Beanie level: Errand boy

#2023 Drama Round-up
Day 7. The drama Beanies convinced me to watch and I can’t be grateful enough

K-drama – Of course it’s the makjang deliciousness that was Perfect Marriage Revenge. I only tried it out of FOMO since so many Beanies were watching (and loving) it but it was the perfect blend of craziness needed to cap of this year. How can you dislike a show that gives you that kiss in Ep.2?!

C-drama – The exact opposite of makjang – Fake It Till You Make It. Very realistic in its depiction of the workplace and of every-day, modern romance. One of my favourite couples of the year – the flirting and chemistry was just 💯. Since c-dramas flow like a river all year long, the Beanies in the weekly WWW thread help me know which ones are actually worth my time. And this one was SO worth it!
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#2023 Drama Round-up
Day 6. The character that deserves a kimchi slap

There’s a separate ‘kimchi slap: worst parent’ category on Day 15 so I’ll park my rant on ALL of the awful parents in dramaland for that day. For today –

K-drama slap winner – As much as I love Hwang Chan-sung otherwise, his character was basically crying out to be slapped in EVERY scene in Bo-ra! Deborah. We spent SO much of the show on this weasel. Shoulda just kimchi-slapped and moved on.

C-drama slap winner – C-dramaland is rife with ‘simply cannot take no for an answer’ Second MLs and FLs and we’ll be here forever if I list them all. I’ll choose the most recent one I saw – the second leads in Love is Panacea – the most unhinged, delusional, downright criminal slap-worthy two-some ever.



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#2023 Drama Round-up
Day 5. OTP I didn’t think I’d adore

Since I love rom-coms and esp. romantic Asian dramas, I’m primed to adore all OTPs actually. I’m one of those Beanie who never gets SLS! But there’ll be times when I wonder about the casting of a project and how convincing the pairing can be.

Rowoon + Cho Yi-hyun in The Matchmakers, Namkoong Min + Ahn Eun-jin in My Dearest, and Gong Jun + Zhong Chu Xi in Rising With the Wind are some examples where I was conclusively proven wrong. Loved all of them! More romances like these please!

Linking an edit of RWTW because good things should be shared 😉

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#2023 Drama Round-up
Day 4. Drama I loved and Beanies hated/ Drama I hated and Beanies loved

Drama I loved and Beanies hated – I think Behind Your Touch was pretty polarising here on DB but for me it was one of my favourite dramas of the year. This year didn’t have too many shows where I went “I want to watch that scene/episode/entire drama” again but I felt that way for this one.

Drama I hated and Beanies loved – I definitely hated Bo-ra! Deborah and Strangers Again more than most but I think I was most disconnected from the beanies that loved Destined With You. The FL was so badly written that every episode was me just being like this (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻.
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    Behind Your Touch was a very smartly written and directed show with phenomenal leads. The humor hit the spot.

    No one was watching Destined for the FL. 🤣

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      Agree about the humour for Behind Your Touch. There were so many quips and wisecracks stuffed into each episode.

      As for Destined With You, I believe you 🤣. But even when I tried watching for the MLs, my brain kept getting annoyed at the two hot men fighting over the dimwit!

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    DWY was my “Beanies loved, I hated” drama, but it also falls into the category of “drops” for me so I didn’t want to just repeat myself over and over again hahaha! But I completely agree: I dropped it primarily because of the FL. So awful.

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      I dropped DWY precisely because I didn’t want to keep ranting about it so I feel you on the ‘not repeating myself’ 🤣. It’s weird – there were definitely objectively worse shows overall this year but this one just made me SO mad. There’s no accounting for why some shows just hit you differently from others I guess 😅.

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        So true. Some shows just drive you up the wall while something worse leaves you indifferent. I guess it’s the emotion or how invested we are in the show which determines our reaction. 🤷‍♀️

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      After all how many ways can you say – too stupid to live. But then there was this.

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#2023 Drama Round-up
Day 3. Side character that stole the drama

K-drama -Kim Yong-myung as Kim Yong-myung 🤣 in Behind Your Touch. Pretty sure anyone who’s watched the show walked away ridiculously fond of this guy and the way he said ‘Eonnie’ 😄.

C-drama – Everyone (yes really!) in Meet Yourself, the second couples in Hi Venus and Trick or Love, and the FL’s brother in Hidden Love just to name a few. It was the year of ensemble dramas and dramas with multiple MLs so I have to stop somewhere 😅.
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    of course!! He was shining in the role.. his ‘Eonnie’ is epic.

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    Meet Yourself has many nice and endearing side characters: grandma, the children, the FL’s female friends, the woodworker boy…

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      Every character was so endearing. Even the ‘aunts’ in the village who you might not like initially ended up being so sweet and warm.

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    Everyone in a drama is a rare achievement and none so deserving as Meet Yourself. 👏

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#2023 Drama Round-up
Day 2. Male lead I’ll never forget

K-drama ML I’ll never forget – Lee Jang-hyun from My Dearest. Get you a man who hears the sound of flowers when he looks at you. From the moment he hugged Gil-chae, when she told him about her assault, Jang-hyun had my whole heart.
Though I have to admit Jang Ju-won from Moving came close.

C-drama ML I’ll never forget – This was a tough one – Tantai Jin, Shi Ying, Li Lianhua were all amazing but my heart belongs to Xie Zhiyao from Meet Yourself. Also someone I’d like to be friends with! A ML who doesn’t need the FL to ‘fix’ him, who is striving for himself and his people, who truly builds a relationship of equals. Bonus points for making one of the most beautiful confessions of love I’ve seen.

I realize that my memorable MLs are just mirroring my memorable FLs. I guess there’s nothing that beats a story about two halves that make a whole.






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    Awww 🥰
    When 2023 started this was the first drama I finished. And right then I knew Zhi Yao was going to be the best OF 2024. I made him my cover and no one has taken that spot since.
    There was something so calm, mature, earnest, nurturing quality about him, just seeing him on screen made me feel warm. When he told his friend why he asssumes she should leave everything and come to him he had my whole heart. And Li Xian brough this role to life. He really has the sweetest smile.

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      Warm is such an accurate description of the character! That conversation with his friend was exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote about ‘relationship of equals’. It was such a simple statement but made the friend also realise his internalised biases. Li Xian did a stellar job – love that he wasn’t afraid to be goofy or cute too.

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    Perfect choices and your last paragraph is just *chef’s kiss* 🤌

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    I have picked Zhi Yao (Li Xian) too. He was practically perfect, but in a realistic way. I understand why the FL fell for him.

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    Even if Zhi Yao is at the top of your list in this category, thank you for giving one of your honourable mentions to Shi Ying 🥹🥹🥹🥹

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      I had to! Feel like he got buried in a year of great dramas but Shi Ying is a very well-written character and Xiao Zhan played him with a lot of subtlety and charm.

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        I agree!
        It’s so easy to portray such a character— isolated, alone, etc.— in a very stoic, unfeeling, and cold way (see Wallace Huo in “The Journey of Flower”), but Xiao Zhan breathed so much warmth, gentleness, relatability, and a sense of yearning and love into Shi Ying 🥹

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#2023 Drama Round-up

Honestly all my actual answers should really be C-drama related. This was the first year when the quality of the c-dramas I watched far outweighed the quality of k-dramas. So I’ll just cheat and put both 😬.

Day 1. Female lead I’ll never forget

K-drama FL I’ll never forget – Yoo Gil-chae from My Dearest. The drama may have been a bit of a let-down eventually but Gil-chae never was. She was a ‘heroine’ in the truest sense. So much her own person, so brave, so honest and so deserving of happiness.

C-drama FL I’ll never forget – Xu Hongdou from Meet Yourself. So refreshing to see a competent , modern woman who isn’t an archetype. It was like meeting someone I’d want to be friends with.






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    Great choices!! Both of them were great (even though I never saw part 2 of MD, I loved her in Part 1). Women who endured, healed and lived by their own strength.

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      Yes! I loved that healing was part of their identity too – that it’s okay to break down or suffer indignities and that you can heal from them.

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    Totally agree with you on Gil Chae, and I need to watch Meet Yourself – I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. I’ll also be slipping in shows from other Asian countries into my round up posts because I agree that many awesome shows were from other places.

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      I love that we can appreciate dramas from so many different countries here! A lot of my favourite Asian dramas this year were from recommendations by other beanies.

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The teaser trailer for Welcome to Samdal-ri is out already and it looks FUN! I’m hyped!

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    Thank you … I’ll take Ji Chang-wook with kelp over his face anyway over the smoke and blood in Worst of Evil!!

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    Ah! Looks fun. Also I feel like I am seeing the old JCW here and that’s great. He (or rather I) really could use a good romcom.

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      My sentiments exactly!!

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      From your words to drama gods ears.

      We really really really need a “happy” drama (all the way through) as a sweet treat to end the year.

      After all we have been so good throughout the year and patiently endured so called happy / healing dramas turn angsty without warning, surely Santa can help us catch a break!

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    It gives me a HomeCha vibe and I like it! I need a summer kdrama for this cold and dark weather.

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      Oh that’s a good comparison! The director also made When the Camellia Blooms, which also had the same small-town air.

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I’d be looking forward to this anyway (because Kim Nam-gil 🥰) but it looks pretty epic.

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    I am waiting for this too! Few more weeks+

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    Kim Nam Gil! In long flowy coat! Shooting bad guys! In slow motion!

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    Did anyone see the Bidam vibe? He’s born to play this type of character.

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      Yes! This reminded me that in Destined With You Ha Jun’s character is called Bi-Dam as a nickname (short for Bisual Damdang/ Responsible for Visuals 😂).

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    Looking forward to this one!

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Recommendation #5 #BeaniePlaylist #BeanieIslandParty @ally-le
Another c-OST recommendation, this one’s an early 90s’ Chinese song that was reused in the soundtrack for the c-drama Road Home. It’s a very old school ballad but is composed and sung beautifully. Also I appreciate a song that spends almost a full minute just on the music – none of the recent 2 minute TikTok song vibes 😅.

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    I was prepared to not like it, but after clicking play I think it’s very beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

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    One of the best dramas so far this year, honestly ♥️

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Recommendation #4 #BeaniePlaylist #BeanieIslandParty @ally-le
The love story was the best part of The Good Bad Mother for me and this OST is such a sweet representation of it, starting with the title which means “So I Can Love You Again” 💖.

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Recommendation #3 #BeaniePlaylist #BeanieIslandParty @ally-le
Speaking of OSTs that nail the vibe of this show, this one from Payback is fantastic. Right from the start when the instruments kick in, it’s a banger through and through.

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Recommendation #2 #BeaniePlaylist #BeanieIslandParty @ally-le
This isn’t kpop or kdrama but Meet Yourself’s OST is the best one I’ve heard this year. Every single song is a gem and suits the general vibe of the show so beautifully. Sharing just one but you should definitely check out the rest!

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    I have all the songs on my Spotify and the drama itself saved as a playlist on YouTube ♥️ I absolutely love it

    With that said… Should I also share my C-Pop-C-OST playlist, too?? 🤔🤔

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      I have the whole OST saved on Spotify too! I shared willy-nilly but maybe @ally-le can confirm if c-pop/c-ost’s can be shared?

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        Whatever you really love! We have kpop, cpop, cdrama ost’s on past playlists!

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Starting the Beanie Island Party recs with this one from last year. Has been on constant repeat since then! @ally-le #BeaniePlaylist #BeanieIslandParty

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Is anybody else finding the subs for Moving a bit too…paraphrased? I keep getting distracted by the differences between what is being said and what\’s written on screen 😦

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    I’m five minutes into ep 1, and yep, it’s reminding me why Disney/Hulu subs are my least favorite. I don’t know a lot of Korean, but I know enough to catch some of those differences. Also, they don’t need to make the standard subs audio description!! (i.e., *breathing shakily,* *slurps noodles,* etc). Oh well. At least it’s available and subbed somewhere!

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      Agreed. They’ve always been my least favourite subs too. Also strange that they don’t offer a choice between just subtitles and closed captions.

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One has a knack for choosing great scripts and the other…not so much. Really curious how this will turn out. Maybe this will reignite my fondness for JCW (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧.

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    Same. I want to watch his dramas after loving him in Healer. Hopefully this will be the one.

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    The potential here though 🤩 !!! I’m also nervous BUT JCW’s last drama was actually quite good (or at least I liked it!) so there’s hope!!

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      I did hear good things about the last one but I haven’t seen it. Maybe this is the one that’ll make me watch 🙏.

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    same here… i was shocked to see them in same frame abt same drama.. i was like who changed his/her territory and now i am worried abt a drama of SHS i might hv to skip
    *fingers crossed* it should be other way around

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Don’t even care that it’s a Kim Eun-sook drama. Kim Woo-bin in a rom-com (as a cranky genie at that!) is all I need 🥰

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I love that the entirety of the teaser is just “here are the pretty people you were waiting for”. Love a self-aware show! Can’t wait!

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    I seriously waited for any product to come out at the end. But if 16 episodes of ppl and pretty are what I need to climb out of a drama slump so be it.

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    They picked a good song cos i’m suddenly interestedly 😄

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    cheminyae…🤣🤣🤣 thats all i say
    and ooh the chemistry….. ❤️❤️❤️

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    With the pretty here, all I want is an old school romance even though it might just be another chaebol and candy – which we haven’t seen for quite a while.

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      I commented the same thing on another forum. Give me a good old sweep-me-off-my-feet romance with all the clichés and then some lol.

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    I honestly see zero chemistry, but I’m all in for this.
    I do hope that after 9 months of filming this will be just a good romcom and not a train wreck.
    My love for babes is endless but I am just praying it’s not a tragedy.

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      There seems to be some chaebol succession drama mixed in with the romance (per the drama summary) but hopefully they’ll keep that to a minimum.

      I thought Yoo-na was much improved in Big Mouth so hopefully there’ll be chemistry to spare here 🤞.

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The biggest winner of this year\’s Baeksang awards for TV is…Netflix. I think other than Reborn Rich, all the other shows were on Netflix. Gotta hand it to them on choosing wisely 👏.

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Someone called it the MYCU (Min Yoongi Cinematic Universe 😂) and I have to agree. Reminds me of mob-cop movies like Infernal Affairs…

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    This kind of music is not my favorite but the music video is good.

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      That’s totally fair! I love this type of music on the other hand – sometimes you just need music to watch the world burn 🤣.

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