Baeksang must be regretting nominating Seo Ye-ji for Best Actress. I just hope Oh Jung-se wins his well-deserved Best Supporting Actor award despite the Seo Ye-ji cloud hanging over It's Okay to Not Be Okay (and despite winning the same category last year). Two Best Actor nominees Kim Soo-hyun and Lee Jun-ki worked with her, but Shin Ha-kyun should win hands down unless he takes the Daesang. (My heart belongs to Song Joong-ki, but it's an honor to be nominated.)

If her scandal had broke earlier, Seo Ye-ji would have never been nominated like Jo Byung-gyu and Kim Dong-hee who I think were shoo-ins for Best New Actor nominations. Even Nam Yoon-soo was nominated for Extracurricular. I'm rooting for Lee Do-hyun but expect the winner to be Song Kang due to his popularity.

I'm only just catching up on this sordid mess, and wow. If the story is to be believed, SYJ and ex-bf KJH are both too immature and controlling to be professionals in an industry where all their actions are under constant scrutiny. That's going to be a bitter pill to swallow for the actors and for the fans.

I am sure that most of the accusations are overblown, but that does not mean they never happened. Korean netizens can be pretty brutal, and are often far too prone to run with half-baked rumors and accusations. In the past I have seen a lot of "jump on the bandwagon" in Korean social media when it comes to celebs - in one case a claim that one made about sexual assault that was later proven to be totally false (the poster was 5 years apart and in a different city).

I always believe that people are different when they are in a toxic relationship. It brings out the worst in you. I definitely am not going to sit and judge them for what transpired in their relationship (although a lot of netizens are) but it is a problem when it affects people outside of their relationship.
Stories of her narcissism and many more and blowing up on the internet just in the moment she got nominated for a Baeksang. Stories if staff members calling her a "diva" and "rude" and one even said she made them go buy cigarettes for her (?). The standards for western artists vs for korean artists are so different. I am the same person who laughed at Cardi B hitting someone on a show, calling the Kardashian and their toxicity "iconic", I watched people worshipping Mariah Carey for being a "diva" (sometimes just plain unprofessional) and did the same et cetra. This perfection that is expected out of these celebrities are insane and I'm honestly frustrated.
Hoping to see Ye Ji soon! I really hope she wins that, although looking at everything I even believe they might change the winner (if she was intended to win). Ugh

I agree with you. Whatever the language, there's nothing so engaging as adults, adulting.

Thanks for the suggestions! I've been enjoying cdramas lately, most recently Go Ahead - so, so heartwarming.

I'm barely into it, but like what I've seen so far of The First Half of My Life.
Yes, I can some how watch multiple eps that are 30 to 45 minutes long easier than one k drama ep of an hour and 10 minutes.

I like all these elements in Chinese contemporary dramas too but they are actually hard to come by. One show of adults being mature was You are My Hero, I enjoyed it thoroughly because of the leads and their equality but it isn't groundbreaking.
Also I'd like to know about The First Half of My life because I watched a little bit of it a while back and it seemed like it was shot in a time when China was still adopting these concepts of equality but was still not there so the male lead was a little off putting to me and a certain dialogue made me quit it. Though that means I didn't watch all of it so I'm not sure if it got better. I've been trying to watch Thirty but Nothing since when it was released but region restrictions didn't let that happen. How about the Twenties counterpart, Twenty your life on? It isn't as mature and is more of a naive, youthful take but still with interesting different females and the show keeps them first till the end.
The Cdrama format is so bingeable and watchable that kdramas look excessively long now.

I supposed you meant Chinese, so I will take the risk of recommending you my favorites:
-Le coup de Foudre
-My amazing boyfriend
-Go Ahead
-Dating in the kitchen
-Go go squid
-My little happiness
-Put your head on my shoulders
And most recently: today watching the finale:
-You are my hero

I hope you like my suggestions!

Thanks for the recommendations Cloggie. It seems lately the only modern cdramas I've started have been decidedly too young for my current tastes.

Also, yes, the shorter episode lengths are a definite draw.

Totally agree with you on the episode lengths - Vincenzo looks fun but the long episodes have kept me from trying it out. 2 x 45 min much easier to sign up for.

@smaltwalt Some more recs in this thread for you!

I tried watching Chinese dramas years ago and didn't care for them. I didn't feel the writing or the acting was up to Korean standards Now that I'm pretty caught up on Kdramas, I'd love to check out Chinese dramas again. Thanks for the recommendations from all that weighed in.

1 and half month and still haven't ventured out.
Amazon fully dumped with Chinese cheap products still makes out much of my shopping. And there scrolling around saw something and i remembered someone got a job as a professor in Korea and there i had mentioned that its a land that can preach against racism and discrimination. And here we had a loony loony wall of text talking about it and shamelessly playing the victim card. When ur majority n are from privileged class then everything looks shinny and beautiful and conveniently others plights are ignored and even rejected violently but as soon as you become the minority, u r forced to step into new area n everything blows in your face. Facemasks anywhere are always the same. Most humans are like that. You are voicing the right concern but then where do these same guts go when others at receiving end?
Perpetrator to victim to perpetrator the game of ping-pong plays swiftly in this human world and facemasks have the gall to speak about it. Such delusional beings think themselves of as saints.

Justice for SSR!

I’ve never paid attention to the Baeksang awards before either but I was curious to see if Lee Seung Gi would get nominated for Mouse because it’s clearly a change of pace for him - I didn’t think he would because his character isn’t really doing much in the first third of Mouse, and he wasn’t ...and I was still kind of disappointed.

(He did get nominated for the variety performer category in part for Busted 3, and it is a mystery to me why anyone would get nominated for that show. It’s hard work to watch. I haven’t managed to finish it).

Anyway. Kairos was great! Awards shows no measure of quality!

Ha! That's interesting. I've always thought these two entertainment worlds were ripe for a crossover, but I figured it would happen in the CF world first.

That's interesting! Thanks for sharing.

I'm on edge right here with you. Vincenzo has helped a lot. And some chocolate banana bread because sometimes you just need to eat your feelings.

I get those ant infestations every 3-4 years it seems. Best fix I have found is the Terro baits. They are non-toxic and very effective. You can buy locally or from Amazon. It might take 3-4 days to totally eliminate them.

protests... are you a CNN "reporter" :) ?

Oth are great, 1N2D is weekly regular for me!

Oops Navillera that is ...

I’m so on the fence with what they’re doing on Master in the House at the moment - I like some of the ideas (like spending more time with the guests, and it feels like they’re making better use of Eun Woo) but I wasn’t a big fan of the hidden camera prank, and in general I’m not into the gimmicks (like, the latest master was moderately interesting but I could have done without the dressing up the whole time).

Exams always sneak up like that 😅 you’ve been preparing a lot and I’m sure you’ll do well!

Oh.. you must miss your friend very much right? *sad too*

Paddling in the sea sounds so good it made my heart skip a beat. I think that for today’s world, it isn’t that difficult anymore to travel to meet each other so I believe it’s gonna be ok. The bad news in the US and everywhere made me sad, I hope everyone is safe wherever they’re.

Commiseration: feeling on and off sick with spring allergies so New Journey to the West might be on my watch list soon. I love pollen - it keeps me humble. Some friends are so missed when they move far away. Zoom chats and phone calls are no substitute for long walks/talks and days at the beach. Where in the States?

Good choice for horizontal marathoning!

I have watched bits of other seasons
but only watched and enjoyed NJTTW season 1. Maybe because I watched it for LSG but the narrative felt very organic too, 3 people involved in past scandals go on a journey to cleanse away start their new life and return to the entertainment industry. It was very laid back while being hilarious. Sometimes K variety goes over the top in comedy hence I loved the laid back while being hilarious approach.

😢

I am so totally with you on this. As a person living in the US I am just saddened and sick at the amount of shootings, just in the last month alone!
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢