Blood Free
Excellent opening week. Or maybe there’s nothing else to watch, that’s why. It’s not even my preferred genre but it was surprisingly compelling. The opening of ep1 was a good shock-and-awe start. The “test” in ep2 was a bit contrived, but the overall set up was pretty decent. The story has also, pretty convincingly, woven in a bunch of contemporary issues, making it quite relevant (although it might also make the show dated quicker than it should).
Gramps knows about Do Han being gay, right? That’s why he’s going on and on about this ‘stay in power / protect yourself / only then can you protect others’ logic, etc.
Stberry had another interesting theory that dad might have caused the mothers death and hence grandpa doesn’t want to tell his children. And also why he doesn’t want to give power to his children as it would bring him close to power.
ahh interesting theory. yeah dad has had only a bit part so far, but he’s got to make a reappearance. for some reason, I thought grandpa had a role in the death himself, and that’s why he’s so guilty. idk that sub plot is really poorly done so far and I’m very confused haha
Yes, Grandpa knows for sure that Do-han is gay and wants to make sure that he is safe from attacks and suspicions. It may also be part of his plan to secure Ji-han’s future, as he knows for sure that he will be an important support for his brother in the company.
yeah, makes sense. although I’d have thought if a grandchild has to inherit anyway, it’s more appropriate to ‘reward’ Ji-han with the company (since he knows more about its workings) who can then in turn ensure Do-han is “safe”, since he’s so obsessed with his brother anyway. Ah well.
Did you use the upload button on your composing window? If so, the GIF won’t be auto-playing, we have to click on it to see it moving. If you want the GIF to autoplay, you can post it by using a command line with syntax as below
I went to the page you mentioned and right-clicked on the GIF and chose “Copy image address”, then I obtained the image address below
When this link to the GIF (a.k.a the image address) is put in between the square brackets and the fixed html tag img src= and the straight-down quotation marks, this command line will call the GIF from the source and display it in your post for you wherever you put it.
Thanks for the closeup of this distinguished document! I couldn’t see it well enough on my screen to tell if it was gobbledygook or legit 😆 He’s such an odd character, looking forward to learning why he’d come back if he has to hide.
If I understood right, the story suggested he left because he was chasing after some “blue eyed girl”, so maybe a foreigner?, so I’m speculating that they split, for whatever reason, and he decided to trudge back. Who knows. Haha
LOL. Last night while watching episode 7 I freeze framed that image so I could read it. Great prop. With the appearance of Seok Jung the pot is really getting stirred. You caught the contemporary english being thrown in by this guy. It is almost like the writers decided to time slip in someone from the 21st century. Why not.
Casting note. Surprising to discover who was playing Seok Jung. SJ is being played by the versatile Oh Eui-sik who I last saw in CRASH COURSE IN ROMANCE playing Hang-seon (Jeon Do-yeon)’s autistic brother Jae-woo (a memorable role).
Yes I remember him from CCiR, but I remember him most in WFKBJ, where he was Bok-joo’s senior in the weightlifting team. Quite an anachronistic character, and I wonder what the writers are getting at with him. Or just some chap who’s travelled the world, and returned after he got tired of his wanderings.
Also, while the prop is great, the handwriting is quite awful.
Like Flowers in Sand
All\’s well that ends well. It wasn\’t a show I loved utterly, but most bits were great, especially the ssireum scenes. JDY is a standout star, and it\’s great he\’s getting lots of work, even if the quality is mixed. What has me worried, though, is that this might be the best kdrama of the year. I hope not!, but 2023 did not exactly set a precedent to follow. Fingers crossed that I am wrong!
Yeah, I think Knight Flower may end up being second best of the year pfft! I’m dozing off a bit in between, but it’s mostly funny. I have concluded fusion sageuk are my favourite kind of sageuk, maybe because they’re usually non-serious.
Ya totally! I don’t know if there will be three in my list in 2024 haha.
Last year I watched 8 kdramas, of which some were short ones, and I struggle to think of three shows I would recommend.
Ssireum scenes were indeed the highlight. The way they were filmed, the lighting. Everything was beautiful. I usually like sports dramas but this was really special.
The art direction and cinematography was wonderful in this. And it introduced us to the world of ssireum, which I found fascinating. I love sports dramas too! Probably among my top three genres. But I felt this show didn’t do the sport enough justice, that darned murder investigation kept coming in the way.
I’ve watched more jdramas in 2023 than any other kind (a reflection perhaps of how poor the general fare has been), but I’m happy to report that the jdrama world has served up some amazing gems. Barakamon and Reversal Orchestra are both shows I enjoyed thoroughly. The latest one in this list is Gekokujo Kyuji. A pure play sports drama, which made me fall in love with baseball (a sport that is culturally foreign to me), and based on a true story at that. So much heart in it. It has youngsters, middle agers and older actors, all having important roles to play, of how a motley crew becomes a giant-killer and how a community becomes a family. The exact kind of show jdrama does well. If you are a sports drama fan like me, this is a great show to add to your list.
I second this, the story reminded me of Racket sports because of the small town belittled team that grew together.
What was fascinating was it all started with one boy not giving up on his interest to play even though he was the only person in the ‘team’ and the female coach who loved the sport but never got the chance to play as there were no female teams. Those two brought in a very reluctant (with good reason) third person to support and despite the setbacks they created the team that believed in themselves despite their reputation of losers going ahead of them. Such a great story so glad someone decided that had to be shared with a wider audience and created this drama.
ya you make good points! I didn’t check the original story to verify how accurate the characters and the roles they played were, but I’m guess quite a bit of it is true. In any case, it’s a miracle the team came from zero to reach where they did in the span of three years. It must have taken so much work in real life. Such a fantastic story.
I’ve neither read the manga nor watched the anime, and I had no idea of what to expect while starting the drama.
But the show was charming to boot. The leads seemed perfect for their roles and the cutest bunch of kids (I never thought I’d say that about any show haha). The found family – gosh, jdramas do that so well – was lovely, and it was all just so precious, sorry I can’t stop gushing! Look forward to hearing what you think!
If you’re so inclined, I’d highly recommend Reversal Orchestra too, which evoked similar sentiments (but no cute kids pfft).
As for Kadowaki Muni, I had never watched her before. But after ReveOrche, I ended up also seeing Nagatan to Aoto: Ichika no Ryourijou, which was interesting. I wasn’t blown away, but it was a pleasant show.
ReveOrche has a terrific ensemble cast and everyone has a role to play. I had no idea but it crept up on me as I live watched, and I had major withdrawal symptoms after it ended… I couldn’t watch anything else for more than a month I think. And everyone else who was watching with me said the same. I wonder how you will feel haha.
Oh dear the only Yamaken drama I have watched in full I think is A Girl & Three Sweethearts . I hate that drama with a passion, it is so so so bad. He’s always styled like a character directly out of a manga, it throws me off every time haha.
Weird jdramas are aplenty, which I try to avoid, but they always creep in somehow. The last one I remember is Prism, which had a pretty wacko set up, by my standards at least, I dropped it very quickly.
And my goodness what was that scene at the end of ep11! Someone give Yuna an award for just those five minutes of sheer brilliance. Wow. Definitely one of the most emotional scenes I’ve watched in a long time. Just wow.
Meanwhile, FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT gets more fun! Watched till ep8 badly subbed, and rewatched better subs on Viki (available here only till ep4).
We’re only half way through the drama, but I think FAKE IT might be one of the better shows of the year! Superficially, it seems to be about a man and woman flirting their way into each others’ lives (and Elvis Han and Elvira Cai are doing a fine FINE job teasing us all). But at its core, the story is about how we bury our “real” selves and build up “pretentious” identities to survive in the rat race; the modern urban human condition, if you will. This affects everything around us, how we walk, talk, dress, relationships with friends, family and lovers. The question is, when, if ever, do we ever let the veil fall and allow the truth to reveal itself?
Full credit to the original novelist for writing up such a real, cynical romance. Full credit also to the director for adapting this his own signature style. Love how the city becomes a character in his shows (ref.: REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST), and how the stories are not just flat, 2-dimensional fairy tales, but have many layers to peel back. Like someone commented elsewhere, I don’t watch many romances, but if they made more like this, heck, I’d watch them all! It’s going to be very hard to go back to the regular drama fare after this.
Happy to see others are on this boat too! e.g., @mayhemfSorry my gif game is poor, otherwise I’d have picked up some scenes to add to this. But generally, this is a recommendation for all who are interested!
ooh Pickle recommending a romance, this must be good. The plot sounds intriguing so i will definitely check it out now. I think this is especially relevant to my generation which grew up with social media and is cynical about the future and relationships in general
Go for it, Mani! I recommend you watch with Viki subs, because whatever else is floating around seems to be MTL-ed, and the nuance in this show is in the dialogue.
I am loving this show. But pacing myself. I told myself I will Make some gifs of foot flirting hopefully this week gets better and I find time.
Ep 3 was too good and I rewatched scenes.
It stays good! I’ve really watched only up to ep4, and the rest of it has been me guessing what the MTL-ed subs mean 😂
Both the FL and ML are so good at backing off at the last minute, as the audience, you are always deceived into thinking, was that real or not? has s/he caught feelings or not? is s/he still fake-flirting or not? it’s a delicious tease.
I also appreciate they made both of them smart people, and thank goodness, no dumb FL who needs to be rescued by the ML (even though ML seems to be more wealthy).
There are some very well thought out scenes even outside of the OTP, which I have appreciated so far.
I’m super bugged with the 2FL, but I get why she is in the story, as a counterpoint to the FL, and an alternate “reality”.
I just love this show. I have to thank you by way of Blue for recommending it. I won’t lie. It’s that crack romance that has pulled me in. So good. However, I appreciate it much more for its complications and cynicisms rooted in the dog-eat-dog world our protagonists are hell bent on succeeding in. There is so much to mine here. It’s a rare case where I wish we had DB cover a c-drama. And it’s only 14 episodes!
I’m going to drag myself over the angsty finish line for TWS.
I like the romance too! But what pulled me in was the director / RemOTP. I didn’t know what I was signing up for when I started this, and had never seen the leads before.
The romance aside, I really appreciated how ep1 set up the realities of the corporate world so well. I didn’t find the investment banking scenes as convincing, but I’m willing to bet that the writer (or the director, or someone in the production team) is / has been a lawyer. The law firm, etc., scenes are just spot on, down to the cray partner, the fussy client, the afterparties, the meetings over drinks, the flaunting of that latest unnecessary piece of jewelry you bought….
MangoTV makes some good dramas, except they don’t invest in subs, and just palm off the job to their license partners. It’s a good thing Viki has taken it up! They’re doing a wonderful job.
I don’t know either world but good to know they got the legal part right. To me it was fascinating how much she was willing to court the other-millionaire-named-Ma, with the encouragement of her boss. I don’t know how far along you are so I won’t say more.
The push-and-pull was a bit much in these episodes. I felt the rubber band was going to snap, or was that me? 😂
Lastly, did you notice how she and others try to belittle her looks while glamming her to the max. It’s so patently false that it bugs me.
oh I need better subs to understand the details. But yeah, the teasing was a lot! I feel like it’ll all snap this week.
I find the general discussion on appearance, fashion, beauty, so interesting here – it’s not laying it out in b&w, but there’s a lot of faking, a lot of subtext, a lot of judging. This is a super clever drama, it’s not treating viewers as stupid, and I’m loving it for that reason!
The very few Cdramas I’ve tried have not stuck, and the plot setup sounds bog-standard, but I might have to reconsider for this one. I do love a good romance – and also because the lead actors are named ELVIS and ELVIRA. To an American of a certain age, that is just such a hilarious match-up.
As a non-american, and not of the appropriate age (clearly), I had to search for the Elvis-Elvira reference 😂and I’ve been lol-ing since.
Notwithstanding, I upvote this drama precisely because of how refreshingly different it is. It’s a very clever, smart script. Oh how I would love it if asian dramas pivoted to this style more, both directorially and script wise.
THE WAY YOU SHINE – Dropped at ep20
cc: @mayhemf (I forget the others, sorry! 😢)
I\’d kept eps 21-24 for this week, but spoiled myself with the ending. Quite bugged now. Moving on to other things…
I don’t understand why they thought it was a good idea to remind us her wedding night with her ex when she was finally marrying Tianyu. But otherwise, it was a happy ending but the ton was odd.
Here to recommend another tw-drama, OH NO! HERE COMES TROUBLE.
This is labelled as supernatural and mystery, but don’t let that deter you, as it did me at the beginning. It’s an episodic show, still airing, and actually a very gentle balance between humour and thoughtfulness, with some surprising and unusual decisions on topics tackled. Even though it’s thematically in the same drama family as shows like “Move to Heaven” or “May I Help You”, it’s highly original and catches you unexpectedly. A 15-minute section in episode 5, for example, ought to go down as a classic segment in any drama, but I won’t spoil it for you.
Wow, this sounds amazing, Thanks for flagging it here. Hopefully, there will be a group of people this will be ideal for who will be able to share the moment with you. I hope it can continue at this level and end well.
I can’t believe you didn’t say Avenue X gave it top rankings. I am new to Avenue X so may have missed it but I get the impression it is rare for her give top marks and to a still airing drama. That would be so risky with K dramas that can go rouge randomly close to the end. She has highly recommended a number of dramas that I have gone on to love too.
Oh ya! I forgot to mention she gave it a 3 gold mine rating!
My own review was independent of AveX’s, which is why it didn’t strike me to mention that 😂 She doesn’t review tw-dramas as often, so that makes it rare. Not sure a 3-gold mine is super rare, but I do know many people don’t align with her ratings at all, so it doesn’t matter as much.
I trust tw-dramas generally more than k-dramas, and there’s a high chance they land better on average (although there have been some disasters – side eying Rainless Love, Arc of Life, as recent examples).
Interesting. The trailer didn’t work for me and hence didn’t start. As much as I am starved for TW dramas I didn’t think this would be for me.
And I didn’t care for the two dramas(k) you mentioned.
Now I am curious. But not sure what needs to fall off my watchlist. Stop adding more dramas to my list 😬😬
I did not like MTH (and didn’t finish), and was not interested in MIHY either. I honestly wasn’t interested in this when it started out, but Jen (forget her DB id) sold it to me as a slice of lifer and comedy, and it totally hits all those notes.
After my watchlist emptied itself out post-Call It Love, I scrambled and added almost a dozen new ones 😂 Very few stuck, this is one of them. I don’t see anything else on the radar, but I will keep an eye out – just for you 😉
Hello! Sorry for the delay, was travelling and disconnected. Umm, I’d say it’s an interesting and original story (IMO). I will not say I understood a lot of it, some of it was probably due to some cultural nuances lost in translation. But I enjoyed it for what it was. Some of the stories/ vignettes were especially lovely.
Whoever planned to watch QUEENMAKER, don’t (I suffered it for you)!
Instead, I recommend THE WAVE MAKERS, a tw-drama. Just 8 episodes, it’s thematically similar (politics, elections, etc), but plot is different, and far more sensibly handled. It’s timed beautifully as well (unless I’m reading too much into the subtext), in that it’s very much about the idea of democracy, whether it’s about celebrating it, or recognising its underbelly.
Queenmaker was utter rubbish. I watched it only for Moon So-ri, and she didn’t even have that great a role.
I’m reading TWM as an insidious tw-led pro-democracy campaign. But I also thought it didn’t push the envelope far enough on many issues. Would love to hear your thoughts after you watch!
It was exactly that. I think it was my first truly makjang-ie drama, having successfully avoided others in the past. I watched the whole thing in utter shock and awe at how ridiculous it could be. Good decision to drop!
I was more disappointed with the writing. It became predictable from scene one. Plus I felt the actresses did not shine in the two episodes I saw. Glad I dropped.
Thanks for this recommendation! Just had a look – director of The World Between Us and Ying-Hsuan Hsieh as the lead!! I am in. Hsieh is an excellent actress and so versatile – I will forever remember her performance in Dear Ex.
And probably the drama may not be as dramatic as the real politics in Taiwan, which is always fascinating to follow.
Yess! Some of the political positions taken in TWBU are being re-iterated here, which comes as no surprise. I do wish they’d been a little more adventurous with the politics, but I guess the liberal democratic angle they took here was bold enough for a drama, otherwise it might have descended into an all-out manifesto.
And yes! YHH is such a star! – she’s one of those actresses I’d love to befriend, because she just seems so cool.
Call It Love: Eps 11-12
So, I didn\’t love this week\’s episodes as much as previous ones. I found the ending a little absurdist, which was entertaining. But the rest was hmmm. Spoilery thoughts below.
The one arc I did appreciate this week was Jun’s. Show gave him a good story, and some solid talk-throughs and monologues of what he’s going through on account of the siblings this week. From a starting point where I didn’t see the point of Jun being there (I still don’t, tbh, other than as a potential interest for noona), to appreciating his growth as a character regardless of relevance, I think it’s been pretty okay.
I think fundamentally the set-up is weak – of the house being taken over and the siblings being to leave. This is compounded the totally flat delivery by the actress playing ML mom, and the characters around her (her current bf, the hairdresser aunt, etc). Where are the lawyers? How can some random goons strongarm the siblings into vacating? where are the possession rights? when was the will read out? how did the ex-wife not know about this before?
As contrived as this set up is to begin with, it has not been as well thought through as the rest of the show, which effectively means the show is resting on a poor foundation.
The mother lied and said that the father gave her the house before he died i.e. not that he left it to her in his will. But I also don’t understand why they never asked to see proof that she owned it rather than just leaving. I can only put it down to their utter lack of faith in their terrible father.
okay let’s ignore the siblings. they’re (a) stupid, and (b) did not trust their father, (c) expected him to do something stupid like this and (d) didn’t think they should check in with their mom about any of this anyway. Okay.
Then my question would be how is the realtor entertaining her? surely she should have seen the papers that entitle her to the property?
And that (relatively) new arc the show is stringing about her current bf wanting money to escape his loan sharks, or whatever, is wholly unnecessary at this point. As though we don’t have enough unresolved – and unwarranted – messes.
Yep yep yep. How is she selling a house without proving she owns it first? If anything, her claiming to own it when she didn’t would explain why she didn’t sell it. But now she’s put it on the market? That makes no sense.
Maybe this is the reason she didn’t sell it in the first place. This thought came to mind while watching this week’s episodes: where did she live before with sibling’s dad? Was that house theirs? Why did she move?
In Spain there is an organism where you can ask if there is a will, insurances or any property to the name of a deceased person and you get copy of all that…. but as someone pointed out before, according to dramas Korean Law is quite a mess…
She wants to sell the house. Don’t think they have legally started the process. She was only talking about estimates.
She was the legal wife and she is selling her husbands house. Whose name is on the title would make all the difference
Which we don’t know yet.
Agreed. There isn’t much left to uncover in terms of the plot. The only major arc remaining is Dongjin finding out about Woojoo’s intentions of revenge, which is really dragging and putting a dampener on things. Hyesung nailed it when she said Woojoo made her staying the night sound like she was dying. I’m also conscious of the FL having a handful of expressions, which worked up to a point but I would really like to see some nuance because as it stands now, all I’m getting is that Woojoo is uncomfortable all the time.
Oh absolutely agree! She’s making it out to be a big deal, but I also don’t see how things can be reversed from here. It’s basically a pain of no return from here on out. I can only see DongJin being abandoned, and going off in his camper van forever now.
Also, I’m LSK bias, because BokJoo is forever seared in my heart, but I can see that she’s out of depth here. But I also maintained this from the start – none of the actors are doing an amazing job or anything, IMO.
This drama has been resting on the cinematography (let’s agree to ignore the pink filter which has not significantly improved with later episodes sadly), framing / art direction, and some decent direction. Show had a relatively weak opening, very strong middle, and now I’m not confident of the end..
I also thought that she lied about Dongjin apologizing to her (while talking to her mom) I don’t think he knows yet.
Because when talking to Sun Woo she clearly said she has to reveal a lot if she has to explain her actions of revenge.
So we do have the big reveal yet to come. How DJ will take it is anybody’s guess.
It’s in line with her personality. She takes everything upon herself and suffers alone. what’s worse is she knows what hurt him before. Women lying and walking all over him. And now she sees herself as another one in his life. Another deceiver.
Sadly, she has kept her one friend in the dark. I miss their scenes together. I don’t like that the show has more of Jun and elder sibling more than the friends.
She had a good chance early on to reveal. When she recognized she likes him and didn’t know he liked her. She blew her chance.
Trouble now is she is in this too deep. She wants this. and she is behaving in ways she would never. I think I get her conflict. Even if DJ forgives her I don’t know if she will forgive herself soon.
I’m still enjoying this. The show hasn’t changed anything for me. It’s just people doing people things. Dumb stuff et Al.
Oh yes that DongJin apologizing to her thing was totally a lie, all in her imagination!
And yes! I feel like the show could have shown the Jun-WooJoo dynamic more, and made him seem more relevant, instead of relegating him to a noona love interest, which honestly, I totally felt what he was feeling, and it would be soooo icky awkward…. (which is why I also appreciated his arc this episode).
I can’t see how Woojoo can reverse this – it’s kind of crossed the rubicon, and there can be no HEA from here. I can’t see it happening. We’re just waiting for the inevitable … boom. In one scenario, okay, I can see DJ saying, oh it’s no big deal, I hate my mom anyway, and we can ignore her completely, but she’s always going to be looming over them, so unless she – umm – dies or something drastic like that happens, there can be no scope for reconciliation even, at this point.
That line, where she says, “We’re both stupid people” – I was silently yelling at the screen, saying, “HECK YES”!
I’m enjoying the show generally too (just that I like these eps less), and I will watch through till the end, whatever happens (I say I’ll be burned, like 2521 burned 😂, but it’s ah well okay).
The mom arc is only going to get more ugly. She is broke and desperate. I kind of liked the parallel between and Hyesung, both women cannot be alone. One person serial married and another serial dated.
I am not saying they are similar, but I do like that the show didn’t make the mom a caricature. I liked that Min Young gave her a piece of her mind. It was long due. How will her arc end? Redemption? I doubt they are gonna kill her off.
She is greedy for money so I wonder how they will settle this.
DJ will sell his business or his share in the business, give the money to her to silence her. He will ensure – somehow – the house is returned to the kids / or maybe she has no right to title anyway, so whatever sale she tries will be a dud. And then, since by now, he will have learnt the truth about the house and the owners, he will go off into the sunset in his camper van. Woojoo will be eternally depressed too, and will hang on to Jun’s friendship. DJ and WJ will cross paths one day in Seoul, and wonder, what if…. An open ending.
I’ll be happy if none of this comes true 😂
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I liked Minyoung giving it back to her. But idk if mom is just a terrible actress or her character is badly written. I was cringing so much while watching her scenes. Same with Hyesung. Show gave her a more rounded story, but still kind of irrational.
I see that the show is about dealing with different types of loneliness, and serial dating / marriage is how Hyesung and Heeja are trying to cope with their version. To that end, their characters work. But beyond that, I can’t get behind their motivations. (Maybe the writer can’t either, which is why they’re so flat as characters 😂)
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Okay I feel I’ve written so many essays on this. I won’t have anything to write in the recap. boo.
The Heeja arc, being the central pillar on which the whole story is resting, can’t quite be ignored, but I do wish the show had written this arc / character better, and the director should have instructed the actress better 😂
Absolutely agree about Hyesung, and maybe Woojoo and Jun will help her find her own space and identity (and that would actually be a great character arc / resolution for Jun-Hyesung).
The dream-apology sequence was interesting. I’m not sure I liked it much, because I feel it doesn’t help her character grow – it suggests she’s still stuck in the lying mould, when she needs to be honest with herself and everyone around her. Enough lying already. This is why, like Blue said earlier, Woojoo’s relationship with Jun is so precious, because he’s the only one who knows, and whom she’s actually told the real story herself, voluntarily. He’s her confidant and true friend, and with whom she’s most comfortable. She needs to realize that telling the truth is what will get her there, to that comfortable space. Because right now, gosh she’s not comfortable 😂
The karaoke scene was my most favourite scene in this week’s episodes – there was so much subtext in that panning of the camera – truths, lies, and everything in between. It was a loaded scene!
Call It Love: I feel like the scriptwriter\’s brief was \”My Ahjusshi, but with romance\”.
So many callbacks, it\’s hard to ignore. But gah, show is totally standing out on its own too.
This will be my first completed kdrama of 2023, I\’m in it deep, regardless of what madness scriptwriters are wont to pull off after ep10 (I\’m hoping for the best, of course!)
I unironically think that while the brief was exactly what you said, Call it Love is what My Liberation Notes thought it was. By that I mean, characters have monologues that don’t feel off in terms of context, you understand the characters’ loneliness and the point of mutual understanding, the siblings feel like siblings and the characters’ liberation is palpable. Even the athletic background of the lead feels more authentic. Woo Joo does not throw one arrow and then we forget about who she was, instead, the athletic background is used as a proof of how intense Woo Joo’s impulsivity and grief are.
That’s an interesting comparison too. MLN tried too hard. You’re right. Here, it’s just right, and all the pieces fit well and the growth makes sense. What’s fascinating for me is how characters that appeared 2D early on (e.g., sister, best friend, ex gf, director shin) have suddenly acquired more facets and are fully fleshed out. It’s excellent writing and execution.
spot on! there are so many shots that speak for themselves, without any dialogue at all. The silences are actually meaningful and speak loudly for themselves and take the story forward. They don’t slow things down.
I rewatched ep9 already 😂 now on to ep10
That’s exactly what it is, and exactly why I like it more—also, I love Sung Joon and so glad his scenes are just as grand with the FL as KYK’s. I mean, he’s the best friend we all need, who sees the train wreck a mile away and despite his attempts to stop it, it just keeps barreling towards him. I trust this will end in the satisfying way. If not, you know I will have thoughts! 😂
this is my first time watching Sung Joon. At the start I was indifferent to his character, but I like how he’s acquired roundedness, and his role as pharmacist-healer, the one who always has the right kind of balm to soothe you, whatever your ailment may be, is very nicely built up!
I will join you in … thoughts… if it doesn’t end right! 😂
Okay I\’ll jump in on this one. A day late, and I already don\’t know if I\’ll survive all entries.
This has been my worst kdrama year ever since I started watching a couple of years ago, with 2022 dramas watched less than double digits, and not all were 16eps even. I trudged through most. Not a single 10/10 drama, although a couple came close. The only entrant in my 10/10 list came from elsewhere (a jdrama, DOUBLE, in case anyone wants to know):
Bloody Heart – the one I enjoyed from start to finish
Fanletter, Please – so boring
Love All Play – started out fun, but they ran out of story
May It Please the Court – solid leads, loved the banter, but story was all over the place
My Liberation Notes – what a waste of a wonderful cast, title and premise
Sh**ting Stars – fun fluff, KDY has comic skills
Through the Darkness – the Hair. the drama could have been better,
Twenty-Five Twenty-One – the one I enjoyed from start to three-quarters in.
For the record, my MDL records report that I tried 22 other kdramas and dropped all of them. The one drama I\’m still watching is Cheer Up, but it\’s lost its early charm, so it may well be the 23rd on that list.
2022 was a bad year not just for dramas but for life in general. I hope 2023 is completely the opposite.
‘ 2022 was a bad year not just for dramas but for life in general. I hope 2023 is completely the opposite.’ 👈 I hope ‘life in general’ is better for you too starting from this month. Just as a couple of good enough dramas can lift the mood let’s hope for great days adding up over time to a good life on planet Earth.
Just here to thank @earthna and her band of subbers for letting this superb episode out to the world for peasants like us — TRACER EP1 WAS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!!!!
I’m calling this early – it has everything going for it – terrific ensemble cast (so many people, I lost track), a fine genre mix of tragedy+suspense+action+comedy, (so far) pitch perfect acting / no weak links visible…. (and the excellent subs helped!!!)
Everyone who’s interested – and even those who’re not – GO WATCH!!!!
OMO I can’t wait!!! If there’s any way I can help please let me know – I can’t translate (IDK Korean), but my editing skills are respectable, if you need. Thank you again for everything ❤️
IMO, Isaac Hong has one of the best voices in the business right now, and this rock ballad, appropriately titled ‘Pain’ 😅, from HAPPINESS, allows him to showcase his range. Some interesting rhythmic switches too!
(While I’m not obsessed with this OST (yet), I thought it might get buried in the 2021 list because it arrived so late in the year, so I thought it deserved a post.)
I\’m enjoying the fanwall coming alive again! and we have @eazal to thank for this, of course, who decided that something productive should come out of the disastrous drama year she\’s had 😅
But I also see not enough love for ON THE VERGE OF INSANITY. So, while I\’m not participating in the year-end celebration (but will definitely be lurk-reading like many others), I thought Insanity/ OTVOI needed an acknowledgement that it\’s one of the best dramas of 2021, and in my own list, one of the best kdramas I\’ve EVER watched. 😍
It doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves. It was one of the most cohesive dramas I’ve seen in a long time and arguably the most cohesive one this year. And it was frantic and funny and dramatic. I don’t love it quite as much as you do but I do appreciate it. I think it’s one of the best dramas this year and needs more love.
Yep. On the Verge was quietly brilliant. Even now as I read about Samsung restructuring their promotions and evaluations, I think of what might happen behind the scenes a la On the Verge and I am amused, (be)mused. (I might be transferring my own experience too)
Posting here after ages! I was catching up with ep 5 of YOU ARE MY SPRING, and I heard a familiar voice. I wasn’t sure, so I went to YouTube to check, and OMG, I was right, Kim Min Seok / Melomance is BAAAACK with an OST for YAMS (I knew it when I heard that voice!!!) – so good to have these guys back together again now!! Can’t wait for more beautiful new music and getting to listen to that glistening distinctive voice again! I think I might be one of the only Melomance fans here. I’m celebrating on the fanwall nevertheless.
He does, doesn’t he? I think this is the only k-music group I’ve listened to on loop ever. Haha.
The other voice I’m addicted to is Isaac Hong, but he puts out much less music. :/
I first discovered Melomance through 사랑하고 싶게 돼 / Make Me Want to Love, from Because This Is My First Life. That song really stands out from most OST songs, and added a ton to my respect for that drama. Bonus: in ep. 13 Melomance does a street performance. https://youtu.be/gBcqwC8WEgM
Yes! I remember that song and their busking appearance in the show well. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the drama as much as everyone else seems to have, but Melomance’s music is always lovely and very speciala. I personally prefer their live performances or jam session recordings to their OSTs, because they’re both – Kim Minseok and Jung Donghwan – great at improvisation, and only live shows allow them that freedom.
There are some shows that you really don’t know how to respond to, other than just stand up and applaud, and this one recently got added to that list of mine. I got curious after I discovered that the scriptwriter of Dear Ex and The Arc of Life had also written The World Between Us, besides the fact that this show had won a bunch of awards. At the end of a 10-episode binge of this taiwanese drama over 3 days, I figured why it was rated so highly, and completely agreed. My quick notes:
— Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say that this show is set in the aftermath of a violent incident, and through the points of view of the families of both the victims and the perpetrator, discusses a range of issues.
— The themes are wide-ranging, from retributive justice, to post traumatic stress, to mental health, to criminal psychology, to media trials… This makes it a serious watch. But if, like myself, these are questions you have occasionally pondered over, you will not regret having watched this at all. To be able to tackle such a range in such a short span of time, and not make it seem preachy or pretentious, is a phenomenal achievement.
— There were some things I wish were discussed more (e.g., capital punishment), and there were some things I wish were less melodramatic, especially after the climactic mid-point, but I will put that down to creative license.
— The casting was excellent, although I was more partial to the actresses than to the actors.
— I loved the small editorial and production touches in the show, such as, how the closing credits changed as the episodes went by, how the palette changed, the documentary-style hand-held cinematography.
–The story is very real, and I imagine everyone would have experienced at least some aspect of the story themselves. I have, certainly.
— The fact that all the characters belonged to the same dramatic universe was extremely contrived, but it was used as a means to highlight ideological clashes, and give different points of view, and only enriched the storytelling.
— The end also deviated a bit from the realism of the rest of the show, but that’s okay. I’m not complaining.
Overall, this is a 10 on 10 in my books, and joins a very select group of shows. I won’t forget it in a while, and will be recommending it onwards quite regularly now. Please bear with me. 😂
wow you’ve already finished it !
Glad that you’ve found it and that you’ve enjoyed it 🙂 .
I agree with many points you wrote, can’t comment a lot but here’s the post I made about it when I finished it 😉 https://www.dramabeans.com/members/kudoran/activity/908113/
I binged this 😂 I found it a really compelling watch. But it makes sense that you watched one episode a day. It’s a show to be savoured. Your review dates to before I became active on DB, so I missed it when you put it out! But it’s perfect. I like how we have used similar words to describe it – raw, real, documentary style… We picked on the same things!
I had to darkside it because it’s not available for me here anywhere. I believe though that a bunch of other options might be available for some folks: Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, even some Netflix regions. (I’m not sure of licensing restrictions though!)
It’s really is so so good! The main actress is fantastic and now that you tell me the screenwriter is the same from Dear Ex and Arc of Life, it makes so much sense why I loved this. I liked the main actor, too, but I have seen him in other things and brought some baggage from those roles with me.
I liked all the actresses, actually – the perpetrator’s brother, the news editor, the juice shop owner… The actors were okay, and played their parts. But I can’t say I’m a fan. I agree with you – I had baggage regarding the two male leads – the lawyer and the journalist – but the third chap, the director/brother was great. So different from his Arc of Life role, almost unrecognizable here.
pickleddragon
April 10, 2024 at 7:02 PM
Blood Free
Excellent opening week. Or maybe there’s nothing else to watch, that’s why. It’s not even my preferred genre but it was surprisingly compelling. The opening of ep1 was a good shock-and-awe start. The “test” in ep2 was a bit contrived, but the overall set up was pretty decent. The story has also, pretty convincingly, woven in a bunch of contemporary issues, making it quite relevant (although it might also make the show dated quicker than it should).
pickleddragon
March 20, 2024 at 2:16 AM
Wedding Impossible: Not sure if these are spoilers or not, but below the fold anyway.
pickleddragon
March 20, 2024 at 2:16 AM
Gramps knows about Do Han being gay, right? That’s why he’s going on and on about this ‘stay in power / protect yourself / only then can you protect others’ logic, etc.
Blue (@mayhemf)
March 20, 2024 at 3:35 AM
Stberry had another interesting theory that dad might have caused the mothers death and hence grandpa doesn’t want to tell his children. And also why he doesn’t want to give power to his children as it would bring him close to power.
alasecond
March 20, 2024 at 6:32 AM
makes sense… after all dad has been casted so better have some role in this story
pickleddragon
March 20, 2024 at 6:56 AM
ahh interesting theory. yeah dad has had only a bit part so far, but he’s got to make a reappearance. for some reason, I thought grandpa had a role in the death himself, and that’s why he’s so guilty. idk that sub plot is really poorly done so far and I’m very confused haha
alasecond
March 20, 2024 at 6:31 AM
yes he knows and hence not opposing marriage
he told his maid once that he knows about every little thing in that house
Nefret
March 20, 2024 at 2:38 AM
Yes, Grandpa knows for sure that Do-han is gay and wants to make sure that he is safe from attacks and suspicions. It may also be part of his plan to secure Ji-han’s future, as he knows for sure that he will be an important support for his brother in the company.
pickleddragon
March 20, 2024 at 6:58 AM
yeah, makes sense. although I’d have thought if a grandchild has to inherit anyway, it’s more appropriate to ‘reward’ Ji-han with the company (since he knows more about its workings) who can then in turn ensure Do-han is “safe”, since he’s so obsessed with his brother anyway. Ah well.
pickleddragon
March 12, 2024 at 8:43 PM
Wedding Impossible
Glad to know I’m not the only one with the crush :p
pickleddragon
March 12, 2024 at 8:44 PM
This was a test post. Thanks for the handy tutorial @claire2009 !!
Healer’s
March 12, 2024 at 9:32 PM
🫶
🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸
March 12, 2024 at 11:26 PM
You scored 💯 out of 💯 in the test!! Along with all ours hearts!! ♥️😊👍
Healer’s
March 13, 2024 at 12:08 AM
🥰
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
March 12, 2024 at 11:57 PM
Well done for getting this to work🥳
ryunami
March 12, 2024 at 11:59 PM
thank you, love it! I didnt watch that much after Knight Flower ended and now I’m back having fun watching this show.
Isa is always time travelling
March 13, 2024 at 1:47 AM
I don’t have a crush, but I definitely would like her to be my friend. She is great.
pickleddragon
March 13, 2024 at 10:00 PM
haha that also works! She’ll be a riot to hang out with!
pickleddragon
March 11, 2024 at 9:29 PM
Wedding Impossible Who’s got a crush on the FL?
pickleddragon
March 11, 2024 at 9:36 PM
Dang why doesn’t the gif work?!
Anyway, credit to https://kdramaspace.tumblr.com/ where I got it from…
🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸
March 11, 2024 at 10:05 PM
🙋♀️ ♥️
Healer’s
March 11, 2024 at 10:46 PM
Did you use the upload button on your composing window? If so, the GIF won’t be auto-playing, we have to click on it to see it moving. If you want the GIF to autoplay, you can post it by using a command line with syntax as below
I went to the page you mentioned and right-clicked on the GIF and chose “Copy image address”, then I obtained the image address below
https://64.media.tumblr.com/07d8ab0c5f76bbcb2be72cdbbfbfc7e7/a46b704ce32e20e3-d1/s540x810/17f6c766e59f14d49b613338af58d47fa3f84b23.gif
When this link to the GIF (a.k.a the image address) is put in between the square brackets and the fixed html tag img src= and the straight-down quotation marks, this command line will call the GIF from the source and display it in your post for you wherever you put it.
Below is the GIF called by the above command line
pickleddragon
March 11, 2024 at 10:51 PM
Thanks for the tip. Will try next time properly!
🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸
March 12, 2024 at 12:13 AM
Thanks for the rescue! I’m sure I posted a link to your tutorial but it’s nowhere to be seen now. 🫨
Blue (@mayhemf)
March 12, 2024 at 4:51 AM
There is a line Pi!! we are loving her and the drama.
pickleddragon
March 12, 2024 at 8:35 PM
Gahh I need to figure out a way to jump the queue!!!
Where has she been my whole drama-watching life???
pickleddragon
February 4, 2024 at 5:33 AM
“Honours degree of Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Management.” I wonder who his classmates were. Teehee.
Knight Flower Ep 7
bbstl 🧹
February 4, 2024 at 8:27 AM
Thanks for the closeup of this distinguished document! I couldn’t see it well enough on my screen to tell if it was gobbledygook or legit 😆 He’s such an odd character, looking forward to learning why he’d come back if he has to hide.
pickleddragon
February 5, 2024 at 1:28 AM
If I understood right, the story suggested he left because he was chasing after some “blue eyed girl”, so maybe a foreigner?, so I’m speculating that they split, for whatever reason, and he decided to trudge back. Who knows. Haha
bong-soo
February 4, 2024 at 10:37 AM
LOL. Last night while watching episode 7 I freeze framed that image so I could read it. Great prop. With the appearance of Seok Jung the pot is really getting stirred. You caught the contemporary english being thrown in by this guy. It is almost like the writers decided to time slip in someone from the 21st century. Why not.
Casting note. Surprising to discover who was playing Seok Jung. SJ is being played by the versatile Oh Eui-sik who I last saw in CRASH COURSE IN ROMANCE playing Hang-seon (Jeon Do-yeon)’s autistic brother Jae-woo (a memorable role).
Casting note.
pickleddragon
February 5, 2024 at 1:32 AM
Yes I remember him from CCiR, but I remember him most in WFKBJ, where he was Bok-joo’s senior in the weightlifting team. Quite an anachronistic character, and I wonder what the writers are getting at with him. Or just some chap who’s travelled the world, and returned after he got tired of his wanderings.
Also, while the prop is great, the handwriting is quite awful.
bbstl 🧹
February 5, 2024 at 8:49 AM
Oh well, at least he was “awarde” his certificate!😆
pickleddragon
February 6, 2024 at 12:47 AM
I saw that too! Laffed for a while after reading it
pickleddragon
February 1, 2024 at 8:37 PM
Like Flowers in Sand
All\’s well that ends well. It wasn\’t a show I loved utterly, but most bits were great, especially the ssireum scenes. JDY is a standout star, and it\’s great he\’s getting lots of work, even if the quality is mixed. What has me worried, though, is that this might be the best kdrama of the year. I hope not!, but 2023 did not exactly set a precedent to follow. Fingers crossed that I am wrong!
Blue (@mayhemf)
February 2, 2024 at 4:29 AM
Already My best drama for 2024!
Are you watching Knight Flower? It’s costume but so much fun!
pickleddragon
February 3, 2024 at 8:25 PM
Yeah, I think Knight Flower may end up being second best of the year pfft! I’m dozing off a bit in between, but it’s mostly funny. I have concluded fusion sageuk are my favourite kind of sageuk, maybe because they’re usually non-serious.
Eazal
February 2, 2024 at 1:49 PM
I have to agree with you (oh, surprise!), but if not the best drama it will be among the top 3.
pickleddragon
February 3, 2024 at 8:27 PM
Ya totally! I don’t know if there will be three in my list in 2024 haha.
Last year I watched 8 kdramas, of which some were short ones, and I struggle to think of three shows I would recommend.
🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸
February 3, 2024 at 12:16 AM
Ssireum scenes were indeed the highlight. The way they were filmed, the lighting. Everything was beautiful. I usually like sports dramas but this was really special.
pickleddragon
February 3, 2024 at 8:29 PM
The art direction and cinematography was wonderful in this. And it introduced us to the world of ssireum, which I found fascinating. I love sports dramas too! Probably among my top three genres. But I felt this show didn’t do the sport enough justice, that darned murder investigation kept coming in the way.
🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸
February 3, 2024 at 8:47 PM
I have to say I was mostly satisfied. 😂
Still atleast they didn’t go too off-tangent.
pickleddragon
January 15, 2024 at 9:50 PM
I’ve watched more jdramas in 2023 than any other kind (a reflection perhaps of how poor the general fare has been), but I’m happy to report that the jdrama world has served up some amazing gems. Barakamon and Reversal Orchestra are both shows I enjoyed thoroughly. The latest one in this list is Gekokujo Kyuji. A pure play sports drama, which made me fall in love with baseball (a sport that is culturally foreign to me), and based on a true story at that. So much heart in it. It has youngsters, middle agers and older actors, all having important roles to play, of how a motley crew becomes a giant-killer and how a community becomes a family. The exact kind of show jdrama does well. If you are a sports drama fan like me, this is a great show to add to your list.
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
January 15, 2024 at 10:04 PM
I second this, the story reminded me of Racket sports because of the small town belittled team that grew together.
What was fascinating was it all started with one boy not giving up on his interest to play even though he was the only person in the ‘team’ and the female coach who loved the sport but never got the chance to play as there were no female teams. Those two brought in a very reluctant (with good reason) third person to support and despite the setbacks they created the team that believed in themselves despite their reputation of losers going ahead of them. Such a great story so glad someone decided that had to be shared with a wider audience and created this drama.
pickleddragon
January 16, 2024 at 4:33 AM
ya you make good points! I didn’t check the original story to verify how accurate the characters and the roles they played were, but I’m guess quite a bit of it is true. In any case, it’s a miracle the team came from zero to reach where they did in the span of three years. It must have taken so much work in real life. Such a fantastic story.
Kurama
January 15, 2024 at 11:22 PM
I really need to watch Barakamon >_< I loved the manga (I have it) and the anime.
pickleddragon
January 16, 2024 at 4:38 AM
I’ve neither read the manga nor watched the anime, and I had no idea of what to expect while starting the drama.
But the show was charming to boot. The leads seemed perfect for their roles and the cutest bunch of kids (I never thought I’d say that about any show haha). The found family – gosh, jdramas do that so well – was lovely, and it was all just so precious, sorry I can’t stop gushing! Look forward to hearing what you think!
If you’re so inclined, I’d highly recommend Reversal Orchestra too, which evoked similar sentiments (but no cute kids pfft).
Kurama
January 16, 2024 at 4:44 AM
The manga and anime were great. I loved the idea of this young adult who learnt to grow up with kids 😂
I will try Reversal Orchestra too. There is Kadowaki Mugi! I loved her in Todome no Kiss!
pickleddragon
January 16, 2024 at 4:51 AM
Exactly my thoughts on Barakamon!
As for Kadowaki Muni, I had never watched her before. But after ReveOrche, I ended up also seeing Nagatan to Aoto: Ichika no Ryourijou, which was interesting. I wasn’t blown away, but it was a pleasant show.
ReveOrche has a terrific ensemble cast and everyone has a role to play. I had no idea but it crept up on me as I live watched, and I had major withdrawal symptoms after it ended… I couldn’t watch anything else for more than a month I think. And everyone else who was watching with me said the same. I wonder how you will feel haha.
Kurama
January 16, 2024 at 5:01 AM
Todome no Kiss had one of this super weird story that only Jdrama can pull off. She had a great chemistry with Yamazaki Kento.
pickleddragon
January 16, 2024 at 5:41 AM
Oh dear the only Yamaken drama I have watched in full I think is A Girl & Three Sweethearts . I hate that drama with a passion, it is so so so bad. He’s always styled like a character directly out of a manga, it throws me off every time haha.
Weird jdramas are aplenty, which I try to avoid, but they always creep in somehow. The last one I remember is Prism, which had a pretty wacko set up, by my standards at least, I dropped it very quickly.
Kurama
January 16, 2024 at 6:33 AM
A Girl and Three Sweethearts wasn’t really good… but it was more about the script than the actors for me.
For Yamazaki Kento, I like him. But he was casted for too many shojo adaptations 😅 So he couldn’t really show his acting. He’s good in Alice.
pickleddragon
October 19, 2023 at 9:21 PM
It’s official. This is my OTP Of The Year.
pickleddragon
October 19, 2023 at 9:25 PM
And my goodness what was that scene at the end of ep11! Someone give Yuna an award for just those five minutes of sheer brilliance. Wow. Definitely one of the most emotional scenes I’ve watched in a long time. Just wow.
PYC
October 20, 2023 at 5:35 AM
We’ve seen her unperturbed face for 10 straight episodes and then this – my heart and my tears gone!
pickleddragon
August 27, 2023 at 10:17 PM
Meanwhile, FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT gets more fun! Watched till ep8 badly subbed, and rewatched better subs on Viki (available here only till ep4).
We’re only half way through the drama, but I think FAKE IT might be one of the better shows of the year! Superficially, it seems to be about a man and woman flirting their way into each others’ lives (and Elvis Han and Elvira Cai are doing a fine FINE job teasing us all). But at its core, the story is about how we bury our “real” selves and build up “pretentious” identities to survive in the rat race; the modern urban human condition, if you will. This affects everything around us, how we walk, talk, dress, relationships with friends, family and lovers. The question is, when, if ever, do we ever let the veil fall and allow the truth to reveal itself?
Full credit to the original novelist for writing up such a real, cynical romance. Full credit also to the director for adapting this his own signature style. Love how the city becomes a character in his shows (ref.: REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST), and how the stories are not just flat, 2-dimensional fairy tales, but have many layers to peel back. Like someone commented elsewhere, I don’t watch many romances, but if they made more like this, heck, I’d watch them all! It’s going to be very hard to go back to the regular drama fare after this.
Happy to see others are on this boat too! e.g., @mayhemfSorry my gif game is poor, otherwise I’d have picked up some scenes to add to this. But generally, this is a recommendation for all who are interested!
Mani-chan
August 27, 2023 at 10:23 PM
ooh Pickle recommending a romance, this must be good. The plot sounds intriguing so i will definitely check it out now. I think this is especially relevant to my generation which grew up with social media and is cynical about the future and relationships in general
pickleddragon
August 27, 2023 at 10:33 PM
Go for it, Mani! I recommend you watch with Viki subs, because whatever else is floating around seems to be MTL-ed, and the nuance in this show is in the dialogue.
Blue (@mayhemf)
August 28, 2023 at 3:52 AM
I am loving this show. But pacing myself. I told myself I will Make some gifs of foot flirting hopefully this week gets better and I find time.
Ep 3 was too good and I rewatched scenes.
indyfan
August 28, 2023 at 4:13 AM
Interesting. I have Ep 8 airing tonight on Viki. I wonder why it’s different in different regions.
pickleddragon
August 28, 2023 at 4:59 AM
It stays good! I’ve really watched only up to ep4, and the rest of it has been me guessing what the MTL-ed subs mean 😂
Both the FL and ML are so good at backing off at the last minute, as the audience, you are always deceived into thinking, was that real or not? has s/he caught feelings or not? is s/he still fake-flirting or not? it’s a delicious tease.
I also appreciate they made both of them smart people, and thank goodness, no dumb FL who needs to be rescued by the ML (even though ML seems to be more wealthy).
There are some very well thought out scenes even outside of the OTP, which I have appreciated so far.
I’m super bugged with the 2FL, but I get why she is in the story, as a counterpoint to the FL, and an alternate “reality”.
Blue (@mayhemf)
August 28, 2023 at 5:06 AM
Who is the second FL? Is it the sister?
or am I forgetting someone
pickleddragon
August 28, 2023 at 7:05 AM
ya I’m referring to the sister 😅
indyfan
August 28, 2023 at 4:00 AM
I just love this show. I have to thank you by way of Blue for recommending it. I won’t lie. It’s that crack romance that has pulled me in. So good. However, I appreciate it much more for its complications and cynicisms rooted in the dog-eat-dog world our protagonists are hell bent on succeeding in. There is so much to mine here. It’s a rare case where I wish we had DB cover a c-drama. And it’s only 14 episodes!
I’m going to drag myself over the angsty finish line for TWS.
pickleddragon
August 28, 2023 at 5:04 AM
I like the romance too! But what pulled me in was the director / RemOTP. I didn’t know what I was signing up for when I started this, and had never seen the leads before.
The romance aside, I really appreciated how ep1 set up the realities of the corporate world so well. I didn’t find the investment banking scenes as convincing, but I’m willing to bet that the writer (or the director, or someone in the production team) is / has been a lawyer. The law firm, etc., scenes are just spot on, down to the cray partner, the fussy client, the afterparties, the meetings over drinks, the flaunting of that latest unnecessary piece of jewelry you bought….
MangoTV makes some good dramas, except they don’t invest in subs, and just palm off the job to their license partners. It’s a good thing Viki has taken it up! They’re doing a wonderful job.
indyfan
August 28, 2023 at 9:52 AM
I don’t know either world but good to know they got the legal part right. To me it was fascinating how much she was willing to court the other-millionaire-named-Ma, with the encouragement of her boss. I don’t know how far along you are so I won’t say more.
The push-and-pull was a bit much in these episodes. I felt the rubber band was going to snap, or was that me? 😂
Lastly, did you notice how she and others try to belittle her looks while glamming her to the max. It’s so patently false that it bugs me.
pickleddragon
August 28, 2023 at 9:43 PM
oh I need better subs to understand the details. But yeah, the teasing was a lot! I feel like it’ll all snap this week.
I find the general discussion on appearance, fashion, beauty, so interesting here – it’s not laying it out in b&w, but there’s a lot of faking, a lot of subtext, a lot of judging. This is a super clever drama, it’s not treating viewers as stupid, and I’m loving it for that reason!
Elinor is trapped in the timeslip
August 28, 2023 at 10:39 AM
The very few Cdramas I’ve tried have not stuck, and the plot setup sounds bog-standard, but I might have to reconsider for this one. I do love a good romance – and also because the lead actors are named ELVIS and ELVIRA. To an American of a certain age, that is just such a hilarious match-up.
pickleddragon
August 28, 2023 at 9:40 PM
As a non-american, and not of the appropriate age (clearly), I had to search for the Elvis-Elvira reference 😂and I’ve been lol-ing since.
Notwithstanding, I upvote this drama precisely because of how refreshingly different it is. It’s a very clever, smart script. Oh how I would love it if asian dramas pivoted to this style more, both directorially and script wise.
pickleddragon
August 27, 2023 at 9:54 PM
THE WAY YOU SHINE – Dropped at ep20
cc: @mayhemf (I forget the others, sorry! 😢)
I\’d kept eps 21-24 for this week, but spoiled myself with the ending. Quite bugged now. Moving on to other things…
Kurama
August 28, 2023 at 1:19 PM
I don’t understand why they thought it was a good idea to remind us her wedding night with her ex when she was finally marrying Tianyu. But otherwise, it was a happy ending but the ton was odd.
pickleddragon
May 2, 2023 at 9:08 PM
Here to recommend another tw-drama, OH NO! HERE COMES TROUBLE.
This is labelled as supernatural and mystery, but don’t let that deter you, as it did me at the beginning. It’s an episodic show, still airing, and actually a very gentle balance between humour and thoughtfulness, with some surprising and unusual decisions on topics tackled. Even though it’s thematically in the same drama family as shows like “Move to Heaven” or “May I Help You”, it’s highly original and catches you unexpectedly. A 15-minute section in episode 5, for example, ought to go down as a classic segment in any drama, but I won’t spoil it for you.
AveX also sold the show in a half-way review recently, so it’s not just me raving about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAysLj3eUkg
Go and watch it!
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
May 2, 2023 at 10:24 PM
Wow, this sounds amazing, Thanks for flagging it here. Hopefully, there will be a group of people this will be ideal for who will be able to share the moment with you. I hope it can continue at this level and end well.
I can’t believe you didn’t say Avenue X gave it top rankings. I am new to Avenue X so may have missed it but I get the impression it is rare for her give top marks and to a still airing drama. That would be so risky with K dramas that can go rouge randomly close to the end. She has highly recommended a number of dramas that I have gone on to love too.
pickleddragon
May 3, 2023 at 3:42 AM
Oh ya! I forgot to mention she gave it a 3 gold mine rating!
My own review was independent of AveX’s, which is why it didn’t strike me to mention that 😂 She doesn’t review tw-dramas as often, so that makes it rare. Not sure a 3-gold mine is super rare, but I do know many people don’t align with her ratings at all, so it doesn’t matter as much.
I trust tw-dramas generally more than k-dramas, and there’s a high chance they land better on average (although there have been some disasters – side eying Rainless Love, Arc of Life, as recent examples).
Blue (@mayhemf)
May 3, 2023 at 2:59 AM
Interesting. The trailer didn’t work for me and hence didn’t start. As much as I am starved for TW dramas I didn’t think this would be for me.
And I didn’t care for the two dramas(k) you mentioned.
Now I am curious. But not sure what needs to fall off my watchlist. Stop adding more dramas to my list 😬😬
pickleddragon
May 3, 2023 at 3:40 AM
I did not like MTH (and didn’t finish), and was not interested in MIHY either. I honestly wasn’t interested in this when it started out, but Jen (forget her DB id) sold it to me as a slice of lifer and comedy, and it totally hits all those notes.
After my watchlist emptied itself out post-Call It Love, I scrambled and added almost a dozen new ones 😂 Very few stuck, this is one of them. I don’t see anything else on the radar, but I will keep an eye out – just for you 😉
Dorotka
June 17, 2023 at 5:58 AM
I’m watching now!
Though I’m still uncertain whether to continue. I should preserve, you say? 🙂
pickleddragon
June 25, 2023 at 2:19 AM
Hello! Sorry for the delay, was travelling and disconnected. Umm, I’d say it’s an interesting and original story (IMO). I will not say I understood a lot of it, some of it was probably due to some cultural nuances lost in translation. But I enjoyed it for what it was. Some of the stories/ vignettes were especially lovely.
pickleddragon
May 2, 2023 at 2:16 AM
Whoever planned to watch QUEENMAKER, don’t (I suffered it for you)!
Instead, I recommend THE WAVE MAKERS, a tw-drama. Just 8 episodes, it’s thematically similar (politics, elections, etc), but plot is different, and far more sensibly handled. It’s timed beautifully as well (unless I’m reading too much into the subtext), in that it’s very much about the idea of democracy, whether it’s about celebrating it, or recognising its underbelly.
Blue (@mayhemf)
May 2, 2023 at 3:24 AM
I dropped Queenmaker after ep 2.
I saw Wave Makers and wanted to start. Thanks for the review.
pickleddragon
May 2, 2023 at 4:38 AM
Queenmaker was utter rubbish. I watched it only for Moon So-ri, and she didn’t even have that great a role.
I’m reading TWM as an insidious tw-led pro-democracy campaign. But I also thought it didn’t push the envelope far enough on many issues. Would love to hear your thoughts after you watch!
neener ~ Inside the Magic Shop ~
May 2, 2023 at 3:45 AM
Queenmaker felt a little makjang-ie for me after the end of ep2 so thanks for the review, will not continue unless I’m in the mood
pickleddragon
May 2, 2023 at 4:40 AM
It was exactly that. I think it was my first truly makjang-ie drama, having successfully avoided others in the past. I watched the whole thing in utter shock and awe at how ridiculous it could be. Good decision to drop!
neener ~ Inside the Magic Shop ~
May 2, 2023 at 5:30 AM
I tend to drop nowadays if it’s feeling makjang-ie. Too bad though bcs I wanted to watch these two great actresses.
Blue (@mayhemf)
May 2, 2023 at 5:37 AM
I was more disappointed with the writing. It became predictable from scene one. Plus I felt the actresses did not shine in the two episodes I saw. Glad I dropped.
PYC
May 2, 2023 at 7:35 AM
Thanks for this recommendation! Just had a look – director of The World Between Us and Ying-Hsuan Hsieh as the lead!! I am in. Hsieh is an excellent actress and so versatile – I will forever remember her performance in Dear Ex.
And probably the drama may not be as dramatic as the real politics in Taiwan, which is always fascinating to follow.
pickleddragon
May 2, 2023 at 8:53 PM
Yess! Some of the political positions taken in TWBU are being re-iterated here, which comes as no surprise. I do wish they’d been a little more adventurous with the politics, but I guess the liberal democratic angle they took here was bold enough for a drama, otherwise it might have descended into an all-out manifesto.
And yes! YHH is such a star! – she’s one of those actresses I’d love to befriend, because she just seems so cool.
bbstl 🧹
May 3, 2023 at 8:37 AM
I’m enjoying Queenmaker as a group of great actresses showing what they can do. Also as a reflection of how dirty and corrupt politics is everywhere.
pickleddragon
March 30, 2023 at 12:20 AM
Call It Love: Eps 11-12
So, I didn\’t love this week\’s episodes as much as previous ones. I found the ending a little absurdist, which was entertaining. But the rest was hmmm. Spoilery thoughts below.
pickleddragon
March 30, 2023 at 12:21 AM
The one arc I did appreciate this week was Jun’s. Show gave him a good story, and some solid talk-throughs and monologues of what he’s going through on account of the siblings this week. From a starting point where I didn’t see the point of Jun being there (I still don’t, tbh, other than as a potential interest for noona), to appreciating his growth as a character regardless of relevance, I think it’s been pretty okay.
I think fundamentally the set-up is weak – of the house being taken over and the siblings being to leave. This is compounded the totally flat delivery by the actress playing ML mom, and the characters around her (her current bf, the hairdresser aunt, etc). Where are the lawyers? How can some random goons strongarm the siblings into vacating? where are the possession rights? when was the will read out? how did the ex-wife not know about this before?
As contrived as this set up is to begin with, it has not been as well thought through as the rest of the show, which effectively means the show is resting on a poor foundation.
Ally
March 30, 2023 at 12:39 AM
I’ve never thought the Korean judicial system was very well organized or accountable.
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
March 30, 2023 at 2:10 AM
The mother lied and said that the father gave her the house before he died i.e. not that he left it to her in his will. But I also don’t understand why they never asked to see proof that she owned it rather than just leaving. I can only put it down to their utter lack of faith in their terrible father.
pickleddragon
March 30, 2023 at 2:36 AM
okay let’s ignore the siblings. they’re (a) stupid, and (b) did not trust their father, (c) expected him to do something stupid like this and (d) didn’t think they should check in with their mom about any of this anyway. Okay.
Then my question would be how is the realtor entertaining her? surely she should have seen the papers that entitle her to the property?
And that (relatively) new arc the show is stringing about her current bf wanting money to escape his loan sharks, or whatever, is wholly unnecessary at this point. As though we don’t have enough unresolved – and unwarranted – messes.
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
March 30, 2023 at 2:40 AM
Yep yep yep. How is she selling a house without proving she owns it first? If anything, her claiming to own it when she didn’t would explain why she didn’t sell it. But now she’s put it on the market? That makes no sense.
Eazal
March 31, 2023 at 11:31 PM
Maybe this is the reason she didn’t sell it in the first place. This thought came to mind while watching this week’s episodes: where did she live before with sibling’s dad? Was that house theirs? Why did she move?
In Spain there is an organism where you can ask if there is a will, insurances or any property to the name of a deceased person and you get copy of all that…. but as someone pointed out before, according to dramas Korean Law is quite a mess…
Blue (@mayhemf)
March 30, 2023 at 2:47 AM
She wants to sell the house. Don’t think they have legally started the process. She was only talking about estimates.
She was the legal wife and she is selling her husbands house. Whose name is on the title would make all the difference
Which we don’t know yet.
kadota
March 30, 2023 at 2:18 AM
Agreed. There isn’t much left to uncover in terms of the plot. The only major arc remaining is Dongjin finding out about Woojoo’s intentions of revenge, which is really dragging and putting a dampener on things. Hyesung nailed it when she said Woojoo made her staying the night sound like she was dying. I’m also conscious of the FL having a handful of expressions, which worked up to a point but I would really like to see some nuance because as it stands now, all I’m getting is that Woojoo is uncomfortable all the time.
pickleddragon
March 30, 2023 at 2:40 AM
Oh absolutely agree! She’s making it out to be a big deal, but I also don’t see how things can be reversed from here. It’s basically a pain of no return from here on out. I can only see DongJin being abandoned, and going off in his camper van forever now.
Also, I’m LSK bias, because BokJoo is forever seared in my heart, but I can see that she’s out of depth here. But I also maintained this from the start – none of the actors are doing an amazing job or anything, IMO.
This drama has been resting on the cinematography (let’s agree to ignore the pink filter which has not significantly improved with later episodes sadly), framing / art direction, and some decent direction. Show had a relatively weak opening, very strong middle, and now I’m not confident of the end..
Blue (@mayhemf)
March 30, 2023 at 3:30 AM
I also thought that she lied about Dongjin apologizing to her (while talking to her mom) I don’t think he knows yet.
Because when talking to Sun Woo she clearly said she has to reveal a lot if she has to explain her actions of revenge.
So we do have the big reveal yet to come. How DJ will take it is anybody’s guess.
It’s in line with her personality. She takes everything upon herself and suffers alone. what’s worse is she knows what hurt him before. Women lying and walking all over him. And now she sees herself as another one in his life. Another deceiver.
Sadly, she has kept her one friend in the dark. I miss their scenes together. I don’t like that the show has more of Jun and elder sibling more than the friends.
She had a good chance early on to reveal. When she recognized she likes him and didn’t know he liked her. She blew her chance.
Trouble now is she is in this too deep. She wants this. and she is behaving in ways she would never. I think I get her conflict. Even if DJ forgives her I don’t know if she will forgive herself soon.
I’m still enjoying this. The show hasn’t changed anything for me. It’s just people doing people things. Dumb stuff et Al.
pickleddragon
March 30, 2023 at 4:03 AM
Oh yes that DongJin apologizing to her thing was totally a lie, all in her imagination!
And yes! I feel like the show could have shown the Jun-WooJoo dynamic more, and made him seem more relevant, instead of relegating him to a noona love interest, which honestly, I totally felt what he was feeling, and it would be soooo icky awkward…. (which is why I also appreciated his arc this episode).
I can’t see how Woojoo can reverse this – it’s kind of crossed the rubicon, and there can be no HEA from here. I can’t see it happening. We’re just waiting for the inevitable … boom. In one scenario, okay, I can see DJ saying, oh it’s no big deal, I hate my mom anyway, and we can ignore her completely, but she’s always going to be looming over them, so unless she – umm – dies or something drastic like that happens, there can be no scope for reconciliation even, at this point.
That line, where she says, “We’re both stupid people” – I was silently yelling at the screen, saying, “HECK YES”!
I’m enjoying the show generally too (just that I like these eps less), and I will watch through till the end, whatever happens (I say I’ll be burned, like 2521 burned 😂, but it’s ah well okay).
Blue (@mayhemf)
March 30, 2023 at 5:55 AM
Your flaming optimism 😏
The mom arc is only going to get more ugly. She is broke and desperate. I kind of liked the parallel between and Hyesung, both women cannot be alone. One person serial married and another serial dated.
I am not saying they are similar, but I do like that the show didn’t make the mom a caricature. I liked that Min Young gave her a piece of her mind. It was long due. How will her arc end? Redemption? I doubt they are gonna kill her off.
She is greedy for money so I wonder how they will settle this.
pickleddragon
March 30, 2023 at 6:09 AM
How will she get money?
DJ will sell his business or his share in the business, give the money to her to silence her. He will ensure – somehow – the house is returned to the kids / or maybe she has no right to title anyway, so whatever sale she tries will be a dud. And then, since by now, he will have learnt the truth about the house and the owners, he will go off into the sunset in his camper van. Woojoo will be eternally depressed too, and will hang on to Jun’s friendship. DJ and WJ will cross paths one day in Seoul, and wonder, what if…. An open ending.
I’ll be happy if none of this comes true 😂
—
I liked Minyoung giving it back to her. But idk if mom is just a terrible actress or her character is badly written. I was cringing so much while watching her scenes. Same with Hyesung. Show gave her a more rounded story, but still kind of irrational.
I see that the show is about dealing with different types of loneliness, and serial dating / marriage is how Hyesung and Heeja are trying to cope with their version. To that end, their characters work. But beyond that, I can’t get behind their motivations. (Maybe the writer can’t either, which is why they’re so flat as characters 😂)
—
Okay I feel I’ve written so many essays on this. I won’t have anything to write in the recap. boo.
pickleddragon
March 31, 2023 at 10:03 AM
The Heeja arc, being the central pillar on which the whole story is resting, can’t quite be ignored, but I do wish the show had written this arc / character better, and the director should have instructed the actress better 😂
Absolutely agree about Hyesung, and maybe Woojoo and Jun will help her find her own space and identity (and that would actually be a great character arc / resolution for Jun-Hyesung).
The dream-apology sequence was interesting. I’m not sure I liked it much, because I feel it doesn’t help her character grow – it suggests she’s still stuck in the lying mould, when she needs to be honest with herself and everyone around her. Enough lying already. This is why, like Blue said earlier, Woojoo’s relationship with Jun is so precious, because he’s the only one who knows, and whom she’s actually told the real story herself, voluntarily. He’s her confidant and true friend, and with whom she’s most comfortable. She needs to realize that telling the truth is what will get her there, to that comfortable space. Because right now, gosh she’s not comfortable 😂
The karaoke scene was my most favourite scene in this week’s episodes – there was so much subtext in that panning of the camera – truths, lies, and everything in between. It was a loaded scene!
pickleddragon
March 23, 2023 at 6:44 AM
Call It Love: I feel like the scriptwriter\’s brief was \”My Ahjusshi, but with romance\”.
So many callbacks, it\’s hard to ignore. But gah, show is totally standing out on its own too.
This will be my first completed kdrama of 2023, I\’m in it deep, regardless of what madness scriptwriters are wont to pull off after ep10 (I\’m hoping for the best, of course!)
nerdy
March 23, 2023 at 7:50 AM
I unironically think that while the brief was exactly what you said, Call it Love is what My Liberation Notes thought it was. By that I mean, characters have monologues that don’t feel off in terms of context, you understand the characters’ loneliness and the point of mutual understanding, the siblings feel like siblings and the characters’ liberation is palpable. Even the athletic background of the lead feels more authentic. Woo Joo does not throw one arrow and then we forget about who she was, instead, the athletic background is used as a proof of how intense Woo Joo’s impulsivity and grief are.
pickleddragon
March 23, 2023 at 9:33 PM
That’s an interesting comparison too. MLN tried too hard. You’re right. Here, it’s just right, and all the pieces fit well and the growth makes sense. What’s fascinating for me is how characters that appeared 2D early on (e.g., sister, best friend, ex gf, director shin) have suddenly acquired more facets and are fully fleshed out. It’s excellent writing and execution.
Blue (@mayhemf)
March 23, 2023 at 7:59 AM
I have complete faith in the writers. Every scene is written with purpose and every frame conveys meaning. There is no way it can derail 🙂
I will be rewatching episodes 9/10!
pickleddragon
March 23, 2023 at 9:34 PM
spot on! there are so many shots that speak for themselves, without any dialogue at all. The silences are actually meaningful and speak loudly for themselves and take the story forward. They don’t slow things down.
I rewatched ep9 already 😂 now on to ep10
PYC
March 23, 2023 at 8:41 AM
Yes, the resemblance is there but the romance is front and centre. It’s beautifully done and you’re drawn into the story and their world.
pickleddragon
March 23, 2023 at 9:35 PM
Absolutely. It’s just snuck up on you, hasn’t it!
Ally
March 23, 2023 at 5:30 PM
That’s exactly what it is, and exactly why I like it more—also, I love Sung Joon and so glad his scenes are just as grand with the FL as KYK’s. I mean, he’s the best friend we all need, who sees the train wreck a mile away and despite his attempts to stop it, it just keeps barreling towards him. I trust this will end in the satisfying way. If not, you know I will have thoughts! 😂
pickleddragon
March 23, 2023 at 9:36 PM
this is my first time watching Sung Joon. At the start I was indifferent to his character, but I like how he’s acquired roundedness, and his role as pharmacist-healer, the one who always has the right kind of balm to soothe you, whatever your ailment may be, is very nicely built up!
I will join you in … thoughts… if it doesn’t end right! 😂
pickleddragon
December 1, 2022 at 8:47 PM
Okay I\’ll jump in on this one. A day late, and I already don\’t know if I\’ll survive all entries.
This has been my worst kdrama year ever since I started watching a couple of years ago, with 2022 dramas watched less than double digits, and not all were 16eps even. I trudged through most. Not a single 10/10 drama, although a couple came close. The only entrant in my 10/10 list came from elsewhere (a jdrama, DOUBLE, in case anyone wants to know):
Bloody Heart – the one I enjoyed from start to finish
Fanletter, Please – so boring
Love All Play – started out fun, but they ran out of story
May It Please the Court – solid leads, loved the banter, but story was all over the place
My Liberation Notes – what a waste of a wonderful cast, title and premise
Sh**ting Stars – fun fluff, KDY has comic skills
Through the Darkness – the Hair. the drama could have been better,
Twenty-Five Twenty-One – the one I enjoyed from start to three-quarters in.
For the record, my MDL records report that I tried 22 other kdramas and dropped all of them. The one drama I\’m still watching is Cheer Up, but it\’s lost its early charm, so it may well be the 23rd on that list.
2022 was a bad year not just for dramas but for life in general. I hope 2023 is completely the opposite.
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
December 1, 2022 at 8:53 PM
May It Please the Court will go down as the one drama that really could have been amazing if it was better written.
I agree, this has been a terrible drama year. I hope next year is better.
pickleddragon
December 2, 2022 at 7:57 AM
Cho Seung-woo has Sacred Divorce coming up. Genius pianist turned lawyer. I should not have any expectations, right? pfft.
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
December 1, 2022 at 10:14 PM
‘ 2022 was a bad year not just for dramas but for life in general. I hope 2023 is completely the opposite.’ 👈 I hope ‘life in general’ is better for you too starting from this month. Just as a couple of good enough dramas can lift the mood let’s hope for great days adding up over time to a good life on planet Earth.
pickleddragon
December 2, 2022 at 7:58 AM
Thank you and the same to you! I agree about how a good drama can totally lift your mood! Hoping for the best!
bbstl 🧹
December 2, 2022 at 7:38 AM
Yes, best wishes all ‘round for a better 2023!
pickleddragon
December 2, 2022 at 7:58 AM
Thank you and the same to you!!
neener ~ Inside the Magic Shop ~
December 2, 2022 at 12:11 PM
It’s a not a good drama year for me as well. Here’s to hoping 2023 will do well, both dreamland and life in general. *hwaiting*
neener ~ Inside the Magic Shop ~
December 2, 2022 at 1:47 PM
why is that dreamland?? hahaha dramaland xD
pickleddragon
December 2, 2022 at 10:03 PM
hahah a good dreamland year will also work 😂
pickleddragon
January 20, 2022 at 1:30 AM
Just here to thank @earthna and her band of subbers for letting this superb episode out to the world for peasants like us — TRACER EP1 WAS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!!!!
I’m calling this early – it has everything going for it – terrific ensemble cast (so many people, I lost track), a fine genre mix of tragedy+suspense+action+comedy, (so far) pitch perfect acting / no weak links visible…. (and the excellent subs helped!!!)
Everyone who’s interested – and even those who’re not – GO WATCH!!!!
PYC
January 20, 2022 at 5:17 AM
Where to watch please?
earthna
January 20, 2022 at 7:03 AM
https://twitter.com/TaxPayerSubTeam/status/1483910542062661632?t=tmuXUfO4ehQ_WO5xEI534g&s=19
Here you go!
Edgar Pordwed
January 21, 2022 at 9:39 PM
Thank you!
earthna
January 20, 2022 at 7:05 AM
Aww we’re glad you enjoyed it! Tracer had a great first episode and is shaping up to be awesome!
pickleddragon
January 20, 2022 at 7:45 PM
OMO I can’t wait!!! If there’s any way I can help please let me know – I can’t translate (IDK Korean), but my editing skills are respectable, if you need. Thank you again for everything ❤️
pickleddragon
December 6, 2021 at 7:51 AM
IMO, Isaac Hong has one of the best voices in the business right now, and this rock ballad, appropriately titled ‘Pain’ 😅, from HAPPINESS, allows him to showcase his range. Some interesting rhythmic switches too!
(While I’m not obsessed with this OST (yet), I thought it might get buried in the 2021 list because it arrived so late in the year, so I thought it deserved a post.)
Fly Colours
December 6, 2021 at 8:53 AM
Yes! I was thinking about posting about this OST too
pickleddragon
December 3, 2021 at 10:36 PM
I\’m enjoying the fanwall coming alive again! and we have @eazal to thank for this, of course, who decided that something productive should come out of the disastrous drama year she\’s had 😅
But I also see not enough love for ON THE VERGE OF INSANITY. So, while I\’m not participating in the year-end celebration (but will definitely be lurk-reading like many others), I thought Insanity/ OTVOI needed an acknowledgement that it\’s one of the best dramas of 2021, and in my own list, one of the best kdramas I\’ve EVER watched. 😍
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
December 3, 2021 at 10:49 PM
It doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves. It was one of the most cohesive dramas I’ve seen in a long time and arguably the most cohesive one this year. And it was frantic and funny and dramatic. I don’t love it quite as much as you do but I do appreciate it. I think it’s one of the best dramas this year and needs more love.
dramalover4ever
December 4, 2021 at 1:33 AM
Yep. On the Verge was quietly brilliant. Even now as I read about Samsung restructuring their promotions and evaluations, I think of what might happen behind the scenes a la On the Verge and I am amused, (be)mused. (I might be transferring my own experience too)
ex-beanie
December 4, 2021 at 1:47 AM
Looks like I have to start watching it asap!!
pickleddragon
December 4, 2021 at 7:14 AM
I hope you do soon! I’m confident you’ll love it, as has everyone I know who’s watched!
ex-beanie
December 4, 2021 at 9:20 AM
Already started watching after reading your comment 😉 Done with 5 eps!!
pickleddragon
December 4, 2021 at 11:10 PM
OMO that’s wonderful!! Enjoy!!! ☺️
miss h
December 4, 2021 at 8:46 AM
On the Verge of Insanity was definitely one of the best dramas of the year. I’ve been trying to give it love.
pickleddragon
July 20, 2021 at 8:45 AM
Posting here after ages! I was catching up with ep 5 of YOU ARE MY SPRING, and I heard a familiar voice. I wasn’t sure, so I went to YouTube to check, and OMG, I was right, Kim Min Seok / Melomance is BAAAACK with an OST for YAMS (I knew it when I heard that voice!!!) – so good to have these guys back together again now!! Can’t wait for more beautiful new music and getting to listen to that glistening distinctive voice again! I think I might be one of the only Melomance fans here. I’m celebrating on the fanwall nevertheless.
pickleddragon
July 20, 2021 at 8:45 AM
DB is not allowing me to add a video, so here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eAEN3hzW90
mmmmm
July 20, 2021 at 10:04 AM
I think the singer has a great voice.
pickleddragon
July 20, 2021 at 9:22 PM
He does, doesn’t he? I think this is the only k-music group I’ve listened to on loop ever. Haha.
The other voice I’m addicted to is Isaac Hong, but he puts out much less music. :/
BerkeleySteve
June 11, 2022 at 9:29 AM
I first discovered Melomance through 사랑하고 싶게 돼 / Make Me Want to Love, from Because This Is My First Life. That song really stands out from most OST songs, and added a ton to my respect for that drama. Bonus: in ep. 13 Melomance does a street performance. https://youtu.be/gBcqwC8WEgM
pickleddragon
June 12, 2022 at 2:20 AM
Yes! I remember that song and their busking appearance in the show well. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the drama as much as everyone else seems to have, but Melomance’s music is always lovely and very speciala. I personally prefer their live performances or jam session recordings to their OSTs, because they’re both – Kim Minseok and Jung Donghwan – great at improvisation, and only live shows allow them that freedom.
pickleddragon
April 15, 2021 at 1:58 AM
The World Between Us
A 10-on-10 show
There are some shows that you really don’t know how to respond to, other than just stand up and applaud, and this one recently got added to that list of mine. I got curious after I discovered that the scriptwriter of Dear Ex and The Arc of Life had also written The World Between Us, besides the fact that this show had won a bunch of awards. At the end of a 10-episode binge of this taiwanese drama over 3 days, I figured why it was rated so highly, and completely agreed. My quick notes:
— Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say that this show is set in the aftermath of a violent incident, and through the points of view of the families of both the victims and the perpetrator, discusses a range of issues.
— The themes are wide-ranging, from retributive justice, to post traumatic stress, to mental health, to criminal psychology, to media trials… This makes it a serious watch. But if, like myself, these are questions you have occasionally pondered over, you will not regret having watched this at all. To be able to tackle such a range in such a short span of time, and not make it seem preachy or pretentious, is a phenomenal achievement.
— There were some things I wish were discussed more (e.g., capital punishment), and there were some things I wish were less melodramatic, especially after the climactic mid-point, but I will put that down to creative license.
— The casting was excellent, although I was more partial to the actresses than to the actors.
— I loved the small editorial and production touches in the show, such as, how the closing credits changed as the episodes went by, how the palette changed, the documentary-style hand-held cinematography.
–The story is very real, and I imagine everyone would have experienced at least some aspect of the story themselves. I have, certainly.
— The fact that all the characters belonged to the same dramatic universe was extremely contrived, but it was used as a means to highlight ideological clashes, and give different points of view, and only enriched the storytelling.
— The end also deviated a bit from the realism of the rest of the show, but that’s okay. I’m not complaining.
Overall, this is a 10 on 10 in my books, and joins a very select group of shows. I won’t forget it in a while, and will be recommending it onwards quite regularly now. Please bear with me. 😂
Kudo Ran
April 15, 2021 at 4:25 AM
wow you’ve already finished it !
Glad that you’ve found it and that you’ve enjoyed it 🙂 .
I agree with many points you wrote, can’t comment a lot but here’s the post I made about it when I finished it 😉
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/kudoran/activity/908113/
pickleddragon
April 15, 2021 at 5:09 AM
I binged this 😂 I found it a really compelling watch. But it makes sense that you watched one episode a day. It’s a show to be savoured. Your review dates to before I became active on DB, so I missed it when you put it out! But it’s perfect. I like how we have used similar words to describe it – raw, real, documentary style… We picked on the same things!
stpauligurl
April 15, 2021 at 9:00 AM
Where did you watch this? I’m intrigued!
pickleddragon
April 15, 2021 at 10:21 PM
I had to darkside it because it’s not available for me here anywhere. I believe though that a bunch of other options might be available for some folks: Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, even some Netflix regions. (I’m not sure of licensing restrictions though!)
PYC
April 15, 2021 at 9:26 AM
Yes, it’s been on my watchlist since forever and from all accounts, a 10/10 drama. Will watch ASAP.
pickleddragon
April 15, 2021 at 10:21 PM
Awesome yes please do! I hope you find it as thought-provoking and interesting as I did
CS
April 16, 2021 at 11:42 AM
It’s really is so so good! The main actress is fantastic and now that you tell me the screenwriter is the same from Dear Ex and Arc of Life, it makes so much sense why I loved this. I liked the main actor, too, but I have seen him in other things and brought some baggage from those roles with me.
pickleddragon
April 16, 2021 at 8:23 PM
I liked all the actresses, actually – the perpetrator’s brother, the news editor, the juice shop owner… The actors were okay, and played their parts. But I can’t say I’m a fan. I agree with you – I had baggage regarding the two male leads – the lawyer and the journalist – but the third chap, the director/brother was great. So different from his Arc of Life role, almost unrecognizable here.