Popcxqueen

Great article! I order from almost all of these restaurants weekly (I don't have access to many Filipino dramas and I'm just starting to watch Thai dramas on Netflix), and I love sampling different cuisines on the regular. It makes life much more palatable. :-)

I also love when one country's foodie dramas feature another country's cuisine. My favorites for that would be Wok of Love, where Koreans cook really gorgeous looking Chinese food, and The Perfect Match, a Taiwanese delight showing delicious French-Chinese-Taiwanese fusion food.

I'm currently watching Dating in the Kitchen, (a remake from This is Not What I Expected, with my fave Takeshi), and I'm over the moon by how awesome it is. Lin Shen is phenomenal and I'm now in love with Zhao Lu Si. I'm going to be a little stir-crazy waiting for new episodes.

The actor, Kaneshiro Takeshi, is Taiwanese and Japanese. He is the reason I started watching Asian media.

What's the spicier drama's name that you found?

Not sure why you have to comment here if you feel that way - it's pretty shitty and pathetic of you...

Bae Doo Na in Stranger is nothing short of brilliant, and her work in the Netflix show Sense8 is just cool (I LOVED her pairing - in English mostly - with Son Seok Koo) .
Every time Seo Ye Ji was on the screen in Lawless Lawyer I couldn't take my eyes off of her, and that's saying something because her acting partner was often Lee Joon Gi. :-) Her presence, her eyes, her emotional range...that voice. I first caught notice of her in Hwarang, but it was in Lawless Lawyer where she made a huge impression on me, and oh my goodness, in It's Okay to Not Be Okay.

Great article! I agree with everyone on your list, but there are two glaring omissions, in my humble opinion. :-)
Adding to the "best of "list:
1) Bae Doo Na - she is a powerhouse, no way around it.
2) Seo Ye Ji - I hardly have enough words to describe how good she is.

Honorable mention list additions, in no particular order, and listing my favorite of their works:
1) Kim Go Eun (Goblin, The King: Eternal Monarch)
2) Won Jin Ah (Just Between Lovers)
3) Lee Da Hae (Hotel King)
4) Park Min Young (Healer, When the Weather is Fine)
5) Shin Hye Sun (Thirty But Seventeen, Stranger)
6) Jung Ryeo Won (Wok of Love)
7) Lee Yoo Young (Tunnel, You Drive Me Crazy)
8) Nam Ji Hyun (Suspicious Partner, 100 Days My Prince)
9) Kim Sun Ah (Scent of a Woman)
10) Im Soo Jung (Chicago Typewriter)

And my "Special Achievement" award for a career spanning all genres and multiple decades goes to: Kim Hae Sook. I first saw her in Hotel King, and was completely blown away by her range. There is one scene in particular that was on another level altogether - I've not yet seen another K-actress get to that place. She totally nailed her character in Hospital Playlist and I look forward to another season. She's just getting better and better.

Thanks for your list!

It was just ok. The acting was good, the CGI was excellent, but the writing was lackluster and didn't allow the characters to really develop. Plus it left weird plot holes where there shouldn't have been any. (I won't spoil it for anyone, but it pisses me off how women fare here.)
I am also NOT a fan of dubbing, and I don't understand the reason for it. Yes, I understand the reason for it, but the REASON for it (there's a difference.)
I'm mostly glad I watched it, but I wouldn't watch it again.

Even though I'm not a game fan and can tend to get kind of bored with the gaming elements of both the movie and the drama, I SO MUCH preferred the movie to the drama. To rate them both just on the acting alone the movie wins, hands-down. I'm not sure at all why anyone is criticizing Angelababy's acting - I don't understand it, frankly. She had natural expressions and emotions and she looked like she actually LIKED her significant other, and responded to his kiss, unlike the (perfectly fine) FL in the drama.
People comment that the FL is supposed to be shy and demure so she's not supposed to act like she cares about her boyfriend or like that she's kissing him. First, that ridiculous trope that needs to disappear right now. (It's the 21st century, dammit, women can enjoy kissing, for crying out loud.) The series FL is stiff and seems like she is uncomfortable showing or receiving affection, whereas the movie FL was warm and openly caring.
While the drama ML is more than adequate, (honestly, he was lovely), Jing Bo Ran is gorgeous and emotional and smart. I preferred him to the series ML because Bo Ran showed more of an emotional range and depth than the series ML, imho. (Slight spoiler: The movie's last scene alone gives me all-over chills every time and I could watch the group fireworks scene again and again and the authentic emotions actually shown (and not just implied) are the reason why.
That's my problem with so many dramas with characters like these - they are either too smart to show emotions, or too shy, or too this or that. BS. That's just lazy storytelling and you actually have to be a damn fine actor to pull scenes like that off. You can't just have a flat affect and expect that the audience can read your blank face or stiff expression.
I was not expecting to like this movie, because I disliked the drama, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Disagree completely.

YES (a hundred times...)

This doesn't absolve him from harms he's caused in any way, but to this restaurant patron, he's important.
https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/trending/korean-actor-singer-kim-hyun-joong-first-aid-man-who-collapsed-13070432

Hopefully he can find ways to acknowledge and repair any harm he's caused. There are a lot of celebs in SK (and everywhere of course) needing to do that right now.

Just curious about this comment and why five people liked it. Didn't his ex go to jail because she was charged and found guilty for fabrication?

I went into this with no expectations. It seemed strange at first, and I didn't know why I started liking it, but I just knew it was "interesting" (this is a theme throughout the dorama, btw...) By the end I was completely hooked, enthralled by the actors and the writing, and could not get enough. No spoilers here, but the ending is one of the end I've seen in a long time. The ML, Noda Yojiro, is a total surprise to me and now I need to go find everything else he's done. Have no expectations going in and just go along for the ride - there's a lot there if you pay attention.

The drama had plot holes for sure, but the ML was not the main cause of that. He's a good actor, but even the best actors can't salvage mediocre writing.

Some Day or One Day is one of the best dramas I have ever seen, in any language. It's a masterpiece and I don't say that lightly.

I'm also waiting for Lost Romance to be done so I can binge the rest. I made the mistake of watching it before it was done, and then I didn't want to wait for each new episode to come out. I'm liking it a lot so far and it's so nice to see Marcus again.

Have you seen the rest of my favorites list?

LOL! I hope we get more seasons!

I LOVE TW-DRAMAS! I love love love them. They might not have the biggest budgets - their K- and C-drama counterparts outshine them in this regard, but TW-dramas are just full of LIFE. And yes, sometimes the melodramas are outlandish (but hello, K-dramas!) and yes, sometimes the acting is "passionate" (but again, hello, manga-based J-doramas!) But when I watch the best TW-dramas, I often feel like I'm watching real people - families who truly love each other, and folks who are struggling to find something authentic for themselves.
They're blissfully free of the ridiculous dubbing that drives me crazy in C-dramas, and we get to hear a different kind of Mandarin being spoken, which is always interesting to this native English speaker.
They're (thankfully) not nearly as squeamish about skinship as K-dramas can be, and they are more open to show different kinds of love on screen - they excel in noona romances, and their BL's rival Thai-dramas. ( While their big neighbor censors and denies the existence of same-gender love, this small country has become the first Asian country to have marriage equality and I've wondered if their openness to BL's has helped this progress.)
I'll be honest - some of the most beautiful men I've ever seen are in the TW-dramas that I love: Marcus Chang, Aaron Yan, Wu Kang Jen, Greg Han Hsu, Jasper Liu, Bruce He, Derek Chang, Fandy Fan, Wayne Song, Wang Zi.) And their female actors are powerhouses: (Alice Ke, Ivy Shao, Tia Li, Puff Kuo, )

Here are my favorites:
1) Some Day or One Day (maybe the best drama I've ever seen - it was near-perfection in writing, acting, directing, and cinematography)
2) Back to 1989 (so much to love about this drama)
3) Yong-Jiu’s Grocery Store (more people need to see this!!)
4) Fall in Love With Me (yes, this one went off the rails in the middle, but to get to see Aaron Yan and Tia Li together makes it all worth it.)
5) The Perfect Match (Wu Kang-Jen, or Chris Wu, and Ivy Shao are just brilliant here)
6) What Is Love (Wu Kang-Jen, Jade Chao)
7) Hello Again (totally underrated drama!)
8) HIStory 2: Crossing the Line (my favorite of the series, although I really loved Make Our Days Count...except for, well, you know)
9) Before We Get Married (Jasper Liu and Puff Kuo)
10) Attention Love! (slow burn, and totally worth the wait)
11) Back to Home (I never knew what salt farms looked like!)
10) Love Storm (this one comes with a caveat - I really only liked the storyline between Greg Han Hsu and Chen Yu, but I really, really liked it.)