Yoon Eun Hye

All About Love Stories: By Martina!

| kfangurl

In case you missed it, we have yet another guest post series to enjoy, this month!

Unlike our previous guest post series, this one was kind of an accident, almost. I have Ele to thank for this one, because it was her innocent question about something, that made me casually talk about the off-the-top-of-my-head, hypothetical possibility of a guest post series on love, in the month of February, in honor of Valentine’s Day.

So many folks on Patreon responded enthusiastically to this idea, that I felt that it would be remiss of me, not to actually make it happen, come February.

And so, here we are. This month, we will enjoy a total of nine guest posts from patrons on Patreon, on the topic of love stories. The brief is pretty flexible, in that, each writer is free to go deep, or go wide, on anything around the topic of love stories in Dramaland.

You can check out our earlier posts in the series as follows: Uyen, Jaco_4950, Kate, Ele, Sean & JJ.

Today’s post (our seventh!) is brought to you by Martina! Martina’s observations of characters and relationships are consistently tinged with deeper understanding and appreciation of nuances than most, because of her professional background in psychology. What a treat, then, that Martina turns her lens on my gateway drama, Goong, for this post! Thank you, Martina! ❤️

I hope you guys enjoy!

KFG ❤️

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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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Dear kfangurl: What do you think of idol actors?

| kfangurl

Bubblebathdaisies writes:

Dear kfangurl,

(This is a long intro, so skip it if you wish) Hello! I’ve been a silent reader of your blog for a really long time, since I was thirteen and I just made this account to comment!

I’m sixteen now, and I feel like I’ve grown up with your blog- you introduced me to dramas and k-pop, and I still read your older articles when I feel down, it’s like comfort food for me. So thank you for that!

The question I have is: What do you think of idol actors? I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like a lot more idols are starring in dramas nowadays, and they may not always be good at acting. The general consensus among some of my other drama-watching friends is that idol actors take away jobs from better-trained rookie actors, and some think it’s unfair that they get to use a drama as an acting class.

Personally, I think it’s a bit of a gray area, since there’s plenty of perfectly well-trained and decently popular actors who can’t reeeallly act that well, but also it kind of ruins the drama for me if the lead cannot act well (fourteen year old me wasn’t that bothered about acting skills so much as ~swoon~ factor and watched The Great Seducer on repeat, but I watched it last week and had to skip a big big chunk of the scenes because the acting was…not the greatest) What do you think?

(But I think we all know idols are going to keep getting casted anyways, lol. They’re far too popular to miss out on for profit-related purposes, and some of them are really really good!)

Annie writes:

Would be interesting to read your thoughts on idols turned actors/actresses.

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Review: Coffee Prince

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Fun, breezy, and so heartfelt, that it’s still considered a classic in Dramaland today.

There are lot of things to love about this show: a drama world that feels real and lived-in; leads with crackling, warm chemistry whether they’re bickering, stealing wistful glances at each other, or getting up-close-and-personal touchy-feely; an excellent ensemble cast that all feel like they belong in their characters’ skins; a well-executed OST.

On the downside, some folks find the humor a little gross, so fair warning, I guess? I personally don’t enjoy gross humor, but I didn’t find the humor in this much of a deterrent, to be honest.

The ending can feel a little underwhelming in spots, but overall, this one is well worth a long-term spot in your drama-loving heart.

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Review: Goong [Princess Hours]

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A live-manhwa-meets-contract-marriage-meets-sageuk-meets-fusion-fantasy sort of mashup, Goong is something of a modern classic in dramaland.

Despite its multiple elements, Show is cute and adorable a lot of the time, and manages to serve up some very lovely, melty OTP moments through its run.

On the downside, with its mostly raw and inexperienced cast, plus some starkly melodramatic tendencies, the watch can feel uneven at times.

Even so, it’s quite a lovely watch, given the right lens.

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Dear kfangurl: Is it wrong to ship myself with Oppa?

| kfangurl

Yikes. I just realized that today’s Dear kfangurl question is one that I received almost 3 whole months ago!

Panda asks today’s question:

“Is it wrong to ship yourself with your fave actors/actresses?”

I’m sorry for taking this long to give an answer Panda. The end-of-year busyness got to me, and I didn’t realize I’d kept you waiting this long!

To try to make up for it, I’ll do my best to give you a thoughtful answer, ok? *offers hug*

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Dropped: I Miss You

| kfangurl

To be honest, I didn’t expect to write about I Miss You. After all, the drama’s been over for a while, and it’s been literally months since I dropped it.

But my dear friend Michele requested this post, and since I basically bailed on her when we’d agreed to watch this drama together, I feel like I owe it to her, y’know?

Now, I like to think of myself as a pretty decent friend. And I honestly *pinky swear!* thought that since we’d be watching this together, that my commitment to her, combined with her encouragement, would be enough to keep me on this boat through to the very end.

Uh. That so didn’t happen.

After 14 episodes, I just could not bring myself to watch another hour of this drama, and I bailed, leaving poor Michele to soldier on without me (I’m still sorry, Michele! And, I still won’t watch this show! 😛 ).

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Pocketful of Sunshine!

| kfangurl

Good mornin’, Sunshine!

You might’ve seen the Sunshine Award making its rounds in the k-blogosphere lately. Well, today it’s my turn to join the sunshiny fun!

But first of all, let’s get some context. (You guys know how much I love my context!)

I did a bit of poking around, and found that the Sunshine Award is given to bloggers who “positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.”

D’aw~ That’s so nice, isn’t it?

Thanks to Snow of The Drama Corner for nominating me as a positive inspiration!

Now, let’s get down to business, shall we?

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Review: Master’s Sun

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Not one of the best outings by the Hong sisters, but not one of the worst either, Master’s Sun delivers what it promises: rom-com hijinks of the somewhat ghostly variety.

Driven mostly by sparky OTP chemistry and a lovely OST, which together made up for lapses in the storytelling, this drama is more mood than substance. And it’s a slow burn too, at that.

Essentially, a pretty fun, easy, unchallenging watch if you don’t think about it too hard. And I’ve just found a way to level that up in a serious fashion, which I’ll tell you more about in the review.

And no, the ghosts aren’t that scary. 

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Liebster Shower [Round 2!]

| kfangurl

So a funny thing happened. Liebster season snuck up on me when I wasn’t even looking.

When the first signs popped up, hinting that Liebster season was upon us again, I hardly took notice. I was all like, Well, I had a good go at that last year, and it was a heap of fun.

Surely after 9 whole Liebsters, though, no one’s going to want to ask me more questions about myself. Right?

Wrong.

When I wasn’t looking, those Liebsters seemed to multiply in a little room all by their sneaky little selves. Almost like they had a will all their own. And now, I have a serious heap of questions to answer *starts sweating bullets*

I plead hectic Real Life schedules as the reason that I delegated the job of answering the Liebster questions to Future Me (hey, after watching so many time-travel dramas, you gotta learn something, right?)

So here I am, Future Me (er, now Present Me?) to the rescue! Let’s see if you guys can stick with me all the way to the very end, eh? I promise to make this as pain-free as possible 😉

And, thanks to all you sweethearts who nominated me – I feel like I’ve been rained on by showers of lurve ❤

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