Solo Dodo

I pray that both Nana and her mother might promptly recover fully from their injuries—and that they might regain peace and be able to feel safe in their hearts and in their home. I'd like to also expect that the intruder-attacker will face a full measure of appropriate justice and will no longer be able to terrorize or harm anyone.

You're right. Had I not seen your comment(s), I myself would not have realized the actual circumstances surrounding this incident.

And I agree that it is good to get past the scandal and that Netflix navigated this appropriately. Thanks for your contributions in this forum!

That is a good theory. I find it difficult to consider athletes of their caliber willing to carry on in such a circumstance, as I hold enormous esteem for all of these participants.

Then again, I live in a country where—30 years ago—Olympic hopeful Nancy Kerrigan was viciously attacked by the boyfriend of her main opponent, and until recently XY-chromosome competitors regularly and unfairly bloodied XX-chromosome contenders. Oh, and our professional sports associations (NBA, NFL, NHL, MBA) are currently being exposed for corruption, rigging games to benefit powerful gambling interests. So I guess I just realized why I am looking to Asia for role models.

There has got to be a better answer to living in constant fear due to severe domestic violence other than conspiring in cold blood to commit murder.

Did one or both pins remain intact? If only one pin failed to release (which seems the most likely) then it should have been immediately obvious that something was awry…

I would expect the participants would have hollered out to the judges about the pin remaining in place (as I assume they must have been aware due to the lack of weight on that side).

Itoi is very inspiring — especially for an older, retired professional athlete. I'd like to see how he fares playing baseball with the Monsters (er, Fireworks) on Strongest Baseball (or whatever they are calling it now, since leaving JTBC for YouTube).

Unless you are suggesting that the totem pole release failure was intentional, I don't see how this was telling. Problems like that are challenging to navigate. And I don't know whether Japan benefited from the 40-hour delay and performing alone, or if that hurt them. I think the adrenaline of competition gave the other teams an edge which the solo competitors lacked.

Mistakes like the totem pole incident aside, I am enjoying this edition even more than I did the preceding seasons. And yes, it is exciting to see Japan's athletes performing well.

This is true. And I concur with your rant, tbh. Very insightful! Thank you for the thoughtful reply. The cure for depression is IMO to touch grass. Go outside, barefoot, and just be. AIAI (Artificial Intelligence Assisted Imagery) has nothing on IRL, mindfulness. ✌🏼

The technology indeed has really advanced. It is not unreasonable to speculate that AI could replace many or even most IRL productions within a very short timeframe. Small studios may even displace the large behemoths, which have all been struggling—especially Disney!

Just today Disney's CEO announced that they will provide users of Disney+ with the ability to create and share AI-assisted user-generated content (mostly short-form) based on their IP on the D+ platform.

Check out what people are making with Grok Imagine, which is absolutely stunning and continues to see improvements almost on a daily basis:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HLt2SasYRa8

It's an interesting trend. I very much enjoyed Romantics Anonymous. It surprisingly felt much more like a K-Drama than any other J-Dramas I've seen.

This may be possible in SK, but I think Disney is more likely to wait out KSH's scandal and release it should he be exonerated.

(Aside, FYI FWIW, the practice of face-swapping is prohibited in Hollywood (per Actor's union) and has been since Back to the Future II, when production got tired of actor Crispin Glover and hired a scab to play his character while wearing a rubber mask made from the actor during the filming of the first movie.)

Right. Any romance is peripheral, at best. This is a story of talented young but inexperienced entrepreneurs navigating an historic financial crisis in an attempt to save a business, survive and —hopefully—thrive.

Nope

I assumed it was publicity stunt casting with locally-known actors, but I dunno 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm hooked! Despite the fact that I normally despise love triangles and especially decry overly-contrived setups (the absurd personal connection between the ML and the 2ML childhood friends). But the execution and the story made me appreciate how much this is worthwhile!

I cannot exaggerate how much I am enjoying this drama. The premise is totally contrived, but the emotionality rings truth and the production is so well executed that I don't mind in the least.

The original Highlander was outstanding. The transitions between modern New York and historic Scotland were amazing, the fighting, the soundtrack (Queen). Yeah, none of the other films were worth the time to watch. The TV show was watchable, but also kinda meh. I have doubts this remake can measure up to the 40 years-old original, but I have to watch it.

"Ramirez!"

"Choo Young Woo did receive the offer to star in the new ENA K-drama and he is positively reviewing the offer."

His character could certainly compete in the paralympics! Last year's winner Gabriel Araujo has short legs and lacks arms, but swims by undulating like a dolphin.

"Threadmill" is a good word to describe the MDL news section. Haha!