Hello and welcome to Hallyu Reviews!  You already met Sabrina!  Now you get to meet me, your second writer and host of Hallyu Reviews, Shamra.  I am a 35-year-old mother of 2 kids, I have a master’s degree in Math, but above all I am an avid lover of all things multicultural.  I have always had an appreciation for people.  As a schoolteacher, you come across many different types of people, and I truly believe that everyone has the right to learn. I learned Spanish very early on in middle school and high school.  Oddly enough though, it was those annoying Facebook video ads that made me begin my love of Korean culture.

I was bored scrolling through Facebook and watching my various “time fillers” - you know, those videos you watch when you are super bored and have nothing else really going on.  It was during summer vacation, and the tagline was something about “I can’t believe he said this…”  It got the best of my nosy brain and I clicked it to watch.  Welcome to my first ever K-drama!  I watched the clip and Jang Hyuk filled my screen with his ridiculous hair and amazing acting and I was hooked.  I had to know more about the story and what happened.  “Fated to Love You,” was my first K-drama and it did not disappoint.  It was passionate, funny, tragic, and filled with the rollercoaster that I have come to love from my dramas.  I remember sitting on my phone watching it, reading the subtitles and being so engrossed that as soon as it ended, I watched it again.  The emotion from that show made me cry, feel joy, and experience pain.  It felt real to me, something I was missing in American television, and I wanted to watch more.  I didn’t even know what it was called at that time, but I remember thinking, “that was seriously amazing.” 

Later that same year, I met up with my sorority sisters at a wine festival and was telling them about my crazy recent discovery of K-dramas, when my friend Catie said she watched them too!  YAY!  I had met a friend!  I was not alone in the world, because in my little town of Virginia, it sure felt like it.  It was through my friend Catie that I learned about “Goblin: The Lonely and Great God,” and once you see Gong Yoo, it really is a done deal.  I realized Korean men are really very attractive and so I bring to you my appreciation for the finer things in life - Korean men.  In the future months Catie and I both picked various shows and would watch them together through Netflix or Viki each week to stay connected through the COVID quarantine.  We would talk about foods we would eventually want to try and other life topics that went on while we watched.  It was a way to stay connected.

It was during the COVID quarantine that I was conversing with Sabrina and shared with her my love of Korean and various shows that I had watched and loved!  I have a habit to be passionate about things when I talk and through that passion, I think I encouraged her to try something new and different, because she joined the Korean drama train shortly after.  Yay!  I have another friend!  One of the topics we discussed in our Korean driven conversations was the Korean language.  We both believed that something was lacking and missing in translation between the translations provided through Netflix and Viki (which I assured her was a must have for Korean dramas), so we set out to learn to speak Korean.  I am proud to say that we are both still working on that goal.  Hangul, the Korean alphabet, and the Korean language, in my opinion, can be quite difficult to master because of the different sounds the constants can make based on the speaker and the word.  Personally, I think reading it is easier than speaking it.  I can decipher what I read much faster than when someone is talking to me.

Through the appreciation of K-dramas and their original soundtracks (or OSTs), I found a quote that says, “even if you don’t understand the language, you can still love the music.”  I have never felt that to be truer in my life than now.  It was through the amazing soundtrack of “Kill Me Heal Me,” (it only has 4 songs, but they are amazing, trust me) that I was then introduced to Bigbang on YouTube as a “you might like.”  I listened to one song, and I was hooked.  I needed to hear more.  Never have I been so driven to listen to music, really learn the lyrics, and have the appreciation for the words.  I started wanting to know all about the band, the members, the background, the history, all of it.  I did not understand the lyrics but the rhythm and the beats and the passion called to me.  I listened to them so much that I made a playlist just for them on Pandora, which then played other artists, such as EXO, Monsta X, NCT, and of course BTS.  I began to love all Korean sounds.  Their rhythms, their sounds, their melodies are so different, and each band has something about them that makes them unique.  Did I mention I also like hot Korean men? (I’m just saying).  I will mention the music in my reviews, because I think good music makes a great show.

Sabrina loves BTS, I love Bigbang. It symbolizes our differences in dramas too.  I do not mind the dirty, scary, and in your face dramas, while Sabrina really does prefer the romance, happiness, and hope. I loved “Flower of Evil’ however, it was not her cup of tea.  In all seriousness though, in my reviews I will bring wit, sarcasm, and some truth to various situations through what I hope is a different perspective or appreciation.  Sabrina is dedicated to the relationships and the research, while I tend to be more passionate about the story.  Now, don’t get me wrong, that is not to say that research is not important, and research will still be included with my reviews, but the focus of my reviews is how the K-dramas (and eventually K-pop reactions on our YouTube channel!) make you feel, and where is the passion?  I prefer story lines that make you think and give you a feeling of “what in the world just happened?”  My top 5 K-dramas are “Healer;” “Kill Me, Heal Me;” “Flower of Evil;” “Goblin: The Lonely and Great God;” and “Scarlet Heart Ryeo.”  The story lines all have a WOW factor, the relationships are passionate, everlasting, and the music from the OSTs is amazing!

Welcome to Hallyu Reviews! I hope you enjoy the ride.  Up next, our first K-drama review, “Descendants of the Sun.”  We look forward to seeing you back again!!