I don’t want no drama … unless its of the Asian Drama TV show variety. 😁
I watched this drama a while ago but in my quest to introduce dramas to my mum, I have been rewatching some old favourites to pull her in. (It worked – she’s fully in! 😊)
So, this weeks review is The Guardians. I am not a huge fan of spoilers so my reviews are not of the usual type. I just like to give a brief overview, explain why I loved it without spoilers and hope that you are excited enough to check it out for yourself and give it a go. Opinions should be formed on your own without influence from others. Ill happily lead you down the wonderful path of Kdrama and point you to some of my faves but we are all different and like different things for a good reason. The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things. Never be scared to disagree with me and to point me the direction of your favorites. I am happy to watch and take recommendations from everyone.
Key from SHINee
When I fell down the Kpop hole, one of the first groups I went looking for was SHINee because I had seen Minho in a couple of dramas so I was aware of them even though i had avoided kpop for a long time (thank you BTS for dragging me into this beautiful wonderland). Anyway, not gonna lie the main reason I started this drama was Key. He is one if my SHINee biases and I couldnt pass on seeing him act and when I saw his beautiful crimped hair it was a yes from me. I didn’t much care if the storyline turned out rubbish 🤦♀️😃
Look at the cuteness overload 😍
Turns out I really enjoyed the storyline and all the characters and I even discovered some more drama biases.
In England, this Kdrama is called The Guardians but over in Korea it is Lookout. An exciting detective/vigilante thriller with lovelable and kickass characters really bring this story to life.
The main plot focuses on young mum and detective Jo Soo Ji. Initially a successful but struggling detective, disaster strikes and she finds herself on the run joining up with a band of vigilante heroes taking on the injustices of the world whilst trying to seek justice for herself, her family and her new little family made up of a young computer hacker and a young girl suffering from something similar to agoraphobia.
Jo Soo Ji leads the way as an amazing, interesting and badass female lead. I think I fell in love with her a little bit. She suffered a fair amount in a short period of time but was still quite upbeat and carried on seeking justice and trying to do the right thing. She had moments where she struggled as would anyone in her situation but on the whole she is an amazing real life hero.
Jang Do Han, well where do I even start with him. Is he an anti-hero? A villain? A stuck up phony bordering the fence do you never quite know where his loyalties lie or all of the above? And does any of this matter and we love him still regardless. Answer for me is yes!!!
Every single character in this made me fall in love with them but the two main leads and the other members of the vigilante team made this series what it was. The storyline itself was intriguing and kept me watching and guessing and hiding and laughing. It is everything I want in the drama, but it is the characters themselves that really make the drama. And when you discover the villain of the series, even they are incredible. Crazy and creepy and made me hide behind my hands and the pure villainous heart they must have but still oh so watchable. I cannot rave about this programme enough!
Not only are the characters individually so interesting and portrayed so well. The relationships between the leads, the secondary characters and even the extras are all amazing. I could talk for hours on this but I won’t because I really think it is something you should witness for yourself.
The interaction between these two, although somewhat tense on occasion is sometimes funny, sometimes endearing but always edge of your seat stuff. Do you they tolerate each other? Is there some honest feeling hidden beneath the surface. What are their true feelings? For a thriller with a twisted plot, the interactions between these two left me feeling dizzy, happy and sometimes frustrated.
What started out as a relationship similar to that of siblings, as they argued and name called each other. Picking out and belittling each others quirks and issues but with a loving, friendly vibe soon grew into something more. The budding friendship is often hindered by the fact no one quite knows what Seo Bo Mi looks out or where she is or her history or anything. Whilst Kyung Soo is quite open and honest about his life and he helps in a more physical way. He is still quite guarded and you can feel his sadness even though he tries to stay bright and upbeat which completely contradicts Bo Mis negative and somewhat dry sense of the world, but somehow it works and there interactions are some of the most beautiful and endearing parts of the show.
Overall, the action packed thriller taking on political injustices every day at the same time as seeking justice for themselves, these everyday heros soon became some of my favourite characters and I couldn’t wait to introduce them to my mum and I would recommend to anyone else I know to give it a watch. I would happily watch it again, in fact I might. 😊
But first some background:- Me and my friend have a term for when we are supposed to be chatting to them, texting or arranging something but we don’t as we forget or get distracted. We call it Hobi-tracked because were both Hobi bias and its usually because we’ve been sucked into a Pinterest / Youtube session of watching all things Hobi.
A big shout out to Kala – who is part of the reason I get so Hobi-tracked, we both feed each others obsessions! 😂 Come on who wouldn’t be side tracked by his adorable-ness.
I have started to write some posts on BTS member profiles, a few more drama reviews, and introductions to some of the other kpop groups I have been discovering. But whilst discovering these other groups has been amazing and I’ve loved falling deeper into the Kpop hole, it also means I have a lot of content I can feast upon.
Which leads me back to the apology, I have fallen into a well of music videos, VLives, interviews, live performances for so many new groups, I haven’t actually done much writing, but I have down plenty of research for my posts. 😂
Last week I was Monsta X -tracked, I may have watched their cover of Bruno Mars Versace on the Floor an unhealthy amount. I loved that tune anyway, but seeing Kiyhun, Minhyuk, Jooheon and the others perform it, was just …😍 wow! Monsta X are still quite new for me so I have been having fun listening to new music and watching new videos, but because of all this research, I haven’t had much chance to write.
The week before I had a very SHINee week as I was missing the guys, as all but one member is currently serving in the military – just leaving Taemin to fly solo and carry the SHINee torch. He is rocking it and I am loving some of his solo stuff, but I still miss the guys so I had a very SHINee youtube session and ended up watching videos all night and didn’t have chance to write again. You might be noticing a pattern soon. 😂😂😂
This weekend seems to be a GOT7 and BtoB weekend as we’ve had a lot of playlists on this weekend with both groups on and I’ve been buying myself some new albums of theirs. Also, with GOT7 hopefully (fingers crossed we heres something soon) coming to London in October, I’ve been getting very excited by this.
Basically I am so sorry I haven’t had much chance to write my journey in to the Kpop hole, I really want to share it with you, but I’ve just been having so much fun actually enjoying falling into it. I will write more soon I promise. I have started my BTS profiles and I have some fun Top 10 blog posts to put up soon. And I have some exciting news regarding contributors to my blog soon too, so please keep an eye out for that.
I hope you guys are all enjoying your own journey whether it be into Kpop, music in general or anything else you have discovered recently. Embrace your likes and obsessions and show your weird! It will make your life more interesting and exciting and once you open up to allow yourself to enjoy more things, I hope you will become a happier and more confident version of you. I know I definitely have, I have also discovered some amazing new friends and become part of a huge family which is amazing in itself. Please share your wonderful stories about discovering Kpop or discovering something you love in the comments, I really want to hear all about it.
If you’ve ever been scared to share your loves/ obsessions etc, or you find people roll their eyes at you, or if you just want to feel connected to people. This is a safe place, we embrace everybody here. Whatever you love or like whether it be BTS, GOT7, TWICE or any other kpop or Kdrama, but if youre massive Harry Potter or Enid Blyton fan, come say hi and share your weird. We are a very accepting fandom over here and just love to see peoples passion and interests. Say hi and drop me a comment. 💜💜💜💜
Welcome to my first Drama review – I have been watching Kdramas for a few years now but never thought to review them but I love them so much I want to share my insight. I am going to have to go back and watch my favourites again so I can review them, oh what a nightmare 😂 Kidding, I rewatch my faves all the time.
Warning for you all – I don’t like “spoilers” in a review so there won’t be heavy content on the whole recap/synopsis side of things, I may give you some insight to parts I like, the characters etc but if you want a run of what happens or a play by play, this is probably not the place for you. I just would like to share my opinion and if you’ve been considering watching a kdrama and haven’t been sure, I’m hoping my reviews will encourage you to give them a go. I will talk about some parts of the shows, but not heavy on the spoilers.
I know some people are put off by the subtitles, but if you watch enough, it really does become second nature to watch and read at the same time. K-dramas can be dramatic, fluffy, cute, sweet, sensitive, dramatic and exciting and are totally worth the watch if you can get past the subtitles.
Drama in one sentence:A highly Intelligent but lonely business man suffering from an allergy to humans meets and falls in love with a Robot which is actually a human pretending to be a Robot.
Honestly though, this synopsis does not give enough credit to how beautiful and emotional this series was. I wasn’t sure how I felt about a drama based around a robot at first, especially a human pretending to be a robot and another human falling in love with it. But the cast and the storyline in I’m not a robot make it so much more than that.
Aji-3 – AI robot or human playing was a robot?
The human allergy aspect played remarkably by leading man Yoo Seung-ho helped make the storyline much more believable. The whole thing could have been unbelievable, unrealistic and silly, but seeing how Kim Min-kyu had not had physicalhuman contact for years and had closed himself off from the world, the whole thing became much easier to believe. I absolutely love Yoo Seung-ho, he brings a beautiful smile, an innocence and beauty to this role. If the character had been played by anyone else, I think I would have struggled to dispel all the things that could have gone wrong with a human being tricked into thinking a robot did all the things Aji 3 did, but as he is so adorable, innocent and unspoilt by human contact, it’s totally believable.
The story itself is what I’ve stated above mixed in with the usual drama trope of man meeting woman, falling for her, betrayal, anguish, hope and finally happiness all rolled into a very unique story, as we have the robot aspect to take into account. Overall, I think the plot could have been a nightmare but the leading cast made it a beautiful story, that I fell in love with.
Cast
There may be slight spoilers ahead as I do a run down of the cast / characters but only from the initial episodes as I think you should decide if you want to find out more about the series yourselves and watch the episodes. If you have seen any k-dramas before, you will undoubtedly be able to figure out how this series might go, so without many spoilers here but a little hint, here is the good, the bad and the on the fence characters in my opinion, it doesn’t mean they are always good/ bad or on the fence. This is just my opinion from the get go.
Leading man Min-kyu is a highly intelligent business who has suffered with a terrible debilitating human allergy for the last 15 years. He has lived on his own, with only a butler for company. He is the son of one of the founding members, a majority shareholder in the company and I want to say Financial director (?), he has earned a lot of money for the company, but has a unique way of doing business as he can’t really interact with people, although I don’t think anyone knows his issues, so people just think he is weird.
He wants to perform his military duty but cannot as his illness can cause him to die, so he is struggling internally with this. Also, within his business there is some angst, as there is always someone trying to take over businesses and using someone else to do this.
In his personal life, he is an avid collector, which is how he originally meets our leading lady. And he has been in love with an old family friend for a long time but has never made a move.
The company he owns is also in the process of buying into a small AI company, the Santa Maria team, whom have built a robot – Aji 3. A very human like Artificial Intelligent robot. He wants to test the robot and asks if he can see how she works, which is how the story begins.
If you do not fall in love with his beautiful smile and cute little ways, then well, I don’t know what, because he is fricking adorable. Every time he looks and smiles at Aji-3, oh my heart!😍
Leading lady Chae Soo-bin plays not one but two very exciting and interesting characters. She brings a real spark and sassiness to the robot Aji 3 – which does take a bit of suspended belief to accept that Min-kyu falls for the ruse – but if you can get over this then Soo-bin plays the part beautifully. In her main role as Ji-ah, I love her, I really do. She has this unique quality which makes her a perfect combination of adorable, sassy, interesting, hardworking and passionate.
Ji-ah lives with her brother, his heavily pregnant wife and niece as she lost her dad in her teens. She is an aspiring inventor and entrepreneur. She has made a fair few inventions but unfortunately none of them has ever taken off. Her brother at first does not seem very supportive and seems to heavily criticise her life choices. She seems to have a few various part time jobs but is on the whole a really happy and kind character. If you don’t fall for her, almost instantly you may be watching the wrong series.
One of her part time jobs, is buying rare and collectible items for people. This is how she first runs into Min-kyu, and their first meeting although memorable in some ways, is not a great start.
She is also linked to the Santa Maria team through the head professor, as he is her ex boyfriend, and he is how she is pulled into pretending to be a robot.
Santa Maria Team
consists of:
Um Ki-joon as Hong Baek-kyun. Ji-ah’s ex boyfriend and world renowned but shamed robotics professor and leader of the team. At first, I couldn’t see any potential in his character and was a little bored of him, but as the series got going, I loved how they didn’t necessarily go for the straight forward lead / second lead fights for girl. Baek-kyun genuinely wants to know how and why things went wrong with his relationship. He’s also very sweet and the more I watched, the more i realised my initial opinion of him was off.
Park Se-wan as “Pi” Angela Jin. I think she is the second in command in the team, she is highly intelligent and appears to have a lot of control over the team, making sure they stay on point and focused etc. Blatantly, and this isn’t really a spoiler as you’d have to be blind not to see it straight away, she is in love with Baek-hyun. The best part is she knows he still has feelings for Ji-ah, but she doesn’t act jealous, she doesn’t dislike Ji-ah or Baek-hyun for this though, she accepts this and does her best at work and is there for the professor regardless. She’s a really good feminine but in control of her life character.
Song Jae-ryong as “Hoktal” Kang Dong-won and Kim Min-kyu as “Ssanip” Eddie Park. I feel like these two definitely need to be talked about together, there is definite bromance going on here, and I am here for it. They’re super geeky, but super adorable. I believe they are the “comedy relief” in the series, although later on they do have some beautiful scenes, that may or may not have made me cry, a little bit. Both single, hardworking professors in robotics, they have their own little quirks they have “input” into Aji-3, which make her more human, and make these two so sweet and cute.
Secondary Characters:
Um Hyo-sup as Doctor Oh. Min-kyu doctor who has been treating him for the last 15 years, trying to help control and eventually, hopefully beat the allergy. He also seems quite close to Min-kyu.
Kim Ha-kyun [ko] as Butler Sung. Min-kyu butler and well at the beginning of the show, if you don’t accept the robot hoover as a friend, his companion and friend.
Seo Dong-won [ko] as Jo Jin-bae. Ji-ahs brother and I am not 100% sure what he does, but he also works for Min-kyu and seems important to him.
Lee Min-ji as Sun-hye. Ji-ahs best friend and she owns a coffee shop where the Santa Maria team starts to spend a lot of time at. May also be a romantic interest to some of the characters.
Yoon So-mi as Hong-ju. Jin-baes wife, Ji-ahs best friend from school and is currently heavily pregnant.
Lee Han-seo [ko] as Jo Dong-hyun (8 years old). Jin-bae and Hong-ju’s wife, Ji-ahs adorable and very perceptive niece. Also suffers with some allergies, although not as severe as human allergy.
President of KM financial, the company Min-Kyu is director of. He is the father of the CEO of the company Yoo-chul, whom was also the best friend of Min-kyu growing up. in think the families all would have been close growing up. As with all dramas, he isn’t happy with what he has and inevitably wants more.
KM groups CEO, childhood best friend of Min-Kyu. He doesn’t look like a bad guy, and I get the feeling he doesn’t want to be part of the bad guy team, but you never know in a Kdrama, they can surprise you. You will have to watch to find out. Surprisingly, he is a second male lead so will he get the girl??
Founder of the KM group. Father to Re-il, Min-Kyu’s childhood friend, crush and first love. He looks like he could be a bad guy, but seems to get along with Min-Kyu from the beginning.
Re-il is the second leading lady. She is Min-kyus first love, childhood friend and crush and was best friends with both Min-Kyu and Yoo-chul growing up. Second leading ladies often get brushed with the scary, angry, jealous characteristics, but I don’t want to believe she is like this. Again, you will have to watch it to find out. She doesn’t look bad, but as with everything, you never know.
In the end.
Don’t worry I am not about to spoil the ending for you. I think this series is well worth a watch even if you’re not into k-dramas as its a really lovely storyline. It takes a little to accept the robot side of things, and to dispel reality for a bit and accept that anyone would be lonely enough to believe the decidedly human attributes Ji-ah brings to AJi-3 are in fact a robot, but if you can get past this, and accept it all. It is a truly beautiful, romantic and wonderful story. Its all about the characters for me and the chemistry they bring. All the characters in this drama bring something new and different and I absolutely loved following all their little stories, and that is why this is a good drama. the business side of the story, doesn’t really do it for me, but its tolerable when you get to see the excitement, happiness and chemistry between the characters. Especially the two lead characters, their chemistry and relationship is truly wonderful. I love the actors playing the leads and to see them act together is beautiful.
How he ever believed she was a robot though? Really?
I hope you give this drama, or any drama a go. You will probably lose sleep as it is a common side affect of getting into Kdramas, that you will inevitably try to fit whole series into one night of viewing or you will try to talk yourself into thinking you can fit two more hour ling episodes into the next half an hour and still wake up at 7am to go to work. But k-dramas are just a really enjoyable way to spend some spare time.
5/5 finger hearts
I am giving it 5 finger hearts because its a really cute drama and the leads make it even more compelling viewing! They are definitely one of OTP’s!
Enjoy! Drop your comments below, have you watched I’m not a Robot? what’s your thoughts? Any recommendations?
Heart and Seoul 