Dorama of the Year 2014-I Winter - Strategist Kanbe (2014)

Strategist Kanbe (2014) has no rivals this season.

1. Yoru no Sensei (2014) [夜のせんせい] (Finished 4/10) Tags:  Comedy, Youth, Drama Yoruno Sakura has become a rookie teacher at a part-time high school after going through numerous setbacks and being the proprietress of a bar. She is the type of person who is diligent in everything but encounters failures in life over and over due to bad luck and her tactlessness. Even so, she did not let it get her down and lived with a positive attitude. Although she is overly friendly, insensitive, sloppy and irresponsible, she is a kind person who is instinctively quick to detect and help people who have dreams. A teacher at 38, she encounters part-time students of various ages and in the same situation as her. She changes their lives a little and is herself reborn too. Basically, Medaka mixed with GTO. Great mix since I like both, but for some reason I don't like Yoru no Sensei, so I tried to figure what was wrong with it. Primarily, I don't like main heroine and her constant talking nonsense. Secondarily, the pace of problems piling up is too intense and it feels artificial. It's still possible to enjoy some students personalities which are nice, but for me it's already not a masterpiece.   Overall Rating: 6/10

2. Emergency Couple (2014) [응급남녀] (Finished 1/21) Tags: Comedy, Romance, Drama, Medical Jin Hee, a dietitian, had a satisfying life until she met medical student Chang Min. Despite his wealthy family's opposition, they married. Chang Min later became a pharmaceutical salesman, straining their relationship further. The disapproval of Chang Min's family made matters worse, leading to their divorce. Afterward, Jin Hee pursued a medical career and became an intern. Chang Min also completed medical school and started working as an intern. Fate reunites them in the hospital's emergency room, where they must work together. Pure brainless toxicity, can't even finish first episode properly.   Overall Rating: 5/10

3. Bride of the Century (2014)  [백년의 신부] (Finished 1/16) Tags: Mystery, Comedy, Romance, Supernatural Taeyang Group is the largest conglomerate in South Korea, but the Choi family, who runs Taeyang, has supposedly been under a hundred-year curse - the first bride of the eldest son will always die. Choi Gang Ju, the current heir to Taeyang Group, had been arranged to marry heiress Jang I Gyeong when she suddenly disappears. The Jang family, desperate to maintain the engagement, finds a poor village girl, Na Du Rim, who looks exactly like Jang I Gyeong and convinces her to masquerade as the missing heiress in exchange for a sizeable sum of money. Na Du Rim's sweet and sunny personality captivates Choi Gang Ju, but he has no idea about her hidden identity nor about his family's hundred-year curse. What will happen when these two people end up falling in love with each other? Fake identity, stupid curse, mystery are all red flags.   Overall Rating: 5/10

4. Cunning Single Lady (2014) [앙큼한 돌싱녀] (Finished 1/16) Tags: Business, Comedy, Romance Na Ae Ra is the prettiest girl in her town. Many guys around her try to win her heart but she dreams of marrying a civil servant. One day, she meets dorky Cha Jung Woo who is preparing for civil service exams. They fall for each other and eventually marry. Her dream of living happily ever after is short-lived when her husband announces that he quit his job and wants to go into business. She supports him throughout the years by working herself to her bone while he coded software in a basement and failed to find investors. When she could no longer take it, she decided she wanted a divorce. She is still juggling jobs years later, to repay the debt she accrued while supporting her husband. She feels life is unfair when she finds out that her husband's business is a success and made him rich. Wanting to even the score, she joins his company as an intern. Thus begins a cat and dog quarrel between ex-husband and wife, who hurt each other, but can’t seem to get over one another. Boring. Typical. Bad actors. Zero incentive.   Overall Rating: 5/10

5. Cubic (2014) [คิวบิก หนี้หัวใจที่ไม่ได้ก่อ] (Finished 1/16) Tags: Action, Romance, Crime, Drama The father of Ruthainark is in debt with a man called Lin Lang Ser who is a well known member of the Hong Kong mafia. As the ugly duckling of the family Ruthainark is a very intelligent student but cannot compare with her sister's beautiful looks. Lin Lang Ser decides to accept her sister as a payback for the high debts of her family, but when the day comes to pay the debt the girl's father decides to run away with his eldest daughter. As a result of this Ruthainark is captured by Lin Lan Ser's men and brought to his mansion. Below adequate still.   Overall Rating: 5/10

6. The Hours of My Life (2014) [僕のいた時間] (Finished 5/11) Tags: Romance, Life, Drama, Melodrama Sawada Takuto is an ordinary university student, who one day learns that he has A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig’s disease) with not much time left to live. Instead of wallowing in despair, Takuto tries to live his life to the fullest. Endured it as long as I could, but it's still just a tearjerker terminal condition that hits at the same spot eternally, though better than others.   Overall Rating: 5/10

7. The Wife's Secret (2014) [妻子的秘密] (Finished 1/55) Tags: Romance, Drama Zhang Bai He and Li Ming Lang are both scions to successful conglomerates that are soon to be engaged. However on the night of their engagement a terrible arson occurs. As a result of the disaster Bai He loses her family while Ming Ling's mother wishes to cancel their marriage. Ming Lang disagrees and brings her home despite his mothers wishes, as they continue to co-habit their feelings towards each other grow steadily, however they must overcome the objections to their marriage and her scheming mother in law.  Super tedious Chinese melodrama that took a huge number of tropes from kdrama trash.   Overall Rating: 5/10

8. Wild Chives and Soy Bean Soup: 12 Years Reunion (2014)  [달래 된, 장국: 12년만의 재회] (Finished 1/26) Tags: Food, Romance, Drama Jang Guk is a country bumpkin who just transferred into a school in Seoul. She falls for Yoo Jun Su, the most popular boy in school. As her crush on him grows, they spend the night together which leads to her pregnancy. Their two families are thrown into chaos and Jang Guk suffers a miscarriage due to an accident. Jang Guk’s mother sends her away to the U.S., hoping that her daughter would be able to lead a new life. They meet again 12 years later, but Jun Su does not recognise Jang Guk. Title presumes time skip, so just checked if there was childhood period before skip. Of course. Most horrible one, as usual.   Overall Rating: 5/10

9. Battle of Changsha (2014) [战长沙] (Finished 2/32) Tags: Military, Historical, Romance, War 'Battle of Changsha' retells the turbulent events of the second Sino-Japanese War from the perspective of the Hu family, particularly through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl named Hu Xiang Xiang and her twin brother, Hu Xiao Man. Gu Qing Ming is a strict Intelligence Officer in the Nationalist Army and the only son of a prominent political family who, against his family's wishes, longs to join the war frontlines and serve his country. He crosses paths with the feisty Hu Xiang Xiang during a matchmaking event held against their wills, and so begins Gu Qing Ming's unwitting interactions and encounters with the rest of the Hu family. But as the war intensifies and Changsha is repeatedly under siege, Gu Qing Ming and Hu Xiang Xiang soon learn that there's more to each other than meets the eye, and can their budding relationship survive the flames of war and the threat of separation? All I see is another family story and a schoolgirl who is getting coerced into marriage. Just a different setting, but I hoped it'd be more action filled.   Overall Rating: 5/10

10. Mimi (2014) [미미] (Finished 2/4) Tags: Mystery, Romance, Supernatural 28-year-old Min Woo is a webtoon writer. One day, he finds a memo on his desk calendar. With the memo, he begins to write a new webtoon “December 8”. The comic turns into an instant hit. As the webtoon becomes even more popular, Min Woo feels pressure from work. He begins to suffer from severe headaches because of the pressure.  Amnesia is such a horrible trope to use, but here even amnesia happens at least for the second time as I understood. Which is absolutely petty paired up with supernatural.   Overall Rating: 5/10

11. Jeong Do Jeon (2014) [정도전] (Finished 1/50) Tags: Action, Thriller, Historical, Political In the late 14th c, Goryeo, abuse of power and corruption made people leave the government offices and only the corrupted people are left in the high offices. When there seems to be no hope, there are a group of young people who value the meaning of scholar heavily. They are the Sungkyunkwan scholars who have dreams to bring peace to the world and they were the hope of Goryeo. Sambong Jung Do Jun is one of them. He believes that the old corrupted government should be destroyed and the destiny of scholars is to build an idealistic country. Typically bad.   Overall Rating: 5/10

12. First Kiss (2014)  [真愛配方] (Finished 1/16) Tags: Romance Yan Yi Fei is a playboy heir to a giant pharmaceutical business. Chen Qian Is an upright, serious attorney. Yu Yao An Is a nerd content to study herbology. He Tian Tian is a naive princess full of romantic thoughts. An incident 20 years ago, a murder with a not-so-simple secret. Because of these two crucial events, the lives of these four individuals will forever be altered, their identities will never be the same. A plot to exchange identities, a betrayal that will separate true love, two brothers who end up at each other’s throats. All these are signs of that thirst for revenge surfacing from deep within their hearts… Forgiveness is a healing balm, just like lies are a poison. Will an unconditional love that expects no return be enough to heal the wounds and pains inflicted by lies and betrayals? His heart has been utterly distorted by his desire for revenge. Along his twisted path into his future, will he be able to notice that the love he needs to cure him completely has actually been by his side all along? Everything is so fake here.   Overall Rating: 5/10

13. Can We Love? (2014) [우리가 사랑할 수 있을까] (Finished 1/20) Tags: Romance, Drama, Family Jung Wan, Sun Mi, and Ji Hyun were high school classmates. It's been 20 years since graduation and as they turn 39, the three friends are leading completely different lives, although they are as close as sisters. Jung Wan was the first to get married but is now divorced, while Sun Mi chose a career over marriage and is now a successful interior designer, but is desperately lonely. Ji Hyun married a successful businessman and seems to be a good wife and mother, but feels like she is dying inside. What happens when love comes knocking on their doors once again? Jung Wan tries to throw herself into work to forget her ex but meets a new man. Sun Mi is desperate to get married before she turns 40. Ji Hyun, tired of her dull marriage, reunites with her first love who tempts her heart once more. Love has come once again to these three women in their late 30s. Can they fall in love again? Soulless. Zero empathy.   Overall Rating: 5/10

14. Strategist Kanbe (2014) [軍師官兵衛] (Finished 50/50) Tags: Historical, Drama July 1590, Odawara. Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army had surrounded the Odawara Castle for over 3 months, hoping to conquer this last obstacle to his dream of the country's unification. Standing at the gate of the castle, a lone man facing the menacing guards shouted out: "Do not throw your lives away. Treasure living!". Not long after, the castle gates opened and the reigning lord surrendered. The name of that man is Kuroda Kanbee. An excellent military strategist, he worked hand-in-hand with Hideyoshi to unify the country. Kanbei's family had fled to Harima and were relatively poor. As the protege of Kodera Masamoto, Kanbei was very much trusted and relied upon by his lord liege. Kanbei became the head of the Kuroda clan at 22 years of age. Masamoto was ageing and he very much wanted someone to take over his responsibilities, and thus he decided to marry off his much-loved daughter, Teru, to Kanbei. They were blessed with a son, but since many years had passed and yet Teru couldn't seem to conceive a second child, Kanbei decided to adopt the young children of his vassals as his proteges who were known as "Kuroda's warriors". When Kanbei turned 30, a revolutionary young lord was slowly laying siege to all the various shogunates, aiming for a unified Japan. Harima became the place where the clash between Oda and Mori Terumoto was set. Kanbei was very attracted to Oda's unification plans and had gone to Gifu Castle to meet up with him. There, he became acquainted with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and soon became Hideyoshi's right-hand man, marking the birth of Gunshi Kanbei. Loved it ten years ago, not going to rewatch though. Does not feel like a masterpiece at least because of the ending. But it definitely has wits, so deserves an intellectual masterpiece of 9.   Overall Rating: 9/10

15. Nazo no Tenkousei (2014)  [なぞの転校生] (Finished 1/12) Tags: Mystery, Youth, Sci-Fi Iwata Koichi and Kagawa Midori are second-year students at Tozaiyama High School. One day, while coming home from school, they discover a shooting star rising up in the sky. The next day, Midori sees a shining figure in school and everyone on the school grounds starts talking about a ghost. At that point, a mysterious transfer student called Yamazawa Norio suddenly arrives at the school and moves in to live next door to Koichi. Strange things begin to happen frequently around Koichi whenever Norio appears. The reason and objective of Norio’s arrival in this world is gradually revealed. Slightly better than expected, but alien schoolmate is not an easy concept to play around, they did their best.   Overall Rating: 6/10

16. Fabulous 30 (2014) [女人30情定水舞間] (Finished 1/76) Tags: Romance, Life, Drama What do women in their 30s want? They don’t want to make compromises in their lives. When they hit bumps in the road on their way to happiness, they want their closest friends beside them. When Wen Qi decides to end her failure of a marriage, she takes her two best friends, Zhi Qin and Wan Ting, on a getaway to Macau to help her lick her wounds. There, they run into a trio of handsome men who may or may not restore their faith in love and romance. Tasteless Taiwanese sort of comedy.   Overall Rating: 5/10

17. Nai Suan Kwan (2014) [ในสวนขวัญ] (Finished 1/13) Tags: Romance, Drama He's a harsh man who has no friends and who isn't interested in girls at all. She's a strong girl who supports her family. When their paths cross they immediately dislike each other. But like the old saying says, it's only one step to change hatred into love. More of hysterical yelling.   Overall Rating: 5/10

18. Abandoned (2014) [明日、ママがいない] (Finished 9/9) Tags: Life, Youth, Drama, Family Maki’s mother commits assault and Maki is temporarily placed in the children’s orphanage, Kogamo no Ie. Post is a young girl who reigns as the leader at Kogamo no Ie. While she has lost her parents, she is remarkably strong, resilient and positive. There is also Piami and Bonbi who respect Post. These girls, who each have different backgrounds, do not appear sad and seem quite indifferent. When asked for the reason for the queer nicknames they call each other, Post replies that they have cast away everything they received from their parents including their pasts as well as their names. Even if they constantly think about their parents, there will be no happiness. She advises Maki to leave the past behind. Bravado is the only weapon to protect themselves in this harsh, cold world. However, Maki believes that her mother will come to get her. Only finished it because was at the end when finally decided to drop it. Repetitive, eventless, uninspiring. Did not like children acting, was rather cringy. Useless waste of time, as for me.   Overall Rating: 5/10

19. Rock 'n' Road (2014) [A咖的路] (Finished 2/16) Tags: Music, Romance, Life, Drama After you hit bottom, is it possible to return to the top? Former top child actress, Lin Wei Zhen, has been unable to find work as she grown older in the entertainment industry, throwing her in the pits of depression and self-pity. She then meets Zhou Shu Yu, a producer who is at the peak of his career. But when his friend, Xu Li Da, and his girlfriend, Yang Jia Xin, both betray him, Shu Yu loses everything he has worked so hard to attain. With only Wei Zhen by his side in his lowest moment, can the former child star and the rock-bottom producer help each other regain their former glory? So-so with point up just for the musical parts as everything else is too bad.   Overall Rating: 6/10

20. Four Literary Masters (2014) [江南四大才子] (Finished 1/41) Tags: Comedy, Drama The Four Scholars of Jiangnan takes place in the early 1500’s Ming Dynasty, during the reign of the reckless and foolish Zhengde Emperor. The emperor’s eunuchs, led by the powerful Liu Jin, are gaining power through the emperor’s weakening reign, and it is up to the four Jiangnan scholars to stop the corrupted officials from further harming the country and its citizens. Don't know why I'm still giving a chance to "historical" Chinese comedy. This stupidity does not work in any way.   Overall Rating: 5/10

21. Dark System - Koi no Ouza Ketteisen (2014) [ダークシステム 恋の王座決定戦] (Finished 2/10) Tags: Action, Thriller, Romance, Sci-Fi In this sci-fi suspense action film, a guy whose love interest is taken by a friend struggles desperately to alter reality, and creates the diabolical machine “dark system.” Combines two indie works by director Yuki Shuji. Unattractive and run-of-the-mill Kagami (Yaotome Hikaru) flies into a fury when his friend Saionji starts seeing his love interest Yuri . He vows to break them up, and first he plants the bugging device “Saionji Crasher” in Saonji’s room. Fooling around, not far from love is war bs, but at least with surreal comedy.   Overall Rating: 5/10

22. Kami no Tsuki (2014) [紙の月] (Finished 5/5) Tags: Thriller, Mystery, Drama Rinka Umezawa is a housewife who pursues things that will bring her small happiness in life. Her husband Masabumi holds a stern belief that he will support his wife Rinka. The couple do not have children. Rinka begins to work part-time at a bank. She visits her clients' homes. Sometimes, she even helps her elderly clients' with their house chores. This builds a strong level of trust with her clients. One day, she visits client Kojo Hirabayashi's. At his home, she meets his grandchil Kota who came to ask for money. Her encounter with Kota changes her. Soon, Rinka embezzles one hundred million yen from her bank and runs away. Two years later, Rinka's former high school friends Yuko Okazaki and Aki Nakaji trace her embezzlement case and face their own darkness. Absolutely not thrilling and hardly even a mystery. Too boring.   Overall Rating: 5/10

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