Oh My Gost

Hi everyone. the next drama I am going to talk about is Oh MY Ghost or Oh My Ghostess. Its a nice, sweet and warm story of a ghost. Now you may say Warm story of a ghost isn't that an oxymoron....yes it is but those are the best and the right words that can describe the essence of the story. 

  So basically a young twenty year old virgin soul, shin Soon-Ae who is awaiting her salvation, is spending her time in nether-land (neither earth nor heaven) for the last two years with absolutely no memory of her past life. she does not even know the grudge that's holding her back in the nether-land and not letting her move on. About her life she has just one regret, her virginity. she feels bad and sorry about it and strongly believes that the moment she looses it she would be able to escape her current predicament. (Weird, I know) Hence she is desperately trying to find a man with whom she can copulate so that she can finally ascend to heaven. for that She had already tried to seduce a number of young men by entering young and gorgeous female bodies but as soon as she (her soul in the possessed female bodies) comes into intimate contact with those men, they go into shock due to hypothermia. None of them is able to tolerate the coldness  of her soul that emanates from the possessed female bodies. But she still has not given up and keep trying to get into the bed of any random yet handsome man.

          A female shaman catches her soul and keeps her Prisoned  in her home for a long time and finally after having pity on shin Soon-Ae she asks her to find a man with strong virility who will able to withstand the coldness and do the deed with her. Shaman also informs her how every soul can find a body that has a best matching frequency to it but once it enters the body the things can become a little tricky since soul may find it hard to leave the body on his/her own will and may get stuck in that body forever. Lastly shaman tells her that she has only one year more since a soul can wander in nether-land only for three years, post that the soul will transform into an evil spirit and will cause harm and trouble to people. so she must avoid reaching that stage and should resolve whatever grudge she has by then. Scared by her words, Shin Soon-Ae shoots off from shaman's home on the first opportunity and coincidentally enters the body that has a matching frequency with her's aka Na Bong-Sun.

          Na Bong Sun has had a little pathetic life herself. not only she has a mousy personality but thanks to the gene passed on to her from her grandmother she can also see ghosts and spirits, which always scares her to the extent that she can not even sleep comfortably at night. these two traits prohibit her from expressing herself truly and make any friends. she works as an assistant chef at the restaurant owned by her crush, Kang Sun Woo who runs it together with his handicapped sister and three other supporting chefs. due to her personality she is not able to become closer with any of her colleagues thus has always being loner. Stuck in Bong Sun's body Soon-Ae encounters Kang Sun woo and the rest of his restaurant staff. From here on our story truly begins....(Don't expect me to narrate the whole story. Go and watch the series I am sure you will either love it or really love it.)

Due to the lascivious nature of Soon-Ae, tsundre-persona of Sun woo and a little bumble bee like personality of Bong Sun the drama is full of hilarious scenes. At the same time there are some really poignant moments especially between Soon-Ae and her family. The series has a refreshing villain in the form of possessed Choi Sung-Jae. The supporting cast is not just a filler to provide some comic relief but their interaction with the main cast and with each other is something that I actually looked forward to while watching the drama. Though I must agree characters like the chefs in the restaurant were greatly inspired by another K-drama, Coffee prince's characters. Not that I have any complaint about it since I really adored that drama but what I did not like was the last episode. the story could have winded up nicely in 15 episodes but to fill in the gap for one extra episode they imitated the last episode of the coffee prince almost point to point.....but the makers redeemed themselves in my eyes by bringing Seo In guk for a guest role in the last episode...so yay for that.

All in all with a resilient story frame work and really powerful actors as well as characters the drama is just my cup of coffee...Strong, aromatic and sweet..:)


  

Hello Monster

hey guys...these days I am extremely sleep deprived and lagging considerably behind the schedule thus no time for proofreading so u guys may find a lot of grammatical mistakes in my recent posts. All this is because I foolishly marathoned my way through not only one or two but three drama series in one week.....phew. I can't say that i like all three but yeah i like some parts in all of them. So lets review them one by one.

First one is HELLO MONSTER aka I remember you. Although Wikipedia calls this one a suspense- romance drama but the genre of this drama is thriller rather than suspense. So you can put your sleuthing skills to rest as there is nothing to guess around. you can tell pretty much from the 3rd or 4th episode onward that who is who and who did what? confusing...its not.

Its the story about a brilliant yet cold professor, played by Seo In-Guk and a hardworking, passionate detective, acted by Jang Na-Ra, both of them after losing their only parent to the same person try to cope up with their pain in their own way. In order to seek closure for their family and themselves they continue to pursue that murderer who is hiding in open and is lurking not in the shadows but right beside them. its them who have to stop looking high and low and look in front to know who is waiting for them at the next corner.

The drama could have been better had the makers continued the flow of the story as it was in the beginning till the end. In order to cater the viewers with a crappy happy ending they ruined an otherwise perfect series. what completely baffles me is SPOILER AHEAD  how can you let the psychopath who killed atleast half of a century people away, just like that. and whatever happened to the main leads who were obsessed with catching him for 15 episodes and then finally when he was within their reach they let him escape. regardless of their predicament i still find it a little hard to swallow and as if that's not enough once he flee they don't even bother with him anymore and keep leading their own life where as that poor psychopath is still waiting for those two to catch him...i don't know for whom should i feel more sorry for the still waiting psychopath or for the poor viewers who are still shocked with the abruptness of the drama....sigh.

All in all its worth a watch series so i am a little disappointed with the ratings it got. In my opinion this one is quite under-appreciated. anyways here's why you should and shouldn't watch this one:

Should:

1)A strong story that deals with psychopaths and how their inner mind works, how people of exactly similar mindsets can lead completely opposite lives due to the sheer difference between their will and circumstances.
2)Powerful performance by all the actors noticeably Seo In-Guk, Jang Na-Ra and Park Bo-Gum.
3)A subtle romance between the main leads. Their slow building relationship goes through many phrases, first a stalker and stalkee then colleagues, confidantes, friends and lastly lovers.
4)Finally watch this one for eye candies, a beautiful female lead and a really handsome male lead. now go on and call me shallow but I am most certainly not. Biased I am  but shallow no....NO (well you see I have a thing for Seo in guk ever since his debut in Love rain)

Shouldn't:

1)A story line that took off like a rocket and towards the end skewed from its path and then ultimately crashed back. the ending does not fit in with the series, though it was not rushed but yet it was not complete.
2)Lack of passion between the OTPs. not that you can blame them for this since their relationship undergoes so many changes so along the way it looses the heat and passion. so if you are looking for a hardcore romantic series then this one is not for you since the romance is not the first priority in this drama.
3)Repetitive scenes. each episode has at least two or more scenes which are repeated later through flashback. if its in order to avoid puzzling the viewers then its completely not needed. we have already watched far more complex series without any supplementary help. Watching the re-telecast of so many scenes becomes completely annoying.

I give this series a thumbs up and would recommend this to people who dare to experiment with their drama-dose.

SILENT SEPARATION Drama Vs Movie

You Are My Sunshine

I don't think there is any need to introduce this novel to anyone but for the heck of it let me provide a succinct synopsis for the new readers. The book is about Zhao Mosheng and He Yichen. Mosheng who fell in love at the first sight with Yichen in the university, after persistently persevering for a period of time finally managed to score a goal in his heart. Yichen, a seemingly perfect guy with a bright future, though slowly but gradually also started liking her. but due to misunderstandings caused by He Yimei (sworn sister of Yichen), complex past of Yichen and Mosheng's insecurities about their relationship, they end up getting separated for seven years. During this period Mosheng goes to U.S. and becomes a professional photographer and Yichen becomes a successful lawyer in China. After seven years when they meet, their life gets tangled again. They pass through a difficult angst and passion filled path to clear up their past misunderstandings but with the lingering love in their heart towards each other they finally get back together, both physically and emotionally.  

What's touching about this story is the strong unspoken love Yichen has for Mosheng. Unlike her he never talks or shows his emotions but he willingly waits for her silently for seven years, hoping to meet her once again. And had she not come back, he would have waited for her through out his life. 

In the drama, characters of Yichen and Mosheng were played by Wallace Chung and Tiffany Tang respectively. And boy, was that a right choice or what. I feel as if Yichen was custom written for Wallace Chung. Tiffany Tang as Mosheng, though not as good as Wallace but still was fine. Their chemistry was super sizzling, the passion, the hatred, the love, their pain each and every emotion was displayed on their face and in their body language. Drama also has some really good actors playing supporting roles, making it all the more watch-worthy. 

In the movie Yichen is played by Huang Xiaoming and Mosheng by Yang Mi. HXM without any doubt is very handsome but seeing him play a teenager going to college, was really too much for my eyes. As it is, it's going to be hard for any actor to step into Wallace's shoes for Yichen but letting HXM do so was an utter disaster.  Personally, i really like Yang Mi. So far i have always liked her work. In this movie also she has not disappointed me. Her mosheng was neither at par nor subjugated by Tiffany's mosheng. And since HXM and YM both are beautiful people thus they looked aesthetically very appealing together. but that's all there it is to their chemistry. 

The screenplay of the movie itself was very weak. In order to abridge the story, the writer has cut down some really important scenes while keeping some useless scenes. for example:  in the novel after their so called marriage when Mosheng felt neglected and unacknowledged by Yichen and in her troubled state of mind ends up getting a really weird hairstyle. this provided a much needed comic relief at an angst-filled point of the story. rather than having a scene like this the movie showed a shirtless HXM swimming laps after laps to curb down his anger (this may appeal to some but not to me.)

As far as the supporting  characters are concerned i don't know where to start. the movie has angelababy (real life wife of HXM) casted as Yimei and Tong Dawei as Ying Hui. the total screen time for both the characters was 3 and 5 minutes respectively. Which renders me completely unable to form an opinion about Angelababy but Tong Dawei for sure has done a better job than Tan kai (actor who played Ying Hui in the drama). Then there's Tao (Member of the korean idol band EXO). I am not so sure about what exactly was his role in the movie. In one scene you will find him giving medicines to HXM and in another as bar tender in a bar where HXM is boozing and in the next scene he joins HXM's law firm gang when they visit HXM's home for the first time post his wedding to Mosheng.....I am so puzzled. 

I can only conclude this article with one statement: was the director duo Yang Wenjun and Huang Bin paid heftily to create the eighth wonder of the world ie. to make a really confusing movie using a strong story, fine actors and lavish budget. 

If you are not into reading books , you can still enjoy the drama, as it covers all aspect of books with great detailing. And for the movie watchers, even if you have read the novel it will only leave you bewildered. A fair warning : DON'T try to watch this movie if you have not read the novel. AND TO ALL THOSE POOR LAMBS WHO HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK AND HAD WATCHED THE MOVIE ALREADY: MY CONDOLENCES.