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Reviews
Un-myeong-cheol-eom neol sa-rang-hae (2014)
An Emotional Roller Coaster Ride
A romantic comedy full of heartrending drama. A story hinting at predestined love. A young woman wins a trip and invites a young man from work she has a crush on. Meanwhile a man is planning a grand proposal for his work obsessed longtime girlfriend.
If my review was only on the acting this would have a much higher score, unfortunately there were several scenes where even I had a difficult time suspending my belief. I also felt that if they had taken the time on a couple of the subplot lines it would have felt less frustrated with the plot holes.
Over all I enjoyed the major story arch, two people who under normal circumstance would never have met are brought together by fate.
Initially, I was put off by Lee Gun's manic personality as played by Jang Hyuk. However, as the story developed and reasons for some of his behavior were revealed, I was amazed at how right his acting choices were. Steadily as the serial became more drama and less romcom, I fell in love with his character.
Kim Mi-young played by Jang Na-ra, started out as a very nice door mat. While her character did not go through major changes in my opinion, her ability to show and evoke various emotions as the character goes through difficulty after difficulty was good.
Unfortunately, the writers did not give all the characters as much room to evolve beyond the caricature they started as. Choi Jin-Hyuk as Daniel, was beautiful to watch, but they did not allow the character to develop beyond the unrequited love guy. He was too nice and patient with everyone and everything.
Yet while I some times became frustrated with some of the choices the characters made, over all I enjoyed the story telling.
I would also like to mention I loved Song Wok-suk as Kim Mi-young's mother and her story line. I loved how she was able to be that mother that scolded her daughter one minute and then grabbed and protected her from anyone else that would dare insult her daughter.
If you are able to suspend your belief on a couple of really impossible scenes, I recommend watching this heartwarming and at times tear flowing love story.
Don-kkot (2017)
An Epic Telling of an Old Storyline Or Machiavelli Could Have Taken Lessons from Attorney Kang
Thank you Netflix. The Hallyu came as a tidal wave with this show. As an American living in India with no knowledge of Korean or it's culture I have become addicted to K-dramas. Money Flower is not the typical Korean romcom that I have been watching recently. The initial episodes lull you into a hopeful snuggle and slowly drops you into an abyss of a power struggle that rivals Hamlet, schemes within schemes.
I had recently watched "You Are My Destiny", and was amazed with the breadth of emotions that Jang Hyuk displayed and caused to resonate within me. While his character went big with his emotions. In Money Flower Jang Hyuk pulls the emotions in tight, while flashing all with clench of the jaw, a purse of his lips, an icy stare or desperate longing. Park Se-young and Jang Seung-jo compliment Jang Hyuk's minimalism with the ability to depict their characters' evolutions from light hearted lovers to abused puppets.
Unlike many other shows where the minor character become caricatures, Money Flower, kept the supporting characters from being flat, allowing each to be multi-faceted. Lee Soon-jae could easily have been a typical autocratic patriarch, someone who needed to be defeated. Yet there were moments of tenderness, love and even doubt in his megalomania.
Normally, I would discuss the story in much more detail, but because the writing, acting, music all came together to create an epic I wanted to praise the craftsmanship that all brought to the table.
The story itself is one told over and over. An illegitimate son trying to get revenge for his mother being thrown away and to take his rightful place at the table. Yes, there is so much more to the tale that is so artfully woven with threads being added to make a rich and vibrant story. In order to take nothing from the experience, I will not say more about the story.
I highly recommend Money Flower.