ShortCircuit

I have serious doubts that just a cleaning (and not a too thorough one, either) and a recharge would make a 20-year old camcorder that was in the elements (last seen in the water, too) work again.

But let's suspend disbelief.

The radioactive zombie-werewolf is losing the thrill factor as it comes into the light. I'd have loved to see something a bit more preternatural. But I'll take this, as long as there's nothing going on with Mac. I mean, the dog gets heat stroke in a military bunker? How come? Was no one paying attention to her while YDJ was gone for a few hours? If she somehow got infected, this'll turn into the beginning of Carpenter's "The Thing."

Also, Baek-jun's death makes it (even more) personal. For YDJ's sake, I hope the radioactive zombie-werewolf turns up to be the NK defector, and not YDJ's "dead" father, so that he gets to kill it, in case they ever find it (I have this fear this'll be a first season, because Netflix taught me so). Or we're going to have a Star Wars moment somewhere along the line.

Baek-jun being killed by the RZW(tm) means he won't get to become another RZW, right? The way it worked for the first victim was that he was ravaged by an infected dog. *keeping figers crossed*

I like that they toned it down with the all-over-the-place editing, this is coalescing nicely by now. I'd also love some more green-lit scenes, that lightning is awesome and frightening.

Yep, KSM hit me so hard I was in denial for much of the rest of the series. On the other hand, I watched "Leverage" because of Kim Kwon, so we're kind of even now LOL.

Shunji was Kang-To's best friend ever, and it hurt me badly to see them drift apart through no fault of their own (initially anyway). I never liked the FL in that series and I didn't care one bit for the romance - but oh the bromance was extreme. I think that was the first drama when I could actually pin-point it as bromance from the very beginning (and there's a scene with Shunji and Kang-To and double riding bycicles that encapsulates it perfectly). There, and in "Warrior Baek Dong Soo", too, where Yoo Seung-Ho's Yeo Woon had such good vibes with JCW's Dong-Soo, like they were Naruto and Sasuke, LOL. Those were the times.

From the dramas in this list that I've watched, nobody I know/talked to (including on the internet) hated Wang So or Wol Ryung. They're good guys turned bad, or good guys growing cold and/or misunderstood (yes, even when they're sucking the lives out of innocent peasants. You can see where he's coming from, even if we're supposed to believe that makes him eeeeevil.)

Not on this list, also a good guy in the beginning, but an absolutely villain by the time the drama ended, the only character in a drama I really wouldn't want to meet on a dark street with nobody else around is Min Joon-Gook (played by Jung Woong-In), from "I Can Hear Your Voice". I had only seen JWI in "Ojakgyo Brothers", where he's basically a goody two-shoes, and I liked him in his almost-dowdy dad looking for love. And then he became MJG, and a terror. He'd top this list, if it was made by me.

I loved that character while being afraid to death of him. Best acting as a villain in all the dramas before and since.

With some indulgence, maybe Do Kang-Wo (Lee Jin-Wook) in "Voice 3". I really really liked his chara in the second season, and then they had to blacken him completely until there wasn't much left of the initial impression of the character. Some sympathy remained, though, so he really was someone I loved to hate in the end. Not even the ending changed that. (I also don't really like that 3rd season at all, it's the weakest and poorest written, IMHO.)

Oh wait, someone else who fits PERFECTLY - Kimura Shunji (Park Ki-Woong) in "Bridal Mask/Gaksital". I really liked him in the beginning, and then he became what he became and I really hated him with a passion. Great job for the actor. I think he left a larger impression than the ML, LOL.

Wait - Kang Sung-Mo (played by Kim Kwon) in "He is Psychometric". That's how you do it - you take the best and brightest thing in a series and develop him into a villain that you hate to root for - but who is totally relatable and unforgivable at the same time.

So it's a zombie-werewolf? Or something.

Question 1: WTH was it doing for the past 20 years? Did no one see it lurking around?

Question 2: is the Korean Army really that lax about back-talking to a superior? I get it that JDY's chara only has 2 weeks til discharge, but that's plenty of time to do some court martial-worthy things. I wish they'd tone down the disrespect, albeit deserved. Or maybe it's my wrong impression that the army is full of jarheads going around shouting "YES, sir! No, SIR!" to whatever order they get.

Question 3: why isn't anyone panicking about resurrected werewolf zombies yet? I mean, it's not like it's an everyday thing. I like that there's some order to the army response, but at the same time, they're not freaking robots. Or zombies. Yet.

Question 4: so is JDY / YDJ (LOL @how they get his name reversed in the acronym of his chara's name :D) the son of one of the soldiers who died that day long ago when the werewolf radiactiove mutant zombie... thing was created, and SYR's mom died? Because too many coincidences will ruin this...

One of these dramas, that little girl will actually end up as JDY's love interest, just wait and see. She has that kind of determination, lol. They had the same kind of relationship in "Tale of Nokdu", too. And she's also assertive with Lee Yeon in "Tale of the Nine-Tailed", I guess she's born to wear the pants in her relationships lol.

I don't really like the editing, though. Things are already confusing, no need to jump back and forth in time and have those strange cuts in between. To tell the truth, the first ep impressed me way more than the following two combined, despite the editing. Must've been the lighting and the music.

Mac looks more of a pro than Leo did, too. I hope they don't repeat any history in that part of the tale.

More Cyrano vibes, but with a comedic undertone. I find myself rooting hard for the SML. The Good Boy is THE Goodest Boy.

I also thought nothing could top the "Sweet Dreams LOL" thing, but the MONEYYYY shot took over everything. That cousin should be praised and given 10% of any startup co they ever get off the ground.

NJH / NDS is cute and sweet and nerdy, and I love the preview for the next ep. I'll take rom-com, thanks. Just don't give me a lot of heartbreak either...

That's my question exactly - she doesn't know she has it, so she can't even treasure it so that it would work as payment (according to the Seer's rules). And the Seer suddenly tells her she has it and it's good exchange for Yeon. If she's so versed into the lore, and knows Yeon is a fox, she'd know the importance of the bead. But she very quickly gives it away.

Maybe there'll be more revealed later, but so far it's an enigma.

There's a workaround on the not-yet sacrificial scene - she was on the same island as it, and had been before while her mother was pregnant. Things might have started then that developed only after she returned as an adult...

But he tested her too, when she was the kid he rescued from those monsters who replaced her parents after the accident, and the fox bead didn't react to his energy.

My working theory on that is that there was something more needed in order for the fox bead to reveal itself - and thus let Yeon recognize her spirit, and that is she had to revive the Imoogi or have her Imoogi side awaken, too, before the foxlight could call out the fox bead.

So all the other previous girls who looked like AE could have been her, too, only not completely, since the Imoogi part of her could not be awake during those times.

If the show stays consistent to what it presented so far, it went something like this: in order to awaken the Imoogi, JA had to have her Imoogi soul awaken too, so that meant her parents had to go away (and maybe she would have been kidnapped to that island sooner, if LY hadn't interfered). Then once the Imoogi is awake again, the bead somehow protects her from him and keeps her safe, somewhat, until she gives it away to free Yeon. And now Yeon knows it's been her all along, but the bad guys - the Imoogi's slaves/servants/whatever - have known for longer and have had time to plan it all out. I mean, even Lee Rang was saved, as a young fox, by the Imoogi's servant, right? This has been a long time cooking.

As much as I can predict - given it's turned more romantic than horror by now - in order to save her again from either turning into an Imoogi herself or being killed by it, Yeon will somehow have to die. And if we're lucky and get a happy end romance, he'll become human and they'll live happily ever after.

But after dramas like "Black", I'm not so sure we'll necessarily get a HEA.

The bead gathers (and proffers) knowledge and powers - if the human who gets it knows how to use it. More often, the fox either gifts it away as a sign of affection (this thing is mostly in dramas, IMHO, I have this impression that in mythology it's not something really positive) or it's stolen away by people who crave that knowledge/power.

I'm basing this on "My Girlfriend is a Gumiho", "Gu Family Book" and partly on "The Fox in the Screen" and "Love and Redemption" (which are c-dramas, so mythology might differ), and on a few Japanese anime series where there were kitsune (which confusingly don't seem to have/give away fox beads to humans, but there's something similar to their foxlight in some of those, which might be restricted to those anime series only and not actually part of Japanese myths.)

But even if JA is AE's reincarnation, LY only gave AE the fox bead when she was already dead and being carried over by the underworld ferryman, so why would it be so precious to either version of the girl?

Wasn't the Blind Seer's thing to get "someone's most precious thing" as replacement for whatever he gives away? So that is the way it worked with Lee Rang giving away Lee Yeon - but why would the Seer accept the fox bead as payment when she's not even aware of its existence?! The fox bead is Yeon's most precious gift, and definitely worth the exchange, but as she doesn't value it at all, how come the deal is acceptable?

Is that a plot hole or am I thinking too much into it?

Also, now the bead is gone into that bag, and the Imoogi has access to the FL, does that mean the bead acted as her shield all along and/or now it's gone, Yeon is also in danger, indirectly? I only know a few bits and pieces about the fox bead meaning, can someone tell me more, please?

I guess this one's going to be a romance more than a horror show, and I like that - don't take me wrong, I have nothing much against horror, it's just not my cup of tea and there were some moments in the first eps that made me question if I should go on with it. But ep 6 introduced a conundrum for me, I'm gonna ask a question about it but put it under a spoiler tag...

Re: the forest scene. I like both scenes, lol, the book one and the drama one. The book one because it allows WWX later on to finally figure out it wasn't just an impulse for LWJ to stand by him - he was always the one longing for WWX (who, obviously and frustratingly never saw the light in his first life, lol, poor LWJ!). The drama one because I actually do like the way they show the love story - through touches and gazes and emotion-ladden moments. Any more carnal love would have tainted it a bit. Still, a kiss couldn't have been too bad. Right?... :D

As for LXC and JGY - LXC has the big brother complex. His father was the official head of the clan, but he kept confining himself so that no one actually saw him all that much. LQR, his uncle, is not acting head, LXC is, and he has to account for the burning of the Cloud Recesses and his father's death during it. LWJ can afford "some" personal freedom, like sticking to WWX even when he became the bad guy in the eyes of everyone else, but LXC can't, as the actual clan head . He trusts JGY because he saved him during the time the Wens destroyed his clan home, and maybe - just maybe - he wasn't all that manipulative with LXC as with the rest. The drama worked a bit in the direction of a more special relationship between them, but in the novel I can't see more than a sincere friendship. After all, LXC is just as much of a loner as LWJ - they have the same back story, the same type of silently enduring personality, the same kind of obsessive attachments. If he's human, he's bound to spare JGY some lenghts of trust before starting to doubt him. It just so happened that WWX was actually worth that trust for LWJ, while JGY wasn't, for LXC.

This is turning into an essay :D

Anyway, the most revealing fact that the Lan clan was struggling while rebuilding, for some years, is the way LQR allowed LWJ to keep A-Yuan :D and even get drunk and brand himself in the middle of the Cloud Recesses. If THAT didn't give him apoplexy, he had more pressing matters on his mind :D

He got another dog, the retired sister of Leo, so he has a partner. But it's not the same, and he didn't have a chance to actually mourn Leo, either. It's a short drama (or drama season) so I guess they didn't have time for mourning time and whatnot. Plus the radioactive werewolves/zombies are out there to be hunted down. We'll have to wait and see.

It's more of a setup of WWX's "defection" from the "righteous" sects than a social commentary. The Jins are the most powerful clan, they're the richest and even if the drama doesn't show it more clearly, they're the ones funding most of the Sunshot Campaign (and so Jin GuangShan gets to claim credit for the victory, and afterwards his demise seems more deserved. Because obviously how he treated women, even the wives of his subordinates, and his illegitimate son don't count enough /s. )

The Cloud Recesses are still basically burned down at this point, and the Lotus Pier in process of being rebuilt, both sects are trying to gather disciples and become important again, and only the Jins have come on top, mainly due to JGY's underhanded techniques. The Nie Clan isn't in the best position to oppose the Jin Clan even if they wanted to, because now they're allied through the heads of the clans' brotherhood. Even if LXC and LWJ would want to act for the Wens, they don't have the power to oppose all their allies.

So the point is, nobody actually could rock the boat, and even if the Jin Clan are overstepping, it takes a lot of courage and having little to lose - or being an idealistic hotshot - to call them out on it. The hunting down and killing of the Wens is happening in the book too, just as a background for Wen Ning's fate. The drama is emphasizing it to gain on the side of heroism for WWX and to paint the Jin Clan really black and show them as the hypocrites they really are.

TBH, WWX's defection in the book is a bit more darker than in the drama, if only for the continued use of the fierce corpses during and after the Sunshot Campaign - he's not really all that less savage than the Jins, all things considered. It looks like everyone who got it from him deserved it, particularly Wen Chao, but when you stop to think WWX had him eating his own flesh... ewww. So the drama used this time to darken the "righteous" sects and make us forget a bit about why WWX shouldn't be the perfect hero he looks to be when standing up for Wen people (and the Wen did actually slaughter not only the Jiang Clan, but most smaller clans too, nobody has any love for them).

Also, WWX is definitely not putting anyone in danger - he really is that good of an archer (as shown plenty of times before in the drama). Aaaand it's a bit of a dramatic turn to also make us forget there won't be any eyes-covered first kiss in the forest, either. Boo!

They killed his dog... If he doesn't go John Wick on them, then it'll be a bust.

Also, I think they're hinting heavily at radioactive werewolves/zombies. Werewolves would be a plus, IMHO. Let's just go with radioactive werewolves!

So, does anyone else get VERY strong vibes of ”Cyrano de Bergerac” from the first two eps? (Well, minus the nose thing.). Not that I expect anybody to actually die - fingers crossed - but HJP really acts like Cyrano, NDS is Christian and SDM is Roxane. There are the letters, the misunderstanding, and I bet there'll be some shenanigans where HJP will help out NDS in winning's SDM's trust and eventual love.

I don't really like the play all that much though, so I hope the drama veers off this trail soonest, please. I don't want to see any noble idiots either, and if both guys fall for her and she can't have her harem then she'd better not pick anyone. If I were to choose a favourite so far, I'd pick HJP's younger version. Was Nam Da Reum playing LJS's character's younger version in ”While You Were Sleeping”? He grew up well. I'd love to see him in bigger parts.

First comment ever here - because it's Xiao Zhan's b-day and it needs to be celebrated.

Happy birthday, Xiao Zhan! (from an European fan).