Never Give Up

In Sarasota one can visit the Ringling Estate which is located on grounds of stunning beauty and some of the area's most magnificent Banyan trees. The Ringling Mansion is on the grounds as well. It's a magnificent mix of grandeur and whimsy. It had fallen into such disarray that the movie, Great Expectations (Deniro, Paltrow, Hawke), was filmed there ~ it was the most dilapidated mansion they could find where two people could conceivably still live. That prompted the city, county, and state to restore the place. They did a fabulous job. The mansion was originally completed in 1926. Mable, (Mrs. Ringling), died in 1929 and John Ringling in 1936. They hardly got to enjoy it! They had no children. The government owns what they had, now.

That's the cannibalistic society in which we live. There's mansions like Ringling's all over the place. Some have been restored, others are just abandoned. NO ONE took ANYTHING with them. Ringling made his money through hard work, passion, and vision, and most of what he owned went to the state. In NGU, Madam Money (Park Won Sook from Chief Inspector-1971 & Miracle, Dear My Friends) made her fortune through loan sharking, which is seedier than the circus. She focused on money most of her life. Now she's alone. She's sitting in a big, beautiful mansion surrounded by treasures, yet she's miserable.

Goo "Pil" Soo and Nam Seong "Mi", Pil's wife, are pretty miserable, too. They can't afford the rent and they're about to be homeless. Poor people believe that money will make them happy. Rich people know that isn't true. Having enough, but not too much, being content and not letting greed take over, are the 🔑🗝🔑🗝.

As the show opens, we follow a couple different parties. One is Pil's family. They are trying to give their son, Jun Pyo (who is very bright), every advantage, but they are on the brink of going under. We're also following 3 young men - app developers. They need financing for their startup.

NGU is a 2022 release that is rated 87 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 70-minute episodes. It's warm and enjoyable the whole way through. It stays simple and never tries to be lofty. That's the secret to a happy life.

App developers Seok and Minjae have opposite focuses (foci?). Minjae wants to create an app for the top 1% and "sell desire." Minjae wants them to focus on Golden Cupid. Seok wants to bring neighbors together; his passion is Nextdoor, eh, /Neighbor24/ I mean. Yoon Doo Joon (Let's Eat) portrays Jung "Seok". He & his buds created the Neighbor24 app. They're trying to raise funding. Seok wants to do something for the regular folk.

Kwak Do Won (Ghost, The Wailing-8.8) plays Pil. He's no chicken🐔comb (that good-for-nothing worthless frill on top of a chicken's head). Pil runs a 🐔 joint (You Crave Fried Chicken Now. It's Seoul-lickin good!). He cleans the floor with leftover Soju! That brought on a 😅. His partner in crime is his former coach, Noh Il Dam (Kim Young Woong from Happiness & Vincenzo-7.9. His first credit is from 2000) Pil makes fabulous 🍗, but his son is still embarrassed of him. Slinging chicken is hard! There's never enough money. Now the landlord is kicking them out. The value of their apartment has skyrocketed but the law only allows a 5% increase in rent per year. "Move out when your lease is over," the landlord says. Han Go Eun (Love and Ambition, Me Too, Flower!) is Mi. Life is exhausting, but her son keeps her going. She's a stunner. Back in the day, Pil won her with his fighting 🥋 prowess, but her old college friend is in town. He's handsome, manly, and wealthy enough to buy the penthouse where the rich people live. At one point, Mi is looking at her old friend and it seems like they might kiss. The moment goes on for a long time as her eyelids flutter but no words are spoken. The acting in that scene took my breath away. Jung Dong Won (Mr. Trot: The Movie, New Normal) plays their son, Koo Jun Pyo. This actor has a singing voice like an angel. Jun Pyo got into a great school, where the privileged kids go, but he has to study every waking moment to keep up.

Seok eats at Pil's. Other than the fact that one likes the other's 🍗, Pil & Seok didn't hit it off. Seok critiqued one of Pil's new recipes by informing Pil that his ingredients, when combined, are toxic. Pil had no right to take offense, but he just couldn't help it. Then, Seok got completely sloshed after visiting his father in jail. He threw up all over Pil, one night, and then forgot to pay the bill - the dashing Seok turned into the dine-and-dashing Seok.

Jung Da Eun (Justice High, Café Minamdang) portrays web designer Oh Seul "Ki". I was sensing Crazy, Stupid, Love vibes and thought she would turn out to be Pil & wife's older daughter (she's even a martial artist), but that's not the case. Like father, like son. Jun Pyo is talking to / on the verge of officially dating an official hottie. Kim Ji Young (Do You Want to Eat?, Cha Ta Gong In) portrays Jo Anna, an aspiring Kpop girl group singer. She recognizes Jun Pyo's singing talent. Kim Ha Eon appears in ep7 as a 10 year old son of an alcoholic. He's getting lots of work. I've seen him in May I Help You-6.3, Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7, & Oh My Baby-6.7, and he's been in mega hits like Mouse and S2 of Missing & Sweet Home-8.4. The director is Choi Do-Hoon from Eccentric! Chef Moon, and there are two writers: Son Geun-Joo penned Backstreet Rookie-6.4 and Lee Hae-Ri wrote Under the Gun.

At the end of ep1 we see a potential, albeit thin, connection between our two groups. Seok is running from creditors. His father's partner ran off and the company went under. Dad's in jail and creditors are harassing Seok ~ Madam Money included. His dad owes her 700M. Just after dad explains how scary she is, we see Pil rescue her from purse snatchers. She invites him to live at her place - yes, bring the fam. As ep1 concludes, we hear: "Back then we had no idea what kind of events were waiting for us in this mansion."

As Pil & family are getting ready to move in, Seok is getting ready to move out. There's seizure tags on all of his possessions. It's even worse than he thought: Minjae has betrayed him😨. One of their potential investors, VC Genie, turned them down but poached Minjae (Jung Jae Kwang from The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call) out from under them. What hurts most was losing his friend. Like father, like son. Seok's father's in jail, but it was his partner that stole everything and fled. Seok wants to rescue his dad's company and find the true criminal. He approaches Madam Money to ask for more time and an investment in his new app. He ends up moving into her house too, much to Pil & Mi's unease. NOW they're connected. Seok keeps running into Ki. They become friends, even though Ki is working for Golden Cupid, Minjae's new company. Things are turning ugly, and Ki is monitoring her boss's dastardly actions. Golden Cupid ganked Seok's tech, filed a proprietary patent on it, and then had Neighbor24 shut down. They're playing hardball. They're worse criminals than the loan shark! Ki actually got the two executives on tape admitting as much when she was walking around practicing v-logging. She'll have to decide if her job, or her new friendship with Seok, is more important.

Towards midshow things coalesce into what they will be: Their landlady is a loan shark. She's nearing the end of her life and seems tired of it all. She has some items that were given to her as collateral that aren't worth anything to her, but to the original owners these items are priceless. A chef relinquished a knife that had been passed down through generations of family chefs. She wants Pil to find his son. Naturally, when they're trying to find someone for a loan shark, the people 🏃🏃🚴🏇🏃💨 skedaddle. So this job is difficult, but with Seok's help, Pil gets the job done. Then their land-shark-lady gives them three other jobs to do. Pil and Seok are bonding, but Pil isn't tending to his restaurant at this time. A new chicken joint opened up a couple blocks away to great fanfare (and free unlimited beer) so he doesn't have customers anyway. He's painfully concerned about his marriage but he must secure their living situation before anything else.

The plot gets involved, I'm leaving lots out. One funny bit is the rappers. Anna has Jun Pyo at the studio with her. The producers see his talent and want to develop it. He's supposed to spend all of his time studying, so this will be a problem. (Studying is NOT living, Anna tells him. It's already a problem.) While this is going on, Seok, with help from Pil, opens a memory lounge on his app. They do a big write up of the 2002 World MLS⚽ Cup win. Mi's brother posts a pic of Pil celebrating with underwear on his head ~ it goes 🌐viral🌐. The rappers & music producers love it and decide to start a "most embarrassing picture" contest on the Neighbor24 app. The app explodes, The restaurant explodes! Now, selling chicken is easy. Jun Pyo's situation comes to a head. His mother is terrified to let him depart from the established path. But he's miserable. These parents must stop and reevaluate their priorities, their lives, and their relationship with their precious child.

This is a show about friendship and family, but web designer Oh Seul Ki & Seok provide us with romance. They're quite cute together. They let some things go by the wayside, slightly. Ep16 is a soft landing and wrap up. Overall, NGU is a warm interlude with a message of hope and love. Remember, keep it simple and We-the-People will never be that thankful, so do your giving while you're living!

IMHO〰🖍

📣7.7 📝7.4 🎭8 💓6 🦋5 🎨6 🎵/🔊6 🔚🤗6.5 ▪ 🌞7⚡4.5 😅4 😭3 😱3 😯3 🤢2 🤔5 💤0

Age 11+ it's pretty clean and tame with a simple but warm message Rated: 15+

Re-📺? Even money

FAMILY FUN

Reply 1988-8.6, Racket Boys-8.3, Mine-8, Call It Love-8.4, SKY Castle-9, Mother-8.8.

I watched five eps of this series and the premise was so ridiculous to begin with that it never really recovered from the implausibility of the storyline. An elderly lady loan shark who wanted to give her collaterals back to their owners.

By some silly implausible means a chicken bar owner and his family move into her palatial house - but she doesn't move out - the family are forbidden to go to the basement. A little later a young man also moves in - he is a failed entrepreneur who wants to make his app a start up business.

The elderly lady wants both men to track down the owners of the collateral and give them back. There is the usual threat to his chicken business by different competitors moving into his area - and his wife meets an old admirer. I could not maintain any interest in the boring plot - especially when some singer or other had to get in on the act. This happens a lot in Kdramas - actors who just have to be given a singing spot - usually in "let's go to a karaoke bar" incidents.

When I fell asleep for the third time I recognised defeat.

I gave up.

Just gave this one a shot. When I started the series there were no IMDB ratings. This is one of those shows that gets better and better each episode. The lead character is beautiful . He's funny and isn't afraid to embarrass himself. He's full of love and generosity. Just a person you want to be friends with. The plot and sub plots are all truly entertaining but it's the theme I love the most. It's about caring for others. This is a special show. Very funny, heartfelt, and inspiring . I gave it a 10 because it deserves to be an 8.5. Right now it's at 7.6 which is fine but the cast of actors are tremendous. Some nice twists , some action, crime, even the son does a couple of cool Korean hip hop tunes. Overall it's great ! I can't see anyone not thoroughly enjoying this series. A great find on Netflix. Just watch it and you'll see.

It had a pretty normal start with introducing the story and the characters, nothing about it peaked my interest. The story itself was too safe and tame, they didn't attempt any challenging situation even in a comedic setting. The comedy was a hit or miss, some parties were genuinely unfunny and cringe while others like Pil Soo and his one-liners were keeping it alive with a decent dynamic and comedy. Speaking of cringe, there were a handful of kids and everything related to them was painfully cringe, even with their poorly attempted satire and parody. These parts were just too bad. It kept this momentum throughout its entire runtime.

One cannot tell by the generic title that this is an entertaining, inspiring, warmhearted series about the hero's love for fellow humans, friends and family. It is also about perseverance, forgiveness and redemption. For me, it is an engrossing series to binge watch. I like Yoon Doo Joon from the "Let's Eat" series and he does a good job here too. He is a fine actor. I am not familiar with the main lead, Kwak Do Won but I am now a fan as he portrays very well a character who while experiencing adversity in life is still filled with exuberance. There is also a teen romance with all its angst. The other casts members were equally wonderful!