Free will or the fate

I somehow grew to like these short historical c dramas. First of all they are short so they do not have time to waste on fillers and unnecessary side plots. Second of all, they are historical i.e. costume dramas which have no relation to real history. And finally, they are pretty to watch: pretty people dressed in pretty clothes inside pretty sets accompanied by pretty music.

Fortune Writer is one of the better ones, combining seamlessly costume drama and characters-inside -a-book drama. Even though the plot gets a bit complicated and repetitive, it is certainly worthy of the watch.

The story follows Yun Qui, the daughter of the Prime Minister as she realizes that she is a character in a book, written by the fortune (or fate) writer and decides to rebel against her tragic fate by lying and manipulating other characters. I loved the FL: she is an unabashedly gray character, not entirely evil but not far either. When the drama started, I thought she was a side character molesting the usual pretty and kind princess.

The story is tightly written. The mysteries are revealed one at a time steadily. The characters are not what they seem to be , there is a depth in them which is a nice change for a short drama. The main point of the story is the duel of wits between YunQui and the Fortune Writer. She is convinced that she is the sole master of her own fate which the FW refuses to admit. The whole concept of FW is an interesting one: they come into existence when individuals have something they deeply desire so in order to obtain it they are allowed to manipulate the lives of other people. The FW invades bodies of such people. Yun Qui refuses the offer eventually, and lets everyone in her vicinity have free will. Could this be a pique to the current politics? I wonder....

The acting was solid though I found the chemistry between the leads lacking: the main actor has one expression throughout the drama. Whether he is in love or in pain, hungry or constipated, it is always the same stony face! But I loved his line: "Just keep lying to me! I don't care!" He was in love!

I needed to suspend belief a few times especially when falling off of a cliff or when arrow wounds were concerned. At one point, the FL has an arrow buried in her shoulder, pulls it out (no visible blood) and continues as if nothing happened. When a friend sees her a few minutes later, he gives her a handkerchief she uses to wipe her chin, the arrow wound has somehow magically disappeared. This made me lose concentration badly!

Another good point for this drama is that the version on youtube is mercifully free of audio problems: they found the way to air a complete drama without cutting the sound. This is the first!

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Love knows no obstacles

Well, this was a perfect romcom for a Saturday evening!

And it is just a romcom that does not try to be anything more than that: so no dealing with lgbt issues, no history context issues, no family acceptance issues. Just a romcom! Fun, funny, sweet, butterflies inducing chemistry...what more do you need for a relaxing evening?

I have been aware of this drama but since the rating was very low and comments not good, I was never tempted to watch it. Until I discovered today that there was a movie version of it. I was actually looking for a BL to watch tonight and it was a toss up between this and Venus In The Sky. I am so happy that this film won!

The story: a man dresses up as his sister who ran away, and takes her place at her wedding. Afterwards he asks her husband to wait a few days until his sister is found. Since nobleman Ryu's mother is of fragile health, they decide to continue with the charade for a few days. But the forced proximity makes them get to know each other well and feelings start growing between them.

There is a lot of comedy, smart kind involving secondary characters: Mother heating up the room to make them undress, Ryu's friend who falls for his "wife" and sends "her" love letters even the jealous little sister pranking. There is not one single mean character, surprisingly.

The characters live in their own universe apparently: it is a costume drama but we do not know when because that is not important. Nothing exists outside this little world and I was fine with that. I was not expecting it to deal with the lgbt issues in the past: that was not the point of this film.

I have not seen the drama but this film version flows smoothly. The characters are sweet and nice. The main couple have great chemistry. The actor Han Se Jin, playing the brother dressed as a sister, is beautiful. He made me think of the japanese actor Yutaro: same kind of actor! Actually he looked better in a dress than in a hat (but anyway nobody looks well in those hats!).

This is just a regular costume romcom involving a crossdressing main character but it is amusing, well written and acted. Towards the end there is a bit of too many flashbacks, same scenes over and over again. The music is really nice and the final scene gave me butterflies....

This was a nice and light, amusing and warm, a perfect relaxing watch. I want more like this!

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Friends or more?

A very badly produced and acted short film I saw a very bad copy of on gcinee (don't go to youtube: the sound is off and completely covered by piano music).

The story started like a cliché friends to lovers until the final twist which makes you wonder what really happened. The film is about two best friends: one has had a crush on the other one forever. The other guy is not aware but is very touchy-feely with his friend. Neither dares say anything. One day the second guy's friend, a girl, asks him to help her date the first guy. He introduces them and the first guy, hopelessly, accepts to date her. The second guy just looks at them with yearning and regret. At the end of the year, while they part, the first guy gives the second one a hug which is all but an innocent, friendly hug. And then he leaves. One year later the first guy wakes up in hospital. Was everything just a dream? Wishful thinking? open to interpretation! (Due to poor quality video!)

Another film about friends wanting to be more but not daring to confess to each other. It ultimately boils down to the question: shall I risk losing a friend for a tiny chance of getting a lover? This is always a difficult question, more so in same-sex relationships where the weight of society norms bear down heavily on young people.

The story is interesting but the production is bad. It is an older chinese short film so it must have been difficult to make it. The acting is basic, the editing all over the place, the cinematography non existent.

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Better late than never!

I would like to be able to express in words the feelings and ideas this film evoked in me. Unfortunately, I am not skilled at all to do justice to this amazing film.

It is a story of a man who always regretted the wrong choice he made when he was young. He had a best friend, who was actually his first love and when that friend was going through difficult times, he could not muster up the courage to show him his support. Since he believed in parallel universes, we are shown three of those: what happened after that act of cowardice? His life followed three different roads but, surprisingly, all those road led him to the same place 25 years later: the hospital and his friend's novel. And the realization that his friend WAS his universe.

The film is inspired by three books: On The High Wire, by Philippe Petit (taking risks, balancing , trying to feel alive), Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (searching for your own sexuality, homophobia, love for another man) and So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell (friendship, betrayal, regret).

The actors are all extraordinary, particularly the main lead Shim Hee Sub all in subtlety, microexpression, holding back, hiding and vulnerability. An amazing actor! He is the focal point of this film. His young counterpart is almost as good, much more emotional, as befits a teen!

The writing is solid. The film is slow burn and sometimes the sequences are not evident: they do talk about parallel universes but from there to conclude they are showing us those, the road is a bit long and tortuous. Moreover, the titles of the parallel universes are not translated (so when the 2nd one showed up, I helped myself to Google Lens and then rewatched the film from the beginning)! Nevertheless, these two and a half hours went by in a flash (no FFW!). The film is beautifully shot, all in dark and brown tones, suitable for a story of regrets and depression.

This film takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, makes you think about your own life and the regrets you carry. It gives you courage and strength to try to fight for what is important. And last, but not least, gives some great reading recommendations!

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The triumph of the underdog

Needing a drama from the year 2016 for my Back To The Past Challenge, I set my eyes on this one found in an editorial article a few months ago (https://mydramalist.com/article/check-out-these-sports-themed-web-series). What a discovery this drama was! It is a short web drama so I did not expect much from it but it is actually gripping, interesting, well written, filmed and acted. And it is just the right side! I think that if it had been a normal length K drama it would not have been just as good!

The plot is basic and familiar: our leads meet and clash, only to find out later that they need to work together to achieve the same goal. A classical enemies to lovers drama. The drama takes place in high school: the volley ball team is the last in the country and the FL, a star volleyball player, has to coach them as penance. From the reluctant star to a full-fledged coach only interested in the well-being of the team, is the journey the FL has to take. But, it would not be interesting if everything was smooth sailing. Her manager/agent gets his say in the affair and he apparently does everything to ruin her nascent coaching career. Does he want to exploit the goose who lays golden eggs or is there sincerity behind his concerns?

The cast of characters is perfect: varied and quirky. There is a love triangle but it is resolved to the satisfaction of everyone. One of the players has issues with his father, just like every teenager in the world: my parents don't really understand me, are not supportive enough, are too strict etc.etc. A girl has a crush on a player so she is willing to do anything but eventually she comes to her senses.

And of course, there is a lot of volleyball: training and matches which are expertly filmed. But the drama touches also upon sports' management agencies and the lengths they are willing to go in order to keep the sportsmen in check. The toxic and manipulative atmosphere is well presented, even though it peters out in the end and the agents are finally turn out to be not as evil as suspected.

The acting is skilful, the chemistry is there and the writing is solid. This is a good short watch, fun and fluffy enough. Sometimes we all need this kind of drama, optimistic and uplifting!

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Life reboot

I am a sucker for time slip tropes so as soon as this finished airing and after checking that the ending is probably to my liking, I went for it. I won't lie to you, I binged it in three days but eventually I did not like it so much. There are a lot of issues I have with it.

The story is quite straightforward: two people leading boring unhappy lives are given a chance for a redo of the last ten years. How are they going to deal with the knowledge? Are they going to use it to correct past errors? Spoiler alert: they do of course! Otherwise what's the point of this drama?!? And so the doormat FL stands up for herself and comes up victorious!

The drama is fun to watch. There are a few tropes that do not go the usual revenge, makjang mode so that was rather refreshing. The chaebol grandfather and his lawyer are not the usual evil heads out to ruin our FL. They turn out to be kind and reasonable. But they could not do away with this cliché completely with the appearance with the psycho ex girlfriend. Mostly, the support characters were the usual clichés: jealous, greedy, bullying... And the glasses issue: ugly with them, drop dead gorgeous without them. We are still doing that? Of course they are kitted out with the most ugly and the least becoming models of glasses otherwise, the change is not obvious enough!

The change in the main characters' personalities is just as obvious: they both went from doormats to smart people who stand up for themselves and won't be beaten down. And even though the FL becomes cocky and looses her newly acquired smarts towards the ending, making idiotic mistakes, she comes back rather quickly!

The main support characters were more interesting: the joyful sister, the unassuming boss, the regretful cook (with a beautiful smile) and the quiet but powerful lawyer.

The first major issue I have with the plot is the time travel aspect: it was never explained who the mysterious taxi driver was? Are there any other cases like theirs? How are they chosen? Probably, the person needs to hit rock bottom and die in order to be offered a reboot! What is the significance of the heart? Was the time travel offered by her dead father (who was the taxi driver for ML)? I guess, one should not think too much about the logic when talking about time manipulation! I hoped to get an even cursory explanation at the end. Nothing! I was also surprised that the leads never wondered about the hows and the whys of their reboot! The aspect of the reboot I liked was the way their fate was transferred onto others and how they fought to save their friends from that fate!

The second major issue I have is the cast: Park Min Young looks too sleek and smooth to be true. People say she abuses of plastic surgery. I hope not but she has changed a lot over years and here she looks so artificial and even older than her age. Her face is pretty much expressionless: she can smile and cry but nothing else moves. Na In Woo looks like a very tall kid next to her. There is supposed to be an age gap (3-4 years tops!) between them but it looks much more!

Everything considered, this is a fun and a very forgettable watch. Things happened, but I cannot think of much now and I actually wonder what did they fill these 16h with? It went by and it was not too boring, so I guess something must have happened! This was Park Min Young's show from the first to the last minute. Unfortunately! LOL

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Little BL lost....

I wanted to drop it but I did not: it was strangely addictive in the beginning and since the episodes are short, I finished it. But I can see why it has such a bad rating: it does not know what it wants to be: 2gether or Bed Friend! So it tries to be both but it is eventually neither!

>It is a story of two university students, promiscuous men, notorious for their one night stands who bump into each other and it is love at first sight though neither is aware of it! But everithing takes place at the university so we are served the complete list of tropes: fujoshi friend posting about them on line, trans busybodies, screaming fans, stupid misunderstandings, nosy best friends etc. etc.

The first few episodes they navigated between the interesting plot with unusual characters and cringy uni scenes. Unfortunately, they continued like this till the end when they sunk into the depths of cringy dialogue of two people in love... The main characters went from cheeky, arrogant Fah and prickly charming Sher to soft sickly sweet marshmallows: it the last episode, Sher scratches his ankle, Fah carries him in his arms (not piggyback!) and then Sher walks around with a crutch. This was the ultimate scratch wound. Sher who was confident and cocky turned into a damsel in distress! And Fah turns from a popularity king into a jealous shrew!

Everything was like this is this drama: every originality was abandoned along the way for the usual university fare! There were two side couples. One of them, best friends to lovers: when they realized they had feelings for each other, they slept together. Few days later, they are sitting in the bed, one kisses the cheek of the other who screams like a virgin! Ridiculous! All the characters had zero development, if not for the worst: they all seemed to become wimps when they fell in love!

I don't know how accurate the translation is, but the vocabulary they used was really vulgar very often when they talked to each other. The bed scenes were frequent, especially during the first few episodes. What surprised me was the choice of music: drums, only drums and it was hot and new. But that happened only once and afterwards they went with the usual soft song etc....boring!

It definitely does not deserve such bad rating, it is watchable, James is excellent in a double role but, all in all, this is kind of missed opportunity!

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Recommended starter watch

Are you new to c dramas? Are you a bit lost with all long haired costume dramas? Never fear! Here is the drama which showcases all different kinds of historical chinese costume dramas.

The story is interesting: fateful but amnesiac lovers in the immortal realm have to go through seven love tribulation. The events take place in different worlds and the pair has the strong impression that there is more than meets the eye.

Every setting is intriguing: from animals to princesses and generals to immortals and demons. There is the running animal theme throughout: a tiger and a hog! The actors are good but are for the most part stone faced and they start thawing towards each other steadily as their memories return. The ML has cute dimples and is so pretty with that long hair... The FL has small, very tiny mouth(bad job, make up artist!).

The problem is that in spite of interesting idea and great setting, it is far too long, it drags on and on and on (so much so they messed up the timelines often and were illogical: so try not to use your brain while watching!)...I don't know how many times I fell asleep in front of an episode and later realizing I had not missed anything! The CGI was pretty. The bad guys wore white and the good guys black. How original though it can be surprising if you do not expect it! Immortals' battles are boring: they stand facing each other pointing swords and lances and shooting energy until one of them runs out, falls over coughing blood. Apparently not everyone has the same coloured blood: his is red and hers is blue. Well, she's an empress, after all!

While watching, I kept wondering: what could those immortals be doing for tens of thousands of years in heavenly realm. There is nothing to do: I guess they go and play in mortal realm. In heavenly one they are just haughty, elegant and chaste...I mean the main couple barely kissed, they were usually interrupted by an event of disastrous proportions every time they started getting a bit frisky!

Still, a nice watch but I will stick to short costume dramas from now on!LOL

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Gruff + brawn = sunset cuteness overload

I have watched too many korean dramas. So much so I recognize the usual tropes and know their outcome. The problem is, I have been applying the same logic to japanese dramas. And have been repeatedly surprised. But still, I keep expecting the korean style outcome when exes or professional rivals are concerned, which luckily, never come. Japanese romcoms are the only dramas/films where the expected evil/mean antagonist never appears!

This one has been the same. It is a story of a burly mangaka who has no life outside drawing mangas. He is stuck, manga storywise and decides to employ a down-on-her luck women to act out different romance situations. At the same time, he is given custody of his nephew. The three of them first clash and then slowly become a family without realizing it.

Frankly, I almost dropped this a few times: the first being 30min into the first episode when her cringy behaviour was too much to bear for me. I soldiered on when the repetition of romance situation under his control in real life become too immoral for my taste. I kept telling myself: this is a drama, it needs ambiguous and difficult situations in order for the plot to move forward. Fortunately, these two issues disappeared after a few episodes and we are left with usual romcom tropes: the ex who comes back, the mother thinking of taking her son away, a rival mangaka, a stalkerish victim of first fake romance situations. Every time one of these characters showed up, I was filled with feelings of foreboding, expecting a difficult and sad outcome. And every time I was surprised when that did not happen.

There is not one single mean character is japanese romcoms. I love it but I don't think I can ever get used to it.

The cast was perfect: the ML is hottest j actor around, his sexy gruffness is so irresistible. Since it was based on a manga, I was pleasantly surprised that the manga mannerisms and exaggerated grimaces were toned down to a bearable level. The kids were the cutest.

This is a highly bingeable drama, I had a lot of fun watching it. I only wished I remembered that japanese romcoms are the sweetest dramas ever and that nobody is really evil in them: that would have saved me from some unnecessary stress! Just watch it if you need a pick me up!!!!

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Flowers, colours and love

So with a cryptic title like this, I needed to do a bit of research. Here it is:

Tuberose symbolizes attraction, lust, and obsession for someone else. It can send a message that you're having a hard time letting go of someone ...
In many cultures, Tuberose flowers are considered a symbol of good luck and prosperity...
The blue tuberose flower represents fidelity, reliability, security, and extravagance.
The light pink tuberose flower stands for excitement, ecstasy, and promises of a great romance
Contrary to the typical interpretations of white, the white tuberose (carnal) flower is the ultimate symbol of lust and gratification. Its long-lasting sultry scent is guaranteed to sinfully and treacherously enchant your partner. It indicates anticipation of rapturous times and is commonly used to decorate the bridal room of newlyweds in Asian cultures.
The yellow tuberose flower embodies a love that flourishes openly and bravely under the sun and breaks away from the secrecy of closed curtains...
All in all, the tuberose flower symbolic meanings are: passion, obsession, decadence and dangerous pleasures!

What does all of this has to do with this short film?

Ming has been in love with Song, his sister's boyfriend ever since he met him ages ago. There has always been a certain hesitancy in their relationship then but Ming lacked courage to pursue him. Suddenly, Song shows up at Ming's door after not being in touch for ten years. He wants a relationship. Now. Ming has never been able to get over his crush. Now that Song is back in his life, will he finally find the courage and move forward with Song?

The film is very ambiguous about everything, the basic story including. And the ending leaves you with the impression that everything that happened was just Ming's wishful thinking. There is a lot of symbolism going through this film: firstly the flower tuberose I mentioned above, but also the colour yellow (yellow balloon, yellow envelope). Yellow is the practical thinker, not the dreamer. Yellow is non-emotional, coming from the head rather than the heart. - this applies to one side of Ming. The way the director showed us Song mostly as a shadow, I think also confirms in a way that the whole story is just a dream.

The film is made in a rarely seen format now days 4:3, the colours a bright and oversaturated, the sound is rather badly recorded and the acting is correct.
Interesting short film by a creative and talented director which can be taken in a few different ways.
Either it is this symbolic meaning through the flower(Ming's heart) showing one man's difficulties of letting go and the colour yellow (Ming's head) indicated his having made peace with reality....
Or is it really just a love story that finally came to its happy ending, suddenly, after 10 years?

What do you think?

Cast:
River Watcharapong Kanjankrit starring as Ming, short film written and directed by him as well.
Teerajate Somboonaburana starring as Song

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I started this story three times: somehow the boys' acting in the first half of the first episode failed to grab my attention. So I forced myself to continue watching, and suddenly I was hooked. Though the acting was still pretty bad, I liked this story a lot!

This is one of the more complex and intriguing stories in My Universe collection. It follows two brothers, inseparable fraternal twins who are growing up and starting to drift apart. Kun is the serious, studious and more intelligent brother. More mature as well, used to his happy-go-lucky brother's attitude and the lack of drive and seriousness, Kun is getting impatient to live his own life without trying to always accommodate his brother's desires. The arrival of Tod in their high school will reveal the tension in the twins' relationship and bring it to the breaking point. While Korn is trying to keep his brother glued to himself, Kun only wishes to get a bit of breathing space away from him. And even though it is hard for him, to stay away from his brother too, he realizes that it is a right decision that will allow them to have their own lives!

This is not a japanese drama so I never thought they would go the incest way as the cover image may suggest. They are just brothers, close and loving each other like brothers. No more no less! There is a beginning of a possible romance(Kun & Tod) which does not pan out. But that is not important. The accent here is put squarely on the twins' relationship and their personal growth and development. There is a mini drama involving Pond, a tutor and Korn which was eventually just brushed off. There should have been more serious consequences shown: and an apology is not enough in my book. But maybe the teens are more resilient today and get over traumatic events faster? They should not have introduced this side story as it was not treated correctly. There was enough material for the plot to stay focused on the twins' relationship!

The acting was bad in the beginning but it eventually turned all right. Those young actors definitely needed a few more acting lessons: the story demanded a lot more than standing and looking pretty like in some of the other stories (Fake Love, I'm looking at you!). They tried their best and what they did was correct but...

The title is very smart: Pisces means fish and is as well an astrological sign for those born in March as the boys seem to be. The boys keep a couple of fish in their bedroom called Left and Right and one of the boys is right handed while the other one is lef handed. I don't know if they did it on purpose or it is just the casting accident but it fits extremely well with the whole theme of the story. Pisces also resembles a lot to "pieces" as the boys seem to be two pieces of a whole, or two sides of the same coin ...

Pisces of Me is definitely worth the watch and is probably one of the best stories in this series. And not one single flashback (Fake Love, I'm looking at you!)! LOL

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Stress and colours but no love

Monochrome is being sold as "boys love, lgbtq+, yaoi, gay" on WayuFilms Production youtube channel. I have not seen any of it unless you count a long fixed look between the leads until one of them turns the head around. That is the only moment in the film which could make the audience think that this is a romance, though there might be a whiff of unrequited love in the air!

The story:
White is a graphic designer who, after being scolded at work, loses his confidence and the ability to see colours. His best friend Shield tries to help him adjust to the new situation but White is too frustrated to make a real effort. Until one day they meet a blind girl painting in the park and White realized that his deficiency is not the end of the world and that he can do his job in spite of it.

The story deals with the pressure: the one we put on ourselves thinking we can do anything and the one put on us by the world, the employers and the society at large. We need to learn how to deal with this kind of stress, and the film shows it to us: there are people worse off than ourselves who are doing much better just because they accept themselves as they are and have found a way to make the most of it by taking an alternative path. In this film, the bling girl teaches White to distinguish colours by smell.

The production is, as usual, on a shoe string budget. The best was actually the actress playing the blind girl: I really believed she was blind. The film also has the main character working on a poster for a film/web drama starring the same actress and from the same producers. (On n'est jamais mieux servi que par soi même!!) The actors are rookies who act better when they are not speaking: there is a long montage without dialogue, which I found the most interesting. It seems to me that WayuFilm Productions are rarely going outside these days, filming their short movies in the office. They have lost a bit of its charm: I remember when I first discovered them, the cinematography was stunning and the stories were original. The last few short films have been a slight disappointment: actors learning the trade, boring stories and bad production values.

So, there is no romance here just some wishful thinking from the audience used to better fleshed out stories (Mon & Oak period!) from this director .

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Pretty paintings and crime

DISCLAIMER: My opinion, that's all!

The concept of this drama reminded me very much of many US shows, police procedurals in which they usually pair up a gruff but extremely honest policeman and a quirky highly intelligent civilian (mostly mathematicians or psychology professors or some such profession) who comes up with the right remark/discovery at a crucial moment thereby solving the case gaining admiration by everyone!
It is the same here: this time an art history professor and highly skilled painter is brought in to help with investigations. At first there is animosity between him and the detective but that quickly vanished when the painter skilfully solves the case in the nick of time, impressing the detective who becomes his main fan.
I was actually a bit disappointed that the conflict was resolved so quickly: I hoped for the tension to last a bit longer. From episode three onwards, we were on the full bromance(not chines censors' one though which it could have been seeing the physical differences between two characters who looked like they just came out of a shounen ai manhua!LOL).
Once their relationship was firmly established, we were treated to a series of "case of the week" episodes featuring different stories: murders, scams, suicides (the slightly GL overtone one did not sit well with me: it sent the very wrong message!)
Over these 20 episodes we did not find much about the main characters: their past and their families are barely mentioned.
And this is where the plot holes come in: the detective comes from a well off family but was caught being a delinquent in a gang fight. Painter looks like he was a homeless kid, taken in by a kind art teacher but still living as a rebel? He was nearly drowned to death (who saved him the first time?) and forgot the face of the woman who asked him for a sketch (that too: why did she have a photo of a 3yr old to find someone easily found 30 years later?I must have missed the explanation!LOL). A psychologist told him he needed to have another near death experience to jog his memory but he had had another such event just a few days previously and nothing happened to his memory. As the plot progressed, the painter got to have many new capabilities: highly observant, highly knowledgable in anatomy, highly competent in psychology (the way he manipulated the computer baron was amazing and of course chess master and extremely talented painter.Makes you wonder how the police managed to catch anyone before he joined with his drawing skills.
Last but not least, the police is painted in such a positive light; everyone is nice, honest, competent, trustworthy and cheerfull, supporting each other for the greater good! Amazing!

The paintings and the drawings were beautiful: in the last scene we are shown sketches of characters from the cases they solved and each sketch is in a different style! There are some really pretty pictures! The painter who did these for the drama production is a very talented individual!

I must admit that as much as I enjoyed this at start, I was getting bored with it by the end. It is not half bad, a fun watch but I just have trouble getting used to c dramas. Again I had the impression they first filmed everything, edited everything in a block then chopped it up into 40min pieces: sometimes the episode would end mid-sentence. They should really learn how to make a cliffhanger cliffhangy!

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Game of life....

Apparently, I completely misunderstood this drama. To my defence, I never read the webtoon so I judged it upon watching. I don't know if the plot is clearer there but I was quite confused with the ending.



First of all, I loved it: it was beautifully filmed and skilfully acted. The director loves original angles, ceilings and shadow contrast shots: excellent camera work! Actors are just as amazing: rarely have I seen such emotional, true acting in one of these web series. Music was nice and not intrusive, so we could really enjoy the plot and try to figure out what is what! LOL

Secondly, the plot was original, a device seldom used in k drama: transmigration. I said seldom, not never, and not as much as in c dramas. A 29 yr old sad and depressed man criticizes his friend's novel which is about to be turned into a game. After drinking too much, he wakes up inside the game as a 19yr old high school student, but with the life experiences of a 29yr old, and if he wants to live, he has to complete different tasks. When he leaves the game he is deleted from it but a couple of characters still vaguely remember him; How? Why? Then he kills himself (apparently he never learned anything!) and he is sent back into the game.
The biggest part of the series takes part inside the game. That's the problem I had with it: is the game real or is it an allegory for afterlife (since at one point, the ML comes out of the game and promptly kills himself! Or does he?) or is it that his friend based a character in the game on him....I don't know!
I was expecting a different ending. Something along these lines: ML learning to know himself through the game and finally realize that his novelist friend was in love with him (the vibe was of stratospheric proportion in the first episode, the chemistry hot and therefore I suffered from second lead syndrome!LOL That never turns out well in K dramas!).

Finally, in spite of the lack of straight explanation, as I see it, and after being told off, I am just going to take it literally, in the sequence and do not think about it logically! I was told that the game is the afterlife and that the ML was dead from the beginning. That's not what I saw. I'd like to say it is open to interpretation but...forget it!

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Two worlds, one love

You cannot imagine how happy I am to be able to speak French, now! I wish I could speak japanese most of all but since I cannot, this is definitely the second best today. Why? Because I could watch this amazing short drama and the only subs available are in french! So first of all, thank you Rosé Fansub Traduction for subbing this little gem!

The story is about a girl and a boy secretly dating. She is getting more and more frustrated with secrecy that she starts posting on line photos of their moments of happiness(dessert, park bench etc.). Until one day someone recognizes his shadow and he gets angry. So much so that she makes a wish to live in the happy world. And her wish is granted. But in this world, he is unknown. Soon enough, she realizes she has entered the social media world where the pecking order is determined by the number of subscribers in the real world. She is surprised to discover that some very shy and unassuming people in her class have a huge number of followers.

In addition to the sweet romance, this drama mostly talks about social media vs. real life, about being yourself anonymously vs. hiding your real self afraid of rejection. This drama is optimistic, very positive about acceptance: you just need the courage to assume your choices and the others will admire you for the courage. There are a few other examples in this drama: a trans boy and a hidden singer who, to their own surprise, end up being accepted as they are! It would be nice if it were true in reality but hope springs eternal so...Baby steps internet, baby steps fixing hole in the net!

The production is exemplary for a webdrama: the plot is tightly woven, perfectly well written, the acting is top notch and the cinematography is stunning (the light is subtly different in two worlds).

I highly recommend this if you speak japanese or french: it is easily found on youtube! Half a point off because it was too short, I wanted more. Don't worry, the story wraps up nicely but I still wanted more!

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