"I Have a Lover" episode 34 recap

On the 34th episode of SBS' weekend drama, "I Have a Lover", Do Hae-kang (Kim Hyeon-joo) kissed Choi Jin-eon (Ji Jin-hee) on the lips.
As Choi Jin-eon was taking Do Hae-kang to a remote place, she asked Baek-seok (Lee Kyoo-han) to come and get her. However, as Bael Sepl realized where Do Hae-kang's true heart was, he lied to her saying "Can't come because I have an urgent matter". Under the circumstances, Do Hae-kang went back to Choi Jin-eon.
Do Hae-kang told Choi Jin-eon, "Just today, because it's Christmas". Choi Jin-eon said, "No, We have Christmas every year. So I don't want it to happen only today". Do Hae-kang kissed Choi Jin-eon.
Choi Jin-eon said, "You love me. Just admit it. You've always loved me. No? Say You Love Me". Do Hae-kang responded, "I made a mistake. I missed you for a short moment because of the old memory. It's nothing more than that". The two ended up sleeping separately.

Source : www.newsen.com/news_v...
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"All About My Mom' episode 42 recap + ratings

According to the viewership rating by Nielsen Korea on January 3rd, the 42nd episode of 'All About My Mom' recorded 33.3% in the nationwide viewership rating, followed by SBS '8News' (7.9%) and MBC 'News Desk' (6.4%), which were broadcast during the same airtime.
Compared to the 27.6% rating of the previous 41st episode, it is up by 5.7%. 'All About My Mom' refreshed its highest viewership rating with 0.9% up compared to the previous highest rating that the 38th episode achieved on December 20th with 32.4%.
On the 42nd episode of 'All About My Mom', San-ok (Ko Doo-sim) was diagnosed with the lung cancer, a terminal illness with only six months left in her life.

Source : www.osen.co.kr/articl...
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"Riders: Get Tomorrow" Episode 9 recap

The opening portion of this episode involves no rickshaws whatsoever, as the three main couples just spend time with each other in varying capacities. I was actually all right with that, because exploring these character relationships on a one-on-one level ends up telling us quite a bit about these people that we didn't know, and which matches up quite well with what we do know. For example, Yoon-jae not only knows how to fight, he also lacks the sense to know when to stop.
Elsewhere Gi-joon acts so pathetic he actually manages to come off as kind of cute. Really- guys mooning over girls and then getting all mumbly and grumbly over perceived misunderstandings is a pretty common enough character trait, but I like how Gi-joon tries to explain himself. Even more intriguingly, so does So-dam. Watching Gi-joon and So-dam interact really raised my estimation of both characters, because they're making a genuine effort to not act like jerks.

The romantic element isn't the one I'm interested in here so much as the personal element. If we take a minute to ignore the general creepiness of a guy giving a girl a job because he wants to date her, Gi-joon is in fact being a good boss here by trying to smooth these interpersonal issues over instead of using his power position to act like a bully. Gi-joon appears to be better learning good management principles, not through actual rickshaws, but indirectly by interacting with So-dam.
In terms of romance, though, I do like Yoon-jae and Mi-ram together, because they're a couple that really knows each other. That is, they were in the romantic relationship that can't really disintegrate overnight short of their trying to be outright malicious to each other. And Yoon-jae doesn't want to have an antagonistic relationship with Mi-ram. On a basic level Yoon-jae really respects Mi-ram, as is demonstrated with the spoon analogy, and so too does she respect him.
I'm beginning to think that the main problem with "Riders: Get Tomorrow" is really just a bad title and questionable marketing. The drama definitely works better as general light romantic drama than it does as...whatever the drama's been trying to do up until now. The scenes just leave more of an impact. Like everything with the guitars, or Gi-joon's plan to try and smooth things over with his mother well enough to get the rickshaw business moving. While these scenes aren't exactly funny, they do explore the characters in such a way to make them intriguing and fun to watch.
Review by William Schwartz
"Riders: Get Tomorrow" is directed by Choi Do-hoon, written by Park Sang-hee and features Kim Dong-wuk, Lee Cheong-ah, Choi Min-I, Yoon Jong-hoon, Choi Yeo-jin, Jo Byeong-gyu and more.

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"Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 2 recap

As much as Yeong-sil loves science one fact is unassailable- his cultural background is unimpressive. So while other better pedigreed kids in the family study all day, Yeong-sil has to do hard labor and wait until nighttime to do science, which is fortunate because this episode Yeong-sil decides to learn everything he can about the moon. In this case "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" takes an unusual approach to the scientific method by using it to explain wrong science- specifically, geocentrism.
This makes for interesting material because while it's all fun and games to talk science up as awesome and amazing, the fact remains that for most of human history scientists have gotten lots of basic aspects of the universe wrong. This isn't because they're incompetent, but rather a symptom of how there's only so much that can be done with limited tools. Most of the time it's easier to try and work within the confines of an old theory rather than try to build up a new one from scratch.
Once again, the parallelism to King Taejong is striking. King Taejong obviously wants to improve the state of science in Joseon, but he's completely locked in by Goryeo thinking. Even though King Taejong understands how Goryeo thinking is flawed, he's too used to the framework to be able to give up on it completely. For all his obvious wisdom King Taejong is a rather clueless sovereign. Observe how King Taejong's very manner and bearing is completely terrifying to anyone aside from his children. King Taejong never catches on to this.
It's from this background that "Jang Yeon-sil - Drama" ends up moving on to the adult portion of the story (featuring Song Il-gook) much more quickly than I was expecting. The reason for this is that, as a kid, Yeon-sil is stuck in a rut. Absent of major political reforms there's not very much Yeon-sil can do for the sake of science except continue making calculations at his hideout in his free time.
By the way, kids, that's the kind of cool stuff you can do if you get into science- build super cool mini-fortresses with moving parts and stargazing. I have to say, by the way, that the set design "Jang Yeon-sil" is quite excellent. Whoever's building this stuff knows exactly what they're doing. The editing's pretty sharp too- I love the diagrams. And as for the music- was it just by imagination, or were there bagpipes in there at one point? Very solid stuff.
Review by William Schwartz
"Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" is directed by Kim Yeong-jo, written by Lee Myeong-hee, Ma Chang-joon and features Song Il-gook, Kim Sang-kyeong, Kim Young-cheol, Park Seon-yeong, Kim Do-hyun, Son Byeong-ho,...

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"Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 1 recap

Yeong-sil (played by Song Il-gook) first appears as a decrepit old man moving across a vast field for one purpose- to view an eclipse. While the action soon moves into flashback mode eclipses remain an important plot point. While technically irrelevant to daily life, knowing when and how an eclipse will happen is a sure sign of scientific advancement. Under New Joseon, currently led by King Taejong (played by Kim Young-cheol), science is a pretty big deal.
I'm going to be using the word "science" a lot for "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama", and for good reason. While "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" is ostensibly a historical drama about Korea's most famed scientist, in practice the action is a loving tribute to science and the scientific method in a way that would make Carl Sagan proud. Even as a young boy of dubious lineage Yeong-sil shows strong aptitude toward inductive reasoning, and with childish glee seeks to share his learning with the rest of the world.
The world, though, is not so interested. The background of "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" depicts a Korea where knowledge is considered a privilege used by those of high rank to bully those lower than them- it's not a treasure to be shared. King Taejong, to his credit, readily seems to appreciate that this is a bad thing, and yet as we see, his initial reaction to apparently being snookered goes a tad too far. King Taejong is a product of a darker time period (watch "Six Flying Dragons" for reference on that), and it shows.
Yet at the same time King Taejong is still a loving father. This is an important parallel- Yeong-sil's one father Seong-hwi (played by Kim Myeong-soo) bonds with his son and ultimately decides to flout convention for the sake of Yeong-sil because, well, because Seong-hwi loves science too. In this context science isn't just this very important concept we need for everyday life- it's a way of expressing love.
The production team has really outdone themselves with "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama". After the fairly dour pseudo-documentarian style of "Jing Bi-rok" I really wasn't expecting KBS1's next historical project to be so...well, so fun. At minimum it's easy to see why Song Il-gook was attracted to "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama". This is the kind of drama you can watch with the kids at home to show them how wow, isn't science crazy? Just think, with a little lateral thinking you too can look straight at the sun without being blinded.
Review by William Schwartz
"Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" is directed by Kim Yeong-jo, written by Lee Myeong-hee, Ma Chang-joon and features Song Il-gook, Kim Sang-kyeong, Kim Young-cheol, Park Seon-yeong, Kim Do-hyun, Son Byeong-ho,...

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'My Daughter, Geum Sa-Wol episode 36 recap

On the January 3rd episode of MBC's weekend drama, 'My Daughter, Geum Sa-Wol', Oh Hye-sang (Park Se-yeong) kidnapped Joo Oh-wol (Song Ha-yoon) to be able to marry Joo Se-hoon (Do Sang-woo).
On this day, Joo Oh-wol went to the appointment place to meet her father Joo Gi-hwang (Ahn Nae-sang). However, Im Si-ro (Choi Dae-cheol) showed up at the place and stopped Joo Oh-wol. Oh Hye-sang also appeared at the spot and spat out the bad words to Joo Oh-wol.
Joo Oh-wol announced she would not let Oh Hye-sang get married to Joo Se-hoon.
This made Oh Hye-sang get furious and said, "I refused to be dragged around by you" and "Let's put an end to this". And then she forced Joo Oh-wol to get in her car and drove away.

Source : osen.mt.co.kr/article...
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'My Daughter, Geum Sa-Wol' episode 35 recap

On the 35th episode of MBC weekend drama, 'My Daughter, Geum Sa-Wol', Joo Oh-wol (Song Ha-yoon) headed to the plaza to meet her father, who was looking for her.
When she went there, she found Joo Gi-hwang (Ahn Nae-sang) there to her surprise. Joo Gi-hwang was holding missing child flyers and her old photo.
Joo Oh-wol first was confused and asked him, "Why are you here?" And then when she realized Joo Gi-hwang was her biological father, she burst into tears.
As Joo Gi-hwang found Joo Oh-wol crying in tears, the scene made the viewers wonder how the storyline will develop.

Source : tvdaily.asiae.co.kr/r...
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