If you are a fan of Signal you will really enjoy this one. I’m up to Ep 10 and can honestly say that each episode has been amazing!!
Shin Sung Rok does it again..He plays the arrogant creep very very well but at the same time he is able to be so vulnerable and your heart goes out to him when you see him in his agony..I love the way he goes from a short tempered, mean, arrogant man to an emotional, grieving shell shocked one as he deals with the kidnapping of his daughter and subsequent tragedy. I love the way he is able to stretch himself as an actor and he makes it work so well.
I’m a great fan of time-travel dramas and whether, as in Nine (our hero goes back 20 years) or the audience is taken back a mere month, makes no difference at all. I buy into it immediately even though I honestly have an issue in following the intricacies of the plot. One thing is consistent though… if you change the past you also change the future and never more than in this drama except our hero has a partner in crime to do it for him.
There are strong performances by all supporting cast as well..including our adorable little girl. Big thumbs UP — hopefully it will hold till the end..which I expect will contain a few holes like all these types of dramas do..but it really doesn’t impact on my enjoyment at all…
Don’t ask me why but I decided to check out this “older” drama one day and was interested enough to keep on watching!! I’d ignored it (obviously), watching a drama about adultery didn’t really appeal, but I do like the main actors. In case you’re not aware — it’s about two married people who connect through a tragedy and find their bond becoming stronger and stronger. It’s about betrayal..guilt..truth and friendship.
I absolutely enjoyed it..haha! Some might find this drama a bit plodding.. slow.. but for me it was just right. Given the sensitivity of the issue I wasn’t sure how they could possibly win the audience over..and I expected that the writers would have made it easy to pick sides..in fact it was but not in the way I expected.
Of course our main couple is absolutely too good to be true..but I enjoyed watching someone involved in this marital betrayal and didn’t expect them to actually feel so “pure”. Of course I have issues with some things..don’t we always? But I loved the fact that nothing was a given..that the characters stayed true to themselves on the whole..it was beautifully filmed as a real bonus and I loved the sound track as well..
So, it was kind of like that merry-go-round where you’re just itching to get on that rocking horse but then when you do, you enjoy the first few rounds and then you start getting dizzy and you just can’t wait for the ride to end!! Well, I will confess, I didn’t wait for the ride to end, I jumped off, LOL!
I needed to get away from the circus and back to sanity, but hey, I lasted for 30 episodes, so I didn’t abandon ship right away! I was reminded how irritating I find the OTT dramas and this one was endless. Too much screeching going on for my liking.
I don’t want to paint it entirely with a black brush however, I did enjoy the performance of Shin Sung Rok a lot, he took a crazy character and ran with him, all the way to touching your heartstrings at times, even though he was clearly the evil guy who needed punishment. Jang Nara was consistent in her portrayal and it’s familiar territory for her so no surprises there. I felt that Choi Jin Hyuk was badly treated, or should I say his character certainly was and it didn’t help the fact that, because they extended the drama, he had conflicts and that led to the problem. There was even a cute little girl who looked like she could have stepped out of the miniature Stepford Wives, a little creepy at times that’s for sure but hey, she did belong to a crazy family, so you know what they say about the apple not falling far from the tree!
This older drama is perfect for those who are missing their weekly dose of Shin Sung-rok! I watched this drama shortly after its original run and again recently and loved it all over again. I hope you will too.
Recently I had the good fortune to watch a drama that managed to be both touching and surprising. I’d chosen the series for two reasons – the lead actors I knew to be very talented and the writer had done excellent work in the past – but not without some trepidation. After all, it was no secret that the story featured a young girl who been infected with HIV as the result of a blood transfusion, so the concern was there that it would dissolve into a “disease of the week” teary melodrama. The series sat in a stack with others, waiting for that moment when I felt that I could face whatever the story offered. After all, sometimes you just feel like a good cry.
But the author, Lee Kyung Hee (이경희), had other plans. “Thank You” (고맙습니다), starring Jang Hyuk (장혁) as the troubled Dr. Min Gi Seo, Gong Hyo Jin (공효진) as the courageous and loving unwed mother Lee Young Shin, and the charming Seo Shin Ae (서신애) as her daughter Bom, charmed, delighted, and yes, made me cry, but never in a manipulative way. It was memorable as much for what it did not include as what it did. For example, the brash doctor is the son of the predictable chaebol head (his mother) but we are spared the cliché of a mother opposing a son’s interest in an unsuitable woman. (Unless, of course, we consider the reaction of Bom’s grandmother as her son learns that he is the father of an 8-year-old daughter and wants to make amends.) Instead we are treated to a series of small moments in which life in an island village unfolds, and how a grieving man comes to honor the promise to his dying lover and finds family, a meaningful life, and love.
The performances are outstanding in this drama. Gong Hyo Jin, with many memorable performances to her credit, including roles in “Ruler of Your Own World” and “Hello My Teacher“, inhabits the role of the prettiest girl in the village who succumbs to the charming boy she loves and pays the price, but ends up fiercely in love with her daughter and willing to make any sacrifice. You can’t take your eyes from her. Jang Hyuk, in his first series after his army duty, shows a maturity and sophistication in his acting, and as well an emotional connection. As his character Gi Seo comes to find his place in the community and a home you see this peacefulness wash over him, especially when Gi Seo picks up Bom, to protect her, to calm her, or to play.
The supporting characters also contribute to the strength of the story, particularly Shin Goo (신구) as Mr. Lee, Young Shin’s senile grandfather and Shin Sung Rok (신성록) as Choi Suk Hyun, Bom’s father. However, to fully describe what this drama does so well would be to spoil it for you. It is highly recommended.
Mainly because of Jang Nara… I had no idea what this was all about except that it was about a mythical royal family (much like Goong). The 50 episodes gave me pause but they are just whizzing by since they are shorter. So far it’s been lots of fun. It’s zany… silly… evil… crazy…nothing to take too seriously kind of drama, and I guess that’s just what I’m in the mood for right now. lol!
The one I’m really impressed with so far is Shin Sung-rok. He’s nailing it as the Emperor with evil intentions who is forced to marry the naive commoner Sunny in order to save his “real” love. Jang Nara is impossibly naive and innocent and trusting and optomistic, a real Pollyana. Who knows how long this will last? There are alot of knives in the palace…
It’s nice to see Choi Jin Hyuk again – it’s been awhile. So far his character hasn’t been given that much to do except look solemn and handsome (easy peasy!!)
I might be changing my tune as time goes on but for now thumbs up for a bit of fluffy time – it had better not go dark on me…
For a drama that I’d seen before, I got wrapped up once again in the story and the acting. It was particularly gratifying to see that it held up to a second screening, because frankly some do not, but should I really have been surprised with Gong Hyo-jin and Jang Hyuk in it? In fact, I got so involved once again that I started staying up late to watch “just one more (and more)” episode!
One of the things that I appreciate once again was how Jang Hyuk’s angry and bitter (and often downright mean and rude) Dr. Min Ki-seo changed and opened up his heart. Watching the expression on his face as he cradles a baby he’s just treated at the clinic, or picks up Bom to comfort her when she’s had her feelings hurt, or protects her from the ignorant villagers afraid of AIDS is a beautiful, beautiful thing. He is exceptionally good with children – I don’t know why he doesn’t try a drama where he’s a family man, perhaps taking care of his kids… a widower, maybe? The way his face just goes from burning with resentment to calm and contented as he listens to Gong Hyo-jin singing her daughter to sleep is perfect. I also loved the final episodes, in which he shows how much this little family has become his refuge by doing things like shaving and bathing the senile grandfather.
Gong Hyo-jin is, of course, the little heartbreaker we know her to be – bravely trying to create as normal a life as she can for her daughter and grandfather in that narrow minded little community. When Ki-seo first lets her know he’s interested in her, she makes it so clear that Shin-young cannot even fathom what this can mean. How hurt she was by her betrayal – she’s willing to run away rather than try and work things out. I would want a thousand answers about why he spent so much time at her house and didn’t tell her about his dead girlfriend’s mission, and I’d want to listen to his answers if I loved him (as she thinks she might). But I am not 26 years old, the mother of a 7 year old who is HIV positive, I didn’t get pregnant when the boy I loved all my life made love to me for a bet (ostensibly), and I didn’t live 8 years being gossiped about as a result after said boy doesn’t even have the courage to stick around to see if there are consequences AND appears to have known about it but conveniently put it out of his mind for those 8 years. Yeah, maybe she has a right to be leery.
Shin Sung-rok’s character, btw, was someone I felt sorry for (a little bit) on the first viewing, but I’m not so sure I did on the second time around. Yes, he loved her, but in order to make a point to an absent father and pushy mother, he completely forgets about his love for the girl (and lets his decent fiancée walk away too). When he first almost runs over Bom and is shocked to see her it’s as if he’s forgotten all about his night with Shin-young. When he asks Ki-seo to step aside because it’s taken him so long to come back to Shin-young and Bom, well let’s just say that I cheered when Ki-seo tells him “Shiro.” (I won’t.)
And of course, I can’t forget the little actress who plays Bom – Seo Shin-ae was so cute and heartbreaking in this – spot on. And man, could she cry like the world was ending! There was one scene where she was crying and I swear it made Gong Hyo-jin start crying too. The scene in the bath with her grandmother was just wonderful; one of many wonderful scenes.
What was your favorite scene? There are a lot to choose from! I was really happy to watch this one again.
And not just him – I was also inspired by watching Choi Kang-hee in Mystery Queen – and got to thinking about how much I really loved him (and her, albeit briefly) in Thank You. Plus there’s the fact that the Chinese version of it with Ming Dao is finally going to be released after almost 8 years! The culmination of all this reminiscing is that I decided to do a rewatch of Thank You, squeezing it in whenever there’s a gap in new released episodes.
Generally I find some of the older ones just that little bit cheesy after all this time, but except for some overblown bits of scenery chewing on Jang Hyuk’s part, I enjoyed episode 1 last night. Good thing I know he’ll settle down and deliver. I’m looking forward to it – and the poignant relationship with Gong Hyo-jin’s character.
We Talk Dramas All Day 