My Mowgli Boy (Chinese Drama, New)
This one is adapted from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” and follows our two leads’ romance after our heroine accidentally brings our hero into the city after her brief venture into the woods.
This one looks pretty decent. My only complaint or compliment depending on which way you see it is that the main romance line felt a bit stale to me BUT the secondary romance pairings of our heroine’s two friends looked very promising. This one might just end up becoming one of those rare ones where I fast forward through the main romance to watch the secondary characters’ scenes.
The Great Show (Korean Drama)
A natural politician, our hero’s climb on the political ladder is abruptly cut short due to a scandal involving his estranged father. Horrified when an 18 year old girl shows up at his doorstep claiming that he is her long lost biological father, our hero could hardly believe his ears when the girl then expects him to take in herself AND her three younger siblings. Once the shock subsides, our hero eventually realizes a perfect opportunity to get back on the political ladder has presented itself. After all, what better way to whitewash his name then becoming a generous caretaker of four orphaned children.
Song Seung Heon!!! Okay, I am done with my fangirl squealing. I am a bit torn on how I feel about this one. Song Seung Heon’s character is a lot more likable and charming than I initially had expected from the synopsis. The hero’s romance line with our heroine who had a crush on him since their college days also looks good. However, the four kids, especially the 18 year old girl…came off a bit creepy. I am assuming the show was going for the mysterious and comedic effect but it ended up having a creepy vibe that really didn’t fit the show at all. Still, judging by synopsis I think the focus of the show will be how our hero eventually becomes a real family with the four kids so…the kids will probably stop being creepy soon? I hope?
Before We Get Married (Taiwanese Drama, Finished)
I finally got caught up on this one and finished it! I was fairly happy overall with the show. Judging by some of the comments online, I am inline with most viewers in wishing that 1. The secondary characters were a bit less clingy and irrational. (Although I will agree that perhaps in real life people are often that irrational and messy when it comes to love) 2. The hero’s character wasn’t so “tamed” in the last few episodes compared to the first half of the show. I am a bit torn on this #2 wish since the hero himself did more or less offer an explanation to his change. In the last episode (I think? or maybe the second to the last episode), the hero said that at first he was just trying to hook up with our heroine but of course he eventually fell in love with her, and everything he did after that was to pursue her.
There were also some grumblings online about why our heroine didn’t ride off into the sunset with our hero the moment she broke off with her boyfriend. While I would agree that “let’s get back together after I go find myself” is overused in romantic dramas, I actually thought it was appropriate in this instance. Our heroine had lived the last three years of her life blindly following what her boyfriend wanted, taking his dream as her own dream. Our heroine didn’t break up with her boyfriend to be with our hero, but instead, she was fighting to free herself from following someone’s plan AND re-learning what she herself wants out of life.
One other thing I wish the drama focused more on instead of giving most of the time to our clingy secondary characters is developing our hero and heroine’s background. We know almost next to nothing when it comes to our two leads’ families. Was our heroine so willing to follow her boyfriend’s dream because she craved a family of her own? What about our hero’s family? Oh, and whatever happened to our hero’s secretary, Bai Yan??
Some grumblings aside, I was still fairly happy with this show overall and was quite charmed by the cute ending.
Mountains and Oceans (Chinese Drama, New)
Another C-college innocent first love drama. The first episode was decent but probably not enough to make it onto my watch list. I did find one thing interesting though. The show switched your usual romantic heroine stereotypes around in that the female lead from a poor background who is beautiful and smart is actually NOT the heroine. Instead, it looks like this particular character is full of resentment against our heroine because her mother is a housekeeper for our heroine’s family. The heroine’s personality is also charming and vibrantly mischievous.
Hell Is Other People (Korean Drama, New)
A young writer, our hero moves into a very shabby dormitory after assuring himself that it will only be for a short time until his finances improve. Unfortunately for our hero who had up to this time thought his life was already pretty bad, he is about to find out that his neighbors in his new dwelling are about to make his life a living hell.
I don’t do well with creepy…and OCN is really good at it so this one is not for me.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com