ShortCircuit

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.

So, yeah, 27th is a heartbreaker.

... But then, awesome battle scenes.

Did you finish the first one? (And liked it?)

It's been in the works for some time, there's even a page on MDL. Wu Lei was in the cast before, I've read an article he's not, anymore, but I think the page wasn't changed here anyway. Supposedly Zhang WanYi should be in it (he's the ML in Are You The One among many others, like Lost You Forever - haven't seen that one yet.)

If Hai Yan writes it, and they keep the same production values, it'll be a feast for the eyes.

But the last news was officially from 2023, so it might take a while. I have no problem with it, LOL, I've gotten used to waiting for years for certain sequels.

Yeah, it's one of the very best of them. I wish they went on and made NiF3 already, I've been missing this level of plot, characters and production.

1-2 and 33-50 are from the present timeline, 3-33 is the past.

What happens is that there are a bunch of clans - each with their own special attributes - fighting it out to be the supreme clan. One of them - the Wen, dressed in red - stole the pole position and started gaining power by bullying everyone else. Before the less-powered clans decide to get together and raise some resistance, everybody was trying to pretend nothing was going on.

In that time of appeasement, most of the young people of the clans went to the Lan Clan's school to learn how to to be great cultivators with morals and ethics. And in-between those young people, there are the extra special ones - the best of the best: Lan WangJi (ML), Wei WuXian (MC), Nie HuaiSang (he does extremely bad on tests, LOL), Jiang Cheng (heir to the Jiang Clan, king of any eyerolling competition) and so on and so forth. During that period, some of them make the connections they need or find the loves of their lifetimes. Then all hell breaks lose and the world upends for all of them.

The story is about how WWX and LWJ became one of the most iconic BL pairings in danmei world - wait, that's not it. The story is about WWX becoming a pariah by doing ALL THE RIGHT THINGS and getting blamed for older people's mistakes and greed. And about how LWJ remains a loyal and worthy soulmate to him, through life AND DEATH.

Because yeah, the story starts with how WWX died. And then goes on from there.

If you have any specific misunderstandings... we are all here to explain :D

I finally got to it 'cause I've been missing hearing Korean, LOL. This works perfectly well as a cooking show, LOL. It also helps a lot that I'm not familiar or don't like about three quarters of the ingredients so I don't even get cravings hahaha~ (Like seriously, spinach?! Yuck!)

I am not certain about the romance, if any, but I don't care, I like seeing people cooking even if I don't like whatever they're making or I don't get to taste it. Have at it, chefs!

The part I find not realistic is YJY not going nuclear every time there's a mishap in the kitchen LOL. Did all those fiery chef cooking contests lie to me?! How come she's not mental if a fork is missing or the sauce too thin LOL? :D

RE: the king. So, initial impressions - this is THAT king's fictional alter ego, oooooh.

Okay, so this drama's Gong Gil doesn't even breathe in the same universe as Lee JoonGi's Gong Gil. This drama's King Yi-Hyeon and concubine Kang MongJu actually get pretty similar to the movie's king and concubine - particularly Kang HanNa as KMJ, she even LOOKS like Kang SungYun who played Jang NokSu in the movie, down to the freaking dimples!!!

I loved it when YJY remembered the movie, LOL, she's going to have expectations, won't she?

In the drama, it's not actually YeonSan, right? So she could make changes to history and have him temper down. Or maybe not, I don't know. I guess I'll have to watch and see.

But yeah - great cooking show so far, spiced up with some palace drama that I actually know something about, yay! :D

Voice-over? Like, seriously?....

So, from initial comments this looks like a mirroring drama to D+'s Twelve. Dealing with myths of another faith (and kind of clumsy with it, too), not really applauded plot or pace, just good cast. At least they didn't have an inexperienced actor starring in it write it, I guess.

But first impressions across the board seem to find it lackluster.

I really hope this doesn't pull funding from actually good Korean-inspired fusion/fantasy. They managed to write and produce pretty good ones, even completely original (look at AoS), they should stick with what they're comfortable with for a while instead of writing fan-fiction level drek about cultures they're not familiar with...

So you really want me to show you. Oh well. Bye.

Yeah, that's exactly the kind of unhinged replies I expected from someone who lives for the scandal. Thank you for proving my point.

Yes, Eternal Faith (it even has a page here on MDL). But the leads are now big names, I don't think their agencies or whoever has the rights will ever release the drama *sigh*.

IMHO, The Scum Villain's Self-Serving System is a lot more approachable than TGCF LOL. And a lot shorter. And - also IMHO - Shen QingQiu is a LOT more funny than anyone else in MXTX's novels :D That one has a first season out of a donghua, but it's 3D, so less artsy than the other two. Still cute.

Read her other novels. There ARE already filmed dramas for one of it (Heaven's Official Blessing - TGCF) and for one other marvellous danmei (The Husky and his White Cat Shizun - 2ha or hyx) but Word of Honor was too big for the censors (they slept through the whole of it) and then they woke up and tightened the screws on danmei. We probably won't ever see them unless someone takes the plunge like they did with The Spirealm.

But there are always the novels. (I'm about at least 100 danmei novels deep now, and not counting as individual volumes of the same novel, LOL).

There are gems out there... but you can't watch them as dramas, you need to read them :)

And outside danmei, there are still great bromances (that don't actually slip, LOL) - like Nirvana in Fire (this one is most definitely not romance, but it has the best world building in cdramaland) or Fangs of Fortune (one of the best chemistries between all leads I've ever seen. And loads of pretty. So much pretty...)

Says who, the cnetz?

Listen, I don't know this actor. I haven't watched his dramas. I know what a big thing this could be - or not. I know his family is hurting like mad right now, wondering what they could have done to save him, wishing to turn back time in order to get to him before it happened. And I know it doesn't go away. Ever.

What is going on in the media - and here in this topic of MDL, too, first posting this article instead of even announcing his passing or giving a tribute, then all the people commenting on how it's a masked murder and not an accident or suicide, and all gory details that could be real or fabricated, on that this account on some Chinese socia media or another, that says - with "uncontestable proof" they may have just invented that it happened like this or like that - you're all just flaming a fire of self-indulgent fake outrage.

You don't know the truth. Most of you don't actually care if any of it is true. Most are here to fan the flames because they love to see the fire going. Don't pretend to care about what really happened to him.

But if you REALLY care about this man, at least keep the decorum for his family's sake. They don't deserve to be dragged through this, they already think they're guilty for not doing something, ANYthing. Inflaming a freaking conspiracy about his death will make his family consider that there might be some truth to it when it might just NOT. And that will hurt them even more, on the long run.

You will forget this in a week or two. They will have to live with his absence. Let them mourn their son / relative in peace and decency, for crying out loud. Not every death needs to be a spectacle for bystanders.