Afterthoughts : Hotel Del Luna (Second Lead Syndrome)

 

I am a bit late to the party, admittedly. Hotel Del Luna became a big drama when it was released in 2019 and here I am watching it years later. HAS KDQ, of course, watched the drama long before I did but in typical HAS Shanea fashion, I rebel to watch anything that is recommended to me because of reasons unknown. So here I am years later watching the drama and loving it, obviously. But there's something that bothers me. I have some severe second lead syndrome(*) for Go Chung Myung. 

(*) Reason for putting the star is because I'm unsure whether I can really consider him the second lead or the first lead. If you've ever watched the drama, you'll know that the drama primarily focuses around the fact that Man Wol loved Chung Myung and his betrayal in killing her people caused all of the events leading to her being chained to Hotel Del Luna. So technically he would be considered the first lead and Chan Sung would more likely be the second lead. But for simplification purposes and the fact that Chan Sung IS in fact the lead male in the drama, I'm going to say Second Lead Syndrome counts. 

Throughout the drama we are lead to believe he's a terrible person who turned on the girl who loved him and killed Yeon Woo. But slowly over time through Chan Sung's dreams  we see that he didn't have "much" of a choice in the slaying of her people and made a promise to Yeon Woo that he would save her.. So in the end we are basically just pitying poor Chung Myung for being in a terrible situation while still loving Chan Sung and no other guy can compare. 

While I agree with Chan Sung and Man Wol being together 100%, I can't help but wish things had been different for Chung Myung. I wish he had not stuck around for over 1,000 years waiting to be forgiven by Man Wol (though if he hadn't and had been reincarnated she for sure would have killed him). I personally believe he deserved so much more than he got. Yes, he still did terrible things and he still had many sins to atone for. But he was not this monster that we originally thought he was and I just wish things had gone better for him. 

Or maybe at least had just been able to be reincarnated and we can see him living a happy life. All we got to see was him going to the afterlife and it broke my heart that we didn't get to see any kind of happiness at all from other than just being happy Man Wol forgave him. He had a pretty crap ending to his real life and then had to stick around for over a thousand years watching the woman he loves despise him and being a bad person because of her hatred. I just felt like he deserved more and wish we could have seen him happy like Lee Mi Ra and Park Young Soo. 

Beautiful drama and I'm not saying it should have ended any other way. Just simply wished more for the poor guy and hoped he could be as happy as he deserved. 

Also, RIP Sulli. Literally cried ugly tears because I didn't know she was in this drama. Miss her beautiful presence in this world. 

Turning PSY into PNation

 HEY TO ALL MY HOPPERS OUT THERE!! It's been a very long time since I was last here. Got Married had a baby the full life experience, but ya'll didn't come here to read all about my life. You came here for the Hip Hop. 

I could go back and talk all about what's happening in the Hip hop world today, but honestly I just really want to talk about my favorite things to happen in a while.

That's right PNATION. The one and only PSY's record label! I was so excited when he branched out and started his own label. The only thing that excites me even more is the SIGNEES! I'm going to make this into a series and we will talk about all of them one by one because they are all stars and deserve their own post! First we are going to talk about the man himself Mr. Park Jae-sang. 

When I first started writing for HAS I wasn't going to write about PSY mainly because I thought there was a lot of information already and it was just to easy to find yourself. I don't want this post either to be a facts quote about everything he has done, but I did want to post about what I like most about this artist. 

We all know that PSY is a legend, but I think what I love most about him is he isn't afraid to be him and you see that in the artist he chose to sign. PSY has always been a controversial artist and he's always pushed what people perceived as "normal." So many people, including the Korean government, have told him he can not do certain things, but he does them anyway. And I just have to respect that. He's not afraid to think outside of the box and fight what he thinks is right. He's okay with "pushing the norm," and lest be honest his videos are funny and a little bit on the troll side. 

PSY's "GANGNAM STYLE" pretty much broke the internet when it was released back on July 15, 2012, still today has over 4 BILLION views, and ranks at number 3 of most watched music videos on YouTube of all times. 

That being said I think my favorite song of his is probably New Face or Hangover where he features the goat Snoop Dogg himself.

It's just exciting for me to see him in action. I'm in the middle of watching his LOUD show where JYP and him fight to see who can build the better NEXT rookie boy group. Kind of reminds me of the one JYP did with YG. On his wall in one episode there is a quote that I just love it says "Art cannot be criticized because every mistake is a new creation." He states in this episode that he wants to help them make their creations come to life, not just make his own.  I knew that I liked him as a person before but this show really brings out more of what he hopes to accomplish with his new(ish) label and I just love it. He has even been quoted in saying "I will create a playground for the passionate players who are willing to sweat for their dreams!! ^^". 

With a reputation like PSY's it's only fitting that he have the crew he has. He's opened so may doors for artist like him and I know there is more to come. I'm interested to see who else he signs and honestly I hope he brings some "dead" people back to life. 

IF YOU WATCHED SQUID GAME, READ THIS! (read it even if you haven't 🤣)

If you are a living breathing person with access to the internet, then by now you should have watched AT LEAST one of the Korean movies/dramas that is out right now. 

Train to Busan? Parasite? Squid Game? 

If you are reading this right now and HAVE NOT watched any of these, I demand that you stop right now, go out and find them, watch them all and then come back. We will wait....trust me it's worth it! 

Oh hi, welcome back! Did you watch them? Pretty darn good huh? Now let me tell you something GREAT! There are thousands more awesome and amazing Korean dramas out there!! It doesn't stop with these! You can find these dramas on Netflix. Just search "Korean" and they will come up. Zombies, blood and guts not your thing? That's OK! There are action dramas, thriller dramas, funny dramas, sappy dramas and very very sad dramas. Something for everyone!! Also there is this great app out there called 'Viki" that is great for Korean dramas/movies. 

There is a whole world of greatly written material out there that you are missing out on! So, go on and grab your popcorn, your sweetie or just your remote and get to watching something GREAT! You can come back and thank me later!! 

HAS KDQ

HAS Returns (maybe?)

After coming to the realization that there are still people out there that for some reason like us and want to follow us, we have decided we will TRY to start HAS back up. Being over 2 years since our last post, that might prove to be difficult since it's been awhile and we aren't use to this anymore. 

I have no idea where you all keep coming from, but in recent months we have been getting a couple likes a week on our HAS Facebook page and that's been very odd since again we haven't written in over 2 years and haven't done anything substantial with our Facebook page either. I haven't even done a lyric video in well over a year. We all kind of just... fell off. 

Some of us started families, some of us went to college(and didn't finish and fell into depression), and some just fell out of the Korean entertainment world until we just all kind of stopped writing and gave up. 

As I started this blog in 2012, you can see how Kpop has changed. So many groups have come and gone and our favorites no longer exist but as a memory as some of the artists are solo or just act now or just left the industry completely. Everyone grew up and moved on and we couldn't keep up with the waves of new age groups coming and going. Our favorites such as Big Bang, SNSD, Super Junior, and those age groups have all grown up into successful humans who are starting families or getting married. A bittersweet goodbye to them as we loved them so much and cling to the joy they gave us from their music and personalities (so much so we would make a whole blog dedicated just to writing about them and their impact on our lives), but also, being so happy to see them succeed and grow and be amazing humans who bring so much to the world. 

New Kpop doesn't sound the same and when we fell off the grid from the Korean world, catching up with the new kpop trends seemed impossible and was just not the same. 

Dramas have been something we always enjoy. Not nearly as much as we use to as again we all have our different obstacles in life and life is just.... busy. And hard. Don't forget hard. So we watch one every now and then and it reminds us of how much we love them but also pangs in the heart of days that were so much easier and life wasn't AS hard or busy. 

In 2022, HAS KDQ and I made the decision that we are (and I stress) we are going to TRY to write more and at least give these new groups and their music a chance and go from there. Every now and then some groups or songs catch our eyes and ears. For me personally, girl groups have really flourished and I'm thankful for that. We will see where this goes and if anyone cares to go on this ride with us.

As always, with love, Shanea. 

Afterthoughts: Melting Me Softly

So this is my first drama back after literally my last drama I watched being half of 'What's Wrong with Secretary Kim'. Side note: loved that drama, just couldn't handle finishing it. 

I was scrolling through Viki and was looking to start a drama. Which has been a pretty hard task for me since I just couldn't bring myself to watch them. I purposefully picked this one because I didn't have high expectations for it. Hear me out. 

The Viki description is as follows:

'Go Mi Ran (Won Jin Ah) is a young jobseeker who is told she will be given around US$ 4,200 if she takes part in a cryogenic freezing program. She is told that she will be frozen for just 24 hours and then leave with her money.

Also being frozen is Ma Dong Chan (Ji Chang Wook), a popular entertainment TV producer who is cold as ice when it comes to working – but tends to get hot and passionate when it comes to affairs of the heart.

But instead of waking up a day later, the duo awakes from cryogenic slumber to find they have slept through 20 years. All the people Mi Ran and Dong Chan once knew have aged by 20 years, but their own bodies and memories have not changed at all.

Life 20 years in the future is not easy – and things are made harder for the duo when they discover that should their body temperatures rise above 33 degrees Celsius, they will die.

When Mi Ran and Dong Chan begin developing feelings for each other, temperatures start to rise…spawning all sorts of dramatic consequences.

Will the duo fight back the heat of a potentially fatal romance? And will they discover the mysterious reason why they were frozen for two decades – and the role of the enigmatic Dr. Hwang, the shady figure behind the freezing project?'

Which to some people is probably like OMG SO INTERESTING. But I was kinda like okay this isn't normally my thing. I don't usually like these kind of dramas. But it had Ji Chang Wook in it. His dramas are top notch so I figured that would help and it would be a good drama to start back on. GOOD IDEA. Best idea I've had in awhile. I'll tell you why.

In my honest opinion, the drama isn't AMAZING. Would I ever rewatch it? Probably not. Did I like it? Sure. If rating I would give it about a 6 or 7 out of 10. It was not bad. It just... felt really long. 

So the drama isn't SUPER emotional. You aren't going to cry your eyes out for hours like you would with 'Goblin' or something.. But it's enough to make your eyes leak. 

One of the things I'm most thankful for in this drama is the fact that the second lead female wasn't actually evil. She wasn't this cold hearted super bitch. She actually was relatable.. and sad. Very sad. Sometimes... or.... alot of times. The super evil second lead female gets overplayed and I just get tired of it. So had she been evil the whole drama, I might have given up on it. 

The first few episodes I was not feeling it. Still. I was live-texting Bunny the whole time like ''okay this is not terrible but like i don't know if i like it'' type of texts. But after the first few episodes it was okay. And thankfully no main or even really supporting cast died because it's what I expected and I was dreading that also. It was very hard to get into, but I kept watching and eventually liked it so i stuck with it. 

Now, the drama SEVERELY LACKS romance. It's like not there. This is mostly because that's how the story line makes it. They're temperature rises for everything that makes their heart race so too much intimacy was not allowed. The first kiss in this drama actually pissed me off. I was left staring at the screen like 'wtf just happened'. She kissed him because she thought she was going to die and wanted to kiss someone before she died but this came out of scenic nowhere... and I was so confused and actually frustrated and irritated with her character (which seems to be quite a common occurrence in this drama).

The ONLY actual kiss scene in the whole drama was amazing. But that is the ONLY ONE. Not even after they are cured and they COULD kiss, did they. 

Which also gave so little closure to something that was so built up for so long throughout the drama.  Okay after looking at youtube there was a small kiss in the attic but like they had to cut it short because hello lets not die. 

So that's pretty frustrating. 

And then the ending. The final episode. Matched the rest of the drama and drug out. She's frozen again. In a coma. This type of stuff.
30 minutes before the drama is over, she's almost dying again. 15 minutes before the end, she woke up but is saying shes gonna go abroad and study..... The WORST. Now it changed and they both left and did world tour youtubing. Great. But like.....  we got a total of 8 approximate minutes of happiness and that was suppose to end a dramas worth of suffering and anguish. Didn't happen. 

All in all the drama is pretty good. Like it's interesting if you give it a chance and the cast was AMAZING but the script was something that could have been SO MUCH BETTER. There were hilarious times and there were times when my eyes leaked, but again. 6 or 7 out of 10 rating. You should watch it.

Life

Hello, everyone. HAS Shanea back from about a 2 year hiatus. At this point in life, I'll never promise that I will come out with new content or start on new exciting adventures or do anything, for that matter. Life has gotten a bit tough and as much as I would love to say 'I'M BACK, HERE'S HAS' FUTURE', life is just so unpredictable and to be honest I am just now getting back into Korean things. 

So I'll give some updates because why not? 

1. I moved from my small town in Mississippi to Minneapolis, MN to attend the University of Minnesota. Asian Languages and Literatures major. Focus in Korean (of course). And it was amazing. Seriously the opportunity of a lifetime and it was the most amazing experience. But I've had so many life problems pop up since I've been here, I've had to give this up. Financial being the biggest part.

2. Me and my boyfriend moved in together and got a cat. 

She's the cutest and the sweetest little piece of garbage. (I say that lovingly)

3. And this one is kind of a shocker. I fell out of the Korean world. Not because I didn't like it anymore. Trust, that's definitely not it. I was studying it. Life got really rough and if we are honest it's still pretty rough. So I just became overwhelmed with other things and fell into a huge depression and it's almost like this depression rejected anything that brought me joy. I'm still struggling with this. It's really hard for me to find my way out of the whole I've gone into but I'm trying. I definitely couldn't watch dramas. Oh no. Not possible. Too emotional. And again, rejecting them.

4. I finally saw DAY6 in concert. We won't talk about the fact that I had a huge anxiety attack and had to leave early. But in case you didn't know, KARD and DAY6 are my top groups.

5. I am still sick. Still battling my lung issues. Still in and out of the doctor. Thankfully in the past 2 years, I've only been admitted to the hospital once. Thank God for Minnesota having better healthcare options so i can see doctors whenever i need to. Which is usually weekly. 

6. Bunny hates on me because I never watch the videos she sends and never remember to text her back in timely manner. LOL

So life has been pretty hectic. Heck, I don't even know half of the groups out anymore dude. I just watched 'Melting Me Softly' and everyone in the Viki comments is like GOLDEN CHILD OMGGGGG GOLDEN CHILDDDD because apparently a member is in the drama and I was over here like ....who the heck is that... and I still need to look them up and listen to their music because I'm just awful.

I wanted to write and share that life is difficult sometimes, ya know? I feel it. Everyday. But I'm trying to force myself to do the things I enjoy. So I felt I needed to write on here because this blog gave me so much joy for so long. It's been 8 years this year since I started it. 

Oh, I did manage to upload new lyric videos to Youtube. I got so excited and was like IM GONNA DO A MILLION OF THESE. and I think i mustered up 2. LOL 




All in good time. 

Stay happy and healthy, friends.

-HAS Shanea Feb 11 2020

KDQ'S Billboard Top 10 ~ 10/13/18

Hey Hey HEEEYYYY all of our HAS fans!  Long time no see huh?  It's been a rough year for the HAS group.  If you haven't checked our Facebook page for the update,  here in the link (you should like and follow the page while you are there *wink*) 

Where Did We Go?

Now back to today's blog.  I am going to try... And I mean REALLY REALLY try to keep this up every week.  I am doing this from my phone as I no longer have a laptop (DEDICATION!) so please bear (bear? bare?) with me! 

TOP 10 FROM BILLBOARD 100 KOREA

10/13/18

10

Fall In Fall - Vibe

9 

Idol - BTS

8

 Every Day Every Moment - Paul Kim 

7

Love ing - Ben

6

Way Back Home - Shaun

5

Goodbye - Punch

4

Siren - Sumni

3

The Hardest Part - Roy Kim

2

Goodbye Road - Ikon

1

The Has Never Been A Day I Haven't Loved You - Im Chang Jung

Now.... Usually I comment something about each video but since this is the first time I am doing this,  I just got to the point but I will give my opinion about a few things.  

1. I only know 1 song from this list and you guessed it,  its BTS.  Now I know most of these groups/singers but not any of these songs.  How sad is that? 

2. IKONs song is new to the list.  

3. Why do they not just have a kpop list?  I get it,  these are still classified as kpop but.... Are they really? 

Anyway,  I hope you enjoyed this weeks Top 10.  Check back next week to see if your favorite song/artist made it to the top 10!