Beanie level: Rooftop room dweller

I felt I had to share this beautiful video of Lee Dong-wook and Lee Su-hyun singing City of Stars! The gentle waves in the background make it so comforting.

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If anyone remembers Orange Marmalade or thinks about how faithful adaptations should be, I wrote something you might like!

https://crabbyfordramas.wordpress.com/2021/07/25/orange-marmalade-and-the-question-of-adaptation/
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    No emoticon or gif exists for my expression when this show turned randomly into a Sageuk.

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    but when drama aired, fans did not like it

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    This is a really interesting analysis. I went in cold to the drama and didn’t go past episode 2, partly because I’m not into recent vampires (only very, very old ones) and it was pretty clear the central message was about discrimination and I’d already got it by episode 2. Also I find school kids and their “complications” a bit, “same old, so what”. Having read your analysis though, I’d begin again and I wouldn’t mind reading the webtoon. I like that you like both for different reasons. I guess I should read the webtoon first?

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      I know what you mean about recent vampires – I got into vampire fiction lately, and it’s so interesting seeing how the vampire has changed over time. First the vampire was a sexy woman tempting a decent man off the path of goodness, in everything from Don’t Wake the Dead to Lucy in Dracula, then it was a hideous monster like in Nosferatu, and then you’ve got modern sympathetic depictions like in Twilight that are reallyyyy underwhelming. Vampires work best when they’re a metaphor, I think – Twilight had no deeper intent with the vampires (except in that they represented idealised conservative values 😂), but Orange Marmalade really tries to have the vampire represent minorities who deal with prejudice everyday.

      Oooh, that’s a good question, should you do the drama or the webtoon first?
      Because I read the webtoon first, I found the drama really underwhelming… so maybe it would make more sense to watch the drama first? Then you would have nothing to compare it to, and it would be nice, and then you could introduce yourself to the more complex and challenging webtoon. Of course, if you don’t like it or you’re still bored, then skip the drama (I like it, but it is a pretty 6/10 show) and just read the webtoon, it’s definitely not boring!

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        I remember coming upon a book on vampires and something in it really stayed with me: the spiritual vampire!! No outward indication but after you’d been with one, you were exhausted, drained, walking dead. I’ve met a few in my time. I agree that metaphoric vampires are best, and referring to prejudice and marginalisation works very well. Thanks for the advice. I’ll locate the drama first up. I’m always happy to watch YJG too.

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So the Annarasumanara (a brilliant surrealist webtoon) adaptation cast Ji Chang-wook and I can\’t decide how I feel. Once again his character is a grown man paired with a schoolgirl.

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    There’s something inherently unsettling about a mysterious nameless man showing up and teaching a young girl magic tricks, right? The webtoon is sober with all its uncomfortable themes, but now that Ji Chang-wook has been cast, I’m concerned they’re going to play the relationship between the main characters as a romance.
    Plus in its favour: Hwang In-yeob is going to play Na Il-deung, which is SO EXCITING. I doubt the drama will play with the big head imagery of the webtoon, though.

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      Why is Wookie so wedded to being skeevy?

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        Honestly, LT, do his people like that he has this image of creeping on girls now? He doesn’t even suit the character. Like, I can’t imagine him walking up to a girl and asking her, “Do you believe in magic?” without irony. I wouldn’t have cast him – I would have cast Jang Ki-yong or something (it’s been ages since he had a good role anyway), someone who would better handle the nuances of the magician.

        Prove me wrong, Ji Chang-wook, I miss liking you!

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      I don’t think romance will be shoved in because that will deviate from the whole purpose of the story.

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        Well, exactly, that’s my worry! When the drama for Happy If You Died came out, it basically ignored the messaging of the webtoon entirely. LT wrote a thing that explains it better than I could:
        https://invisibledragon.home.blog/2019/03/23/very-very-happy-if-you-died/

        I think that this story in the wrong hands could be a disaster.

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          Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed watching the drama but was quite disappointed with the love line. I assumed it was the same in the manhwa but that does not appear to be the case. It’s too bad they completely missed the point of the original work.

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        I highly doubt that the that romance will be played up either. I think they are more likely to play up the romance between Na Il-deung and the FL. He was set up as a type of tsundere who learns better cause of the influence of the FL and the magician, though he had more layers than most. And, the webtoon hinted more at their relationship which I could see a kdrama running further with.

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      The big head imagery was the interesting part of the webtoon. But now that we know a good looking actor will play the role, it takes away the imagery the webtoon had. I wonder if the drama will be as interesting as the webtoon without all the imagery the webtoon had.

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        They would have had to ugly-fy him or pretty him up one way or the other, so the actor isn’t really telling until we get character posters.
        But yeah, I didn’t really get how they are going to translate the imagery. It was the more interesting part of the webtoon.

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    I UN-adopted him already and now crossed out his name from my list of babies. 🥺 Now when I think of him I get some creepy vibe.I hope he proves me wrong in his next projects; I won’t watch, no, but I’ll always read the comments about them.

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    The webtoon is actually really good – but I was stressed out until it became clear that there was no romance between the magician and the girl. But yes, I only want to watch it as a drama if they get that out of the way really quickly

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    AGAIN???

    Istg is he TRYING to set up his image as a creep? This is becoming almost a deliberate pattern and I am extremely uncomfortable.

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Mad respect for the money and effort KBS is putting into River Where the Moon Rises! I hope the staff are getting proper compensation.

https://mydramalist.com/article/kbs-decides-to-re-shoot-the-first-6-episodes-of-river-where-the-moon-rises-with-na-in-woo

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    Na In Woo is doing so well too!! Was already expecting the show to experience a car crash, but well, they got out of that unscathed! Hope the prod company is taking care of everyone, they’ll overworked for sure 🙁

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    Now, even if the drama is a complete mess but for hot and hot (at least to me), I’m watching because all this effort and hard working deserves so much respect!!

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This mv is so gorgeous!
(Spoilers for Love Alarm 2)

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I’ve been listening to this on repeat all day, send help!

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If anyone is interested, I wrote a review of The Uncanny Counter (yes, it’s pretty late, and no one cares now, but still):

https://crabbyfordramas.wordpress.com/2021/02/24/the-uncanny-counter-review/
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If there\’s anyone here who likes Nobunaga Concerto, I wrote a thing:

https://crabbyfordramas.wordpress.com/2021/02/15/rewriting-history-in-nobunaga-concerto/

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    @munie2812, thank you for recommending it to me! ❤️

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      Awwww…u made it 🤗🤗🤗😉…hehe..I read those in your website as well. I love how Oguri have chemistry with everyone eventhough there is not much kiss/romantic scene 😅😅. And yes even is RMPW…Currently Im watching his old drama Tokyo Dogs & the bickering with his partner is funny as hell lolll..My other Jdrama Ive finished last week is Hitaru no Hikari & Tantei no Tantei…I feel like I’m into the jdrama more than kdrama since last year…& just taking time watching their old dramas ^^. Still, this website has been my home for kdrama addict for 10 years…I love to come bck here once in a while & read whats new in kdrama i guess. Congratulations on your own blog & keep on writing ^^

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I realise it’s a few months late, but I wrote a Year In Review thing!
https://crabbyfordramas.wordpress.com/2021/02/08/my-favourites-of-2020/
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It’s Queen Cheorin Day! Woohoooooo!

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Happy Boxing Day, everyone! Here’s my review of the KBS Drama Specials – there are some really good ones this year!

https://crabbyfordrama.blogspot.com/2020/12/kbs-drama-specials-2020.html
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I finished my scathing review of Was It Love!

https://crabbyfordrama.blogspot.com/2020/12/was-it-love-no-it-was-not.html?m=1

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    Crabby for Drama is a great URL name

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    Great writing, but seeing No Ae Jung’s contorted face again almost made me sick. I could even hear her screaming. 🤢

    If we had a vote for Worst Drama of the Year I’m giving WAS IT LOVE all my votes.

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    I really want to read this, but I am going to have to fortify myself for the journey back into something that made me so angry it drained all of my psychic powers.

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    This is great, Frabby @frabbycrabsis loves KBS Drama Specials and cathartic too. No one could have said it better. I had to eat some comfort food as I read it (it’s too early in the day for alcohol). It was so bad in so many ways. Ae-jung’s character was monumentally stupid, and more than that, grossly insensitive and damaging to her child. The children were wonderful, and Pa-do and Dong-chan’s moment had truth in it. I wonder about the writer. Was he a middle-aged man? It makes sense to me if he was. Not that I want to dump on middle-aged men, but the whole drama smacks of someone who only sees women through certain stereotypes. Enough said. I do not want to waste anymore of my life on this total waste of space. It’s good that you put up a warning sign.

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      Thank you for reading it, despite your physical aversion! Now that I’ve written this, I never have to talk about it again 🎉

      Because you said that about the writer, I went to MDL to see who it was… No one was listed 😂
      If no one wrote this drama, I guess that explains why it was so bad!

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        Funny. I looked it up some time again and it was some middle-aged man. I guess he’s gone into hiding. ROFL

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But seriously, WHERE IS THE REST OF LOVE ALARM?

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The female leads I’ll never forget? Easy!
Cha Young-jin (Nobody Knows): Masterfully portrayed by Kim Seo-hyung, Young-jin is at once the cool slick no-nonsense detective the world sees, and a compassionate, loyal woman who will stop at nothing to protect her little friend. Not only is she a competent police-officer (a rare breed in the dramaverse), she has layers and layers of character to her outside of that. Nobody Knows was incredible in general, but it wouldn’t have stolen my heart the way it did without Cha Young-jin.
Makabe Keito (Shiranakute Ii Koto): Oh, Keito! Ambitious, brazen, opportunistic, persistent, skilled, cheeky, wonderful Keito! Yoshitaka Yuriko shone every second she was on screen in this drama, and the heroine she created was so deliciously lovable that I had to know how her story played out. Once again, we have a woman very competent at her job with layers and layers of character outside of that (I’m noticing a theme).
Noh Ae-jung (Was It Love?): I’m gonna remember this one for all the wrong reasons. I have no ae-jung for Noh Ae-jung. She’s a terrible mother, a terrible PD, and a terrible person. Even the best actress in the world couldn’t make such a fundamentally awful character likeable, so I have to respect Song Ji-hyo for even trying.

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I don’t know where people have gotten the 2020 Roundup criteria from, but I’ll play.
So, the male leads I won’t forget right? Well, probably the ones who were most like me.
Im Eun-seob (I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice): Im Eun-seob is deeply sensitive and loving, but he’s also a very sick baby who can’t get out of his own head. Seeing him reach out to people and accept their love drove a stake through my heart.
Lee Soo (More Than Friends): Lee Soo is narcissistic and selfish, which turned many people off this show immediately, but there’s more to him. No, I’m not excusing his selfishness. But the fact that he’s never compelled to start something with the people he’s been attracted to, because his desire to not get hurt is stronger than his desire to date them, is deeply relatable. His character growth was amazing.

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Sunwoo Jun can go to Hell, but Sunwoo Hwan is welcome in this house anytime~

#480p-shining-inheritance-rewatch-number-238
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Episode 14 of Start-Up was glorious. It was the epitome of: \”We\’re getting the band back together!\”

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Okay, that\’s it, I can\’t hold it in anymore. DO DO SOL SOL LA LA SOL SPOILERS BELOW.

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    HE LET HER BELIEVE HE WAS DEAD FOR FIVE YEARS.
    Lala deserves better. Jun will torture her until the end of time with his malicious fucking lies.
    He lost me in episode 14 for telling Lala that he didn’t like her anymore. As shown in episode 15, he could have just said he was going abroad. That was the first indication I really had that Jun was too immature to date Lala.
    And then it’s revealed that he was Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol all along. Am I touched? No, I’m not. That’s ridiculous. I hate it. I hate it so much. Jun being Lala’s guardian angel has been stretched too far, it’s not cute anymore. The only way they could have fixed this was by Jun dying.
    And then he did! They could have foreshadowed it more, but with his constant unexplained nosebleeds, it was plausible that Jun had cancer! If Lala was never going to pay him back, then him dying was the perfect resolution to the story. He was the star watching her from Heaven all along, it’s perfect!
    BUT OH WAIT, HE JUST PRETENDED THAT HE WAS DEAD FOR. FIVE. YEARS.
    *banshee screams*

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      Truthfully this show made me decide to take a drama break. It’s ridiculous the nonsense they decided to just throw out towards the end. I don’t know how anyone read these episodes scripts and thought “yep, we good to go”

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      I’m not watching this drama but what storyline did I just read?? Who comes up with these stories?

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      Except, I have to say it was almost worth being this pissed off just to read “but with his constant unexplained nosebleeds, it was plausible …” because that made me CRACK UP. While he was dead I kept thinking, omg I don’t think anyone’s died in a kdrama I ten years – but I never thought about the nosebleeds! 😁 wow, it’s been a while since that trope for me, thanks!

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      does he actually die in the end? and do they get back together after this five years nonsense?? what happens in episode 16? i’m so thankful i stopped watching at ep 13 😱

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Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol, who hurt you??

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This year\’s KBS Drama Specials are SO GOOD! 😭

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