Kdrama Review: Reply1994

Drama: Reply 1994 (on Netflix)

Genre: Romantic comedy, found family saga
Starring: Go Ara, Jung Woo, Yoo Yeon Seok, Son Ho Joon, Baro
Rating:  ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤


This is the second in the Reply series. Though these dramas aren't really connected, so it's not quite correct to call them a series. The characters are completely separate, though it was a blast when the characters from Reply 1997 (the one I previously watched) and this one crossed paths! I thought I would dying laughing!

This one centers around a boarding house for students in the middle of Seoul. It starts out in 1994, but goes through 2002, so we get to see several Korean historical things happen, as well as much technological development. (Beepers/pagers are a huge thing in this drama but by the time it ends, everyone has cell phones!)

The boarding house is run by the mom and dad... along with their daughter and sort of adopted son. There is three other boys who live there, and one other girl. And then the cousin of one of the boys who hangs out and sleeps over often.

The drama is basically about their lives as they grow up from freshman college kids, to adults, getting married and having careers. It's all about the character development of these characters and we as viewers become totally immersed in their lives and invested in having them succeed. I feel like I've just acquired a while pile of friends that feel totally real to me. It's awesome how that works.

Some things that you'll learn about while watching this drama:

• the rise and fall of Seo Taeji and Boys (the group that started the kpop craze)
• the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997
• the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in 1995
• progress of cell phones
• Korean baseball and basketball history
• Korea in the World Cup game in 2002

Anyway. I found that fun. 

But mostly I just enjoyed the characters and their interactions and their love for each other, and all their craziness and idiosyncrasies. So good.

There were bits that made me crazy though. But... oh, well.

And I must say that I was heart broken over the second male lead syndrome in this one. Similar to Reply 1997, the characters are together in the present day (2013) celebrating a housewarming for one of the couples. They are watching the wedding video of that couple (which takes place in 2002) but we don't know who the girl ended up marrying until the final episode. I pretty much know who it would be, but I was rooting for the other guy like crazy. I think it's probably because his personality fits my own better...like I think the guy that gets the girl would drive me so crazy... so putting myself into the drama (as we always do) I really fell for the other guy. Sigh. 

And I hear the last Reply drama (1988) is even worse! I'm going to have to take a Reply break and watch a few other things first I think.

 I can't find an English subbed trailer, but here's the main song sung by most of the main guys! I had no idea they sang this song! The one guy who I knew was an idol (Baro) isn't even in this! LOL! His group sings a different song for the drama I guess. Anyway, I loved that I found this video:

I looked up the B1A4 song and have to share it too. Baro, who was in the drama, is the rapper in the baseball cap. Gah, he was so adorable in this drama!




And here's Seo Taeji and Boys with the song from this drama. The guys we have to thank for kpop becoming a thing!

Kdrama Review: I'll Go To You When the Weather is Nice

Drama: I'll Go To You When the Weather is Nice (or When The Weather is Fine)
Genre: melodrama
Starring: Park Min Young, Seo Kang Joon, Lee Jae Wook
Rating:  ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

I'm kind of scared to review this one because I loved it too much and won't do it justice. Pretty sure I won't find the words to describe what this drama is like.

Some words that come to mind: quiet, calm, soothing, simple, romantic, beautiful, and very very warm-hearted.

That's not to say it didn't have some disturbing moments. Because it did. Some very rough episodes. And yet, it still maintained that overlying feel of calm and soothing-ness.

It's about a girl who returns one winter to the small town she lived in for awhile during high school to live with her aunt. She is immediately attracted to the guy who she sort of knew in high school who now runs the tiny quaint bookstore. He remembers her instantly because he has liked her from the beginning.

They "talk"... that is to say, they communicate and bond with very little talking, but with all the glances and looks and actions that speak louder than words. So much acting in this drama without dialogue! I love it! She ends up working for him in the store. She joins the eclectic book club that meets there once a week made up of people of all ages from the town. And she falls for him, because who wouldn't? He's quiet, thoughtful, bookish, generous, compassionate, beautiful and... all the good things.

Except for the fact that now and then he runs from his demons by hiding out in a cabin he has in the mountains.

Yes, he has a back story. It's sad and based mostly on loneliness. Though he ended up with a beautiful life filled with love. And is actually extremely stable and steadfast thanks to that.

And yes, she has a back story. And it's mostly about what happened with her mom, her aunt, and her dad. It's tragic and disturbing and hard to watch.

It's quite the serious and slow paced drama. A beautiful slow burn romance. And so many funny parts too thanks to the awkwardness of our main dude and also many of the side characters.  They are all so cute. His friend has a love story blossom in this drama too that I just loved. And his sister, is an absolute joy, so feisty and spunky!

The title is very symbolic as this drama is bottom line about finding warmth in a cold world. There is a line at one point toward the end that goes something like... your hand is cold, and mind is cold, but when they touch, we both become warm. And one time when our girl is so sad and hugging our guy, she says "It must be nice to be you...to be so warm all the time." Gah!! But yes, the underlying theme...warmth.

Our characters having too much fun behind the scenes!

The music is a beautiful acoustic background... usually one line of a cello, or guitar or piano. Simple and beautiful. I want to find it so bad, but am only succeeding in find the OSTs ( singing bits.) Anyway. Such pretty quiet music to go with our pretty quiet characters!

Another favorite bit of this drama is that it ends with us being privy to his private blog posts that he writes every day. And we get to see what he's REALLY thinking, since he has a hard time expressing himself during the actual events of the drama. It's the best!

Because of the slow quiet nature of this drama, some might find it boring. But during these hard days (we actually started this drama on Earthquake Day, because we needed soothing so bad!) it was just the thing for me. I looked forward to it every week so much! I'm really going to miss it now that it's over! Sigh.  It'll definitely be one of my favorites of this year. Maybe I'll just start over and watch it all again...

Here's a tiny trailer:




And a song with the clips:

Coronavirus Week Six: April 20 to 26, 2020

A great visual for pretty much what every day is like around here.

Well. It's kinda crazy that for the first two weeks of this, so much was happening. And now. There is absolutely nothing to report.

I haven't been anywhere since the walk we took last week on Sunday. We didn't do groceries this week since we got all stocked up last week. (We did get take out a couple of times though.)  I have not left the house for a week. Not sure a walk out and about will happen today either. We do get some sunshine (if it happens) on our deck now and then. But it's actually been cold many days this week, which is frustrating.

So what have I done? Good question, yeah?

We hosted an online kpop party on Friday which was quite successful and very fun. Today we were supposed to be going to LA for a concert for one of our very most favorite bands... ATEEZ, so tonight we are hosting another watch party to pretend like we are there and seeing them live. It's not going to work, and it's going to be sad, but at least it will be a fun sort of sad.

Anyway, I wish I'd figured out how to do watch parties sooner. It worked well and we'll probably do more.

I finished a book this week. And started another. Yesterday was the readathon that I used to live for, but did I read one page yesterday? Nope, not one.

It's weird because the days fly by so fast and I feel like I truly get nothing done on any of the projects I could work on. Watch the quarantine end one day and I'll be like... wait... I WASN'T READY!

We filmed and edited more for the channel this week. We have found a sweet Filipino boy band to love now. They are getting a lot of attention and are adorable, so we have been hyping them up a bit and having fun getting interaction with their fandom.

SB19.... look them up!

And as always, the drama watching every night. One ended this week. Which means we might start another new one this week.

Toto finished schooling stuff, so she has been cleaning and organizing all the stuff in her room. That's been quite the project too. We have big bag for the thrift store. Can things be dropped off there these days? I don't even know.

I know a lot of states have extended the stay at home thing through May, but I haven't heard yet what's happening here. I have heard nothing about the library opening up again, with the possibility of me going back to work. I will be surprised if that happens and expect it to be until the end of May too. Hopefully we'll know for sure what's going on soon.

In the meantime, we stay home. We work on the computer. We figure out food. We watch dramas. We talk to online friends. We read a little. And sleep a lot. Life goes on.

Book Review: I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn

Book: I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn
Genre: YA romance
Rating: ★ ★ ★

This is a cute story about a Japanese American girl who goes to Japan to visit her Japanese grandparents that she hasn't known at all during her life, and in so doing hopes to "find herself" and figure out once and for all what she is supposed to do with her life.

Her mom moved from Japan to America for college and never went back. This has caused a riff with her and her parents (our girl's grandparents) and they haven't really had a relationship since. So when our girl (let's call her Kimi since that's her name) goes, she doesn't know at all what to expect, but it turns out that she bonded perfectly with her grandparents and they truly were able to help her figure things out.

The problem is her mom wants her to be an artist but she really enjoys designing clothes. So it's been a struggle. But what do you know, she finds out her grandma is also into sewing!

And of course when she gets to Japan, there's a cute boy (you know it, since the place is FILLED with cute boys!) and they have an adorable relationship, though it's fast because she only has two weeks. Sigh. So fast.

Anyway. I enjoyed the cuteness. The girl, Kimi, was really quite whiny though and it annoyed me that she knew what she wanted to do with her life but just wouldn't fess up to it until we had all this stuff with the guy and her grandparents. Though since that's the story, it had to be!

This book was especially fun for me since many of the places I visited last year were mentioned, including Nara Park with all the deer, and the huge Buddha also in Nara, and the hole in the pillar that everyone climbs through. Also, many places in Kyoto. Gah, I want to go back again! Such a beautiful place!

The romance was cute and I was able to picture the cute boy with the black shaggy hair and dimple quite easily since I "know" boys like this... lol! Yep, this was how I pictured him:

Yuta from NCT 127 and yes he's Japanese. :)
He just needs a dimple and he's be a perfect Akira from this book.

This was the second book we've read for the newly formed Asian Stories online book group. Can't wait to see what's next!

Coronavirus Week Five: April 13 to 19, 2020

And so it goes.

We had some "adventures" this week.

Picked up groceries on Wednesday, and then actually went IN to Costco on Friday. Donned the homemade bandanna mask and braved the germs. Everything seemed fairly normal out there in the world. Costco was limiting the amount of people in the store, but we went at a good time and got right in. The worst part was trying to breathe and see. That mask was not fun. But I do feel all stocked up again for the time being. We'll see how long that lasts.

And then book club was on Thursday. We had 6 or 7 people Zoom in for that. It went well. Planning that next month we'll be doing the same thing. I wonder if we will in June too. Sigh.

We started a new amazing kdrama. It's on Netflix... The King: Eternal Monarch. Check it out! It's making a buzz! But anyway, that means three currently airing dramas now and one old one. They are keeping me going and we look forward to the days when new episodes drop.

We only managed to get out once for a walk, on Sunday. This needs to happen more often I think. Walks I mean. If only it would warm up just a touch. Like... only a touch.

The dieting thing is getting to me. Much depression surrounding that whole endeavor. I having been pondering the whole mental health vs. physical health thing. For me at least, my mental health is taking a hit in order to supposedly get healthy physically. And I'm still not convinced that "getting healthy" is actually happening. A lot of weight came off fast at first, but it has totally stopped now... so... what's happening with me? I have no idea. And in the meantime I am stressing about food constantly, and am almost always hungry. I wish so bad I could bake my way through this quarantine like so many others... how happy that would make me! AHH!!

This week is also sad because we had events we were really looking forward to. Sigh. So instead we are going to create some online watch parties, and I hope they turn out or else I'll just get more depressed!

So... yeah. Basically fighting sadness is a lot of what's been going on this week. How about you all?

Book Club Picks 2020-2021

Here's what the book club has voted to read for our upcoming schedule staring in June and going through May of next year.

Let us know if what Liane Moriarty book you think we should add to the line up! We've already read What Alice Forgot, and Big Little Lies. Which one do we need to read next???

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Spinning Silver by Noami Novik

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

a book by Liane Moriarty yet to be determined

It's quite the list of different things, don't you think? I love it when that happens!

Book Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Book: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Genre: YA Fantasy 
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

This is this month's book club pick, which we will be discussing tonight through Zoom! Woot. It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

It's a very intense fantasy about people with magic vs. people without. The people without happen to be the rulers of the kingdom and have suppressed and killed all those who have magic. But now, it appears that the children of these magic holders can bring magic back.

So we end up with a couple of sibling pairs, trying to first acquire the magical artifacts, then take them to the magic island before the solstice so the ritual can be performed and magic can be restored.

Of course they come across many many obstacles along the way. Very deadly ones. This is wow, a very violent story! Sometimes a bit over the top for me. But needless to say, those parts were very gripping and definitely had me engaged and turning pages!

The world building and magic system is quite cool. Some of it was a little.... magical.. for me. But still cool. I enjoyed our characters. I was hoping for a bit of romance thrown in, and was worried it wasn't going to actually happen, but then, there were a couple of chapters that was all about the romance. Nice. So I'm glad we had some of that thrown in amongst the crazy violence!

I know this starts another series. I don't know, I can't decide if I want to continue it or not. I need to be in a place where the intensity doesn't bother me as much. I need calmer quieter books right now and I keep reading not so calm books!