Dorama of the Year 2002-III Summer - Ruler of Your Own World

I absolutely did not expect to call kdrama a masterpiece so soon (if ever), but Ruler of Your Own World sure made and impact even though scenario is still not great.

1. Ai Nante Irane Yo, Natsu   [愛なんていらねえよ、夏 ‧] (Finished 2/10) Tags: Romance, Life, Drama The blind, grumpy girl, Ako, inherits her wealthy father's estate after his death. Her mother left years ago with her older brother, Reiji, leaving her behind. Reiji, sweet but a bit slow, has been writing to her for years, but the housekeeper has been tossing the letters. Reiji works as a cook for another Reiji, a cold-hearted host club owner. After Reiji gets imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Reiji tragically dies trying to stop him. Six months later, Reiji steals Reiji’s identity to escape debt and find his "sister." Person with disability in conjunction with no favorite actors fails to impress. And concept is again female fortress that shrugs all attempts. Add to it suicide/murder attempt, and the number of irritating factors becomes unbearable.   Overall Rating: 5/10

2. Loving You (2002)  [러빙유] (Finished 1/12) Tags: Romance After her father's mysterious death, Jin Da Rae, a female diver from Jeju Island, seeks the truth. She saves Hyuk, an orange farm worker, from torrent waters, and they fall in love. However, their relationship faces complications when Hyuk's half-brother also falls for Da Rae. As the love triangle deepens, Da Rae uncovers Hyuk's connection to her father's death. I appreciate improved production quality and cuteness and work with sound, but story and interactions are still primitive and males are still weird self-admiring alpha. Compared to previous kdrama, this is a huge step forward to normalcy.   Overall Rating: 6/10

3. My Little Chef (2002) [マイリトルシェフ] (Finished 1/10) Tags: Food, Comedy Seri, an unknown yet talented female chef from the country, arrives in Tokyo to work at French restaurant, 'Étoile', but discovers that they have gone out of business due to the departure of their main chef. Together with the restaurant's former manager, she opens a French restaurant of her own, named 'Petit Étoile', and begins to recreate the flavors her late father mastered as a famous gourmet chef. Unfortunately, 'Étoile' returns with an unscrupulous manager, and to make matters worse, Seri learns that it happens to be owned by her birth mother living in Paris who she hasn't seen since she was a child. Seri wonders if her passion and skill will be enough to succeed. Need to give it a fast glance to see if I can stomack this gourmet considered that greatest in my opinion Japanese male actor Hiroshi Abe finally has a male role. And no, it's still unbearable for me.   Overall Rating: 5/10

4. My Love Patzzi  [내 사랑 팥쥐] (Finished 3/10) Tags: Romance, Drama Song Yi is a girl with a pure heart but a bad temper. She was tricked and humiliated by her "best friend" Hee Won as a child. From then on, Hee Won has always been the princess and successful while everyone mistook Song Yi for the evil child. When Song Yi did not have a job, Hee Won introduced her to the amusement park that she was in charge of. There she found her childhood friend and ex-crush Hyun Sung, who Hee Won had "stolen" when they were kids. From then on, Hee Won tried to humiliate Song Yi many times, framing her in many situations that Hee Won has created herself. To get back at Hee Won, she decided to break the train that the park was launching so that Hee Won would be blamed. Little did she know that she had caused more damage and that the train had caught on fire. What was worse was that the son of the president of the park was on the train. Ridden with guilt, Song Yi risks her own life to save the life of Seung Joon. Seung Joon fell in love with Song Yi for her brave spirit and charming attitude, but what will happen to their relationship when Hee Won exposes to the world what she has done? Again production is adequate and simple concept with alike interactions, but now don't see even likeable characters, so no reason to go on at all.   Overall Rating: 5/10

5. Ruler of Your Own World  [네 멋대로 해라] (Finished 20/20) Tags: Romance, Drama Go Bok Su has had a difficult childhood and served time in prison for stealing. Jeon Kyung, a moody tomboy and a daughter of a rich family, plays the keyboard as a member of an unknown indie rock band. The vocalist of Kyung's band is diagnosed with a brain injury from an accident, and while the band members are trying to earn money for the surgery, Bok Su steals Kyung's wallet. Bok Su decides that their meeting was fate, leaves his long-time girlfriend Mi Rae, and follows Kyung around trying to win her heart. One day Bok Su finds out he has a terminal illness and doesn’t have much time left, and his life begins to change. Wow, Lee Na Young is actually first pleasant and not just non-irritating Korean actress. MC is also for the first time not a usualy sleazy vanity type, feels so organic and different from the usual. Interactions are finally normal and natural. That made me go on even after I learned about terminal condition. Of course, with 20 episodes there's enough of drag and filler, it could have been easily cut in half with no big loss. Story is not great either, only bits about families are nice. Jdrama tends to be quite intimate, but this one is devoid of it and focuses on kindness. This work has lots of shortcomings, but the impact of main leads and unusual pickpocket occupation make it really memorable.  Overall Rating: 7/10

6. Satorare  [サトラレ] (Finished 3/10) Tags: Romance, Medical, Supernatural A young, good-hearted doctor Kenichi suffers from a rare syndrome whereby his feelings cannot be hidden => such people are known as "satorare" and their well-being come under special government protection. As all the young doctor's thoughts/feelings are always heard by hospital colleagues, this creates much inconvenience to them and they try to drive him away. In steps a beautiful female doctor who tries to shield him from the cruel reality of his uniqueness. Concept is surreal and resembles Truman show, so can't even empathize here. The comedy moments are simple and obvious with such concept. For me it remained artificial and not engaging though not bad.   Overall Rating: 6/10

7. Tentai Kansoku [天体観測] (Finished 1/13) Tags: Romance, Life, Youth, Drama The main characters of "Searchin' for My Polestar" are 7 friends that met at college while in the astronomic observation club "Sagittarius." Being in the club was just an excuse for them to go to the beach in summer, and skiing in winter. Actually, the only time they ever observed any stars was at summer camp during their senior year. Dreaming of a bright future, the seven exchange vows for eternal friendship. However, over the next several years, their busy schedules cause them to begin drifting apart. It's been 3 years since that summer when they laughed together gazing at the stars. Will their friendship continue to drift farther and farther apart? Or will they manage to strengthen their friendship again? My hate for astronomy clubs with all the banal stuff repeated over and over from work to work is overwhelming. Could not even finish first episode properly, but don't see likable characters here, anyway.   Overall Rating: 5/10

8. Kisarazu Cat's Eye [木更津キャッツアイ] (Finished 1/9) Tags: Comedy, Life, Youth Twenty-one year old former high school baseball player, Kohei (nickname: Bussan), learns that he is dying from cancer. He is told that he only has six months to live, and decides that he wants to do something daring and risky. He proposes to five trusted members from his former baseball club that they form a ring of cat burglars that would steal from those who commit crimes. His friends think it odd, but feel they cannot turn down a dying man's request. With only six months, how much could they do anyway? Ridiculously silly and stupid.   Overall Rating: 5/10

9. Age of Innocence  [순수의 시대] (Finished 2/16) Tags: Romance, Melodrama Tae Seok, Ji Yoon and Min Soo were best friends in high school. Tae Seok is a son of divorced parents are secretly in love with Ji Yoon when he knows Min Soo also has feelings for Ji Yoon, but Ji Yoon does not have any feelings toward Min Soo. When Min Soo saw them kissing, he attempted suicide in front of them, leaving Ji Yoon's and Tae Seok's felt like they betrayed him. 7 years pass, Tae Seok is a CF producer and mature unlike when he was a student and wandered around and made troubles. He has a new best friend named Dong Hwa. Accidentally, the woman Dong Hwa wants to marry is Ji Yoon, who was the first love of Tae Seok. Fate just played Tae Seok when he met Ji Yoon as his best friend's girlfriend. Fate also played Tae Seok that the woman who loves him but whom he calls a friend is Min Soo's sister. Tae Seok will make a decision between them, but he doesn't want to make the same mistake he did 7 years ago. But when Dong Hwa discovered Ji Yoon's and Tae Seok's past from Min Soo's sister who told about the relationships of her brother and them and that Ji Yoon still loves Tae Seok after they met each other, best friend, Dong Hwa, felt betrayed like in the past. Back to typical male leads and bland female one. This combined with so-so melodramatic plot and illogical actions only means one score.   Overall Rating: 5/10

10. Lunch Queen [ランチの女王] (Finished 1/12) Tags: Food, Comedy, Romance Natsumi loves lunch. By chance she starts working for "Kitchen Macaroni", posing as the fiance of the owner's eldest son, Kenichiro. Kenichiro's father Kenzo and his three younger brothers - Yujiro, Junzaburo, and Koshiro - run the restaurant, famous for its omelet. Also working at the restaurant are Mamoru, a chef, and Minoru, a live-in apprentice cook. Not everyone has a liking to Natsumi at first, but over time they will surely fall in love with her... If I read description prior to adding title, I probably would not add it as it's totally a gourmet show, the kind I can't stand.   Overall Rating: 5/10

11. Taiyou no Kisetsu [太陽の季節] (Finished 11/11) Tags: Romance, Drama, Melodrama Tatsuya is a tormented college student who was once an all-around nice guy but now seems to be balancing a gigantic grudge on his shoulder. What the grudge is had yet to be revealed, although it likely has something to do with his father and the poverty that plagues his life. For some unknown reason, he has taken to hanging around with the richest kid in school, basically, a trusting, nice guy who Tatsuya is out to destroy. He feels an uncontrollable urge to deface the rich kid's new car and chase after his fiance. Complicating the plot further is Tatsuya's run-in with a young composer and pianist, who has a limp sustained in a car accident many years before. She, too, is rich, although Tatsuya does not know it yet. Stuck in a stifling home environment with her pianist mother, who disdains her desire to compose, the obedient young woman begins to change after a chance meeting with Tatsuya, while he seems to regain some of his humanity in his interaction with her. Revenge is such a petty theme. But I hoped it would end with the setup done... but it lasted up till the last episode. Last episode managed to be even worse. Can't call this irrational horrible mess even decent. I regret watching it.   Overall Rating: 5/10

12. Tsuhan-Man  [ツーハンマン] (Finished 1/11) Tags: Comedy, Romance A story of a shy and quiet office worker who by chance became a "masked demonstrator" in a TV shopping program. What happens when his longing lady fell in love with not the real him but the disguised self? Yamada Makoto (Nakamura) works for a TV shopping company as a troubleshooter. Although he is a quiet, shy, and extremely ordinary guy, he one day by chance performs as a "masked demonstrator" in a popular TV shopping program by wearing a Zorro-like costume. His enthusiastic speech and persuasive demonstration touches the heart of the audience, and he not only becomes a TV hero, but he also cheers up the people in need of help! A unique comedy love story is here! Can't find an answer to the question why watch it past pilot episode. It's pretty average and non-engaging while all this selling show competition is done in a nonsense way.   Overall Rating: 5/10

13. Roy Leh Sanae Rai [ร้อยเล่ห์ เสน่ห์ร้าย] (Finished 1/18) Tags: Romance, Drama Kongpop's dad betrayed his friend, Namnueng's dad, years ago by taking their joint pub business for himself. Before his death, Kongpop's dad left a 500 million baht inheritance to Namnueng, feeling guilty for his past actions. Upon learning about the will, Kongpop, who already had more than enough money, became angry and plotted to make Namnueng fall in love with him and sign away her inheritance. After their marriage, Namnueng discovered his deceit and felt heartbroken. Kongpop, realizing he had fallen for her, now struggles to win her back while she seeks a divorce. Lakorns are still not just bad, but truly terrible. On every single level.   Overall Rating: 4/10

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