Thursday, November 6, 2014

Korean Gender Bender (girl pretends to be boy) Dramas and their reviews

This post will list out all the gender-bender korean dramas that I have watched or heard of, what they are about, and how good they are. Listing is not by rank.
I will call the lead actress heroine and the lead actor hero.

You're Beautiful
Year: 2009
Story: Heroine pretends to be her twin brother who got into an accident (1 month hospitalization) after getting a chance at his dream job of being a singer in a famous boy band. She replaces him and has to live with 3 handsome fellow band members. The hero is the lead singer and he is very dominant and controlling. He finds out she's a girl and almost kicks her out but ends up keeping the secret that she's a girl. At first he hates her, but over time she grows on him. Later on all three band members end up falling for her, but the members are always good bros to each other.
Review: this story has that awesome fight then fall in love romance that I love, really good friendship, super funny.
Rating: 10/10
Recommend: Definitely yes to the Korean version. I've seen Korean version twice, and Taiwanese version once. The Taiwanese version was not as good, but the main guy was so handsome that I watched it just for him. I don't recommend Taiwanese version. I haven't seen Japanese version.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal
  
Year: 2010
Genre: Historical fiction (happened in Josean dynasty of Korean history)
Story: Heroine has been pretending to be her brother all her life to do scholarly writing jobs and make money for her sick brother and family in debt. But in her times, women can't be scholars so she only does small jobs. One day after a complicated situation caused by the hero, she ends up being admitted to Sungkyunkwan, which is an elite boarding school for scholars (boys only), and her roommate is the hero and another handsome bad boy (love triangle). So the story goes of her pretending to be a boy, being stuck living in a boarding school full of boys and a room shared with two handsome guys.
Review: It is hilarious, so funny. And so much love. They really build the story well.
Rating: 10/10
Recommend: I've watched it twice already (which I don't do often) Yes definitely yes

To the Beautiful You
Also called: For You in Full Blossom; Hana Kimi Korean version
Year: 2012
Story: Heroine is a huge fan of the hero who is a high jumper (track and field athlete) and considers him an inspiration. One day, hero stops doing high jumps after an incident. So, the heroine decides to enter his life and convince him to do it again. But he lives in an all boys (mostly handsome boys) boarding school. So she pretends to be a boy and gets admitted in the school.
Reviews: Also very funny and sweet. School life adventures, love between the main two, another guy (love triangle) thinks he's turning gay because he likes the girl its funny
Rating: 9/10
Recommend: Definitely (and like me you might like it enough to want to watch the Japanese version too) I saw the Japanese version first, then this. Both are good.

Coffee Prince 
Also called: The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince
Year: 2007
Story: Hero opens a flower boy (flower boy means pretty/handsome boys) coffee shop. Heroine pretends to be a boy because she wants to work there. And then they have chemistry.
Review: It was pretty good
Rating: 8/10
Recommend: Yes

Secret Garden
Note: I'm not sure if this one is exactly a gender bender but the story is great so I'll mention it anyway.
Story: In this show, the girl does not pretend to be boy. Instead the girl and boy switch bodies by magic and have to live each other's lives and deal with this very uncomfortable but funny change. The body switching makes the show hilarious.
Review: Really good
Rating: 9/10
Recommend: Definitely


Queen Seon deok
Also called: The Great Queen Seondeok
Year: 2009
Note: This drama is super long- 62 episodes (but the story is kind of broken down into sub-stories each taking about 5-10 episodes while the main characters and story is being built forever)
In this story, the main girl pretends to be a boy for about 20 episodes. But the gender bending is not a very important theme in the story. When it gets revealed that she is a girl, it is not a huge surprise or controversy like in other gender-bender shows.
Story: Life of Queen Seondeok (the first female ruler of Silla, part of historic Korea) based on real history and a lot of fiction added.
Review:Because this show is very long, it hits highs and lows. Some episodes are awesome, whereas some are like too much drama. And a lot of sad things happened at the ending so I hated the ending.
Rating: I'm so confused how to rate this one. Honestly I would give the first half of this show 9/10 but the last 20 or so episodes were 5/10
Recommend: I don't know if I should. I loved and hated this show. The hate is probably because of the ending. I hate unhappy endings.






No comments:

Post a Comment