Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #471

AdminSeptember 18, 2024

Anne: Hello Drama Lovers! Another couple of weeks have gone by, and I haven’t made much progress in my drama watching.

But this week, there will be a change of pace. I will be discussing two Korean shows, both on Netflix.

Officer Black Belt

The first one isn’t a drama series, it’s actually a movie. I started this because of Kim Woo Bin. And it was pass 11pm and I didn’t want to stay up too late… It was, for the most part, a fun watch. Lee Jung Do is a young man who spends his days having fun, playing games with his friends or learning various marital arts/fighting techniques. While delivering food for his dad’s restaurant one day, he comes across two men fighting. When the “criminal” got the upper hand, Lee Jung Do stepped in and “helps”. Due to this act, he is introduced the parole unit. His natural fighting skills makes him a natural fit to fill in for the injured officer he saved that day.

Since it is a movie, it is quite fast paced. Be warned however, the major cases dealt with sex crimes against children. So some parts…was hard to sit through.

In the end, Lee Jung Do finds his calling in life. Yay!

Love Next Door

I started this one, also on Netflix, because my husband wanted something to watch with me. And I started this because Jung So Min. I loved her in Alchemy of Souls. The story takes a classic plot of childhood friends turned lovers and gives a twist in the details. Choi Seung Hyo and Bae Seok Ryu grew up next door to each other. Their mothers, along with two other women in the neighborhood, love to gossip and compare the achievements of their children. They became friends when his parents moved back to Korea from France. And having lived all his young life in France, moving to Korean where he wasn’t used to the food, the language, the people, and environment caused him to reject everything. It was Bae Seok Ryu’s friendliness that broke him out of his little shell.

The story actually begins (after the first scene when we are introduced to the group of gossipy moms)…

…when Bae Seok Ryu returns to Korea after 10 years, having broken off her engagement and quit her job. This, of course, didn’t go very well with her mom, who was just bragging about her daughter’s job and pending marriage. (I loved that her mom’s drums are her method of letting out her frustration.)

From the very first episode, Choi Seung Hyo and Bae Seok Ryu has a very antagonistic and easy going friendship. Choi Seung Hyo just opened his own architecture firm and is in the process of establishing a foothold in the business. We are quickly introduced to the rest of the cast…

Jung Mo Eum, Bae Seok Ryu’s best friend, who also grew up with Choi Seung. She is a paramedic and is always doing “heroic” acts. All their parents and the roles they play in their children’s lives.

As the episodes move forward, the story opens up each arc by going forward and backwards. We find out that Choi Seung Hyo had a crush on his best friend when they were young, but due to a series of events, and the fact that Bae Seok Ryu went overseas to school, he never said a word. Eventually, even he forgot how he felt, not until he dug up his letter to himself in a time capsule the 3 friends buried. (The funniest thing was Jung Mo Eum already broke into that time capsule and read everyone’s letter. So from the very beginning, Jung Mo Eum knew about his secret.)

When the ML was ready to talk about his feelings, the ex-fiancée of Bae Seok Ryu enters the scene. By episode 10, we find out about the reason for her breaking of the engagement. I really like this quite a lot. And I’m even loving the romance blossoming between Jung Mo Eum and Kang Dan Ho. Imagine that you fall in love with the daughter first and her dad just happens to be the cherry on top.

There are only two episodes a week, so we have about 3 more weeks to go before this series comes to an end. This is well worth a watch.

This is all for this week. I’ve also started Melody of Golden Age, and I still love how good Ding Yu Xi look in costume.

Hope everyone finds something good to watch!

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