development was so sporadic and unbelievable that I didn’t buy these character changes. Nor did I care. And Mi So, the money-obsessed roommate that git knocked up was just materialistic and shallow from start to finish. Were we supposed to find her endearing? She wasn’t.

Ah yes, marriage, the obvious answer to a failing relationship

And for the love of all things good, I really wish dramas would stop touting marriage as the solution to accidental pregnancies. Yes, I’m aware that it’s more South Korea’s stance rather than a particular show, but when two people who fight a lot get married for the sake of a baby it’s just a divorce waiting to happen. And a messy one too.

Unoriginal:

Wealthy man is a rude jerk until he meets a nice girl.

Childhood trauma does not give you the right to be  jerk to literally everyone

Seriously, how many dramas could I be describing with that synopsis. Probably slightly more than half. There was absolutely nothing original in this show. Nothing. Rich guy falls for poor girl- been done. Boss falls for employee- been done. Love-triangle- is done in like, every drama ever. Workplace conflict that no one really cares about- I can’t even tell you how many times it’s been done. It’s not that every drama needs to be completely ground-breaking, but there does need to be something that sets it apart from other shows. Unfortunately for ‘Rich Man’ pretty much every aspect of it I had seen in a drama I’d watched before. And done better too. It just made the show feel like a cheap knockoff. Or a drama that was designed by a teenage fangirl with no writing talent trying to live out her K-Drama dreams by mashing every romance show she’d ever seen into one big, awkward mess.

Recommend?

Never in a million years.

Evidently 2018 is not the year for rom-coms in K-Dramaland

Three Colour Fantasy

Three Colour Fantasy

6/10

Three Colour Fantasy

Genre:                               Episodes: 9                          Year: 2017

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

A drama trilogy consisting of three mini-series. ‘White’- Despite being a grim reaper tasked with escorting souls to the afterlife, Byul does everything in her power to save the life of her favourite singer, Woo Joo. ‘Green’- So In Sung has failed the exam to become a police officer 8 times. He applied for a high-paying part time job and gained superhero-like powers. ‘Gold’- Nan Hee has poor self esteem because she doesn’t think she is very pretty. She comes across a magical ring that makes her pretty and uses its power to pursue her ideal man.

Cast:

Ji Woo (Byul)

Suho (Woo Joo)

Yoon Shi Yoon (So In Sung)

Jo Soo Hyang (Wang So Ra)

Kim Seul Gi (Mo Nan Hee)

Ahn Hyo Shop (Park Se Gun)

 General Thoughts:

I wasn’t quite sure how to review this as they’re all different stories and don’t link together in any way, but I decided on doing them all together as they’re technically part of the same web-series.

Who doesn't like a bit of cutesy romance every now and then?

All the stories were pretty interesting and fun, and even if you didn’t love all of it, there were still parts of each story that you’re bound to enjoy. I’m still not sure if there was some greater theme between the three shows that I just missed completely or if young love was the only connection. Either way, I enjoyed all the stories for the cute 3 hour shows that they were. While all of stories had a lot of cute, ‘Star of the Universe’ had a much more serious tone than the other two making them seem extremely jokey and bright in comparison. ‘Star of the Universe’ really did seem like the odd one out of the bunch, as ‘Vivid Romance’ had a Kim Seul Gi cameo and I think I saw Kang Ki Young somewhere in ‘Queen of the Ring’. 

Kang Ki Young and Yoon Shi Yoon? This is a bromance I can get behind.

What Was Great:

Star of the Universe:

This was by far my favourite of the three. In a short web-drama what I’m really looking for is a sweet romance with lots of cute, and that’s what Part 1 gave us.

Suho is super dreamy

While I still don’t understand how the top star fell for the average stalker, once we got into the cuteness and the romance I was entertained and happy. I wouldn’t write home about either of the leads, but they gave acceptable enough performances for a short series. I remember thinking that I wanted to keep an eye out for how Suho’s acting was going, but then I went and got all distracted by his handsomeness. Whoops. I think it was okay. The general story was just so nice. It had a touch of sadness in it in that the heroine was already dead so we knew we were on borrowed time, but the romance between the two was so super sweet. I also adored the romance between the doctor and the emergency worker. It was just a nice little show about two kids falling in love, and it even had a bit of depth to it. Awesome.

Cast:

I was so on board this drama from the moment I heard the casting news. Yoon Shi Yoon? Yes. Kim Seul Gi? Double yes. I’m still slightly bummed that two of my favs didn’t actually act together (they were in different stories), but I was excited all the same. These two are just built for comedy, though they can both also carry emotion well.

Look at how adorable and tiny she is

Kim Seul Gi made me love her all over again in her segment, as she really nailed home that she is the queen of comedy right from episode 1. Can she have a lead role in a big drama now, please? The supporting actors were all pretty solid too, and made for a very well acted show.

What Wasn’t:

Direction of Story 2:

I would have adored this story had it not been for the small fact that the two leads basically used other people who loved them to get at each other.

I just felt so bad for the rebounds

I’m not usually a fan of rekindled romances (hello, you broke up for a reason), and it was just salt in the wound that these guys were dragging two innocent people into their mess and trampling all over their emotions. It was hard to get on board with any of the cute between the leading couple as Yoon Shi Yoon’s character is actually dating another girl for the majority of the series. Both the second girl and second guy were super cute and it was sad to watch their two little hearts get broken at the expense of someone else’s happiness. It was nice that the overall message was that In Sung was fine and able to be loved without his superpowers, but I really wished that they’d come to that conclusion just between the two of them.

Message of Story 3:

This story was almost perfect. It was all going swell until about halfway through when I realised that a pretty serious case of Second Male Lead Syndrome had snuck up on me.

And suddenly I realised I'd been in love with him all along. Shame the heroine didn't feel the same.

There was plenty of comedy to be had in the main male lead thinking that cute little Kim Seul Gi looked like a supermodel, but I was really hanging out for her character to get the love she deserved.

Kim Seul Gi is fabulous and if you don't agree you can get out of my face

And in my eyes, that love came from the guy who put the ring on and saw her exactly as she was and not some hot supermodel-like girl. Sure, we did get to that stage with the main guy at the end, but the hero kept saying stuff that made me believe that he never found her truly pretty. Like ‘you’re pretty in my eyes’. And his whole confidence booster for her was ‘show people that ugly apples have value too’. Like, back off bud she’s a perfectly fine apple, thank you very much. It started to grate on my nerves the way everyone kept calling Kim Seul Gi ugly. Sure, she’s not classically beautiful but that girl is hell adorable and a far way off ugly. It doubly bothered me because this show is bound to have some young viewers, and you’re telling a bunch of young girls who are short and cute and delightful that they aren’t physically appealing. And that’s not cool.

Recommend?

Web-dramas sort of have a different scale to the 16 and up episode dramas, in that you expect less from them. I totally recommend ‘Three Colour Fantasy’ as a cute time-waster series. The stories are nice and short (about three hours each) and have a fair amount of plot in them compared to other web-series I’ve seen. They’re all fun and entertaining in their own ways, and definitely better than most web-dramas out there. 

They're all pretty cute