L13

Korean dramas tend to reinforce very one-sided and nationalistic readings of history, especially when it comes to Japan and the period of Japanese occupation. That's a symptom of the issue that Korean-Japanese relations haven't really recovered since the first half of the 20th century, so anti-Japanese attitudes and stereotypes are how Koreans cope with the fact Japan has refused to take responsibility for its historical actions.

Unlike Germany, whose government has made efforts to take responsibility for the crimes of the Nazis and acknowledged them as evil, for example, modern Japan has a very complicated relationship with its imperial past and still refuses to acknowledge many of the war crimes it committed in Korea, China, Taiwan, etc.

All this is to say that I agree with you that fictional depictions of Japanese characters in Korean historical dramas tend to be very two-dimensional, cartoonish & naively patriotic (in the sense of justifying Korean patriotism), which points to the larger issue of blind nationalism in Korean society, but also Japan has refused to apologise for many of the atrocities it committed, so it's hard for Koreans to move on and reexamine the past critically/objectively.

Thanks for the info! I was confused because MDL says the drama airs every weekday and YOUKU had all the episodes up to 25 when I checked (for paid subscribers only, I think), so I assumed more episodes had come out.

@KaizenSubs is subbing and uploading with links to the files on their Twitter (same handle).

Does anyone know if the episodes after 16 have been subbed in English somewhere?

True! Let’s hope it lives up to the hype.

She’s a very talented actress and also probably one of the most beautiful women on the planet! And Allen Deng is really charming as well, the premise of the drama is cool and the first trailer nails the aesthetic I wanted them to go for and looks super dramatic and romantic!

My expectations are really high!

The first episode was so good! Can't wait to get into the story in the present day . Both leads are likeable; Daiki seems nice yet competent and Rio is charismatic and mysterious. I'm very happy this is going to be a romance; more mystery/crime dramas need romance IMO.

I've watched the first two episodes only, but based on that I'm definitely getting romantic vibes from the leads' interactions. Either there will be a slight romantic subplot or this drama will be an all-time tease.

Man, I'm such a dummy! Until the last moment I was convinced Xiaoman would live! This drama played me and left me with a dehydration headache from crying.

Based on this brief description, I’ll eat my hat (and be super mad at tvN) if there’s no romance.

I like the main character's siblings the most so far, although I'm not thrilled about the age difference between Kang-rim and his student (though the characters themselves are both likeable). I hope Bo-ri will get a romantic interest and regular screentime because she's pretty fun.

I absolutely hate the main character's husband and mother-in-law, though. I'm worried the drama will follow the same arc as Once Again and have the leads separate and give the FL a new romantic interest (her new boss, maybe? he seems to like her) only for the divorced couple to reconcile in the final act of the drama. My problem with that possibility is that Lee Sang-yeob's character in Once Again was far less objectionable than waste-of-space mama's boy Kang Nam-goo. (Also, I like what I've seen of Cho-hee's boss, whereas in Once Again the SML annoyed me.)

Great, thank you! So the bad girl/good boy couple will be the main one. Good to know! I don't mind the idea of a cdrama with a less innocent and naive FL.

Just to clarify, Li Landi will play the elder sister and Chen Xingxu will play the demon king she marries by mistake, is that correct? Not sure which of the two couples is considered to be the main one.

OK, I've watched all 15 episodes so far and I hate Yu Dong-man more than ever lmao. When he saw Kang Seonho at the Academy and started bullying him, it made SH believe he didn't deserve to be there and needed to bust a gambling ring in order to atone for his crime (as opposed to, you know, studying and doing normal student stuff). Since YDM had already let him go in the past, he should have just stood by his decision--police investigators have discretion over whether to forward a case to the prosecution or not and he exercised his; that should be the END of it, jeez--and pretended not to know SH/watched him from a distance so that SH could have a fresh start. Instead, he dragged KSH, who's a university student!!!, into his bullshit, gave him self-esteem issues, put him in danger multiple times, put HIMSELF in danger, got KSH disciplined and almost expelled & was, to top it all off, completely useless when KSH decided to withdraw from school.

He's such a poor teacher/mentor, he has no regard for his duties as a teacher (namely to protect his students from harm and, you know, not fuck up their self-esteem by putting the weight of the world on their shoulders) & he keeps getting into dangerous situations.

I really thought they'd do a better job redeeming him after the first several episodes. As it is, you can trace every single bad thing that's happened to KSH directly to some stupid decision YDM made, including the fact KSH thinks he's not good enough to be in school or whatever. And KSH is such a good, upstanding person; he really doesn't deserve all this shit. YDM is such a useless unprofessional manchild, I swear.

I'd be so happy if someone subbed this.

I doubt they removed anything to distinguish themselves from Oath of Love; based on the plot and the age of the main characters, this was always going to be a more adult and medicine-centric drama than Oath of Love. I do hope we get a compelling mature romance like in Surgeons, though.

Thank you very much in advance! I’ve been looking forward to this drama and am very happy it will be subbed.

I think it would have been funny if we'd gotten a hint of romance between Moon-sik and Hyun-ha in the last episode, as a portent of future chaos in the family amidst all the peace and happiness of the Mi-yeon/Hyo-seop wedding and Eun-tae and Yoo-ha riding off into the sunset.

There was definitely some romantic subtext between them throughout the drama, but the writer should have brought it out at the end at least IMO.

Every time I see the phrase 'forced romance' I read 'I don't like dramas that focus on women and their feelings, so all romantic subplots seem unnecessary to me.' Because it means nothing otherwise. What the hell is an unforced romance anyway?

I agree about action/sci-fi dramas with big budgets, though more traditional crime/investigation dramas tend to be a little better IMO.

365: Repeat the Year had some action/suspense elements and sustained its momentum throughout the entire drama IMO.