In preparation for some upcoming dramas starring Kim Dong-wook, I dived into watching bits of You Are My Spring. And I discovered something - Kang Hoon was there starred as Seo Hyun-Jin's younger brother. I freaking didn't recognize him properly there, I didn't even find his face familiar during my 3rd watch of YAMS. But after watching Little Women and now TSRG, I suddenly recognized his face during my snippets watching 2 days ago. I'm very surprised I didn't place the face during The Red Sleeve.

Chosen Ilbo reported scammers who handed out drug-laced soft drinks outside crammers in Daechi-dong in southern Seoul had planned the crime for at least six months. Each bottle contained 3.3 times more methamphetamines than a typical single dose.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, a total of 10 suspects have now been implicated in the scam and seven were arrested. A red notice has been issued by Interpol for two members of a phishing ring and one associate of a drug-smuggling gang. Police said the plan was to blackmail children's parents for W100 million ($76k US) with the threat of drug tests once the kids had drunk the beverages, which they were handed as part of a fake soft-drink promotion. One 25-year-old suspect identified by his surname Gil, who prepared and distributed the drug-laced beverages, mixed methamphetamines into milk. Each drink contained 0.1 gram of methamphetamines, which is 3.3 times more than a typical hit and enough to cause physical damage including memory loss. So far, nine victims have been identified, including one parent. One youngster drank a substantial amount and suffered from side effects for a week.

I fail to see the criminal logic of dangerously drugging school kids then attempting to blackmail their parents. There was no reason to pay - - - if not paid would the scammers contact the authorities to squeal on kids they drugged? No. Instead, parents told police someone was drugging their kids. What a strange story.

weather - drizzle here - hail storm there - record rain somewhere

awesome awesome mother nature

oh yeah - April - heatwave - summer build up is high - this time around lot of uprooted trees and no electricity - this is what always is but it all depends upon heat

this place is boring for being too secure - shaking of ground isn't much of concern unless it is above 5 - no floods or no rain for years causing water shortage - the only you can expect is big thunderstorm.

This time i'm expecting big air event in Mid may to june - for that need good quality heat wave.

Yesterday got my geezercise walking 30+ minutes each way to get another Covid shot. I find it easier to motivate myself go somewhere to do something rather than just walk "for exercise".

I am still freaking mad that I can’t watch Family due to lack of proper subs.
Sigh. May be it’s time to learn some Korean 😅

Now I still waiting for new Dramabeans Would You Rather post because it should be yesterday. @daebakgrits might forget to post the new Dramabeans Would You Rather poll. I'm so excited while still waiting for the new Dramabeans Would You Rather poll this week. If not, maybe the new Dramabeans Would You Rather poll will be come out next week.

So sad this week that Moonbin of boyband Astro was gone. DYK that he played young So Yi-jung in Boys over Flowers before Astro was formed. Then, Moonbin was in 2019 Kdrama Moment at Eighteen. We will be miss him so much. :(

I wrote a few comments above about a scene that has been burned in my memory. That reminded me of other scenes that have similarly hit me in the guts full force over the years:

One is a scene in Wild Romance, when SPOILER AHEAD the fl accuses the ml of having an affair with his best friend's wife, he literally explodes trying to kill her from sheer anger. The fl is a skilled judoka and instinctively fights back throwing him down over and over, and he comes for her again every time... The scene is PERFECT in every sense. His anger, her shock at her mistake, her instinctive fight back although she is feeling ashamed, the later result in their relationship. Simply perfect.

Another one is in Go Back Couple in one of rhe later episodes, when the fl witnesses a random man breaking down from exhaustion and the unfairness of his life and his job. She is shocked when she suddenly connects his suffering to what her husband must have been going through but never let on to her. Very very well-acted and satisfying scene especially because her husband is one of my most favorite characters ever.

The scene in the baseball booths, when Seo Yul sees and falls for Yoon Ha Kyung for the first time, in Chief Kim. Perfect mood and acting.

Lookout, when she talks to him in the confession booth thinking he is the priest, and the car chase later in the show. The whole show is among my top 5 shows ever, but these 2 scenes get me every single time, even if I only think about them.

Accidental Couple, in the elevator when the ml thakes the fl's hand from the sml. The courage. The subtle anger. Hwang Jung Min is such a great actor.

Partner. When she sits down crying heartbroken on her old teacher's house stairs. And then stands up determined. Great scene.

The King 2 Hearts. His password. Telling his brother's photo: happy now? Heart. Broken.

Miss Korea, Lee Sung Min being hit by the tugs, embarrassed that Song Sun Mi is witnessing it all.

Jealousy Incarnate, when he calls her after getting his diagnosis, and she rejects his call because she is in the middle of a crisis herself. I know I'm in a minority that looks at Lee Hwashin from a completely different perspective from most beanies here, but seriously, that scene hits me with the force of a speeding Truck of Doom every time.

I was wondering if anyone knew what determined the number of episodes these days in a conventional, non-weekender kdrama? I'm not talking about open ended or entirely episodic shows, which I know can go on for years, as they have in the U.S. I also understand that just like U.S. t.v., kdramas used to be filmed as they went, allowing modifications depending on popularity and public response. (I'm just as glad that era is over, since a lot of shows I tend to like get low ratings in Korea and would not receive their full run.)

But what determines the length today--streaming or network demands, based on anticipated ratings or shows in the pipeline? Creative imperatives, based on what the writer/director believes is necessary? I notice Bora, Deborah!, a show I'm watching and kind of enjoying, is 14 episodes--what's going on there?

I am one of those who doesn't mind a 16 episode show, but who prefers the increasingly frequent 12 episode run, which for me strikes a good balance between developing the story and characters and not engaging in a great deal of repetition and filler. Its true that there are some 12 episode shows--Business Proposal leaps to mind--that end unsatisfactorily. But that's not because it needed 4 more episodes.

I will be controversial here, and say I have yet to see a 20 episode series that justifies the extra 4 hours with really essential narrative or mood-setting content, and that includes the classics of that length. In fact I dropped Our Blooming Youth, around episode 16 because its meandering overwhelmed my desire to see how it was going to turn out. My wife, who hates dropping shows, insists shes going to watch the end with or without me, which is fine, but as I pointed out to her--we are already dropping our petals. Why waste the rest of our once youthful bloom?
Anyway, that minor show aside, if anyone has insight into number of episode decisions, I'd be really interested in hearing it! Thanks!

I'm still stuck in a cycle of rewatching older Kdramas until new ones finish airing, so am a bit stagnant on that front.

On the other hand, I'm going to shamelessly plug my cousin's business in Apgujeong-dong in Seoul. For anyone in Seoul interested in fashion and style consulting, please go to visit Kang Ah-Ra's shop. I saw the featuring of it in episode 599 of Running Man last night, and if I were in Seoul, it's the kind of service I'd definitely try. It's particularly good for anyone like me who perpetually wears black for its chicness and figure-flattering elements but want to branch out to wearing colors for warm weather months.

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!

“Do not worry” I said. “I will be back by next OT” I said.😅The annoying thing about sensory overload is that it repeats itself. After 10 days I was back to decent, just in time to stress prepare for an important meeting last Monday. I got another panic attack yesterday, so any recovery that already happened this week has to start all over again this weekend. The end of next week I am packing and leaving for a weekend stay at my friend’s place, so I have a couple of days to either be responsible and finish my assignments on time, or catch up on Dramabeans gossip and the watchman reveal!😁

I noticed this week (as I was checking for the last episode of Picard) that Paramount Plus is in the process of adding adding KDramas. They only have three now but are apparently going to be building their collection (I think it's mainly OCN?). For those counting, that means in the US now we have Viki, Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, a few on AppleTV+ and now Paramount Plus in the mix (not counting Kocowa because most of their stuff ends up on the Viki Plus Pass and not counting that Chinese company, either). Absent from this list of major streaming services is HBO Max (soon to be just "Max"). Maybe all of us that are #stillbitteraboutDramaFever will have the last laugh at their short-sidedness in purchasing it only to dismantle it.

There is a potential writer's strike coming in the US, and Netflix has pretty much said they're in good shape to weather it due to all their international content.

And along the lines of international content, are you finding Hulu's strategy towards KDramas as awkward as I am? Subbed and dubbed versions of shows listed as separate entries. Sometimes the Korean-voiced version has a Korean name; sometimes it has the same name as the English-dubbed version. Finding what you want is difficult. Not to mention Disney's unorganized rollout of these shows on Hulu. We don't know if a drama will go up weekly in coordination with live airings in Korea, go up soon after it starts running in Korea, get released months after it airs in Korea (or is released in Disney Asia properties), or may just never get released for the US audience. It's not like Disney is going to tell us anything if they even have a plan.

The Real Has Come is one of the most entertaining dramas I have watched in some time. I never thought I would seriously watch a drama with 50 episodes but this one chases all the blues away!

Anyone watching the BL Our Dining Table? I think this is going to be my drama of the year. This is so freaking sweet! I love it. LOVE IT. This is my favorite romance and my favorite family drama rn. 🥺💜

I'm also rewatching Ho Gu's Love. After dropping The Real HC and Bo Ra, I thought "wait, pregnant by accident/single mom FL. Dating/love guru SFL?? I have two shows in one". 😆
It's been a year (or maybe two years) since I rewatched Ho Gu, so it feels so good to see all my babies again. The love I have for the characters is no joke. This show is gold.

Anyway, I hope you had a nice week beanies. And if you didn't, maybe you could try Our Dining Table. That show cured me, I'm not kidding. 😂
Love you all! Have a nice weekend. 💚

Today I finally have a tidbit to share, and it's an informative one, yay! Thanks to Till The End Of The Moon absolutely WRECKING my drama watching schedule I've been high with Luo Yunxi fever these days and, just like any other freshly bewitched fangirl, had to dig DEEP into man's filmography. Which is a wild case of mixed bag btw, but that topic deserves a discussion of its own that I'll save for another day. What I wanna talk about tonight are his upcoming projects. There's 2 of them - some modern medical melo I'd rather never hear about again (terminal decease tragic romance? haha, NOPE, this particular trope is forever in my hall of shame) and, thank heavens, a historical drama. And not just any historical drama, but a mystery romance Follow Your Heart loosely based on The Beauty Inside. Yeah, that one kmovie/kdrama. Talk about unexpected))) So it's a remake so soft that it's not even considered one officially, only main concept - FL who has her looks changing drastically once in a while - remains, but apparently toned down and kind of explained (the whole thing is caused by some weird drug - never play with pills, kids!). Plus ML has prosopagnosia (face blindness) - so convenient for FL's condition, huh? And leads are childhood sweethearts. AND there is also some amnesia, fake marriage and lots of bickering involved. Lmao this is SO kdrama - and very makjang one - I love it))) The only downside is that it just started filming, so with the way things are usually done in c-ent we'll have to wait years quite a bit for this one *sigh* Nothing good ever comes easy, right? Anyway, I'm done gushing for now because you know me - the earlier I shut up, the better)))

P.S. I swear, if html doesn't work properly after all the effort I've put into it...

This is random but it just came to mind: I don't know what makes dramas click for people. For example, I know Business Proposal was a big success but I don't get why. It was just fine to me but some reactions, not on here (I don't even know if it was covered on here), was as if they reinvented the kdrama wheel. I can't think of an example that's totally opposite this drama.

Once again, I have a moment of appreciation for the cast & crews of dramas because it really seems like magic when things work.

Okay, so I'm having issues with my comments not registering on the what we're watching page and since I tried it like 2 or 3 times, I'm scared I'll just end up in the spam folder or something.

So, I have a question. In dramas, crushes and liking someone is almost always treated as the end all be all. You would think people are only ever allowed to like/love one person their entire lives. Characters are still in love with their 1st love damn near 20 years later, people only have a 1st love, etc.
I saw someone say they don't mind if someone doesn't like them initially because they can just try to win them over eventually.
In Chris Evans' new movie, his character goes searching for some woman who ghosted him because he felt a connection with her (or something. I don't even know because I haven't watched the movie but I think that's the premise). I've even some video essays/analysis about why The Notebook is an example of toxic behaviors. Anywho, criticism about the guy chasing a woman who ghosted him & the guy who said he would/could just to win over the girl/woman he liked made me wonder: what is the limit to pursuing someone?

In The Law Cafe (2022), Yuri said even though Jeong Ho wasn't interested in her romantically, she wasn't ready to give up on him and she would continue trying in earnest to make him see her in that way. In Live (2018), the character Sang Su tells pretty much everyone, including the woman he likes, Jeong Oh, that he likes her and will continue to like her even if she is currently involved with another guy.

What is the limit? Is there a limit (as long as you aren't hurting someone)?