Tapped Out: Shamrockmom’s movie review of “Swing Kids” with Do Kyung Soo.

Ah, the holidays…what would they be at Shamrockmom’s house without some RL drama?! My daughter announced back on December 16th that her boyfriend had proposed, and she said “Yes!”. That was all well and good–no surprises, they’ve been living together for a couple of years. But the very next day, she told me they decided to get married at the local courthouse on January 7. As in less than a month! OMG! Cue a life derailment, as I plan a wedding with my daughter in a big hurry. With all that going on, plus the holidays, incredible stress at my workplace and my youngest son’s upcoming wedding in April, I wondered how I would ever squeeze in time for something fun and relaxing this Christmas–like watching a Kmovie at the theater.

I’d had my eye on “Swing Kids” for some time. I’ve been super impressed with Do Kyung Soo’s acting for the last 3 years; he keeps getting better and better. The music and dancing looked like it would be top notch. The trailers seemed to reinforce those assumptions. After trying unsuccessfully to coordinate with some DramaBeans readers to meet up at the CGV theater at the Source in OC (my schedule was not terribly cooperative) I went by myself on a Saturday night.

A Sobering Dose of Economic History: Shamrockmom’s Movie Review of “Default” with Yoo Ah In

A/N: This movie review will not be politically correct. Please feel free to leave the site as soon as you are offended!

Hot on the heels of Yoo Ah In’s last movie, “Burning” comes a new movie about the Korean IMF Financial crisis of 1997: “Default” or “National Day of Bankruptcy” (literal translation). I was especially interested in this movie not just to see YAI on the big screen again, but because I got an inkling about the IMF crisis while watching/recapping “Awl“, one of my all-time favorite Kdramas.

Ladies Rockin’ Through Life–First thoughts on “Madam Cha Dal Rae’s Love” Episodes 1-10

A/N: Real life has put writing out of reach for far too long. Starting a business, trying to help plan my youngest son’s wedding (April 27, 2019 is the big day) and studying Korean seems to have sucked up every minute of my spare time. I almost thought this blog was a goner. However, after I had a falling out with my latest Korean tutor (sadly, over religious issues) I realized that I need to get back to writing.  I have a different perspective because of my own life experiences. It’s one that I don’t see in other blogs. It took a major wake up call for me to realize that learning Korean was integral to both enjoying and writing about dramas, and to realize that my Christian viewpoint (as flawed as it is) factors into the equation as well.

Apologies also for the lack of screencaps–when Microsoft updated my computer, it “improved” my program I used for screencaps. Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I wanted, and I can’t seem to get it back. One of my biggest peeves is fixing things that aren’t broken. As soon as I find a replacement/workaround, I’ll be back to more screencaps. All screencaps used below are from Dramacool9.io

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Personally, one of the best things about watching Korean Dramas is the amazing way the writers weave the social commentary into the drama without it seeming overly heavy-handed or preachy. Keeping the humor front and center while tackling issues that concern those in the demographic that watch these daily dramas (mostly female, over 35) is one of the best ways to get the point across and not bludgeon your target audience with your viewpoint. Writers always bring a certain set of opinions and a POV to the table, and if it looks like I am in agreement–or at least interested in what they’re trying to get across–it’s a good bet I will be tuning into the drama.

A Second Gen view of Sa-I-Gu (April 29, 1992)–Shamrockmom’s review of “Gook” with Justin Chon

A/N: I broke this up into three parts; Part 1 is some background information and personal opinion on the 1992 Rodney King riots from my perspective as a 40+ year resident of SoCal. Part 2 is a non-spoiler quick review of the movie, and Part 3 will include a detailed synopsis of the movie and some of my thoughts after watching.

It’s important to know that although “Gook” is one of the worst epithets you can call someone of Asian descent–it’s equivalent to calling a black person the “N” word in my book–the word means “country” in Korean. Hangook (한국)  is Korea, Migook (미국) is America (“Beautiful Country”). It was the GI’s who fought in Korea and later in Vietnam who corrupted the words “Saram Migook”–“American Person” into the ugly racial slur.

Sa-I-Gu (사 이 구) is based on Korean numbers–literally 4-2-9, and is how many Korean-Americans refer to the LA riots, similar to how many Americans refer to the September 11 World Trade Center attack as 9-11.

Shamrockmom’s KCON LA 2017 Adventure: The second time around is always better!

A/N: Just a warning if you have to watch your mobile data use–This is a picture-heavy post.

Also, due to my school issues, I will be on semi-hiatus status until December. If I’m lucky, I might get a post in for October and one for November. I will be back to catch up over the Christmas holidays.

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After a fun but less than ideal trip to KCON-LA in 2016, I had planned a multi-day extravaganza for KCON 2017. I even had my 3-day ticket purchased on the first day it was available online, and taken the days off work months in advance! Sadly, I had to do the “adulting” thing and put the major fun aside in order to take a course to give me some better options for working as a dental hygienist in the future. Nevertheless, I decided to make the best of it, and go on Sunday. What a difference a day–and a year–make!

Shamrockmom’s review of “A Taxi Driver”–An ordinary man’s extraordinary place in history

A/N: I recently re-activated my Kakao account, so if you feel like sending me a message, my user name is “Shamrockmom”.

Things are getting hectic for Shamrockmom. Next week I will start a college course to add to my dental hygiene license and give me options to work in some different environments, like nursing homes or drug rehab facilities. I’m not quitting my day job, but it’s time to expand my horizons. The program is expensive–it costs more than all of my dental hygiene school and my prerequisites did back in the day, and it’s time-consuming. I have to take several days off work over the next 4 months and go to school on some Saturdays. More importantly–I have to curtail my upcoming KCON adventure this year to a single day because the program starts on the Friday and Saturday of KCON, so I can only go on Sunday! Arrrgh! I hate it when being a responsible adult interferes with my fun.

I ♥ the ’90’s: Thoughts on “Star in My Heart” Episodes 1-5 and “The Best Hit”

While recently watching “The Best Hit“–I quickly found that I had plenty of company swooning over Hyun Jae and his hair….yeah, I’m talking about those cornrow braids on the side.

OMG! **fans self** So hot! Know what’s even hotter? Hyun Jae’s confident persona and positive good humor.

The fallout from watching Love is Drop by Drop–Thoughts on Encouragement and Beginning Korean Lessons

One of the best moments of “Love is Drop by Drop” was in the 43rd episode where Woo Huyk had stickers made for Bang Wool’s coffee cup that said: “I am rooting (cheering) for you”.

응원합니다 “Eung won hamnida” I was so proud of myself for memorizing this phrase!

“Not Success but Service”: Shamrockmom’s review of the documentary “Seo Seo Pyeong, Slowly and Peacefully”

Now that the crew over at Dramabeans have dramatically (pun intended) expanded their recapping capabilities with additional staff members and a new website, almost every prime time Kdrama is being recapped. That’s so awesome! I am all in favor of more coverage for Kdramas. However, there are still a few nooks and crannies of the Kdrama/Kmovie world the usual blogs don’t cover–weekend dramas get minor coverage, and dailies get even less.

Down to the Last Drop: Final thoughts on Love is Drop by Drop Episodes 117-120 and a Prop Giveaway!

A/N: My apologies for getting this out later than I had planned. My normal go-to site for screencaps has no larger, hi-def video feeds for Episodes 117-119, and so some screencaps are from Dramacool/Openload (the smaller ones) and some are from newasiantv.me

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At least I can’t say I didn’t know this would happen!

Back when I first started writing about LIDD in “Fishing for a Holiday Melodrama”, I wrote that I knew this show would cause me remorse, but I wanted to watch it anyway. I feared it would derail eventually, and make me unhappy. What I didn’t know is that the derailment would be in the last third of the show. It was as if the last 40 episodes had a different writer altogether.