Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! 🧨 If you’re looking for a holiday movie for the festive season, this one just might fit the bill.
It’s a heartwarming Hallmark-esque sort of story, with a fantasy twist. Not your typical holiday movie, in that sense, but with enough of the cozy, poignant, warming feels that you’d tend to want, from a holiday movie, to make it a contender for your holiday screen time.
Psst: Links to watch are at the end of the review! ❤️
I really enjoyed Im Se Mi in 2020’s True Beauty, where she plays a feisty, candid older sister to Moon Ga Young’s female lead, so I totally perked up, when I saw that she’s the female lead in this little drama special.
On top of this, I also liked the idea of Im Ji Kyu being her male lead. Essentially, both of them have played so many supporting characters, that I just liked seeing them be the protagonists of the story, for once.
In the end, this does turn out to be a rather pleasant hour of drama. It’s low-key and down-to-earth, yet still sweet and hopeful. That’s not bad, right?
Y’know how a savvy shopper might feel super chuffed at finding a great bargain or a vintage gem in an overlooked corner of a store? That’s how I feel about stumbling on this little drama special, you guys.
Not only have I never heard anyone talking about this drama special, it’s turned out to be ridiculously entertaining, in the most unexpected way.
I really hope you guys will give it a try, this little show deserves some extra love!
There are so many occasions when I feel a drama starts out strong, but then loses its footing and becomes underwhelming; it isn’t too often, that I feel the opposite way about a show.
Granted, that’s often because if a drama isn’t working for me, I’ve learned that I don’t need to suffer through it, and that it’s perfectly ok to drop it.
However, because this little drama special is just 1 hour 7 minutes long, it wasn’t all that hard to persevere to the end, even though I wasn’t too taken with Show’s first half. And whaddya know, Show actually ends much stronger than it starts.
Yay for this little show managing to exceed my expectations, and buck the trend, at the same time. 😉
Major shout-out to dear Beez, who took the time to write, to suggest this little drama special to me.
I’d really liked drama special Let Us Meet, but Beez hadn’t liked it as much as I had, and she said that this drama special, was everything she’d hoped Let Us Meet could have been, but wasn’t.
Of course, that really intrigued me, because if I’d already really enjoyed Let Us Meet, mightn’t this mean that I would possibly enjoy this show even more?
..And that’s exactly what happened, you guys. I did like this even more than Let Us Meet, and I hope you will too. 😋
This show ought to be right up your alley if:
(a) stories set in the 1930s are your kind of thing,
(b) you like the idea of Sohn Ho Jun getting to play romantic lead (if you’ve seen him in Go Back Couple, you’ll know he does lovely bedroomy eyes 😍), &/or
(c) you find Jo Bo Ah cute and charming,
..because this little drama special serves up all of that, and more – in just 1 hour and 5 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this little show, and I hope you guys will like it too.
Are you on the market for something quick, light and cotton-candy fluffy on your drama plate?
Coz I ended up liking this little web drama, at just five quick 12-15 minute episodes, quite a bit more than I’d expected to, and think that it’s worth a look – with the right lens adjustments, of course.
To be honest, I almost decided against checking out this one because of its pretty average ratings on MyDramaList, but decided to take a look anyway, on the off-chance that I’d buck the trend and perhaps like it more than other viewers seemed to – and whaddya know, I do like it more than everyone else! 😂
..And I’m hoping that perhaps you might, too. 😉
What a solid, surprising little gem of a drama, you guys.
There are so few kdramas that attempt the science fiction genre, that off the top of my head, I can only think of one other drama – 2010’s Joseon X-Files (also known as Secret Investigation Record) – as a show somewhat in the same category.
That in itself makes Circle a bit of a special snowflake, in my books. In addition, whether or not you’re into science fiction (I’m not super into it myself), Circle manages to be consistently interesting, compelling, & mysterious; sometimes rather exciting, and almost always emotionally engaging.
When I started this one, I wasn’t all that sure I would like this odd science fiction duck of a drama, to be honest, but now that I’ve emerged on the other side, I can sincerely say that I’m glad I made time for this one.
One thing that I’ve learned from watching dramas, is that love has everything to do with timing. Well, guess what, you guys. I’m learning that this principle about timing applies to drama love too, ie, whether or not I end up loving a drama has a lot to do with timing too.
Sometimes, the timing has to do with my mood. Like, maybe I’ve got a rom-com on my screen, but I might be in the mood for a melo instead, and so the rom-com doesn’t work for me.
Other times, the timing has to do with whether I’m late to the party.
Which, by the way, can go either way. With Memories Of The Alhambra, being late to the party meant that I could adjust my expectations based on the fragments of information I’d gathered from other viewers, and I ended up enjoying the show more than the average viewer.
With Chicago Typewriter, however, being late to the party meant that it ended up more hyped up in my mind, from the large amounts of love I’ve seen poured out for this show by other viewers before me, than Show was able to live up to.
I guess I’d gotten to the point where my expectations were just too high?
As much as I hate to admit it, I didn’t manage to love Chicago Typewriter as much as many of you did. On the upside, I did like it quite well overall. Let’s dive in to see how that all worked out, shall we?
Because today’s in-flight offerings leaned mostly dark, with most of the Korean movies that I hadn’t seen having to do with death, murder and such (eep), I found myself giving Japanese movie Mix (also known as Mixed Doubles) a whirl.
I’m admittedly not much interested in table tennis, but I do have a fondness for Aragaki Yui after loving her in adorable J-drama We Married As A Job.
Plus, an uplifting movie didn’t sound like a bad thing – even if the medium was a sport that I had little interest in.
Even though it did take me a while to get into this one, and even though our story ran a fairly predictable course, I must say that by the end, I did finish the movie with a smile on my face, and thoughts swirling in my head.
I even pulled out my laptop to capture said thoughts, right here on the plane.
That’s.. not too bad, wouldn’cha say? 😉