Extraordinary You (Korean Drama)

Genre: Friendship, Comedy, Romance, School, Fantasy, Drama

Episodes: 16 (32 half hour episodes)

Main Cast:

Kim Hye Yoon as Eun Dan Oh

Ro Woon as Number 13 / Ha Ru

Lee Jae Wook as Baek Kyung

Lee Na Eun as Yeo Joo Da

Jung Gun Joo as Lee Do Hwa

Kim Young Dae as Oh Nam Joo

Synopsis:

What would you do if you found out that you were, in fact, a character in a comic? And an extra character on top of that? Change the course of the story, obviously!

Eun Dan Oh is a 17-year-old high-school student from a wealthy family who suffers from a lifelong heart condition that inevitably means she will not live past her teenage years. However, when Dan Oh realizes she is experiencing long gaps in her memory as well, she comes into the unhappy inheritance of another fact in her life: she is a character in a Korean webtoon and all of her actions are predetermined by the artist who draws her. To make matters worse, she discovers she is only a supporting character in the cast. With her newfound understanding of the world she inhabits, she is determined to find true love in her own plot-line and circumvent the author’s plans for her character by utilizing the flashes of storyboard she alone is able to see.

My Thoughts:

I chose to watch this drama because of the synopsis, the concept of a comic character being self aware has been used before but it feels refreshing to know that this is an extra who got self aware and not a main character of the comic. I like how the different dramas I watch based on this concept has very unique plots and doesn't intersect in their rules of the game. An interesting here to note is that, this story was based on a successful and popular webtoon, if you think about it, a comic book character inside a comic book got self aware and keeps on breaking the fourth wall in a sense. That's a refreshing perspective to look back on the drama.

This is mostly a high school romance story with a blend of fantasy. My favourite combo. Here we got a character who is hell bent on changing her character setting to just enjoy life as a normal high school girl, and how she tries to use every method at her disposal until she met Number 13, an extra who has no role or character setting who suddenly was able to save her from an accident which she saw on the storyboard. She then constantly finds Number 13 to hopefully have him help her. Another side of the story is the leading characters of the webtoon story, where every character in the universe of the comic has to help them get together unwillingly, which becomes a source of frustration for people like Dan Oh who hates that her life is used to bridge the love between the leading characters. But those scenes by the main characters are also what becomes their gossip to criticize the author for the lack of creativity and going with all the cliches of a typical romance story.

The actors and actresses are awesome even though many of them are rookies. The one playing Eun Dan Oh, Kim Hye Yoon was the star of the show especially with her capabilities to perform and switch between two personalities smoothly. One being her comic book personality and another being her self aware personality. Others who got self aware also has those symptoms but none of them as total opposites as Eun Dan Oh. I salute her for her acting. 

I also love the soundtracks and background music used by the drama. It increases excitement and creates tension with ease. About the plot and storyline, it is not too heavy which is good. Whenever the mood of the story becomes sour or the characters is stuck in a troublesome situation, there is always an injection of side stories or random stuffs to balance the mood. The drama really makes you think about the existence of all the extras you see in other dramas and how their existence is what makes the drama livelier and wholesome. 

The love story between Dan Oh and Number 13 or Haru is just bubbly and cute and sweet ahahah... I love watching the process of them falling in love and being in love. They really complement each other and really makes each other happy. It's kinda no wonder since they've been lovers in a previous story. Then, talking about the ending, I love it kinda, it is not a definite ending, but enough of an ending but also have enough to set the story for a second season with all the unanswered questions. I'm not sure but maybe the webtoon which this story is based from is still ongoing or the drama only covered a part of the webtoon, because the drama is certainly not completely ended. It's a open ending in a sense.

Want to know more? Curious about the story? Do give this story a try! If you already did, do type down in the comments about what you think of the ending with a spoiler alert of course. I gave minor spoilers here and there in this review because I can't help it but hopefully just enough to get you all watching this awesome drama. Happy Drama-Watching!! 😼

Put Your Head On My Shoulder (Chinese Drama)

Genre: Friendship, Comedy, Youth, School, Romance

Episodes: 24 + 1 Special Episode

Main Cast:

Fair Xing as Si Tu Mo

Lin Yi as Gu Wei Yi

Daddi Tang as Fu Pei

Zheng Ying Chen as Wang Shan

Synopsis:

As Si Tu Mo’s graduation is nearing, she is confused about her future plans. She tries out all sorts of things all the time and is unable to make her own decisions. Her ordinary days are suddenly shaken up when the genius Physics student Gu Wei Yi appears in her life. The two accidentally end up living together and chaos begins.

My Thoughts:

It's been a long time since I finished watching this so my memory is a bit foggy but I've been planning to write a post for it since it's such a good drama. This started from YouTube Recommendations and I decided to give it a try. And I enjoyed binge-watching to the point where in some episodes I had to pause many times to prepare my heart for what's coming.

This is a nice and refreshing love story, no angst or evil and jealous second leads. The whole story is mostly about the both of them and how they got through their final year in university. Gu Wei Yi is a genius to say the least in his field but is a little bad at relationship stuffs. He is straightforward and direct, and it is fun to watch him try his best to impress Si Tu Mo. Si Tu Mo is more of a hardworking and honest person, who is probably one of the only people who can handle Gu Wei Yi. 

As I said, there is no angst and heavy love triangle or anything, it is almost really close to reality, how their relationship develops and the struggles and challenges they faced and how they support each other. I find it funny when Gu Wei Yi just doesn't know the right thing to do sometimes and can be oblivious, those times when he wants to cling to her and his plan fails, or those times when he misspoke. 

Another couple is Fu Pei and Wang Shan. Fu Pei was the crush of Si Tu Mo, Fu Pei knows that if I'm not mistaken haahha but he never acknowledged it and kinda always give her false hope until one day when Si Tu Mo became fed up and quits, that made Fu Pei suddenly wants to cling to Si Tu Mo. The Cliche of wanting something when you lost it. Wang Shan was always next to Fu Pei supporting him and had a crush on Fu Pei. I love how their relationship developed and Wang Shan molding Fu Pei into a better and driven person, and also more studious since Wang Shan is a studious type and their relationship kinda first started with Wang Shan tutoring Fu Pei.

I don't know what else to say because usually I make a review immediately after I finished the drama but now the memory is not fresh in my mind but still I can assure you this is a very cute and fresh drama to watch. It is comedic and has good use of sounds to make itself more interesting. Do give it a try and comment down below what you think