We Watch Challenge 2023

I took part in this challenge way back when and then forgot about it...life, you know how it is!

Anyway, I'd like to participate again....

So here's a recommendation for @ElBee

 I looked through your impressive PTW list! And I found a few gems there: a couple of thai and a couple of japanese dramas. Since thai are rather long (12/16eps) I would like to recommend watching  Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi. It is short and irreverent and funny with quirky and cheeky characters, it's pure japanese! I am surprised you had not seen it yet considering the number of posts it garnered on Feeds before the MD Cult took over....  (sorry, I am a kind of feeds semi lurker!LOL)

I hope you like it!

Recommendations welcome!

EDIT 1 to @ElBee Don't worry about hijacking the feeds: I found the whole thing highly entertaining and the banter between the Cult members and the members of the Resistance was a blast and I am going to miss it....The thai drama I wanted to recommend was .The Miracle of Teddy Bear but it is  16x90min long so outside your length demand but it is actually a surprising drama, a savant mix of lakorn, bl and fantasy, very angsty to boot, which works perfectly well together! If you ever have time, I hope you take a look: it is by far the best BL I have seen, and I've seen a lot!

EDIT 2 @disdoortion The reason you haven't found it on my lists is because it is a historical horror: two genres I never watch. Nevertheless, I accept the challenge: Kingdom and zombies and sleepless nights: Here I come!!!! LOL (I have already tried watching Hometown Cha Cha Cha and dropped it after 5 episodes.)

EDIT 3: Kingdom ... WOW! Amazing drama! Finely acted, superbly written, highest production values. The plot is complex and thought provoking! 9/10

9th Challenge = Complete ^_^   Sorry for the super late response. I don't know why i put it off so long and it slipped my mind. 

Recommendation For    disdoortion          - I think you should watch Oh No! Here Comes Trouble. I literally just watched it and think it is a good blend of comedy, drama,mystery,  thriller and friendship (Your top genres/tags according to you r stats ). It surprisingly has a lot of heart.It was already on your PTW and i just want more people to watch it lol.

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Recommendation From        cdramaqueen            -I accept  the recommendation to watch The Blood of Youth.

Status- Completed(Ep 40/40)

Rating- 8.5

Thoughts- I actually really liked this and still internally debating whether I should give this a higher score. It had everything i liked from friendship to fights for the throne. This was definitely my kind of wuxia and has reignited my interest in the genre(planning on watching Mysterious Lotus Casebook soon too). I think I even found a new favourite actor Lin Xue Yi and loved his charater here. Thank you for recommending  because i would have missed out while it  gathered dust in my ptw.

11th Challenge complete!

For cdramaqueen, I am going to recommend what was recommended to me not long ago because it has stuck with me: A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower! I did take a break to sleep (because I wanted my brain to actually register what it was enjoying, not just have my eyes open but data processing centers closed, locked and bolted up! ?), but apart from that and basic life sustaining activities, I binged this almost straight through! It is much less a traditional whodunnit story and goes in depth with character and relationship stories, none of them needless filler from my memory/in my opinion. I loved the twists and seeing the investigators actually take the time to dig and us seeing it unravel in a way that felt completely logical from their perspective. I also love the style of direction in this one! :) 

Open for recs! Absolutely does not need to be on my PTW! Throw me anywhere you think I might like! :) Only requirement is no dubbing and ideally keep it under or around 20 hours (depends on how fast someone replies, though-I just want to finish by around Christmas since I reliably have more, not less, work during the Christmas and New Year holiday season). 

I accept Bilu’s challenge to watch A Tale of Thousand Stars!

Rating: 9! It has been a while since a show made me so curious what the comments would say (I usually avoid them because they get hostile&immature too much!), but as much as I understand why people can be “troped out” (it is part of why I love having random stuff thrown at me that is outside my usual fare… like going from snacking on dry stale popcorn to having rich cookies baked in front of you!)… aside from the initial setup feeling a bit “ehh” (not super convincing), once they were in the village, rose-tinted glasses happily covered my eyes and I loved it!

I especially appreciate this being much smoother in filming style and transition than so many Thai dramas that became tried and died failed viewings and especially, despite it being verrry obvious, the product placement not feeling so absurdly out of place aside from the tackiest cups for instant coffee I’ve seen in a long time lol. 

The acting had some lackluster bits, but the story was compelling enough (and the friends constantly taunting the green giant were endearing) that I completely am ignoring the “definitely a rookie, doesn’t quite know how to show nuanced emotional changes yet” cute youthful lead. The other‘s character was kinda awkward, but… story won out. It was far enough outside my norm to really just smile all the way through it even when my brain was picking up things that were a bit lacking. This may send me down a rabbit hole thanks to the “Sky” titles that are anthologies following up on this and other series. 

Completed my fifth challenge and think one more should be manageable. xD 

I recommend Bilu the drama "Manner of Death". It's a great BL Thai Drama (14 episodes) with actors that have amazing chemistry and a suspenseful story. Hope you like some steamy romance. :)

I accept disdoortion's recommendation for Oh No! Here Comes Trouble. Looking forward to this drama, it piqued my interest right away when I first saw it. :)

Status: Completed 

Rating: 8.5 I enjoyed it, but sometimes I wish they would've gone deeper and explored the plotlines more. End was good, but felt rushed. Overall a solid watch and I liked it. 

Challenge 3

Hello moonchild,

after browsing through your PTW I found Oh No! Here Comes Trouble. It got recommended to me and I absolutely loved it! (Mystery, Comedy, Drama, Supernatural; approx. 12 hours)

I also found Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo on your PTW, if you want to watch something else than the initial recommendation, I recommend this one too. (Comedy, Romance, Life, Sports; approx. 17 hours)

Any genre (except anything with time manipulation) and any country is welcomed as long as it's under 12 hours!

I accept Saygo's challenge to watch The Killer's Shopping List! Thank you, this one looks like fun! As for D.P., I want to watch it for 2 years already but I don't think I'm currently in the right mindset for it, so I'm gonna go with the more wholesome option.

Status: Completed (8/8)

Rating: 8

Thoughts: I love the characters and their dynamic with each other, also that they stood up for each other, truly wholesome. (I also adore 'Fish', trans rep done right and I'm so glad they didn't make her a criminal in any sense.) Sadly the murder mystery was a bit lacking, I knew who did it since the first episode (If I remember right they introduced every character in connection with the supermarket except the murderer, would have maybe been better if they introduced him through the supermarket too). All in all I'm glad I watched it. Thank you for the recommendation!

12th Challenge completed!

Biting the bullet one last time (well, I think it’ll be the last, but maybe not)…

For Saygo, it took a while to find short titles you hadn’t seen of the ones that came to mind (quite an overlap in our tastes, even the way out there stuff, lol), and while one in your PTW was considered, too, I thought I should offer up a few you haven’t seen. They are wildly different stories and have very different tones/feels, but they are all under 10 hours (8.5, 7.5, 6.5 total hours), easy to binge before the year is up. ? Take your pick Depending on your mood/current tolerance levels!

Birthcare Center (2020 Kdrama) centers around postpartum care and is a dark comedy slice of life, wholly character driven with humor that is verrrry on the nose in terms of new moms’ experiences, some intensely uncomfortable ones thrown straight in the faces of viewers. Birthcare Center Image Link

Mad for Each Other (2021 Kdrama) calls itself a comedy with romance, kind of boring on the surface, but it begins with two leads who are deeply troubled, living with immense psychological pain (its short length makes it hard to go beyond the leads in terms of character development), and that is where it really shined to me. There is, though, plenty of comedy, but that definitely isn’t all it offers. Mad for Each Other Image Link

Life (2007 Jdrama) is one of the most intense, sometimes hard to watch dramas centered around bullying. It doesn’t hold back on the violence, so if that is triggering for you, definitely skip it. It is definitely something to be in the right mood for. You might need a dose of Higuma after it. ?Life Image Link 

Open for recs, only requirements are no dubbing and since the year’s closing, keep it under or around 20 hours! Ideally nothing deeply political since my jaw is recovering from the last intensely political one I watched. ? Got something that hasn’t received enough attention/love that deserves another pair of eyes watching it?

Saygo, I am really glad you liked Mad for Each Other! It was a bit of a gamble, but I trusted my memory of it; the FL is probably the single most “hit and miss and hit and miss all over again” actress for me across 7 the main roles I’ve seen her in (I also really disliked her role in Minamdang—I would’ve assumed she is the worst lead actress on that peninsula if all her roles were that stiff and unnatural feeling, the editing choices making it so much worse).

I looked at your recs for me and am going with Oh No! Here Comes Trouble — like you said, I haven’t had enough exposure to Taiwanese dramas so good ones are always welcome! Gannibal is on hold until its second season comes out because even though it is right up my alley, I am not wanting a cliffhanger ending for an indefinite period of time (are you paying attention, “dear” Disney+ execs?)! ? I am waiting for my mood to fit Gaus Electronics since I think I will like it but can’t enjoy office settings as much when I am overworked/buried in paperwork (which is every winter for healthcare workers).

Status: Completed! 8/10 for this one. It took a few tries to get through the first episode because the editing could have been much better and the writing was a bit iffy, but I came back and got through it and got used to the style even though it felt choppy and the writing made it really unclear what or even who the story was about for longer than it should have. Took til eps 5&6 to really get fully invested, but once I hit that halfway point, it was really fun. I LOVE the actor who played the male lead. His expressiveness made the show, and his mother was a fantastic character. I didn’t like the FL quite a few times, but I really appreciated the self-aware nature of the writing and them being direct when expressing someone’s shortcomings or poor behavior (ie seeming victims of crimes as cases, not people, and in doing so failing to see the suffering of the ones left behind and saying some pretty horrible words… I like that they all grew (ironically, the 17 year old needed the least character growth and was more in need of some decision making than actual maturation that the other two-who acknowledged they should’ve been more mature but that the 17 year old was better than them at both solving cases and taking care of people than the doc to be and cop-the dialogues expressing their awareness/self-reflection were among my favorites). The cases at the end were especially touching.