Don't You ... Forget About Me: Episode 2

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At the left of the image, a poster for the Taiwanese drama Mars, with a man and a woman's face at the top, above Chinese characters, and below that, the same man and woman depicted on a motorbike. The center image is a poster for the Korean Drama Coffee Prince and shows the core cast in cafe uniforms sitting on or leaning against a bar. The third image shows a man standing in an alleyway in Japan outside his restaurant. From the Japanese drama Midnight Diner.

Continuing a nostalgic look back at OLD OST tracks from various KDramas, CDramas, JDramas and TWDramas I've watched that were all released prior to 2010. This episode covers 2005-2006. Again, the Dramas are listed below grouped by year of release and sorted by the order in which I viewed them.

2005

It Started With A Kiss
A poster for the Taiwanese drama It Started With A Kiss showing the female lead and the male lead appearing to stand behind a reddish pink fence. The female lead is holding her tongue against her lip and pointing over the fence at other characters from the drama who are standing against the fence.  

The third Taiwanese Drama in this collection & second with (Ariel) Lin Yi Chen as lead and singer A remake of  JDrama Itazura Na Kiss, I VERY MUCH  prefer this to the KDrama remake Mischievous Kiss, largely because of the  amazing chemistry between "Ariel and Joe"  - very close friends IRL 20+ years now, they sell this iffy/regressive story in a way MK didn't. That Cheng never used his pregnant partner's ribs for kickboxing practice (which the ML actor in the KDrama version is alleged to have done) is another point of difference in its favour .
 

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I watched the outstanding  Korean Drama My Name is Kim Sam Soon so long ago that it was still called that, the literal English translation of its straightforward Korean name, as shown in the image above. I absolutely LOVED it, but have to confess that none of the OST really stuck. This track is a lot of fun though, and if it prompts anyone to check out a truly excellent classic Drama,  with its strong theme of female empowerment, then yay me! 

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2006

Goong

For the Korean drama Goong, at the left of the image, the title of the drama in Korean and Roman characters superimposed over a seal of the sort used to make an impression in wax. Next to that, the four core cast members. The second female lead in a pink dress. Next to her, the male lead dressed in military uniform and holding a wine glass. Next to him, the female lead in a white dress also holding a wine glass. And next to her, the second male lead in a different style ceremonial military uniform.

I started Goong one week after my first ever KDrama, way back in May 2013. It was the start of my Yoon Eun Hye kick, and I loved it then. In an interview she gave  years later she said  she couldn't watch it without laughing at her performance. I watched it twice that first year, but when I tried again in 2024, the Male lead's abusively tsundere character was too cruel for too long and I gave up in episode  21 of 24 when he was STILL a bully. Great OST though, and PROPER kisses. Also,  Ju Ji Hoon NOW compared to then is 😍🤤 

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 The Vineyard Man 

Poster for the Korean drama The Vineyard Man showing a woman standing behind a man with her arm around him. He is wearing a white t-shirt and a checked shirt and in the bottom left of the image a silhouette of the couple beneath the words The Vineyard Man.

I watched KDrama The Vineyard Man straight after Goong, as part of my campaign to try to watch EVERY Drama and movie Yoon Eun Hye  had filmed up to that point. I succeeded in that quest, but  I did not especially enjoy this particular Drama, it was a bit too "Neanderthal farmhand schools vapid urban princess" for my taste. At 5.5/10 it's the only Drama in this collection I scored less than 6, but it made the cut because of this song. It is very unusual in my experience, I can't think of any other KDrama OSTs I've heard that were reggae.
 

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What's Up, Fox?

Poster for the Korean drama What's Up Fox. Above the title of the drama a couple both dressed in white lying together on a bed underneath a duvet.

The first noona-dongsaeng romance I watched, this one is highly regarded, if not widely known. It has a reputation for being less clichéd than many such Dramas. My own recall of it is vague, except that it is surprisingly candid and thus more realistic than was the norm at the time. It also ends strongly, with a fitting finale that now reminds me of TWDrama My Queen. The theme song is pleasant, too
 
 

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 Tokyo Juliet

the core cast of the Taiwanese drama Tokyo Juliet, a middle aged man and woman, and next to them a young woman and young man, the two lead characters. At the bottom of the image the name of the Drama in Chinese characters
 
#TWDrama Tokyo Juliet was another slightly odd one in my opinion, that I watched only for (Ariel) Lin Yi Chen as female lead. Lots of pain and sadness for her character.  It's another Drama she also sang for, and while the Drama was essentially as tragic as its Shakespearian namesake, the title of this sweet little number sung by early 20s Yi Chen to her ML costar could be sung by early 40s  Yi Chen to her brand new (at time of writing) son.
 

 
Two down, two to go. The next riveting instalment, featuring a truly iconic KDrama romcom,  can be found here.




EPISODE 1
EPISODE 3
EPISODE 4

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