I am Sam (3)

This is one of the kdrama boxsets that I bought on my last shopping trip to KL. Hmmm...was that on June, July last year? :) I just had the oppurtunity to watch it last week after I really really told myself not to buy any new boxset. Gosh! I saw yesterday that East of Eden boxset are available now in stores here, haha if I had enough money then I would have bought it then and there and after my visit to the bank I told myself not to go to any cds shop, cause I don't have time to watch it now...my flight is tomorrow!

Sinopsis of the drama - its about this timid and 'weird' teacher, Jang Ee San (Yang Dong Geun) (I'm not sure how to describe his character in a nutshell, it's like a 'nerdish' but inappropriate for a teacher) chance encounter with a spoiled mobster's daughter in the street. Since she seems lost and desperate he asks her if she needs any help. He let her stay in his small apartment for the night since she says she can't go home because her father was abusive and come morning before he went to teach, left her his phone number if she got into any trouble. She did come into trouble and end up in police station, he come to bail her out. Then she said something unbecoming for a girl (huh! its alright for a male to curse is it?) and get a slap from him.

Yoo Eun Byul (Park Min Young) being the spoiled daughter of a highly dangerous mob leader, though her father was so temperamental and scary to others, he never raised a hand to Eun Byul. So she was rather shocked to get this treatment, it was a whole new experience! When she did come home, she get a tongue lashing from her father which stop when she said she wants to study again, but not a private tutor at home. She wants to study in the school where Ee San was teaching.

The father then brought Ee San to his mansion and informed him of Eun Byul's decision. At first, Ee San decline no matter how much money was offered, he don't want to associate himself with the mob but then his life was threatened, so he had to accept to teach Eun Byul. What I don't understand is why he forced Ee San to live in the same house as Eun Byul? It's not as if after school hours he gave her another private lesson...

Eun Byul ends up in Ee San class then with her father's influence. It turns out his class was the 'most problematic' class in the school. Being the new student she was harassed but she stood up on her own. Her alterations with the school badboy, Chae Moo Shin (TOP from Big Bang), just when she entered the school's ground was also of not help.

Then there is some kind pulling thing between Eun Byul and Shin So Yi (Son Tae Young), the art teacher. His romantic relationship between him and So Yi was just started, then Eun Byul came into the picture and he had to rearrange their date to fit Eun Byul's schedule and he can't tell the truth to So Yi.

So Yi always confiding in Sun Ho about her problems with Ee San…

and her worries over the closeness of Ee San and Eun Byul came into fruitition. They have taken a liking to each other as time passes.

I was laughing my side off when So Yi came to visit Ee San at their house and that time Eun Byul's father and Mr. Kim (his right-hand man) was also checking up on him. So to cover up, he introduce the father as his father and Mr.Kim as his younger brother. He really took the oppurtunity to bully back Mr.Kim who can't do anything since he's pretending to be the younger brother.

All of the class members were really adorable. The class's monitor who sprouts out latins with almost every line he speaks, the 2nd place nerd, the Bin's trio, Sa Kang, Moo Shin, etc!

I also like Eun Byul's classmate So Kang, she was aloof at first but slowly opens up to Eun Byul cheery attitude and I think she likes Moo Shin who at first like Eun Byul. What I like about her character is that she doesnt try to force her affection on Moo Shin but let their relationship evolves on their own.

It’s a pretty light-hearted and funny drama to watch. He was such a incompetent teacher before Eun Byul came into the picture, but afterwards he started getting close and personal with each of his students and started to understand the meaning of a real teacher (not just standing infront of the class, dribbling with facts). Yang Dong Geun is really perfect as this kind of 'quirky' teacher. Now I'm interested to watch his other drama such as Dr. Gang, i was curious if the "quirkiness" is truly him or he is just get into the character. Yeah, it was a put off before cause he's not that good looking ^_^


Park Min Young (Eun Byul) is so cute and adorable, her acting was not over, the sweetness not nauseating, also looking forward to her newest drama with that skinny actress (cant remember her name).

Lee Min Ho!!! Even before BBF I still believe I would find him cute ^_^

The 3 men for Eun Byul. Park Jae Jung is the hottest... though I hate his weak character in YAMD

Cast
Yang Dong Geun as Jang Yi San
Park Min Young as Yoo Eun Byul
T.O.P as Chae Moo Shin
Son Tae Young as Shin So Yi (the art teacher- Kwon Sang Woon's wife!)

Extended Cast

Ryan as Ji Seon Hoo (the doctor, in Hello! Miss)
Park Jae Jung as Kim Woo Jin ;Mr. Yoo's right hand man (Hosae in You Are My Destiny)
Park Chae Kyung as Min Sa Kang (the female fren)
Lee Min Ho as Heo Mo Se ( Boys Before Flower...need I say more? He's so adorable)
Park Chul Ho as Kim In Seol (the monitor, the brother who get stabbed in The Devil)
Yoo Tae Woong as Go Dong Sool
Kim Hong Sik as Park Nam Kyu
Choi Joo Bong as Heo Duk Bae (principal / Mo Se's father)

Stardust

I'm not sure how to describe Stardust, on one hand it has some fantasy elements, but I don't think it's for the younger audience like Narnias or Harry Potter are. But whatever, it didn't bore me as Harry Potter movies adaptation were - it has part fantasy, part comedy, part drama. It suitable for ones who wishes for something lighthearted.

Sinopsis:

There's one small village in England that border a magical world and one evening a young Durnstan Thorn sneak past the guard of the hole in the wall to see the other side and met a witch's slave girl. This-around-5-feet-high-stone wall is what separate the two worlds! Anyone could just climb over the wall, not just slip through the hole. Anyway, I'm not sure if they fall instantly in love or what, but they spent the night together and 9 months later Durnstan was visited by the wall's guard, somebody had left a gift for him by the wall - a baby boy in a basket named Tristan.

18 years later, we met the young Tristan (Charlie Cox) who was enamored to the town's beauty Victoria (Sienna Miller); who in turn prefers Humphrey, who seems to be wealthy and dashing.
One night, Tristan convinces Victoria to come out to a night picnic to look at the stars. He found out that Victoria plans to accept Humphrey's proposal on her birthday; in 2 weeks time. He proclaimed some romantic gestures to prove his love is greater than Humphrey when a falling star come into view. He said he will present that star to her on her birthday if she promise to marry him.

The star was actually struck down by the necklace that the current king of the magical kingdom called Stormhold has enchanted on his deathbed. He declares that "he of royal blood" (hmmph! is 'royal' blood any different from non-royal blood?) who first find the ruby pendant and turns it back to its original red colour will become the next ruler of Stormhold. Then just as his surviving sons tries to grab the necklace, it shoots up towards the sky, struck a star, and the necklace and the star comes stumbling back to earth. Could NASA invent a rocket as fast as that, to the far horizon and back all in one night? ^_^

The king has 7 sons - Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus and Septimus (yeah, very imaginative names and easy to remember their order) and 1 daughter, Una (the daughter was missing for years, and no one make an effort to search for her?!). So since Secundus, Tertius, Sextus and of the Q was already dead by their own sibling's hand, only left for the remaining sons to search for the ruby. Another, story tangent was 3 ugly old witches (led by Michelle Pfeifer) who wants to become young and beautiful again by the sacrificing) the fallen star.

Back to Tristan, he fails to slip past the wall's guard as his father's did, hehe "fooled me once -shame on you, fooled me twice- shamed on me!". So he goes back home dejectedly to his father who then gives him a note and a Babylon candle his mother left to him when he was a baby. (But really! even if he does not love her, he did not even try to see the mother of his child even once???). Anyway, Tristan lights the Babylon candle to go to her, but accidentally thinks about the star, and is magically transported to the star's impact area in the kingdom of Stormhold. The star is not what he expected: The star is actually a beautiful, immortal and spirited young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes). Haha, he thought at first she was his mother and called her 'mother' when he was corrected by the disgruntled star.

Determined to win Victoria's heart, Tristan chained himself to Yvaine. He promised Yvaine he will use the last of the magic candle to send her back to the sky after he has taken her to Victoria.As we know Tristan is not the only one seeking Yvaine, there are the 3 witches and the sons of the King - for Yvaine now wore the necklace. So their adventure began...

As predicted they fall in love with each other. Yvaine confess first that she fall in love with him, when Tristan was turn into a mouse by a witch- she thought he wont understand her. She said she realise that love is what makes it bearable to look down at our miserable world. Love is unconditional, to love somebody is to want nothing in return, but to be loved in return. Hmphh...that concept is 'romantic' in movies and novels, but in the real world is just plain stupid. I think every action, every decision we made was because we want something in return. We are selfish being. So she wants nothing but to be love in return, what if she didn't get that love in return? what happen to her love? does it turn to hate?

Tristan was still woozy after being turned back to human form again, he called Yvaine -Victoria. She said she prefer "Mother" ^_^

Three questions after I watched this movie:

1. How does Una know, Yvaine is the fallen star and cannot pass over the wall?

2. How does Una recognize Tristan as the son she pack in a basket and send to the father?

3. and lastly, are they trying to depict Captain Shakespear as gay when he winked at Humphrey at the end of the movie?

I like Claire Danes after watching R&J, I think she has fresh and innocent look (like below pics) but in this movie she looks dull and old :(

The Painter of The Wind (3.2)

This drama took the characters of two real great korean historical artists/ painter; Danwon and Hyewon. However, here Hyewon or his real name Shin Yoon Bok was potrayed as a woman, disguised as man by his/her adoptive father so she can gained admitance to royal painting institute, Dohwaseo. She had vague recollection of her real parents who was murdered right infront of her eyes.

One day, their class had an outing in which they are "free" to paint whatever they wished without having to put their name on their drawing and Yoon Bok painted the above. The seniors of the institute judged the painting as lewd for its hidden meaning; a lady who had just met her lover thus the man's hat she was holding and something abouth the tree. Actually, I think they tried to justify why the Queen Mother asked them to find the painter at all cost or else its their head on the platter!

Why the Queen Mother was meddling in this triflling affair? Because she was the lady that Yoon Bok had paint! You'd think being the Queen Mother, she is old, but actually she was quite young and beautiful to be the current King's Step-Grandmother (picture above). Yes, when Yoon Bok had paint her, she had just met her lover for one last fling while the King was performing some kind of prayer to ask for rain. Though, Yoon Bok had only paint her back, she was afraid she would be found out and set out to find and eliminate the painter. Hmph... if only she did not make such a fuss, no one would notice her distinguishing birthmark under her right ear that Yoon Bok had also paint - she was such a stickler for details!

Anyway, the seniors was at their dead end, none of the student owned up that it was their painting - Yoon Bok made an attempt, but hinder by her adoptive father. As a last resort they had to call back the exiled Kim Hong Do aka Danwon who was such an expert in analysing a painter styles so can identify the painter. He was the one that later who teaches Yoon Bok how to paint and they develop a strong friendship of mentor and disciple.

Danwon was also a close friend to the King who wishes to avenge the wrongful death of his father under the manupulation of the Queen Mother. (The King is the same king as in Yi San). So when the time came to reveal the identity of the painter... Danwon choose not to reveal! When his hands was going to be crushed because of that, Yoon Bok that he send away earlier came running through the gate (in the nick of time!) and said she was the painter. Then her adoptive brother also came forward and claimed the same thing... chaos ensue!

Isn't that sweet, Young Bok tries to comfort Yoon Bok, saying everything will be alright. He will take the blame cause she's more talented than him. But Yoon Bok won't hear of it, she would not let her brother take the fall....

Then, the king came into their rescue and manage to get the Queen Mother to stand back, and he lighten their punishment.

I enjoyed the early part of this drama, how the King witfully handled the Court who was in cohort with the Queen Mother. But the alterations between Yoon Bok and Jeong Hyang make me go Ewwww!!!!! It was understandable for Jeong Hyang to be attracted to Yoon Bok, since she thought she was a he but for Yoon Bok to like Jeong Hyang???? I tried to tell myself at first that the longing look Yoon Bok casts at Jeong Hyang was not that she yearned for Jeong Hyang, but yearning for the woman she could have been...

I would prefer that they tried to get deeper on her relationship with Danwon, even as old as he was compared to her. We know clearly, Danwon feelings for her had turned romantic (even before he know for sure that he was a she, but he fights it!), but what about Yoon Bok to Danwon? Does she still look at him as a teacher/ mentor?

Or maybe developed more story of her with her adoptive brother, Young Bok. When her painting was being questioned, Yoon Bok asks Young Bok if it’s really so wrong to make a painting of a woman - after all, every time a woman pass by - men start drooling openly, or all they can talked about when they gathered are women. She comments on the hypocrisy of acting that way, and yet being forbidden to add those parts of life into painting. Then Yoon Bok asks Young Bok if he likes any woman himself, and his over-exaggerated reaction makes it obvious that he does have a lady he likes. And his facial expression suggest that woman is ...Yoon-bok! ( I was delighted with this!). And as the story goes on... more and more so. He was so schwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeet.

She was not afraid to make ugly faces on screen.

I do think Korea's Little Sister, Moon Geun Young is cute. (I specially like her when she pretend to be a woman when she was really a woman - so funny! and so believable that she feels awkward being femininely). But the eye-candy in this drama for me are Lee Joon and Bae Soo Bin (the King)! First notice in Jumong, not a major character but still eye-catching. I think it's his eyes that makes me notice him, even when he smiles amusingly, his eyes seem mocking... Then he looks handsome in Emperor of the Sea, but here he looks hot as the king! :D

I won't highly recommend this drama, but I find it an interesting drama nonetheless. It makes me look at a painting/drawing with a new eye. I know I don't have any artistics talents (cant even draw a straight line without a ruler!) but here it shows that to be an artist you need to be observant, know the law of nature etc. Sigh! How I wish I do have the talent. What I would love to paint is the clouds, white thick fluffy clouds with beautiful blue background sky, thin speck of white on a sunny day or even stormy black clouds. I tried to capture it on camera, but my digital camera was not good enough to catch the beauty and grandiose of The Mighty creation.

Cast
Moon Geun Young as Shin Yoon Bok

Park Shin Yang as Kim Hong Do

Lee Joon as Shin Young Bok Bae Soo Bin as King Jeong Jo
Park Jin Woo as Jang Hyo Won

Moon Chae Won as Jeong Hyang
Extended Cast
Park Hyuk Kwon as Lee In Moon (Kim Hong Do's friend)
Ahn Suk Hwan as Shin Han Pyeong (Yoon Bok's adopted father)
Ryu Seung Ryong as Kim Jo Nyun
Jung In Gi as Hong Gook Young
Im Ji Eun as Queen Jeong Soon
Kim Eung Soo as Jang Byuk Soo
Lee Mi Young as Mok Kye Wol
Yoon Joo Sang as Kang Soo Hang
Han Jung Soo as Seo Jing
Lee Kyung Hwa as Myeong
Kim Yoo Jung as young Yoon Bok
Lee Byung Joon as young Young Bok

Slumdog Millionaire

My niece mentioned briefly this movie in her blog and shortly after I read her blog a colleague of mine asked out of the blue if I had watched this movie, he said it was nice. So I was curious, and thus borrowed the dvd from my niece.

It's a British film, set and filmed in India, it tells a story of a young man froms the slums who appeared in an the India version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". Being uneducated, he exceeds people's expectation when he answered all of the question correctly and thus raised suspicions of the game show hosts (Anil Kapoor) that he somehow was cheating. The host handed him over to the police to be interrogated when the show was over for the night and to be continued on the next day.

In police custody, where he is tortured as the police attempt to learn how Jamal, a simple "slumdog", could know the answers to so many questions. Jamal tells his whole story, explaining how his life experiences coincidentally enabled him to know the answer to each question. Haha... the scene afterwards below is the time I had to close my eyes and don't want to think in my head....

Anyway, it tells the story of growing up in poverty for the two suddenly-orphaned brothers, Jamal (Dev Patel) and Salim. Their mother was bludgeon to death infront their eyes during the Hindu-Muslim riots in the slums. Then, they met Latika, also another lone child survivor from the riot. It is a depressing movie really - if you think about the horror lives that children in some of these kind of countries really faced - but if we only takes it just another movie, it is kinda ok... merits those awards at the Academy? I don't know, hehe... since almost all of those movies that won those awards before bored me to sleep!

Well, the hero of the story might be Jamal, but I think the character of Salim is more interesting. Why did he let go of Latika's hand when they chase the train? He don't want the added responsibility? Or he don't want to share his brother? Why he hurt Jamal then, when they finally found Latika again?

Fireworks aka Exhibition of Fireworks (2.5)

I really wasn't planning to watch this drama, but a collegue at work lend it to me, so what the heck since I'm tightening my purse not to buy anymore boxset for the time being and Kang Ji Hwan was in it, what the hell...got to suffer through Han Chae Young then.

But heck... I don't like her so much that I stopped at episode 2. It just wasn't right she was the lead heroine, but I was rooting for the second one. I need to take a breather and clear my head first from any thoughts of her. After a few days, I continue watching....

So the story was Shin Na Ra, almost hitting 30, unmarried and living with her boyfriend of 10 years, Seung-Woo (but practicing abstinence!) and had no stable jobs. Her boyfriend just got back from overseas business trip, and on this trip he fall in love and sleep with another woman. But he feels so beholden to Na Ra who had supported him emotionally and financially all those years that he said he would still willing to marry her (asshole!). Na Ra kicked him out of the house. That's good for her right? but fudge, after a few days she doing anything to win him back again...what-the-hell?...but he had changed his mind, he really love this girl and wanted to be with her.

To make the story short, she met In Jae, whose mother is rich and famous but he prefer to be independent and his almost-sister-in-law bring him back to mother's fold. The almost-sister -in-law was none other than the girl Seung Woo falls in love with, Mi Rae!. Na Ra practicng 'keep your friends close but your enemy closer' finds herself working in the same beauty-care (cosmetics) shop as Mi Rae and In Jae. Na Ra and In Jae becomes close and make a pact to become "couple of convenience", someone to be there for you whenever you need a partner for a drink, watch a movie together and hear you complains whenever you have a bad day - witout any emotional entanglement or attachment. Just when they might be something more to their relationship, In Jae found out that his almost-sister-in-law, Mi Rae is also in love with him. He was willing to see her get married again to another man, but when she confessed she had the same feeling for him also, that his brother was actually the 'replacement' for him, he cannot give her up. So Na Ra's man was again stole by the same person, she and Seung Woo was left in the lurch.

I don't want to write more about the storyline, just enough to say I would have given up watching if it wasn't for Kang Ji Hwan. Hate the Mi Rae character, so...selfish! and so self-righteous! She was in love with In Jae since she was young, but In Jae was busy living life, rebelling, trying to outshone his perfect-brother in his mother's eyes; so when In Jaeng (In Jae's brother) falls in love with her, she decided not to wait for In Jae anymore and just accept it. Then In Jaeng died, since it's the right thing to do - she showered In Jae with sisterly affection. But she can't get over her real feeling forIn Jae, and her guilt over In Jaeng, so she slept with and agreed to marry another man. What kind of woman is that, so centered on herself, and trying to forget one mistake by doing another....argghhh! It was good that Na Ra give back as much as she got. But Na Ra is also one thing, one day she was scheming to get her boyfriend back and then the next she fall in love with another guy. The two guys character also was no better... In Jae realised that he's not really in love with Mi Ra, but decided to marry her still out of pity sake. Seun Woo...well just for being Seung Woo. Seung Woo was played by Yoon Sang Hyun, the guy who was married to Na Young(Eugene) in Three Dads and One Mom... he's like superman in a way; when he's wants to play a nice dorky guy he donned his spectacles, but for a mean character minus the spec ^_^

And oh yeah, a short bob makes Park Eun Hye's face look fuller, she should just stick with her hair all pulled back and tied. Don't wanna say much about Han Chae Young's looks...wonder why she was called Korean Barbie? Is it because she got the fuller figure on top although she was skinny or is it really her face?

Yi San Vol. 4 (3.9)

Please get ready with a box of tissue at your side! Sob! Sob! So many deaths... well, its predictable since this is the last volume.

First, I shed a tear for Dae Su, who sends Song Yeon to be the King's concubine. In that I hate Song Yeon a little bit, for not being overly concerned for Dae Su's feeling. Hmph! What did Han Ji Min intrepretation for her character, Song Yeon must be flattered by Dae Su's feeling for her; in one hand she feels sad for Dae Su, but on the other hand she also don't want him to stop loving her. Wouldn't any woman feels the same way?

For Secretary Hong...well, its nice that they potrayed him as not 100% evil, he's just plain human with first and foremost his own self-interest - but with a conscience. I like the 'bonding' and 'loyalty' between Secretary Hong and the "three musketeers" and between Secretary Hong and the king itself. These must be what friendship is between guys, its there just not verbally expressed, while friendship for the females gender; I don't know...if its most of the time consists of only gossiping then it's just superficial, won't last through time and tribulation.

The king did want to forgive Secretary Hong, cause he knows that his friend was 'just lost his way' then, and its his job as a friend to bring him to the correct path once again. But its not so simple, cause he's the king and his hands are tied. Ironic isn't it, to be a king and be so powerless to do a simple thing as lift a hand to help a friend?

And then it's time for Song Yeon to die... Didn't you asked yourself sometimes, did you cry because you feel sad for the dead, or did you cry because you empathized to the pain of those who are left behind? They wonder how could they lived on, but lived on they did - because lives go on... and the pain dulls. I hate this scene, hello!!!! the love of your life is dying in your arms, but you look elsewhere?!!!

Prince MunHyo, his son with Song Yeon only lived for 4 years. His succesor to the throne was another prince from his other concubine. This I got from wiki since I was curious whose son is it that becomes the king when he passed away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeongjo_of_Joseon

Btw, the little princes are cute, can I adopt a korean baby please? Wakaka...

Well, its a nice drama, but the political skirmishes makes you wanna go argghh! enough already...if they edited these out, it will be much more less episodes, and can save me some $$$...