Top 5 (Recent) Korean Romance Movies.

To be completely honest about it, I haven't watched that many Korean romantic films in the recent years. There are few reasons that contribute to that. First is that I've been busy. It's not that I don't have time anymore to watch a few movies. It's just that if I watch a certain movie, I want to be really interested in it even before watching because I will not and could not finish a movie if I find it to be a bother to watch based on the first few scenes. Another reason is that there are a few Korean romance movies that have really unique and interesting story lines. I watched many Korean romance movies then and it's easy for me to watch from movies to movies because the genre was new to me. Now, I've gotten used to the stories and much like those cliché Hollywood or Filipino movies, I could not take to watch every movie anymore. I just choose those potentially good movies and that's it. Lastly, I try to widen my scope these days. I really like horror or thriller movies, so I give more time in watching movies of that genre. Also, I watch (romance) French, Hollywood, British, Japanese, Thai, and other genres as well from other countries. That's why maybe I don't give time to watch other Korean romance films that are not that appealing to me. Nonetheless, I'm giving my top five Korean romantic films that was released from 2010 to present.

Let's start from..

5. Cyrano Agency (2010)

At times, I really forget what the ending to this movie was. I think that's a good thing though, because you don't watch a movie just because of its ending. It's all about the process of how the story was presented. The concept was really good because it's quite different from the usual Korean romance movies that we all like.

4. How to Use Guys with Secret Tips (2013)

This movie is much more unique than you might expect it to be. The Korean title really means "A Manual on How to Use Men." It's basically about a woman who lacks social skills that a "woman" accepted by society needs, which is the capability to attract men. She then found a videotape (bought it from a weird vendor) that teaches women how to attract men in a step-by-step process. You might have guessed already: she then followed the tips and her life turned around from then on..

There are those types of movies wherein you just don't understand what's going on, because it seems like underneath those weird scenes comes a deep meaning. Perhaps I'm just thinking about it too much, but this movie indeed is somehow weird but its message is interestingly conveyed. You might notice that I like movies that is somehow at the periphery of the usual boy-meets-girl type of Korean movies because of reasons like what I've said in my introduction.

3. My Black Mini Dress (2011)

I actually included this movie already in the list I made for the Top 10 Korean Romance Comedy Movies I made back then, however, it wasn't in the top 10. I didn't include it because it was pretty recent and I wanted to include those old movies that many people really like already. This time, I'm including My Black Mini Dress in this list. This is about four women in their mid 20's who are struggling in life, albeit in different ways. These four were best friends in college but now that they're facing the "real world" already, the fun stopped and now they're struggling to look for the direction they need in life. It's a bit timely because the generation of people in their 20's nowadays are all "struggling" in finding something that is worthy to do for the rest of their lives. It's a matter that many of us are currently experiencing, and so this movie might just be the right movie to watch even though it's not that "romantic" in a sense of having a love story as the main plot of the movie.

2. Sunny (2011)

Like "My Black Mini Dress," this movie is not centered on a love story about a man and a woman. It's also about girls who were the best of friends in high school and got separated upon growing up. The movie alternates between the "present" wherein the girls are already adults and the "past" wherein they were in high school and having fun. I like this movie because it somehow gives you the feeling of nostalgia even if you're not part of the group. It's perfect in representing friendship especially between women. I also really like the soundtrack, especially the song where the title was based on, which is "Sunny" (that we all should love).

1. Architecture 101 (2012)

Architecture 101 or Introduction to Architecture is probably popular among K-pop fans because of Suzy (Miss A). This movie is about first love. The concept of first love in romance movies might not be that unique anymore, but this movie definitely portrayed it in a different way. The movie is somewhat perfect for me. It has this subtle vibe of romance. Usually, movies about first love can be so dramatic and passionate that it just ruins the innocence that's supposed to represent "first love." This is not the case for Architecture 101. The soundtrack was also really good and as you might have noticed, I'm a sucker for good soundtracks. Overall, this movie is at the top of my list because I think it's worthy enough to be in line with my other favorite movies like "My Sassy Girl" or "Windstruck."

That's it for the top 5 recent Korean romance movies. I hope you guys like the movies in the list and I promise to watch more romance movies so that I can review them here.

P.S.

This post is to make up for the past month (February). I haven't posted anything because of my busy schedule, but I hope this list makes up for it. I'll try to post another list (maybe of soundtracks) for the "love month," February.

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Hal「ハル」the movie (2013).

Hal is an animated movie that's depressingly beautiful. It's a sci-fi romance themed animated film that has a twist at the end. I can say that it's pretty good, but I'm not just a fan of the kind of animation for this. The story though was good, and will definitely leave you hung over the main characters after watching.

The story is set on a time when robots can completely act like humans, and I assume that anyone can own one if they can afford to..

Hal is the guy in the picture while Kurumi is the girl. They are in a relationship when Hal suddenly died from a plane crash.

Kurumi was left devastated..

Then this old man asked the robot, Q01, to become Hal so that he could comfort Kurumi who's suffering from Hal's death.

When Hal the robot showed up, Kurumi didn't easily open up to him because she's still afraid.

However, as time went by, Kurumi opened up to Hal the robot while he makes some of Kurumi's wishes come true. (Her wishes are written on rubix cubes that are completed and Hal had to solve each of the faces to be able to read the wish).

Hal also started to get to know the old Hal. Robot Hal tried to understand what kind of person Hal was back then..

Hal and Kurumi started hanging out again and went to a festival together.

After having fun, a guy by the name of Ryu who is supposedly Hal's friend showed up. He expressed his desire to sell Kurumi..

Hal and Kurumi ran from Ryu and his apparently gangster-like friends. 

While running away, Kurumi fell in a gushing river, and it was also raining hard.

I will end my story-telling right here, since anything beyond this scene will be huge spoilers. I think the beauty of this movie is the plot twist because right there, the reality of this story was revealed. Even in this advanced society, there is the existence of humanly feelings of regret, depression, and love. The reality in the story reveals the true essence of it, which is supposed to be telling a story of love between these two people who became victims of a harsh fate.

That's all I can say about this movie. It gave me the chills, and the feeling of finding the meaning of life upon watching it. I'm not even exaggerating. 

K-Mondays: Prime Minister and I (Kdrama)

Prime Minister and I poster from AsianWiki.

Prime Minister and I stars Lee Beom Soo and Yoona (Girl's Generation) as the titular characters, "Prime Minister" and "I," respectively. It started airing last December 2013 (on a Monday & Tuesday run time), and is almost nearing its end. I've only started watching it and I really got hooked. I'm not that of a fan of Yoona, and I'm not really familiar with Lee Beom Soo, that's why I didn't have the motivation to watch this drama when it first aired.

Now for the story..

This drama is about the Prime Minister of Korea who married a young reporter due to circumstances the they were in. Of course, like any other cliché K-drama goes, they don't like each other but still goes through with the wedding for convenient reasons. It's then called a "contract wedding" and so they struggle to keep this secret only between those people who were involved in making the decision. Even the Prime Minister's family (three kids) and Nam Da Jung's (Yoona) sick father are not aware of the wedding being a hoax. 

As you might've noticed, the story is quite the same with Full House and Goong (which are two of my favorite Kdramas). The main characters get into a "contract wedding," where they have to pretend that they're all sweet and in love with each other when in reality, they hate each other and that they're just starting to fall in love. I love clichés like that, and so I easily got hooked with the story. I didn't really bother to look up this drama when it aired, but when I didn't have anything to watch on a certain day, I tried it out and ended up watching most of the episodes that's already out. What I like about this drama is that I don't expect any surprising twists or even exciting scenes from it. Just the good all romance of two people stuck in a situation wherein they're meant to fall in love, seals the deal for me. Clichés never disappoint, since you already know what could happen. I love it!

Not recommended though for those who hate clichés and those people who live for criticizing these sort of Korean romantic comedy drama. By the way, I don't have screenshots for this drama because I didn't download it due to lack of space in my hard drive (whale cries). I do need a new external hard drive because my 1 TB one is already full of movies, dramas, sitcoms, and anime. (whale cries again)

Watch it, cry, laugh and cringe at times.

Countdown to Christmas: Love Actually (2003). 3 days left!

December 22, 2013. Sunday, 12:00am (Philippine time).

I'm done with Christmas gift shopping! (well, except for one last which I'll be buying in Dubai) I've also wrapped them (those for my family) and pre-wrapped the other ones. It's so much fun wrapping the gifts, but it was tiring when I bought them this morning. It even rained hard in the afternoon! I was trying to go home from buying gifts and doing some errands and it rained just when I stepped outside. Despite that, I'm home and trying to finalize the things that I'll be bringing with me, and I hope that I don't forget anything.

***

This movie is a well-known (romance-themed) Christmas movie in the English-speaking world. Love Actually is a British film about many couples with different love stories, which are somehow interrelated. As Christmas was approaching, the characters experience love, be it requited, unrequited, friendly, or even forbidden.

I'm going to talk about the couples involved in this movie, and the situations they are in.

Juliet and Peter

Mark and Juliet

These two (Juliet and Peter) are a newly wed couple. Peter's best man, Mark, is in love with Juliet for the longest time, and couldn't even tell her until after Peter and Juliet were already married. Juliet basically just found out about Mark's feelings for her. In the end, Mark confessed his feelings, as a way of letting go.

He did the cutest stunt! He played a carol (Silent Night) on a cassette player and hoped that Juliet will answer the door. Juliet did, and so he showed the placards that he prepared for her. (without Peter knowing about this)

Next couples are Daniel-Joanna and Sam-Joanna.

Daniel and his wife Joanna, who just passed away.

Daniel and his step-son, Sam.

Sam and his crush, Joanna.

Daniel's wife just passed away, while Sam and himself are left behind. Daniel is not that close to his step-son, but he tried to be close to him and talked to him, and so Sam opened up and told him about his crush in school, Joanna, who's an American who sings really well. When Joanna was leaving for the US at the eve of Christmas, Sam courageously told her about his feelings and so Joanna kissed him good-bye (for now). These two kids are the cutest!

Now we have Harry-Karen and Harry-Mia.

Harry and Karen with their two children.

Harry and Mia.

As you have already probably guessed, Harry fell in love with another woman apart from his wife. He already has a family, but his new secretary, Mia seduced him, and he fell for it. Harry's wife, Karen, was well aware of this, and didn't think much of it at first, not until she figured out that her husband gave Mia a necklace. Karen then confronted Harry and Harry realized his faults. He probably took a break to give sometime for himself to think, but in the end, he'll be coming home to his family.

Next are Sarah-Karl and Sarah-Michael.

Sarah and Karl.

Sarah and Michael.

Sarah has been in love with Karl, her co-worker, for many years now. When they finally got the chance to be together, Sarah couldn't leave her brother, Michael, who has a mental problem. She would always blow off Karl to talk to her brother because her brother needs her more than anything. In the end, her love for her brother was still stronger than her long-time unrequited love for Karl.

Next is Jamie and Aurelia.

Jamie finally proposing to Aurelia.

Jamie is a writer who went for a trip to write a new book. He gets his house-helper, Aurelia, since he is too busy putting his thoughts into words to cook for himself or even do house chores. As they spent time together, they developed feelings for each other. However, when Aurelia finished her house-helping duties with Jamie, they went their own separate ways. Of course, Jamie then realizes his feelings for Aurelia and tries to learn Portuguese (since Aurelia can't speak English) and then goes to find Aurelia to ask her hand in marriage. 

John and Judy.

John and Judy at a production set.

John and Judy met at a filming of a movie where they're supposed to have sex scenes. While they're working together (naked), they would always talk to each other comfortably even when doing those (fake) sex scenes. The finally got together after the shooting.

Colin and Harriet

Harriet with Colin introducing her to his friend, Tony.

Tony is always teasing Colin that he can't have a girlfriend and couldn't even if he tried a million times. Colin then figured out that only English women aren't attracted to his charms and so he went for a trip to America to find an American girlfriend. As we can see on the screenshot, Colin was able to get an American girlfriend during his trip and so he introduced "Harriet" to his friend Tony.

Billy Mack and Joe

Billy Mack hugging his manager, Joe.

Billy Mack is a veteran singer who has his long-time manager, Joe. Billy would always be mean to Joe and doesn't seem to appreciate Joe's hard work in being his manager. However, in the end, Billy realized that Joe is the only one whom he wants to spend the holidays with. (not in a romantic way, but in a "bromantic" way. Haha!)

Lastly, we have David and Natalie.

David and Natalie at a Christmas show, publicly revealing their relationship.

David is the Prime Minister, and Natalie works for him. He fell in love with her, and at first, he tried to get rid of her (transferred her to a different job) so that his growing feelings for her will be suppressed. But it did not last long, and he found himself looking for her on Christmas eve, because he found out that she also might have feelings for him. That's when he confessed to her and afterwards, they publicly revealed their relationship unexpectedly.

That's about it for the couples, and these interrelated stories of different couples on the Christmas season showed the different forms of love that can exist in our lives. We have to admit it, Christmas has developed from a celebration of Christ's birth, to also a day that we celebrate our love for our family, friends, and lovers. 

Countdown to Christmas: Just Friends (2005). 4 days left!

December 21, 2013. Saturday, 12:00am (Philippine time).

I'm currently pondering over the Christmas gifts that I will be giving this year. Last Christmas was pretty lonely (gift wise) but still happy since I got to be with my parents. This year, I am giving presents (even though I'm quite broke) to my friends and family! I want every gift to be personalized, and just last Wednesday my friend and I got really tired of going around from store to store looking for gifts. Nevertheless, buying gifts for everyone made me fulfilled contrary to the stressful start of December that I had.

For this post, I will be talking about the movie Just Friends, starring Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart.

Ryan Reynolds plays Chris, a fat guy in high school whose best friend is a pretty and popular girl, Jamie (Amy Smart). 

You can probably guess that Chris is in the "friend zone." Look at the adorable shirt Jamie got him for their high school graduation. 

Chris was bullied upon everyone finding out about his feelings for Jamie. He wanted to prove all of those jerks who bullied him that he can change and become better than they were. He then went to college, got a job in LA and became successful. 

Ten years after he experienced the most shameful night of his life, he's now a gorgeous fit man who's a big time record producer in LA. Now that he's a handsome guy who's got it all, women like him and he likes them back, but just enough to sleep with them for one night.

Being a record producer, he's assigned with a task to bring their record's new pop singer, Samantha James (Anna Faris) to Paris, but then their private jet emergency landed on a place near Chris's hometown in New Jersey. The screenshot above showed the two (Chris and Samantha) "surprising" Chris's mom by crashing in their home.

Chris is finally conveniently in his hometown, where his old best friend (Jamie) is. He reunited with some old friends in a bar in town and there he also reunited with Jamie. Jamie (as shown above) is now working as a bartender. They got together again and hung out as friends and visited places that they used to hang out in. Chris also found out that Jamie is not just a bartender, but also a teacher.

This is a long shot of Jamie's house which decorations are beautifully and effortfully put together.

All throughout the movie, we can see Christmas decors, Christmas events like singing carols, Christmas parties, and the like, amidst the white, fluffy and cold exterior.

Going back to the story.. Chris and Jamie hung out like when they were in high school, but now that they're adults, anything could happen, right? However, Chris's plan to sleep with Jamie did not work out, probably because he wanted to do that as some sort of "revenge" for his "friend zoned" self in high school and yet he still seems to have feelings for Jamie. Jamie also seemed to want to be with Chris this time despite keeping him in the "friend zone" in high school.

And as chick flicks go, something happened that caused the main characters to be in a fight and reevaluate the things that they've done, and so Chris went back to LA. But then he didn't last long and immediately went back home to be with Jamie, and then Jamie also accepted him. Aww. So cliché right? That's what we love about chick flicks! Anyway, all's well that ends well!

Four days left until Christmas and I still have four more movies to blabber about in this blog!

P.S.

This Christmas countdown will make up for the few weeks that I didn't have a Reel Thursday article. I've been squeezing in some Christmas movies in between reading for grad school to cheer me up a little and that's why I have these movies.

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Summer Nude (J-drama 2013)

Summer Nude is a Japanese drama that aired last summer 2013. It stars Yamashita Tomohisa or as we like to call him, YamaPi. Together with YamaPi, whom I really miss, is Toda Erika and Karina. These three make up the lead characters in this summer drama. I shall now introduce you to the story and the main as well as the supporting characters.

Like in the subtitle above, it is indeed, Asahi's (YamaPi) third (lonely) summer since the girl on the billboard vanished from his life. Why and how did that happen? Let's find out later in this post.

The lady in the wedding dress is Natsuki (Karina), a respected chef who initially just got married in the first part of the first episode. The man standing, just on the right corner of the screenshot, is the official photographer of the wedding and our male lead character, Asahi.

Just after getting married and in their reception area, Natsuki's husband ran away, and didn't want to continue with the marriage anymore. Asahi also captured this moment, and also the start of Natsuki's sorrow.

Here is Toda Erika, who plays the character Hanae, Asahi's best friend. Hanae likes Asahi a lot, and she also usually expresses her feelings to him, but Asahi does not think much of Hanae's feelings. Hanae has liked Asahi ever since they met in high school, but Asahi never seems to care about whether Hanae likes her, especially when Asahi fell in love with a certain girl who left her three summers ago.

That girl is Kasumi (Nagasawa Masami, she's also the actress in Proposal Daisakusen, whom YamaPi was also chasing/loves). They met three years ago during summer, and also fell in love during those days. However, Kasumi suddenly left town and never came back, without saying anything to Asahi.

Now, back to the present summer. Because of certain circumstances, Asahi ended up asking Natsuki to go to his town and manage his friend's restaurant, since his friend, Setsuko (Itaya Yuka), just gave birth and still couldn't manage the restaurant.

Natsuki went to Asahi's town, thinking that it was only a one time job. However, she immediately found out that it was for the whole summer, and so she outright rejected the job. In the mean time, she stayed the night in Hanae's house, and they bonded together.

Finally, we have Hikaru (Kubota Masataka), another one of Asahi's close friends. He likes Hanae, but of course, Hanae is not aware of that, and no one knows. He is well aware of Hanae's one-sided liking for Asahi, and also knows of her suffering because of it.

In the next episodes, Natsuki will eventually manage Setsuko's restaurant in the mean time. Also, Natsuki will be showing her support for Hanae's pursuit of love, and that makes it all the more complicated since we can already foresee a love web going on within the group. Summer really is the season for adventures and new experiences outside of our daily lives. Let's see how each of these characters' summer goes as we go on with the drama. I'm hoping to finish this soon, because it only has 11 episodes and I'm already on the 5th episode. Looking forward to a refreshing summer drama despite it being (almost) winter already. Nonetheless, there are only two seasons here in the Philippines and it always feels like summer anyways. Might as well enjoy it!

K-Mondays: Reply 1994 Episode 10.

Reply 1994/Answer Me 1994 is now on its 10th episode, and there are quite few progress made in this episode regarding Na Jung's husband. By far, we now know that Kim Jae Joon is the husband's name, and that Kim Sung Gyun (Samcheonpo) is not a candidate anymore. In this (fangirl spazz) post, I will recall some moments in episode 10 that are important for the flow of the story, or just plain fun.

In this episode, we have a glimpse of the husband's back. I have to admit, I screamed right then and there, that it's definitely "CHILBONG!" Considering his choice of hairstyle back in 1994, Chilbong is a strong candidate because of this back view. However, we'll never know, Haitai or Trash might also sport this kind of hairstyle in 2002, or specially just for the wedding. 

In this view, my jaw dropped in shock because I thought that Trash and Binggrae were holding hands. After replaying the scene over and over, I realized that it was just Binggrae's hands.

Now, Na Jung here in 2013 is seen winking at her husband.

Haitai replied with a wink and a finger gun, attempting to answer to Na Jung's wink.

Chilbong or Joon, made an "Aaang" sound in response.

While Binggrae showed kissy lips and Trash winking with a peace sign.

We all know that Samcheonpo is Yoon Jin's husband by this time, and his attempt to wink at Na Jung is then answered by the hilarious goat in the background.

Baseball player Kim Jae Hyeon apparently attended Na Jung's wedding, and left an important message saying that the wife and the groom look alike. So there are two things: Kim Jae Hyeon has bad eye sight or he's telling the truth. You know what I mean?

Na Jung finally confessed to Oppa-ya, Trash, in the morning of the first snow fall of 1994 in Seoul. She didn't want to pressure oppa, so she told him that he shouldn't be burdened with having to answer. Also, Na Jung told Oppa-ya to just hug her in moments like this.

Because of certain circumstances, Na Jung and Trash-oppa ended up watching a movie together. Trash-oppa seemed to enjoy the movie, while Na Jung feels awkward all by herself. Why, Trash-oppa, Why?

Another entertaining scene in this episode is the protest dance. It seems easy and fun to dance, and if protests were as fun as this, I would be in every rally.

As we can see here, Yoon Jin and Samcheonpo's mom are bonding over seashells. Yoon Jin seems to be returning the favor of Samcheonpo's politeness to Yoon Jin's mom back when Yoon Jin's mom visited Seoul. Also, it's the start of a close relationship between these future in-laws.

What?! They kissed again? Yes. This time, Na Jung was conscious. She was indeed conscious because she's awake and not drunk, and she's conscious because she already knows how Chilbong feels about her. Before this romantic kiss at New Year's midnight, Chilbong confessed his feelings for Na Jung. That's why this scene is full of Chilbong-Na Jung feels for the shippers.

When Binggrae and Trash were both left in Seoul, Binggrae took the chance to ask Trash to watch a movie together with him to celebrate the new year. Binggrae plans to watch the movie that Trash and Na Jung watched earlier, but then Trash had already seen it. However, Trash admits that he was not able to catch the story of the movie (despite his laughter, and now we know that it's fake) and that he could watch it again. This proves that Trash-oppa was also affected by Na Jung's confession. Although, if Trash-oppa remains the same in the next episode, I will definitely get off that ship.

Aww. Yoon Jin and Sung Gyun's (Samcheonpo) first kiss. I really like this couple, although I was rooting for Haitai-Yoon Jin at first. I didn't have anything to say about it though when it was revealed that Yoon Jin and Samcheonpo got married, because I think that their love story is really romantic. This first kiss on a boat during the first sunrise of the year is also as romantic as it gets and I'm really happy about it. In K-dramas, you don't usually get a romantic first kiss because it's usually coerced, without the consent of the female (commonly). Yoon Jin's and Samcheonpo's, however, was a product of both their desire to kiss each other, with mutual feelings. (Ahh so romantic, I can't)

What to look forward to on the next episode? Yoon Jin's hairstyle change! Is this because she's a woman who's in love now? We'll find out on the next episode. The preview was quite confusing so I will not talk about it.

In the preview, we see that Haitai is still in the running (or that's what the writer wants us to feel or see). Now, which ship am I really sailing? At first, I was an extreme Najung-Trash shipper. However, when Chilbong showed his cute personality (and hot body hahaha) and rapport with Na Jung, I immediately shipped both. It became hard to choose between the two because I feel like the writers are toying with our feelings because both are equally deserving. However, I said before in this post that if Trash-oppa will not do anything about Na Jung's confession, then I will most likely get off that ship. In Haitai's case, the show hasn't showed much Haitai-Na Jung romantic interaction (but in the preview for the next episode, there might be something) so I still am not convinced that Haitai is a viable option as Na Jung's future husband. Nevertheless, I still love this drama series. The concept really fits my taste and I just hope that I will not be disappointed.