[DRAMA REVIEW] Descendants of the Sun (2016)

Current hit drama Descendants of the Sun just finished airing last Thursday. Just like its title, it has become a light in the middle of declining Korean Drama industry. Descendants of the Sun is the first drama that break 30% rating in television after four years. The last episode even has 38.8% rating. This is a fantastic achievement if we see current condition where people prefer watching drama online than watching it on television. It is hard for one drama to reach 10% rating in television nowadays, but Descendants of the Sun manages to change this perception.

The craze for this sixteen-episode drama continues. People search for brands that seen in this drama, go for place just like in the drama setting, and listen for the soundtracks. The casts popularity rise and they were invited to various events overseas. It’s a similar craze with You Who Came From Another Star three years ago. In other words, it’s Hallyu fever all over again!

Amidst all of its hype, a question popped out. Does the drama itself really lives up its hype? Check out my review of Descendants of the Sun below…………………..

Descendants of the Sun tells a love story between a soldier, Yoo Si Jin (Song Joong Ki), and a doctor, Kang Mo Yeon (Song Hye Gyo). They dated briefly, but decided to separate because of their job nature and opposite principal. “Soldier kills people while doctor saves people”, that’s what Kang Mo Yeon said to Yoo Si Jin. Who knows that fate brought them together again in the middle of deserted place, Urk. Fate also brought Yoo Si Jin comrade, Seo Dae Young (Jin Goo) to reconcile his romance with army surgeon, Yoon Myeong Joo (Kim Ji Won). Together all of them try to work out their relationship while fight to save people’s lives in the middle of disaster.

The story actually pretty simple and doesn’t really groundbreaking. We have seen several dramas that deal with nation issue and action or medical element such as The King 2 Hearts and Doctor Stranger. Disaster theme just recently covered by D-Day. However, Descendants of the Sun offers a new perspective to this theme.

It deals with how does your profession affect your way of life and relationship with other people. This drama shows Si Jin and Mo Yeon dedication to their profession. To them, soldier and doctor aren’t just a job. Being a soldier and doctor means that they carry its principal in everyday life. That is why it’s hard for them to date each other in the beginning because they have opposite moral value (You kill, I save). We see Si Jin several times questioned Mo Yeon action, which he thought was dangerous, but she thought it was a common sense action for her. We also see Mo Yeon wish to tell Si Jin her simple worry like lunch menu, but she couldn’t because she knew he has bigger things to worry about. It’s a new angle of story and it makes us able to relate more with the character. We understand their concern and want to see them overcome it.

The story flows smoothly during its Urk setting. We see how Si Jin and Mo Yeon overcome their obstacles, how doctors always have to be prepared to cure people, and how soldiers must ready with the worst option. This drama does a good job in highlighting each element of this story. We see that behind doctors and soldiers readiness, they feel scared and panicked too. It feels real and it makes me respect their profession more. Unfortunately, the story gets lost once they move its setting to South Korea. The writer seems confused on how to fill up the remaining episodes. It’s a pity because this drama starts nicely.

As for the casts, the main leads of Descendants of the Sun don’t have a complex character. However, they need someone who has strong screen presence because both Si Jin and Mo Yeon are figure of authority in the middle of disaster zone. That is why I can see why they choose Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Gyo as the leads.

Song Joong Ki’s army experience and great acting take a big part in making Si Jin’s character believable as a captain. If you see his appearance, he actually doesn’t have an army look. Plus, he’s really charismatic. His eyes speak different feelings and his gaze pulls you in. His partner, Song Hye Gyo also has the same charisma like Joong Ki. She’s basically glowing in this drama from her appearance to her aura. Song Hye Gyo showcases her natural acting as Kang Mo Yeon where I feel that every dialogue is like a daily conversation. But, she displays enough emotions whenever needed. Together they make a sizzling chemistry. You can’t help but smile whenever they start bantering and flirting.

Beside Si Jin and Mo Yeon, Descendants of the Sun also has another couple, Seo Dae Young and Yoon Myeong Joo. Their love story is more intense and heartbreaking because it against Myeong Joo’s father approval. It makes us sympathize more to their relationship, even I root for their happiness more than for the main couple. Both Jin Goo and Kim Ji Won present great emotional acting and chemistry. Seo Dae Young tough and stiff personality can balance Yoon Myeong Joo childish and stubborn personality. Also, they did an amazing job in balancing the big names acting and shine on their own. I was particularly impressed with Kim Ji Won who didn’t overshadow by Song Hye Gyo whenever they have scene together despite coming from different actress generation.

Descendants of the Sun also excel other dramas in term of production. We can see that the pre-production process gives a lot of benefit to this drama. It has beautiful cinematography that really emphasizes the beauty of Greece, the actual setting of this drama, and the good-looking appearance of the casts. The editing is slick, which makes 1 hour-duration flies fast when we watch it. The music complements the beautiful scene well although it becomes repetitive at some parts. The other minus points would be some shots are too dramatic, which feels like the writer wants us to feel something, and the massive amount of product placement at several last episodes.

Descendants of the Sun is not a perfect drama, but it’s entertaining to watch. Everything is beautiful from the cinematography, casts to settings. In term of story, it provides a different angle of love and disaster theme although it falls flat at the end. So, does it live up its hype? I have to say yes and I recommend all of you to watch it just to experience this one of a kind Hallyu fever J

Rating:            3.5/5

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[DRAMA REVIEW] Nice Guy (2012)

Olaaaaa!

A good way to start 2013 by posting my blog in two consecutive days.

Yaaaayyyy!!!!!

Today, I am going to review something that I have never written in my blog before. It is about Korean Drama (K-Drama) who gained a large number of viewers last year, "Nice Guy". Yes, I know it is another Korean thingy, but please bear with it, okay? :)

Before going on to the review, I am going to tell you about my history with K-Drama. Actually, I rarely watched K-Drama before. When many of my friends hypnotized by Full House, Autumn In My Heart (Endless Love), and Princess Hours at early 2000s, I did not take any interest on that. My ignorance to K-Drama stopped at 2009. At that time, I began to watch Boys Before Flowers, my first K-Drama, and having a crush on Lee Min Ho, the male lead actor. But, that's just it, my intention to watch K-Drama stop until there, which is I don't know why. Maybe because K-Drama tends to have longer duration than Hollywood Television Series, so I became bored and I had no time to watch that.

Two years later, when I was watching television, I saw the teaser trailer of another K-Drama with many K-Pop idols starred in it, "Dream High". The trailer looked interesting, so I began to find out about this drama. Unexpectedly, my best friend recommended me to watch this drama because she had just finished it. So, I watched this drama and fall in love with it! The story, the casts, and the soundtracks were suited with my preferences. Beside that, coincidentally, the theme of the drama was similar with my condition at that time. Dream High itself is also a door for me to K-Pop  world, so yes, thanks to it :)

If you're thinking that I began to watch other K-Dramas after Dream High, well you're wrong. It took me about eight months to watch another drama. This condition happened because I was more focusing into know more about K-Pop music. So, shortly, in 2012, I watched nine dramas, including Nice Guy which I finished last saturday. Overall, all of the dramas that I watched was pretty decent dramas, despite their absurd story (Fashion King) or ending (Fashion King (again) and Big).

That is my long history about how I gotten into watching K-Dramas. Now, back to Nice Guy itself, the story is about a medical school students, Kang Maru (Song Joong Ki), who was blindly in love with his childhood friend, Han Jae Hee (Park Shi Yeon), a news reporter that unfortunately, love her career more than Maru. So, when Jae Hee accidentally killed an old man at the motel and she hesitated to turn herself in to the police since it would affect her career, Maru decided to cover it up. Poor Maru, he had to spend five years in prison.

Six years later, Maru and Jae Hee were reunited again on the plane from Tokyo to Seoul. On the plane, Maru, a former medical student, was helping a girl who suddenly collapse. When the girl's condition was getting worse, Maru asked if she had her guardian with her. Fortunately, her guardian is with her and guess what, her guardian is none other than.......................Han Jae Hee!! It turned out that Han Jae Hee married this collapse girl's (super rich) father, a leader of Taesan company (Kim Young Chul). Jae Hee herself even have a son from her marriage with him, Seo Eun Seok (Jo Whee Joon).

Felt betrayed, heartbroken, and angry, Maru decided to take revenge on Jae Hee. To help him success in his plan, he used Han Jae Hee's stepdaughter, Seo Eun Gi (Moon Chae Won), who happened to hate Jae Hee too. Eun Gi started to grow feeling for Maru, but she did not realize that Maru had been using her. Will Maru's revenge plan success? Well, you have to watch it to know more ;)

(WARNING! Most of the review contains SPOILER! So, read at your own risks!)

The synopsis looked very promising and exciting. It seems you have to prepare a lot of energy, either to scream at annoying scenes, cry at tearjerker scenes or simply only for screaming how handsome Song Joong Ki is. But at the same time, the story itself is like a typical K-Dramas story with love, revenge, betrayal, ambition, and later on, you will meet again with severe diseases and Amnesia, old themed in K-Dramas. I think this is one of the reason why this dramas has high rating because admit it, no matter how typical the story is, it was really interesting to watch! The drama also had a fast-paced story, which I like, because it leaved the viewers no time to catch our breath.

This drama also supported by wonderful casts, so it makes the typical story became more interesting to watch. I really love the three main leads actor and actresses' acting, Song Joong Ki, Moon Chae Won, and Park Shi Yeon. It was really interesting to see them their character transformation and development as time goes by.

Now, I'm going to explain about each of the actors and actresses acting. Song Joong Ki was BRILLIANT as Kang Maru. I know him first from current South Korean most famous variety show, Running Man, as the permanent member, but sadly, he departed at Episode 41 to focus on his acting career. I never watched any of his dramas before, so I did not know anything about his acting yet. Surprisingly, he really got talent for that! I mean I did not expect that kind of cruel, yet vulnerable, bad boy character came from the man who known for his "flower boy" image. His emotions were unpredictable, which can be shown on his expressions, so you don't know what is he up to next. His soft spot to Eun Gi make people, especially female viewers, fall in love with him. Joong Ki also able to make me cry a bucket of tears whenever Kang Maru showed his vulnerable side during episode 14 where he desperately ask Seo Eun Gi to drink the milk or tomato juice which lead to both of their frustrations and also, during episode 19 where he apologized to Han Jae Hee for turning her into a monster and made a promise to comeback to her. 

I also love Moon Chae Won strong character as Seo Eun Gi. It was really refreshing to see the different character for the female lead, who is not weak and always cry. Moon Chae Won successfully transform herself into this selfish and stubborn character because I think this character is completely different from her real personality based from what I saw on her interviews and behind the scene clips. Actually, at first, I prefer Park Shi Yeon acting than her because I was more interested in Shi Yeon's complex character. But, towards the end, she showed us how good her acting is by showing her frustration about her lost memories, which made me cry, in episode 14 and also, about her cancelled wedding in episode 18. She also showed a good chemistry with Song Joong Ki that leave viewers' hope to see them dating in real life.

As for Park Shi Yeon, Han Jae Hee is the most complicated character in this drama. Park Shi Yeon played her role really well, which makes me liking her acting more at first rather than Moon Chae Won's. Her greed for power and money, her ambitions, her seduction to Attorney Ahn (Kim Tae Hun) seriously made me want to slap her face. But, at the same time, I actually understand why she was like that. Han Jae Hee did not trapped into the evil-mean character because people still can see her soft side whenever she was with her son, Seo Eun Seok. Her soft side even often being showed toward the end of the drama whenever she begged to Maru for coming back to her. I still remember her bench scene with Kang Maru, where Maru apologized for turning her into a monster and made a promise to comeback to her, in episode 19 that showed both of Park Shi Yeon and Song Joong Ki's great acting. One of the most memorable scenes in K-Drama!

Other casts were also played a good role. Lee Sang Yeob acting as Seo Eun Gi's most trustworthy co-worker/friend, Attorney Park, obviously make us fall in love with his character. Based on my observation, there is always one character like Attorney Park in K-Dramas. He is the one who is handsome, who is too nice, who knows every secret on the drama, who has an unrequited love for the female leads, and who ended up being injured or death. Oh and am I the only one thinking that his character and appearance reminded me of Prosecutor Kim in 2011 K-Drama, City Hunter?

There is also Attorney Ahn, played really well by Kim Tae Hun, the main antagonist in Nice Guy. Compared to Han Jae Hee, Attorney Ahn had more "You-are-an-asshole-I-want-to-punch-your-face" moments for me because he was really annoying. His transformation from the passive guy who secretly in love with Jae Hee to the obsessive guy who want Jae Hee, money, and power, also suprised me. Good job, Kim Tae Hun! 

Then, there are also Lee Kwang Soo and Lee Yoo Bi as Kang Maru's best friend, Park Jae Gil, and Kang Maru's sister, Kang Choco, who often created the funny moments in the drama, so people did not become stress out with soo many conflicts on this drama :p Kwang Soo and Yoo Bi's good chemistry makes the viewers cannot stop giggling and smiling whenever they appeared in one scene. All of their interactions were cute, funny, and sweet. And also, I kind of like both of their characterization who did not trap into become the clown of this drama. The write showed that Jae Gil and Choco had a heart too. Lee Yoo Bi was good in crying scene and her affection toward his brother was also believable. And for Lee Kwang Soo, this man surprised me because he was actually soooooo good in serious scenes like when he kept begging Maru to do a surgery to cure his sickness. Those scenes were heartbreaking.

Another actor who get my attention is Yang Ik Joon, who played Han Jae Hee's brother, Han Jae Shik. Han Jae Shik is the love/hate character for the viewers. I swear he was really annoying at first! His intention to bring down Jae Hee and kill Eun Gi made me frustrated. But, then, after Choco gave me a seaweed soup that reminded him of home (this is hilarious, but sweet actually), he began to change into good person. He also become very funny too by being the matchmaker for Choco and Jae Gil. He even found his own destiny at the end by opening a restaurant. Han Jae Shik has turned from one of the most hated character into one of the most lovable character in Nice Guy and Yang Ik Joon had a great job portraying him.

Overall, Nice Guy is one of the best and most memorable K-Drama that I ever watched. Great casts and characterization which accompanied by interesting story line, great soundtrack (I SUPER LOVE Junsu's Love is Like a Snowflake!!!!), beautiful settings and outfits. The ending itself was rather unexpected to me in either bad or good way. Eventhough there are still many plot holes and questions that left unanswered, the whole drama covered it up. Lastly, one of the most interesting part in watching Nice Guy is how the characters able to leave a spot in the viewers' heart. Watching them for twenty episodes is like a roller coaster journey for us. So, when Kang Maru finally said that he is happy at the end of episode 20, we cannot help to smile and happy for him. We feel relieved and sad at the same time, because we won't be able to see them every Wednesday and Thursday again (I already miss Song Joong Ki! Let's hope he will have another great drama in 2013 :)). Once again, watch it! It's recommended :)


Rate                                                  : 4/5

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