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.)
Fans of Jang Hyuk will enjoy this intense action-packed historical period Korean drama series.
Lee Dae-gil
(played by Jang
Hyuk) is the son of a noble family,
who fell in love with Kim Hye-Won (played by Lee
Da-Hae), a slave. Her brother destroyed
his master and everything he owned. He thought he had killed Lee
Dae-gil. The brother destroyed the slave ownership papers and
created a new life for himself and his sister.
Since Lee Dae-gil had lost his family's wealth, he became a slave hunter. Mainly, because he was searching for the woman he loved, assuming that she was still a slave on the run. He would capture slaves, collect the reward, and then help them escape again but this time to freedom. Lee Dae-gil is also hunting for Song Tae-Ha (played byOh Ji-Ho). He has been labeled as a slave but he is a brave and noble warrior who will one day reclaim his honor.
To continue establishing
his reputation and wealth, Hye-Won's brother arranges a marriage for
her. On the day of the wedding, she runs away. She is about to be
attacked by bandits but Tae-Ha rescues her. Their relationship grows
into romance, all the while she believes her first love, Lee Dae-gil,
has died. Eventually, Lee Dae-gil finds her but realizes that she in
now in a loving relationship with the man, the slave, he has been
hunting. From there …. (NO SPOILERS!)
Shin
Se-kyung is a popular South Korean actress who started her career in
the entertainment industry as a child. However, my first
introduction to her was in the award-winning television series Six
Flying Dragons (2015–2016). She was the woman the king loved but
he could never possess. Her performance was impressive. After
watching that series, I earnestly searched for her in other Korean
dramas.
Shin
Se-kyung began as a child actress. Her acting career spans close to
two decades with her filmography listing several films and TV series.
From a combined total of 25 movies and TV series, fans can surely
choose her “best five Korean dramas”. Even though Shin Se-kyung
has accepted roles in various different genres, in my opinion, she
shines brightest in fantasy or historical period Korean
dramas. For this reason, my recommendations for the best five (5)
K-dramas to watch are:
Six
Flying Dragons (2015–2016)
Tree
With Deep Roots (aka Deep Rooted Tree ~2011)
Rookie
Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (2019)
The
Bride of Habaek (aka Bride of the Water God ~ 2017)
Queen
Seondeok (2009)
For
the year 2023, Shin Se-kyung was chosen to play the female lead in
two highly anticipated TV series:
Our Blooming Youth is a historical period Korean drama series, released in 2023. It’s 20 episodes and currently streaming on Rakuten Viki.
Crown Prince Lee Hwan is played by Park Hyung Sik. It was rumored that the crown prince murdered his brother so that he could take his place on the throne. Because of this wicked act, he was sent a “ghost letter”. Supposedly a ghost wrote a letter that said he is cursed. The curse has several parts to it. He will never be king, he will be betrayed by those he trusts, he will cause many people to die, and finally, he will die all alone with no wife and no children.
Lady Min Jae Yi is played by Jeon So Nee. She is the daughter of a nobleman who is also the master/teacher of the crown prince. In addition, she is engaged to be married to the prince’s best friend. It was rumored that she betrayed her husband-to-be by engaging in an illicit affair, and murdered her entire family in order to run away with her lover. She’s a fugitive on the run, a lady in distress.
My preference is for Korean historical period dramas. I get so attached
to the characters. The women look so elegant and refined in their silk
dresses; and their hair is so beautiful, adorned with those pretty hairpins. The men look so noble with those hats and those robes. If it
weren't for the fact that the king and crown prince wore special robes,
all the guys could look like kings.
Joseon was the last dynasty of Korea and its longest-ruling Confucian dynasty. During its reign, Joseon encouraged the entrenchment of Chinese Confucian ideals and doctrines in Korean society. Neo-Confucianism was installed as the new dynasty's state ideology. Wikipedia
Here is a problem for me that makes it difficult to watch the modern
K-dramas. Once I see these men and women in the traditional clothes of
the Chosun (or Joseon) era, it's hard to look at then wearing modern clothes in a
20th century drama or comedy. They just don't look the same!
Fortunately, in America, there are sites that stream these series so
that I can watch them online. I can't afford to pay for the subscription
so I have to watch with the advertisements. But I'm OK with that.
(Even though it takes forever!)
Here's a TIP. Don't ever pick a series that is fairly new and all the
episodes have not been uploaded and translated with the English
subtitles. I made that mistake once. Never again!
I got hooked on “The Flower in Prison”
(2016). but I did not realize that it was a new series. Oh the agony of
waiting for the next episode to become available. But it was worth it!
However, whenever I get ready to watch a Korean drama TV series, I make sure all the episodes are there.
I recently read an article about female philosophers who were contemporaries with the male philosophers in the ancient world like Aristotle, Epicurius, Socrates, etc. ("Wise Women: 6 Ancient Female Philosophers You Should Know About") I did know one of the women philosophers named in the article: Hypatia. I knew of her because I saw a movie about her. Rachel Weisz played the part.
I love Rachel Weisz. She is a fantastic actress. But I did not like this movie. Of course, Ms. Weisz did a fantastic of playing the role of Hypatia. What I did not like about the movie was that it was the story of a real life human being and her ending in the movie was horrific! What was worse? When I did more research on the real woman, it turns out the movie did not really show what happened to this woman. The Hollywood version of her death was horrible. But what they did to her in real life was much much worse. Why did she have to die that way when she had really done nothing worthy of death? I don't want to explain it. It's too graphic. I give this movie a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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!
I love foreign films and television shows, as long as they have English subtitles. But what if? What if there was a tool to combine my education with my entertainment?
I got hooked on Korean dramas several years back. I especially liked the historical dramas during the Joseon or Chosun time period.
Because Netflix did not have enough K-dramas to satisfy me, Viki became my GO-TO site for Asian TV. One thing that used to frustrate me though was having to wait for a series to be translated with English subtitles. My first K-drama television series was “Tamra the Island”. The young British noble William seemed to have a gift for learning languages. But the one thing I noticed when I started watching K-dramas was that the language was not that difficult to learn. I am not gifted like William however I found it easy to pick out conversational phrases like “Have you eaten?” However, the idea of adding a feature to the video that helps you learn the language? That's absolutely fabulous! Way to go Viki! And the tool will teach Chinese also?? SCORE!
Do you heart Amy Jackson? Do you even know who Amy Jackson is? She’s an actress. OK. Yeah. She’s a hottie! I discovered her by accident, because of two music videos on YouTube.
The first music video attracted my attention because it looked like an Indian version of Beauty and the Beast.
In the other music video, Ms. Jackson was a female photographer who was being taken on a tour in India.
Watching the music videos piqued my interest. Had to seek and find what movies these videos were associated with. I was extremely pleased with the results of my treasure hunt!
♥ But first, let me share a little background info about Amy Jackson.
Her nationality is British; born on the Isle of Man and grew up in Liverpool. She was the winner of several beauty pageants including Miss Teen Liverpool and Miss Teen World. At the age of16, her modeling career began.
Her acting career blossomed almost instantly when she caught the eye of director A. L. Vijay who thought she looked like a perfect fit to play the part of the leading lady in a Tamil language historical period drama. (He was right! IMHO.)
She has appeared in several Indian films and is currently included in the ranks with other female Bollywood superstars. She is also included alongside female superheroes. She is Imra Ardeen / Saturn Girl in the popular American TV series “Supergirl”.
The two South Indian (Tamil) films discovered after watching the related music videos, that made me join the Amy Jackson fan club are Madrasapattinam (2010), a historical period drama. I (2015), a drama sci-fi thriller.
What hooked me about these movies? I’m a sucker for romance. Both were love stories.
Petski, Denise. “’Supergirl’: Bollywood Actress Amy Jackson To Recur As Saturn Girl.”Deadline, Penske Business Media, LLC, 26 Sept. 2017, deadline.com/2017/09/supergirl-bollywood-actress-amy-jackson-recur-saturn-girl-1202176567/.
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.
