Beanie level: Errand boy

Loving all the glorious hair on the feeds today – thanks to all for making my eyes happy!

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#2023RoundUp

Freestyle: Favorite Show of the Year

This is probably no surprise, but that would be Twinkling Watermelon. It’s a show that reminded me of all the reasons I started watching k-dramas – their focus on characters and relationships, their unabashed commitment to their emotional beats, and their ability to combine exuberance and joy with clear-eyed explorations of the darker sides of humanity.

I also want to give a last-minute shout out to The Matchmakers, which did all these things as well, and ended up being my second-favorite k-drama from this year.

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    For long stretches in the year it seemed as if there were no engaging watches. Then towards year-end come these dramas which jump right to top 10 favorites ever. 😃

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      Yeah, it definitely seemed like a year where a lot of the good stuff was packed into the last few months.

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    Yes I watched A LOT of J-dramas as they are so short they are such a great binge watch. I added some classic C dramas to this years binge list too because of the tumbleweed. Suddenly in the autumn everything came out sometimes we had two shows on the same night.

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#2023RoundUp

Freestyle: Screenwriter Shout-Out

There are many Korean screenwriters whose work I love, but none of them have made me laugh as hard and cry as hard (often in the same episode) as Jin Soo Wan. I stumbled across her work years ago when I watched Capital Scandal and wondered how in the world anyone would pull off a rom-com set during the Japanese occupation. And then I watched her do it and marveled at how she balanced the jazzy technicolor surface with a remarkably nuanced look at the ways people survive a time of terror. Her work is often uneven, and her use of metaphor and magical realism may not work for everyone, but no other k-drama writer I’ve encountered is as skilled at capturing the full range of human emotions, from the hilarious to the absurd to the horrifying. She also has a weird knack for writing the best second-to-last episodes in dramaland (looking at you Capital Scandal, Kill Me, Heal Me & Twinkling Watermelon). I don’t know what possessed typewriters or magical music stores will be lurking in her next drama, but I hope it doesn’t take another 6 years to have one of her dramas on my screen again.

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#2023RoundUp

Freestyle: Best Final Episode

We all know how many terrible final episodes are floating around out there (or just anti-climactic, mediocre ones), but every so often a show comes along that absolutely nails its ending. Therefore, even though it’s not from this year and not from Korea, I wanted to give a special shout-out to Rainless Love in a Godless Land. The show as a whole can be messy and meandering, but the final episode is stunning. It’s one of the most nuanced explorations of how what we believe shapes the world we live in that I’ve ever seen, and one that felt urgent and necessary in a time when so many things seem irrevocably broken.

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#2023RoundUp

Freestyle: Best Episode

Every so often, an individual episode of a show is so electrifying that it’s worth singling out on its own. For me, episode 6 of My Dearest was one of those. It was brutal and hard to watch, but it was also utterly uncompromising in showing exactly how the caste and gender ideologies of Joseon undermined it every bit as much as any foreign invaders. It was a brilliant piece of storytelling, and while the rest of the show never regained the same laser-focused intensity, it alone was more than most shows attempt, much less achieve.

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    Episode 4 had been great, but then Episode 6 was more than great. It’s one of the best episodes I have watched in a TV show, regardless of the country of production.

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      The one good thing about a rewatch is one knows exactly what to watch and that is so satisfying. My Dearest was mesmerizing at its best and I have a fresh stock of amnesia inducing wands for the rest. 🤣

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    This episode is my Best Drama Moment of 2023.

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#2023RoundUp

Freestyle: Best Quirky Gem

Today, I want to give a special shout-out to One Day Off, my favorite off-beat gem of the year. It doesn’t really have a “plot” in the traditional sense, but Lee Na Young is fantastic as a day-tripping teacher, and each 20-minute episode is packed with wry observations about life, the universe, and everything. A perfect drama when you’re in the mood for something thoughtful and different, or just need to “get away” for a little while.

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#2023RoundUp
Best Cameo: It’s not from 2023 and it’s not a K-drama, but my favorite cameo of the year was Greg Hsu in Rainless Love in a Godless Land. It was beautifully integrated into the storytelling and it was also Greg Hsu. On my screen. Which is always a good thing.

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#2023RoundUp
Best OST: Well the two that played in repeat in my head and on my playlist this year were Twinkling Watermelon and Hit the Top!. Fake it Till You Make It had a great one too, and I’m a fan of the instrumentals in both My Dearest and Matchmakers.

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    I loved the energy of Yoon Shi-yoon in that RL competition song. How amazing was that.

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    All great choices.
    I have been listening to The Best Hit/Hit the top OST A LOT of times since I watched that drama in Spring 2022.
    My favorite theme is Light in the sky but I like all the songs.

    And what to say about Twinkling Watermelon and Fake it till you make it OSTs? These are my two favorite soundtracks this year.

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      I feel like we have very similar tastes in music – every time you post about a song or OST I go “oh, I like that one too!”. I will say I’ve pretty universally loved the music in all of Jin Soo Wan’s shows so I was excited that she finally wrote one that was specifically about music, since it’s clearly something she cares about.

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        Twinkling Watermelon has been the first drama written by Jin Soo Wan I have watched. The next one will be Chicago Typewriter.
        As you say, I think we have similar tastes in music, so I’ll give a listen to some of those soundtracks even though I have not watched the dramas yet 🙂

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          Chicago Typewriter, Kill Me, Heal Me and Capital Scandal all do some wonderful things with music and are three of my favorite OSTs. The

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            Sorry that got cut off – they’re also all shows that I love, even though the tonal shifts and magical realism don’t work for everyone.

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            The plot of Kill me, heal me is what puzzles me, so it’s taking me longer to watch it because it seems so “crazy”. But it’s very popular and now I trust this writer.

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            @isagc Kill Me, Heal Me is a lot like Watermelon in that it works better when you approach it metaphorically rather than literally. I wasn’t at all sure what I was getting into when I started watching it, but it ended up packing quite a punch and doing some really lovely, difficult things.

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#2023RoundUp.
Favorite Kiss: Alchemy of Souls, part 2 was often a hot mess, but it definitely delivered in the kissing and chemistry department. I preferred Jung So Min’s Naksu as a character, but Lee Jae Wook and Go Youn Jung had some serious sizzle going on.

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#2023RoundUp.
Best Use of Tropes: I mean, if you’re going to use tropes, be My Demon and just go all in. Some shows try to pretend they’re above such things, even as they fall back on the same tired plot beats (My Dearest, cough, cough), but My Demon knows exactly what it is and adds swirling flower petals, excited sprinklers, swirling seas and flying cakes in a over-the-top trope ballet. I’m expecting the clouds to part and a choir of angels to be singing by the end and I’m here for that.

Best Subverted Tropes: I’m giving this award to the Chinese xianxia comedy The Starry Love. It takes the good twin/bad twin trope and completely turns it on its head, with two sisters who are both equally badass in totally opposite ways and who, instead of fighting with each other, team up to protect their men and save the world. While the cast is young and the acting levels and production values are all over the map, this is one show that never shifts its focus from its female leads and never brings in the guys to rescue them. It’s also pretty funny as well.

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#2023RoundUp

Favorite Villain

Ok, so I waited until I was caught up on all the episodes before posting this, but I can now confirm that the Beanie consensus is correct and that Madam Park in The Matchmakers is definitely the most interesting villain of the year.

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#2023RoundUp

Non-2023 Favorite

That would be Psychopath Diary, which turned out to be an absolutely delightful serial killer show (and no, I never thought I’d put those words together in a sentence). I also really enjoyed Hit the Top!, Rainless Love in a Godless Land (Taiwan), I Told Sunset About You (Thailand) and the first two-thirds of The Rise of Phoenixes (China).

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    Rainless Love in a Godless Land was really good. And it was even better a second time as so many things made more sense.
    And the music is also really good in that show.

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      I could see it being a compelling show to rewatch. While I found the plot structure messy at times, I thought the final episode was extraordinary, and I loved how it handled its mythology.

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        Yes it was messy and confusing, so the rewatch made it even better. And I loved our God when he lost his powers.

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    I love Psychopath Diary (watched this year) and Hit the top (watched in 2022).

    Rainless love in a godless land (2021) is a drama I want to watch in 2024. It’s already on my list.

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      Rainless Love can be very uneven, but what it does at the end is exceptional. Plus I loved Ko Chia Yen & Fu Meng Bo in it and it has a great Greg Hsu cameo!

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    I loved Hit the top another 2017 fun watch.

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#2023RoundUp

Guilty Pleasure

Not a k-drama, but yeah, I didn’t think I’d ever watch, much less enjoy, a show about a deadbeat teacher hitting on a suicidal student. Yet somehow the j-drama Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi managed to make that premise mostly work. It was funny, heartfelt, weird, remarkably hot . . . and ok, I’m starting to feel guilty again.

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    Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi is so quirky and surprisingly works on me. I was really intrigue by the direction, so this was one of those rare dramas that I looked up its director. Also, I love the opening song; it’s like a short MV, fun, quirky, and intimate.

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      It is a really well directed show, and it pulls off its extremely tricky tonal balance quite well for most of the run. I felt like it faltered slightly at the end, but until then, both the humor and the serious moments landed for me.

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#2023RoundUp

Worst Parent

Can I just lock King Injo from My Dearest and the evil stepmother from Watermelon in a cage with a wolverine and let them fight it out for this one?

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#2023RoundUp

Favorite Bromance/Womance

While the obvious answer here would be the ever-expanding Viva la Vida gang in Watermelon, I’m going to go with the beautifully nuanced pseudo-sibling relationship at the heart of Miraculous Brothers. Functioning structurally the way that a romantic relationship usually does in a k-drama, it’s funny, abrasive, heart-warming, and achingly real, and Jung Woo and Bae Hyun Sung are great at landing both the comic and the serious moments.

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#2023RoundUp

Drops

I didn’t drop many shows this year, mostly because I didn’t live watch many shows. I thought about dropping Tale of the Nine Tailed, 1938 and The Kidnapping Day (and possibly should have) but pushed through to the end on both. The fact that they were each only 12 episodes helped. I did drop Island and Celebrity like toxic hot potatoes . . .

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    I agree. Being 12 episodes does help with some shows.

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      Yeah, I’m willing to give more leeway to a short show because even if I don’t end up liking it I haven’t wasted 40 hours of my life on it.

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#2023RoundUp

Best Suit Wearer

I’m not a huge suit person, but Tale of the Night Tailed, 1938 did have some nice ones. I mostly just wanted to steal everyone’s shoes though.

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#2023RoundUp

Best Child Actor

While I didn’t love the show as a whole, I will say that Yuna was great as Ro Hee in The Kidnapping Day. I was also impressed by Jung Hyun Joon as young Eun Gyeol in Twinkling Watermelon.

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#2023RoundUp

My 2023 Crush

Well, this is probably pretty obvious from the list of shows I watched this year, but my current actor obsession is Yoon Shi Yoon. Prior to 2023, I’d only seen him in Nokdu Flower, where he was great but not exactly, uhm, swoony. This year, I realized he could play pretty much any type of role and be mesmerizing in all of them. There are lots of pretty faces in drama land, but there are far fewer folks who combine the pretty with legit acting chops and a willingness to take on characters who aren’t standard issue “hot male leads”. He’s one of them and I look forward to whatever projects he takes on in 2024.

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    Yoon Shi Yoon is awesome!!!!!🤩🥰

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    he could play pretty much any type of role and be mesmerizing in all of them. There are lots of pretty faces in drama land, but there are far fewer folks who combine the pretty with legit acting chops and a willingness to take on characters who aren’t standard issue “hot male leads”.

    Exactly! He is truly amazing!

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    Unstoppable High Kick (2006) He plays a rebel teenage son into motorcycles and is known for his fighting skills. He has a Noona crush on his teacher ,( a Love Triangle with his uncle , also a teacher albeit divorced,) aigoo.🙄
    A whopping 167 30 minute episodes. Young Kim Bum and Park Min Young also have support roles.
    Love you Miss Seo ❤️ 🥲

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      I’ve never actually watched a legit weekender, but I might need to give this a try (I did hear that the ending of this one made people want to set things on fire though . . .).

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        It the sequel, High Kick Through The Roof that has the rage inducing ending,,(which is why I never watched it)

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      That male lead was Jung Il Woo 😉
      Yoon Shi Yoon starred in High Kick Through The Roof (2009).

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        I knew I was going to goon it up. 😂

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        Sooo much high kicking! Although I also have a soft spot for Jung Il Woo as well so encountering him instead wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing . . .

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    As you already might suspect, he is the one and only crush I always refer to 🤭
    I love him too much to have another crush. He is intelligent, funny, hardworking… and a very humble, familiar and homebody person.
    There is a radio show he conducted and it’s amazing when he talks about things like his family, his school, his house, photography, the differences between the analog world in his childhood and the digital now…

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#2023RoundUp

Non-K-drama Recommendation

This one is a bit tricky since my favorite non-k-drama from this year isn’t done airing yet, and we all know how messy things can get in part 2 (looking at you, My Dearest). However, I’d definitely recommend part 1 of Lost of You Forever if you’re in the mood for a slow, contemplative show about damaged people trying and often failing to balance their feelings, ambitions and obligations to the world.

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