Joo Won

Dear kfangurl: Do you have difficulty seeing an actor in a different role?

| kfangurl

Elaine writes:

I have a Dear kfangurl question to ask! My question is whether you’ve ever had a problem watching the same actor in a different role, because you have such a strong impression of him/her in the first show you saw the actor in?

Asking because I just started watching K dramas last year, and i started with highly rated ones like Crash Landing on You and Healer, where the OTPs are so smashing that I was reluctant to see the actors in other shows as it would feel to me almost like they were cheating on their original OTP! Lol.

So far I haven’t “repeated” any actors besides Lee Jun Ki – I first saw him in Arang and the Magistrate and a few months later in Flower of Evil. But to me that felt ok as his performance made the two characters feel completely different. It probably helped that his Flower of Evil character was supposed to have antisocial personality disorder so has flattened emotions.

But now almost a year after watching Healer, I’m watching Park Min Young in Her Private Life and I keep getting flashbacks to her Healer performance, especially when the two characters overlap on certain traits like optimism, pluckiness and sunny smiles.

It’s probably a personal quirk but I do wonder if anyone faces this issue too! For now there are so many dramas out there that I can avoid repeats of actors but soon it won’t be an option! Ha ha.

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Newly Taken With: Park Bo Gum

| kfangurl

It’s official, you guys. I am officially very much taken with Park Bo Gum.

Which, if I’m being honest, is a sentence I never thought I’d write.

I mean, I’d always found him pleasant enough, and on the extreme end of pretty, with his perfect skin and beautiful features, but to be officially, undeniably, strongly, hearts-in-my-eyes smitten with him?

Now that’s something I never saw coming.

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Flash Review: Yong Pal

| kfangurl

In more ways than one, I was drawn to Yong Pal like a moth to a flame.

The teaser of Joo Won being all edgy-superhero-badass, leaping off tall buildings in a single bound while saving people with his scalpel, had me practically jumping out of my skin with excitement (squee!). It all just looked so good. I needed to see this show.

And Show – just like that flame – was beautiful to look at up close too. Y’know, at least for a little while, before it proceeded to burn me on my way out.

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Melty Over: Joo Won

| kfangurl

So I’ve been meaning to do a k-love post for Joo Won for more than a year, ever since blog reader sarahlantz made a request (or several 😉 ) last year, for some Joo Won lovin’ on the site.

Honestly, I did a bunch of preliminary, er, research for this post as early as May 2014. Heh.

And by research I mean spending hours and hours trawling the interwebs for Joo Won pretty. Oh, the hardship – not! XD It’s just only now that inspiration has struck in full force, for me to actually top off that research with one last burst of goodies, and put the post together.

Coz yes, k-love posts need inspiration too – you guys are looking at an inspired piece of research, I swears!

Come admire, melt & swoon with me, y’all. 😉

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Flash Review: Cantabile Tomorrow

| kfangurl

To be honest, I had a false start or two, when it came to watching this show.

Try as I might, I just couldn’t get into it enough to get through the whole of episode 1, which meant that this show was slowly but surely sliding off the mile-long watch list, and into drama oblivion for me.

And then my friend Jo started talking about how she really did like this show, overall. She assured me that it gets better after the initial episodes – in particular, that Shim Eun Kyung’s delivery gets toned down – and that I would very likely enjoy the show.

Well, whaddya know. Jo knows me – and my taste in dramas – pretty well, after all. 😉

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Happy New Year! Giveaway Winners! ..And Other Stuff

| kfangurl
Oopsie. Do our fingers not read “2 0 1 5”??

kfangurl: Happy brand new 2015, everyone!! Wow, can you believe it’s already officially 2015?

Lady G: It feels a bit weird, but it’s really not. I hope this year is better for every one. 🙂

But now I must ask – Where’s my Hoverboard? I’ve been waiting for it since 1989! My self-drying jacket and automatic-lacing Nikes? Flying cars? I know… Back to the Future II lied to us!

kfangurl: It totally did! I mean, never mind the Hoverboard, I’d love a time-traveling car – y’know, to watch more drama with. And also, maybe stalk Woob’s fanmeets and other appearances, heh. Yes, I have a total one-track mind. Priorities, y’know? 😉

Lady G: I never even would’ve thought of using time travel to fuel our kdrama obesssions. I love the way you think! We’ll take those trips together. Who knows? We may change the future and wind up married to our biases. hehehe! Or would that be way too much of a butterfly effect?

kfangurl: Butterfly-schmutterfly. Whatever it takes to get hitched to the Woob, I say!

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We are TWO!

| kfangurl

kfangurl: Can you believe the blog’s actually been around for 2 whole years now? It used to be such teeny tiny lil baby, and now look how well it’s growing up, heh.

I’ve heard of the Terrible Twos where toddlers are concerned.. I wonder if we’re now entering the Terrible Twos, for the blog. Like, will we get more tantrumy & stampy!

Lady G:  That could happen! But ‪I believe The Fangirl Verdict is maturing. And, I consider her a girl. She’s lively, and extremely curious about her wonderful Kdrama surroundings.

She loves to gush over handsome K-drama men. She’s creative and enjoys writing her own dream dramas, and she’s wise. She genuinely wants to help fans answer their Kdrama problems with her own feature – Dear Kfangurl.

kfangurl:  ‪Y’know, I’ve never thought about that. But you’re right, blog baby’s a girl. How could she NOT be a girl, she spazzes so much over k-boys.

Lady G:  ‪She’s such a little yoja!

kfangurl:  ‪Well, I think so, but I am also completely biased!

Lady G:  ‪And that’s a #1 rule at The Fangirl Verdict, we can be totally biased… WITHOUT stepping on anyone else’s biases.

kfangurl: Or at least, we try.

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Trading Thoughts: Nine

| kfangurl

I’m excited, y’all!! I hereby bring you the first joint post this blog has ever hosted! Woot!

Most of you know by now that I’ve fallen into the habit (trap? heh.) of taking a show apart for its review, and examining each little gear and piston, and writing up a storm in the process.

Although I never specifically set out to write epic reviews, it’s become a bit of a trend on this blog now, and I’m grateful to those of you who actually enjoy coming on these epic journeys with me. Thanks y’all. It means a lot, really. ❤

In the midst of all you wonderful peeps who put in the time to read my reviews and share your thoughts with me, I discovered a particular sort of connection with the lovely Betsy Hp who hosts Creating Volumes.

If you’ve been following the comments threads in some of my reviews, you might have noticed that Betsy Hp and I sometimes exchange (very) large chunks of thoughts. It’s like her thoughts inspire me to more thoughts, which then inspire her to more thoughts.

It’s often a cycle that evolves and grows and gives birth to new and completely unexpected thoughts and ideas, which, Too Cool.

I then said (only) half in jest to Betsy Hp, that we should try joint-posting, just to see what these thought babies might look like, given the room to grow. And so – ta-dah! – here we are! *blows noisemaker*

Join us as we dive – with our thinking caps firmly on! – into the twisty world of Nine!

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Review: Ojakgyo Brothers

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A family drama that is equal parts comic, sweet, heartwarming and romantic.

Yes, that’s right. Romantic.

Ojakgyo Brothers is kind of like an omnibus. It feels like multiple short romance dramas packed into a large, generous, value-for-money family package.

For the 58 hours you spend on this drama, you get a whole lot of entertainment value. This drama had me in stitches and in tears, as I laughed, cried and melted into a puddle of goo by turn.

With a little something for everyone, it’s a lovely drama to unwind to at the end of a long day.

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Review: Gaksital [Bridal Mask]

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A show that’s really good right away, and – gasp! – actually stays that way throughout its 28 episodes. That’s a rare, rare feat in dramaland, as we know all too well.

Gaksital is a show that manages to take a political context and ground it in the personal experience and emotion of our characters, and then by extension, help us to care about that political context in a way more visceral that I expected.

I found Gaksital intense, gripping, and gut-wrenching in some of the best ways. And I don’t even usually like shows with political contexts.

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