neo

Still no news of casting?

Bride of Habaek and Strong Woman were the only two I've seen from this list, so I can only really comment with my opinion on those.

Bride of Habaek was hugely disappointing. I haven't read the source material and can't make a comparison based on that, but I was already bored by the initial episodes and the slow movement/lack of plot. It failed to really grab my interest and I found myself not really caring for any of the characters at all, so I dropped it. Props for pretty cinematography but that's the only good thing about the drama from what I've seen.

SWDBS was a hit and miss for me. I got quickly bored of the plot because it kept on giving me whiplash with the comedic scenes (a lot of which I found unnecessary, like with too much focus on side characters who were there just for comedic effect) and then straight into the dramatic crime plot (which was poorly written). It felt kinda messy to me, as though they weren't sure of what genre they really wanted to focus on. Like many others, I only continued watching because I really enjoyed Bong Soon as a character and seeing her and Min Hyuk's relationship develop. It was still enjoyable as a whole despite obvious faults, but I wouldn't say it was as great as most people made it out to be.

Out of the dramas on this list that I haven't seen, I plan to watch Circle at some point.

Best Screenwriter (and for which show?):
1) Jin Soo Wan (Chicago Typewriter)
2) Choi Ran (Black)

Best Director(and for which show?):
1) Kim Cheol Kyu (Chicago Typewriter)

Best Korean Drama of 2017:
1) Tunnel
2) Suspicious Partner
3) Chicago Typewriter

Best Korean Movie of 2017:
1) Fabricated City
2) Midnight Runners

Best Mini Series/Web Drama:
N/A

Best Romance Drama:
1) Suspicious Partner
2) Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Best Comedy Drama:
N/A

Best Romantic/Comedy Drama:
1) Suspicious Partner
2) Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Best Historical/Sageuk Drama:
N/A

Best Family Drama:
N/A

Best Action/Thriller/Suspense Drama:
1) Tunnel
2) Save Me
3) Circle

Best Melodrama:
N/A

Best Actor:
1) Ji Chang Wook (Suspicious Partner, Fabricated City)
2) Song Seung Heon (Black)
3) Choi Jin Hyuk (Tunnel)

Best Actress:
1) Lee Yoo Young (Tunnel)
2) Park Bo Young (Strong Woman Do Bong Soon)

Best Supporting Actor:
1) Jung Hae In (While You Were Sleeping)
2) Dong Ha (Suspicious Partner)

Best Supporting Actress:
1) Kim Ye Won (Suspicious Partner)

Best Up and Coming Actor of 2017:
1) Woo Do Hwan
2) Dong Ha

Best Up and Coming Actress of 2017:
N/A

Best Villain:
1) Dong Ha (Suspicious Partner)
2) Lee Sang Yeob (While You Were Sleeping)

Best Idol Actor(or Actress):
1) Suzy (While You Were Sleeping)
2) Park Hyung Sik (Strong Woman Do Bong Soon)
3) Lee Jun Ho (Just Between Lovers)

Best Couple:
1) Ji Chang Wook and Nam Ji Hyun (Suspicious Partner)
2) Park Hyung Sik and Park Bo Young (Strong Woman Do Bong Soon)

Best Bromance:
1) Choi Jin Hyuk and Yoon Hyun Min (Tunnel)
2) Park Seo Joon and Kang Ha Neul (Midnight Runners)

Best OST:
1) Henry - It's You (While You Were Sleeping)
2) Bumkey - Breathing All Day (Suspicious Partner)
3) Eddy Kim - When Night Falls (While You Were Sleeping)

100% agree with SWDBS and WYWS (I pretty much elaborated a lot on my opinion of WYWS in a review, but I barely felt the chemistry too, and the pacing dragged for a while) and I tried to get into Mad Dog for Woo Do Hwan but struggled to make it through the initial episodes because it was mostly quite slow-moving. But really, the best part of WYWS was the soundtrack in my opinion.

Suspicious Partner I still enjoyed overall, though I'm unsure if it's just because I really like the two main actors (I personally enjoyed the romance/chemistry but the way it was written in some parts in the middle made me question why they developed it that way) and I thought the acting was great, but I agree the writing (and pacing in the middle-later episodes) could've been improved.

On another note, I'd definitely recommend checking out Empress Ki if you're a fan of JCW! It definitely shows off his acting range. I never thought I'd ever feel annoyance or anger towards JCW until I watched this drama, which goes to show he's great at playing his role, haha.

Lmao I got a good laugh out of the Lee Min Ho ones. Here's a couple of my own:

Healer: Super skilled badass parkour loner guy tries to uncover the truth about his father's past and gets into a love triangle with himself.

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon: Bodyguard trope plus superpowers but with the gender roles reversed. Someone free Ji Soo from being permanently stuck as second lead.

Cohabitation is the main one for me on the list, but I have a love-hate relationship with the tsundere guy trope (it all depends on the execution/portrayal). I'm largely indifferent to the other mentioned tropes. Time travel is another one of my favourites that wasn't mentioned here.

I don't know if it's just me, but I have mixed feelings in response... The dubbing is what has put me off watching most Chinese dramas... it's often too weird/unnatural sounding, especially if you're already used to the actor's own voice.

In particular if it's Ji Chang Wook I love hearing his voice too much/have gotten used to it so much that it's entirely off-putting to have him there but someone else's voice dubbed over him when you expect to hear his own voice, even though I know they have to for non-fluent Mandarin speakers. That's why I could barely get through the trailer/teasers for The Whirlwind Girl 2.

Most of the "popular" dramas (e.g. Goblin, DotS) fell into the first category (#5 on the list) for me... couldn't get into them despite them being recommended to me multiple times. Usually, I drop when I get bored or simply just don't care for the plot or characters, and rarely, if there's really stupid story/plot logic that I can't wrap my head around.

The only exceptions so far are Boys Over Flowers and The K2, both of which I begrudgingly watched until the end just to see how things would turn out despite finding it incredibly difficult to maintain interest. In the case of the latter, I blame the stiff, forced romance plot, abundance of logic/plot loopholes and lack of development of most characters (in fact, all characters but Yoo Jin, even though the way they wrote her faltered a lot towards the later episodes).

That turn of events was totally unexpected! Can't believe I didn't make the connection, since I wouldn't have guessed that it was Chief Choi who was the officer back then... guess everyone was so caught up with wondering how Woo Tak was connected with the soldier instead. I was starting to think the past number of episodes have been a bit slow/stagnant but this plot twist really took me by surprise. Glad for the fact that they finally made this reveal.

Disagree with Suspicious Partner since I enjoyed it a lot (though I can see why some people might not have), and I haven't seen any of the others, but I don't ever plan to watch W from what I've heard.

Popular dramas I dropped/couldn't get into include: Goblin, Descendants of the Sun (though more due to the pacing/type of drama), The Heirs (the male lead was really forceful/abusive, I had to drop it), Heartstrings, Playful Kiss, The Bride of Habaek (the only redeeming point was that it looked pretty visually), and The Legend of the Blue Sea.

Currently only watching While You Were Sleeping and enjoying it so far, but considering also picking up either Mad Dog, Witch's Court or Black... for those watching any or all of those 3, I'm curious to know how you'd rank them to help me decide?

The Heirs is definitely accurate haha...

Glad that Jae Chan finally confessed, but not-so-glad about that ending dream sequence...
I'm also still trying to figure out Woo Tak's relation to the policeman that Hong Joo and Jae Chan saved in the past, since I'm almost 100% certain they're connected or related somehow. Perhaps brothers?

Damn, when will Woo Tak ever catch a break... ?

Whilst I wanted to be relieved at the ending of ep 12 (and appreciate how lovely the OST is at the same time), I was so worried about Woo Tak... it really pained me to see him be so brutally injured. What if he saw the events in his dream and swooped in to help her anyway? Ugh... I'm feeling the second lead syndrome kick in... Please tell me our Batman cop is okay.

I started with a similar opinion to you. I wasn't expecting to like this because I've always found LJS to be too unnatural/weird looking (?) but I've surprisingly warmed to this drama. His looks aren't too distracting, and the plot and the premise of the story is what makes it worth the watch. The music is enjoyable and the acting isn't bad either, it's pretty decent. Overall a pretty solid drama so far.

So the three of them are all getting the dreams after saving each others' lives... ?

That's the case with me, though I haven't seen any of his previous dramas purely because the plots haven't seemed to be my cup of tea... I usually get bored easily in a drama if I'm not invested into the story/characters, so I admit I'm quite picky with plots. But I like this one, so I picked it up. I like what I've seen so far (eps 1-6).

But we'll see, haha... I mean, I was convinced I wasn't going to be a fan of Ji Chang Wook initially as I had the misconception he might just be overhyped, but I quickly became a huge fan of his acting/charisma and now he's my favourite actor.

That's not to say I don't like him or find him to be a bad actor, but rather that my opinion of him at the moment is neutral as he has yet to really stand out to me. Prior to watching While You Were Sleeping, I've only seen him in No Breathing (which I did enjoy as a whole, and liked his interactions with Seo In Guk's character) and 7 First Kisses, which isn't really enough to judge from.

I like the plot of this drama, it has good potential and I didn't think the first eps would impact me as much as they did. The cinematography is really pretty too, and I like what I've seen so far, so I will keep watching.

Let me start by saying I'm probably one of the few who is watching purely because the unique premise/plot intrigued me a lot, and because I needed something to fill the void that I've had since Suspicious Partner ended, rather than because I'm a fan of any particular actor (I began with little expectations of Suzy as I usually am skeptical of idol actors/actresses, and Lee Jong Suk always seemed kinda weird looking/unattractive to me and didn't really stand out to have much charisma from what I've seen of him).

I admit that this drama surprised me, after giving it a chance. I didn't expect to like it enough to want to (warily) continue watching, although it's still early days as I have only seen the first 4 episodes. There's a lot of potential and I'm enjoying the cinematography too, so I only hope they keep it up and don't let me down in later episodes, though I'm still keeping my expectations relatively low to avoid disappointment.