PRICELESS Sono yōna koto wa arimasen!

2012 Fuji-TV 10-episode JDo that starred Kimura Takuya as Kindaichi Fumio, a quirky, fast-talking, and seemingly oblivious salary man who tends to ignore his surroundings while also remembering every, last thing that went on around him, including knowing everyone's name and what department they're from, when is their birthday, and pertinent yet irrelevant office info about things like sick family members currently recovering in a hospital.

At the start of this fast-paced, auctioneer-style dialogue drama, our Fumio is king of the hill, and then the next day he is falsely accused, fired, stripped of his credit/cash, and watches his apartment blow up before his very eyes - leaving him destitute.

Fumio spends the night in a park and meets new, interesting characters, treating them the very same way he had his co-workers and associates. He learns how to survive without money, meets two young boys who take him to their grandmother's house, and the old lady insists that Fumio can stay as long as he promises to make the 500y a day she asks for to cover his room/board.

It isn't long before his boss and a young woman from the accounting department end up in the same boat with Fumio and have to earn the same 500y to stay with Fumio in the tiny room he and now they rent.

Karina is Nikaido Saya, the genius accountant, and Nakai Kiichi as Moai Kengo, their boss - department head, actually, a man who disappears in a crowd and is overlooked by the people standing right next to him.

The real boss - wicked heir to the Miracle Thermos Company - is Fujiki Naohito as Oyashiki Toichiro.

Toichiro has a grudge against Fumio, and while we know episode after episode why he's angry, we aren't really allowed to know the truth of the matter until near the end. In realistic honesty, though, it is easy to figure out what the real deal is almost instantly, and it is our adorable Fumio who must be made to suffer right up to the bitter end before finding out just why it was he had to go through so much hell on account of the jealous and vengeful Toichiro.

This was a comedy start to finish, and a tension-based bit of romance between Fumio and Saya that needed 10 episodes to sputter and cough its way to practically nothing at the very end, but trust me when I say THAT WASN'T A SPOILER!

I also can't help thinking that their names are a play on their names.

Kimura Takuya as Kindaichi Fumio - Nakai Kiichi as Moai Kengo - Natsuki Mari as Marioka Ichirin - Renbutsu Misako as Hirose Yoko - Fujigaya Taisuke as Enomoto Kotaro - Masu Takeshi as Fujisawa Takeshi - Karina as Nikaido Saya - 
Fujiki Naohito as Oyashiki Toichiro - Maeda Oshiro as Marioka Kanta - 
Issey Ogata as Zaizen Osamu - Tanaka Kanau as Marioka Ryota - Nakamura Atsuo as Oyashiki Iwao

They are weird names even if it isn't obvious they are weird names, but as I kept looking at them, I began to notice a slight pattern and wonder if it is true or just another of my far-reaching and pointless self-imposed coincidental mind games giving me more grief than is actually necessary.

This is 10 episodes of funny meant to show us just how amazing Fumio is so that we can believe it when he eventually returns to the top of the manufacturing, friend-making, and trust-building heap he was tossed from in episode 1.

I appreciated the other-world qualities that were sprinkled throughout while keeping just enough of Tokyo around so that I became logically confused and easily transported to this other realm I knew had to be Tokyo and yet it wasn't, really ... or at least it didn't seem like it ... sometimes.

I rarely EVER mention soundtracks in my blogs because it isn't often that they impress me, or that I am even able to remember what the songs or running theme song was, but not with Priceless: No Such Thing.

They relied on both The Stones and Sato Naoki for background ambiance, and I appreciated it, thank you very much.

Each time the gang met at a local bar, a Rolling Stones song played quietly in the background, taking me down memory lane and making me smile.

They put the leads in that small, old television with rabbit ears, too, and had them portray each member of the Stones. It was original and cool.

And Kimura-kun continued to smirk every so often even when it wasn't necessary or no one said anything funny. I adore it, that quirky habit of his, and I hope he continues with it until he stops acting altogether.

I asked myself, too, again and again as I watched Priceless if it wasn't simply because of Kimura-kun that I enjoyed the story line, the characters, the rapid-fire dialogue, and even the ganbatte stuff littered throughout.

I attempted to put other actors in his place, and I tried to imagine myself reading the book instead, too. Maybe for some the only draw would be Kimura-kun or even Naohito-san that made them watch a to z, but not me. They were extra whipped cream with two cherries on top and nothing more, because I liked the story regardless.

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Last Cinderella

Last♡Cinderella

2013 Fuji TV JDo that starred Fujiki Naohito as Tachibana Rintaro, an aging hair designer who returns to the salon where he once worked alongside and became lord over (more successful than) Shinohara Ryoko as Toyama Sakura, an aging hair stylist with a bubbly personality who always knows the right things to say to her clients.

We're made to believe right from the start that there is bad blood between these two for reiterated reasons, but things are never as they would seem, and we are never privy to such insider information until at least half way through these dramas - which would be around episode 5 - in the case of this 11-episode romantic mystery melodrama with dashes of comedy and reality tossed in the mix.

Along comes the anticipated curve-ball in the form of Miura Haruma as Saeki Hiroto

He's fifteen years younger than our Toyama Sakura, a twenty-five year old BMX'er and the son of a wealthy businessman but estranged from the blended family yet not from his psycho step sister, whom he innocently harmed when they were little.

She is mental, deranged, and scary even if the writer attempted to make me feel sorry for her and failed.

She makes Hiroto do her bidding, and because she 'loves' Rintaro, Hiroto has to come between him and Sakura.

In between this interesting plot, we are told and shown in so many ways that women over age 40 are actually old men in training. Slobs, too lazy to care about appearances, give up on maintaining the body but becoming increasingly aware of the importance of health, grow beards, pluck facial hair, and clip toe nails in front of the opposite sex. Oh, and they lounge in sweats drinking copious amounts of canned brew, too.

Still, one of Sakura's friends was a health instructor, fitness guru, and an avid fan of the one-night stand, so good for her, the old bag with a flabby body, sagging boobs, and too unattractive to score ... wait a second.

Sakura's other friend is the ubiquitous married lady with two shiftless offspring, an unreceptive husband, and a nagging busybody for a mother-in-law. Not much I can say there, except that it's stereotypical and not that interesting. If the writer had decided to have mothers-in-law unite somewhere along the way and revolt, but that didn't happen so ...

Heck, they could have even had HER decide on an extramarital fling instead of always the husband, but maybe that would be pushing the envelope Japan-wise, who knows.

Young girls poked just as much fun at our Rintaro as they did at Sakura for being 'old' and 'smelling old' and 'talking old' and 'wearing old' and so on and so forth - heck, they even made a few of the characters poke fun at themselves for being 'ancient' and 'over the hill' and 'halfway to the grave' at the astronomically, dinosaur-breath and dust-fart age of 40.

At the same time, though, they had younger women wanting to get with the likes of fossilized Rintaro, who gave a surprise performance as close to realistic human as I'd ever seen him portray before.

He wasn't a wealthy snob hell bent on destroying everyone in his path, and he wasn't an arrogant fool with a one-track mind start to finish, either. This time he had character, a heart, brains, wit, and the ability to shift gears when necessary. In other words, realistic and human.

Personally, I think he's still got it going on for a guy who has a good 40 more years to go before the dust farts and fossilization actually begin to take effect. Then he can portray the FATHER of someone in their teens or twenties, right?

Lolz

Or, he can wait another ten years to become the LOVER of a TEEN CHICK in another drama. See, that's like what you might call ironic or even bipolar script writing there. In one story being old is a disease and in another its nonexistent because young girls apparently dig seeing old men in bed. Never the other way around, of course, especially if the script is written by or directed by a man, then ... we just get same old same old.

Look, I don't give a crap that women believe they felt pressured to do something besides stay home and raise families. I care less that these women are suffering because of that choice, and I sure as hell don't care that they suddenly want or find out they can't have a child so late in life.

I didn't order them to live the way they did, and just because they let the media and society in general dictate their lives has zero to do with me or my own emotions, feelings, etc. Who am I to judge or say anything?

All it proves is that women apparently suffer. When they were stay-at-homes they suffered, and now that they aren't they're still suffering.

Boo Hoo

I'm all for the woman in the middle who tried marriage/babies and lost so she got rid of the notion and set out to entertain herself until she's too old to be appreciated anymore. She stays fit through her job, which keeps her in contact with eligible bed hoppers for the duration, and in between she visits with her school chums at the local pub and listens to their whining about how pathetic they are.

I'm all for older women getting a piece of younger ass, too, but not this time around. Not with this particular drama anyway.

I gave this only 3 hummingbirds because of the way it ended, too.

What I did like, though, was the incredible and surprising amount of near-misses in the sex department that were offered.

This could actually be labeled as an action-packed romance, it had so many bedroom scenes, kissing scenes, and near-misses here and there.

Just enough to boost the libido and make me want to see more, but again, I wasn't at all pleased with the outcome of this drama, but I did so appreciate the soft-core, arigatou!

I don't like, either, that the writers push and push their message about 'well, this is just the way it is' and then they have their characters do 'well, there's no way in hell this is possible' things that go completely against the message.

If women 40 and up are useless piles of shit with zero worth, are mouthy, witty, and caustic because of their vast array of knowledge then why oh why would said madam turn into a total teen twit asshole just because some guy young or old, new or used, fresh or stale, takes notice of her? Is this a part of the female mystique, too? We're tough as nails and capable of surviving on our own until the biological clock starts to wind down, our parents start to die, or ... a hot guy comes along and then we're suddenly back to being 1937 retarded stupid? Is that the message?

I think even if a woman has been out of the dating scene for ten years that at age 40 or thereabouts she would carry herself with far more grace and aplomb than these writers would have us believe. Reverting at that age to a clueless teen idiot means at 40 she never grew up, which would indicate an INability to survive on her own, wouldn't it? 16 meets 40 in a split second is just as impossible as 40 meets 16 again at lightning speed.

Sakura behaved with the boy the way she should have behaved with Rintaro and vice versa. Sure, she was completely at home and totally familiar with Rintaro and therefore they bickered, drank together at odd hours, shared personal secrets and did indiscreet things in front of each other but still ... if baby boy comes at 40 with a hard on then 40 pretty much has it covered while having 40 come at 20 with desire might yield the opposite reaction. Sakura didn't need to act so coy, elusive, and virgin-like. It wasn't at all believable or necessary.

Yamamoto Yusuke as Masaomi showed up for two episodes in the middle of the drama. He worked in a sex club that isn't called a sex club. Male entertainer for wealthy female clients who live in fantasyland and want fantasyland males to cater to their every fantasyland whim. 

For cash.

His Masaomi was mean, too. Snot-nose, heartless and brutal kind of mean, too, but only for a glimpse and then he was gone.

Baaad boy.

 If you haven't seen Last Cinderella yet, I would recommend that you do, but don't get sucked into (or away from) the story because of the title, which is a tad on the misleading side. Sakura is far from poor and neglected, but she did mention a childhood fantasy about wanting to be a girl who meets and marries Prince Charming. 

That's about as Cinderella as it got - except when the segments were broken up by images of Sakura sliding a bare foot into a glass slipper.

Neither guy is Prince Charming, either.

Plenty of eye candy, interesting dialogue, quirky sub-plots, and memorable moments in Last Cinderella, but I don't know that I'd ever watch it again. What I'd rather do is rewrite this one entirely, and maybe I will.

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Osazaki no Himawari

Late Blooming Sunflower

2012 10-episode Fuji TV drama that starred Ikuta Toma as Kodaira Jotaro, a so-called slacker because despite his having graduated college, he's a nobody because he works part-time.

I really shouldn't be blogging at such a time, or about such a topic, when I myself am now being forced to have to put up with this same issue. All I'd really like to say at this point in my life is FUCK YOU world, but then that has nothing to do with dramas in general, does it?

Anyway, Jotaro spends about 10 years of his life shuffling through the Tokyo bullshit maze trying to get ahead without success, and then he gets laid off from a part-time job so his girlfriend dumps him because she never loved him, she just wanted his money, and since he doesn't have any now then screw HIM, I guess.

Sorry! I did it again.

Jotaro sees an ad on the internet and decides to go for it - literally. It's on the other side of their country in a place that is remote as well as declining in things like prosperity, population, and I don't know ... everything but its natural beauty, I guess.

He 'volunteers' as a helper and ends up meeting the old people, shuttling them to the hospital, pulling their weeds, etc. He also meets a young doctor, Maki Yoko as Nikaido Kahori, removed from her research position and sent back to her hometown of Kochi prefecture.

He also meets a high-strung guy, Kiritani Kenta as Fujii Junichi, who works at his fathers flagging hardware store and is constantly trying to get the old shop owners to see the error of their ways so that the decline will stop and prosperity will return.

His efforts don't work, though, and no one listens or cares about what he has to say in his efforts to help revitalize the area - which happens to be his and Jotaro's volunteer jobs.

There are other characters and none of them are minor.

A nurse, Kashii Yu as Morishita Ayaka, with a cold heart, a young girl trying to steal her married professor away from his wife because she just knows she can succeed at destroying someone elses life while ending up destroying her own in the end.

And a really hot guy, Emoto Tasuku as Matsumoto Hiroki, who is a has-been in the baseball pitcher department. It was never really explained why he didn't go on to the majors if he was that great, but whatever. He was good-looking and it was nice to have him around during these ten episodes.

Seriously, though, I really enjoyed watching this story.

It was purposeful, laid-back, intense, and believable all rolled up in pristine, backwoods, relaxing atmosphere located somewhere in Japan with a pretty river and a lot more flora than concrete.

This is a story about young people at a crossroads who have to tough it out GANBATTE style in order to succeed.

Life sucks and it's hard, but if you keep plodding away, eventually you'll be rewarded.

It isn't true, of course, but another effort to stop people from giving up on the ganbatte mentality, I think.

Jotaro is the savior of these flagging youths in this waning town. He brought 'happiness' to their lives while also searching for answers to his own dilemmas.

And, of course, in the end everything wound its way down, fit perfectly into place, and smiles were to be had by all ... because of the 

ganbatte thing.

All I ever get after watching dramas like this is first a sense of warmth, belonging, and interest in these guys and then its over and MY reality is left dangling before my bleary eyes. It tells me I suck, not them, and that all you really, honestly need in this world are great friends like these to lean on, confide in, party and drink with, tell your sorrows to, and accept their sage advice if you truly hope to survive in this world.

Good for them and all those who have such folks hanging around on an as-needed basis.

The other thing I liked about this drama was the story itself, not so much about romance but about how awful it is to be alive at certain points, or how meaningless it seems until (as mentioned above) someone amazing comes along to put all that self doubt, insecurity, and dark brooding aside and force you to look at things from a better perspective.

I loved the scenic views, and I adore Ikuta Toma, too. He did another splendid job of portraying a real man under real circumstances, but who has those imaginary perfect friends to help him out.

And, they all have the ganbatte spirit to infinity.

What I didn't like was that they tried to make me believe that old folks are stupid, inept, anti-social, and dead wrong about every aspect of life and that only the young are capable of getting it right.

There were a few sideline stories, too, that wrapped up a bit too neatly and set in fancy wrapping with a cute bow on top. This upsets me in that it is never as easy as all that to fix things like adultery, death, and true loneliness.

In other words, there are no answers and no quick fix to certain life problems. It isn't likely you will ever meet or find someone who can change at the flip of a switch. It would be awesome, though, wouldn't it, if this were true?

Osozaki is a great way to pass some time, especially if you really need to escape for awhile from reality, and especially if that reality is super hard. Just be ready to have your real life come back at you full-force once you're done, though.

Funny ... great drama that ends up depressing its viewer.

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MONSTERS

2012 TBS 8-episode drama that starred Katori Shingo as Hiratsuka Heihachi, a detective who does things his own way, and in his own idiosyncratic style, and Yamashita Tomohisa as Saionji Kousuke, a young recruit overly anxious to make it to the investigation department but who must first pass a test given by a high ranking official.

That test is to follow Heihachi during work and report his mechanics to the official so that Heihachi can get fired - once and for all.

Heihachi's ways are unique and therefore annoying. He doesn't, exactly follow protocol but he always gets his man.

This wasn't a drama about that only, though.

This was more about murders (one per episode) and how Heihachi solves the cases using those techniques, none of which are ever reported by our upstanding, wealthy, and extremely observant Kousuke.

Once again (and as most recent JDo's go, I'm beginning to note) I had to watch this at the worst streaming site known to man - GoodDrama.net

If you aren't familiar, it is a website laced with spam, annoying ads and constant pop-ups that sometimes manage to play even when you turn them off. And, you have to seek them out every time you click on the next segment of each 15 minute split video, too.

Half naked women banners, distracting flashing banner ads, commercials at the beginning of each segment, and the scary, virus-laden pop-ups hidden everywhere that somehow manage to bypass my pop-up blocker.

So, while you're watching your video and start to get into a scene, suddenly you're hearing loud music and someone talking in Spanish, or there is a game suddenly playing and you can't find the OFF button or the X to shut it down, or worse, you can hear it, but you can't see or find it on the screen, which means you must refresh and then go through the same thing all over again before getting to watch the segment ... all over again.

The other thing that was annoying were the subs.

Just as an. example. Whoever did sub. Had no idea what a comma is. And so you had to read. This way. Throughout the eight episodes. Every pause. Was reason to create a new sentence. And even if you're not familiar with English. This can get annoying. Really quickly. If you know what I mean.

This was just hilarious and I wanted to show it off.
The Japanese pronunciation (kinda-sorta) was typed as opposed to doing a bit of research.
That would be Dvořák - as in  Antonín Dvořák - the composer, and the tune they kept referencing is Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World, Opus 95 - 4th movement, Allegro con fuoco.

The best part about this whole drama, though, was that they paired Tomo-kun with Yanagihara Kanako as Takano Emi

Kousuke's significant other

No one appreciates these types of twists more than I do.

She was cute without being puke cute, and she didn't do any of the stereotypical things overweight women are best known for doing in any other drama or movie you've ever seen - like being a stalker, a sumo wrestler, or a slob.

Tomo-kun, by the way, acted in a style I'm not familiar with seeing him do, too.
This was supposed to be a comedy, and while it was funny (sometimes) the stories themselves just sucked you in and everything else was insignificant, to include prat falls, slapstick, or anything Japanese comedy these days.

You weren't always cracking up, in other words, and not much was going on behind the main characters like there usually is in a Japanese comedy, to distract you purposely and make you laugh. 

Like watching a dragon cross behind them, or seeing someone slip and fall, or random acts of bizarre like something falling out of a window, or someone being struck by a bike.

Tomohisa managed to be funny when it was asked for, but he played a bumbling every man, he and Shingo wore the same outfit all eight episodes, and while Heihachi was weird, he managed to stay the course and keep his lead-lead role throughout so that Tomohisa never quite ended up stealing his thunder.

The only reason I gave this 3 out of 5 is because I likely will not ever watch this one again.
It wasn't as great as the others I've seen recently, but it wasn't a total waste of my time, either.

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A Man's Story / The Slingshot

남자이야기 / Namja I Yaki

2009 20-episode KBS drama that was loaded with great actors from the top all the way down to bit-parters.

It's been awhile since I last watched, so I re-watched for this post but didn't have to go clean through all 20 episodes in order to remember what it was about, what went down, and how it ended, or how great this story and the portrayal of each character turned out to be start to finish.

As a matter of fact, since I started up the blog again, this story remained at the back of my mind the whole time. I still think about certain scenes on occasion, too.

It might be Park Yong ha's spirit channeling. Who knows.

While I was still in college, instead of watching the latest shows a week at a time, or as they were uploaded for us foreign viewers, I decided it would be better to delve a bit deeper into the resumes of some of my favorite actors. In this case, I wanted to see more of Lee Philip after watching A Secret Garden.

For likely obvious reasons, this drama was a winner for me because it had ZERO to do with love using the stale Cinderella plot.

Yong ha's Kim Shin was the younger brother of a profitable dumpling factory, Ahn Nae sang as Kim Wook, and he was a slacker for an undisclosed reason after having graduated high school, college, and his stint in the army.

A reporter visits the factory and returns to the studio to broadcast an unfavorable review that leads to the demise of the factory and the death of Kim Shin's brother.

Kim Shin enters the broadcast station with a crossbow and bursts in on the newscast, demanding that the anchor read his grievances on the air.

The PD shuts down the broadcast, though, and poor, upset Kim Shin ends up behind bars.

This is where he meets our quirky, autistic cell mate, Park Ki woong as Ahn Kyung tae.

Kyung tae is a genius, and he can't communicate unless he's plugged in.

While serving his time, Kim Shin gets to know a gang boss and his minions - which becomes an eventual help to him in the outside world after his release.

His girlfriend is another of those rare Korean beauties who deserves the title beauty. She exudes sex in an Aphrodite way without having to try. At the beginning, when she is frumpy while working at the factory and discouraged having to hunt down her slacker lover in game rooms after hours, and later when she ends up at the top of the success ladder, Park Si yeon as Seo Kyung ah was and is naturally sexy, beautiful, and alluring.

Kim Shin keeps trying to get her to leave him at the start of this drama, but he does it in as haphazard a way as he lived. It didn't work, either, because Kyung ah loved him as frustrating and annoying as it had to have been for her.

While Kim Shin is incarcerated, she decides to take him up on his earlier offer to sell herself to the highest bidder, and she ends up at this ritzy ~club~ that caters to the wealthiest men.

Enter Kim Kang woo as Chae Do woo, the arch nemesis in this thriller of sorts.

Do woo grew up in the lap of luxury, but his parents and their weird lifestyles had a profound effect on this kid's psyche.

His mother was bedridden while his father got drunk and brought home women.

One day young Do woo visits his mother in her room, and she is having an episode.

The boy does something that wasn't entirely inexplicable as much as it was inexcusable.

His father called him names that were best directed at himself, but it was a necessary catalyst in order for this story to grow up and blossom into the action-packed thriller that it turned out to be.

He also has a younger sister with a medical condition similar to the one their mother had, but Do woo takes good care of her - well - he does or seems to be doing that until a bit later in the show, when things become apparent in a twisted, creepy sort of way.

He also meets and falls instantly for Kyung ah, though I was never, quite sure if she was still on Kim Shin's side and doing what she was doing as a help or because she had decided to give up on the loafer to catch a bigger, more lucrative fish.

The ending shed light on that topic, but I don't want to post any spoilers.

The ending also led us to believe there would be a sequel, but sadly our handsome and extremely talented Park Yong ha is gone now. Sadder to say, I can think of a few candidates to replace him if a sequel actually does take shape, but it would have been complete and worthwhile had Yong ha stuck around just a little while longer.

Personally, I am more inclined to believe that some of these 'purported' suicides are actually the result of a lethal mix of narcotics and alcohol. Innocently mixed due to stress, lack of sleep, or a bit, too much of one over the other.

A few whiskey's before bed followed by a sleeping pill or three, or the doctor prescribed dosage that is a bit too much at the time.

Do woo's younger sister, Han Yeo woon as Chae Eun soo, has a special hiding place inside the mansion where she goes to listen in on private conversations between her wealthy father and his staff.

She keeps a diary of these conversations, and then she goes out and tries to help whomever it was that her father's company just harmed.

This is how she meets and befriends Kim Shin.

After Kim Shin is released from prison, he and Kyung tae stay at this totally cool bar and work to execute their scheme to get back at the bad guys.

Lee Moon shik as Park Moon ho, the bar owner, is an ex con himself, so he knows even more people who can help Kim Shin with his plans.

In the meantime, though, the outskirts neighborhood where his sister in law and her two, young daughters are forced to have to live is slated for demolition by the same powerhouse that Kim Shin is trying to destroy.

Which means Kim Shin is building an army of supporters while the bad guys are getting away with 'murder' (literally and figuratively).

They kick up enough dust to thwart and discourage Kim Shin and his followers, but it is never enough from a Korean perspective to stop them from continuing with their plans to make wrongs right.

Kim Shin goes from being useless and drifting through life to taking up a worthy cause, helping other people, and learning how to outsmart his enemies.

His biggest enemy is Do woo and Do woo's father, Jang Hang sun as President Chae.

Didn't I tell you that every, freakin' star in this drama is absolutely and completely awesome?

I loved them all, and Jang Hang sun is one of my FAVORITE hal-abeoji's.

Kim Shin's older brother is currently starring in The Golden Rainbow, though I don't know how much more of that agonizing drama I can take, but whatever.

Kang woo's deranged Do woo was brilliantly played, and the simple fact that Park Si yeon's Kyung ah left me guessing right up to the end proves how clever she is at her craft.

Even the dapper, overly casual regardless of the situation Lee Philip's character managed to steal every scene he showed up in.

But then we can't forget the dogged detective on the case of the murdered mayor, either.

Kim Mi kyung as Detective Kim will always be one of my favorite actresses of all time.
She's brilliant, too, and classy, and believable, and the type of person I'd give just about anything to have as a friend because without having ever met her, I can just imagine how much of her real self is portrayed through each of her characters.

I mean, even as the deaf-mute mother in Heirs, her familiar, sarcastic wit still managed to make its way to the startled ears of the rich woman she served as a maid.

She's cool for rising so high in the stardom category without needing a plastic face, tons of make-up/photoshop, and a hooker wardrobe to get noticed.

She is the epitome of what every KPop chick right now will be dying to be in about twenty years.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I absolutely LOVED how she handled Philip Lee's Do Jae myung, too. She had him bending over to pick up things for her, ride shotgun in her beat up car, and making lewd comments out loud and in public to embarrass as well as shock him.

See, teen and young adult chicks will NEVER get the true worth of the male form until they reach Madame Kim's age. She's not stupid in the least, and after going through all the ditzy, wasted time of her youth, she's no-nonsense about things like sex and what really matters in a relationship.

I love her!

Jae myung is the son of the man who assists Do woo's father, and at a young age, he sent his son to live in America.

He returns as a mysterious character, and we don't learn his true reason for being back in Korea for quite some time, but he runs into Kim Shin, the two hit it off, and while staying at the cool bar, they begin working together on this scheme.

Do woo's sister gets involved with them as well, and then Do woo finds out, making him snap (even though he really, already has - for quite some time now - had a screw or three loose).

If I say anymore, it would be likely that I end up dropping a hint or spoiler, and I don't want to do that.

Suffice it to say this was well worth the twenty episodes, there weren't TOO many draggy bits, and as I mentioned earlier, the ending hinted at there being the possibility of a sequel.

If you haven't seen this one yet, I highly recommend that you do.

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