Happy weekend Beanies!

What a beautiful day. I just got the news that my Korean exam got postponed a week, which means that I am free for 3 whole days! I was counting down to my planned K-drama binge time during the Christmas holidays, but this is such a pleasant surprise. Does everybody get this excited over K-drama time? :P
I would have survived another two weeks, but I am not letting this slide! Now I need to figure out a watching schedule :p Thank you @ally-le for your prayers last week! I am not even going to bother writing down something else, I am too happy! :p

oh finally got viki subscription, and laptop starting to fail! internet down. so close to seeing shows. i will try to get fixed, hope the tech gods back me up. 🐼

How are the Mon-Tue dramas guys ? Encounter and MOTA keeps me occupied wed-sun but yeah nothing to watch today either. Top Star Yoo-Baek's ep 4 didn't get subbed right?

Don't you hate it when Friday rolls around and you've forgotten that thing you wanted to bring up on the open thread??

Hello, beanies! As the holidays approach, I want to send a huge bouquet filled with gratitude and love to Dramabeans and the kdrama community. I realize now I have taken for granted my access to well-subbed dramas, as well as recaps, and I'm not even going to mention the thoughtful beanie commentaries that follow.

( ......nothing like waiting for a tortuous, cliff-hanger jdrama that may or may not be subbed before you expire from anxiety!!)

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all doing well today.

The Last Empress - After reading all the Beanie comments regarding this show, I decided to jump into this little makjang funfest! You guys are right, it is a tad over the top, but in this case, it's part of its charm. It's a fun watch for sure!

Happy To Die - Certainly not the highlight watch of the week, but I'm still watching this one.

SKY Castle - Wow, what a drama! ..... On the one hand it delivers quite an indictment on Korean society while on the other hand delivering laugh out loud moments. That it manages to do both is certainly a testament to the writing and acting. The show is fantastic thus far!

Encounter - I watched the first episode and it certainly is as nice as everyone has described it.

That's all for now. Everyone take care and and have a great Friday!

Happy Friday Beanies!

Feels like I’ve been away for a long time. I’ve just had a wonderful two weeks vacation in South Africa, truly one of the more memorable holidays.

The children loved the game drives and close encounters with the wildlife and we enjoyed it as much as they did. We did the famous Garden Route - the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful. So glad that we decided to self-drive despite our relatives and friends advising us against it. We didn’t feel we were in danger at any time because I read up where and what to avoid and as a result, we had a much better itinerary than we would have if we joined a group tour.

After my recent loss and a major drama slump, this may be just the break I need.

I did a quick scan and it seems Memories of Alhambra is the hottest thing now, at least here on DB. I am halfway through the first episode. It’s interesting although those dimples are so darn distracting and I am not even a Hyun Bin fan!

Hello all!

I am not an OT regular but I have just recently gotten rid of my intermittent year long drama slump and now want to get rid of my DB commenting slump, so here I am wanting to discuss random things!

Currently watching:

Memories of The Alhambra - brilliant
The Last Empress - watch it for the crazy
Just Dance - yay for a good high school drama
Boyfriend- I might just drop this, it's getting a tad tooooooo slow
Feels Good to Die - I am a lil behind on it.. how is it going?

Variety:
YG Treasure Box - YG back to his crazy ways
Idol Room and Knowing Bros when I feel like it

Kpop:
My fav boys from WINNER are coming back! I am so excited!

Life wise- why is adulting so damn difficult??

Happy weekend, everyone!

Friday will be over in one hour and im spending the last hour oggling Jason Sta~ i mean watching an action movie called Killer Elite. 🤤

This happen after i bingewatched the latest episodes of Bad Detective, Children of Nobody and the Empress Dignity (and collected a dozen or so fantastic gifs for my fanwall 😝😜)

Weekend will be spent at home because of the long wet season, getting nervous with the flood news and drinking coffee and its free top up in the nearby cafe while watching Twelve Nights, Memories of Alhambra, Top Star Yoo Baek's bad eng sub, and Sky Castle.

Mark your calendars, sageuk fans: Junho and Jung So-min have a sageuk film coming out in 2019: GIBANG BACHELOR.

http://blog.asianwiki.com/korean-movies/lee-joon-ho-jung-so-min-cast-in-movie-gibang-bachelor

Happy Friday, Beanies! It has been a few months since I came on OT. I was crazy busy with an internship, but the working environment was quite stifling and I wasn't learning much, so I gave notice and ended it early.

I'm back on DB here and there, but I haven't caught up with my poor abandoned dramas (Bridal Mask, Reply 1994) yet. I've been busy resting (an oxymoron, I know XD), catching up with friends, and reading. I recently read Emery Lord's The Start of Me and You, and it's so cute and nerdy, and the main character has a wonderful growth arc.

I've also been preparing for my trip to New Mexico in the US! I'm visiting family friends for Christmas, and I'm so ready to stuff myself with yummy food. I hope to catch up on Dance Sports Girls during my downtime there!

Alright, so this year we've seen the rise and untimely demise of Kdrama watching websites. Where do you all watch dramas? Would you recommend one website over another? What are your thoughts of Netflix gaining more and more titles as the days go by?
I'm really curious to see what people think!

Upcoming Saturday night drama with Ji Hyun-woo [QUEEN IN-HYUN'S MAN] to premiere in February on MBC.

http://blog.asianwiki.com/korean-dramas/ji-hyun-woo-park-han-byul-cast-in-mbc-drama-series-love-in-sadness

Happy Friday my friends! Recently I've been watching Woohoo Waikiki for fun as I've dropped all wed-thurs dramas. I really love the drama so far, but the one thing that's annoying me is that I really don't like the main female lead. I watched the actress in My Secret Terrius, and I appreciated her, but in Woohoo Waikiki her character's clumsiness and constant apologizing are getting on my nerves. I don't want to drop it because Kim Jung-hyun, Lee Yi-kyung, and all the laughs are just too good. Does her character get better over time?
Other than that I've been clinging onto Clean With Passion for Now for my huge Yoon Kyun-sang fangirl side, and Memories of Alhambra is gripping me on the weekends. I've been fighting for k-drama time recently, but so worth it!

Happy OT week 96! Did everyone have a good drama-watching week? I did!!! Very satisfying to have time to spend doing what you like. This week was filled with kids’ holiday concerts. I don’t talk about my son much, because he would rather me not, but he was really adorable this week at his band concert. He plays percussion (keyboard instruments) and played the chimes and bells for “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” However, because the bells were stage left, and the chimes were in the middle of the stage, he had to run back and forth throughout the whole song to play them! Why the band instructor didn’t move the chimes closer to the bells for that last song is beyond me. However, it made for an interesting and fun watch! He was the talk of all the elementary classes, who were all bored with the concert otherwise. (And I’m pretty sure a couple of crushes were made that day.) And I was able to rearrange my schedule to see him at 1:30 pm—why have it in the middle of the day? My daughter’s class was featured in a national radio show last week and now this week they will be on again (except on the video version) singing a holiday song with new words appropriate to the show they will be on. The video was shot during her holiday concert. It was much more engaging than I would have expected an elementary school choir concert to be. Oh, and side note, she and math genius stood together on the choir risers. I may have taken a few photos of them.

In kdrama/kpop news, I wrote and sent our Christmas letters this year, and mentioned all the kdrama-related things that we did. Park Bo-gum was mentioned by name on not just my letter, but my husband’s as well. And a kpop fangirl moment was me sending a Christmas card photo to Yoon Doo-joon in the military. If anyone else wants to send anything, the address is on my wall (actually, in the comments below the envelope picture, there’s probably a better way to write the address). Thanks to @raonah and @hobakky for helping! And because I keep forgetting to mention it, I did do a short blog last month on our Free the Kimchi meeting: http://www.freethekimchi.com. We will be back next month with another episode of Baumdog Revenge Club.

We continue to watch Love O2O, Memories of Alhambra, and Boyfriend at our house this week. I have really nothing bad to say about any of these. I’m pretty content with all of them right now. You can definitely see differences in production quality between Love O2O and the others, but my daughter is really enjoying the gaming aspect of Love O2O and my son likes Memories of Alhambra. And apparently, there is PvP (player vs player) now on Pokemon Go. And I love how quiet Boyfriend/Encounter is, and although her ex-mother in law is a witch, wow, does she have a way with words. You don’t have to scream and carry on to make a very scathing remark and it makes an impression. I am enjoying the dialogue the most here. I’m pretty...

TGIF! I assume everyone is busy counting beans for dramas watched this year. In the beginning of this year I mentioned once that I might be able to gather 100 beans by the end of year, but I guess that was too ambious. It seems like every year there are more dramas checked for DB bean counts (48 in 2018, 45 in 2017, 37 in 2016). I think last year crop was better than this year even though I enjoyed a few of them. Well, hoping for better year next year drama-wise. As for interviews this week I wanted to look up one of my favorite actresses- Kim Mi-kyung who people affectionately call as Healer Ajumma, who played dear mom in Go Back Couple (and who can forget feisty palace lady Choi in Faith?), and who is currently playing Yoo Seong-ho's mom in My Strange Hero/Revenge returns. Latest interview I found was one done in last year after she completed (love^^) "Go back Couple".
Per wiki, Kim Mi-kyung was born in 1963 and has been a member of the Yeonwoo Mudae theater company since 1985. She received Top Excellence Award for the drama "Person Who Gives Happiness" in 2017 MBC Drama Awards. Another noteworthy award she received was an award for making various efforts to help from the one-parent family support organization which help children who lost one parent and their families (2017).

[yurajun.tistory, 2017.12] Kim Mi-kyung (56) seems to have gotten her talent from her father. "My late father had lots of talents. He wrote scripts for radio programs, played violin, drew pictures well, and sang well. Our siblings inherited our father's talents, and the one who resembled him the most is me." Kim also mentioned how she started her acting life. "Actually I watched a play when I was in high school, and there was a line "You pig-like SOB, go to hell!" which felt very uncomfortable to hear. So I thought I was not upto the level to watch a play. I only did dancing from middle school to college, but later I didn't want to do dance anymore. Eventually when I was 23 I debuted with Yeonwoo Mudae theater company. That time I just followed my sunbae who was stage actor, and people were in the middle of the play "Han's Chronicles". It had big sunbae Park Yong-soo, Moon Sung-keun, and Yang Hee-kyung who were acting on the stage, and it was completely different from the play I used to know. I felt like they were talking to me directly. Since then for 14 years, I have mostly done plays with deep social issues."

Kim married in 1994 with the theatre director Park Keun-won whom she met doing the play "DongSeung"(Accompanying) together in 1991. And she stopped working after she had a daughter. "I took a long break after I had a child. I just took care of my child thinking why I work having a child to take care of, for what." But I felt like I was becoming dimer and dimer. One day Song Ji-na unni (Sandglass, The legend, Faith, Healer, and more) who was close to me said, "Are you really going to quit the acting for good?" So eventually I...

The Last Empress is ridiculously makjang (what do you expect from the makjang drama writer? But it sells), frustrating and total mess, but I still can't look away from the show. I can't wait to see how WangShik gets his sweet revenge. Can't wait to find out what happened 7 years ago when Queen Sohyun died with suspicious cause. King Lee Hyun seemed really loved his wife (did he become a playboy after her death or always been playboy?). And the prince Lee Yoon who left to US came back after 7 years with the new identity of the writer Vincent Lee. In the first episode, the terrorist threatened Lee Hyuk, asking about missing royal guard Kang Joo-seung 7 years ago. Also teacher Byun (Late queen's father) who saved Wangshik/Chun Woobin was the chief royal guard 7 years ago. Princess SoJin's daughter Ari who is actually daughter of Lee Hyuk and Ganghee is 7 years old, and Dongsik, Min Yoora's real son but living as Wangshik's brother is 7 years old.
Any guess on all this?

Good morning my beautiful fellow Beanies! Been kinda crazy at work (I work on the website of a catalog company) with the Holidays coming up but I still managed to fit some dramas in. Lots of good dramas that have been released that I am eagerly waiting to watch. Like Boyfriend, Clean With Passion, Memories of the Alhambra, My Strange Hero. I've felt like I've been in a slump for most of this year so this is a welcome change.

Fox Star Bride I was really enjoying the first half of this drama but it just got frustrating by the end. Maybe I am not empathetic enough but I was annoyed and frustrated and confused why Lee Soo-Yeon insisted in continuing to work despite it hurting him and even possibly killing him. I can understand he doesn't want to go back into the wheelchair but why the insistence in continuing to work? I was too annoyed by his character at the end to really enjoy it. The ending was also totally cliche. A couple episodes from the ending I told my brother and mom (who I was watching the drama with) how I thought the drama was going to end and I had it almost exactly right. I also was annoyed with how the show portrayed how people treats disabled people, like they are some freak show. I really hope it's not actually like that in Korea. I did really enjoy the first half of the drama but I had lost most of my interest in the drama by the end, which is sad. I really liked all the actors and the every-day lives of the airport employees was quite enjoyable, but the drama pushed that simple pleasure to the side and soured it.

Rise of The Phoenixes Finished this. BAD ending. Not only was the ending bad, it was cheap. Spent 70 episodes with these characters and they couldn't even give them a good ending. The last couple episodes I kept wondering how things would be resolved, how the main couple would actually become a couple, how they can move on into happiness. Sadly, it didn't happen. Also disappointed that the romance never really happened. The main couple never even kissed (unless you count when Ning Yi gives air to Feng Zhiwei underwater) and I need my kisses damnit! :( For the most part I enjoyed this drama but really disappointed how the characters were almost completely different characters in the last couple episodes and the bad attempt on the writers part to be edgy and tragic.

An Oriental Odyssey Watched the first 3 episodes of this and probably wont continue this. The main actress is probably one of my least liked Chinese actresses. She is obvious, obnoxious and cheesy in her acting. I had started watching another drama with her in it, My Amazing Boyfriend, but even though I was liking the overall drama she completely ruined it because I just couldn't stand her. The drama was also a bit too cringy for my liking.

Story of Yanxi Palace Started this one after I gave up Odyssey and will stick with this one. So far I am quite enjoying this one and the feisty, cunning and intelligent heroine...

KAKEGURUI - Is getting a Live-Action Movie. Releasing in MAY 2019.

NAGANO MEI is looking too good in latest trailer of 2019 YO SHINE IN THE MOONLIT NIGHT - Novel is being translated.

We vs You - such passive aggressive approach. heh.
Smile, and act friendly while making a discriminatory point. sigh.
I read few comments where they used the word cougar for the heroine of boyfriend. heh

Australian summer and cricket.

One of the actors who have been in the industry for a long time but hasn't been quite recognized is Lee Tae-ri (26) who currently appears in the drama "Coffee, do me a favor". He had an interview after completing "Beauty Inside" in which he delighted the viewers by playing impish secretary Jung.[OSEN, Star News] Here is Q&A session.
Q: Drama ended with 5.3%- its highest ratings.
Lee: I can't believe it finished. I waited for the next broadcast every week having same mind as other viewers. I feel empty it ended but there will be another beginning when I meet the viewers with a different project.

Q: How did you land the role in "Beauty Inside"?
Lee: Actually I've had hard time until I decided on this project. I had confidence in being able to show, but there were parts didn't work out in many cases so it took long time until this project came along. This time all conditions were met and it had a good character. Once decided I had many meetings with director-nim and writer-nim to build the character. I was nervous and felt burdened until the first airing, but I am glad I decided to do it. I worked with great actors and staffs.

Q: In the drama, you played secretary Jung working for Lee Min-ki.
Lee: Because there was no romance for my character I thought I should have bromance at least. I thought it would be nice if the viewers could feel our chemistry, looking good together, and fortunately many people seemed to feel that way. As I prepared for the project, I debated how I could portray our bromance. I consulted Jang Dong-gun and Park Hyung-sik in "Suits" and Jo Woo-jin and Yook Sung-jae in "Goblin".
Q: You must have wanted a different image playing secretary Jung.
Lee: I think the slump comes a few times being in this profession. For me I couldn't go on school trips when I was in middle school. I had the slump because I wanted to have the school life. After that I had the slump when acting didn't come out as well as I thought, or casting didn't work. There was fierce competition for secretary Jung role, so I hoped to have the viewers' response that they could enjoy the show because I acted well as an actor.
Q: Any problem playing your character?
Lee: During filming mid-point there was time I almost faltered. I saw the comment that he/she felt frustrated- as an employee, secretary Jung was going too far, keeping asking for salary increase while he didn't seem doing anything. I asked Min-ki Hyung but he said "What you are doing is right. Don't change until the end because he is cute character."

Hello dear Beanies, I want to ask for good JAPANESE dramas from the past five-ten years. Since this is an Open Thread, I hope you don't mind for me to ask. Happy weekend!!!.

I am really in the mood for a gory, thrilling, bloody zombie sageuk, with the incomparable Ju Ji hoon, and it's on Netflix. Bring it on😨🤤😲☠💀🤢