K-drama: Baker King Kim Tak Goo

I'm a big fan of 'Baker King Kim Tak Goo' :)
Here's Tak Goo ^^ (Actor: Yoon Shi Yoon)

It's a really good drama, when I say 'drama', I really mean drama - with really high concentration of tears (lots and lots of crying), excruciatingly evil characters, happy reunions, heart wrenching separations, slowly blooming love, break ups, hardships, rivalry, friendship, family, hope, perseverance...and you know what else is usually present in a drama  ^^'' Here are some snapshots to have a glimpse of this drama:

 


The acting in this drama is excellent and very compelling, especially the main character Kim Tak Goo was really well acted out by Yoon Shi Yoon although he was just a rookie actor at that time :)
Moreover, this drama can appeal to a wide range of audience from different age groups, from children, teenagers, adolescents, noonas, middle-age people to senior citizens (grandpas & grandmas); I think that's one of the reasons why the viewer rating was really high for this drama, it gained around 50% viewer ratings. The production, editing, filming were also really good, actually each episode ended with a cliffhanger that left the audience hanging on the edge of their seats for more.

This drama also has some great lines that I really like, here they are:

K-drama:  Baker King Kim Tak Goo

Kim Tak Goo:  “If I had given up every time I wasn’t confident, I would’ve done nothing until now. There are times you need to confront it without confidence.”

MiSun:  “The fist should be used as a last resort. That is a real man.”

King Of Baking, Kim Tak Goo Episode 29 Episode 29 part 4 - Kim Tak Goo's line Ma Joon : "Kim Tak Goo." Tak goo : "What's up, Seo Tae Jo?" (Tak Goo called Ma Joon, Seo Tae Jo - the guy who have become his best friend and co-worker) Ma Joon : "How can you be like that? How can you keep smiling like that? You've only had things taken from you until now. Your Mom was taken and Your Father was taken. And you were kicked out of Geosung. Shin Yu Kyung was taken and everything else was taken. How can you be like that? Do you not have a heart, are you dumb or...are you really okay?" Tak Goo : "How can I be okay? It's not that I don't know anger, it's not that I don't feel it's unfair, and it's not that I can't feel pain in my heart." Ma Joon : "Then? How can you bear it like this?" Tak Goo : "Because I need to live. While I’m alive, nothing is over. Just because today was good, my life isn’t over. And just because today was bad, my life isn’t over either. Good things, and bad things…they all go away.”

This was just an overview of what I like about the drama.  I'll post more about it in the future :)

Korean Sitcom - High Kick through the roof

Korean Sitcom / family comedy :  High Kick through the roof

I've just finished watching the Sitcom, High Kick through the roof...I was really disappointed by how it ended...it ended so cruelly that I can't help feeling frustrated and depressed about it...
It is supposed to be a comedy but what kind of ending is that??...I don't understand what went wrong with the producer?...why is the ending so cruel and sad?...even the cast must have felt bad about the ending...After finishing the sitcom, I spent a lot of time browsing the net looking for explanations as to why the ending was like that...and it looked like the last episode was met with many unhappy, dissatisfied reactions just like mine.

What led me to watch such a long sitcom was because of Yoon Shi Yoon who plays the character JunHyuk in High Kick through the roof.  This sitcom was actually Yoon Shi Yoon's first acting debut.

I know Yoon Shi Yoon from 'Baker King'.  At that time, I became an instant fan of Yoon Shi Yoon.  I simply love his acting in that drama, it was so passionate and the audience could feel for the character he was portraying.  After watching Baker King, I just can't help calling him Kim Tak Gu (the name of the character he plays in Baker King) and not Yoon Shi Yoon.
I became such a big fan of his acting that I had to watch his other dramas, that's how I started watching 'Flower boy next door' where Yoon Shi Yoon plays the excentric, talkative and funny character 'Enrique Geum'.  And yet again he managed to amaze me with his acting :)
While watching Flower boy next door I started to see him as 'Enrique Geum' and not the epic character Kim Tak Gu anymore.  Because as Enrique Geum, he is a completely different character and made me forget about Kim Tak Gu.

Anyway, it's only after watching those two dramas that I looked up for High kick through the roof.  The sitcom was really easygoing and fun to watch although it was so long, 126 episodes in all.  This is the longest series I have ever watched.  From episode to episode I got to like and dislike the different characters.  Even the little girl who acted as JunHyuk's younger sister in the story, impressed me with her realistic and professional acting.  Hwang Jung Eum made me laugh a great deal with her funny scenes in the drama, and JunHyuk's father Jung BoSuk who really irritated me with his lack of common sense managed to make me laugh a lot too.  This sitcom was really worth the watch although the last episode could have been different.  For instance I really preferred the couple JunHyuk and SeKyung.  Although SeKyung's first love was JiHoon, she must have felt the warmth and sincerity of JunHyuk's love and care for her.  Again I could not help but feel attached to Yoon Shi Yoon's character in this sitcom except when he acted cute...that was awkward to watch but he sang really well during the karaoke episode.  According to me the feelings that SeKyung has for JiHoon should have been only temporary because it was just impossible for them to be together...not because of obstacles or anything but it just didn't feel right for them to be together, to me it appeared to be a weak first love that SeKyung could have let go of after a while, instead of persisting on holding onto it even after realising JunHyuk's feelings towards her.
The ending was too brusque as well...it's as if the producer had a bad case of depression when he directed the last episode and that's the miserable outcome he ended up sharing with the audience who had grown so much attached to the characters in this sitcom.  
There is also very little insight as to what happened to the other characters in the drama in that last episode, because the focus was pretty much on SeKyung and JiHoon's tragedy...it's as if the other characters were forgotten by the director and he also confused what was supposed to be a family comedy with a tragical drama...

Alright that's the end of my rambling about High kick through the roof's disappointing ending...
I still hope to see more of Yoon Shi Yoon's great acting in future dramas or movies.  So far I've also seen him in the Chinese drama 'Happy Noodle', his acting was great but I just didn't like how they dubbed his voice in chinese...unfortunately there's no korean dubbing of this drama... and I found the ending a bit lame too, how forgiving can a person be...seriously ^^'' I know all the characters are like super kind and forgiving in the drama but the evil characters have just too good of a fate, in the end the baddies do not reap what they sowed but end up happily with the kind characters...
I think Happy Noodle's plot was highly inspired from 'Baker King', there's practically the same story line with the fake son living the happy, luxurious life while the real son lived a poor life and the baddies feel threatened that the real son will return and claim back everything that belongs to him.  Al least in Baker King the evil characters have the bad ending they deserved, whereby one ends up in jail and the other one ends up in loneliness.  But in Happy Noodle, the evil characters just do not receive an ending which befits them.
Those who watched 'Happy Noodle' would probably understand what I mean.

There's also the drama 'me too flower' that I watched halfway and left off quite a while ago...the story line must not have appealed to me at that time...^^'' anyway i'll give it another chance and re-watch it later.

Currently Yoon Shi Yoon is filming on the variety show 'Barefoot friends' with Super Junior EunHyuk among the show's cast.  The show is not bad, except that the cast must have suffered a lot during the first 5 or 6 episodes because of the difficult tasks they had to complete overseas.  But in the last two episodes looks like the producer toned down a lot on the hardships that the cast had to experience.  Also, one of the cast members Yoo Se Yoon quit the show already, still I hope EunHyuk and Yoon Shi Yoon remain for a long time on this show and that this show becomes more popular or else it will be cancelled...so 'Barefoot Friends' Hwaiting!!

P.s: through 'Barefoot Friends' I got to know that although he's a great actor, Yoon Shi Yoon is a bookworm, he has terrible mental maths skills (just like me :P ); his room is pretty like a girl's room and he likes cute stuffs for e.g. stuffed toys (reminds me of Enrique Geum) XD
LOL Funny right but it reminds me that behind his celebrity image he's an ordinary guy after all  ^_^ but unlike commoners, he worked really hard and put a lot of effort and passion in acting to make his dream come true, that's why he is successful today and managed to win the hearts of many :)
I think people who succeed in making their dreams come true are one of a kind, they are people who refuse to give up and persevere no matter what the odds are :) In the entertainment industry, I would cite people like Yoon Shi Yoon, Super Junior's EunHyuk and KyuHyun among others.
So Yoon Shi Yoon hwaiting!! You're an amazing actor!! I'll be looking forward to your future projects :)