City Hunter

Rating: ****.5


Genre: Action, Romance
Episodes: 20
Cast: Chun Ho Jin, Kim Sang Joong, Lee Min Ho, Park Min Young, Lee Joon Hyuk


SYNOPSIS:
"‘City Hunter’ is an original script based on the world-famous novel by Japan’s Tsukasa Hojo. Since it became public that Korea would be the first remake of this story into a drama, ‘City Hunter’ has been receiving worldwide attention. ‘City Hunter’ has switched the setting from Tokyo 1980 to Seoul 2011, and according to the original story structure, the protagonist becomes a city hunter and his character develops while resolving gratifying cases."


REVIEW:
I've been waiting for this series to start & finish since October 2010, and I was extremely excited to see such a drama.  Normally this type of patient waiting can end up leaving the viewer disappointed, but I think it was well worth the wait.  When I watched the first episode, I was completely confused on how this drama even remotely relates to the famous City Hunter manga, but I think I understand how it fits in with the series.  To understand this drama, I think you really have to view this series as "City Hunter: The beginning."  I'll explain in detail later on in this review as I may have to post a bit of a spoiler if I have to explain.

As far as errors go, there were a lot of little ones.

1.  I think that whoever was in charge of the blood affects did a horrid job.  Has this person even seen real blood up close before?  In some of the scenes it looks like someone just poured a glass of food coloring and corn syrup over the person's head and called it a day.  Also, unless I'm mistook this for another drama, they forgot to put blood on the guys' shirt in one of the cuts.  One moment he had an injury, and the next moment you cannot see it.

2. I think another error that is quite obvious, which I've seen in many dramas, is that you can tell when an actor is carrying an empty box around when (in the story) it is supposed to be filled.  If the actor cannot even act like a box is filled with something in it, they should put a few books in the box.  One character goes around whipping a box around that's supposed to be filled with files.

3. Ajusshi was supposed to be driving while the "City Hunter" was talking on the phone, but in the scene, the truck seemed to be moving without the driver XD

4. He was wet, then he was dry, and then he was wet again.

5. The last error that I saw on multiple occasions is the coffee cups.  Normal people don't drink hot coffee like there is only a drop left at the bottom of the cup.  I know I'm being a little strict, but can't they at least pretend that there is something in it?  And, by the way, what kind of store puts an iced coffee in a to go cup for hot coffee?  Most (if not all) coffee shops use clear plastic cups with lids and a straw.

SPOILER ALERT!  The following message may contain spoilers.  Please do not read beyond this point if you wish to watch the drama without them.  If you would like to read the rest of this post, please highlight the following paragraph(s).

As I mentioned earlier, this was supposed to be a "beginning" for the City Hunter.  I know people speculated that he died, but I refuse to believe that.  I believe that this drama is supposed to be what happened in order to make the City Hunter a city hunter (if you know what I mean).  Although I haven't read the whole manga, the original work doesn't really say how he came to be called the City Hunter, or how he even started doing that sort of thing.  However, if you take this drama as a prequel to the original work, it makes a lot more sense.  People tried to say that the character died at the ending because he was wearing black and she was wearing white, but I think that's kind of stupid.  The character is always wearing black, if you haven't noticed.  Also, why would she smile back at him if he was a ghost?  Also, since his dad died, it wouldn't be that unthinkable if he went around wearing all (or mostly) black for a while.

What did you think of this drama? Comment below!


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I Am Legend

Rating: ****.5

Genre: Music, Romance, Law
Episodes: 20
Cast: Kim Seung Soo, Jang Young Nam, Kim Jung Eun, Lee Joon Hyuk, Jang Shin Young

"Jun Seol starts a band to get her life back on track. She recently divorced her husband after realizing that she deserved to be treated better by her husband's family. Her band mates are also 'ahjummas' who also have personal problems of their own."

I personally found this show very addicting, but I heard many people say that there were things in the show that were disappointing. Although many viewers didn't like the ending, I felt that the ending was realistic.  Truthfully, I kind of always knew it would end the way it did, so it doesn't surprise me.  The only problem with a realistic ending, though, is that viewers don't usually enjoy reality.  Most viewers disregard realistic stories in favor of a fairy tale, as fairy tales tend to end beautifully.  Sometimes, however, it is refreshing to watch something that is not sugarcoated.

The next thing that a potential viewer might want to know before hand is that there are a lot of episodes that deal with law since her ex-husband is a lawyer.  Don't be surprised if an episode minimizes the music aspect in order to show more of her personal life and what she is going through at the time.

City Hall

Rating: *****

Genre: Romance, Comedy, Politics
Episodes: 20
Cast: Cha Seung Won, Choo Sang Mi, Kim Sun Ah, Lee Hyung Chul, Lee Joon Hyuk

"City Hall is a drama that will deal with politics in a romantic comedy genre. It’s about the happenings between a young woman mayor and an elite bureaucrat. Jo Gook is an exceedingly smart government official. He passed the Higher Civil Service quickly, and basically is the perfect guy. But being a deputy mayor is not enough for him. He lives with the dream of becoming South Korea’s President. He should have easily gone straight to the top, but due to an unexpected incident, he gets dispatched as a deputy mayor for a provincial small town, Inju City, where Shin Mi Rae was working. Shin Mi Rae is a low-ranking secretary in Inju, but she works her way up in becoming the youngest City Mayor. As their paths met, they have to deal with each other’s personal and social differences. But despite their constant bickerings, would they end up in each other’s arms?"

In all honesty, I was never interested in this drama in the first place. The only real reason I even took a chance in watching it was because numerous people said it was good. As I reflect on this drama, though, I thought it was quite good. The production, dialogue, characters, and comedy all did very good. As far as acting goes, there wasn't really many scenes that could show off an actor's acting ability so I cannot discern how good of a cast there was.

See, there is a certain aspect of acting that you cannot notice if you are not a native or fluent speaker of the language that the drama is in. This is mostly because an actor must understand the natural flow of language. An actor must know which words to emphasize and which words to minimize in the script. Although I didn't notice any major flaws in the visual aspect of the cast's acting, I cannot say much about their acting because I am not a fluent speaker of the Korean language.

In any case, I thought this was a very amusing drama and I would definitely recommend watching it.