Kdrama Comparisions: Who did it Better? 100 Days My Prince vs. Shopping King Louie by Rebekah Walton

If I were to tell you the plot of these two kdramas it goes something like this:

A rich young man who has memories of the female lead whether he remebers them or not, loses all of his memory and gets lost, the female lead finds him.

Now, that he has lost all of his memory and has no memory of where he lives or who he is, the female lead and him are forced into living together. At first, the man useless and buys items that cause the woman to go into debt because he has no money of his own.

 The female lead forces the male lead to get a job, but, the male lead is found to be very bad at that job, until they find out what he is really good at and he regains his memory. For a time the female and male lead live apart since, the male lead was found by his family and regained his memory, but later on, the male lead goes back to get the female lead and they live happily ever after the end.

Also, to make it more confusing the female lead in these two kdramas are played by the same actress Nam Ji-hyun. The only real difference between these kdramas is the time period that the story is set in. Shopping King Louie is set in the modern day while 100 Days My Prince/ Husband is set in the Joseon time period.

Now, on to which Kdrama is better my opinion.
Shopping King Louie(myRating): 7.50 out of 10.00

100 Days Prince (my Rating): 8.00 out of 10.00

Shopping King Louie (September 2016): came first while 100 Days Prince is just basically a remake of this story set in the Joseon time period.
As I say with all remakes and orignials, it is not always fair to judge the orignial by a remake, because the remake has the potential of fixing the problems of the orignial because it came second.

But, when the remakes do not fix the problems of the orignial or make more problems, that's what shows the remake is really bad. So, to tell if this remake: 100 Days My Prince is a better, we must look at the problems of Shopping King Louie and see if the problems were in the remake or if they were changed in the remake.

Shopping King Louie problems: The male lead is a shopping addict and continues to buy items although he has no money and becomes very annoying because of this.

 The plot becomes somewhat  boring at one point in the story because there is little going on, so little, in fact the writers had to fake that he lost his memory again. A lot of filler in this show. The twists in this kdrama did not intrigue me to keep watching in the least.

One thing that the kdrama had going for it was the cute couple.

100 Days My Prince problems: The male lead is still buying items although he has no money, but at least in this kdrama the things he is buying seem more like neccesities than just stuff. He does not tend to keep buying items once he has bought the few items he wanted, and so, in general he seems more content than Shopping King Louie.

He was less annoying in this way, since he got fooled by a loan shark. Since the plot does take place in the Joseon Era, politics can come into the plot more easily, thus adding more storylines and make the story less boring.Instead of filler episodes, this kdrama seemed to be just the right length for this type of plotline and story.

 But, due to the politics angle, the male lead is a prince who is married before he meets the female lead again. That is seemingly not a problem as I initially thought it would be, though because in kdramas they get marriages annulled pretty easily or just get a second wife.

 But, deaths do occur in this story, so watch out as some of your favorite side characters may eventually die on screen.Despite this, the story was still an enjoyable watch. The main couple was still cute but the other plot lines were also entertaining to say the least. The twists in this kdrama were more enjoyable than Shopping King Louie and made me excited to watch more.

If I had to choose between the two, I would reccommend 100 Days My Prince/Husband everytime.

At What Point do Underrated Kdramas become Overrated? by Rebekah Walton

As I scroll through lists of underrated Kdramas, I wonder about the fact that I have seen a lot of the same Kdramas on these lists by totally different people. Which gets me thinking, At what Point do underrated Kdramas become overrated? 

Now, this could easily be a post on my other blogger since I believe this question applies to not only Asian Dramas, but, also, Anime, and American Tv shows and movies. But, I decided to narrow it down to only Kdramas. We all know the Overrated Kdramas: BOF, You're Beautiful, Full House, The Heirs, My Love From the Stars, Coffee Prince, Descendants of the Sun, Goblin,Strong woman do bong soo, Secret Garden, Cheese in the Trap, and so many others including: Scarlet Heart:Ryeo, and Hwarang. 

These dramas whether they were good or not is not what I am discussing here. I enjoyed many of these and I understand why they have been over hyped. But, I am discussing what makes a kdrama overrated or underrated.

But, the underrated kdramas are more up for discussion.While Gentlemen's Dignity, Healer, Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds, Weightlifting Fairy, Dr. Stranger, Tomorrow with You,Surplus Princess,Playful Kiss,I’m Not A Robot, and Duel were not overhyped when they were airing and in some cases got over low ratings in Korea or Internationally, they can not really be on the underrated Kdramas list anymore since now, they are or almost all overhyped.

I can't get by an international list without Healer being mentioned and Playful Kiss has it's own cult following because it is a remake of Itazura Na Kiss, and all 12 million of those have their own group of people who love them. (I am included, I love all the remakes and the original, infact, we do not have enough I want an American version too, I know I am greedy.)

When I was looking down an underrated list I was very suprised to see I'm Not a Robot since, I enjoyed that drama a lot and everyone I saw was talking about that drama and how sweet they were. But, since it did get low ratings in Korea I see why people were saying it was underrated, but, I really think it was only underrated in Korea. If we wanted to be accurate and list all kdramas underrated by Korea, Scarlet Heart: Ryeo should really be on that list. Korea did not really care for the show so much that it never got renewed for a second season unlike the original Chinese one Scarlet Heart. 

Weightlifting Fairy was not highly rated during it's time, but, I have recently found this drama included in overrated Kdrama lists.

Dr. Stranger is a favorite of mine but, it still seems to be underrated by a whole lot of people, that and Tomorrow with You. Dr. Stranger had an awesome couple, but, apparently some people got SLS, I don't know, the main couple was cute, hot and could survive gunshots, they seemed liked the perfect couple.

I have no clue why Tomorrow with You was underrated, I considered it better than Tunnel and I loved Tunnel.

Mermaid Kdramas do not seem to do very well in Korea so that's why Surplus Princess is on this list, although I must say there might be another reason for this kdrama being underrated, it truely wasn't that great. (Kind of boring if I say so myself, and I love Mermaid stories.). Also, since they were cut to 10 episodes the story wasn't able to be fleshed out and therefore has a lot of weird plot gaps.

Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds seemed to be underrated mostly by the International community while it was currently airing since everyone was watching Scarlet Heart: Ryeo instead. But, now it probably does not deserve to be on the underrated list now, as I am pretty sure everyone has watched and heard about this drama by now.
 

So, back to what I am trying to say. Maybe, we should second guess if a Kdrama is underrated if it is on everyone's list, really underrated Kdramas should be ones that not everyone has heard of about a billion times. In most cases, these kdramas should no longer reconsidered underrated. So, next time you are looking at an underrated Kdrama list, try to find kdramas you have never heard of.

Kdrama Comparisions: Who did it Better? Mr. Baek vs. The Best Hit by Rebekah Walton

Both of the dramas tried to carry out a very similar concept or story line. Which one succeeded in my opinion? Mr. Baek succeeded where The Best Hit did not.

Mr. Baek:
 A grumpy old guy who almost dies and then becomes young and poses as a half-brother to his estranged son. His son basically figures out the guy is his father and they make up as father and son. Eventually, the old man right now young falls in love and gets together with the girl his son liked. After a certain number of days pass, the man disappears and a year later shows up still young looking with no memory of the past. His son claims him as his half-brother and the man falls in love with the girl again, the end.

The Best Hit:
A young singer time travels to the future and meets his future son who is currently the same age as him. He becomes friends with his son and falls in love with his son's love interest. The girl likes the father instead of the son and they get together.  The son does realize that this is his father, but he never truly accepts him as his father, since his father left the family before he was born, and he is mad at him. Then the father realizes he must go back to past so that his son can be born. With this in mind he goes back but it is a year later and he finds a version of himself in that year, who already became the father of his child. That version of himself is dying from a disease. The young singer father travels back to the future and gets together with the girl.

Both shows about a father and his son being around the same age and getting to know each other as friends or co workers. Both shows have the son become a second lead to the girl he likes because his father likes the same girl, and both shows the son gives up for the sake of his father.


What Mr. Baek did better:
This drama is fueled by bromance and was the real reason why I continued to watch. The father-son moments are cute and adorable and the Father's redemption and friendship with his son is one of the things which this drama focused on and I love it a lot. They are able to understand why their audience is watching and keep that coming in the drama.The father and son needed to grow their relationship and learn how to best understand each other. In this drama, they learned how get along and the son grew up.



What was the problem with The Best Hit:

The real problem with this drama is how they wanted to make the cake and also eat it. Yeah, his father was from the past, but he was also not his father because he had not gotten together with the mother in the past yet. His mother may have loved his father at some point but then 20 years down the road when this story took place she has moved on to a different guy, and no one knows that the father died, instead they just think he abandoned them. Which is of course why his son and other people are mad at the father for years for nothing. His father who went to the future never had to get together with the mother because himself from different year did that, and so he got together with the childhood friend of his son. By creating two fathers in the past, one from 1993 and the other from 1994 they essentially made them two different people and thus got to do whatever they wanted with either of them. It would have been better for him to have to go and fall for the mother in the past and have his son. But, instead they created this father story but also created a romance and did not mess up the original story line. It was a big let down. They thought people were watching for the romance instead of the bromance and thus, their focus was wrong. They had boring subplots and I did not care about the characters as I did in Mr. Baek. Mr. Baek made me care, the Best Hit did not.




Rating of Mr. Baek: 8.5
Rating of The Best Hit: 6.5

So, if you wish to see a drama be about a father and son who were estranged or very distant become friends, Mr. Baek is the best choice out of the two.

As a side note:
Lee Joon from My Father is Strange is in Mr. Baek.