Let's try to manifest a world where some of the biggest Korean actresses were cast in major full-length GL kdramas.
COP + CRIMINAL
Esom (Because This Is My First Life) and Lee Da-hee (Search: WWW) play partners and besties, who both fall for their respective suspects for a crime spree against the patriarchy. (Think: Evening the pay gap at a major company; exposing scandals of sexist politicians; and chemically castrating sex offenders). Esom's love interest is Park Eun-bin (Extraordinary Attorney Woo), and Da-hee's love interest is Seo Yea-ji (It's Okay to Not Be Okay). It's a romantic crime thriller.
FRIENDS to LOVERS
Seol In-ah (Business Proposal) plays a new-money rich girl who hires a former old-money rich girl, played by Yoo In-na (Touch Your Heart), to be her personal assistant out of pity, but pretends she doesn't know her backstory. And Yoo helps Seol navigate rich society. Their conflict is that Seol's family bankrupted Yoo's family, and is getting the life Yoo was supposed to have, including the fiancee, the job, and the house. It's a sweet romantic comedy.
BOSS + EMPLOYEE
Kim Ji-won (Fight My Way) starts a job at a family law firm and works hard to get one of the partners, played by Son Ye-jin (Crash Landing on You), to be her mentor, but only because she wants her job. She starts off as a frenemie before Ye-Jin's hard edges rub off, and Ji-won develops a crush. Their obstacles are that Ye-Jin is married and in the closet, and Ji-won might be too ambitious to let go of her goals. It's a slow-burn romantic legal drama.
COOL GIRL + DORK
Park Shin-hye (Heirs & Pinocchio) plays a cold fashion house designer who hires an unlikely candidate to be her muse, played by Moon Ga-young (True Beauty). And what starts off as a toxic relationship blooms into a supportive one. Park Bo-young (Strong Girl Bong-soon) plays her head of design, who befriends Ga-young's bestie-turned-manager, played by Kim Seul-gi (Oh My Ghostess). They're the softer side couple. It's a romantic workplace dramedy.
FRIENDS to ENEMIES to LOVERS
Seo Hyun-jin (Why Her?) and Gong Hyo-jin (When the Camellia Blooms) were friends in college, but they had a falling out after a misunderstanding about a guy. They have a tense reunion as adults when Hyo-jin is setting up her nuptials at the wedding hall Hyun-jin manages. It's a slowburn romantic drama.
ONE-SIDED OBSESSION
Shin Min-a (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha) plays the wife of a very powerful and abusive man and Hwang Jung-eum (She Was Pretty) plays the maid who is secretly in love with her and helps her escape. They go to Jung-eum's hometown where everyone assumes she's bringing her girlfriend home for the first time, because she didn't have the heart to tell them she got dumped after running away to be with her. Min-a decides to pretend to be the woman to pay her back, and they fall in love. The conflict being when Jung-eum's ex, played by Park Min-young (What's Wrong with Secretary Kim), returns to get her back.
This series is not perfect, but it is still good. It has a solid storyline, and great characters. Hong Hae In and Baek Hyun Woo have been married for 3 years and the love that had united them at the beginning seems to have disappeared in their distance and silence after a miscarriage that broke their hearts. When Baek Hyun Woo finally has the courage to present the divorce papers to Hong Hae In, she tells him she has a tumor and doesn't have much time left. His decision to stay with her gives them an unexpected chance at finding that love that had united them once. Family interactions between their very different families questions dynamics and help characters grow.
I like the fact that they didn't take the easy way out with our main antagonist. The story in itself is really good and I loved it, however, production was a bit careless with details that were too big to miss: Hae In's operation - how can a person with a brain tumor have a surgery with her hair intact. Or Hyun Woo's neck injury suddenly disappearing in a second, ext. These kind of details show some careless oversight. But we can forgive them - we laugh it off and keep watching to see what happens next.
Comparable to: Beautiful Love, Wonderful Life, (kdrama) ;Homemade Love Story (kdrama)
It’s a family story drama with 72 episodes (32min long). Is it worthwhile watching. Absolutely. It’s hella melodramatic though, so keep that in mind going in. You have a corrupt family, a somewhat vengeful widow, a suicidal couple, a golfer, two adults nearing their 50s who act like they’re in their 20s and a cute older couple. It can get a bit bonkers at times especially towards the later half, the ending had me rolling my eyes on how everyone ended up in one big happy family. And I mean EVERYONE. It’s still a really nice drama even with its ups and downs especially with the main leads who had a beautiful storyline that was written brilliantly for them. I mean the chemistry between the two. *chefs kiss*
SUMMARY: Magically, Lee Yeon finds himself in 1938 tracking down a stone for Taluipa to secure the fate of the current world. There he meets that era’s Lee Rang, some of his long lost mountain god pals, and some closure for the tragedies he’s suffered…and caused.
THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Lucky babies, soul stealers, opium addicts, revolutionary freedom fighters, mermaids, loyal gisaengs, tailored suits, historical glow-ups, puffed rice, broken combs, trickster tigers, murderous Japanese imperialists, bandit gangs, zombies, shinigami, and more gods than you ever thought possible.
HOT TAKE: I can't tell you enough how happy I am to be reunited with this amazing crew. It's been far too long and now that the show is over I miss them like crazy all over again. FYI: I never want to see Kim Beom in anything but a 3-piece suit with an undercut hairstyle, ever again.
Be careful what subplots you invest yourself in while you watch, fam. There are a LOT of them and not all of them get their due follow-through.
I loved Tale of the Nine Tailed so when I learned that there was a second season, I didn't hesitate to watch it. This time Yeon goes back to 1938 in search of the masked person who took a magical stone. And here we get to see Rang once more. And we are introduced to Hong Joo, Moo Young and another set of characters that are memorable and fun to watch. There is a balance of action, humor, suspense and horror in this series that kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved watching these friends reconcile and work together, just like I loved seeing Yeon and Rang again.
the CGI in the train fight was cringy but everything else was really good. I totally loved this sequel. If you saw the first one, you gotta se this one.