Secret Garden Episodes I, II, III

I'm in love with this drama. The male character Kim Joo Won is claustrophobic (and he may have more illnesses we don't know yet) and kind of a jerk where women are concerned but at the same time he is refreshingly honest and kind (at least to Ra im) Gil Ra Im is a stuntwoman who is poor but very good at her job and more importantly she likes her job. Theirs is a terrific first meeting and he keeps trying to help her out but not really knowing how and she keeps misunderstanding him. Oh but there is UST and such an intense one. Side characters are Oska who is an aging Hallyu star, capricious and spoiled but carries a torch for his first love who is Seul now after Joo Won to get married to him but I think she still has feelings for Oska. She is after a good marriage though and the more Joo Won refuses him the more determined she becomes. And there is also the stunt manager guy who is a kind of oppa for Ra Im, obviously in love with her but treats her as an employee/sister and protects her from a far with no intention of revealing his feelings. Yes, we have two secondary men for the price of one.

I can't wait for the evening to come and watch more. Loving, simply loving this.

Chandni, My Name is Kim Sam Soon

Last night I have finished Chandni which I sort of enjoyed but not enough to watch it in one go (I have started last night and fell asleep at some point about 3/4 of it) Anyway I do love Rishi and Sridevi.

I also started re watching MNIKSS since I'm learning Korean and I thought it would be nice to keep hearing the language. Except I don't understand anything yet and would be lost without subtitles. However I'm enjoying this even more than I did the first time I watched it. Kim Soon Ah is adorable and so funny, Hyun Bin is not on top of his game - he is not a comedy actor really - but he looks good enough and this is Kim Soon Ah's show anyway. I laughed out more than once.

The Three Musketeers is proving to be very very good entertainment. I do like the English translation and enjoying the novel.

The Social Network, Çınar Ağacı

The Social Network I liked it very much since it showed how a good direction can switch things around when everything else is nothing special. The story is very interesting.

Çınar Ağacı (literal translation: Plane Tree) This one was a weepy (about an old lady who is put to an old people's home by her four children, and her adorable grandson) and I wept.

God It has been ages!

The end of Ramadan holidays etc. and I stop posting (really how lazy one can be?) but of course I have not stopped watching and reading thank God.

Baker King Kim Tak Gu has ended with a bang and caused me to suffer from serious withdrawal symptoms, thank God for

What Happened in Bali which is the show with the most messed up characters ever. I know a lot of people love this one and I agree with them. I ended up marathoning the last 7 episodes. Seriously this show is not that good if you look at it objectively since everyone in it (including the side characters) are miserable, cunning and dishonest. Nothing good ever happens but

* Perfect casting - Ha Ji Won is that girl who is not liked by Moms - regardless of their social, economical status - that girl has the snake eyes and I seriously like her alot. The side characters, the secondary girl, moms & dads, best friends etc. were all fit to their roles.

* Eye candy for women and gays. And I'm talking serious eye candy here. On one corner we have So Ji Sub, not really known for his acting talents (but the guy angsts well, I'll give him that) but he is oh so pretty to look at. And he is the one who got all the shower of angst scenes. On the other corner we have Jo In Sung. Great looking man who can also act and wisely chose to ham it up for Bali. He is so adorable and I love that he has his own teeth (not capped like the rest of the cast)

* The hillarious fashion and style (seriously the haircuts of the two male leads are enough entertainment on their own but poor Jo In Sung's outfits were also hillarious)

* Neverending WTFs and continuity mistakes - not that they marr the show mind you since this is not one where you'll care for either character, they are hillariously entertaining.

All in all I recommend this show. As I said nothing happy every happens in it and all the characters are miserable but so much pretty and decent writing have their pull.

Currently watching Byakuyakou which is probably a very good book but these series are not making me happy. It is too weird a subject and there are some terrible things done by the two main leads but the show opted telling them instead of showing them (or it maybe the Malaysian copy I own, I don't know) and this affected the impact in my opinion.


I have finished Rottweiler by Ruth Rendell which was very good and started The Three Musketeers - I have read it ages ago in Turkish. Now I'm reading the English translation and easily caught up with the very entertaining prose of Mr.Dumas.

Baker King Kim Tak Gu Episodes 19-20, The Unpredictable Bride - End, Eroinle Dans

Oh Tak Gu is breaking my heart. The man can't catch a break. I wanted to shake Yu Kyung and tell her that the road she takes is no good - wake up and remain with Tak Gu who loves you, revenge is silly and hating people will just cause you go bad inside.

I truly identify with Tak Gu - being able to forgive easily and doesn't suffer any grudge especially after some goodness shown to me, optimistic and hopefull. So everything that is happening to Tak Gu somehow affects me and now the poor guy is not only suffering from the shock of seeing Yu Kyung together with Ma Jun (spawn of evil) and having caught a cold from falling asleep on the bakery floor but the stupid auntie and Mi Sun (the girl) fed him Ma Jun's poison thinking it is cold medicine (to give credit to MaJun he did run there to stop it but since he is the one who procured the dreaded poison in the first place, I'm not going to think better of him). Well at least his father survived the assasination attempt and safely united with Tak Gu's mother. I just hope he'll be able to meet his mother.


Meanwhile I have finished The Unpredictable Bride, which was predictably adorable, and going to start Canan Tan's Alevden Küle Eroinle Dans (literal translation is From Flame to Ash Dance With Heroin) well my excuse is that it was very very cheap and I'm currently fasting and planning to read it on the treadmill during lunch break (I just go with 3.something and try not to tire myself) and on the shuttle to/from work so something that wouldn't tax me but keep me amused is what I need to read. Also this writers has a lot of fans in here. I have read one of her books and it was one of those nice generic fiction with an easily flowing story. Let's see how this on will work out.

Baker King Kim Tak Gu - and one left from the catching up

Last night was Episodes 17-18 of Baker King Kim Tak Gu and once again I was in tears by the end of the 18th episode. Tak Gu is such a kind hearted character and I like him so much that when one of the baddies hurt him, it is as if I'm the one who is hurt. I really hope this drama ends on a good note for our Tak Gu or I'll suffer more than withdrawal symptoms.

Meanwhile I have finished Kader'in Peşinde and started Barbara Cartland's The Unpredictable Bride and just as expected from an unashamed Cartland fan, I'm loving it.


I realised one of the TV dramas I have watched and forgot to add in the last post was And I Love Her and it probably was because I didn't like it at all. The male lead looked like he was in junior high (but his character was in university) and the female lead was a total weirdo - and in a bad way- I think they were going for a Long Vacation type thing but it didn't work (I LOVE Long Vacation btw)

Catching Up a Bit

I was away from the net for the past two weeks and now I'll try to catch up. It won't be so hard I guess since I mainly watched K-Dramas and didn't read many books.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes It was good. Very entertaining and engaging.

Salt I liked it better than I would have if it starred a male hero. Angelina, despite not being a very good actor has ample on screen presence and she handles action scenes well.

The Princess And the Frog Well, I watched it to the end.

The Romantics It was not a very good film, I actually watched it more out of curiosity (just how bad an actor Katie Holmes is?) than real interest.

Blades of Blood That film is bad, even Cha Seung Won -looking real good in period costume- was not able to save it.

You Again Now I really like Kristen Bell but she is not a rom com actor, just like with Katherine Heigl, I can't sympathise with her for some reason.

These are films that I can think of off the top of my head now. I'll update if I remember more.

Now on to the dramas

I have finished You Are Beautiful and despite not liking Park Shin Hye one single bit, I loved the drama. Hong sisters' humour agrees with me.

Currently watching Baker King Kim Tak Gu and it is total makjang and full of stupid story telling devices (such as flashback to a minute ago) but for some reason I love it. Cried lots during episode 16 last night. Tak Gu is such a lovable character and he has such a kind heart and the villains are so so bad that I do understand how this show had stellar ratings when it was airing.

Books wise I was not very active (I'm fasting and spend all my vacation stuck next to my mother who doesn't read much nowadays) finished

Nine Dragons which was an average Michael Connely novel but since Bosch was in Hong Kong this time I enjoyed reading about places I have been to.

Five Go in a Caravan Enid Blyton I love you and I think every child should read your books (how I loved them as a kid and it is a great suprise to see that I love them still - maybe even more so)

Currently reading

Kader'in Peşinde (literal translation Chasing Kader - Kader is a female name also means Destiny) I like Mehmet Murat Somer's transvestite detective who is a club manager and also a computer programmer/hacker. The novel is full of wit and action. Enjoying it a lot and I'm sad that I'm almost at the end.