Sisily 2km 시실리2km

Or another name for it "To Catch A Virgin Ghost".

I know this is an old movie. But my Korean tutor has been lending me her DVDs lately and this is one of them. It's such a funny move - scary, funny and heartwarming. My kids and I love this movie so much, so I thought I should write a review of it so that you might also enjoy watching it.

Frankly speaking, I don't know any of the actors in this movie except for the old man and the 2 gangsters: Byeong Hee Bong (who's acted in so many dramas), Ahn Nae Sang (I last saw him in "Marathon Man") and Park Hyuk Kwon (I last saw him in "Time Between Dog and Wolf").

Anyway, the GIST:
A gangster ran away with a few diamonds belonging to a notorious gang leader. While on the run, his jeep was driven off the road when he tried to avoid hitting something black and crouching in front of the jeep.

Unhurt, he sought the help of a seemingly friendly group of villagers in a quiet village named Sisily. I said "Seemingly" because they're the eventual cause of all the mishaps that followed.

The gang leader, a knife-wielding "oppa" with a principle. When the villagers refused to reveal the gangster's whereabouts, the gang leader decided to camp in the villagers' huge house.

That night, while asleep, he was visited by a beautiful ghost in black. Not wanting to believe that he was afraid of any ghosts, he proceeded to enter the forested nearby area in pursuit of the gangster.

And like dejavu, he found himself face to face with the ghost in his dream.......... what's the connection between the ghost and the villagers? And where is the gangster hiding....or is he still alive......and where are the diamonds?


I give this movie 4.5 pop corns for it's wonderful editing which kept my kids and I on the edge of our seats for the next scenes.

Watch it!

KHU Summer 2006 Class Photo

I FINALLY got this scanned into my computer. Can you spot me?

바보 (Fool) Seasons 1 & 2

바보 tells a story of Ji Ho, who's just returned from USA after leaving Korea 10 years ago. Her journey back to her small hometown was full of anticipation and nostalgia. Old houses, old friends, familiar places, and familiar feelings.


However, her chance encounter with a strange kid when she arrived at the hometown, turned her life around.


Lee Sun Seng Nim told me, "Aini, when you read this, you must have a box of tissue with you". And a quarter into the book and I found myself reaching out for the box of NTUC tissue. Sniff


Kangfull is such a brilliant storyteller. He does not only capture the old neighbourhood scenes and the many different characters, he also captured the reality of existence of prejudice against those less fortunate or different.




I love this manhwa. They've made this into a movie by the same title starring Cha Tae Hyun and Ha Ji Won. From the looks of it, the film makers did a good job coz it looked exactly as how it did in the manhwa. I hope to watch it really soon. In the meantime...back to the manhwa.

순정만화 Season 2

After reading Season 1 of this Manhwa, I got so hooked on it, and my kind Tutor, Lee Sun Seng Nim, got a friend to buy Season 2 and both seasons of 바보 (Fool) when he came to Singapore a week ago. I am reading both at the same time.



In Season 2, Kangfull tells us about how The ajosshi and Student's relationship developed into something more serious, just as Student's mother started to get to know the man whom her daughter is in love with. Interesting. Interesting.

I realised that after reading these manhwas, I have learnt a lot about how to use certain phrases and words in colloquial . I would encourag fellow students to read these or other Kangfull's manhwas coz they are simple to read, and the stories told are lovely.


Last November, this manhwa was made into a movie. I've had the chance to watch it recently. It was highly anticipated because of the popularity of the manhwa. I was not disappointed by what I saw. Although it was only about 1 hour 50 minutes, the movie captured the essence of the manhwa.


I love the interpretation of the 4 main characters, especially the student and the ajosshi. One of my all-time favourite actor, Yoo Ji Tae was perfectly casted. So was Kang-In.



Watch the movie. You'll love it as much as I did.



And By the way, just like in the Manhwa, Kangfull made a cameo appearance as the side-street seller ^^

29th February 2월 29일

Wah L*u. This was one scary movie - at least in my opinion.

The kids were kept awake with my screaming! LOL. The kids usually have to sleep by 10pm, and that's when the hubby and would watch horror movies together - I dun watch horror movies alone. NO WAY!.

This movie made me wonder about the tollgate workers along the Malaysian North-South Highway, on which I travel every month to visit my in-laws in Malacca. Although I only drive during the day, I am sure it must've been kinda scary to work along the long dark stretch of quiet highway at night.

Anyway, I won't spoil it for you. Coz the climax of the movie is the part where you'd go "Ah....is that why? Alamak....really ah?"

Park Eun Hye was teamed up with his royal highness Im Ho from Dae Janggeum once again in this movie. Park Eun Hye was perfect for this movie. She brought us along with her on that scary roller coaster ride between reality and dream.


The Gist
The movie started on 28th February of the leap year. Ji Yeon, a tollgate worker, was on duty on the night of 28th, and went about her usual business until suddenly a blackout occured. Then, a car moved towards her booth and handed her a bloody toll ticket stub. From that moment on, she was haunted by an apparition who liked to dress up exactly like her.

On 29th February, she was again handed a bloody ticket stub, and on and on. But was it just a dream? Coz she seemed to be the only one who could see the apparition. While everyone around her thought her crazy, we're told of the real story behind the murders.

OK, let me just say this: I thought the movies scary bits were D**n scary. But the climax was like *&%$#@*, and I thought it was a damper. I mean , I love scary movies (but my hubby MUST sit next to me lah), and I was inda disappointed with the ending.

BUT having said that, Watch it.

I give this movie 3 pop corns for the first 3/4 of the movie.
I give this movie 1 pop corn for the ending.

BUt still....Watch it.

H.I.T 히트

This drama was a HIT for me, pardon my corny pun. It was a HIT for the whole family. Good script and the cast's and director's aility to have a good laugh at their character's corny moments.

Another wonderful acting by Go Hyun Jung. I thoroughly enjoyed her in this drama. She was the perfect actress for this part. After watching her in Fox, What Are You Doing? and her pre-hiatus Spring Day, it was a refreshing change to see her in a combination of charaters from both previous dramas.

In this drama she's reunited with her co-star from Foxy , Son Hyun Joo - Funny ajosshi, and I love the way their characters interact with each other He provided good laugh.

Remember Ha Jung Woo from Time ? To be honest, I have not seen many of his dramas/movies. So, apart from Time, this was the second time I have seen him. My daughter and I agreed that he looked like a typical ajohsshi. Ha Ha, seriously...small eyes, not particularly good looking. Goofy, I should say. But his character was such a chocolate brownie, that I can't help but to think that he's cute. Favourite quotes which I hope would be as popular as those from Lovers In Paris:

Lt Cha, Do you have Change?
Lt Cha, Let me have the report NOW!

These were actually codes that he used in their secret workplace romance:



Change = How about a kiss?
Report= Let's eat.

LOL

Now about the drama, it's like a cross between CSI and Silence of The Lamb. The screenplay, the directing and the editing of the drama was well done, well enough to keep me up all night watching this drama - I have not done this in a while.

The bunch of detectives were a motley crew -

The very cute and good looking, with chiseled face and rosy lips: Jung Dong Jin
The veteran Choi Il Hwa
The brawny Ma Dong Suk
The scheming Kim Jung Tae

Oh..oh..oh...and Kim Jung Min was also in this drama. He has a small part to play but I liked his potrayal of a loyal friend who's secretly in love with his late-partner's girlfriend. Ah....so he's cool.

The Gist

Detective Cha Soo Gyung had a past - her boyfriend, a fellow detective, was killed by a serial murderer 14 years ago. She could not bring herself to shoot the murderer when she had the chance to. She also did not have the time to save her BF.

Prosecutor Kim Jae Yoon had a past - when he was 5, he was kidnapped by her nanny, who's actually having an affair with his father. He was kept in isolation for 5 days, and when he was finally released, he had also released all sense of trust in anyone else but himself.

Despite these, they ploughed on in life trying to find normalcy and in the process, found closure in each other.

After the success of a serial murder case, Detective Cha was tasked to head a team to investigate and solve violent murders - but in reality, she was just another token representative in a political affirmative action. Nonetheless, she survived the office politics thanks to her supportive superior and a team of less-than-perfect detectives.

And of course, there're the loose "changes" rolling on the floor, and a bit of "report" submissions here and a bit of the usual "Korean drama" parts there, as my 13 year old son puts it.

I give this drama a generous 5 pop corn. Good in entertainment value and a change from the usual K drama formula.

Dalja's Spring 달자의 봄

This is a funny drama. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it despite the 22 episodes. Chae Rim was hilarious. She has not appeared in any drama for quite a while, and I thought this was a perfect come-back for her.



Lee Min Ki gave me a warm feeling each time he comes up on screen. The last time I saw him was in RRLY. And I really really like him in this drama as well. When he smiles or....



when he's brooding.... He looked so charming. Or have I been fooled by the character that he's playing? Well, that's why we women (married or single) watch Korean dramas. We like to imagine that such men ACTUALLY exist in real life.



I feel that this drama was well casted. Such superb actors like Lee Hye Young who played the cool (but with a warm heart and an emphatic brain) SunJu, and Gong Hyeong Jin who played the playboy-turned-monogamous SaeDo. And many others of course. Check out the drama for a treat and a laugh.

The Gist:

Oh Dal Ja , a 33 year old career woman , left too long on the shelf - not because she's unattractive, but because of her poor judge of character of men, and of course, a lack of self esteem in the love department.



She falls in love with men who pay a slight attention to her, or offer her kindness (like most of us hopeless women), and then, she breaks her heart when she fails to sustain their "love". Which led to a chance encounter with Gang Tae Bong, a seemingly useless bum who offers "fake lover" services to such women as Dal Ja.




A 1 month contract to be her lover turned out to be enough for both of them to secretly fall in love with each other. There seems to be only 1 problem:

She's 33. He's 27.

It's not a problem for Tae Bong, but the lack of self esteem on Dal Ja's part, and expected objections from the parents made their relationship more difficult than it ought to be.


What I liked about this drama, is the wonderful editing and timing, that helped to sustain my interest and kept my fingers off the fast forward button of the remote control. The colours of this drama reflected the much awaited appearance beautiful Spring season. I was reminded much of Spring Waltz for its warm and bright colours.



"오.달.자. 씨!" ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ


Although many viewers would say that this drama has certain ingredients present in My Name is Kim Sam Soon, to me, Dal Ja's Spring spoke to many single, career women who have yet to meet their soul mate - be it a Chocolate brownie or a Cheesecake.

I felt that Dal Ja finally understood the meaning of 운명 (Destiny), at the end of the drama. Instead of fitting the men she met into her idea of Destiny, she finally learnt to let go and let Destiny bring her to him.

By the way, Coffee Prince's Waffle Kim Jae Wook and Eun Chan's replacement (the girl who speaks Japanese) also acted in this drama ^^.


4 pop corns for this drama.