Demi God Semi Devil

Rating: ***.5

Genre: Wuxia, Fantasy, Adventure
Episodes: 40
Cast: Liu Yi Fei, Gao Hu, Hu Jun, Jimmy Lin, Liu Tao

"Tian Long Ba Bu is an adaption of a Jin Yong novel of the same name. The epic centers around the Beggar Leader Qiao Feng, the Dali Prince Duan Yu and the Shaolin Monk Xu Zhu. Each of their stories are interweaved throughout the show and finally clash and join at the climax of the story. Qiao Feng's story is his quest to find his real identity and the mystery surrounding an event that occured 30 years prior that left him as an orphan. Duan Yu's story covers his meetings with many of his half sisters that he did not know he had (thanks to his adventurous dad during his young days) and the battle with Duan Yuan Qing as the rightful ruler of Dali. Xu Zhu is a lowly Shaolin Monk who gets caught in the middle of an internal struggle of the Care Free Sect, one of the most powerful and secretative sects around. Their stories take place during the Northern Song Dynasty and across warring kingdoms of Song, Liao, Dali, and Western Xia."

I liked this drama, I really did.  However, I did not enjoy the beginning and end very much.  I have to agree that the beginning and end were a bit rushed.  Then again, I guess it's because in the original novel the story is also rushed.  In all honesty, I didn't really like Qiao Feng's story at all.  I loved Duan Yu and Xu Zhu's stories as they were funny and enjoyable, but Qiao Feng's story was just kind of annoying.  If it weren't for the two other main characters, I wouldn't have even watched it.

I kind of like the fact that they just switch actors when the characters are supposed to be in disguise.  It made it kind of funny and I bet it was a lot easier for the make up artists then to have to create a disguise for the actors.  As far as the acting goes, I didn't pay too much attention to it.  I'm kind of a sucker for Jimmy Lin just because he makes me laugh.  There are certain actors that can make people laugh just by their expressions, and Jimmy is one of them.

Funny Note: Guy gets hit in the face with a twig on Episode 11 around 12:23

Hello! Miss

Rating: *****

Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 16
Cast: Ha Suk Jin, Lee Da Hae, Lee Ji Hoon, Yun Mi Joo, Ryan

"Lee Soo Ha, 38th granddaughter of the Jae Ahn Lee clan and owner of the clan manor Hwa Ahn Dang, is trying to save the place from going bankrupt. Hwang Dong Gyu, oldest grandson of the president of TOP Group, is trying to buy Hwa Ahn Dang because his grandfather, who was once a servant at the manor, cannot rest in peace unless he spends his last days in Hwa Ahn Dang's master suite. Hwang Chan Min, Dong Gyu's playboy cousin, is his rival in business and love. Enter Seo Hwa Ran, a model who has a secret history with and a secret plan for Hwa Ahn Dang (and Chan Min), and Lee Joon Yong, Soo Ha's brother and Chan Min's friend who can't forget a girl from Hwa Ahn Dang he knew when he was a kid... This drama is adapted from the novel, "Kimchi Mandu."

I've tried to watch this drama several times, but the first episode was so boring that I could never get through it even though so many people have said what a wonderful drama this is.  I finally got around to watching this recently, though, and I have to say that I absolutely love it!  The female lead is hilarious as Lee Soo Ha.  The facial expressions she gives on camera are priceless.  I think I would watch this over and over again just to see her expressions.

I think the reason I like this the best, other than the comedy, is the simple fact that it isn't as cliche as most Korean dramas.  The lead male character isn't a cold rich guy who treats the main girl like dirt.  I can finally watch a drama without having to see a female character get continually spat on by the male lead.  I really hate it when they make the female take crap from the male and she still falls for him.  It makes me want to murder the writer.

All in all, this is a wonderful little drama to check out if you ever have time.

Only You

Rating: ***.5

Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 16
Cast: Han Chae Young, Hong Soo Hyun, Jo Hyun Jae, Jun Hye Bin, Lee Chun Hee

"Cha Eun-jae (Han Chae-young) decides to go to Italy to learn how to become a chef to attain her childhood dream of making Italian food. She adores spaghetti and all sorts of pasta ever since she was a little kid. In Italy, she meets Han Lee-jun (Cho Hyeon-jae), who is an heir to a family fortune and has come to Italy in search of his mother. They go out and get to know each other for only six day but she falls madly in love with him. Six years pass and in Korea, she meets Han Lee-jun once again... The drama takes place in Italy and is a story of how a young girl finds her way to the heart of a rich young man, who is obsessed with cleanliness."

 Although this drama is nice, it's kind of annoying in my honest opinion.  There's nothing wrong with the drama or anything, I just didn't enjoy the story all that much.  I guess that's my own personal opinion though.  The genre says it's comedy, but I didn't really find it that funny.  For those of you that like Romance and Drama genres, I recommend this drama.  However, if the main reason that you watch drama is for the comedy, I would say that there are better comedies out there than this one.  It's a great drama to watch if you're bored, though.  It's short and sweet with a decent plotline, even though it's a little bit predictable.

Fairy From Wonderland

Rating: ****

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 39
Cast: Ariel Lin, Hu Ge, TAE, Dou Zhi Kong, Lv Yi

"This drama is a retelling of the well-known love story between a goddess and a mortal.
Goddess Xiao Qi commits a major crime. She is punished by having her powers stripped away and is banished to the mortal realm. She can only regain her goddess status by accomplishing 100 charitable acts. Dong Yong rescues her and teaches her what it's like to be a mortal. However, she also learns how to love even though love is forbidden between goddesses and mortals. When their love affair is discovered, heavenly guards descend onto the mortal realm to separate the two lovers. However, they are willing to do anything to stay together."

As someone who has never heard or watched the story before, this drama is entirely new to me.  That being said, I cannot say whether or not the drama stuck with the story or not.  The main problem with this series, though, is there are two versions.  The one I watched wasn't the 39 episode series, but the shorter one.  That being said, I think you should be careful when finding the episodes.  Although the scenes that were cut were virtually meaningless, they forgot to remove flashbacks that contained deleted scenes.  That really irked me.

Although Ariel Lin and Hu Ge seem to match their characters pretty well, I have to wonder if they ever think of acting as other types of characters.  Ariel always plays a spunky girl and Hu Ge always plays a nice (but a little naive) guy.  Does anyone know of a drama or movie that they have done that wasn't the same type of character that they always play?  It really kind of bothers me when I see an actor stuck in the same role time and time again.  For me it says that they have no desire to improve upon their acting.  Although I like the main actors, I feel that they could grow as actors if they just stepped out of their comfort zone.

 As far as the actual drama was concerned, I liked it.  There's this one point about love that I really liked from this drama.  The drama basically says that you can still love someone even if you say you don't.  You see, no matter what we say, it won't change our feelings for other people.  We can deny love a million times, but that love will not change.  True love stays the same whether you want to love that someone or not.  Even if loving someone is tough and gives you great pain, feelings don't easily change.  Just because you decide not to be with someone doesn't mean you stopped loving them.  I think the only thing I can't really decide on is the ending.  I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, or if I like it at all.  On one hand it's sad, but on the other hand it's kind of happy.  It kind of made me want to know what happened next in the story.

Question: Didn't they say he could be reincarnated into a god?  What happened with that?  Is that just a translation error?

Funny Note: Something is missing on Episode 11 at 7:01

Upcoming and Now Airing Dramas (05/01/11)

Country	Network	Airing Date	Days	Synopsis
Drunken to Love You
Taiwan	SETTV	Airing	Sun.	When Lin Xiao Ru (Rainie Yang) meets Song Jie Xiu (Joseph Chang) in a bar one night, they both proceed to drown their sorrows, only to discover the next morning that they got married.  This drama is another version of Fated to Love You.
Muscle Girl
Japan	MBS, TBS	Airing	Tues. 24:55	Ichikawa plays the part of Azusa, the only Child of the owner of a small female pro wrestling organization.  After her father dies of illness, she has to take over the business, which is already losing money and is on the verge of shutting down.  To make things worse, their referee suddenly disappears on the day of one of their shows, leaving behind only a resignation letter.  The desperate Azusa then runs into a young Korean man (Lee).  She persuades him to serve as a referee just for that day, though she doesn’t realize he is actually a popular star in Korea.
Manny
Korea	TVN	Airing	Wed. & Thursday 21:00	Tall, with the perfect figure and his qualifications as an Ivy League graduate, Lee Han is Seoul’s top male nanny.  He is employed by Seo Do Young as a live-in nanny to look after her two young children, Eun Bi and Jung Min.
Rebound
Japan	NTV	Airing	Wed. 22:00	Ohba Nobuko (Aibu Saki) was born the daughter of a tonkatsu shop owner in Matsuyama City.  Because she grew up on tonkatsu and cake, she weighed 60 kg when she was 20, but she was dumped by her boyfriend because she was fat.  She resolved to abstain from cakes and succeeded in losing 37 kig, and even became the editor of a fashion magazine.  However, after interviewing the “Prince of Sweets,” Imai Taiichi (Hayami Mokomichi), the son of a patissier whose strawberry shortcakes she used to adore, she ends up breaking her ban on cakes and single mindedly eats away.
Who’s the One
Taiwan	TTV	Airing	Fri. 22:00	Tie Nan was abandoned at the altar by his fiancée.  Reeling from his bitter experience, he turned to plastic surgeon Ruo Wei, hoping to transform into a new and handsome man.  Apart from having a new look and image, he wants to regain some of his self esteem and also find out what women really want.
Can You Hear My Heart
Korea	MBC	Airing	Sat. & Sun. 21:45	Cha Dong Joo (Kim Jae-Won) comes from a Chaebol family, but he loses his hearing in a accident. The drama is a love story depicting how someone overcomes acquired auditory difficulty.
I Heart You Dude
Phillipines	GMA	Airing	Mon. – Fri. 21:30	This romantic comedy, based on the movie "Connie & Carla", stars Regine Velasquez as Tonya, a woman trying to get away from cops by disguising herself as a gay entertainer. While working at the club, she meets Kenneth, played by DingDong Dantes, who is also trying to evade something in his life. Tonya falls for Kenneth, but he believes Tonya is a gay guy and refuses to reciprocate her feelings. What will happen to our couple, especially when there are 3 other guys waiting in the wings?
Baby Faced Beauty
Korea	KBS2	05/02/11	Mon. & Tues. 21:55	A drama about a woman in her 30s getting a job in a clothing company as her 7 years younger sister and the events that follow.    A romantic comedy about the ever so young looking lead character who overcomes her handicap of being a credit delinquent and having only a high school diploma, fulfilling her dreams and love.
The Greatest Love
Korea	MBC	05/04/09	Wed. & Thurs. 21:55	As a rising top star, Dok Go Jin (Cha Seung Won) and Gu Ae Jung (Gong Hyo Jin), who is an ex-top celebrity from most popular has-been girl group "Treasure Girls," enters a fake marriage for variety show. Will this fake marriage lead to something more?
Lie to Me
Korea	SBS	05/09/11	Mon. & Tues. 21:55	Gong ah Jung, a Ministry of Culture official, gets entangled in a web of lies when she mistakenly lies that she’s married to Hyun Gi Jun, a noble hotel manager from an affluent family.  Their relationship is further complicated when Gi Jun’s ex-fiance and a close friend of his brother’s reappear in his live.
Romance Town
Korea	KBS2	05/11/11	Wed. & Thurs. 21:55	Sung Yu-ri is a housekeeper who was influenced by her mom to think this is the vocation for her.  Then one day she won the LOTTO, hence the turning point in her life.  Set in the household of a top upper-crust family.  The story unfolds as romance develops between the employer and his live-in maid, who also faces off in a battle over money.
Sunshine Angel
Taiwan	GTV	05/22/11	TBA	Wu Chun’s character is an enteprenuer who ended up living on the streets after going bankrupt.  Rainie will be a maid, and the angel helping Wu Chun during these hard times.
City Hunter
Korea	SBS	05/25/11	Wed. & Thurs. 21:55	Based off of the manga by the same name.  Lee Min Ho will play a character of Lee yung Jong.  He’s a complete womanizer who doesn’t know what to do at the sight of a beautiful woman, yet secretly, he is also a hero who saves citizens tired and hurt from harsh city life.  In solving these cases, he himself slowly begins to heal his own emotional injuries, and understands more fully about love and family.
Cinderella
Korea	TBA	May 2011	TBA	"Cinderella" is about a woman whos already 30 years old really love money. She starts to have feeling with a man who first came to Korea for a trip. This man known as a in-heir to tons of money.
Material Queen
Taiwan	TBA	06/17/11	TBA	They meet in the romantic city of Paris and fall in love…  A one night stand…  A woman’s ambition to climb on top, her love of money is extreme, will she risk it all?  A man’s innocent love, his talent of music, will he get the girl?  Will their love blossom?
Mei Le, Go
Taiwan	GTV	June 2011	TBA	Cha Mei Le is an ordinary Hakka girl who believes that, if she works hard, good things will happen.  As she loves Han Yi feng so much, she leaves her career and helps her boyfriend open a bakery.  After discovering that he is cheating on her, she is comforted by Yi Feng’s younger brother, Han Yi Lie, who is very hostile and hard to interact with, but his eccentric personality has bowed to Mei Le’s toasts and he becomes softened because he sees Mei Le’s sincerity.  The weird thing is that Yi Lie can’t compose before he ate her toasts.  Unfortunately, Mei Le disappeared when he realized that he had already fell in love with her.
Extravagant Challenge
Taiwan	TBA	TBA	Sun. 22:00	Sixteen year old Mogami Kyoko sacrificed her life to support her boyfriend, Sho, so he could become a successful singer. One day, Sho suddenly breaks up with Kyoko, leaving her with nothing, and Kyoko vows revenge. She decides to delve into the entertainment world and become even more successful than Sho to get back at him. Kyoko therein meets Ren, another actor in her agency, who helps motivate her to become a top entertainer.

TBA = To Be Announced

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