korean drama review: The Queen's Classroom

oh have you watched this drama?
Just finished it and i'd say it was above my expectations.

Starring:
Ko Hyun Jung as Teacher Ma Yeo Jin

She's known to me as the face of Korea's cosmetic brand, RE:nk. I've never actually watched any of  her dramas, this is the first.
I must say, my first impression of her wasn't a really good one. I took on her physical qualities at first sight noticing only her bloated face (very!) and lack of a neck that seems not befitting at all on her tall and slender-looking body. She seems "off", kind of weird. However, as the drama progressed, i got used to it and didn't seem to mind the "weird" ET look.

Teacher Ma is like a witch, a demon woman. That's her nickname amongst the kids and in the school. She plays a cold as steel teacher with the weirdest way of teaching the kids. She teaches them not only academically but more on social values and ethics and her way of doing so is eccentric and sure does not look like she understands any of the children's needs. That is how it is felt on the surface. However, deep within she cares more for the children's well-being (emotionally which will lead to physical results), more than even herself. She uses the façade of a witch to steer the children in the right direction. In the end, she is always the victor, well able to conquer and eradicate all social inequality, ostracism and bad social behaviour.



The other stars of the drama are little children. The main child actor is

Kim Hyang Gi as Shim Ha Na

I've never seen her before, it's my first. And she is good. Really good. She displays poignancy and charm in her acting and i enjoyed her performance very much.


I've seen some of the other child actors before and most of them are good in acting, maybe, perhaps, possibly with the exception of this little guy:

Somehow i felt some of his parts were a little off, but overall still good. Some of his parts felt a bit pretentious , like we know he is acting.




I cried a lot with this drama as the story is so good. Plenty of hurdles, mishaps, misconceptions etc and each of them was tackled with a good ending. However, some of the "endings" were too lenient and too far fetched.

For eg, in one of those stories:
one of the kids had been stealing and putting the blame on our lead child actress. The thief even had the audacity to ostracise the lead child actress by getting things all mucked up and turning things around so that the lead child actress takes all the blame. Teacher Ma uses her eccentric ways to make the thief own up and the lead child actress stand up for herself. It was good, but the ending of where the thief was able to clear all conscience in just a short amount of time, and all the the other students forgave and so easily accepted the thief into their social circle again , is just plain ridiculous. How can such hurt and scars be gotten over so easily?
Well, that's just one of the not-so-realistic parts of the drama.


But all in all, the drama was good.

And the best part? Haha, you wouldn't have guessed, it's the background music!! Some fantasy, witchery background music that plays throughout the drama. I just love it! it fits so well.




My rating: 8.5/10.It's an underrated drama .

korean drama review: I Hear Your Voice

I just finished this drama and would like to pen  my thoughts on it.

Please be forewarned of SPOILERs ahead!

The 3 mains:
Lee Bo Young as Jang Hye Sung
Lee Jong Suk as Park Soo Ha
Yoon Sang Hyun as Cha Kwon Woo


I was impatiently waiting for the drama to finish airing so i could watch a marathon on it. I like Lee Jong Suk and Lee Bo Young. Particularly like Lee Bo Young for her wonderful performance in My Daughter So Yeong which i truly enjoyed.
So i was really looking forward to this one. Plus, i watched the episode of Hwasin featuring the three main characters and that got me more excited to start on the drama.

Eeek, my "nightmare" started. I never would have imagined that they actually really really paired Lee Jong Suk with Lee Bo Young. They look like siblings instead because Lee Bo Young looks, and in reality is, way much older than Lee Jong Suk. So it really turned me off.
I knew Lee Jong Suk had a crush on Lee Bo Young and i always thought it would be one sided since he is still in high school (not even in uni!) and she is already an experienced working woman nearing her 30s.

I thought it would be like High Kick Season 1 where Jung Il Woo had a one sided crush on his teacher that never worked out. I could accept that.

But not this! it was a ridiculous pairing and i highly dislike it. Why oh why did they spoil the drama this way. I would have truly enjoyed it if it wasn't for this ridiculous pairing. As much as i like both of them i cannot, i repeat, i cannot, accept them as a pair of lovers.

And every time they kissed, hugged, touched each other, looked into each others' eyes, i would start "gagging". I would grimace in "disgust". Yup, "disgust" is a strong word to use, but i gave it heavy proportion due to how much it bothered me.

I know, there are those large age-gapped couples around like Demi moore and Ashton Kutcher. I don't know why, i just cannot see Lee Bo Young and Lee Jong Suk as lovers. It gave me the shudders as if they were committing "sibling relationship" (can't remember the word for it!). Can you imagine your younger brother looking  into your eyes, wrapping his arms around your waist and starts french kissing you??


This coupling really gave me "nightmares". On the final episode, they were kissing intensely and that image made me unable to sleep! I wish i never watched this drama.

And what happens to Yoon Sang Hyun? Is there no love line for him? what a pity. He should've been the main pairing with Lee Bo Young, they look so much more compatible. And he has a rather cutesy character in the drama. Fun and cute.



And yet another flaw in the drama is this guy, Jung Woon In:

He is the main villain in the drama, Min Joon Guk. Yup, he did well. But why is he never dead? He keeps reviving and the whole drama is circled around this one bad character. The drama is about prosecutors and lawyers taking on criminal cases and the entire drama had like only one criminal case that goes on and on for 18 episodes.

This guy keeps popping up, threatening and frightening people, killing people and always gets away with it. Of course, in the end he gets what he deserves, but i think it would have been nicer to keep this mighty villain toward the end and have more other criminal cases to show off Lee Jong Suk's inner voice reading skills.

It became tiresome to watch because it felt repetitive with no new ideas/criminal cases.




Rating/conclusion:
Personally, i would not even recommend this drama.

However, if i were to put the main couple issue aside, it won't be that bad, i'd give this a 6.5/10.



PS: i dislike the Cyrano agency couple even more! Father and daughter french kissing.... ewww. I gave up on that drama.


Aah, what should i watch next to erase such horrendous kissing memories ???