50FiftillidideeBrain

✒ ⚠️ Act like your life is on the line °7.7° °excellent°

Testosterone is back!

It opens Hard Boiled 🥊🤾‍♂️🔩 ~ Chow Yung Fat would be proud. I recently watched Oldboy-9, and it seems like we're back in the same hallway fighting under that ghoulish green light. We only get a peek at the extreme violence. A man and woman look at e/o at opposite ends of the hall. He starts fighting his way over to her. Blood splatters. Then we jump back in time.

It's 1994. They're both getting into a car while discussing her next assignment. She's being transferred to the Security Division; she's law enforcement. Her whole family are cops. The photo on the living room wall showing everyone in the uniform, except for Mom-in-a-Hanbok, is proof of that.

It's obvious that the family doesn't think much of Mr. Park “Jun” Mo (Ji Chang Wook from the wonderful Lovestruck in the City-7.3, The K2-8 and the average Backstreet Rookie-6.4). This lowly detective is NOT worthy of their family member, his wife, Yoo “Ui” Jeong (Im Se Mi from Wonderful World-7.8 & My Dearest Nemesis). She doesn't agree. She says her brothers are jerks. Her mother's been in the hospital, long-term, and that keeps the family in more regular contact then usual, unfortunately for Jun.

Wi Ha Joon (Bad and Crazy, Midnight) is DJ Jung “Gi” Cheol. He's not living disrespected. He's appreciated. Adored, even. He wishes the gangsters didn't like him so much, though. They're pushing him to take over a nightclub. ‘Why would you want to keep working as a DJ for a club when you can own one?’ It's tough to refuse the kinds of offers that they make. We pop over to 1995 and see that he settled into the role quite naturally. Fast forward to current day, and he's a mob boss running several businesses along with a large criminal network. He has maintained every bit of his natural charm, to boot.

Jung Man Shik (Vagabond-8, Iris-8) as Jang Gyeong Cheol was born to play a gangster. In one scene he's mostly naked and his body is covered in tattoos. It's impressive. When Gi suggests they sell drugs at the nightclub, he has a fit. But Gi and his boys need to make more money! Gi recruits a rival organization to take over Gangnam with him. He's settled on pushing out his overlords. Soon, authorities from Japan and Korea are discussing the influx of drugs from Korean gangs to the streets of Japan. They're going to need an insider to root out the problem. One of them has an idea for the best candidate. Some might think he's a lowly detective, but he's actually got a wild side. Jun doesn't want to do it ~ at all. But this might be his only chance for a promotion.

Undercover it is.

TWoE is a 2023 release that is rated 93 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 12 53-minute episodes. Gi is now a top-tier gangster. He's ruthless, and he's a brilliant strategist. This assignment will take everything Jun has. Jun poses as the cousin of Tae Ho, Gi's lifetime BFF whom he lost to a turf dispute. The way Jun gets inside the gang is written well.

It doesn't take long for Jun to learn that Gi grew up with his wife. They were in the same church youth group. Things are tangled. After Gi sees his childhood sweetheart hanging out with Jun, he wants to talk to Jun about her. ‘Why did she marry some small town bumpkin cop?’ He was able to get a photo of her husband pulled from the police department! (Fortunately, they had already substituted Jun's photo with someone else's. Moves and counter-moves splatter the show). “Who's more handsome, me or him?” “You are, boss,” Jun mumbles.

Nobody likes the new guy being in tight with the boss so quickly. It creates friction in the organization. Soon, Jun is asked to murder someone to maintain his credibility. No matter what he does, suspicions abound. He's constantly on the move to maintain his cover.

Gi has success in (all kinds of) business, so now he's ready for success in love. Seeing Ui again causes him to remember how much he cares about her. The department learns how he feels about Ui and starts using her to distract him while other things are going on. Jun is losing his mind over that.

Cha Rae Hyoung (The Good Detective,12.12: The Day) & Im Sung Jae (Newtopia, Extraordinary Attorney Woo) make fantastic thugs. One is cold, thin, and ruthless, while the other is emotional and rotund. BIBI (Hopeless, Gangnam B-Side) is impeccable as Lee Hae Ryeon, a beautiful, stylish, and very dangerous woman. She's actually the best thing in the show. I love her look, her manner, her voice… I want to see her in everything. (Girl crush?) Yoon Kyung Ho (Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation, A Birth) is slimy and gross as Det. Hwang Min Gu.

Ye Soo Jung (An Old Lady) gets to play a Korean female Walter White! She usually portrays a good person. My first look at her was as a nun in the show, Mine-8, and she's fabulous in it. Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7 should be much better, but one thing that makes the show worth watching is her performance. She's having a blast and it's quite obvious. Here, she's the "Professor", and she cooks meth. Seo Yi Ra (Connection, Moving-8.5) portrays Wendy, a junkie. She does a really nice job. The screenwriter is Jang Min Seok (Secret Reunion, Maundy Thursday) and the directors are Han Dong Wook (New World, Man in Love) and Park Geun Beom (Adulthood, Girl on the Edge). None of them has done very much in the last 10 years. Looks like there's a story there.

Ever see a date where both parties check to make sure their guns are operational first? Jun and wife, Ui, are on mirroring journeys. She has to play nice with the mobster (Gi's also a man she sincerely cares about) and he ends up having to play nice with a Chinese drug supplier who's taken a fancy to him. Both of the extramarital relationships are on the fast track, and the 2 couples must socialize, at times. This is a world where trust is the rarest commodity. As these people fall in love, they still acknowledge they might have to shoot their beloved.

It would be rare for a feature like this to not have its foibles. There's more intricacy - more moving parts. One shooting I heartily disapprove of - I don't like what they did with about 10 minutes to go. It's bitter. One could make the argument that TWOE is just a touch hokey, but the same applies to most Hollywood features, and most of them are much dumber than this.

There are more quality touches than shortcomings. When Gi's friend is stabbed in ep1, the blood stain on his shirt looks almost black. It augments the horror and the darkness. Like any undercover cop drama, this can get tense. Jun is under constant pressure. His immediate superior wants to pull the plug on the investigation, but the chief smells a big win and decides to gamble with Jun's life. There are heartbreaking repercussions. One of the gangsters actually makes reference to Chow Yung Fat, Hong Kong 80's action star. I saw a couple of his films, back in the day, and recognized the early call-outs immediately.

This show is much more violent than any other Kdrama I've seen, except Moving-8.5 and The Man From Nowhere-8.9. (Oh, let's not forget Oldboy-9. That film is in its own category). Gi brings Ui to the office. Another gang shows up, and it's war. Jun is hacking attackers apart. He's covered in blood. His suit had been white. Now it's red, brown and black. Ui can't unsee that.

“Do you think that we can go back to who we were?” Ui wants to know. In this line of work, particularly undercover, there's no way to do the right thing at every moment. It's all a balancing act and a series of choices. Jun does the best he can to make the best choice in every situation. He does better than his bosses, who are willing to trade their underlings for their own ambition. In the end, one could argue that the police brass are the worst. Maybe on paper, their acts aren't the worst, but the way they abuse their privilege and position is. Many criminals have limited choices. I think that we should punish white collar crime with stiffer penalties than we do regular street crime. People who have been given the most by our society, and yet still abuse it, are more depraved, yet we give them a pass. “I may be a sinner, but you used my trust against me. Isn't that a sin too?” Gi poses a valid question.

Choices. Gi always maintains a moral superiority over his fellow criminals. We learn his mother was devout and he was raised in the church, which is where he met Ui. Gi is likable. Truly. But, Gi made bad choices. Jun faced difficult choices and nearly slipped into the abyss. The police brass made selfish choices and it led to tragedy. In the end, Gi was offered a chance for a renewed life. Changing course will lead to freedom and disperse regrets. Not changing course will lead to regrets so heavy, only death will provide sufficient relief. What choice will he make? TWoE tells us that it's never too late to switch course and do the right thing. TWoE encourages viewers to make the right choice. Consequently, watching this show is the right choice for most.


QUOTES🗣

Whether it's meat or people you have to weigh them yourself.

Not knowing your place is also a disease.

If the law fears the underworld then our children will have to live in barbaric times.


IMHO〰🖍


📣8 📝7.5 🎭8.2 💓5 🦋4.5 🎨7 🎵/🔊7 🔚🤗4.5 ▪ 🌞3.4 ⚡7.3 😅2 😭5.3 😱4 😯5 🤢7.3 🤔4 💤0

Age 18+ Language: R-rated F💣s. Machetes, baseball bats, clubs- /substantial/ violence. Rated: 18+


Re-📺? I probably won't because it makes me sad


In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

🌐💘 -
Crazy Love-7.8,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Another Miss Oh-7.5,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Itaewon Class-8.9,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
Call It Love-8.4,
Cheese in the Trap-7.7,
My Mister 9.5,
Wonderful World-7.8,
Parasite-9,
Mother-8.8

⚡/🚀 -
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
Glitch-8,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Uncanny counter season-1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4,
The First 1st Responders-7.8,
Revenge of Others-8.1,
Vagabond-8,
Why Her?-8,
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing),
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Han River Police-7.4,
Law School -8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Anna-8.1,
Taxi Driver-8.4,
Blood Free-8.5,
Moving-8.5,
Awaken-8.7,
D.P.-8.4,
Iris-8,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
Awaken-8.7,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
The Wailing-8.8,
Black 9,
Sweet Home 8.4,
Oldboy-9,

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3️⃣9️⃣ Loveless & Childless Meets Love Shorn & Child Worn °6.7° °good°

39 and single. Like a ticking bomb. Something’s gonna blow. The most excitement she's had since The Vancouver Olympics (a decade ago) is the flasher that accosted her eyes in ep1. Ha-ri likes men… but Ha-ri LOVES babies. And kids. And more babies. She's made arrangements to freeze her eggs until she finds the right dad. But she's almost 40. She's now hardly producing enough eggs to get pregnant! Her situation is near desperate. And you know what they say about desperate times… And how could she fall for a guy who doesn't want kids? He flat-out refuses. ‘It will never happen,’ he insists. So he avoids Ha-ri. He avoids her like she carries contagions. Hey, ovaries and eggs aren't contagions! They're what keeps humanity afloat.

OMB is a 2015 release that is rated 85 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 65-minute episodes. Jang Na Ra (Go Back Couple) is Jang Ha-ri. She's adorable. Go Jun (The Fiery Priest) is Han Lee Sang. He's into trying things he hasn't done before. But he doesn't want kids. He never has. Not for a moment. Park Byung Eun plays Yoon Jae Young. He's one of the best things in Because This Is My First Life-7.7 and is also in the popular Your Honor. In OMB his character drags the show down, but it isn't the fault of the actor. Jung Gun Joo (Extraordinary You, The Secret Romantic Guesthouse) is the fresh-faced Choi Kang Eu-Tteum. Director Nam Ki Hoon brought us one of my favs - Tunnel-8.1, and screenwriter,Yang Hyuk Moon also penned Mirror of the Witch.

“Who in this world doesn't have problems? No one is disqualified from loving.” Ha-ri decides she wants a baby but she's no good at relationships, so she's never getting married. When this show was made, a single woman wasn't /permitted/ to get a sperm donation in Korea. Ha-ri is later arrested when she meets with a private sperm donor! Compared to our open and free society, that sounds insane. “You and I have been full of ourselves all our lives, so our own lives came first, and we put our own feelings first. I still don't know what love is, but being selfish in love, as you and I were, can't be it.” We are used to getting everything we want, and Ha-ri wants a baby. It's impossible for parents to make decisions that will not affect the kids, and all kids crave a mom and a dad. It seems to be a deeply embedded human desire. There's plenty of amazing and successful single moms out there who have enriched our society through their hard work, but this stuff is HARD, not easy. Stats don't lie, and the stats for single mothering make it look like a problematic option as the poverty, crime, and illiteracy rates skyrocket compared to those of 2-parent families. There's nothing about being a single parent that sounds appealing to me, personally. Parenting is all-consuming hard work, often the thankless kind. It's hard to raise children WITH a dedicated and involved partner. We're so used to getting everything we want in our culture that we've forgotten to pause and think about the impact to others. This isn't to advocate any way of life but to encourage a 360° look at the issue. That's all. Ha-ri begins to take a 360° look around at potential bio-dads. Choi Kang Eu Tteum, her young assistant, Han Lee Sang, our ML & the failed blind date, and her childhood BFF, Yoon Jae Young are all potential candidates.

The Romance is mostly average. The focus is on their issues with having children while love takes a back seat to kids (just like life). Unfortunately, the show suffers from a too common syndrome: Too many episodes, too little content. Around the 2/3 mark OMB slows down significantly and drags. The drama is still good enough, and the situation is compelling. Her childhood friend becomes a little irritating. It gets worse as we crawl towards the final episodes.
There's not enough helium to fully inflate the balloons… What to name it? I think I'll call this syndrome, where there isn't enough content for the number of episodes, DIS-content… MAL-content, maybe? And it creates discontent in the viewer. There are so many shows that would completely transform with a good edit. MSS - mandatory separation syndrome: They use that trope, too: After a couple commits, MSS demands they separate for a time. It's usually awful, and it fails to enhance OMB.

They handle the anxieties of parenthood and the sandwich generation with skill. Throwaway comments about nursing home and childcare center abuse are heartbreaking, but they mostly utilize warmth and humor. The end of ep2 is a beautiful scene with Ha-ri and her friend's baby girl, Do-Ha, having a moment. Before long, we hear: “Making sacrifices for the one you love is a bunch of bull$h!+. You simply lack confidence.” That's harsh, but unnecessary sacrifice comes from feelings of inferiority. We tend to overcompensate when we feel inferior. Just relax, it's not up to you to fix the world. Put that energy into working on yourself and making yourself better. That will actually make the world a better place.

OMB has some laughs. ‘It's your third baby! SHE'S A PATRIOT!’ Ha-ri is wearing a pregnancy suit and two women at the store misunderstand what is going on. Before she has a chance to explain, she's being whisked to the hospital by a kind stranger. (That isn't a stranger, though. It's our ML, the dude her friend tried to fix her up with years ago and they didn't hit it off. Ouch). Her BFF is hilarious (Lee Mi-Do My Father is Strange, Mother-8.8, My Dearest Part). She stops 🤚🏽. Why is it so QUIET? Something is very, very wrong. Slowly she turns, raises her head, and sees that the twins made a YUGE mess. There's a funny bit with a gift certificate for a bed and breakfast. It travels more miles than any of the people passing it around. “You're turning 40. You should do something bad. You're unnecessarily proper.” (CHINCHA! Mom is pretty cool). “Don't complain later,” Ha-ri counters. Suddenly strange men - strangely competitive strange men - show up at Ha-ri's mother's senior aerobics class. They both want to be her son i/l.

“They say if you're into animals or figurines, you'll never get married.” This to eligible bachelor #1, Han Lee Sang, who collects Moai 🗿 from Easter Island. His place is cluttered with them.
{Educational timeout: To paraphrase Wiki - ‘Carved by the Rapa Nui of Easter Island, Moai / mo ‘ai (“MOH-eye”) are monolithic human figures from 1250 - 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but many have been displayed on stone platforms around the island. Almost all moai have overly large heads, accounting for 3/8 of the whole statue. With no legs, the moai are chiefly the living faces of deified ancestors. The tallest moai erected (Paro) is almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighs around 82 tons. One unfinished sculpture, if completed, would be approximately 21 m (69 ft) tall, with a weight of about 145–165 tons. Statues are still being discovered as of 2023.’}

Nevertheless, Ha-ri is still drawn to this man.

The director is magnificent at drawing the viewer to this FL. Not only is she simply darling, but I was sincerely hurting for her. Since I grew up around alot of women who adored babies and just loved being pregnant (I didn't fit in), I actually have an aversion to Ha-ri ‘s mindset. So, this director is skillful, as I still felt for her. Research has revealed that newborns emit a scent that is like crack for women. These baby-loving-moms are addicts! (It has no effect on me, my issues lie elsewhere). It just goes to show that people often don't fully understand themselves and their motivations. It's a good idea to actively turn the left-brain on to analyze what we are working on. “Life isn't a taxi. It doesn't go wherever you want…” Ha-ri eventually does see what she wants from all angles and our ML, Han Lee Sang, turns his affections from cold 🗿 chisled stone to warm flesh and blood 👨‍👩‍👧.



In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Crazy Love l-7.8,
A Witch's Love 7.8,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Our Blues-8.7,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Familiar Wife-8.5,
Hospital Playlist 9,
Nevertheless-7.6,
Call It Love-8.4,
My Mister 9.5

Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance 7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Boys Over Flowers 8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek 7,
Heirs 7.3,
That Winter, The Wind Blows 7,
Something in the Rain 9,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love 7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
You are my destiny 6.8 cute, sweet & 1/2 padding,
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5,
Find Yourself 8.9


Consider a Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5

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✒The Ladle Will Knock ♧ The Cradle Will Rock °8.1° °Excellent°

Trade your parents for other ones?

Sadly, in these overgrowth-of-narcissism days full of self absorption, more & more kids wouldn't find that idea unappealing; but for most of us, it sounds preposterous. A non-starter.

Even so, Lee Seung Chun (SC) is so over being poor. So over his worthless father. So over kimchi stew. So over being bullied by rich punks. He's smart - smart enough to attend an elite school on scholarship, but there's a wall between him, in his convex existence, & the /other/ side - the concave side where the rich reside. He's doing everything he can to gouge a hole through, so he can get to that other side. But he feels like he's digging through rock w/ a dull spoon. He feels banjaxed. Knackered. Downright desperate. Stick a spork in it.

TGS opens pretty hot & very sad. It's really rough for the poor kid (SC), & it's even rough for the rich kid (Tae). Each of them is scraped on different sides of the grater. TGS is a 2022 release that is rated 80 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 80-minute eps. Early on, it proceeds slowly (but steadily) w/ only a couple hiccups. The early eps are the appetizer, & the main dish emerges around ep9 or 10 when alot of other shows stutter. I appreciated it more as the eps rolled by.

The acting is quite good & at times, excellent. The actress who plays Tae's stepmother, Son Yeo-Eun from Band of Sisters, is amazing in a couple of scenes. Yook Sung Jae (Mystic Pop-Up Bar-8.2, Goblin) is ML, SC. They have him in long bangs which means less of his face is showing. Therefore, his lips look absolutely massive. He's a dishy looking guy, but all I see is lips when I look at him. He does a nice job. The beautiful Yeonwoo (Dali and the Cocky Prince) is schoolmate & general interferer. Lee Jong Won (Knight Flower, S2 Hospital Playlist-9), plays Hwang "Tae" Yong. Jung Chae Yeon (My First First Love-8) is the sweet Na Ju Hee (JuH). The 3 forge a tangible bond & seem to be perfectly casted. SC's dad is played by Choi Dae Chul. He has an emotional scene in ep14 that took my breath away. I was astounded to learn, after dipping into his credits, that I'd already seen him in Inspector Koo-8.4, Hello, Me!-6.7, Vagabond-8, When the Camellia Blooms-8, & Revolutionary Love-5.7. I'll never overlook him again. Competence shows: The director is Song Hyun Wook of The King's Affection-8.3 & Another Miss Oh-7.5, & screenwriters, Kim Eun Hee (Live Up to Your Name-7.6) & Yoon Eun Kyung (The Snow Queen) all have proven records.

"Golden Spoons" & "Dirt Spoons" are Korean adages referring the "haves & the have-nots". SC is painfully poor. His family is a slotted dirt spoon - whatever money they do get just drops right through & is lost. It hurts all the time. At his elite HS, none of the other kids have any inkling of what that's like. They're all rich, spoiled & entitled. SC's best friend understood, but he commits suicide along w/ his family in the early minutes of ep1. (Ouch) Next, the rent collectors are back. SC's family is on the verge of being homeless.

'Who wants to be rich? Buy a Golden Spoon & get rich...' It was the right day for the crone to scoop him up w/ these words. SC stops at the weird old lady's table of goods & studies the golden spoon. (Korean spoons are shallow & perfectly round - they're very cool looking). 'Eat 3 meals at someone's house w/ it & you will switch parents w/ that someone.' Right then, SC didn't value his parents. He's tired of the plastic utensil life. Hello Tiffany's tableware! By the end of ep1, SC had eaten at Tae's place twice. Tae is... think Gu Jun-Pyo from Boys Over Flowers-8.3. He's the tippity-top. He's the most elite HS student in Korea. But it doesn't look like SC will ever get invited back for that 3rd meal. It's looking like convenience store fare for the balance of his life. For the record, I hate the way he finagles the 3rd meal. The way he got the 2nd one should have been the way he got the 3rd one. As it plays out it's clunky. But he gets the deed done & the food eaten. The switcheroo is complete. Magic is real!! Now his own parents don't know him, & Tae looks so So SO HAPPY w/ his new family.

In a way, it feels like the writer is a mother bird that pre-chews the food for the viewer. The moral choices are quite easy the way the writer stacks it up & ladles it out. Tae makes a horrible mistake which makes eating that 3rd meal (effectively stealing Tae's life) almost justifiable. As it turns out, SC is much better suited for the Hwang family, just as Tae is a better fit w/ the Lee clan. SC has the brains & moxie to be a player in the financial world, while Tae is a sweet & artistic soul who loves piano & drawing. He misses his mother, most of all, so after the switch he will keep repeating that he can't believe he has a mom. The viewer will also find out how profoundly dysfunctional the Hwang family is. One night SC spies on the Lees, his real family. They are cozy together, like birds in a nest - they're practically spooning eachother! The family is so happy /without him/. Dad is SO PROUD of Tae's artwork. JuH likes Tae. Well, she actually likes SC, but now Tae is SC. Tae likes JuH. That works out, right? WRONG! SC likes JuH! It wasn't enough to take everything Tae owned. He wants the girl, too. Most things roll out gradually - there's over 20 hours of programming, afterall. SC helps his family from behind the scenes, & he checks on them frequently.

'Whoops. I forgot to tell you about a rule. If one of you runs into his real parents on your birthday, you'll switch back.' That's in the note from the old lady. Switching back is possible. It's possible at 1mo, 1yr, & 10yrs. Apparently it's a danger on every birthday as well. SC ends up scrambling at a birthday party to keep real Tae from running into his bio-dad.

'Don't tell me you wouldn't trade your poor parents for rich ones in a heartbeat.' SC (in Tae's shoes) is incredulous. Tae had everything, but he's happy - very happy - w/ SC's poor, pathetic family. 'I love my parents more than anything in the world. No matter how much money, I would never trade them,' Tae (in SC's shoes) insists. He then drops this dollop on top: 'I don't like your parents at all. I'd rather live in my poor house than in your suffocating one.' He means it. SC is speechless. Next, it's Tae's dad that is jealous of the love SC's family has. He doesn't respond well to such feelings, so he wants to prove a point about the value of money to SC's father. What he doesn't know is that his own son has already chosen to be poor, alongside this poor man, rather than be rich w/ him.

TGS scoops out quality elements generously. They're stroon, eh - strewn - everywhere. Some flashbacks & memories in partial B&W & have a washed out feel. It's a refreshing & effective technique. As of ep3 I couldn't be certain who will end up w/ whom - except big sis, Lee, is definitely destined for Munki. They can run a mixed martial arts studio - ep3 has a couple of dazzling fight scenes. One is amusing & the other is professional & smooth. The way SC looks, after a cooling off period in the USA, is hilarious. That's how they see us. It's fair. In the background is slightly stylized pop music; it's not bad. Answer, by Yeji Kim is very nice, as is Falling by Jeon Sang Keun. They can be found on Shazam & Spotify.

Just when I started to wonder if things were getting stale, there's a mid-show shift! A biggin. There's another big twistaroo at the close of ep13. The ending is yet another excellent double-take.

'Desires are always for something we feel we lack.' "Your choices weren't always right, but I still think you're a good man." The theme is wants vs needs, how what we want may not bring us happiness, & how people that become powerful & successful tend to become stingy & believe that they really are better than those less fortunate. Power is corrupting & corruption starts in the heart. The history of the world is the history of a few that have too much, & the many that have too little. Hard work is a great equalizer, but even hard work cannot overcome a corrupt & flawed system. It's not right to blame someone for working hard & becoming successful. However, once a person becomes successful, what is h/h obligation to society? We should all give back, right? Nobody gets a pass on this. Before you judge rich people too harshly, realize that if you are even lower middle class in the USA, you ARE rich by world standards. I had to look at myself at one point & ask if I was as guilty as the ones I despise. Generosity is not taking someone else's money & giving it away; we all have a duty to give. If you don't have a dime to spare, maybe you have something worth more - time. The funny thing is that humans seem to be designed to feel blessed when we give to others. So give to receive! That kind of selfishness is the good everyday magic.


QUOTES📢

The weak always fight amongst themselves, while the true enemy is someone else.

The truth doesn't pull people together, but rather makes them hate eachother.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣7.9 📝8 🎭8 💓7 🦋5 🎨7 🎵/🔊7.7 🔚8.2 ▪ 🌞5.3 ⚡5.8 😅3 😭4.5 😱3 😯3.5 🤢3 🤔5 💤0

Age 13+ Language, violence, some blood

Rated TV-15+

Re-📺? ☑

⛔Mini spoilers follows⛔

It seemed that the writer was setting up a situation in which it would come out that Tae's dad had switched places w/ SC's father, years back. They do come up w/ a passable twist, but it is not as good as the father switch would have been. The fact that SC is so much like Tae's dad and visa versa is wasted, and it makes a poor red herring. We are in a day when surprises and subverting expectations are valued above quality, sadly.


In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Modern Day -
Crazy Love l-7.8,
A Witch's Love 7.8,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Her Private Life 8,
Touch your heart 8.2,
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Hospital Playlist 9,
Heirs-7.3,
My Mister 9.5,
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9
Call It Love-8.4,
Anna-8.1,
Parasite-9

Action/Crime/Sci-fi -
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1,
Sisyphus 8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4

Consider a Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5

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✒Hop Away ⚔ The Good Carrots Are Elsewhere °AVG° °5.5°

Have you seen the adorable movie Overboard, with Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell? At first it seems 💯DMP is winking at that film. Unfortunately, this Overboard gets shipwrecked in old Joseon.

💯DMP starts strong with beautiful opening shots, a great concept and fantastic acting (Really! At times the king seems Shakespearean until the awful dialogue & plot catch up to him). It's a fun set-up and there's hope for something meaningful to surface. The sets, filming, & costumes are VG or better. The many truly delightful aspects of the show don't manage to tip the scales into the positive zone, however; at least for this viewer. There's certainly much to 💘 about 💯DMP, there's just too much to dislike about it, too.

Watchers see this show start with a literal drought and then the ⛈⛈ comes. Tragically, in the end, we learn that the show which began by figuratively raining fantastic elements on its audience later subjects viewers to a drought of artistry that extends until the credits have dissipated. The first tip-off is those cute but ill-placed 🐰 graphics at the end of every episode. Seriously? well, hmm… I suppose it's a comedy. But~ Wait… it really seems like a drama that has some scattered amusing moments. On the other hand, if it's serious, why the easter cartoons? I started getting thrown off by bunnies hopping in my head. Dang it all, I want to chill, not learn about susceptibilities I never knew I had!

The next marker on the path of irritation's forward creep is the dialogue. Transcribers~}> 💘 em. So thankful for what they do for us lesser 'mono-linguals'. One teensy request: Keep the casual, current-day slang out of the historical dramas. No viewer of Downton Abbey or a Joseon era 📽 wants to read how ‘he was hitting on her’ or ‘I've got the munchies’. What a mood-killer.

The show feels of struggling writers who exhausted viable plot points before ep10 so they whipped out old soap opera scripts. The various trails our protags ramble down are lined with "filler weeds". There's more than a whiff of: "We don't have enough "good stuff" to fill 16 episodes, so let's toss in a bunch of rotten carp & weeds. They'll likely digest it in silence, the lowborns." I've since read that many writers might be overworked past the exhaustion point. What they did to this show provides circumstantial evidence in support of that assertion. Kdrama fans know there's quite a few shows that are excellent and (with varying ratios) awful at the same time. I actually hope the situation is: 1st draft, now Tequila!🎉, and not that the writers are practically enslaved.

I was riding along with it, though. In the first couple episodes I thought: This is good - probably an 8. Then, “Ewww, don't understand that…” I was holding at 7 for a long while. Around episode 12 the freefall began; it was descending fast to a 6. Soon, it was: Uckitky, Yikes! Episodes 14-16 brought me to my final answer. The final twist of the sword is the way our duo finally pairs up. It's anti-climatic and, well, terribly boring.

💯DMP is a sham prince. He looks, acts & talks perfectly. In turning, he reveals his backside. It's naked. Nothing there. My Sassy Girl-8.5 (I know, odd title) is on Netflix. It does what this show failed to do. MSG is an engaging, campy Joseon era love story that is lighthearted at times, but at others is serious. It's ⚡exciting⚡, too, with a great storyline and court intrigues. Excellent directing and 🎭 make the trip back in time, as well. Joo Won is the male lead - He's✨fantastic. MSG was very popular in 🇰🇷; 2 years later, 💯DMP seems to be building off of MSG's success. Perhaps even better, Mr. Queen-9 is a Joseon romp. It's thoroughly outstanding and hilarious. My Only Love Song-8.7 is a silly comedy that I love to bits. Live Up To Your Name-7.6 features lighthearted time travel between modern day and Joseon. The King's Affection-8.3 is heavy and tense; it's a borderline masterpiece. ✔out the truly great Kdramas first. There are so many that you won't need to circle back to 💯DMP. Not for a million days.

There are SPOILERS after this wrap-up.

〰🖍 IMHO

🎬5 🎭7 〰🖋6 🎨7 😅7 🤔5 ⚡8 💓5 🦋5 🔚3

Age 14+

👁📺again? Never


⛔SP☢ILERS BEL☢W⛔

Here are examples of treasonous acts that started to aggravate me; eventually I became alittle angry.

⛈They have the VP (Vice Premier) who is past middle age, surrounded by ninjas in the woods, yet he somehow kills them and survives?

⛈After the long search is over, the VP returning the CP (crown prince) to the capital, is silly and dangerous. The CP might recover his memories, so why take a chance? It makes more sense to allow Prince Seowan to become the CP and kill /him/ off before he produces an heir.

⛈Yi-Seo going off on her own to rescue her brother w/o consulting anyone else is ridiculous. She does it again when she sneaks into the VP's house.

⛈How could the CP allow the princess and Mu-yeon run off w/o giving them a better chance? No supplies, horses, protection, no kind of transportation at all for the pregnant women. Did he want them killed?

⛈Then the VP renders the CP impotent with the war?

⛈If CP knew Yi-Seo wasn't actually abducted, why did he let the VP go?

⛈Then, these two brilliant thinkers have a showdown: ‘Come to the fortress. Alone.’ ‘Hallooo, I'm here! Wait! Fool me twice…. You and your assassins won't kill me! This time, I brought archers!’

⛈Wait. Forget that.

⛈Let's just sword fight it out!

⛈Then I'll turn my back to you so they have to shoot you full of arrows. I no longer care about keeping you alive to face years of loss and shame. (This is the most clever thing they can come up with?)

⛈Then we are supposed to believe that the queen, who is the VP's pawn, is actually in a love match with the king?

⛈Yi-Seo refusing to marry the CP is the most awful thing of all. Did she just turn him down for *MSS?

*MSS. The most dreaded Mandatory Separation Syndrome. MSS is a weary, overused Kdrama device in which couples, once they get together, must immediately separate: 'I love you! Finally, we're together! Now I'll catch you later💨❕
⛈...🐇...Huh?

Rarely augmenting the feature, it's a good thing a generous 15% of the 🕛. It's disastrous here, contributing to the ↘unbroken⤵downward-HO❕

Summary: 🐇 Hop On By ~ Better 📺 Awaits.

〰️🖌 October 2021

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✒Spice Up Love ♨️ For All It's Worth °7.4° °VG°

“Is this a wedding invitation or an invoice?” Her friend muses as she holds the paper up to the light. Hae has always felt like she was getting cheated. She still does. Son “Hae” Yeong is a girl who had to share love with all the stray kids her mother always had a habit of taking in. She's at her ex's wedding, now. She would look weak if she didn't show. Cro-chi? The slide show celebrates the pair's 1 year anniversary of being a couple… Um, Hae broke up with him a mere 6 MONTHS ago. There he is: Happy, carefree, adored, getting the company's marriage benefits of cash, free vacation, & the honeymoon suite. All she does is transfer her hard earned money to coworkers for their weddings & babies. They are generally living more successfully than she. Hae HATES being cheated and her ex is a devil. She blows up the group photo - in her imagination. Pssshhh. She didn't like him anyway. Dating him was just killing time.

NGNL is a 2024 release that is rated 89 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 12 65-minute episodes. It's got it all. Spice Up Our Love is a follow up 2-episode short that dives into one of Bora's novels and examines the 2ndary couple's romance further. That's pretty cute. NGNL is a trope salad: Fake marriage, lost son of the chairman, enemies to lovers (× 2), and total validation. It's a fairytale. It's not serious. It's simply fun escapism. And fun, it is.

It seems to Hae that everyone is wedding obsessed, right now. She can't get near the company president because she's single. The owners won't let any temptation around their son. All the secretaries and high level execs are MEN. If she was married (AKA, NOT a threat to the family bloodline) she would already have been promoted. She begins to wish she was married. On a night when she's feeling desperate, she asks the 7-11 clerk to be her groom. Hae's goals are purely financial. She has no interest in messy emotions. It's about what's in it for her - Cash envelopes, company stipend, and honeymoon time… she's gonna get what she has due.

The wonderful Shin Min Ah (Our Blues-8.5, Oh My Venus-7.4, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,Tomorrow with You-7, born in 1984) is our FL. She is competitive. She hated the attention that her mother gave to the constant masses of foster children that flowed through their home when she was growing up. She despises unfairness (when she's subjected to it) and she's not above cutting corners. She doesn't value love or intimacy. Her relationships have been mostly shallow. Her BFF (Nam Ja Yeon / Yeon Bo Ra, played by Han Ji Hyun of the Penthouse Series) writes spicy romance novels. Joo Min Kyung (One Spring Night-7.8, Something in the Rain-8.6, Green Mothers' Club) is Cha Hui Seong, Hae Yeong's other friend. Both of Hae's BFFs “did time” in her home when she was growing up. If her mom hadn't taken in foster kids, Hae would be completely and utterly alone. She fails to recognize that.

Kim Young Dae (Penthouse Series, born in 1995) is Kim Ji Uk. He's an orphan, he works at a convenience store (he needs a better job) and he's a perpetual do-gooder - a saint. His halo stays polished. He's gentle and conscientious. He's looking for a nice, modest, respectful, quiet girl to marry. That ain't Hae. He's been watching her for 6 years. She's had alot of interactions with MEN in that mini mart. She's bought alot of condoms. But ‘the head is the domain of knowledge and our heart is where love resides, after all. He's actually more mature than she, despite the age diff.

Lee Sang Yi (Han RiverPolice-7.4, Youth of May, Bloodhounds, born in 1991) is the trust fund baby, Bok Gyu Hyun. Things are stiff at home, and he's doing his best to keep his parents happy and the company afloat. His mom loves Bora's novels. One day, the men in the family find out what's in /those novels/. Gyu Hyun decides he's going to destroy this author, this purveyor of smut. He's declared war on Yeon Bo Ra. I have become a fan of this actor. He has tremendous skill.

Lee Yoo Jin is Yeo HaJun, Gyu Hyun's secretary. I've seen him in Be Melodramatic-8.7 and Familiar Wife-8.5 - exceptional shows, both. His face is completely different now. It is much fuller. He looks good. Kim Hae Sook (Mr. Plankton, Under the Queen's Umbrella, Inspector Koo-8.4, Start-up-8, Hospital Playlist-9, Saimdang, Light’s Diary-8.5) makes an appearance as a grandmother. She's always fantastic. The screenwriter is Kim Hye Young who also gifted us with Her Private Life-8. Kim Jung Shik directed NGNL, Work Later, Drink Now, & So Not Worth it, among others.

Temporary physical satisfaction vs committed love is the theme. “My body and heart come together as a set,” our ML says to a h0rny and disappointed Hae. One of Hae's friends has been dating her boyfriend in a lackluster fashion for over 10 years. He mentions marriage and she realizes that she doesn't feel like marrying him. They decide to have an open relationship. Hae, not in the “know,” almost takes his head off one day when she sees him with another woman, which leads to an argument with her friend. (“You're a s!u+!” “/You're/ a prude!”) Life is complicated and it can be difficult to know the best course. We all chafe under too many rules. People have a habit of looking at short term gratification while ignoring long-term satisfaction. I don't know how many open relationships work out in the long-term, but I've heard lots of stories about them not working out. Jealousy plus feelings of betrayal and abandonment often take hold. The evidence is there that most of us crave an intimate relationship - one where we are the most important person in someone's life. Throwing that idea out for sex with multiple partners seems like a cheap exchange to me. If a person dates someone for years but doesn't want to marry, there simply isn't enough love there. There isn't a deep enough connection. I'm for cutting the cord and moving on. Why do people continue to date a person they will never commit to? Loneliness has to be the main reason. Casual sex, more often than not, ends up making a person feel lonelier and emptied out, though it's a slow process that may go unnoticed for a long time. As problematic as marriage can be, married people are less lonely and have more sex - more money, too. The high divorce rates are driven by 2nd and 3rd marriages. The majority of first marriages still don't end in divorce. I guess it comes down to whether sex actually means something or not. According to human history and most world religions it does. It seems to be a conjunction the emotional and physical at the very least, and in its highest form it is the union of the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Cheapening it down to a mere physical act could be robbing ourselves. The show’s plot reinforces that concept, in the end.

Another theme is living free and not being enslaved by others’ expectations. “{My father} wanted me to live the same life that he had and I thought it was my duty as his son to honor him. Now that he's gone, and I followed his will to the letter, you know what I've come to find out? It's pointless. It was a huge waste of time… I don't feel accomplished in the least. If I had disappointed him a long time ago and lived how I wanted to live then I would have been much happier… don't hand over your reins to someone else,” we hear from another character. People are by nature controlling. While parents and elders have lived longer and have seen more, so their advice can be valuable, no one has the right to rule your life. Always evaluate your presuppositions and what is spurring you on. Make sure you are doing /some/ things that make YOU happy and fulfilled. Never stop improving. Never stop working on yourself.

Craft and art-wise, the show is competent. The theme song is kitschy but cute. Miracle, by HEMIAN, is very nice. There is plenty of levity and some genuine laughs. ‘You really have to love someone to do all of this,’ Hae muses as she reviews a wedding checklist online. In ep6 people with a multitude of convoluted cross sections and undercurrents sit down to a meal - it's big fun. The primary romance is nice, but the 2ndary couple's story might even be better. That's why they get their own follow-up special. There's no pain in this gain, and there's a fair amount of spice, which is nice!


QUOTE📢

The nation's strength relies on integrity at home.


〰🖍 IMHO

📣7.5 📝7.3 🎭7.8 💓7 🦋6.8 🎨7 🎵/🔊7 🔚7 ▪ 🌞6 ⚡2.5 😅4 😭2.5 😱3 😯2 🤢2 🤔4 💤0


Age 15+ Language : R-rated w/ F💣s; The international peace sign is waived (middle finger salute) Sexual content 4/10; Rated TV-14: Parents Strongly Cautioned.


Re-📺? Unlikely, but not impossible



In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

😵Uncomfortable pact/gig:
🇰🇷K: 99 days with the Superstar-7,
Mr. Queen-9,
Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2,
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Business proposal-7,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
The King's Affection-8.3,


🌐Modern Day -
🇰🇷K: A Witch's Love 7.8,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Her Private Life 8,
Touch your heart 8.2,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Be Melodramatic-8.7
Hospital Playlist 9,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
My Mister-9.5,
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9


💘Romance junkies only -
🇰🇷K: My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
Heirs-7.3,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
Something in them Rain-9,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine, but the ML pulls an offensive stunt
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
You are my destiny-6.8 - cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Find Yourself-8.9,
Hidden Love-7.8,
Wait, My Youth-8.4,
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Tw🇹🇼: The Fierce Wife-8 - worth sticking with

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I Spy ~ U Spy ~ They'll All Die ~ If We Try ✈ No S2 Yet? I Might Cry °Excellent°

This story begins with a crash: An airplane crash. Cha Gal-geon lost his nephew/ward - his son, really (CG was raising the kid) to this tragedy. CG travels with other mourners to Morocco, the site of the impact. As soon as he lands there, he recognizes a man that appeared in a video that his nephew had sent him from the plane, prior to the crash. If this man had been on the plane, he would/SHOULD be dead, not walking around Morocco.

Go Hae-ri works at the South Korean Embassy in Morocco. She's actually a fledgling intelligence officer, and is assigned to the crew assisting the mourners. She meets Cha Gal-geon and they eventually work together to bring the baddies down.

V stars the wildly popular Bae Suzy (Start-Up-8, While You Were Sleeping-7.3, Anna: Extended Version-8.1) as Go Hae Ri / "Elsa”. Lee Seung Gi (A Korean Odyssey-7.2, Mouse) is our action hero, Cha Dal Geon. Superstar director, Yu In-Sik (Dr. Romantic series, Extraordinary Attorney Woo), is at the helm, and scriptwriters Jang Young-Cheol and Jung Kyung-Soon seem to work together on most projects. They're responsible for Empress Ki, History of the Salaryman, Big Mouth and other hits. This group hasn't failed their audience yet, and they didn't fail us here. However, one would think that 16+ hours would be enough, but more and more baddies surface. The show is not complete. Season 2 has not been announced yet, but they are looking into it, and they know the fans want it.

V is exciting and well scripted. It has action, intrigue, displays of the worst and best of humanity, and the unfulfilled promise of some romance. It's difficult to tell a thrilling tale without being a little outlandish. They didn't get so crazy that it gets in the way. The plot progresses without too many bumps in the road, yet it is still quite intricate. The action and fight scenes are good. Like most action thrillers, they should have been in ICU or dead several times over, yet they manage to keep going. It's the usual trope for the genre. Why fight it anymore?

The only lasting disappointment you are likely to experience after fighting villains and corruption with Vagabond, is that you'll have to wait for season 2. The wait will be a minimum of 15 mos but a maximum of....well, never. I hope they never do /that/ to us!

IMHO...
🎬8 🤔6 🎭7.5 ⚡8 💓5 🦋5

Suggested Age 12& up

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Love to Hate You 8.9;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9;
Love Struck in the City 7.3;
Hospital Playlist 9;
When the Camellia Blooms 8;
My Mister 9.5

Action/Sci-fi/fantasy:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Descendants Of The Sun 8.3;
Uncanny counter season 1 only - S1-8.4 S2-4;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
D.P. 8.4;
The Cursed 8.3;
Flower of Evil 8.9;
The Man from Nowhere 8.9;
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4

Update May 2024 - Vagabond is filming a second season in the Philippines! No details on a release date.

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✒♥️True Power °8.5° °Excellent°

“You're retired.”

When powered people are “retired,” it's meant to be permanent. Someone is making sure they are gone for good. He has a list. He's checked it more than twice.

M is a 2023 release that is rated 91 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 20 38-58 minute episodes. I've never seen a KDrama open like this… with astral vision, a hard landing, and a harder awakening. The ample budget is showing. It starts in HS. We follow kids with mysterious powers. Before long, we are in the backstory of their parents.

The backstories are /rough/ - Like pull-your-fist-back-and-take-a-moment-to extract-your-opponent’s-teeth-that-got-embedded-under-your-skin-after-a-powered-punch rough. Next, there's a HALL FIGHT!!! Fists of Flame!!! Dooooooood, it's awesome!!! And that episode is titled “The Romanticist”. Then it gets even more violent. It is alittle much- among the most intense I've seen. Clearly, they broke the budget on ep11.

Lee Jung Ha (Nevertheless-7.6, The Auditors, Rookie Historian-7.6) opens the show as the lightweight, Kim Bong “Seok”. Lightweight? More like weightless, at times. He has to wear a weighted backpack to keep himself from floating away like a lost party🎈balloon. This town, that town, new school: To avoid predators, his mother has kept them moving constantly. He's sweet, likable, winsome, and pretty much adorable. Han Hyo Joo (Happiness, W, Blood Free-8.5) is his mother, Lee Mi Hyeon and Zo In Sung (Escape from Mogadishu, That Winter, the Wind Blows-7, It's Okay, That's Love) is his father, Kim Du Sik - He's just killer in the role.

Go Youn Jung (Alchemy of Souls-8.3, Sweet Home-8.4, The School Nurse Files-7.6) is his new schoolmate, Jang “Hui” Su. She's a transfer student, and she's pretty, yet she strangely befriends Bong Seok. I just finished watching AoS-2, in which this actress takes over as the FL. M follows a year later, yet she looks 5 years younger. I wouldn't have recognized her if I hadn't checked the credits. The funniest scene, early on, is when Seok brings her home. His mother's reaction is precious. At first, she's nonplussed. “You're a girl…” is what haltingly comes out. “A girl who's a /friend/…” Hui adds, trying to aid with the processing. “But you're pretty…” Mom is still working on it. When it finally clicks with Mom that her son has brought a pretty girl home, she gets too happy. Too friendly, too. The whole thing is really cute. Ryu Seung Ryong (Portrait of a Family, The Painter of the Wind, Kingdom-8.3) is Hui's father, strongman Jang Ju Won. He is marvelous as well.

Cha Tae Hyun (Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation, Brain Works) is the electric Jeon Gye Do. Ryu Seung Beom (No Mercy, Solitude) portrays a very creepy hitman named Frank. Kim Hee Won (Pawn, Han River Police-7.4) is one of the teachers, Choi Il Hwan. Moon Sung Geun (Falsify, Vagabond-8) is the vile governmental department head, Min Yong Jun. The director is Park In Je of Kingdom S2, and the screenwriter is Kang Full from Pain, Love Never Ends.

This production has it all: 💘Love, 😅laughter, 🌞warmth, 😭sadness, 🤕pain, 💥action, and ⚡excitement. The fight scenes are exceptional and put quite a few Hollywood features to shame. The hitman/hunter is Steven Segal; H2K ~ Hard to Kill. They do a great job in speeding up the action in places in a way that multiplies the excitement. They are really showing off. The soundtrack is mostly average but not bad. Alone again Naturally, by Gilbert O'Sullivan circa 1972, unexpectedly showed up.

To be different is to be alone. To be normal is to accept the compromise of conformity which can be difficult to distinguish phoniness. That is the theme as well as the nature of power and what is most important.

“Hero? …What do you think power is? Empathy is what real power looks like. Having the ability to care and understand the emotions of others. What kind of hero breaks other people's hearts? …You acted like you were better than him. What you did wasn't admirable at all… a hero has compassion towards others.” Seok had showed off at school and his classmate was hurt when trying to imitate him. His mother is not impressed. Seok has never fit in. He watched a kid jump off the jungle-gym, claiming he could fly. All the kids cheered. Seok couldn't help but go and show them what his lighter-than-air self could do. But later, the first kid was badly hurt in a fall. His mother is right, but he's just a kid and he wants to fit in. It's a bitter lesson, and it underscores how isolated Seok is. The NK fighters are so sad. They were tortured into what they are. The human brain is terrifying. They are powered, yet still powerless.

M is powerful. It isn't the typical sweet and tame Kdrama. The language is rough (is that Hulu's influence, I wonder? Regardless, it isn't unrealistic) and the violence is jarring at times. This isn't for kids. They are keeping the story moving: S2 is in the works! No early retirement here.


QUOTE📢

Crying becomes a habit. A habit becomes a weakness.


〰🖍 IMHO

📣8.5 📝8 🎭8.5 💓6 🦋5 🎨8 🎵/🔊7.3 🔚? 🤗6.5 ▪ 🌞5 ⚡7 😅2 😭4 😱4 😯3 🤢8 🤔5.5 💤0


Age 15+ Violence - an episode on bullying is very emotional and difficult, gore
Language: R-rated w/ many F💣s

Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.

Re-📺? WOULD

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2
Racket Boys-8.3,
Reply 1988-8.6,
The school nurse files-7.6,
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Descendants Of The Sun-8.3,
Law School -8,

🎎 -
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Mr. Queen 8.5,
My Sassy Girl 8.5,

⚡/🚀 -
Glitch-8,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2,
K2 8,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Private Lives 8.1, When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Sisyphus 8,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Uncanny counter season-1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4,
Vagabond-8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6, Iris-8,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9, The Wailing-8.8,
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4

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✒⚖ Guardians ⚱ Old Souls ⚱ and Outlaw Gods ⚖ °6.7° °good f/u to AwtG2W°

Rated 85 on AWiki, AwtG49 is a 2018, 141-minute continuation of Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds. It picks up right where the first left off.

As the flick starts out, we learn that one of the Guardians has to go on trial for crimes that he committed while protecting our protagonist in the first film. (Who knew the Afterlife was so litigious? It's Hell, indeed). The other reapers are tasked with collecting a soul that's been protected well past his death date by an outlaw god, Sung Joo Shin (played by the adorable Ma Dong-Seok). God-Sung won't let the old man die before his orphan grandson graduates from school. Speaking of orphans, Korean features aren't kind to them and this trend continues here, sadly.

AwtG2🌏 follows Kim Ja-Hong, a fireman who dies in the line of duty. When he reaches the Gate of the Afterlife, he learns that he can only be reincarnated after completing seven trials: betrayal, violence, filial piety, murder, indolence, deceit, and injustice.

Much of the cast here is the same as AwtG2🌏. Why mess with excellence? Cha Tae-Hyun (Narco-Saints, Assassination,1987: When the Day Comes) is the lead, Kim Ja-Hong. Cha Tae Hyun (Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation, Moving) portrays Kim Ja Hong. The dolorous Ju Ji Hoon (Kingdom-8.3, Blood Free-8.5, Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation) is Hae Won Maek. Kim Hyang Gi (Innocent Witness, Salon De Nabi) plays Duk Choon, and the wonderful Ma Dong Seok (The Bros-7.4, Train to Busan-7.8, The Roundup, Bad Guys) plays outlaw deity Sung Joo Shin. Lee Jung Jae, the lead of Squid Game, portrays King Yum Ra, God of Death. The screenwriter/director is Kim Yong Hwa (200 Pounds Beauty-6.5, The Moon).

AwtG49 is, all-around, more-of-the-same. Same strengths, same weaknesses. Its biggest deductions come from a failure to fully explore its potential emotional range. The fighting is excellent with a particularly grand battle scene. The cinematography is beautiful. It's a great movie-night-movie.

If you enjoy fantasy, even though China is often guilty of sub-standard special effects, they still put out the best stuff in the world. Anyone who enjoys the AwtG films should like Douluo Continent-9.4 and Handsome Siblings-8.7 even more.


QUOTE📢

Those who meet must part at some point.


Re-watch? It's not unlikely

Age 14+ Language: PG-13 language, probably less than 5 occurrences.


In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9;
My Mister 9.5;

🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5; Saimdang-8.5,
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9

🔮🐉-
K🇰🇷: Alchemy of Souls-8.3,

C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10

⚡/😱 -
C🇨🇳: Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
K🇰🇷:
Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2, K2 8; Uncanny counter season-1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4,
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1; Train to Busan-7.8,
Signal 8.6;
The Man From Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4

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〰️✒ Hiss! ➿️ Legendary Bore〰️> °4.5° ⚕️ °too cold-blooded°

I was watching the show, Unrequited Love-7. The leading couple is teased by being compared to The Legend of White 🐍. That made it an easy choice as to what to watch next. Let me make it easy for you: Don't bother. It isn't worth your time given the many better shows out there.

I love Chinese fantasy. So, I went into TLOWS expecting to love it, which carried me through half the show. I ignored irritation after boring irritation until I finally realized that TLOWS is really, really bad. (Still finished it - waste of time). Its plot slithers around w/o going in a clear direction. It's frequently pleasant & the characters are likable, but it's boring. It stays in the dust & never lifts to greater heights. The primary couple is simply goodness in silk robes, but they're dull. I suppose we could say that it goes into snake-like Brumation.

The logic is insulting at times. Xu's older sister is often a veritable moron in the way she looks at things. She doesn't seem to understand that Bai & Xu are married ~ Ruyi is not part of their relationship. Xu’s amnesia doesn't change that. Another example is when Bai believes her own presence is the problem. Qing points out that Ruyi is a schemer. Bai shouldn't let Xu stay around her. Bai lamely replies that Ruyi truly loves Xu & would never hurt him. On the contrary! Ruyi's actions not only caused the current mess, but she has done /nothing but/ endanger & HURT others! There's betrayals w/ insufficient justification - it all happens too easily & is often the opposite of what was previously established. At one point Xu is focused on Bai & what he thinks is a wrong strategy to deal w/ a demon oppressing the family. He calls in the monk to help… w/ BAI, but NOT the demon doing the oppressing? Ridiculous. There's plenty more examples; they pile up. I started to actively hate it north of ep30, & by ep34 my fangs came out.

Lots of viewers enjoyed it, however. Maybe they hadn't seen Handsome Siblings-8.7 or Ancient Love Poetry-8.6 yet. Now /those/ are good fantasy shows. This show has groundwork for something spectacular but it never leaves the pit. The following is from the notes that I took when it still ‘had’ me.

Per Wiki, TLOWS “is a Chinese legend centered around a romance between a man named Xu Xian & a female snake spirit named Bai Suzhen. It is counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales…”

Tim Pei is Fa Hai, a fighting monk. His Shifu has foreseen a bad omen: A dangerous 1000 y/o evil spirit is in Lin'an. He equips Hai w/ a bowl to catch the demon & an elaborate pixie cane to 🆔 sinister forces. Hai is strictly forbidden to act w/o a sign from the cane. He wants to eliminate Qing, but the cane 💘 her. This monk is adorable. Don't get your hopes up. The monk has the potential to be the best romantic lead of the show, but monks are celibate.

Ju Jing Yi plays 🐍 spirit “Bai” Su Zhen. She's just cultivated into her human form after a millennia of effort. She is kind. She wouldn't dream of hurting people; she wants to be a Buddhist. Request denied: She must live as a human first. Humans have emotions, & Bai must learn how to overcome emotions. Off to 🌏 she goes, where she gets to experience the most wonderful thing on 🌎. Love? NO! FOOD!

Early on she meets physician Xu. She knew the doctor's previous incarnation but finds the current version lacking. He notices her, she's beautiful afterall, but she leaves, unimpressed. Yu Meng Long plays Dr. "Xu" Xuan (often called Hanwen). Bai encounters a darling young boy whose mother is very ill & offers to help. Guess who's already treating the woman? She clashes w/ the good doctor once again at the patient's house. Each thinks the other is a scammer. As attraction builds, though, he ain't gotta chance. One day when she doesn't want him to leave, she conjures a rainstorm. Still, a more willing victim may not be found. In the end, sadly, the romance is cold blooded & nearly emotionless.

In the meantime, Ruyi is also out to entrap Dr. Xu - into marriage. Yu Lang plays shyster Jin ‘Ruyi’. Selfish Ruyi is the source of most of the conflict in the show. Li Lin is one of the best characters as Xu's brother i/l & the constable. Prince Mu looks alittle like Chachi (Scott Baio) from Happy Days.

We haven't even gotten to our 4th lead yet. Xiao Yan is Xiao ‘Qing’, a naughty 🐍 deity. Qing's exactly what the good monk is looking for ~ to kill. The actress is adorable & the best thing about the show. Asian culture interchangeably translates the words deity & demon, but it's not exactly the Western/Christian concept of demons. In Chinese fantasy, demons can be good, & many are. In TLOWS & many other stories, cultivating power is excessively difficult. For demons, the same result can be achieved by devouring humans, & who doesn't love a shortcut? Many succumb to the temptation. Demons get a bad name from that. Early on, Qing has clashes w/ Bai, but it only sparks Qing's interest. Abandoned by her mother long ago, she's lonely. She was cultivating into a man. She's managed to become 80% woman when she meets Bai. When the quest starts (she opts to follow Bai) her cultivation stops, so they are two Sassy-lassies traveling together. Wait. Cultivating into a man is more difficult & takes more time than cultivating into a woman? The opposite should be what's true. Given their reproductive organs, women's bodies seem more complicated than men's anatomy. Even the creation story shows man as a warm-up & woman as the final prototype. Jusss sayin…

Most of our protags clash w/ a 🐺 demon, Lady Nexin. She soon has our 4 protags plotting against e/o. The centipede demon - the really bad monster - is also on the prowl. While the leads are, intermittently, looking squint & wide-eyed at e/o, things are increasingly dangerous. Children have already started disappearing from Lin'an. Soon demons & other bad guys are impersonating our protags causing greater confusion.

“Prejudices are not formed in a day.” “We differentiate between demons & humans w/ our hearts.” The primary theme is racism. Though genetically human, Ruyi is the actual demon in TLoWS. The monk is the one who struggles w/ the issue & must ultimately fight the monster w/in himself before it takes control & changes /him/ into a demon. When Qing helps Monk Hai fight the centipede, Hai is forced to re-examine his presuppositions. “Common people seek benefit, but wise people seek the core…” once Bai passes on her essence to Xu to heal him, she's no longer fully a demon, & he's no longer completely human. As a literal thinker, this is a conundrum for Hai, & he spends a good deal of the show working it out. We also see a person who is indwelt by a demon accuse another person of being a demon. The message is unmistakable: We are all blind to our own stuff, & we are often what we hate the most. That's one of the funniest (and most tragic) things about racism. The very word is a lie. What is race? There is only the human race, w/ its many ethnicities. Ethnic groups are just large, old families. We all hail from what is now the Middle East & Ethiopia. Scientists & theologians agree - we came from 1 woman. Race & racism are just pride-based lies that we've all decided to believe. It is hard enough to find a decent human being. Limiting yourself to 1 shade of skin makes the challenge all the more difficult.

They do have fun clashing up Qing & the monk. Once he realizes he can't kill her, he thinks it's a good idea that she sit & copy scriptures. She's totally flummoxed that anyone would think copying scriptures is a good way to spend one's time. “All the joy in the world comes from one's desire to help others. All the misery in the world comes from one's selfishness. Sadness & happiness are nothing but thoughts,” he reminds her. She reminds him that he has no idea what fun is! What would have been fun is if those two paired up. Monks are celibate, though. Sigh.

There's beautiful shots & lovely action, despite somewhat clunky special effects. At the 🏮 festival they look into e/o’s eyes & everything stops. Next, the background blurs by, while they stay frozen. They have fun showing the deities’ true forms as translucent overlays, particularly in fight scenes. The opening looks like a Maxfield Parrish / Thomas Kinkade collaboration. Costume & design are usually beautiful in a Chinese fantasy piece, & such is the case here. I love the girls’ hairdos, & the wedding headdress is especially nice. Shazamed: A song, by Ju JingYi.

I'll finish w/ a transcription tip & other fun facts: GRUE. The Chinese, historically, don't differentiate between green & blue. So you might see Qing's 🐍 form referred to as green. The thought of not differentiating between basic green & blue takes me straight to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) in The Devil Wears Prada - “But what you don't know. is that that {Qing} is not just blue. {She's} not turquoise, {She's} not lapis. {She's} actually cerulean.” ;))

Bai returns to Mt. Emei to bolster her power. Mt. Emei is a real place. Located close to the country's center, it's the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Finally, you might notice swastikas floating around the screen. The Nazis co-opted this symbol from ancient times. Per goog “In Chinese, the swastika is called “wan” which is a homonym for the Chinese words "ten thousand" & "infinity". It's a symbol of immortality, longevity, the universe, God's manifestation, & creativity.” It's also fascinating to see the traditional Greek scrolling on blankets & architecture. These are small evidences that we came from a common origin. We're 1 race.


QUOTE📢

A moment of beauty may lead to a lifetime of love.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣5 📝4 🎭7 💓4 🦋2 🎨7 🎵/🔊7.4 🔚6 ▪ 🌞4 ⚡4 😅1 😭4.5 😱4 😯6.5 😖2 🤔3.5 💤6.5

Age 12+
Language G0d@mn

Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned

Re-📺? Not a chance, and with the benefit of foreknowledge, I wouldn't watch it for the first time.


Romance -
Find Yourself-8.9;
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose-9.8;
The Sleepless Princess-9.1


Historical/Period -
Overlord-8.4,
Legend of the two sisters in chaos-7.7
Under the Power-8.6,
The Rebel Princess-9.1,
The rise of phoenixes-9,
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song-8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen-8.5;
My Sassy Girl / Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo-8.5;
The Kings's Affection-8.3;
Mr. Sunshine-9


Fantasy -
Love Between Fairy & Devil-8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain-7.5;
Douluo Continent-9.4;
Love and Redemption-10

Action -
Heavenly Sword-9 (Kung-fu!)

Originally 〰️🖋 10/2024

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⚖ Grandma Knows Best ⛓ °4.5° °below avg° ep 1-30

Jie doesn't like men who don't know how to treat a lady right. Jie doesn't seem to like men at all, actually.

IP is a 2011 release that is rated 7.6 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 84 43-minute episodes. EIGHTY-FOUR. People really don't know when to stop.

Annie Chen (Tears on Fire, Endless Love, Love Now-3.6) is FL, Song Yi “Jie”. She's a self-described mean person. She's very unpleasant to bad people, especially men who take advantage of women. A legal assistant, she's failed the bar. More than once. More than twice. More than thrice, even. Chris Wang (The Fierce Wife-8, Love Is Science?) plays Ke “Wei” Xiang who is running the family business, so he never has time to date. Furthermore, even if he does try to date, his grandmother insists that he's engaged from before birth by a legally binding agreement. Arranged? That's understating it. They have a bona fide written & signed contract. The only problem is that they've lost the fiance. No one kept track because only Grandma took the deal seriously from the start. Wei would like to be in love. Jie is skeptical of love. She just wants to be an attorney. But every time she tries to take the bar, something goes wrong. It's like a curse. Unbeknownst to Jie, Grandma's been looking for her.

Can Chris Wang act? Absolutely ~ He's the perfect stiff in a suit 😁. All I can say is that this is the second show in which I've seen him, and I'm not tired of watching him on screen yet - probably because I liked The Fierce Wife-8 so much. Annie Chen has lots of fans. She is certainly a cutie. I don't mind her, but I will gently point out that she's not a very good actress. In addition, the overly nasal tones in her voice are wearisome. The better looking a person is, the less talent s/he needs to be successful. For lots of viewers, looks are enough; others need an emotional or even an intellectual connection. It's like actors have stones composed of their assets (attractiveness and abilities) and viewers have buckets that must be filled in order for them to enjoy the performance. Every viewer's bucket is a different size, and some have holes that stones of a certain variety will fall right through. Therefore, every person will perceive them differently. Annie & Chris may not draw me to a feature, but they won't stop me from viewing it either.

Eh, scratch that. I wrote that too early. That is how I /want/ to feel. Honestly, this is my second Annie Chen feature, and I was underwhelmed by her in the first, but other things were so bad it took the focus off of her. In IP, I really can't stand her character. I loathe her character, and I actively dislike her performance. Annie Chen in the lead might be a non-starter for me when making future viewing decisions - at a minimum, I'll take a long pause before hitting “play”. That makes me sad. I don't want to feel that way about any actress. But d@m, Jie is annoying.

As for the rest of the cast, it's a mixed bag. Kunda Hsieh (Meet Me @ 1006, You Go! Girls!) is Ke Wei Cheng, Wei's trouble-making brother. Puff Kuo (20 Years Promise, Light the Night series) plays Li Er, Wei's troublesome childhood friend. Jennifer Hung (The On1y One, Dear Mom) portrays Ke Yan Ni, Wei's oft troubling sister, & Chris Lee (Marry My Dead Body, The On1y One) plays Wang Ke Fan, her oft troubled husband. Unfortunately, the acting is largely substandard. I attribute the flat performances to the directing. The screenwriters are Lin Pei Yu of Kiseki: Dear to Me & We Best Love series, and Shao Hui Ting of HIStory.

Jie is not a pleasant character. She's bossy, overly aggressive and has anger issues. The only likable thing she does is help out a woman whose spouse is cheating. She handles that aggressively, too. Even mom and grandpa have a hands-off approach to her. She's no fun at all! Before ep10 I was aggravated with her dramatic outbursts. Her trust issues are near pathological. They show her at work and she's /scary/. We see her cross examining her OWN clients and then denying them representation - right in front of her boss. It's not going to happen IRL. Aggressive-agressive Jie is in dire need of anger-management. She is always angry at Wei. She's rarely in the right, though. She had no right to fume at him over a promise that he made and was unable to keep: It was entirely out of his control. Everything that happened was Jie's fault, anyway. She's hacked-off all the time, at everyone, in the get-to-know-you episodes. . Combative, too. The word is: Termagant. Wei says he would want to marry someone like Grandma: Someone optimistic, brave, strong, and also very kind. Jie is all of those ~ once in a great while ~ She's just not kind to Wei - or any other man.

The show opens with them happening upon e/o in atypical circumstances. They each read the situation wrong and draw unfavorable conclusions about the other. Yet they keep running into e/o. But wait! It gets better! Jie's land is part of a parcel that Wei's company wants to buy. Jie's family is holding out - JIE is holding out - Mom & grandpop don't care. Fate certainly dropped the net over these two. There's a chain of circumstances and run-ins that keep them colliding. But Jie is no simple girl. She's not going to give up her deceased father's house. She pranks Wei which causes him embarrassing exposure. He decides to prank her back. They think they hate e/o at this point. They can't see how they've been pulled into a vortex, spinning and slowly pulling closer.

Grandma is pushin hard for this marriage. Here's another TwDrama where the matriarch drives the plot. Of the 6 I've seen, Autumn's Concerto-7.2 has a difficult mother at its core, Love, Now-3.6 happens in part because of Grandma pushing for marriage, Love You-7 is very much a woman-centered show and has a mother who drives the plot in the last third, and The Fierce Wife-8 is all about girl power. I'm sensing a pattern… Grandma's got a way of piling on the guilt. The backstory is sufficiently compelling. Jie's grandfather saved their lives one day. They entered into the contract on the spot as a way of thanking him. Then they later lost track of them. “We wouldn't be here without them," she moans. Grandma's also got a bad wig, btw. It's a little distracting.

“Why are they so adorable?” That's what Wei asks himself after meeting Jie's mother and grandfather. And they really are adorable. The whole scene is charming. It's no spoiler that they do go through with the marriage. They could have handled the steps leading to that decision much better. As hateful as she is to him, Jie blows a stack if she thinks he's having an affair (even though he's not allowed to touch her). Wei must endure a wife who has temper tantrums, is never kind, never does anything thoughtful or nice, but rather actively tries to /harm/ him. She acts unhinged.

After marriage (they skipped love) will there come a baby in the baby carriage? That's what Grandma is expecting. In the meantime, Wei Cheng's brother is messing up and getting into his own trublems - what's worse, it's triad-trublems. Another snagger is Li Er, Wei Cheng's childhood friend. She found out the marriage is fake and she wants the groom for herself. She starts working around the edges for wedges to put between them. Some of it is embarrassingly silly and some of it works. The storyline with Wei's Sister and her friend, Jia, is draggy. Most of the wardrobe is nauseating.

I got to the point where I couldn't pay attention pretty quickly. I had it on… I tried… but I found myself ‘double-tasking’ to a level where I was only checking in on the plot. Most of this show is padding - empty fluff to fill too many episodes. Shows like that can be relaxing, but no one can relax around Jie. Or Wei's obnoxious sister. Or Grandma, for that matter. Coincidentally, I began watching Prince of Tennis at the same time and was having the same issue, only to a lesser degree. PoT is extremely relaxing to watch, and while it's a constant stream of nearly redundant tennis matches (whooda thunk?) so it feels somewhat fluffed, it's still unequivocally superior to IP. Around this time I was also watching My Sunshine-6.8, Love You-7 (or Drunken To LoveYou), Boss and Me-7, The Princess Royal, and even the arguably silly Black & White, with no problems.

These are technical criticisms. Everyone seems to have h/h own brand of guilty pleasure - we all luv us some awful entertainment when it pushes the right emotional buttons. There's nothing here to break the peace over or feel defensive about. IP had the /opposite/ effect on me, so I consider it both a technical and EQ failure.

There are praiseworthy elements. Say, that is one EPIC first date. They later go fishing and the pond is beautiful - Great filming. The soundtrack is the best of the TwDramas I've seen so far. Most of it is too-repetitive carnival style music, but they flash-out once in awhile. Shazamed: 不是你的錯 - Only the Mandarin characters came up - by Della Wu.

I wasn't able to finish this show before it left Netflix. I intend to get a Viki subscription but I'm putting that off until I watch more of what's available to me with my current options. If IP comes back to Netflix would I start watching it again? I just might. I'm a little curious as to what happens and if it gets better. I'd be up for one or two episodes a week to give it another shot. I won't be determined to watch it until the end, though. I did that with Love Now-3.6, and it was the wrong decision. On the other hand, I found The Fierce Wife-8 (same ML) highly questionable in the earlier episodes, but stuck with it, and ended up loving it. If I ever circleback, I'll report back.


Age 15+ references to bra size, adult situations

Rated TV-15

Re-📺? With the benefit of foreknowledge, I wouldn't choose to watch it for the first time.


In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:


Taiwan🇹🇼:
Age of Rebellion-9.5,
The Fierce Wife-8,
Two Fathers-7.5

💓 -
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Wait, My Youth-8.4

Romance junkies only: Accidentally in Love-6.5 ‘18 B-level scripting, acting, and directing, but still fun/strangely relaxing to watch,
Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine but many object to an outrageous stunt the ML pulls,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
You are my destiny-6.8 cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Meteor Garden-7.4 - 70% flowing 30% dragging and BOF is better,
Hidden Love-7.8

K🇰🇷 :
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Touch Your Heart 8.2;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;

🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9

🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10

Japanese🇯🇵 lite romcoms: Maid Sama-10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4, Toradora-8.5

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⛩️It's Still Odd. °5.5° °mixed bag°

ACOC is a seamless continuation of A Chinese Odyssey: Pandora's Box-5.5. The two combine to make a single film. At the end of Part 1, Chi went back through time to save Jing and ended up meeting Purple. She's kinda nice, too. He likes her, too. Jing…/who?/

Chi Juen Bo is the Monkey King. We learn that at the end of Part 1 when an immortal (Purple) has taken ownership of him. She gave him the three birthmarks on the bottom of his foot. She blasted them on as proof of her ownership, but she had no idea what she was doing. Her blasting activated his memories. He knows who he is, now. He's more than a scallywag.

Athena Chu (The Legend of the Condor Heroes 1994, The Galloped Era) plays Purple / Lin Zi Xia. She was a wick in Buddha's lamp, but she left heaven. She's looking for the being, the man, the ~> mortal, immortal, demon, or saint who can pull her sword out of its hilt. There's only one person who can do that: Her true love.

ACOC is a 1995 release that is rated 7.4 on MAL. Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle) is Chi Juen Bo, the Monkey King. He does a nice job. Ng Man Tat (Yangtze Town's Springtime, The Coming and Going) portrays "Piggy". Yammie Lam (Battle of the Heart) is Chun Sansiniang, the spider goblin. Karen Mok (The Road Less Traveled) plays Pak “Jing,” a zombie goblin and sister to the spider. The Monkey King broke her heart, but she found him again in Part 1, and he committed to her. Law Kar Ying (Shadow of Justice) portrays Tong Chang, the "Longevity Monk”

The screenwriter & director is Jeff Lau (Love and the City, Mahjong Dragon), and the original creator is Wu Cheng En (c. 1500–1582). Per Wiki, he “was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty and is considered by many to be the author of "Journey to the West", one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.” He's movie-credited as the original creator for anything to do with any Journey to the West or Monkey King tales. That includes the strange but wonderful A Korean Odyssey-7.2.

Chi is turned into the monkey king at the end of the first film by Purple, as previously described. He picks up her sword and casually pulls it out of the hilt to take a quick look, thinking nothing. Her whole life's been rocked! She picks up his Pandora's Box and won't give it back. So, they embark on a journey together. A witch switches Purple & Piggy's bodies. The Witch’s spell rebounded on herself and she switched bodies with one of the other thugs in Chi's group. She claims she can't do the spell but only once every 49 days. They will have to spend a couple months not feeling quite themselves.

The Longevity Monk finally shows up in this film. He recites ancient proverbs constantly. One of the bull people commits suicide because he just can't take it anymore. It's hilarious. The humor in both films is quite good but not sufficient to overcome plot and dialogue problems. This is too sloppy and unfocused to be worth anyone's time.


IMHO〰🖍


📣6 📝5 🎭7.5 💓6 🦋3 🎨7 🔚7.5 🤗4 ▪ 🌞2⚡6 😅3.5 😭3 😱4 😯3 🤢3.5 🤔3.5 💤0

🎵/🔊5.5: They bizarrely get into an English version of Only You. It was sort of bad, but I still enjoyed it.


Age 14+ Language: b!+ch, $h!+


Re-📺? Not gonna do it

In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9

🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain-7.5,
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10
Bloody Romance-7.3 18,


⚡/😱/🚀 -
C🇨🇳: The Kings avatar-7.9 ‘19,
House of Flying Daggers-8.5 04,
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
K🇰🇷:
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4

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✒ ⛩️ Prince of Analytics VS Prince of the Body Snatchers °8.3° °Excellent°

What's between 1 & 0? 🌌Infinity?

Is our world all there is? Is this timeline the only one? TKEM explores the possibility of parallel universes. It opens dark and ominous. Ep1 is jammed packed, and arguably confusing. Stick with it, they pull it together well.

“LT Jung “Tae” Eul! I finally meet you!” Gon is elated. Who's this lunatic? Tae is irritated. This weirdo has no permit for his horse and then she learns that he has no 🆔! He doesn't have money (those strange bills with his face on them do NOT count).

“This is recorded in memorabilia of the three kingdoms. In the spring of the year 682, King Sinmum received a bamboo flute from the Dragon King of the East Sea. When the flute is played, enemies would retreat, diseases would be cured, rain would fall during droughts, the rainy season would end, the wind would stop, and strong waves would subside. Seeing its powers, King Sinmum named the flute Manpasikjeok.”

So says the blood speckled suspect (Lee Jung Jin of The Liar and His Lover & The K2 is uncle / Prince Geum). He is being questioned by police. The criminal is 70 but looks 20 years younger. He claims it's because he took over ownership of the flute. Time goes slower for the owner. His half brother, the king, didn't believe in the flute or its powers. Geum did. Brother didn't know the flute could bring the world to him. To be exact, different WORLDS. This detainee freely admits he killed his brother. There's no remorse showing. There's no emotion at all on his countenance, other than, perhaps, self-satisfaction. He's just reciting facts. Cold, bitter, terrifying facts. ‘I did expect that, one day, my nephew would face that legend too.’ To him it's no different than reporting that the sky is blue.

TKEM is a 2020 release that is rated 91 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 70-minute episodes. I watched this show early in my Asian programming addiction - before I was doing reviews and taking notes. Many things went over my head because I was a noob, but it left me with a good impression. Lately I've been revisiting my gateway Kdramas,to see how they flow, now that I'm an intermediate level watcher. One reason that this show is NOT a good selection for a Kdrama newbie is that it's intricate and nearly confusing. There's different worlds and the timeline gets warped as well. That's a lot to follow for one who is familiar with the setting, and it could be too much for one who is not. Many of these characters exist in both worlds. Some of the primary characters’ doubles were killed off leaving only one of them, but there's still quite a few doubles, and many actors have two roles to play. Compounding the confusion is that Kim Kyung Nam, as officer Kang Shin Jae, and Woo Do Hwan, as both Jo Eun Seop & Jo Yeong, look similar. (Many people looked the same to me when I first watched Kdramas, while now, very few do. My eyes, as well as my inner-sight, needed time to adjust. That's just the way the human brain works). Mr. Woo's characters are polar opposites and don't seem like the same actor is playing them at all. Between those 3 characters, Shin Jae and Jo Yeong act more alike than the two roles played by Mr. Woo. (As an aside, his Jo Eun Seop almost steals the show. He is 80% of the feature’s smiles). There's double sets of parents in the mix, too. So, this is for intermediate Kdrama fans.

After a brief intro we are taken to The Kingdom of Korea, 1994. This Korea is ruled by a king.

The show takes us back to the fateful night that Prince Geum murders his brother. He was in the process of murdering his nephew when an intruder (in sneakers, jeans, and a hoodie, no less) breaks it up. Prince Geum flees. The Flute was cut in half in the ruckus, and each Prince has a half. Young Prince Gon was also left holding Tae's work 🆔. It was issued in 2019. What's it doing in 1994? As Prince Geum flees through the woods he discovers that the flute opens gates to other worlds. He stumbles into the Republic of Korea.

Geum's aware of what the flute can potentially do, and he's no dummy. He quickly pieces together that he's stepped into an alternate reality. He runs into his family's doubles in SK🇰🇷. They're living a poor existence in this timeline. His other self is a wheelchair bound mute. This other self has the same DNA, which is perfect for Geum to fake his own death in /his/ Korea, the Kingdom. Geum murders his 🇰🇷counterpart. He offs the entire family, including his nephew'sdouble. He saved his nephew's mother for later; he has uses for her. That's just the kind of guy he is. Back home, they now believe he's dead because a body washed up with his features and DNA, though there were anomalies, such as a deformed spine. As a dead man, he can now work from the shadows without looking over his shoulder.

20 yrs later, King Lee Gon is participating in competitive rowing when he sees something familiar: A person in a black hoodie, black jeans, and sneakers. That's a sight he hasn't seen since he was 8. He gives chase, but the stranger escapes. How could that be the same person who rescued him years ago? How could they be wearing the same clothes?

He pulls out a souvenir from the night that defined his life - a police badge for detective Jung Tae Eul, born 1990. Nothing adds up here. Not yet. Spotting and following that hooded “white rabbit” a second time leads Gon to a gorgeous bamboo forest and the gate to the Republic of Korea. And to Jung Tae Eul, LT of the Seoul Metro PD.

The flute is a conduit that opens a portal to other worlds. It takes a person first to what is effectively a transfer station (TS). It's a non-world of pathways and pools, where there is no air or atmosphere, and time passes differently. We will later learn that since the flute is cut in half, most of its abilities are not functional. It allows the transfer of the two Royals between the kingdom of Korea and the Republic of Korea on a lateral, or real-time timeline, but they aren't able to go to any other worlds or any other times.

When either he or uncle Geum enter this TS area, everything in both worlds stops. Only Gon & his uncle are aware of what's going on. They can grab raindrops suspended in the air. Uncle has been hanging out in that TS, literally killing time, which moves exponentially faster there then in the real world. 4 months in TS realm, for instance, is 20 years on earth. It explains why Prince Geum doesn't look like he's aged.

The worst thing, though, is how Uncle has been switching people between the two worlds. He's been allowing his cronies who took part in the failed coup to escape justice and set up a nice life in 🇰🇷 by killing their Republic counterparts. He's also been recruiting people from the Republic🇰🇷 to work for him. He offers them a better life in the Kingdom. He's replacing the people around the king with his own agents! Gon pieces together that Uncle's been hanging out in the Republic, so he comes over often to investigate. He would come over anyway. He's in love with Tae. He's been enthralled with her since he was 8 and looked at her as his savior.

Every time he leaves the castle, Court lady Noh has a fit. The entire royal residence is in a state of royal flux! They really hate their routine being messed with. The king is slowly building up trust in the Republic, which is no easy task. When he arrived, he declared himself a monarch, and he was laughed at as a lunatic. People are starting to accept him. Tae couldn't fully accept it until she visited the Kingdom herself. In order to get that far, she had to trust Gon enough to go to that gate and then walk through it. Gon is persuasive! At one point he must switch out Eun Seop for his own bodyguard. Woo Do Hwan is marvelous at completely opposite personalities and also doing a blend: During the switch, one has to try and act like the other, but they don't fully pull it off. I'm actually in awe of his performance. Tae & her crew sink deep into this mess as well because Uncle is in the Republic committing murder & other crimes.

Lee Min Ho (Boys over Flowers-8.3, Pachinko) is the King, Lee “Gon”. Mathematical minds are a relatively rare thing. A mathematician with the soul of a romantic is even more rare, and that's who our King is. Kim Go Eun (Little Women, Cheese in the Trap-7.7) portrays Jung Tae Eul & Luna. (They just had to give Luna, a criminal, darker skin than her Republic counterpart with the same DNA, sigh. I shake my head at your ridiculous notions about skin tone, East Asia). Jeon Moo Song is Prince Yi Jong In, next in line👑. His first credited work is from back in 1981 and he didn't start in acting until he was 40, Kang Hong Suk (Chicago Typewriter) is the new detective on the force, Jang Michael. Played for a bit of comic relief, they start questioning him, at first believing he's a gangster when he arrives for his first day of work. He dresses alittle flamboyantly, but he has the heart of a teddy bear - And a poet. Kim Young Ok (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2, Dear My Friends) plays the King's primary caretaker, Lady Noh. This actress is so cute. Her earliest credited work is from 1957. Maybe she has a Manpasikjeok: She's almost 90 and she looks like she's in her 70s. She was around 82 when this show was being filmed. Screenwriter Kim Eun Sook is no rookie, with hits like The Glory, Descendants of the Sun-8.3, Mr. Sunshine-9, & The Heirs-7.3. Directors: Baek Sang Hoon, brought us DOTS, Jung Ji Hyun directed Twenty-Five Twenty-One, & the GREAT Yoo Je Won gifted us with Oh My Ghost-10.

The plot is pretty good! It's inventive, exciting, & intelligent. It works up to ep14, which is very exciting. Ep15 provides a bit of a breather. The opening credits are gorgeous. Of course, he'll rescue her on the White Horse. To neglect that would be malpractice.

This show is elegant. Prince Geum walks around like the grim reaper the entire time. He appears mythical - mythically evil. It's a nice touch. According to KKday the two meet at “An unmissable spot in Seoul, Gwanghwamun Square is a national landmark across Gyeongbokgung where the statue of King Sejong the Great - the fourth and most respected king of the Joseon Dynasty who invented Hangeul, Korea’s writing system - stands right at its center.” The iconic forest, Ahopsan Forest in Busan, is privately-owned. It “has been featured in famous period K-Dramas including Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, 100 Days My Prince, and Ruler: Master of the Mask. It is also open to tourists looking for an escape to nature.”

The action is great! There's a couple excellent fight scenes. Most impressive is a rescue scene in ep11. In ep12 we get to look at it from a different perspective. The optics are beautiful and it is crazy romantic. With only half a flute, Gon gets trapped in 1994. He has to hang out in TS for 4 mos to go forward 20 years. He makes a couple tourist stops on the way and meets Tae at age 5. He visits her at a couple points in her life. He asks her to be nicer to him when they meet again in Busan. It's freakin wonderful.

Ep16 does what too many Kdramas fail to do: Give us a satisfying wrap up. The very end isn't really an end. I have mixed feelings about it, but it's just a state of stasis. Let's just say that they have the best dating life ever. Ever ever ever.


QUOTES🗣

Where there's fate, there are no coincidences.

Open all the doors of the universe to return to me.


IMHO〰🖍


📣8.3 📝8.4 🎭8.5 💓7 🦋5 🎨8.5 🎵/🔊7.8 🔚5.5 🤗6.5 ▪ 🌞5.5 ⚡6 😅3 😭5 😱3.5 😯3 🤢4 🤔5.5 💤0

Shazams: Please Don′t Cry by DAVICHI


Age + Language: PG-13 at a minimum Rated TV-15: Parents Strongly Cautioned.


Re-📺? I've already looped around



In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Romance with Royalty, or something like it

Crazy Love-7.8,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
99 days with the Superstar-7,
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Oh My Ghost 10,
Rookie Historian-7.6,
Cheese in the Trap-7.7, ♡Saimdang-8.5,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
The King's Affection-8.3,
My Mister 9.5,

🎎 -
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Mr. Queen 8.5,
My Sassy Girl 8.5,
Saimdang 8.5,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Mr. Sunshine 9

⚡/🚀 -
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Tomorrow with you-7,
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing),
Tunnel 8.5,
Awaken-8.7,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9,

Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Heirs-7.3,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
Wait, My Youth-8.4,
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Find Yourself-8.9,
Hidden Love-7.8


Consider a Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5

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✒ A Song of Fire & Flower ♧ Ode to the Toxic Mother & the Emptiness Within °6.4 good & bad°

AOL opens to 1 angry 💐goddess in labor. Wronged by the baby-daddy, she decrees that the birth of her dtr, Jinmi (JM) be hidden. Auguring disaster in JM's first 10k yrs, she forbids her successors to allow JM to leave The Flower Realm(💐R). She gives JM an elixir that blocks 💘: Love will only hurt JM. The goddess passes, leaving a rift between 💐R & 🌌R (Heavenly Realm). 🌻🌷🏵 have disappeared from 🌌R & relations have faded.

Raised as an orphan w/ lots of supervision but no family, the loquacious JM is lackluster in her cultivation & unmotivated in her studies. JM wants /escape/ believing a HR supreme being is the key, JM also wants to revive her murdered friend, whose spirit is preserved in a small 🌱. JM wishes it all on a 🌠… Wait. That ☄ is headed right at her!

A roasted "crow" is at the sight of the crash (actually, it's Xufeng(XF), a phoenix & prince). JM renders assistance (of sorts) & finagles a ride w/ him back to 🌌R, where she's an instant hit. Don't judge JM harshly. She's weak b/c her spirit is blocked. Hard work nets her nada. Over time this has corraded her resolve. She's given up. 🌌R is a new setting that injects fresh hope into JM. People of the 🌌R are 🤑 w/ spiritual prowess, & some of that begins to trickle her way. She levels up by doing favors in exchange for power. She's totally cheating. Bully for her!

AOL & the novel it adapts, Heavy Sweetness Ash-like Frost by Dian Xian, seem to provide inspiration for 2 later 📚 made into shows: Ancient Love Poetry-8.), & Love & Redemption-10. I'm eternally thankful. As they seem to be standing on AOL's shoulders, comparison isn't entirely fair. Director Chu Yui Bun is technically outstanding but moreso, he touches the 💖. He may or may not have been involved w/ AOL. On most sites Cheng Feng is the credited director. Sadly, AOL has pacing issues, it lacks crispness & actually drags. Eps1-9 are mostly set up - interest tickled but not grabbed. It only skims the surface - no deep dives. Not every show has to go deep, but one reason Shakespearean tragedies are popular is b/c they are cathartically satisfying. Real-life is heartbreaking enough. I don't want to watch something that's going to stomp my 💓 & leave it to bleed out. Though there are parts that I 💖, I didn't like AOL much. Overall, it pales next to other fantasy pieces & I'm already too spoiled. It's not congealed well. It languishes, the plot isn't tight, it doesn't sell the romance & the characters aren't engaging enough to emotionally pull in the viewer fully. What occurs is 💓breaking, yet my emotions remained 70%... detached? Suspended?. It began to feel like a pile of compost. AOL became a weight on me that provided no release. It ironically does to the viewer what JM's mother did to her!

The characters are generic vanilla. Many are irritating & I'm not very irritable. They're either too weak, too 🙈 to the faults of loved ones, too forgiving of evil when it suits them, too naive, or too quick to accept false choices. The last 2 may be common in Cdramas, but there's a delicate balance between what one is able to brush aside & what starts obstructing enjoyment. Yang Zi is JM. W/ a dry quality, she carries The Oath Of Love, a better modern-day Cdrama. Going into AOL w/ such +feelings about her carried me through many eps before I realized that I don't like JM much. She isn't cute, smart, or diligent, she's only marginally brave & she's mostly 😑. Don't blame it on the actress.

When JM has to "do time" in the mortal realm, 🔝 of ep20, it's more interesting. 🌏 is typically where all the fun is in a Cfantasy. They'll mention how Earth's food is more savory than 🌌R's bland fare. {This is reminiscent of how, in the West, we think of Heaven as sitting on a cloud w/ a harp. We just can't imagine it. If we believe God made this 🌍 w/ all the beauty, 💘 & 😅 in it (despite all the evil - that's another topic) we should be able to believe it when God says Heaven is better} Anyway, on 🌏, our ML/XF is a 👑 & JM is a healer. Since the 👑 has never taken a woman she believes him to be impotent. He takes special exception to that rumor, & he lets her know what's what. As he's falling for her & tries to win her over, he & his general liken the process to war, which leads to amusing analogies. Eventually they provide fascinating backstory.

Now for some Mosts: Wang Yi Fei plays Sui He, who feels she's most entitled to marry XF. She has the most beautiful 👀. Kathy Chow is empress b!+ch, Tu Yao. In Heavenly Sword &DSS, she is a most domineering sect leader & she kicks butt! Chen Yu Qi is the most likable as Bian Princess, Liu Ying. In HS&DSS she's fantastic. Runyu(RY) is most heartbreaking. {⛔️mini spoiler - He never gets a fair shake & becomes most like his father. It's understandable that RY gives up, but he certainly pulls an Anakin Skywalker: Once steeped in bitterness, he goes real bad real quick. They painstakingly build his resentment. The dam cracks here & there, then breaks. His descent into a bitter quest for revenge hurts. (I need something positive in exchange.⛔️} AOL creates an unpaid debt to the viewer. Does he stay that way? Not telling... He Zhong Hua is Tai Wei, 🌌R Emperor. He's completely different in L&R. Talk about most in-demand, since 2011 he's appeared in 3-6 shows/yr + some films. How is that possible? Cloning program?

Deng Lun is XF~Phoenix. The way XF hangs on seems deranged. He pursues JM as if he's entitled to her w/o regard for his brother. While he's not wrong (JM doesn't 💘 RY) his sense of entitlement & lack of empathy for RY is icky. The way XF defends his mother is off the righthand path. We should be true to family, friends, & most of all our parents, but we should be most true to what is right, or it's selfish indulgence. The emperor lived to self-indulge & later his sons do. XF acts like he owns JM & he expects his toxic, downright evil parents to be respected regardless of the heinous things they've done. RY wants to kill everyone that crosses him, as is the case w/ most that obtain power. Being wronged doesn't make a person right.

Wallowing in victimhood leads to the bad 7: discontent, ingratitude, anger, unforgiveness, hate, bitterness, & misery. They will turn the victim into the victimizer. Emotions are much stronger than logic, but if we don't check them w/ a humble perspective they will create chaos & misery. Pretending a person's dirty is clean is just existing in lies leading to XF 's regret. He & his father drove his mother to act out. She is still fully responsible for her own stuff, but he contributed. Is there such a thing as loss w/o regret? Doubtful. It's very tricky: Taking on ALL the fault would be overstating his own importance & a form of self-absorption.

Narcissistic mothers & toxic women drive the plot of AOL. The ambitions of the 🌌R empress for XF have everything to do w/ what she wants & nothing to do w/ her son. All she can see are things related to her, for her & against her. Her niece, Suihe follows suit. Zifen, JM's mother, utilized extreme measures to exert control as she passed. Even 💐R has a harshness to it. One way people pass down trauma to their children is through hyper-vigilance. Not only does that hand a knife to the kids (if they want to hurt their parents, they know exactly what to do) but it keeps a family enslaved to the ongoing pain.

Women & men are equal - they are equally guilty of toxic self-absorption. In AOL, the emperor is ultimately to blame. He married for power & pursued what he wanted every step of the way. He speaks of 💘, but he only loves himself. He created the incubator for the disease that spreads. Narcissistic behavior is handed down generationally & only results in bitter misery. Self-involvement is like a whirlpool: It's hard to escape once we get spinning inward. It creates appetites that can never be satisfied, leading to the bad 7. We don't need to 💘 ourselves: We need to accept ourselves (imperfection is reality) & always strive to improve. Eg - Suihe wastes her life wanting what clearly won't be hers. At the same time, instead of focusing on self-improvement which will lead to the right mate & true happiness, she works towards what she wants. People don't want the right things. I never wanted the right things. All I want now is to help others avoid some of the regrets that I have. A simple life of love & contentment w/ enough - but not too much - is the best we can hope for. Don't let wanting the wrong things rob you of 💘, 🕊 & 😃.

AOL is a visual banquet. Some of the sets are excessively busy; 💐R is almost too colorful, but there's no denying that they labored on the art of the show. What is fascinating is the 1930's streamline design in 🌌R. Idk if AOL designers relied on Chinese motifs or if they incorporated western elements, but there are objects of stunning & familiar detail in the show, including the traditional Greek scrolling design lining 🌌R structures. The mosaic lights in the Bird Realm are my favs. In one masterfully innovative shot, faces are reflected off of a drop of 🍷. They mention that something is made from ancient mithril - That's from JRR Tolkien's works! That connection gave me a thrill. The big battle scene is impressive. The 🎵, particularly Sa Ding Ding's song, is beautiful.

The viewer will 😄 here & there. He's a phoenix & the most popular boy in 🌌R, but she calls him a magpie - that's once she generously stops calling him a crow. Unfortunately, there aren't many laughs. What goes on in AOL is very bitter. It gets dysfunctional, & we aren't provided any elixir to help us manage it.

QUOTES📢

You judge me from a villain's perspective.

You know yourself least.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣68 📝68 🎭75 💓67 🦋71 🌞49 🎨65 ⚡60 🎵/🔊68 😅35 😭55 😱40 😯40 😖35 🤔44 💤48 🔚73

Age 12+mild Lang/sex: hell &darnn; violence; references to sex & abusive situations; we see the start of a sexual assault.

Originally 〰️🖊 11/2023

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