The Wonderful World of Not Hollywood

Korean media provides a much different experience than you get from American TV.  That isn't always a good thing, but it certainly isn't always a bad thing either.  I've watched two Korean Dramas (K-Dramas) so far, 아이리스 (Iris) and 시크릿가든 (Secret Garden).  I haven't watched many movies yet, but my good friends Elspeth, James, and Gregg are working on changing that.  Let's talk about the Dramas.

Dramas

Trailer (with English subtitles)

아이리스 (Iris)

This drama is excellent, though it does start off a little slow.  I think of it as Korea's answer to James Bond.  I love James Bond and I love 아이리스.  The show is about a couple military guys that are selected for training with a CIA-type black forces agency.  There is action, drama, romance, and conspiracy.  If you have a way to check it out I highly recommend you do.

Teaser Trailer

시크릿가든 (Secret Garden)

This is the second drama I watched, but I think it beats Iris by a little bit.  This drama is a romance comedy with a special twist.  I'll keep this part spoiler free for now since I know some of my readers are still early on in the series, but I will say it is an emotional roller coaster and a show you must watch if you are at all interested in Korea.  It will give you an interesting look at the culture here.


Movies

Trailer - Korean

달콤한 인생 (Bittersweet Life)

This is an older movie (2005), but you could say the same thing about The Godfather.  It will give you a great introduction to Korean cinema.  The story is about an enforcer for the mob who faces a life changing assignment.  It has lots of action and some drama, and the title is quite appropriate.

Trailer - English/Korean

만추 (Late Autumn)

This is a really interesting movie because you have to work with three languages.  When I saw it the subtitles were in Korean, but there is spoken English for a lot of it, and there is spoken Chinese.  That doesn't stop you from mostly understanding the story, and actually makes you use your imagination to fill in the blanks.  It is a romance, no action in this one.

Wait List

These are the movies I've been told to see.  I'm not going to put up pics for all of them:

시 (Poetry)
살인의 추억 (Memories of Murder)
공동경비구역 JSA (Joint Security Area)
악마를 보았다 (I Saw the Devil)
추격시 (Chaser)
오드보이 (Oldboy)
조폭 마누라 (My Wife is a Gangster)

There are also some dramas on the agenda:

싸인 (Sign)
마이더스 (Midas)
드림하이 (Dream High)
아테나 (Athena)

So there you have it, my current status as far as Korean dramas and movies.  I'll have to do a post on K-Pop soon.  Videos will be included!

Oh Blog, How Long it's Been

I keep meaning to post on here, but each time I think about it, I realize how much I haven't posted and it seems an insurmountable amount of work to chronicle my experiences from the last 7.5 months.  So I've made a decision.  Here is my summary:

It is awesome.  I love Korea.

So here we are in April.  We're coming out of a long cold winter and I'm excited to get out and explore more of Korea.  I went up to Seoul last weekend and met up with Gregg, which was fun, and saw The Vagina Monologues, which was really interesting since there were both English and Korean presenters.  It was a much less cheerful show then the version I went to in University.

Alright, some things you should know about my current relationship with Korea:

I'm studying Korean.  Not as much as I should, but I just signed up for another class (20 1.5 hour classes for 5k won, yes please) in an effort to make myself make time to study.  This comes as a large disappointment to my friends that I usually meet on Tues. night, as the class is Tues/Thurs.  Sorry guys, I promise to skip once in a while!

I'm in a Yoga class where I am not only the only guy, but the only white foreigner.  There are some Chinese girls in the class though, but their Korean is much better than mine.  That said, the class is awesomely fun because of the language barriers.  The teacher and some classmates are helping me pick up yoga terms and I am teaching them the English versions.  It works out well.

I haven't been climbing since Oct. or Nov., but the weather is getting nice so hopefully I'll get to start again soon.

Korean dramas have grabbed me like a rottweiler going for the kill.  There will shortly be a post about that.  No really, I'm going to do a whole media post as soon as I finish this one.

I miss having a dog.

The food here is mostly amazing.  Too much fish, but as a trade off most of the rest is fantastic.  You can find dog here, but I have yet to see somewhere you could get it in Daejeon if you wanted to, so it isn't nearly as common as the stereotype would have you believe.

I went to Thailand over winter break, there are already pictures up and linked in a post below.

My new students are overall pretty good.  Some of my 3rd grade boys classes are a pain in the ass, but they are balanced out by the girls and the entire 1st grade.  The 1st graders show me why people would like teaching Elementary school.


That's all I can think of at the moment, quite possibly because I can't think about much besides the drama I just finished, so I'm going to go work on that media post.