Friday Flix: City Hunter

It’s no secret to most that I have a huge crush on Korean actor Lee Min Ho. He had me at Boys Over Flowers. How could I not love this face, even if he is quite a jerk as Goo Jun Pyo?

But now he’s an action hero, you say? Sign me up! City Hunter is something like James Bond meets Ocean’s Eleven. LMH plays Lee Yoon Sung, and as Netflix describes it:

The son of a murdered government agent — begins working in the Blue House, the presidential residence in Korea. He tries to find the five men who betrayed his father 28 years ago, and makes a plan to punish them his own way.

THE GOOD

Yoon’s love interest Nana starts off as a girl holding down several part-time jobs but eventually she ends up as a bodyguard for the Blue House, so in American terms, she basically becomes secret service. It’s because she’s a tough girl who can take care of herself that Yoon gains interest in her. He’s got the looks and charms to get any woman he likes, but it’s the one more equal to himself he falls for. I like that in a romance plot.

Don’t mess with Nana!

Friday Flix: Boys Over Flowers

Okay, I’m cheating just a little bit on this one, since this is a TV series and not a movie. But it’s still worthwhile I promise. Let me introduce you to a Korean drama called Boys Over Flowers. I can’t remember how I stumbled onto this little gem, but I’m so glad I did.

Boys Over Flowers is originally a Japanese manga. There’s a Japanese anime and even a Japan version of the TV show. I haven’t seen the anime, so no comment. But on the TV show, I tried watching it, but I found Jun Matsumoto to be all wrong for the male lead. It’s probably the Korean version’s fault. Lee Min Ho does a much better job. (It’s probably from watching Jun be a “dog” in Kimi Wa Petto).

Anyways, the plot from Wiki:

Geum Jan-di is an ordinary girl whose family owns a dry cleaning store. While delivering dry cleaning to a student at the prestigious Shin Hwa High School, she saves his life by stopping his attempt at jumping off the roof and is given a full swimming scholarship. She attends Shin Hwa High and soon is terrorized by the leader of F4 (the four richest and most popular boys at the school) Gu Jun-pyo.

Although Jun-pyo persists on bullying her, he begins to find himself attracted to Jan-di. However, Jan-di has a crush on Yoon Ji-hoo, Jun-pyo’s best friend.

Let the love triangle romance begin!

PREJUDICE OF THE POOR

Let’s face it. Most of us aren’t rich and probably a lot of us harbor some angry envy toward those that are—especially when they’re snobbish about it—more especially when it was something just handed to them. It’s a subject matter that appeals to a wide audience, so they’ve already built up story sympathy that way.

And just to sweeten the pot, the show us how poor the female lead, Jan-di, is. She has a job, Mom and Dad both have jobs—oh, and Dad has a gambling problem. So getting that swimming scholarship seems like it would be a big boon to Jan-di, only it isn’t. She doesn’t want to attend a snobby, rich kid school. And, it seems, every hates her for being poor in the first place. See how much conflict they’ve already set up in the beginning?