---> ROMANCE TOWN

Broadcast period: 2011-May-11 to 2011-July-14



Romance Town has a very traditional plot for a story(or so I thought) and a very modern style in production and script. And because of that, im at a loss, I don’t know how to classify this drama. its not your straight-up romantic comedy which I thought it was. In fact, there are times when I thought some scenes and in most parts really, its like a combination of an American sit-com and soap opera. There was a point in the earlier episodes when I thought there’s a comedy/adventure somewhere when the lottery ticket came into the picture. And then it got me thinking… is it trying to be a mature drama with a profound plot like… “Money is the Root of All Evil”, specially so when halfway through it, I notice some semblance of traditional melodrama too. On the other hand, there’s this something called “dark humor” which i thought was the path its going. it did go that way... to a certain extent. What can one expect from a plot that includes, first prize lottery tickets and gangsters and loan sharks and trophy wives and rich men with 2 wives in the same house… of course there will be thieves and opportunists and rich greedy men, and, women that will stop at nothing all in the name of M O N E Y. I guess it should be classified as all-of-the-above… aaah, its just a pity that the love story angle was overwhelmed by the same “all-of-the-above”. If there’s a flaw in this particular drama, it’s the fact that there’s too much going on that the essence of what I thought was its main thrust was drowned… somewhere. There are too many characters, each one as important as the next and as unique as the next. I got attached not on the lovestory part but on the adventure of each of these people.

Actress Sung Yu Ri who plays No Soon Geum(NSG), is the main character in this drama. she’s a third generation maid(dont ask me why but they are referred to as ahjumma in the translations. an Ahjumma as far as i know means an older married woman in korean). Im not a great fan of her character even if there is a feisty side in her which I always favor in my heroines. WHY? Because there is also this side of her that cries once too often for my taste. To me crying is reserved only for those very special occations ^^
Actor Jung Gyu Woon who plays Kang Gun Woo(KGW), is the son of the household where NSG is the maid. He is of course the love interest of our heroine. He was the overweight guy in the 1st episode(thank goodness I only have to bear the fat suit for 1 episode!). he is generally a good guy and yet im not too impressed with him for he oftentimes exudes a "placid wimp" aura to me ^^ mianhe to those who like him *Orz* ^^


the more outstanding characters for me are the following:

Kim Min Joon as Kim Young Hee, he was some sorta rich playboy in the earlier episodes but for some reason, the writer forgot that and I couldn’t see a trace of that side of him soon after. I like him ‘coz he’s the master that comfortably hangs out with the maids and its not even a put-on. He never demanded or plotted to get back his grandfather’s painting inspite the fact that he was in a very dire situation. and most of all, he never once took advantage of his young maid's affection for him.

Lee Jae Yong as Kang Tae Won, Gun Woo’s father. He’s a total snob, honest and tactless to the core. but his honesty is confined only to his dismay and disgust at the thought of his son getting on with their maid. In-character until the very end.

Yang Jung Ah as Seo Yoon Joo, the trophy wife, who seems proud and unapologetic of that infamous tag.

Jo Sung Ha as Hwang Yong, the richest guy in the neighborhood with a dark past, he is the gangster/loanshark. Despite that description, he is compassionate and fair.

Park Ji Young as Oh Hyun Joo, one of the maids, the pretty/older one that seems more interested in finding love than money.

Lee Kyung Shil as Uhm Soo Jung, one of the maids, the not-too-pretty/older one that forgot all her good values when faced with 10 billion won. How can I forget her wailing in church in the most pathetic/funny manner, berating God for favoring the prettier Hyun Joo over her ^^

I wrote earlier that im at a loss how to classify this drama, welllllll, not only can I not classify this drama, I also cannot write a structured drama review of this ! just when I thought I had it figured out, it turns out to be something else. How can I write about it when time and again, in the course of my viewing, I always find myself making wrong predictions as to what’s gonna happen next. Honestly speaking, I have a very good batting average when it comes to those things, im even surprised at myself ‘coz I can usually tell where a story is going. After seeing the entire 20episodes, I can only conclude that indeed, the intention of the writer/s was to focus mainly on the plight of the maids(hence, its original title), at least that was the intention BUT im afraid when the lottery ticket entered the picture, everything else was overshadowed by it. it was like the writers was stucked with that part of the storyline that took a life of its own getting itself into all sorts of scrapes, predicaments, and adventures that created quite a chaos in the exclusive community called 1st Street. Truth be told, I watched the last 5 episodes in one sitting precisely because I wanted to know what will happen to the money and the characters in the drama. I wasn’t that interested at what happened to the main love team of this drama, that was kinda predictable that they’ll end up together anyway, in fact, the pair that was more interesting to me was the love between the pretty ahjumma Hyun Joo and the gangster ahjussi. My only complaint there is that I never saw it coming, I mean the interest of the maid in the gangster boss, its just that one day and with a little prodding from the oldest of the maids, she just suddenly likes him, hmmm… I’ll let that issue rest ‘coz it was pretty clear on the opposite side of the fence anyway, and I mean the gangster’s interest in the maid after carrying a torch for the trophy wife. i guess she won him over when she saved his butt and hid his "black book". aaahhh, im happy for them… WAAAAAAAA, I’ve gone bonkers ^^ that im actually happy for people who are not real! ^^ please excuse my mental tendencies, they do go away after awhile, honestly! HAAAAAA ^^

And since this is a “scattered” drama review written by a scatterbrained reviewer, ^^ before I end this “review” , please allow me to take note and share my random thoughts on this drama:

NSG's odd relationship with somebody that she described as a loanshark/gangster/triad boss is peculiar yet verrry interesting to me indeed. They became each other’s confidant because of secrets they vowed to keep

All the maids were tested by some divine entity, ok God, and only NSG and Hyun Joo were able to resist the lure and temptation of man’s greed for money. although at some point, they too were “slightly” tempted and gave in to a tinge of selfishness but in the end, their good side won which cannot be said of the other 3 maids, who sadly, put on display just how badly money can corrupt people.

*broken record alert* Doesn’t it just drive me mad when these drama directors and writers would assume that we have brains the size of a pea? How in the world can KGW not recognize their own maid(and I mean not even a tinie winie bit of a clue, as in nada) whom he has exchanged many long conversations with because of a mere addition of an eyeliner and a pulled back hairstyle ??? WeH ? same voice, same height, same bone structure... cincha !!! doesn’t it piss us off when somebody assume that were dumb. Welll, I may not be brilliant but dumb im certainly not! and please NSG ajhumma, stop apologizing to KGW every 5 minutes, is it your fault that he’s blind and dumb that he didn’t even recognize you after a few strokes of an eyeliner and a hair extension?

I dunno about you but I have a thing about men in uber trendy clothes.. hate ‘em! KGW and that scarf that he loves to wear around his neck in the early episodes is too gay for me and the high waisted pleated pants doesn’t work for me too. Man, the 80’s style belongs to the 80’s, let it remain there, okie?

As a final thought… why in the world is this drama entitled Romance Town??? I know its original title was Maids, which admittedly is a bit of a no-brainer but at least it makes some sense compared to the title it ended up with. There is romance here but its not all about romance. This drama is about social class and money, and the star of the show is actually, the Lottery Ticket! As it is, I got lost thinking it was a lovestory between the master and the “slave”, haaay, before I knew it, I was already hooked and couldn’t get out ‘coz I wanted to know how all the characters will end up. Thankfully, it was an ok ending. There’s enough retribution to those who deserve it and to those who have endured, they were appropriately rewarded^^

---> LIE TO ME

Broadcast period: 2011-May-09 to 2011-Jun-28


A “little” lie that created a HUGE mess. That’s how this story got started ^^

The female lead from Princess Hours/Coffee Prince AND the male lead from Hong Gil Dong got together to star in this romantic comedy… how special is that or what!

Ok, so im on episode 2 and im sooo loving how it’s going so far. Here I was worried that this drama is not so good ‘coz I heard that they changed director in the middle of production at around episode 10(?). to me when that happens, it spells disaster so let’s see how this drama goes and no worries, despite my obvious bias ‘coz I love the leads here, I will honestly tell you if this drama is great… good… bad or awful!

The STORY… For me who simply likes to be entertained when watching a rom-com, the plot of Lie to Me is… to put it bluntly… good enough. you know me, given a choice I’d always go for the shallow uncomplicated romantic comedy. This one has a cute storyline that could open a lot of romantic and humorous possibilities given the right script and director. Again the plot is sooo similar to one of those cheesy romance pocketbooks I read in my teens. THERE in the book that I read, the junior secretary announced that she was engaged to her boss when she overheard him saying something insulting about her. HERE in this drama, the female lead deliberately made a “poisonous former school friend” believe that she is married, and events that transpired after that LIE now have her “married” to an eligible and rich guy. And all this brouhaha because of a slight accident that happened in a public place that involves her and the rich guy. NOW, he wants to sue her for spreading the rumor while she maintains her innocence ‘coz according to her, she never said the name of the guy she was married to. as if their situation is not complicated enough, let’s add into the picture his “missing” free-spirited younger brother who believes that he is fated to meet this same girl who just happens to be his hyung’s(older brother) “wife”! The younger brother who blames himself for being the cause of his hyung’s broken engagement 3 yrs ago now finds himself again in the middle of a complicated situation... another love triangle with yet again, his older brother! Interesting huh? you bet, specially when the hyung’s ex fiancée(2nd pic below this paragraph), the girl he gave up for his younger brother, comes back into the picture and that relationship still has no closure ^^ Could history be repeating itself??? Welll… not exactly… BUT…

The SCRIPT… What can I say… its not as brilliantly written as let’s say The Greatest Love, welll, but that’s because scripts like that are more of an exception than the norm. this one is more often than not… predictable *have I seen too many dramas that I can predict what’s gonna happen next?*. anyhoo, if I may sum up how best to describe The Script… its ordinary, nothing to get excited about the lines/dialogues. I had no moment of like… “whoa, that’s a great line!” or “excellent come back!”, im afraid no such thing here. Don’t be too disappointed though, truth of the matter is, those moments for me are rare. For some reason, there were 2 or 3 lines in the last episode that I was impressed with BUT, 2 or 3 lines in an entire 16 episode drama is a little, "too little too late"… at least its there^^ but I have to commend the other interesting characters that was a welcome addition to the story… the female lead’s “friend” Yoo So Ran played by actress Hong Soo Hyun AND the love triangle senior citizen edition between the female lead’s dad and his longtime companion/girlfriend and the artist/cook.


The DIRECTOR… what can a poor director do if the problem is the script? I think whoever that person may be, he/she gave it their all, in fact, I enjoyed the first few episodes and there were burst of good cinematic scenes here and there even if its so few and far between specially in the latter part. And what the h*ll happened in that housewarming party… can the host just disappear without explanations as to the reason why? Haaa… sooo badly done >.< its a good thing i was totally distracted by that kiss from out-of-nowhere...

The ACTORS… Yoon Eun Hye(YYH) who plays Gong Ah Jung still does her awkward and funny acting habits. I love her cute adorkable face. I love her sad crying face. I like her fashion sense(well, most of the time^^). She’s one of those rare breed of former “idols” who can actually act. Yes people, they do exist^^ I cant seem to say a lot about her role here because it seems to be a weak characterization that’s why she became unexciting in the latter part. Maaan, Kang Ji Hwan(KJH) who plays Hyun Ki Joon is really good in the crying scenes, im just reminded again of how good he was in Hong Gil Dong. He’s always got this “naughty boy” glint in his eyes that I cant resist. With him it’s the opposite. His character started quite boring and made a turnaround in the second half. His role started acting out-of-character… gone is the stiff businessman and and now comes a man often acting on impulse. Aaahhh, I love their scene in episode5(3rd pic below after this paragraph) among the Sakura Trees(cherry blossoms), sooo beautiful in more ways than one ^^ KJH’s solid acting saved the very public declaration of love in the streets scene(4th pic below) from becoming uber cheesy. Actually, the hopeless romantic side of me luv, luv, luv it!

Something drove my obssessive compulsive(OC) tendencies mad in this drama. im sorry but i need to rant about this. its nothing “big” really, its really tiny BUT its capacity to distract me is tremendous ^^ Whatever it is that KJH is always wearing on his lapel, you know that tiny “thing” that looks like a flower and/or ribbon or whatev, is driving me crazy in its ridiculousness. Everytime our male lead is wearing a suit, my eyes are always drawn to that “thing”, it’s driving me insane. HAAAAAA… what the heck is that??? our business tycoon looks like he is about to attend a wedding instead of just going to the office. Its not even funny to me, I couldn’t find humor in it, not even an ounce of fashion sense in that style. I would have ripped it off that jacket if it was anywhere near me! Haaay, it just doesn’t seem right specially in a corporate setting… wellllll… not unless he is a gay wedding planner ^^ or in some “artsy” business. *hehehe, I really neeeed to calm down, don’t i?*

Cant exactly pinpoint when, how, or why it happened, but halfway through this drama, things just went downhill. It was not a rapid freefall but it definitely didn’t stay as good and entertaining as the earlier episodes. The love story part between the main leads is not the problem. In fact, the occasional “sweet and lovey dovey scenes”, even if our male lead was acting really out-of-character is what saved this drama from falling even further and landing with a loud and painful “thug”. Remember their “cola kiss”?(people, see the 1st pic below this paragraph) Whew… hot, hot, hot! While I may have “some” objection to the marked change of character by our male lead *can somebody really change that drastically because of love? Or was it the change of director midway through this drama that was responsible for it?*, the biggest contributor to this drama’s downhill trend was the “broken” storyline. The two love triangle in this drama was a pretty solid storyline and it has a promising potential to attract and hold the viewers attention emotionally… Two brothers orphaned from a young age found themselves in love with the same girl , and when it seems that history was about to repeat itself this time with another girl, one of the brother(2nd pic below) was conspicuously missing in crucial parts of the story. what happened??? Was it you Mr/Ms Director or you Mr/Ms Writer who forgot his existence and went on to proceed and take on a different path. And then, as if they suddenly realized that someone was missing, he re-appeared in the story with a different aura that seems to be totally devoid of the heavy-hearted “feel” that he was emitting the last time I saw him. Hello, can people “turn off” emotions that easily by a mere night spent in drunken stupor??? What brought this sudden transformation was never fully explained and addressed in the story. the older brother didn’t even know that his dongsaeng(younger sibling) was carrying a torch for his main squeeze, ehem… I mean, his latest love. To make matters worse, the what I thought was the “all-important younger brother character” totally disappeared from the scene in the final episode. Dear god, whatever happened to him??? Haaay, are we suppose to “fill in the blanks”???

SURPRISINGLY, I liked how the last episode turned out. I thought, the final episode will be a disaster and I sure am glad its not. it was mature, non-hysterical, realistic by drama standards. Ah Jung’s realization that she may not be the most suitable wife for Ki Joon is a good and smart twist in the story. A career woman’s fear of losing her independence and be totally dependent on a man is a “real” and a “legitimate” consideration for every woman. To some, its like losing a big part of yourself to be with the one you love. How can you be with someone if you yourself is broken? Its not an easy choice to make for some women and rightfully so. In the end, I don’t exactly know what it is that she was looking for, nor was I able to completely wrap my brains around how she found what it is that she's lost(in that crisis in her Jeju workplace) … aaahhh, I have an idea because of what Ki Joon said to her in that Jeju museum but my brain is too exhausted now to fully grasp it *so no questions please about it and let me watch that particular scene another time^^* Another surprise in the final episode is the poetic lines with a reasonably decent depth that are sorely missing in the script, *practically in the entirety of this drama* is present in the final episode. Hmmm, it’s a testament that the writer is capable enough to produce some good lines… *next time put some of that brilliance on display early and more often in a drama ok Mr/Ms Writer?*
That’s all I have to say about “LIE TO ME” folks. Next stop is a Japanese drama… cya!