I was just reading about this (sweet) news about Han moments before I logged on here!! It's sad to hear it might be more bitter-sweet than sweet. The price for fame in this world is incredibly steep.

I'm always deeply troubled by this guilt by association element of Korean culture. Everyone is and should be responsible for their own mistakes. We are already impacted enough by each other's actions in sometimes irreversible ways but to then saddle each other with our choices (or whatever) ...just no👎

Whenever I encounter these scandals, I feel so non-korean: "But ... it's nothing! It's like they say a string of grass is a mountain!"
It shouldn't be a hindrance.

Our actions clearly affect other people.
But I hate it when it occurs in matters like this. This guilt by association is very unhealthy.

And, I hate it that everyone turns FBI mode on people's relationships and marriages. Let the news just not happen on the media and busybody articles spring up here and there. Some don't even let the good news last a day. It is bad behavior.

It's upsetting because it did make me think of Lee Seung Gi and to this day, I'm still disappointed and sad about the affect his relationship had on his career. So many shows and appearance opportunties are just unlikely now.

I hope that doesn't happen to her. It's so unfair.

And it's hypocritical because the culture is like "you must honor and stand by your parents for good or bad" and then it's like "you didn't publicly disavow your parents? You're just as bad if not worse!"
Then the other argument is "the children reap the benefits of the crimes even if the parent who did wrong dies.

From what I understand, the son in this case was a grown man and had nothing to even do with his father's business and yet he's not supposed to be allowed to date or get married?

I was hoping as a fan of Choi Jin Hyuk and Han Jimin that they would meet and fall in love while working on their drama. Well this news means that she was started dating last year and was not available when they were filming their drama the past few months. It's a shame because these actors are both very decent people. I don't know, I see the ten year age gap and his father who bribed and embezzled money as red flags. Money is a huge issue in marriages and you know the saying, "you marry each other's family". Falling in love is easy, but marriage between two families is hard. So choose wisely, Han Jimin...

I was just thinking what good timing it was!

I feel like it was made for you. *wink* I'm convinced your posts gave them the idea. 💯

I'm drooling over your sabbatical. I would love to have that too. Glad it's did its job and you're back in the saddle (that's a good thing though I would take a forever sabbatical anyday!)

Thanks for sharing the stories about the poor treatment of the Korean female athletes. Whatever the country, it almost always seems like these incidents—including some truly horrendous instances of bullying and sexual assault by coaches and team doctors—are much more often perpetrated against female athletes.

Thank goodness this year's Olympics also featured some heartwarming stories—perhaps none so inspiring as the South Sudanese men's basketball team. The team is made up mostly of refugees from an impoverished, war-torn country that doesn't have even a single indoor basketball court. Amazingly, they managed to qualify for one of the 12 Olympic slots, then shocked the world when they came within seconds of winning an exhibition game against a USA team filled with NBA superstars. And then they scored a history-making win over the Puerto Rican team! While they didn't win a medal, just being there was a huge victory.
https://apnews.com/article/2024-olympics-south-sudan-basketball-073a8651367f8d4a6eab158a5a171530

As I've watched the Olympics, I couldn't help but notice how many brown and black athletes were competing under the flags of countries that have turned away, expelled, mistreated, and reviled migrants and refugees, especially the ones from Africa. These countries don't seem to have a problem when the people with dark skin and African-sounding names are winning them Olympic medals. I wonder how many of the rabid white supremacists in the USA would refuse to accept any of the eight medals won by the women's gymnastics team—comprising two African American, one Asian American, one Latina, and one White gymnast.

Feel better soon!

Wishing you a speedy recovery

This is a real problem - when you power through the work and there's nothing left to do! I wished employers would just let us go home 🤩 Hope you feel better soon.

in other news Ukraine is invading Russia now. For people who don´t know why then the reason is Russia would like to freeze borders like the front line but if Ukraine takes part of THEIR land (tho if you ask me, they are just getting back all the stolen toilet bowls), then a peace deal like that would also freeze part of Russia as Ukrainian territory. Second reason is to make Russia pull back their missiles so they dont hit Ukrainian cities. and third is to force Russia to move a generous amount of army away from the southern front.
thats whats going on if you are even following the subject.

Have a delightfully delicious time. It sounds like you have some soul filling things to pick from. I agree, sometimes a little kdrama break is just what the doctor orders. It *is* hard juggling everything life throws at us with the never ending pool of shows (both a positive and negative thing).

Hope you have a great time and good to know that you have planned your time well to not miss any on of your watchlist on air dramas. Looking forward to hearing from you when you are back.

Have a wonderful month, and may your days be filled with enterprise. (I wanted to say "virkelyst", but I guess that word is not translatable. It means to feel keen for doing stuff. Not dutifully, but from sheer joy).

Congrats! 🎉
Have fun with your friends and all your postponed projects!
I hope you have a good rest and "you-time."
Read you soon! XOXO

I agree with you 💯 on moon lovers..I haven't watched Chinese version but kdrama version the things you pointed out was overall opinion as well. I never agreed understood why she left the palace over a maid who was worst than an enemy. I know there are other reasons as well but still. And 4th prince was trying his best in every case and stopd by her all times. She showed more compassion and forgiving to 8th prince who betrayed her and others as well.

Another big downside for MOON LOVERS was IU's sageuk acting - total lack of thereof, precisely - but yes, writing did not give her much help either.

I always thought that the main reason for things eventually turning the way they did there was FL refusing to let go of her modern sensitivities and properly adjust to much harsher reality of a different era. She wanted to be with a loving man who was nice and decent, totally ignoring the fact that nice and decent did not live long in that time and circumstances. Her outlandish demands were impossible to fulfill by ANY of her suitors, hence why all of them, her included, ended up being badly hurt by their entanglement.

For me, Scarlet Heart is one of the *very best* C-dramas in the political/palace intrigue/time slip genre), the best of the three Chinese print-to-screen adaptations of the original novel, and the series that changed my view about what Chinese dramas are capable of. There's a reason why this adaptation became a phenomenon across Asia.

For those of us who understand this particular period, the succession coup after Kang-Xi was one of the bloodiest ever in Chinese history -- involving many princes taking sides around the 4th & 8th. The masterful adaptation captured the nuances, tensions, existential dilemma of this utterly complicated and tangled web of desire, ambition, and divided loyalties, without losing the depth and complexity of characterisation. It was mind-blowingly masterful.

So, for that reason, when I watched the Korean adaptation Moon Lovers when it premiered, I cannot help but compare it to Scarlet Heart unfavorably. It didn't engage me and I think I dropped it maybe after 4-6 eps?

But to be fair, I think the writer's and director's vision and intention are important for adaptation to a different cultural context and Moon Lovers may have something quite different in mind and merely intended to use the original source text & historical events as a springboard to examine other thematic concerns?

The 2011 Chinese Scarlett Heart is more about how a free-spirited, modern career woman slowly got crushed by the oppression inherent in the feudal system tha a love story. The young Ruoxi was still spirited and larghed a lot and she still dreamt that she could some day be free. However, after she entered the palace, she became more and more cautious as the stake became higher and higher and she herself became a pawn in the game. Except for the 13th prince, none of the other princes treated her equally despite the 4th, 8th,10th and 14th princes claiming to love her at one time or other. Yes, the 4th and 8th might love her, but the 8th prince loved his ambition more and the 4 th prince's lust for revenge outweight any love he had for Ruoxi (his boiling of Yutan was unforgiveable). Among the princes, I liked the 13th prince most as he truly understood and supported Ruoxi no matter what she did. His friendship with Ruoxi was very touching. As for Kangxi, although it seems he likes Ruoxi even saying she reminded him his daughter who was married very far away, when Ruoxi disobeyed him for the first time, he ordered her beaten and assigned her to the water yard doing hard labor. This is the system in which Ruoxi tried her best to preserve her best and help those round her. No wonder she got depression and her last wish was to leave the palace and the 4th prince.

W Two Worlds is a great example of this.

More recently for me, My Sweet Mobster and My Lovely Runner. I haven't finished both.

I recall this was the reaction after SOMETHING IN THE RAIN concluded.

Cheese in the Trap, Business Proposal, DoDoDoLaLaSol. They all have a time skip at the end. Coincidence?

Let's be real here - it's 90+% of them. Asian drama that doesn't become a trainwreck in the latter half/third and stick the landing with finale? Borderline fantasy stuff)))

I utterly adore first 8 (or 9, it's been a while) episodes of a largely forgotten oldie that is ME TOO FLOWER, it's my brainless retro makjang guilty pleasure show. Everything prior to FL discovering ML's real identity is pure fun in the most ridiculous way possible, but after that point nothing about the drama works anymore, even lackluster forced HE for everyone. Talk about killing trope...

Heartbeat

I don't think I will be rewatching, but I was really hyped about Nam-soon. Didn't stay hyped, though.
It had the wild craziness combined with many important subjects that I hoped would develop into a truly interesting drama, taking up difficult matters in a fairytale way.
But it just took up difficult matters chomp on them and threw them on the ground, littering all over.
Freaking Fairytale did not take up difficult subjects, but it kept the absurdity and the fun, treating it's main love story, all the way through. Only after I found out that the writer of Freaking Fairytale had written the two first episodes og Nam-soon and all of Bong-soon. So who can say what would have happened if she had been able to keep the read thread of Nam-soon?
Also, Mr. Queen is one that I have seen more than once already, but I start rewriting it in my head from ... about halfways, I think.
To me, that chef stays inside his new body and finds true love.
Also, in my head I have a season 2, where the suicidal queen pops up in our time in a handsome man's body and finds life so easy she can hardly believe it.

Memories of the Alhambra. Actually, other ppl say it went off the rails - if it was ever on them in the first place - but I genuinely enjoyed it from start to finish. Guilty pleasure, I guess?

I liked the first half of Nice Guy and wanted it to continue it that vein. I rewatched the first 10 episodes last year. But everything after that accident and amnesia it was a trainwreck.
Recent dramas I liked the first half or episodes prior to when it became a poor narrative choices were Queen of Tears, Lovely Runner and Heartbeat.

Gosh, sounds very busy. I hope that the self care strategies work and things settle soon. I am so sorry to hear about your family health situation.

I have spent far too much time for it to be healthy just arguing with transphobes and ehm ... variationphobes? online. Somebody has to say nice things in those discussions once in a while. I know some transgender persons that get really hurt from all that hate, so it's not fair for them to be alone defending the fact that sex/gender is not as simple as some wants it to be. Even under articles of scientists explaining that fact, some people are being the worst gatekeepers you could imagine. I'll spare you the details, they are tiring.
Let's instead remember Biles and Chiles cheering the goldwinner from their silver- and bronze podiums.
😍🥈😍🥇😍🥉

Have a good rest and recharge this weekend, Sunny.
I hope spring treats you nice. I envy the people that can enjoy seasons. All I know is "hot." And good luck with your book!
I'm sorry to hear about your family, send you lots of hugs.
(DB woke up hating my guts today, so if you see this comment three times, I'm really sorry).

This song I believe I posted before – its way more famous (like 2.5M views on YT alone famous) version, but this time I've found it subbed! Granted, with lyrics it's not all that depressing anymore plus that one line in the chorus gives me a LONG pause, but I'm too lazy to be picky about that. Title is epic though – almost too epic, I kinda feel the rest of the song is not on par - “Ten thousand times of sorrow”. Would've make a great xianxia drama, probably...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-g0KNZgGDk

Now those are the shoulders that look perfectly leanable, finally! More post-breakup poetry – at least this time the hero is not very petty and fully intends to move on himself. Someday. With a lot of effort. Good for him, I guess. Hence the title “Forget the time”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv-LQerHN9s

Dat thumbnail, lmao! On a serious note, it sounds REALLY sad – even his voice nearly cracking multiple times and funnily unruly hair that keeps sticking out (which is a common big problem for him, we'll discuss it in detail later, it's a really funny topic) couldn't liven things up very much. Title is “One star”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZfnl2nF5VE

And then I've also found a subbed version and man, those lyrics are freaking EXTRA! Author needs to chill a bit, really. The “I've exhausted my tenderness for you” line is simply brutal, you can probably kill and bury someone with that wording... Respect^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ETDtUvcYY

Bonus: Ning-ge wishing us a warm upcoming autumn with his hotness, I presume – was that bedroom glare truly necessary?! in the middle of filming yet another variety show. Which will air in few days, I believe, so we'll get even more pretty:
https://x.com/liu_yuning08/status/1821190620821528840

Happy Friday, Chingu!

Thanks for Yuning love as always!

Thanks for all the LYN videos! 😊

Hope your week gets better!

Yes, it rings a bell, but I don't remember which one either.

I have seen a youtube clip of a guy proposing on kiss camera and be rejected, I believe it was IRL, or else they had very succesfully made everyone act like audience.

That sounds familiar! I didn't see the whole thing but I saw a special or whatever it's called on YouTube. I remember it because it featured Lee Seung Gi's Will You Marry Me (I think it was that song) and a ghost haha

Ah! I don't remember the title or who was in it. Fairly certain the title involves the word "ghost"

There is a public proposal with a "no" in cdrama Exploration method of love.

FATED TO LOVE YOU, perhaps? I don't remember initial episodes in great detail, but it does begin with Jang Hyuk's character planning a grand Macao resort proposal to his then girlfriend who shuts him down right at the start of it because she isn't ready yet or smt and uses overseas job offer excuse to bail on him and this whole mess.

I think there are quite a few Beanies (myself among them) who use spreadsheets to keep track of their Kdrama watching. Some of them are incredibly detailed and elaborate.

I started using a spreadsheet very early on in my k-drama watching when I realized how many I wanted to watch lol! I needed a way to sort and prioritize. It made me feel like a complete dork at the time but now I'm melded to my drama tracker 😉

I use a spreadsheet to order the drama to watch, and keep a tally of the tropes.
I have made a template, it is with other ressources : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16vrpxsSwfc6FGA-8-ZXnzI9w3Ch7ebkm