#jeong gu won icons

[prplocks]

✧❁ icons〴 jeong guwon x do dohee ˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗

reblog if you save ➳

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[wonnieloves]

never let her out of your sight

never stay far away from her

never . . . fall in love with her . . . 💗

[ikjun]

AL'S DRAMA RECS VOL.1: these recs will solely focus on the writing of the shows, which to me comes down to two things: how well does the plot accomplish what it set out to do in the beginning? and how compelling are the characters written, no matter if their character arc means they become better or worse through the story or even remain who they are? my favourite dramas usually succeed in giving us a satisfying answer to both questions and these are the ones you will see on this list!

★★★★★ dramas (aka the greatest hits):

SECRET FOREST / STRANGER (2017-2021): the pinnacle of all dramas. follows the duo of no-nonsense prosecutor hwang si-mok (the acting star turn of he century by cho seung-woo) and police detective han yeo-jin (the ever-exceptional bae doo-na) investigating a murder case that blows open several scandals in the prosecution. season 2 follows several cases leading to an internal investigation on police bribery. it just does not get better than this and i fear it won't ever will. this drama has the understated styling of nordic noir, the classic shenanigans of an unlikely leading kdrama duo, and one of the tightest scripts ever seen in any tv show ever. | genre: thriller, melodrama, crime procedural

MY LIBERATION NOTES (2022): following the yeom family's three siblings living in the small town of sanpo on the outskirts of seoul, and the stranger moving into the house next door to theirs, this story navigates questions of sibling-hood and family, the purpose of life, as well as the sacrifices we make for the relationships in our life as well as our own happiness. this show earned its hype from the central love story between mr. gu and yeom mi-jeong (son seok-ku and kim ji-won acting the house down) but every one of the three main storylines is well-paced, gives the main actors moments to shine and grow, and ties neatly into the overarching plot to render you either moved or comforted, or even both. | genre: slice of life, melodrama

VINCENZO (2020): at this point are there still followers on this blog who haven't at least seen me talk about vincenzo? the writing of this show is maybe the peak of genre-blending done in kdrama, a culmination of years refining this skill to sharp perfection in a biting black comedy. vincenzo cassano (song joong-ki), consiglieri of a mafia clan he got adopted into, goes back to south korea to recover a frankly unholy amount of gold and fights a gigantic conglomerate (babel) to get there. if you watch past episode four, you will finish this drama, because everything ensuing from then on is just one iconic story beat after another. | genre: black comedy / satire, crime, romance

HOSPITAL PLAYLIST (2020-2022): a medical drama beyond reproach. this show is on this list for the way it wrote its characters and achieved the most satisfying character arcs in any kdrama, maybe, ever. a group of five friends in their fourties all working at the same hospital and navigating their professional and private lives, this drama doesn't shy away from eclectic backstories (and the leads all playing music together in a band) as well as truly heart-tearing moments of friendship and romance. never have i seen character growth done as well as i have seen it in the characters of yang seok-hyeong and kim-jun-wan. | genre: medical, slice of life, rom-com

D.P. / DESERTER PURSUIT (2021-2023): d.p. to me is a no-notes kind of show. it depicts the work of the military police pursuing army deserters through freshly enlisted ahn jun-ho (jung hae-in playing years below his age and leagues above many his actual age) who ends up empathizing and working to help and save the deserters he and his team partner han ho-yeol (an exceptional koo kyo-hwan) are meant to bring back to the army instead of incriminating them further. d.p. is much better for its tone, its writing and the risks it takes in its no-nonsense approach than some of the drivel revered solely for being more flashy and showy in this genre. | genre: military drama, action

★★★★☆ dramas (aka near-perfection):

PRISON PLAYBOOK (2017): the perfect prototype of the bromance as romance formula and one of the best found family dramas that really focuses on that. star baseball player kim je-hyuk (park hae-soo in his career-defining role) loses his career and lands in prison after he assaults the ex-boyfriend of his younger sister to protect her. the show centers on je-hyuk's time in prison, where he reunites with his childhood best-friend-now-prison-guard lee jun-ho (a supreme jung kyung-ho) and assimilates himself with the people he meets in his cell. this show hits all the beats so well from a stellar supporting cast to a great comeback kid narrative for je-hyuk from his time in prison to being released. glaring flaw: the age-gap / childhood friends romance, the conclusion of hanyang's story arc, who gets the short end of the stick while being the one out gay character in the show. | genre: black comedy, found family, slice of life

GOBLIN: THE LONELY AND GREAT GOD (2017): the defining kdrama for many. it may be the one drama that really delivers in answering its plot's defining question twice over and then some. goblin kim shin (gong yoo), cursed to immortality, gets his life upended once a grim reaper (lee dong-wook as wang yeo, a performance never to be seen or repeated again since) and the young woman (kim go-eun as ji eun-tak) who turns out to be his fated bride enter his life. an immortal man resigned on life finds purpose while knowing he will fatally die once the woman he falls in love with cures him of his curse. glaring flaw: the age gap romance between eun-tak and kim shin. could she have not been in college at least? | genre: melodrama, romance, fantasy

CRASH LANDING ON YOU (2019): the romance drama that could, and did. based on a real life incident, ceo yoon se-ri (son ye-jin, an acting veteran near beyond reproach imo) accidentally crash lands in north korea after a paragliding flight gone wrong. there she meets active duty soldier captain ri jeong-hyeok (hyun bin, thank you for your service) and has to stay with him and his military company. the fated love story starts there, but neither of them know they have met before, and already changed the courses of each other's lives before doing so again. minor flaw: is this drama romanticising the military? or is depicting of that on screen just that and nothing more? that is up to you to decide. | genre: melodrama, romance

HOMETOWN CHA CHA CHA (2021): the series remake of a korean rom-com film of the early aughts, this remains my favourite romance drama over all. dentist yoon hye-jin (shin min-a blessing our screens) moves to rural gongjin, a seaside village where nothing happens at all, after her professional life in seoul goes up in flames. it's not all sunshine in gongjin either as ye-jin meets hong du-sik (kim seon-ho),a handyman who is called chief hong by everyone and fixes all the big and small fires in the village. the two start as enemies that eventually fall in love. the romance is well-handled and paced and the second lead (lee sang-yi) is the best i have ever seen in a show, especially because of the arc written for him. minor flaw: the plot is not as tight as the respective character arcs, so sometimes sacrifices are made for the sake of a more emotional scenes. | genre: rom-com, slice of life

THE GLORY (2022): when you put the revenge in revenge drama, this is what you can get. song hye-ko returns to small screen brilliance in an incomparable performance as moon dong-eun, a woman who decides to infiltrate the lives of her school bullies and take them down one by one. this show delivers on plot even more than on characters, following through on every step of moon dong-eun's revenge without shying away from how gruesome or painful that path of vengeance can be. dong-eun gets help from plastic surgeon joo yeo-jeong (a delightful lee do-hyun), and the main cast is rounded out by lim ji-yeon and jung sung-il as dong-eun's grown up tormentor and her reluctant husband respectively. minor flaw: the show does spend a big chunk of its time on the group of school bullies and their interpersonal relations, which sometimes takes time away from the main plot. | genre: psychological thriller, revenge drama

♡ more specific genre watches (beware: usually crime):

LIFE (2018): written by the writers of secret forest, life is another thriller with understated direction and a more sombre tone. i would have put it in the greatest hits category, but watching it with other people made me realise how niche it actually is in genre. a corporate hospital thriller, the show revolves around the newly-minted ceo of sangkook university hospital, gu seung-hyo (a once again flawless cho seung-woo) and a dedicated ER doctor (lee dong-wook, stellar as ever) who depict the two sides of the patient care vs. profit conflict in the hospital. i can't even say more about the show because every other plot point is basically a spoiler. sharply directed and written, this is one of the best genre pieces i have ever watched, and is mildly reminiscent of hbo prestige television of the decade before. | genre: medical drama, corporate thriller

THE WORST OF EVIL (2023): are you even surprised? this was the drama of 2023 for me, one of the most stellar scripts i have seen. the worst of evil is very firmly a noir show and you have to treat what you are watching as such. it is heavily entrenched into its genre tropes and arcs, even more than most crime shows i have seen, and that can be off-putting for people unfamiliar with the genre, but if you are up for it, you will not be disappointed. opportune violent crime detective park jun-mo (ji chang wook, korea's finest new gen action actor) infiltrates a drug ring lead by jung gi-cheol ( fantastic and emotional tour de force by wi ha joon) and the lines begin to blur when neither of them knows if what they bargained for is actually what they want. the show lets its main plot dictate the pace, focusing on park jun-mo's descent into crime, and it is all the more better for it. | genre: noir, crime thriller, action

BEYOND EVIL (2020): the story about dejected and grieving small-town detective lee dong-sik (baeksang-awarded veteran actor shin ha-kyun) being partnered with elite detective and spinster seoulite han joo-won (child actor prodigy turned actor to watch du jour) has made its waves online for its very apparent gay subtext, but to reduce beyond evil to this would be a crime in itself. following lee dong-sik and han joo-won as they are tasked to solve a reoccurring serial killer case, the framing plot then fans open the age-old wound of dong-sik losing his twin sister and being blamed for her disappearance with joo-won having taken an obsessive fascination with the case. the two crime cases are exceptionally interwoven and the stories of the people in the small town of manyang, and how they all somehow tie back to dong-sik, is the perfect example of turning the small centrepiece of a plot into the binding force of every thread. | genre: procedural, psychological thriller

OUR BELOVED SUMMER (2021): i put this into the genre-piece category because obl is majorly focused on its main trope. romantic dramas can easily be trite to me, as this obvious list of crime shows doesn't tell you, but our beloved summer is one of the few that did everything right. it plays out the best trope ever done - exes to lovers - and does not back down from embracing the whole shebang to the nth degree. high school / college sweethearts choi woong (known beloved actor on ye-xiu tumblr dot com, choi woo-shik) and kook yeun-soo (the ever great kim da-mi) have to unite to replicate, or rather continue, the viral high school documentary they filmed years ago. the show shimmies its way from one moment of reconnection to another, culminating in the best kdrama kiss to ever be put to screen, and concludes in one of the most satisfying and, yes, romantic endings ever. the things a show can do when it just sticks to its main narrative, huh. | genre: rom-com, coming of age

[kdramaladies]

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our 2023 Year End Poll last month! Thank you to those who voted, promoted the event, and also liked/reblogged our top 10 gifsets.

If you missed the Top 10 sets we posted during the last 10 days of 2023, or would just like to support them again, please check out our event tag #KDLYEAREND23. We will also be listing the results for the Top 20 under the cut.

Please also check out our new desktop header featuring our top 3 winners by @orangesyellow, mobile header by @natahjikio and icon by @haeyeongs featuring our #1 voted character of 2023.

We hope your 2024 is off to a good start, and looking forward to another year of our favourite kdramas and ladies!!!

1) The Glory: Moon Dong-eun (Song Hye-kyo) 46 2) Moving: Lee Mi-hyun (Han Kyo-joo) 45 3) Twinkling Watermelon: Yoon Cheong-ah (Shin Eun-soo) 44 4) Crash Course in Romance: Nam Haeng-seon (Jeon Do-yeon) 42 5) Alchemy of Souls 2: Jin Bu-yeon (Go Youn-jung) 38 6) Revenant: Gu San-young (Kim Tae-ri) 36 7) Moving: Jang Hui-soo (Go Youn-jung) 35 8) King the Land: Cheon Sa-rang (Im Yoon-ah) 34 9) My Dearest: Yoo Gil-chae (Ahn Eun-jin) 33 10) Twinkling Watermelon: Choi Se-kyung/On Eun-yu (Seol In-ah) 29

11) Daily Dose of Sunshine: Jung Da-eun (Park Bo-young) 27 12) Call It Love: Shim Woo-joo (Lee Sung-kyung) 25 12) See You in my 19th Life: Ban Ji-eum (Shin Hye-sun/Park So-yi) 25 13) The Glory: Park Yeon-jin (Im Ji-yeon) 20 14) Crash Course in Romance: Nam Hae-yi (Roh Yoon-seo) 19 15) Crash Course in Romance: Kim Young-joo (Lee Bong-ryun) 17 16) The Uncanny Counter 2: Do Ha-na (Kim Se-jeong) 15 16) Love to Hate You: Yeo Mi-ran (Kim Ok-vin) 15 17) A Time Called You: Han Jun-hee/Kwon Min-ji (Jeon Yeo-been) 13 17) Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938: Ryu Hong-joo (Kim So-yeon) 13 17) Doctor Cha: Cha Jeong-sook (Uhm Jung-hwa) 13 18) Mask Girl: Kim Mo-mi (Lee Han-byeol, Go Hyun-jung, Nana) 12 18) The Glory: Kang Hyun-nam (Yeom Hye-ran) 12 18) The Good Bad Mother: Jin Young-soon (Ra Mi-ran) 12 19) Doona!: Lee Doo-na (Bae Suzy) 11 19) The Good Bad Mother: Lee Mi-joo (Ahn Eun-jin) 11 20) Alchemy of Souls 2: Kim Do-joo (Oh Na-ra) 10 20) Heartbeat: Joo In-hae (Won Ji-an) 10 20) See You in my 19th Life: Yoon Cho-won (Ha Yoon-kyung) 10 20) Not Others: Kim Jin-hee (Choi Soo-young) 10 20) Call It Love: Shim Hye-seong (Kim Ye-won) 10 20) My Lovely Liar: Mok Sol-hee (Kim So-hyun) 10

KDRAMALADIES YEAR END POLL: Favourite Female Drama Characters of 2023

Welcome to our (hopefully!) annual year end poll! Vote for your favourite female characters from dramas in 2023, and at the end of the year we will announce and celebrate the top 10 most beloved characters with some gifs, and feature the top 3 in our blog’s desktop and mobile themes.

vote here

polls are open until December 10, 2023 at 11:59PM PST

results will be announced in the last week of December

the options are sorted alphabetically by title

only dramas set to complete by the start of the voting period has been included (dramas ending in December or January will be included in the following year's voting period)

if there are series or characters we missed, there is a write-in option at the bottom of the poll

if writing-in, please make sure to include the show title and the character or actress name

Happy voting! Please feel free to reblog this post to promote the poll to your friends and followers!

[kim-lexie]

january rewind.

music.

‘dreams come true’ by NCT127. my goodness this song what a blessing and gift from our boys. 

‘lay back’ by verivery. my goodness this slaps. i stan.

sf9 comeback. OUR BOYS S E R V E D. this was stellar, the concept superior. the visuals, the vocals, the choreography. like yes yes and yes. the whole album was incredible. my fave tracks ‘like the hands held tight’ and “shh”.

‘lion’ by (g)-idle. im not into girl groups, so I've actually never looked into this group but dang lion is a bop and i love this track, and it makes me feel like boss.

‘any song’ by zico. this challenge is precious and has been stuck on repeat. 

dramas and movies. *spoiler alert*

parasite. i saw this a while ago and dang am i excited to say i was ahead of the hype. i must be honest i was intrigued because (1) a foreign language film was going to be at my local cinema (LIKE WOAH) and (2) CHOI WOO SHIK. so i just had to get my friends to go see it. i went in blind. i had no idea what the premise was what was gonna go down. NO IDEA. and it was unexpected intriguing and beautifully filmed. i left the film wondering and pondering the concept. you best believe i watched all the videos about the nuggets that i definitely missed in the first viewing. it is a film that makes you question and engage in discussion with those around you. i enjoyed it.

seriously incredible looking at the oscars and seeing that they won BEST PICTURE. a foreign language never winning in that category is wild. honestly never watch these shows because its always the same people and white washed. but dang i hope this opens peoples eyes to see that whole new worlds are waiting to be discovered if only they would allow themselves to be open to seeing them. 

would recommend to everyone to jump into the discussion and enjoy the film because it really makes you think...

bring it on ghost. this was a good one. i saw that it was added to netflix and gave it a watch. i enjoyed all the characters and i am so glad that she wasn’t actually a ghost but a spirit that was able to wake back up and have a happy ending. i love the main leads character as he is trying to raise enough money to get rid of the “gift” that was bestowed upon him from the demon spirit. but this terrifying gift to see ghosts brings him to his now, love (cue awwwww). overall it was slightly terrifying but i appreciate the comedic relief that the two guys had from the university. i would give it a 7.5 out of 10. 

chocolate.  this one really got me. the flashbacks and character development. however, it had its slow moments that really made me pause and question will i even have a happy ending should i finish this. but seriously thankful i did. there were so many precious moments between the characters, and the friendship that were short but remained with the main characters from the hospice. it was interesting to see how each episode developed and showed us new friends that were only to be with us a short while but impacted the lives of our main leads dramatically. but because of you i could come this far. one of my fave quotes:

‘i came to get you. i wanted you to get more rest. but i missed you way too much.’ 

‘i wanted to rest with you too.’ 

‘as long as well hold on to hope nothing will break us down.’ 

i also greatly appreciate how it all became about food in the end. like seriously all the sadness and grief and they made it about the one love for food. i would rate this an 8 out of 10.

when the camilla blooms. dang i held out to watch this because everyone was talking about it and me and my know it all attitude was like it can't be that great. BUT DANG! the reason everyone was talking about it was because it is SOOO FREAKING GOOD. honestly, it reminds me so much of strong woman do bong soo. bc there are cute romantic scenes and great comedic elements and characters, but dang these scary dudes are scary...

first off, yong-sik this man is too precious and there were so many incidents that reiterated how precious/tenderhearted his character is. for example, when he was like “shouldn't we talk about last night, because i couldn't sleep a wink last night” when referring to them holding hands. him getting super jealous, and was like “dongbaek, you must hold my hand hurry!”. it was hilarious when we all thought he finally got up the courage to ask her over to his place, and her to accept for it to be a request to wash his hair because he can't with his burns. *dead*

i love pil-gu. and i love how everyone loves pil-gu because he is a great kid. he’s funny, i.e. saying to jong-ryeol (his biological dad) you’re not that great, then being semi bribed by the latest gam. his sass is ICONIC, ‘i don’t spin tops with my ears’, when referring to jong-ryeol telling him to stop playing to listen to him. i love that song-sik shows up to the baseball game and becomes “a man with a drone” to protect pil-gu. i hate how he was like i need to leave my mom for her to be happy and he bottled it up inside, this poor little nugget. he soon realizes and gives it all back bc he wants to stay with his mom. and nothing can bribe him away from the most precious thing to him. 

dong-baek is such a freaking strong character! she was bomb, the character development was insane. i feel like this quote from the end really captures it:

“aren’t you just sick and tired of being intimidated all the time? people keep acting up because i’m nice to them. i’m a person who’s capable of breaking someones with my fist. and i’m a fighter who’s able to protect my own kid…i decided to become the strongest mother in the world from now on.”

she went from being chill and letting people walk all over her to becoming a boss! i also love that yong-sik allowed her to be a boss and protected her to be able to breathe easy. 

“consider your life as a never ending festival. and i’ll make sure you can live as immaturely as possible.” -yong sik 

because she had to grow up so fast. like he is seriously the best. waking her up and allowing her to believe in herself again. and their moment of her finally saying “i love you.” and him like, “i knew it.” 

jeong-suk, her mother. this was such a sad storyline. the woman who abandoned her at the orphanage, came back after she found out her time was limited. her mother was always looking out. being there during the accident saving her. saving insurance policy. watching after pil-gu at day are. she did her best to compensate for abandoning her. freaking lost it when both her mothers, (biological and deok-sun, yong-sik’s mother) freaking knew each other prior to the current time. from when dong-baek was a little nugget and when deok-sun was pregnant with yong-sik. like what a full circle!

the whole killer aspect really threw me because everything was going good and then you'd have those cuts to the present day with bodies being found, and i did not appreciate thinking it was our main lead for the longest time. me preparing my heart to break from episode one. and then she goes and does things like going into semi-abandoned building to meet with someone who’s says they have your scooter that your missing coworker left somewhere. like this chick is gonna die. thankfully she didn’t and we got the happy ending we all wanted!

i seriously appreciated that they included the scene with pil-gu as a major league baseball player, and our happy OTP watching him on tv like thank you drama writers. i would seriously rate this a 10 out of 10.

[heaven-delight]

[ REVIEW ] TRANS : Melon Special - 2018 Idols Review

Red Velvet ‘Bad Boy’ (Na Won-Yeong)

Red Velvet has always chased after the trendiest music in idol pop. Similarly, in the repackage album ‘The Perfect Red Velvet,’ you can hear how much pride they have in their music-which only they can perform-and in being the perfect Red Velvet. Their confidence can be heard in ‘Bad Boy’ also.

Red Velvet has taken on countless concepts ever since their debut. The iconic confidence that they have shown in their previous releases-’The Perfect Velvet’ and ‘Peek-A-Boo’-can be seen in even more diverse layers in ‘Bad Boy.’

Red Velvet’s unique sound in ‘Bad Boy’ is notable. In ‘Bad Boy,’ they re-discovered the hidden components of their Velvet concept, actively incorporated a heavy bass and trap sounds, both which they have never given a real shot at before. Red Velvet also amplified their captivating charm better than ever by using flawless vocals, harmonies and modern synth sounds. This clean sound, which was created by a group of composers lead by The Stereotypes, is the newest result of SM’s long-running A&R team and song camps.

‘Bad Boy’s confidence-which comes from the fact that it’s well-built as a song-can be seen in its lyrics and choreography. In the lyrics, Red Velvet actively ‘bet’ and ‘play hard to get’ with the listener, and even say they’re quite confident themselves. The choreography also supports the lyrics by visually expressing the chic tone and the unique groove of ‘Bad Boy.’

On top of that, ‘Bad Boy’s music video references ‘Peek-A-Boo’s horror movie concept and amplifies the strange atmosphere that Red Velvet has been expressing from before, in various ways.

‘Bad Boy’ unabashedly shows Red Velvet’s full potential in perfect form. The reason why ‘Bad Boy’s promotion feel like they could have been done better is because through ‘Bad Boy,’ Red Velvet has reached their apex, and because of that, is expected to continue being perfect.

Seulgi, Chungha, SinB, Soyeon ‘Wow Thing’ (Jeong Gu-Won)

To me, being ‘perfect’ doesn’t mean being full of good things, but being irreplaceable, whether it is in terms of visuals or audio. It’s hard to find something as perfect as this in K-Pop-which sometimes tries too hard-but, ‘Wow Thing’ is a song that has everything in the right place.

‘Wow Thing’s 90s R&B sound-which has hints of brass sprinkled on top-resembles Ariana Grande’s first songs. The jiggy beat harmonizes the dull texture and fast composition of the song. Seulgi smoothly slides against and plays with the syncopation. SinB and Chungha show off how deft they’re at controlling their voices. Last but not the least, Soyeon’s rap, despite being short, is intense and leaves a lasting impression inside the listeners.

I could go on all day to list ‘Wow Thing’s good points, but what’s important is that ‘Wow Thing’ doesn’t waste any of its resources and energizes the listeners. In K-Pop, where ‘adding’ has become a norm, ‘Wow Thing’ shows that perfectness can be achieved from by showing the solid charms of each component.

[wonnieloves]

𝘫𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘶𝘸𝘰𝘯 . . .

. . . 𝘥𝘰 𝘥𝘰𝘩𝘦𝘦

𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯 . . .

[quack-quack-snacks]

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 I love them

never let her out of your sight

never stay far away from her

never . . . fall in love with her . . . 💗