Saturday, July 23, 2011

[Music] Infinite - Be Mine

INFINITE - Be Mine : ComeBack Stage Music Core 23/07/2011 (credit: )

Synchronised dance steps once again! It's sucha joy to watch them dance since they're always so in sync and neat in their choreography. I'm glad they seem to be getting more and more popular now especially after their Before The Dawn song. Also, their singing got so much better compared to when they just debuted where they gave most of the singing parts to the leader....They're definitely a group I'll continue to keep an eye on....

[Music] Miss A Goodbye Baby

Miss A - Good-bye Baby : ComeBack Stage Music Core 23/7/2011 (credit:)






MV Version (credit: @youtube)



Really like this song since the first time I heard it. Catchy chorus and I like the harmony thing going on though I think they lip-sync most of the chorus part during their live performance, but its quite okay since I think it'll sound better live this way (due to the harmony effect).

Thursday, July 21, 2011

[Drama] Lie to Me



Started Lie to Me just coz Yoon Eun Hye was in it. I thought the drama had potential when I first started watching, but it totally went downhill after they changed the scriptwriter for the drama (from ep 11 onwards). Yes, the plot has its initial flaws right from the start, but it doesn't bother me since I don't usually analyse plots and scrutinise them in detail and all I need is something that flows and is enjoyable to watch. Spoilers up ahead. I'm not gonna filter them since I think spoilers doesn't really matter for this drama since you'll get major spoilers as you watch the drama anyway . Plot doesn't really matter from ep. 11 onwards.

From episode 1-10, the pace was kinda slow and plot development wasn't that great, but it still keep me watching since the writer is quite good in building up the ambiguities and opening up possibilities in the plot of the drama/relationships between the characters of the drama and it is not like a typical k-drama where we know exactly what is gonna happen next. Just to list a few examples. How Ki Joon held Ah Jung 's hands and both of them walked off with a smile after the coke scene (leaving us to wonder what they did after that), beach scene of Ki Joon and Yoon Joo (how it's not shown to us fully wat they talked about), when Ah Jung was drunk, Ki Joon asked her if she remembered what she did that night (there's a possibility that she really did sth but the scene is not shown to us), relationship between the old people is kinda ambiguous too since the woman always drop comments about cafe guy (opening up a possibility that she may be interested in the cafe guy too and that they may end up together in the end),possibility of Manager Park liking Ki Joon too and possibility of So Ran going to Ah Jung's side and helping her, Ki Joon's aunt may be on Ah Jung's side and help them afterwards, possibility of Jae Bum coming in between Ah Jung and Ki Joon since he thought Ah Jung lied coz of him. This keeps me anticipating the future episodes and see how it will all unfold slowly.... Also, there's those occasional sweet or cute moments happening every now and then and there's a feeling that the drama will only get better later on since those ambiguities will start to open up and be revealed slowly. 

But the moment I watched ep 11 and 12, the thought came to mind "Okay, this is messed up, but I'll still continue to watch the drama for Yoon Eun Hye and Kang Ji Hwan." That was before I even know of the change in writer for the drama. After reading about the change in writer, everything became clearer. With ep 11 and 12, suddenly BAM!! MAJOR SPOILERS!!! Every single ambiguities were cleared up and shoved in your face. I know exactly what's gonna happen next now. Yes, these ambiguities will have to unfold and  become clear soon as the drama goes on, but I find the new writer taking things too fast and juz throwing everything into your face now in 1 or 2 episodes right after she took over. (If the old writer continued, I think she'll take things slow and hence allowing us to enjoy the process. But the problem is there's not much episodes left for her to do so, so I guess her style of writing needs the drama to have more episodes to be enjoyable) For the new writer, its like I know the viewers want sweet scenes, so here, I'll give u hugs and kisses and sweet scenes of the couple. And I'll just tie up everything now so that we can have more sweet scenes in future....(or maybe she didn't even read through or watch the drama since the beginning to see how the previous writer had the drama set-up and thus is not even aware of how the drama was presented from the beginning and how she had to continue from it). Manager Park is only business no romance involved. Old lady will end up with Ah Jung's dad. Sang Hee gets heartbroken. Ki Joon's aunt is not on Ah Jung's side and won't help them. Alright, everything's clear now, so.... what can I look forward to now? (I knew all that right after watching ep 11 and 12. There's no need to watch finish the whole drama to find out).

The new writer totally broke the whole flow of the drama and cuts off the initial attraction of the drama. So from ep 11 onwards, I wasn't looking forward to each episodes anymore. It was only until recently that I finally get myself to finish watching the final episode of the drama just for YEH and KJH. (Meanwhile, I started City Hunter and I was totally hooked and full of anticipation for each episodes). I like the old writer's style and was already used to it and was totally bummed that they changed the writer midway through since it totally cut off the flow of the drama including the character development, plot development etc. The change doesn't match up and it totally annoyed me. Eg. Ki Joon's character becoming suddenly so eager and childish. Some ppl think Ki Joon's character change can be explained, but if you take into view of the other characters too, you can see the difference in their character/relationship as well. Eg relationship between Ah Jung's dad and the old lady. They suddenly became so lovey-dovey, feeding each other food like they just started dating. From what I understood of their r/ship from the past episodes, they are like an old couple already, with mutual understanding and little need for conversations between each other. But now, they're suddenly behaving so sweet towards each other like a couple who juz started dating....Not to mention, didn't Ah Jung tell her dad in one episode that she approve of the r/ship between her dad and the lady? So why was her dad so hesitant to tell Ah Jung that the old woman cooked the food in ep 12? Also for So Ran and Jae Bum relationship. I thought they didn't have love for each other. From what I understand, So Ran is making use of Jae Bum and their relationship is like a show to outsiders.... Jae Bum was sucha jerk in the past episodes when they quarrelled, and now, it's like they have always loved each other deeply and cant live without one another. Besides, what happened to the misunderstanding that Jae Bum thought Ah Jung lied because of him? He was all convinced that Ah Jung like him suddenly doesn't make sense after the writer changed. Gotta say I appreciate the old writer's style so much in the previous ep, then suddenly he totally forgot about it now (Its like he had dementia). -_- IMO the new writer takes things to a superficial level and everything is so predictable that I don't really anticipate each episode anymore. Maybe the new writer won't seem that bad if she was the one who started the plot for the whole drama in the first place, but coming in midway made it feel that she was really bad since she didn't know how to make the whole drama flow and continue on from the previous writer smoothly. 

So don't watch this drama expecting great plot, since this drama won't deliver that and you'll be totally disappointed.

I'd say the major attraction of the drama is Yoon Eun Hye and Kang Ji Hwan. If it's not for them I totally won't finish the drama. Their chemistry is totally sizzling (I know you'll get this most of time esp with YEH's drama since fans always says that her chemistry with so and so is so good and such, but for this, it's seriously on another level). They're like so freaking natural behaving like a couple in the drama that it doesn't feel like we're watching Ki Joon and Ah Jung, but Yoon Eun Hye and Kang Ji Hwan. All their little actions, the way Kang Ji Hwan stares at Yoon Eun Hye (Gosh....), their expressions etc all makes you feel that they're really in love. It felt so real. From episode 11 onwards, I was basically only watching the drama for their acting and interactions. I don't even care about the plot anymore. I don't get why the writer even bothered about making the plot complicated with the Ah Jung going on a trip to discover the thing that she lost. Like seriously??? Who cares about that? I'm only watching the drama to see Kang Ji Hwan and Yoon Eun Hye now, so just freaking give me scenes of them together. The plot doesn't even matter since it's totally messed up with the change in writer. Btw, I don't even get the thing with the pot and thing she lost. The writer is like trying so hard to make something more meaningful and symbolic, but it just leaves the audience clueless in the end. Like what?? Maybe I'm stupid but I was wondering why the heck was Ah Jung crying liddat when she found the freaking pot? It's like the writer is trying so hard, but it just appeared dumb in the end since nobody I don't understand it. -_-  And I totally LOL when Ah Jung opened the box that Ki Joon sent. I didn't recognise any of the stuffs inside apart from maybe the cola bottle. I was wondering, "Why on earth did Ki Joon send this to Ah Jung? It should be something symbolic since he sen it right? Why is there a rubber duck there? ( The rubber duck was the first thing that caught my attention during that scene)Did I miss something? Was there a scene where they were together in the bathtub playing with a rubber duck that I don't remember (And I was trying hard to recall if there was such scene)? A bottle of ketchup(tomato juice)? Ice cream toy that you can shoot people with? Was there a scene where they had fun playing with that toy before? So they did the flashback 1 by 1 and it was only then that I realised what those were for.... Like OMG. Yellow rubber duck prop for the swan ride they did?? Duck vs swan?!??! LMAO. Totally. Duck and swan totally looked alike. I totally laughed out loud with they showed the flashback, which spoilt the scene for me since I didn't feel touched but was laughing at how ridiculous it was instead. Okay, maybe I'm too stupid for not linking the yellow rubber duck children play with when they're bathing with the swan ride they rode together, but shouldn't they at least show us the prop in the drama and introduce it to us when that scene happened so that stupid people like me can at least link those 2 dots together??? Like at least flash a scene of a yellow rubber duck after the swan ride scene so that I'd know the rubber duck represents this scene or like have a scene where Ki Joon or Ah Jung spotting a yellow rubber duck floating on the sea when they were riding the swan lake. That way at least we can make a connection. Same with the bottle of tomato juice and toy ice cream. Technically its the same thing, but in fact its not exactly the same and the connection is hardly there if you present it that way... Swan ride vs yellow rubber duck used in bathtub (that we've never seen before), a glass of tomato juice vs a bottle of tomato juice which we've never seen before and real ice cream vs toy ice cream that children can shoot with (which we've never seen before as well). Gosh. That scene is just so funny. If its cause of the change in writer that the new writer couldn't do that in the earlier scene, then I'd rather they not have this scene now at all. Or at least get better props if you really wanna do it. Eg. the stone statue one was done well since I remembered there was a scene where they zoomed in the stone statue when the scene happened earlier on in the drama.

And not to mention the ending scene... Gosh that was so freaking cliche. Like OMG. Running to each other and hugging on the beach. It's like a scene in the 80s. Then staring at the sea at the final shot. Wow. Hhahaha. Only good thing is the kiss scene there with the pretty sea as backdrop which I can use as wallpaper for my com now. =D

And I really gotta say I dun really like the way the new writer handled the minor characters of the drama. With the old writer, Ki Joon's secretary was so cute and had lotsof scenes, and I really adore him, but as the drama goes by, he just faded off. What a waste. Sang Hee faded off somewhere through the drama as well. Come to think of it, I think everyone besides the main character faded off. LOL. The cafe guy who liked the aunt, the girl singer at the cafe (I think she didn't sing at all towards the end of the drama.Hahaha. So sad), Ah Jung's friends, Sang Hee and Yun Joo all faded off. Okay, maybe So Ran and Jae Bum are the only minor characters that didn't fade off. 

Okay, I got too carried away with the ridiculous-ness and rants of the drama. Yea, the chemistry between YEH and KJH is freaking great. I'll not mention the kiss scene since it's always hot with YEH, but when I watched the hug scene in ep 12, I was like screaming inside. YEH was like sniffing KJH when she hugged him during that scene since her nose was pressed against his shoulder/chest when she hugged him there. I've seen all of YEH's drama and when she hugs, she usually just hug normally, but here she's freaking sniffing him. Maybe it's coz it was a crying hug, but still... Seriously, their acting is just too real. Every action and expression..... 
I really want them together in another better drama with better plot since that will seriously make a daebak drama. Or at least they should get together for real after the drama ends since they were seriously too convincing. They look good together too even though the age gap is like 7 years apart. But YEH seems to have a thing with older guys anyway, so it doesn't matter. Haha. 

Now I feel like watching Coffee House since Kang Ji Hwan (and also Eun Jung )was in it too..... But for now, I'm still hooked onto City Hunter and waiting impatiently for each episode to come out every week. I'll really recommend City Hunter for its plot and character development. I remembered crying quite a few times already coz there were quite a few touching scenes and the drama juz draws you in. Not to mention, the cast is so good-looking. There's Lee Min Ho, Park Min Young (She's so cute and pretty! I didn't know who she was before watching this drama) and the prosecutor guy (Lee Jun Huk).

Yeah, to end this off, watch Lie to Me if you want to see acting that feel realistic and natural since Yoon Eun Hye and Kang Ji Hwan's chemistry really makes you feel that they're such a cute and sweet couple with their on-screen interactions. But if you like something with a good plot, I think City Hunter would be a better choice.