Maria Juwita | Blog - Korean Drama

It's only been 2 weeks from the final episode of "Crash Landing on You" and honestly I haven't fully moved on from its story until last week, I watched "Hi Bye, Mama", and I can say that this completely steals the spot from its predecessors!

This is the first drama where Kim Tae-hee starred in the last 5 years. You must have known her as the goddess in Korean entertainment because of her perfect visual, and this is her comeback drama after she married Rain & gave birth to 2 beautiful kids. Come on guys, this is KIM TAE-HEE!

Image: instagram @_angel_elijah_

The story is about Cha Yu-ri (played by Kim Tae-hee), a mother of 1 who had a car accident during her pregnancy which resulting in her death. Thankfully, her daughter (Jo Seo-woo) was born healthily. On the same day of her death.

After that, she's been watching her daughter closely for 5 years as a ghost. She's been witnessing all her little milestones, including when she learned to speak, to walk, started pre-school, and even knowing that her husband, Jo Gang-hwa (played by Lee Kyu-hyung), remarried with Oh Min-jeong (played by Go Bo-gyeol). Can you imagine how heartbreaking it is to watch your kid grow up with another woman as her (step)mom figure and you don't get to touch or even let her know how much you love her? 😭

(The premise itself already got me bawling but don't cry now, save your tears for the real deal)

What makes it more interesting is when Cha Yu-ri regained her human self (?) in exchange of a mission, and if she can accomplish that mission in 49 days, she can be a human forever. BUT not only exciting, this also become more complicated as she accidentally exposed herself to her husband and close friends, Shin Dong-mi and Gye Geun-sang (played by Go Hyun-jung and Oh Eui-sik).

Image: instagram @_angel_elijah_

Okay, that's the rough plot. Only 4 episodes have aired so far and I have hooked already. Why? Because it offers a different perspective of love from its predecessor, "Crash Landing on You", which is motherly/family love. It's not only revolved in Yu-ri's love for her child, but also highlight how Yu-ri's mom hurt by the loss of her daughter, how Yu-ri's sister been missing her the one and only sibling, and even how Yu-ri empathizes with the kid ghost who doesn't seem to understand that he has to leave his mom.

Every trailer released for this drama doesn't do any justice because they somewhat only presents the comedic angle to viewers. Think this clip fits better to represent the whole vibes and feels.

As the story unveils, I probably will update this post with more excitement. Stay tuned for crazier fangirl moment! hehe

Updates 19 April 2020

"Hi Bye, Mama!" airs its final episode today, 19th April 2020 and I just finished it an hour ago. I cried so hard until my chest is going to burst and my head aches. a lot.

After following Cha Yu-ri's journey until the end of her judgement period, viewers can see her character becoming more mature. Aside from its heartbreaking premise to begin with, I also realize that there's so much more in this drama that makes me too attached and willing to invest emotionally, and while the emotion is still raw, here's the what I love about this drama:

Excellent Cinematography

Once I read someone's comment on YouTube regarding the cinematography of a movie but I actually never really understand because I thought it all looked the same. ("they are all pros ok who r u to judge netizen?!")

Image: Hancinema

BUT things have changed, especially while watching this drama, I can easily notice that all scenes are beautifully shot and edited (?) (is that even a thing "beautifully edited" haha) along with...

The Well-written Script

The story progressed smoothly. It's not the most fast-paced K-drama, but it's also not the slowest up to the point you can't bring yourself to finish 1 episode. It's just the right pace (?) They also add the right amount of side story, without totally keep Cha Yu-ri and Jo Gang-hwa out of the focus. Every character's story, even the most minor ones, is somewhat related to Yu-ri and her journey (for instance, the main story in episode 8 -- saddest episode in my personal opinion. I have warned you!)

Talking about the story, you can easily find the synopsis (or even a spoiler) on Google, but let me remind you that it only covers the surface. There's so much more in the drama itself. You will be brought into a roller coaster of emotion for the entire time. You can feel the strong motherly bond between Yu-ri and her mom. You can feel the loneliness of Oh Min-jeong. You can feel the desperation of a dead mom wanting to protect and interact with her kid. You can see how heartbroken her (ex) husband is because of the wound left by that unfortunate incident, even after 5 years and remarried (poor Gang-hwa), all thanks to...

The Best Cast and Their Top Notch Acting

Kim Tae-hee, no need to explain further. But Lee Kyu-hyung and Go Bo-gyeol's acting also deserve the praise! This drama is so emotionally draining and their acting is something to be given a credit for. If not because of their skills to precisely show the emotion, I'm not sure if I can cry in 14 out of 16 episodes.

Sumber: Hancinema

Lastly, let's not forget our little Seo-woo (played by child actor Seo Woo-jin, and YUP you read it right, Seo-woo is played by a little boy who resembles Kim Tae-hee A. LOT!). She's like the center of this drama because everything revolves around her. Thanks to this cutie pie, we get to understand Cha Yu-ri's love for her daughter better.

There is really no villain here. No one deserves the pain, yet everyone is hurting. This is really a good drama where you can actually learn something from it - love for your parents, your kid, your spouse, and even your beloved friends. You get to explore every kind of love for every relationship in a deeper way. And the most important thing is we will realize how death is actually closer than anything else. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, yet we're all living recklessly like we're sure that we'll still alive tomorrow (a bit dark, eh?).

That's all I can say about this drama. Hope you watch and like it as much as I do because this drama and the cast really deserves more popularity ❤️<3 p="">

I'm coming back with another korean drama post! Finally after a long wait, a drama that's really worth your time is here.

Regarding the statement, I know as a k-drama lover, any kind of korean drama with your favorite oppa(s) is always worth your time. But let's be honest here. You do feel a little guilt while watching your oppa instead of being productive doing your job, don't you? Or at least that's what I've been feeling lately. I always consciously try to shift my attention out of my responsibility, and watching drama is one of my guilty pleasure because it does indeed kill my productivity in a way that I enjoy 😂

Dark and gloomy (?) poster for the drama! Although I must admit it doesn't look interesting and convincing tho.
(image: soompi)

But this one is different I promise. This drama called "Tunnel" is like no other korean drama you have watched. A complicated storyline, unpredictable twist, and also of course, my favorite oppa (aka Choi Jin-hyuk), it's all in here. Like other drama I have written about, you won't find any cheesy line or cringey-awkward-kissing-scene in this drama. Instead, you will find many scenes that involve a corpse, a body part, the act of strangulation, handsome detective (I'm talking about Choi Jin-hyuk here), and again, a corpse (I'm telling you in advance so you won't be shocked by the visual later--like I did).

So... what is this drama about actually?

"HIT THAT PLAY BUTTON"
(video: dramafever Youtube)

Tunnel is a mystery, crime, and thriller drama. The main character is Park Kwang-ho (played by Choi Jin-hyuk), a detective who lives in year 1986. He was trying to solve a (suspected) serial murder case which shows the same pattern: young women being choked to death with some dot marks on their heels. One day, he was chasing the culprit down the tunnel but unfortunately, he got attacked and became unconscious. Then, he regains his consciousness in year 2016, at the same place, same spot, same tunnel where he was attacked in 1986.

Okay, that's a little bit of the background. Now, I'm writing down a short FAQ to answer the possible questions that popped up in your head while trying my best not to spoil the whole plot:

---POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT---

I don't think I spoil anything here, but please do continue on your own risk. If you don't wish to continue, you can start reading at the next red mark.

How did he go to 2016? Can he go back to 1986?
Of course he can!
But.. how?!
Sssttt.. I'm telling you this one way to know the details: go watch the drama!

How about the case he was working on in 1986? The culprit? The investigation? Is he going to solve the same case in 2016?
Yes, somehow he will (surprisingly) be going after the same culprit and investigate the exact same case from 1986 in 2016.
But how????
He will work with the investigation team obviously, which consists of people who are actually related to him in a very very very surprising way.

Who are this lady and that oppa?!
(image: hancinema)

Who are they?
Sorry I have to stop here. But you can watch the drama if you want to know their identity :D

What happens with his family and friends in 1986 while he's gone to 2016?
This is where the interesting part is. In 1986, Kwang-ho did marry a girl he loves (aaw!) but unfortunately, he has no choice but to leave her in 1986 while he's stranded in 2016. This drama shows both eras (?) simultaneously, which means the people in 1986 know that Kwang-ho is gone but have no clue regarding his whereabouts. And by the time Kwang-ho leaves to 2016, there's something happened to his wife that leads to his fate in 2016..................................................................................

"You want to know more, huh? Please watch Tunnel!!!" - Detective Kwang-ho and detective Sun-jae in 2016
(image: kdramapal)

Trust me when I say I really want to spoil all the details here, but I must not spoil anything so let's just end this short FAQ with one conclusion: please do watch the drama if you wish to figure out the story :D

---YOU MAY COME BACK NOW (PLEASE?)---

Enough with the FAQ! Next I will explain 3 reasons why I love this drama.

#1 It is NOT a rom-com
I love romantic-comedy drama (who doesn't?). But finding a good rom-com drama is so much harder than it looks. Statistically speaking, about 70% out of all 1,784 k-drama falls into rom-com category (p.s I made up the statistic because, why not!), yet, I can only name less than 10 rom-com dramas that are actually good enough to watch and the most importantly, those which won't bore the hell out of you. So, it's good to finally watch a drama that's out of your usual taste. But don't worry, there is also a refreshing comical scene in "Tunnel" (because I bet people don't want to witness a never-ending criminal act for the whole series, right?).

#2 Unpredictable
Have I told you earlier that this drama has an unpredictable twist? It's not that kind of drama where you can guess the finale right after you reach the first half of its pilot episode. There is a lot of twists you can't imagine, when you think it's going to be A then it's actually Z. In short, it's mind = blown. Boom. Also, the storyline is not boring at all and the suspense and + the mysterious plot kinda make your brain stays alert--especially for a coward like me, so you will not only sit there staring blankly at your monitor screen, wondering how many episodes left or deciding whether or not you should finish the drama because you're not sure if you like it or nah (cause this happens to me A. LOT). You will automatically hit the next button and suddenly find yourself on the last episode already :(

#3 Choi Jin-hyuk

Throughout this post, isn't it obvious that I have major crush on this guy? I have been keeping my eyes on him since the Emergency Couple (2014) era and been waiting patiently for his comeback. Now, the time has finally come. Jin-hyuk has discharged from his mandatory military service and coming back through this drama. Can we please take a second to adore his oh-so-perfect smile here?

O.M.G.
(image: allkpop)

So, that's 3 simple reasons why I love this drama. Please keep in mind that I can write for 10 more points but I choose to stop here before I spill everything out and my fan girl side disgusts you :'D All I want to say is... this drama really needs more recognition and popularity because it's different and good and the chemistry between the casts is real and it doesn't bore you at all with its complicated storyline. My one and only advice: be careful with your binge-watching habit because I don't think you can apply them in this drama--especially with many scenes involve strangulation and a sight of dead body.

"See you when you finally decide to watch us on Tunnel!"
(image: dramabeans)

My kind of k-dramas are usually the ones with light story line, often revolved in romantic comedy genres. Judging from the poster and the cast of this drama I just finished called 'My Wife's Having an Affair This Week', I assume that this will be my usual kind of dramas: romantic with a bit of comedy, but thankfully my verdict was wrong, because it's actually much deeper than a cliché love story or cringe-worthy kissing scenes (but don't worry, the little dose of comedy is still there).

dramafever

---SPOILER ALERT---

Please don't continue if you have yet to watch the drama and do not wish to figure out the plot details here.

'My Wife's Having an Affair This Week' (literal title of 이번 주 아내가 바람을 핍니다) brings up taboo topic which is not usually discussed openly and widely. This drama depicts a story about Do Hyun-Woo (played by Lee Sun-Gyun), a producer whose marriage with Jung Soo-Yeon (played by Song Ji-Hyo) is on the edge after he finds out that his wife has an affair. Unfortunately, he is too embarrassed to ask his family/colleagues for advice, so he's going on a social media instead to ask anonymous people for their opinions regarding what he should do to save his marriage.

To make this more interesting, Do Hyun-Woo is surrounded by people who also have similar issue regarding commitment, marriage, and cheating. First is his co-worker, Kwon Bo-Young (played by BoA) who is a divorcee and not considering to remarried after her first failure until she meets Ahn Joon-Young (played by Lee Sang-Yeob) who is pretending to be married for 3 years because he is too ashamed by the fact that his wife left him 3 days after their honeymoon. Then there is Choi Yoon-Ki (played by Kim Hee-Won) who is a total womanizer and going around sleeping with tons of women behind his wife's back, Eun Ah-Ra (played by Ye Ji-Won), whom he definitely takes for granted.

After Do Hyun-Woo finds out about his wife's affair, he's becoming anxious, afraid, and confused about what he's going to do next. He opens up a thread on a forum and asking anonymous people for their point of views and asking for a guide. As might be expected, the responses are divided in 2 popular opinions: those who want him to try to make things work with his wife and those who want him to divorce her right away.

Lee Sun-Gyun definitely portrays the emotion precisely. In this phase, I was watching while thinking "Why don't you just calm your damn self and listen to your wife first instead of going crazy yelling here and there?!" but then I started to try to view this in his perspective, as I'm imagining what if it was me who was in his position. It must be really hard to accept the fact, to face the reality that there is a chance his marriage might be ruined because of this, and most importantly, the fact that the one he loves the most deceives him.

I'm not married. In fact, I'm a total noob in romantic relationship matters and have zero experience in this field. But I have my own views on cheating and affair. Thanks to this drama, I'm inspired to make a comparison between my own perspective vs drama perspective (based on what I perceive) regarding cheating, and marriage.

Second Chance

I believe that cheating can be a habit if you keep compromising with it, therefore I personally wouldn't bother to give a second chance to my s/o if he cheated on me, regardless of what his reason is. Being unfaithful simply means you are not committed enough to make you relationship works. Instead of cheating, if you really have something that bothers you, I think it's better to talk it out with your s/o and working together to find any possible solutions, especially when you're married. You are tied with law (and your vow) and divorce is not as easy as breaking up when you were still dating.

The Bad Cop

In this drama, the husband is seen reflected a lot after his wife explain the reason she cheated is basically because of her husband, who doesn't seem able to understand her struggle as a working mom and housewife, even though she's also feel sorry herself. For me, the one to blame for cheating is never the third person but the doer itself, be it the wife or the husband. Once you're unfaithful, you automatically become the bad cop because no intruder would step into your home if you're not opening the door. Remember that both of you have the same responsible to keep your home safe from the intruder.

Forgive vs Forget

After the husband declaring to the anonymous audience in the forum that he has decided to forgive his wife, the wife asked him the last, real question: can you really forget the fact that your wife was held by other man? There's a conflict here where he wants to start over, wants to try to give a second shot with his wife and continue to live together as if nothing happened, but his subconscious mind forbids him to do so, because the answer is you can't. You simply cannot forget the fact that your s/o had been held by other man than you, unless you hit your head to the rock and loss your memory.

JTBC/Dramacool

Overall, I recommend everyone to watch this drama! This is not your typical romance k-drama, it has serious topic and comedy as well so it's still fun to watch (plus Lee Sun-Gyun, the korean actor with sexiest voice is starred in this drama!!)

In the end, faithfulness is definitely one of the must-have-traits you should find in your partner, because we're all deserve to be with someone who love us as much as we love them ❤ And if you have other thoughts on this drama, please let me know by leaving your comment below! :)

omg i cant stop staring at THIS.
is this his REAL account?

i looked for some information about him days ago. "him" refers to someone whose twitter acount i posted below: Park Jae Jung. for you who may not know him, he's korean actor who played in the longest korean drama i've ever known, "You are My Destiny" AND he's the very first--or second?--korean actor that i liked (well actually i'm not sure whether him or Kim Bum whom i liked first but let's just say it's him lol). he is also the very first person whose name i learned to write in hangul, before my friend taught me how to read hangul (i'm 100% sure about this.let's forget about Kim Bum for a while).

I've liked him since the very first time i watched "You are My Destiny" in middle school (I'm a second year university student now) then i forgot about him for years....... until several days ago, when i was randomly searching for korean movies on YouTube, i found this movie called "Sketch", which he starred in, and my mind was like "OMG this is the guy from You are My Destiny." and i started to look for his movies & variety shows appearance

to cut the story short, i finally watched "We Got Married", where he had After School's UEE as his virtual wife. After watching him again after years, i feel like my fangirl side has came back alive (?) i randomly tweeted about it and mentioned him (i know his twitter account from wikipedia btw) then i watched "Try to Remember" and i also tweeted (+ mentioned him) about the movie. AND TODAY WAS THE HIGHLIGHT because i just found out that HE FOLLOWED ME BACK ON TWITTER OMG

actually i'm not sure if that's his real twitter or not (because of the number of followers he has ._.) so i started to look for more information on every corner of google. starting from his background information, agency website (which i didn't find), his followers and following lists on twitter, hashtag on instagram, and everything i could search (pardon my basic-fangirling-skill-every-fangirl-should-be-capable-of: stalking) but i'm still not sure whether it's his real account or not, but i'm 80% sure it's real.....and i hope so :")

So... what is this drama about actually?

Second Chance

The Bad Cop

Forgive vs Forget

POPULAR POSTS

Search This Blog

Popular