Answer Me 1997

I marathoned this drama in three days while waiting for School 2013. I heard it was one of the best dramas this season and well Hoya was in it so…I had to check it out. I loved this drama. It literally had me laughing, wanting to cry, screaming, the whole nine yards. It gets a 100 in my book, period. Everything about the drama was amazing. I think what made this drama so great in my eyes is that the relatability factor is there. I mean, I’m still in high school. The events felt real, like I was watching them myself and not watching a drama.

I’m probably not going to review this drama, but it’s under my watched belt.

School 2013 is amazing.

Literally it was by chance that I stumbled upon this drama, I was really just bored out of my mind one day and was looking for dramas to watch. I went through about 4 first episodes of various dramas before I watched School 2013. I’m on episode 7 but I was hooked from episode 1. The thing I love about this drama is its complexity. The plot and the characters are so well fleshed out and I appreciate that so much.

I usually hate over complication dramas with ten thousand things going on but this drama is different. There’s a lot going on with various characters yet it still makes sense and somehow is intertwined. It’s getting addicting to be honest, I just want to know more about each character and figure out why they are the why they are. Definitely inching its way up to my favorite drama of all time (sorry Hana Yori Dango).

{Final Review} To The Beautiful You

I’m not going to lie, going into this drama I can’t say I had the highest expectations. I still hold the Japanese version quite near and dear and didn’t expect this version to live up to anything special. But I will say, …

Long time, no posts. (1/2)

I didn’t forget about this blog, honestly. I don’t know why I always feel bad whenever I go a while without posting. But anyway, the usual I’ve been busy. School, extracurricular activities, personal stuff, ah I’ve had along couple of weeks. I won’t promise I’ll post more often, it’ll probably be a sporadic till at least the end of the year. On the bright side, I got my driver’s license on Monday ^.^ This’ll be another edition of This Week In Kpop except it’ll be covering about two weeks.

1. The end of To The Beautiful You: I finished sometime last week and I’m in the process of writing a review over it but I’m not sure when I’ll get that posted. Overall I thought it was an average drama. I mean it didn’t exactly have any high points but it was better than I expected it to be.
2. B.A.P to make a comeback on the 23rd: Perhaps I’m a selfish fan but I don’t think it’s a bad thing when artists or groups release multiple singles in a year. However the close proximity of B.A.P’s singles do worry me a bit. It’s like I swear just last month they were promoting No Mercy. I guess I should be happy since I’m a fan of their music (loved all of the No Mercy mini).
3. Ailee releases ‘I Will Show You’ and ‘Invitation’ mini: I was so happy to learn Ailee was making a comeback. Her voice is just amazing. I wasn’t feeling the photo jacket or whatever with her with short hair but happily, it was a wig.

Mmmm. I’m actually not a fan of the song or the video. But, her voice sounds flawless. Continuing through her album, I would have preferred Evening Sky to be her title track but I know ballads are rarely picked as title tracks. She sounds the strongest when she sings ballads. 

Lol I change my mind, I could see My Love as her title track as well. The thing is with me is that the title track didn’t leave too much of a “I must listen to the rest of the album and this is just greatness” feeling for me. I must say the rap totally disrupted the flow of the song. I can’t stand that.

Part two to follow tomorrow! Hopefully.

In the midst of watching the first episode of To The Beautiful You. I’m actually pretty impressed at this point! I’m not wishing for the episode to be over or regretting that I am watching it. Does it leave up to the Japanese version, I can’t say yet.

I am ready to watch To The Beautiful You.

I’m ready for this.

More news on To The Beautiful You + my thoughts on the cast.

I’m officially ready to watch this drama now. It comes out in about a week and a half so I can probably get an episode in before school starts. I started making a cast guide but never got around to updating it. Thankfully, someone else did. If I would have actually taken the time to update mine, it wouldn’t have taken me long really. Just in case anyone is too lazy to click the link I’ve provided, here’s the cast as provided here.

Choi Minho as Kang Taejoon (Sano Izumi)

Choi Sulli as Goo Jaehee (Mizuki Ashiya)

Lee Hyun Woo as Cha Eun-gyeol (Nakatsu Shuichi)

Ki Tae-young as Jang Min-woo (Dr. Umeda)

Seo Jun young as Ha Seung-ri (Nanba Minami) *DORM 2 LEADER

Hwang Kwang-hee as Song Jong-min (Nakao)

Yoo Min Kyu as Young-mahn (Megumi Tennoji) *DORM 1 LEADER

Kim Ee An as Na Chul Soo (Oscar M. Himejima) *DORM 3 LEADER

Kang Ha-neul as Joo Ji-cheol (Makoto Kagurazaka)

Honey Lee as the President of the school

Ahn Hye-kyung as Yang Seo-yoon (Akiha Hara)

Julien Kang as Daniel (Mizuki’s brother from America)

Sungwoo Jae Duk as Tae Jun’s father

EXO - students at the school

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There’s not much I can really say about the cast honestly since I’ve only watched two maybe three Korean dramas and haven’t heard of 3/4 of the cast. I can see EXO will definitely be there for eye candy, which I can’t complain about. This is supposed to be Ikemen Paradise after all. The guy who is playing Nakatsu, Lee Hyun Woo, I hear is a great actor though his hair isn’t doing him any justice. I’m not at all sure why there is another main female character, but I’m guessing it’s an additional thing this remake is adding. Maybe to get more depth to the plot. Hopefully that proves to be more good than bad. Speaking about adding things in and whatnot, I really really really hope they leave Dr. Umeda and Nakao‘s characters as be. I didn’t see anything about Kayashima’s character, who was my favorite after Nanba and Nakatsu lol maybe not my absolute favorite. Before I heard about L playing his character, which I would have liked, but there’s been no word since.

Another trailer for To The Beautiful You.

So the guy I’m assuming plays Nakatsu’s character….I can’t stand his haircut.

This remake better be good.

I am praying the cast does not disappoint me.

A tentative cast list of “To The Beautiful You” a.k.a Korean version of Hana Kimi.

The talk of the Korean version of Hana Kimi have been underway for quite a while, and a tentative cast list has finally been posted. I don’t know too many of them, so I can’t comment but I’ll be sure to watch this in August. This is a quick reference, sort of like this post, but I’m not exactly making comparisons. Of course there’s pictures ^.^ Since most people are familiar with the Japanese version, I’m using the Japanese names. Again, this is not official with every single role.

Update: Kim Ji Won to play as Mizuki’s (Sulli) rival.

Minho Choi as Izumi Sano.

Sulli Choi as Mizuki Ashiya.

Hyun Woo Lee as Shuichi Nakatsu.

Haneul Kang as Kagurazaka. 

Jun Young Seo as Minami Nanba.

Tae Young Ki as Hokuto Umeda.

Hyegyeong Ahn as Akiha Hara.

Kwanghee as Himejima ‘Oscar’ Masao.

Kim Ji Won as Mizuki Ashiya’s rival.

Again, not an official list since some characters are missing as well as some actors/actresses may be moved to another character, but from this is what I’ve picked up so far. I’ll update it as I hear more news ^.^