WWW is so good. Its take on women dominating the workforce is fresh for kdramas. I can't remember the name but there was an American show of the same kind where women dominated the work force and men would only be as a romantic interest. Plus ISJ is kicking it out of the park. Love BTM but its just her name pronounce fully that it sounds like how koreans pronounce vitamin. The show seems to be made by keeping the Bechdel test in mind. However, I wonder how long would the work environment remain interesting. I like dramas that focus on characters life other than work better.

OTTH Ten miles of peach blossoms is what brought me out of slump. Such a great show. Still remember the buzz around it when it was aired but conveniently avoided it because other c dramas had disappointed. I'm glad this didn't, in fact it remained consistently good without me skipping a single episode. Also it helped that i didn't have to suspend my belief because this time around immortals were flying. Are there any other c dramas like this one or was this a rarity?

CRICKET -

Australia Won against West Indies. Stupid play from Indies guys. This one was pretty good match. Waiting Semifinal and final of Wimbledon

Also Nadal vs. Federer - I was expecting much more from it.

@playstore then they expect audience to watch a show which is specifically on pay channels. That was terrible display of an world event.
Cricket has lost popularity in England.
Next Ashes is the one igniting more interest among fans.

Happy weekend Beanies!

As usual I am occupied this fine Friday afternoon. The past Friday afternoons were booked for doctor visits, job exams and weekend trips, but I am pleased to spend this Friday just cleaning and doing chores in my own room. It is tempting to just be lazy and postpone it all, but after the busy month of May I need to spend this weekend sleeping and relaxing rather than doing those chores in between other activities.

The first draft of the weekend schedule predicts a one day delay of work preparations from Sunday to Monday, since next Monday is a national holiday. There is also a local fair on Father’s Day, which will be extra special, because how often can you go out on a Sunday evening? However, I am looking forward the most to Saturday tomorrow, because I have ZERO plans then! Yep, definitely an introvert. :P

Of course a Beanie always has ambitions….there are still about 50 unread Dramabeans articles and K-drama episodes waiting for me… I already bought the snacks and alcohol last weekend. Just in case. ;)

Happy weekend, everyone!
It’s my first time participating in two consecutive weeks of OT here.
I’ve been following One Spring Night, quite diligently and this week’s episodes were worth it, too.
Additionally, I watched one movie this week. I was supposed to study since the exam is getting nearer. It was SoulMate, Chinese movie. The movie won historical shared best actress awards by both of the lead actresses. It was worth giving my time. I was pleasantly surprised as the plot went on. And I want to recommend it to someone who likes sentimental melancholy story with friendship and love. The actresses were the best. Zhou Dongyu has won me twice in this movie, and in Us and Them.

Hello all:
Ah me, apparently this is the time of life where juggling is the skill we all need. I must've learned this in a kdrama somewhere but had forgotten. Well, now i remember. Am sitting here packing up our household goods but still have no houses bought or apartments rented. Not even sure if we're staying in this state. So, NYS has decided that they haven't seen my son's blood in a while. Since, ya know, it's something of a drama to get and they fear breaking his hand because the kid freaks out and fights because of needles. Hence, they have given us a sedative for him and will be coming with needle et al to our house to take blood. The struggle is real.

Dramas:

WWW -- am loving this so far. Strong, feisty heroine, business drama, noona romance, revenge-competition drama. We've had a lot of noona romances/business dramas this season. And the age of the heroine is pretty much not the main issue. So good! I like this heroine because she is tough but not feral. She's very kind-hearted except with nasty people. The romance is sweet but the male counterpart of our heroine is so perfect that he seems a bit like a wish-fulfillment figure. Waiting to see him develop an actual personality.

Perfume -- noona wacky, absurdist, giddy, fashion biz. I love our hero in this. His go-to assumptions for things are werewolf, vampire, and anything supernatural. For a phobic personality, he's prickly and fearful but so sweet.

Arthdal -- Loving this. It's hitting the main beats of prehistoric anthropology and the journey of the hero-god. Am loving that it's echoing what is happening in the modern world with all the imperialistic theft going on around the globe..while also working with the whole greed issue korean filmmakers are currently dealing with. But it's not preachy, at least so far.

Abyss -- my crack drama. Am amazed at its great plotting and unpredictability. Loving all the side characters. I want abyss back in our hero's hands.

One Spring Night -- the war has begun and Giseok is no joke. He has steel, and possibly cruelty, in him. The competition in the basketball games was foreplay to the real competition. Am hating that dentist. Love Soe-in's gameplay. I keep thinking this drama dramatizes the adage: "love is war."

Secret of My Secretary -- I hate kdrama dependence on lies and dragging out the lies and misunderstanding. But i love this drama so much and our hero is so sweet and needy, i shall soldier on.

Watching several current cdramas and My Dear Boy, an oldie.

That's about it. Have a great weekend, all.

Hi to all. It's Friday. Just posted to say that I have a poster on my wall (don't know how to get it out here) about an academic conference on kpop/kdrama in the UK in January next year. Abstracts due August. Interesting how what's our passion (secret for most for the outside world) is catching the attention of academics and scholars. All serious.

I'm apparently on a KDrama hiatus now that Her Private Life is over. There's a couple shows that looked good but I'm not sure if I'll be circling back to catch them after all. I actually forgot about Big Story after it went on hiatus for a week. I mean I was scrolling through Viki and was all "oops wait I was watching that and I thought I really liked it?"

The thing is, in life, if you don't feel passion about something you like the worst thing you can do is force yourself to keep after it. So I'll be off doing other things and maybe around more later in the summer.

Hi Everyone and Happy OT!
Over here, Aidil Fitri can last a couple of weekends, so although the actual day is past, I still wish all Muslims a Happy Aidil Fitri!

My helper went on home leave and my washing machine broke down. It's been an interesting week with family helping with selected housework, eclectic meals (which I do not actually cook) and running to the laundromat. Fortunately work was not too demanding and I still had time (read: stole time) for shows.

Angel's Last Mission: Love - Once again I find I'm drawn to shows where some young folks suffer and need to be healed, but don't know it, and they heal each other and more people even, in spite of themselves. Plus there's a pretty cute and warm romance with chemistry in spades, and a complication or 3 with one half of the OTP not fully human (yet!). So much to love!

One Spring Night - Still a good study of emotions, decisions and the various ways people respond to a dilemma or shocking news. However I'm beginning to skip watch the non-OTP scenes. When the couple is together it's all good.

I'm happily rewatching Le Coup De Foudre. It's quite a gem and a re-watch enables me to appreciate the nuances and the fact that it's pretty well written, all the parts hang together and the characters are consistent from past into present but they do grow. And I don't really think the first separation is noble idiocy because the reason for not communicating makes sense.

What I am unexpectedly appreciating about the modern Chinese shows ... they are down to earth in their dressing. It's realistic. For instance, the lead female in Put Your Head on My Shoulder, being a student, repeatedly wears the same tops and probably bottoms in multiple scenes. That's what we do in RL after all. I eye-roll scenes where poor characters end up wearing designer clothes without repeating a single piece (for eg. Legend of the Blue Sea).

Too sleepy now ... I'll be back!

I'm finally finishing off Beauty Inside, and there's this English song that plays sometimes as an OST in these latter episodes. It's brilliant, and I can't find it ANYWHERE.

Speaking of brilliant English OSTs: Bom Bam is killing me with all the Rachael Yamagata. And the lyrics go beyond typical angsty love songs.

It has been a sad week for me, I just want to let everything out.
One of my dogs passed away this monday and one of the other 2 has cancer and has no much time left. I cried like a baby for 3 days. I lost her while we were on our way to a pet hospital and I am about to lost another one. They are my babies, I don't have kids.
Tomorrow we are going away for a little vacay with the family and next week is my birthday, this trip is a birthday celebration for my sister and me but I have no mood to celebrate, Am I wrong?
I want to cheer up but I feel a hole in my heart.
I need a good drama to help me to heal, one that does not make me cry, help me beanies I know you will, I trust you.

Hi,

Today is first summer vacation for my daughter until she starts summer school in two weeks. My other two kids are still in school. Their last day is Tuesday June 18.

Novoland:Eagle Flag seem to be lots of rumors of why it did not show during this week. I do hope they air it because I was really looking forward to this drama then any other dramas.

Other than that, my hubby is on business trip doing trade show. Therefore, I am single parent until next week. I have been watching Chinese drama and Korean drama here and there. So far, some shows are ok then others. I am waiting hubby to get back to watch my favorite show The Handmaiden’s Tale. I heard the first three episodes are really good. I also have one book on Amazon Kindle that I need to read before the fourth book coming out end of this year.

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

Happy Friday fellow Beanies! Hope everyone is watching something fun!

The Secret Life of My Secretary 8.5/10 Another one I am finding super cute. I wasn't going to watch this as I am tired of the female secretary and overbearing male boss. But both characters are weirdos and I am so far liking both their characters and their interactions together immensely. I also like how naturally it has played out how and why Gal-Hee ends up cosplaying as Veronica Park. And speaking of Veronica Park, I LOVE her.

Her Private Life 8.5/10 So far I am quite enjoying this drama. I wasn't sure if I would as I don't get fangirls and even find some creepy and extreme, but they have done a good job balancing it in the show. She is definitely a huge fangirl but for the most part she keeps it on the downlow. I also get her, as when I was a teenager I was huge into anime but I kept it SUPER SECRET to the point that not even my friends knew I was into it. The relationship is cute and Ryan has loosened up and become sweet. He still has some growing to do but he is an enjoyable character and I like that he takes responsibility for his actions such as apologizing when he is in the wrong. Overall I am really enjoying this drama and hope it stays cute!

Scarlet Heart 7.5/10 I actually saw the Korean version of this first (Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo) and the Chinese version is so much better. The Korean version was so angsty and had unneeded forced drama and for some reason they went full edge-lord with Lee Joon-gi's character. The actors and characters are also much better and realistic in this Chinese version and I am ultimately enjoying this drama. Even though there is romance and love it's not really about that. It's more of a drama depicting the life of a modern woman who finds herself in the Qing dynasty and her time there (she spends 20+ years there) and her being caught between the many princes and their struggle for the throne.

Well-Intended Love 6.5/10 I was loving the first few episodes of this and then Ling Yi Zhou got super controlling and domineering and pulled some really really shady stuff to end up with Xia Lin. Thankfully she called him out on it and by the end he had fixed his overbearing ways. But the drama also had some over-the-top villains that made the drama a little ridiculous at times. It was overall ok but I did love how lovey-dovey the main couple was. They also had really good chemistry with each other.

Guardian 6/10 I was initially liking this but the drama has gotten pretty bad and it's clearly a lower budget drama. I really like the main characters and actors and their interactions with each other and the premise. But pretty much everything else is not good. The side characters aren't very good and some are so obnoxious it makes it almost unwatchable. One of the worst characters I have seen in a drama is in this one, who I call a useless piece of meat (Xiao Guo). He makes many more issues then helping and is just so so so annoying. The villain is super cliche and over-the-top. There are dramatic moments that are super contrived and easily remedied, but the drama ignores logic to progress the plot and make drama. And most of the actors aren't very good. I dropped this at about ep. 20 and probably wont finish it.

Summer heat is finally here and I'm already wishing for colder weather, and crave for some nice crime drama, I wasn't enthralled by anything new since Children of Nobody. After all discussion in Arthdal thread I finally picked up book about ancient history of Korea in hope to sort up some things, and people say dramas are empty calories entertainment ;)

Eid Mubarak to Beanies who celebrated this week! May our fasting, worship and prayers be accepted. I hope you all got to spend time feasting and partying with family and/or friends ❤️❤️❤️

TGIF! Hope everyone had good week. I am glad to see comment section is alive again for some recaps because I was sad to see so little comments for many wonderful recaps. (and the more recaps, the merrier- sad some are missed: Who else did get chills watching Kim Young-min(paster)'s acting in Rescue Me2? It surpassed Seo Ye-ji's such acting in S1) I'm the one who reads recaps diligently because there is always something I find I missed watching the show. Anyway interviews this week were still mostly about the film Parasite, but there were a few interviews from casts in Special Labor Inspector Jo Jang-poong. I checked one for Kim Dong-wook who played the lead Inspector Jo.

[OSEN,StarNews, 2019/06/02-03] Jo Jang-poong is a drama about Jo Jin-gap (Jang-poong means powerful wind), an Judo-trained physical ed. teacher who could not bear injustice in the past, and now 6th year government worker and his heroic act punishing evil business owners as labor supervisor of the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The show received rave review with realistic depiction of the workplace, and a fantasy punishment on the power-abusing employers and the authorities. It ended with highest viewership ratings among shows in same time slot. Kim Dong-wook, who got recognition in both TV and big screen through "The Guest" and "With God" last year, took the "one top lead role" for the first time with this project.

When asked how he felt now that the show ended, Kim said, "It ended up drawing a rising curve better than I thought, and the viewers responded well. I'm very satisfied because the ratings went up at the end rather than the first time we started. It would be a lie if I say I didn't feel burdened. Even though I was not stressed enough to have trouble with shooting, I was nervous but luckily, we got better response after the second or third week of broadcasting. So I think I filmed having alternation of joy and grief. Most of all, it is relief that it ended without any problem or accident."

"I was worried about the ratings on the set every time. I liked it when it came out well, and we consoled each other saying, "Let's not be sad." when it fell. I thought that we would do better after the first week of broadcasting, because some of the texts came out fun, and some scenes came out more creative than the text. So I thought we could finish with much better response than when we started."

For Kim Dong-wook, Jo Jang-poong was the first title-roll project he challenged after 15 years of acting. "It was natural that responsibility and burden I felt became bigger as it was my first one-top lead/title role. As the lead character Jo Jin-gap, this was the project that I had a lots of things to do, in addition to the large amount of screen time. So I prepared thoroughly before starting shooting and I devoted much effort so that I could keep going until the end without faltering in the middle physically." Kim continued, "If I keep thinking...

Kim Kyung-nam is another actor who had interviews for Inspector Jo Jang-poong. [OSEN, StarNews, SportsDaily, 2019.06.07] He debuted with the play "Love" in 2012, and did drama "Faith" in the same year. Since then he has been active in film and dramas and recently (in 2018) he did Come here and Hug me, and Fox Star, both of which he received the acting award for his role. In the show Jo Jang-poong,
Kim Kyung-nam, who was student of Jo Jin-gap (Kim Dong-wook) played an inquiry agency president Chun Deok-gu. He was a great assistant to Jo, showing bromance with him, and he made viewers' hearts fluttered with his romance with Mal-sook(Seol In-ah). Casts had boastful teamwork- Kim Kyung-nam said he recently went on M.T. with members, and was planning scuba diving with Kim Dong-wook. Here is Q&A session.

Q: How did you feel after the show ended?
Kim: It's been a week or so since it ended. I've been to MT this week with our team. Since we had wrap-up party and MT, now I feel it is really done. I felt so empty not seeing the people I saw daily. I always have disappointment but this was project I learned a lot so I feel good. Since my role was bigger, I felt burdened but I am thankful viewers watched favorably. It was a very good role, a role I wanted to play, and there was a lot of things to show. There was a melo, action, comedy, and bromance. I wanted to show everything, and liked it seemed to show all well.

Q: How was the atmosphere in MT(group-bonding activities)?
Kim: Actors went on 1 night 2 days trip. I suggested MT because we won't get a reward trip. It was really like college MT. I went with about 9-10 people- we played sports, games, and ate delicious things. The atmosphere was dominated by Dong-wook hyung. And among the male actors, Lee Sang-yi(played villain Chaebol son) was the youngest and he was drive force for MT. He is a very active and funny friend.

Q: This was your first lead role.
Kim: I felt so much more burdened and responsible than before. If you look at the size of the role, the frequency of the exposure increased, and since there were some parts which could hurt the drama if I didn't do well, I felt stressed. I was in the position of leading the drama along with Dong-wook hyung, and Ryu Deok-hwan hyung, so burden was huge in that part. But I felt that I just needed to focus because there were my colleagues who act together. And I felt assured because director-nim and writer-nim trusted me and cheered me on. I thought I was not alone. It is meaningful project. I could show various parts I couldn't show before, but most of all I think I remember for a long time because it was project I made with good people.

...KKN interview continues
Q: What you think you did if you did not act?
Kim: I'd done well whatever it was. I've done a lot of part-time jobs, and I tend to enjoy whenever I work. While working I thought going into business would be nice experience. I am an avid fan of Baek Jong-won's Alley Restaurant, but I find doing business is not easy as I watch more. Now I am not so keen on it.

Q: You appeared in 'Running Man'.
Kim: I felt awkward and difficult because it was my first variety. But when can I have such an experience? I can call Yoo Jae-suk hyung as hyung. And watching people I watched in TV closely in person was so fun and amazing.

Q: Do you have greed for variety?
Kim: I feel Fear first. Since the real person Kim Kyung-nam is open to the public in variety, I feel something cautious and uneasy. It seems different from doing a drama.

Q: Is there any role you want to try next?
Kim: It is not like I want to choose certain genre and I have to do certain role, but I want to try a lot with open mind because there are more roles I haven't done. As actor's greed I want to show different image, playing diverse roles. In the second half of Jo Jang-poong, there was a scene in court (Ryu) Deok-hwan hyung argued defending his client. As I watched him in the audience, lawyer role looked cool. I want to try a professional role using technical terms.

Q: What is your goal you want to achieve as an actor?
Kim: Acting is my work. I think this work might become a bit tiring and difficult someday, but it is not yet. Even when I had hardship, I thought I had to enjoy it. It is nutrient- they were something to see the light someday. I don't think there's an end to the acting. I wonder "What kind of person I would become" when I am a middle-aged actor after acting a 10-years, 20-years. My biggest goal is to do this work for a long time, and to be able to do that I think I should not be too obvious. I want to be an actor people keep being curious about. I want people to keep watching me with a fresh and happy mind.

KKN fighting! I think he is an actor who shines as much as the lead.

I'm on leave~ 3 more days before I return to work. And I'm already dreading it 😔.

It was raining almost all day - so good for the mother nature and I started to look through my patterns because I was sure I had baby booties somewhere there. Didn't find it but saw lots of interesting things, I my hedgehog eyes! So much work to do while my little one is sleeping!!! I did go to Pinterest to look for patterns and tutorials and I found other lovely ideas. So cute! There are these fish like sleeping bags, sneak head supporter for kid's head while sleeping in any seat of transportation, elephant pillows, owl door stopper, etc. So good to combine it with tutorials on youtube and life is so easy these days.

Happy weekend to everyone 😊

There is more skinship in the opening credits of the tw "Before We Get Married" than I've seen in four years of kdrama watching.

I'm not sure why I feel the need to report this.

(circuits....blown)

happy weekend all:-)
for me, best thing about the week was the premiere of WWW:Search; i absolutely loved the first two episodes and can't wait to watch more of the show. Regarding, The Secret life of My Secretary, while i'm not very keen on the lead pair, the show overall is fine and i want to watch the character of Veronica Park, she is ridiculously amazing, over the top wacky, lot of fun watching her. I'm looking forward for the next episodes of Arthal.
offline, I'm decluttering 20 years of junk (physical/material hoarding), its going slow, and emotionally draining, and most of the times i just want to hide myself by watching kdramas; nevertheless, it is what it is, and i just have to finish this work effort:-) thank you for letting me share.

I am behind so many Chinese dramas except Korean dramas. 🤷🏻‍♀️ LOL
Tomorrow night, my two kids will be at my mother in law house. Hubby and I will take our oldest son to night market near my mother in law’s house. He will go to the real night market in Vietnam in two months. I have already got appointment for him to go to travel clinic near our house.

Other than that, it has been busy and hectic as kids will be off of summer except my daughter. She will go to summer school next week for a month. My two boys will be home and hopefully help me then just be on their phone all day long. 🤦🏻‍♀️😑

Happy Friday everyone.