What does a person do with his or herself when they are on a two week vacation with no money, and crippling pain? If that person is me, that person watches hours and hours of Korean Drama. I promise you that no one is paying me to say this, but I think the best place on the internet for K-Pop, K-Drama, and international TV in general (they have a large Latino section, currently featuring the huge hit from Spain, Red Eagle) is Drama Fever. It's not just a great place to watch your Dramas, they have blogs, polls, contests, recaps, and they make it easy to keep track of your favorite shows and your favorite stars. They also have a Roku app so you can stream directly to your TV, and an iOS app which I use with Apple TV to stream to my big screen TV. Basically, Drama Fever is awesome. You can choose between a free and a premium version, both great, but the premium version, which eliminates ads and gives you earlier access to new episodes is well worth the price. And I repeat, I am getting nothing in return for this endorsement, so don't even.
So, this is my Holy Trinity of K Drama, at the moment:
Lee Jong Suk, who I featured a few weeks ago, is the beautiful beanpole star of I Hear Your Voice, or I Can Hear Your Voice, depending on the translator. I Hear Your Voice came to a very satisfying conclusion last week, and one of the highlights of my awful vacation was lying on my bed of pain and sobbing through the last two episodes. I admit it, I'm a crier. Next I'll be watching him in last year's School 2013. He's got several upcoming projects, including a film called No Breathing, which is about competitive swimming. Which means swim suits. Just saying.
In case I didn't mention it, the entire cast of I Hear Your Voice is excellent, and I mean right down to the smallest role, but especially Lee Bo Young as the heroine, and Yoon Sang Hyun as the second lead, who was completely deserving but not fated to get the girl.
Lee Min Ho is easily the least boyish of my fave trio, but what a gorgeous, gorgeous man. I first encountered him in Boys Over Flowers, which was the first K-Drama that made me lose my mind. The thing about his role in Boys Over Flowers is that in the beginning he was such a jerk that even though my brain told me that he was the one who would eventually get the girl, I couldn't quite piece together how he would ever convince me that it wasn't an outrage. I wasn't quite prepared for his skills, his ability to be haughty and confused and manly and child-like and love-struck and a d-bag and a sweetheart all at the same time. I suggest you follow up Boys Over Flowers with the action drama City Hunter.
Yoo Ah In is my latest crush, and you know he's got to have something special going for him because he's the only reason that I have been sitting through episode after episode of the abysmal Fashion King. Fashion King seems to be a perfect example of how to get everything wrong, and it all starts with the characters, not one of whom is likable. I take that back. Yoo Ah In is likeable simply by the force of his own will. He's supposed to be a lovable rogue type, but even though you can't miss that he is imposing considerable charm on the character, you realize that the character is just awful. It doesn't help that the heroine is a complete dish rag, never standing up for herself in a meaningful way, and crying in almost every scene. I don't care what happens to her, I just want her to go away. I refuse to even type the actress's name.
It turns out that pretty much everybody hates Fashion King. It was a ratings failure in Korea and the finale elicited howls of outrage from the few fans the show had left by the time it aired. Why am I watching it, then? Well, in the first episode, Yoo Ah In took off his clothes three times. In each of the following three episodes he got nekkid at least once and often several times. It was a bait and switch though. Ever since the fourth episode he has remained stubbornly clothed. Grrrrr. I keep thinking the clothes have to come off again sometime, right?
