K-drama Land!

Things I learnt from a Korean Drama - Locations

July 17, 2016
We fans of Korean dramas obsess over every single minute details in a drama that we know the catch phrases, OST and clothes. I recently made a list of medical terms I came across in non-medical dramas. And now I make a list of landmarks I have come to know only through such dramas.

1) N Seoul Tower / Namsang Tower: I first came across this beautiful structure in Boys over Flowers. But over the years, i have seen this crop up in movies and dramas including You Who Came From the Stars. This is usually the place where our OTPs make a promise of undying love and promptly break up a few episodes later.



2) Han River Bridge: Again another spot seen in numerous dramas. Usually a pretty site needs to be used more often for a kiss scene. But then again K-dramas do things differently. Usually a scene here leads to a break up or one of our leads finding out some tragic truth. Whatever the reason, the river has witnessed many of our pretty boys and girls shed tears.


3) Gyeongbokgung: This is almost always shown in Saguek drama. The palace was the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty. a few dramas such as Moon Embraces the sun, Queen In Hyun's Man, Tree with deep roots would be your guide around the palace.



For more locations in Korea, do check out this link . This site gives you a detailed look at all the fun places in South Korea you can visit.

Let us know in the comments below, what locations you came to know thanks to Korean Dramas.  

To Kiss Or Not To Kiss - K-Drama Style

July 04, 2016

I was watching episode 12 of my current crack Secret (with Ji Sung, Hwang Jung Eum) and it made me wonder about the Korean drama Kiss Concepts. I realized that kissing in kdramas is not as simple as in real life.

Cause in real life a kiss is just a kiss, right? In kdramaland every kiss has a history, a tale to tell and, unfortunately, one the following standard MOPs.

1) The accidental kiss ( ‘coz nothing is more attractive than a klutz)


 2) The should’ve -would’ve-but-couldn’t kiss (‘coz I’m too lazy to try harder)



3) The sleeping beauty kiss (aka the I-can’t-risk-getting-slapped-kiss)



4) The cardboard kiss


5) The deer-in-head-lights kiss


6) But then there is the hot kiss. Very rare! This kind of kiss is an art form in itself.






Boss and Me: Eat, Love and Eat - Chinese Drama Review

July 04, 2016
Chinese Dramas (C-Dramas) is an area where I have never really ventured before. I have seen quite a few Taiwanese dramas, but never a C-Drama. So I was mildly surprised when I came across a new genre to obsess over. My first drama Boss and Me/Shan Shan Comes to Eat was pleasant and addictive. 


It stars Zhang Han as Feng Teng a.k.a The Boss whose only family is his sister who has a rare blood type. His family has a tradition of hiring an employee who shares the same blood type so incase of any emergency, they have someone who can help them out. And guess who shares the blood type? Shan Shan is from a small town and whose main talent is eating.... eating lots and lots of food. So she is surprised to be hired by the multinational corporation but is happy just the same. She makes her move to Shanghai where her adventure begins. I have to mention, I could not take my eyes of her face. She is adorably cute and has the biggest and most innocent eyes I have ever seen. 



The pair meet when Feng Teng's sister needs a blood donar. While he is happy to repay Shan Shan with a fat Cheque, his sister has other ideas. Give her a Lunch box packed with delicious food. Though Shan Shan is first happy about the arrangement, office gossip soon has her regretting the decision of accepting lunch from the CEO. She steals away during lunch time to an empty balcony to relish her tasty food. What she doesn't know is that Feng Teng can see her though his window, but instead of being annoyed, he enjoys watching her and soon begins to have lunch with her without her knowledge. It's amusing to watch him enjoy is lunch more just by watching her eat hers. Oh and make sure you have a plate of food right next to you, cause this drama like all other k-dramas will make you hungry. 

This drama progresses with the right amount of cliches - The girl who wants to break them up and does enough to cause a rift between our love birds. But this is drama land and everyone gets a chance to turn over a new leaf and so does she. 


The nice second lead - but in this case he loves the girl who wants to break the couple up. 



The BFFs


What really won me over were our lead characters. Along with solid chemistry, they also showed us a mature relationship. I loved how their relationship is shown. First the initial awkwardness, the misunderstandings and how they both mature and accept each other for who the other person is. Feng Teng is sometimes a bit clueless, which makes me wonder how he runs a company, but he is mature and acts with a lot of sense when he is finally her boyfriend, which won me over. There is not much angst shown in the drama except when they break up midway, but I think that angst was the perfect mix without being overdone. 


While in the beginning I was not really happy with the way Shan Shan was portrayed, I was pleased when she overcome her insecurities of dating Feng Teng and becomes a confident woman towards the end. 

Boss and Me certainly had a few flaws. It may seem slightly long and certain storylines seem absolutely redundant. The side character storyline is forgettable and I found some of them to be rather annoying. But I would still recommend Boss and Me. I give this a 7/10

You can watch Boss and Me Here: https://www.viki.com/tv/22938c-shan-shan-comes-to-eat-aka-boss-me