Hyena drama FL and ML appreciation post (Spoiler alert)

Hello

Kim Hye-soo for Best Actress
Ju Ji hoon for Best Actor
HYENA nominated for Best Drama in 56th Baeksang Arts Awards Nominees. 

Hope they will win 

Hi M! Your snow fall memories sound so beautiful! I was just trying to imagine your night walks with your dad in that white illuminated snow... Must have been so very magical, nah? Wow! And the smell of the approaching snow fall... I want to smell that now! <3 Ahhh seriously it's on the very top of my bucket list now! *full on day dreaming mode activated! * hehe

And oh your friend is from Thailand? It is a lovely place with beautiful palaces! I have visited it many years back. :)  And yeah, all of Asia have the same monsoons which occur because of the currents in the Indian Ocean. And since India is right on top of the Indian ocean and other than the relatively smaller Sri Lanka which is on the side, there's nothing below it till all the way to Antarctica! So monsoons are really strong here... And you are right, we are really on the opposite sides of the earth! Almost around 12+ hours time difference! So your day is my night and vice versa! Hehe

And you are also right about it being the land of stories and ancient mythologies. India is actually one of the oldest continually inhabited places on earth as there are many archeological sites here with not only Stone age tools but also prehistoric burial mounds and things like that. I don't know whether you have heard about it, but there was a highly developed ancient civilization called the Indus Valley civilization here in the North of the country. It was present at the same time as Egyptian civilization. And recently (end of 2019) archaeologists of ASI (Archaeological survey of India) dug up another well developed ancient city in my State which also seems to be around the same time period (600-500 BCE )!  So you can imagine the number of myths and stories that surround everything here! :D

 And the funny thing is that most of the stories you might hear here of Kings and Queens, horses and elephants, Prince and Princesses and their epic romances might actually turn out to be true! Hehe  In fact the whole Hinduism itself is actually full of different stories of the 3 main Gods (Bhrama (creator) , Vishnu( saviour) , Shiva(destroyer) ) and their consort Goddesses (Saraswati (knowledge) , Lakshmi (Wealth), Parvati (Strength) ) and the various avatars they took to bring peace. So there is a story behind every temple and diety, especially the old ones. There is one temple in my city which I visit often and it was built in 7th century! It has its own interesting legends associated with it and its architecture is quite beautiful too! Here is the pic for reference Temple pic - click here .  :)

Btw I was reminded of a C drama that I liked - Moonshine and Valentine, when I read about 9 tailed fox. Have you seen that? We don't have a 9 tailed fox story that I know of but we have a similar story like they tell in the beginning of that drama that when rain and sun come out at the same time, they say it is 2 foxes getting married or a fox is getting married to a crow! Hehehe :D And funny thing is that when I googled the story, it seems many countries around the world have similar type of story related to foxes and the phenomenon of rain and sun shining together! Guess the world is united by legends! :D

@ Meow boy: Oh that's disappointing to hear... I thought it might be funny... :( Guess I'll watch just the starting for the ml and leave it after that... I hope some nice drama comes up soon... recently all the new ones are turning out to be quite mediocre...

Btw yesterday I saw that the J movie, 'Dance with me' which I had talked about earlier is on Kissasian now. So, if you get time do watch it with your mom and daughter, it's a really nice and funny girls day out musical movie! :)

Tc!

(PS : Sorry my replies seem to be getting longer and longer now! Hehe)

Edit: M, do you like ghost movies? There's this old Indian movie, 'Manichitrathazhu' made in 1993 which is awesome... More like a phycological thriller, something which I first watched as a kid and then have watched it many more times again and still love it. So I was watching a scene of that again in YouTube now and thought I will rec it to you, incase you like that genre. Here is the link to the movie with English subtitles in case you want to chk it out... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ExSmkZ43bIM :) 

Oh one more thing...i was reading about a skin care product called manjish..  it’s Ayurvedic.,,are you familiar with it? A number of my clients asked me about it..I’ve got to do some research into  it but wondered if you have heard of it... I’m really digressing from dramas to skin care;)

Thats amazing about the language.. Omo .. we only have different dialects like  southern drawl.. like I might say ..”how are you today? And in the south a person would say ..”hey how y’all doin’.. “ but we would understand each other ..you can go to any state and talk to anyone.. I thought China was bad with 5 different languages.. ...and I only speak one.. well a little italian(VERY little:):) and my daughter and I are trying to teach each other Japanese which is just really funny..  

do you have a main language ? Like in China I think it’s mandarin.. or are movies/dramas in different dialects?  thank goodness for subtitles... just curious, do you study English in school or is that another language people speak there?   Four or five languages is amazing btw.. that’s totally awesome..

wonder Woman..I’ve been looking at that one for a while wondering if it’s good so I’m glad you said that.  I’m gonna watch it.. I wasn’t sure but it looked good. I think it’s like one episode per week..?
oh you know what else looked good was “oh my baby” about a 39yr old woman who wants to have a  baby and  ends up trying to choose between 3 nice men and it’s the actress from “the last emperor” who I like  she seems so friendly and kind(youd think she’s like that in real life:). I’ve been busy with everyone texting me from the spa about their concerns and what the protocol is going to be so my time is getting limited.. and I’m like “I dont have to go back yet!!! Ive got dramas to watch’’ ;D ...   

Now coming to the demon story you asked about…Hmm… I think you might be referring to some Rakshasa character story. Well it is kinda said that there are 3 kinds of human looking creatures, one is the immortal Devas who is led by Indra(God of thunder/rain) who are actually minor Gods of natural elements like rain, sun, moon, water, etc kinda similar to Gods of Greek mythology like Zeus, Apollo, etc and they live in Heaven.

 Then there are powerful demon like but not actually demon beings called Rakshasas who live on the earth along with normal humans and other living beings. Rakshasas also have human form mostly but some have the ability to transform like in your story. So it’s said that many Rakshasas or Asuras also ruled earth during various times and they were in an eternal battle with the Devas. And above these living beings are the 3 Gods (Thrimurti- Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva including their female consorts/energies) who in turn are said to be one formless, omnipotent omniscient God. So anyway what mostly happened was that the Rakshasas usually did penance for years on to get a boon from either of the trimurtis and it mostly involved some great magical powers by which they couldn’t be killed by the devas, their eternal enemies. 

But most Rakshasas used to get arrogant after getting the boon about their invincibility and start torturing humans and other beings. So the Devas and humans pray to Trimurtis to save them, who in turn take some sort of avatars to come on earth and save people from those particular Rakshasas. This is the common thread in most of the Hindu mythology which basically tell people to be good and humble in the end. :) 

 There are many such stories but few of the most famous avatars are of God Vishnu. It is said that he took 9 different avatars till now from the time earth was created in each Yug/yugam (a very large measure of time including many many millenniums) starting from a fish avatar(matsya) , tortoise(kurma)  avatar, wild boar(varaha) , Narasimha (half lion half human) and few more. Later avatars have human forms and there is a evil Rakshasa involved in every story.
 Here’s a blog article with all the stories in a really short concise form https://www.tamilspider.com/resources/7325-Dasavatharam-lord-vishnu-the-ten-avatars.aspx.

 The funny thing is that it actually took me 2 days to find a proper web article about these 10 avatars! I read so many articles but simply couldn’t find a single proper article in English with all stories in the correct way that I have heard from my grandparents! Finally I found this blog article and most of the stories in the article are correct but some like the story of Parashuram avatar is not complete and also the article keeps saying the words originated in Tamil language but the words actually originated in Sanskrit language and there are also few grammar and spelling mistakes but other than that overall it is a nice read. :) 

Btw I think the story you heard is similar to the story of Rama avatar (check the article for details). There 2 Rakshasas appear, first one appears as a golden deer to lure Rama’s wife, Sita. On seeing the beautiful golden deer she asks her husband to get it so husband leaves the house asking his brother, Lashkman to look after his sister in law. But they hear crying sounds and Sita thinks Rama is in danger, so she asks Lakshman to go and save Rama. But Lakshman kinda knows that his brother is very powerful and can’t be in danger but she keeps insisting him to go in search of Rama. So Lakshman draws a prayer line around the house/hut asking her to stay inside it saying no one can cross this line and come inside except their family and leaves to search Rama. 

But in the meantime another powerful Rakshasa called Ravan, king of Lanka (apparently modern day Sri Lanka) appears as a saint and asks for alms. Sita tries to give it to him from inside the line but he threatens to curse her for insulting him (because guests are God philosophy)  by not giving it in a proper way, so she crosses the line and comes outside and is promptly abducted by him! Then how the brothers form a group with Monkey kings and defeat Ravan and bring back Sita forms the rest of the story of Ramayana.  :) 

thank you so much!! I’m pretty sure that is the story.. it was a book on Indian Fables that I read whe I was younger.. And the story sounds so familiar... I’m going to read the link.. i have much to write back to you but I hadto go into work today .  I actually understood what you were writing about with the herbs bc I’ve studied Chinese 5 elements.  Which is yin yang organs , taste bitter sweet sour pungent.. emotions of the organs disfunctions , clearing heat dampness, I did not know chakra was a person, I only know them as energy centers I’m the body.. 

I love  all the info .. you are so learned in your history.. and India  has so much history... I know acupuncture is old.. is that done in India? Or more Ayurvedic ..

I love the idea of things being sacred.  I think the ancient ways connected more to the truth in everything has energy and we need to be aware of how we interact with things good or bad and how we can change the energetic vibration of things..  I just got in .. will definitely email you more back.    Also king /monarch came out today so I’ll let you know what I think:)

ttyl:D

I just typed you a bunch of stuff and my computer lost it...thank goodness I sent this in pieces.. do you think it’s bc we have so many pages? Oh well.. both of you seem to like the Wonder Woman drama so I am definitely going to check that one out.. I like the dramas where the couples are partners  and respect each other so I will start on that one next.  really liked oh my baby.. they deal with a lot of issues that most K dramas don’t ever touch.. it’s funny but serious.. thee is no stigma in the US in most states if you are a single mother.. Hallie Berry was 43 when she had another baby.. ot sure if she is married or not and Eva Longoria ,was in her 40s also (both are actresses) I work with a lot of single moms .. and I like that in the drama she ultimately decides to just have a baby on her own.  Everyone has a story including the ML .. and  I was surprised at his story.. if they do this right its gonna be a great drama..also people treat you different when you have a baby later in life. it’s funny how we judge people by their age. all that is changing. people are staying  and looking younger later in life .. the FL has a lot of sadness from the past. but she is really funny.  I think she is very popular in Korea.. her dramas tend to do well. it's gonna be interesting funny and deep.

  i almost don’t want to go back to work yet.. having too. I have fun catching up with all these dramas... ok gonna send this over to you:)

About knowing 2 languages... Hmm here in the Government(public) schools language of instruction is the regional language of their particular States and English would be taught as a subject. But since most people find it difficult to adjust in the uni after studying in regional languages, most people nowadays study in private schools where English is the medium of instruction. 

So in such pvt schools, English is the first language and compulsory subject throughout the school years (LKG-lower kindergarten(3yrs) till std 12th(17/18yrs) ).  So other than English, we have to mandatorily choose a Second language which can be either their State language or Hindi. Some schools even have French and Sanskrit also as a choices. Either way you can change your 2nd language which you choose in LKG (3yrs) only after 5th std (10ys) for the first time. Then again in 9th std (14yrs)and again in 11th std (16yrs) Many people study the same 2nd language for the whole 14yrs of school education. I studied Hindi from lkg till 8th and French for the rest of my school years. :) 

But one important thing you should know is that here people live in 4 types of places to say roughly, like  metro cities(I live in one), smaller cities, developed villages and completely remote villages(like you will see in that Aish movie) ... So not all people have a school education even though Govt schooling is almost free and even free food is provided... So those people would just know their mother tongue... 

I know 3 more languages which I can speak (unfortunately not fully read or write) than the ones I learnt in school is because one is my mother tongue, one is my state language (because my parents migrated from a neighbouring state and settled here) and other is a language I learnt by watching movies of that language mainly because most of the heroes (mls) of that language movies were so hot and were my celebrity crushes in my school and college days! Hehehe :D

Coming to learning languages from kdrama, I actually found something very surprising the very first time I heard Korean... I actually could understand quite a few words straight away the first time I heard it! :O I was so surprised about that and did a little bit of online research and found that many words are common b/w South Indian languages and Korean language! Like for example, we also say Amma(mom) , Appa(dad) , naal(day), aiyyo (sad exclamation), pich(mad), oopa(brother, not much used here nowadays), thalli (daughter /mother), etc in various South Indian languages! :D I was so surprised that how so many words are common in 2 places so very very far from each other! Seriously, I need to time travel right now! Hehehe :D

Btw, I can understand a bit of Japanese too apart from Korean now from watching many J dramas. :) It is always useful when we don't get subs on time! Hehe :D

About Accupuncture... It is practised here but very rarely like you may find less than 20 people who practise it in my city... There's a Diploma course here which people can study in some colleges. I actually always wanted to try it for my migraines but I am more afraid of the sterilization techniques people use on the needles more than the pain because of blood borne diseases... :) 

Hmm I am actually quite curious about Chinese medicine because till now from what I have read, it seems more like Siddha medicine I told you about... But sadly I don't think anyone here practices that because there are very few Chinese people here. It seems earlier many people were there here but after the political(communist) changes in China, there were 2 Indo-China wars in 1962 and 1965 and few small fights every now and then when the communist govt started claiming few Indian states as theirs and started encroaching it like it happened in Tibet and is currently happening in Taiwan and Hong-Kong. And more recently that is as of last week (can you believe it?) it seems ccp were claiming some sea near Japan and had sent a war ship there and all the democratic countries around that area were scared and are on red alert... as if pandemic was not scary enough... :( Anyway so we have many Tibetans living here instead as refugees and the most famous among them is the holy Dalai Lama. :) 

So anyways because of all that we don't have much knowledge about their medicine and other good stuff from there except food (I love Chinese food btw! <3). Also the few people who are here, are more into modern medicine and business and things like that. Btw my fav senior in my university days was of Chinese descent, Joshua sir (we call our seniors as Sir and Mam in my uni), he was super popular and he is one of the coolest person I know! <3 And he and my another senior mam had an interesting love marriage which made it all the more romcom like for us (his fans!). hehe.  :D

Btw 'Oh my baby' sounds really good. Will check it out in 2 days. The best thing about US which I love is the women's rights there! It is quite progressive in US unlike here, where people are still drenched in pathetic patriarchy most of the time and women's rights are quite suppressed... not as bad as Arab countries or anything but still we haven't reached up to progressive Western countries level either... That is especially one of the reasons I love watching strong Fls in dramas because here even though we have a few women CEOs and everything we haven't reached a proper equal situation here... Things are surely changing but sadly not in the pace I would like it to change... So till then I need my strong drama Fls to keep me sane! Hehe :D