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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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Saturday, September 30, 2017

"While You Were Sleeping" drama: episodes one and two recap


 Air Dates: September 27th to November 16th on SBS, airs Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10:00 pm, two episodes per night
 Ratings for the two episodes- 7.2% and 9.2%

Main Cast:

Bae Suzy as Nam Hong-Joo
Lee Jong-Suk as Jung Jae-Chan
Lee Sang-Yeob as Lee Yoo-Bum
Ko Sung-Hee as Shin Hee-Min
Jung Hae-In as Han Woo-Tak
Shin Jae-Ha as Jung Seung-Won
Hwang Young-Hee as Yoon Moon-Sun
Park Jin-Joo as Moon Hyang-Mi

This is another Korean drama that's 30+ minutes an episode, not sure if viewers like the shorter length but I really do and hope more shows will be like this and "Reunited Worlds" which I'm currently watching and recapping, as a matter of fact this show is taking over the time slot for "Reunited Worlds".
 Looked like a very interesting series so thought why not try it out and so far it looks like a winner. Usually just post one recap for two shows, for this series will be having back to back posts and needed to do it for these first four shows as I wasn't quite sure of what was going on. Haven't viewed episodes three and four yet but sure some of my questions will be answered then.




 Hong-Joo is a 22 year old(?) who still lives with her mother. She has a strange talent if you want to call it that which is seeing the future in her dreams. Hong-Joo has said she even foretold her father's death though we don't know the details of that yet. The problem is she can't change the future even though she knows when a person will die and the exact circumstances.
 That happened early on in the first episode as she had dreamed that a middle age man was to die in an explosion caused by his cigarette. Later that night as a man was paying a bill at her mother's restaurant Hong-Joo recognized the man as the one in her dream. With the help of her mother she pleaded with the man not to leave, if he did at least don't smoke or he'll die.
 Naturally the man thought the pair was crazy and departed. On his way home he noticed his gas gauge was close to empty so he stopped at a station to fill up. That dream came true as while filling his tank up the man tried to light a cigarette up, next to gas pumps? Well as he flicked his Bic a spark flew out and somehow ignited a fire. Not just a fire as the whole gas station exploded and the man was quickly burned up.




 Meanwhile across the street from Hong-Joo's house a pair of brothers named Jung have just moved in. When the elder brother Jae-Chan came over with a gift to meet his new neighbors he was told in so uncertain terms by Hong-Joo to get lost. She had seen him in her previous night's dream, the pair were hugging while it was snowing but she can't figure why or what the situation was.
 Jae-Chan has the same talent as Hong-Joo though he's slightly different as he can change the future or at least he did in these first two episodes. Jae-Chan is a new prosecutor for the Seoul office, one of his old mates and guess you could call him a rival works as a lawyer in that office. His name is
Yoo-Bum, he's not a bum but as we learn he is one dastardly person.
 This drama starts off in February 2016 just prior to Valentine's Day. Yoo-Bum is a total jerk but somehow he got set up on a blind date with Hong-Joo and they've gone on a few other dates. It's now Valentine's Day and the pair meet up at a restaurant, for some reason Jae-Chan is in the parking lot. He and Yoo-Bum have a few words, they've known each other for thirteen years and some of their history will be explained as this post goes on.




 You'll see above that Hong-Joo's hair is much shorter than in the opening minutes. She became so distraught after not being able to help the man who died in the explosion she just grabbed a pair of scissors and started cutting. Back to the date, her and Yoo-Bum enter the restaurant to enjoy a meal. Hong-Joo is having a hard time enjoying herself as she's unable to contact her mother via her phone.   Hong-Joo's latest dream was of her mother dying but she didn't know when or how, she immediately thought that some tragedy had happened to her. She's panicked so tells Yoo-Bum she has to rush home to see if her mother is there or if she's in trouble. However it had just started to snow heavily and Hong-Joo was petrified if driving in it so Yoo-Bum says he'll drive her car instead.
 This is where tragedy strikes the pair or in the end run mainly for Hong-Joo. Yoo-Bum wasn't paying enough attention to his driving in the storm, as he was looking at Hong-Joo the vehicle struck an object and went careening into a telephone pole. It wasn't just an object but a young man who lay dead in the street. In an odd twist he had just came back from Hong-Joo's house, her mother had left her phone at a restaurant and the young man was returning it. The mother not having her phone is why Hong-Joo couldn't contact her.




 Neither Yoo-Bum nor Hong-Joo had any serious physical damages from the accident but she was left unconscious. The accident took place on February 14th, now it's ten months later and Hong-Joo is finally waking up from a coma. With what's about to happen in her life she'll probably wish she didn't awaken.
 The dream where Hon-Joo's mother died has unfortunately come true. Because of the accident her mother had to sell the house and restaurant to cover the medical bills and to pay a settlement to the young man's family. She then worked at a few jobs every day to earn more money and the pace eventually caught up with her as one day she just collapsed from exhaustion which resulted in her falling down some stairs and dying.
 The other major result of the accident may not have been as bad but it was awful darn close. At the accident scene Hong-Joo had been unconscious, unknown then to her Yoo-Bum had put her in the passenger seat and set things up to look as though she was the driver! This guy is one low life and if there's justice he'll get his payback before the series ends. After Hong-Joo had awakened from her coma at the hospital prosecutor Jae-Chan came to visit her with some bad news about the accident.




 Hong-Joo is being charged with the killing of the young man, until the charge she was unaware of what fiendish act Yoo-Bum had done. Even the CCTV in the area had seen her behind the wheel of the vehicle plus her DNA was on it's airbag. Hong-Joo was insistent she wasn't the driver but it seemed to fall on deaf ears, whose story Jae-Chan asks her a jury would believe, hers or the story of a respected lawyer?
 The young man's family can also sue Hong-Joo if she's found guilty, like I said it would have been better if she remained in the coma. Before Jae-Chan had arrived for his questioning one of her mother's friends had given her a letter, looks like her mother knew that her working so many hours would be the end of her. But in that letter was also a nice gift as she had two bank accounts totaling 45,800,000 won or $40,000 so she could be set to survive on her own.
 Hong-Joo just couldn't get over the events that have been thrown at her in such a short amount of time and goes into a minor hysteria. She manages to make it to the hospital's roof, she can see no reason for continuing to live and is prepared to fall from the roof. There's a small group of people there including Jae-Chan, as she starts her descent he rushed over to grab her but she slowly falls out of his hand to her death.




 The death didn't quite occur or at least not in real life. Jae-Chan also can dream of the future, that hospital scene while real was also one he had in his previous night's dream or on February 13th. The going back and forth in time is what can be confusing at times or at least it is in the beginning. No clue if they'll be skipping back and forth on a regular basis or if the show eventually is set in 2017.
 Jae-Chan had somewhat of the same dream that Hong-Joo did but with more details. He was able to see the accident and what actions Yoo-Bum did after including switching Hong-Joo from the passenger seat to the driver's. But he can change the future with his knowledge, now we know why he was at the restaurant that night when Hong-Joo and Yoo-Bum were going on a date.
 The same order of events happen, Hong-Joo can't contact her mother and rushes home with
Yoo-Bum driving because of the heavy snow. Jae-Chan should have just chased after the pair from the beginning but didn't, his brother had arrived and they were going to go out somewhere. But
Jae-Chan knew the accident was about to take place and drove off in pursuit. He did catch them but not from behind as he came down a different road and was able to hit the car Yoo-Bum was driving just a few seconds before the young man was about to be run over.




 Not much longer to go with this recap as preventing the accident was the final scene though a long one. Hong-Joo's mother's car is totaled but she's safe this time around and the young man didn't get run over so Jae-Chan saved the day, something Hong-Joo is unable to do with her dreams. However Yoo-Bum is not happy with the accident, naturally he has no clue about the dreams the pair have and thought Jae-Chan hit the vehicle on purpose.
 The two have a long history as Yoo-Bum is three years older. Back in high school Yoo-Bum used to tutor Jae-Chan who wasn't a good student and showed no enthusiasm for academics. That changed over the years as he first became a lawyer and is now a prosecutor. Back in high school the pair had somehow fudged Jae-Chan's grades, getting better grades meant a bonus for Yoo-Bum but the truth eventually was revealed ending Yoo-Bum's tutoring days.
 Jae-Chan had gotten half of the bonus for keeping his mouth shut, he had purchased a mini motorcycle with the money. His dad believed he stole the bike as Jae-Chan didn't have enough money to afford one, that's when it was revealed about the grade fixing. Also there was an accident with the motorcycle, Yoo-Bum had caused one but pinned the blame on Jae-Chan who ended up taking the blame for the accident, the two have that long history but not one that's pleasant for Jae-Chan.




 The final minute consisted of Hong-Joo getting out of the car and slowly strolling over to Jae-Chan to hug him. She had dreamed this scene the previous night but had no idea what it meant or who the man she hugged was, now she knows and believes in the dreams of Jae-Chan.
 With that the second episode came to it's conclusion, actually wasn't as confusing writing this as I thought. The only thing which may baffle some reading this is the two dreams as it seemed the second one of Jae-Chan's wiped out the the real events of the man getting killed and Hong-Joo being charged for his killing.
 Haven't viewed the next two shows yet but am about to start on them, sure some of my bewildering thoughts on exactly what and will happen will be answered. For a change have that next recap just below this one, may help you too to read them back to back if you're not sure of what powers these dreams have. So far though it's been an exciting and interesting drama, really hoping it remains that way and don't know why it wouldn't as I have a feeling it's going to become even more intriguing.




















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