Eleison

My Sweet Mobster, Pump Up The Healthy Love and Like Flowers In Sand

It was cute when he started singing the song, "Bom, bom, bom...!"

And I also just realized the title of the drama is a play on words with her name once he started singing it. 🤦‍♀️

Yes, I know, and it's by the same screenwriter. I'm just saying I'm bummed the screenwriter copied and pasted so much from this when writing Vincenzo. 😉

Me, too!

I don't know why I didn't respond with this months ago, but revisited this page and realized I never responded. I started liking Goong after (I just went to look up the episodes on Viki, only to discover it's no longer available 😣) he gets back from the trip with the 2FL. I saw the glimmers of chemistry and cuteness the night they were forced to sleep in the same room (can't remember if that happened before or after his trip), and then it really picks up when she runs away and he eventually finds her in a wood that overlooks the city. They make up, and really start to get seriously kind of cute after this. I just rewatch those parts and skip all the boring adults and angst. There's something cozy about them once they hit their stride; apparently their kiss near the end of the drama became kind of legendary, too (maybe because it's very much a real kiss and back then you couldn't always rely on Kdramas to have real ones). 😅 Like BOFs, it's a toxic mess that I still somehow enjoy! (Cause I'm a sucker for character arcs, so I enjoy watching jerks become endearing and lovable).

It does lose some momentum in those last two episodes. I watched this as it was airing and I was bummed by them and felt kind of jipped of a strong ending. That said, it was more consistent than most Kdramas that take a nosedive in the entire second half of the drama. 😉

There is one scene in Episode 15 (I think? It's been a while since I've seen it 😅), where they kiss in bed and it slowly escalates but the scene changes before more is seen. They are fully clothed in the scene, though it is a bit suggestive (I would say it's on the tame end of bedroom scenes in Kdramas now). They do kiss a few times, too.

Our priest, Father Kim --> Vincenzo (both are not what they seem, with incredible fighting skills and clever strategies who fight for what is right, but in a morally grey sort of way)
Female lawyer, Park Kyung Sung --> Hong Cha Young (also a lawyer who starts out as a moneygrubber but reforms after her father is killed, as this character does after Father Lee's murder)
Father Lee --> Hong Yu Chan (a saint-like, good character who catalyzes the story with his death)
The bumbling, sort of increasingly endearing cop, Koo Dae Young --> Jang Han Seo (similar role in that he gets slowly courted by Vincenzo into being on his side, as with this character)
The parishioners of Father Kim/Lee's church --> those who live/work in Geumga Plaza

Hopefully the ending of TFP will be different from Vincenzo, as I found the ending of Vincenzo gratuitously violent and, in my opinion, Vincenzo (the character) went too far. I know both of these dramas are critiquing a corrupt system, which is how they justify this kind of vigilante justice, but it's still hard for me to get behind when what the villain is receiving is not justice but over-the-top-cruel vengeance.

I'm surprised how similar the components in this are to Vincenzo. The premise and setup is exactly the same (there's even an almost one-to-one comparison of specific characters' roles in each show), just a different setting. I was a little disappointed by the amount of copying and pasting. See below for the breakdown:

I think the second leads as individuals are a bit too slippery for me, and therefore hard to root for on their own and as a couple. I got a bit stuck with this drama so I'm not super far into this yet.

Hopefully some day I will get to see it. :)

It's probably more poetic in Mandarin? 😉 Or they're trying to replicate a phrase we don't have in English?

I've heard Six Flying Dragons is fabulous (with lots of politics). Haven't seen it, but seen people rave about it for years (it's just not legally available anywhere in my country to stream).

If you're up for a Cdrama, Nirvana in Fire is known for being one of the best palace intrigue/revenge dramas made in Cdramaland (it's from 2015) and it's FABULOUS. It takes some time to get into the story, but it's incredible, and there is strategy, outwitting and intrigue galore (VERY light on the romance, and has more bromance for sure. ☺️ The second season is fabulous, too). If you go to the page, you'll see everyone speak highly of it. It still has a 9.1 rating despite being 10 years old. It's very rare for a drama to maintain a rating in the 9s on MDL for that long!

I find Cdramas have palace intrigue on a level unseen in Kdramas (their production value is quite small by comparison, and the scale cannot be compared); they're not all a good watch, and there are a lot of genre types in the costume Cdrama category, but if you like court drama with strong female leads, then you might want to give costume (psuedo-historical) or wuxia Cdramas a shot (Nirvana In Fire is one if these), as they have all that in spades. (Joy Of Life (another Cdrama), has crazy amounts of intrigue and plotting, too, and is another very popular Cdrama (it currently has two seasons, though)).

In the review section, I have a cheat sheet of sorts for keeping characters and their titles straight if you find the beginning daunting and are having a hard time keeping track of people. Give it a glance as it might be helpful because I don't want you to be scared off by the number of names and faces and miss out on this gem. 😉

I love her character. 🥰

Haha, it takes some time to keep track of everyone as the first episode is a dumpster fire of faces and titles. 😅 I think it took me twice as long to finish the first episode because I kept replaying confusing parts.

Yes, Landi! She was so lovely in Starry Love.

I might! I have historically struggled with office dramas, but maybe I'll give a shot!

It's a reunion! But missing the FL from Starry Love, who's my favorite. 😔

The Heavenly Emperor!

Qingheng even admits it, to everyone's surprise. (Why do despicable dads still have to be respected? Not something about filial piety I will ever understand.) And if you just started this drama, and you're wondering how he can be the worst after the way the human emperor is portrayed, keep watching.

In fact, here's my assessment of where the dads rank (from worst to best):

1. Heavenly Emperor
2. Void Tyrant (a REALLY close second)
3. Emperor of the Beast Realm
4. Emperor of the Human Realm

I found the dads, overall, pretty frustrating.

And Huisui also drove me nuts. Yetan only ever treated her kindly and compassionately (even though she never cared about the sisters from the start, and only saw them as tools for her own ends--and she was the one who ultimately put them at risk!), but Huisui had to let revenge blind her into backstabbing our beloved heroine (literally). I could not stand her!