Oppaaa~!
I must tell you guys, there was a time when I was rather smitten with Lee Seo Jin. And even though over time, other k-loves have since taken up residence in my fangirl heart, I’ve continued to have a soft spot for Oppa despite going for a good long stretch without seeing him on my screen.
I’m just so pleased that he’s now popping up so much in variety land, and making quite the splash while he’s at it too.
It’s definitely time to show Oppa some love. 😉
Blame my previous indifference to Eric on the facts that:
(a) I’m technically still a complete kpop noob and know next to nothing about Shinhwa, the legendary group of which Eric is leader and rapper; and
(b) I’d never seen him in anything of significance, since I’d bailed early on Myung Wol The Spy (2011), and hadn’t been terribly impressed by his outing as second lead in Phoenix (2004). Fine.
That last bit was also coz I’d been so completely distracted by Lee Seo Jin at the time, who was basically the only reason I even decided to watch that show, heh.
Now, blame my current state of spazz-puddle on Eric’s wonderful performance in Discovery of Love (2014). I mean, just, where had this manly man, oh-so-sexy version of Eric been hiding, all this while??
I likey. I likey very much.
THE SHORT VERDICT:
Old-school, classic kdrama of the romantic, melodramatic variety, circa 2001.
Although not quite as wildly popular as Winter Sonata or Autumn In My Heart, Beautiful Days is actually a pretty good watch when you’re in the mood for retro melo.
Yes, it’s angsty, but it’s not depressingly so.
Plus, our male lead is a very smoldery Lee Byung Hun oozing oodles of machismo. If you like your kdrama heroes of the manly man variety, you might want to check this out.