31. Iris 2

Broadcast: Feb 2013 - Apr 2013
Episodes: 20, Action/Thriller/Romance
Cast:
Jang Hyuk as Jung Yoo Gun
Lee Da-hae as Ji Soo Yeon
Lee Beom-soo
Im Soo-hyang Yoo Joong Won
Yoon Doo-joon as Seo Hyun Woo
Lee Joon Yoon Shi Hyuk
Kim Yeong-cheol as Baek San

Following from the review of Iris 1, Iris 2 is a completely different cast except for Baek San (Kim Young Chul) and cameos from Park Cheol Young (Kim Seung Woo) & Kim Seon Hwa (Kim So Yeon) . The storyline of this sequel does not continue from the previous. We do not know the true identity of Choi Seung Hee (Kim Tae Hee) or get to see who killed Hyun Jun. If you watch Iris The Movie, you’ll get the see the killer at the end, and I warn you, it’s a shocker! The movie is exactly the same as Iris 1, the drama but cut and chopped to make it into the time slot of 125mins. In my opinion, it’s not worth watching the movie alone, becauseyou are going to be so confused. The cutting of the scenes are ridiculous. It’ll leave you so confused of what’s going on. Anyway, who would just watch Iris 1 The movie and jump into Iris 2, right?

This second one is about Jung Yoo-Gun, a former police officer who gets recruited by Iris and then manipulated and tried to be taken out. He turns out to be Baek San’s biological son. He is intelligent, street smart, and an extremely capable fighter so was able to survive through all the difficulties except that his brain is deteriorating when they revived his life from a legal shooting of the head.

I won’t go into too much detail of this drama because I found it bland. I’m only doing a review because it’s the sequel to the first one which I loved. It was deeply disappointed when you compare it to the first one. The acting was ok. Jang Hyuk & Lee Da Hae did an ok job. I’m not a fan of Lee Da Hae anymore. I find her facial expressions rather restricted from her many plastic surgeries hehe…

Spunky and feisty character Kim Yeon Hwa (Kim Soo Hyang) turns out to be Kim Seon Hwa (Kim So Yeon) little sister. Why did I not pick that up from the name and the personality?! I only caught on at the end when they re-united for some sisterly love.

The plot was just bland. It’s always the case that the sequels are not as good as the first one, right? I felt that the end just fizzled out. Too many sacrifices were made at the end. Why do Iris leads never get a good ending?

I loved Seo Hyun Woo (Yoon Doo Joon from Beast). He was the highllight of the drama : ) So very spunky!

I only liked a couple of songs from this drama: Davichi - 모르시나요 Don't You Know; G.O & Mir (MBLAQ) - What A Fool I Am (바보같은 나).

You won’t miss anything if you ended just watching Iris 1, and stopping there. This drama felt like spin off from Iris 1, like extra side information.

Rating: 3.8/5

Drama Reviews

Although I have watched a lot of Kdramas, I have not written reviews for every single one. I've decided to write only reviews for dramas that score a 4 or higher (and for ones on rare occasions if I feel the desire to because that drama struck a cord with me). Anything lower than that is just not worth writing about. I lose interest and passion writing reviews for crappy dramas. 

30. Iris

Broadcast: Oct - Dec 2009
Episodes: 20, Action/Mystery/Thriller/Romance
Cast:
NSS:
Lee Byung Hun as Kim Hyun Joon
Oh Eun Chan as Hyun Joon (child)
Kim Tae Hee as Choi Seung Hee
IRIS:
Jung Joon Ho as Jin Sa Woo
Kim Young Chul as Baek San (NSS vice-director)
T.O.P as Vick
North Korea Party:
Kim Seung Woo as Park Chul Young
Kim So Yun as Kim Sun Hwa


This drama boast big actors such as Kim Tae Hee and Lee Byun Hun (G.I.Joe);  you knew it would be a good drama to watch as the acting would be awesome. These 2 big stars came back to the small screen from a few years hiatus from filming movies. This drama budgeted 16.7 million US dollars to film and was filmed on international locations such as Hungary (Budapest, Balaton, Tihany), Russia, Japan, US, and China. 

 I have to say watching this drama once, you wouldn't be able to get it entirely. If you want to be able to understand it fully and get all the details, you may have to watch it a second time, or watch the movie which was what I did :)

Kim Hyun Joon and Jin Sa Woo were best friends training in the  South Korean army's 707th Special Mission Battalion. They were scouted (head hunted you could say) by the beautiful Choi Seung Hee to later work for National Security Service (NSS) which was a secret
South Korean black ops agency. They both fell in love with her immediately which is to be expected. Seung Hee fell for Hyun Joon maybe because he took action and was overly confident of himself? Maybe he had more charisma?

Their role within NSS was to preempt foreign threats and to protect the country's interests, even if they had to do assassination projects of anyone who could be a threat to South Korea.

Everything was going smoothly until Baek San, the NSS director asked Hyun Joon to do a solo mission to kill the North Korean Minister Yoon. Baek San is a double agent, who also secretly works for another organisation called Iris who likes to create political turmoil so they can profit from a country's strife and downfall. After Hyun Joon was successful in killing Minister Yoon, he was wounded and was chased by the North Korean agents. He rung Baek San for backup & help but was told that he was on his own. Later his best friend Sa Woo came to his relief but unfortunately, Sa Woo was manipulated by Baek San to kill off Hyun Joo and recruited in to work for Iris. Why was he so easily manipulated? I had wondered. Perhaps he was really jealous of Hyun Joon because he got the girl? Sa Woo was in love with Seung Hee and he was shattered that Hyun Joon and Seung Hee got together.

Still wounded and running for his life, Hyun Joon managed to find Seung Hee and they wanted to elope after Hyun Joon told her what happened with Baek San. At the train station when he was buying tickets for them to elope together, she was waiting inside the car for him. The North Korean agents found him at the station and was searching for him. As Hyun Joon made his way back to the car, the car exploded in his face. He was devastated, thinking that Seung Hee had died. Unbeknownst to him, it was a set up. Sa Woo had given her a call and she had escaped before it blew up.

With nothing to go back to at NSS, thinking that Seung Hee is dead, Hyun Joon defected and joined the North Koreans, hoping to revenge against Baek San. He joined their black Ops team. The black ops team's mission was to create a bomb and to nuke South Korea. This was the doing of Iris. Hyun Joon didn't want the bomb to go off but had to gain the North Korean's trust so went ahead with it in the mean time. 

To build the bomb, they had to get special equipment from NSS headquarters. So with Hyun Joon's help, they were able to infiltrate NSS to steal the required equipment. During the raid, Hyun Joon was wearing a mouth wrap and scouting for the equipment when Seung Hee pointed a gun at him. He was shocked and surprised to see her since he thought she was dead and she didn't know who he was because he had a mouth wrap on, and also the fact that she was told that he was killed in a plane crash (while he was trying to get away from Sa Woo). This was a memorable scene for me. The acting in this scene was electrifying!

The North Koreans captured Seung Hee to try to get her to tell them the code so they can utilise the equipment but she didn't know the password. She was beaten by (shock horror) Hyun Joon to get the code. He had to put up an act so the North Koreans didn't know that they were lovers and also if he didn't beat her, they would've given her the lethal injection. This was another memorable scene. Amazing acting.

Hyun Joon met with the South Korean president Cho Myung-Ho to explain what was going on and that he was a double agent. His interest off course lies with South Korea. They had to stop the bomb from going off. Meanwhile, they found evidence of Baek San and Sa Woo's conspiracy with Iris and they were arrested. The bomb, Hyun Joon, along with NSS's help was able to be stopped and the North Korean agents who wanted to set it off were all killed at the scene.

Baek San was captured and locked in a remote area. Hyun Joon and Seung Hee went on holiday. The last scene was with Seung Hee waiting at Jeju Island at the lighthouse and Hyun Joon driving towards her with a ring ready to propose. Alas, he was shot by a sniper shooter while he was driving. They showed blood running down from his head as he was shot in the head, head rested on the steering wheel, looking at Seung Hee who was happily waiting and anticipating to meet up with him. It was so sad! Such a miserable ending.

This drama was really good. Choi Seung Hyun, aka TOP from boy band Big Bang played Vic, the cold blooded assassin. He was nasty but very cool in drama. Acting performances were excellent as we have a stellar cast here.

Questions that were not answered were who is this Mr Black that gave all the orders to kill? What part of Iris was Baek San involved in? Who was part of Iris besides Baek San, Sa Woo and the North Korean commander? Who Killed Hyun Joon at the end? Why was Seung Hee always being freed and not harmed seriously?

I wouldn't recommend that you watch Iris, The Movie before watching the drama. The movie is very confusing if you have not seen the drama. The movie is literally snippets from the drama and there are missing scenes where things do not make sense if you have not watched the drama. However, the movie Baek San tells Hyun Joon that his life was controlled by him from a very young age. He had to die because he had "eaten the unforbidden fruit" meaning his involvement with Seung Hee. Is Seung Hee's Mr Black's daughter? or someone high up in Iris's daughter?

The movie shows extra scenes at the end. It shows who kills Hyun Joon and it's a shocker! I won't say who it is if you are going to watch it. I was shocked to find out who it was!

I didn't like the OST in this drama very much except for the song "Don't Forget" by Baek Ji Young.

This drama was awesome! I'm only giving it a 4 because there are too many unanswered questions. I'm currently watching Iris 2. It's a different cast, and I'm sure the cast won't be able to match the cast of this original drama. We'll see. Hopefully, we'll be able to find out Seung Hee's true identity, and find out what this Iris organisation is all about.


Rating: 4/5 

29. 7th Grade Civil Servant

Broadcast: Jan-March 2013
Episodes: 20, Action/Romance/Comedy
Cast:
Choi Kang Hee as Kim Seo Won / Kim Kyung Ja
Joo Won as Han Gil Ro / Han Pil Hoon
NIS Agents:
Ahn Nae Sang as Kim Won Suk
Hwang Chan Sung as Gong Do Ha
Jang Young Nam as Jang Young Soon
Choi Jong Hwan as Oh Kwang Jae
Kim Min Seo as Shin Sun Mi
Spies:
Uhm Tae Woong as Choi Woo Hyuk (special appearance)
Kim Soo Hyun as Mi Rae
Im Yoon Ho (임윤호) as JJ / Choi Woo Jin (Woo Hyuk's younger brother)

This drama was adapted from the 2009 movie: My Girlfriend Is A Secret Agent. This drama appealed to me greatly. One, because Joo Won is in it. I loved him in Bridal Mask and know that any drama he stars in, the acting would be excellent. Two, the plot sounded quite good.

It was a clash from the start between Seo Won and Gil Ro (Korean dramas like to have this theme. So many dramas start off with the leads bickering. Actually a lot of the TVB dramas are like this too. Maybe because these kind of themes appeal to audiences and the initial conflict turning to love usually works?) They met on a blind date. Seo Won needed money so agreed to go on this blind date which also was a favour to her friend who owned the match making company. Kil Ro was forced to go on these dates because his mother made him. On the dates, he'd ignore his female companions. This suited Seo Won as she was only here for the money and she was able to spend the time to study for her civil servant exam.

Gil Ro dragged her to a car racing event where he competed and lost his car. He blamed her for his lost and demanded that she pay him back his lost car. She was scared out of her wits being in such a fast driven car. She was scared initially which  then later changed to anger. He was a crazy and immature brat. They parted on bad terms.

Coincidentally, Gil Ro really wanted to be a Civil Servant serving his country rather than work at his father's company. On the day of the interviews, they bumped into each other. Seo Won tried desperately to hide from him. 

Both got accepted into the training programme. They hated each other's guts. However, Seo Won was popular with the girls and an ex-army soldier Gong Do Ha (played by Chasung of 2pm). Gil Ro seeing them together unknowingly got jealous for some reason. As the training progresses, Gil Ro and Seo Won became friends as they grew to know each other. Over time, feelings developed but before they could even bloom, Gil Ro was kicked out of the training programme. His father was involved in criminal activities and the NIS didn't want to train someone whose father was involved in such activities.

It was such a shame to kick him out. The lead NIS training instructor Kim Won Suk however mislead Gil Ro telling him that he was pulled out for a  secret undercover mission. The mission was for him to go work in his father's company and protect his father from spies. In actual fact, he was no longer an agent and was just being utilised secretly by Won Suk who had good intentions to keep him on to become a NIS agent later.

A year or so went by, Seo Won had graduated top of the class from the training programme. She was assigned a mission to work in Gil Ro's company to find out more about the spies and Gil Ro's father. There, she and Gil Ro met up again and both worked on their assignments without the other knowing. 

Love blossomed between the two. This love was tested several times when Seo Won was caught on camera searching through Gil Ro's office and then caught again red handed opening Gil Ro's dad's safe at his house. A big fall out broke out. This fall out was only mended when all the NIS agents got together at camp and the instructor decided to graduate Gil Ro officially as a NIS agent.

The NIS's main goal now was to capture the spies. Originally, there were 3 spies, but the older brother died during a rumble. Only one brother and the girlfriend survived. The spies's main goal was to kill a couple of the NIS agents (Kim Won Suk being one of them) for revenge. When they were very young, their families were left neglected and died because the NIS agents did not save them. As they got older, they planned and executed their revenge.
 
After many obstacles, the NIS team was able to catch the 2 spies Kim Mirae and Cho Woo Jin. Kim Won Suk survived a couple of gun shots and was comatised for awhile. He woke up to a happy family and his wife decided not to divorce him in the end as she felt that he was more dedicated to his work than their family.

The ending was with Seo Won and Gil Ro, both were given an assignment which they couldn't tell each other. Funnily, they ended up being assigned to the same assignment which they went out of their way to prevent the other from knowing.

The plot of this drama sound good, but somehow the part with the spies wanting revenge just wasn't convincing enough. The spies were so gorgeous. Kim Soo Hyun (not the male actor from Dream High, this one is female and she is super model material.) Im Yoon Ho who played Cho Woo Jin is a hottie. A nasty gorgeous spy. He spoke fluent English too. Look out for this guy. I'm sure he'll be appearing in more Kdramas in the future.

Choi Kang Hee is 10 years older than Joo Won. No one ever talked about the age difference. I guess Kang Hee was playing a young woman in this drama, but Joo Won looks so much younger than her! Nevertheless, the acting was great. I don't think there was strong screen chemistry between these two. I'm not complaining. I think it's great that Kdramas these days are pairing up older women with younger men. I'm all for it. It's refreshing. I'm actually tired of old guys being paired up with really young girls. Actually, the latter kind of gross me out.

The action was ok. The quality of the spies and the agents were a little B Grade though in my opinion. This drama is a comedy, so the quality of these 2 features can be forgiven. 

There were many comical scenes. Memorable ones were inside Seo Won's house. She and Gil Ro were fighting on the bed, and the parents walked in. Off course that caused more misunderstanding and fights. To top this off, Gong Ha who was hiding in the closet popped out when the door was accidentally opened. Hilarious! There were other scenes with Seo Won and Gil Ro trying to hide that they were dating during one of the meetings where Seo Won banged on the table for him to stop looking and annoying her. That cracked me up. 

Certain scenes with Instructor Jang Young Soon was funny. Her being ridiculed because she was 38 years old, still single and not married. She had a fiery temper and her reaction to these things were funny. In real life, this actor played by Jang Young Nam married a guy who is 7 years her junior. Good on her!

The OST, I only liked these 2 songs from the drama: Junho ft. Taecyeon of 2PM - My Way to You (너에게 가는 길); SpinEL (스피넬) - You Should've Told Me (말하지 그랬어).
 
I liked this drama. It was funny. Joo Won is so cute and adorable, especially when he makes these angry curls with his mouth. The actors played their roles very well, except maybe the spies's whose acting was just mediocre.

Rating: 3.9/5