TaeHo - noo! He's just a Stockholm Syndrome husband in love with a psycho, don't kill him show! Though it seems like he got suicided anyway. Who CAN do that to their own husband who loves them enough to be quiet and allow them to basically kill them?!
I vote NaNa as the mastermind killer of the series, she's too mad to even react like a human being. Even her idiot and violent brother is understandable, but her mind is too twisted to even perceive human emotions normally... If TaeHo is going to stay dead, I'm glad for the character's sake - nobody deserves to be tortured like that by the person they love.
Oh well, moving on.
The psycho cousin from S1 reappeared - I thought he was dead. Goes to show the lengths a drama will go to in order to have MORE than one psycho in it LOL. I do NOT like the way he's teaching NaNa to hit OJH's softest spots. His family is his Achilles' heel, and he was SO happy for half this season, I loved to see him smile. Now he's going to go back to antidepressives and insomnia, is he?
Stupid Chief's daughter is stupid, there, I've said it. They gave her a nice out, and she stayed, because she's stupid. Now that TaeHo is gone, will she stay in place and be NaNa's gullible spy on OJH? For her sake, I hope not.
But... the story is turning darker, now they've brought in OJH's past. I would like to see that part of his backstory solved... but also can we please (with a cherry on top) have the psycho cousin die for real? Let's ask NaNa to stage an accident for him...
When you're done with TU, and if you liked the Yi City Arc (Xue Yang/Xiao XingChen), you might give a try to the…
In dramas based on novels, there usually isn't an episodic story, or if it is, it's related to the main story, not the main story itself. But there are a lot of dramas based on (web)novels, and even more donghua for them.
For BL, the donghua are more wide-spread, and less censored. You have (from MXTX's danmei novels) Mo Dao Zu Shi (the same story as The Untamed, a different approach), Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (SVSSS is a delight, I highly recommend it, and the novel itself, because the ML Shen QingQiu is AWESOME and the System of the story is a hoot LOL), Heaven Official's Blessing (the same story as in Eternal Faith), and from more others - A Thousand Autumns got a season of donghua, then Dinghai Fusheng Records also got a season (I lost track, since they got a strange release calendar) and so on. IMHO, they're getting a bit more courageous, who knows, we might get a donghua 2ha first, before the live action makes it on screen. Though I am SO waiting for Chu Wanning!! :D
Dramas and donghua usually don't fool around inventing characters, at most they'd expand or restrain a bit of the existing characters. But usually they stay pretty faithful to the original source. Sadly, some of my favourite danmei/isekai novels won't probably see an adaptation, since most of them are about rebirth or transmigration, LOL.
You could try a novel just to see if you'd like them. Depending on who's doing the TL, and availability, it could be a hit or miss. MXTX's novels are getting officially published in English (in multiple volumes, since they're huge books), and there are a few good TL groups doing lots of BL for good stories (2ha is finished, 14th Year of Chenghua/Sleuth of Ming Dynasty is also finished, Thousand Autumns, the awesome Qiang Jin Jiu, Golden Stage, How To Survive as a Villain, and then there are the non-historical, like Seizing Dreams (there's also a live drama based on it, rumoured in post-production already) or Rebirth of a Movie Star. There are lots of info on them on novelupdates.
Ahh... should I have mentioned not to ask (or even hint) to a book-fanatic any kind of interest about books? :D This is why. Enjoy WoH :)
PS Ji Sung is a treasure, I loved him in KMHM, but in Devil Judge he out-did himself. Plus, it's a sleek, believable dystopia, and as I said... he and JinYoung together are fire.
When you're done with TU, and if you liked the Yi City Arc (Xue Yang/Xiao XingChen), you might give a try to the…
Similar to The Untamed, or Wuliang?
Not really, no. But then, the difference is what makes all of them good.
Cdramas you can check out -
Word of Honor (wuxia this time). You say you want angst, there'll be angst. They're also not afraid of offing MCs. Not the most important of them, but MCs nevertheless. The author of the novel it's based on - Priest, author of Faraway Wanderers - is the author of Guardian, too. I find her writing style kind of dry, and I don't really enjoy her novels, but WoH shines in chemistry between the MLs. I mean, Gong Jun is always amazing, and Zhang Zhe Han had great comedic expressions, timing, and a sense for drama. They make up what's lacking in terms of plot (that is, some parts are related to OTHER novels and if you haven't read them, there are characters that appear out of nowhere and the watcher is supposed to know how they're important... which I did not.) But there are TONS of PDAs, way more than in TU. And as I already said... Gong Jun is AMAZING. And he keeps calling the other MC "Ah-Xu" LOL, you'll like that, if you like WWX calling LWJ "Lan Zhan" non-stop :D
Another one you could try, another wuxia - The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty. This one has much less PDAs than either TU and WoH, but it excels in cuteness and smart-aleck MCs. There's a (interest) triangle, but no LOVE triangle, since one of the corners is a Royal Eunuch, LOL, but he - the eunuch - is my favourite character. I love smart people in dramas. And I love the hilarious moments. Here's a glance at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3uDnvIY710
Now, if you want to try a modern drama... There's Under the Skin. That too has amazing chemistry between the leads, but it's a police story, not a romance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es6YGakhzNM Tan Jian Ci, playing one of the leads, is supposed to be in Winner is King, another wuxia BL adaptation... but given the current Chinese stance on danmei, that will probably be a long time coming.
OR, if you want FIRE, but still not BL... you can take a look at The Devil Judge (SK drama). If you haven't discovered Ji Sung yet... this is the drama you should watch. And JinYoung does an amazing job. When they're on screen together, they're sizzling.
They're all good - they're not The Untamed. For more TU, there's a three-season donghua (anime) featuring the same voice actors, and it's a pretty good adaptation, with another great score and good (and more) special effects (guess it's easier to draw them than CGI them in, LOL), the chibi donghua (sweet enough to give you highs LOL), the (almost) uncensored audio drama (yes, with THOSE kind of scenes and the sounds associated with them, too), and obvously the novel itself.
Which, if you like Mo Dao Zu Shi / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, will open a whole new world of danmei novels to you. The author's (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu) other novels are also good - my favourite is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, it's hilarious! and they're getting donghua adaptations too.
For the future, if the Chinese ever relent on BL (which they typically do after a while), there's the afore mentioned Winner is King, and the already in post-production Immortality (2ha, erha, The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun), featuring Chen FeiYu (he was great in the first season of Evernight) and Luo YunXi (one of my faves; you can watch him in Ashes of Love, he has a great presence there; or, if you're not adverse to modern Chinese comedies, in Love is Sweet, with Bai Lu - another fave of mine :D)
Master Lee told him directly (he's ruminating on the shore of that lake on having told Uk about what HIS own master…
They said the book was actually a rather short poem, I think it's either the poem (in small script, LOL), or just the blank page itself, I guess Master Lee thinks Jang Gang is smart enough to make the connection himself.
How did Uk find out about Master Seo Gyeong's thoughts about ice stone? When he caught the golden fish? Are they…
Master Lee told him directly (he's ruminating on the shore of that lake on having told Uk about what HIS own master thought and intended for the Ice Stone, and that he's hoping Uk will find a way to use it.)
And he also left that blank page for Jang Gang, as an extra insurance. I guess JG will probably instantly know it's about the Ice Stone and that someone's trying to use it freely.
Up until ep 38 I gave this drama a 9,5 score, because I though the best part was up till ep 33, but after watching…
When you're done with TU, and if you liked the Yi City Arc (Xue Yang/Xiao XingChen), you might give a try to the short movie Wuliang. It's pretty good and there are some paralels.
That just brings it back to Jerry, who didn't die, and pretty suspiciously went to get PCH himself. I don't buy…
He has a sister (right?) and had an actual small-time offender life before going to prison for whatever he did. He's alive, that's all that the preview says... and it would totally be stupid to come get PCH himself if he were BM, risking to get caught or even killed. BM has quite a lot of minions, and he IS handling money, gold, drugs, whatever, so he must be someone pretty cold. I think it's Choi, but then, we're just halfway there. Maybe BM is just grooming a successor LOL, woudn't it be amazing if the elder was BM all this time? :D
Got a 62.5% fantasy score, LOL. I didn't watch most of these (I watched the anime version of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, I had no idea there was a live action, and Death Note - I like L, but that's about it, and I liked L before watching the movie; and then there's Cherry Magic. Aaaaand that's it from Japanese dramas, I think).
Rolled the wheel a few times, got DN the first time (oh well) and 49 twice, so I guess I'll have to watch 49 now :D
Also got a 16/18 so block 3 and LOL &the prize :D (won't tell what it is, so not to spoil it for others).
I would LOVE to see this in kdrama version. I've watched a lot more fantasy or supernatural kdramas, and I'd REIGN those stats LOL.
Thank you for the article (and mostly for the spinning wheel), it was a lot of fun!
So i guess its buyeon that died and not naksu. thats why the sky changed cause she got some crazy powers lol.But…
My guess is neither died, I think mom will stop just at the latest possible second. I mean, if rumours of Naksu getting (a) body back means that Bu-Yeon gets her body back too. And BY is also probably the reason the petrification is stalled (since Mu-Deok DID use some magic from time to time.)
Definitely and I think attacker was his secretary only he knows Miho had evidence literally no one had know she…
He didn't come for the blood sample, he didn't even try to get it off her, he came to kill her. IMHO either Gong JiHoon sent someone because he's THAT p*ssed at PCH, or the Mayor's wife, the hospital chief, took some security measures because they're definitely doing some drug tests on those cancer patients.
For a hot minute, I was afraid that was what they injected PCH with - the person who died was in prison and then dead two months later. I guess it'll come out later that he was given ~medical care~ in one of those "volunteer" sessions from the hospital people. What if they did the same thing that happened to him to PCH? *noooo!*
3 
I vote NaNa as the mastermind killer of the series, she's too mad to even react like a human being. Even her idiot and violent brother is understandable, but her mind is too twisted to even perceive human emotions normally... If TaeHo is going to stay dead, I'm glad for the character's sake - nobody deserves to be tortured like that by the person they love.
Oh well, moving on.
The psycho cousin from S1 reappeared - I thought he was dead. Goes to show the lengths a drama will go to in order to have MORE than one psycho in it LOL. I do NOT like the way he's teaching NaNa to hit OJH's softest spots. His family is his Achilles' heel, and he was SO happy for half this season, I loved to see him smile. Now he's going to go back to antidepressives and insomnia, is he?
Stupid Chief's daughter is stupid, there, I've said it. They gave her a nice out, and she stayed, because she's stupid. Now that TaeHo is gone, will she stay in place and be NaNa's gullible spy on OJH? For her sake, I hope not.
But... the story is turning darker, now they've brought in OJH's past. I would like to see that part of his backstory solved... but also can we please (with a cherry on top) have the psycho cousin die for real? Let's ask NaNa to stage an accident for him...
For BL, the donghua are more wide-spread, and less censored. You have (from MXTX's danmei novels) Mo Dao Zu Shi (the same story as The Untamed, a different approach), Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (SVSSS is a delight, I highly recommend it, and the novel itself, because the ML Shen QingQiu is AWESOME and the System of the story is a hoot LOL), Heaven Official's Blessing (the same story as in Eternal Faith), and from more others - A Thousand Autumns got a season of donghua, then Dinghai Fusheng Records also got a season (I lost track, since they got a strange release calendar) and so on. IMHO, they're getting a bit more courageous, who knows, we might get a donghua 2ha first, before the live action makes it on screen. Though I am SO waiting for Chu Wanning!! :D
Dramas and donghua usually don't fool around inventing characters, at most they'd expand or restrain a bit of the existing characters. But usually they stay pretty faithful to the original source. Sadly, some of my favourite danmei/isekai novels won't probably see an adaptation, since most of them are about rebirth or transmigration, LOL.
You could try a novel just to see if you'd like them. Depending on who's doing the TL, and availability, it could be a hit or miss. MXTX's novels are getting officially published in English (in multiple volumes, since they're huge books), and there are a few good TL groups doing lots of BL for good stories (2ha is finished, 14th Year of Chenghua/Sleuth of Ming Dynasty is also finished, Thousand Autumns, the awesome Qiang Jin Jiu, Golden Stage, How To Survive as a Villain, and then there are the non-historical, like Seizing Dreams (there's also a live drama based on it, rumoured in post-production already) or Rebirth of a Movie Star. There are lots of info on them on novelupdates.
Ahh... should I have mentioned not to ask (or even hint) to a book-fanatic any kind of interest about books? :D This is why. Enjoy WoH :)
PS Ji Sung is a treasure, I loved him in KMHM, but in Devil Judge he out-did himself. Plus, it's a sleek, believable dystopia, and as I said... he and JinYoung together are fire.
Not really, no. But then, the difference is what makes all of them good.
Cdramas you can check out -
Word of Honor (wuxia this time). You say you want angst, there'll be angst. They're also not afraid of offing MCs. Not the most important of them, but MCs nevertheless. The author of the novel it's based on - Priest, author of Faraway Wanderers - is the author of Guardian, too. I find her writing style kind of dry, and I don't really enjoy her novels, but WoH shines in chemistry between the MLs. I mean, Gong Jun is always amazing, and Zhang Zhe Han had great comedic expressions, timing, and a sense for drama. They make up what's lacking in terms of plot (that is, some parts are related to OTHER novels and if you haven't read them, there are characters that appear out of nowhere and the watcher is supposed to know how they're important... which I did not.) But there are TONS of PDAs, way more than in TU. And as I already said... Gong Jun is AMAZING. And he keeps calling the other MC "Ah-Xu" LOL, you'll like that, if you like WWX calling LWJ "Lan Zhan" non-stop :D
Here's a funny FMV, not too spoilery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fosOwbkH8xU
Another one you could try, another wuxia - The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty. This one has much less PDAs than either TU and WoH, but it excels in cuteness and smart-aleck MCs. There's a (interest) triangle, but no LOVE triangle, since one of the corners is a Royal Eunuch, LOL, but he - the eunuch - is my favourite character. I love smart people in dramas. And I love the hilarious moments. Here's a glance at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3uDnvIY710
Now, if you want to try a modern drama... There's Under the Skin. That too has amazing chemistry between the leads, but it's a police story, not a romance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es6YGakhzNM
Tan Jian Ci, playing one of the leads, is supposed to be in Winner is King, another wuxia BL adaptation... but given the current Chinese stance on danmei, that will probably be a long time coming.
OR, if you want FIRE, but still not BL... you can take a look at The Devil Judge (SK drama). If you haven't discovered Ji Sung yet... this is the drama you should watch. And JinYoung does an amazing job. When they're on screen together, they're sizzling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp1lgrqeBd8
They're all good - they're not The Untamed. For more TU, there's a three-season donghua (anime) featuring the same voice actors, and it's a pretty good adaptation, with another great score and good (and more) special effects (guess it's easier to draw them than CGI them in, LOL), the chibi donghua (sweet enough to give you highs LOL), the (almost) uncensored audio drama (yes, with THOSE kind of scenes and the sounds associated with them, too), and obvously the novel itself.
Which, if you like Mo Dao Zu Shi / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, will open a whole new world of danmei novels to you. The author's (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu) other novels are also good - my favourite is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, it's hilarious! and they're getting donghua adaptations too.
For the future, if the Chinese ever relent on BL (which they typically do after a while), there's the afore mentioned Winner is King, and the already in post-production Immortality (2ha, erha, The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun), featuring Chen FeiYu (he was great in the first season of Evernight) and Luo YunXi (one of my faves; you can watch him in Ashes of Love, he has a great presence there; or, if you're not adverse to modern Chinese comedies, in Love is Sweet, with Bai Lu - another fave of mine :D)
Okay, fan gushing over, but you did ask :D
And it's going to be Jang Gang's own touch, I guess that's what's going to drive the next season...
And he also left that blank page for Jang Gang, as an extra insurance. I guess JG will probably instantly know it's about the Ice Stone and that someone's trying to use it freely.
Prosecutor Choi is on the suspicious list again, he's way too calculated and cold not to be.
... And next week we're heading right back to prison, why show, why?! We just left. Let's hang out outside for a bit, can we?
Rolled the wheel a few times, got DN the first time (oh well) and 49 twice, so I guess I'll have to watch 49 now :D
Also got a 16/18 so block 3 and LOL &the prize :D (won't tell what it is, so not to spoil it for others).
I would LOVE to see this in kdrama version. I've watched a lot more fantasy or supernatural kdramas, and I'd REIGN those stats LOL.
Thank you for the article (and mostly for the spinning wheel), it was a lot of fun!
PS Jang Uk and the Crown Prince are actually my OTP.
For a hot minute, I was afraid that was what they injected PCH with - the person who died was in prison and then dead two months later. I guess it'll come out later that he was given ~medical care~ in one of those "volunteer" sessions from the hospital people. What if they did the same thing that happened to him to PCH? *noooo!*
At this point in time, the most LIKELY person might be PCH's friend the lawyer. But again... maybe not.