From the Vault: Scent of A Woman Review

I found my folder of k-drama reviews on my Google Drive and I want to start a series of past writings, reviews etc. that I may have never posted anywhere. For your entertainment and my nostalgia. I can laugh at myself and I hope you can laugh with me.

Yeon Jae is getting past marriageable age and facing the life of a spinster, her hair is always a mess, and she wears gigantic glasses, hiding the fact that she’s actually pretty-she just doesn’t have the time to be.  Her boss is mean and pushes her around, even when she tries her hardest and does everything in order to not get fired, her fellow co-workers are mean to her too, and it’s the last blow when she finds out she has cancer.

Finally Yeon Jae, in a sudden rage, quits her job, and gives her resignation letter that she wrote out five years ago to her boss. 

Ji Wook is the director of the company Yeon Jae works for, and the president is his dad.  He doesn’t care really about anything, has a “life is horrible even though I’m dirt rich” sort of attitude.  He’s arranged to marry the daughter of a big company, but has no feelings for her whatsoever, and she is the same. When Yeon Jae sees him coming out of his fancy sports car, she’s gaped mouth and wide-eyed, and through a series of fortunate events, ends up meeting Ji Wook when he mistakes her for his tour guide and they have a wonderful cheesy time until Ji Wook’s fiance shows up on their trip, and then Yeon Jae goes and tangos with an old man sadly.

Once Yeon Jae returns home from her trip, she has a bucket list, and wants to learn to tango, so she signs up for a class, and Ji Wook follows her there and they end up dancing together and with a sudden passion figure out their feelings for one another! 

Tangoing it up

The Doctor treating Yeon Jae for her cancer, is also one of her longtime friends, and it’s so dead obvious he likes her, but Yeon Jae cries in every episode, and it just gets annoying. MAN UP WOMAN! I really want the Doctor to end up with that happy patient…who has more emotion than all three of the main characters combined.

Now, I started off liking this drama, but then I started to get annoyed, like, what is holding the two main characters back from getting together? Why are they making it so freaking difficult? Maybe because Ji Wook is dumb, or maybe Yeon Jae is too pathetic. Sure, you have cancer, but the fact that you selfishly started a relationship with Ji Wook when you knew you had cancer but didn’t tell him is low.  Go cry in a corner…wait, you already did.

I know a lot of people thought this drama was amazing and heartfelt, but honestly, no.

And I’m not kidding, at least Big (which I didn’t finish also) had a twisted plot, even if the ending did suck. This is all trivial.  Every facial expression is the same, and when they show any other emotion (which is usually tears), it’s just so hideous.

Oh yeah, and so they realize their feelings for one another, and Ji Wook breaks off his engagement, and then they have some more happy times, but then they break up, and then Ji Wook finds out about Yeon Jae’s health predicament and then he’s angry and she is crying and then he cries and gets drunk and she cries some more.

And from the vibes I’m getting, she probably will die from dried-out tear glands. [I would like to point out that I was using the word “vibes” before it was cool].

But anyway, that is what I’ve got so far, and it’s not much.  The Doctor and Yeon Jae are tangoing together for his charity ball thing and Ji Wook is eventually going to come back to Yeon Jae, he just is a baby and is mad at her for not telling him in the beginning, which is a valid reason to be mad.

Now, if I decide to pick this up again at episode 11, I will…but right now, I’m pretty into Gu Family Book and anything else is just stupid until then. 

🙂

I looked high and low to find out how this drama ends without actually watching it, but to no avail. I guess we will just have to live wondering if they tangoed off into the sunset together and if Yeon Jae was cured of her cancer.

21 Songs.


These songs are pretty significant because they were once on constant repeat as I went about life at one point or another. Some I haven’t listened to in a while, but I still have nostalgia when I listen to them. It’s strange how songs can bring about certain smells or insignificant memories. Hurricane by Parachute (and honestly the entire album) reminds of me of fall and Salvation by Gabriella Aplin reminds me of the winter months my first year at my community college. Pictures Of You and Your Hand In Mine reminds me of the marathons of Friday Night Lights and Robin Hood. Butterfly by BTS is a shout out to all things Korean, but this song was probably the first one I heard that didn’t require a music video to watch with it because it’s beautiful by itself. Breathe Me by Sia reminds me of all things Jane Austen and don’t ask me why certain songs associate with such random memories, but they do and for that I love them. Stop and Stare by OneRepublic was my theme song when I started college and had to return to my old high school job. No One by Aly & AJ is a shout out to the Ice Princess and Princess Diaries and yes, I still listen to it on my playlist. Demons by Imagine Dragons was in a trailer for some really awful movie that was not good at all and I couldn’t stop listening to it afterwards. The trailer was better then the movie.

  1. Salvation by Gabriella Aplin
  2. Demons by Imagine Dragons
  3. All This Time by OneRepublic
  4. High Hopes by Kodaline
  5. Say It Now by The Afters
  6. Hunger by Ross Copperman
  7. Your Hand In Mine by Explosions In The Sky
  8. No One by Aly & AJ
  9. Breathe Me by Sia
  10. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
  11. Come Back When You Can by Barcelona
  12. Hurricane by Parachute
  13. Find My Way Back by Eric Arjes
  14. Ships In The Night by Mat Kearney
  15. Staring At It by SafetySuit
  16. Pictures Of You by The Last Goodnight
  17. Butterfly by BTS
  18. Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me by Hunter Hayes
  19. When I Was Younger by Liz Lawrence
  20. Stop And Stare by OneRepublic
  21. Chariots by Jacob Lee

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” – Maya Angelou

My Running Man Obsession

Here I go again.  In all honesty, I was getting a little tired of writing about my life, trials and turmoil.  As much as I love to talk serious, I really need to lighten the mood on this here little corner of mine.  So what better way to do that with another obsession post?!

Who loves variety shows?  No, no.  Not the American variety shows.  I’m talking about my favorite asian population, the Koreans! I’m a die hard American, don’t get me wrong.  But when it comes to entertainment, I can’t help but go to my favorite variety show of all time…*dundundun* Running Man!!! For some good, clean laughter.

Where do I begin?

The format of the show is seven members taking part in a series of missions to become the winner of the race, sometimes paired into teams and with special celebrity guests.  The most notable mission played on the show is the name tag elimination game, in which each member and guest has a name tag on their back which can be torn off by the chaser(s).  But it’s not just the games that make it fun to watch, it’s the members and the guests interacting with each other.

So here is some of the very many reasons why you should be as obsessed with this show as I am (well, I don’t know if you can reach my level of obsession but you can certainly try).

#1. Monday Couple

The first time Monday Couple was introduced was in episode 10 and the writers just kept going with it from then onwards.  Even though Monday Couple has been put on the back burner in recent episodes, you can always count on Kang Gary to make an embarrassing comment or two toward Ji Hyo.

#2. The Betrayers Club

If these three (Kwang Soo, Haha, & Suk Jin) aren’t betraying the other cast members together, they usually are betraying alone.  Episode 146 was long in coming.

#3. Giraffe/Framer Kwang-soo/Prince of Asia

This is from episode 141, but you can always count of Kwang-soo to do something outrageously stupid and hilarious in each episode.

#4. Peaceful Gary/Random Mr. Capable/Sudden Commander

https://youtu.be/yG5awbM0HaI

I’m just going to leave that up there.

#5. Running Man Olympics

All of the Running Man Olympic specials are the best.  You get to see all the idols battling it out against the cast members on various missions with a lot of hilarity in the mix.  Episodes 104, 129, 175, 184 are all of the Olympic episodes that I know of.

#6. When THIS episode happened…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzfiBxnRMg&ab_channel=TriffanyTan

#7. I can’t forget to mention the first episode I ever watched.

Episode 120 with Lee Seung Gi.  It was purely accidental…I was going through a Lee Seung Gi obsession after watching King 2 Hearts (best drama ever by the way!), and came across this gem.

#8. The Easy Brothers

So yeah, basically, I really like Running Man. It’s one of those shows that’s an instant cheer up after a bad day 🙂 Although there are many other reasons to watch and love this variety show, these are just a few reasons to make you curious 😉  I realize that I left out some very important cast members, but I’ll let you discover them on your own. Some other episodes I recommend: Episode 18 (Titanic Love Boat), episode 28 (Workout Karaoke), episode 137 (The Princesses & The Fools), episode 140 (The Rage Virus), episode 242 (Running Man Worldwide), and of course all the other episodes are funny as well!

Look forward to more obsessions posts to come!

Oh, and just another thing *cough* this board right here is preeeeeeetttty cool (made by yours truly. HEY, it took FOREVER to find all those pins)  –> Korean Obsession

~ Trudi