The Lady in Dignity (2017)

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Drama: Woman of Dignity (품위있는 그녀)
Network: JTBC
Episodes: 20
Release Date: June 16 – August 19, 2017
Runtime: Friday & Saturday 23:00

Plot
The second daughter in law hires a caregiver to take care of her father in law. The ambitious caregiver seduces the father in law, marries him and takes over the household.

Main Cast
Kim Hee Sun – Woo A-Jin
Kim Sun Ah – Park Bok Ja
Jung Sang Hoon – Ahn Jae Suk
Lee Ki Woo – Kang Ki Ho
Kim Yong Geon – Ahn Tae Dong
Seo Jung Yeon – Park Jumi
Oh Nara – Ahn Jae Hee

Review
Woo Ajin was the only lady in dignity (and her short haired friend) in this drama. Park Bokja was right. They may have millions of cash, but were all trash. I am sure this really happens in real life. I was impressed how Ajin is able to still be so positive and happy (and successful) despite her problems. Must be why Bokja wanted to be like her and didn’t touch her. And she even got a handsome, single, nice lawyer for a new boyfriend and a flourishing business. I also liked that her daughter is smart and sensitive like her.

Very interesting to think that Bokja and Ajin encountered each other one night years ago, but Bokja remembered Ajin and wanted to be like her. What I was wondering is why she chose the chairman of all people. There are other chaebol families she can dupe. Did she intentionally choose Ajin’s family? The first few episodes were so terrible (because everyone was cheating and Bokja was infuriating that I almost didn’t want to continue. I just thought, oh Bokja will die anyways so I will let her wreak havoc and laugh when she finally gets killled. For me, the drama made Bokja so despicable that her “redemption” at the latter half was too late. Her death was really inevitable, someone even told her the same thing. Money really cannot buy happiness and class. I think she was too greedy, moved too fast and didn’t have a long term goal, that’s why she also got duped and killed. Had she bided her time, and slowly integrated herself with the family, she could have lived and maybe the family would have respected her. That’s why I really couldn’t like her the whole time.

I was surprised by who the killer was but it kinda made sense. Some people may not have been happy because the killer wasn’t very prominent in the show but i think it was done on purpose to show how much pain Bokja caused to the people around her because of her greed. And the one who killed her was the one she least expected to do it, and the one that was “collateral damage”.

I also think the Chairman also deserved it. I mean, how could Chairman give all his money to Bokja and leave nothing to his kids? Even if they were stupid, they were still his children and legally the inheritance is theirs. But i cant blame him. He must have felt very lonely that the first person who showed him compassion, he mistook for love and gave his everything. And in the end, he didnt fight to get the money back because no one will inherit the company anyway. The 3 children were incompetent and didn’t even care when he was in the hospital. Only Ajin came and the 2nd son. It makes me think why his children were like that. Maybe the Chairman didn’t do a good job with raising them. That’s why they were spoiled and greedy.

I also hated Ajin’s husband’s story and the mistress. There were too many scenes of them and it was gross. I thought maybe the mistress actually fell in love with the husband, but I think she used him to get some money. First time to see a mistress that was so thick faced including the mom. Wanted to slap her for Ajin’s sake (she is too classy for that). She really deserved her what happened to her. Instead of being grateful for Ajin in introducing her to the art world, she had the nerve to cheat! What a b*tch!!! And she’s not sexy, pretty or smart enough to match against Ajin. Again, it also makes me think about marriage. Maybe Ajin didn’t give enough attention to her husband. Or maybe the husband was just a tool. I normally like the actor but I couldn’t stomach him or his funny scenes in this drama.

Ajin’s 4 friends ‘ stories didn’t feel resolved but more like “life goes on” and they continue to sleep around and cheat on their partners. Their friendship also felt fake — like they had to because they were rich and their children were school mates, but given the chance they would have backstabbed each other if needed. I think the worse was the girl who had an affair with the doctor and the younger guy. I know she was being beaten by her husband, but it’s no excuse to sleep with your friend’s husband, and have a third guy on the side.

I felt bad for the doctor’s wife, but it always takes two to tango. The doctor felt ignored by the wife and thought shedidn’t love him; that he was just the there to make money for the family. The wife was actually nice and didn’t cheat on her husband, but her story didn’t get resolved. We just see her get angry that the cheating friend is happily in love with her boyfriend and is pregnant.

The other lady with a younger boyfriend also had a sad marriage – her husband was cheating on her yet when she is doing the same, the husband got angry at her. Talk about double standards. Also felt bad that she actually was in love with the guy, but turns out the guy was really just in it for the money and sex. I thought them breaking up was the best ending so I didn’t like how she ended up with that sneaky hotel manager.

Overall, I may sound like I was ranting and hating everyone, but actually the story gets addicting around episode 10 or 11. Maybe because I’d love to hate the characters, that’s why I wanted to find out what happens to them.

Rating: 8.5/10

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Team Bulldog: Off Duty Investigation (2020)

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Drama: Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation (번외수사)
Network: OCN
Episodes: 12
Release Date: May 23 – June 28, 2020
Runtime: Sat. & Sun. 22:50

Plot
A detective unintentionally teams up with a gusty TV producer, an ex-NFS turned funeral director, a profiler slash networking sales agent, and former gangster turned bar owner to solve homicide cases.

Main Cast
Cha Tae Hyun – Jin Kang Ho
Lee Sun Bin – Kang Moo Young
Jung Sang Hoon – Lee Ban Seok
Yoon Kyung Ho – Teddy Jeong
Ji Seung Hyun – Tak Won
Park Jung Woo – Min Dae Jin

Review
I’m a big fan of Cha Tae Hyun, so I try to catch almost all of his variety shows, dramas and movies. After his unfortunate (and unfair!) scandal last year, I was excited to see him back and active in kdramaland. And i think Team Bulldog was a fantastic choice for a comeback.

First off, this wasn’t his usual role. He always plays the nice guy and family man so seeing him play a reckless and relentless detective was so much fun! And it helped that this drama perfectly balanced seriousness with light humor/sarcasm that was perfect for Cha Tae Hyun! I didn’t even realize he could do action! haha! i mean, he doesn’t have a lot of suave action scenes but he did a lot of running and beating up some guys that i thought okay, he looks good too! I loved his banter with his boss – like he can just talk so rudely at him but it was so funny and true. good thing his boss is nice (and lazy), and he actually is so good at solving crimes that he gets away with his rudeness. I also loved his character’s funny scenes and rapport with the rest of the cast (i will mention them later). I thought the group was such a ragtag team of misfits and experts yet they worked so well together.

Another thing i loved about this drama are the cases. Instead of episodic cases, they decided to just have 4 cases, so each case took around 2-3 episodes to solve. So there was enough build up of the tension, a lot of investigations and clues that made the cases interesting. The cases were also not the usual affairs or murder cases, but tackled transgender, twin brothers, street kids and a few serial killers. Some of them are also close of the heart of the team which makes the cases important and gives the team more reason to be closer and understand each other.

So the main premise is there’s this reckless Fact Check PD (Kang Moo Young) who likes to solve crimes before the police does and air it on her show for the ratings. And most of the time, the cases she choose coincides with Kang Ho’s current cases. I love that despite the different ways they investigate the clues and evidence, they still end up with the same leads and conclusion, and it’s with sharing the knowledge of the cases that they are able to solve them completely.

To be honest, i didn’t like Moo Young character that much. She was too condescending at Kang Ho, kept scoffing at him and calling him lazy cop when he is so competent at his job! I think she has a lot of hang ups and thinks she is better than the police in solving crimes, which I thought was too arrogant. Plus, most of the time, she ignores the rules and goes into so much lengths just so she can get ahead, all for the ratings.

And i dont understand why she wont share information with Kangho when he is a detective and he can help her? Kang Ho has been quite fair in his dealings with her. He also doesn’t care about protocol and rules, as long as he gets the job done, so i dont think he would turn down Moo Young’s help, esp if it would hasten him to solve the crime. I especially did not like episode 11 when Moo Young enlisted everyone’s help in solving the Lockroom murder, even kidnapping the actual killer – without letting Kang Ho know all about it!! So i super agreed with Kang Ho in episode 12 when he found out and he was pissed off. he said, i can’t believe you kept him when you already know a detective! i could have helped you!! But the good thing with Kang Ho is he doesn’t hold grudges. He didn’t like what happened but he still worked with them to catch the killer.

Aside from Kangho, Tak Won is my second favorite character. Maybe because i have a soft spot for the actor. I loved his role as a NK soldier in DOTS and the husband in Search WWW. And he was deadpan funny in this role! He is an intelligent profiler and his analyses always make sense and are accurate. I dont remember if they ever revealed the reason why he stopped teaching profiling to the police and decided to set up his own (failing) detective agency. and the endless ribbing and jokes about the Good life networking products were so hilarious! I guess it is also very rampant in Korea!

Oh Teddy Jeong! i love this guy and his 2 Red Zone employees! They always arrive at the scene a little late but is always ready to beat up the bad guys! I love that they always have a fantastic grand entrance, with Teddy looking so cool while inhaling his asthma inhaler (haha!) and proceed to punch, slap and kick the guys like they’re nothing. And when asked, he always say, no worries, i have nothing to do because the bar hasn’t opened. LOL.

The other person is the ex-NFS turned funeral director Ban Seok (and his deep dimples). I loved that they used his area as their office, although there are a lot of dead bodies in the freezer (like one of them said, there’s always aircon haha). I just wish he had more opportunity to display his talent other than a few analysis of blood samples here and there. His story about her daughter was also very touching.

Overall, i thoroughly enjoyed this drama and felt that 12 episodes were not enough at all! They spent 12 episodes working separately and only working together in the last leg of the cases. then on the final episode, they finally admitted that they make a great team (Fact Check and Kangho and the others) and decided to name themselves “Team Bulldog” then they find out the serial killer they caught escaped. GAH!!!! I really wish there is a season 2!!! it really felt like season 1 was just an intro on how the team got together but the real action has not started! I wish Netflix picks this up for a few more seasons and I will definitely follow this show! Actually, i wish OCN inks a partnership with Netflix so every one can watch all the awesome OCN shows! Side note – i hope if they ever decide on season 2, that they include Dae Jin into their team! 🙂

Rating: 9/10