I know exactly how You feel, it felt like a cheating on the writers part. It has no impact, at least for me, like we have all various plots neatly tied up and then bam, someone remembered that there need to be sad ending. Cheaters!!!
P.S. That guy name was Secretary Choi if I remember correctly and it was heavily implied that Se Ran father ordered hit on MY (Evil cheabols are such a cheap cope out imho).

I was hoping that if they decided to go dark, might as well go all the way. I would've been happier if they stuck with the original plot, if only so I could admire their bravery. But they got cold feet didn't they?
Also I agree regarding the last 5 minutes. Just when hope was visible on the horizon, they had to do that. A happy ending seemed impossible, but I rather they maintained the tone throughout the episode instead of sliiiiiightly raising our hopes before crushing them.

When I watched the ending, I felt empty and detached....To sum it up, I felt cheated..

I am sad they couldn't come up with the better plot. Introducing Chaebol lady was so out of blue. However I am ok with the tragic ending (They died together), and liked it better than J-version.

with all those flashbacks, it's as if the writer left the script unfinished and walked away...
: [

i wish they had stuck to the original script, the whole impact of the drama was in the twists and dark tragedy.

They could have ended It differently but They didnt💔Now that is Only left are what ifs and it wont change the ending at all😭

Given that after MY killed Se Ran there was no possibility of a happy ending, I think having Jin Kang and Moo Young be killed by a third party was the only way to make the ending satisfying. I don't think it was lazy or "cheating" on the writers' part; rather it preserved the essential strength and goodness of MY and JK. They had both just affirmed life, their desires to live. And that was enough for me. They remained true, MY preserved his internal growth, both their shells had been cracked open in their last encounter and like MY said about himself regarding his final exchange with Se Ran, "I was my most human--but at that point I became a murderer." His last exchange w JK allowed him to be that human again--without being a murderer.

Had either of them killed him- or herself and/or the other--even in a death pact--they would be taking the easy way out, the lazy way out. They would be cheating themselves. Yet they had to die--and die together in each other's arms--for the drama to come full circle, back to the moments in their childhood when MY protected JK and later as adults when JK protected MY from himself and brought him into life and light.

As opposed to the ending of Misty (another adult drama that you knew couldn't end well), which devastated me and left me feeling empty and truly, horribly cheated, this ending left me feeling whole--sad, of course, but somehow whole and satisfied.

I am with you on this. Reminds me of how I felt when watching Supernatural. Apart from the very obvious white, male, christian vibe to the show that I was not emphasizing with, I had a hard time with the kissing scenes.

Now, don't get me wrong, I will squeal harder than anyone when two leads kiss. I love a good kissing scene with the appropriate build-up. After 8 hours of will-they-wont-they, a kissing scene feels rewarding. A random stanger kissing one of our lead in Supernatural after meeting her 15 mins ago and for absolutely no reason doesn't. It left me cold.

And this is one of the main reason I watch K-dramas.

Yup @luzitania and @cloggie
Avoiding gratuitous kissing scenes and lack of decorum, not to mention clothing, are some of the reasons that Western shows no longer interest me. Some may have a good storyline but spoil it with these kinds of scenes peppering it unnecessarily. I end up not watching.

I agree. I have such a hard time watching certain western shows nowadays for the same reasons. At first, I found the «conservativeness» in korean dramas to be refreshing and interesting.... and it slowly developed into being *my* norm. (incidentally, when kdramas show me TOO much gratuitous fan service i get instantly turned off (i'm looking at you WWWSK, sorry)

I'm ashamed to admit that I never used to notice how badly women were treated on screen. It was this initiation to more «conservativeness» that I realized that women should NOT be treated that way. equal rights. (again, like you, im not saying korea is perfect either). I'm glad DB is a safe place for Beanies to help me learn and realize injustices that i'd have never noticed before.

Hi @cloggie. Count me in. For what it's worth after watching HEALER in 2016 I went down the rabbit hole into the world of kdramas and I have never come out. Friends and family can mention American television shows and I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

I have nothing against nekkid bodies or even sex scenes. My problem is that far too often they add nothing to the story at all - most just seem to be there for shock value and to get attention.

But another reason I watch so few American shows and movies that they far too often are nothing but super hero, CGI to the max action fests with little or no real plot. Crazy Rich Asians was one of the few exceptions, but frankly I am really tired of crap like Transformers #27, Black Panther, and the like. Every single one has the same old hackneyed plot with interchangeable puppet characters.

I atually have different psychological pov.
I can watch nude+smooch+raunchy hollywood movies scenes without any feelings. Same goes for porn. Your mind is already prepared for the content and you feel no attachment towards any of them.
Now - enters a cute romcom rom-drama where hero-heroine acts like too innocent-pure beings. When they initiate kiss scene either i feel nothing or even -ve. If kiss scene turns into smooch scene then i completely go -ve.
Its all about perception and the mindset you get into when you watch various scenarios.

@cloggie, your story made me giggle with recognition of when I quit Game of Thrones after the scene in Ep 2 or 3 when a male character went on at very great length explaining his background, establishing his character while two fully naked women went at it pretty full bore on a bed behind him. Ostensibly, one woman was "auditioning" to become a worker in the man's whorehouse, that part was the logical part. The need for him to detail his life motivations aloud while not even judging her work performance was what was ridiculous and insulting to the audience. Every male friend I mentioned this to as a complaint did not understand what I meant. It hadn't occurred to them that there was anything out of place in that scene.

Basically these are the two main reasons of why I watch kdramas and both are equally important. Plus I don't even encourage that mindset in kdramas to go ott. Perhaps K2 had a shower scene with all men where they wore what transparent stuff or were completely bare but that's when I dropped it. Either its men or women, I just don't like the objectification of people in films or dramas when it exists to entertain. But yes people do consider this entertainment too and unfortunately its not leaving the industry anytime soon because its taught to young filmmakers too. However, no one in my vicinity would get either of these points. Because rather than explicit scenes and shorter length-ending stories what they don't understand is why I keep watching dramas in a language I don't know of.

I hope it gets subbed too....

I check a few times a week and still nothing.

Indo subs are out for Top star and soft subs are also up in subscene. Jeon somin fans are trying to sub it into English but they could be one or two weeks late. like from Indo subs to Eng subs. I wish DB will translate it. It is also getting much attention in Korea as it was trending for days in Korea after the premiere.

I enjoy matrimonial chaos....many times I agree with suk moo....I feel kind of weird that I like his thoughts..

Happy Friday @korfan! Matrimonial Chaos continues to be my favorite right now.

I took a peak at Matrimonial Chaos and it looks amazing. I'm saving for Christmas break.

This week I tried a taste of Happy to Die. That show is bonkers and just my cup of tea! The twist on the "Groundhog Day" scenario is clever and I enjoy a redemption story.

As much as I adore the two sweet, charming leads of Fluttering Alert (that show's my vitamin!) I definitely see the appeal of the not-completely asshole-ish lead of Happy to Die. From the chatter on s**mpi, it seems that the drama adaptation of the original webtoon made a Baek Jin-Sang a more attractive character.

@korfan, I hope you can catch up with ROOM NO. 9. Things are happening now. I cannot predict the outcome at this point.

I'm watching this one as well. It's really good once you get past the explosive/chaotic first episode. I also like that the good and bad guys are mostly evenly matched. It's still overly dramatic from time to time but not unbearable. I'm also quite curious about the lead's brother's death, especially since, as you've said, the main 'villains' are looking less and less capable of murder...

On a slightly insignificant note, the name 'Grace' really stands out whenever it's mentioned by the characters. It's like they all have to enunciate. Made me smile.

You’re welcome?? 😅😅😅😅

When I'm going to watch Cdrama, I usually find out the ending first. I hate spend 50 hours or so of my time and get a crappy sad ending. The problem is with cdramas, the beginning is usually good.. and you got the mid part when it starts to drag, and the writer seems forget whats going on and then we get a sad or open ending. I learned my lesson from so many times watching cdramas and finally decide to just find out the ending first. Well..at least I find out the ending from people comment, and not like my friend who starts watching from the last 5 mins of the final episode..lol.

I have become pretty much an anti-fan of recent Chinese movies, but I might make an exception for this one and give it a try. So many are just totally superficial that I mostly gave up.

Do you follow AvenueX's YouTube channel? She worked in the industry and has marvelous insights into the world of C-dramas.

At one point, even she expressed exasperation with super-long episode counts and was encouraged by shorter excellent dramas like the 2017 12-part Burning Ice.

Good to hear! I hope to start this drama this weekend.

I too was surprised. And it makes me even more wary of the generic descriptions for many shows. Almost impossible to tell what genre shows actually fall into without watching. Red Moon seems to be full of mysteries within mysteries.

I was also admiring President Han's styling; She looked more like a "Top Star" than our female lead. Some of the scenes were really cringe-worthy and I felt so bad for the actors!

If it's a book, you can try this link about how to find a book when your forgot the title: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/11/22/finding-book-forgotten-title
I didn't watch enough j-drama to help you, hopefully the beanies community will come to the rescue.
Good luck!

Why does this sound familiar...

The problem is your provided story's variants can easily be found in various manga, light novels and novels. You won't be able to find it unless you remember any other clue.

So sorry for your loss... Hope you are slowly healing.

My sympathies @outofthisworld. Yes, it's a good idea to take your time to let the full reality sink in and to deal with each thing one at a time. I hope you have enough rest as well.

Actually, it could be a good thing to be in a slump. You can opt for more sleep.

I also like to diversify once in a while. Catch a British show or a movie. It helps give more perspective to the kdramas that go on in their own way.

Have a great weekend! 😃

I'm so sorry for your loss.....

I'm so sorry. I hope that you find peace as you settle the estate.

I hope the surprise exam result was a pleasant one. Wishing you safe travels and rest on your trip.

I am sorry to hear about your loss. I hope that you can give yourself the time and outlets to heal properly. I wish you good luck with everything life throws at you now. Stand your ground, you got this.

I started Bodyguard but didn't finish it. I finished the "bomb" episode and stopped. It was...intense. I really liked the beginning but I fell off.

I was going to try The Empress' Dignity so this doesn't bode well for getting out of my slump.

About Mama Fairy, you said you keep watching but haven't finish the first episode? Eh...so do you like it or not?

@captblackdog I can only take Mama Fairy in small doses. I either literally fall asleep or get fed up and do something else in between. It fails to draw me into it's fairy world. I am not enchanted although I want to be. It needs a plot that includes more than 'is he or isn't he the husband', more magic and much more for our characters to do besides making and drinking coffee. I'd even root for the sub-plots to give the main plotline a run for its money - if only the fairy actors could just get out of their slap-sticky look and style and do more 'real' magic.

I'd have liked for the show to have gone for whimsically charming, failing which, to have then gone for OTT ridiculous. It's not the first and only partly the second, with too little for the main characters to do. I'd have thought that by these last episodes I'd have gotten on board and liked our characters, but it's not happening for me.

Glad I'm not the only one disappointed with "Empress"! I thought Jang Nara's character was such a doormat that I just couldn't stand it. If the writers don't improve her character, I'll have to drop it even though I like Choi Jin-hyuk. Also there are so many plot holes....

For some reason I thought The Last Empress was going to have some finesse but basically it's just typical weekend makjang but now on primetime. The whole thing was pretty eye roll inducing imo, the pacing was awful, poor directing. I mean, it's definitely not boring most of the time (I like Jang Nara, but whenever she's onscreen, I zoned out) but I found it just too ridiculous. They honestly don't seem like the royal family at all, but like typical chaebols.

C-dramas

You started with the best one... honestly I haven't seen a C-Drama that I enjoyed as much as ALSB.. I did recently watch a movie that was enjoyable, Finding Mr.Right (2013), give it a shot.
There's also, LoveO2O (you have to excuse the actress her dead-fish kissing style) and Accidentally in love (I fast forwarded through a lot of scenes but the OTP is super cute). Happy viewing!

Among C-Dramas I would recommend Love O2O (on Netflix) and My Amazing Boyfriend. They are both fun and light but the first one is definetly my favorite among the chinese shows I've watched.

Other shows I would recommend because they are adorable: Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, Something About 1 Percent and Sassy Go Go.

Shows I would recommend because they are just awesome but in a slightly different way than ALSB: Healer (Watch it if you haven't yet. I've never met someone who didn't like this show.), Reply 1988 and Descendants of the Sun.

These are all gateway-drug dramas so beware...

You started with the best C-drama out there. I also really liked a quirky little C-movie I found on Netflix called "This is not what I expected." It charmed me and I liked it's movie length verses the long drawn out C-dramas.

I started this show CHUGAKUSEI NIKKI , but don't see why people gaga over it?