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Hajimemashite minna san....welcome to my site on my fave Japanese Pop Culture likes such as dramas, movies, magazine scans, promo events etc. Mainly concentrate on my faves...Risa Watanabe... Kyoko Saito... Yui Kobayashi....Nana Owada.... Nene Shida.... if you're a fan at all of any of them then you've come to the right place(!) but many others are featured here besides them. Do mainly quick reviews on things I've watched, try to make the reviews brief, quick to read through with not too many spoilers, just whether they're good or bad and why I thought so plus whether you may find them enjoyable. Many, many screenshots are included from everything I've watched plus any video trailers if they're available. Hope you find something that interests you, don't hesitate to comment, arigato gozaimasu!

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Sunday, July 31, 2016

Han Hyo-Joo: "W" drama episode three recap and screenshots


 Start Date: July 20th, 2016.. airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 pm on MBC 

Main Cast:

Han Hyo-Joo as Oh Yeon-Joo
Lee Jung-Suk as Kang Chul
Jeong Eu-Gene as Yoon So-Hee
Lee Tae-Hwan as Seo Do-Yoon
Park Won-Song as Han Chul-ho
Kim Eui-Sung as Oh Sung-Moo
Lee Si-Un as Park Soo-Bong

 This drama seems to be catching the attention of Korean drama viewers over in that country. First week the two shows averaged a 9.1% rating but the viewers are flocking to the show as episode four had a rating of 14.8% which is quite a big increase. Ratings are another difference between Japanese and Korean dramas. Not for every drama but bet 80% of the Japanese series suffer a ratings decrease the longer a series airs and sometimes by a huge amount. While in Korea seems that if a drama is very good then it picks up viewers and has an increase the longer a series airs.
 Episode four's recap is the next post, a huge upgrade from this show. Don't mean to give the impression that this show was bad at all because it wasn't, so far through four episodes some of them have been superb while the others are merely excellent, so far the batting average for all of the episodes has been a perfect 100%.
 At the conclusion of the second episode Yeon-Joo has found herself back in the real world, kind of wondering exactly what is the real world in this show. However she can't locate her father who is the writer of the "W" webtoon. In the beginning we learn a bit more about her father and his webtoon which he had started shortly after getting divorced. Right off the bat it was a very popular webtoon but right around the fifth book/installment strange things began happening.




 The strange thing was that the webtoon had sort of began to rewrite a lot of what Yeon-joo's father had written and drawn. It's up to at least the 35th volume now and we wonder during all of those volumes did he or some mysterious force write them? The father was thinking that the main character Kang was somehow alive in the webtoon, of course who would believe him if he told anyone.
 Not going to bring up many of the events from the first two shows so if you didn't read them then may suggest reading those recaps. But in episode two Yeon-Joo had somehow disappeared from a store she was at with Kang. he's getting perplexed at her mysterious disappearances. This episode somehow Yeon-Joo suddenly reappears at the store and passes out, wonder if time travel or switching worlds leaves you in a bad state as she slept for close to two days.
 Those two days were spent at Kang's penthouse, Yeon-Joo was still somewhat passed out but in a state of minor delirium she exposed some of her secrets to Kang. She told him basically everything about his life, things that no one else but him should know, said he was perplexed above but he's even more so now as how in the world did she learn every single thing about his life? We know it was reading the webtoon but even when Yeon-Joo awakens she can't tell him that's how she knows all about him.
 There was even another attempt on Kang's life at his penthouse, same person we learn in episode four that had tried to kill him on the roof of a hotel. Kang was able to subdue him and chased him to an elevator, somehow that wanna-be murderer disappeared like magic.




 The main event in this episode was that Yeon-Joo had stolen Kang's pistol which was hidden underneath his pillows. She had threatened him and they had some vicious words but there was no way she could kill Kang as he had taken the bullets out. Upon getting the gun back he reloaded and turned the tables on Yeon-Joo as he said he'll count to ten, if she hasn't told him how she knows everything about her life he would shoot her.
 Naturally she couldn't say anything as there's no way anyone would believe her story about two worlds. Kang reached ten and to the surprise of all of us he shot her! In an even bigger surprise the bullet passed right through Yeon-Joo and didn't even leave a scratch. Kang must know something we don't because he then told Yeon-Joo he knew the bullet would pass through her leaving her uninjured.
One fact that Yeon-Joo did mention to Kang were that his emotions played a big part in her coming and departing, she didn't go into it too much but next episode we learn a bit more about it.




 Tried to keep this a bit shorter than the first two recaps, so much happens it's difficult to do that. But also would rather not give away too many details or spoilers as if you haven't started this drama yet then you really should as so far it's the best one I've seen from Japan or Korea these last few years.
 However you may get a bit of a headache as there's so many things to keep track of plus there are still so, so many questions and mysteries that need to be cleared up. Sometimes I wonder if what I've written is real or has happened in that webtoon world. Read a brief article and the producers said the first four episodes would be confusing(they're right) but if you could make it through them then you'll be greatly rewarded.
 Check out the next post for the episode four recap, hoping it won't be longer than this one but once you think no more mysteries will be thrown at you then you would be greatly mistaken. Main reason for watching this was of course for the dazzling Hyo-Joo and she certainly hasn't disappointed me with her acting and looks in this series. One person who also looks so alluring in this show is Jeong Eu-Gene who plays Kang's assistant, her name can also be spelled Jung Yoo-Jin. Had never seen her before this show but she really looks fabulous. she's 27 but hadn't started an acting career until 2015, she may have been a model before.


























Han Hyo-Joo: "W" drama episode four recap and screenshots


 Start Date: July 20th, 2016.. airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 pm on MBC 

Main Cast:

Han Hyo-Joo as Oh Yeon-Joo
Lee Jung-Suk as Kang Chul
Jeong Eu-Gene as Yoon So-Hee
Lee Tae-Hwan as Seo Do-Yoon
Park Won-Song as Han Chul-ho
Kim Eui-Sung as Oh Sung-Moo
Lee Si-Un as Park Soo-Bong

 Going to be difficult but will try to keep this as brief as the above post, I'm also a person who doesn't like reading a review that goes on for 10,000 words. As mentioned this episode had a high rating of 14.8% which is a massive increase over the first show's 8.6% rating. It deserved that high figure as this was such an interesting watch with an unpredictable ending.
 Kang had started a TV show some years prior to help find criminals but the main reason was to find out who had murdered his family. However there's been zero success in finding the murderers after all these years but it may have something to do with the attempts on his life. First there was the attempt on the hotel roof then another failed one at his penthouse, Kang has no idea who this criminal could be but thinks it definitely has something to do with his past. Almost forgot as there was one more attempt at the end of episode two as a truck narrowly missed crushing his car. But we also have to realize Kang and all these other people are living in the webtoon world, is there such a thing as murder then?
 Yeon-Joo is back in the webtoon world for the third time, she and us still can't figure out what circumstances send her there. She's been staying at Kang's penthouse and living like royalty though she is so uncomfortable about that. Things are kind of boring for Yeon-Joo at the moment as Kang had to go on a business trip for a few days leaving her all alone.




 Had a bad feeling about Kang's personal secretary Joon and she proved my suspicions were correct. With Kang gone Joon plans on pulling some trickery behind his back and invites Yeon-Joo out to a hotel for a drink, On the way there Yoon suddenly remembers a call she needs to make and will meet her there. It's all a setup though as Yeon-Joo is a wanted person in the webtoon world and soon the hotel is swarming with police.
 Yeon-Joo does manage to elude them for a while and we think she's going to escape with the aid of one of Kang's bodyguards. Five more seconds and she would have eluded them but the police do nab and arrest her to the delight of Yoon who keeps her excitement hidden. Yeon-Joo was able to give the bodyguard the cellphone that Kang had given her so there would be no proof of their relationship.
 At the police station Yeon-Joo is absolutely mum, she won't tell them one thing and the detectives are getting more than irate with her. Finally fed up they send her to the Seoul Detention Center until her trial. Really have no idea what charges could be brought against her, all Yeon-Joo has done in the webtoon world is save Kang's live a few times, she hasn't committed any crime except for disappearing after saving his life.




 Kang finally arrives back in Seoul and is shocked when he learns of Yeon-Joo's fate. He's also more than furious with the trap Yoon set for her, so much that he fired her on the spot. Would presume she'll get rehired as she does have a big role in this show. Being so wealthy Kang does have a lot of pull with the police and certain politicians but is unable to get Yeon-Joo out of jail.
 Kang visits her and tries to get her to start telling the police some info as it's the only way she'll get released. Kang knows about being in prison as he was there for almost a year as he was wrongly sentenced for killing his family, that was eventually overturned. Yeon-joo states she won;t tell the police one thing but does finally explain to Kang the real story even though he won't believe it.
 However Kang does believe her story about there being two worlds as he thinks that's how she manages to disappear so suddenly. What he really thought was that there was another dimension, when Yeon-Joo told him that he was actually the main character in a webtoon it left him speechless. This us where Kang's emotions come into play, for some reason when he starts to behave in a certain way then Yeon-Joo returns to the real world. And who knows what Kang's emotions are now after being told he's not a real person but someone who lives in a webtoon. Whatever his feelings were they were the right ones for Yeon-Joo to once again disappear back into her own world, her disappearance definitely created mayhem at the Detention Center.




 Almost finished with this, upon her arrival back in her world Yeon-Joo had deduced that she had been in the webtoon for a week but in actual time it was only a half hour in the real world. Her father's webtoon assistant is a trustworthy guy and tries to redraw the comic to get Yeon-Joo out of trouble and to end the madness once and for all. At first it looked like redrawing it worked but quickly things took a turn for the worse, really much worse.
 All of the computers went haywire and ceased to work, that also erased all of the re-drawings and it looked like they couldn't access the webtoon any more. Though Kang wasn't a real person, least we don;t think he is, the situation has left Yeon-Joo very distraught as she really started to fall for him. That brings us to the final conclusion and it's one interesting cliffhanger.
 In the webtoon world time was frozen after the computers ceased to function, time was frozen for everyone except for Kang. He was still at the prison and had no clue what was going on in his world but an event which made him think that he may be in a webtoon world occurred. Suddenly some strange force about the size of a small wall appeared before him, he had seen something like that once before. That time was on the hotel roof where he lay dying, Yeon-Joo had stepped out of that glowing wall so could this be the portal between the two worlds?
 The answer to that is yes as Kang, with nothing to lose as his world was frozen, stepped into the glowing wall and disappeared. He just disappeared from the webtoon world as when he stepped through the wall he ended up in the real world of Yeon-Joo's or at least we think it's the real world. The episode ended on that suspenseful note as Kang is standing on the roof of a small apartment building in Seoul, we're going to presume that his mission will be to find Yeon-Joo.




 Didn't expect that ending but it certainly sets up so many possibilities for future episodes, not that any more mysteries were really needed. To me this nay have been the best episode of them all so far, the action has slowed down but the intensity level has increased so much, enjoy these kinds of dramas where you have no clue what could happen next.
 Can't wait to view the next two episodes which air on Wednesdays and Thursdays, let's hope the ratings also keep increasing and should be back this time next week recapping those two shows. A viewer made a comment a few days ago about the "Squad 38" drama, that looks like an interesting show and do have the first episode so will be watching that soon.