The Greatest Love

Rating: *****


Genre: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 16
Cast:  Cha Seung Won, Choi Sung Min, Gong Hyo Jin, Yoon Kye Sang, Yoo In Na


SYNOPSIS:
Ae Jung is a female band member who is already over the hill.  She ends up getting entangled in a long triangle with the top star Jin and her ex-bandmate Kang Se Ri.  In order to make money, Ae Jung joins a dating variety show and meets Yoon Pil Joon, a doctor of oriental medicine who has no interest in the entertainment industry.



REVIEW:
This drama didn't disappoint me in the least.  I found no errors, and every episode was funny and enjoyable.  I guess I'm a bit biased, though, as I am a fan of the writers of this drama.  The Hong Sisters (Hong Jung-eun and Hong Mi-ran) have never written a drama that I did not thoroughly enjoy.  Their previous works include:

Delightful Girl Chun-hyang, KBS 2005
My Girl, SBS 2005-2006
Fantasy Couple, MBC 2006
Hong Gil Dong, KBS 2008
You’re Beautiful, SBS 2009

I know that this review probably isn't of much help as I haven't said much about the drama, but I really have nothing to say except for praises.  I'm a really biased source when it comes to the Hong Sisters.

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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.