#cha seungwon

[quarter-lif3crisis]

Mercy For None | 2025

[thebullandhiscalf]

When you realize Devil King is literally the monster parents tell stories about to their children at night as a warning, and he really just out there trying to get his family back and being overly dramatic.

[randomkpoplove]

왜이래?

[just-some-other-reviews]

So, this is probably going to be the messiest review I’ll do in a while, mostly because I completely gave up on writing notes on this drama, so I fully rely on my memory to talk about it.

Hwayugi is a supernatural romance. Based on a Journey to the West. In 2017, Son Oh Gong, the monkey, and Ma Wang, the bull, are in constant conflict since Oh Gong has been freed of the five elements mountain by a young girl, Jin SeonMi, 25 years ago. As he tries to gather points to return to his status of diety, he gets to encounter her again, but things have changed. Jin SeonMi is now Sam Jang and manages to get Son Oh Gong under her control so he would protect her.

As always, I tried to put the less spoilers it was humanely possible, but some might have escaped me so stay careful as you read.

As many, I was really hyped by the two first episodes that were just stunning. I was eager to see how the drama would unfold so I waited until the episodes resumed after the initial contreversy - long story short there was an accident on set probably because people were careless and tried to work too fast (not the one injuried, but the ones who directed him). I was blown away by the original images and the drama stayed pretty good aftermath. Each character had its own use, the story progressed nicely, everything seemed to go in a direction, but... I’ll be honest. I have a problem with this drama. Maybe it was because I wanted it so badly to be the new Goblin (it shared a few similarities with this drama in how the plot went) that my expectations were a little bit too high for the actual produce.

My first problem with this drama was that the story always played against Jin Seo-Mi and the story who was originally about her became about Son Oh Gong. I mean, the plot should have turned around how the bad-ass Sam Jang manages to save the world, but most of the story revolved around how Son Oh Gong managed to save the demoiselle in distress.

My second problem with this drama was the romance. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded it if it wasn’t that quick and that annoying because of all the back and forth because the characters just couldn’t decide themselves and ask the right questions or be honest with each other.

My fourth problem was that around the middle, things started to get a little bit boring. The pace started to drag a little bit, and the situations kept on repeating themselves. Like in all the cases, Sam Jang was always in danger because she was really stupid and trying to do everything all alone. And in all the cases she was put the sleep, the woman alwyas was like “oh, Son Oh Gong is going to love me” and bla bla bla. These cases should have been fun and awesome, but... I felt like a lot weren’t because of how repeatitive they were. Personally, I’ll say that the main arc of the plot wasn’t really interesting to me.

My fifth problem was just the last few episodes who weren’t that good. Like the ending was just a mess for the main story. And my sixth and last problem was how poor some special effects were. I mean like... Honestly... If you were going to scrap a drama, do it correctly, don’t hype the viewers by giving two flawless first episodes. As many said, I think it would have been wiser if they had pre-produced the drama rather than filming it while it was on-air - where they too insecure about their plot to pre-poduce it?

But, so far I’ve only talked about the main story. There are two other stories in parallel, which would be the one of Ma Wang and of BuJa.  Ma Wang story problaby wasn’t the best, but compared to the main story it was gold. It had feels in it and a relatively good and heartwarming ending. Also, I did believe it had more depth than the main story, probably because it was a past and developing story. Then BuJa... The story was good, but I wasn’t happy with its ending. But among the stories it was the cutest. For the overall drama, I would say that the start was good, the middle okay and the ending quite bad. The pace, as the drama progressed, started to drag and even if the progression contained a lot of foreshadowing (which made it a bit predictable, but foreshadowing is a good thing because it gives you the impression that you’ll be able to solve the ending before the drama takes an end) but it was kind of boring. I don’t really want to talk about the ending, but... Damn... It was so cliché. I would have preferred it to be a sad ending than an ambiguous one.

There are three characters that I found principale in this drama. There would be our two leads (whose actors did a really good job considering how cliché those characters are) and my - new found - favorite character, Ma Wang. Son Oh Gong was the usual “bad guy” with a short temper, but that got really sweet once he fell in love, even though he always wanted to look cold in front of his woman because... Because he’s probably a bit stupid... Sam Jang or Jin Seon Mi was the usual demoiselle in distress that started as a strong and bad-ass female lead. I liked her duality at first, how she grew up controlling her fear but always hoping for that fairy to pop out and protect her even though she knew that once he betrayed her, he would always be the loser who broke his promise. But as the drama progressed the part of her that was reckless and always wished to be helped out was put forward. I do believe that the best moment for this character was whenever Son Oh Gong was out of the picture and she could take decision on her own regarding her own fate. For Ma Wang... I started not really knowing what to think about this character, but as his story unfolded, I started liking him more and more. He was slightly complex. He never said what he thought, but always looked after everyone around him making sure that none of them would get hurt. He always felt bad whenever something was happening. He was like the Grim Reaper in Goblin and that’s probably why I loved him so much. He was always against Son Oh Gong, but he was probably his best friend and the only one with which the monkey became a slightly complex character. Also, his interactions with the other characters were the cutest. For the side characters, there was BuJa who was my favorite character until she suddenly died out of nowhere and was replaced by a character I didn’t really care about (I didn’t hate her nor did I like her, I was just a bit indifferent towards her. She was a pitiful being, that’s pretty much all.), P.K. who was an adorable being and I shipped him and BuJa so badly, and I think the last character I would consider as important enough to be mentionned would either be Yoon DaeSik, Ma JiYoung or Lee HanJoo who were three different characters but were really similar. They were all followers for the main characters. DaeSik was Son Oh Gong’s loyal follower, Ma JiYoung, Ma Wang’s loyal dog. And Lee HanJoo was Ji SeoMi’s colleague. Overall, the characters had a small evolution. It was more obvious for some characters, but in all the case it was quite usual. I wasn’t really satisfied with the characters development, but I think that the way the plot was turned played a big role in confining those characters in their cliché, which annoyed me a little bit.

Before concluding, I just want to say that if you don’t you the shop owner’s grandson is One, a rapper who debuted not too long ago under YG. I do personally like his songs, but his album is quite pricey for the moment (it has two full-length songs on it and one instrumental and costs about 10 USD), but please support him in his music and acting career. He looks like a sweetheart and is talented. Well, you know, I can’t judge how good one’s acting is, but I do believe that he didn’t do too bad considering it was his first role.

So, I’ll conclude here. The plot woud be worth a 7.5/10 mostly because of its first part that was good. The characters would be a 2.5/5 mostly because of Ma Wang and some side characters. The tearjerker factor would be like a 1.5/5.

[multifandom-hoes]

Daily Texts || Cha SeungWon

[fyeahkoreanphotoshoots]

Cha Seung Won - Elle Magazine November Issue ‘17

[sincerelywithheartt]

Teaser #2 of Hwayugi (aka A Korean Odyssey) with Lee Seung Gi

Teaser #2 of Hwayugi (aka A Korean Odyssey) with Cha Seung Won

Teaser #2 of Hwayugi (aka A Korean Odyssey) with Oh Yeon So

[ericmun]

171008 Na Youngsuk PD: "Shinhwa’s Eric didn't want to do 'Three Meals a Day' at first... I had to try hard to persuade him"

Na Youngsuk PD revealed the stories regarding casting.

September 30th, in an interview with Taiwan's SETN when Na PD visited Taipei to attend Taiwan’s 52nd Golden Bell Awards, he revealed how he cast Cha Seungwon and Eric for 'Three Meals a Day'.

Na PD said “Cha Seungwon did not really hesitate. He was a lot more talkative than I thought he would be when I had a talk with him”. Na PD had relatively an easy time casting him as “Cha Seungwon gladly agreed when I told him he would be a good fit for 'Three Meals a Day'.”

Eric was very hesitant with appearing on 'Three Meals a Day'. Na said "He told me it's too much for him but I visited and persuaded him many times." He also added his casting know-how "I said this many times. 'You can do whatever you want. There won't be anything you will be forced to do'. I think this really encourages them to think 'I should try'."

In response to the question if he wanted to take on another genre, Na answered "Not right now but when I get really old I would like to try documentaries. I would like to film anything I want like in documentaries instead of having celebrities on camera."

Na PD attended the 52nd Taiwan Golden Bell Awards at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall on September 30th. Many Taiwanese celebrities attended as well as actor Janghyuk.

Source: TV Report Translation: EricMun.tumblr