Dorama of the Year 2001-II Spring - Love Revolution

Failed to find anything interesting enough to finish, but for actors alone I'd nominate Love Revolution . 

1. Onmyouji  [陰陽師] (Finished 1/10) Tags: Historical, Horror It is the active role of Shinyoji, Abe Haruaki, who pays a wagmhosts of the world in the Heian period. In this drama, the theme is "the emotions of women", which appear in each story. Heian horror stories collection just does not suit me. Overall Rating: 5/10

2. Hikon Kazoku [非婚家族] (Finished 3/12) Tags: Drama, Family Matoba Yosuke is s a salaryman who just lost his job. Matoba Hikaru, his wife, is a dancer who gave up her career when they got married. In the middle of a family crisis, Matoba Hikaru leaves to pursue her dream. Matoba Yosuke is stuck with their only son. Chikako, his old flame -turn jet-set career woman- is forced to take care of them. Will the romance spark again, now that Matoba Yosuke already has family, and Chikako has a younger man, Kikuta Jun, beside her? Watchable as most family jdrama, but not super interesting and defintiely not a masterpiece.   Overall Rating: 6/10

3. Love Story (2001) [ラブストーリー ] (Finished 4/11) Tags: Romance, Life Misaki is a 30-year old unlucky in love editor. She tends to fall in love hard and smothers her boyfriends to death. With no major accomplishments under her belt, she is told to look after Koh Nagase, a bestselling novelist in a slump. For the past 2 years, Koh hasn't put out so much as a page. He is a proud, reclusive man who has gone through many editors. They don't get along at first, and Koh fires her. However, Misaki keeps coming back to the Sunset Apartments partly to help Koh write and partly because she grows close to the colorful characters in the complex. Characters like budding illustrator, Nabetomo, and Nabetomo's "stalker" Kano. Slowly, Misaki draws Koh out of his shell while falling for him herself.  Stage is pretty much inert, so all emphasis goes to talks. And this dorama has seriously degenerate talks that I don't remember seeing this bad anywhere in jdrama. It freaks me out too much over and over to go on.   Overall Rating: 5/10

4. Mukashi no Otoko  [昔の男] (Finished 4/12) Tags: Psychological, Romance Akari is a jewelry clerk who doubles as the store’s catalog model. She does not appreciate only being valued for just her beauty. She is eager to marry her boyfriend Hayato who makes it clear to her that he will never re-marry. Akari. has never been able to forget her former boyfriend, Arashi whom she accidentally runs into, and pulses still race. But he belongs to someone else... Watch as friends and family all weigh in on the pair’s rekindled romance, each digging deep into their personal philosophies on marriage. Typical adultery hide and seek, pretty boring.   Overall Rating: 5/10

5. Mukodono!  [ムコ殿 ] (Finished 3/12) Tags: Comedy, Romance, Family An icy-cool pop idol, Sakuraba Yuuichiro, is actually a happy-go-lucky smiling idiot. After falling in love with Sakura, trouble ensues after agreeing to marry into Sakura's family, which consists of her 3 sisters. Of course, more trouble follows trying to hide his marriage from his adoring and rabid fans. To be honest, I expected something more than singer hiding identity and trying to get in touch with new family. It gets very old how he constantly tries to appease every single member of new family and gets scolded for failing to find time for someone. Ends up rather boring and cheesy.   Overall Rating: 5/10

6. Hotelier [호텔리어] (Finished 3/20) Tags: Business, Romance, Drama Jin Young, an open-minded and energetic woman, works for the Seoul Hotel. Her ex-boyfriend Tae Joon resigned and left for Vegas three years earlier due to an accident with a guest. However, the owner admired and had greater faith in Tae Joon than his own son, Young Jae. When the owner died, his wife decided that Jin Young must go to Vegas to bring Tae Joon back so he could help run the hotel, which was falling into pieces. Their rival, Kim Book Man, is determined to acquire the Seoul Hotel and seeks the help of a popular M&A manager Frank who is conflicted about his stance after he begins to fall for Jin Young. Typical early kdrama tasteless trash, but at least it starts to look more glamorous.   Overall Rating: 5/10

7. Law Firm  [로펌] (Finished 1/16) Tags: Law, Romance Attorney Jung Young Woong leaves the PD's office because he is tired of dealing with the people who commit sex crimes. He starts his own firm and hires 4 questionable lawyers to work for him, ensuring justice for the citizens of Korea. It's so faraway from Hero that it's useless to discuss.   Overall Rating: 5/10

8. Life Is Beautiful (2001)  [인생은 아름다워] (Finished 2/16) Tags: Business, Romance, Drama Chairman Yu, a hotel tycoon, passes his empire to his impulsive younger daughter Hee Jung, who studied hotel management in Switzerland. Her older sister, Su Jung, is a concert pianist. Hee Jung starts from the bottom in the P.R. Department, still haunted by the death of her first boyfriend, who died saving her. When Chairman Yu plans to build a resort next to a casino in Sabuk, a fading mine town, Hee Jung clashes with him to support Jae Min, a local hoodlum who resembles her late boyfriend and wants to protect his hometown. Wow, first time in kdrama focus is mostly on FL and not on self-admiring males. Addition of comedy elements feels organic. Also, soundtrack work is mostly ok and not just multiple random tunes anymore. Probably can even give decent score even though it has still ways to learn and imitate when it comes to plot and actor play.   Overall Rating: 6/10

9. Meteor Garden [流星花園] (Finished 1/19) Tags: Comedy, Romance, Drama Shan Cai, whose parents are far from wealthy, attends Ying De University, the private school established exclusively for rich students. Besides being looked down by rich classmates, she has angered the leader of F4, Dao Ming Si. F4 comprises of Dao Ming Si, Hua Ze Lei, Xi Men, and Mei Zuo, who are the heirs to the four richest families. Their families are the founder of the school and nobody dares to cross them. Shan Cai isn't afraid to stand up to DMS, an act that nobody has done before, and sparks Dao Ming Si's interest in her. However, his constant torture of her has made her miserable while she falls in love with the gentle Hua Ze Lei, who comes to her rescue. Can Dao Ming Si win her love despite his cold and cruel exterior? What happens when his mother decides to use every trick there is to keep them apart? Can they adjust to each other's differences due to their vastly incompatible social status? Guess every country drama has to start somewhere and to step on the same rakes. Primitive as hell.   Overall Rating: 5/10

10. Love Revolution  [ラブレボリューション] (Finished 5/12) Tags: Romance Breaking the tradition of the main character for a Monday night drama being a woman in her 20's, Esumi Makiko stars as Kyoko Asaoka, a 32-year-old heart surgeon working at a hospital in Tokyo. Men tend to shy away from the tall, well-educated and well-paid Kyoko because they see her as a woman that can do things on her own. The truth of the matter is that Kyoko is just unlucky in love. She is also old-fashioned, and wants to fall in love just like anyone else, but has a hard time showing her real self to men. Actors are too good for low evaluation, but it lacks reasonable behavior and ends up pretty random and non coherent.   Overall Rating: 6/10

11. Romance in the Rain  [情深深雨蒙蒙] (Finished 2/49) Tags: Music, Historical, Romance, Drama The story is of how Lu Yi Ping tries to take revenge for her mother's sufferings and hers while being torn between trying to find the meaning of love and forgiveness in her disfigured world. It is a story of how the love between her and He Shu Huan grew under the most pressured and difficult circumstances. A story of Shu Huan's dedication to patiently teaching love and forgiveness to Yi Ping. It is a story of a father's harsh relationship with his unwanted daughter and how it is rekindled. It is a story of an impossible crush that somehow became a reality. It is a story of a wife, forever faithful to her husband and another's unfaithfulness. As a whole, it's a story of true love, compassion, revenge, lust, family, relationships, war, victory, friendship, respect, secrets, lies, deception, forgiveness, power, good, evil and much more. Had to glance since it has nothing to do with wuxia. But it kinda has since first episode alone has lots of silly martial arts fights - that alone kills all possible interest, and horrible actors with their nonsense play finish it off.   Overall Rating: 5/10

12. Samee Tee Tra (2001)  [สามีตีตรา] (Finished 1/12) Tags: Romance, Drama Karat seems to have bad luck with marriage and some even believe that she is jinxed. She has been married two times before and now her third marriage is falling apart. Soon after she discovers her third husband cheated on her with her friend, who is now pregnant by him, her third husband dies in a car accident. Karat leaves town to get away from the mess that is her life and goes to a beach house to escape society. She starts drinking heavily and contemplates suicide. Then she meets Phisut, a true gentleman from a distinguished family. Phisut has old-fashioned values, is quiet and reserved, yet he appeals to the outgoing Karat. She starts to pursue him, and it helps her get out of her depression. They are opposites in many ways, yet they find they have other obstacles to overcome, including family opposition, class differences, and her drinking among many others. Time to get acquainted with Thai drama. As expected, production quality is too low, beyond evaluation scope.   Overall Rating: 5/10

13. Rak Koet Nai Talat Sot [สามีตีตรา] (Finished 1/12) Tags: Comedy, Romance Much trouble and fun are in store for the merchants and customers at the local fresh market. Tong, a vegetable seller and Kimlang, a fishmonger fall in love, but Kimlang's mother does not approve because she sees Tong as a worthless hooligan who won't amount to anything. Tong must prove himself to Kimlang's mother, while also working hard to improve the conditions at the market and teach other merchants to take pride in what they sell and that caring for their customers will benefit them all. I feel as if watching some old Indian movie with antics, silly fights and same humor. Absolutely horrible.   Overall Rating: 5/10

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