Rewatched: Extra-Ordinary You (어쩌다 발견한 하루)
어쩌다 발견한 하루 – eojjeoda balgyeonhan halu – A Day Found By Chance
Extra-Ordinary You is one of those dramas I can always go back to. Whether I need a laugh, a cry, or a nice little romance. What’s crazy is I had never planned to watch it at first. High School dramas, romances specifically, tended to always be a miss for me. Obviously, there are always exceptions to the rules. Extra-Ordinary You is one of those exceptions.
I want to preface this with I am usually not a rewatch drama type of girlie. There are very few I will go back to. Does that mean I don’t enjoy the one I don’t rewatch? Absolutely not. But sometimes once is the perfect amount.
Back to your regularly scheduled Rewatching.
Extra-Ordinary You follows Eun Dan-O (Kim Hye-Yoon) a high school student in an elite private school with her betrothed Baek Kyung (Lee Jae-Wook) and his group of friends known as A3. While she chases him like a puppy, he has no interest in her, in fact he seems to absolutely hate her. While she deals with his lack of interest and her health problems she starts to notice lapses in time, and an odd sound every time a lapse happens.
That’s when she finds out that she is actually a character in a 만화 (manhwa – Korean comics/print cartoons). Not only does she find out she is a character, she isn’t even the main character but a secondary with a short time to live due to the health problems. She is determined to change her fate and during one attempt she tumbles down the stairs but a the strong back of a mysterious someone saved her. She searches for the owner of the back and finds a tall handsome young man (Rowoon), who has no name. She believes he is the answer to changing her story and as their relationship grows she finally gives him the name Haru. From there the story really becomes a whirlwind and sweeps Dan-O and Haru into the wild world of the 만화 stage and their life off stage.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT!
The reason I usually tended to skip high school romances dramas was that they tend to be very young. Which I mean, obviously, they’re high school romances. I am not their demographic and that’s all good. But I decided to give this one a go because, if I’m being honest, I am a big Rowoon fan. I had seen him in Click Your Heart which was a choose your own path drama to promote SF9 before they debuted. In fact, they weren’t even SF9 at that point.
Anyway, Rowoon. Big fan.
While Rowoon was what brought me to attempt the drama, the reason I stayed was the story itself. The way they poked fun at high school dramas and 만화’s but still showed the appreciation for the storytelling was lighthearted, comical, and still heartwarming. The mocking of tropes like: the rich boy and the scholarship girl are the leads who start as him being a bully towards her but soon falls for her, the mother who hates the poor girl because her rich son will ruin his future being with her, the group of evil girls set to make the scholarship girls life an absolute hell locking her in rooms, dumping food on her head, etc.
And while they were the 만화’s leads who had their own story being told, our leads were Dan-O and Haru. Haru is adorable and all around loveable. I’m not just saying that because it’s Rowoon. He is basically experiencing things for the ‘first’ time with Dan-O. He is becoming someone, his own person, not just a no name in the background of the 만화. And as their relationship grows, we learn this is in fact not their ‘first’ time.
The plot adds a trope that I find tends to be overused in fantasy-esque dramas. That being that these characters were ill fated in the past and them coming together in the present will also end tragically. But for these characters it wasn’t the past but in fact another 만화. They were even some of the main characters in the previous story.
More characters from the 만화 start to become aware of themselves and the one that stole my heart and the heart of many other drama fans was Baek Kyung. He had some of my favorite character growth and it broke my heart he didn’t get the girl. Even when I wanted and knew Haru was the one for Dan-O.
Baek Kyung was evil. But that was his character ‘on stage’ in the 만화. When ‘off stage’ and as he slowly becomes aware of himself he becomes sweet, caring, kind, and you see his family trauma. That family trauma off stage brings to light why he is the way he is. But the scenes that really had me screaming for him to get the girl, was him remembering ‘bibbidi bobbdi boo’ when he would be with Dan-O in the hospital as young children and she has to take her medications, and when you realize the flowers he would bring her every time he visited her in the hospital meant she is the only one who knows his true self and feelings.
OH! And how can I forgot when she reverts back to a character who forgets what happens off stage and is all lovey dovey with him while forgetting Haru exists?! That whole thing broke my heart. He had finally acknowledged his feelings and now his love was acknowledging them back, but he knew the truth. He knew he wasn’t the one for her, and she was in love with Haru even if she couldn’t remember. He enjoyed the small bit of time with her before making the right decision and helping Haru to get Dan-O back.
I really think this show skyrocketed both those two male leads into their future shows and careers. And the female lead is currently in a new drama I am obsessed with which I will be talking about in a future post.
All-in-all, this drama really caught and kept my attention for the entire show. Initially it was through the laughs of watching 만화 characters not know what or who they were, but by the end, the stories of the real people, not their on stage presence is what really kept me intrigued and excited for the next episodes. Which is why this is Extra-Ordinary You is and will stay on my rewatch list and I hope you will give it a shot as well.
너의 시선이 머무는 곳에 Episode 1-2 Review
너의 시선이 머무는 곳에 epi 1-2 review
We’ve been dying for this show to come out ever since @blworld1 on Instagram shared it on their story. A Korean BL drama?!?! Like HELLLLOOOOO, we knew we were ready for our two worlds to collide. And now it is finally here so we are going to give our thoughts every week about the two episodes airing that week.
We couldn’t even wait until it was fully subtitled that’s how excited we were! We also found this was a great way for us to practice the skills we learn and try and teach here on the site. We re-watched with subtitles a little while later to confirm what we believed to be said and we were pleasantly surprised that we were able to grasp close to 75-80% of the show. Now let’s get into the good stuff.
WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT! If you don’t want to know before you watch then pause on reading, watch, and then come back to us so we can have a full-on discussion.
1화 (huwa-chapter/episode): 안 좋은 버릇 (an jueun boreut – bad habits)
The first episode had similarities to most shows. Characters were introduced, their roles to the story identified, and what we need to know for us to proceed with the rest of the show was learned. We understood from the trailers that the relationship between 한 내 주 (they call him Han TAE Joo in the romanization but his name tag read내 주) is a wealthy heir to a large company while 강 국 (Kang Gook) is his not so well off bodyguard. What we didn’t know from the trailer was that 내 주 is supposed to keep his identity unknown to the world and 강 국 is there to protect not only the secret but also 내 주.
That doesn’t go so well as in the first two minutes of the show 내 주 get’s into a fight because he keeps stealing this other dude’s girlfriends and then brags to the bully that he is the son of the president of the super big company. To be fair, if three of your girlfriends are seeking comfort somewhere else…take a look at yourself bruh.
As the episode proceeds, we find that 내 주’s father is, to put it bluntly, a dick. Like all rich parents in K-dramas are. He takes out his anger on 강 국 instead of his own son, hinting about ‘a habit’ his son has. Now this bit confused us. What habit is he talking about? Fighting? Girls? Or, does his father assume and/or know his son is gay?
To us 내 주 doesn’t seem to know he’s gay, or at least plays a very naive boy who is unsure where his feelings lie. Like he calls 강 국 “자기야” (jagiya- honey/darling). 강 국 on the other hand seems to wear his sexually frustrated feelings on his sleeve however much he tries to push his feelings aside.
For real if 강 국looked at us the way he looks at 내 주, nsfw things would have already been happening. It is evident from the second he comes on the screen that his feelings for 내 주 are not simply bodyguard and friend.
As 강 국 gives 내 주 first aid in their shared apartment (the rich father put them in a small, ‘average’ liveable space to keep up the mediocre appearance to the rest of the world) they start to rough house making quips and jokes about each other and their fighting techniques. And then that sexual tension that 강 국 so easily portrays comes to hit us head on when 내 주 plays with his earlobe. Rendering 강 국 useless and also hella turned on.
At the end of the episode, the bully who clearly has girl issues comes to apologize and 내 주 chooses to befriend the kid joking it will make it easier to not steal his girlfriends. But then he goes to grab the boys earlobe and 강 국 is not having it.
OUR FAV SCENE: When they go to grab a bite to eat and the woman who owns the shop asked if 강 국 is the attacker and 내 주 is the defense. (Essentially seme/uke top/bottom) Basically this woman is us in 20-30 years and that’s why we loved this scene.
Our cutest scene: When 강 국is taking care of 내 주 and내 주 gets all adorable saying he doesn’t want to go to England (which his father threatened him with) and starts rubbing himself on 강 국 like a little puppy. The actor does give us puppy dog vibes to begin with, so this just solidified his little doggy look.
Our least fav scene: We know this sounds messed up, but any scene with the girl, who we can tell is going to be the strain in the boys’ relationship, is just not for us. She just rubs us the wrong way. I mean she walks into her first scene a legit sneezes loudly not covering her mouth or anything. We outright cringed. Like hello, pandemic? And for real…it’s just basic manners and hygiene. #sorrynotsorry
2 화 : 동등한 관계 (dungdoonghan gwangae – equal partnership/relationship)
Now here is where the story starts to get interesting. And by interesting we do mean the plot thickens, but we also mean the tension builds even more between 강 국 and 내 주. After the incident with 내 주 grabbing the bully’s ear and 강 국 not having it, our two lead boys decide to have a sparring match to prove who really is the better fighter. And now all the fun juicy stuff our ‘hard stan’ BL hearts love takes front stage. 강 국 takes off his shirt to reveal a very sexy back (yeah no abs, we were a crushed but don’t worry we’re on the mend) and 내 주 even compliments his handsome frame. Who wouldn’t?! Boy has a nice backside.
We come to find our that내 주 gave that annoying girl, who honestly we don’t even know if we got her name or not…we don’t care, 강 국’s real phone number! UGH! The nerve of him. 강 국 is not impressed and doesn’t get why 내 주 had to step in and make that move for him. As they begin to spar, (this is where our hearts started to mend) we were trying to hold back our squeals at their heavy breathing, groans, and moans. It was a struggle. And not to mention they seemed to actually have some solid moves.
강 국’s phone keeps blowing up, (GIRL can you get the freakin picture?! He isn’t interested) and while distracted내 주 starts touching 강 국’s bare chest. *Cue the hallelujah chorus on this one* But to cover up the fact he was most likely enjoying the touch, 강 국 puts the hand in a back bend that ends up injuring our rich boy lead’s wrist.
Oh what a shame. NOT! Now our lovely 내 주 needs help doing the most basic of things. “Like what?” you maybe asking yourself. Oh…ya know…cooking…cleaning…showering.
Our bodies hit the floor, our souls were sent to outer space, and then the episode ended, our souls sky rocket back into our bodies, which sat up from the floor and proceed to punch our TV screens for doing us dirty like that.
OUR FAV SCENE: The sparring scene. Do we really need to explain ourselves? Pretty sure we did above.
Our cutest scene: The shower scene. It isn’t a sexual scene at all, like one might think from us freaking out over it. The way 강 국 takes care of 내 주 is sweet. The way he tenderly moves the shampooed hair from 내 주’s ears and softly scrubs at the boys scalp… let’s say our hearts pitter pattered. It was such a soft and gentle moment.
Our least favorite scene: Once again, any scene with this girl just…ugh. Her mother, who is our spirit animal, says to not interfere with the boys relationship. SHE CAN TELL THEY HAVE A RELATIONSHIP, and yet her daughter is like, “nah, they aren’t like that. I’m gonna pursue this dude who gave me a fake number, totally on accident, because he def likes me.” Beesh BYE!
If you want to watch the show yourself and see everything we talked about and more, the show is airing on Viki. Check it out. So far we have not been disappointed and neither will you. If you want to chat about the show feel free to reach out to us on Instagram (@koreanfromcontext) or Twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt). We would love to hear if you’ve started the show and what you think!
SOCIAL DISTANCING CONCERT! KCON-TACT 2020 SUMMER
With every concert for the foreseeable future getting postponed or even cancelled, a lot of fans are feeling the NCD (No Concert Depression) sinking in. And when K-con announced its cancellation of the NYC event, all hope was lost our in eyes here at Korean From Context. Not only just for seeing an unforgettable concert, but seeing our concert buddies, shopping the cool booths, and enjoying k-town with friends who are new to the NYC scene.
But KCON wouldn’t let a cancellation and social distancing stop them from providing fans some sort of concert experience. Pulling inspiration from groups like BTS, NCT, and others, who have been having viral concerts or even just all day binge-thons of their previously filmed tours, KCON came up with a way to take that idea and turn it into something more interactive.
KCON-TACT 2020 SUMMER is going to be a 7-day 24 hour event. Not only will they be streaming past KCON concerts, they will also be sharing new live performances from some of our favorite artists (TBA), behind the scenes videos, meet and greet sessions, influencer led panels, and so much more!
And what makes this event more worthwhile is the fact that a portion of the proceeds will be going to UNESCO’s Learning Never Stops campaign which is helping students around the world continue their education during these COVID times.
Mark your calendars for June 20-26th and get ready to scream “LET’S KCON” from the comfort of your own home.
Korean BL Drama? Finally!
While there have been some Korean BL movies, and there have been a TON of BL 만화, we’ve been dying to see a solid Korean BL series. Sure, there have been some dramas that have tossed a gay couple here or there into the plot line (The Lovers, Love With Flaws, Reply 1997) and we are talking tops one or two K-dramas that were specifically focusing of BL romances. Sadly, most of the major Korean BL stories don’t have happy endings.
But guess what? We finally have it. Yes, we finally have a Korean BL drama coming to our computer screens May 22, and with names we know and are excited to see on screen.
너의시 선이 머무는 곳에 (noweeshee sonee momoonoon gusae – Where your eyes linger) is the story of Tae Joo (played by Han Gi Chan), a young heir to his family’s company, and his body guard Goo Koo (played by Jang Eui Soo), who, while protecting Tae Joo, also becomes his friend and confidant. But that friendship becomes something more. While Goo Koo seems to be more aware of his feelings, they both seem scared to admit what the tension between them really is.
When we heard a Korean BL was coming we knew we were going to be excited. But when we heard a contestant of Produce 101 was going to be one of the leads we knew we had to watch. Now all we can pray for is that this has a happy ending.
We are hoping to cover this drama as it progresses but since it isnt’t released just yet, here are the two trailers they have dropped. This will be available on VIKI May 22nd.
Our Top 10 K-Drama Kisses
We like kisses ok? BL or otherwise. Kisses are kisses and as romance obsessed humans, kisses are important. We can lose all interest in a show if the kiss lacks in emotion and decent kissing form. Yeah. We take kisses that seriously. Sometimes if we haven’t watched a drama we will go to our girl @kdrama.kisscene on Instagram to see some quality kisses and make the decision to watch the drama.
ON TO THE KISSES!
10. The Liar and His Lover (그녀는 거짓말을 너무 사랑해)
We are kicking it off short and sweet with this kiss. Now this drama…well tbh wasn’t good at all. The concept lacked a LOT, and it was just…just not good. The one thing we did love however, was the band that was the best friends of the male lead. Shockingly we will see the kissing ability of one of the other members of the band in a future number in this chart. But this kiss was between the band leader who is also the lead singer, and sexy mf, played by the god who is Sung Joo of UNIQ, and their old high school friend who became their manager. They always flirted and when they are hanging out they realize their romantic connection. Only problem is she believes he doesn’t like her because he never received her confession letter when they were in high school. After the misunderstanding they share a very adorable kiss.
9. She Was Pretty (그녀는 예뻤다)
This was the first drama we learned we had to wait for episodes to come out every week like normal tv shows. Seriously, it was rough. And while we disliked the concept of the show, Park Seo Jun being a douche to the not so attractive girl until he realizes it’s the pretty girl he was in love with when he was younger, we have to admit their relationship after that fact was shockingly cute and adorable. This kiss comes when he is trying to convince her to stay the night at his place. Nervously she declines, but once she leaves, she realizes she doesn’t want to go and so she knocks on his door to make up an excuse to stay. He pulls her back into his apartment for the bow chika wow wow and this kiss was our first look into the slightly steamy kissing K-dramas had to offer.
8. I’m Not A Robot (로봇이 아니야)
If we had started this website earlier, and started making these lists earlier, we would of made lists for top dramas of every year since we’ve started watching dramas. And this drama would probably be in the top 3 of 2017-2018. It was fun, cute, romantic and all around adorable but heartfelt and made us cry a few times. Our kiss is from when our two leads have finally resolved their problems, which tbh are A LOT, and she is making him her super-secret recipe, which is just covering up the fact she can’t cook well. He knew about the recipe due to her young niece telling him about it. And he sees how much she loves him, and how much he loves her and smooches the heck out of her. It is a solid kiss and when he pulls her closer…oof!
7. Mistress (미스트리스)
We didn’t watch this show. I know we said kisses can make us watch shows but we did try to watch this drama and shockingly with all the steamy scenes in it, the plot wasn’t for us. But this scene? The biggest of oofs! This scene is by far the MOST sexy scene we’ve seen in a k-drama. No lie, we watched the scene several times, and at one point drooled. We admit that to all of you. We drooled. Sex in a car. IN A K-DRAMA?! Seriously we can’t even describe how hot this scene is so just watch for yourself.
6. 1% of Something (1%의 어떤 것)
Clearly dudes pushing women against a wall really sends us. This drama was an example of the total cliché rich guy, poor woman, thrown together by a contract, and fall madly in love with each other, but someone tries to stop their love from thriving. But it was cute, and while cliché, sometimes we need clichés in our lives. This kiss is one of our favorite scenes in the show as well. It was just a funny little feel good kiss when he realizes he wants more than just a kiss. And she looks like she is all for it. He presses her against the wall after she just gets out of the shower (don’t worry she has a robe on. He isn’t a total horn dog), and just makes her melt. She’s gonna need another shower after he’s done with her. Too much?
5. Clean With A Passion For Now (일단 뜨겁게 청소하라!!)
We loved this drama. We feel it was very underrated and needs more appreciation. And this kiss was one of the ultimate kisses of the show. She makes it clear she is going to spend the night in his house and then kisses him to make her meaning known. When it truly clicks in his head what she is implying he lifts her up with ease, endlessly kissing her before placing her on the counter to continue their make-out session. We wished they continued to the bedroom but ya know, we take what we can get. Oddly one of our favorite things about this kiss was their outfits. Sounds weird, we know, but they complimented each other so well that we took note.
4. Search:WWW (검색어를 입력하세요)
TWO kisses in this drama deserve the #4 spot. We couldn’t choose between the two so we chose both! We really loved this drama and the strong women it provided for us to be inspired by. They all had their problems, but dealt with them and came out stronger. Two of the leading women had some pretty adorable relationships. And also shared some great kisses. A kiss shared by that #10 other band member, Jang Ki-young, we mentioned. The coffee making scene was super adorable and the ASMR killed us. The only things heard are the coffee maker and their smooching lips. Amazing. The second kiss, a confessional kiss between a fangirl and the man she has fangirled over. A true fan fic moment right there. She surprised attacked him and he got her right back. We should also mention the man she kissed is also the second lead in Extraordinary You. And we were very excited to know he had some solid kissing abilities with those nice lips.
3. Suspicious Partner (수상한 파트너)
Ji Chang Wook is bae. That is all you really need to know for this kiss. But if you need more than that, this kiss is steamy, steamy, steamy! We weren’t expecting that kinda make-out session from a lawyer drama. But this lawyer drama wasn’t like many lawyer dramas we’ve watched. Possibly why we liked this one more than most. We loved this kiss so damn much we can’t even describe it. And while the kiss was amazing in the drama, we attached the behind the scenes of the kiss because…WOW. They really went in. It made a lot of sense why people thought the two were dating in real life.
2. W: Two Worlds (더블유)
Our number one K-drama has the number two spot in our kisses list. We think this kiss is what sold us on Lee Jung Suk as an actor. And once again the fashion during this kiss made us sweat. That teal suit with the white stripes at the cuffs, oh my lawd. *chef kiss* The kiss. Let’s focus on the kiss. This one was emotional as he finally admits his feelings for the woman who holds the key to his destiny. Not only does he lift her out her seat to drop her on the table, it involves handcuffs.
1. What’s Wrong Secretary Kim? (김비서가 왜 그럴까)
Park Seo Jun makes his second appearance on this list and it so happens to be the #1 spot! Yes, he is THAT great of a kisser. I mean we could make a whole top 10 of his kisses. Maybe we should? Let us know what you think. But back to this particular kiss. The #1 kiss. Why is this #1? Maybe it’s the pressing her up against the wall, maybe it’s the heavy breathing, maybe it’s her pulling off his tie, maybe it’s them tumbling onto his bed, or maybe it’s him pulling off his shirt and dropping down to tell her he loves her. It could be any one of those things. Or all of them combining to make a glorious sexy make-out to the bed scene. Yeah, it’s definitely all of them.
What do you think of our top 10 kisses. Have you watched these dramas? What are your favorite K-Drama kisses? Let us know!
Our Top 10 K-Dramas
This Tuesday’s list is brought to you buy our love of what helped create this website. K-DRAMAS! Hopefully all you BL-er’s aren’t disappointed, we promise to have more BL goodness in the future so please look forward to it. But back to the list that is this list. During this stay-at-home, don’t leave EVER, quarantine, you may be wondering, “What can I binge today?” Solid question. And in a large, very general way, we will respond, “K-dramas DUH.”
But there are wayyyyy too many K-drama’s out there and if you’re new to the scene, you might feel that the sheer amount of decisions can be discouraging you from even starting. Well fear not! We are here to provide our top 10 k-dramas. Think of it as the entry into finding what you like, and from here you can venture out into the vast k-drama world and not feel so frustrated.
10. Healer (힐러)
Coming in at #10 is a show that has everything someone could want from a show. Hilarity, action, murder, mystery, and romance. Oh, it also has Ji Chang Wook. So that’s a thing. He is a super-secret ‘deliveryman’ who gets paid bookoo bucks to make special deliveries to people. He is known as ‘Healer’. He doesn’t know what he’s delivering but, he knows that it most likely isn’t the most legit business dealings. People begin hunting him down as he’s been delivering very important blackmail information. His badass self goes undercover as a nerdy, socially awkward journalist and meets a woman who is determined to make name for herself in the world of news. They team up to find out who Healer is, obviously he knows who he is, and suddenly a dark underbelly is uncovered that threatens to tear apart corrupt businessmen and politicians alike. This really is a drama to get you into all sorts of dramas.
9. Save Me (구해줘)
If romance isn’t your thing…then why the hell are you getting into k-dramas? WE KID! WE KID! But also, think about it. Almost every k-drama has some sort of love plot line. No matter how big or small. But this drama has probably the SMALLEST amount of romance. This drama is dark AF and revolves around a religious cult that takes a small farming town by storm. Brain washing citizens into believing in some higher being that will bring them enlightenment. But only if they buy what the cult is producing and work for no pay because it’s what the higher person says is a good thing to do. A girl moves into town with her family and her brother is instantly the boy bullies choose to make miserable. She is not about to let it slide and while trying to fight them off meets a group of four best friends, two of which form a crush on her. But while trying to save the brother from the bullies, the brother chooses to end his life. Fraught with grief the father tries to find solace and ends up finding it in the cult. Crazy shiz goes down for the rest of the show and you will never be bored. We were on the edge of our seats every episode.
8. My Love From Another Star (별에서 온 그대)
We always have to put what started it all on our lists. And this drama is just that. This drama started off strong, got a little boring in the middle, and had a stellar finish. It’s about an alien- hold up, hold up, let us finish. It’s about an alien, who had been stuck on Earth for hundreds of years, unable to get home, when an obnoxious, and very annoying k-drama actress moves in next door to him in his luxury apartment building. Since he is an alien he has super sonic hearing (obviously) and can hear through the walls as she constantly complains and just all around of her jackassery which pushes him to a breaking point. But then weirdly they form a friendship, which inevitably grows into love, and well you’ll have to watch the show to see how everything transpires.
7. Circle (써클: 이어진 두 세계)
Another drama where romance was not the focus and also our introduction to actor Yeo Jin Goo and the acting abilities of Gikwang of Highlight. Two men who inspired characters in our K-drama book Seoul Searching. This is a sci-fi drama that takes place in two different time periods but focuses on the same people throughout. One world is the one we all know as present day while the other is this bizarre future where everyone is implanted with this weird chip that erases bits of your memory. Not that people realize that’s what they paid for. And throughout you are unsure of who exactly the story is following. It is full of suspense, mystery, and aliens. The plot is so out of the ordinary we were sucked in by the first episode and couldn’t escape. You will never see major plot twists coming, and you will most likely scream at the end, but that’s life my dudes.
6. Tempted (The Great Seducer) (위대한 유혹자)
If we are being 100% honest, this show is not the best show there is out there. BUT we will say Woo Do Hwan, the inspiration for Hwan Soo in Seoul Searching, is the sexy lead of this show who was the reason we watched until the bitter end. He is a bad boy, with major daddy issues, and two friends, who are not the greatest of people. In fact, his best girl friend is the absolute worst and loves to destroy people’s lives since her mom destroyed hers. This show is straight drama. ALL DRAMA. ALL. THE. TIME. Just when you think something good is happening, a car hits a bish, parents have affairs, and people come to kill your love. But we have to say Woo Do Hwan’s sensually deep, slow, voice makes everything ok. The lead girl is played by Joy, of k-pop girl group Red Velvet. We aren’t the biggest fans of her acting, but we have to say we saw major improvements in this drama from previous ones. This is a drama for people who who love to say “I am not someone who likes drama in my life. I like to be drama free.” Because we know you’re lying through your teeth, so grab some popcorn and much to your hearts content.
5. Extraordinary You (어쩌다 발견한 하루)
This drama was one that took us totally by surprise. We tend to avoid high school dramas. They are sometimes too dramatic, cliché, and don’t target at people our age. Hence why we don’t watch them. But when we saw Rowoon from SF9 and one of our newest k-drama actor obsessions, Lee Jae Wook, were the male leads, we threw our previous conceptions aside and watched a high school drama. But this truly wasn’t like any other high school drama we had ever seen. In fact, the reason we love it so much is because it thrives off making fun of high school plot lines while also creating a totally insane, romantic, heart wrenching, funny, and life altering show that had us praying for the next episode to come out. Lucky for you guys it’s binge-able. All shows on this list, minus one, are completed so during this quarantine you can go ham and binge to your hearts content. This story focuses around a girl who seemingly looks to have a good life. She’s pretty, her family has money, she is well liked in school, but she does have a heart condition that causes some minor issues here or there. Suddenly she starts to notice odd things happen around her. Time passes but she doesn’t remember what happened, her friends constantly repeat themselves but don’t realize it, she thinks her heart is causing issues in her life. FUN FACT: It’s not her heart. She is a character in a 만화! Once finding out she is determined to change her plot line, but it comes with some costs. Find out when you watch. You won’t be disappointed. (PS we told our friend at Forbes about this article and she binged the whole show and wrote and article about it. #justsaying)
4. Love Alarm (좋아하면 울리는)
And now for the only show that has yet to be completed. And with this whole coronavirus craziness we don’t know when it actually will. This drama is when Netflix tried to make k-dramas like all other shows in the world and create multiple seasons out of a show that could’ve easily been one. We’ve noticed, for now at least, they’ve realized the error in their ways and have been providing a normal season length. Anywho, this six episode ‘season’ revolves around a girl, fairly normal school life, but an ugly step sister (actually her cousin) and an evil step mother (her aunt) who are making her pay for the debt of her dead parents. Trust us, the shiz is messed up and her aunt is a piece of crap, but that isn’t the main focus of the show. The main focus is the fact a new app comes on the market that shows you if someone within 10 meters of you is in love with you. ‘JoAlarm’ aka Love Alarm. She refuses to download it and it catches the attention of the sexy new boy in school. He chases her, and falls in love. Too bad his best friend has been in love with her for ages. Oh well the Love Alarm sounds off when the Love Alarm sounds off.
3. Crash Landing On You (사랑의 불시착)
A show that we have been able to convince even non interested parties in is Crash Landing On You. Yep. People who didn’t want to even start k-dramas have binged and fell in love with Captain Ri and his band of merry men as they navigate the worlds of North and South Korea. This drama is in the top three for so many reasons. The love story is one for the flipping ages, the friendships that are created between all the characters sends us, and well the plot line is refreshing, fun, filled with love and action and tear jerking scenes that everyone can love this drama. A well-known CEO decides to be the test subject of a new paragliding suit. Too bad a freak storm sends her whirling around and landing in a tree stuck until someone can find her. Luckily someone does. A North Korean soldier. She landed in North Korea! Trying to escape proves fruitless and the soldier does what he can to help her escape not only to keep her safe, but to keep him and his team out of fire for failing to do their jobs. But since North Korea doesn’t come to play, other officers start to get involved and things start to take a turn for the worst. Corruption, murder, and the CEO and soldiers past all come to light and well…we really don’t want to spoil this story for you guys. Just trust us, this is one that you will not soon forget.
2. Reply 1988 (응답하라 1988)
The first drama we got Sammie’s mother to watch is this beautiful masterpiece of a semi-historical drama. When you think historical you think anything before the 1900’s so let’s call this a throwback masterpiece. A story of four neighborhood friends growing up in half block radius, whose parents are just as close, and how they navigate life in South Korea during the late 80’s and early 90’s. While the teenagers were filled with comedy, love and heartbreak, the parents were really an amazing plot line as well that left Sammie’s mom sobbing, both laughing and heartfelt, along with us. We also learned some crazy laws like, did you know that people with the same last names couldn’t marry? We sure as heck didn’t.
We couldn’t find a trailer but we decided to share one of the funny scenes that legit had us rolling at how embarrassing it was.
1. W: Two Worlds (더블유)
If you follow us on Instagram (@koreanfromcontext) or Twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt) we have mentioned our love for this show. Not even just this show but a very specific episode. If you remember, wow, you’ve been here awhile! Thanks for staying with us! This show wasn’t initially a favorite of ours. In fact, we didn’t watch it when it came out because we, don’t come for us yet, didn’t find Lee Jong Suk all that attractive. We have since taken that back and are very loyal to our boy. We aren’t even sure why we chose to finally watch but now it’s here at the number one spot so clearly it was good. We have a love for 만화 , obviously since two of the titles here revolve around the concept as well as our last list was all about BL 만화. This story is even crazier than Extraordinary You. What if you liked a story so much, but didn’t like the plot so you got sucked into the story so you could change it? And then the lead of the story falls in love with you, and the story begins to change, and characters begin to disappear and people in the story and outside are trying to kill you both? And then you have to constantly change the story so that it can fix itself and your 만화 love ends up in the real world? Yeah, this drama is all of that and a bag of chips and we can re-watch until the cows come home. (We mean that literally we live in farm country lol) Also the orchestral scores are so epic. OST solid but the ORCHESTRAL SCORES ARE THE MOST AMAZING!
So what do you think? Have you watched any of these dramas? Are you going to? What are some of your favorite dramas? We want to know!
Travel NYC like, NCT127, The Boyz, and others
We have done one of these before. A spot that several idols have visited, and even actors have visited in NYC. Today we are offering you another such location. This place is fairly new to New York. Only being open to the public for almost a year at this point. We had actually seen it while it was being built and had no clue what the heck it was. We were so confused. A weird upside down pyramid, honeycomb looking thing with stairs? Huh?
But sure enough when it was revealed to the public as a climbable peace of art, we wanted to go! And sure enough The Boyz and NCT127 wanted to as well. We actually posted on Instagram when we first went, before Travel NYC Like ___ was a thought in our minds.
Meet The Vessel. Located between 10th and 11th Ave and 32nd and 33rd St, this 15 story, stair climbing honeycomb maze with amazing views of the harbor, and the newly built Hudson Yards resides.
The views truly are unparalleled and once at the top, as the wind hits your face you fell an the sense of accomplishment is amazing. You can take breaks going up, finding new angles to observe the city and new sights you may not have noticed before and enjoy the fact that you have now travelled NYC like The Boyz, NCT127, and others!
(Edit: sadly this location is also home to a very tragic event that happened this weekend. RIP young soul, may you no longer be in pain)
Stray Kids District 9 Unlock at Hulu Theater Unlocked Our Cold Dead Hearts
On January 29th, 2020, Stray Kids came to New York City to show the city that never sleeps what they are made of. And clearly they are made of talented singers, rappers, and dancers.
Now before we dive into the pandemonium of the show, we would like to admit something. Please don’t leave this page when you read this. We swear we will make it up to you!
We were not that into Stray Kids before the show. Hold on, hold on, HOLD ON!
But the second the show started we realized what we had been missing out on and we now stan. HARD. We are truly Stays now.
Ok so now let’s crack into the show. We did know several of the songs they performed, like “District 9” and “Double Knot”, which we have always liked but when we saw the performance live it was a whole new level of appreciation. These dudes are some of the best dancers we have seen live. Who knew one could body roll in that many positions? Seriously, if you made a drinking game with simply the amount of times they body rolled throughout the concert…well let’s just say you would most likely need your stomach pumped from alcohol poisoning.
And to add to the body rolls, they were climbing on each other, jumping over each other, and not like a normal frog hop. No, no, no. We can’t remember which members it was but the one was standing straight up and another member split jumped over him. With the shortest member still being over 5 and a half feet tall that is insanely impressive.
As they performed so many other bops that we now have downloaded and added to all our playlists like, “I am YOU,” “Question,” and “YAYAYA,” the lights coming together with the cinematic large screens exploding with color and aesthetic visuals, told a story of misfits finding a place to call home amongst each other. “Stray Kids everywhere all around the world,” as they repeated all throughout the night sent an energy through the whole place of love and understanding.
And like every group who tend to change their style and sound for an album or two, Stray Kids performed some of their ‘softer’ bops side with “Get Cool” and “Astronaut”. Once again, the dancing for these blew us away. They even had 3RACHA, their rap sub-unit, and their vocal line perform singular songs.
So as we weren’t huge Stray Kids stans prior to this concert, we were unfamiliar with who were the main vocalists, rappers, dancers and all that jazz. Let’s break down what we figured out about the members. Umm…Felix? Who said a boy with that baby face could have a voice deeper than T.O.P from Big Bang?! Oh and when he decided to flaunt his nice abs?! Boy! Big oof! And then the boy stood there and did the Renegade dance…COME GET YOUR MAN STAYS!
Followed up by Hyunjin who would go hard in his verses, while body rolling in a see through shirt leaving little to our imaginations, and literally had everyone in the venue screaming, us included. Han was no different. Seducing the crowd with his voice and the way he would look into the crowd? Lawd have mercy!
And Changbin’s speed when rapping? Good God, we wanted to get on our knees and apologize for sleeping on all the talent in this group. And the disrespectfully gorgeous and melodic voices of Bang Chan, I.N, Lee Know and Seungmin? We are deeply apologetic to these boys and we hope they will forgive us.
The thing that got us, besides the amazing singing, and rapping during “MIROH,” and “갑자기 분위기 싸해질 필요 없잖아요 (gabjagi bun-wigi ssahaejil pil-yo eobsjanh-ayo- You don’t have to get in a fighting mood suddenly) (Awkward Silence),” was how sincerely happy they were as Stays sang their songs along with them, danced with them, and cheered them on during their ments. That’s what really sold us on becoming Stays ourselves. All the members looked touched as they looked out to the crowd and spoke from their hearts about their excitement of being in New York again.
As they were wrapping up the normal part of the concert (as in not the encore we ALL know will be coming after they make their change into their tour shirts) they played the first song we ever heard from them, “Hellevator,” which was their pre-debut song which was when we saw so much potential in them that it’s baffling to even us that we didn’t keep up with them.
These guys put on a show that caused us to stan them and become Stays, if that doesn’t sell you on their stage presence, music, and talent, well we don’t know what will. If they are coming to a city near you, get tickets immediately. Stray Kids are a group of talented young men, who have so much heart and raw talent, you wont be disappointed. Check them out in this District 9 Unlock tour, and like us, unlock your cold dead hearts.
Travel NYC like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids
Stray Kids went a lot of different places while being here in New York. And since they’re coming back NEXT WEEK, we decided to do one more before they arrive. Some of the spots we loved (Like when they visited The Roxy hotel, and DUMBO) and some we legitimately try to stay as far away from as possible (like Penn Station and now this new spot).
This spot is actually somewhere we had talked about and been to when ASTRO came to town. Yes, that’s correct. We went back to Times Square. JUST. FOR. YOU! To a section we actually have never even been close to if we’re being honest. We had seen it in videos, pictures, and we knew where it was but since it was in Times Square we avoided it like the plague.
Famous from the Alicia Keys and Jay-Z music video for “Empire State of Mind” those bright red stairs actually hold TKTS, an infamous Broadway ticket selling broker. We say infamous because they say they sell tickets cheap, when really they are the same, if not more than face value for the tickets. Fun fact if you come to NY and want to see a show…don’t go there.
The spot has now become an Instagram mecca for the tourists who come to see Times Square. And the boys of Stray Kids hopped on that bandwagon. And what they do, we do. And we have to admit…
It was pretty cool. Actually really cool. Yes, we will admit that something in Times Square was worth going to see. Between Broadway and 7TH Ave, on 47th St. you will find these large red stairs to climb up and see the enormity of Times Square. And you can snap your shot and check another location off your list as you have now travelled like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids.
Queen’s Channel Sits on a Throne of Quality Content
Queens Channel on YouTube has amassed a following with her cute reactions to MV’s from predominantly Asian artists and dance videos from all over the world! We met her almost two years ago and we knew she was some of the good people. We got to sit down and chat with her at KCON to discuss everything KPOP!
Back in 2012, her mom was the one to be the ultimate fangirl of K-pop. “TVXQ and Super Junior were the ones she was really into. And so I would listen to them with her. From there I got hooked and started finding more groups.”
Queen made it her own. She had always been into dance and seeing all the amazing choreography of the artists made her want to follow along. And so she started actually doing it. Watching videos and following along until she was a pro just like them.
And honestly her dancing is some dope stuff. She also freestyles which blows our minds. (for reference: We can do the cha cha slide…) We asked her what her favorites song at the time was to dance to. She responded fairly quickly, “BlackPink’s 뚜두뚜두 – ddudduddu. It’s just a great song to dance to.”
With all of this behind she still hadn’t made her debut on the internet. What pushed to her start her YouTube channel? Once again, her family had a large influence on that. They brought it up with her growing passion for dance and her love of watching the videos, why not share that with the world and find other people like her. “I wasn’t sure at first, because I was still in school and wasn’t sure I had time. But I decided to give it a try and before I knew it, the channel grew a life of it’s own and now I’m doing YouTube part time.”
Now that YouTube has become a part time career for Queen, we wanted to know her favorite aspect of the channel. She loves making the videos, reacting to new music, practicing dances, all that kind of stuff. But she loves the interaction with all the people who have been there to watch her grow into what she is today, a channel with almost 10K subscribers and a loyal fanbase (us included) who wait patiently for her next videos. She says she is, “forever grateful for the love and support.”
And in true Korean From Context form, we asked the most loaded question we have asked in every interview so far:
What’s the Korean phrase you want people to know?
It did take her a little while to think of one. There were so many she wanted to choose from but she finally chose one that is probably the most rational. “저기요 (chogiyo -excuse me) If you need to get someone’s attention politely it’s your best bet.” After wrapping up our interview we spent the entire two days of Kcon NY together meeting new people and old friends, eating delicious food, and bonding over our love of kpop, kdramas, and Korean skincare. She is one of the kindest most generous people we have met and here at Korean From Context, we are so insanely proud of everything Queen has accomplished and recommend you check out her work. Below is one of her many videos. If you like what you see head over to her channel and hit that subscribe button. And def check out her Instagram @ji_q111) where she posts previews to her new dance videos!
