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.

Taoris Reunion Day 2019 by Rebekah Walton

The New Year came and went, and some made resultions while others forgave and became friends again with former besties. One of these besties does include: Kris Wu and Huang Zitao. As far as we could tell they haven't talked in four years. But, now at the start of the year at an end of year awards music show, Kris Wu hugged Z. Tao. It was such a cute a sweet moment but, the hug is not the only thing that occurred. Kris Wu and Z.Tao proceeded to follow each other on Instagram and Luhan joined in on the fun. Our OT3 are one step closer to former a group together and making a collab. I would love to see the day when they make a movie together, an album together and or a cdrama together!

See this epic moment in the video links below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kdODidh5Lo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxSZpB6ShRE


They look so happy, too just standing next to each other before they hug.

Losing Hyuna and EDawn by Rebekah Walton

Well, now you have done it Cube. You been again labled a bad company. I get it, you were not to blame for the hate that your kpopstars got when they announced they were dating without your permission.....Or were you?

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you were just trying to protect them from the netziens, but, come on, this went a little too far.

Hyuna was your top star the one who you promoted above and beyond the rest of her group and even B2st, which is why they left and became Highlight. So, most people would think that you would be careful around her. Or at least allow her certain privileges you would not allow other groups or other people in Cube Entertainment.

And Pentagon was the one you were making money with now that B2st left and so, I thought surely you guys would make a decision to keep the most money coming in. Baekyeon use to get a lot of hate when they were dating but, no one discussed kicking them out of the company. That would be a stupid move by SM. And believe me, SM has made a lot of stupid decisions in the past. I mean, why are they know by their lawsuits? It's not because they were being smart. Yeah, they wanted money but, 3 of those couple have been avoided just simply by allowing Kris, Luhan, and Tao make their own albums and get their own movie deals. (I do not think Luhan would have left, if Kris did not previously, and Tao just needed rest.)

Anyway, also a stupid move on your part Cube, why would you allow someone to make a statement suggesting you were kicking Hyuna and E'Dawn out without even discussing it with them? That's why the two of them gave up on negotiations with you.

Yeah, you realized your mistake when your stocks fell but, it was already too late then. Now, Hyuna and E'Dawn are the cutest couple independent of companies in 2018. They will help get rid of the backlash on dating Kpopstars. And I am happy for that and them, but, Cube you could have been a part of that revolution and now, you won't ever get a chance to change kpop for the better. I am sorry, Cube, you failed.

Sungmin not in the SJ comeback by Rebekah Walton

This is all ridiculous. If Elfs want to prove that they are a more mature fandom than everyone else than they should prove it by not hating on Sungmin's wife Kim Sa-eun. Stopping hating on him and his wife, maybe he did somethings that you believe are wrong, but come on, it's been two years you should forgive him already. 

These are reasons why some Elfs are supposedly upset:

 He gave all the gifts he got from fans to his wife, the fans wasted their money on him not his wife, he should waste his money on her

My argument to this is:

He should be able to do what ever he wants with his own presents. They were given to him. No one has any say over what he can do with them. Also, that means he knows his wife would like your gifts, you should be complimented that he liked your presents enough to give him to his wife. Besides, he gets way to many presents to keep them all anyway.

That is the only one that I wanted to address but others are addressed  in an article on Soompi:

https://www.soompi.com/2017/07/10/super-juniors-sungmin-indirectly-addresses-various-rumors-surrounding/

So, maybe you felt he announced his marriage in a wrong way. Get over it, it was because of fans in the first place that he didn't know how to correctly announce his marriage. Are KissMes still mad at Eli for getting married and not telling us for two years? I guess some of them are, but really they shouldn't be. He thought he was doing what was best for his wife and at the end of the day that is all that really matters.

We don't matter we are just fans, who should truly matter is their family. In fact, I think every kpop star should avoid telling people they got married for about a year or so. We should not make their significant other suffer just because they married a kpop star.

Anyway, enough on that. Elfs who are hating on Sungmin and his marriage you are the reason we can't have Sungmin back in this comeback. So, you have no one to blame but yourselves. The members of Super Junior do not owe us anything. Sungmin should have been in this comeback. And that is why I am upset with you. We could have 8 members in a comeback, not 7.

What makes a bad remake of an Asian anime, manga, live action or kdrama by Rebekah Walton

Despite what people like to say online, it is not ''whitewashing'' the said story. It is perfectly fine to make all the characters white, chocolate, Hispanic, or Eskimo. That should not change a good story.



A good story is a good story that story should be able to be told outside of the borders it was put in for the story. Despite the fact that Shakespeare was put in olden days in England, I can think of plenty of good ways to make a modern version of these stories.

 Putting them in a different culture does not automatically ruin the story. Pride and Prejudice can be modernized, just because they haven't done a good version yet does not mean they can't.


 Why do we only have this ''whitewashing'' rule for the USA? This seems like hypocrisy, if any other country made this remake we wouldn't even blink an eye if they did this. In fact, I can prove it.

 Let me use some examples to prove my point.

Itazura Na Kiss and remakes

I have watched almost all of the remakes made of this manga and anime. When this story is remade in every country, no one is arguing that the characters are not Japanese and thus the story can't be any good. No one even cares. In fact, several people argue that the best story was the Taiwanese version, did this contain any Japanese at all? No, it did not. Now, you might argue something like this well there are all Asian so it shouldn't matter. (And if you said that you are stupid). I know you are going to say well Chinese use Koreans and Thais in their dramas and don't even blink an eye. (That is entirely true, but you are kind of missing the point.)

(All the guys on these covers are Korean, but the drama is Taiwanese and Chinese respectively.) (Although, now due to THAAD, they are not hiring as much Koreans to do Chinese dramas now, but they still use Thailanders. In fact, the sequel of My Amazing Boyfriend now has a Thai actor instead of the korean guy last season.)


First off, that's China not Japan and it's mostly because it does not matter if they can speak Chinese at all in their dramas, since their dramas are all dubbed over.

Second off, really now you are telling me that it only matters because they are all Asian, but, that's not true I bet if another country had an entirely black cast for these remakes no one would even care. So, you are only holding America to these random standards. Also, The Magnificent Seven was a sucess in the states and it was based off the Japanese movie, ''The Seven Samurai.'' Not to mention the Korean movie,'' "Il Mare'', was made into a movie called, ''The Lake house''. And another Korean movie is going to be remade by Gaumont, the movie called ''Train to Busan'' if they remade it with Tom Cruise no one should even blind an eye. If you want to watch one with Korean guys go watch the Korean movie.

In fact, here are some more examples: Full House and She was Pretty remakes

The remakes were made in Turkey and I hear by most they were okay and pretty good and it had nothing to do with ''Whitewashing''. Here is a link to web page about several Turkish remakes:
http://azade-ruh.tumblr.com/post/150153578252/turkish-korean-tv-dramas

Now, on to the next issues people say are the problem with bad remakes.


Changing the story or details of a story. All of the remakes of Itazura Na Kiss changed something, otherwise you would just be watching the same thing with a different cast and in a different language. They changed the story to fit their culture. Some details were changed a lot and others were left entirely in tact. They got the essence of the story and understood why people loved it and thus were able to get it right.



So, what makes a bad remake is changing a story so significantly that it cannot be recognized as the same story, characters, or sometimes going into direct opposition of the story. The point of remake is to make the story better not change the story so that we lose what made the story good in the first place.

Everyone knows that the reason the BOF remake failed in American was not because of ''White washing'', but rather because of the lack of money and the change of actors  every episode plus, a really badly made script that caused Boys Before Friends to fail so badly:

The main girl actress changed three times throughout the six episodes filmed. And the main guy changed twice.

http://dr-myri-blog.blogspot.com/2014/02/boys-before-friends-hostage-episode.html

That is why Death Note (2017) failed not because of ''whitewashing'' or being set in America or even the details of the story being changed, but rather because they did not understand what truly made the series great.

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.

My Father is Strange:Lee Joon Review by Rebekah Walton

Warning: only this part will be spoiler free.

Spoiler-Free:

This drama is about a family most of the time rather than the father it labels in the title. It is a really fun comedy drama with romance for everyone involved. One of my favorite current running dramas and one of the best if not the best drama of the year.

Also, it is the first 50 ( well, it's now 52 episodes, it got extended.) kdrama that I will have ever finished. Also, I am not tired of this drama yet, I feel like this drama could go on for a 100 episodes and I would not be upset at all. Right now, I rank this drama with my 9's or 10's. I will of course not know my final rating until 6 more weeks and the drama is over, but, it's going to be pretty high.

If you guys have problems with SLS (Second Lead Syndrome), this is a good drama to watch since there is not really any second leads, or they appear for only a short time. The other good thing about this drama is the acting. Oh, man the acting is awesome! Alright, now go start the drama!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warning the next parts may include mild spoilers:


This drama has me hooked. From the moment that Lee Joon shows up on screen till end of the hour, I am completely engrossed. Give this man more  dramas. I came into this drama thinking I would only end up watching a few episodes for his sake, but, I was totally blown out of the water. I enjoy every character to a certain degree and I am so happy I decided to start this show because of him.

I have not always in the past finished or even liked the dramas Lee Joon starred in, such as Heard it through the Grapevine. I did mildly enjoy Vampire Detective and I really liked Mr. Back but, this drama is on a whole another level.

During the episode, I can't help staring at Lee Joon, whether he is crying over his father, or smiling at Mi young who he is totally in love with but doesn't realize for quite some time. I often discuss this drama with my siblings although they are not watching it at all. I refer to him as our puppy dog because that is exactly what he is to me in this show.

He is a puppy that often looks like he has been kicked by his owners. It is so sad!

Other times, he just looks really hot!

 

Isn't his smile perfect?



Like that time he was speaking English on the phone. He is really good at English by the way, you can really believe his character grew up in America.


Couple Videos for Joong Hee and Byun Miyoung:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GNG_3e8Bgo&index=17&list=PLGqGVPSIudwza_Q0DkJfj1monk9351N5q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTAUWv_5tz8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59J-88kNwS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D--gPN-h2UY


Or the playlist for My father is strange couples:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGqGVPSIudwza_Q0DkJfj1monk9351N5q


I don't know what else to say but watch the drama, and show you some pictures of Joong Hee and Miyoung my favorite adorable couple. I hope they are going to have some really happy times real soon. I will give a full review of other characters later. I just thought I needed to gush over Lee Joon first!