Beanie level: Rooftop room dweller

2023 ROUNDUP

6- The character that deserves a kimchi slap.

There are too many side characters that fit the category. So I will only go for the main characters.
Song Jae Hyo in The Perfect Deal. I wanted to slap him in every single scene. And the way Yoo Seung Ho looked at him completely cornered broke my heart.

Also reading @wonhwa ‘s entry, I have to thank them for nominating Jayden and perfectly expressing my feelings.



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2023 ROUNDUP

5- OTP you didn’t think you would adore.

Race. I had an irrational aversion to Hong Jong Hyun because of one villain role he did a long time ago. I really really didn’t expect to like him, his character, and his love story this much.



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    Funny how that happens. But then, I guess it just means he was particularly good in that role?! I really liked him in Stock Struck this year.

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      This is what I have been suspecting since watching Race!

      It was a relatively small villain role in Wild Romance in 2012, I HATED him with a passion, tried one show after that which I immediately dropped because I couldn’t bear to see his face, and didn’t watch any other of his shows until Race this year.

      It must have been quite an impression to last a decade, right??

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        We were both cured by Race and it was a solid slice-of-life drama too.

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          Ha! You too?

          Oh right, Race was also one of few slice of life dramas thst I liked a lot.

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            If I’m not mistaken, I think we talked about our aversion in one of the recap post.

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            @skirt OH! I had completely forgotten that I watched Race because of you!! Oh my god, I’m very sorry for being such an ungrateful scatterbrain! And you remembered me 🙈 I feel so bad now.

            THANK YOU for pushing me to watch it!

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            Oh dear, it is nothing to apologise for😅. I don’t specifically remember you but I remember sharing an aversion towards Hong Jong-hyun because of Wild Romance with a beanie. It is a very specific scenario that it stays with me.

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2023 ROUNDUP

4- The drama you loved and Beanies hated / The drama you hated and Beanies loved.
Hate is a strong word for both these categories of course. Just not loved.

Love King the Land
Love Brain Works

Call It Love was painfully boring.
The Kidnapping Day got too trigger happy.

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2023 ROUNDUP

3- Side character that stole the drama.

Lawyer Do and Ki Peum.
Bae In Hyuk in both Gumiho and At a Distance.
Kang Han Na and Kim Do Wan in Gumiho.












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2023 ROUNDUP

2- Male lead you will never forget (for better or worse).

Jung Yong Hwa in Brain Works.
Junho in King.
I have a terrible memory, it is very rare that I remember a lot of one character’s dialogues after only the first watch. These two both had lots of memorable scenes and words for me. I have since rewatched both shows.
Taec looks fascinating too but I haven’t watched enough to make a statement.






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2023 ROUNDUP

1- Female lead you will never forget (for better or worse).

Kwak Sun Young in Brain Works. She was such an unusual character and I loved the astute way her two characters were explored, and how Cha Tae Hyun liked her no matter which character she was in.



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2023 ROUNDUP

Shows I have watched and finished in 2023:

Brain Works (2023)
Call It Love (2023)
Race (2023)
King the Land (2023)
Unlock My Boss (2023)
Payback (2023)
Tale of the 9 Tailed Fox 1938 (2023)
The Kidnapping Day (2023)
The Perfect Deal (2023)

Flower of evil (2020)
Shooting stars (2022)
Psychopath Diaries (2020)
Blind (2022)
The Best Hit (2017)
May it Please the Court (2022)
My Holo Love (2020)
My Roommate is a Gumiho (2021)
At a Distance the Spring is Green (2021)
Kiss Goblin (2020)
Memory (2016)
Meloholic (2017)

Still watching:

When the Weather is Fine (2020)
Heartbeat (2023)

Dropped

Vincenzo
The Good Detective
Tell Me What You Saw
The Dark Hole
Are You Human Too
My Perfect Stranger
Love All Play

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It’s rainy season 😎

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I haven\’t experienced even one gateway timeout these past two days!! YAY!!

The pages are rather slow but no disconnection, thankfully!

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KING THE LAND

It has been such a long time since the last time I was so deeply satisfied with a show and its ending. I squeed through it all with a bursting heart!



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    Reading this makes me so happy!!!!!!!

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      I’m glad that it makes you happy!

      I have strictly avoided all recaps and comments, but from the little that has caught my eye, I assume I should be happy for any positivity!

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        It was a pretty mixed bag. My comments were overwhelmingly positive, but after I posted, I mostly stayed out of the rest of them so no one yucked my yum! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

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          So no one yucked my yum! That is such an on point expression for this drama experience!

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          I’m willing to fess up (to @reply1988 too :)) that there were two weeks when my comments were more negative than positive, but the final week had me apologizing. My only real issue in retrospect was that I thought it could be tighter…but that’s true for so many shows that it’s hardly a ding on Junho, King Junho! 🙂

          What I was really happy about, though, was that you were happy, @midnight! I love it when people are happy with a Kdrama…especially nice people!

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            Yes, I understood that you were happy because I was happy 😊

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            I totally understand folks posting negative comments. Lots of times I’m happy to engage with all the complicated feelings and reactions people bring to a watch. But KTL was best enjoyed for me without a microscope, so it was nice to duck in and duck back out again to make sure my watch wasn’t compromised 😉

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        There was a small contingency of us that were happy throughout 🥰 I hope you add to the review section so others who just want a rom com can use it to make their own judgement.

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          I am working on an extremely jumbled essay😂 I will post it when I can make it more coherent.

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            Saaaame. I saved a lot of my initial comments in a google doc, but I haven’t quite had a moment to assemble them into something. Be my accountability partners! I will get to it this week!

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            Update: I did it! I’m so bad at remembering to do this, so I’m happy to have one less review bumping around in my brain. Maybe I’ll have to write a few more this week with this momentum.

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            @jls943 @reply1988 I’m very bad at writing non-spoilery reviews so I left a very short one on the review page, and I’m editing the longer rambling one for the ep 16 recap, and probably for next week’s WWW.

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          @jls943 thank you for writing the review and yes please go with the momentum and write the others on your list there are lots of beanies that will appreciate having more reviews to help them decide.

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    I also liked it- especially the ending and chemistry between the OTP.

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      Thanks for writing a review too. It always surprises me how many people love a show write a nice review type comment on the final episode weecap page but don’t add one to the review page where it’s more likely to be seen by those lurkers who come to the site to read about the shows and may read weecaps but not the comments section. I didn’t notice there was a comments section for ages!

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MEMORY 2016, episode 4,

Thoughts by this point:

1. Junho. Lovely. As ever.

2. Lee Sung Min. Great. As ever.

3. Song Sun Mi. 😢 Why, show.

4. Yoon So Hee. I don\’t like her style of petulant acting, and I usually hate the roles she picks, but she seems ok here, especially that she is playing a very competent woman which is one of my catnips.

5. Choi Duk Moon. I have a soft spot for him. I love when he plays such roles.

6. Lee Ki Woo. Sigh. Honestly? By this point I am this close to hating Lee Ki Woo as an actor. I always end up hating his character whether it is a villain or not. I get a strong urge to drop a show when I see him. Sigh. Junho is more than making up for LKW for now. I\’ll probably ff through his scenes.

7. Memory is a difficult watch. Although I have lost too many friends and family to cancer, Alzheimer\’s desease is another kind of scary. Every time Lee Sung Min freaks out I second guess my decision to watch this.

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Korean movie Recalled 2021, with Seo Ye Ji and Kim Kang Woo. It started out rather cliche and at times aimless, but as it went on it became better and better. It ended on a very high note, thrilling and gripping. The acting, the writing, the editing, were all amazingly good.

Tip: Watch it without looking it up. The summaries on the sites are either misleading or spoiling. The only thing you need to know is that it’s a thriller about a woman who had an accident.



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    SPOILER ALERT
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    Casting Kim Kang Woo was a genius brilliant move! Kudos to anyone responsible for that!

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      Also, there’s a young actor, Kim Wook, playing his younger self in a very short scene. It is eerie how much he resembles him in movements and expressions.

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    watched it long back.. but it was predictable

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    Comment was deleted

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Falling down an endless YT rabbit hole called “Lee Junho”, I saw a fleeting scene with Junho and Han Hyo Ju, which led me to movie COLD EYES.
Very well made movie, thrilling and gripping. I would have preferred a different less dramatic ending, but it was still great.



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    It’s a remake of Hong Kong movie “Eye In The Sky” produced by Johnny To – worth checking out the original. Johnny To’s movies are always worth watching.

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    I often hang out in that same rabbit hole, and this has been on my watchlist for ages. Thanks for nudging it up! It’s on Viki in the US.

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    This just might be my favorite Jung Woo sung film. I really enjoy watching this one.

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      I had never warmed up to him. But he was great here, and I truly appreciated his talent.

      SPOILER

      I have gotten so used to cop shows and their insistence to keep the criminal alive that I was surprised at the ending.
      I felt they did it to be dramatic, but it actually had the reverse effect on me. It felt anticlimactic to kill him when they had done so much to stay unknown and catch him. And more importantly, when he wasn’t the mastermind.
      Nevertheless, it was a satisfying movie.

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    Just wanted to mention that though Jun Ho won the Baeksang for Red Sleeve, I thought his performance in the earlier Rain or Shine established him as a first class actor.

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Well, I have finished My Roommate Is A Gumiho, on fast forward, only stopping to watch Bae In Hyuk, Kang Hanna, and Kim Do Wan.
More thoughts in comments:

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    Bae In Hyuk is a newfound crush! I have apparently seen him a few times in movies and dramas but I don’t remember. I was smitten with him since the very first second he came on screen here, and I loved his story arc.
    I saw that he is going to be the lead in a new time slip drama and I’m ridiculously overjoyed.

    The Kang Hanna and Kim Do Wan couple were very cute and unconventional, lovely writing and acting.

    I can’t understand how a writer can write and develop such cute and lovable characters and storylines, and simultaneously two bland, uninteresting, and creepy leads! Anyway, I skipped those two so I have nothing to complain about!

    And talking of cute characters, the two young siblings were very cute and lovable too.

    Go Kyung Pyo’s guest appearances sent me into hysterics. I’m sure he was cast only because of his voice which feels like it’s coming from the heights of Jirisan, he is too big for this role. Or at least he is too big to me.

    And last but not least gold medal for cameo of the year, or even decade, to Oh Jung Se who was on screen for exactly 40 second and kept me rewinding and dying of laughter. He was brilliant!

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      Lol at fast forward. I dropped this drama a few episodes in. I just couldn’t feel any chemistry between the OTP. I no longer got to see Oh Jung-se’s cameo. Too bad. But I was able to catch Jung So-min’s. She was lovely, as always.

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      I too didn’t find the main leads palatable – my eye twitched every time she called him ‘orishin’. Thank god for literally every other character.

      And yay I’m here for the Bae In-hyuk love!! I first saw him in At A Distance the Spring is Green and he was the best character in that drama for me (would definitely recommend if you haven’t watched it already). Also Kiss Goblin is another recommendation – very cute webdrama with him as the lead.

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        Exactly! At first I thought she is a college student so it is better than The Goblin, but then she started calling him orishin 🤦🏻‍♀️ I felt a bit sick everytime she said it.

        Thank you for the recommendations! I haven’t seen any of them.

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          can you believe I had the EXACT same thought initially about ‘oh at least it’s not a school kid like goblin’ hahAH 💀

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    The secondary couple saved that show.

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I have finished Brain Works, and it was ABSOLUTELY LOVELY! I’m such a happy beanie right now!



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    I really liked it too! I find myself periodically laughing quietly to myself remembering the two of them in the freezer.

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I might have rewinded and rewatched Yoon Shi Yoon singing at the end of episode 10 (aka 5) of The Best Hit a hundred times in 2 hours, and I can\’t stop. I can\’t even begin to describe the feels it gave me. I regret not having watched this show sooner for this scene alone.

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    I have watched that scene lots of times too XD Hyun Jae / Shi Yoon is freaking cool and uber handsome.
    On YouTube (and here on my Fan Wall) you can enjoy a complete performance of that song in a musical TV program 🙂

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    He’s so adorable in the live performance. You can see how nervous he is!

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    I think I’m in the minority but I love this show. It makes me happy just thinking about it.

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      I don’t know if we are a minority, but I’m in a (little) Telegram group of Spanish people who love k-dramas and all who have watched The best hit loved it a lot (some months ago several of them watched it at the same time). I was enjoying just reading how much they were enjoying it, because I had already watched it by my own a few months earlier 🙂

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Will someone please give me a discreet spoiler on Blind? Is Taec the killer? I don\’t think I can watch this without knowing.

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Yoon Shi Yoon is one of my top favorites, but Heo Sung Tae is so laugh-out-loud hilarious in Psychopath Diary that he is practically stealing every scene he is in!

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I have started Vincenzo.
How did I have not the smallest inkling that Taec and Kwak Dong Yun are in this???
I should be proud of my level of commitment and success in avoiding spoilers I guess!

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    Wow, almost unbelievable.
    Have fun and enjoy the ride.
    Vincenzo gave me the some of the best moments in dramaland in 2021. Sure, episodes are too long and you need to understand episode 8 shouldn’t be, but the rest, a wild fun ride.

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    I had lots of fun watching this with my dad! We still have inside jokes with it, lol. Have fun watching!

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    Im watching it too, half way in. Taec in a suit (I knew the nerdy secretary roll wasn’t right…)

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    Wow, you really are a pro dodging spoilers!
    Both Taec and Kwak Dong Yun are great in this drama.

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    Avoiding spoilers is the *new* skillset lol

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I finished Shooting Stars.

This was the first time ever I have seen so many nice and competent characters in one show.
There were no fewer than 12 people, male and female, who were kind and perfectly capable at their jobs and had a lot of screentime. I enjoyed watching their scenes a lot more than the main storyline.

Unfortunately, every single thing related to the two main leads, and the weird subplots, was badly timed and executed. Every information, every emotion, every line, seemed out of order and confusing. It resulted in me forming no connection, investment, or interest in them at all. Nothing about these two had the emotional punch that it should have, completely missing the point every time. I only enjoyed watching them when they were with other people. Their first kiss scene, and the cute last episode were the only things that redeemed them to me.

ON THE OTHER HAND, everything about the other characters was so on point and hit the spot perfectly every time! How is that possible! It was like there were two separate writers, one for the 2 main leads storyline, and one for the rest of the cast.

About the weirdly out of place and badly done subplots, (the mother, the antifans, the enemies, the housekeeper, the dead friend, the retired manager, etc), the writer had pulled a very obvious inspiration from Wild Romance in the beginning. There were too many similarities which at first kind of bugged me, and then made me wish they had learned more from their inspiration! They blew every one of them ridiculously, each just fizzling out in a whimper.

But one of the things that they did excellently was creating 3 male characters that made me fall for, wish for as a friend, and dread as an adversary. Lawyer Do, manager Kang, and director Choi were all men you would dream to have on your side, but would be terrifying as an enemy.
Han Byul’s business side was well done too. I really loved watching her be awesome at her job.

Tae Sung and Lawyer Do’s bromance, Lawyer Do’s romance, Director Choi and Manager Kang’s bromance, were all highlights of the show for me.
And I have to nominate the scene between Lawyer Do, his brother, and Reporter Choi as the funniest and loveliest scene this year!



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    I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It’s really an ensemble cast that shone brightly for me in this one. Contrary to you, I found the main couple lovely, too. I might have developed some soft spot for the actor KYD. But yes to the rest. I commented somewhere that the workplace atmosphere at that agency is soooo good and so supportive- something so rare in Kdramaland.

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      That workplace was exactly like a kdrama boyfriend, giving false expectations to the younger generation 😂

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        Hahaha good comparison! I half expected Yuunaa’s manager to be a nasty rival but he turned out nice to the end.. which makes me wonder why it’s so ingrained in us to expect the worst, be it in people or story.

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          Yuna’s manager was quite a nice surprise. His bickering friendship with manager Kang was very mature and heartwarming.

          I don’t know about it being ingrained. They did set us up to assume the worst by introducing him in a very unflattering light in the beginning.

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            Ok maybe not ‘us’ but just me 😆
            And also the intro, I don’t really remember the details .

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          Yoooooooooooooooooona

          Gosh I miss him and his way of calling her. One of my fave side characters for sure

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    The elevator scene with Tae-Sung, Lawyer Do and Reporter Choi was hilarious!

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      Tae-sung was gobsmacked riding the same elevator together with them down in the morning!

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    I really like and enjoy Shooting Stars with its lovely romances and characters. Somehow it is a strange case that the parts are greater than the sum that dislodge it from becoming a great romcom – but those characters are adorable and wholesome.

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    I was surprised by how much I loved this drama. The sub-plots were all over the place and so unnecessary, but I somehow still loved it. I think you’re right – the characters were on point so the plot didn’t matter so much! I mean, they were all good at their jobs and were nice people… I want more dramas with these guys!

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      Isn’t it? It was such a bliss having so many likable characters on screen! We don’t need to see a lot of evil or grey characters on screen everyday since we can see that a lot irl already!

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    I’m slowly working my way through this one!

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