#I love you Park Hae Young

[cherryupworld]

Since my “Missing MLN” hours are still ongoing, there is something that I realized now that a few days have passed since the finale- I was never nervous. It’s been around 4 years since I started my kdrama journey and I have come to realize that there are 3 types of endings in kdramas: one where the entire finale was not needed as it served as a filler episode; most kdramas follow this plot where the main couple could have avoided all the drama in ep 14/15 if they just talked to each other. The second is one where the entire story is ruined by the finale. It usually happens when the writer has a specific way that they wanted the story to end and they didn’t take into account the characters and their arcs (2521, I’m looking at you) and then there is a third one- this one is pretty rare and I have only seen a handful of dramas where I am satisfied with the ending since all the plotlines are tied up nicely since the characters and their arcs are kept in mind while writing the script. While some kdramas do overlap, most of them stick to just one category. 

For me, MLN has become the drama that falls in the third category. Even while I was waiting for the finale to be released, I was more excited to know how the stories of these characters that came to mean so much to me would play out and I was not disappointed. While I do detest open endings, especially when it would have been much better for the story if they had provided a specific ending, I loved the openness of mln’s finale. For me, it said that there is no end to learning, to growing as a human being. All of us are here trying our best, so how can we tell someone how to live? That specific sentiment filled me with so much happiness. The drama did a brilliant job in telling me even if I feel that I have reached rock bottom, it’s alright as long as I hold on because I am not the only one who feels that way. The sense of companionship that mln provided, the way it told me “I am here and I see you” gave me a sense of comfort that I had been searching for.

#kdrama #korean drama #asian drama #my liberation diary #my liberation notes #tumblr is essentially my diary now where I am going to scribble all the random thoughts that pop in my head at 1 am #I didn't realize that I ended up writing so much until I reached the end #If I ever meet writer-nim I will be giving her a massive hug and thanking her for making me feel like I belong #I love you Park Hae Young #I do wish chang hee and gu ssi would have met #I am sure that chang hee would have just jumped into his arms #I became emotional when gu ssi asked about chang hee #I don't know why I keep calling mr gu as gu ssi or mr gu when I know his actual name #I knew it before mi jeong did #I just can't get used to it #He will always be mr gu/gu ssi to me

[starlit-pathways]

i seriously think that park hae young/박해영 has got to be one of my favourite writers of all time. every story she writes has these wonderfully human journeys embedded right into the very heart of them.

i can see myself, and the people i know being reflected in them—the things that i say in private, or to myself. and it's not lecturing or pontificating life lessons; or even if they are, or they do, the conversations and life interactions they have flow so naturally that they just strike a chord anyway.

it's all just so beautiful.

#i'm paraphrasing translations from memory. but: #'when i'm stressed—i think of a person. this person who loves me and always finds me interesting.' #'when you know someone... REALLY know them—it doesn't matter what they've done.' #'my heart never beat fast because i liked someone. it slowed down.' #'fighting!' #'all my life i've dated assholes... asshole after asshole. are you bored? worship me.' #/ #'come eat. this is me worshipping you.' #i never doubt the journey she's about to take me on #if i can be half the writer she is then i'll be happy #park hae young #박해영 #my liberation notes #my mister #another ms oh #performative journaling

[dangermousie]

Top Dozen 2023 drama MLs so far

It's August, so not the end of the year, neither it is at halfway year mark, but why would I ever do anything like a normal person? Here my very very subjective list. I have limited myself to one dude per drama or LYF would be half the list. No order except alphabetical.

Chen Wende (Sun Yizhou in Gone With the Rain, China)

The epic troll lord stole the whole drama as competently as he stole the FL's heart. He was competent and adult and oh-so-amused by but also gone for the heroine.

Gu Jiusi (Bai Jing Ting in Chang Feng Du/Destined, China)

CFD lost steam for me halfway through but Jiusi's character remained a delight throughout and BJT gave a great performance as a golden boy who went through a bunch of hell and grew up but remained goodnatured at heart.

Han Dong Jin (Kim Young Kwang in Call It Love, Korea)

You know, he and Jing (from LYF1) really fit the same mold even if one is in a mellow realistic modern and another in xianxia - lovely traumatized people from monster families who win over heroine with a metric ton of baggage through sheer unswerving decency. I have a type.

Jang Uk (Lee Jae Wook in Alchemy of Souls s2, Korea)

I loved Uk in S1 and S2 continued that love - he's so intense, so grieving, so still in love with Naksu. LJW is always a good actor so it's such a pleasure to see him in a good role.

Kim Do Ha (Hwang Min Hyun, My Lovely Liar, Korea)

The year of surprises - Minhyun, who I found utterly wooden in AoS stole my heart here as this hopeful, traumatized sweetheart of a man.

Kim Moo Chan (Park Hae Jin, The Killing Vote, Korea)

Yeah, we are only one ep in but who said anything about this list was objective? PHJ brings his usual unsettling intensity to the role of a cop who breaks all the rules and teeters on the edge and now is set to catch a killer who really only differs from him in a matter of degree.

Lee Jang Hyun (Nam Goong Min in My Dearest, Korea)

If I had to pick a favorite ML from this list, it would be between him and Jing (LYF). This is basically if you took Rhett Butler and took out slavery and rape but gave him a sword. The character is complex and nuanced and NGM is giving his usual incredible performance.

Lee Rang (Kim Bum in Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938, Korea)

I was not a Rang fangirl for most of the original (even if he was well-acted; and he did win me over by the end) but I fell for him head over heels in this sequel/prequel/spin-off. I am so happy the man who believed he had nobody and was abandoned by everybody ends the story with his beloved brother and his beloved woman, both.

Moon Seo Ha (Ahn Bo Hyun in See You in My 19th Life, Korea)

A lot of MLs on this list have serious trauma and haunted by it and can't let go of their past love (I have a type) but even by those standards, Seo Ha was such a lovely, quiet person slowly healing.

Tantai Jin (Luo Yunxi in Till the End of the Moon, China)

Abuse victim/monster/praiseworthy king/xianxia saint/man on the brink - LYX portrayed a character in multiple timelines and many different complexities and did it amazingly. Tantai Jin may or may not win my favorite place on this list, but his performance was hands-down the most glorious thing this year.

Tushan Jing/Ye Shiqi (Deng Wei in Lost You Forever part 1, China)

If before LYF aired someone would have told me that a character played by Deng Wei, an actor I've always found eminently forgettable, would make it on this list and be in the running to win the whole thing actually, I'd have wondered what weird reality they came from. They somehow managed to make someone genuinely good and kind not in the least boring; I am ridiculously invested in the man who managed to keep his soul after all he's been through.

Yun Xiang (Chen Xiao in The Ingenuous One, China)

A schemer on a revenge quest, smarter than anyone else in the room but helpless in front of love. Yun Xiang was an adult in an adult story for adults and it was glorious.

#cdrama #kdrama #chen xiao #the ingenious one #deng wei #lost you forever #park hae jin #the killing vote #call it love #till the end of the moon #luo yunxi #nam goong min #my dearest #hwang min hyun #ahn bo hyun #see you in my 19th life #kim bum #tale of the nine tailed 1938 #my lovely liar #lee jae wook #alchemy of souls #kim young kwang #bai jing ting #chang feng du #lists #gone with the rain #sun yi zhou

[dojunie]

hi!! i love everything you write and im sure you probably have amazing taste given your work is literally the best so i wanted to ask if you have any fic recs?

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHATS CRAZY! i don't actually read that many fics, despite how often i'm on this damn website. i have the urge to read fics maybe once every few months and binge a whole bunch in one sitting, but because of a whole bunch of factors (like how awfully picky i am with tropes, word count, writing style, etc) i actually just reread the same 'perfect' fics over and over again because i know they're going to do it for me every single time

with that said!!!! here are a few recommendations i have for my insanely arduous and specific taste in fanfiction↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ if you've already read all of these, ask me again and i'll do a deeper dive!!!

the perks of having a hot best friend - by @jaeyunverse

jeno x fem!reader, friends 2 lovers, the writing style/humor in this is top tier!!! just some good ol' friendship, which i always love, especially when the romance doesn't even kick in until like halfway through <3

summer hair, forever young - by @setsugekka

YES! YES! YES! jeno x fem!reader, strangers 2 lovers, one of my favorite jeno fics of all! the writing, again, is perfect to me; post break-up mc meets lifeguard(?) jeno at an amusement park pool on vacation. this one felt really... real? like there were no tropes or cliches or miracles (not that those dont have their on this list lmao, winky winky), just a cute meeting, a cute relationship, and a hopeful ending. also the steamy scenes, if you're into that, are some of the best 👍

i would redo it all if i could - by @dkfile

jaem x gn!reader, jaem essentially groveling for a few thousand words because he made a mistake and mc isn't having it, very very cute :3 shorter than i usually gravitate to but that just means i like it so much that it's in my likes anyway! has a writing style that i really like too <3 jaemin's characterization in this is one of my favorite ever btw, love a slightly pathetic pretty boy

love bites - by (ao3 author) kanacchi

vampire!haechan x fem!reader, roommates/they move in together, I LOVE THE DIALOGUE IN THIS!!!!!! i am a huge sucker (haha, get it??) for subtly funny dialogue + mc's that are kind of snarky, and this fic delivers that <3 hae is the perfect amount of annoying and attractive in this

#searching my likes for these fics has just made me want to read more again lol #i can sense a fic binge on the horizon... #thank you for asking!!!! no one has asked me this before and it was fun skimming all of these #beloved anon

[gidaryeong]

2023 drama roundup

Unchained Love: I still hum the unhinged flute intro on a regular basis, easily my fave intro of 2023! I didn't actually finish the show due to dwindling interest, but for the first 14 episodes or so I took a keen pleasure in it (and it made me go on a eunuch webnovel spree, expertly curated by @mercipourleslivres). I love it when heroines are allowed to be truly funny, rather than just quirky or ditzy. Also appreciate the goofy Lamp Prince turning into a brutal incel tyrant the moment he got power.

Six Flying Dragons: I don't think I can write anything succinct enough for the roundup format so I direct you to my "my sfd tag" if you want to access my enthused livetweeting. Show of all times, lives were changed.

Tree with Deep Roots: I literally can't think of a better topic for a tv show than Sejong the Great constructing hangul together with his band of nerds, one of whom he has a weirdly intense, vaguely erotic relationship with. Han Suk-kyu carried this entire show on his trembling shoulders. What an actor! What range!!! It was such a treat to watch him smugly debate his ministers, roleplay a farmer, and hiss half-mad soliloquies to himself in the dark. It took nuance and depth to portray the kind of inner conflicts and generational trauma that Sejong battles in the background of this drama. To be honest I didn't always enjoy the Milbon subplot which I felt got repetitive, and often found myself wanting to fast-forward the wuxia scenes. In a better world the show would have centered the whip-smart palace maids and their alphabet workshops. But I will definitely rewatch this soon. And maybe also write a fix-it where Sejong and Soo-yi fuck idk.

Quartet: Cute little murder mystery about a found family of freaks, liked it a lot.

My Country: The New Age: As entertaining as ever. Very fun to rewatch this back to back with Tree with Deep Roots, since Jang Hyuk plays diametrically opposite characters with the same vigor and commitment.

Gone with the Rain: Sometimes you watch something which you understand is technically a masterpiece but it doesn't do anything for you, and sometimes you watch a piece of campy silly fun and it makes you tingle with joy. This was the latter category for me. I liked the first and middle parts enough to make up for the lukewarm fizzle of an ending.

The Autumn Ballad: Has some fucked up elements that are difficult to stomach, but the parts that are good are really good.

Not Others: Bingeable! But imo they could have cut out the stalker/murder cases and just focused on the excellent family drama.

The Matchmakers: This surprisingly swooped in towards the end of the year as my favorite comedy of 2023, all thanks to a rec by @haraxvati. I adore Cho Yi-hyun in this role!!! She is so hot as a shrewd matchmaker with a fake mole and a twinkle in her eye. Love the virgin prince with his yearning-induced panic attacks (Rowoon didn't work for me in The King's Affection in a quite similar role, but he's so much weirder and lamer here, which is something I like in a man). I am obsessed with the side plot of the crossdressing romance novelist and the solemn police officer who is trying to capture her and ends up giving her free home renovations and smouldering looks instead. Also, Park Ji-Young and Lee Hae-Young are two of my favorite villain actors on their own, and here they are married!! Still have a few episodes to go, but I intend to binge them as soon as I post this.

Dramas I dropped or paused:

Our Blossoming Youth: I shipped the heroine and her cute maidservant a little too much to bear the dull prince they stuck her with. But I might rewatch it some day bc I want to write a Sherlock Holmes fic for the girls.

Little Women: A real disappointment, because I love Louisa May Alcott and I love Jeong Seo-kyeong. Once again, letting the women kiss might have solved much of it.

Island: Casting Kim Nam-gil as an expressionless cool-guy action hero offends me personally. (Yes Song of the Bandits I'm giving you the stinky eye also.) But Lee Da-hee and Cha Eun-woo were delightful!

See you in my 19th life: I couldn't, even for my most darling Shin Hye-sun, go beyond episode 1. There's something about a kid dating another kid even though she's a literal adult inside her brain that I can't really vibe with.

My Dearest: I do intend to finish this, but I lost the thread after the first half. It got a little too dark for me I think.

#you'll get my moving and minglan recaps in the 2024 roundup because i haven't finished them yet #(i like minglan too much to binge it and my husband won't let me watch either show without him) #unchained love #six flying dragons #tree with deep roots #quartet #my country: the new age #gone with the rain #the autumn ballad #not others #the matchmakers #our blossoming youth #tvn little women #tving island #see you in my 19th life #mbc my dearest #2023 recap #kdrama

[elderflowergin]

3 K-drama moments (January edition)

1. Kim Hae-sook expressing her rage at a young Japanese officer in full satoori and banmal in Gyeongseong Creature. Until this point she has been a capable right hand to Park Seo-joon, restrained, deadly efficient and completely unshakeable. But long-simmering fears and frustrations are boiling over everywhere in Gyeongseong and elsewhere, resulting in this atypical, shocking conversation with a junior officer who sympathises with them but cannot bridge the colonial gap. Language is so significant in this genre, and it’s so visceral when Kim Hae-sook openly vents to this man in her own language, in her own dialect.

Gyeongseong Creature is a pretty dark take on human experimentation, the last gasp of colonial horrors in a dying empire and the endurance of community. Park Seo-joon (and Han So-hee to a lesser extent) have to be the heroes; nonetheless the story understands that liberation is won not by strong-jawed men who talk pretty, but by community, by ordinary people doing extraordinary things together.

Kdrama has a wealth of supporting actors and it's no different here, with Jo Han-cheol, Kang Mal-geum, the aforementioned Kim Hae-sook, Claudia Kim and lovely, lovely Kim Yoon-woo in an affecting subplot (you might have seen him as Ryang Eum in My Dearest). Hate that Netflix made this one a cliffhanger, but they got me. Now, please give us a grown up romance with Jo Han-cheol in it. Our man's earned it.

2. Jung Jin-young’s vividly joyous sex life with his partner played by Yang Mal-bok in LTNS. The astonishing tenderness of their meeting, their love story and the joy he has brought to her arid, parched life are all so well-done that I had a lump in my throat throughout the episode.

This show took atypical love and affair stories, the sort we tend to mock or criticise - the plain girl sleeping with the married colleague, the fiftysomethings rediscovering their zest for life in each other’s bodies, the married lipstick lesbian who keeps coming back into her ex’s life - and offered so much kindness and love in the writing and the framing of those stories. @drivingsideways remarked that it was so different from anything Kdrama has given us, and that is completely correct.

Esom and Ahn Jae-hong were beyond excellent as a troubled couple that maybe shouldn't have married all those years ago - people who were maybe always a little too different, and then papered over their differences with the routines of matrimony. I suspect this was all too real to appeal to the general audience and I don't think this is going to be nomination-heavy. But it deserves to be.

3. Hwa-rok running from the handsome Officer Jeong in the brilliantly written The Matchmakers. The youngest sister in the famously unmarried trio of Namsan, Hwa-rok is a very relatable babe who really wants to get married! Get a husband! Have SEX! - and manifests this through her popular erotica series. The bond between Hwa-rok and the shy, upright officer whose first introduction to her is all the erotica she writes is one of the most adorable plots on this incredibly cute show.

I have several feelings about The Matchmakers, namely that it is the rare romance I respect despite the minimal chemistry between the leads. The writing was top-notch and the lead acting didn't quite live up to it - this is not a criticism of Cho Yi-hyun or Rowoon, but rather a testament to the sheer wealth of talent in Kdrama and how accustomed we've become to actors elevating material. Rowoon surprisingly grew on me in this, with his physicality and his looks somehow making Gyeongwoonjae indelible despite his iPhone-knowing face. I might do a separate post on this yet, but it was absolutely worth the watch, and all of you were right, especially @haraxvati who bravely advocated for Rowoon's talents.

#3 kdrama moments: january edition #i am trying something new! #let's see if it works #LTNS #the matchmakers #gyeongseong creature

[cere-mon-ials]

2022 in kdramas

*that I finished

I spent my January nursing all that The Red Sleeve broke (my heart), nourishing what it gave me (provocation to write, notes here), cursing what it did for my overall k-drama viewing expectations. I am still mad that Lee Se-young wasn’t recognised for what she did in TRS, a show that belongs to Deok-im and her alone. I had finished Good Manager a day before, a long-winded bromance between Namkoong Min and Lee Jun-ho. I didn’t think much and truth be told, I don’t remember much either. Happiness fell flat after three episodes; stayed for the remaining episodes because of the excellent chemistry between the main characters. I evidently watched Coffee Prince many years too late but I saw every reason why I might have never finished school if I had seen it earlier.

Run On kept me thrilled on occasion, became white noise otherwise. I loved seeing my two joys, running and translation, woven into the show, loved the miracle of found friendships and homes, and a defiant writing philosophy that healthy relationships are worthy of being probed. Despite how unbearable Our Beloved Summer was about Ji-woong’s unrequited love, I could see the good-naturedness of the story writer-nim was trying to tell. I loved watching why the two leads fell apart and what brought them together. I loved that this had something to do with communication but I loved even more, that it just had to do with having grown up and realising you can love something you’re not and that’s one way to experience life. Kairos is the most underappreciated show that tackles time-travel. Great writing with exceptional attention to detail.

February was spent with the duology of the Ahn Pan-seok—Kim Eun—Jung Hae-in universe, the k-drama equivalent of Austenian bliss. Both shows benefit from Kim Eun’s thesis that romance may be intimate but love, in a patriarchy, demands a public that must accept it. Ahn Pan-seok is the finest orchestrator of moments that feel like the time lapse that falling in love is, that thing that people often reduce to soulmatism or violins at first glance. In One Spring Night, it works. In Something in the Rain, it fails because Kim Eun was still finding her voice as a writer who is stumped by what makes for the ‘right’ kind of conflicts in a 16-episode arc. I don’t think that’s the only problem with SITR but it’s the one she solved with marvelous elegance in OSN. In both shows, the main leads are charmingly, refreshingly communicative with each other. But it is in OSN, where Kim Eun figures out that being vulnerable is not the same as talking about vulnerable things, and how to make it count for all relationships that matter. Son Ye-jin and Han Ji-min, I love you both equally.

In March, I began paying an honorarium to the guard of my Jang Hyuk horny jail. Deep-rooted Tree made me cry in at least 14/24 episodes. A Joseon murder mystery wrapped in a drama about accessible language as the beginning to breaking down class barriers and nation-building, with nerdy love for character interiority? I ate that up. Han Seok-kyu is the only reel King Sejong ever. Just like Jang Hyuk is the only reel Bang Won ever. My Country: The New Age is a shallow show with hilarously lofty dialogues and masterful action sequences. In my most generous reading, MCTNA attempted to ask if Bang Won’s modernity could have come at a lesser price; is modernity not equivalent to audacity? Woo Do-hwan is almost as good at portraying audacity as Jang Hyuk.

Having Park Eun-bin and Kim Min-jae play Brahms in a riveting duet is exactly what Do You Like Brahms? set out to do. Introverts are rarely done well on the screen and getting it right with not one, but two leads is an achievement too. If you are a person fuelled by that mystical "passion," the creative arts industry can be a cruel place. Chae Song-ah is, by all accounts, not as talented as the others around her, and this is not a story of stick-with-it-till-you-rise-from-the-ashes. Even the hope that it might be is wonderful writing because Song-ah is far more assertive than anybody gives her credit for, like a baby who holds onto your finger with shocking strength. In classical music especially, there is no such thing: you are good or you are out. Park Joon-young is great and yet, he is begging for an out, because being good is just the beginning. These two and the other characters are deeply in love with music and they want to protect that love. They all find out that in the end that love needs sustenance, not protection.

I binged Fated to Love You in April, in a private experiment to see how much Jang Hyuk brainrot I can take. (Let’s remember this is a summary of the shows I finished.) I came out of it with brainrot for one more Jang. Outrageous show, outrageous star power. Soundtrack No. 1 was a forgettable experience save for the fact that I am now a person who looks up Park Hyung-sik’s MDL page on the reg. I think everybody is right about Twenty-Five Twenty-One: (a) Baek Ye-jin and Na Hee-do were always going to break up (b) It was a terribly-conceived finale. Two other opinions I am going to leave here: (c) Ji Seung-wan, darling of my heart, should have been the lead for the show that writer-nim actually wanted to do. (d) More people would see this, and also may have responded with thoughts beyond ship discourse, if Na Hee-do was played by anyone other than Kim Tae-ri.

I think people were right about criticising Lee Soo-yeon’s Grid too. The science of time-travel took some leniency. I get why the finale would have been unsatisfying, even as a setup for a potential second season. But I offer that the thesis of LSY’s shows is never in how they end, because they are not moral science lessons for the future. Grid’s deeply introspective themes of time-travel and the greater good begins with the the sun, the most reliable force in a human's life, turning against mankind. This immediately takes away a human as ultimate antagonist, when it easily could have been. For LSY, the future is the darkest place with unknowable power and we have the task of paving a path of light towards it. Time-travel is not the science-fiction component with which to imagine our behaviour in an unrecognisable, but possible, place. It’s the fucking fantasy. Even if we got the chance to change the past, we really couldn't. The future is what we have got to change and the present to make the first move. Those dreams of going back, repenting hard enough, flirting with what ifs? Not going to cut it. LSY's meta elegance is in bringing the intensely personal version of this theme in parallel to the big one: divorce. FWIW, she had all these threads tie together by Episode 7. I get why she said Grid is the next iteration of her life's work—an exceptional mind.

Park Min-young could have chemistry with a rock, and thank god, Seo Kang-joon isn’t one. When The Weather Is Fine is the rightest show about life in the countryside. It nails the fine line of a tight-knit community that shows up for you and also, how easily they can be the first source of judgement, as people who know your secrets. Best book club in a k-drama. Very well done pining. Imo is my favourite character and she should publish that novel because “Hey. Who do you think killed my brother-in-law?” is a banger opening line. I first saw Lee Jae-wook in this show.

During the weekends of April and May, there was My Liberation Notes. I watched it like a scheduled therapy session, although I do not think Park Hae-young is aiming for catharsis with her works (despite it seeming like the most common outcome). I didn’t have the word “healing” in my everyday vocabulary so often before k-dramas. It’s a genre of k-drama that is meant to be comforting, to inject slowness into everyday life as an antidote for the ills of modern society. Bullshit. There are multiple wide shots of the Yeom family tending their farms, eating in peace amid the greenery, and they are claustrophobic. It might feel like complaints, and you’re free to think that. But PHY knows, as most people my generation do, finding an escape is actually really easy. That’s not the point. The point is to be less sad about being who you are; to know that who you are is enough to make a living, find love if you want it, make peace with your family. This show is about siblings as the real loves of your lives.

I don’t remember what I was doing in June.

Pachinko is not a k-drama strictly speaking, but let’s do it. I adore Min Jin Lee and I am afraid to admit how emotionally attached I am to the world of Kogonada’s eyes. In MJL's book, the linear structure is meant to make you feel like the history of a family can also be a history of the other themes that consume intellectual space. In the show, there is no such thing as a past, or a history. Nothing is done, nothing is over and under the rug. You see Sun-ja’s and Solomon’s stories at the same time because there's no distance that makes what happened then far enough from what's happening now. For this alone, Pachinko is a superior adaptation. I have a shrine for every woman in this show. Watching Yumi’s Cells 2 has been among the happiest experiences of my TV viewing life. Bloody Heart could have been bloodier. I respected that it reached a conclusion without feeling the need to give a neat answer to its central question of assertive power as driver of both unity and chaos—there’s humility in realising that the answer need not be determined in one generation. Jang Hyuk thirst got me into the show, Kang Hanna’s outstanding face and smarts kept me there. Lee Joon’s Lee Tae nearly made me quit. Park Ji-yeon, muah. I watched the back half of Signal in July. It is no fault of the show that I was zapped out of will to see women being killed. There were two scenes of Kim Hye-soo’s that wrecked me bad, I had to quit watching for couple of days. Thank you to the makers for giving a genre-defining template. (Kairos did do it better.)

Alchemy of Souls was super fun as a weekly watch. Daeho is boring to me as a setting and the plot ventures into territories worthy of critical thought once in a blue moon. But I admire the ambition, and the storytelling does have its moments. Lee Jae-wook is a menace. Inhaled Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung over four days; I enjoyed it. Extraordinary Attorney Woo tried. I also binged Reply 1997. Reply 1988 is always going to be my favourite and I am not going to watch R1994 for a conclusive test of veracity.

Between these shows, their endearing efforts at being fulfilling shows about love of different kinds, I nibbled on episodes of My Mister. I couldn’t watch two episodes together; it was so potent, so unbelievably demanding of my attention in every way imaginable, and I gave it willingly. I wrote about the show here.

October brought the best mystery/thriller show of the year: May It Please The Court. It was written with a clear idea of how much to bite, knew how to chew on it, and that’s why it also landed the best conclusion of the year. The show is astute about forgiveness and justice, and well, forgiveness in justice. I think the show’s success is in how it trusted both its characters and the audience to process what this means to them. Jung Ryeo-won and Lee Kyu-hyung have impeccable married energy from first scene. Lee Sang-hee is the best, the hottest, the finest.

Little Women is the mystery/thriller show with the most potential of the year. It wasn’t until episode 11 that the show lost me but I do think the flaws began revealing themselves a lot earlier. I didn’t appreciate the show’s insistence that the central crime of the show was Sang-ah’s murders and not the patriarchal cult that pretends to be a meritocracy. I thought the Vietnam War references were in conversation for a whole different reason: I viewed it as a nod to the first war where losing means more than winning. That war is the blueprint for the 21st century exertion of control for the right to capital and target audience, rather than mere territory and pride. But this symbolism wasn’t what came through and I understand those who pushed back on how the war's references, along with an exotic flower, rang hollow. LW did get characterisation right, particularly the way poverty alters how intelligence is perceived and valued. It’s ambitious premise—that Louisa May Alcott was wrong in deciding these sisters would taper their poverty with unusual politeness—is radical.

I will rewatch the first 11 episodes of May I Help You in several trying days of my future. Baek Dong-joo and Kim Tae-hee, butlers to the dead and the alive respectively, are companions, friends and lovers, in that order. What's not to love? The acts asked of them are rarely grand but they are delivered with emotional heft. I forgive all the detours taken from episode 12. I tend to find it dull when everybody and everything is connected to each other. In this one's ending, it's quite lovely. I see the vision in saying that we only know Dong-joo’s story because that’s the story we have tuned into. The miracles could be happening to anyone at all. I wish writer-nim wasn’t so Christian throughout—the throwaway line about suicide put me off. Best piggy-backing scenes in a rom-com and also, favourite kiss, I am going to say.

#little women kdrama #may i help you #my liberation notes #may it please the court #bloody heart #pachinko #disney grid #when the weather is fine #2521 #do you like brahms #my country the new age #tree with deep roots #one spring night #something in the rain #i love you my little dramas and you too my favourite drama-watchers #phew! #kdrama #notes #2022 in review #kdrama in review

[shewholovestoread]

GYEONGSEONG CREATURE PART 1 - THE CHARACTERS (PART 2 OF 2)

Part 1 is here

The Characters:

The cast is uniformly awesome. Park Seo-joon's character, Jang Tae-sang starts off as someone who is only concerned about saving his own hide but he infuses his character with so much heart that even in the initial episodes, you end up rooting for him. The show is, very much, his hero's journey, going from someone who only cared about his own survival to one who's willing to risk his own life to protect others.

Han So-hee's character, Yoon Chae-ok was an absolute badass. She was more than capable of handling the shit that came her way. I loved that she was so confident of her abilities, she was excellent at her job. So-hee imbues her character with such deep emotion that you can tell that it's always on the simmer, her desperation warring with the bone-deep dread that her mother is dead. And then the final straw is the soul crushing horror they're confronted with when they infiltrate the hospital and find out what's been going on.

I also liked how the relationship between Tae-sang and Chae-ok developed. They start off at loggerheads with Tae-sang mocking the loss of her mother and Chae-ok seeing him as a profiteer, an opportunist. In a desperate fight for their survival against both the monster and the Japanese forces, they're forced to put aside their differences and work together and this is where they truly shine.

Their conflicting approach, where one is willing to die instead of surrendering and the other is willing to surrender to fight another day is what saves them. Chae-ok's drive to fight and keep fighting even in the face or insurmountable odds is what keeps them going when lesser people would have turned back. Tae-sang's drive to survive, to live is what keeps them alive when faced with near certain death. They fight for each other, taking the lead when the other falters.

I love that for people who seem so fundamentally different, they work so well together, perfectly complementing each other. I also love that when Tae-sang tries to save Chae-ok by asking her to leave, she refuses, she makes it clear that she doesn't need a knight in shining armour but a partner who treats her as their equal.

The other cast members are equally good, especially Kim Hae-sook as Nawol-deak, Tae-sang's 2nd in command. She's his pillar, the only person he can trust to take over the reins in his absence and she more than rises to the occasion. Unlike the others, she's unflappable, capable of thinking on her feet, weighing alternatives and wheeling and dealing the way Tae-sang does. She, like Tae-sang doesn't trust anyone (except Tae-sang.) She knows, only too well, how little it takes to break people, having gone through it herself.

Did anyone else wonder if it was Nawol-deak who gave up information that led to Tae-sang's mother getting arrested? Nawol implies that faced with relentless pain, people are willing to do anything to make it stop. That entire conversation and the flashback that followed, made me think if it was Nawol who finally broke and gave up information about her comrades.

Then there was Choi Young-joon playing Lieutenant General Gato, the most hateful character on the show, followed very closely by Hyun Bong-sik's Ichiro. The absolute lack of humanity they exhibit is far more monstrous than any other monster they could create. I'm pretty sure Gato is a psychopath. His quest to make a monster has nothing to do with patriotism. His military rank is a means to an end, it gives him the power and authority he needs to conduct his experiments with little to no oversight. He doesn't see other people as human beings, they are all, both the soldiers and locals alike, test subjects. The locals are used as lab-rats and monster bait while the soldiers serve to test just how much damage the monster can withstand, it's killing power and finally whether it can think and solve problems. The only thing Gato sees as worthwhile is the monster itself.

I would not be surprised if, in part 2, there was increased tension between Gato and Ichiro. Ichiro sees the monster as a mindless killing machine while to Gato, it's a like piece of art, it's an extension of his own genius and he would not take kindly to another scientist taking over. We saw it in Part 1 when Ichiro tried to train the monster, taking a page out of Ivan Pavlov's experiment, Gato's displeasure at Ichiro inserting himself into his work. This is not a man who shares or tolerates interference of any kind. I see conflict brewing between them that will perhaps be the source of their own downfall.

The other person who was absolutely spellbinding was Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Yukiko Maeda. Her portrayal is just... so intimidating. She's the perfect blend of gentility and menace. She has an ice cold demeanor that unsettles you even as her beauty disarms you and draws you in. By the time the show ends, there is no doubt who has the actual power in the Ishikawa home. This is a woman who will slit your throat and calmly drink tea and watch as you slowly drown in your own blood. it's a chilling portrayal and I can't wait to see more of her in Part 2.

I am excited for Part 2 to see how they close season 1 since season 2 is already in production. We do know that Chae-ok, her father and the rest from The House of Golden Treasure will launch a rescue mission for Tae-sang. I don't think Chae-ok will be content to leave Tae-sang behind, not to mention her mother's monster form is still inside.

Add to that, Myeong-ja is now infected and she will wreak havoc once she transforms (assuming she survives,) she is outside and she's pregnant. With Chae-ok's mother, we can see just how much the Najin caused her to mutate. I have a feeling that Myeong-ja's baby will be a hybrid, even more dangerous than the monster inside the hospital. It's also safe to assume that almost all of the antagonists will survive.

If you're hoping for a clean resolution in the season finale, you're in for disappointment. I have a feeling that the season will end with a broadening of the threat and our heroes will have to contend with not just those despicable scientists, Gato and Ichiro, they will also have the Japanese army after them after Kwon Joon-taek ratted them out.

I'll be happy as long as the season doesn't end with a cliffhanger. Season 2 is scheduled to stream in 2024, so on the plus side, at the very least, it's not a long wait. For now, I shall patiently wait for Part 2 and hope for the best...

#gyeongseong creature #gyeongseong creature part 1 #character breakdown #han so hee #park seo joon #kim soo hyun #claudia kim #yukiko maeda #yoon cheo-ok #Jang Tae-sang #horror #kdrama #horror kdrama #kdrama 2023 #kdrama meta

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Categorizing Parent-related Trauma for male and female leads in Kdramas:

Orphans: Lee Hong-jo (Destined With You) Moon Gang-tae (It's Okay to Not be Okay) Moon Sang-tae (It's Okay to Not be Okay) Ha-ru (Extraordinary You) Naksu/Cho Yeong (Alchemy of Souls) Tak Dong-kyung (Doom at Your Service) Nam Ji-ah* (Tale of the Nine Tailed) Cheon Sa-Rang (King the Land) Jang Man-wol (Hotel del Luna) Yoon Yi-seo (100 Days My Price) Kang Young-hwa (Moon in the Day) Kim Do-ha (Moon in the Day) So Mun (The Uncanny Counter) Do Ha-na (The Uncanny Counter) Kang Tae-moo (Business Proposal) Kang Tae-ha (The Story of Park's Marriage Contract, present version) Lee Heon (The Forbidden Marriage) Do Do-hee (My Demon) Ji Eun-tak (Guardian: The Great and Lonely God) Na Bong-seon (Oh My Ghost)

Half Orphans with loving remaining parent: Eun Dan-oh (Extraordinary You) Koo Chan-sung (Hotel del Luna) Ye So-ran (The Forbidden Marriage) Nam Ha-neul (Doctor Slump) Yu Ji-hyck (Marry My Husband) Kang Hee-soo (Captivating the King) Choi Yi-jae (Death's Game)

Half Orphan + Remaining Parent is THE WORST: Jang Uk (Alchemy of Souls) Kim Do-ha (My Lovely Liar) Lee Yul (100 Days My Price) Ahn Min-hyuk (Strong Woman Bong-Soon) Seo Mok-ha (Castaway Diva) Gong Tae-seong (Sh**ting Stars) Kang Tae-ha (The Story of Park's Marriage Contract, past version) Yi In (Captivating the King) Kang Ji-won (Marry My Husband)

Parents (at least one) are THE WORST but Both Are Still Alive: Jang Shin-yu (Destined With You) Han Yi-joo (Perfect Marriage Revenge) Ko Mun-young** (It's Okay to Not be Okay) Mok Sol-hee (My Lovely Liar) Gu Won (King the Land) Crown Prince Lee Hwi/Dam-yi/Yeon-seon (The King's Affection) Do Bong-soon (Strong Woman Bong-Soon) Woo Young-woo (Extraordinary Attorney Woo)*** Jung Ji-woon (The King's Affection) Kang Bo-geol/Lee Ki-ho (Castaway Diva) Yeo Jeong-woo (Doctor Slump) Hong Hae-in (Queen of Tears)

Immortal Being that Still Somehow has Parent Issues: Myul Mang/Doom (Doom at your Service) Lee Yeon & Lee Rang (Tale of the Nine Tailed) Jeong Gu-won (My Demon)

Added trauma flavour: Parent was murdered in front of them (**Still counts if they survived the murder Parent tried to murder them Dying from seemingly incurable disease which makes their parents/guardian sad (If your parents are alive, you must pay for it by dying yourself) Adoptive parent/stepparent is THE WORST

Somehow has normal parents: Lee Jun-ho (Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Has no backstory at all. We only meet his older sister and hear nothing about his childhood.) Shin Ha-ri (Business Proposal, her family is refreshingly normal, right down to her brother being sent out to find her when she's drunk) Oh Han-byeol (Sh**ting Stars, Again, we know almost nothing about her family, only that she has twin sisters. But she doesn't appear to have childhood trauma.) Park Yeon-woo (The Story of Park's Marriage Contract, her mom being annoyed at her for something that is a crime doesn't count as bad parenting) Lee Young-joon/Sung-hyun (What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, his trauma comes from a kidnapper, his parents faced a pretty impossible situation and did their best. They clearly love their kids)

*Counting her as an orphan even though she gets her parents back after 20 years, she spent her childhood orphaned.

***This character is tricky because I understand why her mother wanted nothing to do with her, but her trying to manipulate the dad and also saying he didn't raise her properly made me so angry.

#kdramas #so many orphans #you would think that Korean children never have parents who make it to 60 #if they manage to be alive they are the worst

[isobelleposts]

'My Mister' and Incorporating Life’s Painful Truths

by Isobelle Cruz [April 29, 2022]

Lee Sun-kyun and Lee Ji-eun as Dong-hoon and Ji-an in tvN's 'My Mister'

There are several gems in Korean Dramas that depict the realities of life and growth, and ‘My Mister’ written by Park Hae-young is definitely one of them. Instead of pursuing the plot of another typical love story and corporate lifestyle, 'My Mister' tells the story of a man and woman, with over a twenty-year age gap, finding in each other their shared need for growth and healing in the frightful environment that society has become.

Without much skinship and hardly any heart-fluttering words of love and need, the show was able to intrigue its watchers and have them feel heartbroken and compassinate for the characters nonetheless.

Lee Ji-an portrayed by actress Lee Ji-eun

REALISM

Park Dong-hoon, a man in his 40s, is wrongfully accused of accepting a hefty bribe at work. Lee Ji-an, a temporary employee and subordinate in the same department, helps Dong-hoon with the case and asks for dinners in exchange for her deed. In the midst of external conflicts and other similar misfortunes which both Dong-hoon and Ji-an face, the two form an odd relationship that gives each other the ability to grow.

Feign ignorance. Keeping one informed may be a sign of friendship among kids your age, but adults don’t work that way. Feigning ignorance is a loyal and polite thing to do.

Park Dong-Hoon, episode 6 of 'My Mister'

Hae-young incorporates a lot of lessons garnered from the sensitive topics and conflicts of the world, which is what I’d consider scarcely found in K-Dramas, especially the ones centered around romance. Unlike what we usually encounter on TV, ‘My Ahjussi’ clearly depicts the troubles of poverty and failure without glossing over its truths.

It's easy for people who have money to become good people.

Lee Ji-an, episode 5 of 'My Mister'

Episode 7 of 'My Mister'

ACQUAINTANCES OR LOVERS

The show did not make me wish so much that Park Dong-hoon would reciprocate Ji-an’s likeness for him, but it doesn’t mean I was completely against the thought. I simply found the status of their relationship to be realistic and not lacking in any way that it needed to be more than what it already was.

Then why are you crying? – Because I’m happy. I’m happy that I’m close to someone like him. I’m happy.

A conversation between Ji-an and her grandmother

The happiness Ji-an feels alone to have had Dong-hoon in her life was enough for me. And was implied, enough for her as well. Ji-an’s feelings were inevitable, especially for someone of her age and someone who had experienced so little of the care she receives from Dong-hoon before.

I really lived my life for the first time ever because of you, Mister.

Lee Ji-an, episode 7 of 'My Mister'

Only in her early 20s, Ji-an is already the breadwinner of her small family and struggles with a drowning amount of debt and abuse. Yet despite her "damaged" background, Dong-hoon remains in her life. They both remain in each other's lives until they were both filled with the will to completely live.

The Park family on episode 8 of 'My Mister'

THE PARK BROTHERS

Screenwriter Park Hae-young was able to make every character that appeared on screen to be relevant and either admirable or loathsome. The Park brothers, Sang-hoon in particular, stole my heart and received all of my admiration and tears. Although neither are generally considered “successful” in the working field, Sang-hoon and Ki-hoon are able to make their misfortunes seem easy to tolerate--always finding a way to have a laugh at the right times and help whenever they could.

My life is already in ruins, so what's the point of crying?

Park Sang-hoon, eldest of the Park brothers

Resilience is often seen as idealistic or a display of maturity, but I usually view it as a pitiful thing to obtain. Because the chances that the most resilient people we know may carry the heaviest burdens are high. To witness such unfortunate people smile ear to ear is a painful but understandable encounter.

Rather than letting you escape from the living world and into a completely fictional one, ‘My Mister’ allows you to understand and prepare for life even further. If you’re seeking to go through sixteen episodes of a slow-burn type of love for the biggest tear-jerker on the final episode, then 'My Mister' is just the right choice for you.

(Click HERE for Writing Commissions)

#IU #Lee ji eun #lee ji-an #my mister #my ahjussi #park hae young #park dong hoon #tvN #tvn my mister #tvn drama #tvn show #kdram #kdrama review #lee sun kyun #netflix kdrama #나의 아��씨

[nthngtoseehere-blog]

Dramas/movies I've finished (or 'finished')

I've watched enough east Asian dramas/movies that I've tripped my brain’s "must make a list" switch. Updated 3/28

Blue = favorites

Also:

Dramas I'm watching / want to watch

Dramas I dropped

Dramas:

2gether the Series (Thai)

I guess a lot of people hate this and don't think the leads have any chemistry at all? But I actually loved them. It's not a hot-and-heavy kind of chemistry; it's very sweet and kind of innocent, but not facile. On the other hand, they were all I liked about the drama.

Ai Long Nhai (Thai)

This is the most ridiculous drama, and it brings me so much joy. Nothing hurts, everything is beautiful. Nhai is a precious scatterbrained bean, and Ai falls in love at first sight. All of the things about Nhai that drive other people crazy just make Ai go all fond and soft. I smiled so much watching this that my face hurt.

A League of Nobleman (Chinese)

Good but definitely felt like it was missing scenes. OT3 Lan Jue/Zhang Ping/Wang Yan!

Bad Buddy (Thai)

Wow this is good! It's Romeo and Juliet with some West Side Story thrown in. The actors are fantastic, and watching how they progress from sort-of-enemies to committed boyfriends is wonderful.

Bed Friend (Thai)

OMG Uea the sharp-edged traumatized bean, and King green-flagging all over except for that one moment where he needed to have his head flushed in a toilet for reacting in the absolute worst way. I love this show A LOT. It's not a perfect rendition of a young man who has suffered a lot of abuse in his life, but it handles that element really well (therapy and medication FTW), and the romance is sweet and sexy.

Between Us (Thai)

I liked the first half a lot, but didn't like Team very much after they got together. His personality/behavior changed; he was, IDK, tougher? earlier, which I liked a lot more. However, I LOVE Win so much I can't even.

Bad Guys (Korean)

There were several moments when certain things almost made me nope out (Oh Gu Tak’s entire self; my overwhelming desire to cut Jung Moon’s hair so that his one eye wouldn’t be perpetually covered up; the detective lady whose name I never bothered to catch), but I was so glad I finished it. Park Hae Jin in eps 9 – 11 blew me away; and the ending was kinda dark but in a way that was so satisfying.

Be Loved In House: I Do (Taiwanese)

Not my favorite Taiwanese bl, but not bad.

Beyond Evil (Korean)

Wow, so much going on. The characters developed beautifully, even though Juwon went through a bit of a bratty phase. I loved the mystery.

The Blood of Youth (Chinese)

I loved this so much. THE FOUR WAY BROMANCE omg. And the way the ML slowly but surely dismantled the villains' plans! He met every set-back with a “well, that’s unfortunate, but I can fix it.” It was great, even though the romance they shoe-horned in for the ML was annoying.

Dangerous Drugs of Sex (Japanese)

I watched this because I was curious. It was... Hmm. Well, all I can say is, if you too become curious, make sure you pay attention to the reasons it's 18+, and then assume it's going to be even more f*cked up than it sounds.

Dr. Romantic 2 (Korean)

Honestly I watched this for the Seo Woo Jin whump (Ahn Hyo Seop does suffering so attractively), but since doctor shows otherwise make me nauseous I didn’t watch the last couple of episodes. But I really liked the various relationships among the different characters.

Duoluo Continent (Chinese)

Watched this for Xiao Zhan. I’ve never watched anything like this outside of having caught a glimpse of the Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh cartoons my kid watched, and it was...different. The FL was so irritating, but I wasn’t burned out on this kind of FL yet when I watched this so it was fine.

En of Love: Love Mechanics (Thai)

Too short! The fact that is was remade with most of the same cast and an expanded story makes this one feel almost like a pilot. It was definitely good enough to make me track down the longer version (which I'm currently watching). YinWar are really engaging actors.

Fish Upon the Sky (Thai)

Same actors as in Never Let Me Go, but this one is a comedy. The main character is a high maintenance nerd who goes through a glow-up that almost no one really notices (because he's STILL a high maintenance nerd) except the guy who has had a crush on him forever. Of course it's a guy he thinks is terrible. I loved it. Which is weird because I generally hate comedies.

Handsome Siblings (Chinese)

I enjoyed it mainly because it’s ridiculous.

He is Psychometric (Korean)

Super cute, comfort show. The twists and turns were great. I loved the characters. Side note: the actor who played young Kang Sung Mo did an amazing job. I actually had to stop at one point and Google the cast to make sure the show hadn’t somehow managed to make the older actor look like a teenager because the younger actor absolutely nailed the older actor’s take on the character. (Turns out the younger actor is the ML in The Uncanny Counter! In which I also love him.)

Healer (Korean)

OMG I love this show. So much. I even loved the romance. I wrote a post about it. (Did I go looking for Ji Chang Wook’s filmography after watching this? Yes, yes I did.)

HIStory 4: Trapped (Taiwanese)

Getting into bl drama is a lot like getting into bl manga/manhwa: requires accepting that dramas with action/mystery/SFF are few and far between. (I would also add "dramas with adults" but there seem to be more and more of those these days.) This was one of the first bl dramas I found that wasn't just a romance, and I was SO EXCITED. It's a little cheesy, but I loved it. The cop/mafioso romance (which is also a grumpy cat/sunshine puppy romance) between the leads is a lot of fun. And it has what might be my absolute favorite side pairing: the always-smiling assassin and his adorable tiny cop boyfriend (a sunshine velociraptor/sunshine puppy pairing, if you will).

Hotel Del Luna (Korean)

This show is amazing! Jang Man Wol stewing in rage and ennui for a thousand years only to have everything turned upside down by a stubborn, good-hearted puppy-man who she ironically stuck herself with. The slow, heartbreaking, breath-catching reveal of Man Wol’s past. The range of creepy, sad, funny, heart-warming ghost stories. The characters. The production quality! Ah, so good.

If You Wish Upon Me (Korean)

Another OMG I LOVE THIS. Ji Chang Wook is so good at “sweet, tough, vulnerable, and a good guy despite being raised by wolves” characters. I did cry semi-regularly due to the nature of the setting, but while I usually avoid things that make me cry, this was good crying. And so worth it. Also, the FL is a hoot, and a BAMF when she takes on the ML's abusive ex.

The Imperial Coroner (Chinese)

Adorable nerds falling in love over corpses in ancient China WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE.

Jade Dynasty (Chinese)

I get why people don’t like this, but I did. It was a silly, sweet, fun story and it only required a time commitment of an hour and some.

Joseon Attorney: A Morality (Korean)

I wanted to like this more than I did, because Woo Do Hwan. Loved him. Favorite part was when he was imprisoned and being tortured and someone came to visit him in his cell and he was fidgeting and fussing with the filthy straw while he talked with them. Like. Oh honey. WTF are you doing, just have a good cry and take a nap before your next torture session my babie. But I got kind of bored? As soon as we found out what happened to his sister I gave up and fast-forwarded through the rest so I could at least see what happened.

Jun & Jun (Korean)

I had to be in the right mood to watch this (open to a silly office romance with ALL the tropes), but when I did finally watch it I loved it. There is second (and third) lead syndrome, but all three of the men in love with Lee Jun are likeable, and I honestly would have been happy with Lee Jun choosing any of them. Also, Lee Jun is the most precious bean.

Lawless Lawyer (Korean)

I struggled through the middle of this. I’m not a huge fan of how in Korean shows everything always goes to absolute shit for the main character(s) mid-way through. I mean, I don’t mind that element of storytelling in general; it’s the way it’s so devastating in so many of these shows. This one hit me when I was in the wrong frame of mind, I think. But I’m glad I stuck it out because the way the villain was ultimately taken down was fantastic.

Love and Redemption (Chinese)

OMG LOVE. Serious, serious love. I wrote a post about this.

Love by Chance (Thai)

Ehhh. I ended up fast-forwarding through all of it except the Ai/Pete stuff. That is a great relationship, though. Pete has internalized politeness to an adorable degree, and is sweet despite having been badly burned; Ai went from "uninterested in dating anyone at all but assumed straight" to "oh I'm in love with this guy? I must be gay. Cool."

Love for Love’s Sake (Korean)

This was a sweet show. The concept was clever, and the way it held onto its secrets until almost the end worked really well.

Love in the Air (Thai)

I tried watching this about a year ago - first Thai drama, first bl drama - and I got through the first arc and quit, and didn't go back to bl or Thai dramas for literal months. It was mostly due to the production quality, the cheesiness, and all of the pouting Rain does. But I went back to it recently, after watching A LOT of Thai bl, and I actually love it? Still cheesy, still wishing they could have invested in a boom mic, but I can handwave that now I guess. I really, really love the second story arc, about PaiSky. Sky is a great character, and Prapai goes through character growth! Starts out a pushy, cocky playboy who thinks it's cute to stalk the guy he likes, ends up being a compassionate, responsible boyfriend.

Mad Dog (Korean)

MORE LOVE. This was the kdrama that caused me to fall down the rabbit hole of kdramas in general. I’ve watched this three times. The found family element, the character journey that especially Kim Min Joon but also Choi Kang Woo go through – help, so good. And what a great introduction to Woo Do Hwan. I wrote a post.

Maiden Holmes (Chinese)

This is like...if your favorite, heart-warming, Jane Austen-inspired romance drama was a mystery set in ancient China and had cool fight scenes. Comfort food.

Manner of Death (Thai)

This is barely a bl (very few bl tropes); it's more of a mystery with romance between the two leads who are both guys. Very good, if a little cheesy in places. And let's not talk about Tan's marriage proposal because wtf dude.

Memorist (Korean)

I watched this early in my exploration of kdramas and didn’t like it for some reason; I fast-forwarded through a lot of it. But I think I might have just not been in the right mood before, because I tried it again and it was excellent! The twists and turns of the mystery, the way things that seemed unrelated turned out to be all connected, was awesome.

Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But To Kiss! (Japanese)

This was adorable! The main character had a lot more layers than I expected, and his love interest was so sweet.

My Beautiful Man (Japanese)

Two high school boys with problematic behavioral issues whose issues complement each other. It's unexpectedly charming and touching, and I'm really glad there's a sequel!

My Roommate is a Detective (Chinese)

If you want a bromance where you can easily ship the male leads, and has some whump, and you don’t mind cheesiness: here you go!

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnamese)

There's not a lot of Vietnamese bl out there, and I wanted to try one. This one is good; not the greatest acting, but still good. Also, the episodes are so short, so it's a quick watch.

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwanese)

One of the main characters is a dentist, hence the absurd English title. I'm not good with any dentistry situation so I admit I watched a couple of seconds here and there through my fingers, but it's really just a lovely romance. I can't remember where I read it, but this is a good description (paraphrased): the leads woo each other with plushies and naps.

Never Let Me Go (Thai)

Rich high school student's dad is murdered in front of him, and has another high school student, who has never bodyguarded before ever but his dad makes him do it because his dad is kind of a jerk, assigned as his bodyguard. Weird premise, EXCELLENT delivery. The actors who play the boys have great chemistry, and make the characters feel very real.

The Novelist (Japanese)

I don't even know what to say about this drama? It's a bit like those weird little Indie films from the 90s. Like, it's pretty good, but it's also...something.

Numbers (Korean)

I really liked this until the last episode. It fizzled out. Is there supposed to be a second season or something, maybe? IDK.

Oh No Here Comes Trouble (Taiwanese)

Oh this was GOOD. The title and ML's hair cut (yes I judge) made me think it was going to be silly, and there was silliness but there was also a lot of depth and emotion. ML's family situation is a traumatic running thread. The mysteries are clever and fun but heartfelt and sad too. It was just so good.

Old-Fashioned Cupcake (Japanese)

Oh this is so sweet! It's based on a bl manga I haven't read yet, but definitely will because this is just the sweetest, warmest story.

Our Dating Sim (Korean)

Very good, very sweet. I really felt for Gi Tae, waiting so many years, and then hiding so much anxiety.

Sell Your Haunted House (Korean)

Oh this is so good! A great supernatural show, with a great FL, and the FL and ML become besties rather than romantic yay.

Semantic Error [TV show] (Korean)

I watched this because I’d heard of the manga, though I absolutely wasn’t expecting to actually get sucked in like I did. Excellent show. Another one I wrote about.

The Sign (Thai)

I loved this so much!! Action, crime, reincarnation, mythology, romance, humor - there’s so much going on and I enjoyed all of it. The last two episodes used some hand-waving instead of explaining things, but I’m not mad. Billy and Babe had amazing chemistry, too.

Together with Me (Thai)

I couldn't get Manner of Death at the time, but everyone keeps talking about MaxTul, so I watched this. It's not bad.

The Uncanny Counter 1 (Korean)

The first kdrama I watched! The only reason it didn't cause an instant obsession with kdramas is because i started watching Love and Redemption after and that was 59 episodes of blissful hyperfixation. But I love the supernatural/superhero/semi-religious? aspect, I love the different families that the ML has/finds, I love the whump.

Under the Skin (Chinese)

So far this is the only modern Chinese drama I’ve been able to finish. The mysteries were good, the relationship growth between the two male leads was compelling! Good stuff.

Unforgotten Night (Thai)

This show is really pretty terrible. I'm incapable of not laughing when the soundtrack cuts to a track of ~Italian mafioso music every. single. time that Kamol comes on screen. But it's gone so far past terrible that it's come out the other side, and I kinda like it.

The Untamed (Chinese)

First east Asian drama for me! I watched and rewatched this show multiple times in 2021, and without it I don’t think I would have explored [read: become obsessed with] east Asian dramas. I’m still in the fandom and reading the fic and watching the FMVs and etc. I cannot quit WangXian.

Until We Meet Again (Thai)

This is an amazing drama. Romeo and Juliet, but make it a modern bl college story with reincarnation, and the reincarnated Juliet has PTSD from his past life memories. Excellent storytelling, acting, everything.

Watcher (Korean)

Ooooooh this is so good. All of the characters are so compelling, and the overall story kept me engaged. Also, Seo Kang Joon: yes.

Why R U? (Thai)

This is kind of terrible, except that ZeeSaint as Fighter/Tutor absolutely sizzle. I also loved watching Fighter figure out his sexuality via 50% dialogue and actions and 50% Zee's incredibly expressive face.

Word of Honor (Chinese)

I watched this after watching The Untamed, and was kind of meh about it. But then after I’d poked around cdramas a bit, I watched it again and loved it. IDK what happened, but now it’s a fave.

You’re All Surrounded (Korean)

Ok, the FL in this is terrible. So annoying. Despite that and some of the other things that didn’t quite click with me, I was unable to drop it because I NEEDED to find out how Eun Dae Gu’s story would end (very satisfyingly actually!).

Movies:

Long Time No See (Korean)

I love this so much! Assassins; cool fight scenes; traumatized lead; murder boyfriends! UGH it's so good.

The New Employee (Korean)

Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

Pipeline (Korean)

NGL, I watched this because I wanted some Seo In Guk whump. It definitely delivered! It was a fun, fast-paced story, with very little character development and a very underused villain, and really good action. I turned my brain off and enjoyed it. The only thing I couldn't help mentally griping about was the complete lack of ear protection in most (all?) of the drilling scenes. They should have all been partially deaf, good grief.

The Yin Yang Master (Chinese)

Wacky and good!

The Yin Yang Master: Dream of Eternity (Chinese)

Less wacky than the other one, but also good, and the bromance!!!

#kdrama #cdrama #jdrama #thai bl #Taiwanese bl

[thepersona]

Under the Queen's Umbrella: Midseason, spoiler-free review

*Warning: This is a long post that no one asked for.

If you're still on the fence about starting this show, then let this be a sign for you to give it a shot. It's a real shame that people seem to be sleeping on this series just because it's not driven by romance and cookie-cutter characters from other popular historical dramas.

It's a refreshing take on the genre, and if you're willing to suspend your disbelief even a little bit regarding certain historical inaccuracies (it is totally fiction / AU after all), then this show will be worth your while.

The Premise (if you don't already know): Queen Im Hwaryeong, played by the majestic Kim Hye-soo, is the wife of King Yi Ho (Choi Won-young), with whom she has five sons. The Crown Prince is picture perfect, but the other four have been branded as underachieving troublemakers by palace gossip. The Queen has to run around to keep them all in check, manage the ambitious concubines, and go toe-to-toe with the Dowager to protect her children. Further intrigue ensues, and the fight to restore honor turns into a war to stay alive.

Cast / Acting: This is yet another vehicle for Kim Hye-soo, who has been so amazing in choosing roles and stories since her small screen return in Signal (2016). Queen Hwaryeong is commanding, ruthless, and witty, but also loving, warm, and vulnerable. I live for the sarcastic bows she makes towards the Dowager, her eyebrows (!), and the physical comedy especially in the first two episodes. Just as the queen can move in any direction, KHS once again proves that she can do it all.

The small but terrible Dowager is so masterfully played by Kim Hae-sook (Start Up, Tomorrow). She knows just what to say and how to say it to get under your skin. I don't know how they do it, but between her acting and the editing / lighting, the Dowager's beady eyes have this dark vibe and you know that she's up to something lethal but in the blooper reel the actress' eyes sparkle with joy (?!) Talk about attention to detail. The scenes where the two women standoff are definitely the acting highlights of the series so far.

The casting is pretty solid for the rest of the supporting characters as well. Choi Won-young plays a wise king in a real bind. He's empathetic and insightful, and has a calming presence I rarely feel in the portrayals of kings in the sageuk genre.

The Grand Princes, princes, concubines, court ladies, and ministers all gel together quite well, but if we're talking Baeksang Awards, Kim Hye-soo has a real shot for Best Actress next year along with Park Eun-bin. (If one of them gets Best Actress, then the other should get Daesang, I don't care which, just let both of them be recognized.)

Writing / Characterization: I'm limited by my desire to keep this review spoiler-free, but it really is a refreshing take on the sageuk, and oddly enough, of the family/political drama genre in general.

The motivations are easy to follow but the alliances aren't always clear cut. Among the antagonists, you just know they're going to stab each other in the back and that no one's putting all their eggs in one basket. And based on the ep 9 preview, even the Queen seems to initiate an alliance with one of her biggest foes.

The Queen may have some plot armor but no one seems to benefit from deus ex machina (yet?). The twists and turns have happened within reason so far, though there are a few flashbacks that have yet to be explained in the latter half of the show, particularly regarding Grand Prince Seongnam's childhood and the Queen's early days as the Crown Princess.

I don't know if writer Park Ba-ra was actively aiming for a feminist show but she's done a splendid job so far. The women definitely run the show, and are far more nuanced than just "strong", but that doesn't mean the men have to be useless either. The King actually has something to do beyond believing the first piece of fake news that he gets?! And the princes have different goals, motivations and, methods to get what they want (Ep 8 is quite the masterpiece).

Ultimately, the central theme is motherhood, with the show being both an homage and a critique of maternal love. The Queen's relationships with her sons are used to represent the ideal in the modern sense (she's literally a working mom who needs to drag her kids to school). She nags a lot because she's worried but is affectionate and loves them unconditionally.

But through the King and the Dowager, the other princes and concubines, we get a kaleidoscope of how the same maternal love can yield vastly different results. It can even be harmful for both the children and their mothers.

There are some questionable points in the scenario. There aren't any princesses and the previous queen also had exactly five sons which is odd considering the infant mortality rate of the period. But it's forgivable once you give the plot a chance to unravel. I did have a hard time keeping track of all the princes' names at first but that, too, falls into place right away.

Direction / Visuals: Gorgeous. The cinematography is really something to behold. I especially love the overhead shots, wide shots, and the use of light and rain in general. They also like making the two women look bigger than everyone else because they literally have the most power. Episode 1 has my favorite shot when the first tragedy strikes, and episode 3 has the best painting at the end before the title card. (Can't put them here or I might spoil it for you, sorry.)

I did have a few qualms with episode 2 since they tried something a little too modern and unnecessary, making a family discussion look like a video call / chat room. It also had a running/crying scene with less than perfect backgrounds that were so obviously green screen. It distracted from KHS's acting, unfortunately. But quality has been uphill since then by allowing the stellar cast and intrigue to take center stage.

Midseason verdict: 9 / 10

TLDR: Watch it without expecting a documentary and you should be ok.

P.S.: None of the beautiful gifs are mine.

#under the queen's umbrella #kdrama #kim hye soo #kim hae sook #choi won young #moon sang min #bae in hyuk #midseason review #omo it was so hard to keep it spoiler free

[theelectronicstranger]

Past Lives is Still My Favorite Movie of 2023

          So, I recently rewatched Past Lives again and I want to talk about how much I love it as a doomed romance film because it gives us these small moments of heartbreaking romance between the two main characters that in a typical romantic film would 100% mean that they’re going to get together at the end. The film even teases us with that outcome throughout most of it and specifically at the beginning of the film where we’re hearing two random people talk about Nora, Hae Song, and Arthur’s relationships. I want to talk about how they built up that doomed romance and why I was really happy with how it ended. I also want to talk about this film as an immigrant. I feel like there are a lot of scenes in this film that really resonated with me as an immigrant that I want to talk about. While I try to talk about these ideas, I’m also just going to gush about the stuff I really loved about this film, so if you’re reading this then be prepared for that because I might switch over to another topic as I’m talking about another point because of this. I’m going to cut this discussion up to three eras: their childhood, which was 24 years ago; their first reconnection, which was 12 years ago; and their present time.

24 Years Ago (Their Childhood):

          The first scene of them we see during this time is Nora (still known as Na Young) quietly crying as her and Hae Song walk home. Hae Song is trying his best to comfort Nora because he just got the top grades in their class, beating Nora for the first time. Even at a young age, these two cared about each other. We could also tell that they liked each other even at that age. In fact, when Nora’s mother asks Nora who she likes at school, Nora immediately replies that she likes Hae Song. She even goes on to say that she believed that she would probably marry Hae Song. After hearing this, Nora’s mother, knowing that their family will leave Korea soon, sets up a date between Nora and Hae Song. This would be one of the last times they ever got to truly spend time with one another and the scenes where they were playing around in the park as their mothers watched them was really charming and sweet. I felt this childhood connection within them that was pure and innocent; like they didn’t care about the world and the only thing that mattered at that moment was the time they spent with each other. As much as I love this scene, I think it’s also bittersweet because we know that Nora and her family are leaving soon, so Hae Song and Nora’s bond is going to be severed as it is growing.

          During this play date scene, there was a moment between the mothers of Nora and Hae Song that I really liked. That scene is when Hae Song’s Mother asks Nora’s Mother why they’re immigrating. The reason she asks this is because they were leaving a lot behind. Nora’s mother was a successful artist and Nora’s Father is a successful film director, so they were losing a lot by moving. Nora’s Mother replies to this question with:

“If you leave something behind you gain something, too.”

and that’s it. That’s all she says. I found that very profound because I feel like a lot of immigrants leave something behind to hopefully gain something better wherever they’re going. When I first immigrated here, I didn’t truly understand that. I just felt like I lost all my friends and family by moving to America. Now that I’m older, I understand why my mother immigrated all of us here. It’s so that we can hopefully have a better life and more opportunities than we did before.

At the end of this Play Date Day, we see Nora and Hae Song holding each other���s hands on the car ride home. Nora sleeping on Hae Song’s shoulder, while Hae Song is awake staring at the horizon. They look peaceful together, but once we see Hae Song awake, I felt like he knows it’ll be their last great day together because Nora is leaving. There’s a sort of sadness in his eyes as he looks towards the horizon. The next scene we see after this is Nora talking about how she’s moving to America with her family in class; we see Hae Song is visibly upset because she doesn’t want Nora (Na Young) to go. They walk home in silence together and when they finally have to part ways Hae Song stops Nora and manages to say “Bye”. I really love this scene of their last interaction because we can see Hae Song trying hard not to be upset with Nora leaving but he’s failing. He’s trying not to show how much he’s going to miss her, but the only thing it truly does is make it seem like he didn’t care about her. The more he tried to hide his emotions, the less time he got to spend with her (I think this comes back to bite him later, but I’ll talk about that when we get to it).  

There’s nothing Hae Song can really do to stop Nora (Na Young) from leaving; he just kind of had to let go even if he didn’t want to. I liked these scenes of them when they were younger. It shows the bond that they already had and how strong those bonds were. I think it’s the biggest reason why we want these two to meet up again because we feel like there is unfinished business here and we, as the audience, want to see it unfold.

          Theres a scene that I really love in their childhood scenes, it’s when Nora’s family is already in the US, and we see Nora (Na Young) just standing with her back against the wall watching the other kids play. It’s a very big contrast to what her life was like in Korea. In Korea, she had all these friends that she played with, and she even had this boy she liked that always walked home with her. In the US, she was just alone, and she was afraid to interact with anybody. I think this scene perfectly encapsulates how lonely it could be for immigrants after they first immigrate to another country; specifically, for children. When I first immigrated here to the US, I remember being the same way, I just didn’t talk to anybody. I was afraid to interact with anybody because I had this fear that I was going to say something wrong, and the other kids would make fun of me. I felt like I couldn’t speak in English that well and whenever I did there was someone that pointed out my accent. I was really self-conscious at the time. I remember eating lunch alone because I didn’t have any friends. The few months before I attended school here, I was surrounded by all these friends that I hung out with a lot and celebrated with me when they found out I was leaving to go to the US.  I never felt so alone until I got here.

12 Years Ago (When They First Tried to Reconnect):

          I really loved how the main reason Hae Song wanted to reconnect with Nora is because she was the only person he could think about while he was in military service. I also love how Hae Song’s military service scenes immediately follows their childhood scenes together; it shows that that even though it’s been 12 years, Hae Song still looks fondly on their time when they were younger and still feels some sort of connection to Nora.

I thought that the scene where Nora and Hae Song were first talking through Skype was really magical. It’s these two long lost childhood sweethearts that haven’t seen each other in 12 years and suddenly technology caught up to where they could see each other face to face for the first time even though it was just through a screen. The way they acted when they first saw each other through that Skype screen was so fun to watch. I loved how both Nora and Hae Song both lit up after seeing one another; you can see it in their smiles that they were just so happy to be talking to one another. Sure, there was an awkward start when they first called but as the call progressed you can see them start to get back into the groove of things again; they actually talked for so long that Nora missed out on eating dinner, and it went from afternoon to midnight on her side of the world. After the first call, we see both of them start to get really happy and look forward to these Skype Calls. I love that because it’s two people that are trying to make and hold on to a connection even with there is this massive distance between them. I think these Skype moments with them really sold me on the idea that I want to see both of them together.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it really goes. At first their interactions were going really well but because of their time difference, it was getting harder and harder to talk to one another. Korea (Seoul where Hae Song is) and the US (New York where Nora is) has a 13-hour time difference, basically half a day, so when one of them was sleeping, the other one was awake and ready to talk. After some point, they both just started to drift apart because their lives couldn’t handle a relationship that could only happen at a certain time window. This part of the movie really resonated with me as well because I really tried my hardest to stay in touch with my friends back in the Philippines. When I first moved here my parents told me to forget my friends back home and focus on my life here in the US; I thought to myself, “I’ll never do that. These are my friends and I’ll never let them go.”. A few years passed and I lost all contact with them. It started with me not being able to talk to them as much because the only time I could talk would be late at night/early in the morning here. Then when we were able to talk, I started to feel like I was left out. I felt like I wasn’t part of that group anymore, so slowly we started talking less and less.

          In the film. I felt that the more Hae Song and Nora were trying to make efforts to make each other be a part of the other’s life, the more it became harder to be with them. What I mean by that is that both of them really wanted the other person to be there physically. We see that a lot with Nora. In the scene where Hae Song is in a cable car in Seoul, Nora is seeing this beautiful scenery of Seoul and says,

“wish I were there”

She’s starting to feel this massive distance between them weigh over her more and more. Hae Song feels this as well, but Hae Song guards his emotions really well to the point that it comes back to bite him. The scenes before this one are both of them calling each other’s names out on their screens without an answer. They’re literally calling out each other’s names to the void and we see more and more how this distance and time difference is slowly pulling them away from one another.

          After this, Nora calls Hae Song one last time. She asks Hae Song when it would be possible for him to visit her in New York and Hae Song tells her that he won’t be able to visit until a year and a half from that time. After this, we see for a small moment, Nora weighing in that time and how much of this relationship between them she could take. After thinking for that small moment, she decides that they should probably stop talking for a while. To explain herself, Nora says:

“I immigrated twice to be here in New York. I want to accomplish something here. I want to commit to my life here, but I’m sitting around looking up flights to Seoul instead.”

Hae Song is obviously hurt when hearing this; he doesn’t want to stop talking, but he also can’t do anything about it, so he pushes her away. In this small moment, he decides to bottle up his emotions and just tell her that it’s a good idea. He even goes on to say,

“What are you sorry about? Were we dating or something?”

I think this statement just pushes her away from him more. It was his defense mechanism that made it even easier for them to separate from each other entirely. Just like the little boy that he was 12 years ago, he hides his feelings and abruptly ends the call with Nora with a reluctant and forced “Bye”. Just like the one he told her 12 years ago. This is the last time they talk until the present time.

I think if Hae Song told Nora how he really felt, then they would have kept more in touch with each other, but I also understood why he said that. He said that because he was hurt and felt that Nora wanted to push her away. I also think he understood a bit where she came from because their relationship was struggling with the time difference and the distance. We saw scenes of them calling to one another and saw them feel lonelier when nobody answered on the other side. There’s also this small scene after this last call that really got me. It’s when Hae Song is on the train and he’s typing up this long message to send to Nora, but he sees this couple being close to one another and enjoying each other’s physical company. He wants THAT. He also knows that he can’t really have that with Nora because they are practically worlds apart. After seeing that, he decides to delete the message. I think that the same want that Nora had, had been in Hae Song. They both just wanted each other to be there in person, but their lives are getting in the way.

I think with any long-distance relationship there has to be a certainty that both people will meet at some point and will be together at some point. For Nora and Hae Song those certainties were never there. They were unsure of what they were, and they were unsure of when they would see each other. They were even unsure about when they’ll be able to talk to one another. They really wanted to be with one another but those uncertainties and their plans for their life just didn’t let that happen.

After they completely stop talking to one another, we see them meet their present partners. Nora meets Arthur on her writer’s retreat and falls in love with him, and Hae Song meets his girlfriend in China. Just like that another 12 years pass.

The Present Time (Their One Week in New York):

          In this present time, we see that Nora is now married to Artur. They have a great life together. We see them in bed just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. Hae Song is not at all in the mind of Nora. Until one day, Nora gets a message from Hae Song that he’s going to be in New York for a week and asks if he could meet with her. Hae Song denies to his friends that he’s there to see Nora, but that’s the only thing he’s there to do.

I really love the moment when they first meet again. I thought it was really sweet. She hugs him and he’s kind of surprised by the physical touch, but at the same time I could tell that he loves this hug. It’s a hug that he’s been longing for since they tried to reconnect all those years ago. They kind of don’t know what to do with one another; they both can’t believe that after all these years, they’re in the exact same place physically. They start walking down the road and talking to one another. Nora asks Hae Song about his girlfriend and says they’re not really together right now. He also reveals that they started talking about marriage and implies that it’s the reason why they’re on break right now. My reading of this was that Hae Song went to New York to confirm his feelings for Nora and see if the decision he’s about to make, which is marrying his long-time girlfriend, is going to be the right choice. I think he can’t fully move on with his life until he finds out if there is still something between him and Nora. I also think that Nora tried to do this with Hae Song because she said that before she got married to Arthur, they went to Korea. She emailed Hae Song because she wanted to see him, but he never responded. If Hae Song only responded then Nora would have probably done the same thing he’s doing now, which is trying to figure out if these unfinished feelings have any merit.

I really loved their conversation near the Carousel, where Nora asks Hae Song why he looked for her 12 years ago. Hae song finally shows some of his true feelings:

“I just wanted to see you one more time. I don’t know. Because you just left so suddenly… I was just a little pissed off.” “You kept entering my mind while I was in the military.”

I say that he shows SOME of his true feelings because even with this response he doesn’t fully tell the truth. There are certain things he was omitting like his romantic feelings for her. We know that he does have some feelings for Nora because why else would he be there? She’s the only one he’s truly visiting there in New York. Also, Nora could tell there were certain things he was omitting. When he says his reason for looking for her, you can see Nora’s face start to worry; she doesn’t really know what to make of why he’s here. She had suspicions as to why Hae Song was here, and this conversation confirms that he’s just there for her. When she gets home, she tells Arthur that her suspicions were true.

          I want to talk about Arthur for a second. I think Arthur is great. I think he’s the reason why Nora and Hae Song’s doomed romance is solidified and why I also don’t mind that Nora and Hae Song don’t get together at the end of this film. If Arthur wasn’t this compassionate, loving, and wonderful husband to Nora; then yes, Nora and Hae Song should be together at the end of the film. However, Arthur is a wonderful husband to Nora. He loves her; he cares for her; and he’s making sure that this meeting between Hae Song and Nora happens. He knows how important this meeting between them is. Yes, he does have some insecurities. When Nora talks about Hae Song and how Korean he is, Arthur’s first question is: “Is he attractive?” and when she answers that he is attractive in this Korean way we see him kind of be bothered by this then he asks, “Are YOU attracted to him?”. She replies, “I don’t think so.” and you can see on his face that he’s bothered by this. What I really like about this scene is that sure he’s insecure about what’s going on between Nora and Hae Song, but he trusts Nora enough to know that she wouldn’t do anything stupid. He also doesn’t get angry and is just very understanding even though this situation is really odd. I also think that Nora does a really good job in assuring him that nothing will happen between her and Hae Song. They just work so well together. It’s obvious that Hae Song being there just puts a strain in their relationship a little bit.

          Also, in Arthur and Nora’s conversation in their bed, Arthur talks about how Nora still dreams in Korean. He talks about how he’s kind of scared of it because he feels like there are parts of her that he can’t visit or be part of,

“I guess I get scared… You dream in a language that I can’t understand. It’s like there’s this whole place inside of you where I can’t go.”

I see this as both as an insecurity within Arthur but also a reason why I really liked him with Nora. I like him with Nora because he’s someone that genuinely wants to understand her in every facet of her life. He’s not somebody that just got the girl and now is resting on his laurels for the whole relationship. He’s someone that will always keep trying to know her and be truly part of her life. That’s exactly what I like about Arthur. If Nora and Hae Song’s relationship is these idealized romantic situations between two childhood sweethearts through time, Nora and Arthur’s relationship is based on real and mature romantic effort. I say effort because in real life it takes a lot of effort to keep and be in a relationship. It’s the effort that shows that both people still care for one another. That’s what I like about Nora and Arthur’s relationship.

          After the bedroom scene, we see Nora meet Hae Song at the ferry. They’re going to take a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty. I really like these scenes because I think it shows a lot about how they see each other, what they could be, and what they are. For example, while they’re in line to ride the ferry, Hae Song asks Nora what prize she wants to win now. When they were kids, Nora said she was leaving to the US to be able to win a Noble Prize and 12 years ago she said that she wanted a to win Pulitzer. Nora responds that she hasn’t really thought about that kind of stuff recently but after Hae Song pushes the question a bit more, she says that she wants to win a Tony award. Hae Song laughs and says,

“You really are exactly the same as I remember you.”

I think this response can be taken in two ways. First, that Hae Song only really sees Nora as who she was before and not really as she is now; he does force her to answer this question. Although he is slowly seeing the person that Nora is now, he’s still acting and presuming that she’s still that same person that she was a decade ago. Second, I think you can also see this as Nora being able to be that same person again with Hae Song. Like being with him is letting her act as her older self again. That older self that can dream or want an award like that. I think both ways can be true at the same time and doesn’t really show any bad in them. The only thing it shows is that their perceptions of one another needs to change or is going to change as they get to know each other again some more.

          One little moment on the ferry, I’d like to talk about. Theres a small scene where they’re taking a picture together and Nora asks,

“Why are you taking it so close up?” “Fine. Go back a little bit.” Hae Song replies,

and you can see her laughing and enjoying herself with him. She then realizes that she’s having too much fun with him, so her joyous smile suddenly turns into a more serious one. I love moments like that with them because there’s always these spaces and boundaries between them, but just for a small moment their spaces close in on one another and those boundaries fade away. Small moments like this is what made me want them to be together at the end of this film. However, on my second viewing, it became more apparent that you can’t just throw your life away with just these small moments. Nora has a beautiful relationship with Arthur, and she can’t just throw it away in small moments like these.

          I want to talk a little about the scene when Hae Song and Arthur meet and the bar scene. I really like how awkward it was when Hae Song and Arthur met. When Nora and Hae Song get into the apartment, we see Arthur kind of hobble towards them. As if he’s this nervous wreck but he’s trying not to show it. He does manage to finally smile and greet him in Korean. I think this interaction where Hae Song is trying to speak in English and Arthur is trying to speak Korean is really charming. I think this interaction slowly helps Hae Song see why Nora married him. He’s seeing this man that learned Korean for Nora; this man that is trying not to freak out about this situation; and this man that really loves Nora. You can see that even more in the bar when he and Arthur start talking. They’re getting more comfortable with each other. Even though there’s a language barrier, Arthur is still trying to understand him, which I think is Arthur’s biggest strength and charm. He tries to understand someone truly and not just in a superficial way. Hae Song even tells Nora,

“I can tell he (Arthur) really loves you. I didn’t know that liking your husband would hurt this much.”

Hae Song, through this small meeting with Arthur, can see that Arthur really loves Nora. I think a small part of him hoped that Arthur would be this awful husband to Nora, so that he could still possibly have a chance with her, but the more he saw and talked to Arthur, the more he saw what a kind and loving person he truly was. I think that if Hae Song didn’t meet Arthur, then Hae Song would still think he has a chance with Nora. But through seeing Arthur, Hae Song can finally resolve this unfinished love story he has for Nora.

          Also in this bar scene, we seem them tell their truths. We see Nora tell Hae Song that the little girl he once knew is long gone, that the person she is now is not that exact same girl he fell for back then; and we see Hae Song tell her how he really felt about her,

“The Na Young you remember doesn’t exist here… But that little girl did exist. She’s not sitting here in front of you… but it doesn’t mean she’s not real. Twenty years ago, I left her behind with you…” “I know and even though I was only 12, I loved her.” Hae Song replies,

I think that this moment right here was really heartbreaking because it shows that Hae Song really had this deep connection with the Nora he once knew. It also adds more meaning to his interactions with Nora throughout their week in New York. One that comes to mind is when he asks her about what prize she wants to win now at the ferry. I said that the way he asks this question and his reply to Nora’s answer suggests that he only sees Nora as she was before. However, this interaction puts that moment in another context. It goes from Hae Song only sees Nora as she once was to Hae Song trying so hard to find some of the Na Young he once knew in Nora. I also think that this scene is very pivotal for Hae Song’s character because throughout the whole film, he’s been hiding how he felt for Nora. This is the only time we truly got confirmation of his feelings and it’s when he already knew that he had no chance and no way of getting to her. We even get more of this when they start talking about In-Yun. Nora starts this conversation with,

“I think there was something in our past lives. Otherwise, why would be here together now? But in this life… we don’t have the In-Yun to be that kind of person to each other. Basically now, finally we’re in the same city for the first time in twenty years---" “we’re sitting here with your husband.” Hae Song finishes. “In this life, You and Arthur are that kind of In-Yun to each other. You two have eight thousand layers of In-Yun. To Arthur, you’re someone who stays." Hae Song admits.

Hae Song accepts that in this life, he and Nora are not meant to be with one another. For Hae Song, Nora will always be a person who leaves.

          I want to talk about the concept of In-Yun. In my understanding, In-Yun is fate that is based on your past interactions with a person in your past lives. The more In-Yun you have with somebody the more it is likely that you’ll meet with that person or be together with that person. The example they give in the film is when two strangers walk by each other and their clothes accidentally brush. They say that’s In-Yun, and that there must have been something between those two people in their past lives and that’s why they interacted at that moment. I find this concept to be really romantic because it gives meaning to every interaction you have with people even if it’s just a small interaction. Like the people you went to school with that you haven’t seen since school ended had In-Yun with you but not enough for them to still be in your life. I think it’s a beautiful concept that romanticizes a lot of your interaction with people and the world. I feel like it’s easier to be jaded and be disillusioned with the world around us; but through this concept of In-Yun, there’s a way to slowly find meaning and purpose to this world. For Nora and Hae Song, they have a lot of In-Yun in this lifetime but not as many as Nora and Arthur have. At least not enough to be together.

          After being at the bar for a while, they all went home. Hae Song is leaving for Korea, so Nora offers to walk him to his Uber. We get to see this long shot of them walking out of the apartment towards where Hae Song’s Uber is supposed to be and it’s similar to the shot of them walking home when they were younger. They’re both quiet and just looking ahead to where they’re supposed to be going. I really love the parallels of this scene and their last walk home together when they were children. It’s like they’re being given a chance to finally say goodbye to one another one last time. They look at each other and wait until Hae Song’s Uber finally comes. They embrace each other and Hae Song heads to his Uber then stops. Hae Song asks,

“Hey! Na Young. What if this is a past life as well, and we are already something else to each other in our next life? Who do you think we are then?” “I don’t know.” Nora replies, “Me Neither.  See you then.”

With that, Hae Song says goodbye to Nora and heads back home to Korea. I really love this scene. I think it’s because they finally got to say goodbye to one another. Nobody is trying to hide their feelings anymore; everything is out there in the open. Specifically with Hae Song, who hid a lot of his feelings for Nora throughout his life and hid his feelings whenever they would abruptly part with one another. He finally got to say a proper goodbye to her. A goodbye that was on his own terms and with his proper feelings. After Hae Song leaves, Nora walks back home to her apartment, and she’s met by Arthur. She starts crying, and Arthur gives her a warm loving embrace and a shoulder to cry on.

So, a lot of people have asked why she was crying in the end and my reading of it is that she’s crying because she’s saying goodbye to her younger self and because she finally had a proper goodbye with Hae Song. She’s crying because she’s grieving for her younger self, the child that she once was. Hae Song being there reminded her of who she once was and what kind of a person that little girl was. Now, she has to say goodbye to that little girl once more. At the same time, she’s crying because this goodbye with Hae Song has been a long time coming. It’s 24 years in the making and it’s a definite end to their story. After this, there’s no more loose ends with her and Hae Song, just a definite end.

          I think this ending is what really sold me on this film because it didn’t feel like it needed to give us this typical happy ending with Nora and Hae Song. It acknowledges that their time has passed, and they both are leading different lives now. If there ever was a time where they could get together, they missed it and that’s okay because the people they had fallen for decades ago are gone. Only their memories survived. In a typical romantic movie, they would have set it up where Arthur was this bad husband and Hae Song going to New York to see Nora would be this grand gesture of love but in reality, none of that was the case. The reality of their situation was that Arthur was a very loving husband to Nora and Hae Song could see that. Hae Song going there wasn’t a grand gesture of love but more of an oddity and a hurdle to Nora and Arthur’s marriage. What I really love about this ending is that we start to understand that the movie wasn’t setting up a love story for Nora and Hae Song, it was setting up a proper farewell for them. A farewell where they can be honest with one another and a proper farewell to who they once were.

          Thank you for reading this if you did. It’s more than 5,800 words so I really appreciate it if you read this far. I didn’t mean for this to be so long, I just felt like talking about it a lot. If you’re here, then I’d love to know what you think of this or if you disagree with certain takes of mine. Have a good day and thanks for reading again.

#Past Lives #A24 #a24 films #a24 movies #writing #my writing #Celine Song #Greta Lee #Na Young #Nora #Teo Yoo #Hae Song #John Magaro #Arthur #Drama #Romance #Film #Movie

[thekatea]

The Eighth Sense

Watched: 26.04.2023

It’s more than just a romance drama…And that can be either a selling point or a red flag, depending on what you are looking for. Personally, I loved it.

The Eight Sense starts as a story mostly focused on Ji Hyun, a student that moved from the countryside to Seoul to attend a university. Trying to fit into a larger and fast paced environment, working part time and taking classes - having just one friend from the same town. And then he comes across Jae Won. And that’s when the romance starts, Ji Hyun slowly starts to get out of his comfort zone and the plot starts to shift more towards Jae Won.

For me, Jae Won is the star of the drama. His character just resonates with me more. Initially presented as this popular guy who just got back from the military. Guy that has it all: friends, girls liking him, rich and influential parents and an extroverted personality that makes his daily life so much easier. But there is so much more to this character and we slowly see the unhealed wounds as the plot starts to focus on his side more and more.

Both characters went through enormous change throughout this short drama. Both matured and learned more about themselves. While the romance was amazing, organic, well paced and perfectly delivered, the individual stories were the aspect that made me love the drama more. Creating your characters as more than just a pair, making sure they are presented as individuals with their own stories, social circles. Not locking them inside the romance bubble where they are never seen interacting with other people in a context that is detached from their relationship - that’s when you know there was some proper effort put into writing.

I cannot compliment The Eighth Sense enough on how they presented and dealt with mental health issues. This might be one of the best representations in k-bls we have seen so far. It showcases how complex of an issue it might be. How at times we don’t even know how much people around us are struggling, because they learned how to mask it. How the healing takes more than just occasional visits to a specialist. How the system of social support and having people you trust around you is also a vital aspect of recovery. How there is no one solution, magic pill that can fix it all - it’s a long process that needs many elements working together to have a positive and long lasting effect. But also, how it’s obtainable, how it’s not impossible to get out of that dark place, no matter how hopeless it might feel at the moment.

As for the acting - no complaints. Both Im Ji Sub and Oh Jun Taek did justice to their characters and delivered a realistic and believable performance. The Eighth Sense also has an amazing cast of vibrant supporting characters. I adored the female-male friendships thanks to Yoon Won’s and Ae Ri’s fun personalities and great delivery by Lee Mi Ra and Seo Ji An. I hated Eun Ji and Tae Hyung with all my passion and it was also possible only because of how well acted the roles were - props to Park Hae In and Jang Young Joon. It also made me think how we all have flaws, some just have a bit more than others… But we still need to learn how to coexist with them, otherwise it will just make out lives harder.

All that said, here comes issues I had. The editing was at times truly painful. I understand that in some cases it was probably a stylistic choice that visually represented the state the characters were in, but it did not really feel like it. It just felt like a messy and jumpy editing. In most cases the directing and editing was okay. Opening two episodes had an amazing indie feel to it and I fell in love with it right away, but the middle part of the story just felt a bit sloppy. Some scenes felt on the nose, but I don’t think it was the issue of the scenes alone, but rather the fact they were played one after another.

Overall, highly recommended, but not to people who just want a romance driven story with little to no distraction from that aspect. This show does not even have that many scenes of leads together, compared to other dramas in that genre. It’s more of the characters walking next to each other rather than characters walking together. Sometimes one person stops for a moment. Sometimes one person picks up the pace leaving the other behind. There are individual detours before they can both reach the destination.

#kdrama #the eighth sense #kdrama review

[ithecarpediem]

So, recently I decided to watch My Liberation Notes for reasons that I was in the mood for that kind of melancholy

It's 9,5/10 for you guys.

naturally I became obsessed and went after the plug on mydramalist, not the actors (althought Son Seok Koo can count with me for anything since sense8), but the screenwriter.

Sometimes I just go watch a drama for the screenwriter or the director. Anyways, I go to the Park Hae Young's page, and guess what?

Not only she wrote my top 1 favorite kdrama "My mister", she also gave us Another Miss Oh! The woman has 3 of kdramas in my top 10 now lol. An you know after finding this out, I can see how she has many parallels in its plots, with its characters and themes while making each story unique and with its own flavor. I mean, Miss Oh had her alcohol issues, self-destruction while dealing with life by pretending to be fine (the I recently rewatched so it's all fresh) and if that doesn't remind you of Mr. Gu, Mi jeong from My liberation notes, and Dong Hoon, and everyone in that bar at My Mister!! Can you imagine? Having these three as her last main protagonists, the woman knows how to write

Anyway, I think the whole point in this is: stan screenwriters too! Is just so beautiful to see that author develop their own writing style, while evolving and improving (or not, right? Hi Hong sisters, learn from your mistakes you have give me "The Greatest Love" once) I can wait for her next kdrama, and while at that, I'm going to check her other works, or rewatch My Mister since I have rewatched Another miss Oh a few months ago

#my liberation notes #my mister #another miss oh #kdrama

[daebakreviews]

A Good Day To Be A Dog

Han Hae Na has never been in a relationship or kissed. It's not because she hasn't wanted to, it's because of a family curse. When Hae Na gets her first kiss she will turn into a dog at midnight every night. The only way to lift the curse is to get a kiss in her dog form or she stays a dog for the rest of her life.

Han Hae Na, played by Park Gyu Young, has a crush on the cute history teacher at the school she works at. After going out with a few other teachers, she gets drunk and decides to kiss him and just have him lift the curse. But, in her drunken stooper, she kisses the mean math teacher Jin Seo Won, played by Cha Eun Woo.

Jin Seo Won is afraid of dogs which throws a, pardon the pun, bone into the plan. Han Hae Na must get a kiss from Seo Won before time runs out.

It's been a while since I have watched a Kdrama. Life got busy and I didn't have time. A Good Day To Be A Dog got me back into them. I love this show. It's funny, cute, and best of all has dogs! Cha Eun Woo makes it worthwhile too 😂

My only complaint is the timing of the episodes. It was a slow and rough start with sometimes two weeks between episodes. It's not the show's fault, but it didn't help keep momentum. It has been fixed and now episodes are coming out weekly.

You can catch A Good Day To Be A Dog on @viki!

#korean drama #review #korean television #kdrama review #cha eunwoo #park gyu young #a good day to be a dog #viki rakuten