Reviews

Title: Portrait of a Beauty
Directed by Jeon Yoon-soo
Screenplay by Han Soon-ryeon

Alternative title : “Beauty Island”

Synopsis borrowed from HanCinema: Born to a family of established court painters, seven-year-old Yun-jeong is a young girl gifted at painting. However, the pressure is on her brother to carry on the proud family tradition, as women aren’t allowed to become professional painters. While her brother trains to take his place in the court, Yun-jeong helps him out by secretly painting for him. The little girl’s life is turned upside down when her brother kills himself. In order to preserve the family honor, she is forced to take her brother’s name and lives as a man. Yun-bok’s genius and talent captures the heart of another great master of the time, Kim Hong-do. But her daring depictions of women are condemned by the royal institute as obscene. Yun-bok meets Kang-mu and falls deeply in love. For the first time, she feels the strong desire to abandon everything she has built and simply be a woman in front of the man she loves. Kang-mu sacrifices all for his love as well. Kim Hong-do, who loved the genius of his best student, ends up loving everything about her, and Seol-hwa, a Gisaeng at the courtesan house, possesses a love for Hong-do that turns into fatal jealousy. The secret behind Shin Yun-bok’s masterpiece, Portrait of a Beauty, is finally revealed after 250 years of silence.

Small Gods at Amazon

I watch all these kdramas and they warp my notions of reality. I think that I sympathize more with straight forward characters like Dong Yi and Han Tae Yang because that’s pretty much how I am. Though I think they give themselves more trouble than they really need if they would just be honest with people; not about their more serious secret, but the smaller troubles they get into.

Half these dramas would simply fall apart if one character would turn to another and just lay all the facts out on the table. Instead, everyone has to hold everything all bottled up and creep around all over the place.

Sure, that kind of super melodrama is interesting for a number of episodes, then it just gets repetetive. You want the characters to quit moping around all the time and buck up. At the very least, you stop feeling sorry for the characters and you just think that they should totally cut contact with each other because they would be much better off.

“Bachelor’s Vegetable Store” is strangely compelling for a story about a guy selling vegetables, but I think that they’ve kind of lost track of the charm and have drifted into ridiculous territory. Also, they introduced some side stories for the supporting characters, then they don’t follow through with them. We just get a tiny taste at a time and it’s actually very frustrating.

I was willing to watch 60 episodes of “Dong Yi” because it was just that attention grabbing and entertaining. There were characters that I really cared about and wanted to see get a happy ending.

With “Bachelor’s Vegetable Store,” I’ve kind of gotten to the point where I think Han Tae Yang should just cut his losses and find some other girl to love, one that would actually appreciate him. I just think that she should face up to the fact that she’s more interested in comfort and money than she is in love, and cut the ties; it would be a kindness to just let him go. But there’s no way she’s ever going to do that because she’s selfish. She doesn’t even care enough for him to protect his life from a woman that has shown a willlingness to do horrible things to people.

I’m so disgusted by her, that I think I would appreciate it if there were longer scenes in the secondary characters’ lives to break the tension. Like I have my suspicious about Chan Sol’s situation, but I kind of want to have that proved; that or I would really like an interesting twist. And I’m kind of curious about the seemingly homeless bachelor with the angsty past.

Heroes & Villains at Amazon

I know it’s stupid. I know I’m completely Gump. But I can’t help it that I like this kind of thing. “I yam what I yam,” as Popeye would say.

For the price they’re charging for the digital download, your ass is getting cheated out of some $$$. I don’t care how fun this game is, it’s very short and not a whole lot happens here.

I didn’t really mind the price until I beat the whole game TWICE in one night. That’s when I realized I was a SUCKER. Still, there’s just something about stocking shelves, making people happy, and just basically running your own make believe supermarket chain that you just can’t help loving.

If you want to get this one, you’re better off shelling out for one of those super pack game bundles and getting it on a CD. For like $10 (or less) you can get this game and like 500 others all at one time. Much better deal.

rating: 3

Hogfather at Amazon

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The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
Creator: Maxwell Atoms
Stars: Greg Eagles, Richard Steven Horvitz, and Grey DeLisle

Featuring the voices of Greg Eagles (Grim), Grey DeLisle (Mandy), and Richard Steven Horvitz (Billy),the series stars the two main characters, Billy and Mandy, having manipulated the Grim Reaper, usually called “Grim”, into being their best friend for eternity after having won a bet over a sick hamster through a game of limbo (playing limbo in Limbo.) Afterwards, having lost the bet, Grim is forced to be their “best friend forever.”

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