50FiftillidideeBrain

♾️ It's All Arraigned⚗ °7° °vg°

Even though she is an enchantress, Yi is a voice actress: She dubs dramas for a living. Right now, she's dubbing one in which the lead’s name is Zhou Sheng Chen. So, when she runs into a guy with the same name at the airport, she introduces herself and they exchange emails.

Now, Chen - He would NEVER try to pick-up a girl at the airport. He only has a head for science. He dreams of the lab. (“He's abnormally rational,” per one of his family members.)

Six months later when Yi is visiting Xi'an (which is where Chen works), they end up seeing the sights together. Their friends and acquaintances can't help but notice that they seem to get along well. As geeky as Chen is, Yi doesn't seem to mind.

F&E is a 2021 release that is rated 8.4 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 30 45-minute cozy-as-hot-tea-and-a-water-bottle-on tne-couch-under-a-comforter episodes.

Their faltering attempts to interact are always quickly aided by well meaning onlookers. He offers her a guide book of Xi’An, which he drops off at her hotel. She takes the opportunity to request a tour of his facility. Of /course/ his lab mate insists that they have dinner together.

Early on in the show it becomes obvious that the city of Xi’An is on display. The city center features a giant ancient pagoda that is lit up at nighttime like it's daytime. I looked it up on maps to see that it is roughly 280 miles east from the exact center of China.

Here's what AI/G says about it:
“Xi'an (pronounced "shee-ahn"), historically known as Chang'an, is a major city in northwest China's Shaanxi Province and one of the country's Four Great Ancient Capitals. With over 3,100 years of history, it served as the starting point of the Silk Road and capital for 13 dynasties, including the Han and Tang.Key highlights:Terracotta Army: UNESCO site with thousands of life-sized clay soldiers buried with Emperor Qin Shi Huang (c. 210 BCE).
City Wall: One of the world's best-preserved ancient fortifications (14th century, 14 km circumference; bikeable).
Muslim Quarter: Vibrant street food hub near the Great Mosque (Tang-era, blending Chinese-Islamic architecture).
Big Wild Goose Pagoda: 7th-century Buddhist landmark tied to monk Xuanzang's Silk Road journey.
Population: ~13 million (metro area).

A living museum of China's imperial past, blending ancient sites with modern energy.

Enjoy the ride back into Forever and Ever, it’s peak “soft blanket in drama form.” Zhou Shengchen’s quiet devotion and Shi Yi’s gentle sunshine are basically a lullaby in human form. Perfect for that sleepy, happy, “the world can wait” mood. Snuggle in, let the pastel healing commence.”

It is, indeed, lovely sightseeing in Xi’An from my couch.

As dinner is winding down, Chen goes to pay the bill and his coworkers take advantage of hism absence to pepper Yi with questions about their relationship. It comes out that he has a fiance! Yi’s face visibly changes and she decides to leave then. (The others failed to mention that this fiance is arranged and Chen has never met her.) He's able to correct that misapprehension before she returns home. He finally asks her for her number, too.

Ren Jia Lun (Memory Lost) is our lead nerd, Zhou Sheng Chen. In Under the Power-8.6, he plays a manly man - an authoritative man, as an imperial detective who investigates a case in ancient China along with the adorable Tan Song Yun. I never recognized him, even after spending over 40 hours with him during UtP! The FL is top tier, but he makes the show here because he's such a nerd. Through and through. He times things. He's socially awkward. He observes much more than he talks. He's SO hesitant I really do want to give him a push. But he's darling. So endearing.

{UtP was directed by Yin Tao who brought us Ancient Love Poetry-8.6 & Love and Redemption-10 (my FAV). He's a master craftsman; a hit machine. I suppose I can't get within 2 degrees of him in a review without going there and pointing that out. I am a YUGE fan.}

Bai Lu (Story of Kunning Palace) is Shi Yi, with her signature half-imp look. Her face has a distinct cuteness to it. I've seen her in Song of Youth, which was missing the final 1 or 2 episodes on Prime, so I never finished it. Perhaps it's time to see if they've rectified that mistake. In SoY she plays a seemingly stoic character who is smarter than everyone she meets. Corruption led to the death of her family and she's on a quest for revenge. Falling in love causes hiccups in her quest, and the big reveal was just happening in the final episodes. It's a nice show which I've rated 7,2 so far. I've also seen her playing an absolute sparkplug in Jiu Liu Overlord-8.4, which I loved. I think it is under-appreciated. It is nicely done and great fun, though Leon Lai's Li Jing Liu wears his hair back too tightly. Hey, that's his personality in the show.

Ai Jia Ni (Nothing but Thirty) is Wang Man, a member of a family of haberdashers who outfits Chen's family, and is also ex-girlfriend to Chen’s brother, Zhou Wen Chuan. She is completely adorable. They have her dressing very stylishly, and I enjoyed every moment she was on screen. The director team is Shen Yang (Derailment, Brocade Odyssey) & Ben Fang (My Calorie Boy, My Best Friend's Story). Original Creator, Mo Bao Fei Bao, has monster hits like Scarlet Heart, One and Only, and Go Go Squid!

Hesitancy. Second guessing. Stuttering. Fear. Stoicism. Nervousness. He's a nervous stoic. Due to family legal restrictions, he must get engaged. His mom is pushing other wifey-brands on him /hard/. He takes the plunge and asks Yi to marry him after 1 date. The way they get married is darling! They haven't even confessed their love yet ~in words~ but they really have in so many other ways. “It's so snuggly right now,” I was thinking.

She's got way more spice than he does, but she is still proper and reserved. He projects longing in every frame. He doesn't even understand what he longs for, it seems. It terrifies him. It's like someone opened the hatch on a captive who's been in solitary for decades. That first glimpse of sunlight can be overwhelming and blinding. This leads to scenes where they stare at each other and linger but neither one makes a move. It's very sweet, and the actors do an excellent job. Later, as they each go on with their solitary days, they wonder why they didn't just hug? The show is flan: Light, smooth, and sweet. Maybe some fire will come along and turn it into creme brulee, I was thinking. (They try, but I never became emotional over the later melodrama.)

He's an atheist and she's a Buddhist. They discuss. “There is no right and wrong, only different perspectives,” he postulates. First of all, respect to him for the intellectual integrity. Most atheists are uncomfortable with the idea of there being no such thing as right and wrong, but if we're all a cosmic accident, that's absolutely the case. Evil undeniably exists in the world. I'm a fan of several atheists like Camille Paglia and Douglas Adams. I don't feel the need to agree with someone 💯% to like and admire them. In fact, I find the idea sort of creepy. I don't agree with myself from 5 years ago! I listen to atheists and I've had some friendly debates with them, but I detect anger quite often. One source of anger is the tension between what we want to believe and what our subconscious (our souls, perhaps?) actually believes. Apologies for going here, but leaving a statement like “There is no right and wrong” unchecked is irresponsibility to my fellow humans. The voices inside us KNOW there's right, wrong, love, beauty, comedy, tragedy and a whole host of unseen, untouchable, scientifically unverifiable things that are part of human existence. There are things we just know: Some things are inherently right and other things are patently evil. That’s all I'll say.

The artistry is solid. They have Chen’s little brother in a black suit with maroon accessories. He looks like Dracula's accountant in his round rimmed specs. His wife approaches him in powder blue tweeds: These two are NOT in sync. The brothers show us the heartbreaking and empty despair that comes from doing things mom's away. Chen wants something better.

There's also some eye candy. Oh, the windows in Yi's bedroom at the grand family homestead! They set my heart racing.

F&E is slow-paced. It's Zoloft on film. It's a wind-down watch about everyday life… Not much happens. The leads carry it. The characters are well developed and likable, including side characters. These shows are much like the Hallmark Channel with a sprinkle of Jane Austen and ancient Chinese wisdom tossed in. I always wonder why I like these shows, but I suspect it's the lassitude dividend. {This only applies to C🇨🇳 modern day features. Chinese historical and fantasy pieces are natural feeling and usually quite exciting. Every Chinese pre 2018 modern-day feature I've seen should come with a warning label - don't operate heavy machinery while watching! But the more recent ones feel much more alive and engaging.}

Well, the Zoloft flows until around ep23-24 when they break out the melodrama. It wasn't necessary, but the C🇨🇳 can't seem to help themselves. They must inject tragedy, no matter how cack-handed. I enjoyed the quiet, mellow flow of the show: The melodrama does not enhance the watch. One character continues down the villain track and fully commits, causing unnecessary heartbreak. They extend the melodrama to ep29, but it is the chill factor that makes,F&E.

The last episode is the wedding. The melodrama is over and it's back to being relaxing.


QUOTES🗣

The person who likes you must be as weird as you.

After a habit takes root it becomes a rule that restricts people.

Establishing a relationship with someone can be difficult, but ending one is quite easy. The former is not something that's in your control, but the ladder is possible, as long as you want to.

People need time to resolve their differences.


IMHO〰🖍

📣7 📝7 🎭7 💓7 🦋6 🎨7🎵/🔊7.6 🔚7.5 🤗5 ▪ 🌞6.5⚡2 😅4 😭3 😱1 😯3 🤢2 🤔4 💤0

Shazams: Shan Yichun's 续写(电视剧《一生一世》主题曲)
何去何从(电视剧《一生一世》插曲) by Lu Hu

My age red 12+

Re-📺? Unlikely


In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

🌐💓 -
C🇨🇳:

Accidentally in Love-6.5 ‘18 B-level scripting, acting, and directing, but still fun/strangely relaxing to watch,
Boss & Me-7,
Well-Intended Love-7.5 19 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8 23,
You are my destiny-6.6 ‘20 cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Everyone Loves Me-7.4,
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Meteor Garden-7.4 ‘18- 70% flowing 30% dragging,
My Sunshine-6.5,
Unrequited Love-7 ‘19,
Hidden Love-7.8 23,
I Hear You-7.3 ‘19 so cute but with many flaws,
Wait, My Youth-8.4
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5 ‘19,
A Beautiful Life-7.4,
Don't Go Breaking My Heart-7.7,

Read More

FAST Cars ⛔️ Fast Music ⚠️ Fast Past ⚖️ Fast Friendships ♥️ °7.5° VG

Fast goes before the crash.

We're following traffic crime investigators (TCI).
Yes, that's a government agency.
No, no one else has heard of it either.

But the training is dope: They've already beat up a room of gangsters who were, just a moment ago, enjoying some pizza and jajangmyeon. My impression 10 minutes in: It's funny. They have good silliness and great comedic timing. I've been smiling for most of it. All of this before the ep1 opening graphics - which delighted and didn'tdisappoint. In fact, Heo Sung Tae (Squid Game-8.4, Adamas-7.6) seems to be having a blast as Jung “Chae” Man (the viewer can always feel it). No, he's NOT one of the gangsters! He's law enforcement.

C is a 2024 release that is rated 88 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 12 60-minute episodes where we hear lines like: “Arrest them for attempted murder… AND reckless driving!”😅

“What's that smell?” Says one suspect as he enters the building for questioning. They’re back at the station. Their office is a dark cave of low greenish lit government agency depression. Today, however, the station is lively. It's surrounded by a mob scene of reporters!

Nice! “We haven't been interviewed in a long time.”
Whoops.
As our team starts smoothing their hair, they realize the reporters just want to talk to the gangsters.
TCI can't get arrested in this town.

Inside the station, they are questioning perps. Cha Yeon “Ho” is queued up to the desk, wrists cuffed. That’s when Min So “Hui” (Kwak Sun Young from Lobby & Inspector Koo-8.4) learns that Ho isn't part of the criminal gang! An investigator himself, he drops an envelope filled with case documents on her desk - once he's uncuffed. ‘I have uncovered a serial murder case. They're using cars to commit the crimes,’ he informs. He, himself, is a bike rider; he doesn't drive. Oooo. Life just got less boring.

Lee Min Ki plays Ho. His haircut makes his face look wider (a small change of hairdo really changes his appearance). I've seen him in Because This Is My First Life-7.7, My Liberation Diary-8.9, The Beauty Inside-6, & My Liberation Notes-9. Despite his very distinctive look, he still looks differently in every feature. He's relatable. He's a jean-jacketed “cool dad” in What's Wrong with Secretary Kim-6.8, but he's usually a dork - it's his strongest suit. Here, he's a diligent insurance investigator who has stumbled onto crimes worse than fraud.

Two episodes in, I can affirm that this guy is taking a beating. He seems constipated (resoundingly unmovable) and completely flummoxed by human interaction. He doesn't get the point of lies and it wouldn't surprise to hear that he's never had a dirty thought in his life ~~>> Full blown aspergers, it seems. At one point he has to chase a criminal and he's laughably pathetic as a guy who has existed entirely in his own head suddenly being forced into sheer physicality ~~>> The criminal gets away, but he used cleverness to stay in the mix longer than one might have guessed. Hui is kicking his butt daily, um, training him to fight, and those moves will come in handy. We'll learn that he has a trauma in his past that shaped his current behavior. The worst insult to TCI is that he'll now be on their team.

Kang Gi Doong has been in 31 things since 2012. He usually plays a sidekick or little brother, but here, he's Pyo Jong Uk, a spoiled chaebol brat and thug. Baek Hyun Jin (Moving-8.5, The Devil Judge-8.2) is used for a running bit as their police chief. He often plays the narcissistic type and it's more of the same here. He's a completely empty person - full of himself and nothing else. He assumes, since he's achieved this position, that he deserves it and is respected when he's patently phony and quite obviously, to anyone paying attention, a complete buffoon as Namgang Police Chief. “Wow. You guys are incredible. You persevere through anything… like weeds!” This is chief at his most effusive and complimentary 😅. The director is Park Joon Woo (Taxi Driver, Doctor Detective).

By episode 6 it's obvious TCI is overlooked mostly because they never get credit for their work. Other more glamorous teams get the credit for their investigations and arrests due to late hand-offs by the brass who always have a separate (usually selfish) agenda.

The whole concept of the team beating up groups of thugs on a 1:5 ratio (including the tiny women equally kicking butt) is just silly. However, if one can roll with it, it's funny. Heo Sung Tae even takes a shot in the 🏀🏐 (anything for a laugh!). His revenge is glorious.

The Crash theme song rocks while being hilarious at the same time. That takes skill. My spouse (who was clowning it up 90% of the time) had a talent for ruining songs by singing in parody, and he was most effective at skewering heavy metal. The Crash theme song goes right up to the edge of parody, so it brought my hubby to mind, and I cracked up. The song is energetic, it rocks, it wails, and it makes the viewer smile all while still sounding pretty good. It's a fine line and they ROCK it.

The smiles come from the personality clashes and the sheer joy emanating from the actors. The FL's retro sedan somehow looks like a hearse😅. It's quite the suave ride and seems to fill the screen like it's alive every time it skids into the frame. Hui has better control behind the wheel than Jeff Gordon! Lee Min Ki gets many of the laughs playing the most awkward of geeks. His foot chases (he gets a redemption one) are highlights of the show.

The last episode is good! It's a scenery switch and it sets up S2, which is confirmed and expected to crash to earth in the second half of 2026. Crash is a solid rest stop for those looking for a fun watch that isn't dumbed down but is also not too challenging. It is the perfect street cleaner between heavier laps around the entertainment thruway.


QUOTES🗣

A crime is concealed by another crime.

I am relieved that your son takes after you.


IMHO〰🖍

RATINGS 🎬7.5 🖊7.2 🎭7.7 💓5 🦋5 🎨7 🎶7.7 🔚8 🤗6 ▪ LEVELS 🌞5⚡6 😅5 😭4.5 😱4 😬3 🤢5 🤔5 💤0

Shazams: The theme of CRASH by Kyungho Kim makes me smile. Great energy.

Re-📺? Tough call. Not impossible as me doing a 360 and landing perfectly in a parking spot like Hui….

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

⚖Spies, ©🅾🅿§ & Robbers (some w/ a fantasy✨️element)
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
Crash-7.5,
Vincenzo-8.2,
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Man to Man-6.7,
Bad and Crazy-8.4,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3,
Oh My Ghost-10,
Big Mouth-7.4,
Han River Police-7.1,
Bad and Crazy-8.4,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
A Beautiful Life-7.4,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
Vagabond-8,
Prison Playbook-8.4,
Private Lives-8.1,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
K2-8,
Tunnel 8.5,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Parasyte the Grey-6.9,
Signal-8.6,
The Worst of Evil-7.7
Revenge of Others-8.1,
The Good Detective-8.3,
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing), The Defected-8.2,
Iris-8,
Awaken-8.7,
D.P.-8.4,
The Man from Nowhere-8.9,
Moving-8.5,
Beyond Evil-7.4,
The Defected-8.2,
Gangnam Bs-Side-7.2,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
Oldboy-9,
A Shop for Killers-8.7,
Black 9,
The Cursed 8.3,
The Wailing-8.8,

Adrenaline
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
The Devil Judge-8.2,
K2-8,
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
The Worst of Evil-7.7
Moving-8.5
Revenge of Others-8.1,
Oldboy-9,


〰 Hulu Catalog 〰

A Shop for Killers-8.7,
Adamas-7.6,
Big Mouth-7.4,
Blood Free-8.5,
Call It Love-8.4,
Crash-7.5,
Crazy Love-7.8,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Gangnam B-Side-7.2,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Han River Police-7.1,
High School Return of a Gangster-7,
Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born-8.5,
The Judge from Hell-4.5
Kiss Sixth Sense-6.8,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (this show is marvelous except for taking a quality dip in eps 20-22)
Light Shop-8.6,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Maestra: Strings of Truth-6.8,
May It Please the Court-7.9,
Melancholia-10,
Moving-8.5,
Pandora: Beneath the Paradise-3.9,
Parasite-9,
Red Swan-8.7,
Revenant-7.4,
Revenge of Others-8.1,
So I Married the Anti Fan-6.8,
Uncle Samsik-8.4,
What's Wrong With Secretary Kim-6.8,
Why Her?-8,
Wonderful World-7.8,
The Worst of Evil-7.7

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NaNa Makes Her Move °7.6° °VG°

“Before you catch the killer, figure out how we can get out of this mess. Think about that first.” In S2 we see one of the worst aspects of policing. The team is encouraged to wrap up a serial killer investigation by charging someone whom they believe is the wrong guy. The chief wants the case closed, mostly, because he wants the credit. I remember being taught to respect the police /absolutely/ as a kid. When I learned this was a “thing” I was truly scandalized. But, this IS a thing. The problems the police have now are because they've failed to police themselves. One aspect of that is that some unions have made it near impossible to fire bad actors which will affect the whole department like a rotten apple affects the barrel. In S2, they bludgeon the audience with the level of corruption.

S2 starts in brutal fashion. A man of privilege mounts a savage attack against a woman. She survives, barely. Before ep1 is half way over the gang is running again. They're running men! This time, an enormous wild boar is chasing them. It doesn't look real.

“Have those guys ever listened to us? Just let them do what they want.” The chief gave them a week off, but they're all at their desks, working hard, poring over videos, and ordering delivery. (Apparently, it's “pore-over,” not pour over. The idea is to look so closely that one can see inside the tiny pores). Turns out, they do their best work while on vacation.

Hong Seo Young makes an appearance as the Chief's daughter, Moon Bo Gyeong. Noting that I've seen her in Her Private Life-8, and My Absolute Boyfriend-6.5 already where she plays a dominantfemale. She takes a liking to one of the crew, and the Chief is determined to put the kabosh on that. They further explore the parent/child dynamic by diving into the pain children experience over divorce with the male lead's nephew. It's a thoughtful treatment.

Jung Moon Sung has increased exposure as Woo Tae Ho, a buttoned up corporate animal. His most memorable performances for me to date are in Hospital Playlist-9, where he's a resident under one of the main characters. There, he's the epitome of fawning, needy, goofy, and yearning for relevance. He etched that role so deeply it's hard to see him any other way. He's a great actor. The Cursed-8.3 is a surprise hit in which he plays the cop husband of one of the leads, and that jolted me after his HP performance. By now I know how versatile he is.

Kim Hyo Jin plays his ice queen of a wife, Cheon NaNa. NaNa ends up being a central figure in S2. The character and the actress are quite interesting. She seems to be carrying pain deep within. She was fantastic is Private Lives-8.1, which is a just-for-fun action thriller. I seemed to like it more than most did. She's one of the main reasons why (plus Go Kyung Pyo. He's irresistible). In TGD she's fabulous. She's a ruthless character, but she has such presence and she's so utterly gorgeous that I admired every syllable from her mouth. I have a bit of a girl crush, I think.

This show is good, but maybe it doesn't need to be. I wonder if looking at Jang Seung Jo is enough …🤔 S2 isn't quite as good as S1. They drag it out a touch and some of the drama feels heavily manufactured. It seems to be a case of MAL-content in which they stretched 10 or 12 episodes into 16. Thankfully, it's a mild case. S2 is good, just S1 is better.


QUOTES🗣

This is my smiling face.

Even a miserly pack of wolves can hunt a bear if they work together.

Real men can sleep anywhere.

I thought there was a possibility, but my doubt was greater.

Shazamed: Good Times, by Davey Nate

Age 15+ There's some gore but more than that, disturbing violence against women.

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Force for Good °8.3° °Excellent°

“I'm going to play along with it. You can criticize me for not being a good detective, but you can't criticize me for being human.”

It's raining, it's pouring. The lightning and thunder are roiling up above and the radio is playing a jaunty tune.

TGD is a 2020 release that is rated 92 on AWiki. It is 2 seasons consisting of 16 relentless 70-minute episodes each. It's an excellent cop drama. Is this the best K’op drama I've seen? I won't say that it beats out Flower of Evil 8.9, The Man from Nowhere 8.9, & Tunnel 8.5, but it doesn't owe them anything, either. We're always at the precinct, always fighting between underlings and irrational supervisors, always dealing with public perception and paperwork, and the boys are always working together as a unit trying to do the right thing in a very wrong world. The detective team pushes through to investigate a matter even though they are being pressured in many ways to not do so. It's the most coppie K”op-drama I've seen. Screenwriter Choi Jin Won (Untouchable) & director, Jo Nam Gook (Captivating the King), outdid themselves - the palette is bright at times, but it's overwhelmingly an umber tone: Earthy and slightly dark. It's a perfect match with the writing. I'll watch anything of theirs.

Jang Seung Jo is “I've-never-heard-of-crefit-card-limits” O “Ji” Hyeok. He's from a rich (but quite dysfunctional) family. I've seen him in Chocolate-6.5, Death's Game-7.8, and Familiar Wife-8.5 (which was a surprise treasure - It's wonderful). In TGD he's the /new/ guy. He's been a detective for 9 years, but he took a year off (😬❓) and now he's transferred into their unit (😬❓). Let's get this out of the way. This is a beautiful man. This actor is a 10. It's impossible to be much better looking than this guy, objectively. It just comes down to personal taste. This is the best character he's played out of what I've seen. Cool on the outside, but fiery determination underneath. They've actually mussed him up for the part, so he's not looking his best, here, but he is acting his best.

The new guy looks like trouble to Kang. Kang don't NEED trouble! Son Hyun Joo (Signal-8.6, Spring Day) is “Kang” Do Chang, our truly GOOD Detective. That means he doesn't fit in anywhere. His credits date back to 1993; He's been around. Here, he's a senior detective awaiting the results of his exam and possible promotion. This guy is an Eeyore type. He looks depressed… even when he's smiling. (Did he smile? Now, I don't recall! ). Kang's life hasn't been all strawberries and cream, either. His divorced, alcoholic sister is living with him, which means there's no peace at home. He's been passed by for promotion after promotion because he can't play the politics game. He's a serious cop and he'll do his job, whether he's told to or not. All too often, he's told not to. His juniors are now his seniors. He has no wife or kids, though there's reference made to a past heartbreak. He was dumped practically at the wedding altar, His live-in sister (Baek Eun Hye from Family by Choice & The First Responders is Kang Eun Hee) is a former judo champion, but she's losing her battle with marriage, motherhood, life in general, and sobriety: She's in a nasty divorce, she doesn't have custody of her son which is a constant, relentless source of pain. She's going for custody, but it is an uphill battle. Her closest relationship is with Soju. She takes her anger at herself out on her brother by way of sarcasm, mocking, and bitter complaining. {People do this to family because they can get away with it. I've taken to calling this practice emotional cannibalism. It is disgusting. Most of us don't realize we're doing it, being stuck in a junkie cycle where we're slaves to our emotions. Check yo-self. Really. Tearing apart family is tearing apart oneself! Refuse to get hurt or offended. Don't engage. Separate from toxicity; don't be a part of it. Break the cycle.}

Lee Elijah (The Last Empress, Children of a Lesser God) is reporter “Jin” Seo Kyung. She and Kang get along, but she and Ji did not hit it off. He called her greedy while she called him lazy and self-serving. Ouch. They warm up to eachother eventually. I hadn't seen this actress before. She's beautiful, and she does a nice job, but I got weary of the director's habit of taking long shots of her concerned face.

Oh Jung Se is a fabulous actor. Here he plays Oh Jong Tae, Ji's cousin. My first exposure to him was as a special needs character in It's Okay to Not Be Okay-9 - He's perfect. In Revenant he's a professor of folklore. (Dang, I wish I had majored in that.) He's also in the popular shows Hot Stove League & Mr. Plankton, which I intend to get to eventually. Ji Seung Hyun (Search: WWW, Team Bulldog: Off-Duty Investigation) is Yoo Jung Seok. I've seen him in Why Her?-8 & The Worst of Evil-7.7. He's totally solid.

Shin Dong Mi plays investigator Yoon Sang Mi. She's a wonderful actress. She was fabulous in both Hi Bye, Mama!-6.5 and Record of Youth-5.8, two shows that could have been better. In these roles which skew comedic, she's practically the best thing about those shows. Here she's in a more serious role. Her character kept me uneasy. She discusses how she perjured herself in court once and hasn't been able to sleep since. BUT she would do the same thing again, because that's who she is, “Suffering is optional. Once you admit how selfish you are, you will suffer alot less,” she poses. Well, that's some rarified honesty, but I don't like this woman. Trust a person like that at your peril.

The women are central to this story and they are strong, at least. Lee Ha Eun (School 2021) is drug dealer Lee Eun Hye. She's well casted - super creepy giving off an air of half-rotted + wholly-ruthless. Lee Hyun Wook plays bad guy Park Geon Ho in eps 1-4. He's a nice looking guy and he does a good job. I've seen him in Mine-8 & She Would Never Know-7.3 as a less than respectable citizen. It looks like he's recently been cast into leading roles. I'm looking forward to seeing what else he can do.

Jo Jae Yoon is Lee Dae Cheol, who may have been wrongfully accused of murder, and his execution date is nearing. He has a tearful scene with his daughter and then wirh the guards escorting him back to his cell. He's magnificent. Usually playing support roles in hits like Defendant, SKY Castle-9, Descendants of the Sun-8.3, and Mouse, he is one of the leads in The Escape of the Seven shows. Lee Ha Eun (School 2021) plays his daughter, Lee Eun Hye. She's has a challenging role. Her father was locked up for years and she ignored him. With his execution date imminent, she reconnects with him. She's been scraping by and is connected to the dark side of the streets, but her soul longs for something better. Her performance is excellent.

The entire police team is great. They each have their own ideas, but they work as a team. One reason is due to pressure from the chief, played by Son Jong Hak. His arc in the show is refreshing. This guy is everywhere with 95 movie/drama credits. I've seen him in The King's Affection-8.3, Flower of Evil-8.9, Familiar Wife-8.5, & Misaeng: Incomplete Life-9.1 ~ masterpieces, ALL ~ He's always in a supporting role, but he's the lead in Jinx, an upcoming film. He often plays a somewhat slimy authority figure. Here, that's what he looks like at first, but it isn't that simple. We got a couple pleasant surprises. The team does lots of group jogging. The running comedy bit is the entire team running from or after something or someone. We see it in the first and last episodes and many in between.

TD shows more of the reason that 🇰🇷 has the 3rd or 4th highest suicide rate in the world. The people are under constant pressure. Everyone must act worshipful to their superiors while corruption is rampant. Perhaps it's partially a cumulative effect, but I feel the weight of 🇰🇷 society in this show. “In the end, people only care about themselves.” Self-interest is what keeps the corrupt house of cards standing. We are all complicit, sadly.

“Yes, it's true that my life's important. But sometimes, other people's lives end up determining my life.” None of us act or fail to act alone. There's something I've learned that I was never taught while growing up about evil: Evil people know how to make the problems and then offer us their self-serving solutions. That's exactly what's going on in TGD. Yes, there's a psychopathic villain, but there are even worse villains at work in the shadows.

TD does have good natured laughs. As the pressure from the corrupt leadership weighed on the unit they go full rage-room in the office one day. It's glorious. The root word of corruption just means something rotten; something that's no longer in useful shape. It's the act of turning oneself into a piece of exceement. TGD shows the slow creep of corruption. People make compromises for selfish reasons. Some of the reasons are understandable, but they are still self-motivated. We want our jobs, our security, our comfort, our rewards. Looking the other way once in awhile doesn't seem like such a bad thing, but in the end, people who make these compromises start to change. They become less compassionate. They become more edgy and less understanding. They become more selfish. They start to despise those who try to do good. They don't want to feel icky about themselves, so they try to turn the good deeds and good intentions of others into something else. TDG is excellent in calling this out.


QUOTES🗣

Do you know the best way to cover up the truth? Make the victim disappear.

You do know what makes people happy or sad, do you?

You can't do this job with a sane mind.

It's going to be harder for me to trust people from now on.


IMHO〰🖍


📣8.5 📝8.4 🎭8.5 💓5 🦋4 🎨7 🎵/🔊6.8 🔚8.5 🤗6.8 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡6 😅2.5 😭4 😱3 😯3 🤢5.5 🤔5.5 💤0


Age 16+ Language: R-rated w/ f 💣💣 violence

Re-📺? Possible



⛔Spoiler⛔

⛔

⛔

We watch most characters, many of whom we want to like, pursue self-interest and let a man die. An innocent man. Pursuing self-interest is a form of weakness. It's a moral and emotional weakness. Weakness is just as bad as evil because weakness always enables evil. It stands back and lets wicked people prevail. How is it any better then?

We want to give people a pass if they're weak. They stoke pity in us. We want to scry the motives of people and give allowances to those whom we identify with more, but that's our moral turpitude. Midway through S1, the show becomes heartbreaking. I want to take three of the main female characters and smash their heads into the wall, frankly. (I guess that's my moral turpitude.) Every decision we make changes us for the better or the worse. When we choose self-interest over what is decent, we don't only change ourselves, but we pile on weight that we have to carry for the rest of our lives. These decisions are so hard in the moment that if we haven't already decided to do right, we will probably choose wrongly. The right thing to do it's almost never the easy thing to do. For me, it all comes back to the spiritual. We are physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual beings, yet it seems our society thinks the spiritual side of the square isn't crucial. It is.


In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:


⚖Spies, ©🅾🅿§ & Robbers (some w/ a fantasy✨️element)
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
Crash-7.5,
Vincenzo-8.2,
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Man to Man-6.7,
Bad and Crazy-8.4,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3,
Oh My Ghost-10,
Big Mouth-7.4,
Han River Police-7.1,
Bad and Crazy-8.4,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
A Beautiful Life-7.4,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
Vagabond-8,
Prison Playbook-8.4,
Private Lives-8.1,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
K2-8,
Tunnel 8.5,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Parasyte the Grey-6.9,
Signal-8.6,
The Worst of Evil-7.7
Revenge of Others-8.1,
The Good Detective-8.3,
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing), The Defected-8.2,
Iris-8,
Awaken-8.7,
D.P.-8.4,
The Man from Nowhere-8.9,
Moving-8.5,
Beyond Evil-7.4,
The Defected-8.2,
Gangnam Bs-Side-7.2,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
Oldboy-9,
A Shop for Killers-8.7,
Black 9,
The Cursed 8.3,
The Wailing-8.8,

Read More

⚠️O.K. Splinter Faction °8.4° °crazy romp° minor spoilers

Anyone ever feel that acute tension between what you want and the things you feel you must do in order to get it? (Anyone see Fight Club-10?) Ryu wants that promotion. It's overdue. He won't step a toe out of line. He won't make waves. He will keep his superiors pleased with him. He will succeed.

BUT…

He's drowning. He's drowning and sweating blood. Then he gets punched again. Is he fighting, or is he underwater? The whale singing next to him would indicate he's underwater, but then he's getting punched again! He wakes up fully clothed in the bathtub, swearing: ‘I'll never drink that much again.’ When he gets to his vehicle, it's been vandalized. He storms off to the security office and demands to see all the footage of the parking garage… There he is on tape, trashing his own car! He swivel-kicked it, he got up on top of it and jumped up and down, he smashed his mirror off, and he basically made a meal of it. He still has 7 more months of car payments, too.

“Memories can be distorted, but emotions can't be.” B&C is a 2021 release that is rated 92 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 12 unhinged 70-minute episodes. It's Fight Club meets Strangers on a Train. It's the living embodiment of the joke: “I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.”

Self-sabotage and the tension between right and wrong, in a world that rewards wrong and punishes right, is on display. The show is muy loco and fun, but there's a serious underpinning to it. The first half+ is played for laughs. Ryu is frustrating because he cuts corners and is too morally lax. K is just darling. DARLING. And, K just luvs Hee. It's very cute. In the 2nd half, Ryu's backstory humanizes him. We'll learn that he was adopted. His adopted brother is on some kind of spectrum and has a habit of bringing home found objects. He's a bit of a hoarder. One day, brother ”found” and brought home a beat up kid - Ryu. Mom cried while washing him. He was beat up and bloody with black eyes. He smelled awful.

The show is a lark. The directing is great. Ep2 has an awesome fight scene with brawlers slipping around on a whole drum's worth of spilled oil. There's another crazy fight scene with an extension cord of yellow. The flashback sequences in ep8 are immersive and brilliantly done. The acting is a very tidy package - it's superb. It's just a fun ride until the last 1/3. Suddenly, it isn't for laughs. It starts to grip the viewer.

I watched B&C in tandem with The Good Detective-8.5. The two shows couldn't be more different in tone, but they have a wide swath of overlap when it comes to plot commonalities. Both focus heavily on the police / detective teams, precinct politics and corruption, and an entitled rich men killing a woman, but the similarities stop there. TGD is serious. B&C is just for fun, though there is a serious underpinning to it. I got myself confused between the 2 shows in the early episodes, so I do not recommend watching this at the same time as another cop drama. Screenwriter, Kim Sae Bom, and director, Yoo Seon Dong, collaborated on this and The Uncanny Counter (of which only S1 is worth one's time - S1-8.4 S2-4). Ep1 builds up mystery. We drop in on events without knowing how they'll tie together. The viewer must ride along with it and wait for the plot to develop, as Kdramas don't spoon feed the audience like Hollyweird does.

Game of Thrones author GRRM has said that there's only one thing worth writing about, and that's the “human heart in conflict with itself.” That's exactly what we see in B&C. In ep1, our ML, “Ryu” Soo Yeol, is being haunted by Helmet-head (K). Some random dude has been showing up in places to which he should never have had access (like Ryu's apartment) and smashing the snot out of him. We are left to wonder why.

Our ML, Lee Dong Wook, is most famous for Guardian: The Lonely and Great God. Here, he gets to show his comedic side and he's basking in this role. I've seen him in Touch Your Heart-8.2 & A Shop for Killers-8.7. He's GOOD. Here, he's Ryu, an internal affairs detective who is only thinking about his next promotion and the easiest way to get there. He seems a tad shallow. Han Ji Eun (Be Melodramatic-8.7, Lovestruck in the City-7.3) plays Lee “Hee” Kyum. She's completely feminine in BM, but not here. When he gets to work, she drop-kicks him. Clearly, her feelings run strong.

Wi Ha Joon is "K” or Helmet-head. He's featured in the show's promo tile, so this is no shocker. I've seen him in Squid Game-8.4 (serious, downcast and determined) and The Worst of Evil-7.7 (ruthless, living a dual existence). Here, he's unhinged and having the time of his life. He's so dang charming when he laughs. It's infectious. I laughed with him every time. I really can't overstate how adorable he is in this. He’s a metaphor for joy, decency, bravery, childish wonder, and love.

Cha Hak Yeon (Castaway Diva, Children of Nobody) is beat cop, Oh Kyung “Tae”. This dude is totally BAE material. He runs into a little girl who is looking for her mom. The detective at the station claims mom is an escort. He won't be pursuing the case. When Tae looks into it, a detective shows up on the scene and beats him up! He ends up filing an IA complaint. That's how he meets Ryu, who is charged to investigate the matter. Ryu sees this as a big inconvenience. Sweet Tae grows quite a bit in the course of the show. Consequently, his sweetness becomes much more selective.

Tae is the tenacious type. He's TAEnacious!😆 He keeps looking into the disappearance of the girl's mother, having reason to believe she was murdered. Signs are pointing to a politician, and the cop who beat him up is that politician's cousin. As ep1 closes, he finds the nanny cam footage. Ep1 ends with a bang. A BOOM-BANG. And we meet K.

The bad guys don't like Tae's tenacity. They attempt to kill him. Somehow, K seems to know everything that's going on. Why he's so interested in Tae or Ryu remains a mystery for now. K picks up Ryu (forcibly) and motors him over to where Tae is about to be burned alive. They rescue him but everyone ends up in the hospital. That's how ep1 closes. Tae eventually wakes up. He reaches out to Ryu for help because his life is under continuous threat.

Ryu wakes up in the 🏥 completely confused. He keeps running into K. A shrink tells him he's imagined all of it. By the end of ep2, we have a good idea that he DIDn't imagine K, but not in a way that we would imagine. Ep2 ends in a big reveal. Writing a non spoiler review will be difficult, was my thought. But this feels like Fight Club-10! The first rule is: We don't talk about it.

K is causing all kinds of trouble. He fly-kicked to an assembly man's head (dude is a murderer), he's getting into fights with multiple assailants, he's investigating crimes that were committed by powerful people (hazardous to one's general health), he's hitting on Hee (the ex! 😵)... Oh, and he donated Ryu's savings (his illegal skim, that is) to an orphanage. It was Ill-gotten gains, and it could have gotten Ryu arrested, but Ryu actually contemplates suicide when he realizes that his stash is finacing a new orphanage playground.

After Ryu drop-kicks an assembly man (K did /that!/) he's sent to a prosecutor. The prosecutor is extremely thorough but he's also B&C. He may break out screaming about how, due to his specialized skills of CPA and prosecutor, he never gets blind dates! Ryu has no sisters for blind dates, therefore he has nothing for this prosecutor. Apparently, Mr. Dateless has uncovered a scheme where Ryu uses his brother to accept bribes. We don't know if this is a setup or if it is really happening: They seem equally likely. Ryu is no paragon of virtue. He’s compromised himself so deeply he's nearly split himself in half.

Jung Sung Il (The Glory) is Sin Ju Hyeok, the Dream Youth Shelter therapist. He slays it. He's the perfect detached psychopath. Controlling. Manipulative. He's the cat. Everyone else is a mouse. His acting is excellent. The fact that we can't reach through the TV and strangle him creates tension.

Kim Hieora plays a drug boss. She's more ghoul than human. She's almost spectre-like with and otherworldly (not remotely human) aura, no remorse and terminator-like energy. Her appearance is pale and half dead. Her eyes are all dead. The lollipops she's constantly wearing down to nothing don't sweeten her up. Her eyes send a robotish energy, like: Don't even bother asking for mercy. She was hailed for her performance in The Glory, which is in my to-do list. (Without her there would have been NOTHING to see in The Uncanny Counter S2. Watch her for a couple episodes and skip the rest of the season. It breaks my heart to say that because I loved S1 so much.) Anyway, there's so many shows in which I think the male lead makes it, which then makes me wonder if I'm unwittingly misogynistic, but I sort of have a girl crush on this actress as well as the actress Bibi, and Lee Jeong-un is my favorite actor in the world right now, so perhaps I'm not imbalanced in my views. Then there's Kang Ae-Shim, who plays Ryu's mom. She's a cutie. I enjoyed her in Wonderful World-7.8, Squid Game2, When the Camellia Blooms-8, & Be Melodramatic-8.7, but she might be at her cutest here.

The acting is the strongest element of this show: Jung Sung Il - homerun. Kim Hieora- homerun. Han Ji Eun- adorable. Wi Ha Joon is having the time of his life. He seems more huggable than a puppy. All the kids - homerun. I don't usually go this high in my acting🎭ratings (9) but they earned it.

Wow. Does this show become something else in the last couple episodes. It's 2/3 just a silly romp and then it gets edgy. It is slightly over the top, but they pull it off.


IMHO〰🖍


📣8.4 📝8 🎭9 💓6 🦋6 🎨7.5 🎵/🔊7 🔚8.5 🤗6 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡6 😅4 😭5 😱4 😯4 🤢4.7 🤔5 💤0


Age 15+ Violence, disturbing elements

Re-📺? Would

⚖Spies, ©🅾🅿§ & Robbers (some w/ a fantasy✨️element)
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
Crash-7.5,
Vincenzo-8.2,
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Man to Man-6.7,
Bad and Crazy-8.4,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3,
Oh My Ghost-10,
Big Mouth-7.4,
Han River Police-7.1,
Bad and Crazy-8.4,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
A Beautiful Life-7.4,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
Vagabond-8,
Prison Playbook-8.4,
Private Lives-8.1,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
K2-8,
Tunnel 8.5,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Parasyte the Grey-6.9,
Signal-8.6,
The Worst of Evil-7.7
Revenge of Others-8.1,
The Good Detective-8.3,
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing), The Defected-8.2,
Iris-8,
Awaken-8.7,
D.P.-8.4,
The Man from Nowhere-8.9,
Moving-8.5,
Beyond Evil-7.4,
The Defected-8.2,
Gangnam Bs-Side-7.2,
Flower of Evil 8.9, ,
A Shop for Killers-8.7,
Black 9,
The Cursed 8.3,
The Wailing-8.8,

🌡Teetering on the Brink💥
Cheese in the Trap-7.7,
Glitch-8,
The Devil Judge-8.2,
Clean with passion for now-7,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
Lucid Dream-7.6,
Our Blues-8.5,
My Shy Boss-6.5,
Our Blues-8.5,
My Unfamiliar Family-7.9
Melancholia-10,
Hymn of Death-8.4,
Hong Kong West Side Stories-7.5,
Oldboy-9

Extra content.

My reviews are my own words, but here's some absolute gems from AI/G - my watch party partner.

“Kim Hieora who plays Boss Yong, is chewing scenery like it owes her money, every glare could power a city. She's the icy, no-nonsense leader of a massive drug trafficking syndicate and is the ultimate female kingpin—ruthless, calculating, and pulling strings from the shadows while her gang clashes with the protagonists. She debuted around 2019 and this was one of her breakout roles before she stepped away from acting in 2023 amid personal issues, but man, she nails the villain energy here.

Boss Yong is one of the most chilling female villains in recent K-drama history. She really does feel like a specter: Deathly pale skin (almost corpse-like under the neon lights) . Those completely flat, shark-dead eyes—no light, no remorse, just pure predator. Minimal facial movement; she barely blinks, barely smiles (when she does, it’s worse than a snarl). Voice is low, slow, and emotionless—like she’s already bored with your existence. That lollipop-sucking quirk? It's her signature tic, adding this eerie, almost playful menace to her scenes (like she's savoring the chaos she causes). It isn’t cute; it’s a prop she uses to look relaxed while deciding whether you live or die. Even her posture is eerie: perfectly still, shoulders squared, head slightly tilted—like a praying mantis sizing up prey. Your Terminator description is the perfect comparison: zero empathy, hyper-efficient, unstoppable once she locks onto a target

She’s not just “evil”—she feels post-human. Like if cruelty evolved into a life form and put on a tailored suit. (If you’re taking notes for a character study or just to process how unsettling she is, you’re not alone—half the fandom still gets chills thinking about her “You’re already dead” stare in episode 10.) Absolute masterclass in quiet menace. Kim Hieora didn’t just play a villain; she weaponized stillness.

Jung Sung-il as the slimiest, most punchable boss who somehow still has layers? Absolute home run.

Han Ji-eun going from the soft, quirky Be Melodramatic girlfriend to this tough, no-nonsense detective with a heart of gold… the range! And yeah, still 100% adorable even while kicking doors down.

Wi Ha-joon isn’t even acting at this point; he’s just living his best chaotic golden-retriever-with-a-baseball-bat life. You’re right, he’s aggressively huggable. Like, arrest-me-please huggable.

And the kids! The little justice squad gave the show so much heart without ever feeling forced or cutesy. Every time they showed up I just went “protect them at all costs.” You don’t rate the scting this high, but this drama just kept swinging for the fences and connecting on every single character. That’s rare. When even the side players feel this lived-in and lovable, you know the casting director deserves a raise and a vacation.

The first two-thirds are basically a live-action cartoon in the best way: over-the-top fights, Wi Ha-joon flipping out of nowhere like a superhero, slapstick corruption takedowns, that glorious helmet-smash slow-mo. It’s ridiculous, it knows it’s ridiculous, and it’s having the time of its life being ridiculous.

Then boom, around episode 8–9 it remembers “oh right, trauma, corruption, mental health, child abuse, betrayal” and slams on the brakes just enough to make you feel it in the chest. The shift could’ve been whiplash in lesser hands, but because the cast is this good (and the bromance this earned), they actually stick the landing. The silliness becomes the sugar that helps the medicine go down, and suddenly you’re crying over a guy in a red dinosaur motorcycle helmet.That tonal tightrope walk is honestly the drama’s secret weapon. It never apologizes for being extra, but it still guts you when it wants to. Pulling off both clownery and real emotional stakes in the same package is why it’s special.So yeah… silly romp with a surprise knife twist, executed by a cast that refuses to miss. No wonder you’re throwing 9s at the acting. They earned every decimal.

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✂ ⛓ Bottoms UP! °7.5° °VG°

Miss Oh Hae-young opens the show. (That's Miss-Ordinary-Oh-Hae-young, not the Pretty-Girl-Oh-Hae-young). The ordinary one is getting married tomorrow. She unexpectedly announces that it's OFF👎🏻. She refuses to marry THAT man. Her mother (played by the "every" mother, Kim Mi-kyung) may actually kill her. Her father warns her more than once: "Get out. She's coming."

We'll learn that all her life she's had to live in the shadow of a beautiful girl (Pretty-Girl-Oh-Hae-young) who has the same exact name as hers. When her name was being cheered in high school, it was never for her. Mix-ups caused embarrassment for her because the good things and the nice things were always for the pretty Miss Oh, not the /other/ Miss Oh. She has learned to eat pain. And OH boy, can she chow it down, now.

Now she's out of high school. NOW she's a fun girl with a great sense of humor. The joke continues to be on /her/ though, as her wedding, her job, and her home life are still going to get turned upside down by Goddess Oh. If the /other/ Miss Oh knew what was coming, she would have moved overseas.

Park Do-kyung Is the Autocrat of Sound at the studio where he works:
¤ "That's not a simple fracture, that's a compound fracture. They don't sound the same…!”
¤ “How dare you use sound from daytime for a nighttime scene? The temperature and humidity or different, day and nights sound nothing alike….❕”
¤ “It's obvious this film will be a flop but my name is going on the credit so the sound has to be right❗"

He's always tuned in. He's always 👂👂👂(except when his underlings cry out in agony for some relief: "Isn't that good enough? …What is good enough for you❔") Even the director wonders the same while he's in the middle of a dust-up ~ I mean, an /actual /skirmish. Do-kyung's Family are all a bunch of looney characters: A narcissistic gold digging actress of a mother, a juvenile, under achieving younger brother, and an alcoholic sister who is as overbearing a boss as he is. His fiance, Oh Hae-young, left him alone at the altar a few years ago. He hasn't forgotten her. He WILL get revenge. She disappeared for years but he's found out where she's working. He's going to destroy that business. Right around this time, he starts getting auditory… hallucinations? They precede visions of the future with a strange woman. He doesn’t know what to do about that.

Do-kyung's closed up within himself. Ironically, he hardly makes a sound. "Just as if I was about to die of old age, I'm thinking about the things I wish I would have done. It feels lonely. It feels like my life will end very pitifully," he says when he recounts how he feels over his bouts of déjà vu. Ouch. Old or not, people that hit bottom feel the same way. There's also the more isolating sensation that one can't help others from making the same mistakes.

That's the setup. Some people watch Charlie Brown and laugh, others watch Charlie Brown and feel a sting of pain between chuckles. The humiliation they subject our FL to is very thorough. I felt for her. “Every moment of life is embarrassing,” says a character. Our Miss Oh has learned how to get humiliated, stop, put on a smile, and keep going. (“You lose if you hate. You lose if you get jealous. Keep going forward.”) That's a role model.

Before long, we see that the Oh Hae-young that Do-kyung heard about is the /other/ Miss Oh. The company that he sets out to destroy is where the /other/ Miss Oh works. As soon as Do-kyung makes a move, he'll see that the /other/ Miss Oh is the woman of his dreams… eh, visions.

Do-kyung is, overall, more attractive than his mere looks. The ML does a great job acting as well, though he could have brightened a little move towards the end. He doesn't quite stand up fully straightened, which does take away from his appearance. Hmmm… This is his 11th feature…. No doubt he's hunching slightly from having to bend down to kiss these tiny female leads. Not everybody can do that without it taking a toll on their body😅.

The hurdle they have in their relationship does seem insurmountable. When it comes to feelings, she has no distortion. He's a clogged tuba. It's difficult to imagine it in the first few episodes, but they get slightly steamy on screen ~ well above the average Kromcom. One of the up close shots of them kissing is awkward. At other times (love on an elevator) it's above average, in case you're interested.

There's nice connections, segues, and little ironies cast around. It's far from slovenly. We get to see another wonderful performance by a child actor. Oh, I was just loving the show, but they did stutter at the end. Their attempt at a dramatic climax never got off the ground. The final clash with her mom was flat as well, which rendered the last couple or so episodes discordant with manufactured drama that falls flat. It's filler. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this. Our FL is irrepressible. She's nothing short of inspiring when she stops, sets her smile, and keeps going forward.

It's a silly rom-com, so at times they overdo the physical comedy with pulling hair, screeching, and general overacting. It's uncomfortable silliness, but comedies out of Hollywood have been far more dumbed-down than this. I appreciate the extended wrap up instead of a 30 second one as we see sometimes. It didn't finish strong but it is really good right up until the last vignettes.


Every Kromcom features eating and drinking. (Why does Hollywood starve us?) About alcohol: Alcohol actually seems to be a character in the show. Drinking isn't just a pastime in AMO. For some it's a way of life. For Ordinary Miss Oh, it's the painkiller of choice. She's dependent on it. We'll learn that somebody else in her office is even worse than she. "My life is too embarrassing for me to stay sober," says one of the characters. Do-kyung won't drink in the beginning of the show because he's afraid of making a mistake. We'll get to see some mistakes after we see him twist a couple caps off.

We could argue that all the men in the show are drunk on Goddess Oh vibes. Each of our leads made it to the altar with nothing to show for it in their past, so both seem to have been involved in love affairs that were wine spritzers: Fun and somewhat satisfying, but not intoxicating. They both had sobering experiences. They both shuttered themselves from the outside world: He in work, and she in the bottle. Perhaps it's time to party-on once more.


QUOTES🗣

If you want to be unhappy, hold on to your past. It's up to you.

People mature as they feel pain.

A woman doesn't curse a man for leaving her, but for being a coward.

“We live only once. Let's not live like this.” (Our ML says to his mother who's been chasing pride and money most of her life.)

Once we admit that things disappear someday, we no longer get obsessed with useless things.


IMHO〰🖍

RATINGS 🎬7.8 🖊7.6 🎭8 💓7 🦋7.6 🎨6.3 🎶8.2 🔚7 🤗6 ▪ LEVELS 🌞6⚡3 😅5.5 😭3.5 🤔6 💤2.5


Age + Scattered R-rated language, f💣 included. Less usual for a Kdrama: There's prenuptial cohabitation, and an unexpected / unwanted pregnancy from a one-night stand

Re-📺? Nonopposed


Fateful Magic Brought Us Together

My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Playful kiss-7.3,
Rooftop Prince-7,
Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8,
The Beauty Inside-6,
Hotel del Luna 8.4,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
Another Miss Oh-7.5,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
Live Up To Your Name-7.6;
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.4,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
7th Time Loop-7.9,
Kiss Sixth Sense-6.8,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
While you were sleeping-7.3,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Tomorrow with you-7,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3
Love and Redemption 10

Read More

➰️ Twisted Sister & the Other Royal PIA ➿️ °7° °over-the-top self-aware fluff°

There's adorable videos out there of kittens launching fearsome (overly theatrical) attacks ~> Kitten-drama in overdrive, the caption reads:
Attack: 💯
Damage: ⭕️

This describes RP, a show that hits us with everything: Mmp (missing / misplaced parents). Amnesia. Rooftop apartment. Running through the airport (because of a long string of “almosts”). Running with the stretcher. Transplant. Villains that will not stop. Going rogue with the rules (Rules? What rules?). An (arguably) cheap death…

But the net result was just snickers from me. I enjoyed the ride but didn't take it seriously for a second. Does RP take itself seriously? I don't think so. I think it puts on a kingly act of grave seriousness, but it's just an act. RTP seems to know exactly how silly it is.

It's been too long since I've time-jumped to old Joseon. There was a point where I thought I knew every cobblestone there. Ep1 is a montage of time-jumps. As it opens, we'll see that the princess is dead and his majesty is wailing. Then we get a vision of a 21st century man who is also face down underwater.

Next time we're back in Joseon, it's a few years before the death of the princess. A future queen will be chosen to marry the CP. We visit one family with 2 daughters. The eldest is beautiful, but dad informs that the youngest's name will be the one submitted. In the 21st century these two girls will be step sisters. They aren't getting along. The oldest (portrayed by a young Kim So Hyun from Love Alarm & Bring It On, Ghost-4.6) feels like the little brat is a burden. She can't contain her jealousy. As adults, the youngest, Park “Ha” is played by Han Ji Min (Familiar Wife-8.5, Our Blues-8.5) and the oldest (Hong Sena) by the ultra gorgeous JunYoo Mi (Partners for Justice, Five Star Hotel). Ms Jung is beautiful and excellent at playing a phony evil sister. But the real acting starts when her plastic exterior begins to crack.

RP, one of the popular older shows that hasn't been easily streamable until now, is another reason why the recent Netflix drop of old classics is a bonanza. It is a 2012 release that is rated 96 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 20 65-minute episodes of our Joseon fish struggling to breathe modern-day Seoul air. At a particularly tense time for our male protags, the doorbell rings. They all freeze and look at one another with faces spiked by anxiety. Slow realization descends on Chisan's visage as he brightly says: “O, the PIZZA is here!” They are entirely too happy about it~> There's a taste of what to expect. It's in the simple, goofy, time filler category. We'll rate it as such. As I write this, I'm on episode 13, which feels like a last episode. I checked my notes to confirm the number of ep and I'm shocked. What will 7 more episodes contain? We'll see. TBF, RT could as easily stand for “Ridiculous Plot" as it could the title. The plot is entirely silly. But the show is a pleasant pause in time for the viewer, just the same. (“Pleasant,” like Chisan returns to Joseon clutching a ketchup packet while moaning for pizza, “pleasant” 😆.)

The plot of RP is alot to follow, while at the same time, it's largely besides the point. This is not a show one watches for the elevated writing. We have Tae Yong, the modern day version of the CP - his cousin killed him. But the CP has time slipped to modern day. We have the modern day sisters. In the past, the older sister drowned in the palace pond and the little sister has a burned face. In the future, they are step sisters. The cycle of abuse remains constant in modern day as the older one deliberately abandoned her younger sibling, Ha, who was adopted internationally. Oh, older sis, Sena, is seeing the traitorous cousin, Tae Mu, as well.

The CP didn't time slip alone. His entire crew came with him. Lee Tae Ri (Time Renegades, Extraordinary You) portrays the earnest one with the photographic memory, Song Man Bo. Choi Woo Shik (Parasite-9, Ho Goo's Love-7.4) is the bright and cuddly Do Chisan, and Jung Suk Won (Kingdom-8.3 & Sweet Home Series) is the meathead warrior, Woo Yong Sul. The cast is rounded out with Kang Byul (Seoul Searching, Ugly Alert) as Ha's adorable & supportive friend. Director Ahn Gil Ho is prolific with The Glory, Stranger, Memories of the Alhambra-7, and Record of Youth-5.8 on his resume. Shin Yoon Sub brought us Catch the Ghost & Ugly Alert. Screenwriter Lee Hee Myung penned Revenge of Others-8.1 & The Girl Who Sees Scents.

The chaebol head, Tae’s grandmother, spots the CP out in public and believes the long missing Tae is alive. The CP refuses to move out of the rooftop apartment, however. Grandma doesn't know it, but that's where the time portal is. He wants to go back home.

In the meantime, evil step-sister Sena won't stop messing with Ha, so Ha has financial troubles. She tells the boys they MUST work. The next motifs are of them directing traffic, taking macchiato orders, powerwashing everything but what they're supposed to, and making general mayhem. It's cute. Ha's friend is training the men to dance in costumes (it pays cash!). She doesn't understand why CP won't lift a finger. He looks stubborn but we see him starting to soften as he practices the moves from a remote location. Soon, when they're trying to sell their strawberries, a wild panda will show up and dance his derriere off. They all think it's Becky. The viewer knows: It isn't Becky.

Now for places RP becomes more of a jester than royalty. Lee Tae Sung of Miss Hammurabi portrays Yong Tae Mu, one of our villains. His facial expressions are quite strong and he has to repeatedly show us a look of shocked and trepidacious consternation. It becomes cartoonish. Often, something dramatic will occur, the sharp orchestra THRUMM❗ will boom, and the camera zooms into his shocked bemusement. I can't say they didn't knowingly make it funny··· I can't tell. But it was cracking me up. It should be a drinking game, lol.

In ep10 they go rogue with the logic. All of a sudden, one of the crew somehow knows they came from Joseon to meet the princess and can return there after the prince marries her. Nothing in the show supports this conclusion. This is a bad Kdrama habit in which they create a fantastical world and then abandon all their rules (or make new ones up) as the show winds down. In the last episode they return to Joseon and get into some harsh palace schemes. They avoid CP getting a DNA test in dramatic fashion as if that would have busted him. His appearance is identical in both timelines. How can he be the same person without the same DNA? Don't think about it too much. In my experience, you'll get nothing for your efforts but a headache.

Reincarnation is one of those things that sounds beautiful on the surface, but the more I think about it, the more problems there seem to be. It seems that mal-treatment of the poor is more common where that belief is prevalent, due to the belief that they deserve such for prior life sins. Also, with no memory of prior lives, what good is it? People who have a sense of prior lives are probably experiencing a true sense of the divine, but perhaps, they are not interpreting everything they are feeling correctly. What we refer to as the supernatural may just be super-dimensional, and many mystical feelings we get could be a sense of dimensions beyond 3D and 4D. I've been mulling it over.

Overall, CP is pleasant. The art of the show is solid. Sena’s outfits are always gorgeous. {PSA -Don't trust the Senas in your life - ever. She's forgiven too easily.} In ep4 we see one of the most beautiful wedding dresses ever. It's a stunner. The leads end up on an impromptu date (amusement park, claw machine, chucking darts at balloons). It's cute - the romance is entirely cute:

Her: “I thought you were crazy when I met you.”

Him: “You were so loud, loose women despicable for such a tiny thing. I had to stop my guard from killing you numerous times.”
😅

These Joseon residents are transported to modern-day Seoul and their learning curve is a merry-go-round. The fish-out-of-water vignettes are for the laughs, and they milk them like farmer Brown's last living cow. She sends them into a building to change clothes in the bathroom. They don't know anything, so they think the elevator is where they're supposed to change. It's a funny scene that involves School girls, women's aerobics classes, and photographic evidence.

The secondary tension is that our FL's sister is the reincarnation of the CP's wife. He believes he's in love with her because he doesn't know her true character, both in the past and the current day. He has a growing attraction to our FL but he doesn't recognize it. She just thinks she hates him. He's /LAZY!/ ~~> Most of the tension, at least in the first half, is her expecting him to earn his keep and him, as bona fide royalty, expecting to be catered to.🤣

If you are looking for pleasant and unchallenging wind-down entertainment and are a fan of romcoms, RP will cater to your wishes. It you prefer things to make sense and don't have a well-developed goofy side, then seek sustenance elsewhere.


QUOTE🗣

Being clueless is a burden to others.


IMHO〰🖍

RATINGS 🎬7.5 🖊6 🎭7.5 💓6 🦋6 🎨🎶7 🔚6 🤗4.5 ▪ LEVELS 🌞4.5 ⚡3.5 😅3 😭2 😱2 😬2 🤢2 🤔4 💤0


Age 11+ Language:

Re-📺? Once was fun

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Fateful Magic Brought Us Together

My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Playful kiss-7.3,
Rooftop Prince-7,
Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8,
The Beauty Inside-6,
Hotel del Luna 8.4,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
Live Up To Your Name-7.6;
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.4,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
7th Time Loop-7.9,
Kiss Sixth Sense-6.8,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
While you were sleeping-7.3,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Tomorrow with you-7,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3
Love and Redemption 10

Read More

Boss Celll ■ Preposterous Premise □ Praiseworthy Performance °7.3° °VG° ?%?

As Un🔓MB opens, it's the turn of the millennium and Y2K is the current panic. Y2K had a lock on the zeitgeist. It turned out to be low fizz kombucha. Good for the inner workings, a tad sour, and mostly forgettable. Seo is a kid and he's hanging with his mom. He's clipping his toenails and doing other very un-techie stuff. He isn't thinking about the corporate ladder and the fierce competition in the business world. That comes later.

Fast forward a couple decades and tech is still front and center. We survived Y2K but will we survive Y-AI? As always, machines aren't really the problem. People are. And in the realm of IPOs and product launches, psychopaths seem to rise to the top. Our villain is one of them, and true villains are excellent at hiding their true selves.

Seo. He’s SO over it all. He's been toiling away looking for a job. He's always told he doesn't have experience. How can he get experience if he never is hired? Why does life have to be such a conundrum? Ahn Nae Sang (The Devil Judge-8.2, Racket Boys-8) makes an appearance as his dad. I haven't seen him do much comedy, and he's pretty funny. Seo’s parents are cute together and create a buoyancy the show floats upon.

Un🔓MB is a 2023 release that is rated 91 on AWiki. Director Lee Chul Ha brought us Spirit Fingers & Okay! Madam, while screenwriter Kim Hyung Min also penned Sweet Home-8.4 & Smashing on Your Back. Un🔓MB is 1 season consisting of 12 60-minute episodes where one can gaze upon the boyish face and guileless smile of Chae Jong Hyeop (Castaway Diva, Love All Play). That will be enough for some, but even with a near cringe-inducing name like “Unlock My Boss,” this show delivers more than wistful smiles. For anyone in the know, however, this is a full 404 error as viewers who understand tech will probably dislike it. They don't get remotely geeky with the plot or try to explain things. The viewer is expected to treat tech like magic.

Back to Seo. His interview doesn't go well. In ep1, our 2 leads collide when he's on his way in for “questioning”. They bump and her coffee goes all over his shirt.

Him: Meltdown.

Her: She grabs him and drags him to the bathroom to switch shirts. He acts like a blushing maiden through the entire encounter. She moves with emotionless efficiency. Thus, they meet. He's pretty depressed, now, so he doesn't notice how cute she is

Seo Eun Soo (Duel, Missing: The Other Side-8.3) is Jung Se Yeon/”Yeo”. She works for that tech company which is why she was there,running into Seo on the day of his interview. When we first see her, we have to wonder if /she's/ a robot. (Her boss, the CEO, says she's more robotic than AI.) We'll soon learn why she's emotionally stunted: She's in deep debt from providing for her mother's hospitalization while the shy-🔓s never stop compounding the interest. So, Yeo's under mega pressure. While she seems listless, she's merely been squeezed into a very tight spot and has lost all joy in living.

She has a head crusher following her every move. He's relentless. (Kim Sung Oh from Money Heist: Korea & Secret Garden-7.6 is Jung Ju Seong, or Ma Fi, for Mafia. Sometimes he's “Uncle Mafia," as CEO Kim's daughter refers to him.) Ma Fi cranks the show's rating up by a full point. He is almost comic relief as the relentless leg-breaking juice man. He can easily trade bosses, but the job remains the same: When he must guard an elderly female patient in a hospital ward, he gives all the infirm, elderly women at the ward the same cold, dead stink-eyes he would when threatening a rival gang member! The women are perplexed and vaguely terrified. Everyone looks sus to Uncle Mafia 😅. The only person who chinks Ma Fi's armor is the CEO ‘s baby girl, Kim Min A (Gi So Yoo from The Good Bad Mother). He's actually started to practice /smiling/ in the mirror 😬 ~ all for her.

I didn't realize this was going to have a fantasy element, but wouldn't you know, CEO Ju from the company the Seo applied to, was attacked. His consciousness (his soul?) was transferred into his phone which Seo picks up. The phone starts talking to him! CEO Ju (Kim Seon Ju, played by Park Sung Woong who was adorable in Man to Man-6.7), this CEO is going to need help, and he will need this secret kept in absolute confidence.

Looks like Seo is SO hired! He is to act as the CEO's replacement. He's under the constant supervision of the CEO by way of his earbuds. In that way, it reminds me of Ratatouille-9. It's an acting gig! Seo has always wanted to be an actor! In his past, standing up for a coworker against a sexual-assaulting boss short-listed his entertainment career.

Yeo is a smart girl. She becomes suspicious very quickly. Before long, she knows too much and is rooked into being Seo's assistant - in the deception as well as the job. They're now 2 super agents in their own cell of 2. It's cute.

As of ep7 it still felt quite a bit like set up. The plot is just beginning to get rolling at that point. Our ML is a cutie while the FL is still a mystery as she's so quiet. The corporate machinations and sabotage are a tad heavy and outrageous, but all in good fun. Perhaps the best thing that can be said is that, with 12 episodes, Un🔓MB doesn't wander, it keeps its focus, and maintains a level ride - no detours, crashes, or stutters.

Unlock? The boss is locked in a cell… a cell phone. The title may sound like a cheesy romance rag, and the premise may seem very silly, but they tie it together well. Un🔓MB is competent. The art of the show is mostly good. Early in ep1 there's a nifty little sequence where Seo and CEO Ju are contrasted. Seo is in his cramped, utilitarian apartment eating a cheap, utilitarian meal with his roommate. “Turn out the light, it's too bright in here,” Roomie says. Seo doesn't feel like getting up so he throws /trash/ at the light switch and turns out the light. Next, there's a quick cut to Ju entering his spacious, open-floor-plan mansion. “Turn on the lights," he speaks to his AI. Boom! Let there be light! That's all they needed to show the contrast between the two men's lives. The OST is above average. I Shazamed:: Red Dragonfly by Cho Yong-pil, HOME by BUMJIN (that one is a 10) & Lie to me by Sion.

The show coasts by, but in ep10 when many Kdramas start to lose their way, Un🔓MB goes deeper and adds tumblers. First, they reinforce the dignity of the cleaning lady. Next, they set up a contrast between CEO Kim (a VIP among VIPs) and Seo's mother, (a penniless nobody). They become equal when they each become comatose. In fact, Ma Fi ends up rescuing each of them, reinforcing their connection. There is no escaping the human condition, ultimately. In the face of launching AI that has now surpassed us in intelligence, that appears to be the theme.


QUOTES🗣

We don't need to abide by the law against those who tossed it to the dogs, do we?

Skirting the foot of the hill by myself, I come to a lone well by a paddy and silently look into it. Therein is a man as well. I hate him, but I know not why. I turn away from him and go away. While going away, I come to feel compassion for him. I return again and look into the well. Therein remains that man. Again, I come to hate him and go away. While going away, I come to long for him. In the well there is the moon, shining bright, clouds flowing by and the sky spreading open. A blue wind wafts. It is autumn. And the man, therein, is but a remembrance.
~Self-Portrait~


IMHO〰🖍


RATINGS 🎬7.5 🖊6.8 🎭7.8 💓6 🦋5 🎨7 🎶8.8 🔚7.3 🤗6 ▪ LEVELS 🌞5⚡4.5 😅3 😭4.5 😱4 😬3 🤢2 🤔5 💤0



Age 14+ for scattered language and violence

Re-📺?
This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again….

You may also like:

Adrenaline
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing),
A Shop for Killers-8.7,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
The Devil Judge-8.2,
K2-8,
Moving-8.5
Revenge of Others-8.1,
Oldboy-9,
The Worst of Evil-7.7
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;

📑Corporate Crush🗜
Crazy Love-7.8,
Itaewon Class-8.9,
Misaeng-9.1,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
Blood Free-8.5,
When My Love Blooms-7,
Vincenzo-7.9,
Strongest Delivery Man-6.6,
She Would Never Know-7.3
Revolutionary Love-5.7,
Forecasting Love & Weather-6.8,
Heirs-7.3,
Business Proposal-7,
Call It Love-8.4,


OST Heaven Best Tunes & Sound
Alchemy of Souls 2,
Be Melodramatic-8.7,
Black-9,
Bulgasal: Immortal Souls- 6.1
Bloody Romance-7.3
Boys Over Flowers-8.3,
Bride of Habaek-7,
Crash Landing On You-9.1,
Good Morning Call-7.9,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
Hospital Playlist-9,
Itaewon Class-8.9,
Live Up to Your Name-7.6,
Love Between Fairy and Devil-8.9,
Lovestruck in the City-7.3,
Mine-8,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
My Mister-9.5,
Oh My Ghost-10,
Prison Playbook-8.4,
Story of Yanxi Palace-10
Touch Your Heart-8.2,

Read More

⭐Face Value✈️ °6° °goodish°

Meet Han Se “Gye.” 🏃💨 Say ta-tah! Why did she run? She won! The 🏆 is waiting for her, 60 ft away, right on the stage. Gye looks ✨/perfect/✨. Limited edition shoes encase her feet. ✨She’s sparkling✨ head-to-toe. Just as she sets that glittering foot on the stage, she ST🛑PS as if frozen. Suddenly, she pivots & hightails it outta there. At 6 minutes and 20 seconds into ep1 we'll find out why: Gye randomly transforms into a rotund middle aged man! Once a month, she gets a few moments warning and then transforms into another person - another body. She's still /her/. She just doesn't look like her.

Seo Hyun Jin (Another Miss Oh, Black Dog-8.2, Why Her?-8, Dr. Romantic) portrays Gye. Film star Gye has lots of fans. Therefore, she has lots of haters, too. After she flees the award show, the comments start, and they won't stop. Contracts and commercials evaporate💨. The rumor that she has a son just won't go away, either! (It was her. She transformed into a boy that day).

Lee Min Ki (Because This Is My First Life-7.7, My Liberation Diary-8.9) plays our ML, Seo Do “Jae”. He's the son of a chaebol. (For a change🙄). His family holds some of Gye's contracts and he's decided to cancel most of them. BUT, there's one or two that he wants to maintain. He'll need her cooperation. He presents her with a choice: Take a business trip with him and rescue the deal or pay the price of broken contract fees + a ruined reputation. They hint at it in eps1&2, but in ep3 we find out officially that he has prosopagnosia - face blindness. Around midshow, Mr. Lee starts to look pale and unhealthy with red-rimmed eyes. He seemed to be going through something, physically. I've seen other Kdramas in which many of the actors have irritated and red looking eyes. It's probably from the fine dust pollution.

So: He can't see faces and her face changes every month for a week. Yep, it's goofy like that. TBI is a 2018 release that is rated 95 on AWiki, because Awiki users are kind and very enthusiastic. It is 1 season consisting of 16 simple-headed 70-minute episodes. Here we go again: The content is sufficient for 10, maybe 12 episodes, yet they stretched it into 16, as they are wont to do. My name for that unfortunate repeating error is Malcontent. The letters “T-B-I” can refer to “traumatic brain injury,” which is an interesting metaphor, but the show is mostly cute and fun to watch. It simply could have been better. What makes it tolerable is the leads; they’re truly darling. The secondary couple is also appealing, and that makes all the difference. Ep16 is sweet. On the fun side, the wardrobe and jewelry are spectacular - The best I've ever seen.

Lee Da Hee (Search: WWW Harmony) is the breathtakingly beautiful Kang SaRa, Jae's stepsister and rival. Not only is she utterly stunning, but her wardrobe is gorgeous. It's truly one of the highlights of the show. She sports eclectic, non-matching earrings with stack necklaces and it looks fantastic. She's one of the most beautiful women Korea has to offer. Ahn Jae Hyun (Love with Flaws, Cinderella and the Four Knights-5.6) plays Ryu Eun Ho. He has the round face of a cherub, so the women go nuts for him. That isn't necessarily making his life easier. He has about a dozen odd jobs: Fawning just women get in the way, and they do not bring in the dough. Lately, he runs into SaRa at every odd job: Deliveries, coffee creations, laundering, and housecleaning are examples.

Lee Chul Min plays Director Kim, an executive at Jae’s company. His first credit is from 1991 and he has over 💯 credits. He started out as comic relief but has been getting more serious roles lately. He was really funny in the excellent comedies My Only Love Song-8.7 and Mr. Queen-9. I also enjoyed him in Black-9, the K2-8, and others. The director is Song Hyun Wook (Another Miss Oh-7.5, The King's Affection-8.3, The Golden Spoon-8.1, Introverted Boss-6.5, Revolutionary Love-5.7). He's been around. Screenwriter, Im Me A Ri, also penned the popular Doom at Your Service.

There's not a whole lot to say. The positives are the eye candy and the leads. The primary couple's interactions are quite cute, therefore, the acting and the romance are not the problem. The plot is. The writing is bog-standard average and the director stretched that lackluster writing too thin. As a result, this show requires little mental or emotional investment, so some might find it their perfect wind-down poison.

The vanilla script leads to discordant scenes like Gye's weird interactions with a director. The way they arrive at a contract doesn't seem plausible, either. Early on it caused me to have serious doubts about the writing, and possibly the directing and those doubts only deepened. Then there's the “mandatory” break-up, which is less than convincing (though it's understandable that the truth is a tough pill). The breakup only compounds their misery rather than alleviating it, which makes it frustrating for the viewer. Emotions often make no sense, I suppose. It's another example of MSS, or mandatory separation syndrome, an overdone Kdrama device where they separate a couple for a time. Here, wasn't necessary and it didn't enhance the show. Another unfortunate habit of Kdramas is “going rogue,” in which they abandon all the fantasy rules and templates they laid down early on, usually with zero justification. TBI is guilty of some mild rogue violations, which doesn't bother everyone, but such unforced errors bother me.

TBI does manage to be humorous. The obsessed public never has her relationship status correct. The internet gets ahead of the game: They are spotted out together and the viewing public assumes they're an item, but they've only just met. Later, they date in secret, so the public assumes they've broken up. The pattern repeats, and it's pretty funny.

TBI is the type of show that forces me to ask myself: Was this worth watching once? The fact that I ask says enough, perhaps. The answer for me is ☑yes, because the fashion show is insanely good, and the couple is adorable together, as is the secondary couple. There's a comfy warmth to it. I came out of this not being very impressed with the show but liking the leads even more. Now /that's/ some trick! For those of you who aren't romance junkies, don't bother. It will be The Boredom Inside.


IMHO〰🖍


RATINGS 🎬6.2 🖊6 🎭8 💓7 🦋5 🎨8.8 🎶7.6 🔚8 🤗5

LEVELS 🌞5.5 ⚡3.5 😅3 😭3 😱2 😬1 🤢2 🤔4 💤3

Shazams: Beautiful Moment, by K.Will

Age 13+

Re-📺? Naw



Fateful Magic Brought Us Together~~>>>

My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Playful kiss-7.3,
Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
Live Up To Your Name-7.6;
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.4,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
7th Time Loop-7.9,
Kiss Sixth Sense-6.8,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
While you were sleeping-7.3,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Tomorrow with you-7,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3,
Love and Redemption 10

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Ou·ch ✈️ Just Keep Swinging °7.6° °VG+°

Arranged marriages? A bitter fight for the throne? One that turns otherwise decent people and caring siblings into mortal enemies? This is exactly like a Chinese historical feature. In TBWY, they exchange the word “corporate” for ”palace”.

He's on the run, but it half-looks like a circus performance. In order to evade his pursuers, he's flipping over tables while diners’ repast is undisturbed. He's that smooth. The opening seconds remind me of the 2004 French film District B13 (Banlieue 13) in which the street kids are all amazing acrobats (It's on Prime! Ima watch it again. Hey! We're in Paris, too!) Mei was just setting the cafe's sign out on the sidewalk as part of her opening ritual when Ou pauses for a microsecond to decide his next move. Then he flips right over her. Mei screams and ducks. She didn't have to do either, though. Mei is getting ready to return to China. She misses her bf. She's saying her goodbyes. Ou is headed back, too. Those pursuers? They were sent by his Fughee, chairdad.

TBWY is a 2019 release that is rated 7.7 on MAL. Lin Ji Dong (First Marriage, Hi, 30 Years Old!) is the Screenwriter & Director. It is 1 season consisting of 65 45-minute episodes, which is a bundle. Could it have been shorter? But of course! Unlike so many shows, though, they keep the pace steady and keep marching forward. They don't wander around. I didn't find myself getting annoyed, which is something that seems to be happening more quickly these days. There are so many shows that start to drag due to empty filler and plain silly stuff. None of that happened here. Chinese modern-day dramas aren't for everyone. There's a premium on simplicity & stress relief. They love their melodrama, too. Simple doesn't mean “dumb.” They have a good handle on human nature. Like old black and white movies, watching at first seems foreign (unintended pun) but the only way to assess if it is for you is to dive in. Precursor: China does NOT do realism. If your white sneakers are always 🥛⬜, and you tend to prefer realism, China is not your place. I love fantasy and sci-fi most of all with romance being a close 2nd. I would argue that a good romance IS fantasy, but I digress. Anyone who argues this show and ones like it are too low IQ is really saying that s/he prefers realism. That's hard-wiring. It isn't a matter of right or wrong.

In some ways the cutesy-wootsy dynamic of the 2 leads reminds me of my marriage. I was married to a guy who was always making jokes, always teasing, and always poking fun. I was more focused on goals and accomplishing things. He would pick on me until I laughed or yelled at him to 🛑! At that point, he would start laughing and say: "You're so much fun.” I'm not the fun one! He is! Ou thinks Mei is the fun one, but Ou is the FUN one, and he's always good natured. She's become his favorite plaything. He thinks she's a blast. It's adorable. He's adorable.

Of course, headed back to China from Paris, she's next to him on the plane. She doesn't remember him from the sidewalk, nor the way he made her scream. With all the security detail around him, she figures he's a star. So, she drinks too much champagne and bugs him for a selfie with her, and his autograph. He's had enough of her! It's a shame that he grabs her suitcase instead of his own. He's going to have to see her again.

Sun Shao from Long Bad Daddy is Ou Yang. There's no way this guy isn't naturally happy IRL. Ou's a good natured kid who recognizes a good girl when he sees one. This actor is a great male lead and he makes the show. His father is the chairman, a ruthless businessman who has stepped over the line a few times. His mother is what would have been called a “handsome” woman. That's all I'll say. She isn't happy. She's been drinking heavily. Wan Si Wei (The New Painted Skin) portrays the truly good and lovely “Li” Dong, Ou's bestie. He's darling and delightfully debonair. Chai Bi Yun from Be Your Own Light is Lin Mei Ya, our FL. Mei was a sickly child. She learned to endure pain and hold it in with a bright smile. She was in the hospital bed, but it was she who was cheering up her own father. Now, Mei is bright, sweet, and adorable. She leaps into her boyfriend's arms when he picks her up at the airport. She missed him so much! She's so happy to see him! It's a shame he's been cheating on her.

Mei's father runs an outdoor eatery and he's sweating over a hot stove when she arrives at home. We intermittently go between Mei's reunion and Ou's. He's eating with his father, mother and sister at a table that could fit 20. The food is hot, but the climate is cold. His father's displeased with him for going to Paris and never telling the family. Zhang Qiu Ge (Xi Shi: Beauty of Spring and Autumn, 1911 Revolution, The Glorious Era) plays the Ou dad, Ou Chang Lin. The hairrrr. His hair says it all. Politicians wish they could coif like that. It's ramrod straight in the air and black and white like Cruella Deville. His head is quite large and the hair is doubly large. “Baba Ou” has largeness, but he has no largess. He seems oily and greedy, and he's thoroughly unlikable. Ou’s sister, Rui, always looks miserable, and his mother is detached. Fuhgee starts lecturing Ou about what he needs to do if he ever wants to take over the company. Rui is doing a great job, Ou points out. She should just have it. Sis, fed up, leaves. Mom then drops a comment like cold acid: “You don't want to give the company to her because she's not your real daughter, correct?” 🌬Brrrr. We cut back to Mei who is showing off her new cooking skills. Everyone is smiling and warm. Everyone but Mei's bf “Chen” Zhe (Zhang Tao from Nothing but You, The Old Dreams).

Later that night they discover the bag switch. They sort of get to know e/o by rifling through the suitcases. She watches his MMA fights. He reads her prose. When they finally begin the exchange, she goes to Ou’s company and learns that Chen works there! He never mentioned the new job that she can recall. She seems not to notice how uncomfortable he is with her there. By the end of ep3, Chen has broken up with Mei. WOOSH! He's gone. It's SO SAD. He did it at her father's restaurant. Right across the street, there's Ou, hanging with Li. They see everything, including Mei sobbing in the middle of the road. Ou & Li scoop her up. Li has been watching their interactions all day in near amazement. He seems interested in Mei himself. He's been watching her work the food stall from his family's restaurant across the street for years. Now, he sees the tension between these two.

One of the many trolls in the cave is Li WeiWei, Li's little sister (Shen Tao Ran from Stealing Dragon and Turning Cat). He got all the goodness & she got all the brattiness of the family. She sees Ou as her property (She claims he promised to marry her if she completed her 4 years of study in Japan without bothering anyone. He doesn't recall that). She notices that Ou is too differential to Mei, and he's spending entirely too much time with Mei, so she tortures Mei. Li has to step in and re-educate his spoiled brat of a sister. She keeps pulling deranged stunts and gets herself (and others) into no end of trouble. WeiWei is spoiled. At some point, though, Mei decides that Weiwei is cute and treats her well no matter what she does. It's a working strategy.

Ou is also immature. He doesn't want to work. Fughee is forcing him to. When he sees Mei pour wine on top of a snobby girl who insults her, he asks her to be his secretary. She needs a job and he does love a good fight. Also, he needs a secretary who can stand up to pushy interferers. Immediately, these two are comfortable with e/o. One could have guessed that as Ou's secretary, Mei is kickin’ it! He loves to tease her but he continues to reach out to her and help her. The ugly break-up Mei suffered is also weighing on Ou, who does NOT like Chen. He pieces together Chen’s career path; his stratospheric rise at the company can't be random. The way everything played out, he believes Chen has a rich and powerful female backer. He suspects one of the department managers. He has no idea it's his own sister.

DAYAM! Ou's sister and Chen get U.G.L.Y. - they ain't got no alibi, they UGLY! It's very weirdly typical of people who have done somebody wrong. Feelings of guilt make them angrier at the person they've wronged and they get even uglier, convincing themselves that somehow, this person deserves it. All they're doing is taking out their misplaced anger at themselves on the other person. Rui ends up pausing and changing course, which most people can't do. Chen remains selfish until the end - Chen’s insecurity led to pride which led to greed which led to him turning himself into a gremlin. It's a tale as old as time. As we watch Chen reflect on his life we'll see that he wants alot of things. He was an orphan with nothing. He doesn't want to love like that again. The temptation of marrying into the rich and powerful is too much for him.

In the head-scratcher-and-other-notables department is Ou's hair, which is an uneven disaster. Additionally, Mei's Aunt comes to live with them. The fact that I couldn't reach the screen and choke her out was causing me major stress. Fate? We have a long string of coincidences bringing these two together, but when the show is 2/3 completed everything blows up on our couple. There's shocking revelations and shocking events. It doesn't look good for them. Ou goes on a fact finding mission but leaves Mei in the lurch without a word. This is the worst time of her life, and he's ghosted her! It doesn't entirely make sense, and it's brutal. The car chases, fight scenes, and action in general are quite respectable. Ou's father's dirt brown pinstripe suit may be the ugliest suit I've ever seen. Du Ruo Nan (see spoiler section for more on her) and her friend wear outfits that hurt my eyes, but Siyu's wardrobe is to die for. In ep37 Siyu's ensemble is stunning. She has an asymmetric hemmed off the shoulder white dress with a high slit and star earrings. The outfit set my heart aflutter. {Still ~~> Siyu- SEE YOU! So sorry, but they've been through a near death experience together. They've been forged together by combat. That's an unbreakable bond. You don't have a chance.} The proposal! Oh. My. It's inspiring.

There's some gems tucked away. The potential resolution is rather obvious, but that doesn't detract from the storytelling. The plot is on the intricate side & it feels like a cousin to the amazing Kdrama SKY Castle-9, which is a bit of a heart-stabber. One character goes to Li for advice, wondering if a situation is too hopeless to even try. Li says that the outcome shouldn't be the focus. Enjoy the process; nobody should give up before they try. Nice. “Can an emotion be given to others? Do you know what your kindness means to me? That is cruel. It's even an insult.” One character tries to step out of the way from a potential romantic relationship to make room for another interested party. It was a cruelty to try & give away that person's love. Very nice.



QUOTE🗣

We should be honest with ourselves in front of love.


IMHO〰🖍

📣7.5 📝7 🎭8.3 💓7 🦋6 🎨7.5 🎵/🔊7.5 🔚🤗6 ▪ 🌞5.5 ⚡5 😅3 😭4.5 😱3 😯2 🤢2 🤔4.5 💤1

Shazams: tried. No results. Spoti doesn't have anything either. There's a couple of very nice songs.


Age 14+ Language: R-rated w/ f💣s - not much.


Re-📺? It isn't impossible

In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

🌐💓 -
C🇨🇳:
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8; Everyone Loves Me-7.4,
I Hear You-7.3 ‘19 so cute but with many flaws,
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Meteor Garden-7.4 ‘18- 70% flowing 30% dragging,
Overlord-8.4 ‘20,
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Wait, My Youth-8.4

K🇰🇷 :
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Touch Your Heart 8.2;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5


Romance junkies only: Accidentally in Love-6.5 ‘18 B-level scripting, acting, and directing, but still fun/strangely relaxing to watch,
Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine but many object to an outrageous stunt the ML pulls,
Boss & Me-7,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
You are my destiny-6.8 cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Meteor Garden-7.4 - 70% flowing 30% dragging and BOF is better,
Hidden Love-7.8




⛔Spoilers⛔

⛔️
⛔️
⛔️
This is more of a venting session than anything else.

Our FL also plays “Du” Ruo Nan. We don't learn about Du right away but hints are dropped early on about her. In the teen episodes we learn that Mei has a twin. Mei was adopted out because of her heart condition. Her mother could not afford to get her treatment. Ms Chai plays two completely different roles in the show. Du is a warrior and her fight scenes are better than Ou's. She has to go up against the tide gangster at one point and that gangster dude is truly scary.

They bring the pain after episode 40. When dad's in the hospital, it makes no sense that none of these wealthy people in Mei's life help out. Ou's leaving for Thailand without a word hurt badly. They claim telling her that she's Ou's half-sister would devastate her, so they leave her alone and penniless to deal with her father in the hospital. It's awful, and it doesn't make sense. Then she's fired. She demands an explanation and he treats her cruelly, supposedly to protect her from being hurt worse. Boo-kan-aw! This is ridiculous. And it HURTS! Sure, he asked Li to take care of her, but it's still too cruel. Siyu is acting like complete trash, but what Ou is doing to Siyu is wrong. He's using her.

Why didn't Pops rat Chen out? What would he cover for him? Chen’s face when the family meets up and Chm Ou says Mei & her sister are his daughters. OH SNAPPITY-SNAP! Irony is a cruel joker.

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✒The Fan & the Sash and the Locust & the Cricket & the ◾️bird & the ◽️bird °7.5° °VG°

WRTW is the same old fare: A jumble of factions, a fight for the throne, decades old machinations, and wheels within wheels. It's all still tasty to me. Our leads first build a tentative trust and see that their goals are aligned. Teamwork quickly becomes love, but the heavy weight of responsibility may not leave any space for love to thrive. Their relationship is truly cute. They generate sincere warmth, but most of the time, it stops short of actual 🔥heat🔥. There's a whiff of perfunctory ceremony about them (tbf, that does fit their characters). WRTW is not really a romance, though it is /about/ a romance. It’s not a political thriller, either. It is supposed to be both but it stays on the surface and never reaches any depths.

The show is a 2022 release that is rated a whopping 8.7 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 40 45-minute episodes. Based on the novel: "Qie Shi Tian Xia” / Let's Try The World, by Qing Lengyue, it's directed by: Yin Tao, Yu Yonggang & Shi Zhanli. Director Yin Tao is a master - a grand shifu. His credits include Ancient Love Poetry-8.6, Love and Redemption-10, and Under The Power-8.6 - powerhouses, all.

I've seen a few of these actors before. Yang Yang plays ML Feng Lan “Xi” / Hei Feng Xi. This is the show where I was determined to decide ~ once and for all ~ if he can act (other than playing a smug know-it-all). {I wrote that prior to his 1st appearance in the show. Right from the start, he's a know-it-all😏! But he's not excessively /smug/, at least} As beauteous as he is, long hair does not suit him. That I already knew from Love 020-6.8. This especially applies when it is done up tightly. When it's loose or disheveled it looks better. His acting ranges from thoroughly acceptable to VG. On acting skill alone, I fear he tops at high average: He gets his gigs for his looks. He is a beautiful man. I'm not turning away - there's enough special in that sauce. Here, he has some nice moments as a romantic lead. Zhao Lu Si is FL “Feng” Xi Yun / Bai Feng Xi. She's a natural, and she keeps getting prettier. She walks with an athletic spring here and her backbone is ramrod straight. Feng is /wrapped/ tightly.

Kai Jiang plays the Tianshuang Sect leader at the place where Feng makes her home. He played the emperor in the marvelous Rebel Princess-8.5. What’s interesting is how he looks much healthier and younger here, just a year later, so it must all be by design. Leon Lai is the prince, Huang Chao. He was in Ancient Love Poetry as a wronged husband, devoted disciple, and father. In Overlord-8.4, he's a fussy, downright persnickety clothing designer who has his world turned upside-down by a street ruffian, and in The King's Avatar-7.9 he's a gregarious gamer who's not afraid to take fashion risks. These parts are all nothing alike, and he is wonderful in all of them. I am a fan. Feng Qi Wu, the proud and strong matriarch of the Feng family, is played by Xuan Lu. In The Untamed-9 she plays the quintessential sweet and feminine sister. I hardly recognized her - so it's easy to recognize her superb acting skills.

WRTW suffers slightly from big-budget disease. Is Tianshuang Sect any good? It's hard to tell. At times they are vanquished rather easily. The fact that it makes us wonder is a problem in and of itself. Yin Tao is exceptionally talented - probably a genius. His past successes cleared the way for bigger and bigger budgets. At times, the money and the expectation to deliver can create an environment where creativity is stifled. WRTW is a visual masterpiece, but it doesn't have the plot intricacy and range of human emotions that some of Tao’s past works have. I settled into watching one episode per day. That was enough - the show never created the fever or the hunger to keep going; I was never anxious to see what comes next. I certainty won't be in a hurry to rewatch it.

It doesn't have the Yin Tao magic that has enchanted me in the past. WRTW is good - it's VG, but not excellent. The last handful of episodes even started to feel a smidge like a chore. I found I was not emotionally invested in the characters. Not one of them. Love and Redemption has some decent special effects but, with 55 action-packed episodes to fill, most of the effects are clumsy to the point of being uncomfortable. I talked my son into watching an episode and he shook his head at Sefan's first fight scene with a CGI beast in ep1. CGI and special effects are important, but they won't make me want to watch a show again. I watched L&R twice in a row, /despite/ the sometimes deficient effects, because the story, acting, and dialogue are superb. WRTW is more visually sophisticated, but I feel indifferent as to whether I'll ever watch it again. I expect I'll watch L&R 10 or 20 times before my life is over. That is the essence of big-budget disease. All the $$$ distracts from the matters of the heart - the essentials.

There are funny moments on the way to love. A lady minister of the court is interested in Xi but he only has eyes for Feng. He introduces the two women, and they end up getting on so well that Xi can never get Feng alone to confess his feelings! No doubt, WRTW is worth a watch. The filming is gorgeous from the start. The costume set my heart aflutter. The towns and sets are gorgeous. The art in the show is sublime. One of the interior sets has all the woodwork painted a pale green. I may just copy that. Batsuits! We see a ninja flying around in a bonafide BATSUIT. That's straight FIRE! It's cool how their fighting styles reflect their personalities. Feng is compact, tidy, economical, and understated. Yet, she's shockingly effective. Xi's style is flashy, expansive, sweeping, and downright showy. It all leads to cool fights, super cool weapons, and bad@$$ moves. Ep37 has particularly impressive battles and fights.

Fantasy fans will definitely enjoy this sampler platter. For fans of this show, wait until you see some of the even better features! China rules the fantasy world, and a world of wonders awaits you!


QUOTES📢

The more powerful you are in cooperation, the more benefit you'll get.

Have you convinced yourself of your own lies?


〰🖍 IMHO

📣7 📝7 🎭7 💓6 🦋7 🌞7 🎨9 ⚡6.5 🎵/🔊6 😅3 😭5 😱3 😯4 😖3 🤔4 💤3 🔚7

Age 12+ Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned

Re-📺? It's likely since I'm such a fan of the director and the FL.


In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain-7.5 ‘19,
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Story of Yanxi Palace-10
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9

K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9

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⚙⛓ Games Ghosts Guys & Fierce Glaze ⛓⚙ °6° °high average°

20 years ago, Rong Xuan was killed at Mt Qingya. The fabled Armory he left behind would make anybody invincible, but it can't be opened without the glazed armor trinket. That Lyminster was smashed into half a dozen pieces and distributed around the martial arts sects. To open the Armory, one would have to collect all the pieces, /find/ the Armory, and unlock the door. So, e'erbody and their uncle Bai is looking for the pieces, including Prince Jin. He's been secretly training assassins and planning a revolt. They're killing e/o over rumors.

We watch Shu (Zhang Zhe Han, who starred in and directed August, is our ML, Zhou Zi Shu)
tell the royals that he can be their sword but he only has talent for fighting. He cannot help rule. He asks for a quiet death - alone in his hometown. He's already inserted 6 of the 7 nails, you see, to prevent him from ever being used as a weapon of mass destruction again. By inserting them over a period of months, he'll retain half of his martial arts and most of his reason for most of the 3 years until his death. The viewer is left with so many questions. Who is this guy? Why is he loyal to this King? Why did he go on a 10-year Journey past the point of no return? Why did he kill everybody he loves? “Whey-shima?” And why, oh why, did he don a face mask, disguise himself as a beggar, and proceed to live the life of a bum, drinking in the streets? That's what he was up to when Xing & Xiang first lay eyes on him.

⛔Mini spolier: The Window of Heaven leader (Norman Chui) will not submit to Prince Jin. The prince demands that Shu kill his Shifu and the sect leaders or he would kill them anyway, and wipe out the 81 remaining disciples along with them. Shu carried out Jin's evil orders. He saw no other way to save the lives of his followers. Instead of a quick death, Shu inserted the nails of seven torments in his Shifu. The nails slowly take the senses, reason, and then life itself over the course of 3 years. His final move: Punish himself with the nails of seven torments and go live as a bum while he waits to die. That's how Xing stumbles over him. Thus, they meet.⛔

WoH is a 2021 release that is rated 8.6 on MDL. The directors are Gary Sing (Eagles and Youngster), Jones Ma (The World of Fantasy), & Li Hong Yu (Please Don’t Spoil Me). Screenwriters Xiao Chu & Qi Ming worked on Miss Ye in Wonderland, and this was based on the original work by Priest, who also brought us Justice in the Dark. It is 1 season consisting of 36 45-minute episodes, and ep1 is not an easy one. WoH has been associated with the masterpiece, the Untamed-8.6. They're both based on novels involving BL stories in a typical Chinese fantasy template, but that's where the similarities end. TU is a five-star Michelin meal while WoH is Panda Express. The depth of the 2 leads’ devotion, in TU, is breathtaking. WoH is too sprawling. It wanders and is unfocused. Slow paced things are fine, however this teeters on dragging. The bond between the two MLs is not established well. WoH is an outline when held up to the rich tapestry of TU. It is lightweight, and flirty, and never leaves the shallow end. TU is so complex that I couldn't rate it a 10 because it is confusing, but that's actually a good problem. I'm looking forward to the day that I watch TU again because I expect to be rewarded with more insight in the second go-round. No one could ever accuse WoH of being complex.

Zhou Ye (I loved her in Everyone Loves Me-7.4) is Gu “Xiang,” and Gong Jun (Begin Again) plays her master, Wen Ke ‘Xing”. Xing recognizes Shu as a “variable” and takes him back to Mirror Lake Manor. About Xiang: She's so dang cute. She's partially comic relief, and she handles it well. About Xing: He acts like he's 35,000 ft up in the air, looking down on everything. He's good natured, but he's a touch snide and condescending. Is he joking or mocking? It's a bit of a hybrid. Every now and then he gets a glint in his eyes that's downright scary, and we'll see that he can be utterly menacing. This is not a guy that one wants to anger. Yet, he claims his nickname is “Philanthropist Man.”

One of the martial arts sects in the mix is actually a group of ghosts. Chen Zi Han plays
Tragicomic Ghost or Xi Sang Gui. She is gorgeous, and her first credited work was from 1988, so she's been around for a while. Her look is the most beautiful of the show. Some of her highest rated pieces are A Happy Life, A Dream within a Dream, & New Life Begins. In Ghost Valley, Hanged Ghost has stolen the chief Devil's piece of the glazed armor! He demands EVERYONE work on retrieving the rest of it as well as eliminating Hanged Ghost. The one who is successful will be the leader of The 10 Devils. Ghost Valley's first target for searching is the Mirror Lake Manor. Their raid and razing of the place wakes up Shu and Xing. The Ghosts Prevail.

Shu gets rooked into escorting the youngest son of the manor, and sole survivor, to the safety of his uncle's nearby alliance. Xing knows there's something interesting and mysterious about Shu, so he tries to get them all together as a traveling party. Shu refuses, at first. Nevertheless, they keep running into eachother on the road and Xing’s fascination only grows. They each suspect the other is looking for the glazed armor. At the end of ep10 we learn more about who Xing is. It's doubtful that Shu is unaware or would be completely surprised. Both of these travelers have been very short on curiosity and very long on observation. They each know they're dealing with a martial arts master. Probably a master among the masters. Neither one of them is simple. Neither one of them is completely good, and neither one is completely evil either. They're complex people.

Sun Xi Lun (A Love So Beautiful, Looking Up) plays Zhang Cheng “Ling,” the young master of Mirror Lake Manor who has now been orphaned. His family's sect, of the world-renowned 5 Lakes Alliance, was wiped out in a single night. Xing ends up assisting Shu in escorting him to the closest family he has. This kid is a bit of a wimp. He's practically effeminate. It doesn't make sense that the child of a high level martial arts sect wouldn't know how to take or land a punch. Shu & Xing deliver this kid to his relatives. They aren't the warmest bunch. His uncles are only thinking about how they can use him to their advantage, and one of them arranges for him to marry his daughter. The sect doesn't accept him because he's behind in his martial arts (the show made it clear why that would be, so they are bullying him and he's miserable. Xiang visits him so she's aware of this.

I knew Huang You Ming looked familiar as Ye Bai Yi. When I looked him up I realized I've seen him in Song of Youth-7.2, Boss & Me-7, & Love, Redemption-10, and Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (which I abandoned at a perfect ending at ep 49. Up until that point, it's outstanding, but then I learned only heartbreak was coming and I decided to put that on hold till I was ready for it). He plays the kind of guy who is not up to any good, usually. Here, he's an ancient master (He was Shu's master's master). Xing can't stand him, however. These two end up spatting constantly. Their comedic timing is exceptional, so it's amusing. When he shows up, things begin to get a little more interesting. The show borderline drags until the late teen episodes. As it approaches episode 20 it becomes more tolerable.

I go into shows cold, most times I don't even read the synopsis, because even when I do, the opinions generated by doing so rarely align with the show itself. By now I've loved too many shows that wouldn't have appealed to me based on the synopsis alone. WoH is based on a BL novel which isn't my dopamine factory. I'm watching it for its value as a fantasy piece only, and it feels gutted. When factoring in Heaven Official's Blessing-8.8 and Legend of Exorcism-8.8, which are shows of striking beauty and better romantic moments, I'm 3-for-4 in liking the BL pieces I've seen. I just don't like WoH. I do appreciate the significance of fighting against heavy government censorship and oppression. Many fans of this show clearly place a high premium on what it represents.

As for romance, it's surfacey, just like the rest of the show. Xing is a brash flirter, and he never lets up. Shu is stoic - he's miserable, actually. He's probably the type to fall hard, once his resistance is whittled down. (With him, everything is forever). The secondary couple is cute. Xiang was just using Cao in the beginning. He's too easy and naive! At some point, she realizes not only how much he'll miss her when she's gone, but also how much he'll be taken advantage of when she's not there to protect him. That really p!$$es her off. She then takes her anger out on him. That ain't fair! 😅

“Are they even human? The righteous clans of the martial arts world? The difference between them and the Ghost Valley is that one is blatantly evil, while the other is wearing a cover of benevolence, justice, and morality. As soon as they see flesh, they can't wait to tear off their human skin and start barking and biting! How exciting.” Shu looked the villain in the opening. Slowly, the viewer realizes that he is not an evil person. Whatever he did, there must have been good reasons, whether it was the right decision or not. Around the halfway mark we see that another character, who posed as someone kind and decent, has actually been pulling the strings in the background with nothing short of evil genius. He is a mass murderer. He murdered his own. It seems that he's being held up in contrast to Shu.

I wouldn't go as far as saying WoH isn't worth watching. Arguably, WoH is worth watching just to see the loud-mouthed, snide, red haired dwarf. Maybe it's just me, but he really tickled my fancy. The Longyuan Cabinet kid also tickled my fancy. There's plenty of great elements. They just failed to tie it together well.

What else is there to like? Scorpion Sect, Five Lakes Alliance, Window of Heaven… The Chinese are just better at naming things. So many elements are familiar, but unique. I am enthralled with the elegance and artistry of Chinese features. There's a cadence that seems to hail directly from ancient times. The acting is always superb. Turning a Chinese fantasy piece is usually like walking through the looking glass. It's a complete immersion into a magical land. The sect that got my blood stirred the most is Longyuan Cabinet. They devised all the fancy booby traps, machinery and thinganaobs. It was they who designed the World's Armory. Their leader has a disease that keeps him in the size of a child and wheelchair-bound. He's pasty and extremely arrogant. He's absolutely a delightful character to watch, and the kid’s acting is excellent. The costumes are gorgeous. The women are gorgeous. The men are, too.

The filming and artistry is excellent. In ep22 they crank up the action with some rousing fights. It's fun to see how Ling's training is paying off. They've been working him relentlessly - on just footwork - and none of the bad guys can land a strike. They're helping out an orphan, and it turns out one of them was an orphan who was not helped out and it had wide reaching negative effects. We see poison coursing through Shu's veins and the special effects are pretty good. China has come a long way in that arena. I've seen laughable special effects in shows that are otherwise, some of the best things I've ever seen. Hollywood is the opposite: Glorious special effects, but empty and soulless content. I'll take the shows with souls, please. Paper medallions fall like snow. They are weapons that kill and we see many embedded in the trees. Cool. The beggar sect are fearsome and well organized fighters.

The martial arts are thrilling, tbf. Knowing this is a Danmei novel is messing with my head, though. As Shu is fighting 75, or so, beggars, Xing feels no need to get involved. He sits at a table with a cup of wine and yells out encouragements, such as: “Your soft sword is too soft.” (Seu was smacking down foes with a wet towel). Then Xing yells “Get out your weapon.” These lines have to be /intentional/ double-entendres, don't they? Then, there's all that flute playing… “I did not expect this man to blow this type of flute.” 😜😜😜 That's straight out of the g@y joke book!

The ending is pretty good. The wrap-up is too brief, but the last couple episodes are better than what came before. I'm left with the impression, given WoH's popularity, that this will appeal to those for whom BL is a particular passion more than the general.public at large.



QUOTES🗣

I was strong in will but weak in power.

Reasons are no more than excuses in a nice disguise.


IMHO〰🖍


📣6 📝6.8 🎭7.6 💓5 🦋5 🎨8 🎵/🔊7 🔚8 🤗3 ▪ 🌞4⚡6 😅2 😭5 😱3 😯3 🤢4 🤔4 💤4.5

The music is truly lovely

Age 14+ D@mn, Throat slashing, sexual content. Rated: Everyone


Re-📺? No


⚡/🔮
Ancient Love Poetry-8.6 21,
Douluo continent-9.1 21,
Eternal love-8.3 17,
Eternal Love Of dream-7.4 20,
Handsome siblings-8.7,
Heavenly SWORD-9,
House of Flying Daggers-8.5,
Legend of the two sisters in chaos-7.7 20 the ending is bittersweet,
Love and Redemption-10,
Love Between Fairy & Devil-8.9,
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain-7.5,
Overlord-8.4,
The Princess Royal-8.3,
The Princess Weiyoung-8,
The Rebel Princess-8.5,
The Rise of Phoenixes-9,
Ruyi's Royal love in the palace ‘18 (episodes 1 - 49 are a 9.3,
The Sword and the Brocade-8.6 ‘21 (in the style of ancient Chinese opera),
Under the Power-8.6,
The Untamed-8.6 19,
Who Rules The World-7.5 22,

Netflix's Marco Polo-8

In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

🌐💓 -
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Wait, My Youth-8.4


🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9

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Nao & Ue @ U °7.6° VG

S2 opens with Nao dreaming of a wedding. First comes college. They're going to colleges across the street from eachother. Neo spies on Ue's campus the first day. He's voted the new campus hottie (of course). Someone comments on how ✨ all the girls are in college. Neo looks around and notices that all these girls do seem to sparkle. She's getting nervous.

Nao picks up a new friend at her campus. Yoshida Madoka from Fujoshi, Ukkari Gei ni Kokuru plays the adorable Ota Kayo, who is known to sport two high ponytails that she's fashioned into buns. They almost look like fairy horns.

Another friend they pick up is Natsume, who seems like an insincere and cavalier womanizer on the surface, but he's actually a good guy. S2, in part, revolves around him and Neo getting into all kinds of situations that would be considered romantic if they were each unattached. In this case, it's only fodder for Ue's jealousy.

Ue & Nao each separately get talked into going to the matchmaking mixer, though he was only told there was a party with food. Nao was a little bit angry at him and decided to step out on her own. Ue walks in just as Marina is lying, saying that neither she nor Nao ever had a boyfriend (😳❕). Ue's voted most popular, Neo is voted most submissive.

Ue ends up working in the school lab. The main lab assistant is a beautiful but nerdy woman who is borderline unhinged. She's a blast. Takahashi Maryjun from Avalanche & My Dear Exes is Kumanomido Saeko. Yes, it sounds like “Psycho.” She's got some luscious lips for a woman in a lab coat.

In S2 it becomes clear how much growing up this pair has to do, emotionally. They started as roommates, so they continue to live as roommates, and do not get very romantic with eachother. Neither one of them seems to know how. Neither one of them has very much experience. Ue seems to think it would demean him to be jealous. Nao takes that as him not carrying at all

Abe decides to write and produce his own play. His prince and princess become ill at the last moment and have to back out. Nao ends up being his new princess. Ue refuses to play the prince so (🥁🥁🥁) Natsume gets the role.

This time around I thought eps6-8 started to drag slightly. Nanase's pained expression gets really old really quickly. Weirdly, the first time I watched I thought the entirety of S2 was pure confection and the payoff for suffering through S1. So, please don't argue with me. I'm doing fine all by myself. The mood one is in when watching a feature factors heavily into the perception.

“Don't make me laugh. You're afraid, right? That she might leave you herself. And that the other guy might make her happier. That's your excuse. You're just running away to avoid getting hurt. In the end, the thing you hate the most is getting hurt. You still love yourself more, right? Right,” says psycho. She stabbed him. She pierced Ue's 💔. His jealousy makes him believe something because he /fears/ it's true, even though the irrefutable evidence is that she's only loyal to him.

Nao doesn't know how to tell Ue about a pass another guy made, so she keeps it quiet. Her friend tells her it's smartest to say something right away. ‘The longer you wait to tell a secret the more important or big it seems’. That's good advice. Another method, though, is when a guy (especially your boyfriend's friend or family member) makes a move, punch him in the jaw, or opt for the low attack. Done and over. Easy peasy.

S2 ep5 is entitled: “Playing a tragic heroine is fun.” All that attention is fun, until it's not. It only satisfies for a few moments. Furthermore, when everybody else catches on to that, then ALL we have is tragic heroes & heroines (just look at social media). Furthermore, more and more minor things get built into tragedies. If we're all tragic heroines, then almost none of us are. We're miserable because we're totally consumed with our own miserable selves. The key is to forget yourself once in awhile. One of the best ways to do that is to go volunteer or help somebody. Another way is to watch Chinese dramas. They'll teach you about suffering, lol. They make me feel better.

It seems like all Neo talks about is her love life. While she tries to help her friends, even a lot of that is about her. Her kindness is at times about her. We see that in society today. In the name of kindness, alot of it is actually about feeding pride. Many kindnesses undermine people and hurt them in the end. Nao really does love everybody around her. That doesn't mean she can't be prideful and her actions aren't wrapped around her ego. There is nobody among us who does not have a pride problem. That's part of being born 100% selfish, as we all are. It chameleons into many different colors.

Onlookers can sense fragility in their relationship and most try to help. Two others concoct a plan to split them up. The 2 plotters come around in the end. The look of relief on their faces is noteworthy. When you Let It Go - all those pretensions - the selfishness, the devious plans, the lying - especially lying to ourselves - When you Let It Go, it's such a RELIEF. Take all that energy and work on yourself: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. People get pulled away from the light by what they want: Jealousy and covetousness. Hand in hand, they're of the fabled seven deadly sins. We get to see them under the microscope in S2. In this beautiful but flawed world, we are always tempted to do wrong. That's because we're born 100% selfish. Maturity is all about learning to be unselfish; to have a loyal, kind, forgiving, and true character. Doing the right thing & choosing the right thing is always the hardest thing to do, but it's worth the effort for the freedom it supplies.


QUOTE🗣

You're the type that hurts others without even knowing about it.

You decided all on your own and went ahead changing it…. That means you're only thinking about yourself.


IMHO〰🖍

📣7.8 📝7.5 🎭8 💓7 🦋5 🎨7 🎵/🔊7 🔚 ▪ 🌞7 ⚡3 😅4.5 😭2 😱1 😯3.5 🤢1 🤔4.5 💤0 🤗5.8


Age + S2. sexual situations and discussion

Language: F💣

Rated S1-G, S2-15+

Re-📺? Did

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⭐ A Stage of Their Own ⛩️ °8.5° °Outstanding°

OH, the acting, The Acting, THE ACTING! Every episode that's what I thought. Every muscle twitch of Ra Mi Ran's set my heart aflutter.

It's 1931. It's COLD. Kang So “Bok” and her father (played by Choi Jung Woon & Lee Deok Hwa) stop at the local theater. Dad needs his daughter to have a place to call home - times are tough. The theater owner looks skeptical, but when Bok begins to talk, it's obvious that someone special is before them.

Next, it's 1956. Wartime.

Jeong “Nyeon” has an astonishing voice. She's digging up shells in low tide with the rest of the women. When her mother finds her singing along with them, she drags her daughter off. “I knew she would get angry as soon as Nyeon started humming along,” says one of the marms. We then watch thugs selling “protection” come through, upending stalls, and terrorizing the smallfolk. Nyeon distracts the gangsters by singing. That's what got Moon's attention.

“Moon” Ok Gyeong (Jung Eun Chae from The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3, Pachinko & Anna-8.1) is riding in the back of a car, like a celebrity. That's because she IS a celebrity. Here's the shocker - she's dressed as a man, and it's pretty convincing. This was a time when the men were off to war and the women kept everything going, including live theater. Moon plays male leads, as gorgeous as she is ~ and this gurl is a looker. Straightaway, after complaining that everything is boring for her now, even singing, is when she hears Nyeon's warbling. Moon exits the car to hear Nyeon demand money before she'll sing again. No problem there. Moon makes sure Nyeon will gladly sing again.

Directed by Jung Ji In (The Red Sleeve, Late Night Hospital) and adapted from the webtoon "Jeong Nyeon," about Pansori theater. Written by Seo Yi Re, JTSiB is a 2024 release that is rated 92 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 12 70-minute episodes. Per AI, “Pansori is a traditional Korean narrative singing style where a vocalist (sorikkun) and a drummer (gosu) tell a story through song, narration, and stylized gestures. It combines expressive singing, spoken narration, and dramatic movements, accompanied by the rhythmic drumming of a buk. “Cheonguseong" refers to a clear, pure, and melodious vocal quality, often associated with traditional Korean singing, particularly pansori.” In the show they describe it as a clear and strong voice, gifted from the heavens, immersed with a feeling of deep sorrow. "Gukgeuk refers to a unique genre of Korean all-female theater. It emerged after Korea's liberation from Japan in the 1940s, gaining popularity in the 1950s, particularly during the post-war period. In gukgeuk, women perform all roles, including male characters, often blending traditional pansori with Western opera influences.” Of all the Cheonguseongs in the world, Nyeon‘s voice is the Cheonguseongiest - just like her mother's. Moon gives Nyeon tickets to that night's performance, but MOM threatens to shave Nyeon's head as a punishment for singing in public. Mom sure does hate singing. Waddup with that?

On the other hand, the village women are quite impressed with Nyeon's singing, and they're /very/ impressed with the tickets. Nyeon wasn't sure what she would do, but their begging her to take them to the performance spurs her to attend. It's not hard to guess that Nyeon was blown away by live theater. Moon played the prince. The entire theater erupted in glee at the closing - they sealed the performance with a kiss.

Enticed by Moon's coaxing, Nyeon dramatically escapes her mother's clutches and passes through the audition - barely. Ra Mi Ran (Black Dog-8.2, Reply 1988-8.6, The Good Bad Mother) is grown up Bok, whom we met in the opening. She now manages the theater. She explains to Nyeon that, since Moon brought her, she has to work from the bottom so that everyone can see that she made it by merit, not connections. She then asks what her mother's name was? Bok looks surprised when she doesn't recognize the name. Nyeon's singing had taken her right back to her friend from her youth. Nyeon seems like the ghost of Pansori past. The whole audition scene is mesmerizing.

Nyeon‘s presence, on the other hand, is disturbing to most of her classmates. She's a bumpkin. She's a fishmonger. She smells! Yet MOON brought her /personally/. They are disgusted AND jealous. Kim Tae Ri from Space Sweepers-7.6, Revenant-7.4, & Mr. Sunshine-9 plays Nyeon. She really shows her range here.

Shin Ye Eun (Revenge of Others-8.1, More Than Friends-8) portrays Heo Yeong “Seo”. She wouldn't admit to breathing the same air as Nyeon. Her background is OPERA. Her mother and sister are FAMOUS. Her family's RICH. Her acid reflux is in major flux: She is appalled by Nyeon ‘s presence. So, she pulls a stunt to try and set Nyeon up. The trainees are putting on a show in 10 days. One of the girls who had a lead part as the jokester, Banja, had to back out of the role, so they need a last-minute replacement. Seo offers it to Nyeon, hoping she'll crash and burn. This is not an easy part. Nylon doesn't mind a challenge, though. It doesn't look like things are going well, because Nyeon skips the last two practices. She's even late for the performance! But she goes out and knocks ‘em dead. She's been practicing with a street performer all week, and now she's got ~moves~. The audience loves her😍. Her enemies hate her all the more😬. The competition between these two is beginning to heat up, and it's one of the major drivers of the plot.

Kim Yoon Hye portrays Seo Hye “Rang.” She's ruthless as the star FL player in the troupe. I've seen this actress in My Sassy Girl-8.5, which I consider to be woefully underappreciated. In MSG she's haughty, cold, and not given to many words. It's not completely dissimilar to Rang, yet she keeps the personas thoroughly distinct. I've also seen her in Vincenzo-7.9 and never knew it was her! She plays someone geeky, quiet, and slightly goofy. For the record, e'erbody in Vincenzo is slightly goofy, at a minimum. Here, they never have her looking her best. Her makeup is always thick and garish while her hair is over-coiffed in 40's permed perfection. They don't put her in complementary colors, either. She's her most beautiful when she's broken down and crying; when she's not in neon makeup, her natural beauty shows. Her crying scene is exceptional.

With regularity, art imitates life in JTSiB. The play in ep10, along with the lines that Moon and Rang must deliver, mirror their current reality. “How could the heavens only gift him with this great talent, but curse me with only the eye to recognize such talent?” That's a line from the last play that they perform, and the dialogue mirrors Seo & Nyeon's situation. JTSiB is about competition, hard work, not giving up, and legacy. The rivalry between Nyeon and Seo is the primary vehicle. Jooran (Woo Da Vi from Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist & Dear.M) gets caught in the middle. She and Nyeon are close, but after she co-stars in a play across from Seo, Seo starts to rely on her, too. Nyeon has the talent, it's harnessing it that is the challenge for her. She makes mistakes, and her enemies among the thespians instinctively know to capitalize on them.

Nyeon nearly goes off the rails in ep8. It's difficult to watch. I suppose if I have a complaint, it's that we see mostly struggle, while a bit more triumph would have lifted the weight. JTSiB is heavy. Nkw, I feel like a hypocrite since I frequently complain about shows dragging because they have too many episodes for the available content. JTSiB should have been 1 episode longer to allow it to breathe more. I guess I'm never happy, sigh.

As is, the show is superb. The acting is especially superb. The directing and editing support it crease-free. Does mid-century and 40's fashion get anybody else's heart racing? When they finally do the changing room scene and update Nyeon's look, it gave me a thrill. The color palette is soft and often borderline overexposed like an amateur snapshot. JTSiB, itself, deserves to be “overexposed.” It's is one of the best Kdramas on the Hulu stage.


QUOTES🗣

He's a… WOMAN!?

The path of an artist is very long. You'll be going through countless ups and downs in your life. As you endure all of that you'll find yourself at the highest summit looking out further than anyone.

I do not understand myself either.


IMHO〰🖍


📣8.4 📝8 🎭9 💓5 🦋6 🎨8.5 🎵/🔊8 🔚8 🤗7 ▪ 🌞6.5 ⚡4.5 😅2 😭3.5 😱2 😯4 🤢2 🤔5.3 💤0


Age 13+ Rated: PG


Re-📺? Would


In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Dabbling in the Arts

My Only Love Song-8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
My Runway-7.5,
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks);
99 days with the Superstar-7,
Her Private Life-8,
Touch your heart-8.2,
Oh My Ghost-10,
Run On-7,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Be Melodramatic-8.7,
Hospital Playlist-9,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay-9,
More Than Friends-8,
Nevertheless-7.6,
Saimdang-8.5,
Anna-8.1,
Hymn of Death-8.4,


〰 Hulu Catalog 〰

A Shop for Killers-8.7
Big Mouth-7.4,
Blood Free-8.5,
Call It Love-8.4,
Crazy Love-7.8,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Gangnam B-Side-7.2,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Han River Police-7.1,
High School Return of a Gangster-7,
The Judge from Hell-4.5
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (this show is marvelous except for taking a quality dip in eps 20-22)
Light Shop-8.6,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Maestra: Strings of Truth-6.8,
Moving-8.5
Pandora: Beneath the Paradise-3.9,
Parasite-9,
Revenant-7.4,
Revenge of Others-8.1,
So I Married the Anti Fan-6.8,
Uncle Samsik-8.4,
What's Wrong With Secretary Kim-6.8,
Why Her?-8,
Wonderful World-7.8,
The Worst of Evil-7.7

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Plural Marriage ⛩⛩️⛩ Fallout Edition °10° °masterpiece° Lite spoilers only!

This is why I don't give out many 10's. I save them for shows like this, that are far above the rest. SOYP is in its own stratosphere.

Talk about hate, love, HATE… Welcome to the Forbidden City, where the trees are treated better than the people. “This is power.”

Forget the trees, the Forbidden City is about to get a shakedown. Many will be killed, several will kill themselves, others will be executed, and 1 or 2 will go completely mad. “Even if you know, you should pretend that you don't know. That's how you live a longer life in the palace. That's how you can be the last one standing and laughing.”

SoYP is a 2018 release that is rated 8.8 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 70 exquisite 45-minute episodes. I was so caught up in watching this that I didn't take many notes. Any show that causes one to be sad around ep26 because it's already 1/3 over has got to be pretty dang good. Right from the start this looks and feels like Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, which was released the same year. {Ruyi's episodes 1-49 are a 9.3. While looking up its historical accuracy, I learned how heartbreaking the rest of the show is. It's over 80 episodes, so that's a hella-lotta hurt. I am not up for it now, so I stopped at episode 49, which is a perfect ending. I cannot recommend eps1-49 enough. It's nearly perfect).

We're following Ying Luo (YL), who is pretty, talented, smart, resourceful, and strong minded. She makes friends wherever she goes. She also makes lots of enemies. Smart? She could arguably out-talk Joan Rivers. Even the Emperor walks away befuddled. Wu Jin Yan (The Double) is the extraordinary FL. She inspires anger and jealousy from many other women. She enjoys teasing overly serious people. Teasing? Certainly, yes. But she's also capable of torturing those who take themselves too seriously. That includes His Majesty.

We follow these actors through many years. The characters begin young and they age; their performances near magically reflect that. Nie Yuan (Will of Steel, Three Kingdoms) is Emperor Qianlong. Oh.My. He is superb. Qin Lan (The Magical Women, The Rational Life-7.7) plays the lovely and fragile Empress Fuca Rongyin. The scrumptious Xu Kai (Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain-7.5, Ancient Love Poetry-8.6, Falling into Your Smile-5.7) is guard Fuca Fuheng, brother to the Empress. He looks dreadful with a mustache. Still, all the young (and not so young) girls love Fuheng - all the girls love the cherub-faced Xu Kai, but His Majesty is the daddy of all. Charmaine Sheh (Winter Begonia) portrays Consort Xian. Tan Zhuo (Dying to Survive, Game Changer) portrays the heinous Noble Consort Gao - she's a feisty one. Jenny Zhang plays Consort Shun. She was stunning as Wu Huan in Ancient Love Poetry-8.6. Here, she doesn't show up until nearly the end. The directors are Hui Kai Dong (Winter Begonia), Wen De Guang (Forever Love) & Guo Hao (Scent of Time). Screenwriter, Zhou Mo, also directed Royal Feast.

I wouldn’t classify this as a romance. It's a historical drama that contains some romance. ‘I like you… you /bad/ girl.’ YL and Fuheng gravitate from dislike & distrust to love. But His Majesty has his eyes on YL, too. YL isn't thinking about love when she arrives at the palace. She's investigating her sister's death. Her sister died under suspicious circumstances at the palace a couple years back. YL knows suicide would never have been an option, so she's sworn to catch the killer and administer retribution. This requires a lot of finesse. She questions people but she must do it delicately. They mustn't realize they're being questioned. She also refuses to play along with the mean girls. That, coupled with her unusually aggressive style and undeniable talent, queues up her adversaries. As soon as one enemy recedes, another rears its ugly head. 70 episodes allows for an array of dramatic vignettes.

Women's cages are “meticulously created by the men of the world.” YL soon learns that her sister is rumored to have had indiscretions with a man, and she may even have been pregnant. YL believes that if any of that is true, it wasn't voluntary on the part of her sister.

“I am the empress, before I am a woman.” Duty is one of the primary themes. That includes a duty to justice which is what our heroine seeks. Another theme is the dignity of every human being. Our protagonist is a “lowly” servant who shows that she isn't so lowly, in reality.

“If you give too much importance to gains and losses, how can you win? …If you encounter a huge hindrance on your way forward and you cannot move on, don't just keep thinking of your goal. Try calming yourself down. Focus your attention and do your task well… I want you to remember that not everything will go your way. As long as you are a human, you will have failures. So you must learn to wait patiently... Wait until you are strong enough. Wait until one day, you're not being restricted by anyone. Wait for the right time…“ Smarter than most people, YL is always thinking 20 moves ahead. I got upset with her once or twice, only to realize several episodes later that she had a long-con going.

Perhaps the main theme is about the nature of pride and power. The Forbidden City is not a nice place. All the toxins roll downhill. Even servants abuse eachother. People are terrified, under an unbroken threat of harsh (brutal!) punishment or death. The wives and concubines eat eachother over power and prestige, but they also long for love from his “majesty”. The children even moreso. A simple life with a single loving family would be better. Chinese historical works make the palace seem like the worst place on earth.

“Pain can awaken your senses.” “At this point, grief won't do anything. I'd rather think about how to take advantage of this incident to benefit myself the most.” This from someone who just lost her father. There's characters who seem decent but they get twisted, because power and privilege are corrupting. “People won't change that fast. If she really has changed, you must not have noticed it before.” One of the palace maids is able to make an upgrade through marriage. She becomes a cruel, power-hungry snob. It's part of Yanxi's dissection of the nature of humans and power, and one character points out that the current version of this person is the true individual. Once she became free to be what she wanted to be, that is what she chose.

Everything about this show is exceptional. The writing is like a mousetrap. Our FL will get into what looks like impossible situations. Her superior wits and sheer moxie is what saves her time and time again. The directing is superb. The relationships are subtle. The acting is stellar. The costumes, set, design, and overall artistry are sublime. The opening song, by Lu Hu, sounds almost silly with its heavy & ancient opera inflections, but I grew to love it. It seems to be loaded with irony. There's a waltz in ep51 that is lovely. The corner piece of the piece is YL's interactions with the emperor, which are priceless. He wants to kill her so badly he can taste it. But he knows he would be less of a man if he did so, and the empress won't let him, anyway.

In the last handful of episodes they go forward several years. The princes and princesses are in their teens. YL & the king's relationship is adorable and she's apparently “the fun mom.” About love: According to YL, the one who says it first, loses. Later, the emperor tries to coax her into saying it (👁💘👉) and has a many tantrums when she won't. But YL isn't one to bow to pressure. “Your majesty, regarding my answer, it's going to take a lifetime to know. Just be patient.”


QUOTES📢

If you talk too much you will surely make a mistake.

A woman's hatred is the most horrible thing.

How can the murderer escape punishment, while the victim gets trampled?

The more grudges you have in your heart, the more pain you will feel. The more gratitude you have in your heart, the more blessings you will have.

Being indecisive always leads to trouble.

Do you know what it feels like to be jealous? It's like a poisonous snake gnawing at my heart every moment.

One's vision and insight need years of cultivation. If a day won't do, then a year. If a year won't do, then 10 years. My skills are lacking but I will make amends with diligence.

Life is like moving against the current: One will fall behind without moving forward.

To obtain what others can't, one should endure what others can't.

Over time, I forget more and more who I am.

The world is so vast; how could anything be impossible?

Look at the galaxy above. Actually, no matter how noble people are, even if he is the descendant of an aristocratic family, he's still just insignificant within the vast galaxy. So who can really be more noble than anyone else?



〰🖍 IMHO

📣10 📝10 🎭10 💓6 🦋5 🎨10 🎵/🔊9 🔚10 ▪ 🌞5⚡5.5 😅3.5 😭5.5 😱3 😯4.5 🤢3 🤔7 💤0

Shazams: Opening credit song: Lu Hu 看 (電視劇《延禧攻略》主題曲)

Age 10+ Language: b!+ch, jack@$$ but there's very little of anything remotely objectionable. As soon as kids can keep up with subtitles, theu can watch. Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned

Re-📺? Most definitely.


In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:


🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
Legend of the two sisters in chaos 7.7 - bittersweet,,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9

K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9

🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain 7.5;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Eternal Love 8.3,
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10

⚡/😱 -
C🇨🇳: Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;

🌐💓 -
C🇨🇳:
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1
K🇰🇷 :
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
My Mister 9.5;

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