[k-drama review] you're beautiful

after the disaster that was boys over flowers (korean version), i thought i was so over idol dramas (i am too old to be giggling over teen romance), but then comes you're beautiful..and i love it! this is wayyy better than the boring BOF (only lee minho carried the show). this show was written by the Hong Sisters, who also made my kdrama faves such as Fantasy Couple and My Girl.

Title: You're Beautiful 미남이시네요
TV Station: SBS
Episodes: 16
Broadcast Period: Oct 27 to Nov 26, 2009
Story: A story about the behind-the-scenes life of an idol group. Jang Geun Suk and Lee Hong Ki are in search of a new member for their idol group. However at the last minute, the member suffers an injury and his twin sister has to step in disguised as him.


Characters:
Park Shin-hye as Go Mi-nam and Go Mi-nyu: she's so adorable as Go Mi-nam! she looks so much like a young Yun Eun Hye in Coffee Prince.

Jang Geun Suk as Hwang Tae Kyung: i've never seen him in his older dramas and i've never bothered to watch him. I've always thought he looked too girly and thin.. but he was so good in this drama that i became an instant fan! i hate his arrogant smirks but i melted at how much he loves Mi-nam.

Jung Yong Hwa as Kang Shin Woo: i was sooo disappointed with this character! he was no match at all for Tae Kyung and he's such a torpe that it was his fault Minam couldnt even see him as a man. i think it would have been better if the Hong Sisters made Shin Woo more aggressive and competitive, it would have made the story fun and his character less pathetic and boring.

Lee Hongki as Jeremy: his character was so childish and stupid with a immature crush on Minam, i thought they just added him in the cast as comic relief. But i did love that bus scene with Minam where he heartbreakingly cries - first sign of his maturity.

Uee as Yoo He Yi: for some reason, i dont find her pretty. her eyes are so big and her face and expressions are so ugly.. but i loved her character. though she's a bit bitchy and mean, she played it so well and i can't help but look forward to her downfall everytime she's on screen.

FAvorite Scenes:
anything with Minam and TaeKyung. their chemistry is just so good! and Minam's clumsiness and TaeKyung's awesomeness is so much fun to watch!

 there's always the drunk-accidental kiss scene

minam ridiculously gets zapped by the pepper spray and falls onto the sleeping taekyung

and the kisses

and all those times minam would turn her nose up like a pig's to suppress her feelings for taekyung

and taekyung creating the pig rabbit

the reunion and the end

ANJELL together

comments:

the story mainly focused on the relationship between tae kyung and minam, with a little sideplots on minam not getting discovered, heyi's obsessive crush on taekyung, shinwoo's one-sided love and taekyung's mom. i think the story about taekyung's mom was required to build up the angsty character or taekyung but it was a bit dragging that i was fast forwarding their scenes. the songs were a bit repetitive but nice, esp the summery song, lovely day sung by shin-hye. i love their house!! it looks so much fun! the comic scenese are ridiculously corny but funny. the love, anger and heartbreak between taekyung and minam felt so real that i couldnt help but cry with them. i think i will give this series a 7.5 out of 10. too bad i lost my copy of this show. maybe when i have some free time i will redownload and rewatch this again!

november book challenge

this month was a bit light for me so i was able to spend some time to read.

82. jen calonita - on location
4 stars. nice story though a bit predictable. just love kristin and austin together. this should be made into a tv movie or disney series. better than hannah montana and miley cyrus' bad acting.

83. joanne rock - getting lucky
4 stars - i think the author got her idea from jerry maguire and just added a little ghost whisperer twist. but it was a fun and quick read with some action in the end.

84. kristin hardy - the boss's proposal
4 stars - i've read her previous novels and this one does not disappoint. a simple love-hate romance that just makes you root for them to get together in the end.

85. kody keplinger - the duff
4 1/2 stars - at first, i wasn't exactly sure why wesley called bianca the duff, but i think in the end it's just a way for him to get her to notice him. though i didnt like that bianca was having sex and using wesley for sex at such a young age and to escape, i thought it was well made and realistic. im glad that they did end up together. that goes to show that sometimes, even the good looking people are wrongly stereotyped as arrogant airheads.

86. simone elkeles - perfect chemistry
4 1/2 stars - this reminded me a bit of a teenage version of west side story but with a happy ending. a bit too perfect though with the epilogue which i thought was unnecessary. it would have been nicer if she left room for a sequel or like a "who knows whats going to happen in the future but lets take it one step at a time". but otherwise, a really solid novel.

87. nancy warren - power play
4 stars - after having a hard time reading robin kaye's romeo, romeo (the story was okay but a bit dragging - i think i dont like stories about new york italians), this book was quite refreshing and i finished the book in a couple of hours. story was the usual but i wished the author gave emily the chance to say no to her family for once and for her family to understand that just because she's single does not mean she gets to do all the errands (no, im not bitter, haha).

88. sarah mayberry - take on me
4 1/2 stars - ive read a lot of sarah mayberry and so far, i've only been disappointed once (below the belt). this novel is fun and easy to read. i dont know why i love romance where the guy and girl keeps fighting. i guess it's better than the boring, everything's too perfect kind of relationship (i mean, who has that anyway in real life right?).

89. jill shalvis - slow heat
4 1/2 stars. arrogant too handsome jock meets sexy publicist. love the sizzling romance even if the story's unoriginal. can't wait to read the next in the series!

90. toni blake - sugar creek
4 1/2 stars. part 2 of the destiny series. this time it's rachel and mike romo. small town sheriffs just sounds so hot! i wonder if it's true though (i mean, if you go to small town usa). tessa is next and i think she's going to be paired with mike's brother lucky. too bad, i was actually hoping for adam becker's story. and how about amy? i think amy will end up with logan in the end!

91. susan mallery - ultimate millionaire
4 stars. i just love millionaires and the pretty ladies who can bring them on their knees. fast paced romance but still showed how their relationship grew from friendship to love. im also curious about the other 2 sisters' stories so i'll be searching for the other books. the only letdown of this book is the TMI discussion of the sister's sex lives! it's so kiss and tell. i wish marina had left some parts to herself and todd. oh and ew.. i just saw the cover of "todd" and so not what i had imagined!

92. melissa dela cruz - keys to the repository
4 stars - this is a companion book for the blue bloods series. this book helped me a lot in understanding the remembering who is who and some of the back stories of what happened before. im impressed that melissa can come up with her own new world! i hope this series also gets a tv series or a movie. i think her stories are deeper than the twilight saga. i wonder who will be casted as sky and jack if this happens?

eight books to go! i think i will be able to reach my 100 goal! yay!

bali offsite

i was in bali last nov 2-5 for our company apac offsite. it was nice finally meeting everyone from the team. we were a group of 78 auditors. the first day was a bit serious where we had some workshops and presentations but the second day was just a whole of team building activity.

i wasn't able to go around bali coz we were mostly stuck inside the hotel and barely had the chance to have a free time. so i was only able to take pics around the hotel and beach front on my last day.

here are some of the pics of the pool, the wedding chapel and the beach. so funny that my dress looked like the towels!! haha! and it was so hot, i could barely open my eyes (forgot to wear my shades).


maybe we'll have another offsite next year *fingers crossed*

NKOTBSB !

this was my teenage dream so many years ago... nkotb + bsb together singing their hits!

their voices started shaky during the early part of the performance but then they got better until the end! love the reaction of the crowd (though i wished they showed more celebs rocking to their song than the fillers) -- i did read somewhere that since this was the finale, most of the stars have left. i think between the two groups, nkotb did better.. still love jordan knight! he's still as hot as ever, and still has that great voice! i did cringe a bit though as i remember that these men are already in their late 30s to early 40s dancing and singing teenybopper stuff. and i wish kevin was there for this performance - he was my fave bsb! i think tonight, they showed the people how to sing and dance live and that these two groups are the best boyband ever!

okay. enough fangirling and back to reality.

big bang theory

after watching season 1 of the big bang theory, i finally realised that i'm not that nerdy because i can't understand most of the technical jargon they discuss during the show but i'm still geeky enough that i can understand and laugh at their jokes and actually somehow relate to their unsocial and uncool behavior.

i think it would be funny having these 4 nerds as your neighbors. very entertaining.

oh, and i love the theme song from The Barenaked Ladies:

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,

Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!

"Since the dawn of man" is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and pangea
See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!

It all started with the big BANG!
It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it wont be hurt
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!

Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating out while here they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!

october book challenge

74. kasey michaels - can't take my eyes off you
4 stars. while this is a nice novel, it was nothing extraordinary with the plot and the characters. it took me several days to finish this book. i liked quinn but shelby not so much. the brandy's boyfriend and his mom reminded me of the true blood character.

75. michelle reid - bellini bride
4 stars. while the story is very dramatic and explosive, and the twist was really good, i hated the 2 main characters. they were both so strong and they kept fighting and trying to get the upperhand in the relationship that i thought it would have been better for them to be apart than force them to have a happy ever after.

76. susan mallery - a little bit pregnant
4 stars. the title is a bit misleading in that the pregnancy thing happened almost in the middle (or the last few chapters) of the story that it wasn't really the reason that they had to be together. however i liked how the story progressed coz you can really feel how the relationship grew and blossomed into love.

77. rachel gibson - nothing but trouble
4 1/2 stars. her latest novel just confirmed why she is one of my fave authors today. i dont remember mark in the previous novels but i love him and chelsea. the story is funny and sweet with lots of love and romance from the couple. i also liked the side story on chelsea's twin.

78. carly phillips - brazen
4 1/2 stars. reading carly has been a hit-and-miss experience for me. but this book is one of her hits. loved sam and mac' story. even though the story is a bit cliche, i enjoyed this book and finished this in no time.

79. jane sullivan - risky business
4 1/2 stars. couldn't put this book down. i've always liked these kinds of plot/story. makes me wonder how i would react if i was in rachel's place and there's a hot hunk who would gladly pose as my make believe husband :)

80. lisa gardner - live to tell
4 1/2 stars. i just watched Mirrors a few days ago (Kiefer Sutherland) and it was a creepy movie. this book reminded me of the movie and also gave me the creeps because the thought of having evil and disturbed kids sound so scary. another reason why i love this novel is for the first time gardner made the killer to be someone we know and has interacted with everyone, so it was fun to guess the killer.

81. nancy warren - my fake fiancee
4 1/2 stars. childhood crush, faking a relationship, delicious food and gorgeous guy.. what's not to love about this book? the author also got her inspiration from sabrina (audrey hepburn, bogey, william holden), one of my fave movies.

19 books to go!!

next attraction: eric mun

"Eric’s management told Star News, “Eric is determined to put in his best  efforts in his work until his last day as a public service officer. He  has already received offers from 3 or 4 dramas so far and will consider  carefully before he chooses his comeback project.”

Various news articles are beginning to pour out about Shinhwa's very own leader, Eric Mun. On October 22, Eric will be officially discharged from the army and will make a comeback in the entertainment industry. His "love call" from various agencies (including CF's, dramas, and movies) has garnered great interest.
Eric fans! Be prepared for his arrival!

For those who don't know him, get ready to be swept away!
 
Woohoo!!! Eric is coming back soon to Hallyuwood! He's my fave out of Shinhwa. Hope he makes a drama next year!