If you’re in the mood for a beautifully shot, high-energy, romantic, sci-fi/fantasy, false-reality show – then please, PLEASE, go and watch Memories of the Alhambra over on Netflix.
Memories of the Alhambra is a 2018 tvN Korean Drama starring Park Shin Hye and Hyun Bin.
It tells the story of an investment CEO (Hyun Bin) and a young hostel owner (Park Shin Hye). Park Shin Hye is the sister of a genius AR (augmented reality) game developer that has disappeared after trying to sell his game to Hyun Bin. In his journey to purchase the game, Hyun Bin becomes a beta-tester, along with his ex-best friend and rival (Park Hoon) and together the two discover that the game has some pretty serious bugs.
Aaaaagh, I’m really struggling, trying not to tell you the major spoilers. All I can say is, you have to get to episode 4! Trust me, you might feel like the first few episodes are a little slow or boring or just not to your liking, but everything changes around episode 4. You have to make it to episode 4!
It’s really a beautiful show, shot half in Spain and half in Seoul, South Korea, the visuals are truly out of this world. Add to that the soundtrack, the costuming, and the acting and you’ve got a perfect evening (or one binge-weekend) treat. đ
Plus, the writer of this show previously gifted us with W: Two Worlds, which is another MUST SEE drama, so you just know it’s gonna be good. (Post on that show coming soon!)
Let me know if you watch it and like it! đ
If you wanna a big trailer for the show, please watch the video below đ spoilers will be seen!
One of the best feel good happy drama’s out there, MBC’s 2017 kdrama I Am Not A Robot starring Yoo Seung Ho and Chae Soo Bin, will make you laugh, smile and cry.
It follows Kim Min Kyu (played by Yoo Seung Ho) a, for lack of a better word, rich boy CEO that has a serious, life threatening allergy – to people. If he touches or is touched by another person, or eats food prepared or handled by another person or even gets breathed on by another person, his body will break out in horrible hives, shut down, his lungs will close and he will die.
Despite all of this he’s managed to live the quarantine life to its fullest! Being a rich chaebol can allow for that, but he does get lonely.
It also follows Jo Ji A (played by Chae Soo Bin) who is a struggling inventor/entrepreneur that is starting up business after business, working non-stop, while praying for her lucky break. A pile of failed inventions though means a pile of unpaid debts, so when an ex-boyfriend offers to pay her $10K to pretend to be a robot for a day she agrees, totally unaware that the client she’ll be fooling is an ex-client of her own previous delivery service, an exchange that did not end pleasantly for either of them.
A boy that can’t touch humans and a girl that’s pretending to be not-human. Will their story have a happy ending or will the lies destroy more than an allergy to humans ever could?
Idk about my synopsis hahah!!
Basically, it’s a very sweet drama! I absolutely fell in love with this couple đ Yoo Seung Ho and Chae Soo Bin have amazing chemistry and the show is so bright and light but has just enough heart-wrenching depth to pull your heartstrings right out of your chest! And then return them to you later with a smile and a warm hug. â¤
Also, I happened to watch it for the first time right at the start of quarantine back in early 2020 so it felt very appropriate and relatable! xD
You can find the complete drama on Viki, or *cough**cough* some other less reputable sites. But, if you’re interested in kdramas at all, Viki really is the place to go. You can watch some shows for free with ads or, pay a well-worth-it subscription fee to access all the shows with no ads. Not sponsored by the way, just really like Viki.
Let me know if you watch the show and then what your favorite part is. đ My favorite part is the confession scene – the big one! You’ll know what I mean đ
When the Devil Calls Your Name is a brilliant tvN 2019 K-Drama inspired by the 18th century German play Faust starring Jung Kyung Ho and Park Sung Woong as the Devil.
First off, itâs really an awesome drama. If you havenât seen it, you really should go watch it over on Viki right now. Seriously, pause reading this and go over and watch it right now, if you donât want to be spoiled.
If you donât mind spoilers, then please join me for episode 1 of Hereâs What I Wouldâve DoneâŚ
Now, I know youâre thinking, âBut, you just said it was brilliant. Why would you wanna change anything about it?â Because, it was brilliant – for the first 14 episodes. Itâs only the last 2 that I would change as those were, to be honest, a real mess.
The first 14 episodes followed Jung Kyung Ho, or as he will be referred to in this post as Devil Guy (even though he wasnât the devil, he was the guy that sold his soul to the devil, but thatâs just my nickname for him, ok!), an old washed up musician who sold his soul to the devil for youth, fame and fortune, but when the Devil, Park Sung Woong, comes to collect he tries to re-neg on the deal in any way that he can.
In the beginning, the Devil tells him that if he re-negs on the deal he will go back to his life before, where he is old, poor and alone, and that everyone whoâs life he touched on account of the deal will revert back to their original paths as well. This freaks Devil guy out and he instead promises to find the Devil an A-grade soul to replace his.
That’s when the rest of the story really kicks off as he finds a young, talented, down on her luck, nice girl whom he believes has that A-grade soul that he’s after. He fosters her music career all the while trying to figure out how to get her to sign a soul contract. But, something unexpected happens. He starts to like her. Not necessarily in that romantic way, (although there were some scenes that made me thinkâŚ) but in that âthis is a really nice person that I like as a human beingâ kind of way. So, he starts to try to think of new ways to wiggle out of his own wretched soul contract – but itâs all for naught.
I wonât spoil the rest of the plot – Iâll just jump right into what I wouldâve done.
I wouldâve ended the series where the only way out of the contract was for him to go back to being that poor, washed up, alone, has-been, that he had been before. The Devil had said that THAT was an option.
How inspiring would it have been to have the show end where he is able to change his past, undo this great mistake of selling his soul to the devil out of despair, and embrace his life as it was, saving the people that he cared about (spoiler alert he knew the A-grade girl back when he was an old washed up has-been) and living out the remainder of his days quietly and goodly, turning everyone that he met away from the empty temptations of the Devil. It wouldâve turned it into Faust meets Charles Dickensâs A Christmas Carol.
(incidentally this is my favorite version of A Christmas Carol from 1997 starring Tim Curry)
The show didnât end that way. It kindâve ended in a way that was like âso, yeah, you know even if you sell your soul, sometimes it can just come back to you.â
Oh, ok. Then – what was the point of all the pain, drama? Why did you put us, the audience, through the ringer if the solution in the end was just, âyou know, someday youâll be fine.â?
I still loved the show, it was brilliant – the first 14 episodes, the last 2, as Iâve said, were a mess. Therefore, in my opinion, the show wouldâve been a lot better if the solution in the end had been to reverse the deal, give up all of the money, youth and fame, to live and die a normal life – a better life, as a better person.
Writer OUT
PS – The soundtrack is absolutely amazing! Here’s one of my favorite songs.
A Writers View 