Welcome to my humble site....

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....Miyuki Watanabe.... 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!

Search This Blog

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Korean drama "The Universe's Star": episode's one and two recaps


 Air dates: January 26th to February 9, 2017 on MBC Thursday nights at 11:00 pm
Six episodes from 28 to 36 minutes for a total of 192 minutes

Main Cast:

Ji-Woo as Byul-Yi.... Grim Reaper who comes back to life, alive name had been Ha-Na
Suho as Woo-Joo.... Popular Korean singer who had fallen on some hard times
Shin-Hyun-Soo as Se-Joo,,,, EMT who found Ha-Na dead and may be going out with So-Ri
Na Hae-Ryung as Yeon So-Ri.... Dcotor who has known Woo-Joo since childhood
Yoon Jin-Sol as Gak-Shi.... Byul-Yi's best Reaper friend
Lee Si-Un as Jo Yong-Gi.... slightly older Reaper and one devoted to his 'work'
Ko Kyu-Pil as Go.... Woo-Joo's personal manager
Lee Ji-Hoon as Eom.... CEO of Woo-Joo's record company
Joo Jin-Mo as Koo.... Manager of the Earth's Grim Reapers

 Been looking for some shorter dramas to view and have found a good amount of them though to date they've been hit or miss. Will get back to the longer series soon but wanted to take a break from them as the ones that last for 16-20 episodes can take a whole month to watch. This is also a good way to learn about more actresses and did find a good one with Ji-Woo.
 Her last name is Choi but there's also a more popular actress with the same name who was born many years before so watch that in case you do some searching for her. You may not have to as I'll be doing some posts for her and the above one should feature her. On to the recaps and there will be three of them with two episodes per post. Hope I can remember what took place in these two shows as I watched them a week ago. When I viewed episodes three and four today found myself wondering who was who but hopefully everything will fall into place. Will say through four shows this has been a winner and have really enjoyed every minute, still have to view the last two episodes.




 The story mainly revolves around Ji-Woo as Byul-Yi and it's a bit of a sad event to begin off with. No ages have been given but going to presume when the first scene took place she was fifteen in age. The teen Byul-Yi had been rushing off to see her fave singer Woo-Joo in concert, she was in such a state of euphoria she never paid attention to crossing the street and was plunked by a car. That accident ended her life and to her dying breath she held Woo-Joo's concert ticket.
 Flash forward seven years which is when almost all of the action takes place which means we'll presume that Byul-Yi is now 22 years old. That's her in the bottom screenshot above clad in her Grim Reaper uniform. A reaper's job isn't to kill humans nor to save them but to escort them when they pass away. Reapers know in advance when someone will die and all have their assigned humans to escort to wherever, never has been said heaven or hell.
 Byul-Yi has been a reaper since the day she died and not a good one either. She can never do her job properly as she's saved a few humans from dying and to date has never escorted one dead person to their next life(?). That's why Byul-Yi is still an Earth reaper, once they hit a certain quota they can move on to their next stage and for a reaper it seems like a comfortable life. For instance in the beginning Byul-Yi was assigned to escort a young girl to the afterlife. That girl had been in an accident and there was no way Byul-Yi could let a young girl die and she was able to revive her. No humans saw her but her immediate supervisor Yong-Gi did and really reamed her out, that's him in the next two pics.






 In that bottom screenshot is Byul-Yi's heartthrob Woo-Joo, much more on him shortly. But seven years ago he had been the hottest singer in Korea but has fallen on hard times as his albums and singles are only selling a fraction of what they once did. Woo-Joo is an excellent pianist and songwriter but can't write love songs for as to date he's never had a girlfriend and can't write from personal experience. In that pic he's performing a 'comeback' concert, seemed like he did well but his manager said there were only a few hundred in attendance.
 Also in those above screenshots you'll see two with Gak-Shi who is Byul-Yi's best friend. Gak-Shi isn't an official reaper yet as she's still in a probationary stage, wonder why Byul-Yi wasn't too. Both are such avid fans of Woo-Joo and hadn't followed his career too closely since their deaths but both are still his biggest fans. But Byul-Yi's ineptness as a reaper is starting to wear thin with her main boss Koo who can't understand when there's 800 deaths a day in Korea she's been unable to escort even one of them to their next stage.
 The pressure is on her according to Koo, either get some dead people to send to the afterlife or she could soon be terminated. But he gave her some dire news as Koo had let her know that Woo-Joo is now on the list to die. There's no exact date yet but it'll be before the next snowfall, it'll be her responsibility to make sure he's escorted off the Earth. Naturally this sends the two Woo-Joo fanatics into a panic and both rush to his side, perhaps to save him? Didn't mention it as it should be obvious but humans cannot see reapers and reapers can't touch any object on Earth, for now....





 Had forgotten to mention that Byul-Yi had been living at an abandoned house during her time on Earth. Though a reaper is like a ghost as she couldn't touch objects but had discovered that through intense concentration she could touch and use certain items such as a piano, there was one where
Byul-Yi was staying. Occasionally she would practice on it and one of those times took place when Woo-Joo just happened to be passing by. Out of curiosity he wandered into the slightly rundown building, noticing the piano he began to play one of his older tunes. Unknown to Woo-Joo sitting next to him was Byul-Yi who was in seventh heaven sitting next to the man of his dreams but of course he couldn't see her.
 Back to Woo-Joo's dire situation and no one knows how he's going to die. Byul-Yi, along with her mate Gak-Shi, began to shadow his every movement, Woo-Joo lives somewhat of a perfect life as he doesn't drink, smoke, do drugs and eats very healthy. That must mean he'll be dying in an accident but as mentioned when is unknown so the duo stay with their heartthrob every second as to save him from an impending accident.
 Of course that's a huge no-no for a reaper, Byul-Yi's boss Koo has told her this is it for her, unless she delivers Woo-Joo to his afterlife her time as a reaper will be ending. Two incidents happen which Byul-Yi prevents his death with that first one ending her time as a reaper. In that first incident it was purely by chance as Byul-Yi had been unaware that the message was out about Woo-Joo's impending death. When he had visited her building Woo-Joo had noticed a stray dog, it wasn't a stray as it belonged to Byul-Yi.
 But she was unable to tell Woo-Joo that as she invisible to him so the following evening he had returned for the dog. Woo-Joo quickly snatched it away and dashed away with Byul-Yi tearing after him but what could she do? Still clutching the small dog Woo-Joo ran into an intersection with a car tearing down the road and was only a few feet away from hitting him. Byul-Yi somehow summoned up the will again to touch an object, that being Woo-Joo as she shoved him out of the way to safety though there was a death. That was of the car's driver and quickly on the scene was Yong-Gi who had heard of the impending accident and thought it would be Woo-Joo he would be transporting to his next life, it wasn't which left him very disappointed and their boss Koo furious.






 Have been having these recaps at four segments for a while now, know it makes these much easier to read and will try to keep them all that way. Though a person did die it wasn't the correct one as the car's driver was supposed to live and it was Woo-Joo who should have been sent to his afterlife. Furious was an understatement as Koo has had it with Byul-Yi's bumbling ways, he's given her every opportunity but she's just not cut out to be a Grim Reaper. Think being one is a special honor and it seemed Koo saw something in Byul-Yi that he thought would make her an excellent reaper. He was far off the mark and Byul-Yi cried why couldn't she have just gone straight to her afterlife?
 Too late for that now but the bottom line is Koo has dismissed Byul-Yi as a reaper. But it doesn't sound too bad as what's going to happen is that she'll be returning to the living. Seemed like a good deal at first but there were a few drawbacks. Byul-Yi's death took place seven years ago, she'll be returning to life as a 22 year old and not a girl of fifteen. But also she'll have no memories of her previous life, not even what her real name had been which was Ha-Na.
 One other bit of advice Koo told Byul-Yi before she returned to her human form was to work on her 'Seven Dreams'. Those things are what's missing from her life and has prevented her from becoming an efficient reaper. Such items as falling in love, going on a date and five others which are brought up as the series goes on. But it's time for Byul-Yi's return to being a human and the incident is also how she originally died. That was from a car accident, upon returning she had been hit by another vehicle which was driven by Woo-Joo's manager as he watched the accident from the back seat.
 Byul-Yi claimed she was oki doki and rushed from the scene, she has no place to live and really no ties in this new world. But one new object she had was a special watch, when the time on hit 4:44 it began a countdown. The number was how long Woo-Joo had to live and was a warning for her to save her heartthrob. Why it was given to her was unknown but Byul-Yi put it to good use immediately as that first night back the countdown began from 4:44.
 Byul-Yi just happened to be at another of Woo-Joo's comeback concerts, when she saw the countdown starting she knew there was no time to spare and dashed to prevent Woo-Joo's death. At the time he was performing on stage, quickly Byul-Yi ran on it, knocked Woo-Joo back about twenty feet as a huge block of lights fell from the ceiling. They landed right where Woo-Joo had been and now for the second time Byul-Yi has saved his life, the episode ended on that note.






 Screenshots may not be great evidence of it but Ji-Woo is quite the attractive woman in this show. She does look kind of odd but that's how Reapers dress plus for some reason she wore glasses even though she didn't have to, she gets rid of them in the next episode. Have to say that I really enjoyed these first two shows and the next pair are just as good, the next post has that recap. Did take a huge amount of screenshots which is my norm, did try to cover everything that took place but may have left a few minor details out which is why it helps to view them.

















































No comments:

Post a Comment