Category: Korea

K-Drama Report: Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, Part III

January 4, 2026

I guess I’ve been on autopilot for the past few days. I’ve had time off because of the holidays, and there’s a family matter to attend to next week, so I haven’t been in a regular state of mind. I’d decided to dedicate this sort of limbo space to watching and writing about Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born, which might’ve felt indulgent but not wildly divergent from other experiences with K-dramas here. I basically binge-watched both Anna and Genie, Make a Wish, though not in such a concentrated period of time. To clarify, I generally don’t watch TV shows like that; I don’t even watch movies in one sitting. And although it didn’t match my exact expectations, Jeongnyeon turned out to be great in a more traditional way, as covered in the first report, before darkening, as noted in the second. Still, even at that point, I imagined I’d watch the rest of the show and type up this very blog post, easy peasy like always. Sitting here in the immediate aftermath of the finale, I can tell you that I don’t want to write this prophesied third report. I feel really, really weird. Bad, I suppose, but in an unfamiliar way. It might seem silly to be so affected by a work of entertainment, and I can’t address that without an entirely separate conversation about the social utility of art and what have you, so in the meantime, you’ll just have to excuse me. I think Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born is a really great K-drama. Easily one of the best I’ve seen. I also – at least at this moment – don’t believe I’ve been more harmed by a TV show. I’ve been disturbed, harrowed, and moved countless times, but this is different. … More K-Drama Report: Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, Part III

K-Drama Report: Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, Part II – A Perfect Episode

January 3, 2026

I was perfectly satisfied with the prospect of doing Jeongnyeon in two reports, so consider this an emergency situation. And I just hope to God there aren’t further incidents from here to the finale. In two episodes, Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born gave me a lot to process and absolutely no slack to do so. It’s hard to think… when you’re crying. Episode eight, specifically, is one of those “perfect episodes” I used to get so hung up on, but before we get there, I did leave myself on something of a cliffhanger. Previously, Jeongnyeon upstaged the performance of Jamyunggo, winning over the audience to the point where even the audience was like, “Wait, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go!” I was bracing myself for the scene where Ok-gyeong returns to the stage and the crowd starts chanting for Soldier #1, but thankfully, we don’t see that. And as we may find, it likely didn’t happen. Still, I assumed that Ok-gyeong’s patience with Jeongnyeon would finally run out, and there’d be hell to pay. I just want that so badly. Jung Eun-chae is so compelling as Moon Ok-gyeong as Prince Hodong, but as Moon Ok-gyeong off the stage, it’s harder for me to assess the performance because she’s so similar to Jung Eun-chae herself. In Anna, the menace of Hyun-ju reverberated through her entire body; it was a transformation. Ok-gyeong rarely even gets upset with anyone – rarely. For now, I understand that Ok-gyeong isn’t offended by Jeongnyeon’s antics because she sees her almost as an experiment. The disillusioned star is simply playing a different game than everybody else. … More K-Drama Report: Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, Part II – A Perfect Episode

K-Drama Report: Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born (2024)

January 2, 2026

Kim Tae-ri is probably the best actor to come out of Korea since Choi Min-sik, and while such hyperbolic language may indicate a simple mind structured, Sith-like, by absolutes, I’m comfortable with the assessment because she’s so quintessentially Korean. Seamlessly toggling between physical comedy and genuine heartbreak, it’s like she was crafted by the gods to inhabit the whiplash tones and extreme scenarios of popular Korean film and television. Specifically, the way she can make me cry and laugh simultaneously is exactly how critics describe Bong Joon-ho’s The Host, and of course, her acting debut was in Park Chan-wook’s celebrated film The Handmaiden. She’d go on to win industry awards with roles in major titles like Mr. Sunshine and Twenty-Five Twenty-One, and managed to close out the first ten years of her career with another canonical entry: Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born – confound that double colon – which netted her the Grand Prize at the APAN Star Awards and Best Actress at the Baeksang Awards (her second), as well as the label “Television Actor of the Year” by Gallup Korea. Where Kim Tae-ri goes, quality is sure to follow, if her taste for sci-fi blockbusters is the only thing suspect about such a jeweled filmography. And so, taking up the titular role in Jeongnyeon, she’s flanked by a murderers row of veterans like Ra Mi-ran and Moon So-ri as well as young, fierce talent like Shin Ye-eun – and of course, the scene-stealing ladykiller, Jung Eun-chae. … More K-Drama Report: Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born (2024)

K-Drama Report: Genie, Make a Wish (2025)

December 29, 2025

I’ll try to be brief, since I missed the window on this one, big-time. Genie, Make a Wish is part romance, part fantasy, part sadomasochist fantasy, part Dubai tourism ad, and all around, a great K-drama. Aww. Consider this post to be a follow-up to my report on 2022’s Anna, and another benchmark in the twin journeys of watching everything starring its two leads, Bae Suzy and the utterly enchanting Jung Eun-chae (Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born is next) taking me into 2026. This is my third Suzy drama, after her moody turns in Doona! and Anna, and now it appears she’s no longer trying to beat the “idols can’t act” rap by playing an emotionless psychopath. And look, I get it. An idol in film and television is an interloper, leveraging fame when an actor with lesser name recognition might’ve done a better job. Of course, Bae Suzy would’ve only been a famous idol for a few months before she debuted as an actress, and it was so early on in her career that she could arguably be considered a child actress. Alarmingly, she was only 15 when she joined Miss A, and starred alongside IU and Eunjung in Dream High roughly when I was graduating high school (Suzy is one year younger than me). I suppose the argument isn’t that Bae Suzy shouldn’t act because she’s an idol, but that she shouldn’t because she can’t. … More K-Drama Report: Genie, Make a Wish (2025)

K-Drama Report: Anna (2022)

December 21, 2025

Every now and then, I’m stricken with the pang of something – maybe dread, even embarrassment – over the readability of this blog, and especially its “K-drama reports,” for one simple reason: spoilers. As much as I might decry being spoiled on things myself, I’m never so considerate in turn. Maybe I provide a spoiler warning or suggest that the coverage will be comprehensive, so to speak, but at that point, it’s not a recommendation. It’s like a diary entry, and while I’ve always enjoyed the relaxed, indulgent nature of these posts, again, to whose use are they? Because the element of surprise is important to today’s subject, the 2022 Bae Suzy drama Anna, I will begin with a recommendation section before the report proper, if such a thing can be. And it’s important to the overall discussion because I’m not even sure I was supposed to be surprised by half the reveals, or if the reveals were merely “developments.” Part of my confusion may stem from this show having gone under the radar – translation: it wasn’t on Netflix or Viki – and so, what I knew going in was half-inferred. Amazon Prime’s summary is this: “The story of a woman who ends up living a completely different life due to a petty lie.” That life belongs to Jung Eun-chae’s character, and based on the trailer, I assumed that these two actresses were going to war. Come to think of it, perhaps it’s a spoiler to even raise these questions. … More K-Drama Report: Anna (2022)

My Year in K-Pop: 2025 – Oh My Girl Special

December 17, 2025

Once again, we’ve come to the year-end K-pop recap. To supplement the episode, I’ll be zeroing in on Oh My Girl as a kind of tribute for helping me get through the year. Mentioned briefly in the previous installment, one year ago, I really got hooked in 2025. Oh, and I forgot to mention, as far as the number one song goes: how could you not love the lyrics “cheombeong cheombeong,” or as I’ve come to think of it, “chumba chumba”? … More My Year in K-Pop: 2025 – Oh My Girl Special

Mimi

December 16, 2025

Back by popular demand, “My Year in K-Pop: 2025” has actually been tricky to piece together. Damn that demand! Because I was anchored in this difficult year by Oh My Girl, I wanted to focus on their music in a special edition of the (theoretically) annual episode — a celebration, a thank-you. The plan was to count down their top five songs and, in between, introduce each member. The problem was twofold: one, a personal dissatisfaction with how I discuss idols, an issue I haven’t been able to resolve in six years in part because my enthusiasm had me barreling through any self-doubt. I may be reaching an age where other factors are competing with the enthusiasm, but whatever the case may be, I certainly can’t resolve this in the next few days, this episode being due before year’s end. Second, Oh My Girl is more complicated than I thought. I had two options: try to reconcile a celebratory episode with criticism, or do what I always do and ignore the problems. … More Mimi

How to Win ‘Physical: 100’

November 25, 2025

Be awesome. That’s how! I know there’s a cash prize and that’s technically the primary motivator, but these are athletes who bring their own sets of motivations to this new, weird game: they want to win, they want to prove themselves, and in the case of Physical: Asia, they want to do right by their team. Actually, and to the consternation of some, these athletes are also sometimes influencers, which brings an additional motivation. Now, I don’t begrudge anyone who’s made uncomfortable by the very concept of influencers, the worst of whom do immoral, even illegal things for attention and money, and once we reasonably assume that that doesn’t apply to the contestants of Physical: Asia, we may still be uncomfortable that these talented, determined people don’t make enough money with their day job and need a side hustle, one subject to the whims of the heartless algorithm and the court of public opinion (itself blunted by social media). … More How to Win ‘Physical: 100’