Kat's K-Dramas: Goong Review

I debated with myself about whether I would write reviews about older dramas (and by older I mean wasn't made in the last few years). But I decided that there are some great classics out there (and by classics I mean from like 2006, haha). Anyway, this is my review of Goong (or Princess Hours) one of the most beloved Cinderella retellings in K-drama (and that's saying something, there are a lot of Cinderella retellings in K-drama).

Goong 궁 (宮)

AKA Princess Hours

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Episodes: 24

Aired: 2006-Jan-11 to 2006-Mar-30

Network: MBC

Starring: Yoon Eun Hye, Joo Ji Hoon, Kim Jung Hoon, Song Ji Hyo

Watch it on: Dramafever, Viki

Goong is a story about young love in face of tradition, politics, and intrigue. In this imaginary world, modern-day Korea is a constitutional monarchy and the Royal Family lives in a grand Palace, the Goong. The sudden death of the reigning the King throws the Royal Family in the public eye. Faced with the decreasing popularity among the public for the Royalty, a grand wedding for the Crown Prince, Lee Shin, is decided to be the best publicity move and at the same time prepare Shin for immediate succession. The intended bride? The headstrong, awkward, and sweet spirited Shin Chae Kyung that just happens to go to the same exclusive art school. Chae Kyung was betrothed to become the next Crown Princess by her grandfather and Shin's grandfather.
After 14 years of living in England with his mom, Shin's cousin, Lee Yul, appears back in Korea. Yul was the original Crown Prince before his father died when he was a child. Chae Kyung's optimistic spirit wins the heart of internally lonely, Yul. And as the Crown Prince Shin and simple-minded Chae Kyung appear to start developing deeper feelings, a series of scandals are exposed to the public right after the pair are officially announced married. Will love conquer all in a world of political pressures and marital hardships? Or will being in the spotlight of the public be too much for the young newlyweds to endure?

Main Character: Shin Chae Kyung (Yoon Eun Hye)- Sassy and adorable, she is a bit clumsy and not stylish or graceful at all. So, she is the anti-princess. However, she was promised to Lee Shin as his princess so she is forced into that life. I love that she does not want to be a princess at all. Most girls would have killed for that chance, but not Chae Kyung. It makes her a great heroine in my mind. She does have a lot of faults, like she makes a lot of problems for the royal family when she could just slow down and think about what she's saying or doing first. However, all of her flaws are harmless and mostly adorable. So I can forgive those.

Love Interest: Crown Prince Lee Shin (Joo Ji Hoon) - He is attractive, loved (by the country and girls), and cocky. So he's like the quintessential arrogant chaebol prince. It is pretty obvious that he's like this because he's young and there's a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. He wasn't originally supposed to be the crowned prince. It should have been Yul and Shin was thrust into the limelight after Yul's father died. So it's not Shin's fault that he wasn't always prepared to be the future king. However, in the beginning Shin is a bit of an a** in ways where it's hard to forgive him (obviously I did, but he goes over the top a bit in how mean he is to Chae Kyung).

Secondary Love Interest: There is a secondary love interest for both main characters. Lee Yul (Kim Jung Hoon) is the secondary love interest for Shin Chae Kyung and Min Hyo Rin (Song Ji Hyo) is the secondary love interest for Lee Shin.

Yul starts out sweet and kind. He knows that his mother is a bit scheming, but really he's just happy to be back with his family and his cousin. Then he falls in love with Chae Kyung and s*** hits the fan. Since she is supposed to marry the prince, and he used to be the prince, but now Shin is the prince. So Yul thinks to himself, "Wait a minute, she should be my princess. AND I love her and Shin obvi doesn't! So this is super not fair!"

Hyo Rin is less relatable as a character. She's just a perfect rich girl who thought she could have it her way with Shin. But when she makes the mistake of not wanting to get engaged at the age of like 17 (which is understandable) she loses him. She thinks "WTF, I just wanted to live my dream of being a ballerina AND becoming the future queen, but on my own time." Wah wah, rich girl problems #AmIRight?

It's kind of a tradition in most romantic comedies and melodramas in K-Dramas to have a secondary love interest. And while I am kind of sick of love triangles in YA books, I kind of love them in my K-Dramas. Maybe because the second male lead is usually so sweet to the main girl. Or maybe because they super duper love the girl character so much that they even encourage her to be with the main male lead because they just want her to be happy (that's what love really is!). BTW, this is not what happens in the this show (sorry 'bout it!). Yul is not a fan of Shin. I mean, he loves him kind of like a brother, but he gets jealous right quick and most of it is because he loves Chae Kyung and Chae Kyung love Shin. Oy vey, so much angst.

Anyway, on the flip side, the secondary female lead is usually a jealous and manipulative character. And I kind of hate that. There are some exceptions, but usually when the love triangle in K-Dramas involve two girls and a guy it comes out to sneaky manipulation and lots of drama! (Don't like this, but it does add to the drama part of K-dramas). This is definitely how it plays out in Goong. I personally love Song Ji Hyo, so the fact that her character stinks really upset me. But I won't hold it against anyone because with royalty comes drama and with teen romance comes drama, so really she never had a chance in this story.

Allies and Enemies:

Kim Hye Ja as the Queen Mother Park
Yoon Yoo Sun as Queen Min
Park Chan Hwan as Emperor Lee Hyun
Lee Yoon Ji as Princess Hye Myung (Shin's sister)
Shim Hye Jin as [Hye Jung Goong] Lady Seo Hwa Young (Yul's mother)
Lee Ho Jae as the Head butler Gong
Jun Soo Yeon as Escort Choi
Won Mi Won as Attendant Suh (Lee Yul's former nanny)

Chae Kyung's family
Im Ye Jin as Chae Kyung's mother
Kang Nam Gil as Chae Kyung's father
Kim Suk as Shin Chae Joon (Chae Kyung's younger brother)

Setting: An alternate reality Korea where the emperor still exists and runs as a constitutional monarchy (they liken it to England a lot)

Random Thoughts: I like alternate reality shows, I like that there are still recognizable elements of the world we live in, but it's just slightly different. Like when you ask the question "what would it be like if there was still an emperor in Korea?" I love shows that answer those random questions. It was based on a Manwha (similar to a Japanese Manga) of the same name so it has a lot of those comic elements. 

This show was adorable. It was a bit slow in the middle, and it did that thing that dramas (and animes) do where it repeats the same kind of conflict over and over again from episode to episode. However, there were some nice reveals and the character development of the two mains was great. They really grew as people and it happened in a good and organic way for me.

I like the Chae Kyung was in no way perfect in the beginning. Sometimes there are dramas where there is the bratty and conceited chaebol heir/prince and he is shown how to really feel/love by a sweet and sassy girl (cough Heirs cough). But the girl doesn't grow as vastly as the boy does. This isn't actually the case in Goong. Chae Kyung is fumbling, clumsy, and has no aspirations or etiquette. She grows up a lot in the course of the show. So by the end she is a more complete person. 

I didn't love the "bad guys" in the show. Lady Seo Hwa Young is a little too manipulative and conniving. I mean, she lived a perfectly happy, comfortable life with her son in Europe. And if she hadn't been so selfish in wanting the throne then Yul would have kept being perfectly happy too. I think that Yul deserved to be back in Korea with his family, but the way it happened obviously wasn't for his happiness. And even though Lady Seo Hwa Young presented it like she was doing it all for him, she totally was doing it for herself. (This is often a recurring theme in K-Dramas when parents push their kids to live out their "dreams" for them). 

In the end the show was a fun teen romance with some royal intrigue and alternate reality yumminess. There was family, friendship, love and coming of age all in a great drama. There were also some wonderful cultural references that spoke about traditions that have been in Korea since the Joseon period, which I loved.

Side note: This drama is apparently how G-Dragon and Seungri truly became friends, and I love anything Big Bang. So that's a glowing endorsement for Goong. Hahaha

Monday Musings: Ways to procrastinate from NaNoWriMo and still feel productive (kind of)

Hey guys, are y'all writers, are y'all taking part in NaNoWriMo? Well, if you are then you may or may not have already given in to your need to procrastinate. Something I definitely have not done at all, for sure 100% not.

However, if I were procrastinating instead of writing, I'd do it in a writer fashion. And that's looking up things about books, writing, and publishing.

So if you want some cool things to look at while you're procrastinating from NaNoWriMo while still feeling like you've been productive then here are some procrastination suggestions for your procrastinating pleasure (whew, run on sentence. Which happens to me more and more as NaNo goes on):

1. Things about Writing:

I like to hone my craft as I'm writing, so I just look at these blogs all day every day:

Literary Rambles

Brenda Drake's Making Connections

Dorothy Dreye's We Do Write

Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds Blog

Cupid's Literary Connection

Krista Van Dolzer's Mother.Write.Repeat

2: Things about Querying and Publishing:

I've been watching and listening to podcasts/vlogs. 

The two that I've liked lately are: 

Shipping & Handling with Bridget Smith of Dunham Literary Inc. & Jennifer Udden of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

AND

PubTalkTv with Summer Heacock (@Fizzygrrl), Kelsey Macke (@KelsNotChels), Monica Odom (modomodom), Jessica Sinsheimer (@jsinsheim), Roseanne Wells (@RivetingRosie)

AND

For YA Writers (because this is a YA/MG blog) I like Adventures in YA Publishing.

AND

Minorities in Publishing is a blog and podcast about Minorities in Publishing (@minoritiesinpub) with Jen (@jbakernyc) Bev (@lolbev)

3. Thing about Books and Reading:

Come on, you knew I'd link We Need Diverse Books. It's necessary to mention.

And Book Smugglers is a good review site if you're struggling to choose a book to read next and so is Book Riot

And a shout-out to my former home blog Books Are Bread

NaNoWriMo: Coming Soon to a computer near you!

Hey guys, it's that time of the year! Fall!

My favorite season because of apple cider, Thanksgiving, pretty trees AND NaNoWriMo! 

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as the cool kids say, is a challenge to write a WHOLE BOOK(50,000 words) in the month of November. 

And fighting the slow pull of insanity while trying to meet word count. Just kidding, kind of.

It also brings the writer community together and can jump-start a new novel idea.

According to Nanowrimo.org:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel.

NaNoWriMo kind of reminds me of college because you have an excuse to be grouchy and crazy at 3 AM and there are likely other people doing that exact same thing! So you know what that means, 3AM coffee/wine and whine time with friends! 

I also always like to point out that some awesome novels were started and/or written during Nanowrimo (http://nanowrimo.org/published-wrimos).

Okay, so here are some of the fun things you get by signing up (FOR FREE) at Nanowrimo.org

Cool stats and graphs telling you how awesome (or, in my case, how lazy) you are:

Awesome Forums where you can connect with other authors. There are so many options to base the forums on (genre, hobbies, progress in your WIP, where you live, who you read):

And there are some Regional specific events:

I participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two years (and won *cough cough*). I loved it, I loved meeting new people and working on a new WiP. Fun fact, none of my WiPs from NaNoWriMo became full novels. However, I don't think that's a bad thing. I got super inspired (often times halfway through NaNo) to write MSs that DID become full books. And I queried the snot out of at least one (that means I thought it wasn't complete garbage and other people were allowed to read it). So, there you go.

Anyway, I love the idea of NaNoWriMo. I like anything that gets people to write and to get excited about writing. I am knee deep in a WiP, but it's actually split into 2 parts, so I'm writing part 2 of my YA contemporary fantasy during NaNo this year.

If you want, you can find me on the site and we can be nanowrimo pals! (I'm katjc589)

Feature Follow Friday: Kiss, Marry, Kill

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's Question is:

Pick Three Book Characters - Kiss? Marry? Kill?

Kiss

Jace

The Mortal Instruments

I really like Jace's snarky personality and his bad-boy attitude. But he does give Clary some anxious moments when he acts a fool. So I don't think I'd want to have a real relationship with him (plus he super loves Clary). But I wouldn't mind the kissing.

Marry

Minho

Maze Runner

Minho is strong, smart, and funny. These are all things I would totally want in a husband. He's also Korean, this is what my grandmother would want in a husband for me. So really Minho was made for me to marry (or my cousin Axie I guess, since we have the same grandmother). Anyway, I love him, he's one of my favorite Maze Runner characters and I would marry him and help him deal with his maze PTSD and cook him kalbi and kimchi chigae.

Mikolas Vavra 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

He is a side-side-side character at first. He is the crush (and eventual boyfriend) of Zuzana, Karou's BFF in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. So he is a human who happens to be thrust in the middle of all of the supernatural happenings in the story. I love how he accepts and fits into this world of angels and monsters. And I love how loyal he is to Zuzana and by association to Karou. He's just a great boyfriend and would probably be a great husband.

Kill

Clancy

The Darkest Minds

I've said before that I think Clancy is too evil. So I'm just going to quote myself here (haha) "I don't particularly like villains that are just villains. I much prefer the ones that have a redeeming characteristic so that I can be conflicted about and for them."

Monday Musings: Talking about what you believe in

I don't usually use this blog for anything political or too personal (although I would argue that books are very personal for me). But I have been having a lot of thoughts the past few weeks (or even months really) about how to talk about what you believe in. A lot has been happening in our country that has polarized the nation.

First of all, I am a person who does not like to discount other peoples' viewpoints. It's the only way that I can ensure I get all the information and understand fully what is going on (as much as I can). In a lot of ways it's like reading a book. I want to find out all of the background information about the major players and events. I need to understand the motivations and context of the story before I can root for any one hero or anti-hero. 

My life experiences, education and upbringing have given me a lot of this background. So I always knew I was on the side of things like marriage equality and equal rights for all people no matter their race or culture. However, moving from one city to another has shown me that there are so many different people in this country. And they all have very different views.

So, how do we talk to them? I actually got some great advice from a book about writing. It's about how to structure a sentence. It said that the job of a sentence is to convey information. So when I talk to people who don't share my beliefs, I try to make my sentences more informational then emotional. Of course, that's not always going to happen. Because these are emotional issues. People's lives are at stake here. So of course it should be emotional and personal. But sometimes when people argue against something that would give equality and freedom to everyone it's not because they're against kindness and goodness. It's not because they're cruel and evil people. It is because they're fighting for their own truth, what they believe to be true just as much as I believe in mine. 

So it's not about telling the opposite side that they're wrong, but about telling them why you think you're right. Approach things with positivity. With the mindset that we're all good people.

Another one of my beliefs is that no one wants to be a bad person. So, don't treat them like they are.

Kat's K-Dramas: A Girl Who Sees Smells

A Girl Who Sees Smells

냄새를 보는 소녀
AKA Sensory Couple

Genre: Romance, comedy, fantasy, thriller

Episodes: 16

Aired: 2015-Apr-01 - 2015-May-21

Network: SBS

Starring: Park Yoo Chun, Shin Se Kyung, Nam Goong Min, Yoon Jin Seo

Watch it on: Dramafever, Viki

Synopsis:

Three years ago, Choi Moo Gak lost his younger sister in the "Bar Code" murder case. Since then he has become cold and insensible. Meanwhile, Oh Cho Rim miraculously survived the same incident. Since then she has lost her memory, but also gained the ability to see smells.

Also, the show is based on a popular webtoon that was in Korea (webtoons are web comics in Korea that are published on the internet only...kind of like Mangas/Manhwas in artistic style)

Main Character: Oh Cho Rim/Choi Eun Seol can see smells. It's not like synesthesia as we  know it. She can see them without smelling them. She can see them from afar, and she can see them through glass and other obstructions. This happened to her when she was a teenager around 17 or 18 and got into a car accident after witnessing her parents' kidnapping. She also lost her memory of everything that happened to her before the car accident (including witnessing her parent's kidnapping). She is adopted (and kind of hidden) by a police officer who gives her the new name of Oh Cho Rim. She wants to be able to make people laugh, so she joins a comedy troupe in the hopes of becoming a comedian.

She has sweet daydreams, like the one where she's in one of my all-time favorite Korean variety shows Running Man (It's a show that has the top stars in Korea as guests, and is all about being fun and funny. So she daydreams that she goes on the show as one of the top funny ladies in Korea. I had epic fangirl moments when I saw her on screen with Kang Gary, Yoo Jae Suk, Lee Kwangsoo and the gang).

Love Interest: Choi Moo Gak.

I kind of have a crush on Park Yoo Chun after seeing him as Choi Moo Gak in this show. He's funny, serious, brooding, and adorable all in one! He kind of reminds me of a more grown and goofy Choi Minho (from Shinee) in looks.

Choi Moo Gak had a younger sister named Choi Eun Seol whom he loved. She is not the same Eun Seol who became Cho Rim, but her fate was intertwined with Cho Rim's the night of the car accident. Choi Moo Gak's little sister was on a bus that got into a small accident. She was sent to a hospital to get treated for a banged up head. And she was murdered in that hospital. The man who murdered her was none other than the man who kidnapped Cho Rim's parents and who was trying to kill Cho Rim (who at that time was called Choi Eun Seol). Moo Gak then becomes a cop to try to catch the man who murdered his sister. Also, he has lost all sense of smell, taste, and pain. (None of this is spoilery because it all happens in the first episode).

Are you following me? Yes? No? Well it gets EVEN MORE COMPLICATED.

Allies and Enemies: Oh Cho Rim's father (it turns out) has a personal stake in catching the man who kidnapped and murdered Cho Rim's original parents. Dun dun dun!

Lieutenant Yeom Mi comes to Seoul to catch an elusive murderer deemed "The Barcode Killer" because he carves a barcode in the wrist of all of his victims, including the "fisherman couple" who are none other than Cho Rim's parents.

Then there are the three homicide cops who are kind of the comic relief and happen to be Choi Moo Gak's colleagues after he becomes a cop to catch his sister's murderer.

And another source of comic relief is a troupe of comediennes.

Setting: Present day Seoul. (Flash backs to Jeju Island about three years ago).

Random Thoughts: Oh how I enjoy shows that have only half a foot standing in reality. That's exactly what "The Girl Who Sees Smells" is, and it's super entertaining because of it. This is one of those shows where you need to suspend disbelief. To be fair, a lot of K-dramas are like that. But for this one you might need to go a step further.

First of all, the synesthesia that Oh Cho Rim has that causes her to see smells is not scientifically or medically accurate. However, they don't ever really call it that, so perhaps it is in the "magic" realm of television afflictions and just looks like synesthesia. Either way, as soon as you get over that inaccuracy, the show definitely becomes a much more fun and enjoyable ride (so for anyone planning to watch the show, I would suggest letting that go early on, it's not worth nitpicking at). The great thing is that this show is a very good character show, the individual characters and relationships are one of the best parts.

There is obviously the contrast of Cho Rim who has an extra sense and Moo Gak who has lost all of his senses. At first he is kind of introduced as a dogged, one-track-mind guy who just wants to get into the homicide division so he can catch his sister's killer. He doesn't need friends, love, or anything but justice. Cho Rim is the opposite, she is the ultimate carer. She cares about her father, she cares about the other comediennes in the troupe, and she cares about making people laugh.

So when their words collide they don't exactly see eye-to-eye. However, because of certain circumstances they need help from each other.

The best part of the show is the relationship between Moo Gak and Cho Rim (and also the relationship between Moo Gak/Cho Rim and the homicide cops). They are just so cute and sweet together.  I really loved their chemistry and the comedy they created. Also, there was always the knowing that their hidden pasts were going to come back and bite them in the butt (and so I was very concerned for them as a couple).

The show does a good job of creating interesting interactions between the characters. And I did genuinely enjoy the characters, which is probably what made it easy for me to stick with such a ridiculous show. I will say that the plot was kind of flat at times. You would think there would be more twists and turns in a murder mystery that involved mistaken identity and lost memories. However, things are revealed very quickly in the series and the path doesn't divert very much from it.

POTENTIAL LIGHT SPOILERS BELOW

POTENTIAL LIGHT SPOILERS BELOW

There were also a few facts that were left dangling. One that involved Oh Cho Rim's adopted father. It actually super bothered me, because it was introduced in such a dramatic way, but then never resoled. So I was kind of annoyed that they introduced it in the first place anyway. Also, Oh Cho Rim's adoptive father's motives for adopting her are never 100% clear. They start to give us potential answers to that question and then never follow-through.

The show had a very drawn out ending, which is not surprising for a thriller Korean Drama. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't love it. I think that this might have been due to my personal preference though. I am a fan of epilogues in K-Dramas, but I also don't like random (extra) twists and turns. To be fair, the extra twists in this show made sense. That's why I was okay with it.

All in all, a very entertaining show with a cool twists and play on the normal dramas we see. 

Feature Follow Friday: Book Reviews

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's Question is:

How do you write your reviews? - Suggested by Blue Books and Butterflies.

Before I started this blog, I blogged with my awesome cousin over at Books Are Bread. She is a much more organized blogger and reviewer then I am and her reviews are epic. So one day we came up with a guide to how we would review books (e.g. sections we would always include). I still follow that one because I think it works. 

It goes pretty much like this:

Title of Awesome Book

By: Really Cool Author

Genre: YA/MG Probably-Sci-Fi-but-I-also-read-other-genres

Publisher: Some Book Publisher

POV: First Person/Third Person

Rating: ? out of 5

Synopsis of book that I pretty much just take from Goodreads or backcover summaries.

Main Character: Where I try to describe the main character, but always fail to fully put my thoughts on paper.

Love Connection: Because let's be honest, EVERY YA book has one.

Allies and Enemies: Where I get to talk about the awesome secondary characters. Sometimes a secondary character takes a book from good to great, from great to awesome, from awesome to OMFG.

Diversity (optional): To be fair, I don't do this section as much (even though I'm a huge proponent of #WNDB). I just don't review as many books as I used to, but once I do I assume I'll be reviewing diverse books (since those are the ones in my TBR queue). And because I think having some genuine diversity in a book makes it super rad.

Setting: Pretty self-explanatory section.

Random Thoughts: My wonderful review of the book in general, and where I talk about the good, the bad, and the interesting.

And if it's a series review:

Series Rating: ? out of 5

Insert random thoughts about the entire series, the entire world, and the characters' overarching development. Also, include some random pop-culture references, and try to sneak in a Totoro or Gundam Wing reference.

How do you guys review books? Any suggestions for stepping up my reviewing game?