Fight For My Way (K Drama review)

- Fight For My Way: 16 episodes total / around an hour and 10 mins each. In the first ep, we are introduced to the Fantastic Four - Ko Dong-man (Park Seo-joon), a former taekwondo player who had a bright future ahead of him until a match ruined everything and made him a nameless fighter. Choi Ae-ra (Kim Ji-won), a department store employee who has big dreams of becoming an announcer and working for the major news outlet. Kim Joo-man (Ahn Jae-hong), a marketing manager trying to move up the ranks at the home shopping network company. He has been dating his girlfriend Baek Seol-hee , who works at the same company, in secret for six years. Baek Seol-hee (Song Ha-yoon), the pure and innocent one in the group who works in customer service at the home shopping network company and has been dating Kim Joo-man in secret.

As the series progresses, Ae-ra and Dong-man begin to move out of friend realm into being in a relationship and adapting to that change given their 20 plus years of friendship. That was sweet to watch because the dialogue between the two was so honest. It is hard not to be upfront to someone who has known you for more than half your life. On the flip side, Seol-hee and Joo-man are seeing the cracking in their six year relationship, especially when a pretty and young intern starts to aggressively pursue Joo-man. Although the main leads/couple was Ae-ra and Dong-man and their relationship and reaching their goals in life, Seol-hee and Joo-man's relationship was great to breakdown and analyze. Here was a couple who seemed perfect on the outside but were suffering and had issues. It was only after they split up did they go and find themselves and better their relationship. When Seol-hee confessed all she wanted in life was to be a good wife and mother, though it seems simple to others, it was so fitting for her and heartwarming. She was by far the sweetest and purest character and her change and development over the series was great to watch.

Overall, this was refreshing to watch for a number of reasons, the biggest one being there was no rich CEO, these characters were NOT well off and they dressed terribly. If felt very real to life or at least a snapshot of what life is like for 30 year olds in Korea. Yes some parts were a bit much (like the landlord being Ae-ra's long lost mother and the random adopted son storytelling) but hey this is still a K drama. The OST for this series was fun and had some great songs.

Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon (K Drama review)

- Strong Woman Do Bong-soon: 16 episodes total / around an hour and 10 mins each. Do Bong-Soon (Park Bo-Young) was born with superhuman strength; passed along only to the women in her family. She dreams of working for a video game company and developing her own game based on a character with her super powers. She secretly has been crushing on her long time friend and cop In Gook-Doo (Ji Soo) who has no clue she is interested in him. Along comes rich gaming company CEO Ahn Min-hyuk (Park Hyung-sik), who witnesses Do Bong-soon strength one day and hires her as his personal bodyguard since he has been getting anonymous treats and blackmail to his business. While all this is happening, a series of kidnapped women in Do Bong-Soon's neighborhood is going on and there is business with gangsters and high school kids treating Do Bong-Soon like their master.

This was my first attempt at a Korean drama and I was on the fence. I only started it because the premise and the interaction between the two leads was interesting. I enjoyed the strong female character who was trying to figure out how to use her powers for good and basically not hating the fact she had this special gift of incredible strength. The interaction with the mother, who was powerless, and her father and twin brother, added another dynamic. The mother had lost her power because once it is used for personal gain or if someone innocent is harmed, the strength is removed.

The strongest part of the series had to be between the two leads - Do Bong-soon and Anh Min-hyuk. Their fondest and growing attracting to each other was just a joy to watch and you couldn't help finding yourself grinning and smiling like a doofus. They were just so stinking cute and not in an annoying way. Park Bo-Young is so small and adorable she played the role perfectly and Park Hyung-sik was goofy and oddball at times that the two were a great match. It was refreshing to see the male lead act like the female, being all silly and giddy and at times insecure with his affection and love for Do Bong-soon.

The weakest part of the series was the endless goofiness of the mother and her friends visiting the fortune teller, the endless gangster interactions, the pointless conflict with the gaming director and the high school kids who worshiped Do Bong-soon. Those all got tiresome very quickly. Thankfully the main leads saved what could have been a disaster of a series. As for the OST for this show, it had a few good tunes but nothing I found myself listening to all the time.