Gabriela

"Cinderella and The Four Knights" is a modern Cinderella story.

Ha Won is a poor girl who lives with her stepmother and stepsister, who constantly mistreat her. Her father is always away from home for work and when he shows up, he doesn't even acknowledge Ha Won's presence, almost as if he despises her. Even so, the girl is happy, working in several different places to earn money to go to college. One day her life changes completely when she meets Hyun Min, who pays her to pretend to be his fake fiancee.

After that, Hyun Min's grandfather hires her to work in his house to help his grandchildren become better people. It is at this moment that Ha Won enters her own fairy tale, living with four princes or knights: the rich and spoiled Hyun Min, the grumpy and cold Ji Woon, the lonely musician Seo Woo and their grandfather's secretary Yoon Sung. During the drama, Ha Won has to complete some missions and only if she succeeds will she be able to continue living in the house. This thing about the missions reminded me a lot of the drama "Atashinchi no Danshi".

The development of the drama is great, it reminded me a lot of "Boys Over Flowers", mainly because of Ha Won's personality. I love main characters like that, strong women who don't care about appearances and have their own attitude. Ha Won is very captivating. The romance between her and Ji Woon is so cute, it was really fun to see their relationship change from hate to friendship and then to love. The couple has great chemistry on screen. Of course there would be opposition from the family to the relationship between the two, just because their grandfather hired her to work in the house, it doesn't mean he would accept her as his grandson's girlfriend. Thank goodness in the end he ended up giving in, when he discovered that there was a deeper connection between the two, Ha Won and Ji Woon's mothers met, in fact Ha Won's mother tried to save Ji Woon's mother and ended up dying too.

At first I thought the drama would continue with a romance between her and Hyun Min, but all of this was just a kick start to the real romance that was about to emerge and by having this crush on Ha Won, Hyun Min was also able to understand and accept his true feelings for Hye Ji. Hyun Min's confession, in which he is rejected by Ha Won and for the whole world to see, was really a reality check for him, but it was so fun! HAHAHA'

If you are a fan of kdramas, this is a drama that you need to watch. It is a Cinderella story, yes, but even with the cliches it is an incredible experience. It is not the story of a girl falling in love with a rich boy and changing her life, but of a girl who was looking for someone to love her, who would be by her side so she would not be alone anymore and isn't that what we all want?

The soundtrack is wonderful, "For You", "My Romeo" and "How To Find Love" are very addictive songs <3

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"Anna" tells the story of Yu Mi, who has always been ashamed of being poor, so she created the habit of inventing lies for everyone, creating a fantasy life that is the complete opposite of her real life. When she becomes an adult, Yu Mi starts working as a maid in the house of Hyun Joo, a woman who has everything she wanted but doesn't know the value of it, she is spoiled, selfish, arrogant and rude. One day, Yu Mi can't stand being treated like this anymore and decides to run away, stealing money and Hyun Joo's US passport, assuming the identity of Lee Anna.

Yu Mi gains recognition with the name Anna and ends up meeting Ji Hoon, a rich young man with a seemingly good heart. The two get married. The problem is that Ji Hoon is not the person Yu Mi thought he was and to make matters worse, Hyun Joo returns only to blackmail Yu Mi.

Who would have thought that Ji Hoon was a complete psychopath, who knew from the beginning about Yu Mi's lies, but wanted to use her, just as she was using him. Ji Hoon killed Hyun Joo because she was in his way and he did it to his ex-wife too. The final scene of the drama, with Yu Mi burning the car with her purse and killing her husband is simply fantastic. No comments for her expression in that last moment. I don't condemn Yu Mi for what she did, I know that it all started with her lies, but life wasn't fair for her either, it seemed like everything was going wrong for her and let's face it, this Hyun Joo was a bitch and Yu Mi didn't ruin her life at all, in fact she made the name Lee Anna, at least, have some value.

A very surprising drama, there are only six episodes, but they managed to bring a complete story, full of twists and turns and impeccable performances.
We see a totally different side of Suzy, in this drama she finally showed the incredible and serious actress that I always knew she was. Until now Suzy has only done romantic dramas, which are great by the way and all my favorites, but they have never really shown her ability as an actress.

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"Casting a Spell to You" is a romantic comedy centered on the relationship between Ji Woo and Jung Hee.

Ji Woo suffered a trauma as a teenager and he can't sleep without the help of medication and lots of drinking, because when night falls, he remembers the moments when his friend died. When he meets Jung Hee, she is the first person who tells him that what happened wasn't his fault, Ji Woo fell in love and she helped him get better. There is a similar situation with Jung Hee, she has a trauma with alcohol because her father died from drinking too much, but working at Ji Woo's bar and the different way he sells cocktails, as an experience, not to get drunk, this helped her overcome a little of the distaste she had for drinks.

The story was supposed to have a romantic foursome, but poor Ye Ji was basically there as a supporting character, because what we actually have is a love triangle between Ji Woo, Jung Hee and Young Kwang. I really liked Young Kwang, but he had his chance with Jung Hee, he preferred to remain as friends all these years and when he finally decided to confess his feelings, she was already in love with Ji Woo. The drama really took the issue of them fighting over her seriously, until there is literally a scene where they are fighting and accidentally end up hitting Jung Hee. HAHAHA'

What I would change is the actor who played Songsong: Yasuo Namekawa, also known as Kangnam, since he is not Thai and that is very obvious, I don't understand why they didn't cast a Thai actor to play the role, I'm sure there are several talented ones in South Korea and his mannerisms were very forced, almost too childish... I couldn't really like the character.

This drama was a big positive surprise. I wasn't expecting anything when I started watching it, but the story is light, fun, easy to watch and at the same time it portrays serious issues, such as alcoholism and post-traumatic stress and the couple is really good.

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"A Man In A Veil" tells the story of Tae Poong, a man who after an accident lives with the mentality of a child, this happened when he thought he was saving Yoo Jung, his childhood friend and his first love, but in fact it was her sister Yoo Ra.

The sisters' family works for Tae Poong's family, but the way they both treat him is completely different. Even after Tae Poong's change, Yoo Jung has always treated him the same way. The only thing Yoo Ra feels is envy of Tae Poong's money. Yoo Ra accidentally ends up pregnant and then makes an evil scheme to deceive Tae Poong and his mother, saying that she is pregnant with his child. This hurts Yoo Jung's feelings a lot, who even though it doesn't show, liked Tae Poong as a man. Seo Jun is a rich man who only thinks about himself, he meets Yoo Jung and falls in love with her almost instantly and tries to do everything to make her fall in love with him too.

Even though Yoo Ra gets what she wants, she doesn't stop at that. She frames Tae Poong's mother for a crime, who ends up dying in jail. After his mother's death, Tae Poong goes through another trauma and recovers his mental abilities. In fact, he becomes a more intelligent person than normal and from that moment on, he begins his plan of revenge against everyone who destroyed his life.

Years pass, Yoo Jung has become a mother, she raises Yoo Ra's son as her own and continues to search for Tae Poong, who has now assumed a new identity: Min Hyuk. Even though he meets Yoo Jung again, he doesn't tell her the truth. Yoo Ra marries Seo Jun, but obviously the two don't have a happy life together.

Yoo Jung and Tae Poong are good on paper, but in reality there was a lack of development in the couple, in their relationship, everything ended up being very shallow. To be honest, I think Yoo Jung was a much better match for Seo Jun. Speaking of him, Seo Jun was the most wronged person in this drama, he ended up married to Yoo Ra, found out that his mother tried to kill his father's ex-girlfriend, fell in love with his half-sister and died. How is it possible for so much to happen to the same person?

Why did they need to kill Dong Ho?! I thought that his death would at least serve to make Yoo Jung seek revenge, but she only pretended to do so and in fact she only used Seo Jun's feelings and in the end, she did nothing. Also, about Yoo Jung being Ji Sook's daughter. Why was that necessary?! It didn't add anything important, especially since it was basically introduced at the end of the drama, it only served to make Seo Jun even more pathetic. Yoo Ra, who was supposed to be the villain of the story, simply disappeared in the last 20 episodes and only appeared occasionally, even though it all started with her. They shouldn't have lost the character's direction, the bitch only appeared to kill poor Seo Jun.

The drama had a lot of potential, but I don't really know what happened, the story got lost at a certain point and what could have been great ended up falling into the same old thing.

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"A Familiar Stranger" is a face swapping drama. Shen Qin had an arranged marriage with Han Sheng, but since she had no interest in marrying him, she set a trap for Shi Qi, a young artist who is invited by Shen Qin to paint a picture in exchange for information about her sister. What Shi Qi did not expect was that Shen Qin would perform a magic trick to swap their faces and thus escape the unwanted marriage.

It's a light and easy to watch drama. It was the first time I watched such a short cdrama, with 12-minute episodes. The story develops more quickly, especially the romance, and that was great, because we basically see them as a couple throughout the drama, but the rest of the story was left aside because of that.

The focus was really on Shi Qi and Han Sheng, on their relationship and on Han Sheng discovering the truth about his real wife, but everything about Shen Qin and Zi Heng was left in the background, as well as the whole situation of the prince's death. I think they could have added a few more episodes and that would have resolved everything.

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"Story of Yanxi Palace" follows life inside a palace harem.

Ying Luo is a simple maid, but she has a lot of skills, which makes her stand out from the other girls, who are jealous of her and always try to frame her. At one point, she meets the emperor and Fu Heng, two men who will mark her life forever.

There is a purpose behind Ying Luo's arrival at the palace. Her sister was a maid there who ended up dying unexpectedly and there were rumors that Fu Heng was to blame for this, so Ying Luo ends up getting close to the empress, who is Fu Heng's sister, to get information about her sister's death.

The emperor did not like Ying Luo's closeness to the empress, he was suspicious of the girl's intentions, thinking that she did it for personal gain. As Ying Luo becomes like a personal maid to the empress, the two basically fight like children every chance they get, and it is from this that the relationship between Ying Luo and the emperor is formed. Ying Luo is an incredible character, she is not afraid to speak her mind and this is one of the reasons why the emperor ends up falling in love with her, without even realizing it.

The relationship between Ying Luo and the Emperor is very funny, the two seem like two children fighting, there were moments of love and hate, because she was the only person who didn't treat him as superior, but rather as an ordinary person.

The romance plays an important part in the story, but for me, what really caught my attention was the relationship between Ying Luo and the empress. The two created such a strong bond that you could tell when the empress died, a part of Ying Luo died too. She was like a mother and a sister to Ying Luo, helping her whenever possible and I even think she would have let Fu Heng marry Ying Luo, but with Fu Heng's decision to marry Er Qing to save Ying Luo, there was no chance of that happening.

Unlike other dramas that portray the harem of a palace, "Story of Yanxi Palace" is a more entertaining story. There are conflicts, conspiracies, and plots between the concubines for power, but this is done in a lighter way, because where else could we see an emperor basically being ordered around by his concubine? The one who had the real power in this story was always Ying Luo.

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"Welcome To Wedding Hell" is a drama about Na Eun and Joon Hyung's journey in the process of preparing for their wedding and how it is nothing like the fairy tale that the movies make it out to be.

The story is captivating and since it only has 12 episodes, before you know it, it's over. I loved how it shows reality, the whole engagement process and the step-by-step process until the wedding actually happens. At times, it really did seem like hell, since everything went wrong.

From the meeting of the families, the preparation for the wedding, including the location, the money that will be spent, the gifts, the house they will live in, the choice of furniture, all of this really destroys any resemblance of a fairy tale and the idea that it is easy to get married, as if there were no need for any preparation and you just have to show up at the church, but in reality a LOT happens in the meantime!

The scene where they are taking the photos, everything is very tense and weird between the two, since they have just gotten out of a big fight with their mothers, it really wasn't the time to do something romantic, but honestly I didn't expect Na Eun to say that she wanted to break up with Joon Hyung and that she couldn't go through with the wedding. Thank goodness they realized that no relationship is perfect and the fights are a good sign, since they care enough to keep trying to solve the problems.

Min Woo and Hui Seon, steal the show at every moment <3

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It's a drama about Ji Eun, a woman who is torn between two men: Se Hoon and Jung Min.

Ji Eun comes from a wealthy family, but she falls in love with Se Hoon. Against her family's wishes, Ji Eun marries Se Hoon, but reality breaks the girl's fairy tale, since when they live together, the two begin to see how different they are. Se Hoon can't live with Ji Eun's family, with her corrupt father and alcoholic mother, but the moment that completely changes their relationship is when in a moment of anger, Se Hoon pushes Ji Eun down the stairs and she ends up losing her baby.

After the loss of her father, Ji Eun's family went bankrupt and in order to survive, she ended up becoming a completely different person. It was at this point in her life that she met Jung Min, Jung In's twin brother, who was her fiance. Se Hoon returns to Ji Eun's life 10 years later, now a successful man. Se Hoon returns with the intention of revenge against Ji Eun and her family, but over time his feelings for her return, but Ji Eun is in love with Jung Min and going through the same situation she was in with Se Hoon, only now with Jung Min's family against her.

We can't forget Mi Ran, our villain and bitch of the story, who is obsessed with Se Hoon.

The romance between Ji Eun and Sung Min is cute, the two have good chemistry on screen. He was the person who helped her when she needed it most, who was by her side. Even when they broke up, you could tell that they would end up together in the end. But I have to say that the whole situation with Jung Min's stalker/secretary was very weird. She killed someone, tried to frame Ji Eun and then kidnapped her.

In conclusion, it's a very realistic drama, especially the character Lee Ji Eun. She is an ambitious woman who is not afraid to go after what she wants, but who has been hurt a lot in her life and has to deal with these traumas in her daily life. Even though I liked her romance with Jung Min, I didn't like how he never trusted her completely, it's very similar to how Se Hoon treated her.

I also didn't like the way the drama handled Se Hoon's character. When he returns in the story, he became a supporting character and didn't even try to win Ji Eun back, which seemed to be the purpose of his return. In the end he ended up with Mi Ran, the crazy woman who pretended to be paralyzed when she could walk, broke an aquarium and walked barefoot on the broken glass. He was an important character in the story, he deserved a better ending than this.

The development is good, but it should have ended in episode 116, they would have tied up all the loose ends in the story and it would have been a better ending, but they decided to add more episodes unnecessarily and it served absolutely no purpose.

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"Big Mouth" is a drama about a lawyer named Chang Ho. He is an intelligent man, but he has no luck with his cases, always losing, and one day he receives a job offer he can't refuse. The problem is that everything was set up and Chang Ho was framed for being a famous drug dealer and wanted, which led to him being arrested and having to spend time in prison with criminals. Chang Ho then has a brilliant plan to survive in this place: he assumes the identity of the criminal "Big Mouse", the same person who is framing him, and transforms the prison, taking control..

This was a great drama, it really surprised me! Although the romance is not the focus, Chang Ho and Mi Ho's relationship is a strong point of the story. Seeing how Mi Ho believed in Chang Ho until the end was beautiful to see, even with everything against him, and that's why the ending hurts so much, they couldn't have a happy ending. Mi Ho dies, but Chang Ho takes revenge in the end, making Do Ha die the same way he killed Mi Ho, a very fair retribution.

Lee Jong Suk is an incredible actor, I don't know how people don't recognize his impeccable work. The way Chang Ho's expressions changed in each situation was impressive, even scary.

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"Mask Girl" follows Mo Mi, an ordinary woman who works in an office. She has inferiority issues and thinks she's ugly. To escape reality, Mo Mi starts doing a live broadcast on the internet wearing a mask that goes viral and makes her famous. Oh Nam is a coworker of hers who starts to become obsessed with Mo Mi since he knows her true identity.

To be honest, I expected something different from this drama; I really didn't think it would be a sad story. Initially, I thought Mo Mi would be a murderer, but in the end, she's just a poor girl who got caught in a bad situation. How can anyone blame her for what happened? Oh Nam was a pervert who raped her and he was the one who killed that man in the motel. Oh Nam ruined her life, not the other way around like her crazy mother thinks.

After the plastic surgery, Mo Mi was happy with Chun Ae, but then a new man comes along and ruins everything again. I guess the moral of the story is that all men suck. HAHAHAHA'

It's a good production, the three women who play Mo Mi are great: Lee Han Byel, Nana and Go Hyun Jung.

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"L.U.C.A" follows Zi Oh, a man who doesn't remember his past and has strange abilities. Sometimes, he can't control himself and hurts people. He meets Gu Reum and saves her life, after which he starts having flashes of memory. She wants to help him, because Gu Reum believes that Zi Oh is behind the truth about her parents' death.

The truth is that Zi Oh is part of a human experiment done by a company, mixing human and animal DNA to create something different. The story is interesting, with some science fiction elements, at times reminiscent of "Syphus - The Myth". The problem is the development, it needed more details, especially the romance that started out of nowhere.

Gu Reum and Zi Oh had a strange relationship until episode 7, with Gu Reum thinking she was responsible for her parents' death, but everything changes: they sleep together, Gu Reum gets pregnant and gives birth, all in the same episode.

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"Royal Rumors" is a drama about a woman named Liu Li, the daughter of a family of generals. Everyone knows her as weak, but that's just a facade. Yuan Su is the cold crown prince who got involved with her.

It's a very light drama to watch, but the story just didn't grab me, mainly because there's no chemistry between the main couple, mainly because of Yuan Su.

Liu Li is also a strange character. I understand that she pretends to be weak to fool others, since people have issues with her family's excessive power. But even at the end, when Yun Su knows everything, she still remains like that... to me, it felt forced and ridiculous.

It's not a drama I would recommend, it's just something to pass the time.

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"Battle For Happiness" is basically a story centered around rich mothers and their children, but another person who doesn't belong to that world enters this world and that person is Mi Ho.

Mi Ho is a banker, she is not married and, in fact, she doesn't even think about it, but her life changes one day when she receives a phone call from Yu Jin, someone who used to be her sister when her parents got married. The two women meet again and, unexpectedly, Yu Jin dies and Mi Ho has to take care of her two daughters, since Yu Jin's husband is in a coma. Mi Ho finds everything very suspicious and starts to investigate what happened on the night Yu Jin died.

The rivalry between Mi Ho and Yu Jin started when they became teenagers, because Yu Jin started to feel the difference in the way her mother treated them, always favoring Mi Ho because she was the real daughter. Yu Jin only did small things at first, but the breaking point was when Mi Ho accidentally pushed Yu Jin and she hurt her face, leaving a scar. Yu Jin, out of revenge, told a horrible lie about Mi Ho having a relationship with her stepfather, which ruined her life. The parents divorced and the girls never saw each other again, until now.

Yu Jin was a complete bitch, she mistreated Mi Ho when they were children and continued to do so when they met again as adults, always trying to be the victim... but there is a hidden truth in this, something that no one knows and that is only revealed when Yu Jin dies. Her life was far from perfect, it was all a lie. Yu Jin's husband, Do Jun, was a pervert who even slept with his own daughter and traumatized the other two children by watching obscene videos of him. I think Yu Jin was completely right in trying to kill him, it's a shame she didn't succeed and ended up dying.

The drama had everything to be perfect, but for me Lee El didn't work as the protagonist, her expressions didn't match the atmosphere of the story, as if she always had the same face, no matter what happened on screen.

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"The King's Affection" is the story of a girl named Dam Yi, a simple court maid who discovered that she had the same face as the crown prince Lee Hwi. One day, they switch places and Lee Hwi accidentally dies, forcing Dam Yi to disguise herself and live as a man in Lee Hwi's place.
Ji Woon is her teacher and someone from her past life. Their lives intertwine and they fall in love, but Ji Woon thinks that Dam Yi is a man.

I've wanted to watch this drama for a long time, the story is good, but not enough to hook me as I expected. The main couple is cute, but I didn't see much chemistry between them, nothing that made me root for them.

To be completely honest, I think Dam Yi and Hyun would make a better couple; if the drama developed the story in that direction, I would like it a lot more.

Park Eun Bin's acting is the highlight of the drama, which makes it worth watching, the way she pretended to be a man and did it amazingly, she wasn't weak or feminine.

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