Dorama of the Year 2004-IV Fall - Medaka

Medaka was the best thing that happened to this season.

1. Tropical Nights in December  [12월의 열대야 ] (Finished 1/17) Tags: Comedy, Romance, Drama, Melodrama A married woman who falls in love with another man, and the young man who tries to seduce her?? as well as the people who chase after them. December Fever is the story of a dangerous love affair between a married woman and a dying man. It introduces us to people with double standards and other falsehoods, as well as people who sacrifice themselves for family. In addition, it's a story of a father and his dying son as well as a tale about the conflicts between and their mothers-in-law. It holds a mirror to everyday life with comic and interesting characters. Terminal condition is a red flag, but even apart from that it's so darn cringy that I even had to physically facepalm here once... plus, several exaltic psychotic female characters is too much for me to handle.   Overall Rating: 5/10

2. I'm Sorry, I Love You  [미안하다, 사랑한다] (Finished 1/16) Tags: Romance, Drama, Melodrama Cha Moo Hyuk was adopted by an Australian family but was abused and left homeless at an early age. One day, he comes across Song Eun Chae, the coordinator for Choi Yune, a famous singer in Korea whom she is secretly in love with. Her fateful encounter with Moo Hyuk ends up affecting not only her life but that of her precious Yune as well. Because of an accident involving his ex-girlfriend, Moo Hyuk is left with 3 months to live. This leads him to head back to Korea in search of his biological mother. The discoveries he makes change his heart from longing to revenge. Even with all this darkness surrounding him, he finds an unexpected source of happiness with someone he did not expect to love. Obsession with terminal conditions was what averted me from kdrama back in late 2000s. But overall quality is above average, so watchable if don't mind inevitable doom.   Overall Rating: 6/10

3. Last Christmas  [ラストクリスマス] (Finished 2/11) Tags: Romance, Life, Drama Haruki Kenji is a 36-year-old manager of the Winter Sports section of a large sporting goods company. He goes on a ski trip to New Zealand with his friend Shintani Goro (who is also his boss) and Shintani's new secretary, 24-year-old Aoi Yuki. Upon returning to Japan, he finds that he has a new neighbor in the apartment next to his. It is Aoi. While watching the movers, he sees a photograph drop from the new girl's luggage. Looking at the photo, he sees it is a picture of a group from a female bicycle gang, and upon looking closer, he sees it is a picture of Aoi. Haruki finds her putting on a facade and fooling everyone at work with her nice girl persona. But at home, she is anything but nice, dating lots of men and using them to get what she wants. This continues until one day, Aoi comes home drunk and without her keys. Kenji lets her into her room via the door connecting their apartments. Aoi accidentally drops a video tape into Haruki's apartment. When he discovers the tape, he watches it. On it, Aoi has recorded a message to herself. Seeing this serious message, Haruki begins to view Aoi in a completely different light. Betting is a horrible moving force for any plot. So leads bet about who finds love first and move on as rivals helping their potential love interests on the way and getting closer while doing so... Never understood why make such a dreadful concept and then undertake enormous actions in attempt to make it all viable. Nice recovery overall, but not masterpiece material.   Overall Rating: 6/10

4. Love Story in Harvard [러브스토리 인 하버드] (Finished 2/16) Tags: Romance, Youth, Drama It portrays the dream and love pursued by foreign students studying at Harvard. It demonstrates bright, hard-working, and romantic characters and storylines. A young love story set at the famed Ivy League school in the United States. Kim Hyun Woo, a 1st-year law student at Harvard Law, enters into a rivalry with classmate Hong Jung Min for the affection of beautiful medical student Lee Soo In. The two men are both from prestigious families, while Soo In is from a poor family. Can the trio resolve their romantic differences and chase their dreams at the same time? So plot is non-existent, and love triangle is all we're expected to enjoy. It pours in multiple conflicts from the start, but by the end of second episode they basically get resolved, so there's no other way than go downhill from there, and it's already not great.   Overall Rating: 6/10

5. Magic Ring [愛情魔戒] (Finished 1/21) Tags: Romance Xiao Jun slowly wakes up from a train accident. Losing all her memories and left with amnesia, Xiao Jun has no idea who she is or where she is going. Yet the ancient ring that she is wearing on her finger is proof of being the Du family's eldest son's fiancé. Therefore, Xiao Jun is confusingly brought to the rich and powerful Du family. The head of the Du family treats her and loves her as if she is his own daughter, causing the pregnant Xiao Jun to experience the feelings of a warm family that she has never felt before. So many typical melodrama tropes. Don't see anything that I could like here.   Overall Rating: 5/10

6. Medaka [めだか] (Finished 3/11) Tags: Life, Drama Takako Meguro's dream has always been to get married and quit her job. But one day, she finds herself working as a teacher at a night school. At first, she is unmotivated and doesn't take her work seriously. But she soon finds out that work at night school is tougher than she thought. There's a high-school dropout, a businessman, a cabaret girl, and many others—every student is either strange or extraordinary in one way or another. Half of the students are older than Takako, and she discovers that one of the students was her classmate in elementary school. Now that she sleeps during the day and works at night, Takako is unable to attend drinking parties to meet guys. She starts to think that's how life is, and she should go with the flow. But one night, an incident ignites Takako's passion for her job, which explodes into an angry scolding of her students. Watched it the past, but not sure if finished then. Finding such concept of gathering together lots of varied grown-ups  always nice - lots of great actors gathered, and first stage appearance of Kuroki Meisa is truly striking. Parallels with GTO are inevitable, and many plot moves are same or very similar, but still done with an effort to vary. Such concept requires great main character, and Medaka is just usual. In the end I got tired of her mimics and antics, so was not content enough with the flow, but it absolutely does not mean drama is bad, and I'd be happy to nominate it if there aren't masterpieces this season.   Overall Rating: 6/10

7. Stained Glass [유리화] (Finished 1/18) Tags: Romance, Drama During their childhood, Dong Joo and Gi Tae are both abandoned by their real parents. In the orphanage, they grow up like brothers and become best friends. Ji Soo transfers to the school where Dong Joo and Gi Tae attends. At the same time, they both fall in love with her. While trying to get Ji Soo's ocarina, Dong Joo is caught in the river and is presumed drowned. A Japanese couple adopted him after he was rescued in the river and he became a heir to their corporate throne. Meanwhile Gi Tae takes Dong Joo's place in Ji Soo's affections and they later become a couple. Twelve years later, Dong Joo, as a Japanese gentleman, returns to Korea and his feelings for Ji Soo begin to develop and his friendship with Gi Tae begin to unravel. Sloppy and overacted. Can't stand Lee Dong Gun. As a result, I just don't care about these characters.   Overall Rating: 5/10

8. Save the Last Dance for Me [마지막 춤은 나와 함께] (Finished 1/20) Tags: Romance, Drama Eun Soo is a pure but unsophisticated woman who runs a small resort inn with her father. Eun Soo is just an ordinary girl, but her life changes when she meets a man who's completely lost his memory. She takes him in and cares for him, and even gives him a name: "Baek Chang Ho". Love blossoms, and soon wedding bells can be heard. But on the night of their wedding ceremony, Eun Soo's father passes away. And soon after, Chang Ho disappears too! In the blink of an eye, the two people Eun Soo loves most in the world have left her. But Chang Ho had his reasons for disappearing: his real name is Kang Hyun Woo, and he's heir to a large conglomerate. Even more, someone is plotting to kill him. Tasteless and slow. 20 episodes of this must be ultimate boredom.   Overall Rating: 5/10

9. 100% Senorita [千金百分百] (Finished 2/39) Tags: Comedy, Romance Born through a surrogate mother, Zhuang Fei Yang is the sole millionaire heiress of Formosa Inc, a company owned by her father and directed by CEO Peter, Fei Yang’s high-profile boyfriend. Soon after her father’s sudden death, the heiress’ life is shaken by a murder attempt by the scheming Peter. Fei Yang survives the car accident without Peter’s knowledge, but her face becomes unrecognizable after a dramatic plastic surgery to cover her deformed features. Wanting to be restored to her identity and to save Formosa from Peter’s hands, Fei Yang employs the help of Xiao Feng, her long-lost twin sister. The uncultured Xiao Feng swaps identities with the rich Fei Yang in a desperate attempt to regain Formosa. As with previous two Taiwanese drama, still can't stand this FL, who could have thought. But it also has additional sources of irritation in form of exaggerated tropes and circus pirouettes with special effects that make it all even more unnatural and silly.   Overall Rating: 5/10

10. Emperor of the Sea [해신] (Finished 2/51) Tags: Action, Historical, Drama, War Jang Bo Go was a slave from Shilla (a Korean dynasty that lasted from 57 B.C. until 935 A.D.) He was sold in China during the Tang Dynasty, where he was trained as a gladiator-slave. Through hard work and perseverance, he makes it back to Shilla and becomes a successful sea merchant. The sea passage at the time was plagued by pirates and Jang Bo Go goes head to head with them in battles and manages to keep the pirates at bay. This epic drama tells the story of a historical figure blending it with intrigue and battle of wit to make it into a successful drama of all times. All I see is ancient noname personal success story from slave to sea merchant. That's just not enough for me already without interesting political context unless there's some exceptional execution.   Overall Rating: 6/10

11. Deep Love ~ Ayu's Story ~ [Deep Love 〜アユの物語〜] (Finished 9/13) Tags: Romance, Life, Drama, Melodrama Ayu, a young prostitute, finds new meaning in life after meeting Yoshiyuki, a boy her late mentor wished to see. Despite her dark past and his heart condition, they fall deeply in love. But Yoshiyuki's father forbids their relationship, and Ayu sacrifices herself, returning to prostitution to fund his surgery and fulfill the old woman’s wish. Can Yoshiyuki be saved? Will Ayu find freedom from her burdens? Will their love survive the separation? Such laughable stuff. I kept watching just to see if synopsis has anything to do with this drama. The answer is that has, but Yoshiyuki shows up in freaking 8th episode, so guess yourself if there's enough remaining time for deep love. And now guess what previous 7 episodes are filled with - pure misery and totally dead inside FL having zero emotions for anything. And then - bam - 8th episode and she meets Yoshiyuki for the first time and smiles in the very same encounter... so random and unbelievable that I'm not even going to finish it.   Overall Rating: 5/10

12. Otouto (2004) [弟] (Finished 1/5) Tags: Life About the life of the famous Ishihara brothers, one is a former mayor of Tokyo and the other one is a well-known actor. This is a very detailed biography, written by the older brother to pay tribute to his little brother, a legend in the Japanese entertainment industry. Never finding auto biographies interesting. Given that hearing about Ishihara for the first time, does not add motivation. As I see, their youth was pretty typical with strict father and stuff, nothing really fascinating.   Overall Rating: 6/10

13. Fuufu (2004) [夫婦。] (Finished 1/11) Tags: Drama, Family Mr. and Mrs. Yamaguchi are an old-fashioned middle-aged couple with two children about to become independent. As they prepare for the daughter's upcoming wedding to Mr. Yamaguchi's work underling, they find that the love they themselves experienced at the time of their marriage isn't really there anymore. The wedding planner becomes smitten with Mr. Yamaguchi when he begins to meet her often for conversations, and she eventually seduces him into bed, creating a rift in the middle-aged couple. At the same time, their college-student son falls in love with a nurse who is much older than he is and has a little daughter. They will have to fight for their love to be accepted by his parents. Still can't stand Tamura Masakazu, every second with him pains me.   Overall Rating: 5/10

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