Happy 2018! I had initially planned on finishing all of my reviews before summer but that didn’t quite happen as planned. I know I was long overdue. However, now that they are done, I didn’t want to leave you high and dry since so many dramas aired between summer and now. Before I say my final goodbye, here are some short reviews on those dramas I’ve completed since then or am currently watching.
[Review] Tunnel – 터널
FINDING LIGHT AT THE END
The search for an elusive serial killer takes Detective Park Kwang Ho (Choi Jin Hyuk) to a tunnel where he travels 30 years into the future. He meets Detective Kim Sun Jae (Yoon Hyun Min) who is a by-the-book detective and Criminal Psychologist Shin Jae Yi (Lee Yoo Young). Not only is Kwang Ho forced to adjust to the technological and cultural changes of present-day Korea but he must figure out how to work with Sun Jae to capture this killer so that Kwang Ho can make it back to his wife.
[Review] Chicago Typewriter – 시카고 타자기
LEST WE FORGET
While on a book tour in Chicago, bestselling crime novelist Han Se Joo (Yoo Ah In) comes across an antique typewriter. Initially, the typewriter’s owner refuses to sell it to Se Joo when he expresses interest in it but upon discovering that it is possessed, the owner becomes spooked and sends it to Se Joo as a gift instead.
Jeon Seol (Im Soo Jung) is a book lover who holds a variety of occupations, including being a veterinarian and delivery person. She is Se Joo’s number one fan until she delivers the package containing the typewriter and meets him in person and uncovers his prickly persona. When Se Joo receives the typewriter, he becomes afflicted with writer’s block so much so that his agent recommends a ghostwriter. Yoo Jin Oh (Go Kyung Pyo) is a talented ghostwriter whose only conditions is that he will writer Se Joo’s next book only if they do not have to cross paths directly.
As the new book is being written, Se Joo begins having dreams about a group of independence fighters, which look like himself and Seol, in the Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1930’s. He comes to realize that the people in his dreams have a connection with the present day.
[Review] Strong Woman, Do Bong Soon – 힘쎈여자 도봉순
“NASTY WOMAN,” DO BONG SOON
Do Bong Soon (Park Bo Young) was born with superhuman strength. Her strength is a hereditary gene that’s passed down to the women in her family. However, her strength can only be used for good or she risks losing it if it is used to hurt innocent people. Despite that, she wants to be dainty and elegant so that she can be the ideal type for her crush, her childhood friend and detective, In Guk Doo (Ji Soo).
Through a chance encounter, she meets Ahn Min Hyuk (Park Hyung Shik), a chaebol and the CEO of a gaming company, and gets the job as his bodyguard. Unlike Guk Doo, Min Hyuk has no regard for rules and has a natural dislike for policemen. One day, a series or kidnapping cases breakout in Bong Soon’s neighborhood. She becomes determined to catch the culprit who is targeting women in Dobongdong area. With Min Hyuk’s help, Bong Soon trains and learns to manage her superhuman strength and the two find their relationships developing into something more.
[Review] Tomorrow With You – 내일 그대와
THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE
Yoo So Joon (Lee Je Hoon), a CEO at a real estate company, gains the ability to travel through time via the subway after surviving a freak accident on the subway, which takes the lives of his parents. He has a chance encounter with Song Ma Rin (Shin Min Ah), a photographer and former child actor, in which he saves her life. They come to realize that they met previously on the day of the subway accident and that it was his encounter with Ma Rin that saved his life. However, during one trip to the future, he foresees a bleak future so he decides to marry Ma Rin in order to avoid that fate.
[Review] Saimdang, Light’s Diary – 사임당, 빛의 일기
GIVING IT A FEMININE TOUCH
Seo Ji Yoon (Lee Young Ae) is a Korean art history lecturer at Hankuk University about to finish up her PhD, advised by the university’s renowned professor, Min Jung Hak (Choi Jong Hwan). Her path to obtaining tenure is ruined when she publicly expresses doubt about recently discovered painting, Geumgangsando, and its authenticity. Outraged, he moves to sabotage her reputation and career.
While in Italy, she happens to stumble on an old diary written by a Joseon aristocrat, Lee Gyum (Song Seung Hun), which leads her to a portrait of Shin Saimdang (also played by Lee Young Ae). Feeling an immediate connection to the historical figure, Ji Yoon decides to use the diary, which mentions the Geumgangsando, and the portrait to clear her name and tarnished reputation. Through her journey, she rediscovers the extraordinary life of Shin Saimdang, an artist, writer, calligrapher, poet and mother to an influential Joseon scholar dubbing her the moniker, Wise Mother.
[Review] Introverted Boss – 내성적인 보스
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Eun Hwan Ki (Yeon Woo Jin) is the CEO of a public relations company, except that he is extremely introverted. Despite that he’s incredibly warmhearted, his employees fear him as he is often misunderstood and difficult to get close to. On the other hand, Chae Ro Woon (Park Hye Soo) is energetic and outgoing. She decides to give up her career in acting to work at the PR company but has other motives for working there. Her older sister had previously worked as Hwan Ki’s assistant and mysteriously committed suicide and Ro Woon has never come to terms with why her sister decided to take her own life but believes that Hwan Ki was somehow involved.
[Review] Voice – 보이스
I CAN HEAR YOUR VOICE
Detective Moo Jin Hyuk’s (Jang Hyuk) life is changed forever on the night his wife is brutally murdered by a vicious serial killer. Kang Kwon Joo (Lee Ha Na) is a call center policewoman with the innate ability to hear sounds that no one else can pick up on.
She takes the call on that fateful night and in the process of investigating the scene, the killer also takes the life of Kwon Joo’s father, a cop on the beat. Later, she testifies that the man who is put on trial is not the killer due to the strange noise she heard on the line that night, which angers Jin Hyuk. Much later, she returns to the same precinct to create the Golden Time team, bringing together the call center and detectives in order solve crimes within a certain timeframe in order to save victims’ lives. Despite initially rebuffing Kwon Joo’s offer, Jin Hyuk begins to accept the reality of her ability. Together, they work to find the serial killer that has taken the lives of their loved ones.
[Review] Missing Nine – 미씽나인
RELOCATING HUMANITY
Legend Entertainment’s staff members and artist board a private plane to perform at an overseas. The plane ends up crashing and nine of its passengers are stranded on a deserted island. The passengers include Seo Joon Oh (Jung Kyung Ho), Ra Bong Hee (Baek Jin Hee), Jung Ki Joon (Oh Jung Se), Choi Tae Ho (Choi Tae Joon), Ha Ji Ah (Lee Sun Bin), Lee Yul (EXO’s Park Chan Yeol), Yoon So Hee (Ryu Won), Tae Ho Hang (Tae Hang Ho) and Legend Entertainment’s President Hwang Jae Gook (Kim Sang Ho).
Four months later, Bong Hee finds herself washed ashore in China with no memory of how she got there or what occurred on the island between the crash and her rescue. A special investigative committee is commissioned to find out what happened to her fellow passengers and whether anyone else has survived but it is unclear if the committee has ulterior motives for looking into the crash.
[Review] Hwarang: The Beginning – 화랑: 더 비기닝
WEARING OUT THE FLOWER BOYS’ SPIRIT
After the death of the previous king, Queen Ji Soo (Kim Ji Soo) has been ruling the Silla Kingdom as regent in place of her young son, who she’s kept tucked away from enemies and assassins who are eager to seize power for themselves. When Kim Sam Maek Jong (Park Hyung Shik) comes of age, he has grown weary of waiting for his mother to cede the regency. In order to solidify their power, Queen Ji So creates an elite force made up of the sons of the noble families of Silla to cut across the existing power factions and bind their loyalties to the throne. Despite Queen Ji So’s objections, Sam Maek Jong secretly enlists as a member as well as Moo Myung (Park Seo Joon), a commoner with a birth secret that even he’s not aware of.
Musings of a Chunkeemonkeeato 