I am Sam (2007)

Also known as: I am your teacher
Country: South-Korea
Genre: school, romance
Format: drama, 16 episodes
Cast: Park Min Young, Yang Dong  Geun, TOP, Lee Min Ho, Son Tae Young, Ryan, Park Jae Jung, Park Chae Kyung, Park Joon Gyu, Jo Hyang Ki,
Synopsis: Yoo Eun Byul is the daughter of a hot-tempered mob leader. Jang Yi San is an incompetent homeroom teacher for the class 8-3 (known for its rude and wild students)  at Myung Moon High high school. Jang Yi San is ordered to teach Yoo Eun Byul for 5 million won while living together underneath the same roof. Soon love, friendship, money and lies pile up into a rather unique mix of comedy and romance.
Rating: 2/5
It took me a lot of time to actually finish it! At first I saw cropped version, where 1 hour episodes where made into half an hour episodes - do you believe how confusing it was?! Well after watching half episodes I searched the real ones. Warning - It is pretty much student-teacher love, but they do not have any inappropriate scenes in it. Maybe people who have had the same kind experience connect to it, but for me it was veeeeery far theme. (My school's male teachers are all too old and too married)

The main character Yoo Eun Byul is the misery and the happiness of the drama. She is the reason why everything goes wrong and why everything goes right again. Even though she is a 18/19 and wants to be independent, grown-up, she is without-exaggeration childish, manipulative, spoiled and selfish. It seems like she thinks up the relationship in her head and truly believes it. At first it is hard to understand, why she falls in love with the teacher - you can see it from the first episode that she is attached to him - later they have tried to explain this affection, but I find it pretty shallow. On the other hand, she has some great moments too - like after messing everything up-side-down for her own fun, she takes the responsibility and tries to make it all good again. She is loyal to her friends and does not let anyone to bring her down. Park Min Young is very beautiful actress too. However, in the end, I tended too hate Eun Byul more than love - her actions might be cute, but she was irrational in my point of view.

Sam aka Jang Yi San was a great teacher - like I have said there are teachers who are great humans, but suck at teaching and vice versa - Jang Yi San was the one who sucked at personality, but was veeery great teacher. He stood up for his students and thought for their future, that's why he deserved the respect from students. Yet all his awesomeness and coolness is only for some minutes on screen and all the other time he is suffering from some mental-disease (saying that he is a country-boy is not an excuse!!!! -.- I feel insulted if someone says so). In the end of the 12th episode he is the coolest, but it was only for that moment - before that and after that I was hoping that he would get a bullet from Mr.Kim. Even though Jang Yi San was literally banned from personal life as he must "treat Eun Byul like his own daughter" (-.-), he had almost-fiancee miss Shin So Ji. They looked actually cute together as they where similarly shy, but you know that two same kind charges do not fit together - in reality the main reason was Jang Yi San's on-going stupid lies and the fact that every time when something was wrong with Eun Byul he totally forgot So Ji's existence!!!

Shin So Ji was the art-teacher and she continued to wait for him and forgave him his mistakes. It is said that the actress Son Tae Young wore a wig for this drama - yeah, luckily! I liked this hair only when she had curled them. You might think that she had a great patience, but she had her times - when she went to Mr.Hottie nr.1 aka Love Doctor Ji Sun Hoo. (I would have taken him right away =P)  Mostly they were drink-buddies as Ji Sun Hoo always took So Ji back to her home after listening for hours how she cursed Jang Yi San. Of course he falls for her, but I like that they kept his personality simple and gentelman-ic (?). One of the beautiful things he says is "People cry 70 litres of tears in their lifetime, if you have cried your litres, I will cry the rest of your tears for you". Well that's romantic!!! not how 18 year old girl is waiting for a drunk 28 year old man to come home... You cannot make unromantic love romantic with love song and shooting settings.

The "Family" of Eun Byul... Her dad is crazy in every single way, but he is the first one to discover Eun Byul's feelings.. and after that he is crazy/stupid again. It seems like they do not learn anything! He is not strict when he needs to be and he is wrong-headed in things where he has no right to be. Mr. Kim is another hot male character in the drama - he is the best man of Eun Byul's father, the one who is in charge of the dirty-work and communication with authorities and Eun Byul's future-fiance. There is Ms. Hong too who is like a big sister for Eun Byul, even though she has no sisters. She helps her a lot and seems to be the only one from Mafia, who truly cares about Eun Byul's happiness. (Until the end I hoped that Ms. Hong and Mr. Kim will find each other, but you better do not start to wish for it, it is useless) 
8-3 class is epic! I admit that I would like to be in this class (maybe I even have this kind of class, but opposite of them we only get praised by teachers). They are so unique and every one of them has something special in them.

From side-characters the most important are Min Sa Kang and Chae Moo Shin (Yay! for TOP as he was the reason why I wanted to see it in the first place -.-). They were mostly left out from other class, but in some way they got friends with Eun Byul. TOP will stay being the pearl of the drama in the end (*_*). (I try to stop being enchanted by his face). I hate the detective in the drama, because he induced Moo Shin in every single way. Moo Shin was known for "never losing a fight", although he did not use violence until he found that somebody had crossed the line. Both Min Sa Kang and Moo Shin are very loyal and suffered from the cruel reality of life's dark side. I love that they have so many "awkward" moments xD

Many people know this drama thanks to another great, and now one of the most famous Korean actors Lee Min Ho! Like you can see from my list it was the first drama I have seen from him (I am the worst - I know it! XD) His character Heo Mo Se, Moses, does not have much screen time and as a man he sucks xD Moses is charming, most famous guy at school (and headmaster's son), yet he is total chicken, stupid and hmm-hmm-hmm (watch the end of the drama and you'll know what I mean) I started to understand why Lee Min Ho has so many fans - he is charming and a great actor (but he must impress me with "Boys over flowers" as I do not fan his look there)

It is all for you to decide if you want to watch it or not. I had my way to come over it and watch it until the end (I was able to live without any barf bag, but I cannot guarantee it for you) They did not do anything illegal, but I know the real-life love stories between student and teacher, which actually are romantic, but this drama seemed just too irrational and their so called love was barely a puppy-love from the girl side and teacher had more like brotherly-affection. Sorry, I forgot that I should say good things about it - It has romantic scenes with other characters, there are funny scenes and even  some down-to-earth scenes. It is made after manga, but their super-cool-I-want-to-have school uniforms are from another manga (yeah, those uniforms were the second reason I wanted to watch it). My true-favourite scene was in the end of the 16th episode - well 10 to 15 minutes before the real end of the drama. It showed their lives 4 years later after Eun Byul's graduating. You can read somethings about it from Spoiler-review...

SPOILER-review! For those who just want to know the end without starting to watch it or having no more nerves to continue watching, so to not be surprised if you do not understand everything. First of all Ms.Hong and Mr. Kim do not get together. Mr.Kim leaves the Mafia after Eun Byul as flied to USA, becomes international lawyer and is about to marry, while Ms. Hong has stayed by boss. Moses is in the army-service and is married to Da Bin (one of his loyal fans and the leader of 3 Bins) and they are about to have a second baby. One Bin is famous model/actress and the third one is poetess who is going to Oxford. So Ji dumped Jang Ji Sun and is kind of in love with Sun Hoo, who came back to continue his work as school-doctor. Yay! for one dream-couple for finding each other. Jang Ji San is still a teacher and has not lost any part of his body (Damn, why mr. Kim has a kind heart??? -.-), he is still waiting for Eun Byul to return. Finally she comes back and they live happily ever after (I am not a fan of this couple). Finally my favourites! Min Sa Kang becomes a art teacher and goes to her old-school for practise. Moo Shin and his friend are in important detective company (did not understand, but maybe they are the founders of it)   and the same old detective wants Moo Shin to recruit in forces. and *drums* for MinXChae couple-fans they pretty much are together! (at least it seemed so)  In short way this is the end of the drama - I actually cannot remember anything else from drama contents as all my written-down remarks are about how I hate one or other character, how hot are TOP, Ryan, Lee Min Ho and Park Jae Jung and how NOT-ROMANTIC is this teacher-student love. Wish you luck with watching this!^^ 

Marry me, Mary! (2010)

Also known as: Mary stayed out all night
Country: South-Korea
Genre: romance, comedy
Format: drama 16 episodes
Cast: Jang Geun Suk, Moon Geun Young, Kim Jae Wook, Kim Hyo Jin, Park Joon Gyu, Park Sang Myun, Lee Ah Hyun, Lee Sun Ho, Lee Eun
Synopsis: Wi Mary (sometimes written Mae Ri) is a optimistic girl, whose father is always in debts, which causes problems to her too. She accidentally runs over indie-singer Kang Mu Gyul. At the same time her father is saved by a old friend, who got really rich in Japan, but now has returned to Korea with his son. The fathers decide to get their children married to each other as they once promised. To find a excuse, Mary asks Mu Gyul to act like they got married, so that Mary would not have to marry Jung In. But the situation is more complicated than it seems at the first sight and Mary makes a "100 day contract", in which she has to divide her time with her "two husbands". In the end of the 100th day, she must decide who to marry.
Rating: 5/5

It seems so girly-love-movie, but actually everybody are for their own benefit in the contract. People tend to be egoistic and try to get the best situation for themselves - all these things make it really interesting. I watched all 16 episodes in 3 days in a row (about 5 episodes for a day).
I do not know where to start... (*should get some sleeeep, get some sleeeeeeeeeeep... stupid pu-erh tea O.q under the affect of strong tea*)It is not like usual Korean dramas. The girl is not endlessly fallen in love with neither of guys and it seems same for guys, but all the emotions develop slowly. There are more than needed misunderstandings, but some of them where forgivable. Like why did Mary do all her bridal-training and wedding stuff if she had no intentions to marry Jung In?? Everything and everyone has its own limits and some people are more short-tempered than others. 
They definitely drink a lot in it.. like A LOT! but it is amazing how great actors both Geun-leads are, because their drunk-attitudes are hilarious, but at the same time normal for really drunk person. I find Mu Gyul  and Mary so similar (except that Mary listens to explanations and believes people), they are like perfect for each other.

I like Mary's personality, she is so sweet and tries to find the best solution for everyone, but I hate her hair! There is just too much of it! I do not understand why the stylists put so much hair-extensions on her?? Luckily she often wears them closed ^^ Also it is true, that on free time, she dresses like beggar xD I found that my personality is actually really similar to her. She is nothing like other Korean girls (at least in dramas).Mu Gyul's best part is .... eeem... eeeem.. okey, Jang Geun Suk is just so hot and sexy in this role, plus he is so great singer =P

Actually I like Mu Gyul's attitude too - he gets so childish when he is with his mother or when he has wicked mode, but otherwise is like god - all mighty xD I feel like he was the only person who the REAL bad luck in drama - he just happened to be in a wrong place on a wrong time. (In the end you might say vise versa, but at first is seems so). I loved the question "Between love, trust and hope, which is the most important?" You know the answer? =P It is loyalty xD but my mom said "love, because to her it is a combination of trust, loyalty and hope etc, so actually I agree to it. It would have been better if the question would have been "between trust, hope and loyalty" and then answer "love", but Mu Gyul did not believe in love, which makes it all understandable.

I have not written anything about Jung In (mostly referred as "Director"). He looked like a robot. O.o All his movements and speech were like automatic, but it was because of how his father raised him. Despite of  being robot, many many funny scenes were because of him! Really all those misheard things were giving me stomach-cramps! In addition, there is much  gay-theme with him, which makes it really hard to understand. Even Mary thought he is gay, because that would make sense of the  fast marrying and his extremely-(eeeeem...)high perfectionism (I just remembered one song about man of drawing, who is perfect in any way). In the end, I am 100% sure, that if he wasn´t gay, then he at least was a bi-sexual =). So the drama suits for people who are open minded. My older sister actually liked him more than Mu Gyul - she said that he would marry with someone like him anytime xD

I think I should say some words about fathers too, because they are the reason of all the problems. Firstly, I understand that Mary's father wants the best of her daughter, but god sake!, stop already! He ruined her life already so much, why cannot he let Mary be??! In some scenes he actually seems already normal, but then comes the real reason of his behavior - Jung In's father. I knew from the start that the-called "Japan business" was actually yakuza stuff. They do not say that it was it, but com'on! everybody can understand from his attitude and his guards (read: hitmen) that it was not something pleasant. I think that he was a person who just wanted the best for himself and he really did not care about anyone else. (annoying *************************************).  I felt like he wanted to chenge EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT MARY!

I do not understand how is it possible to have such kind of marriage registration? Just one person, two witnesses and other's signature does not make it a registration!! Same was in "Playful Kiss" where Seung Jo registered their marriage just with Ha Ni's ID-card. Does it really happens so in South-Korea?? I know that in "Marry me, Mary" actually father copied her sign, but it does not explain the real situation!
I actually did not like the ending. I would have loved if it had cliche-end, but they put the epilogue to explain everything and it actually ruined the end :S

Some small thing of drama. It has amazing OST! They have better OST than "You're beautiful" (just my thought). "Wi Mary" actually sounds like "We marry" in English XD which makes her name exactly appropriate of the drama and also, from her name comes all the "Merry Christmas" jokes. Ahh, also, like in every drama - the comparison  with animals. In "Marry me, Mary" they use cats :P cute-cute cats :P Especially the cat on the picture xD

Rumors, statistics etc: Many people have dropped it and it has received much bad critique, but I think it is because it is not a usual Korean drama! But in the end the ratings where so bad, that the scriptwriter dropped the project and they had to look for a new one (former scriptwriter wrote episodes 1-10th and the second 11 until the end). The average viewer rating (nationwide) was about 6 (compare it to "You're beautiful" 10,1!, but at the same time "Heartstrings" was only 5,7 and "Playful kiss" 4,9, which makes "Marry me, Mary" better than those too) . Despite of those things, drama earned many awards and is famous for GeunXGeun-pair xD (Both leads have Geun in their first names xD).
I strongly recommend it. It is so funny and sweet. I do not understand why people are complaining. I absolutely loved it and I think that people, who like my "5 STAR" list, will like it too.

SPOILER review: In drama it seems, like Mu Gyul and Mary do not share much emotions, but I later saw one fan-video of it (it is the best video of them ever) and I understood then, that actually they loved each other soooo much, but sadly this video was removed from Youtube
.I do not understand one thing at all.. Mary is said to be tone-deaf, but she wrote lyrics for "Hello, hello"? It would make sense if she wrote the lyrics, but Mu Gyul made them suitable for the song.
There is said, that Mu Gyul dated girls only for one month and in epilogue Mary says that they have broken up for 12 times and are dating for 13th, but at the same time how long time has it been since the got together for the real time? One year! divide it with 12 times and you'll get that they broke up every time after one month, but got together again xD