ShortCircuit

Meguro Ren is really fixing up to be a great actor, isn't he? This one, Silent, even Kieta Hatsukoi - he does have the acting chops. I hope to see him in many more dramas.

But the one who REALLY impressed me is Otake Shinobu (playing Nagumo Akane). She had the best chemistry with MR, and all their scenes together are shining. I loved her character and the way she played her, I really want to see someone with such a calming presence around me.

And then there's little Izutani Rana (playing Umi), she's only 7! She's so precocious. Child actors should get lots more recognition!

Such a good hurt/healing drama, despite the main love interests in Natsu-kun's life being such dumbasses.

I'm watching the spinoff of the second couple, they're actually the highlight of the whole story! (The spinoff is freaking hilarious).

Because it's not about getting revenge, but about being cleared up of all the things he did NOT do, and then left to live his own life as he wants.

We've all been through the wringer with him LOL, so yeah, we're getting up in arms for him (just as NSC does), but he always said he wants to find the girls, find out if he really was the killer, and if not, be left alone.

And after finding out basically all his "friends" had betrayed him and his family, there is no revenge strong enough to change anything about those facts.

You really should look beyond SK, too :) There are so many good dramas (in Asia and elsewhere, but in Asia mostly, since we're on this topic :D), you will never run out of new stories to watch.

I went through my own anime and manga obsession period, LOL, but now I'm getting pretty fixed on cweb novels, so less time to spend on manga (or anime, TBH, they don't make my kind all that much - I am a mecha fan and there are few new Gundam anime hahaha~)

(Indian soap operas aren't all that good, BUT Bollywood did and still does some larger-than-life movies, so the movie-making industry over there has nothing to be ashamed of :D If wuxia and xianxia cdramas can have their physics-less fight choreography, why not the physics-less Bollywood blockbusters, too :D)

TBH, other than the Hong sisters, I usually don't know who the script writers are (and the Hong sisters get pretty hyped up whenever they write some dramas). So no idea how many of the dramas I enjoyed were written by women... I just take each one and appreciate it as it goes :D

Nice talking to you, too, I hope you find many gems in your drama watching journey!

No he's not LOL.

I can only remember ATM one good remake of a Western show (that I didn't even watch as an original, sorry) - and that's Life on Mars. I think LoM the SK version is amazing. How did Woori the Virgin go though, for example? Or even the SK version of Criminal Minds (and I say this as a LJG fan). Most fail to translate.

When another Asian country remakes an Asian drama, it usually doesn't end up TOO twisted. There's nothing jarring for the main part (though honestly I am SO not into the PHI remake of Flower of Evil, LOL, I don't think I'd watch their remake of IONTBO). Maybe it's a regional zeitgeist they still keep faithful to, I don't know, but there is a difference. I can't even imagine how a SK drama would translate into a Western story (if that's what they're aiming for).

But uggggh, yeah, that mindset of "let's turn EVERY little thing into a franchise" is killing me. And it's killing off everything original - how many times can you save the world from destruction over and over and over again?! GAH! And that's why I don't watch any more superhero movies.

I wish all the best for Studio Dragon, they're one of my favourites and I know they make good things... but maybe not sell out completely will work out in the end. Who knows...

Asian dramas for me include Thai, Chinese, Japanese, South Korean and even a few Philippines dramas, so there's plenty of variety and a large offer whenever the cliche alarm sounds :D And I even watched a few Indian dramas on and off (though they're mostly the Asian equivalent of telenovelas - which I also watched quite a lot in the back years, LOL) and Turkish dramas, too. One or two Vietnamese dramas, also. (Now I seriously wonder what a Mongolian drama would look like, I bet they'd at the very least have awesome cinematography/scenery).

I've been into dramas since forever, about 25+ years by now, so yes, the tropes and cliches are pretty obvious. What I can tell you though, is that there's always a few very good and original dramas in the lot - though they're getting really scarce in the last few years. And what's been changing is not just the themes and the way they're treated, but mostly the kind of actors they're using (generally either big names OR good-looking idols, and if they have the talent remains to be seen) and there's this not really subtle addition to the story that is obviously aimed at an international audience, or what the producers THINK the international audience wants,

And they've been missing the target a lot, TBH. You'll see a lot of PR - including on MDL - on this or that drama that's produced by NF or D+ or any other streamer, and how great its ratings are, or what the (idol) ML or FL think about the price of rice in China and anything to create some buzz on them... I might not be their target audience, but if that's what they're trying to raise as an audience for future productions, LOL, then definitely CLOY remade will be a hot mess.

Oh well, whatever :D For now there's still some good ones getting through, so I'm happy so far. When they dry up, there are always books so all's good :D

You haven't watched any BLs (or not on your list anyway), don't start with The Untamed (though it's absolutely awesome). Start with The Oath of Love, it's more like romcoms. Also, Sunshine by my Side is pretty romantic (and looking very modern). The Youth Memories is heavier (though also worth it!)

If you're willing to try a (censored) adaptation of a famous danmei novel (that became famous on its own might, too), then try The Untamed.

Physics will tell you there's always diffusion happening. It'll happen to the movie (or drama) industry. It already started. When you have different types of movie or drama-making (not in the tech of it, but in the ideas and their execution) intermingling, they will EVENTUALLY become pretty similar.

And that's the thing most people here don't want happening. We all come to find Asian media because we tired of the Western media. Yes, they should get their financing where they can get it. Yes they should try being innovative in getting their ROI. But if they're basically just going to eventually turn into the type of media we've all been fleeing from... what's the point?

But case in point - why CLOY? That's pretty country-specific. If they're remaking it with Korean setting and Korean actors, it's too soon IMHO. It's not an old series. If they're adapting it to a more Western setting... it's kind of hard to imagine where could they put it and keep what made it CLOY.

Went to watch PotC5 - full hall, everybody on their phones, some were talking loudly among them and with people in calls, it smelled (mall cinema), it was pretty messy (popcorn everywhere, spilled drinks etc). Half an hour commercials before (not even trailers). The movie wasn't even worth it. Big thumbs down.

Then went to watch Legend of the Sword (surprisingly interesting for such a told and re-told story). Hall half-full, some people on their phones, the same smell, the same messy place, at least it was less loud.

Went to watch Thor Ragnarok (I think that, Iron Man aside, that's about the only other superhero movie I actually enjoyed in cinema.) Kids and teens everywhere, the same smell and mess, people on phones, LOUD, lots of loud people, and so on, and so forth.

I think you see where this is going, LOL.

The very last movie I actually loved going to see in theater was The Martian, forever ago (opening night, first midnight show, not a lot of people and all of them were there to watch the movie, not ~experience~ going to the movies. It's been way too long since and yes, streaming covers the need for movies, but it's not the same. I used to love movie-going, but lately there's nothing worth going for.

I was hoping some Asian media could escape the straight-to-streaming trend, but I guess all movies are doomed to it in the end... Given how much streamers are investing in the industry, it was inevitable it would turn to this.

Still, IMHO, going the road to re-making successful stories is definitely not the way they're going to keep going. And particularly not the remake of a drama that works exactly because it's happening where it's happening.

Oh well, we'll see.

What I'm saying is that those kind of movies do not even come up in cinemas I am close to. At all. Not even those who are well-known or have built up some expectations. So it's not really on the watchers, if they don't even know the movies exist, because cinema operators do not bring the movies to them.

PS And even IF they brought them, have you been to a cinema fairly recently? The kind of people who DO show up in theater don't make good companion watchers in my recent experience. The only time I really loved it in the past ten years, LOL, was when I went to watch Bohemian Rhapsody and I was the only one inside. I could sing along (and then discovered the attendant had snuck in and did the same as me :D)

They already have all the evidence. They were going to arrest the doctor, they had the video of him killing DaEun, then SuOh has the body hidden in his secret hidey hole, MinSu is all done and confessing to everything, ByeongMu's dad doesn't have anything more to lose now HGT fell and would spill everything just to get his son a shorter sentence - etc.

The polician herself only manipulated HGT into hiding the murder done by her husband - but if HGT hadn't needed a scapegoat for GeonOh, he might've done it anyway just to get ahead and be promoted...

No matter how short or long his sentence (I mean he himself didn't kill anybody OR hide the body, either), it won't give JeongWoo his youth back...

Nah, HGT needed to burn for it.

Dammit, NaGyeom got away by reason of being insane. And I don't really like how they allow her a phone, because even insane she has star power and there's no way to tell if she can't escape and go look for him again.

The PERFECT ending scene though was the one in the little diner - just mom, SuOh helping out and sneaking undesirable bits of food to JeongWoo and JeongWoo trying hard to set his life back on its original track.

...But dammit, JeongWoo should've left that door closed. HGT deserved to fry.

I sure hope Byun YoHan, Go Joon and Lee GaSub get lots of offers after this - each of them can lead any kind of drama (but I hope they do another thriller sometime soon.)

.... I'm going to poison myself with romance cdramas for now, because what else is there to watch now this one's ended?...

I'm going into withdrawal :(

But I liked how they ended. Still, IMHO, JeongWoo shouldn't have messed with that door, just sayin'.

And awwww, puppy NSC is still the best puppy around :D

TBH even if the costs weren't already way too high for anything in cinema, there is absolutely nothing (running close enough to me) to get me in the door and there hasn't been for the past 7-8 years, either. Not to mention the experience of a theater itself has gone down the drain (was going down way before the pandemic too).

I don't go for superhero movies and that's all that seems to still get people to come watch (in my part of Europe anyway). Movies I would go and watch in cinema don't come (for example I would've liked to be able to go see The Boy and the Heron in a movie theater - nope, nowhere close and I don't know if it ran anywhere in Europe - maybe in the UK?) Not even the two-part Three Musketeers movie made it over, but oh you bet any and all DC and Marvel movies were present everywhere. I don't want to see those, I am not going (and paying a lot) to watch that drek (though YMMV).

I was really hoping the Asian scene was different, but I guess not so much. In the age of fast-to-streaming movies, nobody's going to invest a lot in a maybe-maybe not story... and the cycle will get shorter and shorter until we're left with only "blockbusters" nobody watches or something's going to give.

The story isn't complete. For now it's a non-decided ending.

Ah, one last thing! The TLs can be tricky at times - the Jianghu could be TLed at times as "the pugilistic world", meaning the fighters/cultivators' world. But if you knew the term "pugilism" before, it is used in Europe at least, to refer to boxing. A pugilist is a boxer, LOL. So if you see that kind of TL, they just mean Cultivator's World / Jianghu and nobody's going to start throwing punches :D

And yes I meant Prince Jing.

And if you ever watch the second season (they're separate and unrelated, don't worry), you'll see "Xiao PingZhang" (Huang XiaoMing), he looks basically like Li Shang from the animated Mulan :D, an extremely handsome (and manly) man. These dramas knew how to pick them :D

Oh sh*t, HONDA?! I thought it was someone else. Okay then, we'll have to watch this, for one more reason :D

Why don't they find some roles for "Pasin" and "MinHye"?! Pretty please!

No midichlorians, I promise! :D

So, a high-enough level of cultivation helps creating a core of qi (around the pubic region of the body, so at times it kind of looks strange when they're "gathering" the qi to make their attack stronger, LOL). Usually, the talented cultivators start very young, and it's supposed to take a few years (and a good master obviously) before one could form a core. Then you can only keep cultivating and add to it. In xianxia, there are levels split into more levels of cultivation, and one can even try to reach immortality by cultivation. In wuxia, they're mostly aiming at just fighting way better than the regular person, including fighting whole mobs at the same time and winning. It always looks extremely anti-scientific LOL (no gravity found), but that's just esthethics - less about looking like a superhero and more about stunning choreography.

Wuxia is way tamer (which doesn't mean it IS actually too tame) than xianxia, LOL. (And NiF only includes some elements of wuxia - xianxia is a lot more fantastical).

Then again - TBH, actual, real-world martial arts already look like they're meant for superheroes. Even the sport-regulated kinds - in this Summer's Olympics I kind of watched a lot of the Judo and Taekwando and other types of fighting and they were damned AWESOME!! So I imagine if one wanted and needed to impress the audience, they'd make the fights look out of this world cool :D

The one thing he (MCS) has to make sure of, is that JingYan DOESN'T KNOW. That's the cruelest part of his self-appointed mission.

Because the Emperor already had one of his sons, the actual Crown Prince at the time, put to death for an imagined reason, with his whole family, to boot, and a whole border army too! His own, best son by blood, the closest relative and the best prince that could have followed in his steps and keep the empire. The stakes are too high for any slip ups.

Yup, MCS's strategies and mind play are the best - and what do you mean they aren't gorgeous, LOL, have you seen JingYan?! :D

The best scenes of the first half land around ep 23, IIRC, that is still one of my favourite parts of the plot (won't spoil you, you'll see soon enough). But have you noticed the subtle and not so subtle harem game? That part was just as awesome as the men's strategies, and just as deadly.