This is the video that started it all, or that at least gave me hope.

Little did I know that it would be this video that helped boost my desire to continue making videos about Korean dramas.

This was only the third video I shot and edited all by myself. Rick and I had always worked together on TOAD drama reviews, but not with this one. We were both home in the U.S. for the summer, but he was off traveling the country working on a documentary movie. Prior to leaving fro the U.S. he had installed editing software on my laptop and I had begun learning to edit. It’s real hard at first, and takes days to edit a single video like the ones we produce when you are first get started. There is so much to learn, but I was determined to make it happen since I was really into this new passion of reviewing dramas.

Also at this point we hadn’t actually “officially” begun making Top 5 Friday videos. I had the idea of reviewing more than one drama in a single YouTube video, but we had not decided this together. I liked the idea of including more than one drama in a list format counting down from 5, and so I tried it for the first time here. The Aug. 2012 TOAD review (this video) was the second time I tried it. If you notice, I still used the ‘TOAD’ animation and even called the video a TOAD review. This all changed after we saw how successful this video became. Eventually this was my first ever video to reach more than 10,000 views on YouTube.

Funny enough I was standing in the kitchen of my dad’s house really quickly trying to get through it. He wanted to take me to dinner, and was pestering me to hurry up as I was filming. I filmed this one as quickly as possible, and edited it the next 2 days not thinking much would come of it.

However, the Aug. 2012 season of Kdramas ended up being total break-out dramas. Who would have thought that Lee Min Ho would have been amazing as an ancient warrior general and completely carry this super-natural ‘saegook’ almost single handedly? This one had the ability to be written off because ‘Time Travel Dr. Jin’ had been released months prior. This one had basically the same plot. However, Dr. Jin bombed and was a total write-off. And Faith ended up being a hit.

You also had Arang and the Magistrate which I think was probably the best drama of the fall. It had superstar actors who did an excellent job in this melodrama. It was also really cute.

This video wasn’t anything extra special, but I find myself wanting to recreate the magic that happened that day. I filmed it at home in Pennsylvania, which now can be considered rare. If I could go back and relive that day again, I totally would. This video was also shot in the house I grew up in, and now my father doesn’t even live there anymore. And, my hair was an awesome shade of red.

I’m thankful for this video because, unlike a lot of the previous TOADs we had made, this one grew in popularity more quickly than the others. This video is basically the reason why we came up with the ‘Top 5 Friday’ idea, and the first Top 5 Friday video was officially launched in Sept. 2012 with the ‘Top 5 Sexiest Korean Male Actors’ review.

Posting Note: Even though I called this one a ‘TOAD’ review in the video, I’m classifying on the blog here as a Top 5, because I reviewed 5 dramas in this one. 😀

The Top 5 List:

5. Haeundae Lovers
4. The Thousandth Man
3. Arang and the Magistrate
2. Faith the Great Doctor
1. To The Beautiful You