My picks for entertainment ~ suggested movies, TV shows, music, and books ~ so you can enjoy some quality ME time! (ATTN Korean drama addicts! This blog has lots of K-drama love.)
David
Carradine (1936 - 2009) is from Hollywood royalty. He is the son of
John Carradine. John Carradine had more than one son and they all
become actors. But if you ask me, my personal opinion is that none
of them were good actors. It's just that they had the Carradine
family name that opened doors for them. Some described him as a “B
actor”. But I would say it's more like a C-minus.
Many
people might remember David Carradine for his role in the Quentin
Tarantino “Kill Bill” films, released in 2003 and 2004. But I go
back a lot further than that. I remember him for being cast as Kwai
Chang Caine aka “Grasshopper” in the TV series "Kung Fu".
A TV show that was actually the creation/idea of Bruce Lee (1940 -
1973), only he was not chosen for the starring role. Choosing
Carradine to play the part of a martial artist in the wild wild west?
That was downright ridiculous AND insulting!
Nevertheless,
it's TV history now!
* * *
INTERESTING
TRIVIA:
The
show was not cancelled because of low ratings or viewers. But due to
Carradine's injuries sustained on the set. He said he could not
carry one because he had been physically hurt too many times and just
couldn't take it any more. Yeah right. I'll bet Bruce Lee would not
have whined like that!
In
1986, the first sequel to the Kung Fu series was a TV movie “Kung
Fu: The Movie”. At least in this film, Brandon Lee, the son of
Bruce Lee, was given the starring role.
“Lovers of the Red Sky” (2021) is a Viki Original TV series which stars Kim Joo Jung as Hong Cheong-Gi. Her leading man is played by Ahn Hyo Seop as Ha Ram. This young man is a singer and an actor who was born in Canada. The two of them made a lovely loving couple.
This series is based on the novel of the same name. It is a Viki Original Series, 17 episodes, and to be perfectly honest, it was sort of lacking. But since I like Kim Joo Jung so much, I was willing to overlook the script’s flaws and shortcomings. Also, Ahn Hyo Seop, who played her love interest, is strikingly handsome; even with red eyes.
It’s a a historical fantasy romance drama. There is a wicked demon, good spirits who fight against it, shamans who advise the crown princes, and a goblin who happens to have excellent taste in art. He doesn’t kill people. He just steals paintings.
Hong Cheong-Gi (Kim Joo Jung) and Ha Ram (Ahn Hyo Seop) are caught up in two vicious webs: the human politics and power games AND the eternal power struggle of good versus evil within the supernatural spirit world.
What will be the fate of these two lovers?
Two words for this series? Delightfully entertaining!
Watching Korean dramas is my guilty pleasure. I especially like the
historical period dramas, during the Joseon period. I have published a
few detailed reviews of K-dramas here on Read.Cash. But I also shared some quickie reviews on its partner site, Noise.Cash, which I am recapping below.
If you have not watched these you should add them to your watch list.
If you have watched them, let me know if enjoyed them too!
The main character is a feisty little innocent girl who is fiercely
loyal to her family and friends, but has the courage, inner strength and
determination to break with tradition, and find her own way in a cruel
world that is not a very nice place for a low-born; especially not a
low-born young girl.
This series is 60 episodes, with an extraordinary cast, and based on a
true story. It is a real life love story between a king and a woman he
took to be his concubine: Dong Yi (played by Han Hyo-joo) and King
Sukjong (played by Ji Jin-hee).
It's a love story with a bold and daring hero who is not only an
expert swordsman, but knows how to handle a pistol and a rifle. His love
interest is an intelligent woman whose father is a scholar and allowed
her to learn (although she had to dress up like a man to attend school).
They both dream of their country, Joseon, as a land that will one day
be populated with free people. His enemies thought they had killed him,
but he was saved and taken to another country. He returned to Joseon
with a new identity, and determined to settle old scores. The first time
his beloved sees him again, she faints. He may be wearing different
clothes and using a different name, but he still looked to her like the
man she loved. She thought she had seen a ghost.
A baby who was born in a prison turns out to be a princess. But
before she learned her true identity she was taught by a martial arts
master and first learned how to kick butt!! It's a handy skill to have
if you're going after the bad guys who caused your mother's death. The
main character is Ok Nyeo played by Jin Se Yeon who is on my list for
favorite Korean actresses.
A young prince witnesses horrific bloodshed and commands that it be
stopped. Since he is a small child, his command is disregarded and he is
returned to his father; only to learn that it was his father who
ordered the bloodshed. To add insult to injury, his mother is
“accidentally” killed (really she was murdered). From that day forward,
he not only hates his father, HE HATES EVERYBODY! Everybody except his
close friend. He was forced into a marriage of convenience. His wife,
the princess, becomes pregnant by another man. In an effort to cover
this up, the father-in-law (the father of the princess) attempts to kill
the prince. The attempt fails. Trying to escape his assassins, the
prince falls down a slope and hits his head. A poor man finds him, takes
care of him as best he can while he is unconscious. When he regains his
consciousness, he does not remember who he is. The poor man tells him
that he is his daughter's husband-to-be and that they must marry
immediately or his daughter will be flogged.
For 100 days, he lives the simple life of a commoner and falls in
love. He is found by his father-in-law and brought back to the palace.
His memory has not returned. But slowly bits and pieces of incidents
from his past, like puzzle pieces, begin to come together. His story
begins … AGAIN! He realizes who he is and what he needs to do. He also
knows what he wants to do. He wants to marry the woman he fell in love
with as a commoner, who is also the little girl he met when he was a
child and had promised he would marry some day.
A young prince meets and makes friends with a nobleman's daughter,
when they were children. An accident happens on a boat and the girl he
met is tossed overboard. Her father believes that she drowned. Her
sister grows up and the prince, now king chooses her to be his bride;
not realizing that she is the twin sister and NOT the girl he met when
he was younger. Corrupt officials arrange to have both King Lee Kyung
and his queen, Kang Eun Bo, assassinated on their wedding day. They
succeed in killing the sister but the king miraculously comes back to
life. The people are terrified of him. How can he possibly come back
from the dead? The twin sister realizes that her sister has been
murdered. She takes her sister's body and secretly buries it. Then she
returns to the palace AS IF she has also risen from the dead, just like
the king. The king not knowing that she is the young girl he had met as a
child, also believes his wife has come back to life. However, the twin
sister's main purpose for returning to the palace is to discover who
murdered her sister. For all she knew, even the king may have been
involved. But she eventually realizes his innocence and falls in love
with him. The problem is that she has already deceived him into
believing that she is the one who died. This makes their personal
relationship very complicated. As if life in the palace wasn't already
complicated with all of the scheming, conniving, ruthless, greedy
politicking that was going on. Oh! Did I mention the prophecy?
Goo Hae-ryung is a female historian. Prince Dowon (or Yi Rim) is a
young prince who has been sheltered from the outside world. These two
main characters are adorably cute! But they have had some tragedy in
their young lives. They both lost their fathers through violence. Of
course, the adults around them try to hide the truth. But the two of
them trying to uncover the truth makes for a good plot.
The time is during the transitional period between the end of the
Goryeo dynasty and the beginning of the Joseon dynasty, which is why it
is “The New Age”. A king, princes, military leaders, all engaged in a
power struggle to build a new country. Seo Hwi and Nam Seon-ho are two
childhood friends have the power of their friendship “tested”. Things
happen to them, they get separated, and become enemies due to a
misunderstanding about "my country." One of them decides his country is
“the country of the abandoned”.
“'Bossam' in the Korean title refers to a customary remarriage
procedure that took place during the Joseon period. At that time, a
widow could not remarry. A single man or widower would kidnap the widow
and marry her. Some of the kidnappings were agreed upon in advance and
others were by force.” (Quote Source: https://asianwiki.com/Bossam:_Steal_the_Fate)
Here's the story. Two friends earn their living by kidnapping widows.
It's a steady paying job because … evidently, a lot of widows want to
be kidnapped and remarried. However, there is one widow who does not
have this on her mind. She just happened to be sitting outside and the
kidnapper happened to go to the wrong house and … uh oh! … she is
accidentally kidnapped. You think this problem is easy to solve. The guy
made a mistake, so all he needs to do is take her back home. Right?
WRONG! The lady who was kidnapped turns put to be a princess. Her
father, the king, wants to see her. Since her father-in-law did not know
how or why she disappeared or where she was, HE LIED! He told the king
his daughter committed suicide, having died from the grief of being a
widow. The king finds out that his daughter is alive and wants to use
this fact to trap the father-in-law and get rid of him for treason. The
father-in-law also finds out she is alive and the entire series is him
trying to have her killed so that he doesn't get caught in his LIE!
My
exposure to Asian films has been gradual. Mainly because ... how can
one watch what one does not have access to watch? Growing up in
America, were it not for Bruce Lee, I am not sure I would have ever
started watching real Chinese movies. Because I don't know if
Chinese movies would have ever come to America. Before Bruce Lee, I
watched movies about Charlie Chan but the guy who played Charlie Chan
was not Chinese. I was in my twenties when I started watching Shogun
theatre which exposed me to Japanese cinema. But
times have changed and the ways and means of making entertainment
available to the masses has opened doors wide. Now there is
streaming and the world is put right in front of you on the
television screen.
Even
though I started off watching mostly Chinese films and some Japanese,
thanks to Netflix I was introduced to Korean films; mainly Korean
drama.
“Commitment” (2013) was the first Korean film I watched. It is a
spy thriller and it is intense!
STORY: The
young man's father was a Korean secret agent. But the government
betrayed him and branded him as a traitor. The agent's kids, the
young man and his sister were thrown in jail. The wicked corrupt
government officials tell the son, if you want erase the shame of
your father and save your little sister, you have to work for us. So
they train him and he is so good at his job that he becomes the best
secret agent on the planet!! But of course, he's driven to be the
best because he wants so much to save his sister. The wicked
government officials figured that once his mission was completed they
were going to screw him over the same way they did his father and
kill him. Did I say that he became the best secret agent on the
planet? It turns out, he wasn't so easy to kill and he was going
to make sure that he saved his sister. That movie was HOT!
The
young man who starred as the secret agent was Choi Seung-hyun, who
was a member of a popular Korean boy band even before he started
acting.
The
young girl who played his sister was Kim Yoo-jung. She has been
acting since she was very little. I like to call her the Korean
Shirley Temple.
If you
have never watched a Korean film, I recommend you watch “Commitment”
(2013).
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HA! That stands for hooked again!! My new addiction is watching Korean historical drama TV series. There are way too many of them for me to keep up. They are so exciting and interesting, even though the basic plot in most of the series is pretty much the same.
What's the basic plot, you ask?
Eh! Some palace intrigue on the inside, rivalry among the nobles and scholars on the outside, honorable slaves, and commoners who prove time again that being poor and uneducated does not equal stupid! ... and of course, the love triangle. No Korean drama is complete without the love triangle. △
For each series, the script writers take this plot, create different and intricate twists and turns, and develop characters that make the viewers immediately choose sides and start rooting for them! I like this lady or this man! But that person has got to go! When the ruthless evil characters finally go down, you're pumping your fist in the air and going Yeah! A flood of relief washes over you and then you have to remind yourself that it's just a TV show. :)
While seeking and finding more and more historical series to satisfy my K-drama addiction, found “Dong Yi” (2010). This television program is directed by Lee Byung Hoon, who also directed "Jewel in the Palace" (2003).
Reviews indicate that Hoon's 2003 series was extremely successful, so it went on my watch list. But because the 2010 series includes in its cast an admirable child actress, Kim Yoo Jung, who also starred in “Tamra the Island” (2009) and “The Moon Embracing the Sun” (2012) ~ her cute little face drew me in. The series is based on the life of a real historical person:Royal Noble Consort Suk of the Haeju Choi clan.
{Side Note – According to recent reports in South Korean entertainment news publications, Ms. Jung's latest project, “Moonlight Drawn By Clouds” aired its first episode during the 4th week of this month, August 2016. It is being well received. Series at viki.com.}
Back on point. The child character played by little Ms. Jung, is a “commoner”, i.e. not born into a noble family, who grows up into a beautiful and intelligent, caring and compassionate young woman, played by Han Hyo Joo. The character's name is … what else? Dong Yi!
She went from the child who had everything taken away from her to the woman who had the world laid at her feet. According to all the fortune tellers, “her light” was going to shine brightly in the land of Joseon.
Nothing annoys me more than reviews with spoilers, so extra precaution is taken to constrain myself and not to reveal too much. Here are my impressions so far.
Good start! Series starts off with a very peaceful idyllic scene of a man fishing and enjoying a quiet leisure moment. The silence is immediately shattered when the man is brutally murdered. But before he breathes his last breath, guess who finds him? A young child named Dong Yi!
Good fortune? I'll say! This lady was born under the Lisa Bonet lucky star. She got two hot guys wrapped around her finger! If you know who Lisa Bonet is and you watch this show, then you'll understand my meaning. :)
60 episodes and I've only reached the halfway mark. What's the hook the writers used to keep you interested all the way to the very end? A butterfly! Don't know about everybody else, but I love butterflies!
It's a "a new satirical U.S. animated series from one of the producers of 'Family Guy' ...".
Hmmm? Should I immediately just write this off as Brits simply not understanding the American sense of humor?
When I was a kid, my late mother had an album that made
fun of The Kennedy Clan, America's royal family. Comedy is for fun.
But draw a line somewhere. Targeting kids? Draw a line there.
Besides. There's plenty of material about the royal adults to poke
fun at.
I've read a few of tweets. Without even
watching this series. I guess it can be summed up in two words. BAD
TASTE.
Some critics are so upset that they're even calling for Harry and Meghan to SAY SOMETHING!!! Even though they are no longer royals ... they are still family.
There is so much brew ha ha that now I'm not even interested in watching it.
The show follows Prince George on quests like getting Kelly Ripa to follow him on Instagram and becoming a star on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills".
You would probably not think that a
series with a title like “Mr. Sunshine” would be a Korean drama,
would you? But it is! It is a Netflix Original and it is intense!
The lead actor is Lee Byung-hun and he
is the reason this series caught my eye. He's Korean but the first
time I saw him was in one of the Terminator movies. He was one of
the terminators: T-1000 in “Terminator Genisys” (2015). He was
awesome! So when I saw he was the main character in “Mr.Sunshine”, I had to watch! I was not disappointed.
It is an historical period war drama
which depicts conflicts involving the Americans, the Japanese, and
the Koreans. His character starts off as a young child who was a
slave but he escaped to America. The name given to him by the
kind-hearted and generous American who saved his life was Eugene
Choi. His Korean name was Choi Yoo-jin. He grew up and became a
high-ranking officer in the American military and they sent him back
to Korea on a special assignment. He was not exactly thrilled about
being sent back home to a country where he was never treated like it
was his home. Nevertheless, when you're a soldier you obey orders.
Not only was this series entertaining,
but it was also very educational and emotional. I got caught up in
the lives of each of the main characters listed below.
~ Lee Byung-hun as Eugene Choi / Choi
Yoo-jin who became a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.
~ Kim Tae-ri as Go Ae-shin, a Joseon
noblewoman, a skilled sniper and loyal member the Righteous Army.
~ Yoo Yeon-seok as Goo Dong-mae (his
Korean name) / Ishida Sho (his Japanese name), whose father was
killed fighting in the war and he fled to Japan. He joined a
Japanese criminal organization and when he returned to Korea, he
wanted revenge!
~ Kim Min-jung as Lee Yang-hwa (her
Korean name) / Kudo Hina (her name when her father forced her to
marry a rich Japanese man so he could get at his money). She became
a widow and returned to Korea to run the "Glory Hotel", a
property she inherited after her husband's death.
~ Byun Yo-han as Kim Hee-sung, an
extremely wealthy Joseon nobleman who was supposed to marry Go
Ae-shin, only she fell in love with Eugene Choi. But that didn't
stop him from loving her anyway.
Korean dramas always have to have a
love triangle.
I fell in love with each one of these
characters. They were so real to me.
I will have to do follow-up research to
find out if there was a group called the Righteous Army.
A one-word description for this Netflix
Original Series? Outstanding!
Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010) is a Korean drama television series which has 20
episodes. I watched and enjoyed every episode but I still can't
pronounce the name. ☺ Korean is not my native language.
I really enjoyed the main characters.
Four young adults in a type of college are studying to become
professionals who will work for the government. These young scholars
were being educated in the teachings of Confucius and their goal was
to become dedicated and just public servants who stood up for what
was right. Just like most young people in every generation, they
were bursting with ideas and ideals. They were so adorable.
There was just one problem. One of the
aspiring scholars was a girl! NOT ALLOWED!
Sungkyunkwan Scandal is a historical period drama
based on Jung Eun-gwol's bestselling 2007 novel “The Lives of
Sungkyunkwan Confucian Scholars”. It stars Park Min-young, Park
Yoo-chun, Yoo Ah-in and Song Joong-ki.
A one-word description for this TV
series? Delightful!
I enjoy writing and sharing my entertainment articles around the web. Several articles have been published at Article Writing Jobs. Here's the links. Enjoy!
Binge-watching a BBC British murder mystery is one of my guilty pleasures. My first introduction to BBC mystery was BBC Masterpiece Mystery which aired Sunday evenings via America's PBS stations. (PBS - Public Broadcasting Service.) That was during the 70s. Fast forward to the year 2000 and the marvels of online streaming enabled me to find the complete series of mystery programs to watch. Just set aside a few hours of “me time”, grab a bowl of popcorn, and watch as many episodes as possible. If you have never watched a British mystery, these 4 shows will get you hooked.
Midsommer Murders
Inspector Morse
George Gently
Broadchurch
* * *
Midsommer Murders:This show started airing in 1997. It's based on the Chief Inspector Barnaby book series written by Caroline Graham. First, there was Tom Barnaby. Then he retired and his cousin John Barnaby picked up where he left off. Can you believe it? As of January 2020, there have been over 120 episodes and it's still going! This show has a huge fan base. “As of 2016, Midsomer Murders has been sold to more than 200 countries around the world.”[2]
* Inspector Morse: An awesome series produced between 1987 and 2000; 33 two-hour episodes. Yes. 2 hours and you are so engrossed in what's happening you don't even notice the time. This show was so good they made a sequel (Inspector Lewis) and a prequel (Endeavour). The fans just couldn't get enough. Inspector Morse - S01E02 The Silent World Of Nicholas Quinn
* George Gently: Not only is the inspector an excellent detective, but he would have made a “really good dad”. The fact that the setting was in the 1960s is what got me interested. The 60s were my pre-teen and teenage years so I was curious to know what it was like in Britain during that time period. The program is adapted from the Inspector Gently novels written by Alan Hunter. I loved the throwback vibe. 20+ episodes (including a pilot) that lasted from 2007 to 2017.
* Broadchurch: Quite frankly I was only interested in watching this murder mystery because I saw that one of the main characters was played by David Tennant. He's my favorite Doctor Who. But from the very first scene in the very first episode, they had reeled me in like a fish on a hook. 24 episodes; 2013 - 2017. Watch all of the episodes in one sitting. It was nominated for seven BAFTA awards.
* Hope you put these programs on your Watch List. If you have already watched I'll bet these shows are on your RE-Watch list.
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Treathyl Fox aka Cmoneyspinner – Home Business Entrepreneur. Think. Dream. Focus. Believe in yourself? Hire yourself! Be your own boss! Do it! Self-employed and loving it! ♦ DISCLOSURE: In compliance with FTC rules and guidelines, be advised that some links shared via this websites might contain affiliate referral links which means commissions might be earned if product sales resulted from your click-through to the vendor’s website.
