Areugon (Korean Drama) #review

아르곤

Drama -  Argon

Romanization -  Areugon

Writers -  Jeon Young shin, Joo Won kyu, Shin Ha eun

Network -  tvN

Genre -  Drama, Broadcast News

Episodes -  8

Released -  2017, Sept

CAST

Kim Baek jin (Kim Ju hyeok) is a News Anchor, reporter and leader of investigative reporting team Argon. He does not tolerate mistakes and relies only on facts.
6 months before her contract is to end, Lee Yeon hwa (Chun Woo hee) is assigned to work at Argon. She struggles to get a permanent job there as a reporter. Working with Kim Baek jin, she receives strict training and grows as a reporter. ~~AsianWiki (w/edits)

**With all due respect to the late actor, Kim Ju hyeuk, I had no idea he was dead until after I watched this mini-drama and began my research for this review.

If this is supposed to depict the 'day-in-the-life' aspects of a Broadcast News reporter, I am not impressed.

If this is supposed to somehow make me think differently about how News Anchors, Broadcast stations, and the people involved at the top are somehow making things worse for the honest Beat Reporter, it didn't work.

Also, why only 8 episodes and not 10?

It is painfully obvious to the seasoned viewer that the show began with promise, included a ton of background info and build-up to a more intense plot, and then bad news struck the set, so everyone just gave up and ran with it as best they could.

Chun Woo hee stole the show.

Believable start to finish, a natural on-screen and in character, and someone you just want to root for regardless of the script she's been handed.

She's a beautiful woman with loads of talent and should be making a ton more appearances on screen than she seems interested in accepting.

I'd love to see her in more dramas, film, and perhaps a Romantic Comedy, if that is her thing.

Anyway, the gist of Areugon is that young Lee Yeon hwa has struggled to break into the reporting business for a while and has worked at HBC for a few years when she is suddenly reassigned to the Argon team.

As far as the leader of this team is concerned, it just means Miss Lee has been demoted for the last time and has no talent so he isn't interested in wasting his time on her.

Kim Ju hyeok has a delicious voice, so it was a pleasure to get to listen to him speak, even when he was shouting at someone or about something, which he did a lot in this short.

I'm not sure if Kim Baek jin's personal background story was the original plot's intent or if the director decided to go with that once the ratings starting coming in as too low to go, but it was millisecond touched upon at the start and then dropped like a hot potato for a majority of the mere 8 episodes before returning with a vengeance at the very end.

Meanwhile, pretty and intimidated Yeon hwa continues to plod her way along by listening closely to everything going on around her (while no one seems interested in anything she has to say) and just as slowly begins to use her wits and guts to piece together a puzzling issue of corporate greed, betrayal, and even false imprisonment.

These seem to be standard plot devises anymore in a Korean action/thriller piece.

It is always the same story told in a slightly different tone or atmosphere, but the outcome is always the same.

With Argon, it just went really fast and ended too soon to be a really enjoyable show for me.

It is also always disappointing to be tossed a Red Herring in the Romance department.

Dumb me had high hopes that Miss Lee and Kim timjang nim would get together at some point but no, it didn't happen and wasn't going to happen even if Timjang nim Kim said she was pretty and gave her lots of encouragement, opportunities, and special favoritism over the rest of his crew.

Dang it. 😒

I won't say this was awful or not worth watching because it isn't true.

I will, however, say that it was a big disappointment and, as always, I'm confused as to why this didn't do better in the ratings over there... so as to give it a bit more of a chance to take off and fly like it could have done.

As always, I'll let you be the judge.

Read More

Strongest Deliveryman #review Korean Drama

Literal Title -  Strongest Deliveryman 

Romanization -  Choigang Baedalkkun

Hangul -  최강 배달꾼

Genre -  Romance, Family, Food

Writer -  Lee Jung woo

Network -  KBS2

Episodes -  16

Released -  Aug to Sept, 2017

CAST

Story depicts love and success of a deliveryman who eventually becomes the CEO of a delivery app company.

For a reason that escapes me, this did not do well in the ratings on the home front, nor with fans of Korean drama.

I read a few reviews that said they didn't like it and gave up after the first few episodes, and then I read a few more that said they had given up but then came back and were glad that they had.

I watched it clean through and enjoyed every episode.

And while there was a throw-back vibe to this one: gangpae references, old-world streets hidden somewhere in Seoul, and an overriding theme of poverty vs. wealth, ALL of which screamed 1990s (to me), this was still entertaining and worth the watch.

Maybe because they stopped making these types of story line dramas it suddenly had appeal?

Kind of a 'good ol' days' watch that sparked a bit of nostalgia while also keeping up with the times for the most part.

It's the story of a young man who roams throughout the perimeter of Seoul as a delivery driver, making friends, helping people, and staying to himself while also getting involved in the business of others if they are in trouble.

His underlying goal, which a rare few are privy to know, is to find his runaway mother, so he never stays in one place for too long and continues to find work driving a moped delivering food.

Until one day he arrives on a street filled with restaurants and hires in at Lucky's, which is famous for its jjajangmyeon.

Black Bean Noodles

Inside, he meets the owner, a hardened former gangpae boss, a sexy but snooty receptionist, and a pretty young woman with balls who proceeds to kick his ass at every turn.

Gang soo is impressed with the way Dong soo makes his noodles (again, the old fashioned way... by hand and with a lot of pounding noise) so begs the man to let him deliver, and after a bitchy beat-down from Dan ae, he's hired and the two are now responsible for deliveries and cleaning.

Dan ae is a miserable young woman with a chip on her shoulder because of debts, her parents favoring their son, and the loss of her chance to attend college in America.

She hates Joseon Hell (as the interpreter/subber kept putting it) and for a majority of the 16 episodes, she's still just as anxious to go to America, where she seems to think life is oh, so much better and oh, so much easier and oh, so much more profitable... even for a foreigner with little in the way of references or collateral.

LOL

Meanwhile, Gang soo is making more friends, helping more people, and still searching for his eomeoni while also getting slightly closer to the hardened Dan ae.

False imprisonment, bribery, blackmail, and ham fisting commence (which is why it gave off a throw-back vibe and maybe why I liked this one) with Gang soo taking the brunt of most evil while the wealthy continue to walk over him and his friends on their way to the top.

IN the Romance Novel world, we call this formulaic writing, in which a contracted author is expected to churn out X number of novels per year using the Publisher's fill-in-the-blanks method of writing each novel.

So, the story tends to begin with the H/h at odds, followed by some rapid-fire dialogue, insta-love, sex within the first 48, and in-between, either a suspense (he's former SEAL and she's running from the mob), or land grabbing (he owns something she wants or she owns something he wants), which causes the needed rift to occur, and then between all of the yelling and sex, a compromise occurs, thus establishing the expected HEA.

With Korean dramas, it's about the same only the Producers insist on things like Rise/Fall at least every other episode.

Sweet/Sour in a relationship in which the H/h are sour for about 10 of 16 episodes before the light bulb moment occurs and then it is Sweet for the duration, although most Producers will insist on at least two more Rise/Fall instances to occur before anyone gets to kiss.

And, speaking of Kissing, Strongest Deliveryman surprised me in that once the relationship was established, these two made out on a regular basis, and even in front of others a few times!

mrshowtime-d3evoyi

As for the myriad aside characters and at least three sub-plots, there isn't much to report because if you are a hard-core fan like me, you know the drill.

Boy meets Girl, Girl hates Boy, Girl Two arrives on scene and falls for Boy, Boy snubs Girl Two but ends up in a few compromising positions to lead Girl One to think Boy is a playa.

Boy fights for Girl One's affections while also struggling to nicely let down Girl Two.

Boy Two arrives on the scene and starts out interest in Girl One, causing Boy One to get jealous, Girl One snubs Boy Two, thus nudging him in the direction of Girl Two.

Girl Two clings to her one-sided love while Boy Two slowly grows fond of Girl Two, and then near the end of the 16th episode, Boy is with Girl and Boy Two is with Girl Two.

Blah, blah, blah.

There were funny moments, tearful moments, rooting-for-them moments, far-fetched moments, WTF moments, and Aw, shucks moments.

A well-rounded amount of a little bit of everything to whet your KDo palate, I think.

To be fair and honest, this wasn't the greatest KDo I've ever seen, and it isn't likely it even deserves the 4 star rating I gave it, but for the old-timey factor alone, but also the root-for-em story line, I have to say a lot of you need to go back and give this one another chance.

I'll never understand Korean politics, business acumen, or the way things work over there as far as what is actually legal, realistic, and businesslike, but I did detect quite a few WTF moments even with my general lack of overall knowledge about such things.

Still, it just wasn't enough to dissuade me from watching clean through, enjoying what I saw, and rooting for the underdog start to finish.

I wanted to see them succeed, I wanted to witness the HEA, and I liked both leads enough to want to see them get through it all to arrive at their much-deserved (according to la-la land standards) reaped rewards.

Strongest Deliveryman

Read More