ShortCircuit

That's why I said it's a bit Nietzschean, LOL - you are probably uncomfortable with the way Shen Yi seems to let himself be... seduced toward the dark side. A lot of watchers commented on the colder relationship between Du Cheng and Shen Yi in the second season - it's mostly Shen Yi's story (despite the collaboration on different police cases). It's a lot more introspective (because in the first season we all focused on how cute Shen Yi was in his oversized t-shirts and helpless around Du Cheng's badass antics and we all forgot he's actually a pretty smart guy... and smart guys make bad choices when they overthink things.)

Don't worry, though, and trust the process. Myself, I like more cool-cut psychological stories (unless they turn bad at the end, as some do), and I watched S2 as a story of quiet dread ('cause I obviously watched it as it aired and didn't know the ending, which I won't even tell you how it's like LOL. Suffer like we all did :D)

BTW, don't you think the gene-editing rich guy has a lot in common with the guy in Mobius? The characters struck me as pretty similar.

I have dozens of accounts and never bothered to remember all the DIFFERENT passwords I set. I have a recovery account and that one's password I do remember, LOL. But you'll be surprised that way too many people write very simple passwords and worse... they use THE SAME password on all their accounts - banking included.

Will you go watch the second season? You might have noted the deep bromance (there's no slip-over into BL, but there are some undertones - and YES they took some pretty courageous turns in some of the cases) and the second season is more Nietzschean, so to speak - Shen Yi will have his integrity tried, and Du Cheng can't seem to find the way to do anything about it.

PS If you want to see police being a grayer shade, maybe try The Embers (though the city where things happen isn't "actually" in China, plot-wise, LOL.

Who and why changed the title?! It still is "I DON'T want to be brothers with you" so why the edit?!

It's not the drama though. This IS danmei (very watered-down re: the romance aspect) but danmei nevertheless. The novel it's based on is unapologetical about it (though the romance is still just subtly in the focus). Even with the censored approach, it comes through beautifully.

And people (mostly women, LOL, or at least mostly the women admit to it) like danmei.

Sadly, with TU's success and later with WoH's success, the censorship woke up and inflicted more rules so we've been robbed from more danmei dramas (that had already been filmed...)

If you like The Untamed and would like to try some more of the genre - Word of Honor, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Spirealm, Guardian are also available :)

It looks like they're going for a more OP version of the ML and a less techy version of the setting than in Fabricated City.

I guess it could be good. We'll see. (Though TBH what I actually liked in Fabricated City was precisely how powerless the ML was).

The Chinese Reset in which Bai JingTing is ML, LOL. It's another time-loop drama, but IMHO, better than this one (not that this one isn't pretty good too).

Still just on episode 5 because life - but omo! OMO! Omo-omo-omo! That's developing fast, didn't expect it.

I like it LOL, though I can't stand sound effects that tell me something's funny. I can recognise it myself if it is funny for me, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, the censor guy went from "don't get close to a merchant wife" to "you're SUCH a lucky man" in about three seconds flat - as long as it took him to inhale that skewer, LOL.

Apropos of nothing, just wanted to let you all know that when I work, I usually put on some background music and this time I'm stuck on FoF's OST - Heroes Are Upright is great but IMHO... Heaven and Earth are Unrivalled is the very best. I have no idea what I'm humming to but that refrain - oh yeah you probably could hear me singing along with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWc_KND-fLs

Also, Li Lun still had the best redemption arc in xianxia lately. I'm gonna get drunk in his honor when I have the time. Now back to work.

Obviously he's the killer, since everybody else's plot parts are spoiled in the summary, LOL.

....like, eeeeeeeeeeeeh. That's it?

Oh well.

His mother attacked and scratched her husband's (the king at the time) face. He tried to hide it but it was found (some history sources say it left scars on his face). She was jealous. She had already killed one of his concubines using poison. She wasn't executed for nothing. This king, his family and most of the history around it are infamous, so there's no true need to give SK people extra explanations about them.

The people at the time hated him because 1. he had already enacted a revenge sweep by killing off a huge number of scholars (literati) linked to his mother's removal and then, years later, did another (even targeting people who hadn't been involved, with the accusation they didn't intervene and let it happen), 2. the chaehong actually happened (they would pick the best looking girls for the king to "enjoy", way too many of them, most unwilling), and 3. he closed the Sungkyunkwan and made it into his own joy garden (basically his own private place to get entertained). (And in case it doesn't come through why that matters - the Sungkyunkwan is one of the oldest extant universities, having been around since before 1400). And then there's the whole forbidding freaking writing because people were using it to mock him.

This guy is one of the best-known in his infamity, from the kings of Joseon. The drama didn't need to spell it out to its original audience, so that maybe left some lacks to the international watchers to wonder about.

But in short, there were VERY good reasons for him to be feared and hated by everyone around him.

TBH, even if "settled" history might seem to be the authoritative word about him, the drama DOES present an alternative explanation to (parts) of his reign and it does so pretty convincingly.

I mean, he COULD be just a so-so king with a very bad rep (because the victors write the "truth" and it's been long enough nobody could ever possibly tell what's fact and what's not).

Myself, I think he was a tyrant (because the purges, and because everything else - the girls, closing the royal academy to turn it into a brothel for himself, basically) etc - but if I were to play the devil's advocate, I'd say it could be that he was pretty powerless in his first half of the reign and his relatives used him to get revenge or remove their own adversaries (pitting him as the culprit) and then that he was removed because he had outlived his usefulness and his younger half-brother was more malleable or his faction had promised more power to the nobles supporting him.

Obviously, accepted historical narration is the norm, but the drama does present an acceptable plot of how it could all be explained differently.

I've written a longer comment than these above, when I finished the drama - there are two almost separate (in gravity and tone) plots, barely linked through the romance angle (that didn't really convince me). One plot deals with the cooking and could have stood on itself, and the other is the alt-history of YeonSan's fall and could also had been a separate drama of its own (and a good one, IMHO).

Myself, I prefer The King and the Clown as a retelling of his period (as a piece of fiction, obviously), but if you keep watching this for a story of a Yeonsan-like king figure, it might prove good to you too. (Just ignore the romance, LOL).

PS As for why pick Yeonsan precisely as a MC - one, he's one of the best known (infamous) kings, so there's no need for extra explanations and YET retelling his story in a different way might get the interest of readers/watchers, two, I guess he's - like Prince Sado - one of those things that remind you of a broken tooth - you know you should stop touching it and yet you can't help yourself LOL. Koreans even tried to touch on Taejong, IIRC, with that vampire/zombie drama, and that got cancelled after airing two eps. I guess they're kind of interested in seeing how far can they play around with known historical figures.

It wasn't just the scratch - which, BTW, the king tried to cover up for, maybe he really loved her. She was also accused of poisoning another concubine because of jealousy, and she often seems to have had fits of anger.

The king-father had three official wives (in succession, Yeonsan thought he was the third queen's own son, he was around 5 when his bio mom died) and some 10 or more concubines. There were lots of royal children, Yeonsan himself had two full brothers who died in infancy or early childhood.

I think the king maybe truly loved his second wife and was feeling guilty over her death and so he picked him as a Crown Prince and heir. He was also the elder official son (by a queen), the next one up was 7 when their father died, Yeonsan was 19. I think the succession needed some form of stability and he was also raised as the third queen's son anyway, there was no problem with appointing him as CP.

He's infamous, one of the foremost tyrants in Joseon. I think the drama producers didn't need to spell it out for Koreans - as for the int'l audience... well, there's always wiki, LOL.

True that.

Also, when he was discussing with his uncle the actual deeds he had done and never got redeemed for, before he had a change of heart because the magic of love etc - he did accept he was actually a tyrant, LOL. I read some of your back comments that they had planned and filmed a longer story, and now TBH I'm kind of sad they didn't keep it long enough to let some characters breathe - the king's included.

I mean, at least a quarter of each episode was spent on him getting orgasms from new food tastes LOL, they could have kept that shorter and maybe have him actually realise IN TIME that he wasn't cool, what with the purges and the freaking picking out girls from the whole country (because like hell did they all want to go to him) and his obsession over how his mom died.

Anyway, here's hoping Yummy Yummy Yummy does better with the ending LOL (though that title totally sucks), now that it looks like gastro dramas are IN :D

He did not ignore her until she went over his head and made decisions of her own without informing him. The fact he had been infatuated with her was a well-known fact in the court before the FL landed there, and people were complaining about his influence on her and on how much reflected power went to her.

Not that it does matter in the end. That part - the alternative explanation for how things could have happened in that reign - was a part I think was pretty well written and acted. As I said, I think it would have made a great historical drama on itself.

The part when it just doesn't click for me is the romance. But that's just me.

I know they're not following the historical annals, I meant the actual historical figure was married, with kids.

But even if we're to refer only to the drama - he IS already married and has a few concubines (not just the one he's most interested in), so definitely not a virgin. And they had him act like he never touched a woman before in his life.

What bothers me, in short, is that they don't really act their own ages (as in the drama) or cultures - she's a modern woman, he's a deeply experienced king/soldier (at that time he would've been a monarch for around 10 years) but they BOTH act like teenagers.

Maybe it's me - I like lovers who are actually intelligent and don't do random impulsive things that beg me to question their sanity. Usually with dramas, TBH, I blame the writers about this.

PS He DID like concubine Kang! Before ~falling~ for the FL, he was all about concubine Kang! He only starts taking a distance, in the drama, when she pushes him too far for his liking. Before then, they were thick as thieves.

It feels like there were at least two main plots and the link should have been the romance part, but that one never clicked, sorry.

The first part - the amazing ~new~ dishes and how she made them - was pretty okay and entertaining. The last part (at least until the actual ending) with the heroic fights and big emotions, also was pretty good.

The romance ruined most of the second half. First of all, she's a freaking 27yo modern woman, stop making her so stupid around love. And HE was freaking married (with children, when considering the actual history though they pretended kids never happened) and still moving like a virgin around her. If you're doing fusion fantasy romance, at least don't make the lovers stupid FGS.

Second of all - he's YELLING at her to run away in the silly kidnap part, and she stays there like Scarlet O'Hara, vowing never to leave him, oh my. GIRL get the eff out of there, you're killing him by making him look after you TOO. Not to mention he was fighting off three professional soldiers at the time and she thought it was high time to distract him by calling to get his attention.

Like, is she actually freaking STUPID? Did she never watch any dramas herself to recognise do-s and don't-s?!

The WORST of it though was that fight when they managed to free him, in the ending part. Like, the uncle brought a brigade or archers, swordsmen and lance-bearing soldiers, and the rescuers had some 10 soldiers and then the jesters with BATS and the COOKS with SPATULAS??? How stupid do they think the AUDIENCE is, then?! Oh and they're fighting off soldiers with pepper spray.

Okay then.

The second worst was how he ended up in SK all grown up but still having been the King of Joseon (attitude and everything) but clearly rich and kind of adapted to the modern world out of the blue, no explanation given because it's a secret. Oh puhleeze - he got through when there was some other eclipse and that torn off page took him over, bla bla bla. At least pretend you're giving it some kind of explanation. And what about his ID? How does he explain to the outside world that he suddenly exists in Korea? Do they plan to have him never leave his room ever again? Because of reasons?

So yeah. Overall, a pretty good start, lukewarm romance, good alt-history retelling (that part, I liked), a completely messy and needlessly long arc in the middle killing off any excitement (like I needed to see the guest cast experiencing soup for the first time in their adult life, yeah right), and a pretty stupid (for the watchers and for the characters' arcs) ending.

I would have LOVED each one separately - a drama about cooking and that's all AND a second drama about YeonSan played exactly the same way but minus the romance. That would have been awesome. All the suport cast in that line of plot were amazing, particularly Oh EuiShik, playing Im SongJae. That retelling was SO well done. Too bad it got ruined with the romance antics.

STILL!!! Lee JoonGi's Gong Gil is miles ahead this drama's Gong Gil, even with the change of focus on his character arc. Just sayin'.

ETA Side-note! Solar eclipses should freaking stop transmigrating Korean girls through time already!! This is the third time for me - once in Faith, then again in Moon Lovers, now this one.

Seriously, solar eclipses start being cliches in transmigration, LOL. Do better. Invent some other isekai trope for kdramas, please.

TBH it kind of lost me in the Ming cooking competition.

Historically, his mom was a jealous freak. She scratched the king's face in a fit of jealousy and got deposed and exiled for it (she committed an act of lèse-majesté, though probably it's called differently in Joseon times). There's a brief mention in the drama that she did scratch the king's face (one of the court ladies says it).

Some time later, a political faction opposing her clan managed to have her condemned and executed. The actual king (the son) grew up without knowing he was her son, but instead he thought he was another wife/concubine's son.

When he found out how his bio mom died, he went mad - presumably - and started killing off anyone he thought had been involved. There were actually at least two literati purges during his reign, and he was deposed in a popular revolt. Soon after he was killed in exile, and sadly, his own four young sons also died shortly afterwards. The concubine was seen as an evil influence on him and died soonish after he was removed. He never got an official enthroned name or a temple name, like all of the others.

Look up Yeonsangun on wiki. The movie The King and the Clown explains the backstory a bit better. But be warned there's a completely different nuance about romance in the movie than in the drama, LOL.

I think this guy competes with Prince Sado in being a royal madman of a Korean kingdom for a bit.

They should have Lee ChaeMin do food commercials, LOL, he makes love to each serving he gets hahaha~

(But no offense, schnitzels aren't all that great when cold anyway. And the time it took to get it to him, it definitely got cold.) Ah, it must be true, that saying that the road to a man's heart goes through his stomach LOL.