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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, December 23, 2017

Han Seung-Yeon: "Last Minute Romance" drama episode's one through five recap


 Air Dates: October 23rd to November 3, 2017 on JTBC and Naver at 7:00 pm, 10 minute shows

Main Cast:

Han Seung-Yeon as Baek-Se... 27 year old woman who is terminally ill with cancer
Lee Seo-Won as Dong-Joon and Seol-Won.... actor who portrays Seol-Woo for Baek-Se
Kian 84 as Geum-Son.... Dong-Joon's roommate and Webtoon artist
Kim So-Yi as Yong-Joo.... female monk who grew up in the same orphanage as Baek-Se

 This drama will just take two posts to recap and if I didn't take 125 screenshots could have done it in one post. It was a web drama that consisted of ten episodes that totaled 128 minutes so you could almost say it was a long movie, let's get on with the recap and it turned out to be an enjoyable view.




 Small cast as you may have noticed which worked out well as seeing it was such a short series there wouldn't have been enough time to get to know more characters. The main person in the show is Baek-Se who is 27 and works as a counselor for the Life Line suicide hotline. She's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, when the show started out she had four months to live but time is rapidly dwindling and think when the series got into gear it was less than a month Baek-Se had left to live.
 For a decade she's been the hugest fan in the world of the actor Seol-Woo who also happens to be the biggest drama and film star in Korea. Baek-Se's apartment is covered with his posters and pictures, she knows every detail of everything thing Seol-Woo has appeared in. Baek-Se had a bucket list of activities she wanted to do before she succumbed to the cancer, she accomplished four of the five with the final one appearing to be an impossible one to achieve. That's meeting Seol-Woo, nothing in Baek-Se's life would make her dying more bearable.




 Didn't know it could happen but Baek-Se has received a 30 million won payout from her insurance company for her impending death, perhaps it happened as she has no relatives. Above is her friend and monk in training Yong-Joo, both grew up in an orphanage but besides that detail we learn nothing of Baek-Se's past. Somehow she got the idea while talking with Yong-Joo to hire a man to portray Seol-Woo, easier said than done as he's such a handsome man.
 Baek-Se files an application through an online dating service, she stated that the person has to look almost exactly like Seol-Woo and also act like him. The pair held an audition for the applicants which was a  complete flop, had to be over 25 men who tried and zero looked like Seol-Woo. We then briefly meet the male co-star Dong-Joon who is also about 27 and is a struggling actor. He's currently in a play but with a minor role, his acting ability is absolutely horrible but he does have one thing going for him which is that he looks like Seol-Woo.
 Dong-Joon lives with his buddy Geum-Son who also struggles at what he does which is a manga artist and he also does webtoons. Dong-Joon hasn't used the looks he has to his advantage, he actually thinks he's cursed resembling Seol-Woo so much. Dong-Joon wants to have plastic surgery to change his appearance but there's one major obstacle, an operation would cost 30 million won.




 Baek-Se is at work one night when she receives a call from a man standing on the Han River Bridge debating whether to take the plunge. He's brokenhearted as his girlfriend has left him, is there any reason to keep living is what he couldn't decide. Baek-Se managed to talk him out if his fatal plan, must be hard for her to counsel callers when Baek-Se knows she doesn't have long to live. The caller still wasn't happy with his life but ended the call which was from a Life Line phone that's on the bridge, must be a popular jumping spot.
 A few moments later the next person to pass by was Dong-Joon who noticed the phone dangling there. He was about to hang it up when he noticed the Life Line sign and asked if anyone was on the other end. Baek-Se was still there and the pair began conversing or actually it was more of
Dong-Joon complaining about his life, especially his looks.
 At the other end Baek-Se thought the caller meant their appearance was rather dreadful, when she pressed Dong-Joon for more info he stated he could almost pass for Seol-Woo's twin. That got
Baek-Se's heart beating rapidly but Dong-Joon thought the call was going nowhere so hung the phone up and was beginning to leave. There was a CCTV near the phone which Baek-Se had access to but with the man walking away in the opposite direction she had no clue what his face looked like.




 Obviously the Life Line office must be close to the Han River Bridge as Baek-Se had left her post and rushed there, somehow Dong-Joon was still in the vicinity. Baek-Se proceeded to go right up to him and just stood there gaping, it really did look like Seol-Woo to her. Not the words Dong-Joon wanted to hear as he has such a dislike for the man but he seemed curious about Baek-Se so they found a park bench and continued their initial meeting.
 The date is May 10th and it's the only time that was brought up. Baek-Se didn't have much time left to live so there's no beating around the bush, she quickly whipped out a contract she had with her and asks Dong-Joon to read it and hopefully say yes to it's conditions. Needless to say he can't believe what he's reading, in the contract Baek-Se said she'll pay him or anyone who looks like Seol-Woo 30 million won to act like Seol-Woo when around her, she adds in that it means they also have to date.
 Dong-Joon can't understand why someone would be willing to pay such a sum for someone to pretend being another person so he's ready to get up and leave as he thinks Baek-Se is a bit off her rocker. Bak-Se explains to him about her terminal cancer and that it's her last wish before her fateful day arrives. Dong-Joon can't decide whether she's pulling a fast one on him but does bring the contract back home with him and says he'll get in touch with Baek-Se very soon.




 That's Dong-Joon's roommate Geom-Son who is reading the contract. It's not just looking like
Seol-Woo but the person who pretends to be him also has to act out the scenes from his dramas and films. Baek-Se is a huge drama fan and she does live her life a bit on the edge of reality as she thinks what happens in dramas should also occur in real life. So she would also be a part of the game as she would be acting out the roles of the females in Seol-Woo's works.
 At first Dong-Joon was dead set against pretending to be the man he despises but money talks and he needs it to live and have the plastic surgery on his face. It's an official deal as Dong-Joon will in real life be playing the part of Seol-Woo and contacts Baek-Se with the great news. She's naturally jumping for joy and has set up their first 'date' for the following day.
 Dong-Joon has been viewing all of Seol-Woo's dramas and films though just the highlights of them. He has most of the lines memorized but even with all of the practice he just can't get all of the mannerisms down. The first meeting with Dong-Joon as Seol-Woo is a disaster, it turned out so horribly that Baek-Se is having second thoughts about the contract. During the mini encounter she did reveal more of the details about her impending death to Dong-Joon as he's now believes she will soon be dead. When he arrives back at this apartment he starts to work harder than ever trying to be the second coming of Seol-Woo.





 The pair make one more attempt at the charade and Dong-Joon's practice has paid off. They end up at a small pub but unfortunately due to her condition Baek-Se can't drink alcohol, don't know why as her cancer is terminal unless alcohol speeds the process up. At the pub the duo end up having such a fun time, for most of their date Dong-Joon wasn't pretending to be Seol-Woo as they just got to know each other better and that's where we first learn that Baek-Se had grown up in an orphanage.
 There was a woman at the pub who came up to their table and asserted that Dong-Joon was
Seol-Woo and wanted to take a picture with him. Dong-Joon kept insisting he wasn't who she thought he was, it did get a bit heated and the woman's boyfriend ambled over. That's when Dong-Joon went into his Seol-Woo mode and was so successful the pair thought he was the real deal. But Dong-Joon did go a bit overboard, so much that the boyfriend ended up flooring him with one punch.
 But the date and Dong-Joon's performance had won over Baek-Se as she now wants to see much more of Dong-Joon. The episode ends or should I say the fifth show ends with the pair agreeing to see each again and Baek-Se is just so overjoyed with how things are turning out. She is one adorable gal so wonder why she didn't have a boyfriend before this, perhaps her obsession with Seol-Woo has prevented her from meeting other people? It'll be explained more in the next post but at the very end the failed webtoon artist Geum-Son wants to do a strip about Dong-Soon and Baek-SeDong-Joon refuses to let him do it at first but eventually relents and that comic strip plays a major part in the next episode or should I say five of them.




 Not much more to tell you about anything except that the second half of this short series is recapped in the next post. Will admit it's not a must watch but Seung-Yeon is just so darn cute and while not a perfect actress she does have this charisma about her which is very magnetic. As usual I took too many screenshots to count but as mentioned many times before they do help you to follow the story a bit more closely.









































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