✒ ⚙ (Not) Commie Taxi Uprising ⚙ °8.4° °excellent°
It was wonderful to watch something that I was thrilled to have watched. It had been too long. I'd just worked through a string of shows and movies that let me down more than picked me up. They seem to come in clusters.This movie is based on true events. At the film's opening is inscribed: “October 1979. With the shooting of President Park Chun- hee, South Korea's 18 year long era of dictatorship ends. But in contrast to the people's hope for democracy. General Chun Doo-hwan heads a military coup and seizes power. 1980: Outraged citizens protest in the streets and their yearning for democracy intensifies.”
News traveled slower in those days. This is before cable news. TV news was available at 6&11 pm. And there was the radio, newspaper & print media. That's it, and it wasn't too difficult for those in power to choke out truth. Peter, the western journalist who was hanging out in Japan (who's official paperwork pegs him as a missionary), only heard about tensions in Korea because he happened to have drinks with someone who had just been there - someone who couldn't reach his friends there. So on a plane Peter goes.
Song Kang Ho is the ML and titular character, Kim Man “Seob”. I had only seen him in the movie Parasite-9, so it was nice to see him playing someone energetic. I've since seen him playing Uncle Samsik-8.4, who is downright manic, so Mr. Song has quite the range. This film showcases his ability. He has to play many different emotions and his work is brilliant. Seob's a widower. He has a daughter. He's late on his rent - 4 months. His daughter and the landlady's chubby son fight. They both have scrapes on their foreheads. Each parent blamed the /other/ kid. She demands the back-rent NOW! Or move out. The only fare we see Seob blow off is for a couple about to give birth. The man forgot his wallet. “I'll pay you double tomorrow.” Seob holds out no hopes of that: “Do you know how many times I've heard that? I could buy a house on that fare.” Basically, money is tight.
Peter's contact in K-country shows him a paper with an empty page - censorship is in high gear. The city of Gwang-ju is the nerve center of the current tensions. All reporters are being closely watched - but - hey! He's a /missionary/❕😇. Gwang-ju needs a man on a mission. Peter will take a 🚖 there, and foreigners overpay. Driver Kim Man “Seob” overhears Peter's chosen driver bragging about that BIG fare and manages to swoop in and swipe the ride (and the 💰) like it was just a beer run. It turns out to be a dangerous run.
Seob has no idea what's going on. The situation is dangerously intense. Yet he, in a state of complete disconnect, is beaming during the whole drive down. The music is inappropriately upbeat and rousing to reflect his mood.
Even the back roads are guarded, but they manage to lie their way in. The streets of Gwang-ju are eerily quiet with tumble-trash rolling around. When they meet protesters, Peter whips out his camera and starts interviewing them as their cheers break the stillness. This is how Seob learns that Peter is /not/ a missionary. Nor is he a businessman. This is WHEN he learns - after he's already in the middle of it. Taxi drivers are being arrested for merely taking the wounded to the hospital!
At first, Seob doesn't believe the soldiers would do anything wrong. After all, HE used to be a soldier. There's no way they're acting like thugs and smashing people's heads in! Then he takes a woman to the hospital. He sees that other taxi drivers won't take the reporters anywhere because they're not reporting the truth. He marvels that they can turn down fairs! He still needs to acclimate to the situation on the ground: He's watching it unfold, yet it is still hard to accept. We all shut out the ugliness because it will take effort to deal with it. Once a decent person can no longer look away, action is required.
They go on top of the building for an aerial view. Soldiers are shooting at and storming the crowd. A local reporter warns Peter that if the government knows he's there, they will hunt him down, along with all the people helping him. Even at this point, Seob is blissfully ignorant of nearly everything going on. When Seob sees soldiers kicking and beating an old lady with sticks, he realizes how wrong this is. Action is required. To the shock everybody else in the group, Seob decides to go down and get involved.
That night, they turn on the newscast and it's all lies. Brave reporters, in turn, try to print the truth, but their manager stops them saying they'll all just get thrown in jail. At night, the gunfire starts. Fires rage in the distance.
TD is a 2017, 137-minute release that is rated 68 on AWiki. Director, Jang Hoon, did a brilliant job, and he doesn't have a lot on his director resume yet. Taxis were golf-green in the 80's, and a lurid green coats the film's opening. Even though I know nothing of 1980 Korea, I could feel the retro vibe. A quick web search reveals that green is for growth, beginnings, youth, and new energy. When they arrive in Gwang-ju, green banners have been hung by the protesters.
The director evokes raw emotion with skill. The hospital scene is bloody, and it hurts. With the flurry of car chases, stunts, shooting battles, and close ups of gunshots with blood splattering, this is not a small budget production. As they head back to Seoul with the goods, the military is on to them. (It doesn't make sense that the secret police dude would have been at that particular checkpoint. He had other things to do in the city). They get through a checkpoint, but at some point the taxis have to band together and run an interference operation. It's awesome, but it's fiction.
Per WIKI, “The assassination of President Park Chung Hee on 26 October 1979 triggered a number of democracy movements {which led to later protests} that had previously been suppressed under Park's tenure. The abrupt end of Park's 18-year authoritarian rule left a power vacuum that created political and social instability.
General Chun Doo-hwan heavily suppressed these protests. On 18 February 1980, the army issued orders to a number of units to undergo severe riot control training, called "Loyalty Training" This training was harsh and unconscionable, and was criticized as a factor behind the paratroopers' indiscriminate use of violence against the uprising.
There is no universally accepted death toll for the Gwangju Massacre. Records of death for the city in May 1980 were an estimated 2,300 above the historical averages and the death toll has been estimated to be anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people. Estimates for the number of civilians wounded also vary heavily, including figures anywhere from 1,800 to 3,500 people…
The movement preceded other democratic movements during the late 1980s that pressured the regime into democratic reforms and paved the way for the election of President Kim Dae-jung in 1997, the first opposition candidate to win the office… The 1980s marked a surge in Anti-American sentiment in Korea, widely traced to the United States' support for Chun's government and its involvement in the suppression of the Gwangju Uprising. According to Bruce Cumings…
The real Kim Sa-bok had a long term working relationship as a driver for Jurgen Hinzpeter, since at least 1975, and had died of liver cancer on December 19, 1984 at the age of 54. According to his son, Kim Sa-bok was traumatized by the terrible events at Gwangju and became a heavy drinker afterwards.”
QUOTES📢
We would rather die standing than live on our knees.
There aren't enough coffins in Gwang-ju.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.4 📝7.8 🎭8.5 🌞4 🎨8.5 ⚡7 🎵/🔊7 😅3 😭7 😱5.7 😯5 😖6.8 🤔7 💤0 🔚8
Age 14+ for TV-14 language, violence and blood. This movie is historically significant, so additional leeway is to be expected.
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In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Flex X Cop-8.5,
The Bros-7.4,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Vagabond-8,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Iris-8,
D.P.-8.4,
Flower of Evil-8.9,
Awaken-8.7,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9, Mr. Sunshine 9
The Wailing-8.8,
Oldboy-9,
〰 Prime Catalog 〰
A Taxi Driver-8.4,
A Witch's Love-7.9,
Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds-7.2,
Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days-6.7,
Boys Over Flowers-8.3,
Death's Game-7.8,
Heartbeat-4.8,
The K2-8
The Man from Nowhere-8.9,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
May I Help You-6.3,
Mother-8.8,
My Man Is Cupid-5.9,
My Mister-9.5,
Private Lives-8.1,
Saimdang-8.5,
She Would Never Know-7.3
So I Married the anti fan-6.8,
The Wailing-8.8,
The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion-7.6,
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The Paper Trail ¤ Blending 2·4·Oneness of Lines·Lacquer·Life·Liberty·Love °Outstanding°
Saimdang is a stunning piece of art imitating life.Surprise! She's real. And the broad strokes regarding her family life are true. The show treats her with the utmost deference. While it has the present and the past mirroring e/o, they limited the dramatic liberties when it came to Saimdang's life. Don't touch that dial: That European medieval court IS the start of this feature. We're in italy. It's The Year of the Rabbit, 1519.
In a broadly sweeping statement, GRR Martin, GOT author, said: “There's only one thing worth writing about, and that's the human heart in conflict with itself.” This is largely true. Each worthy story brings us new people and the Saim-d@mn nonsense!😉
Ok, that isn't what the title means. Saimdang is a talented, brave, determined, resourceful, and dignified woman who lives in the Joseon era, and DANG! They put her through it. The story opens up in current day and the show toggles backward and forward in time by way of ancient documents and paintings which aid in telling the story of what happened then. The main players from Joseon are reincarnated into current day🇰🇷, but they're dealing with issues that never die: Jealousy, revenge, fear, corruption, and most of all, pride.
In contemporary 🇰🇷, Seo Ji Yoon has been working towards her PhD in art history. Her advisor (Choi Jong Hwan from My Dearest is prof Min Jung Hak) requests she authenticate a piece that he's already certified. He wants her to do the presentation. She is uncomfortable with this, though. She suspects the painting of the Kunlun Mountains could be a forgery. It's all true. Her professor has turned to the dark side and is using his position and power for money and more power. This starts an epic contest between them, and he plays dirty. Very dirty.
We'll follow the painting back in time to when Saimdang & Lee Gyeom, artists of extraordinary talent, are admiring it. They are teens and they've fallen in love. He's the king's favorite cousin. She's the granddaughter of a noble. Her grandfather has the painting kept in secret - just a byproduct of those times. The seeds of suspicion are sewn with the king, who moves to exert and maintain control over his cousin. He learns of their romance and opts to exercise his power to teach his cousin a lesson. He denies them marriage and marries Saimdang off to someone else - a lazy, fatuous idiot. She tries to make it work.
Counselor Min is the ancestor of Seo Ji Yoon's professor. They are both evil. Each is thoroughly enjoying (abusing) his power. Counselor Min (Choi Cheol-Ho from River Where the Moon Rises) is plotting against the country for more power, so we see where the professor gets it. Oh Yoon Ah from Salon De Nabi is wonderful as Choi Whieum Dang (Mrs Min). Her performance is top level, but she doesn't appear in the present day story. The Mins make nothing but trouble in the past, and Professor Min is doing the same in current day. They're dangerous. People are dying.
The past and the present have many of the same characters, but not across the board. Seo Ji Yoon and Saimdang are married, but their husbands aren't the same. The same actor plays professor Min and weirdly plays the King, not Counselor Min, his ancestor. Our FL has the same friend in the past and the present, played by the lively Park Jun-Myun (Under the Queen's Umbrella, God's Quiz). Song Seung Heon has a part in modern day but it's limited and he fades away - it's quite unexpected. This is something I've never said about a Kdrama before, as most of them should be shorter, but this one should have been an episode or two longer. The ending is not an ending, it just drifts off. Those are my main criticisms: There should have been more consistency of characters between the past and the present and the ending should have been more defined. Other than those issues, both the past and present involve complexity and intrigues and are quite exciting.
We spend more time in Joseon, and that's a good thing, because it is fabulous. Saimdang's husband never did provide, and he eventually stopped coming home. She needs to make a living. As an artist, she already has a love for paper. When she learns that the Chinese delegation came complaining about the declining paper quality, she decides to make high quality paper herself. This puts her in direct competition with the Mins, as they are the main paper suppliers for the government. The process of making paper is not only fascinating, but also staggeringly difficult. Goryeo paper actually refers to Hanji paper and was manufactured in the Goryeo period from ingredients including mulberry & other trees native to 🇰🇷. Emissaries from Qing (China) would travel all the way to Kcountry to buy it. A drop in quality becomes a huge issue in the show. As an aside, Goreyo is actually where the name Korea came from.
S gifts us with superb acting. Kim Mi Kyung, The Perpetual mom, gets to play a corporate marm in this one. A ruthless one in a sophisticated suit and updo - Director Seon. Once again, the child actors are amazing. The two leads are magnificent. Their faces convey longing, love, discipline, and determination; they show us are so many subtle expressions! Song Seung Heon (Player, Black-9) is our ML, Lee Gyeom. He's in the running for my favorite. In Black, which I loved, he has neatly cut brushed back hair and wears black suits with black shirts. It's just not possible for a man to look more delicious in a suit. He also spoke in a low voice that is quite sexy. In this show he's bearded he's got the old style hairdo, and he's talking with a higher pitched voice. He's got a winsome, have-I-been-a-good-boy look about him. It's too adorable. He's steaming hot no matter what he's doing even though I prefer him without a beard.
Lee Young Ae is our FL. I had just seen her in Inspector Koo-8.4 (she plays a slob who has been wallowing in misery but at the same time, she's a highly logical detective) and Maestra: Strings of Truth-6.8 as an authoritative orchestra conductor. These are completely different roles. The more I watch Asian programming, the more I realize that what we mostly have in Hollywood is personalities while they🇰🇷 have unbelievable actors. I'm in awe of how she handled this part because so much of it it was slight movements of the head displaying contemplation, discipline, control, and restraint. They are in love. After she was married off to someone else he left 🇰🇷 for years, but he came back to see that her husband doesn't deserve her. So they walk parallel paths while holding back longing and desire. Sometimes, her long pauses made me almost anxious, but her performance is marvelous.
The characters are complex. It's all varied motivations and struggles. His majesty is particularly complex and fascinating. We learn what an awful life he's had. He's been very alone. He does things that don't make sense. He's got bad people in his ear and seems to be listening to the wrong voices.
Saimdang‘s hubby is weak, lazy and incompetent, but worst of all, he's completely selfish. All those traits go together, don't they? Once children were involved there was no question about her path. Yet, the longing for the better man is portrayed quite well. Her husband felt inadequate - he WAS inadequate. Instead of trying harder, he went to a mistress who ‘made him feel like a man’. Hubbo & mistress deserve e/o. Each wants nice things with no effort. The mistress checks out the competition (Saimdang) and gets overwhelmed. Jealousy. Anger. Then hate. She wants to live in a nice house and boss people around, too. Not fair! Look how /she's/ living! Ms Mistress knows nothing of the danger, sacrifice, and effort that brought the respect that Saimdang finally gained. She wants results with no effort.
Lots of things happen and it's one scrape after another, but the most difficult scene might be when Saimdang apologizes to her worthless husband. She initially did not recognize how he might have felt, she admits. "Of course I am angry. However, I didn't allow for flaws, I also wasn't considerate, therefore you felt disrespected and became very lonely.' That is next level writing. The husband is a slug. So, she mostly treated him like a slug. He never lifted himself from his sluggishness but slithered down further. When it comes to apologies that are owed in the marriage the lion's share would be on him. 60%? 90%? Something in that zone. It wasn't her job to raise him, but that's what he required. He never apologized, but that just proves what a waste of a human he's chosen to be. Her apology was about her dignity. It's the most problematic yet poignant point in the show and I'm still mulling it over.
Corruption is front and center. Government corruption is never NOT a thing, but we also see corrupted goods in the past and corrupted education in current day. It seems obvious that we live in a time when our products, food supplies, government agencies, and who knows what else are corrupted. The food is making us sick and most products are made shabbily and will not last long. Everything seems like is disposable these days, so that theme is cogent. Consequently, we see depression of the poor. Those in power put efforts into more money and more power, not looking out for their fellow man. Weak rulers, who care more about holding on to power than morality, allow this to happen.
Our language has gotten muddled. We use the word “pride” when, quite often, we really mean “dignity”. Pride is about promoting oneself, while dignity is something that a person holds quietly; it's based on internal standards. A reversal of fortune cannot take a person's dignity. Joseon is a society designed to keep those with power in power, and those in power inflict misery on those who are weak. It's the same old story because people are the same in every era. George Lucas is a proponent of ring theory, which is why many patterns repeat in the Star Wars sagas. Life does mirror ring theory. Too often, life is a continuous cycle of abuse↔jealousy↔pride↔greed↔ruthlessness↔lust. Looks like we're dealing with the seven deadly sins. It's the same old thing, ➰ver and ➰ver and ➰ver again, yet we never learn. We think we're the ones who are going to do it right. I wonder if hitting bottom is the only way to see how blind we are to our own stuff, and how foolish we are?
The family scenes are CUTE. Her husband's a feckless, sniveling oaf, but she manages a smile once in a while, especially for her kids who are darling. She cracked a smile that didn't involve the children in ep23. It didn't look like it was going to happen, so it was a bit shocking.
When Lee Gyeom returns to 🇰🇷after years of self-imposed exile he sets up an art center. Some of the artists are pretty amusing (many are clearly gay). The scenes from The Art Center are a much welcome relief from the heavier and more distressing things going on. The pepper. My biggest takeaway is the pepper. Gyeom is going on about how delicious it is and how expensive, too. It was worth more than gold, by weight, at that time. Of course, somebody sneezes.
There's a seamless flow to this, almost like brush strokes across a looking glass. There's plenty of drama and anxious moments, the overall feeling is one of serenity. Saimdang kept her composure and found serenity wherever she could. When she found it, she shared it. There's a a fair amount of action, including a fantastic sword fight in ep12. The art, sets, and wardrobe are wonderful. Ms Min's gowns are gorgeous. The colors are what really stand out. She grew up in rags, but made up for her lack later.
To say that the ending is bittersweet doesn't quite cover it. It leaves us wanting. The story is beautiful but the sadness, though lovely, is what lingers. Like an ice cold IPA on a hot day, the bitterness is still refreshing because the story is just that good.
As always, he breathes out love, protection, and longing; she fills herself with him, and their spirits fly united as wings on a Jian bird, part of a whole that one day may come together: “Even if you and I are parallel lines that will never meet for the rest of our lives, it is My Wish to walk alongside that path with you forever.”
QUOTES🗣
Looking at a good painting can purify and cultivate the mind.
Appearance is just pretense.
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
Our two Souls therefore, which are one, though I must go, endure not yet a breach, but an expansion like gold to airy thinness beat.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬85 🖊️〰85 🎭90 💓82 🦋67 🌞80 🎨84⚡80 😅50 (the Mr, fop-hubby, mostly. & the Jian crew) 🎵/🔊83 😅50 😭50 😱20 🤢3.4 🤔50 💤20 🔚67
Age 12+ a guy gets pierced with a sword and blood gushes,and there's a blood spray on the assailant's face.
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✒ ⚜️ Where There's a Wei There's a Will ⛩️ °8° °excellent°
When she was born the sun poked through the clouds. It was a good omen. Daughter to King Hexi, Xin Er was born to royalty. She was loved and adored.Li “Wei” Young was born in February. She's a jinx. She must die, says Madam, her evil stepmother. Wei's mother was the foot washer woman, and Madam will never forgive her for diverting her husband's eyes. Wei was raised by a modest family in the countryside. Before she arrives at the Li household, Madam intends to have her murdered.
Madam's murderous intent reaches far beyond Wei, though. She plotted the murder of King Hexi's whole family by framing him for treason. Xin Er escaped but was injured and dying. Wei took her home and nursed her back to health. Wei saved her. The two women have some time together while Xin recuperates. When Wei is murdered, Xin Er is with her and fights back. She manages to kill the assassin and hide the body. She knows the Li family is behind multiple intrigues and deaths; now they're trying to kill one of their own daughters! The woman who raised Wei is terrified that she'll be blamed for Wei's death, so they concoct a plot to replace the deceased Wei with Xin Er. The real Weiyoung is gone. Xin Er is marked for death and must hide. Xin Er was already determined to seek Justice for her own family. Now she wants justice for her savior, Wei, as well. What better WAY than to be WEI and watch the Lis while right in their household?
Now there's 2 daughters in the Li residence and 2 female cousins. Madam will make sure that HER daughter, the legendary beauty Chang Le, gets all the benefits, though. TPW is a 2016 release that is rated 8.3 on MAL. It is 1 season consisting of 54 45-minute episodes. I'll get this out of the way here: TPW is great, but falls short of being the masterpiece that The Rebel Princess-8.5 or Stories from Yanxi Palace-10 is. I can heartily recommend it, but when stacked up against the greats, like Rise of Phoenixes-9.5, it takes foot-washer status. It is still worth watching.
Madam is shocked that Wei made it to the house alive. When she didn't hear back from the first assassin, she sent more to set fire to the inn where Wei was staying. Thankfully, a kind stranger, Tuo Ba “Jun” (Luo Jin of The Long River & Three Kingdoms, who looks like he's Elon Musk's handsome little brother) saves her life ~ quite heroically. This actor is another superb Chinese romantic ML. His looks are fine, no complaints, but it's his voice, presence, and delivery that turn him into a nice package. He even looks manly in lace. One of his outfits is trimmed in black lace and it's gorgeous.
As Madam gets to know Wei a little better, she despises her. This is not a woman who acts like a humble maiden raised in the countryside! Wei has dignity, presence, a way with words, and self-respect. Madam concocts another plot to ensure Wei's death: She's poisoned and dumped for dead and the mountains. Fate brings Jun to her once again. He saves her life and nurses her back to health. He's called home suddenly, so he leaves Wei a letter requesting that she meet him at a certain place & time, but the letter is lost and Wei never receives it. She heads back home because she still has a mission; this is one brave woman. The Li house is in a state of excitement. The youngest Prince has returned home! Chang Le can hardly contain herself. She's determined to marry him. They're all invited to the banquet that his mother is holding. Even the illegitimate daughter, Weiyoung, is invited.
The king has 3 top candidates for the next crown prince: The two oldest princes and Jun, the son of the deceased crown prince. Pressure is rising on the king to make a choice. The king also has a daughter who loves to parade as a prince: Chen Yu Qi plays Tuo Ba Di. This actress is pure gold. I love her. She went on from her stellar performance here to star in Ashes of Love-6.4, which, it would appear, I didn't like as much as anybody else did, but she really shines in Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre-9. At the same time, the Li residence has females galore. They also have cousin, Liang Li Minde (Liang Zhen Lun from Ordinary Person Character), but only the Princess pays him any mind - and that's to torture him. The oldest Li and the heir is brother Li Min Feng (Nan Fu Long from Arsenal Military Academy) but he's an idiot, and no one wants to hang with him.
Visits, dinners, outings, sacred journeys, mournings, celebrations… It seems there's always a reason for the princes to be around the Li women. Wei wants to hate Jun, he's the son of the emperor who ordered her father killed, afterall. She tries to be cold with him, but even when he's tempted to give up, he just keeps coming back for more. Wei can't keep up the ACT much longer. Her feelings keep growing.
In the meantime, Madam is working her black magic. Wei prevails in the first couple rounds, so Madam wants her dead all the more. The tactics get more harsh. Wei is in constant peril. Chang Le could practically kill her with looks alone. Prince Jun only has eyes for Wei, so Chang Le's eyes are also laser focused on Wei.
From there it's one move after another. There's a bunch of princes and Li women and they are of a similar age, so they are checking eachother out and falling in love, though it's not always mutual. Princes, plural, means there will be a fight for the throne - the moms get involved in that. All the while, Chang Le and her mother just can't stop. Then another party, who had seemed to be a friend, jumps in and creates havoc.
Tiffany Tang (Blossoms Shanghai, My Sunshine-6.5) is “Wei” / Xin Er. I'm not sure why I've often felt on-the-fence about her. It may come down to her voice being slightly thin and nasally. She does a very solid emotional scene in a later episode. Her acting is fine - high average, maybe better? There is this lightweight feel about her. I don't dislike her at all, but this is the second feature in which I've seen her, and something, yet unidentified, is nagging at me. Luo Jin is a good romantic male lead. His earthy voice is a rich umber. We believe his attraction to her. He maintains a sense of humor, or lighthearted air about him.
Vanness Wu portrays prince Tuo Ba Yu. This actor has some strange unexplainable likability factor. I kept liking him despite the fact that he attempted to kill a bunch of innocent people rather than grant them a refuge early in the show. I also continued to like him a little despite the fact that I know he's up to no good. Ultimately, he continues to make poor choices and continues a downhill skid. He teaches one character to be a strangler vine. Act innocent, take nourishment and slowly grow to devour the host. He didn't explain that it's a self-strangler vine. He's a romantic ML in Autumn's Concerto-7.2, and he's surprisingly good. He starts toxic - this actor seems natural in such a role, but he comes around. Sadly, AC starts great but as the ML improves, the show declines and the 2nd half is not nearly as good as the first. Mao Xiao Tong (Love O2O-6.8 - the show, Reunion: The Sound of the Providence S2) plays Li Chang Ru. The schtick is that she isn't nearly as pretty as Chang Le, but she really is. She's gorgeous.
Lee Hsin Ai (1931 Love Story) is Li Chang Le, the ultimate mean girl. She is stunningly gorgeous. And she is a self-absorbed Antoinetta. She wants what she wants and when she doesn't get what she wants she wants to go scorched earth on everything. She's not even that bright, but she still manages to do lots of damage. No matter how evil this character is, I loved the sound of the actress's voice. That's impressive.
Back to prince-ss Tuo Ba Di. She's the feisty type who shows love by way of pulling braids, shooting arrows at heads, and other abuse. Minde is /hit/. He's also utterly clueless. He still thinks the princess is a prince. If one watches Chinese dramas, one gets used to the way a woman can dress up as a man merely by changing her hairstyle or putting on a hat. They're always still so laughably and obviously female. It's something the audience is expected to roll with. When the princess is missing Minde, she starts yelling at him and threatening him in her head. She's intermittently threatening to beat him up and crying. Minde has a stunning emotional scene in episode 21. It's moving. He's quite the fighter too. He gets some of the best action scenes. The Director is Li Hui Zhu (Warm on a Cold Night) and the screenwriter is Cheng Ting Yu (The Sword and the Brocade-8.6).
As for a theme, Chinese historical features that involve palace intrigues have the common threads of pride and fear. “We can only be safe if we are victorious in the end,” Jun’s mother asserts. She's the crown princess and that's how she feels. It's very busy. So many plots. There's an immodest number of deaths. There's 4 weddings (one never got out of the planning stage) and too many funerals. Don't get too attached to anyone. A death or two in the later episodes made me very sad. Always watch the quiet ones.
The art of the show is very grand. The costumes are marvelous. Changle's wedding headdress is obnoxiously over-compensating and it suits the situation. Ep30 has a big battle scene in which 1000s of soldiers approach the old city. The music is good. The sets are gorgeous. The expansive halls lined with lacquered wood are so regal. I decided to ask an AI search engine about the process by which they produced lacquer. It's much more labor intensive than I realized.
“Ancient Chinese lacquer was made primarily from the sap of the lacquer tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum), a process refined over millennia… The sap, called urushi, was collected by making incisions in the bark of lacquer trees, typically in summer when sap flow was strongest. Trees needed to be at least 10–15 years old, and only small amounts (about 200–300 grams per tree) could be harvested before the tree was exhausted… The raw sap, a grayish-white emulsion, was filtered to remove impurities like bark or debris. It was then stirred and heated gently (below 40°C) to evaporate excess water, creating a smooth, viscous lacquer. Sometimes, pigments like cinnabar (red) or carbon black were added for color… Lacquer was applied in thin layers to a substrate, usually wood, but also bamboo, cloth, or metal. Each layer (often 20–30 per object) was brushed on meticulously, requiring a dust-free environment and high humidity (70–80%) to cure properly. Each layer took days to harden through a chemical process called oxidative polymerization, triggered by the enzyme laccase in the sap… After each layer dried, it was polished with fine abrasives like charcoal or whetstone to achieve a glossy finish. The process was repeated for durability and depth, sometimes taking months for high-quality pieces...” It goes on. I have appreciation for these historical sets.
In the opening episodes it's obvious that this story is well written. The layout, the plot, the characters, and the dialogue are all smart. It does follow a familiar template, and it does wander too much. It is bittersweet. So is life. Overall, it's a worthy watch.
QUOTES🗣
Hatred often becomes the chains that pen us down.
Acting on impulse only brings failure.
IMHO〰🖍
📣8 📝8 🎭8.4 💓7 🦋5.5 🎨9 🎵/🔊8 🔚6.5 🤗7 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡6 😅2.5 😭4 😱2 😯3 🤢4 🤔5 💤0
Shazams:
天若有情 (電視劇《錦繡未央》主題曲), by A-Lin
Age 11+ Language: @$$hole ×1, b!+ch ×1; Rated - Teens 13 or older
Re-📺? The future is Hard to see
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
🎎 -
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
Overlord 8.4,
Legend of the two sisters in chaos-7.7 (the ending is bittersweet),
Under the Power 8.6,
The Princess Royal-8.3,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
Ruyi's Royal love in the palace (episodes 1 - 49 are a 9.3. While looking up it's 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).
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
🔮🐉-
Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Eternal Love Of dream-7.4 20
Love and Redemption 10
⚡/😱/🚀 -
House of Flying Daggers-8.5 04
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
Bloody Romance-7.3 18
💘 -
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
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✒ ⭐ Making Moolah For MuMu °6.5° °fun f/u to S1°
In S2, Mumu is already a famous actress when she meets Ling. The drama she and friend Chu Yan star in mirrors reality. His lines are what Ling’s already living and thinking. What's especially fun about S2 is that it's the same couple, but a parallel universe. Under different circumstances they get to fall in love all over again. I adore this idea. They also reverse their error from S1. He does pull a stunt, but it's anodyne and she has the power to back out at any time. The staff is clearly having a fabulous time. It comes through. While S2 does have a plot - a unique one - it's really just after-glow fluff. The last 3 eps were difficult to watch as they struggled to wrap up their pretense of a plot. S2 wouldn't be worth watching without having seen S1 first as it merely plays off of S1.In S2, FeiFei explains, from a writer's perspective, how MuMu and Ling have the “same problem”. You've been single for so many years. That's why you're used to dealing with everything yourself. That's why you never tell him anything. As for him, he's used to being in charge. He's also a male chauvinist. That's why he always deals with problems without you knowing. He wants you to live your life happily without having to worry…” Each of them had troubles in their lives and neither had opted to share with the other. The result was that each of them felt shut out by the other. We can't hear this advice enough because many of us fail to heed it. Maybe if I had heard it a few more times, it would have sunk in, and I would have done better. The flip side of the pancake is that we must be calm and patient listeners when our mates open up. Otherwise they will shut down even more.
QUOTE📢
There are two things that you can never look at directly: One is the sun and the other is the human mind.
📣6 📝6 🎭7 💓6 🦋7 🎨6 🎵/🔊6.5 🔚6 ♦ 🌞7 ⚡3 😅3 😭2 😱2 😯1 😖0 🤔1 💤3.5
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✒ ☄ All Bow The Knee To Oh Ha-ni °7.3° °VG°
Three years. Her whole HS career she's been in love with Baek Seung “Jo”. Hani isn't going to graduate without making a play. She writes a letter and delivers it to him in person. "I don't like dumb women,” is what she gets in return 😳.Sure, she's not book smart. She ain't anything-smart. She's in F-class and he's at the top of the HS pyramid - in every way - but, wow… WOW! He's /MEAN/.
Before Hani can get home to regroup, she finds out there is NO HOME. Apparently, her house was struck by a meteor. Her father gives her an address explaining that they'll be staying there while the construction is being done. When she arrives, she sees her dad sitting with two men: 1. Jo. 2. His dad. They will be living with them until her ruined house is rebuilt😲! Apparently, their dads are old friends. The show doesn't nail the timing down, but the ☄strike probably happened right when he was rejecting her. So, yup, it's the forced roommates trope. It's a good-un. I'm not tired of it yet. - especially when it's as adorable as this story is.
Hani just hates Jo now. Except she doesn't. She'd like to, but she /can't/. He's her kryptonite. Now they are thrust together. He's miserable and barks like an angry dog. Soon he'll be wagging his tail. It's all because of mom. ‘Oh, Jo, could you help Hani study?’ Mom senses right away that Hani is the remedy for all that ails Jo. Mom becomes Hani‘s partner in crime and relentlessly endeavors to pair these two up.
In the beginning, Hani isn't enjoying the show as much as the viewer. Jo won't let Hani off the hook. He /enjoys/ playing with her, once he gets beyond being miffed that his privacy was invaded. He believes she's inferior even though he's becoming attracted to her, and it's leaching out in the worst way. Jo is actually sadistic and horrible to Hani - she should punch him as hard as possible. YO! Girls! Ladies!!!! IRL (In real life) RUN AWAYYYY... The very second a man exhibits those traits, leave. Do the walk off challenge. Uber home. Respect yourself: He never will!
Jung So Min (Because This Is My First Life-7.7) is Oh Hani. She's also the S1 FL in Alchemy of Souls-7.9. Kim Hyun Joong (Dream High) portrays ML Jo (it's Jihoo from Boys Over Flowers-8.3 😍! Coincidentally, that's another manga-turned-script that they lifted from 🇯🇵). Lee Tae Sung (Miss Hammurabi, Ghost Doctor) play Bong Joon Gu. Tada Kaoru (Fall in Love at First Kiss, Miss in Kiss,,Kiss Me, Itazura na Kiss 2: Love in Okinawa, It Started with a Kiss,They Kiss Again) is the Original Creator - she's definitely latched onto a theme 😘. Hwang In Roe (Late Night Restaurant), Kim Jung Hyun (At a Distance, Spring Is Green), & Kim Do Hyung (Somehow 18) collaborated on the direction.
It isn't possible for me to review this without comparing it to Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8 which I watched first. Per Wiki, “It is based on the Japanese manga Itazura Na Kiss written by Tada Kaoru. The Korean series is the third television adaptation of the manga following the Taiwanese It Started with a Kiss in 2005, and its sequel They Kiss Again in 2007. Though Playful Kiss received low ratings in South Korea in the five to seven percent range, it was sold to 12 countries in Asia for approximately US $3,400,000 and developed a strong cult following, having been streamed 70 million times on Viki and earning US$400,000 in ad revenue through online streaming. Due to its international popularity, a short special edition was aired on YouTube after the series finale.”
In both shows, the MOM makes the show. The title of this should be My Mom the Magician. I know it's not as titillating as Mischievous Kiss, but it's more accurate. She KNOWS her son has lots to work on. His intelligence has made him prideful, cold, and very lonely, though his frozen heart can't feel it. Mom is having the time of her life, because she adores Hani and knows this sweet little girl is exactly what her son needs. Horrible as Jo is, this genius has more warmth to him because the actor does. In the Japanese version, Irie is cold, calculating and logical perfection, but he's not sadistic, at least.
The Korean one is funnier. It's definitely LOL type stuff. Hani starts out by saying she understands how vampires feel. In her dreams Jo is so gorgeous she just wanted to BITE him. The whole scene is quite amusing. We'll see one wretched perm. That never happens anymore, does it? Perms were an oft repeated 20th century mistake to the point that they were almost a right-of-passage. This one's the worst haircut ever put on film. It's worse than David Spade's hair in Joe Dirt - that's not even a close call; at least Joe dirt's hair is funny. This hair is unsettling. The ML plays tennis in both shows. The tennis club president is a perfectly affable guy until he picks up a racket, which invariably transforms him into a monster. The Korean tennis dude has a sexy voice; he'd be a great vampire. Most Korean male actors have voices that are more decadent than warm carmel sauce on a hot brownie sundae. PK takes place in a different era. It feels very retro. Somebody pulls out a Golem mask, which is pretty hilarious.
The music is better in PK (Kpop is huge, that's no surprise). The school band is fantastic. The full-figured girl really is adorable. When she dresses up she looks fantastic. (Confidence & exuberance are very sexy. How do you get confidence? That I'm still working on. I know part of it is just forgetting yourself, and nothing will build confidence like helping out somewhere).
PK is a fun follow-up to MKLiT. I do recommend watching the original first. The 🇯🇵 version is technically superior and an overall better telling of the story. But this Kdrama is lots of fun, too. They do a better job depicting the lowest class at the school. For instance, they sit around doing hair during school instead of studying. At first the teacher comes in and scolds them but the next thing you know she's getting /her/ hair done. That's because she's the teacher of the lowest class so nothing matters as much. It's a useful contrast and it works. Mom throws Oh Hani's class a pizza party. It's adorable, but I wonder if it should hurt, slightly. These kids are written off. Mom doesn't think that way, thankfully.
Ha-ni has a superpower. As we are still getting to know her, we watch her walking home at night. She's accosted by a stalker. Most girls would run in terror, but Hani makes a deal with the flasher to get her shoe back. Not only is it funny, but it shows us how rock solid her core and determination are. She looks like she's constructed of sugar cubes and pink polkadots, but she can persuade people. Jo trifled with her. Jo not only lost, but he's happy that he did. We should all bow the knee to Oh Hani.
QUOTES🗣
But in my opinion, he's a lot cuter than Seung-jo! What am I going to do?! (Mom to Ha-ni)
Joy is doubled and sadness is halved when we share.
If you keep grinding a chunk of iron, you'll make a needle someday.
I'll kill him today and head straight to hell.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬7 🖊〰7 🎭7 💓7 🦋6 🌞7 🎨7 😅5 🤔5 🔚8
Age 13+
Re-📺? 👎🏾 probably not but once is good
It's the we've-been-forced-to-live-together trope! Similar offerings:
My First First Love-8,
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Playful Kiss-7.3,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
🇯🇵Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8
🇨🇳Well-Intended Love-7.5 19 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 - arranged marriage loosely fits in this category
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✒♥️Love Like a Fish ⛲️ °7.4° °VG°
There's plenty of fish in the sea. It wouldn't be a cliché, otherwise, right? There's just not many fish in Kang Ho-Gu's pond.HGL is a 2015 release that is rated 91 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 65-minute episodes. It is a live adaptation of the webcomic "Hogooui Sarang" by Yoo Hyun-Sook. HGL is simple escapism; It's a guppy and has no aspirations to be a whale. It's a steady stream of smiles with waves of laughter here and there. It doesn't dredge or drag. The characters are well developed and the dialogue flows without many hiccups. It has the feel of an 80s/90s romcom in the best way.
Choi Woo-Sik plays ML Kang Hogu. He played Ki-woo in Parasite. If IMDB didn't tell me that, I never would have figured it out on my own, as Hogu bears no resemblance to the calculating Ki-woo. He's as sweet as a Rummy Nose Tetra (a friendly species of fish). His sister says he's a 🐙. He's never had a gf. He /thought/ he did 〰more than once 〰 But he only had platonic friends. Hogu is kind, thoughtful, unassuming, and responsible. He thinks the best of others. He loves manga (he's a geek!). He's had a crush on Choi Woo-Sik, a superstar swimmer, since they went to HS together. What Hogu doesn't realize is that all the disappointments, heartbreaks, bad investments, and all the times he dropped his line in and came up empty were just placeholders until he could hook the right one.
His father (a goldfish) is a timid and sweet comic bookstore proprietor, and his mother (a lion fish) is as outlandish & bawdy as a barmaid in a burlesque. Mom seems like a free spirit, while dad's a big softie who can't help but spread love wherever he is. Hogu takes after dad. His sister, Kang Ho-Gyeong (Lee Soo-Kyung - Law School-8, When Life Gives You Tangerines), is a piranha; a pretty and sparkly one. She's part carp, too. She'll wear the same tracksuit for 2 weeks without washing it. This actress has a huggable quality. She's very engaging and I was an instant fan. She sorta steals the show.
Uee is Do Do-”Hee”, an Olympic swimmer. She is a sailfish. Sometimes she's a mermaid. She can win races, and she can also make hearts race. She's never won the 🏅. Silver; it's always 🥈. She doesn't have friends. Lots of men are interested, but that ain't love. It ain't friendship either. Uee plays an athlete well. The way she moves and holds herself says “JOCK”. Im Seul-Ong is the beautifully meticulous Byun Gang-Chul. He's a tarpon - one that's nearly dead 〰he's almost completely sideways〰 floating at the surface. Neither piranhas nor carps can resist that! Where did they find that baby? S/He is cuter than Nemo. Director Pyo Min-Soo also worked on Moon in the Day & IRIS 2, while the creator, Yoo Hyun-Sook, penned this webcomic and Flower Boys Next Door-7. Yoon Nan-Joong (Because This Is My First Life-7.7) is the screenwriter.
Soon, Hee, the Olympic swimmer, wins another silver & announces she's taking some time off. Around that time, she and Hogu run into eachother on the street. The encounter gives Hogu the courage to show up to the HS reunion. There SHE is. Their first outing is after the reunion, walking along the river. She takes the empty drink container and gives him an object lesson on getting rid of things you don't want to take home; but it hurts your conscience to throw them away… Things you don't want to remember 〰 put them in an empty container and walk away (just don't litter).
Hee is pregnant. Not married. Not dating! Just preggers. She's taken time off to deal with it. She goes back-n-forth about an abortion. In the middle of 🤰this is when she strikes up a friendship with Hogu. In an effort to exert control & force her into an abortion so she can come back and make them money, the agency refuses to support Hee. With no income, she's homeless. Homeless AND pregnant. Hogu won't stand for that! He brings her home to his room. It's in the basement, it's spacious, it has a separate entrance, and his parents don't even know she's there for quite awhile. Before long, Hogu’s more invested in the pregnancy than Hee. Their lives become completely wrapped around eachother.
By ep4 the viewer sees the romance-of-opposites they are setting up for Hogu‘s outrageous sister. I was getting excited. The secondary romance is a blast, and Sis should have her own show, They put her man through some stuff! (And he ain't the type that can take much).
Ho-Gu's Love. That's the main theme. “That b@$+@rd. He's making everyone weird,” is one complaint we'll hear. Hogu’s love transforms the lives of those around them. He loves fully and freely, without holding back.
One thing about Asian programming that comforts me is the affirmation that people are the same the world round. Love, hate, pity, anger, respect, disdain, pride, generosity… the range of human emotions knows no single ethnicity. In HGL we see how submerged women can be. There has never been a case of a woman getting pregnant on her own (Not even the virgin Mary, who was impregnated by God), but only the women seem to be blamed for it. In flashbacks to HS we see Hee object to only women being pressured into abstinence. It does, after all, take two to tango. “Look at the bad man!” (Pacino nailed it in Scarface). Hee is thrust into circumstances that are beyond her control, and yet she must endure all the pressure, scorn, and pain, while the man lives freely. It's Scarlet Letter syndrome. ‘Look at the bad woman!’ Throughout world history women have been treated cruelly and blamed for sexual indiscretions as if a man had nothing to do with it at all. This applies even in cases of forced sexual violence. The world's largest religion requires four male witnesses for an allegation of r@pe to be proven. That's the same as announcing that it is open season on women. Most people aren't even curious about the dad. People enjoy pointing the finger & glorying in feelings of superiority, to the point that a sense of decency and fairness escapes them.
One attorney will argue in court that a woman corrupted Korean ideals by becoming a single mother, and later that night he scolds his ex girlfriend for not having an abortion, declaring that he has no responsibility toward their baby. The mindset is inexplicable and the hypocrisy is staggering. Yet that is how men have behaved throughout history. Forget history, that's what's going on around the world /right now/. Beyond the M/F dynamic is a wider human failing: Blame the woman, the weak, and the minority for things over which they have little control. This is commentary about how people abuse power. People with power tend to abuse others and never give it a thought, and men usually have more power. This is the stuff that tears at the fabric of society. It's always wrong, it's never okay, and these wrongs tend to pile up until things explode.
Hate is never right, and love is never wrong. HGL addresses some systemic problems not only in 🇰🇷, but worldwide. The moment we hate we are not in the right. Part of why we hate is that we are seeking heaven-on-earth. We have our idea of what a good society looks like. The irony is that a truly good society will not be rage and hate filled. The changes must start in us, and I'll throw in here that the right thing to do is rarely the easy path.
I'll fuss for a moment about where HGL is in need of a change. There's alot of writing for which we get no interpretation. That baby is nothing like a newborn - he doesn't cry nearly enough. (Of course, no one wants to watch that). In the final third of the show they start to drag things out just a little. They slowly drained the oxygen from the show. The set up is excellent, but many things flopped and struggled to breathe by the end. Ep15 gets weird, and it's not good. They swam out an overdone Kdrama standard: MSS, or mandatory separation syndrome. In HGL it's an unforced error. Up until ep14 the show was freestyling at a winning pace. Ep14 into15 is where the show hit the wall. It sets up a weak pretext for ep16, in which it does make a recovery, but it's incomplete. It was bad enough for me to downgrade the rating by a point. HGL was swimming with the 8's, based on its breezy fun-factor alone, until ep14. In the end, ironically , they get 🥈 and let the 🏅 slip past them.
There is much more to commend than condemn, though. The director successfully augments the fun-factor by cutting between what family and friends are discussing and the reality of Hogu’s life. At times they are calling it right, but the reality starts to eclipse the wildest imaginations of those on the periphery. Once Choi Woo-Sik runs into Hogu and muses that she “would like to go to the ocean…” Hogu embarks on an exclusive celebrity cruise. Hogu describes his first kiss to his friends: “It felt like the stars were whispering in my ear.” That's enough to make those geeks float belly-up for a day. They effectively use animation for comedic effect and to lighten the mood. Lots of little things add up to lots of fish-eating grins. Hogu is good at spotting shoplifters, but nabbing pickpockets? Not so much. It will get him into trouble on their first outing, and Hogu will learn that Choi Woo-Sik is a sloppy, angry drunk. Hogu steps out of the hospital room for a breather. He greets another man who has done the same. ‘What room are you in?’ They query e/o and wince at the blood curdling screams emanating from the birthing chambers behind them. It's solid comedy. When couples form and get lovey-dovey, others are repulsed by it, and they milk that for laughs.
For K-Kountry this is pretty racy. Sis is in sex studies, there's unwed parents, and Hogu’s parents are pretty liberal. The writing is clever, particularly between Hogu and Byun Gang-Chul (Im Seul-Ong), the class president. Gay Rights are also a theme of the show.
One thing viewers new to Kdramas will miss is some of the Easter-eggs they throw in. In ep1, Manager Oh, from Misaeng-9.1, comes into the comic shop. After Hogu recommends a volume, he tells Hogu: “Convince me to buy one.” Is Hogu about to become the new intern at One International? Lololol. {Perhaps the biggest surprise of Misaeng is that Mgr. Oh, an average looking middle-aged man with sloppy hair absolutely stole the show}. Misaeng was released a year earlier, so this cameo is precious. Then, they take the connection a level deeper by having Hogu commence a rooftop chase of a thief, a scene lifted from Misaeng.
Hogu is the bigger thief. He stole Hee's heart. Will he be in a school of 1, 2, or 3? Dive in and see!
QUOTE📢
It wasn't a relationship I wanted. I just wanted to love you.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.6 📝7 🎭8 💓7 🦋5 🌞7 🎨7 ⚡3.5 🎵/🔊6 😅5.8 😭4 😱2.5 😯2 😖1.5 🤔6 💤1.5 🔚7
Age 16+ The show is primarily about those who are marginalized in society particularly over issues involving sex. The adult content is not appropriate for young teens and under. PG-13 language.
Re-📺? Given the last 3 episodes irritated me, not any time soon
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✒✨️ Kotoko Got The Mojo /or/ My Mom The Magician ✨ °7.8° °wonderful deal°
MK is a warm hug from beginning to end. Just like roses have thorns, this warm hug has some pricklies that will poke the viewer here and there. Modern western women may not be able to take much of Irie. The older one is, the more guys one meets like him. The story is about his transformation, and that's a good thing. 32 49-minute episodes sounds like alot, but the show flows by quickly. It is cuteness itself for the most part.Three years. Her whole HS life she's been in love with Naoki Irie. Kotoko Aihara isn't going to graduate without making a play. She writes a letter and delivers it to him in person. "I don't like dumb women,” is what she gets in return 😳.
Sure, she's not book smart. She ain't anything-smart. She's in F-class and he's a big-deal - he's at the top of the HS pyramid - in every way - but, wow… WOW! He's /MEAN/. What a bad-deal he turned out to be.
Before Kotoko can get home to regroup, she finds out there is NO HOME. Apparently, her house was struck by a meteor. Her father sends her an address and says they'll be staying there while the restoration is being done. When she arrives, she sees her dad sitting with two men: 1. Irie. 2. His dad. They will be living at their place until her ruined house is rebuilt😲! Apparently, their dads are old friends. The show doesn't nail the timing down, but the ☄strike probably happened right when he was rejecting her. So, yup, it's the forced roommates trope. It's a good-un. I'm not tired of it yet. - especially when it's as adorable as this show is.
Kotoro just hates Irie now. Except she doesn't. She'd like to, but she /can't/. He's her kryptonite, & now they are thrust together. He's miserable and barks like an angry dog. Soon he'll be wagging his tail, & iIt's all because of mom. Mom understands the art of the deal. ‘Oh, Irie, could you help Kotaro study?’ Mom senses right away that Kotoko is the remedy for all that ails Irie. Mom becomes Kotoko's partner in crime and relentlessly endeavors to pair these two up.
Yahagi Honoka (Oshaie Sommelier Oshako!) is Aihara Kotoko. Furukawa Yuki (Kamisama no Ekohiiki) portrays the grumpy Irie Naoki. Nishimura Tomomi (Hana Yori Dango 2) is mom. Everyone else does a nice job, too. When Irie plays tennis, Kotaro attempts to follow suit. There's a tennis club coach whose personality changes when he touches a racket. He goes from the most affable guy in the world to world-class monster. It is pretty funny. The directors are Nagata Koto (Lion no Oyatsu), Kawano Koji (Aki wa Haru to Gohan wo Tabetai), & Abe Masakazu (Nanba MG5, Tokyo Little Love). Screenwriter, Miura Yuiko of Ultraman Geed, adapted Tada Kaoru's work to the screen. Ms Tada also brought us Fall in Love at First Kiss, Miss in Kiss, Kiss Me, Itazura na Kiss 2: Love in Okinawa, It Started with a Kiss, They Kiss Again, and more. I'm sensing a theme😘.
How many shows have you seen where the MOM just makes it? It isn't that common, but it's the case here. Irie's mother is darling. She's the best thing about MKLIT, and Kotoko isn't far behind. I just love both of them. Kotoko, during the run of the show, is slowly becoming Irie's mother's twin. It's adorable and hilarious, and she could certainly do worse.
The bit where a woman doesn't know that her cooking is awful until it's on the table and served to everybody is as utterly ridiculous as it is overused. It's everywhere, especially in Asian programming. What person doesn't taste the food as they're cooking it? It's just preposterous and it's time to let that crash to Earth and stay there. Otherwise, the filmcraft is smooth and seamless. The music is nice. Dad wore a pink tie with white polka dots to the post engagement ceremony to discuss wedding plans. Afterwards, at home, he asks Irie if he's "sure" about all of this (engagement) while still in that pink polka dot tie. That tie represents the ebullient and fanciful Kotoko. It's a dun-deal.
The theme is never give up. We see it with Kotoko & Irie, Matsumada & Irie, Knchan & Kotoko, and mom with Kotoko. This is also a classic opposites attract, cat/dog or Mars/Venus tale.
These parents treasure their kids, while the kids haven't thought a whole lot about it. Certainly, Irie's been resentful, and Kotoko's been too obsessed with Irie to notice anything else around her. But at the end of S1 we see that when the parents want them to make a choice for love and happiness they struggle to make the best choice for their parents and their families. They are growing up. Thinking about others is how it begins.
Mom manages to wrap up the show with a BIG surprise. It's brilliant. The entire show is a fun-deal.
QUOTE🗣
Everyone has their own pace. You just have to find something at your own pace, you see?
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬8 🖊〰8 🎭8 💓8 🦋7 🌞10 🎨7 🎵8 😅7 🤔6 🔚8
Age 13+ the only potential objection is that Mom at one point doesn't even care if they get it on. She's playing for keeps. Nothing happens though. Irie is a misogynist @$$ in the beginning of the show. His behavior is not okay. Everybody worshiped him which he took as confirmation that he's superior. His mother is the counter to that, though. He's got problems that need fixing and she recognizes Kotoko as the fixer. Every romance is a little bit of fantasy. One could watch it with a younger teen and explain how this is the type of guy that a girl stays away from. This story gets to be a show because its resolution is what's unusual, but IRL one canmot expect to make it work with such a person. You don't want to be the one to try to fix an @$$hole. Then you're in for an @$$hole type of life. That's a horrible deal.
Re-📺? 🆒
From lite&trite to heavy&serious, here's some recs ~
💘
Ouran High School Host Club-8,,
Ao-chan Can't Study-7.8,
Special A Class 💓8.2,
Maid Sama-10,
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.4,
Mischievous Kiss,
True Beauty-7.5,
Map for The Wedding-7,
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun-7.7,
Colourcloud Palace-7.5,
Hakkenden,
7th Time Loop-7.9,
Honey & Clover,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU,
Princess Principal 8.6,
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale-7.5
My Happy Marriage-8.3,
My Happy Marriage-8.3,
Real Girl-7.5,
My Happy Marriage-8.3,
Your Lie In April-9,
Violet Evergarden-9.5
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✒ ⚖ Jung Hae-In VS Good-Girl-Disease ↔ (Again) From, Kim Eun & An Pan-Seok °7.6° °VG°
OSN was brought to us by the same team that gave us Something in the Rain-8.6: Director An Pan-Seok & writer Kim Eun. The two series have so many similarities that it's impossible to review OSN w/o looking back at SITR. OSN is SITR-lite, like a stamp that has been used a 2nd time so the imprint is more faded. They have the same ML and the same actress plays the mother of both FLs. Both are slow paced and build methodology while slow, sultry 🇺🇲music strums in the background. Slow doesn't mean boring. Both are great watches (though SITR started breezy and then ripped my heart out w/o fully putting it back together). As a stand-alone, OSN doesn't have much worth. Its rating and its value are inseparably part and parcel of SITR.Ji has been dating Gi-seok/Gi (her father's boss's son) for years. Everyone else is used to Gi. Dad is getting close to retirement and his boss has mentioned getting him a job at the foundation (gasp!). Dad is absolutely salivating over the idea. The moment Ji meets Jo she realizes she can't take Gi for another moment. Their relationship had turned stale and moldy when no one was tending to it. The "bad” thing about Jo is that he has a son. The mom took off. Jo seems like a bad bet & Ji falling for Jo threatens to turn the family upside down.
“What if I was about to do something that would turn everyone against me?” Ji asks her friend. Lee Jeong-in/Ji is played by Han Ji-Min. Ms Han can be so cute. She's great in Our Blues-8.5 and she really shines in The Familiar Wife-8.5, which was surprisingly excellent. Ji's stubborn and she will see things through to the end. Yu Ji-Ho/Jo is played by Jung Hae-In. W/o a doubt, he's a nice lookin guy. His appeal goes beyond mere looks. He's not likely to be picked as a top-10 from a lineup of the many exceptional Korean MLs based on looks alone, but he is a top-10. Probably a top-5 for many. He has a manner, and he has liquid-like eyes that just melt the viewer. His parents watch his son while Jo lives near his job. He's been living lonely while alone, Ji's been living lonely while amidst others. Jo finally opens up a wee bit: “I had to endure to survive. If I didn't suppress this anger and emotion, who knows what I would have done?”
OSN is a 2019 release that is rated 83 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 60-minute episodes. It didn't tear my heart out and stomp on it like SITR did. I like the characters, but my blood pressure didn't spike when they met adversity. Each series looks at oppressive, controlling parents and restrictive society from different angles and involves FLs who are under pressure to date a certain way. While I loved SITR, it was painful - very painful - I wanted to slap the FL more than once. OSN is so similar - I wasn't sure I was up for the pain.
Both FLs have a touch of good-girl disease and go through a fair amount of dithering. It can be unnerving. In SITR, the FL is expected to date only in the upper social strata, while in OSN, our FL is pressured on all sides to maintain a long term relationship so that everyone /else/ will feel at ease. It's the same issues but OSN has a different FL - a stronger one who is more impervious to coercion, yet still bogged down by a society that sucks at the feet, fighting every step forward. SITR features a toxic mother and OSN bring us imperious males. (The mom in OSN is lovely, and the same woman (Gil Hae-Yeon) plays mom in both shows. That's what /acting/ looks like). If one looks at the two shows as volumes of the same book, they fit together perfectly. Both of them feature quiet, everyday drama. Around ep7, I started to get nervous that this would be 9 more episodes of dithering over pressure asserted by friends, family, and society. The vacillation finally dies out and gives way to decision.
Poor losers. That's theme #1. “It's why I can't let this go. I don't want to look like a pathetic loser,” Gi moans. Gi's enormous ego led him to treat Ji as less - he took advantage of her - and when she leaves him, his ego can't take the “L. Gi refuses to break up with her because he doesn't want to lose - and he /really/ doesn't want to lose to Jo. I've known people who remain bitter for years - decades, even - after a divorce (the hurt may never go away, but this discussion is about allowing hurt to turn into bitterness, which is something different). The sense is that the bitterness is more about anger over losing more than anything else. Everyone must lose at some point. The fact that a person can't get beyond a loss, but rather opts for bitterness, means s/he is even more of a loser. Keep moving forward; work on yourself. Anything else is loser mentality. Every decision Gi makes, makes him more of a loser. Pride is a sneaky destroyer, yet we house it and nurture it until it infests every part of our lives. Pride is also Gi”s biggest motivator. It's what motivated him to work all the time to the neglect of his girlfriend. More than love, pleasing his difficult father (being validated) motivates Gi. That is why he never even introduced Ji to dad. He was worried she wasn't good enough. He took her for granted and thought he could make anything & everything up to her later - she would put up with it all. He had just heard from Jo: “You looked down on me.” Now Ji turns around and says the same thing; “You looked down on me,“ and “I was stupid to put up with it,” she adds. Yep, Gi is over the top, but I know a few Gi’s, and worse. Dad is worse. He only sees his daughters as pawns to bolster his image. Compare him to the ML, whose son is the world to him.
The fact that Jo has a son is a huge (YUGE!) obstacle, culturally. This goes against deeply ingrained traditions. Traditions usually start as something good, but people twist and corrupt everything. After awhile we get to the place where parents say: ‘You: Stay with the abusive husband,’ and, ‘You: Marry the cold guy who uses you because the man who loves you has a child.’ After awhile, traditions make no sense and do more harm than good as they morph into the opposite of what was originally intended. We need to examine our presuppositions every now & then.
Men treating women like property is another theme. “You should be ashamed that you're a shallow minded father who's more concerned with what other people think,” says mom to dad. The father sees his daughters as collateral. There's two relationships in which the man will not agree to a break-up, Ji with Gi, and her oldest sister with her abusive husband. In each case, the motivation is love - love of themselves, or pride. Neither cares much about the woman. “Do you think this is about love?” Ji's friend asks. When two men fight over a woman, it's usually about their pride, not the woman. The women know it isn't love, but they are trapped.
The way Ji has such a hard time making a clean break is one of the themes: Duty vs heart. There are duties that are infinitely more important than what we want, but some “duties” aren't duties at all: They are just a form of useless, meaningless control. Wisdom is knowing the difference. Ji is told that she shouldn't break-up with Gi as feelings come and go. She's treated with disrespect merely because she realizes she doesn't love her bf; she doesn't even /like/ him. He's just a /bf/ that she let hang around for too long, not a husband or even a fiance. Everyone acts like Ji's love life is their business. They keep asking if /Gi/ has /agreed/ to break it off (like that matters). Her sister is pushed to stay in a mistake-marriage with the claim that feelings come and go. This is true. Feelings come and go. However, most of the people (dad, especially) making this statement have a pride agenda. They don't want to look bad. There's a collection of things that dad is getting from his daughters’ relationships. He never gives a thought to what they are getting back, though. He has no inkling of how much he has distanced himself from them because dad has one great love affair in his life, and that's with himself.
It's not just Dad, mom, and Gi that Ji's trying to balance. Her co-workers’ curiosity is inflamed and she wants to win over her sisters to her side as well. Her sisters are navigating similar gauntlets (though in typical birth-order fashion, the youngest sister isn't struggling over pleasing any parent). Ji's friend may not agree with her decisions, but it's always good to listen to a contrary view, especially since her friend has no agenda other than wanting the best for a friend. Before long, though, Ji feels at home nowhere but in Jo's arms. Everything has been turned inside out.
We, in the West, can point fingers at 🇰🇷 and deride them for this awful behavior all we want, but we have the opposite problem. We've become slaves to our capricious, untrustworthy feelings. We throw out our duty, loyalty, and obligations all too easily. We indulge every whim yet are not satisfied, and our culture is increasingly enraged. The truth is often in the middle & the right answer is always a tailored fit; it cannot be found on the rack. Some marriages cannot be salvaged (Sister's marriage looks hopeless), but there's plenty of people who have worked on their failing marriages in earnest and have come out happier. One of life's secrets is that always indulging one's feelings and giving in to anger will never produce a happy life. Gratitude and contentment will. Anger is too frequently used as a veil to cover up our own deficiencies and inadequacies. If we are focused on another person's misdeeds, we never need pay mind to our own. Not only will this not work in the long-term, but it will also canker every relationship we have. Anger and hate eat our souls. So, while feelings are important, they aren't the most important thing. Treat them like a child: Nurse them, care for them, train them, but don't overindulge and spoil them or they will become ravenous monsters.
The first kiss should have been better. Perhaps they wanted it to be matter-of-fact, but waiting 9 episodes for that was a letdown. The first time I teared up wasn't for them, it was when two women sat on a bench together w/o saying a word. It's one of the best scenes in the show.
As the relationship with Gi falls apart he starts to see Ji with new eyes. The more she slips away, the more he falls in love. He's devastated when his own father, who had previously disapproved of Ji, actually compliments her. He had dismissively felt he owned her, and now that he's losing her, his own father seems to have more respect for /her/ than /him/! He could have gained points with his father by marrying Ji! Instead, dad looks down on him even more for blowing it. He makes a final play based on friendship - after a while the ardor may fade, but their friendship remains, surely? At the same time, Jo rejects the idea of friendship. He says he could never look at Ji in that way; she means too much to him. A self-absorbed person is incapable of being a good mate. Gi offers loveless, passionless “friendship.” Jo offers passion, devotion, adoration… Jo offers commitment - for every spring, summer, fall & winter's eve. Every good girl deserves to be loved like that!
QUOTES📢
Why do relationships always have such $h!++y endings?
Instead of holding back to protect someone, wouldn't you regret it less if you showed how far you're willing to go for that someone?
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.7 📝7.6 🎭8 💓7.8 🦋5.5 🌞5.3 🎨6 ⚡2 🎵/🔊7.4 😅3 😭3.8 😱2 😯4.8 😖0 🤔7 💤2.5 🔚7.6
Age 15+
Language: $h!+, b!+ch, pr!ck
Re-📺? This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again….
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Modern Day:
Mad For Each Other 7.8 ~silly fun;
My Secret Romance 7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks);
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love to Hate You 8.9;
Her Private Life 8;
Touch your heart 8.2;
Romance is a bonus book 7.9;
Boys Over Flowers 8 ~ melodrama to the max;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9;
Love Struck in the City 7.3;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;
More Than Friends 8;
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9;
Something in the Rain 9
Historical/Period:
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy;
Live Up To Your Name 7.6;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl / Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo 8.5;
Saimdang 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9
Try a Chinese historical fantasy romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8
Action/Sci-fi/fantasy:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4
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✒ The Drive ☢️ The Lies ⛔️ The Tangle ⚠️ & The Crash °8.1° °Excellent°
“I always do anything I set my mind to.”That is the opening. A is a 2022 release that is rated 87 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 6 60-minute episodes, though there's an 8-episode director's cut out there that everyone seems to think is better. Lee Joo-Young adapted Jung Han-A’s novel and directed A. Fairly new on the scene, he also has the movie, A Single Rider, on his resume that was well received. Bae Suzy (While You Were Sleeping-7.3, Start-up-8, Vagabond-8, Doona) is FL, Lee Yu-Mi. This is the most serious feature I've seen her in, and her skills are up to the challenge. She exudes the air of a person who is shut off from others. The viewer can feel the force field that isolates her. She also appears tiny and younger than her previous features - a good trick of the director's.
The tension builds through each episode. Even though Yu-Mi isn't necessarily likable, we feel for her. Her life is sad. They cleverly draw a parallel to Anna Anderson, an impostor who claimed to be Anastasia Romanov, daughter of Russia's last Czar. I spent 3 or 4 episodes expecting the show to go downhill, but it didn't. Anna is very well done.
We meet Anna (Yu-Mi) in the mid 90's when she is very young. Her father is a tailor and her mother is mute. Yu-Mi is bright and adorable; so much so that the English captain's wife takes her on as a piano student. Their lessons quickly branch out into English along with various life skills. In HS Yu-Mi is a top student. She's also dating her music teacher. When they are found out, he's suspended. She, on the other hand, must flee town only 4 mos before graduation! She spends the end of her HS years alone in Seoul. She can't keep it going, or get it started, though. Her grades slip. She doesn't make it into college. {A weakness of the show is that she's clearly smart, so her inability to get into school is questionable. We are supposed to accept that she got depressed and was unable to focus. They do lay sufficient groundwork, but ultimately, it falls short of being thoroughly convincing.}
She takes the soft-option, but ultimately robs herself of who she is, who she could become, and most of all, her freedom. Anna is in a cage. She starts to chafe at her cage in the latter episodes. Back to Seoul: In a weak moment, she lies about college acceptance to her father. Her parents are so elated about her “college acceptance” that she cannot bring herself to correct the narrative. She ends up pretending to be a student. She makes lots of “school” friends who think she's in the same year as them, and almost gets engaged, until her bf's mother looks into her record - only to discover there is none. This leads to bleak years where she works menial jobs.
By the end of ep1 she is thoroughly beaten down and working for a wealthy family as the personal maid to the family's princess. Princess just graduated from school and is planning her arranged “royal” marriage. Lee Hyun-Joo (Ji-Hyun) is usually friendly and kind, but she's spoiled, most of all. “Happiness is always alittle vague, but misery is clear,” she laments. “Aren't I pittitful?” “I'm totally miserable these days.” Anna had just been lambasted by this Prada-rat's father for asking for a day off (to visit her sick mother). She’s less than invested in Hyun-Joo's “misery.“ Yu-Mi closes ep1 with another snap decision that will have lifetime implications. She can do anything she sets her mind to, afterall.
She was never going to get ahead by following the rules, especially after being taken advantage of by a teacher and then discarded like trash. So she cheats. Anna will take off with enough loot from Princess‘s room to seed a new identity and new life. She ends up as an instructor at an elite school, and she's good at it. She's too successful. She's garnering attention. She marries a wealthy man who wants to get into politics, while her 1 friend becomes a political correspondent. Now, there's too much sunlight on her. People with a phony identity should keep a low profile.
The theme is that lies are complicated. The truth is simple. “The thing about people is that they lie even in a diary that no one else reads.” Even more true is that lies separate us from those around us. A liar will not form close relationships or bond with others. That is because a liar is fundamentally about h/h SELF. People lie for a variety of reasons. The primary reasons are to bolster one's ego, to make one's life easier, and to allay fears. We lie first to ourselves. Not having the courage to face the truth leads to not having the courage to live in truth. Thus, lying leads to a half-life. Not only that, but lies weigh us down. They multiply our burdens and sap any strength we have to bear them. It's an uneven exchange of short term relief for long-term health, sort of like a diet of junk food. It will bring a person down eventually. This is exactly what happens to Anna.
Anna has made mistakes, but we meet a villain who is much worse than she. Kim Joon-Han plays self-made-man and politician wannabe Choi Ji-Hoon. I've seen him in One Spring Night-7.8 in which he plays another egotist. He is a natural in the role, but he's good at playing a decent human in Prison Playbook-8.4. Ji-Hoon is known to utter weasel words like: “Nothing can be as empty as the courage of the weak. If you want to change the world, become powerful first.”
“Remember: poker face.” “You may have won, but you missed one thing. Your expression changed when you received an ace. You can win only when your opponent doesn't know what your cards are. It's not just a poker thing. Make sure you keep others from reading your mind,” the Captain's wife's instructions were thorough. Anna aptly shows how living a phony life, Living-For-The-Moment without a long-term plan, taking shortcuts, and living in lies simply don't work. Any momentary lift we get from the temporary sugar high we pay for later with a crash that's exponentially bigger.
Is there a point of no return? When is it too late to reverse course? NEVER. People who think like that are excessively self-indulgent and destructive - and perhaps just too lazy to adjust.
“When one becomes unhappy they become more interested in others. I used to be unhappy because of other people, too. Now I just wait for my chance. I don't believe in luck anymore. Don't mind other people. Think only about yourself,” Anna is told. That may be half true, but it isn't the best advice. The crux is what and how we think of others. Social media causes depression when people look at others and feel like they don't measure up. It isn't thinking about others that causes us to be unhappy, it's comparing ourselves to others. When we compare ourselves favorably, we're usually just creating a fabrication in our own heads because we never have all the facts. When we compare ourselves unfavorably, the same is true and we cause ourselves to be depressed. Either way, comparing ourselves to others creates emotions based assumptions, not truth. Anna goes the other way. She starts to think about other people as important, or even /more important/ than herself. She regrets disappointing her parents the most. She realizes she has never been loyal to anyone. She falls on the sword.
It's never too late for redemption.
QUOTES📢
You only realize after you get what you want… whether you really wanted it or not.
You become independent when you stop feeling guilty about disappointing your parents.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8 📝7.5 🎭8.3 🌞3 🎨7 ⚡4 🎵/🔊6 😅1 😭5 😱3 😯5 😖3 🤔7 💤0 🔚8
Age 12+ with the following cautions: violence, murder, mistresses and children out of wedlock, divorce, scary and tense moments - while all present, the show is kept relatively tame.
Re-📺? Not opposed
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Modern Day:
Mad For Each Other 7.8 ~silly fun;
My Secret Romance 7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks);
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love to Hate You 8.9;
Her Private Life 8;
Touch your heart 8.2;
Romance is a bonus book 7.9;
Boys Over Flowers 8 ~ melodrama to the max;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9;
Love Struck in the City 7.3;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;
More Than Friends 8;
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9;
Something in the Rain 9
Historical/Period:
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy;
Live Up To Your Name 7.6;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl / Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo 8.5;
Saimdang 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9
Try a Chinese historical fantasy romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8
Action/Sci-fi/fantasy:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4
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✒ ⚛❇✴ A Little Extra Ordinary ⚛❇✴°7° °VG° ?%?
It's the rich-heir-has-to-start-from-the-bottom-with-nothing trope! I'm still good for 1/year. Maybe 2. Not tired of it yet. Qin ZiQi has been given an apartment and 💴, so he starts with more than nothing. It's an advance, though. He'll have to pay it back. He either makes it in the company on his own merits, or he doesn't inherit. If anyone finds out who he is, he doesn't inherit. This is his reward for getting his ivy league MBA (?) …maybe it's payback for him taking 5 years to get a 2 year degree… Anway, the fat years are over. The lean years begin.OG is a 2011 release that is rated 7.6 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of either 40 40-minute episodes or 25 90 minute ones, depending on your source. I know the math doesn't add up on that. Netflix is running 40 episodes and the first one is 40 minutes. That's all I can say as I type this. The /show/ adds up, though. It's a good old good-girl-reforms-bad-boy story, in the end. He was bad in that he was pompous and useless - that's a baaaad combination.
OG is simplistic - practically kid-level. Why do I like this and I trashed other Twdramas that aren't all that different from this one? It succeeds because it stays on course - cute, simple, cheerful, and error-free. There's simple fare that is put together well and then there's Love Now-3.6, which wasn't. A couple side characters are alittle much, but the two leads keep it on course - even though the romance could have been better. OG radiates warmth while other shows have the effect of a scratchy wool sweater causing constant little irritations. That is missing here, though two characters come close. What can I say? OG is my kinda stupid.
They keep it to modest mini dramas and some fail-safes (like his mother disapproving of his taste in girlfriends) while avoiding mistakes. It's pleasant hanging with these people. They're sincere (except for all that lying about his identity on ZiQi's part😜). Their relationship is cute. When it becomes painful (Ren really goes through it; the actress does a nice job) I felt for her, but it didn't crush me. It's just a smooth ride - A smooth escalator.
In the last 10 episodes the plot became more interesting, while many shows flounder at that stage. I wanted his mom to pay for her crimes against humanity, I wanted Kai Er to be hauled off to jail, or at least get fired, and I couldn't wait until Ren found out the truth about him so they can get beyond the storm that's destined to kick up from that. I also,really wanted her to treat ZiQi alittle better. She's going through too much, tbf. But what I wanted, most of all, was for Ren to do her hair, makeup, and dress prettily. They better make her look like a superstar or I'll be furious, I was thinking. (They let me down. She might just look her worst in the wedding gown).
The opening song is ratched, but the soundtrack is pretty solid. There's too many flashbacks in the last 2 eps, and they're only tolerable because the music is good. Some of the fashion is laughable, but heaven help me, I like some of it.
Roy Chiu (The Family, Man in Love) is the ML, Qin ZiQi. The Taiwanese took men's hairdos very seriously in this era. He's coiffed up superbly. He's a very good looking guy. I like his manner even though it's a little stiff and ultra cool. He has this habit of turning his head to the side in a way that reminds me of Ben Stiller in the film, Zoolander-8.8. Zoolander is a model and he names his varied vogues, or facial expressions. This guy's definitely sporting some Blue Steel.
Patrick Lee plays the duo's boss. He was great in The Fierce Wife-8, which starts slowly but ends great: It's excellent. Here, he's overly cartoonish - it's bad. He's in need of some bad boy reform, himself. This actor is still weirdly likable. Ren’s roomie is a tiny little cutie, Liu Yu Le (Kuo Shu Yao from The Wolf). She and Boss get stuck in the elevator together, one day. That, along with some other fateful run-ins get his heart stuck on Ms Liu. He develops a thing for her and chases her for the rest of the show. At first she's horrified and disgusted, but he's got over 30 episodes to work on her. Her voice makes falsetto anime characters sound like Annie Lennox. She's a wind-up squeaky toy. It's too much, at times. I told myself it was cute into the teen episodes but then I just wanted to smack her. She's too angry, mean, and grating.
ZiQi's dad is played by Shen Meng Sheng. He's one of the best things in Love Now-3.6. Lam Sau Kwan (Magic Moment) is ZiQi's mother, an over the top character. I can't form a thought beyond that. I'd love to see this actress again to assess her skills more. James Wen (The World Between Us, Once upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain-7.5, Douluo Continent-9) portrays Xu Cheng Feng/Old Yu. He will vie for our FL's affections. His ex, Wei Min Na (Janel Tsai) gets involved. Both Of them starred in The Fierce Wife. The director is Hsu Fu Chun who brought us The Rational Life-7 and The Fierce Wife, so I'm officially a fan.
Back to the beginning. Ren & ZiQi meet. She's blocking his view of a hottie whilst wearing the dino balloon-selling plushie. He writes his number on a balloon and asks her to deliver it to said hotness. She says ‘that ain't my job’. They argue. He pops the balloon and stomps off. He finds out he's been relegated to the cubicle-class in the following scene, ahd she's his supervisor. Guess who's the dinosaur now?
ZiQi wants to date the scorching hot Zheng Kai Er (Tia Lee from Jojo's World) but he can't be happy beside her. He keeps craving Shen Xing Ren's company. “Ren” is played by Ko Chia Yen of Someday or One Day & Copycat Killer. She's ordinary. An ordinary office worker, ordinary appearance, ordinary body, ordinary IQ, ordinary performance, ordinary educational background, ordinary income, and an ordinary sense of style. She has extraordinary spunk and resolve. This actress has a freckle on her lower lip. Never seen that before. Yang Li Yin (You Go! Girls!, My Unexpected Roommate) is really sweet as her Mama.
Kai Er turns out to be quite the snake. She's smart, so she picked up on ZiQi's true identity early on. She's been doing everything to advance her cause of becoming party to his fortune, which means she's been actively undermining Ren. This actress is gorgeous. I think that caused me to tolerate her longer than I should have. Her acting is a little strange, but I'm not sure if it's the part she plays. Kai Er makes some unsavory choices.
There's something quite sweet about the main romance. She's practical and often described as homely though I think she has an exotic look to her. (I was waiting for the episode where they dress her up because she's always in basic pants tops and ponytails). He's a bit of a brat. They spend many episodes in which they're virtually, but not officially, together. They're 85% there, and holding, because she won't make it official. She refuses to admit out loud that she likes him. Then she's offered a wonderful job opportunity overseas. Dilemma.
“Every penny I don't spend is a penny I earn,” she tells him in ep2. For their first date, once they are official, they stay “in” because cheapskate-Ren points out that renting a DVD is much more economical than going to a theater. I noticed they're watching Autumn's Concerto-7.2 from 2009, which is over 30 episodes, and they're at the end of the show: Long date! {I still consider myself fairly new to Asian programming, but my ability to pick up on what they're watching on the television may be a sign that I've graduated from noob to intermediate Asian programming watcher.}
Their first kiss is surprisingly good. She actually dropped money on the ground as he moved in. For a true penny pincher, through and through, this says volumes. In the end, their interaction is warm but not steamy. The actual romance takes a step back from the whole story.
No one is born annoying. ZiQi just has lots of growing up to do. The attitude he displays, like he doesn't care about anything or anyone, is just a front to hide his vulnerability. What he really wanted was a girl who feels like home as his parents were never around. Ren is there, and she is making his newfound “poverty” comfortable. Ren has been slogging away on her own for a long time. She cannot suffer fools, and ZiQi is borderline foolish. She's good for him. She makes him want to be a man. By the time the show has passed the halfway mark he makes this observation: “Only a mature and dependable man can truly give a woman happiness and a sense of security.” Well, bless his heart!
QUOTES📢
According to Indian philosopher, Krishnamurti, fear is one of the greatest problems in life. A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, in conflict, and therefore must be violent, distorted, and aggressive. It dare not move away from its own patterns of thinking, and this breeds hypocrisy.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.3 📝7 🎭7 💓6 🦋4.5 🎨6 🎵/🔊7 🔚7.5 🤗5 ▪ 🌞6 ⚡2.5 😅2.5 😭2 😱1 😯3.5 🤢2 🤔3 💤1
Shazams:
好朋友只是朋友 & 微加幸福 by Yisa Yu - it's lovely, 永不 by Daikyu Wu
Age 9+ Rated Everyone
Re-📺? Tough one. It's possible.
🇹🇼Taiwan
Age of Rebellion-9.5
Autumn's Concerto-7.2
Back to 1989-7.1
Black & White-6.8
The Fierce Wife-8 - worth sticking with
Inborn Pair-4.2
Love, Now-3.6
Love You-7
Office Girls-7
Two Fathers-7.5
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
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✒ ✨️ The Unicorn Family Crashes Fang Motorworks °7.5° °VG°
Why is Daddy suddenly interested in helping out Wendi with her homework? Daddy's not the type to understand his own motivations or actions. Papa is much better at that, and Papa is always the one who helps with homework. Never Daddy. So, WHY? Because, Daddy has newfound motivation, and this is one of the funnest onscreen couples EVER. Really! Tang & Fang are a blast. With 73 ~ Seventy-three ~ yes, 7~then-3, episodes, they have plenty of time to take their time. Not only with Tang (Daddy) & Fang, but with Wen (Papa) & Wu, too. They are all as cute as “lost Blackie” posters.The premise is almost a nonstarter. Two guys are summoned to the ob-gyn office where they learn that one of them is the father of baby Wendi. Mom didn't know which one. Mom doesn't care. She's left the kid to them to sort it out. She's going to pursue her dream🇺🇸.
That isn't what's implausible. What is utter nonsense is that these 2 (heterosexual) dudes decide to raise Wendi together. Whose-yer Daddy, Wendi? Forget biology. She's got a Daddy and a Papa. I can roll with any premise as long as the execution is good. This is not an easy one. Time travel is more believable, but let's see where it goes… even with it being threescore and thirteen eps, let's see where it goes, I thought.
2F is a 2013 release that answers the question: “Papa, what happens when 2 friends want the same thing?” After baby Wendi's living status is settled, here's what happens next:
It was just a trip to the supermarket.
Megan Laai (W Series: Love Yourself) is “Fang” Jing Zhu. Yes, she just hit another car in the grocery store parking garage, Since dad runs a body shop it isn't that big of a deal. She leaves a note for the owner of the abused car and continues with her errand, when she meets a horrible man. She'd been trying to get that last box of chocolate for at least a minute. She can just brush her fingertips on it. Viola! Her savior appears! But he pops those confections into his /own/ cart! After Fang objects, he counters by telling her that if she wants to get something from the top shelf, she should grow an inch. 😤 How rude! Next, she runs into an adorable father and daughter. They end up helping her out of an embarrassing situation.
Back home, dad isn't happy about her causing more trouble. He'll fix the stranger's car, but he won't fix hers. She'll never learn if he keeps fixing her mistakes. Dad shouldn't be getting her upset b/c tomorrow is her first day as a teacher. (Dad, btw, says some of the most horribly obnoxious things, but he gets away with it because he's just so dang cute).
The next morning, guess who's in her class? Fang discovers that the 2 men she met-a-marketing are the fathers of Wendi, her student. Not only is Mr. “Grow-an-inch” rude in supermarkets, but he is also a mean school parent. He's also the owner of the car she struck. This guy's cheap, too. She knocked off his side mirror, but he's asking her father to fix his bumper as well. Oh, he's the PTA rep, /of course/. Worst of all, he is a lawyer😱! It is going to be a long year.
Weber Yang (A Touch of Green) plays Mr. “Grow-an-inch” “Tang” Xiang Xi, or “Clueless Monster,” as Fang calls him. He calls her Ms “Rear View Mirror,” and that's where he wants to see her, both personally and professionally (he's guessing her teaching is as good as her driving). But he can't seem to actually put her in the rear view mirror. He is clueless, EQ-wise. Human emotions are nonsense to him. He cares about facts and results, and WENDI. He has no inkling of his developing feelings for Ms Fang, though there's sparks from the start.
The other father, (Lin You Wei from Na Pian Hua Na Pian Hai is “Wen” Zhen Hua), sees it all. He's darling with his tousled bedroom hair. A born nurturer, he enjoys cleaning and cooking. Wen sees what is happening: Fang and Tang are getting tangy together. They are like magnet and steel, to borrow from Walter Egan. Wen is now in a deep personal conflict. The primary house rule is that they never, ever, NEVER fall for the same woman again. That's how they ended up co-parenting Wendi. Wen sort of likes Fang, so he is depressed.
The alien, Wu Yong Jie (Cherry Leung) can see it. As an artist, she sees colors around people that broadcast their moods. Ms Wu is strange ~> Even for an artist ~> Think Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club. She isn't good at self-care. She refers to her cat, Blackie, as a roommate. She doesn't clean or groom. She just draws all day. Her apartment actually smells. Wen had to collect the overdue HOA fee from her and he was horror-stricken at first sight. Wendi bonded with Wu straight away, though. Wu agreed to teach Wendi how to draw, a deal that the 2 women struck while ignoring Wen's protests. Wen can't help himself: He ends up assisting Wu with meals and cleaning while she teaches Wendi. That brand of care branded her ❤️.
Love is in the air. Wen isn't the only sad onlooker as Fang & Tang start to bang around. Tang's partner, Jiang Ying Fan (Amanda Chou from the Youngsters on Fire series) is deflated like 3 day old party balloons. What is worse is that Ms Fang's brother (Marcus Zhang from The Eternal Love & The Wolf Warriors portrays Fang Fei Zhu) fell in love with Jiang at first sight. He works at his father's repair shop and he doesn't get out much. His only past relationships are with cars. He has no sense of style, he isn't cool, and he's pretty much clueless ~ “A primitive man in a modern world,” as Tang puts it. What he is, is very very sincere. His co-worker Ni Oh (a bit of comic relief) delivers epically awful love letters to Jiang's office for him (he enclosed a screw. ‘Screws are small but essential.’ It's a metaphor. Jiang only sees a screw loose). No Oh takes one look at receptionist Xiao Pei (Vanila Song) and falls hard: The over-reaching-dork disease is communicable; these women are way far out of their league. All’s well that ends well, right? These guys are technically stalkers, so one has to let that slide in order to enjoy the show. If you aren't in any mood to give that behavior an overlook, then I've just freed up 73 episodes worth of time for you.
Jun Liao is a highlight of the show as Fang Da Tong, Fang's Father and failed dating coach. Steven Sun from Before We Get Married plays Fang Qing Zhu, another sibling whom we meet in the 2nd half of the show. Lucia Xie (Dream Raider) is the adorable Tang Wendi, the little girl at the center of it all. She's fabulous, as are the two children who play her friends. Finally, there's the real star, Blackie the cat. Director Liu Jun Jie also did Boss & Me-7 which is a thoroughly enjoyable romance for romance junkies. If his name is on it, I'm interested.
We watch Tang and Fang's romance through Wen's eyes, or a third party's eyes. It's adorable yet less intimate than some romances. Whatever they lack in intimacy they make up for in adorability. Their interactions are delightful. 73 episodes of them frolicking? I'm in!
What do you call a first date in which neither party realizes that they're on a date? By ep 47 they are still clueless but always finding reasons to hang together. Do we count the frequent basketball and boxing matches? The boxing match has a strong case as for being the first date, but as far as we're-dressed-nice-we're-going-out-we're-going-to-have-a-couple-drinks-we'll-see-where-it-goes first date action, episode 47 is it... I think... I'm not sure what Tang was thinking. Even though it's working hours, he surprises her after school. He tells her to get in the car because he has somewhere to take her. Since it's something related to her family, in his mind, he can still lie to himself about the reason for taking her. So, it's a date, but it's not a date. . It's definitely a first dressed-up outing; Step 1; coupling-up. Episode 47 is a transitioning episode because Miss Wu ends up on a night out with Wendy and Wen. It's rather nice structure.
Will Blackie have kittens? Will that make Wendy wonder about who her mother is? Will Wendy's mother show up? (Cancel that b!+ch). I hope not. Will they find out who the true father is? Probably. Most probably. Some things seem obvious, but the viewer won't get everything s/he might expect. The show takes a couple unexpected turns and doesn't always turn when and where expected. For example, Wen should have been required to bring an assistant to New Zealand and it should have been Wu. To think about Daddy & Wendi joining Wen on his trip… it seems like a comedy in which the jokes would write themselves. But Wen goes away for several episodes, and everyone else must fend for themselves. Wu almost loses it completely with Wen gone. At the same time, Tang should have been getting more help from Fang with Wen gone. Missed opportunities. He definitely needed help with Wendi's hair. She learned to just do it on her own. Nothing “expected" happens during that entire sequence.
The low point of the show is when a character becomes hearing impaired. The way they handle it is disastrously bad. There is no rhyme or reason as to what is audible and what isn't with the character. For instance, this person doesn't hear the tea kettle screeching but does hear a knock on the door. At the dinner table during conversation, one person can be heard, but the next can't. It is really bad, but by the time this happens it is nearly the end of the show and I already considered the whole thing adorable, so they are forgiven for this sloppiness.
Tang harbors anger against his absent father who is now trying to reconnect with him. “It's all love, the difference is in how you say it,” Fang observes. That's good writing. Our extreme anger against a person can be evidence that we care. This also helps explain why Tang has ironclad determination to make things work well for Wendi. (“If you have a child, it has to call me Daddy too,” Tang tells Wen. They are family forever. Yes, we're in fantasy world. Nevertheless, it's utterly charming).
The filmcraft is what makes the show nearly seamless. The light music and cadence of the actors' voices have a relaxing effect. They regularly zip-zip-ZIP through lectures. It's a cute technique. (Who knows how long the show would have been without that?)
As long as it is, 2F is filled with love, laughs, legal cases, HOA drama, PTA problems, kissing and running, bad suits, horrible poetry, and totally radiating warmth. Snuggle up. This one is cozy.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.5📝7 🎭8.3 💓7 🦋4 🎨5 🎵/🔊8 🔚7.5 ▪ 🌞7 ⚡2.5 😅3 😭2 😱1 😯1 🤢2 🤔3.5 💤0
Age 12+ Language: once or twice there was a b!+ch, d@mn,.and a $h!+
Re-📺? Not excluded
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
🇹🇼Taiwan -
Age of Rebellion-9.5,
Autumn's Concerto-7.2,
Back to 1989-7.3,
Black & White-6.8,
The Fierce Wife-8 - worth sticking with,
Love You-7,
Office Girls-7.3
💓 -
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love 7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine;
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
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;
🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
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!;
K🇰🇷:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
The Man From Nowhere 8.9
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4
Japanese🇯🇵 lite romcoms: Maid Sama-10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4, Toradora-8.5
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✒ ☸ Rong is Right ⛩️ Pei is the Way ☸ °8.3° °excellent°
As TPR opens, the kingdom is in shambles and our Princess is very ill. She /knows/ her husband, Pei Wen Xuan, has poisoned her. She orders her minions to kill him as everything fades to black. When she wakes, she has time-slipped 20 years back to age 18. She's alive once again, and no one in the palace has ever heard of Pei Wen Xuan.Another chance? How will she handle things and avoid disaster this time around?
TPR is a 2024 release that is rated 8.2 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 40 fantastic 45-minute episodes. One thing about Chinese historical dramas is that they will make a person happy to be a commoner. Nobody wants to hang with these noxious royals. Soon, Rong will learn that Pei did not kill her. She will never guess who the real murderer is.
TPR is not in the later episodes what it seems like in the earlier ones. Towards the end, the cesspool of the human heart is uncovered and the stench permeates. The show leads up to Rong's pained and impassioned soliloquy: “All of you were really disgusting. How evil. Father and son weren't real father and son, siblings weren't real siblings, couples weren't real couples, and friends weren't real friends. Everything in the past was just a rotting swamp filled with disgusting pus… The ruler showed no mercy to his family. The successor neglected ethical values. The officials plotted rebellion. People's lives were just pawns.” It really is heartbreaking.
Zhao Jin Mai (A Little Thing Called First Love-8.6, Amidst a Snowstorm of Love) is Li “Rong”., Her acting is stellar. She's a woman who's lived over 40 years but is now back in her 18 year old body. Her demeanor says mature. She actually has a tired air about her. She's measured, she's never in a rush, she's always composed, and she's pensive. Zhang Ling He (Love Between Fairy and Devil-8.9, Story of Kunning Palace) is “Pei” Wen Xuan, Rong's husband. She wants to marry “Su” Rong Qing, who was her BFF in her prior life. They loved e/o, but he had been castrated, so they just stayed friends. When Rong’s father holds a banquet to get a look at potential suitors, Su will not engage with her. She ends up being stuck with Pei again! She quickly learns that he traveled back just like she did. He insists that he didn't kill her. He's certain that Su did. Ouch. That hurts. Chen He Yi (Till the End of the Moon, Summer Again) portrays Su, who is a Minister of Justice. His Long pensive stares make us wonder what's on his mind. The wheels are clearly turning and churning.
He Qiu (Xiangbei Regret) is Qin Zhen Zhen, the girl-warrior who has captured the heart of the crown prince. Rong's mother is simply hateful - she's the most wrong character of the show. Zhao Pei Lin (Go Ahead, Hi Venus) is the Empress and Shangguan family devotee. Cheng Guo (Married, The Lord of Losers) is the spritely Rebel Shangguan Ya. She's always donning peasant clothes and sneaking off to gamble. When important work needs to be done, she's a go-to resource. In the first go-around, she married the crown prince. When we meet her she's awesome. She's in a pleasure house, disguised as a man, and slapping down cards while yelling out drink orders. Her personality shifts rather quickly though. She's one of the oldest members of one of the most powerful families, and ambition takes over. The way her character goes is a little bit disappointing. Will she make a comeback?
The tensions between the noble families and the common folk is what's driving politics. At one point, the emperor, who truly wants to help the people, can't even look at his wife. Her elaborate jewelry would feed so many poor if they sold it. “Do you know what's the scariest thing about wielding power? It's when it corrodes one's heart. The person whose heart is almost corroded to the core cannot feel anything at all,” Rong will point out. That describes the privileged families and it's no different from what we see today.
“If an emperor thinks he's incompetent, the sense of shame will drive him mad.” Part of the problem with the past is that Rong's brother ended up being a terrible ruler. He's a tenderhearted boy who wants to do the right thing, and he doesn't even want to be king. “Do you know what the hardest thing about being a ruler is? Everyone around you may be deceiving you. While anyone else can obtain the truth easily. As the emperor, I have to search for the truth in the middle of a trove of lies. What's more, the truth often consists of the half lies they tell me…. I was born with free will, yet I couldn't live freely,” laments the king. Yet, for his son, Chuan, it's much worse. All the above turns into bitterness when he gets no assistance and feels completely isolated during the course of his reign. He becomes spiteful and cruel. Liu Xu Wei (The Glory) plays crown prince Li Chuan.
This time around, Pei & Rong know that power won't satisfy. They know a simple life of love is what makes it all worth it. But, wielding it for good, will be very satisfying. “Only the incompetent ones need to use the weakness of their wives to prove themselves. What I desire is for my wife to achieve her aspirations… My love for my wife is not about trapping her in a gilded cage but about being able to offer her opportunities to do whatever she desires without restraints.” Pei wants a partner, not property he can push around.
I don't have many nitpicks. The cadence is relaxing but it flirts with dragging at times. It's a slow paced show. It is methodical and elegant, but I suspect some won't like the pace. Pei’s lipstick is too much in many scenes; positively Maybelline Plum #3. At the very end, they go ahead 3 years but don't show us any kids. In the context, they should have. None of the needs-improvements stack up against the filming, which is beautiful. Cinematography and costume designs are exquisite. The wardrobe is wearable art. The sets are opulent but not overdone, with the rich colors serving as a balm to the eyes. The music is lovely. There's several fights and skirmishes. Fight scenes are largely typical but also graceful and exciting. The sword fight in ep 40 is riveting.
The acting is top tier. There's a stunning love confession in the rain. No kiss, though. Since the confession comes earlier than expected, I guess they can't jump into things too quickly. They eventually generate some lovely, well-above-average, romantic moments. It is even funny at times. The blemishes are few; this show is magnificent.
TPR gives the viewer plenty to consider. We see people chasing after power and privilege with nary a whim about what they'll do with it. Helping the poor and disadvantaged never occurs to them! The “Rong” will “Pei” for their wrongs! Most fall on their own swords, in the end. There's no better last words than this: “I also went through so much to finally understand that my whole life should be dedicated to my righteousness.” We shouldn't save those thoughts for last, though. The sooner we work on acting and thinking “right” the better for us, and everyone else.
Things split and go in unexpected directions In the last 7, or so, episodes. We hear more about the past from 2 or 3 different perspectives, and it's shocking. It's sad, all around. Rong is confronted with a huge dilemma. But, Rong is going to Pei. He will figure it out. Pei is the way.
QUOTES📢
The worst thing women can do is pin their hopes on men.
The essence of power is understanding people.
People only have the right to choose when they are strong enough.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.9 📝8.5 🎭8.5 💓7 🦋6.7 🎨9 🔚8 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡4.9 😅2 😭4.2 😱3 😯2.8 🤢3 🤔4.8 💤1.5 🤗5
🎵/🔊7 Shazams: 藏心 (电视剧《度华年》情感插曲) by Ye Xuanqing & 执爱 (电视剧《度华年》情感插曲) No English title is available.
📝Original Creator Mo Shu Bai (Destined)
📝Screenwriter: Rao Jun (The Journey of Flower, Ancient Love Poetry-8.6)
📣Director: Go Yik Chun (The Empress of China)
Age 13+ mild sexual content, moderate violence
Re-📺? Would
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
💓 -
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love 7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine;
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
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;
🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
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!;
K🇰🇷:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
The Man From Nowhere 8.9
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4
Japanese🇯🇵 lite romcoms: Maid Sama-10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4, Toradora-8.5
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✒ Acting Alone Is Nonexistent ❣ It's Not Love, Anyway °6.7° °good, bad, & bitter°
No man is an island ❣Entire of itself ❣
Every man is a piece of the continent ❣
A part of the main ❣….❣ Any man's death diminishes me ❣
Because I am involved in mankind ❣
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls ❣
It tolls for thee.
~John Donne~
Is that love? Yes, it is.
‘I wanted to carry the burden alone,’ many characters in WIL say. Is that love? If you choose to act alone, you are choosing to be alone. Before you act alone, remember that you /don't/ act alone: No man is an island. Everything we do has an impact on others, and every one of us is a role model, whether for good or less-than. "By the time I realized I'd pushed you away, it was too late," is another line we hear. Again, was acting alone, love?
‘Why would you drop out of college with just one semester to go?’ Looong pause.
This rom-dram, with some smiles mixed in, opens up to our FL, “Noh” Ae Jung (Song Ji Hyo from My Wife’s Having an Affair This Week & The Witch's Diner). She's in a job interview at a movie studio. Her voice is a rich Alto. Finally, she blurts out that she had to drop out to have a child. Her daughter's now older, so she's ready to pursue her dream of being a movie producer. Hired immediately! Wow, that was easy! When the owner of the studio disappears, she learns that he tricked her into cosigning for his debt! The debt collector is a really scary looking dude. She needs to make money fast or risk losing limbs.
Noh frantically rifles through the studio in search of anything that can generate quick cash. She comes across a contract to adapt ‘Love Is Non-existent' to film. It's the fledgling novel by a now enormously famous author. Jackpot🎰. She arranges a meeting and is pleasantly surprised when the reclusive writer agrees to it. When she arrives at the pre-arranged location, she understands why: She's met this author before. He's never posted pictures of himself publicly, and he writes under a pen name, but this wordsmith, Oh “Dae” Oh (Son Ho Jun from Go Back Couple & The First Responders-7.8) is her ex. Right here. Right now. Right in front of her disbelieving eyes. They had been very close, but was it love? I'll tell you what it is now: It's hate. No matter how much money is involved, this is a man she won't work with. Lo, and behold! HE says the same thing about HER! He'll never agree to work with /her/ on /anything/.
Noh has the script’s rights, and she's desperate, so she's thinking about forcing the project through. In the meantime, Dae looks for comfort and support. He reaches out to the couple's closest college friend, “Ryu” Jin (Song Jong Ho of Arthdal Chronicles & A Korean Odyssey-7.2). Ryu, a now famous actor, has his OWN agenda, however. As the project goes forward, things will get quite messy with the 3 of them.
Not as messy as it is with Dae and his daughter, Hani, though. Once again, we see a superb Korean child actor. She's been longing for him her whole life. He didn't know she existed. Dae’s first interaction with the kid is darling. It's loaded. There's tension, they spat, they look alike, they act a little bit alike, yet she also acts like her mom. Hani may seem inconsistent. She's looking for her father, but when she finds him, she's reluctant to accept him. She's lived 14 years without a father, she tells him, so she doesn't need one. It's understandable that she would be self-protective and cautious before opening up her heart to this man whom she's just met, but the toxicity is frustrating. Is that love? Not yet.
Kim Mi-kyung makes an appearance. She is the every-other-mother. She's in every other feature as the mom, it seems. (Somebody should let that woman out of the kitchen!) In Saimdang-8.5 she plays a sophisticated Gallery owner, and she does it well. Even though she's always playing a mom, that doesn't mean that she's the same in every feature.
When things get a little more serious, the actors shine. They get to show off their skills. That is part of what hurts. I'm behind in writing reviews. Sometimes, the way I see a show changes over time. My first impression isn't always the lasting one. The more I recall WIL, the less I like it. The more I look back on it, the more bitter it is. WIL is a difficult pill. What it does well, it does really well; but the negatives are what stay with the viewer. There are things in this show that I didn't merely dislike, but actively loathed.
First of all, some characters don't come around quickly enough. It's frustrating.
Secondly, Noh committed so many no-nos! They will show the couple's falling out. Dae became obsessed with the many things pressuring him between school and career, He turned dismissive, unappreciative, and inattentive towards Noh. He was horrible. He was wrong. She, in turn, separated herself and never told him he was a father. Not when she started showing. Not as the due-date neared. Not after the birth. Not at the first birthday, or the second. Count to 14. Fine, to that. I don't agree, but she was really angry at that jerk. But we'll also learn that /Hani/ was tortured at school over not having a father. They had to frequently move due to the intolerance from outsiders. Hani had trouble making and keeping friends. Hani longed for her father. Noh sacrificed her daughter to her anger. Her feelings were more important than her daughter! Was that love? HAIL NAW! This isn't up for debate: Noh was wrong.
That's the worthy message rolled into WIL. “Stop before you end up doing something you regret, like I did. Some things just weren't meant to be,” we hear. No one is guilt-free in this show. Everybody thinks they're running in a straight line. We're all going after our prize. However, none of us are capable of running in a straight line. Society is a web, a tangle, and endless knots. In WIL, most of the characters make decisions on their own without a care to verify the facts. Is that love? More often than not, when we think we're acting alone, we're lying to ourselves. We're not running a straight path, we're always weaving and intruding into other lanes. We choose to ignore that and keep the focus on us, what we want, & our own pain. Instead of the wide world around us and loved ones closest to us, it's our bitterness, hate, anger, and, more than anything, our pride that drive most people. Nowhere is this more true than with parenting. "It was my choice to have her, but it wasn't for her to live this way," Noh sobs (yeah, it was). She's in the middle of her mother and her daughter. Mom is saying that she'll take on all Noh's burdens because that's what a mother does for a child. Noh slowly takes in the fact that, ultimately, burdens must be borne - nobody can /walk/ our path for us. It's much easier with support, if we can get it. Regardless, the toll must be paid. She realizes how the whole situation has put a very heavy burden on her unsupported daughter, while Noh willfully had blinders on. She had refused to see it in the middle of her swirling pain. Was that love?
Parenting is the main theme of WIL. The teacher's mother wants to protect her son, and therefore, tries to take over his life. Is that love? Ironically, she got the exact opposite of what she wanted: She distanced herself from her son. If she had just been natural with him they would have been close. ‘I'm a single parent, so I'm your mom and your dad,’ is Noh's attitude. That's asking the kid to enter a pact of lies. No matter what a parent says, kids know when they have another parent out there, somewhere. I have people close to me with a parent who claimed s/he would be two parents. The kids knew it wasn't true; all they felt was betrayal from the parent that wasn't there, and they underappreciated, with a little resentment mixed in, the parent that was there. Because nobody can fill two roles. We should merely fulfill our responsibilities to our utmost ability and love. Kids always want a mom and a dad, but no one can be two people, we can each only be one. Tell them you'll do everything you can to make up for the lack. Tell them that you're in this together. It's important that they know that things don't always work out the way we like in life. Besides, it's usually a bad idea to lie to kids. Most of our lies are for ourselves, not others, anyway. (Even many white lies are about making us feel more comfortable, not about looking out for the other person, who might improve if s/he heard the truth in kindness. Is that love?) Most of all, we lie to ourselves first. You can get through anything with your kids by cherishing them and always keeping communication open and flowing. Claiming "I'm your mom & your dad," (focus on YOU) as opposed to saying "I will do everything I can to make up for what you haven't been given in life,” (focus on THEM) are almost opposite. As one character says: 'it's not enough to fill the void in her heart."
Thirdly, he ends up wanting to scrap his book, change his pen name and start over to write the true story. He claims the 1st one was a lie. It wasn't a lie, it was the truth as he knew it. I think a better idea would be to write the sequel from her perspective. He can't scrap the book anyway, it's already out there.
Finally, the dreaded, no good, very bad MSS - Mandatory Separation Syndrome. It's a tired-out plot device in which, once a couple commits, they are separated for an extended chunk of time. I can't believe that after 14 years of separation they still did a 2-year MSS. Just pretend it didn't happen. Yeah, sure, he had to go do what he had to go do, and she needed to do what she had to do, but no contact? I can't stand it. How could they bear to be separated, and how could he leave his daughter for another 2 years? Is that love? Nope. This is utter nonsense in any culture.
There are many worthy elements. The childrens’ relationship mirrors the adults. It's charming. “Why do bad things always come all at once?,” Noh wonders. Apparently suitors come all at once, as well. It ain't a Kdrama without a ❣⛰. First blood: They each got a paper cut early on in the show; they are linked. The cool camera work during some of the kisses makes the viewer feel how dizzying it must have been for them. They aren't going for all-out laughs, but there's plenty of amusing moments and characters in the show. Director Kim Do Hyung does a nice job. The Issues don't stem from the technical side. The directing is solid. The acting is tremendous. It's just enough to string the viewer along for the big letdown. The weakness in WIL is the writing, more than anything else. While It isn't without merits, we are left with an emptiness that hurts. I'm not in love with it.
QUOTES🗣
I don't know how many knots there are, but let's start on tying them one by one.
Love has no revenge.
I wanted to stay by your side & protect you, but I was just being selfish. It wasn't love.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬6 📝5 🎭7.7 💓5.5 🦋6.5 🌞3 🎨7⚡3 🎵/🔊6 😅3 😭5 🤢2 🤔5 💤2 🔚4
Screenwriter: Lee Seung Jin (Cinderella & the Four Knights-5.6)
Age 14+ starting 25 minutes in, we have a string of R-rated language, Including a couple f💣s. It's scattered through the series here & there. There's blood & death around level 2.5/10
Re-📺? Sorta wish I skipped the 1st viewing.
After So Long, It's YOU:
My First First Love-8,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Sisyphus 8
Hospital Playlist 9 (give it 3 episodes to get warmed up),
Itaewon Class-8.9,
Familiar Wife-8.5,
More Than Friends-8,
Awaken-8.7,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Something in the Rain-8.6,
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Hidden Love-7.8
Originally 〰️🖋 3/2025
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✒Santa Seoul vs Ancient Curse-Castor 〰 A ♥️ For The Ages °8° °Excellent°
Let's Brew Laughs & Some Abraca〰Boom〰Shakalaka.Herein is a cauldron of romcom excellence. Is it a bit silly? Absolutely, but in a familiar sense. There's enough good directing, acting, and writing to balance it out. (Just look at the team!). Poof! This is a potion of loves, laughs, & crackling sparks of electricity far exceeding my low expectations. It all makes AW💘 fly.
There's no boil, boil, trouble or toil about it. If a viewer doesn't like AW💘, then that viewer doesn't like simple romcoms that are a happy lift to life's drudgery. If you don't like rom-coms, why are you even watching this? I can't make sense of its rating, particularly in comparison to worse shows that are rated higher. AW💘 just does it for me. I don't understand why What's Wrong With Secretary Kim-6.8 is rated higher. I don't understand why someone would like Abyss-4.7, 100 Days My Prince-5.5, or Bring It On Ghost-4.6, more. But we are all different. I am of the firm opinion that AW💘 Is under appreciated. We tend to overrate our gateway Kdramas and this is one of mine. I decided to pick off an episode here and there again to see if I still felt the same way. I do. These two are superb actors & they connect. They connect like a giant puzzle made out of hot water bottles. Everything fits snug and cozy and warm. The heat just radiates. I wish I could think of a better term than chemistry, but when they look at e/o I can feel it. Even with her bad hair and too much makeup, I can feel the connection. That's literally chemistry at work, given it's a hormonal response. I guess there's no better term. On paper it's mostly standard stuff, but the execution is well above average. I attribute it to the 2 leads; it's not something I can argue out with words, it's more the way they make me feel, but we'll give it a go anyway.
“Are you sure it's an exclusive?” They both put on school uniforms, even though they are each over 30. Ban’s coworker looks concerned, “What's my nickname?” She's practically carefree. “The Witch!” She gives him an evil look as she corrects: “Gwanghwamun Antenna!” Her target today is an actor (soon-to-be politician). He looks like the perfect man, but he's actually got a side piece and an illegitimate daughter. He's at the school for a political appearance, but he's also there to see his 2nd family. Ban is a reporter spying undercover - school uniform and all. She & her assistant end up being chased by school security - and he was paying attention during the morning's self-defense class put on by the police. He's gaining on them! She's desperate.
In the meantime, our ML is a saint. He's spending his day in a 🎅 outfit handing out toys to disadvantaged kids.
How would these 2 ever meet? She steals one of the kid's bikes. That's how. He chases her… for miles. He's tenacious that way. There they go, on one of Seoul’s 16-lane thruways; her pedaling, him running. It's White Day in Kcountry. The radio jockey proclaims: On a day like this, never make a woman angry. Ever. White day is for sending ‘thanks-yous’ for Valentine's Day treats received. Thanks for nuthin.
AW💘 is a 2014 release consisting of 16 60-minute episodes. There's pithy repertoire. Screenwriter Ban Ki Ri also wrote the excellent Missing: The Other Side-8.3, and this director, Lee Jeong Hyo, gave us a string of hits including Romance Is a Bonus Book-7.9 and Crash Landing on You-9.1. Uhm Jung Hwa (Our Blues-8.5, Doctor Cha) is our FL, “Ban” Ji Yun. She's even more beautiful now than when this show aired. Her character is ruthless and without empathy. She tells the children, who by now our ML gathered in her employer's lobby, that there is NO SANTA! (The sooner they learn about the big, cold world, the better.) Park Seo Joon (WWW Sec Kim, Itaewon Class-8.9) is our delish ML, Yoon Dong “Ha”. He looks so young in this! In the 2013 show, I Summon You, Gold!, he's the 4th listed of 5 leads, so this show is his first romantic ML role and seems to have spring-boarded his career. In AW💘, he starts out in the 🎅 suit, until she yanks off his beard & hat, thus exposing the lie of 🎅 to the kids. They'll then proceed to dismantle their very lives.
“If Santa's not real, how about witches?” Ha still hasn't given up. Her response is emphatic: “What's wrong with a witch? It's better than Snow White who only depends on others and causes a nuisance. An independent witch is 💯×s better.” So Ban declares, while standing under the ‘Trouble Maker Magazine’ sign designating her place of employment. Naturally, these 2 loathe e/o from the start.
After the 🎅 Incident, she overhears her coworkers snickering about her. “A witch like that can never get married!” Well, she's 39 and no one's nibbling. They could have a point. Her mother tells her to get married -daily- but it's had nil effect. She could die alone in her apartment and it could be weeks before anyone knows! Her fish would die! The subject of marriage takes her to a dark place. She almost got married… Her fiance, No Shi Hoon (Han Jae Suk of Should My Tears Show & Check in Hanyang), disappeared. Now, Oma is near panicked: “You're almost too old to have a baby!” (Yang Hee Kyung, from Sunny, If You Wish Upon Me, does a nice job as Choi Jung Sook Ban's mother). So mom's a regular at the Shaman's. Officially, the shaman says that Ban lacks yang energy, but unofficially: “Your daughter is “a dirty witch with the energy of a viper!” - This shaman is on point!.
One might expect that when she took that elevator away from him, the kids, and the lobby, that they wouldn't see e/o again anytime soon. Fate intervened later that /very/ night, though. She's at a company dinner and he was invited out by a friend. He sees her get embarrassed 〰 very publicly 〰 and he, the 🎅-soul that he is, takes pity. It's a kissing contest. They share a doozie.
Looking simpatico, they leave together, but as soon as they are out of sight, she's arguing. She doesn't appreciate feeling like a charity case. She's already deduced that her work friends hired the man who embarrassed her. Ha points out that they must have felt very harassed by her if they took the drastic step of banding together to strike at her. He's definitely more mature than her in this scene - & most scenes. As it unfolds, we learn that she has no friends. The one friend she has (Ra Mi Ran of The Good Bad Mother & Reply 1988-8.6 portrays Baek Na Rae) married a guy she hates (Lee Sae Chang from Let Me Be Your Knight). It is so weird to see Ms Ra playing a giggly woman! She's usually authoritative. She's clearly having a blast. She even acts cute with her husband. It made me chuckle, and it made me uncomfortable at the same time. They have a wonderful time together, the 4 of them, at Na-Raes’ restaurant.
Next day: Mom drags Ban, under protest, to the shaman's. Handyman Ha happens to be in another room working on some repairs. He hears it all, particularly mom's sobbing over her daughter's lonely existence. (Narsha is a cutie as the shaman, but she doesn't get much work). After the literal beat down at the shaman's, Ban goes and gets drunk. “All of her relationships started when she was drunk,” we hear from Na-Rae. Ha has /already/ headed out to help her 〰 a bad habit he formed rather quickly. He finds & helps her. She helps herself to /him/. Then she sees his resident card… And his DOB. She is 1.4 decades older than he. 😱
OUT! GET OUT!
What she doesn't know is that he's now living right next door to her, with a friend. He also ends up in a dispute with her company which lands him as her assistant as part of the settlement. They won't be able to avoid e/o. At the same time, she's made an enemy. The actor she exposed is really ambitious. He sued her over her story, but things like that don't work against Ban, so he's resorted to more drastic (violent) measures. Ban’s boss has charged her new assistant with keeping her safe. She can't shake this kid.
That balance of the show is them drawing closer, her being in bigtime denial, and the fiance popping back up making a mess of things. There's a couple of cute 2ndary couples and there's lots of hanging at Na-Rae’s place.
The show does go beneath the surface a few inches to examine how society views older women and younger men. Even Ban's mother, who starts a thing with a man 5 years her junior, has to go through a gut-check when she thinks about her daughter with a man who's 14 years younger.
Society is actually like cat fur. It stands on end when we see something too unfamiliar. A fundamental problem, beyond the darkness that inhabits the human heart, is a lack of exposure. The biggest obstacle to a couple who doesn't fit into the everyday mold is the pressure put on them by everybody else. If you're about to go into an atypical relationship, be willing to leave family and friends behind. You'll likely be able to reconcile, in time; if not, then your F&F are entirely too controlling, and leaving was the right move anyway. These issues are for the couple to work out. Why do the rest of us need to have any opinion on it?
As with every relationship, it depends on the two individuals. People born on the same day at the same time might be the worst couple ever. People born 20 years apart might be a very comfortable fit. Doesn't appeal to you? No one is making you do it. After the movie Harold Maude, I can hardly be shocked at this one. In the movie, Leon The Professional, Natalie Portman plays a 12-year-old girl whose family is slaughtered. She, alone, is alive because Leon rescued her in the nick of time. They were strangers & he took pity on her. The bad guys are determined to eliminate all witnesses, so she has to rely on Leon for safety. She falls into keeping the home. They never kiss: If they had a sexual relationship, he should go to jail. However, as it stands, would I separate these two? Never. There are relationships forged in combat that are stronger than any other bond possible; deeper than most romances. These 2 are different ages, but they have the same sort of pain,and pain does not know an age. With all that being said, a big age gap is nothing compared to looks or weight disparity. If a good looking guy marries a woman who doesn't seem his equal (or visa-versa) there'll be no end of damaged people making damaging comments.
There are many quality touches in AW💘. Over a romcom-style ridiculous misunderstanding, Ban gets into a fight with a woman in a hotel lobby. They don't show the fight. They show a scant second before, and then how everybody's disheveled and miserable at the police station later. I like the way they did it. “Cut out the scar and the flower will blossom again”: The mostly dead plant is a metaphor for their love lives. There's numerous scenes of them in the iconic and comforting courtyard of her apartment complex. It creates a cozy feeling.
Speaking of cat hair, early on Ban’s hair looks awful. Cat lovers know that, depending on a cat's mood or current state of mind, their coats can change instantly. Her hair seems to do that. In the beginning of the show it looks dry with split ends and severely parted in the middle. It's unattractive. As time goes on it gets softer and silkier looking. It's a nice touch. She looks pretty amazing most days. Some of her outfits are dreadful ~ in any culture. But most of them are artful and many of them are sexy. AW💘 is also shoe p0rn. She's got a set of black spike heeled platforms with a hot pink platform bottom. Oh, I L😍VE them.
The office could have been better. Her coworkers are cartoonish. Apparently, in Korea, they love corporate shucking and jiving - more accurately shucking, tucking and ducking. They opted for something simple-minded. The storyline with her ex is almost boring, but that might be by design. Her interaction with Ha is exciting and the contrast is palpable. It's quite sad, though. Especially for her ex. He got a bad deal. His own passiveness, more than anything else, is what caused his misery. They couldn't avoid MSS, or mandatory separation syndrome. After they commit, she just has to go away for a year. It actually fits in fine, here. In most shows it's disastrous.
2 weddings are canceled. The 1st time, it ruins her, the 2nd one brings her back to life. When she's back to work after the wedding is canceled, she's alive again, but her hair is back to matted down and straight, with no personality. It's a severe look. It starts softening back up again when our duo slowly starts to get together again. She's definitely a cat
It's the romance that makes AW💘 worth watching, though. Mr. Park went on to super-stardom because he is adorable. Ms Uhm's laugh is fantastic. Their kissing is hot. The way he holds her face in his hands is sexy & intimate. They feel intimate. For a plant or hyacinth metaphor, the viewer can feel roots growing between them.
Don't watch the show and go on your merry way, because there's a few “don'ts" to be gleaned from these 16 episodes. Don't stare. Don't lose control of your facial expressions. Don't forget to be kind and considerate. Don't try to control anyone. Don't ask the obvious questions that this person(s) has fielded 1000 times already. Don't point the finger at them, even if they're different. Don't be another @$$hole. Mind your own business.
Stay Sexy, Seoul!
QUOTES🗣
She must have saved the country in her prior life
Regardless of east or west, clothes are your wings.
Actually, I was mad at myself, not you.
The important thing is not the proposal but your heart.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬8 🖊〰7.7 🎭8.3 💓 8.3 🦋8.7 🌞 8 🎨7.6 ⚡4 🎵6.5 😅8.4 🤔4.8 🔚8.4
Shazams: Hello, by Joohee
Age. 15+ Language: b@$+@rd; @ they almost have a one night stand until she sees his driver's license. The scenes hilarious. A ref to watching porn. Rated TV-15: Parents Strongly Cautioned.
👁📺again? Did
Originally 〰️🖋 4/2025
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✒ ⚖️ ? The Old Dame Plays Bingo °8.2° °excellent°
TD is a good old cop drama. Many of the best cop dramas start with the buddies (comrades? cronies?), then the crime, the crookedness, and finally, court… fade out to the harmonica~> country. There's impossible supervisors, unbridled ambition, coworkers who are brothers while others are enemies, departmental friction & competition, blame-gaming, the truthless press, confidential informants, depraved criminals, criminals that are more likable than some cops, and families that are left behind. Every decision and action is second-guessed. Some of the characters are all bad, & nobody is 100% pure. It's an impossible job. Let's not forget, on top of it all, there's corruption.Benjamin Yuen is HK police detective, Sing: He's got the failed romantic relationship (He's always working) and the kid who longs to see him more often to prove it. His baby-mama (whom he wishes was his wife) was told by her uncle that there's 2 kinds of cops: The greedy (or ambitious) and the wicked. Sing's ambition prevented their marriage.
Sing appears first and he certainly is the main protagonist, but Bingo might match him in terms of significance. Bingo's story arc is the most interesting. He was a recruit who Madam selected to go undercover and she basically used and abused him until he was tarnished beyond repair. Now he's a thief with the heart of a cop. All he wants to do is take care of his mother who's suffering from dementia. While everyone on the force sees him as scum, the viewer must watch him, time and time again, in difficult situations trying desperately to do the right thing. As I'm writing this I'm on episode 21. I don't know what's coming for him. He's a fascinating character and I'm rooting for him.
Ben Wong plays "Samuel”. He's a straight shooter who does not bend easily. He's fair-minded, does not play favorites, and, of course, is the perfect internal affairs officer. Wheelchair bound, he was paralyzed from the waist down in the line of duty. His current wife is a work rival's ex-wife (Kan). His dream is to clean up the force and revamp it. He's a good guy. What he needs to learn are people skills and a little bit of flexibility. While in the wheelchair, Sam gets an action scene. It's amazing!
“It seems I'm not the only one with life imprisonment,” says one criminal to Madam. Kara Wai is Madam Man, the police director. She's better at being a toxic narcissist and bully-boss than a director or a mother. I've known destructive bullies with the exact same smile. The show's opening is her with a post-apocalyptic, scorched earth background. The more we watch her the more it makes sense. Narcissism is merely unbridled pride. Madam has truly convinced herself that Hong Kong is better with her in it. It might fall apart without her! This gives leave for her to do all kinds of things to maintain and augment her power. Would that this was an unusual thing, but it's the norm. Thus that adage about power & corruption and whatnot. In that way, pride is deceitful. It encourages us to lie to ourselves. Pride is probably the most destructive /vice/, but since it's everybody's worst problem, society has decided to collectively ignore it. We don't like narcissists - we can all agree on that - but we excuse our own selfish actions and words. Pride shows up in other ways: Self-absorption (even if it's self-loathing, it's an obsession with self), constant comparing and competition, unforgiveness and bitterness, constantly being angry or offended, and gossip, to name a few. Every society has a pride problem, but in Asia it's weaved into the fabric of society like no other place, it seems. The tragedy is that living a self-first life only leads to one's own misery and the misery of every poor soul around one. {PSA: Stop lying to yourself. Let it go. No one is as important or flawless as we like to believe. The answer is to forget ourselves, but never stop working on ourselves - that and go volunteer or help someone less fortunate. Take a vacation from you; it's quite freeing.}
In typical fashion, management is quite sympathetic to their own perceived plight while looking at underlings as mere ants. Madam is given multiple chances - more than any ordinary employee would be granted. She squanders them all, opting to plunge the knife in deeper.
Madam’s oldest son was murdered by the Beast in an undercover operation a few years back. Her obsession with vengeance against this drug lord has driven her to steamroll her remaining son, Matt, who has turned into a rigid dogmatist about the rules. He takes over as Sing's supervisor. There's constant tension between them over sticking to the ⚫&⚪ script, or doing the right thing (on paper) vs the thing that will actually work and bring about right results. Sound familiar, anyone? There's nothing new about the concept of child sacrifice to ensure success. Joshua pronounced a curse on the rebuilder of Jericho (“he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates”) that was later recorded as fulfilled. GRRM includes child sacrifice in the conclusion of A Dance with Dragons. {Theoretically, we'll read about the end of Stannis & Princess Shireen Baratheon's time together on earth in the Winds of Winter. WoW may never be released, but I digress.} In modern society people sacrifice their kids in more genteel, but equally destructive ways.
Sacrifice is a theme, but the #1 theme in TD is: Don't pi$$ off a woman too much. Madam goes off the rails in ep23! Let's just call ep23 ladies domnificent. “What does macho mean?” Sing gets this question after he told his daughter he used to not care about her mother as much as he should. He was too “macho” then. “Uhhh, macho means a bad guy,” he responds. (The little girl playing Sing's daughter is utterly precious). Treating women (and others) with dignity is one of TD's worthiest themes.
Sing and detective “Happy Kok" are BROS. Yes, one of the characters goes by the nickname “Happy Kok”. It's attributable to culture disconnect, and it's innocent. No matter how conservative you are, if that doesn't make you chuckle a tad, you probably have let your sense of humor dry up. What isn't happy, though, is how Madam did a number on him, too. Furthermore, the woman he fell in love with while undercover is being used up by mob bosses. He can't rescue her.
Some characters are oversimplified, like Benz Hui's smarmy Kan Sir, head of narcotics. He's waaaay out of line, making it too easy for the viewer to see what his character is. More subtlety would be better. Some vignettes and scenes are oversimplified as well. This watch, as a whole, is not. There's an educational benefit to watching: One of the baddies they are after has symphorophilia, or the love of disasters. Per Shortform, It's “a condition in which people find se×ual pleasure in witnessing an accident. In some cases, the condition has driven people to destructive acts.” He also has paraphilia~> He's a freak, and se×ually gets off on dark stuff.
“Am I a cop or a thief? Sometimes I can't even tell.” We follow confidential informants and undercover cops. It gets a little fuzzy telling the difference due to the translation. It seems that their system is a little different than ours in that criminals can become part of the force. To a certain extent, the viewer has to ride along with it. Things aren't 100% parallel to Western ways. In the show, the word “defected" is used to describe confidential informants who have gone rogue. They “can do anything,“ Sing says. They are the “worst criminals.” After a mission that might be deemed a success, but for the tremendous casualties, Sing's focus shifts to Bingo. Sing believes he has correctly pieced together what went wrong and believes Bingo is responsible. His mission becomes: Finding Bingo. He doesn't know that all of Bingo's wrongdoings were ordered by Madam.
Crime, and fighting crime, is shown as a bitter war of attrition. More in the world of crime than the world of law enforcement, Bingo finds himself forced one day to explain to an 11 year old girl that her father is dead, his body won't be claimed, therefore he'll be cremated and labeled “unclaimed remains” and buried in an unmarked grave. She needs to mentally prepare herself because there will be nowhere to go to mourn her father. It's a powerful scene. The outcast cops end up forming a motley crew. “Between cop and criminal, see if there is another option,” Bingo pleads. “I thought I would be receiving flowers from him, but here I am the one buying the flowers.” Just after a man confesses his love to a woman, after she waited for so long, she has to bury him. The show starts to break our hearts.
Based on a true story, TD is a 2019 Cantonese language release that is rated 7.5 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 30 45-minute episodes. Considering the population of Hong Kong (7.346M) this is an impressive production. The budget betrays itself most with the sound quality, which is very 20th century. Once the viewer gets to the last third of the show, s/he has to remind h/hself that this is based on actual events. It gets pretty outrageous. Viewers might think they have an idea of the way the show will go, but there's a plot shift 1/6 of the way in. As the show goes on, the action ramps up and it gets exciting.
This was my 2nd Hong Kong show. Both, though VG, have a coldness. It's too early to tell if that's reflective of the culture. Still fairly new to (and very much enthralled with) East Asian dramas in general, it's weirdly reassuring to see that fundamental human behavior is the same world-wide. Characters who are noble, angry, shifty, and happy are no different at the world's antipodes, but for nominal cultural differences. Sarcasm, love, hatred, joy, and rage look largely the same there as they do here. A mother sobs when she loses her son in Hong Kong the same way she would in New Jersey. Couples bicker the same way too. “Madam” is the perfect queen b!+ch / toxic mother on a crusade for revenge. We root for Bingo (Philip Keung). Some of us have keenly felt the tug-of-war between work and family time, like Sing. The “Beast” looks authentic, not overdone. The girl informant defrosts our hearts and Loony… well, we've all seen terminators depicted on screen before… there aren't many of him, thankfully. As if Loony isn't entertaining enough, Yeung Chiu-hoi is superb as triad psycho, Kong Ching-lung. The acting is truly excellent. All the elements are well done. It's a worthy story told in a worthy way. This is SO worth it!
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.2 📝8.5 🎭8.5 💓5 🦋3 🎨6 🎵/🔊6 🔚8.5 ♦ 🌞5 ⚡8,2 😅2 😭7 😱5 😯5 😖3 🤔7 💤0
Age 15+ violence, scary, adult situations
Re-📺? I wouldn't hesitate to show this to someone else
Recommendations:
🇭🇰Hong Kong ~
A Beautiful Life-7.4,
Don't Go Breaking My Heart-7.7,
Hong Kong West Side Stories-7.5
🇹🇼Taiwan ~
Black & White-6.8 (it's really pretty good),
Age of Rebellion-9.5
🔮🐉 -
C🇨🇳 ~ Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10
⚡/😱/🚀 -
C🇨🇳 ~
The Kings avatar-7.9,
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!
K🇰🇷 ~
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
The Man From Nowhere 8.9
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4
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