Happy Friday Beanies!

It has been a long time since I last watched a Korean drama with my sister. We are watching The King: Eternal PPL together every weekend, and it made me realize how hard it is to watch dramas with other people. On one hand, it's fun to have someone who squeals with me whenever Woo Doo-hwan is on screen, on the other hand, I can't abuse the fast forward button whenever I get bored because my sister is trying to understand the show. The last time we watched a series together was in 2015 and I actually felt liberated when we decided to watch dramas separately, as my tastes in dramas began to change as I entered college and I started to become annoyed about our schedules not matching anymore. Watching dramas separately made me start and appreciate both ongoing and completed dramas, and thanks to that I was able to discover some gems (aka dramas my sister will never watch because she doesn't know the leads), namely Misaeng and Healer.

But my kdrama watching experience as a kid was also fun thanks to my sister. I remember buying illegal DVDs with her back in 2009 😂 because we really wanted to watch a drama that isn't dubbed in Filipino. We had to pay half a dollar each to watch Secret Garden, as well as Heartstrings (with the most awful subs ever) and other dramas back then. Our mornings would start with watching dramas and we would even watch them until it is past our bedtime. I never thought watching The King would bring back happy childhood memories and a solid sisterhood dedicated to WDH.

My friend told me about an ace chatting app. I'm having fun exploring it.

Where Your Eyes Linger On episode 3. Watched the first two without subs. Watched episode 1 twice so far. It is so perfect, I'm internally screaming. The episodes are short but pack a punch.
The King On episode 5. I'm excited for her to go with him to Kingdom of Corea.
Oh, My Baby On episode 3. Still just thriller to have Nara eonnie back on my screen.
King is Not Easy On episode 13. I just started this drama Tuesday. Am I actually binging?
My Girlfriend's Boyfriend On episode 3. Havent watched since Monday
The Brightest Star in the Sky On episode 7. Haven't watched since Sunday or Monday. I thought it was 6 episodes for some reason. I was surprised by it being 40 odd. The leads are fine. Go Zitao! But the story and side characters is weak.
Hyung Second watch. It cracked me up and made me sad.

I'm still working through EXO media. I've listened to all Exo-K music, their Japanese album, Suho solo, Xiumin solo, Lay solo, Baekhyun solo, EXO-SC, watched a Kris movie, a Chanyeol movie and started a Tao drama

I thought I'd be released back to work after my psych leave today, but there was miscommunication in the office. Maybe next week!

Initial thought on Mystic Pop-Up Bar: a heavy dose of Hotel de Luna with a small side dish of Pegasus Market vibe.

Hot summer. Hot hot summer.

Little Boy - 315k - 375k . keep it up.

Summer - same as 2019. no AC no Fan
1 litre water per day. 1000calroeis per day.
I'm no batter than any other poor human being struggling. Naah Its blatant suffering.
At least i can brag that i have experienced all of it and that's for more than 15 months. You play stupid games and you win stupid prizes.
At such young age i've suffers,faced, experienced so much and seen extreme of so many sides that i have lost too many feels.

But there is a catch here - You don't need to experience everything to have a view or to have to relate with someone or come up with the most basic excuse "yeah, i can understand".

I dislike this narrative of "i can feel your pain, i can understand you, i can see what your are goin through". Its mostly fake. Basic makeup kit of facemasks.

Then comes congratulations, consoles, and all greetings. Too much in the makeup kit.

Ahh it's my baby Han Seowoo! Chae Soobin! As the open thread foto! Getting the attention she deserves!

Yay!

Uh, I really didn't have anything else to say. Happy Friday!

Hi Everyone and Happy Weekend! To our Muslim Beanies, Happy Aidil Fitri and Eid Mubarak! (I hope I got it right!) 😬 😁

I'm only watching "The King :EM" and enjoying the heck out of it by playing the game of deciphering clues and making both wild and calculated guesses as to plot details. I'm not a particular fan of LMH, but he has exceeded expectation in this show. Therefore I'm a fan of the character he is playing. It will be interesting to watch how the last 6 episodes manage or do not manage to wrap up the complicated possibilities that show has opened up. A steady flow of info on the logic of the magic would be nice about now, but I can still manage on my crazy speculations! LOL.

Hello all:
I hope everyone is doing well. We've jumped from winter right into summer. A trend in NY. Spring is now made up of a lot of summer days. Not much happening except me trying to finish a few stories and a few books, and trying to lose weight. Hopefully, all the garden produce will help me to become a healthy eater who hydrates with tons of cucumber, watermelon, and tomatoes. We shall see.
Dramas:
Born Again -- The writer of this drama had better show us where all the wicked folks surrounding our heroes came from. If i don't get a back history on the squicky writer and her murderous daughter, i'm going to get annoyed. After all, if three people are dealing with karmic issues, shouldn't the folks around them also be dealing with it as well? Or does destiny only concern itself with lovers? It'll be a truly silly creative game to have absolutely no previous-life stories of everyone in this collective of gray and shady people. And speaking of shades of gray, has there ever been such an unbelievably pure white as snow character as our heroine?

Good Casting -- I am slowly (no, quickly) losing patience with this. It just keeps losing my interest more and more.

King Maker: Changer of Destinies -- Looks good so far but that was the most twisty, thorny convoluted way of making a shaman's daughter also be a princess that i have ever seen. Writer-nim, you could've done better.

Old School Intern - This is good but i so wish the kdrama habit of overplotting and over-complicating stories would ease up.

Mystic Pop-up Bar -- I'm loving this so much. This has heart, humor, mystery, supernatural stuff, and good-ole kdrama forgiveness and redemption arc. Everyone so far is doing such a great job at depicting their characters.

I have to get back to Extracurricular when i can deal with the stress. Most everything else i've dropped. Rugal is just so silly to me.

Chinese Dramas

Winter Begonia --BL drama done well although i still feel there is some kind of attraction between these two guys. I love Shang Xirui. He is so petulant. I have two favorite characters this season. Weirdly, they are both seriously annoying. But i love them because they are so emotional, and passionate. Their emotions rule them. One of them is the righteous cop out to protect his fated love from a serial killer. Yep, one of the reasons i keep watching Born Again. He is rude, vaguely unethical if he's out to get the criminal, and a total dick. The other is just plain petty. And that is Shang Xirui. He's very self-righteous and an artist, and he will mess up performances simply to get back at someone who wronged him. Apparently, i'm in love with petulant righteous characters who resist bending the knee to anyone.
I love the tagline for this drama:
"Do you know what a confidant is?"
"I Know. I have been listening to you all this time."
Anyway, best line of the morning:
Hero respected business man trying to convince Opera singer to run away...

I miss A Piece of Your Mind 😭

The Jenga Game with The King Eternal Monarch's casting was fun to watch. They really like to tease each other :p

Making up wacky theories and hanging out at the The King's comment threads has been keeping me happily entertained.
Also, yesterday I started watching Oh my baby on a whim and it's so cute and relatable! I totally understand Hari and Jang Nara is the cutest bean with a core of steel in the world - ok, her and Chae Soobin. And Go Joon in this... Go Swoon!
Finished Signal and loved it so much that I went after more work by the same actors. Found couple of movies that helped to sate my sageuk /historical drought while giving me more Cho Jinwoong - Jesters - and Lee Jehoon -Anarchist in the colony. Also looked for Coin locker girl because if Kim Hyesoo (and Kim Goeun) but couldn't find it online. Does anyone know where can I find it?
Wanted to pick up Mad Dog again because of you-know-who, but Viki has retired it from my region 😒
Oh well!
Right now I'm in the mood for more easy breeze stuff and have only The King to fill up my angst quota...

Hello Beans! I hope you guys have a great weekend. I started to watch "Strangers from Hell" and "The world of married". But thats not what I want to talk about. There was an article today in Korea news about dramas that I found interested. The title is: "Young actors move to online platforms as TV producers woo bankable veterans " The paragraphs I found interest were: "Young actors and actresses in their 20s and early 30s have been losing their presence on the South Korean small screen as producers are not willing to take chances by casting new faces in marquee roles.

The fantasy romance "The King: Eternal Monarch," starring Lee Min-ho and Kim Go-eun, and the mystery drama "Born Again," starring Jang Ki-yong and Jin Se-yeon, seem to be the only two TV series led by young stars out of dozens of soap operas and shows currently on air in the country."

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!

Thursday was a holiday, so many people and I get to enjoy a four day long weekend! Real life was uneventful, so I was hoping and planning to spend this little vacation on the sofa behind my laptop screen. Inspired by the K-drama challenge on the fan walls, I was working on a shortlist to narrow down my choices for my next K-drama pick, but I had to start over every 5 minutes, because I want to watch all completed K-dramas at the same time.😅

I had my schedule figured out last week: Oh My Baby Thursday and Friday, watching with my friend on Friday and/or Saturday, and Sunday-Wednesday for 4 episodes of my completed K-drama pick. My friend and I are finishing Sassy Go Go! tonight and starting on Reply 1997 next weekend. However, due to some social (distanced) gatherings at the beginning of the week I barely had time to watch anything during the Sunday-Wednesday slot, and it seems like the next week will be even busier in general. So I figured that it would be wiser to postpone a third K-drama to manage my responsibilities a bit better. Watching 2 K-dramas a week would be more than enough. Ahem.🤭

After finishing the third Oh My Baby episode I had to amuse myself yesterday evening with a movie, because episode 4 was not available with subtitles until today. I checked if Oh My Baby was available today…and found out that Mystic Pop-up Bar and Old School Intern each had aired two episodes already! It would have been great and very convenient if I had known that yesterday evening….😈

So I hope to watch Oh My Baby episode 4 tomorrow if I do not find the time today and the rest of the weekend I will be figuring out whether I want to risk a third and fourth K-drama or not!🤣 It is nice to have K-drama dilemmas instead of real life dilemmas for once!😂

Four episodes in, I am loving Oh My Baby as it far exceeds my expectation. And Ep 4 shows the depth and potential this drama could be in not just about the dilemma faced by career women but also the eternal truth of our present is shaped by our past in both good and bad ways. There are great LOL moments but the heart tugging ones are poignantly felt.

I watch it for Jang Nara and Park Byung Eun but am pleasantly surprised by how swoony Go Joon is. And, is there anything Jang Nara can't do these days? Every role she plays are so convincingly portrayed - and no exception here. Ha-ri might just be one of the most admirable FL characters this year - together with Professor Chae Song-Hwa from Hospital Playlist.

So pleased to have Oh My Baby to fill the big void when HP finishes next week.

I just finished Ep 11 of The King. It's another WTF episode. Dont worry, no spoiler, just a rant...

The plot has more hole than my hubby fave shirt that I've been dying to throw away. The directing/ editing has got to be one of the worst I've seen in recent dramas. In fact, i wish someone would've take all the scenes that they have shoot and redo the whole editing and piecing the story in a whole different way. It won't fix the plot holes, but at least a somewhat more watchable show?

And yet I'm still watching. It's the first thing i watch on weekend. What is wrong with me??? 🙈

First week here on Dramabeans. So, where is most everyone from? USA, another country, just curious? What do you guys do besides watch Kdrama? I love cooking. I am also Asian but not Korean but all these Korean shows have me cooking Korean food.

Considering the current situation, I am in need of fluff ( along with rainbows and puppies). My current watchlist only consists of Good Casting which I am enjoying tremendously but I need more shows.

Does anyone have any recommendations? (I think I have watch most fluffy korean dramas by now so cdramas recommendations are also welcome.)

Thank you in advance!

Hi all! This week was a step closer to normal life, with the kids back at school. It was very quiet and weird at home without them.

Tried out Mystic Pop Up Bar and it seems good so far, keen for next week’s episodes.

EID MUBARAK to all of my Muslim beanies out there 💐

Well my Saturday evening intention was to watch episode 11 and 12 of TKEM....but my research paper pulled me away.

That being said, I have been watching a lot of K-Dramas, a lot at a time or a little bit at a time. I'm currently mid-way through Healer which is older I know, but very captivating! Ji Chang Wook is better here than in K2.
Man to Man was a head scratcher and it was hard to reconcile the FL as the same person who was in Mr. Sunshine.
Almost done with My Sassy Girl (also old I know) which is not half-bad.
On my list is to start Hospital Playlist and Mystic Pop-Up Bar.

But in the meantime, have to finish this paper. (And if anyone out there works in sustainable development goals and higher education, let me know!)

The King is not showing tonight. I am missing it in a weird way. I watch it week after week, even though I don't feel invested in it. But I can't not watch it. Isn't that weird? I get teary-eyed over cheesy scenes that I know are meant to make me teary-eyed. I don't get the Great Love Story, but I try not to think too much, and I just watch mindlessly - I honed this skill from Forest, and it helps a lot, really - overthinking tends to make me question everything, and once I start, I can't stop. So, I kind of vacuum my head clean of pesky thoughts, and just let LMH and his horse and his whip take over. And Lee Gon and Tae eul's fierce sweeping hugs get me every time. They are just so grandiose. Like Gone with the Wind. Rhett and Scarlett. They are so ROMANTIC. They knock the breath out of me. I do know that they are setting me up for heartbreak, and aiming to squeeze every last tear from these blinking, befuddled eyes.