Kdrama Review: Rebirth - Next (2005)

Rebirth - Next
환생-넥스트 
7/10 ♥♥

Drama watchers rejoice: it's the review you've all been waiting for! No, it's not, and actually you've probably never heard of this whimsically romantic drama before, but that's okay. I'm here to change that. Rebirth, Next, Reincarnation, whatever you want to call it, is actually five stories about the same four people who meet in the present, and in four different pasts. Each time they're reincarnated (in four conveniently romantic historical Korean eras) their lives are plunged into chaos and angst, into brilliantly reworked and unique love squares, and when they die they don't remember each other in the next life. Or do they?

There is an overarching story set in the present timeline, which weaves in and between the historical eras, and that story is probably the wildest of them all. It's where we meet our main characters for the first time though. Ryu Soo Young is the neurosurgeon Min Ki Bum; Jang Shin Young plays Kang Jung Hwa, a starving stage actress; Lee Jong Soo is her colleague and almost boyfriend Min Ki Soo; and Park Ye Jin is the psychologist Lee So Hyeon who begins treating Jung Hwa with hypnosis, while possibly revealing their intertwining pasts.

Rebirth - Next is cheesy, epic, romantic to a fault, and great for those rainy days when you just want to whine about love and be overly indulged. And here's the best part. Once you've watched it through, you don't need to rewatch the whole thing. Just pick which era and storyline you liked in particular, and that two-episode era will be quite enough to fullfill all your nostalgic wants. Confused? Follow my guide with accompanying non-spoilery descriptions below.

Kdrama Review: Taereung National Village (2005)

Taereung National Village 
태릉선수촌 
7/10 ♥

Every now and then, I get nostalgic for my favorite actors when I haven't seen them in a while. Hence my reason for watching this drama short. And the reason I picked this special production about athletes living in an Olympics training facility, falling in love and out of love... Lee Sun Gyun, aka The Voice. What I ended up watching was Lee Min Ki in a not underwhelming starring role. Taking in each 30 minute episode, the whole drama clocks in at around 4 hours. I speak from authority in that I do not like sports stories, I don't know a think about judo or archery, and I only know that I kind of like watching the swimmers and gymnasts when they come around every four years. But I liked this drama, and it wasn't because of the athletics. It was because of the athletes and the actors who played them.

Like many stories, this is a coming-of-age tale for the majority of the characters. Except the kids in Taereung have already had larger-than-life expectations thrust upon them. Hong Min Ki (Lee Min Ki, not to confuse anyone) is good at judo, except for that little problem that he becomes physically ill before every single match. Bang Su Ah (Choi Jung Yoon) won an archery medal at the last Olympics, but she's showing signs of a slump this time around. Her boyfriend Dong Kyung (Lee Sun Gyun) is a swimmer (yeah that means he walks around in swimmers trunks a couple times ) who's reaching past his prime before he could ever achieve something glorious, and little Ma Ru (Song Ha Yoon) is the best gymnast in the village with the whole world in front of her. Don't expect miracles out of everybody. This is a highly realistic snapshot of 4 completely different athletes who are thrust together due to their relationships, and the world makes what it will of them.

Is her face just tiny, or does he have a big head?

The Males

Lee Min Ki practically glitters throughout the whole drama. He's hyper, alternately cute and annoying, and makes no secret of his crush for the former gold medal winner archer. He's at his coolest though (meaning dorkiest) when he confronts that girl's hulk of a boyfriend. I'm biased of course, but Lee Sun Gyun is fabulous. He also acts the same as every other time I've seen the man act: confident in the spotlight, with a twinge of vulnerability when he's not. It's not groundbreaking, but always appealing. I give this show bonus points for the bromance. When the two aren't nose to nose, about to come to blows, they're sheltering each other from life and all its dirty little tricks. 

The Females

Taereung National Village doesn't just do justice to the males of the drama. Su Ah snuck up on me as one of my favorite characters, mostly for how she maintains her confidence in the midst of career slumps and love troubles. She goes from being a clueless bystander in her own relationships, to seriously considering the whys and hows of all her issues. All this without becoming jealous or vindictive of her rivals in both areas. Her roommate Ma Ru is initially typecast as the clingy would-be girlfriend to Min Ki but for a timely plot device that kind of made me love her. Life works us through many kinds of trials, and Ma Ru went through the pits of character hell into looking and acting like a real human being.

Next time, don't date an archer ;)

The Extra Bits

Why watch? I don't know. If you love the actors, if you're in for 4 hours of slice of life. If you're up for watching people learn and grow, and act natural, and still be funny. There's something peaceful about this drama. After the glitz and glam of Kdramas, it was a refreshing, homey watch, and evidently pinned by a production team that knew what it was doing, despite receiving probably no extra promotional material to work with. But hey, when they snuck in a scene from When Harry Met Sally, with accompanying irony, I was sold.

TwDrama Review: Devil Beside You (2005)

Devil Beside You
惡魔在身邊
3/10

Another "classic" lets me down. Lured on the promise of extra lovey-doveyness and that always sought after 'chemistry' between leads, I got to cracking on this 20 episode monster.

Verdict: It's 18 episodes too long.

Now, before I'm murdered in my blogger-sleep, I could try to explain some of my reasoning. It might even be as simple as, I was never in the mood for what this story was trying to tell. Or, the old drama bad quality meant nothing ever looked good on screen. However, after dropping it several times, and then redetermining to finish, nearly 4 months passed between when I started and when I stopped. And I was never in the mood for it. 

Here's the Story in a Nutshell

Qi Yue (Rainie Yang) loves Yuan Yi. He kind of likes her back. But devil boy Jiang Meng (Mike He) takes an interest in her as well. They fall in love. However, their parents have already fallen in love. They're about to become step-siblings. Kissing happens.

ewwwwww!

Before I start in on spoilers, and my disgust of the leads' romance, let me disect a few other plot points. I realize that Devil Beside You has a wide cast that is supposed to leave viewers loving all the connections and friendships/frenemies/family trials/etc. but to me side plots were nauseatingly boring, mostly for their lack of subtlety. Our show here is adapted from a manga, and I've already discussed some reasons why these plots usually don't entice me. Creepy clingy girls and totally stalkerish perverts (most of whom are completely redeemed by the end) do not make for a good story of human emotion. They're plot devices, through and through. So they make the leads grow and learn. Good for them.

Drama, if you want to get my attention - you need something better than caricatures. I'll take the devil concept any day. It's hot, and it usually works in a lead drama male. I don't even mind him teasing the girl in devilish fashion. I also have a relatively high tolerance to whiny spineless females. Bbbut...

Read on if you dare. I look at what's wrong with the lead couple, why I usually love this kind of concept, and confess at least one thing I thought was good. After all, I did finish it..