Running Man… Run Don't Walk

Need something to brighten up your day? Watch Runningman right now!!

Running Man is hands down my favorite korean variety show. Running Man is classified as an “urban action variety”. It was the first of it kind to have the members and guests complete mission on urban landmarks, as opposed to inside a studio or in the countryside, to win the race. 

When I am having a bad day, watching the members and guests put in 100% of their effort to betray, beguile, and work together, making jokes along the way, in order to complete the mission relaxes me. 

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The cast members started with Yoo Jae-suk, Ji Suk-jin, Kim Jong-kook, Haha, Lee Kwang-soo, Song Joong-ki, and Gary. It had a couple changes with the addition of Song Ji-hyo and Lizzy but now Lizzy and Song Joong-ki has left the show due to other obligations. Because this is a variety show and because of they way they film them, it feels very real-not like they are hiding behind a fake mask. As you watch the show, you get to know more and more about each member's personality and character like they are your best friend. 

Before watching the show,  I didn't know much about korean actors and actresses. Through the show, you will discover more korean entertainers and see your favorite celebrities' in a different light outside of their images when acting or when performing their song on music shows.

I think what makes runningman especially enticing is that you feel like you're right beside them, taking in all the action. When one member is being chased, the background music along with the movement of the video makes me feel the excitement and nervousness that the member is feeling- like I am the one being chased. 

Below are some of the crazy task they have to complete- bungee jumping, diving, jump roping, crossing a bridge within 10minutes

Even my sister who doesn't watch asian entertainment said she would actually like to watch running man. That's why I definitely recommend watching Runningman!!!

So far they already have ~190 something episode. It looks like a lot but you would get addicted and can't stop watching. I would start watching from episode 1 because their friendship, character and skills change over time. When this first started airing back in 2010, kwangsoo was a newbie and rarely talked. Now, you see him playing jokes on others and even attempting to rip off other people name tags.

Even if you think it's boring and that they like to inflict pain on each other at first, trust me continue watching. By episode 11-25 where they start the hide and seek race, this variety show should get your heart racing and you addicted.

P.S. For those who are tired of watching runningman and need some new excitement try episode 133. This episode amazed me. The ending had me squealing with delight. I definitely did not expect that ending. I have to say that the beginning of the episode was slow but trust me. Follow the story until the end and you will be amazed :)
 I'm not going to do a recap on it because I don't want to spoil it for you. If you're a recap type person, you can go to drama beans to read their recaps.

Join me on the adventure of korean entertainment.

Have fun watching!!!

Image courtesy of [suryasoo/DeviantArt.com]
Sites to watch running man in english subtitles. ( in order of preference)
youtube- may not have all episodes but are easily accessible from any device
dramacool- has full episodes beginning with ep 86
kshowonline-  should have all episodes
dramafever- has HD episodes but lots of ads

Master's Sun drama review

Master's Sun Drama Review

Synopsis:

This a story about Tae Gong Sil (Gong Hyo Jin), a woman who sees ghost after a car accident and her whole life is turned upside down.

 She is unable to sleep properly and despite her efforts to work, ghost popping up at unpredicted times causes her to lose her jobs and making her do favors for the ghost. She meets Joo Joong Won (So Ji Sub), a self-centered money loving CEO of mall enterprise Kingdom who doesn't believe in ghost.

 She found out accidentally that by touching Joo Joon Won, ghost disappears and she is able to be at peace without being frightened anymore.

No matter how much Joo Joong Won tells her to leave and abandons her, thinking that she is a crazy lady, she must latch onto him to ward off ghost and to get peace so she is able to sleep. Her first step is to get a job at the mall where she can always see Joo Joong Won and whenever she needs him, he is close by.

Review:
Warning: If you don't want any spoilers please do not read on. I will try to not reveal too much but since this is a review I must add in my comments

Bottom line: I liked this drama but I wasn't crazy over it. But its still a good drama so watch it.
I  read comments that people were complaining that So Ji Sub copied Cha Seung Won. At first I didn't pick it up, but I do see a resemblance: when So Ji Sub tells her to leave, his voice and hand motion is similar. I also noticed his voice has a different tone compared to when So Ji Sub acted in Ghost and thus people may think he is copying Cha Seung Won. I wonder if that is how Egotist people are portrayed. The similarities doesn't bother me that much mainly because the storyline was completely different and Gong Hyo Jin's character was also dramatically different than her character in Greatest Love. I also found out that this drama was also written by the Hong Sisters who also wrote Greatest Love which is the drama that Cha Seung Won and Gong Hyo Jin acted in so there may have been a certain way that the Hong sisters wanted the actors to act in?

If I had to compare rate the two dramas, I feel over heels for Greatest Love. So if you haven't watched Greatest Love yet watch this one first then Greatest Love. This drama is supposed to be a romantic comedy with horror. But it's not really a comedy. It the normal poor girl rich guy with a twist so I liked it and would recommend watching it. Gong Hyo Jin's acting is awesome she turns into whatever you want her to be- you'll see what I mean in the drama.

I almost forgot to mention the second female lead Kim Yoo Ri-I who plays Tae Yi Reong who is a top star that falls head over heels for Kang Woo and has an inferiority complex to Tae Gong Sil which she is always jealous of and tries to make herself seem better than her all the time.

Anyhow, I like this drama.  It has a bit of comedy and horror and definitely romance. I would definitely recommend it.

My favorite scene in this drama would  be episode 14 where Joo Joon Won asks his uncle about  who Gong Sil is and he describes her in a hilariously skewed way. Although what Gong Sil had said is exactly the same, the meaning is completely different when took out of context. The uncle didn't know Gong Sil was referring to break the vase because there is a ghost inside, he thought Gong Sil meant to break the vase as to break the marriage since the vase was sent as a gift for the marriage between Jo Joong Won and a hotel Heiress.

I mainly watched it for Seo in Guk because I was so mesmerized by him in Reply 1997 but in this drama he lost the attraction. In this drama they gave him a really cool role as Kang Woo: a good-looking fighter, good enough to be body guard of the blue house ( equivalent to white house in America) but he just wasn't guy next door yoo yoon jae who would do anything for  Sung Shi Won ( from reply 1997) and I am a sucker for roles like that.

I was trying to figure out why I don't like him as much and I think it could be due to his weight loss.
Below is a screen shot from when he is in reply 1997 compared to Master's Sun. I think that after losing  weight he looks less cute.

Another cutie in this drama is L and he plays the young Joo Joong Won- ah I can't get enough of him- too mesmerizing.

thanks for reading

That Winter the Wind Blows Ending Interpretation

This is my interpretation of the ending of the korean drama "That Winter the Wind Blows" played by Jo In Sung and Song Kye Kyo. I also want to clarify some misunderstandings. I felt like they rushed the ending and they left the ending open ended with many interpretations which I hate but it allows us to interpret it any way we want it to be.

First off, I am a happy ending type person so I will interpret the ending in that fashion.

A lot of people were confused why Jin Sung stabbed Oh soo. He stabbed him because President Kim had his family and threatened to kill them if he didn't kill Oh soo. We see that Jin Sung was about to stab Oh Soo a second time but couldn't and watched him die on top of the rooftop. Some say what was the point of not stabbing him a second time if he wasn't going to help him anyway. It is his brother. It was difficult to stab him to death but he couldn't let him go either so he was torn between these to conflicts and could only watch him die.

The major answer to the story is that both Oh Soo and Youngie lived. Some say that Oh Soo must have died because Hee Sun asked Jin Sung what flower they should bring to Oh Soo implying that he died and they are bringing flowers to visit the grave. But this is only to mislead the viewers because after at the restaurant we see flowers on the table which I would interpret that they are bringing flowers to visit Oh Soo at the restaurant. Some say that Jin Sung was sad because Oh Soo died but I think he's sad because he feel ashamed that he betrayed Oh Soo to save his family. Although they somehow escaped from president Kim and death, Jin Sung is still remorseful that he had chosen his family over Oh Soo. If Oh Soo had really died, how would Hee Sun be that happy when she is visiting his grave?

The real main clue why they aren't dead is because they show Youngie interacting with her fiance and manager Wang at the welfare center. Unless manager Wang and her fiance and everyone else at the welfare center is in heaven, Oh Soo and Youngie couldn't be dead.


Overall I loved every bit of this drama aside from the ending. It was very moving and I cried in every single episode. It was filmed beautifully with beautiful casts and stellar actors that played their character well. The music in this drama was also really good. I like A Winter Story by The One. Here's a live version of it click here. I would definitely recommend this drama to anyone who likes melodrama and korean dramas.





side note:


in episode 8 soo brings Youngie up to the top of snow covered mountains. There were lots of branches covered in snow and there is bell sounds all around. He explains the "bell sounds" comes from the wind blowing on the iced branches. I luved that part. It connects the bells sound that Youngie cherishes with the title of the drama. Curious to how the bell sound phenomenon works because I have never heard of it before, I decided to youtube it to see if there are instances in real life and this is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNR29ZUnPNg. Well in real life, that "bell sound" is nothing more than crackles and wind. Once again drama life is a lot prettier than real life.


any other confusions or thoughts please comment

Have fun watching dramas :)

btw my heart melts when I see Kim Bum's smile

Werewolf Boy Movie Review

Werewolf Boy Movie Review

It's a romantic/fantasy movie about a lonely girl Soon Yi (Park Bo Young) who moves into the countryside to treat her breathing problems. She comes across a half-human half-werewolf boy Cheol-soo (Song Joong Ki) and at first was repulsive of him but after taking care and learning to live with him, she ends up falling in love with him.

I need to warn you this is a lengthy pic heavy post. So If you don't want to read on, my final word is that this is a spectacular must watch romance, tear jerking movie.

found it at this site http://dede2pm.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-werewolf-boy-k-movie.html

now onto my recap
The movie starts in present time, a grandmother goes to visit her granddaughter in korea and sell her house. Upon seeing the house, the granddaughter says that it looks like a monster will pop out of the house. Grandmother agrees saying that's how it looked like back when she was young and we are taken back 47 years ago.

A man is tending to wolves but while unlocking the door he suffers a heart attack and dies.
A new family moves in to focus on treating the eldest daughter's breathing problem.
At night she hears something moving outside, so she goes out and check but ends up being tackled by a creature. In the morning while hanging up laundry, she and her mother sees a creature and it turns out to be a human, dirty and stinky. He looks to be hungry so they feed him potato and called the police.

 The police told the mother they couldn't do anything and that they would need to contact orphanage. They believed he was one of those children left behind during the war. At the orphanage, they needed many document and brushed the mother away telling her to wait for their call.

 Meanwhile the mother cleans him up and names him Cheol-soo.

Although he looks tidy, once he sees food, he rapidly grabs food and stuffs them into his mouth, leaving a mess all over the table. Seeing this, Soon Yi complains about him staying at their house and refuses to eat with him but her mother says to bear with it until the orphanage responds back.

While Soon Yi is organizing her packages, she sees a shadow hovering over her and thought Cheol-So was going to attack her but he was only helping her move the boxes.

Yoon Yeon Sook (father's business partner's son) who owns the house and has an affection for Soon Yi tries to molest her but Cheol-So protects her. Cheol-so grabs his arm, pushes him away and growls at him until he leaves the house.

Soon Yi starts to develop an affection for him and trains him to eat properly. Whenever Soon Yi says wait, he stops and waits patiently until Soon Yi's next words. Instead of writing suicidal thought in her journal, Soon Yi reads an encyclopedia of how to train a dog book every night. Soon Yi slowly teaches him how to brush teeth, fold clothes, and after following her commands he would lower his head for Soon Yi to pat him. We finally get to see our cute Soong Joon Ki's face when Soon Yi decides to cut his hair.

The first instance that we see Cheol-soo is different from humans when the family went out shopping. Construction workers accidentally drop a metal beam, and Cheol-soo shields the family, blocking the beam. Astonishingly he only had a few scratches and bruises, nothing major and  after taking him to see a oriental doctor who couldn't find anything unsual, the family just thought he was extremely strong. 

The children along with Soon Yi and Cheol-Soo plays well and get along well with each other.

  Of course Soon Yi and Cheol-soo develops affection for another and you see Cheol-soo admiring Soon Yi while she's playing the guitar.

This is the funniest part of the movie. When Soon Yi decides to dress Cheol-soo up in hanbok and draws on his face.

But then the rest of the family comes home so they hide behind the coat hangers but was soon discovered.

This is the sweetest moment. Soon Yi doesn't let Cheol-soo into her room but knowing that he sleeps directly outside her door, she pulls her bedspread closer to the door.

Nothing can ever go too smoothly. Snobby rich son Yoon Yeon Sook all drunk with his gang comes to the house in the middle of night and tries to forcefully take Soon Yi with him. In order to protect Soon Yi, Cheol Soo's innate nature takes over and transforms into a werewolf to fights off the gang.

Right when he was about to kill Yoon Yeon Sook, Soon Yi still shocked, cries out wait, which upon hearing this, Cheol Soo turns back into a human form and stops attacking.

  Yoon Yeon Sook tries to get Cheol Soo killed/ jailed but the police officers wouldn't believe him since he was the one trying to break into the house and was evidently drunk. Yoon Yeon Sook still locks Cheol-soo up in the garage since he owns the house.

This was another cute moment when he stands up inside the garage to watch Soon Yi but she tells him to sit down and you see him bobbing his head up and down.

Without other seeing, Soon Yi unlocks the door and takes him to the fields but she suddenly collapsed while running in the field. Cheol-soo carried her everywhere but there was no one to help, so he brings her inside the forest.

Upon discovering that both of them were missing Yoon Yeon Sook assert that he was a monster and was about to kill Cheol-sol. He brought professor that knew about the half human half werewolf 's existence and got the police to lock and monitor him. We find out that Cheol soo was an experiment, designed to be used to fight during the war.

 Right after her checkup, Soon Yi comes home and embraces him.

The professor didn't want to reveal that he was a monster, because he knew they would kill him if they knew he was a monster, so he hid that fact said he was normal and not dangerous. Cheol-soo sat in the room writing all day and since the police couldn't find anything abnormal about him, they decide to let him go.  Seeing that the investigation was going to end, Yoon Yeon Sook brings up that he had seen him eat Mr. Jeong's lambs before but nobody believes him. Soon Yi was unsure if Cheol-soo really killed the lambs went to ask him. Upon seeing her he stretched out his arm to pat her on the head but she moved away.

Later on at night Mr. Jeong secretly points out to Yoon Yeon Sook that if Cheol-sol had wanted to eat his lamb he would've jumped over the fence not break the fence. Also there are tire marks over the field  and the dead lamb didn't have wound but broken bones which indicates a car crashed in there. He told Yoon Yeon Sook to leave and stop accusing innocent people and to confess that Yoon Yeon Sook was the one who broke the fence or else he will reveal it. Yoon Yeon Sook then kills Mr. Jeong and plots to make it seems like Cheol-Soo killed him. He tells Cheol-soo that  Soon Yi doesn't like him. Mr. Jeong had stolen her guitar and if he could find the guitar, maybe Soon Yi would like him more. Cheol-soo ransacksthe house, breaking down doors to find the guitar, while Yoon Yeon Sook tells everybody that Cheol-Soo is attacking Mr. Jeong. The police then surrounds the house telling Cheol-soo to surrender. Cheol-soo holds up the picture of a guitar and Soon Yi understands the he is looking for guitar and tells him the guitar is not here and stop him from searching.

Yoon Yeon Sook senses that his plan was foiled and the police wasn't going to shoot Cheol-soo,  so he grabs a gun and attempt to shoot Cheol Soo. He tells Soon Yi to step aside or else he will shoot her also. When Yoon Shi didn't step aside  he punches and kicks her, seeing this Cheol-soo unable to hold his anger despite Yoon Shi telling him to wait, he transforms into a werewolf and kills Yoon Yeon Sook in front of everyone.

 With fresh blood still on his lips, Cheol Soo looks up and sees the frightened faces of the neighbors and police looking at him. Scared, he picks up Soon Yi and runs into the woods.

 Soon Yi tells Cheol-Soo she loves him no matter what he is and faints into his arms.

 Early next morning, she hears the police and neighbors looking for them. To protect Cheol-Soo she screams at him telling him to leave and that she doesn't love him and slaps his face. I bawled my eyes out during this part. This movie had me crying more than any other movie I have watched.

Cheol-soo stands there watching as Soon Yi walks away, telling him to not come any closer.

The police then questions where Cheol-Soo was but Soon Yi refuses to answer. The professor persuades the police that they should just leave this alone because it wouldn't serve anyone any good to make it into a big deal and the police agrees.

The police later tells Soon Yi that if she sees Cheol-Soo she should notify him but Soon Yi says she is leaving. Right before moving away, Soon Yi writes a letter and leaves it in the garage.

The story fast forward back to present time, the grandmother (Soon Yi) decides to take a walk into the garage. The garage, unlike before is covered with plants, but still looks habitable and I somewhat inviting.

 Inside she finds Cheol-Soo looking exactly how she left him. side note*** At first I thought she was dreaming because I thought Cheol-soo would grow old also.

He hands her the letter she left him which says "Wait for me. I'll come back for you." and gives her the guitar which was taped back together ( after being torn apart by Yoon Yeon Sook). He had been waiting for her all these years.

 Grandmother (Soon Yi) starts crying telling him she's really sorry- that she has married, worn clothes she wanted, eaten whatever she wanted. She says that she is now old and unlike before, but Cheol say no you are just the same. She tells him to not wait for her anymore. He has learned how to speak and reads her the book while she falls asleep.

Grandmother then leaves with her granddaughter the next morning, and tells the sales broker that she's not selling the house.

Cheol-Soo watches in the distance as she drives away.

  The end

I really like this movie. Marvelous movie filmed and acted well. Brings up lots of emotions. I wanted them to end up together but since Cheol-Soo doesn't grow old, one will have to die eventually so I guess the original movie has the best ending. He ends up lonely and they show him building a snowman by himself while the credits are rolling at the end. All-in-all a very good movie and I daresay: a must watch. If you like romance and tear jerking movie, this is the one for you.

Just found out there is an alternative ending. I wouldn't say it is alternative.. you see it in cheol-soo's perspective . Here's the link to alternative ending http://glue-bending.tumblr.com/post/44358318054/a-werewolf-boy-alternate-scene-no-subs-sorry

I don't really see a purpose in the alternative ending since it doesn't change the story.

thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the movie :)