ShortCircuit

The killer is the husband of the cheating woman (I keep forgetting his name). No police officers die.

Oh! I'd forgotten about this one. Anyone watched it - spoil me please - does this one actually have an ending, or is it wanting for another sequel? And most importantly - what DOES the 4th avatar DO?!

I think it's Unclean Realms because the Nie Clan founder was a butcher, and his sword was not the elegant, slim-looking sword of the other clans, but the broadsword. And then, there's the whole violent-rage berserker madness they put into their swords during cultivation (the thing that drives them all mad and that made NHS avoid it completely - because he, unlike all other Nie leaders, is SMART! :D) *take a moment to appreciate how smart NHS is* *also take a moment to appreciate BaXia, the best berserker broadsword in this drama, all hail!* :D

Wishing you a nice re-watch along with your mom :)

OMG your poor mom. Though I'll bet she's still going to sympathize with him (or at least understand where he was coming from) after the end, if you explain MengYao's backstory to her.

What does she think of Nie HuaiSang? Did he register on her radar yet? :D

We've had our disagreements about who's the best-looking one in this drama, LOL, you and I, and I still stand by my pick - WWX is the most handsome, bar none. I'll allow LWJ in second place, since I can't pick another MXTX chara here. And Jiang Cheng comes third despite the jawline, just because I like him as a guy who gets placed in the worst positions and made to pick a stand. *there there, JC, I got you, you silly pup*. - That means, your mom will get around to my POV, see if she doesn't :D

I thought June Hur is South Korean (though has lived a long while in Canada). So do her books still count as foreign?... (And A Crane Among Wolves isn't released yet).

I used to read a lot of TJK when he was writing mostly romantic BL (BOATK for example), but not so much since he branched out into LGBTQ-themed fantasy or YA. I might take a look, though going by the blurb, it's not really what I'm reading these days...

And - I might be alone in this - I do really have a bad spot against people running into high nobles ALWAYS. Why does none of these book - or drama - characters ever find a great ally that ISN'T the Crown Prince, or the Heir, or the King, or anyone of no or very small political importance? Why do those guys ALWAYS have to not only be noble and powerful but also extremely handsome to boot?! And how come they ALL end up falling for the heroine?! (And then obviously, if it's a HEA, they marry the heroine and never take a concubine or get another political wife). I know it's usually YA or fantasy, but it's pretty annoying. There are so many kings, emperors and high princes just waiting for the detective heroine to come in their sight and who have never ever before met another girl they'd liked, that they're already getting to the numbers of the counts, dukes and princes in Regency novels (which is to say, infinite). And then, why Joseon, of all things?! Not Joseon-with-the-dumb-hats again, please!

/okay, rant over, LOL. Don't take me seriously. Blue Monday's just passed and I'm not exempt.

I guess then that all romcoms are multiple-sided love stories, LOL, particularly when the leads are hot.

Nevermind, it's just a joke. Leave it as a love triangle, why not. Though, TBH... did you ever count how many men were in that waiting room? None had a chance with the FL, but they were there (some even had speaking parts, LOL). I guess we'd be going into love dodecahedrons even if the FL doesn't like them or not.

Edit wait, they'd be harem stories in that case, wouldn't they? We already have a term, OMG LOL. Rom-coms are scary :D

No. There's a busybody that the FL doesn't notice, and then there's the ML that she instantly falls for, and that ML is the only one who gets upset about the busybody, LOL.

Don't worry. She doesn't see the SML as a candidate, not for an second.

So, flying insects go through metamorphosis. Usually coming out of the pupa is just one final stage before they become adults, and then the insect can spread its wings and fly.

Them being just winged fairies, it might mean they have to ~reset~ or grow every once in a while, so that they - maybe - get bigger wings and powers. Maybe. It's not like the writer explained anything LOL. But SangHyuk's wings were the biggest and the others seemed to have considered him superior to them, somehow.

Anyway. You could just say they're being flying magic bugs and needing metamorphosis from time to time to become ever bigger bugs LOL.

So, to quote that guy on that TV series... This was kind of like 3.6 Roentgen. Not great, not terrible.

Pros: the leads are stunning (the FL in particular, but JDY is his own level of cute every time). The chemistry is good. There are doggos! And I liked the obligation of making sacrifices / keep commitments before getting something from the powers that be in return. (Also, I've been missing Park KiWoong and didn't even realise it!) Parts of the OST are very nice.

Cons: The mystery definitely fell flat, but then this isn't a police procedural anyway. I wanted to have some endings for the other fairies too. In the end, they played it a bit too much to the FL's remembered past lives and the crime part overstayed its welcome (by a lot).

Bestest support chara: I'm not going to lie - it's Park SungJoon, the restaurant's owner. The way he came by for all those years to take care of the house... that man loved them all, the stupid bunch of them. I'll drink an extra glass to him the next time I get drunk.

And now, to paraphrase DongGu... Hasta la vista. Baby. (He didn't say that, but that's what it sounded like, to me, LOL).

Offtopic: this also showcases so well that JDY can actually act all different in different roles - the effort is recognised and appreciated! I've seen him in 4 dramas so far, and he never disappointed. I just might go over his drama roles and pick another one of his - I've grown used to his face lately :D (If anyone's interested, head over to Flowers in the Sand and watch how different he can act :D)

The timelines are scrambled, haven't you noticed? There are always delays between realisations and them running to save her (yet again) and then getting to where she is.

I'll bet she is took a taxi out half an hour before OriginalKillerTM activated the thing LOL (and that the call between the leads happened an hour before that, too).

You're making fun of me, I'm going to cry (I'll just copy some of the leads in this LOL). T_T (now send me a high tide too :D)

ETA You tricksssed usss, you did!! Why preciousss?!

What the fck is YongPil's dad problem? It's been freaking 20 years, NOBODY doesn't let go for so long, in a drama that's NOT about revenge and not forgiving etc. This is supposed to be a drama about small-time village life AND regaining love and whatnot, and instead we've had at least (the past) three eps filled with misunderstandings and over-acted stubborness (I mean, WHAT THE FCK is SamDal's mom thinking, too?!) and unforgiving parents.

WHAT THE FCK, dramaland!

No but seriously, WHY doesn't the freaking mom SEE where her kids are coming from?? Her profession isn't worry-free if she were healthy, why would she have to continue diving if she's risking HER life AND her RESCUERS' lives, in an incident, when the doctors have been telling her for 8 freaking YEARS to taper it the fck off?! Oh it's so cute and heart-warming a good meteorologist with a mom complex has to spend 8 freaking years of his youth to guard her against her next heart attack when she's in the sea? NO IT'S NOT.

And then stupid SamDal. WHAT THE HECK happened to her?! She was so confident and had been successful and now all she does is leak all over the place just because YongPil's dad is screaming at her? SLAP HIS STUPID FACE OFF!!

What the hell is this?!

And then the stupid SML, or whatever he wants to be, who's been in love with SamDal for all his life and NEVER said a word. SPEAK the freak out or bow out of this, make up your freaking mind, dammit!!

TBH, at this point, the only character I actually like any more is the freaking cartoonish chaebol, at least HE's been consistently henpecked and comic relief.

This drama started out pretty interesting, developed at a nice speed, and now it's bogged off FOR WHOLE EPISODES in the backstory that nobody freaking cares about!! I've kept on for JCW and SHS, but I am fast losing interest in this and I'm afraid to get into 14th, since I can see from the previews it KEEPS on with the older gen's drama THAT I DON'T FREAKING CARE ABOUT WTF!

... okay, rant over.\

No wait, there's one more contending bone - WHAT THE HELL are they thinking, what with WANTING a freaking amusement park by the sea?! We're living in the 21th century CE, we KNOW what those parks mean to the environment, okay, they bring jobs and KILL OFF everything that made that place special. NO THANK YOU FCK OFF!!

I've seriously sloughed it through ep 13 and can't gather the energy to watch 14th right away. The older generation's drama should have really been solved sooner or at least NOT given so much airing time. I'd have rather seen the other two sisters' stories instead.

It's definitely Park PilDu (the elder who is leading the ssireum team in their gossip). They're setting the character up as uncomfortable with too much talk about the Oh family and doing some hard thinking when it's about who might've been the last person to see the "suicide/crime" victim in the reservoir.

It's Park PilDu (Woo Hyun), I'm betting on him. He's being set up as someone a bit suspicious and there's no more time to build up another possible villain.

Whew, for a hot second there I was afraid they're going to make BaekDu's dad be the bad guy. I guess this isn't that kind of drama, though :D

OMG, poor SeokHui's face, LOL. But he earned it. I expected to see him thrown over hahaha.

I like how the hubae cop isn't any better than BaekDu at drinking. He does survive the first cup but it under the table in one bottle's range LOL. There goes their manhood contest, out the window hahaha!

I was ready to forgive a lot of what DuSik's doing... but she's a bit slow warming up and if she does hurt the bestest puppy-hearted person this side of the Sun... she's toast!

It's been hinted at for quite a few eps - it's the husband of the cheating woman (first case on the mountain, after 29 years.) He's the killer in the cases three decades ago, too.

"It's only God watching." Well, to be completely accurate - a Goddess. A fujoshi Goddess, though, LOL.

Kamisama is my favourite, though. Also, is it just me or does Sakurada Hiyori (Kagura) look AND act (in this drama at least) exactly as Wang YingLu (BaoBao) in I Am Nobody? When she was Yashiro, I kept seeing BaoBao instead LOL.

Plus - that town, too. There are SO MANY places that look familiar - again, is it just me or (at least) that long sea-side walk up looks 100% like the one in Suzume no Tojimari?! Up to and including the traffic signs. I loved the scenic views.

Overall, a cute drama that tried to include as many messages as it could. Good ending, too :)

So, if I were to make a top-three shous of danmei xianxia/wuxia, WWX, Chu WanNing (of 2ha) and Shen ZeChuan (of Qian Qin Jiu) would share first place. Don't put aside 2ha just because of the title, LOL. It's a sado-masochist's wet dream, complete full-length director's cut of it LOL. And CWN is the bestest shizun to ever grace the field of aloof, competent, quiet (but awful tempered) shous of all danmei novels EVER. There's an upcoming 2ha drama - Immortality - based on the novel, which probably will either remove anything too BL so that not even the bromance is recognizable - still plenty of story left either way - or make it a shadow of the story... but it won't (very probably) be released any time soo. Luo YunXi is CWN and Chen FeiYu is MoRan, the shou and the gong, respectively, and it would have been a DREAM to see it onscreen. But censors are keeping off all danmei-based dramas, so who knows if they'll ever let it air...

All of the recs above are great novels - different, but all xianxia/wuxia/historical. I'd add to those maybe Mu Su Li's Copper Coins (amazing - and it has actual dragons :D) and if you want something historical but very kinky, LOL, then You've Got Mail is the one :D

From the modern-era, I like rebirth stories - have you read J112233's Rebirth of a Movie Star? That one's sweet and short (I wanted even more!) :D

She has two more published novels, Heaven Official's Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu, or TGCF) and Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (acronymed as SVSSS, nobody uses the Chinese acronym, LOL). Both have at least one season of donghua released, TGCF is about to end its second season and is drawn in classic style (so looks a lot better, while SVSSS is drawn in 3D and doesn't look as good, though the story is great). Both are on Youtube, if you want to take a look.

TGCF has the more complex storyline (about four lifetime rounds, LOL, more complex than MDZS too), while SVSSS is drop-down hilarious.

TBH, I prefer SVSSS, because the MC, Shen QingQiu, is a freaking hoot. The novel deals with lots of xianxia/wuxia tropes and transmigration, so that the MC, SQQ, KNOWS them all and tries to use them to save himself (since he transmigrated into the body of the villain who is going to absolutely, no holds barred, DIE). The other MC is SQQ's apprentice, so their relationship is initially a bit ambiguous, but there's a lot of things going on, and eventually there's going to be a HEA.

TGCF is WAY longer, convoluted, and while having one of the most interesting gongs, Hua Cheng, the way the story moves can be frustrating (or was, to me). The charas are mostly people from the Celestial Realm, too, so it was harder for me to connect to them. But it's a pretty good story, if you get drawn into it, and there's plenty of toil and heartbreak until the HEA.

BOTH (actually, all three) of MXTX's novels are HORROR, just so you know. The Untamed really mellowed the horror aspects of MDZS, but if you read the novel, you know what they've been skipping. I mean... in the end, if you oversimplify everything, WWX is basically a well-intending necromancer falling in love. But if they left it as was, who would want to watch an actual necromancer doing stuff, LOL?! So expect LOTS of gore in TGCF (not so much in SVSSS, maybe that's why I like it better, LOL, I'm not a fan of horror and gore).

As for the writing - they are very well written. There were fan TLs floating around the net (and might still be), but all her novels were since officially TLed and published in English (and other languages) by SevenSeas Entertainment. There are a lot of volumes for each novel, since they're pretty long, and they are kind of pricey, but they look great and there are special editions (with posters and whatnot) too. All of them are illustrated.

Other danmei authors you could check out, if interested... Definitely MeatBun Doesn't Eat Meat (all of them are using pseudonyms, China doesn't want people being into danmei) or Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. She has written the famous The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (or hyx /2ha/ erha). THAT one is another amazing novel - also being officially TLed, they're not done with publishing it yet though. She also wrote Remnants of Filth (Yu Wu), another good - while bloody - story.

Or Priest - she's prolific - author or Guardian, Faraway Wanderers (Word of Honor drama) and a lot others.

Or one of my favourites - Meng Xi Shi - author of A Thousand Autumns (there's a donghua, beautifully drawn) and The Fourteenth Year of ChengHua (The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty drama) and Wushuang / Peerless (drama's in the works, probably delayed, as all danmei dramas....).

Or Tang JiuQing, author of Nan Chan and Bring In the Wine (Qiang Qin Jiu, which is one of the best - and actually HOT - danmei I've ever read).

All of them are highly recommended - for starters :D