KBS drama Blood's conflicting posters

Upcoming KBS vampire-drama Blood starring Goo Hye-sun and new It Boy Ahn Jae-hyun just released a number of posters ahead of its premiere. The drama is set to air in a week's time, on February 16, following the end of current hit series Healer.

The cute poster above features the leads sipping out of a blood bag, given that Ahn Jae-hyun's character is a vampire under the guise of a doctor. This poster is staggeringly not what I expected given the drama's previously released teaser (as below). All that pink and the cutesy pose is what I would have been expecting from a vampire rom-com, not a vampire medical suspense drama. Needless to say, I found the poster a bit, um, jarring?

However, along with the first poster, the production released two more posters that features not just the two main leads but our main baddie as well, Ji Jin-hee. Now, these following posters are more along the lines of what I was expecting. Dark, gritty, bloody. I guess we can surmise that beyond the drama's blood and suspense holds a charming love story? One can hope.

After seeing Goo Hye-sun in Angel Eyes, I trust her growth as an actress and I believe she can pull this role off. No one can possibly be worried about Ji Jin-hee either. Ahn Jae-hyun, on the other hand, is a different story. While I love the man myself, mostly I just think he's so gorgeous that he seems otherworldly. He was effective enough in his tiny role in You From Another Star, the drama that launched his acting career and propelled him to It Boy status. He wasn't so bad in his minor role in You're All Surrounded as well. But if he's strong enough to pull off a lead role, when this is only his third drama ever, still remains to be seen. I hope he is.

Whether I will be tuning in to this drama is yet to be seen. I currently still have a lot on my plate and I've just started on more. I'm certainly grasping at time here; trying to squeeze in as much watching, reading, working, and sleeping into my days as I can.

Pending people's feedback and the general concensus of kdrama addicts the world over, maybe I might be convinced to marathon the show when it's run is about to end, if it's good enough. Much like what I'm doing with Healer right now, I suppose.

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Wrapping Up: You From Another Star

WAAAHHHH. You From Another Star finally came to a close. I'm just glad it ended on a happy note with hope for our OTP's future together.

From the onset, I was worried about how they were going to close a story like this one. Let's be honest, kdramas are not the best at explaining away mechanics of alternate universes or finding ways around fate in a believable and satisfying way (i.e. Rooftop Prince). So while You From Another Star left much to be desired in terms of explaining how Do Min-joon was able to travel back or if he got sick after that awesome kiss, I'm happy they had at least given us emotional closure, if not scientific or mythological closure.

This drama sure took us for a ride, in the most enjoyable way possible. The writing found the perfect balance of sweet, heart wrenching, and hilarious which resulted in well-rounded episodes. I truly appreciated how a lot of the heavier episodes were undercut by adorable and hilarious scenes that made dilemmas easier to bear. A lot of times, in kdramas, the latter third of a series would suddenly veer into melo territory because that's when all the conflicts are laid out on the table (or worse, they were given an extension they couldn't handle). I'm glad this drama was able to steer clear of this hurdle to serve us what it initially promised.

Somehow, I'm always pleasantly surprised by the dramas that sound wonky on paper but end up doing really well in execution. Just like I Hear Your Voice (courtroom drama/noona romance/supernatural powers) and Master's Sun (rom-com/horror/supernatural powers), two of my favorite dramas of 2013, You From Another Star (alien romance/noona romance/comedy/timeskip drama) sounds just as insane on paper, but squishing together three or four different genres apparently make for an amazing narrative. Ha.

As awesome as the story was, that does not take away from the fact that this drama had awesome leads. I've loved Kim Soo-hyun from the first time I saw him cry on Dream High. He is one of the best criers in kdramaland, seriously. Whenever I see him tearing up on screen, it feels like someone's digging into my chest to retrieve my heart. He is also fantastic with visual comedy, as is apparent in his last film Secretly Greatly (or Covertly Grandly, whichever title you want to call it). Both of these skills were put to great use in this drama.

 On the other hand, I did not have expectations of Jeon Ji-hyun because, to be honest, I haven't seen her in anything aside from My Sassy Girl which was over a decade ago. All I knew was that she was pretty awesome and awesomely pretty in that film. And in You From Another Star, she's proved that she is indeed both those things. I don't think the character of Cheon Song-yi would've worked quite as well with a lesser actress. It would've been too easy to play her wrong and to make her come off as irritating rather than endearing.

A happy surprise, as well, comes in the form of model-actor Ahn Jae-hyun, whose only previous credential is possibly a huge bunch of music videos. One in particular that I know him from is K.Will's "Please Don't" which he starred in alongside Seo In-guk. I have no idea what they're feeding these models nowadays, but a lot of today's up-and-coming young actors are off of Seoul's runways and fashion spreads. In the same vein as Lee Jong-suk, Sung Joon, and Kim Woo-bin, I can see Ahn Jae-hyun going the distance with his acting career. He was utterly adorable and believable in his hyung-worshiping (and E.T. fanboy) role that it took me awhile to digest the fact that he is actually older than Kim Soo-hyun.

So it's with a happy sigh that I leave this drama behind (or not quite behind, I think I will be re-watching the last two episodes all weekend long). As a last note, you know what would've made the finale even more awesome than it already was? To have been able to witness the reunions between Do Min-joon and Lawyer Jang and Yoon-jae. Can you imagine how sweet and adorable those events would've been?

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Ahn Jae-hyun just slays me!

Dropping a quick blog entry because I've been rolling on the floor laughing over the perfection of the E.T. joke on You From Another Star. I should've expected it to happen, but I didn't and thus was slapping my thighs as I obnoxiously laughed out loud at the scene. Repeatedly.

So, apparently, Elliott has found his E.T. Isn't that just the cutest?! Ahn Jae-hyun has been sooo perfect in this role so far and he's totally selling the teenage geek role despite the fact that he's older and taller than Kim Soo-hyun. And when he called him "uri Min-joon hyung," I just about died.

Looking forward to more projects from him. But in the meantime, off to watch that E.T. scene again. Ack. Min-joon, phone home!

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