#someone: what cute kids you got there! jin-chul: THEY ARE NOT MY KIDS!!!!

[manawari]

I had another cute/crazy idea involving Jin-chul + the S-Rank hunters. Lmao, why am I so obsessed with putting this man in stressful situations? Ahskdgalsgskdh

Imagine: the S-Ranks as babies (4 year old for Dong-wook) and they still have their powers intact.

- baby Yoon-ho turning into a fluffy white tiger kitty every time he's mad. He will most likely be the chubbiest among them, with or without his beast form.

- baby Jong-in being a gremlin who sets himself (or anything) on fire and walking around while giggling or laughing.

- baby Jin-woo staying silent and behaved for like half of the time, but if he's in the mood, he will run around and worse— he summons his shadows to play with him.

- baby Eun-seok summoning electricity every time he giggles, but gets worse when he's frowning.

- baby Hae-in being the well-behaved one, so she tends not to join trouble until she suddenly gets affected by the other boys' powers.

- baby Tae-gyu not wanting to let go of his bow and arrows and doesn't want to let the others burrow it. He also annoys them until a fight breaks out or if he shoots someone with an arrow.

- baby Byung-gyu being behaved like Hae-in, although with his mace in his hands, he tends to accidentally hit someone with it and then cry if he does so. He also nibbles on his mace a lot.

- 4 year old Dong-wook who has no idea what is going on, but it's not like he's gonna interfere when the babies are having fun. Him turning into a giant will make the perfect piggyback ride for the baby S-Ranks.

Woo Jin-chul is just holding the "Best Nanny" award.

[butterfly-child99]

Welcome to my first Drama review – I have been watching Kdramas for a few years now but never thought to review them but I love them so much I want to share my insight. I am going to have to go back and watch my favourites again so I can review them, oh what a nightmare 😂 Kidding, I rewatch my faves all the time.

Warning for you all – I don’t like “spoilers” in a review so there won’t be heavy content on the whole recap/synopsis side of things, I may give you some insight to parts I like, the characters etc but if you want a run of what happens or a play by play, this is probably not the place for you. I just would like to share my opinion and if you’ve been considering watching a kdrama and haven’t been sure, I’m hoping my reviews will encourage you to give them a go. I will talk about some parts of the shows, but not heavy on the spoilers.

I know some people are put off by the subtitles, but if you watch enough, it really does become second nature to watch and read at the same time. K-dramas can be dramatic, fluffy, cute, sweet, sensitive, dramatic and exciting and are totally worth the watch if you can get past the subtitles.

Anywho, onto my first Drama Review:

I’m not a Robot

Cutest leading couple I ever did see.

Drama in one sentence: A highly Intelligent but lonely business man suffering from an allergy to humans meets and falls in love with a Robot which is actually a human pretending to be a Robot. 

Honestly though, this synopsis does not give enough credit to how beautiful and emotional this series was. I wasn’t sure how I felt about a drama based around a robot at first, especially a human pretending to be a robot and another human falling in love with it. But the cast and the storyline in I’m not a robot make it so much more than that.

Aji-3 – AI robot or human playing was a robot?

The human allergy aspect played remarkably by leading man Yoo Seung-ho  helped make the storyline much more believable. The whole thing could have been unbelievable, unrealistic and silly, but seeing how Kim Min-kyu had not had physical human contact for years and had closed himself off from the world, the whole thing became much easier to believe. I absolutely love Yoo Seung-ho, he brings a beautiful smile, an innocence and beauty to this role. If the character had been played by anyone else, I think I would have struggled to dispel all the things that could have gone wrong with a human being tricked into thinking a robot did all the things Aji 3 did, but as he is so adorable, innocent and unspoilt by human contact, it’s totally believable.

The story itself is what I’ve stated above mixed in with the usual drama trope of man meeting woman, falling for her, betrayal, anguish, hope and finally happiness all rolled into a very unique story, as we have the robot aspect to take into account. Overall, I think the plot could have been a nightmare but the leading cast made it a beautiful story, that I fell in love with.

Cast

There may be slight spoilers ahead as I do a run down of the cast / characters but only from the initial episodes as I think you should decide if you want to find out more about the series yourselves and watch the episodes. If you have seen any k-dramas before, you will undoubtedly be able to figure out how this series might go, so without many spoilers here but a little hint, here is the good, the bad and the on the fence characters in my opinion, it doesn’t mean they are always good/ bad or on the fence. This is just my opinion from the get go.

The Good

Yoo Seung-ho as Kim Min-kyu

  Leading man Min-kyu is a highly intelligent business who has suffered with a terrible debilitating human allergy for the last 15 years. He has lived on his own, with only  a butler for company. He is the son of one of the founding members, a majority shareholder in the company and I want to say Financial director (?), he has earned a lot of money for the company, but has a unique way of doing business as he can’t really interact with people, although I don’t think anyone knows his issues, so people just think he is weird.

He wants to perform his military duty but cannot as his illness can cause him to die, so he is struggling internally with this. Also, within his business there is some angst, as there is always someone trying to take over businesses and using someone else to do this.

In his personal life, he is an avid collector, which is how he originally meets our leading lady. And he has been in love with an old family friend for a long time but has never made a move.

The company he owns is also in the process of buying into a small AI company, the Santa Maria team, whom have built a robot – Aji 3. A very human like Artificial Intelligent robot. He wants to test the robot and asks if he can see how she works, which is how the story begins.

If you do not fall in love with his beautiful smile and cute little ways, then well, I don’t know what, because he is fricking adorable. Every time he looks and smiles at Aji-3, oh my heart!😍

Chae Soo-bin as Jo Ji – ah and Aji 3

Leading lady Chae Soo-bin plays not one but two very exciting and interesting characters. She brings a real spark and sassiness to the robot Aji 3 – which does take a bit of suspended belief to accept that Min-kyu falls for the ruse – but if you can get over this then Soo-bin plays the part beautifully. In her main role as Ji-ah, I love her, I really do. She has this unique quality which makes her a perfect combination of adorable, sassy, interesting, hardworking and passionate.

Ji-ah lives with her brother, his heavily pregnant wife and niece as she lost her dad in her teens. She is an aspiring inventor and entrepreneur. She has made a fair few inventions but unfortunately none of them has ever taken off. Her brother at first does not seem very supportive and seems to heavily criticise her life choices. She seems to have a few various part time jobs but is on the whole a really happy and kind character. If you don’t fall for her, almost instantly you may be watching the wrong series.

One of her part time jobs, is buying rare and collectible items for people. This is how she first runs into Min-kyu, and their first meeting although memorable in some ways, is not a great start.

She is also linked to the Santa Maria team through the head professor, as he is her ex boyfriend, and he is how she is pulled into pretending to be a robot.

Santa Maria Team

consists of:

Um Ki-joon as Hong Baek-kyun. Ji-ah’s ex boyfriend and world renowned but shamed robotics professor and leader of the team. At first, I couldn’t see any potential in his character and was a little bored of him, but as the series got going, I loved how they didn’t necessarily go for the straight forward lead / second lead fights for girl. Baek-kyun genuinely wants to know how and why things went wrong with his relationship. He’s also very sweet and the more I watched, the more i realised my initial opinion of him was off.

Park Se-wan as “Pi” Angela Jin. I think she is the second in command in the team, she is highly intelligent and appears to have a lot of control over the team, making sure they stay on point and focused etc. Blatantly, and this isn’t really a spoiler as you’d have to be blind not to see it straight away, she is in love with Baek-hyun. The best part is she knows he still has feelings for Ji-ah, but she doesn’t act jealous, she doesn’t dislike Ji-ah or Baek-hyun for this though, she accepts this and does her best at work and is there for the professor regardless. She’s a really good feminine but in control of her life character.

Song Jae-ryong as “Hoktal” Kang Dong-won and Kim Min-kyu as “Ssanip” Eddie Park. I feel like these two definitely need to be talked about together, there is definite bromance going on here, and I am here for it. They’re super geeky, but super adorable. I believe they are the “comedy relief” in the series, although later on they do have some beautiful scenes, that may or may not have made me cry, a little bit. Both single, hardworking professors in robotics, they have their own little quirks they have “input” into Aji-3, which make her more human, and make these two so sweet and cute.

Secondary Characters: 

Um Hyo-sup as Doctor Oh. Min-kyu doctor who has been treating him for the last 15 years, trying to help control and eventually, hopefully beat the allergy. He also seems quite close to Min-kyu.

Kim Ha-kyun [ko] as Butler Sung. Min-kyu butler and well at the beginning of the show, if you don’t accept the robot hoover as a friend, his companion and friend.

Seo Dong-won [ko] as Jo Jin-bae. Ji-ahs brother and I am not 100% sure what he does, but he also works for Min-kyu and seems important to him.

Lee Min-ji as Sun-hye. Ji-ahs best friend and she owns a coffee shop where the Santa Maria team starts to spend a lot of time at. May also be a romantic interest to some of the characters.

Yoon So-mi as Hong-ju. Jin-baes wife, Ji-ahs best friend from school and is currently heavily pregnant.

Lee Han-seo [ko] as Jo Dong-hyun (8 years old). Jin-bae and Hong-ju’s wife, Ji-ahs adorable and very perceptive niece. Also suffers with some allergies, although not as severe as human allergy.

The Bad

Son Byong-ho as Hwang Do-won

President of KM financial, the company Min-Kyu is director of. He is the father of the CEO of the company Yoo-chul, whom was also the best friend of Min-kyu growing up. in think the families all would have been close growing up. As with all dramas, he isn’t happy with what he has and inevitably wants more.

Lee Hae-young [ko] as Mr. Yoon.

KM groups maaging director. He is definitely up to something, You can tell from the get go! All I need to say. He just looks suspicious. 🙂

The On the Fence

Kang Ki-young as Hwang Yoo-chul.

KM groups CEO, childhood best friend of Min-Kyu. He doesn’t look like a bad guy, and I get the feeling he doesn’t want to be part of the bad guy team, but you never know in a Kdrama, they can surprise you. You will have to watch to find out. Surprisingly, he is a second male lead so will he get the girl??

Lee Byung-joon as Ye Sung-tae.

Founder of the KM group. Father to Re-il, Min-Kyu’s childhood friend, crush and first love. He looks like he could be a bad guy, but seems to get along with Min-Kyu from the beginning.

Hwang Seung-eon as Ye Ri-el.

Re-il is the second leading lady. She is Min-kyus first love, childhood friend and crush and was best friends with both Min-Kyu and Yoo-chul growing up. Second leading ladies often get brushed with the scary, angry, jealous characteristics, but I don’t want to believe she is like this. Again, you will have to watch it to find out. She doesn’t look bad, but as with everything, you never know.

In the end.

Don’t worry I am not about to spoil the ending for you. I think this series is well worth a watch even if you’re not into k-dramas as its a really lovely storyline. It takes a little to accept the robot side of things, and to dispel reality for a bit and accept that anyone would be lonely enough to believe the decidedly human attributes Ji-ah brings to AJi-3 are in fact a robot, but if you can get past this, and accept it all. It is a truly beautiful, romantic and wonderful story. Its all about the characters for me and the chemistry they bring. All the characters in this drama bring something new and different and I absolutely loved following all their little stories, and that is why this is a good  drama. the business side of the story, doesn’t really do it for me, but its tolerable when you get to see the excitement, happiness and chemistry between the characters. Especially the two lead characters, their chemistry and relationship is truly wonderful. I love the actors playing the leads and to see them act together is beautiful.

How he ever believed she was a robot though? Really?

I hope you give this drama, or any drama a go. You will probably lose sleep as it is a common side affect of getting into Kdramas, that you will inevitably try to fit whole series into one night of viewing or you will try to talk yourself into thinking you can fit two more hour ling episodes into the next half an hour and still wake up at 7am to go to work. But k-dramas are just a really enjoyable way to spend some spare time.

5/5 finger hearts

I am giving it 5 finger hearts because its a really cute drama and the leads make it even more compelling viewing! They are definitely one of OTP’s!

Enjoy! Drop your comments below, have you watched I’m not a Robot? what’s your thoughts? Any recommendations?

See you soon, K-Drama fans!

Butterfly Child (Tina T)

    **KDrama Review** First drama review - I'm not a Robot - I really enjoyed this show! I hope you like my review! But check out the show #kdrama #koreandrama #neflixandchill Welcome to my first Drama review - I have been watching Kdramas for a few years now but never thought to review them but I love them so much I want to share my insight.

[thekoreanlass]

Live, Love, Laugh

Jugglers is a romantic comedy drama that centers on the life of jugglers in the office, or so Jwa Yoon Yi (Baek Jin Hee) coined the term for secretaries like her, that offer their life just to perfectly serve their bosses. Because secretaries need to know everything about their bosses and have to do it perfectly to make their bosses look good in the public eye, juggling task (aka multitasking) is their specialty.

Of course, what will go wrong if you have the perfect sidekick with you? None! They are like both their bosses’ strength and weakness because they knew them like the back of their hand.

This approach into tackling the stressful work of secretaries in the corporate world is quite refreshing, for the fact that they have not once been the center of a drama. It’s always the CEO or the boss that is under the spotlight and the secretary is always just like a lost puppy following them.

In this drama, as an example, Jwa Yoon Yi represents the legion of secretaries out there that has the same job description as her. You think that her jobs is simple–to keep her boss’ schedule organized. However, we see in this drama something more than the normal job of secretaries. Besides that, she serves her boss food and drinks, make sure that she’s present at meetings to take down minutes for him, she attends to anyone who wants to speak to him, accepts calls for him. More than that, she also needs to sort out his own personal matters, like making sure it doesn’t get out he’s dating different girls per day even if she has ‘Misery’ for his wife, buys gifts for his women, bring the best suite and tie for him and worse sacrifice for him.

Bong Jang Woo (Choi Dae Chul), her boss, is the ultimate asshole. In most dramas and in reality, he is the perfect example of  the boss you don’t want to ever cross with in your life, especially when he stabs you on the back and pins you as his scapegoat away from an impending doom. Eventually, Yoon Yi loses her position as his secretary because of him, but that won’t be revealed until later in the drama.

Anyway, the good thing about her removal from position is that it’s only temporary (and well at least she doesn’t have to deal with the asshole anymore even if it’s sad that she worked for him for so long and this is all she gets from him? No thank you?). She spends her days uselessly and lazily while waiting for another secretary posting. Since this is the only job she knows how to do flawlessly, she is devastated after one failure. But I think I understand how that feels even if I’ve never been fired. It’s just that, if I were in her shoes and I am at that age, I would also think hard about what I am going to do next after everything–title, position, salary–has just been stripped off me.

Her luck pushes through, though, when she’s hired to be the secretary of the anti-social managing director of YB’s Video Department, Nam Chi Won (Choi Daniel). Chi Won, however, never had a secretary in his entire career and doesn’t plan on having anytime soon. He’s forced to take her in, however, after the appointment has been unexpectedly made (all thanks to the plotting of a certain villain named Jo Sang Moo (In Gyo Jin), who hates Nam Chi Won with a passion) and with Yoon Yi’s persistent personality and dedication for her work, it’s become hard to really kick her out.

Their relationship gets even better, despite the constant pushing and pulling namely because of Chi Won’s cold personality and the wall he built around him, when Chi Won starts living in the old, ratty house that Yoon Yi owns after seeing a lease notice at the gate of her house one night. Thanks to Yoon Yi’s mother who is desperate to get her married–and well her friends who did the posting for her–and her persuasive conditions for the house, Chi Won is convinced to moved in. After all, the rent is cheap and he’s most definitely broke after just getting a divorce. Plus, the house used to be his childhood home, but after a certain fire incident where he got his trauma from, I guess, he can’t live in the house anymore.

This turn of events may not be that original, but oh well, who doesn’t want any cliche development like this? Wherein they live under the same roof and eventually begin a fluffy journey of falling in love with each other while finding themselves?

Chi Won’s personality may be prickly and he doesn’t think he is wrong or that he needs anybody’s help, but he realizes soon that Yoon Yi’s generous personality, her efforts of knowing him to serve him better and her devotion to her role as his secretary won’t ever changer any time soon. She eventually ruins his defenses one by one and Chi Won finds himself vulnerable to her, yet he learns to trust her. And it means a lot to him, knowing that he thought he’s a lone island for a very long time. Now, there’s a person he can rely on. And Yoon Yi finds herself in a better position, because despite Chi Won’s prickly personality, he’s not cheap like Bong Jang Woo. In fact, he’s a million times better than him, because he cares for her.

Through thick and thin, somehow, they manage to work things out together and despite their obvious differences, they admit to their feelings eventually. I guess, I like that part the most, especially when Chi Won came for her one day with an umbrella in hand to shield her under the rain. That is one of their moments when I feel like falling in love is a good thing, but it is all the more better when he’s not ashamed to tell everybody ‘she’s my girl’.

That’s probably what I like the most about Chi Won. Despite him being stingy, he’s a cute geek who loves quotes from manhwas and is someone not scared to show the world his love for Yoon Yi, even if everybody else is saying something else. That’s probably also one of the charms of this drama; unlike other dramas that start to have problems after a boss and their secretary is found out having an affair or relationship, they resort to breaking up because ‘it’s the best for them’. This cute couple is different because they rowed through the tides together and soon came out victorious together.

Add to the mix some crazy but funny villains like Bong Jang Woo and Jo Sang Moo (along with Line 1 and Line 2 who’s working for him to spy on Nam Chi Won) and their plots to overthrow Chi Won, and you get to pee your pants in anticipation of what’s to happen next, but also feel calm at the same time, knowing there’s always some sort of miracle that will happen and their plans will just backfire.

Some power struggle here and company politics there, but it’s nice that we know the protagonists will always be the winners. This level of conflict doesn’t make the story ultimately realistic, but is optimistic in a good way that it doesn’t make the drama frustrating or hard to watch.

With warring bosses, of course, it also test the friendship between two secretaries: Yoon Yi and Ma Bo Na. Bo Na is Jo Sang Moo’s secretary. She is also very capable like Yoon Yi, but because Bo Na also wants to do better like Yoon Yi and move up the ladder, she becomes blinded by envy and Jo Sang Moo’s promise to bring her up with him in a better place in the company. This causes a rift between the two and Bo Na tries to help Jo Sang Moo oust Nam Chi Won out of the company for calling out to corrupt officials and attacking his own company, YB.

Bo Na, however, isn’t that bad. Yoon Yi knows of this and believes her friendship with Bo Na is just as important as Chi Won is, that’s why despite their misunderstanding that rooted from Bo Na’s envy towards her, Yoon Yi understands Bo Na’s situation and still comes to visit Bo Na’s shoemaker father, who is deaf. Bo Na is so shaken upon witnessing this, that she surrenders back to friendship. She realizes that Yoon Yi sincerely cares about her and that she’s aware who really Bo Na is.

And through Bo Na’s help, Jo Sang Moo is thrown to jail after his corruption is exposed. Soon after, everyone works to oust Bo Jang Woo (who I think is worse than Sang Moo) with the help of his wife, ‘Misery’. Jang Woo is both Chi Won and Yoon Yi’s biggest nemesis and with the level of his villain-ness in the story, I guess, he just deserves to be punished like he had in the last few scenes. That was totally hilarious! Bo Jang Woo being dragged out by Misery like a defeated-looking puppy.

Bo Yool and Jung Ae

So, I ultimately left out this pairing for this reason. I think they deserve a corner of their own in this post, especially that they also played a huge part in the story of Jugglers.

Hwangbo Yool (Lee Won Geun), is the grandson of the pioneer of YB. He’s also the cool, kid at heart managing director of YB Sports, that considers Nam Chi Won as his brother from another mother and follows him like a lost puppy despite Chi Won’s constant attempts to shoo him off. Because he’s high maintenance and has many unreasonable demands from his employees, all of his past secretaries quit.

Then Wang Jung Ae (Kang Hye Jung), one of Yoon Yi’s closest friends, appears in his office one day–pretending to be her younger sister–as his next secretary, to hide the fact that she’s already thirty-ish and a divorced mother of one.

Because of Jung Ae’s difficult living conditions, she is forced to run away from loan sharks–which her ex-husband is in debt to, take care of her difficult son alone, pretend like she’s a different person to get a decent job that will earn her a living, and adjust to a working environment, which she’d been pulled away from for far too long after being a dedicated housewife for almost half her age.

Jung Ae doesn’t know anything. She’s aware how hard it is to be a secretary and cope with the demands of being one, but because she needs to learn it as soon as she can, she pushes herself to work harder, At the same time, Bo Yool sees this hardworking side of her that he grows fond of Jung Ae.

Jung Ae, on the other hand, is a true mother at heart, and this is often seen whenever she unknowingly takes care of Bo Yool during his not-so-great days. She dotes on him and does things for him that his dead mother can no longer do for him, eventually making Bo Yool open his heart for her.

Their pairing could have been something great despite the age gap, because they truly have good chemistry, that is why I still wonder up to this day what Bo Yool really feels for Jung Ae, since the ending provides us answers how they setup a small company, with Jung Ae still Bo Yool’s secretary just that she’s gotten seriously better at it, but doesn’t elaborate whether they are just truly partners in crime or there’s really room for a potential romantic spark between them, which we were lead to believe in the beginning.

But oh well, maybe it’s not their intention to really make the two of them fall in love with each other since the story clearly emphasizes Jung Ae’s instincts to take care of Bo Yool arising from having a son, but it would have been really great if there’s something more to that, right?

Nonetheless, both of them are really great people whether as a pair or as individuals who rooted also for bot Chi Won and Yoon Yi.

Friendship overcomes it all

I love how the drama portrayed the friendship of four individuals–Yoon Yi, Bo Na, Jung Ae and Kyung Rye–who stood by each others’ side no matter what they go through. It made friendship mean so much more than just all laughs and talks to ‘we also fight and make up’.

Although they have to show it in a much intense way, wherein we start to question whether friendship can be restored or not, I think that it’s good to see something different and raw and real. Seeing friends fight for the same reason that Yoon Yi and Bo Na did makes it really frustrating (I even considered slapping Bo Na for acting whiny), but seeing them make up and learn to forgive and accept each other again touches me, knowing that not every friendship is as strong as what they have.

Not many friends in dramas return as friends. Most of the time, one of them continues to back stab the other and eventually ends up being the protagonist’s worst enemy.

But at least, Jugglers is one of those dramas that shows us friendship is just as important as a happy ending is.

Over all

Romance in the office, like what Jugglers is besides it tackling about the work life of secretaries, isn’t very original–‘we’ve already seen that before in so many dramas–but they add their own flavor to it and make it their own. So, instead of feeling annoyed by the cliche, I feel like I am seeing something new. I can’t find any ill bone to it to the point that I can criticize the drama like I normally do with the others.

It’s so funny, heart warming, and real to some extent that I didn’t get tired watching it. In fact, at some point I got addicted to it that I even watch it while doing something else. It made my heart happy because it’s fluffy and light and I seriously don’t have any problem if the villain is as lame as Jo Sang Moo is. That just makes everything better for me, knowing I don’t have to see someone dying or getting kicked out because of abuse of power.

Plus, the characters’ chemistry with each other is so prominent that I feel like they must have had a fun time filming Jugglers, which is a good thing if it truly is the case. Furthermore, everyone’s just so good at their role that it made me believe Yoon Yi and Chi Won are really so in love, that Bo Yool likes Jung Ae to some extent, that Sang Moo is evil but is also just a victim of power.

The sequence, pacing and story flow, too, is very solid. There’s not too many strong conflicts, but I guess that’s why this is a rom-com. You get the lesser villains at least and win in the end.

Over all, I can say that I can recommend this to everyone. The drama tackles about office life and romance, which I know sounds boring most of the time, but I think you can’t just underestimate something not unless you flip the cover and begin learning something about it. Because who knows? Maybe you’re missing out on something big already if you don’t try, right?

Rating Jugglers, I give it 4.7 out of 5.

  Backtrack: Review on ‘Jugglers’ — Juggling with Love and Life while having a good Laugh Live, Love, Laugh Jugglers is a romantic comedy drama that centers on the life of jugglers…