Beanie level: Errand boy

There are some scenes in Defendant I remembered perfectly, and there are some I’d completely forgotten about and have LOVED all over… like the dancing trucks of doom in ep 15.

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Ugh. Every time. I just finished ep.13 of Defendant and EVERY time I go off into imagination land and start rewriting the last 30 seconds. And then again at the end of ep 15. NOOOOOOO

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Update: after watching ep 3-4 of Wedding Impossible AND the preview my verdict is..

I need MoOooRRrreEE!!! It was not nearly enough to satisfy for a week.

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    These episodes were really good!! Much more engrossing than I was expecting! Looking forward to the next episodes…

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      Right? I’m loving that it feels a bit like an older style rom com, but also feels well executed. It takes some serious skill to make me actually really like a male lead that definitely has some learning to do in the “treat others as agents unto themselves” realm, but he’s totally a favorite character. I think it’s because all the characters have some truly redeeming qualities and some obvious flaws that just make them fun to watch.

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    Ikr! I thought the ep 3-4 previews looked super fun, but ep 5 looks even more fun!!

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    I feel you. Haven’t had that longing for the next episode for a while. Can I have it NOW!?

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    Really the drama schedules are all kinds of skewed. What we want doesn’t drop soon enough and what we would prefer in small bites drops the entire drama. Phooey!!

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      Lol right? I kind of miss the Wed-Thurs drama slot. A lot of stations kind of shut it down or gave it to other programs, but I liked my mid week dramas haha

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Random Thought: Missing 9 was a Hot Mess, but it was stupid funny sometimes.

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Hot Take: Wedding Impossible had a great premiere!

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Hot take: King the Land’s parachute to work scene may be more famous, but Gaus Electronics’ is funnier.

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    Sadly, “Gaus Electronics” did not have the popularity that “King the Land” had, so even if the latter looks like it copied from the former, people are going to remember the parachute scene only from KTL

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    💯 I wish I had more watch time because Gaus really needs a rewatch. I laughed so hard watching it the first time.

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    Gaus electronics really was on point, that character’s representation throughout the drama, the timing of the drop, the dead pan way they showed it. It was a masterclass in comedy moments.

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    Hee … ah! the travails of being a Netflix show with a Daesang winner. 😊✅

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    Apparently his 2PM members wanted to know if Junho “commutes by parachuteN?

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Question for @reply1988 or any beanie who know the answer.. when you get two notifications for the same comment (reply and commented on post) do both take you directly to the comment?

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    In the last week or so I’ve noticed that the notification links frequently take me to the middle of the original post that we’re all commenting on. I figured it was a glitch.

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      Right? But on a more usual basis they should both take you just to the one that you need to read, right? It won’t take you to a parent comment ever?

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        Yes, up until about a week ago, the link would take me directly to the post that was liked or replied to, even if multiple people had liked/replied to it. But suddenly it’s not doing that. It’s not even taking me to the comment at all… just somewhere in the vicinity 😂 But not all the time. Sometimes it works! 🤷🏼‍♀️

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        Ordinarily no … but I guess sometimes in a thread / post with a large no. of comments you get dropped off at the parent comment. If that happens, I try to search for latest comments by the date or by my display name.

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    The links are the same. Whether or not they actually take you to the comment is a function of your operating system, web browser, and amount of patience you have.

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    The most hilarious one is when someone replies to a comment you made on your own post, and mentions you in it! Then you get three! 😂 But yes, if they lead anywhere at all, they lead to the same place.

    I find I often get dropped off somewhere close by, but sometimes it works great and takes me straight there.

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      All three are “supposed” to take you to the same place… usually it works sometimes you gotta figure it out. 🤷‍♀️

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@obsessedmuch once upon a time in the sands of DB you were featured in a bean of wisdom. It made me smile today 🙂
https://www.dramabeans.com/2016/04/and-now-your-beans-of-wisdom/#comment-2130032

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    😭 😱 Thank you for mining gold nuggets from the archives. Blast from the past is most welcome.

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    Beans of Wisdom – how I miss thee!

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      It was a fun feature! The site is so big now it’d be a serious task to mine all the comments everywhere to pull out the nuggets, but I like that they incorporated a part of the idea into the would you rather posts by highlighting some answers

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      They did try it out a couple of times in the last couple of years but there wasn’t a lot of activity in the comments.

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    I had one comment featured back in the day. Then there were those repeat witty offenders like @lordcobol who seemed to have one every time!

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      Right? I had a featured comment once and was very pleased hahaha… I don’t remember what it was now, though.

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Ok friends, question of the week: what does DB mean to you?

My short answer: it’s the place I learned to express my love of kdramas to strangers with confidence.

@sicarius @seeker @reply1988

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    As a reference, the inspiration for this little questionnaire (thank you Reply1988!) Is Javabean’s 2019 post

    https://www.dramabeans.com/2019/06/community-what-dramabeans-means-to-me/

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      What a walk down the memory with this last writing from JB! Thanks @cozybooks – just wondering if you’d like to share this JB piece with the wider community via Open Threads or the weekly what are you watching?

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        I actually just had that thought myself when I saw the OT – I think I may go post it if it hasn’t been already 🙂

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    Also, to kick things off, here’s a longer answer for me: I first found dramabeans back when I relied on recaps more heavily to decide whether or not to watch something. So the first thing that dramabeans meant to me was a source for spoilers and insightful opinions on a show.

    It took me several years to actually decide to post a comment. I was a very shy youth and grew up in a not-so-technology savvy home (or at least, one more reserved when it came to online communities). Still, something drove me to branch out of my comfort zone. A quick search to my oldest comment page tells me it was finals, driving me mad. And so, at the end of December in 2015, cozybooks was born.

    After that Dramabeans was a land of experimentation, a place where I could try out being funny and squealing over dramas. It feels fitting that right after I made my first comment I was swept up in the beauty of Signal and spent a lot of comments giving thoughts and letting other beanies know that yes, the hype was worth it.

    The more I expressed myself, the more confident I got. So much so that I now feel comfortable sharing things about myself (although I try not to give anything actually identifying away, cus internet safety). So Dramabeans became a place not only to share my love of dramas, but also other things about who I am – cooking and Lee Jong Suk and webtoons and life.

    In the end, to borrow @seeker ‘s idea and a nod to the recent DB post about “comfort characters” ( https://www.dramabeans.com/2024/02/drama-chat-comfort-characters/ ) I think DB has really become a comfort place for me – one that I can always come back to and enjoy easily, even if I take long stretches away at times. Happy Seollal beanies, I’m glad you all exist!

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      Loving your sentiments about db community!

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        thanks! It’s been super fun to really find a place I feel like I’ve got online friends haha- my husband has even commented about it before just that it’s fun. He’s into video games so he has a few acquaintances on certain games, but nothing as in depth as some of the conversations I get into on DB 🙂

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          I know what you mean. Reply 1988 hoped my brother might jump on, but he isn’t inclined to do so in the least. He does like it when I share some db commends on dramas we’re watching, though . And for the record, we started Crash Landing on You following finishing up Flowers in the Sand. It’s a rewatch for me, but I don’t mind.

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            That’s so fun! Haha you never know.. 3 or 5 years down the road he could be here right alongside us. These things take time^^ my husband loved Flower of Evil and enjoys the occasional kdrama ocassionally, but he’s more into western TV at the moment. We binge cooking shows together hehe (Secret Chef, anyone?)

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            Nation of Broth and Nation og Banchan are good foodie shows, 3-4 eps each.

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    It was a place where I could finally be frustrated about K-dramas and find someone who agreed and still wanted to watch them.

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      ❤ 🤣 I didn’t find you being frustrated about Nam-soon … you were totally simping over the evil one. 😜

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        I was both!
        I was so happy about where I imagined that drama could go and didn’t. I simped over pretty what’shisname, but also, in the end I almost just giffed him beacuse everything else was so horrible. Like, okay, Si-oh was the evil one, but our cute hero was a cop, who attacked a man to arrest him (fair enough) pushed him to the ground (not so hard considering the man’s leg was hurt, probably broken already) and the proceeded to stomp hard and determined on that man’s broken leg!
        OOohhh, how cute! And one of his great romantic lines in the end was about how he could teach their superstrong offspring to use her powers for good! Stomping on broken legs, I presume.
        Nam-soon is only halfway a good example, because everybody else stopped watching it. But at least I would find people here who like Byeon Woo-seok and also don’t love the mindless copaganda.
        But you see, in my house I have someone who is of an analytic mind and loves long TV-shows, but who gets offended if I even mention K-dramas, because they are on a background of so little wokeness that Friends almost seems like one of those new shows, you know, Atypical, Sex Education, Heartbreak High, Heartstopper, The Sexual Lives of College Girls, Dear White People and She-ra.
        I am, as I have said before, interested in the glimpses of other stories that seep through the cracks of commerciality and conformity – the whole concept of seeped truths is, to me, something to be excited about – but another reason for me to look for those stories was in a hope to get into a conversation about it here in my home. But … that ain’t happening, I guess.
        So I am glad I can come to you guys and say those things.
        Because of this site, I also ended up on Viki Rakuten. I sometimes really miss the commenting possibility when I am on Netflix, because something on the screen makes me want to say “That thing right there: Here’s my opinion (in a few words)”.
        But also, the comments on Viki has made me see people who actually think that Honey Lee should mourn her (un-)dead fiancé that she has never met, and that it would be virtuous for her to commit suicide. People who will use that comment possibility to talk at length about how old and ugly she is. People who are big time slut-shaming, or where those over-virtuous representations of sexual harassment – I mean, where the drama has made it clear in one, two, many ways that the heroine cannot be blamed for it – and they really need all those arguments to accept her innocence. You know, the type where being attracted to someone and smiling at them is as good as throwing yourself naked in a bed with open arms and spread … spreadsheets. (Spreadsheets – that’s when the bed is made, right? THe sheets have been spread).

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          So I encounter those reactionary misogynists that make it necessary to just let the less conventional parts of reality seep through little cracks in the story about perfect leads who suffer all kinds of abuse rather than just saying “I would do the dishes, but I have already prepared the food, washed two machines and ironed the clothes that needed ironing, and now I need to hurry to do that thing that is important to me personally” or worse, saying: “I will not forgive you for calling me worthless sh*t and beating me unconscious, grandpa”.
          Here on Dramabeans, I meet people who are woke and curious and also like to just swoon.

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            Of course Beans like to swoon just as hard as any hot blooded person (male, female or alien) but that we also appreciate the said and unsaid words, gestures, color pallette of the drama.
            I’m not on any social media but I can’t even imagine posting pictures of Rowoon in flower suit in any other site and having such fun conversations.

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          Cecile your sheer determination and strength of will to continue with Nam-soon to the bitter end was applaude worthy. It was just an example of your wish to see the good in all and your willingness to go to any lengths for it.

          This is what I appreciate most about you. ❤ 😊

          As you have said it is eye-opening to see how other people see and react to the dramas that we are watching and at times having such diverse reactions.

          I love that DB makes every Bean felt “heard“. While we would ALL love to be able to talk about things that we love (i.e. K-dramas) to our loved ones I think it is not always possible and if possible not to the depths we here at DB plummet to. But like all K-drama MLs these days we have a fellow Bean who swims down and stretches out their hands to save us.

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          People who want to judge Honey Lee vis-a-vis her age or looks need to look at the mirror themselves. 😜 While “the internet” is rife with such drivel, I would like to believe us Beans are more discerning and respectful. That is what makes me love and want to protect this community.

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            Honey Lee is straight up FIRE I love her haha. I can tell that she’s older than the ML, but that’s really a bit of a non-issue for me considering 1) that’s actually what the drama is going for with the “widow of 15 years thing 2) I tend to have a highish tolerance for age gaps in kdrama relationships and 3) oh my gosh their CHEMISTRY. I die. I live. I die.

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            And she was fun in Modern Farmer. And Pasta~

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          Extra PS:
          I have periods of time where I am intensely interested in this or that creative thing, and since I had my gif skills updated (thank you, especially @attiton and @healer ) it has mostly been gifs filling up my time, (except e.g. this last couple of weeks where I have spent a growing amount of time producing a costume for my youngest).
          Apart from sheer drooling material, and what in the old Daily Shows would be called “moments of Zen”, I am always hoping that the gifs will have others agreeing, disagreeing, or even better, agreeing but with a different shade of view point.
          So I am really happy for everyone who are kind enough to enjoys those gifs.

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            ^^ Cecilie you want to thank @claire2009 for your giff-ing!! 😅

            Healer is a Candy with 5 comments who last posted in 2017. If they decide to log in they would be amazed by the sheer amount of notifications (including a few on mine) they would be inundated with.

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            We love Love LOVE your gifs – thanks to Seon-ha and Claire ALL our Fanwalls are alit and aglow!!

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            I’m impressed by your dress making skillz!!

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            Sorry, @claire2009 Healer’s … not the first time I mixed that up.
            Just imagine you are being appreciated and thanked by a lot of people who get your tag wrong, like me.

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            We only made the tulle skirt, and it looks very homemade. But the dress needed to be found at a reasonable prize used and then treated in the way the Weird Barbie’s dress obviously has been treated.
            Which was a challenge, but obviously easier than sewing a dress with puffed sleeves and all.

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            @CecilieK Don’t be sorry. Tbh, I don’t always remember my tag name, I usually thought it was claire09, leaving out the “20”. It was the year my first son was born.
            @Seeker That beanie healer joined DB before I did, and when I wanted to choose “healer” for my account name, it was already taken, that’s why I could only use it for my display name. I really wish to see healer active on DB again and to talk to them, they must have loved Healer as much as we did, so at least that’s in common. And I’m sure they’d understand, even be amused by, all the wrong tags 😄 Sometimes I’d like to think they are still active here but under a different account, because of all the forgotten passwords.

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            @claire2009 I would love for Healer to be active. I’ll be sure to follow them around and tag them. 😊🥳

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            Oooh I’d love a picture of the final creation when you finish the dress!

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            @cozybooks As I said, we only sewed the tulle skirt – the dress was bought secondhands and distressed, abandoned-doll-style with paint and an old tyre. Because of its non-K-drama-relatedness, I just put it on this link:
            https://imgur.com/a/hgoav8E

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            This is beyond awesome!! 😍
            You are as good a seamstress as a gif-maker!!
            Thank you for sharing.

            **Whispers** – Cozy thank you for asking Cecilie to show us this beauty. ❤

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            Thank you!
            I am unseamly (ha) proud of those costumes every year. I hope my kids will continue for some years yet attending costume parties, and asking for help, because it is such a fun way to be creative. Thank God their kindergarten as well as their school was full of people who went all in.

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            😍 You should be proud. I so wish I could attend such a party too. 🥳

            I hope your girls have lots of fun and make many good memories.

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        Oh, and PS: As much as I like those seeped stories, the stories-in-the-cracks, I am so much NOT a fan of the spelled out philosophic morals that are almost unavoidable in K-dramas. The one most often represented as a soft voice-over of someone saying truisms that are not even necessarily true, I mean , there’s the “As we get older, we learn to appreciate time while it slips between our fingers” – yes, that is true, but you don’t have to say that, just someone saying that “It must be great to be young”-thing they say tells me that, and also, Bonnie Raitt, and the “Mother’s know instinctively …” STOP RIGHT THERE! No, we don’t. Sometimes we know our family enough that things are obvious to us that others don’t see – and I could tell some funny stories there – but we effing don’t know this and that instinctively, or no child would ever suffer from eating disorders, for a start, or be bullied at school for years, or some of the many other things that parents don’t know about and get miserable about and sometimes defensive (because we feel we should have had prevented it) when we find out.

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          Mothers, plural, not mother’s, genitive. Though it could be fun pondering what that would be. Mother’s what? Brain? Boyfriend? Her cat? Mother’s Best Friend?

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          Moralizing was an intrinsic part of K-dramas, what you see now is a watered-down down version. It was never endearing but almost a trope. Now with “globalization” of K-dramas this aspect is tempered down quite a bit.

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            when would you say the shift began? I feel like there are some that still do, but I like them way better than the hit you over the head stuff. Case in point I think Forest of Secrets 2 had a lot to say about corruption. But it was still rather subtle about it (although less so than the first in the philosophical messaging imo)

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            Cozy, the shift in tone is somewhat recent say 5-6 years. Its not all gone considering “moral lessons” are such an intrinsic part of K-dramas but yes it is somewhat less “hit over the head” and more by the way “insert moral sermonizing”.

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        because he was the only character that came with an in-built personality. The rest of them were two-dimensional idiots from start to finish. I’d have saved Si-oh (the evil one) 100 times over Nam-soon. Actually I’d have sacrificed Nam-soon for Si-oh. Not because he’s cute (Nam-soon was cute too at first) but because he has survived so long by himself and still had it in him to have faith in friendship.

        If I were to romanticise his character, I’d say there is a much more beautiful soul in there that believed in friendship when life has been just darkness than in Nam-fucking-soon, who has been surrounded by unconditional love from start to finish and still choose to lie to, hurt, and destroy Si-oh like the little brainless parasite she was written to be. I hate using a word like soul, it’s full of fluffiness but it means nothing at all. But I can’t find a better word for now.

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      And the first time I heard a voice being critical while also loving a drama same as me was either Seon-ha @attiton or @reply1988 I believe late summer last year. Thank you, it made me very happy.
      I will award you both the Beanies’ Swoon’N’Brood prize.
      And Cera, to you, I hand the Beanies’ Listen’N’Speak prize. Which is better understood as the antonym to Simon’N’Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence”. Those lines:

      “People talking without speaking
      People hearing without listening”

      You are the good part of those constellations.

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      That is friendship right there! To be able to love something and get frustrated over it together and still know we both love it (not the specific drama itself necessarily but just the experience and getting to be frustrated at it together)

      ..I watched Blue Beetle with my husband, brother and sister-in-law over the Christmas break. There was much frustration to be had, and it was so funny.

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    Thank you for posting such wonderful topic and sharing your journey. I love both your TL;DR and long answer.

    My love of DB and K-dramas are inextricably linked. I love you Beans!!

    An expression of my love is here. 👇

    https://www.dramabeans.com/members/Seeker/activity/1449689/

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    I’ve made myself a cup of coffee and now preparing my answer, updating a comment of mine on my fanwall some months ago in a conversation with emsel.

    My first Kdramas were in the late 1990s (You and I, Did we really love), so I have watched Kdramas for a longgg time. But I didn’t pay much attention to details like the subject matters, or the acting skills… back then. The little girl that was me back then was simply mesmerised by the actors’ good look and gorgeous outfits. Now I still watch Kdramas for entertainment, but I have learnt to appreciate both major and minor details of a show, and thus my watching experience feels very different; in other words, the emotional reward from watching a Kdrama is much greater now.

    But I also became picky over time. I don’t like melo, makjang, romcom anymore. From around 2010 to 2020, I didn’t watch any new Kdramas. All Kdrama watching then was rewatching, if any. Thanks to Crash landing on you, my love for Kdramas was awakened and I had a good dramathon during the last 4 years. I started to feel that I must join some community that is dedicated to Kdrama discussions, that’s when I joined DB. I think it was around the time I watched Pretty Noona. Jung Hae In was the first actor that made me think “what it would feel to be spending some time with this guy?” I joined DB to like comments under Pretty Noona recaps and to give my two cents. But actually, I had been to DB site several times before that, when I googled something Kdrama-related, but I wasn’t aware about how rich the contents here were back then, I simply thought it was a recapping site. I didn’t know it’s a whole community here with its own traditions and etiquette, and all the more amazingly when all that is based on utter anonymity. And since then, from a mere lurker, I have participated much more in discussions with my less than proficient English. I keep a note of drama-related new words I learned from beanies, which is very long now.

    There were times when I was busy with real life and didn’t have time for Kdramas, and I felt like a part of me was missing. To me, Kdramas is not a means to kill time but make part of who I am. They, albeit being fiction, help me contemplate life and human relationships. Just like the post graduate journey helped me identify myself some years ago, watching Kdramas is another meaningful (lifelong) journey. Going to DB is such an indispensible part of my Kdrama-watching experience. You guys are so insightful, I’m in awe most of the time I’m here.
    (to be cont.)

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      (cont.)
      I stumbled upon javabeans’ farewell post some months ago, and got so emotional reading her heartfelt words. But I’ve read it only once. Although I may have pasted the link to that post here and there, I won’t be reading it again any time soon, because it just feels sad. I just hope I would always be able to find you guys somewhere on the internet, even when DB site may not be here anymore. Am I selfish? Because even I can’t give you my words that I will always be there for you to find, because life happens, and we are not sure about the future. But I mean to say what happens on DB has enriched my life in a way so unexpected, and I am so very grateful for that. Because after all, it’s real people talking about life using fiction as a medium.

      ❤️❤️❤️

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        I guess this thread is going to make me cry buckets. ❤ 😊

        Thank you Claire for describing your DB journey so beautifully.

        Your sentences resonate with the emotional heft of so many Beans.

        the emotional reward from watching a Kdrama is much greater now

        it’s real people talking about life using fiction as a medium

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          Seconding @seeker:

          Because after all, it’s real people talking about life using fiction as a medium.

          Claire, that’s just everything, isn’t it?? I’m 100% with you. Sometimes you need something/someone else to show you what you want to see about yourself. And sometimes, you are the model that helps others in that same way.

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        This! It is just so heartfelt, and when I re-read it yesterday there were parts that gave me such hope JB and GF still come and lurk occasionally, or that they have plans for another grand adventure somewhere.. DB will always be DB though, and I’m grateful they built the place they did.

        I just hope that wherever they are, they’re doing well and feeling fulfilled with where their lives have taken them.

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      Thank you for sharing!! I absolutely loved reading this. I just think it’s so cool that you’ve watched dramas for so long, even if you did take a decade break.

      Did you ever go back and watch shows from the 20teens then? I feel like 2017 was a great year for dramas for me (at least, I either LOVED them or didn’t) and would love to know your thoughts and if you have any favorites from that era now.

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        I love 2017 dramas . I watched loads of them and couldn’t believe all the ones I really enjoyed for that feel good boost were from that year. I wish I had known about K-dramas then and DB it sounds like there was a lot of fun in the comments and great material to be talking about.

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        Yes, after CLOY, I went back and watch as many as I could. I missed all Hallyu 20teens’ hits (such as You from the stars, Reply 1988, Healer, Pretty Noona…) during their live airing, and then consumed them during covid. I didn’t keep tracks of shows I watched but I remember my K-crushes along the way, so basically I’ve watched many if not all shows of a favourite actor. 2020 was my year of Jung Hae In, Lee Sang Yoon, Lee Jong Suk, Ji Chang Wook. 2021 was when I discovered Junho, 2022 Woo Do Hwan, 2023 Seo Kang Joon and Lee Je Hoon. During the last 4 years, I watched a lot, but also rewatched a lot. So I think as a beanie, the number of shows I have watched is still less than average.

        My most favourite shows that I watched after their live airing:
        Misaeng 2014
        Reply1988 2015
        Healer 2015
        Signal 2016
        Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok Joo 2016-2017
        Forest of Secrets 2017 and 2020
        Mad dog 2017
        Wok of love 2018
        Life 2018
        Are you human too? 2018
        Confession 2019
        Watcher 2019
        Move to heaven 2021
        Taxi driver 2021 and 2023

        Looking at this, I think 2017 was indeed a great year for Kdramas for me too. If I’m not mistaken, Chicago typewriter is also a 2017 show. I didn’t love it as much as shows mentioned above, but it is a show I enjoyed a lot.

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          Oh my gosh that actually sounds like the best quarantine experience ever. To get to watch MLFAS, Healer, possible Signal and Forest of Secrets ALL for the first time one on top of the other?! How did you come down off the high??!

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            ❤ Cozy, that’s such an awesome way to describe it!

            To quote @Sicarius‘ perfect life philosophy – “why watch shitty shows when Healer exists”!!  

            https://www.dramabeans.com/members/sicarius/activity/924296/

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            It was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I fell down the Kdrama rabbit hole and indulged myself to no limit because I knew it wouldn’t happen twice. It was hard coming down off the high, and some drama slumps have hit me but luckily none lasted too long. It’s always great to come here to vent and rant with other beanies, and to pick on a show recommended by other beanies, some of which turned out to be hidden gems. I’ll borrow Casablanca’s line “Oh a show is still a show in Kdrama land, but a show is not a show without you guys (i.e. beanies)” 😉

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      Also that is so cool to me that you keep a list of new words you learn for Beanies and get to use the site for language learning too.

      I saw your use of the word “proficient” describing your English because that word in an of itself just says to me “dang, they’re at a level I can only aspire to with my Korean” 🙂 Kudos!

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      This was so beautiful and heartfelt, thank you so much for sharing.

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    Dramabeans has always been a part of my kdrama experience. I started with Crash Landing on you and I was obsessed, like, obsessed with that show (still am, honestly). And I didn’t really have anyone to talk about it with and I just needed to interact with it more somehow. So I started searching around online and found DB pretty quickly. So I would read each recap after I watched each episode just so I could relive the moments and see more pictures of all the characters. As I continued with dramas, I kept reading recaps, and would use Year End Review posts and WWW posts to choose new dramas to watch. Eventually I started keeping up with the news posts and the drama chats, and eventually (I think it was the one about which scenes made us ugly cry) I felt the need to join in. It’s been so great! I love this community and love chatting about dramas and actors and random stuff with all of you. Y’all understand my love of dramas way more than most people in my offline life, and it is so nice to feel seen by you. 🫰

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      hehe and CLOY strikes again! It was really just such a fun drama. So much fun 🙂

      I hope you don’t mind, I totally just lurked the last page of your comments wall since I wanted to see what dramas made you ugly cry haha

      To online drama friends!

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        I don’t mind at all! I just went back myself to relive some early comments. I stand by them 😁

        I hadn’t watched that many dramas at that point, so now the list of ones that made me ugly cry is a good bit longer!

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          Right? I wanna go back and look through my own comment wall now ahahaha

          And I just went through the ugly cry post and was able to update on some comments with “I’ve seen that now, what a show. What a cry.”

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        Also, I have literally no idea why the bean next to my name is the size of the sun in that comment. I actually clicked to reply to your new comment on that thread and it was gigantic there too! So I got scared and left 😅

        I wasn’t even a supporter at the time, so I have no idea what weird glitch is causing that!

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          I am so glad you said that, as when the site is really glitchy the graphics get really enlarged for me too. I have not heard anyone else mention that so I assumed it was just a me thing.

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          Oh my goodness that’s actually the truly hilarious thing.. you weren’t even a supporter then? I wonder how it backdated AND backdated with the glitch then haha

          You’re not alone though – several other beans on that page were also quite large.

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          Hahaha… looks like your Bean timeslipped just like me!! 😂

          Or a mundane explanation could be that it just automatically reflects on previous comments too.

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    I don’t really have people in my entourage who watches dramas in general.

    I could talk about US shows with people around me, Japanese animes on IRC so dramabeans was the place for Kdramas. On the different platforms, it’s hard to find different detailled opinions. I often have the feelings, people who comments are fan of one actor and it’s all. There are no discussion.

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      This! There’s plenty of actor love here on DB, too, but I really do feel like the focus here is on the dramas and the show itself, not only tuning in for the actor (again, no hate on that – I’ve done it myself. I just love that we also get more here)

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        I won’t hide that actors are one of the reasons I try or not a drama. But even if I like the actor, I try to be objective about the rest and don’t forget that a drama is the result of the work of a writer, PD, etc. and not just one actor.

        Beanies bring so many informations, it’s very interesting too!

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      This is so true … yes we all love actors 🥰 and watch dramas for them but on DB the Beans actually discuss dramas while fangirling. 😄

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    I entered the Kdrama universe all alone and empty but filled with excitement after completing my gateway drama. I searched online for enthusiastic fans who articulated their ideas eloquently (I have yet to discover a people in real life who even knows what a Kdrama is!) about the Kdrama universe. Then, I found DB and was fulfilled! So many fans, so many dramas, so many ideas…omo! I stood on the DB threshold so to speak, reading, admiring and reveling in all that the DBs had to offer. Hesitantly, I dipped my toe in, making a comment here and there. Now, as clumsy and inexperienced and inarticulate as I am, I make my place satisfy my Kdrama addiction. I’m no longer in the K-universe alone; DB provides me with “K-Dramaraderie” !

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    I… I don’t think I can answer this right now.

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      No worries! Take your time- weeks, months- just tag me if/when you reply! I’d love to hear your answer 🙂

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    In a nutshell, with DB I’m no longer watching dramas alone, even if I really do have the couch all to myself.. I’m not really in any other online forums — and I’ve heard it can get rough out there — so I count myself blessed to have found this one, which has so many articulate, kind, funny, insightful and just good hearted members who share my love for dramas.

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    Thank you for asking this question! It has been so fun to read through other Beanies’ comments and see all the different ways we all ended up in one place. 🙂

    For me, Dramabeans originally started as a culture-translation website.

    I started watching k dramas mostly by accident in the summer of 2016. I first stumbled across a Netflix j drama (Good Morning Call) and was confused about how a show could be so objectively not-great while being so engaging. I was looking for recommendations of better Asian content and stumbled across the a fan page for Coffee Prince. That was the first k drama I ever loved, and I’ve been addicted ever since.

    At the beginning, though, there were so many references in k dramas that I just didn’t get. I’m white and American, and I had so little exposure to other cultures that I struggled to understand k dramas. According to my Google history, the first dramabeans page I ever clicked on was about Secret Garden — which tracks. There was so much cultural knowledge built into the drama that I had a hard time understanding it. With the dramabeans recaps, I could learn about the culture a little more and fill in the gaps of my understanding. Thus started my days of lurking.

    From 2016-December 2022, I have only one comment on the site, despite having it up nearly every time I watched a k drama. Somewhat embarrassingly, the one comment I made was a reply to my own unregistered comment tallying the Dramabeans Staff Top 10s from 2017. Looking back, this seems an auspicious beginning, considering it is creating the Dramabeans Top 10 spreadsheet that really kicked me into activity on the site.

    Starting December of 2022, I start occasionally posting, mostly in response to the end-of-year polls. Then, in the summer of 2023, I posted a spreadsheet of all Dramabeans Top 10 polls, knowing that very few people would likely see it since it was so late. @reply1988 saw it (of course), and reached out to me with lovely praise and feedback for the spreadsheet. At one point in the conversation, she alluded to the fact that the Dramabeans community was made better when people commented and participated.

    Weirdly enough, I’d never even considered that before. Until this point, Dramabeans was all about the Staff posts. I read recaps, but I rarely read the comment section — something that now feels so alien. I enjoyed the comments in the end-of-year polls, but even then, I didn’t post my own Bean Count until December of 2022. After talking to Mother Bean, though, I decided that I wanted to be a bit more active.

    And that’s where we are now. I’m still somewhat new to interacting as a Beanie, and I frequently feel like I’m doing it wrong, but I’ve loved the community I’ve been finding here. Here’s to more to come!

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      Thank you for sharing your journey with us and it’s so impressive that you came in quietly offering such a special gift for the beanie community. I hope you continue to have fun interacting at the level that works for you. I don’t think there is a wrong way to interact if you are a beanie as I have observed that beanies read the room, manage our emotions re dramas, use our social skills when interacting and remember K-drama and K-entertainment are not real life.

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        Mother Bean is so right. There is no “wrong” way to interact. Your contribution and community service to Beaniedom is at another level. What you do no one else can do or has done before. 👏 👏 👏

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    I sorta talked about that on my Fanwall (https://www.dramabeans.com/members/nerdy/activity/1531477/?nid=4802016&nidwpc=1533119#acomment-1533119), but would still like to add on here.

    Some people write diaries. I have tried to be one of those people and now, I have a number of journals all describing max. three days. Dramabeans is probably the closest thing to the archive of how my values, English skills and character develops. I remember writing angry rants about evil kdrama parents, because my parents had an exhausting divorce; criticizing female leads too harshly because I thought rich oppa deserved someone better (me); criticizing rich main leads too harshly because I thought loving, kind person deserved someone better (SML). I was doing a lot of projection and addressing my feelings in a somewhat healthy manner, in environment in which people responded nicely and did not ridicule my overt passion.

    At a certain point, my personal agenda took a back seat and I came to the conclusion that I always come back, because above it all, I love discussing the shows and reading the others’ thoughts. Art is not all that subjective; there is always a reason for liking something. I am not particularly good with words, thus, I come here for eloquent explanations and nod along when I see comments that resonate with me.

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Ok, Stranger 2. I see you. I see that Kim Won Hae cameo in the last 5 minutes. Well played. Well played. Also, way to do us dirty with Seo Dong Jae’s last scene. I want season 3 now just for that.

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Happy Seollal, everyone! Maybe posting a picture of Deokguk will make me level up a year (or a level) ahahaha

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    Happy Seollal!!!

    Hope you have a “yummy” year ahead. I’m all set to chill on your Rooftop villa. 🍹😎

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      Thank you!! Hopefully it will be one filled with learning to make new recipes. I tried making Japchae this last week and am pretty pleased with the results^^

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        I’m thrilled with your efforts. My mouth watered as soon as I saw the picture and when I read that it was your post I knew what I wanted to eat! 😊

        I hope ALL your dreams which are best for you come true. ❤

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Oof. That moment in the end of Forest of Secrets season 2 when the FL doesn\’t salute… oof.

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Has anyone mentioned yet how brilliant the opening sequence for Captivating the King is? The sharp \”tak\” of the baduk pebble. The people like stones on the board, moved to win. Just wonderful.

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Beanies. Friends. The music. The face half covered in blood. The QUESTIONS. Is he playing the long game? Did he think he knew better than his brother? Is there any hope for a love line? My word.

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    My guess is yes to all of them.
    Can’t wait for her moves now, his were impressive.

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      Right? I think it was an emotional night, he didn’t want to die, expressed some of his anger at his brother, regretted it.. then his brother died and he got a bit overwhelmed. He knew what his brother wanted, didn’t know how to protect the young prince, saw the two people most likely to have killed his brother and had a desire for revenge that overshadowed his brothers wishes for the moment. And it would be so easy to believe that he could best protect the young prince for now by being on the throne. He’d figure out a way to give it to him later. So why not? He could do it. It was almost as if it was rightfully his. So he did it. And then he’s still angry and mourning and frustrated that he gets NO closure in both his brother’s death and their relationship, and he’s just kinda doing things. He’s just continuing to do stuff since that’s what he needs to do. And at some point I think he’ll wake up and realize it’s all gone a bit terribly wrong, and he’s become someone he never meant to become. And from there who knows? I am not holding out for an incredibly lovey dovey happy ending for our OTP in this one.

      And on the other hand, he could just be playing the 100% long game and has had us fooled all along. But JJS spectacularly emotional performance of a deeply emotional man makes me think it’s probably actually the former.

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    I hope that’s the case because the change would otherwise be too sudden and jarring. Considering how the Minister of War treated himand always maintained that he was treacherous, there’s a chance he knows more than the audience and the rest of the characters.

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      I did find that VERY interesting actually- I feel like it’s rare to see both political factions seem so purely to believe what they are pursuing. I actually think the Minister of War thought he was committing treason. Or not. I don’t know. But it was interesting.

      I want our male lead to be someone I really root for, though! I died in the Last Empress just wanting for Shin Swung Rok’s character to turn over a new leaf. Something. Anything. Here’s hoping my heart doesn’t go through the wringer to that extent in this drama.

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Sold 100%. It was the ending song of episode 1 that did it. Here for the Captivating the King ride!!

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    I have been having a very hard time getting back into sageuks after The Red Sleeve and Secret Royal Inspector and Joy, which both aired in November 2021! I have even rewatched them both a few times, but I haven’t liked anything newer. I’m hoping Jo Jung Suk and maybe Honey Lee will do the trick!

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    I hope you like it!! I’m caught up to episode 4 and it does not disappoint. I really love fusion sageuk, but this more traditional drama is a breath of fresh air. The acting just gets better and better too.

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    With such top-notch actors like JJS, a good OST is like a cherry on top of a perfect cake.

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Waaait a second. I remember how the prince\’s story ended in My Dearest.. is this also a based-on-true events sort of a thing? Am I gonna regret watching this? My heart, be still.

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    My Dearest was based on true characters not Captivating the King. So we can’t know what will happen.

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    Let’s hope they go the fan-fic way instead of following history. 😅

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      Yes, please!! There are already minor differences given that he’s the king’s brother, yes? In My Dearest I thought he was a son.

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Just started Captivating the King! Immediate first thought on the opening scene: did it not remind anyone else of Lord of the Rings? When the troop of soldiers from Rohan finds the dead prince?

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    I will try and get some gifs/screenshots later tonight for comparison.

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Ok, friends.. after some comments on my WWW, the time has come:

What are some really good Cdramas or Tw dramas?

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    A note: I’m really not a fan of the over the top aegyo prevalent in some cdrama FL. Some examples of shows I liked:

    MARS
    Love me if you Dare
    Beneath the Skin
    Murphy’s Law of Love (one of the few romcoms I’ve been able to finish and enjoyed throughout)
    General and I

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      Someday or one day is my most favourite T-drama till date.
      Lost romance is quite fun. Oh no here comes trouble had rave reviews but I haven’t personally watched that.

      If you are in mood of historical slice of life – Story of Ming lan is a great choice.
      For fluffy historical piece of woman solidarity – New life begins and for fantasy (xianxia) Ten miles of peach blossom and Love between fairy and devil.
      Apart from the ending A journey to love is good drama in adventure fantasy/ wuxia genre.

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        Thanks! I really enjoyed the Korean remake of someday or one day, and I’ve heard the original is just like 10xs better.

        And I’ve added Lodt Romance to MDL as well. Thanks!

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        Here Comes Trouble is really good but also a bit weird. I regularly didn’t know what was going on but I nonetheless enjoyed it thoroughly and hope that it gets a second season.

        Someday or One Day almost doesn’t really count since it’s one of the best shows ever from anywhere. Having said that, I think only Taiwan could have made it (insert implied criticism of anybody trying to remake it).

        A lot of people also enjoyed Rainless Love in a Godless Land, although it wasn’t for me.

        If you’re up for it, there are the old-school Taiwanese Idol dramas. They’re a genre in their own right, completely mad and often lots of fun. But they’re kind of a mix between a Korean romcom, a Makjang and a weekender and are not to be attempted lightly.

        It’s a shame they don’t really make them anymore. But if you want to try one, a good one to start with is Just You, starring Puff Guo and Aaron Yan.

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      I agree New life begins is great the palace politics is minimal and because it’s got distinct, approx six episode, storylines so you can by pass one section if it is not to your liking without losing the flow of the main story. The OTP are so cute too.

      Ten miles of peach blossom always holds a special place because it was my first Chinese epic fantasy drama.

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      My number one non-kdrama in 2023 is TW’s Wave Makers which is still available at Netflix.

      A behind the scene take of life as election workers – how they strategise, fall into despair and grow. The 8-episode story is tight with great pacing. No romance but a great tale about people – good and bad.

      Two noteworthy developments out of Wave Makers. Firstly and amazingly, it triggered the Me Too Movement in Taiwan like a fire out of nowhere across politics, the entertainment industry and other sectors, resulting in a lot of shames and downfall of many well known figures. Secondly, an actress playing a politician in the drama became a politician herself.

      On C drama, I echo the suggestion of The Story of Mulan. I FF the drama a few years ago when it first came out largely because Chinese period drama is not my thing. However, I’m now rewatching it like almost everyday as lots of bite size anatomy of characters and arcs flood across social media. It’s really through those slices and dices that enhance my appreciation of this story of so many intertwining figures and relationships. Quite a masterpiece in its own right that you can look at the story, its characters, historical and social settings from so many different angles.

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        Just to add how delighted I was in watching Wave Makers after the huge disappointment in Queenmaker which failed considerably despite the huge Netflix budget and the two biggest Korean actresses (Kim Hee-ae and Moon So-ri).

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        Fascinating! Wave makers added 🙂 I tend to like stories that get into a profession and look at it from all angles

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    Go ahead was my favourite until Meet yourself but then I found out it was the same team who made both so that makes sense.

    Go ahead has the best dad character in all the C dramas I have watched. It has Reply series vibes as the three children live in the same apartment block and go to the same school, we watch them grow up.

    Meet yourself is a slow paced drama romance set in a gorgeous village with cultural elements they want to preserve but the need to make a viable living means young people flock to the towns and villages. It has the best male lead character in any drama.

    Remembrance of things past 12 episodes. The story is based around a friendship group from a small town who all moved to the city and you see how the group members are coping or not coping with living in the ruthless world of city life. It has some really sad elements, romance, friendship, and work place issues.

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      Mwet Yourself looks really good! Added hehe this I’d great 🙂 getting lots of good recs 🙂

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    I watch few Cdrama, I have issue with dubbing voices.

    But I liked When I Fly Towards You. The FL was cute but not too much ( I don’t like when it’s too much) and there was a good balance in the couple.

    I think recent TW dramas are less good than before. Copycat Killer was interesting.

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      Copycat Killer definitely added hehe

      I also struggle with the dubbing a bit haha

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    A film I would recommend is “Marry My Dead Body” – it is a lot more cute and funny than it sounds.

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    If you’re looking for contemporary shows, definitely Someday or One Day and Reset is quite good as well. Most of my favorite Cdramas are period/historical/fantasy ones – if that’s something that interests you, I’d recommend The Untamed, Love Between Fairy and Devil, The Imperial Coroner, Scarlet Heart, and A Dream of Splendor. I’m also currently watching A Journey to Love and it’s great so far, but I know a lot of folks have complaints about the ending.

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      Ooh Reset looks right up my alley. I have to be in the right mood for historical dramas, but I’ll come back here when I want one to start with your recommendations!

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    If you like Wuxia, A Journey to Love is fantastic.

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      The poster certainly catches my eye, and the plot also looks like I’d enjoy it- thanks!! I do have to be in the right mood for wuxia, but this one looks like I’d really like it. I’ll check it out!

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    C-dramas:
    – The Untamed
    – Lost You Forever, season 1 (season 2 hasn’t been released)
    – New Life Begins
    – The Imperial Coroner
    – Road Home
    – One and Only
    – Forever and Ever (same cast & crew from “One and Only”)
    – Sunshine by My Side
    – The Longest Promise
    – Meet Yourself
    – Mysterious Lotus Casebook
    – The Oath of Love
    – Under the Skin
    – Unforgettable Love

    TW dramas:
    – Autumn’s Concerto
    – Love Me If You Dare
    – The Way We Were

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    My recommendations are:

    Someday or One Day (Taiwan).
    Fake it till you make it (China).
    Reset (China).
    Meet Yourself (China).
    Shining for one thing (China).
    New Life Begins (China).
    The first part of Go Ahead (China). Of course you can watch the whole show, but what’s truly a gem is the first part.

    I have watched a few more, but these are my favorite series so far.

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    This is an article on the most anticipated C-dramas in 2024.

    https://mydramalist.com/article/top-10-most-anticipated-chinese-dramas

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    Oh well, look at her, look at YOU! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

    How crisp is that edit. The swing of the camera. The lightening. Love it. 😘

    You are destined for Gif Greatness.

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      Ahahaha thanks – I can’t take credit for the camerawork, but I had fun giffing it 🙂

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      One more for your viewing pleasure^^

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        Ah, look at her enjoying her drink! Isn’t it clever that in a drama that highlights the deprivation of widows, we have a heroine with such a lust for life. Brilliant!

        Also, did you do something with the light? Other gifs are dark because so much is set at night (ofc, that’s when the flower blooms). Nicely done.

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      Absolutely 💯 “Gif of Greatness” 👏 👏

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