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.)
Netflix suggested Unjust (2010) as a gem and I agree. The IMDb Rating: 6.6 out of 10 stars. But my rating for this movie is 9 out of 10 stars. This movie painted a very realistic picture of unjust acts that corrupt civil servants commit in their official line of duty. It was a chilling eye-opener.
The Unjust is an Intense Crime Drama!
The
viewer is immediately drawn into the storyline when it starts with
televised news reports about a serial killer on the loose, killing
young children and mutilating their bodies. The public is
justifiably outraged and wants to know why the police have not yet
captured this menace to society. Choi Cheol-Gi
is assigned to head up the task force and bring this brutal
murderer to justice. But instead of finding the real killer, he
picks a guy who has served time in prison for sexual assault against
a child and presents him to the public as the culprit. WHY? The
public will be relieved, the case will be closed, he will be painted
as a HERO, and will finally get that promotion.
Not
so fast!Prosecutor Joo-Yang eats and plays
golf with a wealthy corrupt businessman. When that businessman is
arrested for crimes, the prosecutor bends the law to get the charges
dropped. He is not exactly a saint. But when he finds out that Choi
Cheol-Gi did not catch the real killer, he makes it his mission to
expose him. There's bd blood between the two of them.
The
truth is these guys abuse their positions of public trust in order to
advance their careers. They're both corrupt and unjust. But one of
them is … The Unjust.
Which one?
“The Killing Vote”
grabbed the viewer's attention right from the start. You think a
violent crime is taking place. But then you realize that it's an
angry father, Kwon Seok-Joo, going after the man who
violated his child. The justice system let that criminal walk the
streets again. The father took it upon himself to render what he
believed was just punishment. He stabbed the man to death.
Is it
murder or is it justice?
The Killing Vote; released 2023; 12
episodes; Legal Drama, Crime, Thriller
Of course, the father
was sent to prison. In prison, the prisoners show him great respect
and call him Professor Kwon.
But the professor is
not the only one who decided to take justice into their own hands.
Somebody developed an app that allows the people to vote on whether or
not a criminal should be executed. Vote Yes or No. Initially, the
police didn't take it seriously until 84% voted Yes and the criminal
was found dead.
To the police, the
execution is not justice, it's murder. So a special investigations
unit is set up. The unit is headed by Kim Mu-Chan, a
detective who struggles with his conscience. There have been many
times when he felt that he failed to do his duty as an officer
because the criminals he worked to bring to justice were set free.
But he knows you can't just work outside of the justice system and
vote for a person's execution.
Joo Hyun
also understands why. Her co-workers steer clear of her because she
blew the whistle on her team leader. It was a matter of conscience
and the right thing to do. When it comes to cybercrime she has a keen
eye and a talent for tracking the computer activity to its source.
She developed a lead regarding “The Killing Vote” app and took it
straight to the Special Investigations Unit. Because it was such
valuable information she was allowed to become a member of the SIU
(Special Investigations Unit).
How can there be a
fair and equal justice system based on votes that approve murder?
K-Playlist.
“The Killing Vote – Full Trailer | Park Hae-Jin, Lim Ji-Yeon.”
YouTube Video. YouTube,
August 1, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpg_efJRBJs.
In
"Miraculous Brothers", the two main characters ~ Yook
Dong-Joo and Lee
Kang San ~ meet
each other by accident. But perhaps the accident that brought them
together was actually a miracle. This Korean drama series was
released in 2023 and has 16 episodes.
Some
people are chasing after a young man and he is running for his life.
The night is dark, it's raining, and just as lightning strikes he
runs into the street and gets hit by a car. The driver of the car
takes him to a hospital where he is pronounced dead. While in the
hospital's Emergency Room, the driver hears someone calling “Brother!
Brother!” Not sure where the voice is coming from, he approaches
the bed where the young man is lying dead from his injuries. When he
leans in closely, without realizing it, his breath goes into the
young man's nostrils and his eyes open. HE'S ALIVE!! It's a
MIRACLE!
Lee
Kang San
is alive but he is suffering from amnesia and doesn't even know who
is. Except he does remember having a backpack, although he can't
remember what was inside the backpack. Yook Dong-Joo is keeping
something a secret and kind of hopes Kang
San won't remember. If
Kang San regains his memory, Dong-Joo will want to be there so he can
explain his actions and beg for forgiveness. Since
Yook Dong-Joo was the driver, he accepts responsibility by allowing
Kang San to come and live with him.
Lee
Kang San has no memory but discovers that he has superpowers. He
hears voices, can feel the pain of others, and can disappear and
reappear. Dong-Joo advises him to keep his special abilities a
secret.
At
first, Dong-Joo is worried that Kang San would find out he stole the
manuscript that was in his backpack. But he becomes even more
anxious because:.
An anonymous phone caller tells him that the manuscript should have never been published. He realizes someone else must know he stole the manuscript. If they know, then what are they after? Is he in danger?
A
police detective tells him that the murders written about in the manuscript are actually happening. Not only that but the present-day murders are linked to a 27-year-old murder case.
Dong-Joo
begins to do research on his own about the murders and makes a
shocking discovery. It appears that Lee Kang San is a TIME TRAVELER!
Things
just keep getting more and more complicated.
Main
Characters:
Yook
Dong-Ju (played by Jung Woo)
Lee
Kang San (played by Bae Hyun-Sung)
"Miraculous
Brothers" is streaming on Viki
and Netflix.
Café
Minamdang is a K-drama series based on the web novel titled
Minamdang: Case Note, written by Jung Jae-ha. This series is 18
episodes, released in 2022, and currently streaming on Netflix.
Nam Han-joon (played by Seo In-guk) worked in
law enforcement as a criminal profiler but was framed for a crime he
did not commit. After being released from
prison since he could not return to his old job, he decides to become a shaman.
Nam
Hye-joon (played by Kang Mi-na) - Nam Han-joon's sister, who is a former NIS ace (NIS=National Intelligence Service). When it comes to electronic technology, she knows everything!
Gong
Soo-cheol (played by Kwak Si-yang) works as a barista during the day at Café Minamdang and at night he's a homicide detective.
He is also is Nam Han-joon's best friend.
Jo
Na-Dan
(played by Baek Seo-Hoo)
is a part-time employee and every once in a while he gets recruited to work with the shaman on “special jobs”.
Lieutenant
Han Jae-hui (played by Oh Yeon-seo)
aka “Han the Ghost”, is a homicide detective assigned to the
Major Crimes Investigation Division Seven as the Team Leader.
In
addition to performing her duties, Han Jae-hui is quietly
investigating the death of her brother who served as a prosecutor.
She suspects Nam Han-joon of being involved in criminal activities. What she does not realize is that
the people responsible for her brother's murder are also the ones who
framed Nam Han-joon.
Initially, she thinks Nam Han-joon's shamanic shenanigans are interfering with her investigative work.
But actually, both of them have crime-fighting goals. Eventually, they agree to coordinate and work
together on an investigative effort.
Korean scriptwriters often come up with some very interesting time travel plots. My Perfect Stranger is a perfect time travel K-drama.
Two perfect strangers end up traveling back to 1987, both with two completely different objectives they wish to accomplish. But as they begin to unravel certain events, they discover that their purposes are connected.
However, it's the past. Everything has already happened. Can they really turn back the clock? If they could it would be wonderful, Especially since turning back the clock would result in preventing a serial killer from ever committing the crimes in the first place.
Hae Jun (played by Kim Dong Wook) works as an anchorman at a news station. One day as he is driving his car, his GPS starts acting weird and the voice announces that the directions have changed. Why do weird and strange things always happen on dreary rainy nights? Following the GPS directions he drives into a tunnel and is blinded by a bright light. He stops his car, gets out, and finds an abandoned car. At least …??? It looked like a car. It was actually a time machine. So he did what anybody else would do if they found a time machine. He got inside and tested it to see if he would really travel through time. First, he went to the future and then he went to the past. It was a blast!
But then he decided that since he had already made plans for what he would be doing once he retired, might as well travel to the future life to see if his life had worked out just the way he planned it. His future was not the way he planned it. He had been murdered! That was not a blast. It was a shock!
So! What would be your next thought? Time machine? My murder?
Go back in time to prevent the crime from happening!
Since he had successfully tested the time travel machine, going back and forth between the past and the present was easy. Just get in the car, set the year, and voila! You're there. But this one time, as he was driving through the tunnel, he sees a young woman standing in the pathway.
The woman is Baek Yoon-young (played by Jin Ki-joo), an editor who works at a publishing company. He swerves to try to avoid hitting her but somehow they both end up in the year 1987. She is from the same time period that he was from, i.e. the year 2021.
But why was this woman brought back in time with him?
To him, she's a perfect stranger. For her, the feeling is mutual. She doesn't know him either!
They both have two different purposes for wanting to go back in time. However, as they begin to unravel certain events, it turns out their objectives are intertwined.
The death of Baek Yoon-young's mother was recorded as a suicide, but it is possible that it was murder. She needs to know the truth.
Hae Jun is trying to find a serial killer in the hopes of preventing his own murder 30 years later.
The first murder occurred in 1987 and it took place in Woojeong Village. He and Yoon-young begin working together to unravel the mystery. They have a clue that is rather cryptic. There was a matchbox from the Boong Boong Cafe found at the scene of the first crime and it contained a note: “A woman who reads is dangerous.”
L.U.C.A.:
The Beginning is a Korean drama about a mad scientist who thinks he's
good enough to be like God. In fact, he's convinced himself that he
can make better humans than God.
This
series is 12 episodes, released in 2021, currently streaming on Viki.
As for the genre? It has elements of crime and mystery and
elements of science that might have the viewer wondering if it's
science fact or science fiction.
First, a woman supplied her ovum and a man supplied his sperm. You don't
need to be a scientific genius to know that is the beginning of human life. But! Suppose after you joined the ovum and the sperm,
you combined human DNA with DNA from jellyfish, fruit flies, electric
eels, and other animals. Now! Is the baby a human? A monster? A
half-human, half-monster?
Ryu
Joong-kwon (played by Ahn Nae-sang) is
a scientist who thinks that ethics hinder the research and
advancement of science. He found people who were willing to fund his
unrestricted research, so he was able to perform numerous kinds of
scientific experiments. Only one of his experiments was successful.
He genetically engineered an artificially enhanced child who was named Ji Oh.
L.U.C.A.
stands for Last Universal Common Ancestor. Ji
Oh (played by Kim Rae Won)
is L.U.C.A. This is his beginning.
Some of his ways of investigating crimes can be considered “unorthodox” or “different from the herd”. But the only reason some of his co-workers want to label him as “bad' is because of the things they do when carrying out their official duties are really really bad.
Prosecutor Jin Jeong carries a wooden sword with words engraved on it that say “Anti-justice can not beat justice.” He zealously wields that sword figuratively and literally. Sometimes he gets into confrontations with criminals and has to defend himself. But he truly believes those words that his father taught him and tries to live by them.
Jin Jeong knew that some prosecutors had ways to erase dirty deeds, he simply developed ways to work around them so that justice could be served. How does that make him a bad prosecutor?
Doh Kyung-soo is the male lead in this series and as a loyal fan, I was not disappointed. The storyline for Bad Prosecutor has room to grow and it would be great if there was a Season 2. But as of June 2023, there is no news in this regard. If you have not watched this K-drama, I recommend adding it to your watch list.
Beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Narco-Saints is a Netflix series released September 2022, and based on the true story based on the true story of a drug lord named Jo Bong-haeing. This criminal creep is definitely not the hero of the story. The hero is an honest businessman from South Korea who traveled to Suriname to set up an honest exporting business with his dear friend.
Kang In-gu (played by Ha Jung-woo) is the business andPastor Jeon Yo-hwan (played by Hwang Jung-min). is the wolf in sheep's clothing; a drug lord pretending to be a servant of the Lord.
Kamg In-gu'ss friend is brutally murdered and he gets falsely accused and thrown into prison for drug smuggling. While in prison he is visited by someone from the National Intelligence Service and is recruited to participate in a secret operation. The goal of the operation is to capture the drug lord who deceived him and murdered his friend. Uh oh! The wolf has grabbed a tiger by the tail. HE'S GOING DOWN!!
Scriptwriters for Delivery Man get A+++ for their creativity. A taxi service for ghosts? What an unusual storyline.
A
taxi service for ghosts? Seo Young Min (played by Yoon Chan Young),
is a cab driver who discovers that he can see and hear ghosts. These
wandering souls are unable to leave this world because when they
departed this life, they had some unfinished business. He starts a
service where he picks up these lingering souls, and helps them
finish what needs to be done so that they can be delivered into the
afterlife.
It
proves to be a profitable business endeavor. Only …? His first
ghost passenger is Kang Ji Hyun (played by Minah). Her problem is
not so easy to solve because she has no memory of who she is and why
she ended up in his taxi cab. But she does prove to be a valuable
assistant and with her help, Seo Young Min can help his other ghost
passengers pass on to the next world.
This
series was released in 2023 and is only 12 episodes. Viki viewers
rated it 9.3 out of 10 stars.
Decoy is a K-drama crime and mystery series that has two (2) seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 were both released in 2023 and are six (6) episodes each.
~ Noh Sang Chun (played by Heo Sung Tae) is a thug turned mastermind scammer.
~ Goo Do Han (played by Jang Geun Suk) is a lawyer turned detective.
~ Kang Jang Hoon (played by Lee Sung Wook) was once a detective but is now the Deputy Head. When he was a detective, he was in charge of the team investigating the crimes of Noh Sang Chun. However, the case was closed because the prime suspect died. As the Deputy Head, he is now Goo Do Han's boss.
Goo Do Han is very good at investigating but sometimes his superiors discipline him because he may have not followed "procedure". The Deputy Head has a problem. It's been 10 years since the death of Noh Sang Chun. But several murders are occurring and before the victims die they call the police and say “Help! I am being killed by Noh Sang Chun.”
Detective Goo Do Han is supposed to be at home because he was suspended pending an internal review. He is not supposed to be working. The Deputy Head disregards the fact that Goo Do Han has been suspended from official duty and calls him back to work on this case.
Detective Goo Do Han is stuck between a rock and a hard place. It seems not only is he trying to bring criminals on the outside to justice, but there are corrupt government officials and police investigators on the inside who may be involved as well. He really needs to do his job while watching his back! If he doesn't, he might end up being one of the murder victims. He needs to determine:
If Noh Sang Chun was reported dead but is in fact, alive and committing murders; or
If someone is committing murders and confusing the police by claiming to be Noh Sang Chun.
It is amazing how much intensity could be packed into 12 episodes. Viewers who like crime and mystery TV shows will want to add Decoy Parts 1 and 2 to their watch list.
Read my full review of this K-drama series at PopGeeks.com.
If you like crime thrillers, you'll like the movie called "Georgetown" (2019). The name caught my attention because there is Georgetown, Texas, a city near where I live and then there is the Georgetown near Washington, D.C. I used to work in D.C. and it's a lively place. This movie was set in the historic neighborhood of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia (D.C.)
The reviewers at RogerEbert.com gave the film 2 stars and Rotten Tomatoes gave it 3 stars. Not sure why the ratings were so low. High caliber actors were in this film: Vanessa Redgrave, Annette Bening, and Christoph Waltz. I would give 1 star fir each and the another star for the film. That's 4 stars!
I did not realize until The End that it was based on a true story. Yeah. That creep was an idiot and he really did kill his wife.
The real guy's name is Albrecht Muth.
The name of the character in the movie was Ulrich Mott (played by Christoph Waltz).
In April 2014, Albrecht Muth, 49 years old, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced to 50 years in prison for first-degree murder of his wife.
Even though it would not make my top 10 list, it's a good movie for a Friday night.
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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