Dramatards Triathlon 2015

       I didn't do as well as I would have liked last year but a new year is approaching and with it brings new goals. Here are my goals for 2015 and I plan to make a video review for every drama that I watch as well.

Dramas: 40

Movies: 70

Anime: 15

Dramatards Triathlon Blog Post: https://ddramatards.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/announcement-dramatards-triathlon-2015-challenge/

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 42nd Movie

4 Horror Tales: D-Day

Score: 6/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 41st Movie

4 Horror Tales: Hidden Floor

Score: 6/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 40th Movie

J.S.A. Joint Security Area

Score: 9/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 39th Movie

The Tower

Score: 8/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 38th Movie

Il Mare

Score: 8/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 37th Movie

Silk

Score: 7/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 36th Movie

Love Fight

Score: 6/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 35th Movie

Rampo Noir

Score: 5/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 34th Movie

Barking Dogs Never Bite

Score: 6/10

100 Asian Movies: 33rd Movie

Chocolate

Score: 8/10

100 Asian Movies: 32nd Movie

R-Point

Score: 7.5/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 31st Movie

Re-cycle

Score: 6.5/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 30th Movie

Ghost of Mae Nak

Score: 7/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 29th Movie

Body 19

Score: 5/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 28th Movie

Grotesque

Score: 2/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 27th Movie

The Road Home

Score: 9/10

Dramatards Triathlon: Dramas - 7/10

Country Princess

Score: 7.5/10

       Lee Eun Hee and Lee Keum Hee were born at the same house on the same day. Eun Hee's mother died during childbirth, leaving behind only a bag with watch and some money. Keum Hee's father decides to raise her as their own daughter despite his wife's protests. Eun Hee and Keum Hee are raised as twin sisters, although  Eun Hee is often mistreated by Keum Hee's mother. One day Eun Hee's real grandfather shows up in search of his grandchild, but Keum Hee's mother sends her daughter instead. The girls then lead two very different lives, Eun Hee dealing with poverty and helping take care of her family while Keum Hee attends college and tries to earn her grandfather's respect. The girls run into each other years later and several revelations come to light.  

      Country Princess is an older drama from 2003 so the pacing is a bit slower and the skinship is kept to a minimum. I wanted to watch this drama because  of of a few of the actors, namely Bae Doo Na and Kang Dong Wan. Bae Doo Na's character Lee Eun Hee was interesting but more often than not became a bit grating on my nerves with her accent and slight stupidity. I found the acting to be good all around and the story line was good albeit nothing super original. 

      

Dramatards Triathlon: Dramas - 6/40

  Dok Ruk Rim Tang

Score: 7.5/10

     Jitree, a gold digger, seduces Anusorn's father which caused Anusorn and her mother to leave.  Anusorn  returns home years later after her father dies suddenly to discover that her father's new wife has sold the house and left her with nothing but Hungtu, her father's dog. Anusorn suspects that something isn't right about the situation and discovers that her father left behind another will somewhere in the house. Jitree and her lover hire men to kill Anusorn but she escapes by disguising herself as a man. She returns to her father's house and starts to work for the new owner, Pathavee, as a man named Ood. She and Hangtu try to find the will but Anusorn starts to fall for Pathavee along the way.

      My third Thai drama and a gender bender no less. This was extremely cheesy and the female lead cried way too much but I still liked it. The male lead was great and I liked most of the characters. Jitree and her lover were the worst part for me, their acting was horrid and their characters were way over the top.  My favorite character by far was Hangtu, not because the other roles were bad but because this dog was actually a main character. He had his own internal monologue like the dogs in the Homeward Bound and Look Who's Talking 3. He was incredibly intelligent and helped out Anusorn a lot, even saving her life a few times.

Dramatards Triathlon: Dramas - 5/40

Full House Thai

Score: 9/10

      Aom-am is a writer who lives with her older sister. Her sister panics when her bills start to pile up and she finds out that she is pregnant so she conspires with her boyfriend to sell the house. They send Aom-am to South Korea on vacation and sell the house while she is away. While in South Korea she meets two men, Guy and Mike. Guy is sweet and Mike is a complete jerk.  Upon arriving back in Thailand, she finds out that her house was sold to Mike. Mike has recently had his heart broken and begins a fake relationship with Aom-am to save face. The two agree on terms and enter into a fake marriage. What started out as a business relationship between the two becomes something more  as they actually start to fall for each other.

      I really loved the Korean version of Full House so I decided to give this a try. I had only watched the Thai drama Sawan Biang and I didn't have high hopes for this drama but it exceeded my expectations. While still a bit cheesy for my tastes, Full House Thai managed to be a quite pleasant experience. The leads were great and had amazing chemistry. There was a lot of humor and cute moments. It is different enough from the original version to make it worth watching both.

Dramatards Triathlon: Dramas - 4/40

Sawan Biang 

Score: 6/10

         Leela and Jate, her fiance get into a car accident with a wealthy man and his wife. Jate and the other man's wife die. The wealthy man, Kid, comes to visit Leela everyday as well as takes care of all her medical bills. He eventual falls for her and proposes. Leela accepts and moves with her family (her mother, brother,and sister) into Kid's mansion. Leela discovers that Kid's son is Kawee, a man she fell in love with when she younger but rejected her. Leela's younger sister Narin quckly becomes the target of Kawee's anger since she stands up to him, causing them to have an extremely volatile relationship.

      That is just the beginning of the extremely complicated and convoluted plot of this drama. Sawan Biang was the first Thailand drama or lakorn that I watched, it is very different from the other Asian dramas I'm used to.  I didn't really like this drama despite it being one of the most popular dramas in Thailand. I liked the female lead decently enough although I didn't always agree with her decisions. I loved the second male lead, Tom, he made the drama bearable for me and I will definitely check out his other work. I hated the male lead and he was the main reason that I didn't enjoy this drama. I have always said that if I was not invested in the main couple then I would be less likely to enjoy the drama and this rings true concerning Sawan Biang. Kawee was mean, insensitive, immature and extremely emotionally and physically abusive. He does try to repent towards the end of the drama and is forgiven but for me, it was a little too late. Considering all Kawee does to her, it would be far more believable that Narin violently murders him rather than ending up living happily ever after with him. 

Dramatards Triathlon: Dramas - 3/40

Bride of the Century

Score: 8/10

          Choi Kang Joo is the sole heir of the highly successful Taeyang Corporation. He is selfish, cold, and rude to everyone including his fiance Jang Ki Kyung. She gets fed up with his behavior and runs away, sending her mother and brother into a panic. They discover a girl who looks identical to Ki Kyung to stand in for her until she returns. Na Doo Rim accepts the job because her grandmother needs an expensive surgery. Although identical, the two girls are as different as night and day. While pretending to be Ki Kyung, Doo Rim and Kang Joo slowly begin to fall for each other. However, Kang Joo's family is cursed and the first bride of the first son is doomed to meet an early demise.

       I was not expecting a lot from this drama, I hadn't heard much about it and only watched it because my cousin likes Lee Hong Ki. I was extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed it despite it's cliched ridden plot. Lee Hong Ki was decent as Kang Joo, I was afraid that he wouldn't perform the role well because I associate him so closely with his character from You're Beautiful. I loved Yang Ji Sung in this, her performance of two completely different characters was great and my personal favorite part of the drama. I liked the humor and Hong Ki had great chemistry with Ji Sung. Sadly, the drama did start to drag around episode 12 and lost a lot of the fun that was present in earlier episodes. The constant noble idiocy became somewhat annoying and unnecessary, further dragging the plot. I also didn't care for the development of the main relationship, Kang Joo and Doo Rim go from having a growing attraction to one another and constantly fighting to undying love.I was also not happy with some character inconsistencies, mainly the antagonist. In one scene the bad guy is screaming and plotting revenge but then wants to stop later in the same episode-it doesn't make sense and was also a problem I had with Secret Love. Overall I still liked the drama and it is worth watching but prepared for cliches and pacing issues.

       

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 26th Movie

Horror Stories 2

Rating: 5/10

100 Asian Movies Challenge: 25th Movie

Horror Stories

Rating: 6.5/10

60 Day Asian Drama Challenge: Day 21

Your Least Favorite Asian Drama Actress?

                As I mentioned before, female roles in dramas tend to be the least well written  so it is hard to determine whether the actress or the character is to blame for a poor performance. I have seen actresses that I have hated in one role but love in another and in that case it is obviously the writing that is the culprit. 

Bae Suzy

          It is quite common for kpop stars to transition into acting roles and some are actually really talented (Park Yoo Chun, Yoon Eun Hye, etc). But truthfully most are not, which is the case here. I first watched Suzy in Dream High and I loved it-I enjoyed the story, music and characters. While Suzy's performance acting wise was by far the worst, it perfectly fit her character so it didn't detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the drama. I next watched her in Big, which wasn't a great drama but featured a decent performance by Gong Yoo. Suzy's character was basically identical to her Dream High performance except she didn't sing. I didn't dwell too much on it because the drama was already pretty flawed and she was just a supporting character. Suzy's performance in Gu Family Book is what drove home her lack of acting skills and placed her far above any other Asian drama actress that I disliked. Suzy was horribly miscast in GFB, a fantasy/period drama that required much more of her than her previous teen dramas/roles where she could get away with being stiff and relatively emotionless. Suzy is a shinning example of popularity overshadowing talent. I am in no way saying she is untalented, she has a decent voice and I like her group Miss A. I am simplying stating that when a kpop star wants to transition into acting that it may be a good idea to actually take acting lessons first.

Overview of Korean/Asian Drama Subscription Sites

Popularity in Asian dramas is growing and many streaming sites are available to watch them on. I am going to briefly review each site, discussing the positive and negative aspects of each one. I am only going to be discussing the paid subscription sites but there are a lot of free Asian drama streaming and torrent sites.

Netflix

Monthly Price: $7.99

          Netflix is the primary reason why I got into Asian dramas. The first drama that I watched, Boys Over Flowers, was on Netflix and I then proceeded to watch most of the the ones that were available at the time. I eventually moved on to Hulu and other sites because Netflix didn't have a large selection. It is a good place to start since Netflix has a lot of the most popular dramas from the past six years including Boys Over Flowers, Secret Garden, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, My Princess, You're Beautiful, etc. I still use Netflix to watch movies (great selection of Foreign/Asian films) and American/British shows but I would look elsewhere if you really want a site mainly for Asian dramas.

Pros

Available on multiple devices

Many popular Korean dramas

Cons

Small selection of Korean dramas

Dramas are not available for long periods of time (they recently removed a large portion of dramas)

No other Asian dramas (Japanese, Taiwanese, etc)

netflix.com

Hulu Plus

Monthly Price: $7.99

        Hulu is a great site and has an enormous amount of Korean dramas, both new and old. I first used the site to watch Coffee Prince and Wild Romance, it was my main source for drama watching until I found some better ones. I would like Hulu much more if it wasn't for the commercials. I do not know of any other sites that you have to pay to use that forces you to watch commercials. In all honesty, I would solely use Hulu if there weren't commercials because of their massive kdrama options.

Pros

100+ Korean dramas

Nice selection of new and old dramas

Available on multiple devices

Cons

Lots of commercials

Small selection of Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese dramas

hulu.com

DramaFever

Monthly Price: $9.99

       Unlike the aforementioned options, Drama Fever is a really great streaming site that is exclusively Asian dramas, movies and reality shows. They have over 100 dramas available and they sub newer dramas fairly quickly. Like Hulu and Viki, you can still use the site without paying but there is a longer wait for unsubscribed customers to watch subs and there are also commercials. DF also features articles, videos, and contests which are really fun. 

Pros

Large selection of Kdramas

Decent selection of Chinese/Taiwanese

Available on multiple devices

Cons

Movies are listed as an episode instead of a movie

Poor selection of Japanese dramas

dramafever.com

Viki

Monthly Price: $3.99

             Viki is my favorite subscription streaming site. It has a lot of Asian dramas and moviesand also subs (adding English translations) new dramas within 24 hours. My favorite part of Viki is the drama commentary, usually added by subbers but now anybody can comment as well. It is a line of commentary at the top of the drama screen where people discuss or comment on actors/situations occurring in the drama. It is usually really funny and I will admit that it is  the only reason that I made it through some overly draggy dramas. I do have to occasionally turn it off, as was the case when I watched Reply 1994 and the commentary just consisted of people arguing/insulting the two male leads.  It is the cheapest subscription site although it was once free. The subbing is done by fans, subbers and segmenters do not have to pay for the site as well as exclusive access to certain features. You can use the site for free but you will have to watch some commercials. 

Pros

200+ Korean dramas

100+ Taiwanese dramas

300+ Chinese dramas

Extremely fast subbing of new dramas

Dramas from Philippines, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam, others

Large selection of new dramas and old dramas

Available on certain devices (Kindle, possibly Amazon Fire)

Cons

Doesn't always get the license for new and popular dramas

Poor selection of Japanese dramas

viki.com

Kdrama/Soompi

Monthly Price: $6.95

                 Crunchyroll.com is mainly an anime site but they also had a Korean drama section. I was going to discuss that site until I found out that they made a sister site completely dedicated to kdramas. Kdrama.net is still pretty new but I signed up for a 30 day trial subscription to test out the site. It has a large collection of Korean dramas and will probably add more if the site is successful. I found a few dramas on KD that aren't available on any other streaming sites, paid or free. It has a lot of older dramas and some newer ones. While it does have some popular staples (Boys Over Flowers, Sam Soon), it is missing a lot of the ones commonly found on other sites. It has since been taken over my Soompi.com so it is now SoompiTV.

Pros

150+ Korean dramas and growing

Has older and harder to find dramas

Available on multiple devices

Cons

No dramas from other countries

Currently lacking some of the more popular dramas

Dramas listed under names different from other sites which can be confusing

SoompiTV

There are a lot of options and the one you choose depends on your needs. Personally I would suggest Viki, Drama Fever, or SoompiTV as all three have a lot of content. Netflix is a good place to start and most people may already have an account. If you don't mind commercials, Hulu does have a nice selection.

*IMPORTANT* I am not affiliated with any of the aforementioned sites. I use/have used them either through paying a subscription or using a free trial. All opinions stated are mine and I tried to be as objective as possible.

60 Day Asian Drama Challenge: Day 20

Your Favorite Drama OST (Instrumental)?

       I find that historical dramas tend to have the best instrumental soundtracks. The Princess' Man has a beautiful soundtrack, both vocal and instrumental, that really compliments the romance, action, and drama. 

60 Day Asian Drama Challenge: Day 19

Your Favorite Drama Genre

          I love a lot of Asian drama genres(themes of life, friendship, mystery, suspense, action, melo, law, historical, family and you) but my favorite is romance. Romance is usually the focus of most Asian dramas, which can be a good or bad thing. I am a helpless romantic and Asian dramas fulfill that need perfectly. I have found that after watching so many Asian dramas/films, that my perception of romance is much different than it was before. Upon re-watching American tv shows/ films, I have found that I don't find them as romantic as I once did. Romance in Asian dramas is my ideal-love and physical intimacy doesn't just happen, it is important and has meaning. Relationships are developed slowly and there is build up to romantic exchanges.

60 Day Asian Drama Challenge: Day 18

Name A Drama You Dropped and Why?

        I don't drop dramas, I have a good number of dramas on hold but I will eventually finish them. I just have to finish dramas, even if they cause me physical pain. There are quite a few that I wanted to drop (Devil Beside You, Personal Taste, etc) but I feel like I can't properly rate or review something unless I finish it.

60 Day Asian Drama Challenge: Day 17

Favorite Drama Character?

Kim Joo Won

      After 2 years and 130+ dramas, Kim Joo Won remains my favorite drama character. Male leads in dramas are mostly pretty uniform regarding their personalities-rich, selfish, mean, cold, arrogant. Kim Joo Won fits this description perfectly but he somehow managed to still be a likable person. His character experienced amazing development over the course of the drama, making him all the more endearing. Joo Won may fit some of the male lead standards but his quirky personality and growth set him apart from the rest.

60 Day Asian Drama Challenge: Day 16

Your Favorite Actress?

Shin Min Ah

      I fell hard for Min Ah after watching her in My Girlfriend is a Gumiho and I have since watched all her dramas and films. She is beautiful as well as a fantastic actress. My favorite of her works are MGIAG, Arang and the Magistrate, The Beast and the Beauty, and My Mighty Princess.

Least Favorite Dramas

       I have created a list of dramas that I disliked and wouldn't recommend to anyone. This is just my opinion based on my preferences which are entirely subjective. I realize that many of the dramas on this list are extremely popular and well loved but unfortunately I didn't care for them.

Devil Beside You

Score: 4/10

        I don't hate Taiwanese dramas but I would say that they tend to be my least favorite of of the main five Asian countries whose dramas I watch. Rainie Yang is main culprit here, her performance caused me physical pain. I didn't find her cute or funny but rather extremely annoying. It took me over a year to finish this drama because I hated it so much. Mike He was fine and I liked some of the supporting characters but it was pure torture watching this and I have avoided all Rainie's dramas since.

Personal Taste

Score: 4/10

       Here is another drama I disliked due to an annoying female lead, are you seeing a trend here? Park Kae In was stupid , not in a cute way but in a mentally handicapped kind of way. I was surprised that she didn't need help crossing the street or picking out her own clothes (er, nevermind).

Delightful Girl, Choon Hyang

Score: 5/10

       Most of the dramas on this list had horrendously written female leads but Delightful Girl is unique in that it had a extremely stupid and unlikable male lead, Lee Mong Ryong. It is amazingly easy to find terrible female characters but males are another story. The second male lead was a psycho stalker so I ended up shipping Choon Hyang to stay single, another first for me. My favorite character in the drama was Mong Ryong's dad, if that tells you anything.

Lie to Me

Score: 5/10

      Yoon Eun Hye tends to make either good dramas (Coffee Prince, Missing You), or really bad dramas (Lie to Me, Taking Care of the Young Lady). This is one of those dramas that you see used in a lot of Asian drama mvs and on a lot of favorites list. I will readily admit that the kiss scenes are amazing and the chemistry is fantastic between the leads but that's about it. The story isn't great and starts to drag pretty early on. Also, the characters are highly inconsistent which is a huge pet peeve of mine.

K-Pop: The Ultimate Audition

Score: 5.5

       This drama wasn't bad, not amazing but not bad. I liked the story about an upcoming kpop group and the different characters were fun. I liked the leads and the acting wasn't bad, although the kiss scenes left a lot to be desired. The problem was the ending, or lack thereof. This drama suffered from poor ratings so it was cut down from 16 episodes to 14. I completely understand that they may not have had enough time to properly end everything but they could have made a much more satisfactory finale then what they ultimately ended up with. Instead of trying to tie up a few story lines and give us the concert that they had built up for the entire drama, they gave us a very lukewarm ending. No concert was shown, no plots were wrapped up, nothing. To add insult to injury, they also decided to add more useless dramatic filler than do anything productive. It was incredibly lazy and made my entire perspective of the drama turn negative.

Heirs

Score: 5.5/10

         Where do I even begin with this one? By far one of the worst dramas that was produced last year and I'm still trying to figure out how this went so horribly wrong. First and foremost, the writing was utterly and completely terrible-I have no idea how the same person that wrote Secret Garden wrote this travesty. Was she depressed? Was she high? Was she angry at the network or actors? The acting wasn't an issue here(except for every actor that was present in the American scenes) but the characters, similar to the story, weren't written well. Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye NEED to pick better and more varied roles, this drama is a prime example of how playing the same character over and over can become detrimental to one's career.

Playful Kiss

Score: 6/10

      Oh Ha Ni is one of the worst female leads that I have encountered thus far in dramaland. She's stupid, childish and probably should have been arrested for repeated and unlawful psycho stalking of Baek Seung Ju. She had no thoughts or interests outside of Seung Ju, her entire world revolved around him. Seung Ju wasn't much better, he treated her like crap even after they were married. I'm sorry but I found nothing cute or sweet about their entire relationship.

Twelve Men in a Year

Score: 6/10

       This drama had an interesting premise. a woman intends to sleep with a man each month representing a different zodiac sign in order to write about it for a magazine. But this premise gets dropped along the way and the story enters dragsville. And, as is a common thread in most of my disliked dramas, the female lead is horrible. Na Mi Roo is quite possibly one of the most annoying human beings on the planet, I have no earthly idea who thought her character would have even made a decent supporting role, much less a main lead. Her best friend Tanya is far more interesting and would have made a really fun lead, so of course she's just a secondary character. 

A Gentleman's Dignity

Score: 6/10

       Another popular drama that I didn't like, I promise it's not on purpose. Firstly I am not a fan of Kim Ha Neul at all, she is another actress that tends to play all her  characters the same and I found her more annoying than endearing in this one. Except Choi Yo On and Me Ah Ri, I didn't really like any of the other characters. The writing and story weren't bad but I just didn't find myself invested in most of the characters or their relationships.

Panda and Hedgehog

Score: 6/10

      This drama could have been great and out of all the others listed here, is one that I feel the most bad about including. It features one of the greatest bromances I have ever seen and a lot of great characters. Sadly, the Pan Da wasn't one of them. She started off as a typical stubborn female lead but around episode 5 her character did a 360 and became incredibly selfish and annoying. The story was also all over the place and started dragging big time by episode 11, only adding to my displeasure. Lee Dong Hae was great and deserved a better drama to showcase his talent. I also really loved Choi Jin Hyuk and Oh Yi Na, their characters were really funny and the highlight of the drama. Speaking of Yi Na as Won Yi, why are there so many wonderfully written secondary female lead characters? Why aren't female leads written like that? I would much prefer a quirky main lead than the numerous cookie cutter characters that we so often get stuck with.