Top 10 Korean Romance Comedy Movies

I've always loved watching Romantic Comedies. There really is such a unique feeling when watching Romance movies with a hint of light-heartedness. I found this genre especially appealing when I started watching Korean Romance Comedies when I was younger. In my circle of (mostly girl) friends, I have found no one who disliked these kinds of movies even though they're sometimes "cliché." It just makes hopeless romantics like me feel all giddy inside. As I have watched quite a number of these movies, I could recommend some of my all time favorites. Most of these favorites are old ones or those "starting points" of those K-movie fanatics. I also chose these movies because they are those which have the elements of a Romantic Comedy. I will also recommend some of the good romance movies which are not much of a rom-com.

1. My Sassy Girl (2001)

Based on an internet novel, this movie is popular not only amongst K-movie fanatics, but also those who enjoy watching Romance Comedies of any origin. This movie was re-made into a Hollywood movie of the same title, so some are probably familiar of it. For those who are not familiar, this movie is about a strong, bold woman who becomes the girlfriend of a timid guy. It is indeed touching, romantic, and at the same time hilarious as hell. This movie, being number one in my list, will not disappoint rom-com lovers.

2. Windstruck (2004)

Windstruck is said to be the prequel of My Sassy Girl because of elements which connects it to the other movie. However, it's not completely its prequel and it stands on its own. It has its own charm as a movie. This is much more romantic than funny and what I love about this is how it touches your heart after watching. The movie's about destiny and how these two different people (a female cop and a male teacher) fell for each other.

3. Speedy Scandal (2008)

One of my favorite movies of all time. It is placed third, however, because it's not much romance between a woman and a man as it is much more about family. What I love about this movie is its unique take on family relationships: a really young single dad who already has a grandson. Guaranteed to make you feel crying and laughing all throughout the movie.

4. Love, So Divine (2004)

I watched this movie way back in high school and I still can't forget the feeling when I watched it. My heart felt like it was overwhelmed with emotions that I really can't forget it until today. This movie is about a seminarian who, with a course of events, falls in love with a girl just before he becomes a priest.

5. My Little Bride (2004)

I'm not much a fan of boy meets girl love story compared to known-each-other-for-a-long-time love story, that's why I love this. Tackles the topic of arranged marriage in modern society, early marriage, and huge age gap in love. This movie is cute and light.

6. 200 Pounds of Beauty (2006)

A movie that questions the standards of beauty. Quite touching and sure to provide a lesson to the viewers.

7. He was Cool (2004)

First movie that I watched based on an internet novel by Guiyeoni. Most suckers for bad boys would love this movie I suppose. Innocent girl meets bad boy from other school.

8. 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant (2004)

This movie is also based from a popular internet novel and of course, is popular among those who love "bad boy" type of guys. High school girl becomes errand girl for a mean college guy.

9. Baby and Me (2008)

Who would be able to resist this adorable baby and handsome man? This movie full of cute and cuddly scenes is about a high school guy taking care of an abandoned baby which is said to be his own child.

10. Do re mi fa so la ti do (2008)

Also from an internet novel by Guiyeoni, this movie is about a charming, yet quite arrogant guy who falls in love with a strong-willed girl. Quite serious for a high school movie yet touching.

Other Romance K-movies I recommend:

Jenny, Juno (2005)

The Classic (2003)

Hello School Girl (2008)

Recent Ones:

My Black Mini Dress / Little Black Dress (2011)

An Introduction to Architecture / Architecture 101 (2012)

Feel free to add to the list! 

(photos taken from Google Images)

Miss Flower Music Tour by KTO

Korean Tourism Organization (KTO) has once again provided opportunities for Korean fanatics like me to express ourselves in order to win a free trip to Korea. This time, the contest is entitled Miss Flower Music Tour: You can be a song writer!

The contest encourages people to write a poem about Korea's spring, flowers and love. We all know that spring links to blooming flowers like the sign of a new beginning. And of course, what good way to express that through love and passion? This video below is shown for the contestant to gain inspiration in writing their own lyrics. 

Everyone can join, except you need to read the terms first (yes, it's important so that you won't get disappointed in the end) and create an account in www.ibuzzkorea.com before sending your entry. Without further ado, here's what I submitted.

By (username) genina07

I woke up missing your gentle embrace

The soft scent of yours impossible to replace

I want to soak in the pure beauty

That you once again will show me

Every color suits you

Albeit your mellow harmony's unique

Indeed you have an impeccable charm

And everyone yearns for your warmth

This might be the first time that I made lyrics and showed it to the public. I made one before when I was in first year of high school but then it was just for myself. I'm not a great poet/writer myself so I'm quite embarrassed of showing this publicly. Anyways, the point of this post is to share to my fellow Korean fanatics this contest!

How to join: here

More events/contests by KTO: here

LEE HI (이하이) - IT'S OVER M/V

YG's newest artist, Lee Hi with her own album this year. I really love this girl and I wish for her success!

This music video is her newest single, "It's over" from her album fully coming out this March 21, 2013. Do watch out for her full album as not only Lee Hi's voice and performance will rock the world but also YG's best producers like Tablo, Lydia Paek, Masta Wu, Choice37, Teddy, etc. came together to make amazing songs for her.

This is her other music video first released last 2012. As you can see, this YG rookie is really someone to look out for.

Lee Hi/Lee Hayi was a contestant in SBS Kpop Star who debuted with YG entertainment last year. For more info, click here.

Atlantis - Treasure Hunt Competition

Atlantis - Treasure Hunt Competition

Skyscrapers and Observatories.

It is one of my goals in life to visit some world famous skyscrapers/buildings/observatory decks. The reason is that I love looking from a bird's eye view and soaking in the beauty of the city be it at night or day. My journey started in May 2010, when I went back to Dubai for summer vacation during college. My parents and I planned to visit Burj Khalifa's observatory deck as it was newly opened for public viewing. Being the world's tallest building since January 2010, I was so exhilarated most especially when we were at the elevator. After arriving "At the Top," I was so amazed for a while and started taking pictures of the astounding view. Of course, I also managed to have my photos taken by my mom.

This photo was taken pre-opening of Burj Khalifa, December 2009 I think.

Excuse my "clown" face. Of course, the obligatory peace-sign.

Night view from the 124th floor of Burj Khalifa. Stunning Dubai.

In December 2011, my sister and I went to Seoul, South Korea. We visited two buildings' observatory. First is the 63 Building. The reason why this building was included in our itinerary is because of the Korean drama "My Girl." I love that Kdrama and I really wanted to visit that building so that I could rekindle the emotion that My Girl made me feel. 63 Building has both an Art Gallery and Observation deck on the 60th floor and the elevators have glass windows so that as people go up (or down), they can also enjoy the view.

Han River view from the 60th floor of 63 Building.

Seoul at night.

Oh the traffic jam.

And the mandatory photo.

Second (in Seoul) is the N Seoul Tower, located on Namsan Mountain. To fully enjoy the trip to N Seoul Tower, one must ride the Namsan cable car to the tower. 

Inside the cable car.

Pavilion at the grounds of N Seoul Tower.

"Love locks" turned into trees for Christmas. Excuse the jealous face.

View from the mountain.

Where you get your tickets. Duh.

Teddy Bear Museum also at N Seoul Tower.

More Teddy Bears.

Tiles with messages.

Seoul.

Ze toilet.

At the toilet, there's a view. Coolness.

N Seoul Tower.

Lastly, like what I've already posted in the past, my family and I went to Singapore in 2012. We visited Marina Bay Sands on our last day and took photos outside on our first day. See post here

So far, I've gone to four buildings in 3 different countries. I pledge and hope that there would be more to come! Now, here's a list of my target skyscrapers/towers/buildings:

Tokyo Tower, Tokyo, Japan.

Empire State Building, New York, U.S.A.

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France.

Macau Tower, Macau, PRC. (Also Bunjee!)

Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Canton Tower, Guangzhou, China.

Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan.

And many more!

A Sudden Realization.

Doing nothing or being an absolutely non-busy person makes me think about myself a lot. I always generate lots of questions in my mind especially when left alone for some time. These questions are mostly about either my future or my character as an individual. I might say, I have never known myself this much compared to before. Without further ado, let me share to you my thoughts as my fingers are begging me to put these impressions from my mind into words produced through typing from this machine thing called a computer. 

I believe that I have lots of interests like many other people, I suppose. As a person, I would want to put these interests into practice and not just remain ideas that I like to do from my mind. Starting from when I was a child, my mother made me choose between three lessons that I would like to take during the summer. Ballet, gymnastics or piano? What I chose as a child made me realize the kind of little person I was back in the day. Surprise! I chose to do piano lessons, well, because I thought back then that ballet and gymnastics were tough and required much body movements whilst playing the piano only involved fingers at least. So I did piano for almost 7 years if I'm not mistaken and because I was a child going through puberty, I didn't have much interest as I had when I was much younger so I decided to quit playing. It was disappointing when I think about it nowadays because I could have achieved higher in piano playing. Right now I still read notes but not as good anymore. During high school I learned playing the guitar as it was a trend. I learned from and with my friends that's why it was much more interesting. I still can play with basic chords although I don't have the motivation to further enhance my skill. Next thing I learned about was playing the drums. This was during early college. Once I was done with the lessons that I'd (my parents actually) paid for, I did some practice again with friends but it wasn't enough and I was pretty busy with college hence not playing anymore. Also, I lost my first drum sticks.. These are not all the things that I'm interested in but sharing these says a lot about me. I hate to admit it but I'm a quitter. Once I learn things, I don't want to get better anymore and settle for just learning the basics. I hate that about myself and I want to change.

This is where my sudden realization goes in. When I write, words just flow (although not so smoothly) and I don't get tired. After I'm done writing, I read my work. In some of my works, I see unorganized thoughts, hastiness, repetitive words, and many more. I always find someway to critique myself. On the other hand, I have some works that I'm actually proud of and read over and over again. There are just days that I have more beautiful words to say and have more organized thoughts. The point is, I like writing. I see how in writing, I always want to improve. In writing, I see that I don't want to quit because there is no reason for it. All that is left to do is to pursue refinement in my writing. I will start doing the little things that could help: read lots of books, read words of the day, and blog more often. I will commit this time around.

Final words:

I write because in writing, I am myself, I can be who I really am, and I can be who I want to be.

Trip to Seoul 2011 (Live Blogs)

I noticed that my Trip to Full House post was getting quite a lot of hits so I'm going to share in this blog my daily blabbering while in Seoul. Also, I decided to put a quick link on my Tumblr page for my posts re Trip to Seoul last December 2011. 

Links:

ALL of the posts are in here:

Trip to Seoul December 2011

Minor posts

When I got my single-entry visa to South Korea

My hopeful itinerary (we didn't follow everything. well, because of the cold)

First Day: Myeongdong

Christmas Day (Lotte World & COEX Mall)

Palace & N Seoul Tower

Update: My tweets while in Seoul (translation in Italics)

Shet ang lamig!!! Thu Dec 22 20:58:57 Shit it's so cold!!!
Nasa airport palang malamig na. Dx Thu Dec 22 21:02:16 We're still inside the airport yet we can already feel the cold weather.
Ancute ng pera. Pati mga tao, iniiwasan din nila magenglish. Hahahha Thu Dec 22 21:38:36 Their money is so cute. And the people here (like in the Philippines) also avoid foreigners in order to avoid speaking in English
Eto na nasa labas nako. Grabe Sontag lamig!!!!!! -8 degree celsius. Thu Dec 22 21:48:25 *there's a typo here* I'm already outside. It is seriously cold!!!!!! - 8 degree celsius
Katatapos lang mag shopping sa Myeongdong. Pagod agad, at ubos na pera. :)) Fri Dec 23 04:16:23 Just finished shopping in Myeongdong. I'm already tired, plus my money's already gone.
Super daming coffee shop. Fri Dec 23 04:16:55 So many coffee shops.
Ang bilis talaga ng internet dito. Fri Dec 23 04:43:13 The internet is really fast here.
Kapag nagtTumblr, hindi na kailangan maghintay para magload. :O Fri Dec 23 04:43:43 When I go to Tumblr, I didn't have to wait for the posts to load. *yes I went on Tumblr*
Lasang fish cake yung burp ko. #koreanstreetfood Fri Dec 23 05:22:52 When I burp, I taste the fish cake I ate.
It's snowing! Fri Dec 23 11:59:00
So glad that I experienced my first snow in Seoul, just in time for Christmas. Fri Dec 23 13:00:24
I remember the ajumma who persuaded me to buy. SUPER pressure. :)) Fri Dec 23 15:07:33 *persuaded me to buy a sweater when I was just looking at it*
Still snowing. Hope to see all white surroundings tomorrow. Night! Fri Dec 23 15:48:09
Not snowing anymore, but there's still the leftover snow from last night. :) Sat Dec 24 00:32:27
Will be going to Nami Island in a few~ Sat Dec 24 00:33:24
Merry Christmas! Just ate early noche buena since shops here are closed already for Christmas eve. Sat Dec 24 13:31:45
Pati cartoon network Korean ang salita. Mas marunong pa magKorean sakin si Shrek. :)) Sat Dec 24 13:40:46 Even shows in Cartoon Network are dubbed in Korean. Shrek is so much more fluent in Korean than me.
Merry Christmas from Seoul~ :D Sat Dec 24 15:03:21
Had fun at Lotte World today! Sun Dec 25 13:37:09
Even nabbed too much (expensive) stuff at COEX mall~ :)) Sun Dec 25 13:37:29
Met Filipinos here in Korea for the first time. :)) Sun Dec 25 13:50:44
At Coco Bruni. Waiting for ze English tour at Gyeongbokgung. :D Mon Dec 26 05:18:58
Kahit san talaga dito andaming coffee shop. Marami ring take out coffee na window shop lang. Mon Dec 26 05:26:46 Everywhere I go here I see a coffee shop. There are also many window shops meant for take out coffee.
Lumamon kanina ng street food na naman, tapos mali pala yung way ng pag kain namin. Filipino style ginawa namin. :))) Mon Dec 26 05:30:36 We ate street food again, but the way we ate it was Filipino style. *forgot what we ate here. prolly something that had sauce in it..*
Frostnip! So itchy. D: Mon Dec 26 12:39:34 *pre-frost bite*
Just got our delivery from McDonald's. Good looking delivery guy. 8D Mon Dec 26 12:49:31
So far, we've encountered too many nice Koreans. :) Tue Dec 27 14:25:57
On our way to full house. Stopping by Incheon intl airport first. Wed Dec 28 05:17:28
Super nagddry yung skin ko. Pero namumula naman cheeks ko. :)) Wed Dec 28 12:45:07 My skin is getting super dry yet my cheeks are getting all pinkish
Leaving Seoul tomorrow! That is so not Raven. Dx Thu Dec 29 10:50:36
All my bags are packed. But I'm not ready to go. D: Thu Dec 29 12:10:48
Delivery ulit! Pizza hut naman. Thu Dec 29 12:55:10 Food delivery again! This time it's Pizza Hut.
Waiting for boarding. Thu Dec 29 21:31:13

Best Chick Flicks.

I've been looking up more chick flicks to watch since yesterday because I just had the urge to see some heartwarming films to get into the mood. Now, I'm not much of a know-it-all in the chick flick film genre but when I looked up lists of must watch, I didn't have much to discover because I've already watched most of them. So, with my not-so-expert knowledge of these films I shall make a list of my Top 15 Best Chick Flicks of All Time. This list will include those which I would watch over and over again and those which made me hungover. I will also go with intuition; first movies which comes to my mind will be considered as my favorites. Also, this list includes what I've watched ever since I loved chick flicks, up until now. Placing is decided by its impact.

15. 17 Again

Reasons why we love chick flicks? Cute actors. Zac Efron + Matthew Perry? Whew. Grown up man going back to high school with all the new trends.. See what happens. 4 out of 5 stars!

14. The Switch

"Friend is the father of your baby? Whoa, I want to watch this." Was my reaction to this new concept injected in chick flick. It was definitely worth it and I love the kid! 4 out of 5 stars.

13. You Again

Humor. I honestly couldn't remember any good points of this movie except for fun filled fights and hilarious granny wars (Betty White FTW!). Anyways, 3 out of 5 stars!

12. A Walk to Remember

"In places no one would find.." Soundtrack is amazing. Who hasn't watched this yet? Well, prepare tissues. Probably the most lovable tearjerker ever. 5 out of 5 stars for making me cry.

11. Bridesmaids

My first impression on this was "Too boring to go on." Well, first impression would take me nowhere. I gathered the energy to continue and it was awesome! Definitely women empowering and hilarious in a different kind of way. Just don't take it too seriously and it will be fun! 4 out of 5 stars!

10. Easy A

Emma Stone is just lovely in this film. Teen film in a modern setting where bitches aren't who they were supposed to be like before and tackles all sorts of unique teenage issues. A definite A! 5 out of 5.

9. The Devil Wears Prada

Fashion and passion. Love the overall concept of the film. Must watch for fashion lovers! 5 out of 5 stars.

8. Ruby Sparks

As you can notice, I enjoy watching chick flicks with a different twists to them. The idea of making someone out of imagination into reality is definitely intriguing, thus the interest to watch. It came out pretty well and that's why I recommend! 4 out of 5 stars.

7. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Another teen film with a great sense. Maybe music lovers would be much more attached. Set in one night, filled with crazy events. 5 out of 5 stars!

6. Pitch Perfect

"You guys are gonna get pitch-slapped so hard, your man boobs are gonna concave." FAT AMY is the best! I'm not much of a fan of musical films but this one pitch-slapped me real hard. It's Aca-awesome! 5 out of 5!

5. Juno

Best teenage pregnancy film ever. Well, who makes teenage pregnancy films this witty and fun? Gotta love Juno. Not outrageously funny though. Just plain witty and tackles the subject somewhat lightly. 5 out of 5.

4. The Proposal

Ryan Reynolds? Uhm, Ahuh! One of those hilarious yet romantic (sort-of) film. Of course, Betty White does it again! 5 out of 5.

3. She's the Man

Funniest thing about this film is: Amanda Bynes becoming a guy. She's a cute guy for Pete's sake. Cannot say much but let me tell ya: I've watched this countless of times. Feel-good film and freaking hilarious bromance! Exceeds 5 out of 5.

2. Just Go With It

Rom-com veterans together in a film? Total awesomeness. Like She's the Man, I don't know how much I've repeated watching this. Love the chemistry and the humor. Exceeds 5 out of 5.

1. Mean Girls

First chick flick that I've loved. I cannot stress how much I memorize the lines in this movie. Still the best chick flick for me! Exceeds 5 out of 5.

Runner-Ups:

Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging
Jawbreaker
Aquamarine