Take Care of the Young Lady

Hello! I know it's been like two months since I've posted anything, but I've been really busy doing nothing over my Christmas break. Well, I did work on some stuff so it's not that I've completely abandoned this blog. In fact, I have been working on several topics and I plan to post a lot to try to catch up this week. Classes start back next Wednesday!! But to get to the main point, I watched a really good Korean soap opera over the break. In fact, I've been watching My Fair Lady or Take Care of the Young Lady for a long time like almost two years! First, I want to explain the two different titles. When I originally started watching this TV show it was right after Scent of a Woman and it was titled on Netflix as: My Fair Lady. I guess they thought it would be funny to give it a Pygmalion like style. However, I soon got caught up with other things and stopped watching the show altogether and actually ended up forgetting it even existed. I mean, I was only two episodes in when I stopped watching it. After I finished watching Boys over Flowers, I suddenly remembered how important it was to me that I finish that show. I can never not finish a show, it drives me crazy so I looked on Netflix and it was gone. Not surprising since they can't possibly keep every Korean soap opera ever created! The internet would explode. I found the show on YouTube after extensive searching, I mean I really looked hard and the title this time was Take Care of the Young Lady. I am not completely certain, but I assume that was the original name of the show in Korea, only in Korean of course.

Anyway, I started watching the show again here and there whenever I had some time to spare since the YouTube channel I was viewing it on was so kind to split up each episode into 15 minute periods, I literally could sit down and watch a part while cooking food or while eating breakfast and then watch it whenever I was waiting for someone. When I finally finished the show, it was a relief and an accomplishment because I had set my mind to seeing this show through to the end and I did.

Now, to actually talk about the show. Yes, it's melodramatic. Yes, there's a love triangle. Yes, there is a rich person in it that owns a very important business. All of these things are very typical now in the Korean shows that  I watch.

The main story is that there's this spoiled princess/heiress, Agasshi, who coincidentally meets a former gigolo who is having a hard time right now because of loan sharks. He soon discovers that this woman he had a run-in with is heiress to a very powerful business, Kang-san Group, and she could possibly be all that he needs to pay of his huge loans. From there the story begins with kidnapping then he ends up becoming her butler and at the beginning the two really despise each other. However as time moves forward, the two realize that they do have feelings for each other and that underneath their exteriors, they are good people.

Here's the characters:

Kang Hye-na or Agasshi 

The spoiled princess who happens to be very beautiful and very talented. I chose this picture of her shooting because it always cracks me up that she has such great aim and extraordinary talents. Anyway, Hye-na is a complicated character. You want to hate her because she's mean, rude, and used to getting her way, but at the same time she has several moments where she's weak and alone and as you learn about her life you start to understand why she's a little hateful. Then the gigolo comes along and basically puts her in her place which makes for the exciting romance.















Seo Dong-chan

The former gigolo/reformed butler who, at the beginning of the drama, is going through a serious rough patch. The funny thing is despite how bad of a character, Dong-chan appears to be, I can't help but love him. He has reasons for why he seduced women and you can understand why Hye-na and him don't get along at first, but he truly changes his life for the better as the show progresses. Dong-chan is so loyal to Hye-na that when they end up falling in love, you're sitting there going "Duh."














Lee Tae-yoon

Poor Tae-yoon, he's Hye-na's secondish/first love. Well, to clarify he is specifically her second love, but he is nearly spot on to her first love that it causes her to fall in love with him and he knows that. Luckily for Hye-na, Tae-yoon also comes from a wealthy upper class family, he just chooses to live in poverty and work as a lawyer because he legitimately cares about people which is sooo sweet. He kind of changes Hye-na's perspective, but he also ends up getting the short end of the deal when Hye-na and Dong-chan start to fall in love.



Yeo Eui-joo

Dong-chan lives with Eui-joo and her mother. Eui-joo becomes another obstacle in Hye-na and Dong-chan's way because she has some serious feelings for Dong-chan. I mean this girl has loved him for years and Dong-chan deeply cares about Eui-joo, but not in that way. The funny thing is that Eui-joo loves Dong-chan so much she's willing to do anything to make him happy so she puts up with Hye-na and she even attempts to bring them together with the help of Tae-yoon after the two realize that they are never going to be able to make them happy. The show actually ends with Tae-yoon and Eui-joo trapped on a boat and you begin to see that these two actually have great chemistry together and perhaps they can patch up their own hearts with each other.



I hope my short post inspired you to watch this amazing show and I am currently looking for another Korean drama to watch myself. Comment below if you guys know any amazing Korean dramas that I should watch because I have to fill the hole somehow!!!!

Boys Over Flowers

Hello again guys! It's been a long time since I posted on this blog, but it seemed only fitting giving my three days of complete and utter no-lifeness that I would put this post in Obsessions. Anyway, as you probably know from my Facebook statuses and tweets I've been binge watching Boys over Flowers. I mean, I finished 25 episodes in three days (these are hour long episodes by the way). I'm a big fan of Korean soap operas, but this one has to be one of my favorites considering I didn't even finish Scent of A Woman that fast, but more on that show later.

So let's go ahead and jump right into what this TV show is about.

There are 5 main characters that you should meet:

Jan Di is our heroine of the story, so to speak. She's the definition of a just and moral female. She gets lucky enough to join the prestigious high school of the rich, but she runs into a lot of obstacles along the way. Particularly involving her love triangle. Yes, she's one of those characters, but I like Jan Di. She's strong and she can take care of herself. She also doesn't change her mind once she's made it up and I love that about her.

Jun Pyo (Joon Pyo) is one of the wealthy upper-class men who is destined to become the owner of the Shinhwa Group. He's also the leader of the F4 group (you will see the other members shortly). He kind of causes all the drama that takes place in the show. I really hate Jun Pyo sometimes, but I admire him in a lot of ways when it comes to Jan Di. He's a complicated character.

Ji Hoo is also a member of the F4 and of course also fabulously wealthy. (The only one who isn't is Jan Di of course), but he also stirs up some trouble for Jan Di. The difference is, Ji Hoo is more likely to show up and save the day. Ji Hoo is an incredibly loyal friend to both Jan Di and Jun Pyo. It's because he's so loyal that it makes watching his struggles so hard. I love Ji Hoo and I don't think anyone who watches the show cannot love him.

Another incredibly gorgeous F4 member (I love all of them, okay?) Yi Jung is known as the Casanova of the F4 members, but I love how the show gives us some insight into Yi Jung's life because he's a pretty important character too. He is probably the sweetest of the members when you really get to know him. Okay, so Yi Jung is like the cutest member to me. I just can't get enough of his baby doll face and he has literally the best smile. Perhaps that's why I love that the show gives us insight into his character through out the series.







Lastly,

Ah, Woo Bin, also incredibly gorgeous and the final member of F4. Poor Woo Bin, he's the most underdeveloped of the members. All we really learn about Woo Bin is that he's a player with the ladies much like, Yi Jung, (these two can play with my heart any day). In fact, Woo Bin is known as the Don Juan of the group. Yi Jung and Woo Bin are extremely close friends even though they are all really good friends. Sadly, I feel like Woo Bin needed more love. Besides being a player and also an incredibly good fighter, all we learn is that Woo Bin apparently doesn't feel as "successful" as his F4 friends. Even though, he's rich, we find out that Woo Bin's family has a lot of connections to the mafia (Yakuza if you will). There's one very touching scene where Yi Jung tells Woo Bin just how much he means to the group and after that Woo Bin becomes the loyal protector of Jan Di along with the other members. I love Woo Bin, but he needed more development.










Now, that I have introduced the characters, let's talk about the reasons I love this show. First, off the characters are all very memorable and loveable. I loved the, what some would call, ridiculous fight scenes and I loved the ending. Which I will not spoil, you just have to watch it yourself. Now, as far as Korean dramas go with being melodramatic, oh yeah, this one is right there with them and some things will infuriate you about the characters, but it's important to remember that things are different in Korea than they are here in 'Murica.

Anyway, I hope you guys do watch this and tell me what you think because I personally loved it. I hope that you guys all have a fantastic Saturday. It's a good day to start a new TV show :-p.

Sherlock

Spring Break has arrived. Well, I say it has, but here it is Thursday of Spring Break and I am just now getting around to blogging. In my defense, I have been faithfully constructive every day of my Spring Break though. Maybe not for longer than a few hours, but I have managed to get some serious cleaning done and I finished Mansfield Park. Which I may blog about in my other blog, but honestly the book was your very typical cliché Jane Austen book.

However, the point of this blog isn't to downplay Austen. (She was still a fine author after all). The point of this blog was to brag on Britain for introducing such a wonderful series into my life. Sherlock is absolutely wonderful. The seasons are short. Super short, in fact, because each season only has three episodes in it and I have just edged my way into the second season. The episodes are quite long though so my brother and I have made a habit out of spending our afternoons together watching an episode each night. Sadly, it is the highlight of my Spring Break considering I'm not leaving town and I've spent so much money on my mother's birthday present and my money for my birthday trip to New Orleans which is approaching in the next few weeks. So nowhere to go and no money to spend even if I had anywhere to go.

Anywayz, so literally at first I thought I would hate this show because it is basically a modern retelling of the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm super strict about things like this considering I'm also the girl that refuses to read anything modern 89% of the time. Although, I admit there are some rare exceptions. My fiancée's roommates told me to give the show a chance (and I admit I have always loved Benedict Cumberbatch) so I decided to go for it. I would say after about episode 2, I was hooked. Sherlock is the wonderful ass (excuse my French) that we all hate to love. He's so beautifully brilliant and yet hopelessly ignorant that he has become an obsession of mine. (Hence a good fit for this blog).

Watson is a comical character as well. His relationship with Sherlock is complicated. He cherishes Sherlock's friendship, but the two are always bickering. Sherlock is such a child in his manners. Mrs. Hudson, Irene Adler, Mycroft, and Moriarty are all perfectly personified in this modern rendition that it would surprise me if someone had actually attempted to watch the show and then professed he or she hated it. Every character in this show is relatable in a certain sense. I find myself mesmerized by the personification of this fictional character known as Sherlock Holmes and I must end this blog on this note. Watch this show. Please. You will not be disappointed.

For the men:
                ;)

And for the ladies:
                        ;)

Black Bird

This time I've only been absent for a month. A month is not so bad, but it does make me wonder where the time goes when I feel like it has only been a few days. However, I have enjoyed my Christmas break and Christmas was fantastic. I still have two weeks to go before I will be forced to return to school and join the real world, but for now I have been pleasantly busy with reading, watching American Horror Story, playing video games, and doing a little winter cleaning. Yep. Winter cleaning.

I wanted to talk a little bit about this manga I've been reading for a few years now called Black Bird. Yes, I've been reading it for years, but have actually yet to write a blog about it and now the more I think about it, the older I feel because I know I have been reading this manga for at least 4 years. Oh well, time to get to the point.

Black Bird is most definitely a romance with a little bit of a demon love story intertwined in there. Ok, a lot of a demon love story. It is so beautiful though. The manga centers itself on two people in particular: Kyo (a Tengu demon chief) and Misao (the senka maiden). Now, the titles of these two probably seem like Greek to you, but the manga is very easy to read and follow. In basic terms, Kyo is a powerful black-winged demon who fought his way to the top in order to protect Misao from the other demons who just want to use her blood to make themselves more powerful. Kyo did this all out of love and nothing more than love. Kyo has no desire to use Misao for anything. However, Kyo is a demon and his own love may prove to be all the worse for Misao, but Misao's love for Kyo prevents her from wanting to be away from him.

I'm on the 17th volume of this manga so far and I'm extremely hooked. The manga seems to have a good bit more to go through too even though it's supposed to be approaching the final stages. I do not know what I'll do with myself once the manga actually ends though. I also fear that it may not end the way I want it to.

Gatsby (Movie)

I remember reading parts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby in my 11th grade American Lit class (which was many years ago--four to be exact) and being completely amazed with this novel. The character of Gatsby makes you feel so much sympathy for him even if you know nothing about him and even if he happens to be a little bit on the aggressive side. The love he shows for Daisy makes a person overlook all of that and really love this mysterious Jay Gatsby. Now, I've seen The Great Gatsby movie that was done in 2000 and it was pretty fantastic so I decided to watch this movie when it came out, but--I confess--with somewhat low expectations. Even still, I had been nervous waiting for the movie to come out. I feared the movie would flop (simply because everyone seems to have bad taste in movies) or worse, Hollywood would destroy this story and add their own little spin to it. However, I remained positive because Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in the role of Gatsby. I didn't think life could get any better because from the beginning of reading that novel when I was still in high school, I had pictured DiCaprio portraying that wonderful Gatsby. And I still believe he did a spectacular job and played his role brilliantly even if he has yet again been overlooked for an award. However, this blog is not being posted to describe to you in every slow painful detail why I think DiCaprio is one of the best actors out there, this blog's purpose is to convince you to give this movie, Gatsby, a chance. The actors/actresses line-up was fantastic and although, I still like the 2000 movie better, I do believe this one is still super great. There were only two problems I had with this movie (none of which involve DiCaprio.) My problem lies within the horrible modern taste in the music that was supposed to portray music from the 1920s. I mean come on people, how hard is it to stick with the right time period. I can see why they chose the music they did, but to me, it is just bad taste. My second and final problem with this movie is the character of Daisy they portrayed in this movie. The Daisy I know from the book was bubbly, always happy, and pretty smart. This movie portrayed her as down-right depressing and even a little ditsy. Despite these two problems, the movie is very much worth seeing and I will definitely be watching it more than once.


The Civil Wars

I haven't been writing or doing anything exciting with my summer and I'm sorry for that. Between getting a new job, summer classes, and transferring to a university now I've had very minimal time to do what I actually enjoy. However, I decided with a week left before my classes start for the fall semester that I am going to blog about something. Now, I just said I haven't really been doing anything new and it is true. I've been playing League of Legends and the Sims 3 in my spare time so the only thing I could think to blog about was some of the music I've been listening to.

The Civil Wars is a newish duet. The two lead singers are, of course, a man and woman combo and their names are John Paul White and Joy Williams. The first time I ever heard of these guys was when they did a song with Taylor Swift for The Hunger Games. The name of the song was Safe and Sound. I never really liked country, but the lyrics to this song were so beautiful and I do believe that Joy Williams has the voice of an angel. I got hooked on that song. Not long after hearing Safe and Sound, I heard an original song by The Civil Wars which was also used in The Hunger Games called Kingdom Come. This song was yet another favorite of mine and I blared it constantly. I had never heard country music done this way. All of their music spoke to me because it took love and it made it truer, stronger, and more morbid than I had ever seen people do when they write music. Another thing that probably hooked me into their music is that Williams and White sing so beautifully together and they both show so much emotion in their songs that you really can believe they are singing from the heart. I had never heard any other duet sing songs that made you feel their pain and feel what they were feeling so vividly.

In my obsession, I bought both of The Civil Wars CDs. Barton Hollow and their newest release which is self-titled The Civil Wars. Both CDs are amazing in their own ways. I cannot decide which CD I like more because they make you feel differently. Their self-titled album (which just released on August 6th this year) focuses on the sadder parts of love and how you can't always choose who you fall in love with. It is a wonderful CD and sadly, their last for a while. It seems there was a squabble between the duet like there usually is with duets, but no real details have been given for the band going on a hiatus for an indefinite time I fear. Williams hopes the band will move on and go back to recording music soon, but I think this might be it for the band and it depresses me so. However, I will leave you with a music video from their new album. I watch it constantly.

The Civil Wars-The One That Got Away

Shinobi Life

It's been a few months and if I thought I'd have more time over the summer to keep this blog up, I was dead wrong. I ended up taking a summer class so that I'll be prepared when I finally transfer this fall. Anyway, I've actually been reading this manga for a while, but due to homework and a lot of other stuff going on, my reading of it has been interrupted several times, but I'm making progress on it once more.

Shinobi Life is another one of those romance mangas that I like so much, but this one involves ninjas from the past! What can be greater than that, huh? Kagetora is the super hot, ninja guy in this manga who happens to get separated from his princess and ends up being transported to the future where he meets a girl who is also named Beni (the name of Kagetora's princess) and happens to look just like her. Beni at first seems to despise Kagetora who has taken up the role of protecting her since he has no real concept of what he should be doing, but after a short period of time Kagetora and Beni become really close. Like really, really close. Unfortunately, the two now-lovers are facing a lot of obstacles and Beni is always worried that Kagetora doesn't really love her and is just using her as a replacement for his Beni-hime. However, I believe Kagetora's heart is pure and that he loves Beni and will soon find her. Whoops, let that slip. Well, before I give too much more away. Here have a picture!