Analog Daze °7.3° °good+°
〰 “How is this old thing still running?” 〰 “What do you mean, it's brand new.” 〰 “Where's your helmet?” 〰 “Nobody wears them!” 〰 “Can I use your cell phone?” 〰 “If you want to make a call, go to the closest phone booth.” 〰 It's 1989. Regular folks don't have cell phones yet. “Let me pay for that with a credit card.” 〰 “Didn't Visa just launch in Taiwan? How do you have that?”B289 is a 2016 release that is rated 8.1 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 34 or 21 episodes, depending on how they cut them. The overall length is in the neighborhood of 26 hrs. The setup is scant. Our ML, Che, is successful and in between jobs. He's being recruited, so money isn't his concern at the moment. What he really wants to find out who his dad is. He visits his failing grandfather in the hospital, who is mumbling pieces of the puzzle in his delirium, but his mom won't talk about it. WON'T. He has a heated argument with her, hops on his motorcycle and rides away, after declaring “I don't have a mother!” She's been nothing but miserable his whole life, anyway. Inside of a tunnel he has an accident. When he wakes up, everything looks different. You just have to accept it. He's gone back in time. It's 1989, and he's about to be conceived.
When he lands on 1989 asphalt, our FL lands on him with her moped. This leads to the conversation above. Che doesn't have much cash, and his credit cards won't work, so he needs to go get a job. Nothing's more perfect for the savvy time traveler than the stock market! Looks like it's time to invest in tech.
The acting is a mixed bag. Some of it is pretty good while most is wooden and stiff. The characters are still more likable and relatable than not. Marcus Chang (Lost Romance, Mysterious Lotus Casebook) plays Chen “Che”. He's a very nice lookin guy, and an overall excellent romantic male lead. Ivy Shao (Hello Ghost!, More than Blue: The Series) portrays Ye Zhen “Zhen”. She's girl-next-door cute. “Are you so gullible?” 〰 “I am! How did you know?” 😆 Che agreed to help her with the moped repairs, but she doesn't even have his pager#!#! With no valid id, credit history, and a resume that appears faked, Che ends up at Zhen's house, renting a room from her parents. Zhen is his mother's BFF, so being around Zhen is perfect for surveillance. “So this is what it's like to have a father in the house,” he realizes.
Mini Tsai (W Series: The Way You Shine, Young Days No Fears) Is Chen Ya Juan, Che's mother. Yorke Sun (Piggy's Counterattack, Home Sweet Home) is the boyfriend that her b!+ch mother doesn't approve of, Li Jin Qin. Chang Chieh (Love, Timeless, To My Dear Granny) as Wang Zhong En, competes for Ya Juan's affection. Ray Yang (The Nipple Talk, Let It Fly) rounds out Zhen's love triangle as the too exuberant Lin Xiao Long. The director is Ker Choon Hooi of Falling Into You, and the screenwriter is Joyce Liu who wrote the amazing Age of Rebellion-9.5.
As the attraction between Che and Zhen builds, she can't understand why he insists that he doesn't like her. Finally, he has to admit the truth to her. This sets up her struggles to figure out a way that they can be together and /stay/ together. All this while he's trying to protect his mother and ensure that she doesn't end up living the miserable life that he remembers her living. As for the romance… this hurts... I really hate to say this... I like the leads;, but they don't completely sell the romance. And he's one fantastic male lead. The love story takes a backseat to the rest of the drama going on.
As with many time-travel stories, the theme is regrets. People don't want to travel back in time to NOT show love. You don't /need/ to time travel if you show love, consideration, caring, forgiveness, and generosity from the start.
“If he were my father, I'd rather not be born.” Our male lead keeps an eye on his future mother who is living as a 20-something girl. She's pretty, sweet, and hopeful. She's nothing like the spiky, cold, and distant emotional icicle that raised him. Toxic women tend to drive the plot of many TwDramas. In this one, Che's grandmother is just awful. She's likely the reason his mother grew up to be so miserable. Ya Juan's mother is overbearing, even for an Asian mother. She tries to dominate every aspect of her life including Ya Juan's friends, whom mom shoos away. At one point, she extracts a silly vow. I hate it. Mom's setting Ya Juan up on blind dates. Our two leaves decide to follow along to see if she needs any bailing out. Che's just hoping to get a look at his father. He's never met him, and he doesn't know who he is, so he's watching the situation very closely. The truth ends up being a very difficult pill. Another theme is realizing we don't understand everything about our parents and we should try to give them the benefit of the doubt when we can.
There's some fun stuff in the show. His plaid jackets are stunning. Most of the wardrobe is hideous. Every time I reacted strongly I had to remind myself about Wild Wear and what everybody else was wearing in the '80s. Still, some of the clothes hurt my eyes. The music is WAY above average. I Shazamed songs by Alien Huang, Nine Chen, and Gary Chaw. The opening credits song is great. Zhen falls on the way to a party and they do the rip-the-bottom-half-of-the-dress-off thing. She goes from frumpy to adorable. They discuss the barbarism of shark fin soup, which is a relief to me. Many Chinese features mention it favorably, which hurts, because it's cruel.
Apart from the average acting, it could be better. Some Taiwanese / Chinese shows try to get away with feeble writing. At one point there's a mini drama because our female lead screws up a stock order by spending 40K on the wrong stock. The narrative is that she owes the client $40,000. The money is still there, she just brought the wrong stock. Even if it went down in value, the value wasn't erased. Stuff like that drives me nuts. Other people don't care. We all have a different threshold. Our ML’s grandfather happens to be a physicist and this is his realm of study so as the story unfolds we meet him. (He's on a business trip until episode 13). They never give an adequate explanation from a scientific sense, but they provide a reason for the timeslip from an astral sense. By ep23 things seem like a right mess. And all-the-while, we are hurling towards that fateful day when Che will be born.
This probably would have been better at 25 to 30 episodes. They resorted to filler in the late 20s and early 30s. Just what I was getting very discouraged, eps33 & 34 recover it all. There's a nice twist and things are wrapped up very satisfactorily.
Overall, the show is plain cute. It will pass the… time. The final episode involves Che looking at a photo album and his mother recalling his life. Not everything was exactly the same as he remembered it. There's much less to regret.
QUOTES📢
Being in love is like catching a cold. By the time you're aware of it, it's already serious.
Q - Why doesn't he ever take the next step? A - Everyone has their secret. Maybe he has reservations that he doesn't want us to
My future happiness is my responsibility.
From another perspective, all the barriers to love are there to prove that love exists.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7 📝7.5 🎭6.8 💓6 🦋5.5 🎨5 🎵/🔊8.3 🔚8.5 🤗4 ▪ 🌞5 ⚡3.7 😅3 😭4 😱2 😯4.5 🤢1 🤔4 💤2
Age 13+ there is a sexual assault and other adult themes. Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? Doubtful
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
💓 -
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,
Boss & Me-7
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
⚡/😱/🚀 -
C🇨🇳: Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
K🇰🇷:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
The Man From Nowhere 8.9
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4
Japanese🇯🇵 lite romcoms: Maid Sama-10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4, Toradora-8.5
🇹🇼Taiwan
Age of Rebellion-9.5
The Fierce Wife-8 - worth sticking with
Two Fathers-7.5
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✨ JACKPOT! ✨ °8.9° °Outstanding°
‘I know a rich woman who hired a young gigolo; she said his skin was as smooth as a 🍼Baby 🐬Dolphin'’s,’ Fan's BFF wistfully recollects〰FY is a fairytale for older single chicks. The story of Fan reminds me of the Princess Bride as I imagine it starting w/ the 32y/o Fan sitting in bed. Grandma, sitting bedside, pulls out a 📖 (entitled That 🍼🐬 is Mine). ‘Tonight we'll read about the director & the intern who loves her,’ starts grandma…
Soon it's all hitting the FAN. Or should we say she FANS the 🔥 of a walking lawsuit? Even in 🇨🇳, “doing” the intern is a no-no, so here we go!
”If humans all live the same way it would be boring, wouldn't it?” Marriage & kids, marriage & kids. It's all the older generation knows. The young-gen isn't much better 〰‘You're pretty & you have it all together. Why do you want to go on blind dates?” 〰 ‘At age 32, you are considered a leftover woman.’ 〰 ‘Look at your age - Don't be so picky.’ 〰 “A virgin can't reincarnate, right?” This is what Fan is up against. She's reaching an expiration date, like the 4th yogurt from a buy-3-get-1-free deal. ‘What others say about us is not scary. The scariest thing is when you believe it,’ she despairs. What might be scarier is falling for your baby brother‘s student.
Victoria Song is “Fan”. I 💖 her. In ep1 she meets ML#2. David Wang is “Ming”. Sure, ML#1, the waif thin Song, is beautiful w/ skin as smooth as a 🍼🐬 & a compelling ML, but I fell hard for this Ming guy! Domineering? He isn't that, so much as driven. He can take it too far, but as a bf he's absolutely lovely. The handsome actor is manly while being funny & a tad ridiculous. He's also the Sun Tzu of human relationships. Ming's firm is a client of Amazing Decorations, Fan's employer. She has to apologize for a screw-up, which places her in his office. He's repugnant. Fan is submitted to a tirade of insults along w/ the news that AD is fired. Fan starts sobbing (it's a really bad day). He relents, but 1st impressions are cemented in. This starts a string of junctures between them.
He's convinced she's stalking him. By the time he realizes his misconception (falling for her utterly in the same moment) she's already fallen for Song. So when they meet up yet again (blind date), Ming switches gears & adopts the “Let's be friends” ruse. He wants her badly. He pre-ID’d his blind date & showed up ready to seal the deal. The viewer almost hears screeching brakes as he wriggles into her life. He ‘came to this blind date to mollify his sister’. He ‘already has someone’ he likes, too. They ‘can be friends’. She confides in him as she thinks he's a disinterested party. He jumps on her fumble & runs it back to the 5 yard line➡ he offers to be her romance coach.
The acting excels. Expressions & lines are full of life & wit. We like these people. Song Wei Long is Song. He's perfect at being a sexy, winsome puppy - sweet, loving & cuddly, but not too compliant, w/ a touch of the 🐕 in him. Yang is Fan's brother. He can really yang&bang - he's a college prof & a total playboy. Esther Yu (Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9) is “Cai”, Ming's niece. Her wavery voice is adorable.
Here's the seating chart: FL/Fan is Yang's twin & Song's boss at AD. Yang is Song's college prof & got him the job at AD. Yang is Cai's prof as well. Ming, client of AD, is Cai's uncle & guardian as she attends school. She stays w/ him on the w/e. Cai is in 💘 w/ Song. This leads to scenes in which Cai & Ming are both mourning over the same thing - their crush is in 💘 w/ someone else - but they don't know that their crushes are in love w/ e/o.
Fan cannot resist dating Song who is 10 yrs her jr, but 〰 ‘Do you think that's his gf?” 〰 “No way. She's too old.” 〰 ”She's not that old.” 〰 ”Maybe she's rich & he's a paid escort.” Standards; Ideal mate; What do you want in a spouse? There's so many topics that Fan now finds uncomfortable! Fan is not a salmon. Going against the current is exhausting. She demands they keep /them/ a secret. She doesn't want to deal w/ professionals, coworkers, college frenemies, family, nosy neighbors, & random people on the street w/ their snark, condescension & judgment. She can't take the pressure! Song's a beautiful 🍼🐬; she's not that, either. She wants to try a relationship in a sedate & carefully cultured koi pond. Ming convinces her to try dating him to distract herself from her 💔. She breaks it off w/ Song. Yes, on 📑 Fan & Ming are perfect for e/o. Analytics will only get you to the playoffs. It doesn't necessarily win championships. When it comes to matters of the heart, the intangibles are what scores the 🏆
“Didn't you play flip the box in Kgarten?” “No, we played minesweeper & the loser had to buy lunch.” FY depicts generational disconnect & how rigid the mindset of older people can be. Yet it's gentle w/ the elders & reinforces our obligations of deference & patience toward those who worked & sacrificed before us. Other themes are the disparity between the sexes & tossing out silly taboos along w/ the societal pressure that keeps them in place. Most of all, it's abt lies, including the struggle between truth as we want to see it & actual truth. FY is Fear>Deceit>Pride>Secrets>Relationship hierarchy>More lies>Gossip>Judgment>Expectations>Responsibilities>Finally, Freedom.
”Relationships between adults are usually maintained w/ white lies.” 〰 ”Where is the line between hiding & deceiving?” 〰 “Sometimes, a lie is like quenching thirst w/ poison.” Fan gives it serious thought. “Perhaps lies are ice melting in truth. Eventually, there's no difference.“ Why do we lie? It's almost always for our own short-term comfort. Lying is like taking drugs. Comforting effects are temporary & the residue left behind is enslaving. Thus the adage: The truth will set you free. Society actually runs on lies, but that's not a good thing. James Spader, who falls for an older Susan Sarandon in the film White Palace, plays a reformed habitual liar in the movie Sex Lies & Videotape. He stopped lying altogether. It's portrayed as shocking. He was still kind - people who won't lie must know when to say nothing.
We lie to ourselves first, & the biggest lie we tell ourselves is that we're okay. The truth is that we all have lots to work on. We're all damaged, hurt, or spoiled in some way. To let go of lying we have to let go of pride. We're all better off without it; pride only obstructs 💘. Humans tend to complicate things endlessly. Fan must sort through heaps of societal garbage to arrive at what's really important. At the end of the day, things are simple. We just have to toss out the trash that's been thrown on top of us by family, friends, society, & ourselves, and grab onto the good.
The writing is excellent. There's humor & an understanding of human relations. The dialogue is snappy. The director is skillful w/ cutting & segues. He plays it well for comedy & there's a bright crispness to the flow. The pace is almost methodical - in the best way. Early on the viewer might wonder how they will fill 41 eps. They do it steadily. I can get a teensy bit stressed when I like a show, waiting for it to go downhill, as so many resort to padding & idiocy to fill the required eps. FY doesn't merely hold the line, it improves as it goes on. It's 1 of 2 modern-day Cdramas I've seen that aren't significantly flawed, (the other is A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5). 🇨🇳 is not a free country & it has seemed like they were at a loss as to how modern people should behave. It appears they've reflected on themselves & decided to get more real. Perhaps we can thank K🇰🇷. FY makes positive references to Kpop & dramas.
Now for the Scooby snacks:
〰 “Being friends w/ your ex is the highest level of break-up.” Seriously, can it get more 🇨🇳 than that?
〰 On the wall of the office is inscribed: If you are always trying to be NORMAL you will never know how AMAZING you can be.
〰 The family dynamics are cute. Fan's overprotective brother got in the way of all her romantic relationships when they were growing up. Ironically, he introduces Fan to her first 💘 after blocking 💘 for so many years.
〰 The wardrobe contains some duds but has lots of winners. They had fun reinventing mens collared dress shirts. Fan accessories well.
〰 Fan & Song play badminton. Determined to lose & not embarrass the other, each claims s/he is not a good player, though Fan could have made the nat’l team. Soon the competitive juices fire up w/ video game animation overlay to enhance the scene. It's very funny.
〰 Ming's cousin is his assistant. They strictly set familial vs work boundaries. She keeps it all business on the 🕰 unless she requests a time out to talk to her cousin. Then their expressions, body language & demeanor will change instantly while they talk as family for a tad. Then it's back into work mode.
〰 Ming only knows half of the equation & he says, “could it get more complicated than that?” Lol - It already is.
〰 Fan protests- “I'm only 31… & 1/2…” The actress delivers superbly.
“A sense of belonging is, ‘I am yours.’ But a sense of security is, ‘You are mine’.” Young people want someone they like, older people want to find the right one. What does Ming want? He admits that he's childish, but he wants his destiny. FY tells us that's like hitting the jackpot🎰. Love at first sight is like winning the 🎰. Finding 💘 on a blind date? 🎰. Finding 💘 when a woman is over 30 is definitely like hitting the 🎰. Fan hits the super~🎰~schizzle. Cha-ching!
QUOTES📢
Men have a bad habit of being w/ their exes even if they don't have any feelings left
Siblings are debts from a prior life
Parents’ tears drown relationships
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.8 📝8.8 🎭8.5 💓8 🦋8 🎨7 🎵/🔊7 🔚8 ▪ 🌞7 ⚡2 😅5.5 😭3 😱0 😯3 😖0 🤔7 💤0
Poli-wagging 2/10
Age 14+ by Hollywood standards this is positively chaste but the primary couple does get it on prior to marriage and they do 😚 generate some steam.
Re-📺? 🔛
Older woman & toy boy 〰
🇨🇳The Rational Life-7
🇰🇷A Witch's Love 7.9;
Just for fun 〰
🇰🇷My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
🇰🇷Mr. Queen 8.5;
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☠A Trainwreck That'll Eat Your He♠️rt Out °7.8° °Excellent°
🚅2B is an exploration of what happens when a zombie infected person stumbles onto a loaded train as it leaves the station. Loads of SK features have eating front and center, but in this movie, the dining car is closed. Only the zombies get to snack.The main protag is fund📈 manager and father, Seok-woo, who is traveling with his 10 year old daughter, Soo-an. She doesn't look 10, she's small and adorable. Newly divorced, dad is taking her to visit mom.
What ensues is what one can expect from a zombie thriller at 60+ full-steam-ahead mph, with cars, door, racks, & compartments everywhere.
The worst issue with the film is how characters don't take charge of their own well-being. None of these people are trained to kill. They aren't all grabbing or fabricating weapons. When a couple of them discover a major weakness the zombies have, they don't even inform the others or exploit it properly! One character had rigged armour, of sorts, around his arm, to go help rescue someone else. Why he took it off is perplexing: He needs it later. It isn't surprising that individuals would be paralyzed by shock, but the fact that nobody got fired up enough to take charge is hard to accept. More pro-activity would have kept one car of passengers on track to save many lives. I suppose it wouldn't be a horror film if nobody acts idiotic.
What's also on display is the best and worst of humanity. The moral centers are the 10 year old Soo-an, and the big man, along with his very pregnant wife (she looks like she's 11 mos in, or carrying triplets in some scenes). The embodiment of evil and conniving, self-interest is portrayed by another passenger. As his true nature doesn't raise its ugly head until midway, his portrayal shows how dire circumstances can bring out the best and worst of people. Seok-woo is claiming the middle moral ground in the beginning of the show. He intends no harm, but he's not about to get involved or inconvenience himself, either. He even stores his investors' phone numbers in a file entitled "Lemmings" on his 📱. We watch his moral journey, not just his geographic journey, during the route of the flick.
It all seems typical - not bad, not great - for the first 70-75% of the film. The last portion of the movie is excellent with regards to the filming, action, special effects, and acting (Zombies go flying all over in a fantastic trainwreck - we even see a train pull a horde of zombies as more and more of them jump onto the growing blob of a pile!). Kim Su-an, who plays the kid, may not get to kill a zombie, but she slays her part. SK entertainment, in an apparent overabundance of riches, parades a steady flow of amazing child actors.
All Aboard! T2B is definitely worth the trip, particularly for the excellent last stretch. It comes in at just under 2hrs, and it streaks by in no time at all. The focus is on the people, but the zombies make some 🆒 moves, too. In the final analysis, it is also a worthy primer of what not to do during a zombie apocalypse, which I daresay might come in handy someday.
IMHO🗣
🎬8 🎭8 😅0 🤔6 🎨7 ⚡8 🔚9
Age 13+
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✒Nice Shot >>>➖♥️➖▶ Fate Ain't Yoda °5° °terminally average°
Shot through the heart ♥ and you're to blame ♥ You Give Love a Bad name.>>>➖💔➖▶So does this show… almost
Cupid, draw back your bow ♥
And let your arrow go ♥
Straight to my lover's heart for me, for me ♥
>>>➖💔➖▶He missed!
Somewhere in a smelly, messy apartment in Seoul there's a band of misfit cupids. They lost their wings 500 years ago in a Joseon Era world-class screw-up. “Do you ever think that woman was reborn? The one who caused all our trouble?” “I'm sure she's probably been reborn several times over by now.” Their arrow missed, the intended couple ended up ill-fated, and the Cupids were demoted. They're working their way back; their progress is marked by a golden arrow on the mantle. Once they turn it completely gold again their status will be restored. The Cupid who actually shot the arrow is now in dog form most of the time. He snaps in and out of it as their redemption draws near. Unfortunately, it happens at the worst times, like on a date or while in the veterinary office.
MMiC is a 2023 release that is rated 89 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 60-minute episodes. It hypothesizes that fate doesn't know everything. It's not perfect. Neither is this show. I liked the characters and many of its elements, but it not only doesn't have sufficient content for even 10 episodes, it Isn't tight enough. It's not exciting enough. It's not funny enough. It's not romantic enough.
Obviously, from the premise, it's clear that this isn't a serious show. The backdrop Is a murder investigation with hooks that are latched into both of our leads as well as the detective investigating the crimes, Seo Jae Hee (Park Ki Woong of The Bridal Mask, Rookie Historian-7.6, and the unfortunate Pandora: Beneath the Paradise-3.9) plays the detective. He was a king in a former life, and he was fated to be with our FL then, but the arrow missed and e'erthing went bollix. His story is actually tragic. 💘🔺 alert! They can't seem to help themselves.
Jang Dong Yoon (Daily Dose of Sunshine-7, Please Be My Ear) is our Cupid, Chun Sang “Hyuk”. Most girls wouldn't want a fairy boyfriend, but dang, he smells nice. Our FL comments on his pleasant redolence often. He's alittle tired, about now; it's been a long 500 years. He actually opines in ep1 that 💘 is a curse.
When a coworker offers a ticket to the Cupid Exhibit, saying ‘maybe you'll get shot with Cupid's bow’, our FL replies: “They better not show up in front of me. They have a lot of explaining to do.” Broken finger, struck by lightning, massive blood loss, choking - all were the FATES of her various boyfriends. Every attempt at love has been cursed - since she was 9. Nana (Confession, Kill It) is our FL, Oh ‘Baek’ Ryun. She's not gluten intolerant - she likes her Tteokbokki made with wheat flour. She's beautiful, but deadly, by no fault of her own. She became a veterinarian to counterbalance the unintended harm she's done. ‘You committed a grave sin in your past life. You've been living lonely lives for 500 years. Go to the top of Inwangsan cliff and beg for forgiveness for 1,000 days. On the 1000th day, your true love will appear. A man who knows the past will come to you.’ So the fortune teller tells her. That was 3 years ago. It's no small task, but she was convinced to do it. In the meantime, she keeps running into this weird dude. He's handsome, but his aura screams there's much more going on with him. When she realizes how sturdy he is - he came out of an extreme experience that should have almost killed him, yet he had nary a scratch - she's undone. She attacks. A whole life of bottled up frustration springs from her lips onto his… his cheek. I thought she was going to go for the gold, but she opted for silver.
It seems like Gong Min Jung is in everything I see, lately. In MMiC she's An Do Ra who is, once again, the BFF of the FL - a common role for her. I've seen her in Marry My Husband-7,5, Daily Dose of Sunshine-7, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2, My Holo Love-6.8, and not too long ago, the marvelous Familiar Wife-8.5. She and her secondary romance are the best thing in MMiC, but it's not enough to make it fly.
Moon Ji Hoo (Single & Ready to Mingle) as cupid Chun Dong Chil is transformed into a sweet golden retriever. He assumes human form only sporadically. The Ladies LUV him, much to the dismay of cupid Chun Dong Koo (Park Myung Hoon from Ssanahui Sunjeong, Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area, & Crash Landing on You-9.1) who is the more muttley (and muddled headed) of the two. Muddled headed people need love too. They make this poor guy wear polka dot sweaters😱! Most wouldn't make a dog wear that! The sweaters must be a tie-in to the ‘polka dot murder’ case in the show. Eom Se Ung (Govengers, Triple Fling, Best Mistake) is cupid Chun Dong Pal, but they, pretty much, waste his part. Kim Pub-Lae (Children of Nobody, Bad Man) has a voice for the ages as the fate god, Samshin. The directors are Myung Hyun Woo (Miracle) & Nam Tae Jin (Lovers of the Red Sky), and the screenwriter is Heo Sung Hee (One More Happy Ending).
“My dear friend, you are in love. You are suffering from a new pain. It's getting darker in your head. But it's getting brighter in your heart.” Baek leaves no space for misconceptions. She likes Hyuk. He isn't thinking in those terms, however. Actually, he's actively resistant to it. He's interested in her as a person, though he doesn't let himself delve into the reasons why. He spends time with her. He goes to the veterinary clinic. Her hopes are up. So, one day he tells her: “I'm the man you're looking for. Trust me.” Her hopes soar until she realizes what he's about from his next sentence: “I'm going to find the Perfect✨Mate for you.” (He's cupid, after all ~> that's what he do). He can't understand why that got her so angry. She tells him what she wants in a mate, (it's not what she wants, it's an impossible list devised to make him give up). He tries to send her prospective mates based on her stated parameters: She rejects them all. He's very confused. That's only fair; she's confused too. Viewers each have h/h own tailor-made buttons. MMiC pushed none of mine, romantically. It never takes flight.
There's truly lovely filmcraft and special effects. This is not a low budget feature. They have a meal together, though it's not officially a date. Afterwards, when she tries to keep the relationship going (he shuts her down), she storms off. Later that night they're both in bed having a tantrum. He is sleeping in charcoal gray sheets with light colored pajamas and she's in a charcoal gray dress against light colored sheets. The optics are quite nice in that scene, which is a ying & yang representation. At this point, she hasn't even completed her 1,000 prayers. She still has a few days to go. The music is REALLY good. Gorgeous piano music is the usual background. Shazam didn't work. I made at least 3 attempts for 3 different songs, but got no results. The Playlist will probably show up on Spotify eventually.
If you can do 1000 trips, you can do 2000. The main theme is power of the will, for good or for not-good. “From now on, I'm going to fight against my destiny,” claims Baek. I like that. Don't accept things just because you've been told “it can't be done.” Unfortunately, the message gets muddled. There's some golden arrows pointed at the audience, though. An Do Ra, Baek’s roommate, does a dating podcast and also teaches classes. She makes a lot of mischievous jokes, but when she's giving serious advice almost every word is golden. “An emotionally guarded man isn't attractive.” “Clothes are the most basic means of respecting yourself. When you wear something that suits you, you feel good to start with.” She's not going to teach dating skills, she explains. She's going to teach personal appeal. Finding our personal appeal is about making us the best version of us and not focusing on tricks or others. Working on ourselves is always the answer. Every word is a keeper.
And now for the quiver of misses. On a snowy night, An Do Ra invites Hyuk up for a drink with the two of them. The whole sequence is a constant stream of Do Ra doxing and teasing them. It should've been cute, but it's too silly and it didn't sit well. In flashbacks to old Joseon and prior lives, the two MLs are fighting over a girl. They use a different actress (Kwon Ah-Reum of Missing: The Other Side S2 & Body Parts). She's fine in the role, it's just unclear why they use a different woman when the men are the same actors. When cupids are fading out for a metamorphosis they can't pick up physical objects or turn doorknobs, but one of them beats up some guy in a bar. That's inconsistent. In ep15 we get an information dump with new parameters and rules they never hinted at earlier. That isn't good writing. It lacks complexity and makes it look like they are making things up as they go. As the episodes rolled on, this show kept my interest less and less. I really enjoyed the secondary romance and the dating school sequences, but everything else floundered. I cannot point to many specific negatives, there's just a dearth of positives. It's more like a broad outline that moves from point to point without engaging the heart, quite ironically. This goes beyond not having sufficient content for 16 episodes because it never even spreads its wings. MMiC is terminally average. The best I can say is that it will fill the time, but I'd rather watch any of my recommendations listed below again, rather than MMiC or the first time.
QUOTE📢
You'd be perfect if you were more humble.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣5.3 📝5 🎭7 💓4 🦋4 🎨7 🎵/🔊8 🔚6.5 🤗3 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡5 😅2.5 😭2.5 😱3 😯2 🤢5.5 🤔3 💤3
Age 14+ male female relationships and sex are the theme, though it's never raunchy. There's also murders being committed and investigated. Language: b@$+@rd
Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? Notta chance
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Inter-species 💞 or something like it -
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Boys Over Flowers-8.3 ~ melodrama to the max,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
Oh My Ghost 10,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
Alchemy of Souls-7.9,
My Mister-9.5,
Sweet Home 8.4,
Black 9
Modern Day -
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,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Be Melodramatic-8.7
Hospital Playlist 9,
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9
🎎 -
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
⚡️/🛸 -
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,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
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 them Rain-9,
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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✨️ Beauty & The Nerd ⭐ Crossed Star Love Circles Back On Itself ✨️
99DWTS is pure escapism of the geek-gets-the-girl variety. Only 10 episodes, it's not a long-term contract, and it shoots by quickly. Just like Kohei wants to find new stars, I'm on the hunt for a new word rather than using cute so often. Alas, this show can only be described as cute. So CUTE! Adorable at times, charming at others, and silly toboot, but in the end, it's quite simply "cute".Namiki Kohei is an in-between-jobs astronomer, who is picking up side jobs while he ,ooks for one in his field, so he's working as an agency bodyguard. He is hired to protect a KorJapean half-Japanese/Korean national, Han Yuna, who is scheduled to film a series in Japan. She is more like a quasar than a star, being enormously popular in both countries, and winsomely beautiful. Filming is scheduled for 99 days, thus Kohei has a 99 day contract.
With a dream is to work at a famous observatory, Kohei is an everyday nerd, and at the same time, he's a kind, decent man. The observatory would give him the best chance to discover a "new" star and name it, which is his only goal at the opening of the show. All he cares about is /those/ kind of stars, and those heavenly bodies. Like many obsessed geeks, he's oblivious. We learn that girls and women may have shown interest over the course of his life, but he's never taken notice. He loves the constellations, and has no interest in ogling filmstars or even pursuing women. It's precisely why he was selected for the job.
Quickly, Kohei realizes: Han Yuna doesn't want to be confined, nor will she tolerate being guarded. Kohei finds himself chasing 'person' Yuna daily, when he'd rather be chasing scorching hot 'places' & 'things.' Yuna's relentlessly aggressive manager won't allow for any going off script. No excuses! Kohei must keep Yuna tethered. Complaining bitterly about the assignment, Kohei cannot wait for the 99 days to end. He pieces together that Yuna's been looking for someone, and resolves to help her find her long lost love. Then she'll stop trying to escape.
Meanwhile, Kohei's sister has dropped her kids at his place to traipse off with a new boyfriend. We learn she's actually traveling with new boyfriends more than she's at home with the kids - Kohei's teenaged niece, and an elementary school pair, 1 of each. While the romance is half of the "cute' factor, the young neice and nephew are the other half. To Kohei's unnerving, they are gifted with exacting perception and a high social IQ. Coupled with their loquaciousness, they embarrass Kohei's as easily as they down a triple sized slice of cake on a too small plate. They love their uncle and seem to prefer living with him. Additionally, these 2 heavenly cherubs are full of love, happiness, and exuberance. They make friends with everybody, including Han Yuna, when she chances meets them.
{Commercial Break}
This show is fiction. The odds that these children would manage to be happy not knowing their fathers, and watching a parade of men marching through their home, while regularly being abandoned by their mother so she can fo "play" without them, are worse than the Powerball lottery. This show is family appropriate. It provides a perfect opportunity to discuss family, marriage, and raising children with your children. It's a parent's job to equip their progeny with critical thinking skills, to enable them to make informed decisions in life, afterall. It's also important to discuss entertainment, in general, with your kids, to ensure they understand that they should not take cues on how to live from what they see on screen. Furthermore, they should not assume that behavior on screen is always an acceptable way to conduct oneself. {Commercial concluded}
Before we can say 'supernova', Yuna is visiting Kohei's place to hang with the family and eat at the restaurant (dive) underneath his apartment. People crave family, and Kohei's family is extra warm and joyful. Besides, with a delicious restaurant below, they are always eating delicious Food Food Food. Eventually, Yuna's co-star tracks them down because he's interested in Yuna, himself. He starts to worry that he'll lose to a bodyguard. That cannot happen. Consequently, Kohei's place becomes a hangout for the stars. Things start revolving around him, revealing that Kohei's gravitational pull is no trifle.
One thing that is refreshingly different is that side characters are the best looking men in the show. Kohei isn't bad looking, but he's no Song Kang. As we get to know him better, he looks better and better.
The show creators do a great job playing around with plot advancement. We'll see the characters' real lives intertwine with the drama that is being filmed, creating a loop: Is life imitating the drama, or is the drama imitating life? While the storylines aren't exactly the same, the lines of the script weirdly reflect precisely what's going on between Kohei and Yuna. Yuna is acting out a drama with her costar, and living out one with Kohei.
Furthermore, though Yuna is in a scripted drama, the most dramatic scene she plays is a private one between her and Kohei. The way it was shot and edited was so obvious, I had to chuckle. The director is visually yelling to the audience: "Here's the real story, the real drama", like the yolk in the egg. Or was that the chicken and the egg? It's a loop, wherever you hop on.
As soon as Kohei starts nearing the azimuth of realization regarding his feelings for Yuna, they are assaulted by the most formidable solar storm of all: Fame. Kohei feels as far from Yuna as the distance from earth to its closest star; 92 million miles. Can either of them have a life together with the black hole of the paparazzi sucking them in? It's going to be a spikey Endeavor for our Brave Challengers. 💔
99DWTS is a low-challenge, just veg and take a break series for viewers. It's perfect for when you aren't sure what to watch next, or are in need of a mental break. It's akin to a Hallmark feature, only better. The romance is sweet, but the real paycheck is the warmth. 99DWTS will warm you up better than a pot of tea on the surface of Venus. It's yummy, rummy, chummy in the tummy warmth.
As always, resist dubbing. You only get a fraction of the acting. Subtitle competency is immediate. One has to look beyond the known, to experience the new. In short, if subtitles are a force field keeping you away from foreign entertainment, you are missing some of the highest quality features out in the great beyond. For your own sake, try to get beyond it. 😢
99DWTS isn't one of those high quality features, but it is a high-in-the-sky series, given the great smiles and snuggly warmth it radiates. It gets a little draggy towards the end, but it will still light up (and cozy up) your night if you can take time to relax and look up.
QUOTES🗣
If you forge ahead in life, someday something good is bound to happen.
I guess he understands feelings when the right time comes.
Kids: “If they get married, Ya-oona will be our mother-in-law! Yeah!” (She'd be marrying their uncle).
IMHO〰🖍
🤔 5 💓7 🦋6 🌞9 🎭7 🎬7 ⚡6
Age 10+
Originally 〰️🖊 2/2022
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✒He Only Plays For Keeps °6.8° °Good°
Gamers don't need a dating website because they can make good matches while gaming🎧. Our protags are fans of the RPG (role playing game) Chinese Ghost Story/CGS. FL, Wei Wei, even has an in-game spouse - until she gets dumped. She won't be in the dumps for long, though: Her white knight is in the wings.Computers don't just facilitate hook-ups; they make identity theft pretty easy, too. While Er Xi may not have stolen Wei Wei's 🆔, she did borrow Wei Wei's CGS game character, which leads /Wei Wei's/ crush to pursue /Er Xi/ in the game, thinking he's hanging out, virtually, with Wei Wei. It also leads men at Er Xi's summer internship to believe that SHE'S the top female CGS player. Er Xi, unawares, is getting all kinds of attention in the name of Bei Wei Wei, and Bei Wei Wei wouldn't have it any other way-way-way.
L020 is a 2016 release that is rated 8.3 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 30 45-minute episodes. It's obvious that the show was a precursor to the King's Avatar which also stars Yang Yang. (KA is great, but it contains no romance. It's about a RPG competition). Many players suspect that our FL, Bei Wei Wei, is not really a girl because she refuses to post photos online, and no other chick has come close to her top-tier ranking. She's jilted by her in-game husband in ep1. Because of laptop problems she ends up having to complete a duel at an internet cafe where our ML, Xiao Nai, (the elusive top-ranked player) gets a l👀k at her in the middle of her spectacular gameplay. He knows who she is now, but she didn't look back at him to see him looking back at her, as it says on Mr. Girlie's shirt. She don't look like no dude! She's😍gorgeous. When Bei Wei Wei's game character shows up to her ex's new in-game wedding, our ML is there as well. He proposes marriage to her. It's just a gaming marriage, but for her it's Cinderella✨time.
Xiao Nai, or Yi Xiao Nai He, as he's known in the game (Yang Yang), is a student of legendary popularity. He's the best looking, he's the smartest, and he's even good at 🏀. But he's as cold as a snow leopard's claws in January. He and his roommates/his bros have designed a new game and are preparing to launch it soon. Zheng Shuang plays FL, Bei Wei Wei / Lu Wei Wei Wei. She's a computer major and she's also the “Belle” of the Computer department. Between school, tutoring, and gaming, she has no time for love. Being pretty attracts jealous attention from other women, especially a couple of the mean girls on campus. Wei Wei and her dorm-mates apply for an internship at one of the big software companies that, perchance, wants to buy Xiao Nai's game. Her identity, in part, gets switched with her perky and adorable roomie, Zhao Er Xi (Mao Xiao Tong) because Er Xi panicked in her interview and gave them Wei Wei's game 🆔 as her own. This leads to identity mix-ups. Several people believe they've met the gamer Lu Wei Wei IRL, but they've actually met Er Xi.
Wei Wei's new game marriage is wonderful💖. She starts to wonder about who the person is behind her game husband's character. Should she meet him? In the meantime, back at school, Xiao Nai unexpectedly sits next to her in class(?!). Game-hubby wants to meet. She goes to the rendezvous point… Why is Xiao Nai, the untouchable legend, hanging around here today? Imagine her shock when he scoops her up, takes her to the inter-department 🏀 game and then lets e'erbody know they are now dating. The way it plays out is fun. They already got to know eachother online. He's way ahead of her as he's been able to observe her IRL for awhile, and when he makes a move, it's for the win. The rest of the show is dealing with the petty tricks, jealousy and fallout that happens when these two popular items are removed from the shelf. They are each taken, now, and not everyone has an easy time accepting that without a fight.
For a modern-day Chinese feature this is pretty good.
Yang Yang,who plays the ML, Xiao Nai, does sell the viewer on his attraction to our FL, and he manages some top notch romantic moments. His voice in L020 and You Are My Glory sounds deep-fake. I think his voice in Kings's Avatar is the real him. Can he act? I wasn't sure that he could, going into this show. I've only seen him play all-powerful all-knowing slightly smug male leads, and I've only seen him in modern-day Chinese features, which are completely different from Chinese fantasy and historical features. It's time to watch Who Rules The World to crystallize his assessment. Regardless of acting skill, he's quite beautiful, and he also contributes to the soundtrack. He's no Kun Chen (from The Rise of the Phoenixes) but he'll do. His game hair is awful, like Qin Dynasty politician hair.
Zheng Shuang is the FL., Bei Wei Wei. She's sweet and demure. She remains too demure throughout the show which gets a tad tedious. Mao Xiao Tong plays her BFF Zhao Er Xi. Despite references to her average looks, she is an adorable pixie. She actually does look like Cao Guang's (Bai Yu) 🐱, Coffee. They usually have her hair and costume looking dreadful. She has short hair that has grown too sloppy and needs 2" taken off, but she is routinely referred to as plain or even homely when she's actually a knockout.
Speaking of Bai Yu and Yang Yang, the show has lots of beautiful men. Bai Yu, sans glasses and curls, is a very handsome man when inside the game, CGS. Xiao Nai's friends are well casted. Zheng Ye Cheng is "Girlie," Hao Mei, and he might be better looking than Yang Yang. He's stern, masculine, and sexy in The Sleepless Princess-9.1. I never recognized him - that's good acting! Vin Zhang as K.O. (he is fabulous in Eternal Love-8.3) & Cui Hang, playing Qiu Yong Hou, compliment the visual feast, and Niu Jun Feng is not only a nice looking guy, but he has an endearing quality as Yu Ban Shan. Hao Bo plays the gynophobic Ah Shuang. His fear of women is why the fledgling company cannot hire females. Xiao Ling (Qin Yu) & Yu Yao (Guan Xin) are the other two girl dormies. They don't get as much screen time as Er Xi. They never bring everybody together, which is a shame. I kept waiting for it, but it wasn't to be.
The primary romance is low drama and pleasant as a warm breeze. Nothing much happens, and the show has that "Prozac" effect that Chinese modern-day dramas all seem to have. While Chinese historical and fantasy pieces are superb in every way, their modern-day stuff is weirdly relaxing to watch despite being deeply flawed. There are at least two secondary romances that are quite cute but left mostly unfinished - they absolutely should have been wrapped up better - that's not a minor flaw. The 🐱 appears to be in serious distress in a couple scenes. In the States, I think it would have created a stir; I was concerned for that kitty. He's a gorgeous feline. Just as in You Are My Glory-5.9, which also features the comely Mr. Yang, L020 is too focused on the good looks of the leads. 20% of the dialogue seems to be about the exterior appearance of the characters, and that is so skin-deep. (I realize that I may have committed 20% of this article to what the actors look like… perhaps that's hypocritical🙄, but script & dialogue and critique & commentary are not the same thing). The acting is often stiff, the dialogue is often unimaginative and witless, and the plot drivers such as game dynamics, corporate maneuvering, and technical workings are not explained in the least. Don't expect to learn anything interesting: This show will only bring on rhythmic breathing - and that's enough.
They play completely respectable 🎸 riffs during some of the action. I've seen China rock-out better than Japan, at times. Both of them rock out better than Korea. Korea, on the other hand, reigns supreme in the realm of pop and soft rock. Anyway, the soundtrack isn't bad at all. All-in-all, L020 is a show that romance junkies, who don't get too prickly over technical mediocrity, will like. With the benefit of foreknowledge, I would still watch it again for the first time. Technical excellence alone doesn't make a show good. It must speak to the heart as well. L020 is food for the heart, not the brain, but its true payoff is its Prozac💊effect.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣6 📝6 🎭7 💓6 🦋7 🌞6 🎨5 ⚡4 🎵/🔊7 😅3 😭3 😱2 😯4 😖0 🤔3 💤4 🔚7
Age +no age restriction with the following caution: There's a few oblique non-direct references to sex and waiting for it plus some kissing scenes.
Re-📺? This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again….
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
You Are My Destiny 7.3,
The Kings Avatar 8,
The Oath Of Love 7.6,
I Hear You 7.3,
Meteor Garden 7.4
Historical/Period:
Overlord 8.4,
The Sleepless Princess 9.1,
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
Under the Power 8.6;
The Rebel Princess 9.1
Fantasy:
Love Between Fairy & Devil 9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Heavenly Sword 9;
Love and Redemption 10
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⚔ Mission Fail °8.5° ⛩️ °spectacular°
“When can we see each other again?” “We cannot. We belong to two opposing sides. If we meet again, one of us will have to die.”Right now, the emperor is weak. The government is corrupt. Factions have formed. The rebels are rising. The House of Flying Daggers is the most dangerous group of rebels. We're in China, 859 AD, at the waning of the Tang Dynasty.
HoD is a 2004 119-minute release that is rated 87/82 on RT, 7.5 on IMDB, and 8.3 on MDL. There's much more going on than meets the eye. We have wheels within wheels and gears inside of them.
The acting is China's run-of-the-mill-superb. Takeshi Kaneshiro (This Is Not What I Expected) is ML Red Cliff Jin. The actor's father is Japanese and his mother, Taiwanese, which explains his name - and his look, actually. Andy Lau (Tak-Wah, Singing When We're Young) plays the other ML, Liu Zhao Tou. The cast is rounded out with Song Dandan as Yee, Zhao Hongfei as Xiao Bu Kuai, and Jun Guo as a law enforcement Officer. The screenwriter is Bin Wang (Hero, To Live) along with writer/Director Zhang Yimou (Under the Hawthorn Tree & Hero).
Zhang Ziyi (The Rebel Princess-9.1, Hero & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ~loved both~) is Xiao Mei, the new blind maiden at the pleasure house. Is she in the Flying Daggers cult? They lock her up following an unruly incident in between her and some house patrons.
The Tang version of the CIA local branch has devised a clever scheme. An officer, Jin, will break Mei out of prison in hopes that she will lead them to the Flying Daggers sect, so they can eliminate this dangerous group. Mei is not easily managed, though. Soon, Jin has to fight his own people to survive, because no one else knows about his mission. Things continue to get more tangled and murky.
The cinematography is gorgeous. Exotic forests, fields, fall foliage and flowers. Fighting, too! The fights are beautiful ballet. We see every season represented in the film. One fight takes place in a verdant bamboo forest. It's spectacular. Fall is a good time to fall in love… Finally, there's flakes of snow, moving into the finale. Probably some frostbite, too.
There's a good twist or two. They twist beautifully in this film. The whole movie is a magnificent twist-within-a-twist. My biggest complaint is that it's over with so quickly. Having gotten used to 25-75 episodes, I've been watching some unforgettable Cdramas. Sometimes the big budget items, like sophisticated fight scenes and pricey special effects, don't make much of a showing in the multi hour miniseries (sometimes they aren't bad) but it's hardly noticeable given the top-tier writing, acting, sets & costume. So, give HoD a watch and consider some of the recommended time investments below.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.5 📝8.5 🎭8.5 💓6 🦋6 🎨8.8 🎵/🔊7 🔚8 🤗6 ▪ 🌞4⚡7 😅2 😭7 😱3 😯3 🤢3.5 🤔6 💤0
Age 12+ There's sword fighting and violence, but this is a great movie for people of most ages. Rated TV-PG: Parental Guidance Suggested
Re-📺? Yep
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
🔮🐉-
C/🇨🇳:
Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10
⚡😱/🚀 -
C🇨🇳:
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
The Untamed-8.6
💓 -
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
K🇰🇷 :
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
🎎 -
C🇨🇳:
Overlord 8.4,
Story of Yanxi Palace-10 (I'm on ep 50 out of 72. So far every episode is a 10).
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
Ruyi's Royal love in the palace (episodes 1 - 49 are a 9.3. While looking up its historical accuracy, I learned how heartbreaking the rest of the show is. It's over 80 episodes, so that's a hella-lotta hurt. I am not up for it now, so I stopped at episode 49, which is a perfect ending).
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
⚡😱/🚀 - K🇰🇷:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
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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This review may contain spoilers
YIKES! Okay.....☠ °Excellent°
SPOILERS ARE SEPARATE AT THE BOTTOMSG is a foray into the callused debauchery of which humans are capable. It builds on 'The Most Dangerous Game' w/ a twist. Here, bored positive-balance-sheeted rustlers devise a game that enables them to entice poor souls in financial straits to come out & play. The key is what the players weren't told, not what they were: 456 competitors may enter, but only one will exit alive at the end. The fulsome 1%-ers won't participate. Preferring to spectate from the comfort of their private luxury boxes or big screens, they wager while the "horses" perform... & die. SG showcases the mutual annihilation pact we enter when it's "every man for himself." It illustrates that if there's no umpire, people will always run out of their lanes.
lt challenges the viewer with the question: ‘Do you believe humans are good?’ Not quite, right? “Open your eyes!” “Wake up!” “Dig up your inner skeptic!!!” “Work on the word NO!“ “Augh!” I was yelling at the screen like I was at, well, the races. It's not that the players are horror-movie-inept. It's their failure to timely process how the race was degrading, at a frenzied gallop, into barbarism. Pleading w/ them has no effect. All viewers can do is watch in dismay as if neutered. In time, the players do comb it out: The rules specified by the referees are the ONLY rules applicable. The penalties for running out of the lines are, umm... Severe.
The violence is lurid, but not gratuitous. Author Hwang Dong-hyuk stated his purpose: "I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life." He was poaching from the gauntlet of his own fiscal hardships.
The first two eps focus on the wild swings our ML/#456 is subjected to when his psychotropic journey begins. We watch him enter a limo, awake in the surreal, lofty dorm of horse stalls (300ft high, maybe?) & finally exit into the calamitous onslaught of Game 1.
For those of you🇺🇲 who are new to Kdramas: Hey! We've been waiting for you;) Relax, Most viewers achieve subtitle fitness immediately. The whole world is watching our entertainment deposits that way. If you can't diversify, they win! Kdramas excel at extracting every possible wince & whinny out of the viewer. The writing, directing, acting, & overall play are consistently supplying ROI (returns) due to the high quality of execution. So much so, that they're in danger of their stats being overlooked. Korea's got an excess of talent.
More of the same, SG is superb dressage, or pageantry, particularly in the horror genre, which is loaded with dumbed down characters & script, lots more blood & guts, & an extraordinarily evil feel to the substandard works. SG blows the whistle on those foul circulations for which a de-worming & muck-out is prescribed. Yes, the violence is jolting, and yet it's not gratuitous or meaningless. It posts warnings of dangerous conditions.
Notwithstanding, KDramas, like Simone Biles, can twist with wondrous strength. They routinely spiral the knife into the viewer's psyche w/ disciplined follow-through. An example is the demented sickness of using "innocent" colors like pink & leafy green that also resemble medicines, such as Pepto Bismol. Along w/ the kiddie trappings, it's all dread multipliers. It's nauseating.
In the opening eps, Kdramas also tend to trot out players before the audience that are an extreme version of themselves. Ten+ hrs allows ample time to invest in talent, improve performance, & yield gains. Just remember, most of the people you see on the screen will either dramatically transform or the audience's appreciation of them will change as the series matures. You may squander your currency backing a failing commodity, while another's performance might lead your fantasy team to victory.
Scouting 456 exposes a pathetically & painfully substandard performer of the most contemptible sort: over 40, living w/ mom, swiping her money to gamble on horses... Relegated to the penny stocks, has he ever been bullish? Not likely. Has he ever pitied the horses? Nayyy! Nary a concern. The projection that he will gain any interest is dubious. The thought of up to 9 eps/laps monitoring his performance isn't appealing in the opening derbies.
Competing "horses" are numbered. If Kdrama writers assign #s to competitors, it's likely the #s have a commodity backing their values in Numerology. Utility players who can slip into many positions, Numerology definitions, like astrology, tend to be generalized in order to broaden the application. Having said that, let's see if any of the numbers assigned by Mr. Hwang have any credit values.
☂456 is slacker-protagonist Seong Gi-hun, & signifies effort & patience. A mentor is needed who will teach working on self-improvement as a priority. Hard work will add value to life.
✔Check. It's applicable.
☂218 is for Cho Sang-woo, 456's friend from the 'hood.' The number 218 symbolizes manifesting one's biggest & seemingly impossible desires into reality, often related to 💰.
☂001, the old man's # is at its most positive when in the realm of work. It's assigned to winners indicating 1st place. It represents independence, but this can also mean loneliness, isolation, or being single.
☂199 is Abdul Ali. 199's are self-reliant & comfortable pursuing their agenda, which, for Ali, is providing for his family on his own. #199's goals virtually never conflict with long-term human survival & well-being.
☂067 is NK native, Kang Sae-byeok, who strives to protect her family. No surprise: #067 signifies home, family, unconditional love, responsibility, sacrifice & service. Creating a solid foundation for the future, & protection of family & possessions is a #067's priority.
☂244, the pastor: Spiritual advancement can be phenomenal in a #244's life. He must keep wrong at bay & not offend the inner energy installed by his maker.
Finally, upon the runners' return in EP3, 187 players re-enter the stalls: The US police code for murder.
✔, ✔, ✔, again. And on it goes. There's more in the spoiler section. Getting chills?
If not, you probably haven't seen the show yet. Don't forget this when you do. The strategy trotted out is medal-winning. Just be woke about what the show is about. It is not about displaying incidental, cheap, & meaningless horror for the purpose of titillation. SG is a metaphor for the writer's own hardships in a cruel, uber competitive & heartless society. The players all represent the downtrodden, like geldings in irons. Most of their backstories, if posted on GoFundMe, would grab attention. I'd be tempted to contribute to a few of them. Even the criminals are subtly shown to have been wedged into their life choices. Delving into one gangster's number (101) exposes his basic needs that clearly weren't met. It all contributes to his projected gains & losses.
Oh, these "poor," rich, hacked-up GOONS. Their lives are so empteee. Sigh. Studies show around 21% off CEOs are psychopaths. It's not a stretch to guess that some of these fulsome degenerates are in that club, given their heightened sadism. We all know that money isn't everything, but it certainly fills in divots allowing the race of life to run smoothly. These coasting reprobates can't seem to notice, through all the haze of pride, that people are most gratified when we help others.
Kdramas are also wont to lob deferred options that the viewer didn't account for into the works. Expect that everything is not what it seems to be. Avoid being roped in by Ponzi Schemes.
This is not over. We need S2. The question has not been answered yet. #456 is sequential ~> moving forward. To the extent that 456 accomplishes anything, true to form, he will barely get his neck over the line. Here's my ante-post bet & hope: In S2, he'll be stallion #789 who tramples out this ghoulish fraternity of gamers.
Apologies for mixing up the monetary, equestrian, & sports metaphors. I'm not good with rules either.
QUOTE📢 Good rain knows when to fall. ~Du Fu~
〰🖍 IMHO
🎭8 🎬8 🤔8⚡8🎨7🔚9
For age 15+
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Racket Boys-8.3,
Mr. Queen 8.5, Love to Hate You-8.9, Glitch-8,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9, Misaeng-9.1, Law School-8,
My Mister 9.5,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Mr. Sunshine-9,
Mother-8.8
Action/Crime/Sci-fi -
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1,
Sisyphus 8, Inspector Koo-8.4,
Iris-8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6, Blood Free-8.5,
Beyond Evil-7.4, D.P. -8.4,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9,
The Wailing-8.8,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4
originally 📝 10/2021
⛔️SPOILERS FOLLOW⛔️
⛔️
⛔️
⛔️
🚦218 is Cho Sang-woo, 456's 'friend' who worked his way up from 'hood-rat’ to white-collar hood. To a point, he mirrors 001. This loathsome in-runner surprisingly gave up the fight, but not before becoming a murderer. #218 is for manifesting one's biggest & (on the face) near impossible desires into reality. Business, duality, & serving humanity must coexist. 218 failed in his run to win that 💰, but he found redemption in his last moments. 218 knows that 456 will serve his mother AND humanity w/ the 💰.
🚦101 is gangster, Jang Deok-su. A #101's primary function is romance, w/ importance of relationships right behind. At first blush this doesn't fit w/ the character, though he did get involved in a quasi romantic trist. Let's flesh it out further:
A #101 needs coexistence. Without it, a #101 is alone. People w/ that # can feel lonely & lost just thinking of being alone. 101 obviously grew up w/o basic needs & training, leaving him consumed w/ bitterness & ill-prepared for rigid competition. #101 also points to eternity & the journey that is about to begin w/ all its uncertainties. It's a reminder that we are not in control of our destiny. God is. So #101s should follow the course & learn before their time on this plane is over. It's sad to think that 101 didn't get emotional support or the care needed for success. He is still responsible for his infractions, but it's sad, nonetheless. He parallels the VIP who was attracted to the cop. They each had the same expression of shock, disbelief, & the beginnings of acceptance when facing death.
🚦199 is Abdul Ali, one of the worst upsets of the show. #199s are independent & comfortable pursuing their agenda. For Ali it's providing for his family - independently. A #199's goals virtually never conflict w/ humanity's survival & long-term well-being. We see that Ali is good, albeit naive, & foolish to be so independent that he'd wager his life on a long shot ih an effort to provide.
🚦212 is Han Mi-nyeo, the 'crazy Mare' who brought down 101. #212s frequently chase curiosity, adventure & ALL new, shiny objects ~ often on a whim. #212s can be good team members. Their energy can be sensual. Enroute towards goals, they can face harsh obstacles. Jumping the fence may lead to negative outcomes. As with 101, only the negative interpretations are exhibited by them. Their harsh lives had severed them from the positive elements w/in themselves. They portray ruthlessness, but there is a forlornness about them, too.
🚦111 is the doctor. A #111 won't let himself be slotted into a team member role unless the role is real leadership. They haven't been broken. If #111's thoughts are negative, it could attract toxic situations & people.
🚦240 ('phillie' Ji-yeong) is just released from prison for putting down her abusive 'sire'. #240 is about nurture & mutual support w/ a high focus on security & the future; all provided w/o expectation of return. She went underfoot for 067 & thus negated the lie the VIP's tell themselves about human nature. Having already sacrificed her freedom to deliver justice to her mother, 240 is the moral center of the show.
🚦The husband/wife duo is portrayed in #69, or two identical digits facing & complimenting each other to make a whole. If we squeeze 6&9 together we can make an 8, which toppled, is the eternity sign. In addition, the visual aspect of the # is related to ying&yang. The energy of #69 is best when involved directly w/ family or team as an equal. Freakily, #069 symbolizes the closure of a chapter in life & encourages one to be prepared for a traumatic phase. Whether ending good or bad, it is bound to bring a huge change. Be prepared for it, b/c the manner in which it's dealt with will affect one's future.
The players aren't the only losers. The police Officer's story is grim. Hwang Jin-ho went there to save his brother. Seduced by the power of the dark side, the frontman won't let /anybody/ move in on /him/. So he brought his own brother down. That's pain. Frontman actor, Lee Byung-hun, aced an expression of curtailed grief tinged with guilt + overt resolve to cantor forward. After all, it was his brother or him.
001 didn't get what he wanted by hosting SG, which was a panecea for loneliness & boredom. It seems he & the VIPs justify their actions by deluding themselves that they are conducting a social experiment. Insistence that everyone is as cutthroat as they are leads to pitting people against eachother. This enables them to inveigle their own selves that those people deserve to die: 'Just look at who they really are! It's voluntary... they all get a fair chance.'
In the end, the old man had the whole world, but was utterly unsatisfied. Craving the camaraderie he'd had while growing up poor, he felt that kinship w/ 456, even though 456 eventually betrayed him. At the time, 456 had a 2nd chance. He could have done the all-or-nothing, but refused. That plot point of betrayal, while needed, was his worst moment. The old man was playing him all day to tempt him, but he meant it when he called 456 his gganbu, or close buddy.
The kinship manifests itself when the old man wants to see HIM at the end of his life. 456 is there, bedside, when #1 dies. Where's his wife? Where's his kids?? Where's his grandkids??? Can I get a mistress? Nope. Just 456 & an aid were there. Next, 001 saves 456's 'life' a 2nd time by jerking 456's bit toward /living/, rather than merely existing.
456 is who he is. He wins 3x's in the show's run, but even when he wins, he's a pathetic loser that barely stumbles over the line. In winning, his soul was put-down. When he went to see the old man in the penthouse he won their game, but he didn't get what he wanted once again, as 001 died before 456 could kill him. It did wake 456 up. He no longer has to feel guilty about flashing a laser in the old man's eyes during the race: His regret is not shipping 001 off to the dog food plant himself.
The red hair broadcasts that he's now either on fire, or starting to blaze his trail. Finally. This is not over. We need a S2. The question has not been answered yet. #456 is sequential & shows progression, or moving forward. Here's my ante-post bet & hope: In S2, he'll be stallion #789 who tramples out the ghoulish fraternity of gamers.
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Turn Back Now ⛔ Or Suffer The Consequences °5.5° °AVG°
Hellbound is a dragged-about-through-the-muck, lackluster attempt at horror. While it is, at times, gory (a little too gory, really) it especially drags between the scenes in which poor souls are dragged about by those oversized, grey gorillas. None of what happens has any meaning. Whether that's classified as existential or nihilistic, either way it's always bleak in an unfulfilling way.My family bought into the reviews claiming the naysayers don't know what they're talking about. But alas, the naysayers got it right. Korea does put out more consistently good quality entertainment than Hollywood, but they spit out duds as well. Nobody can escape it entirely. HB is watchable, but our opinion is that it's not worth the time nor the effort. This is not Squid Game-8.4, in which there's shocking violence, with some blood and the like, but no gross-out gore. Squid Game, furthermore, has no gratuitous violence: It all reinforces the horror that society creates when it's "Every man for himself." Kingdom-8.3 is another horror offering out of Korea that's done exceptionally well, with nothing feeling out of place.
I'm a fan of writer Yeon Sang-Ho’. He brought us Train to Busan-7.8, Psychokinesis, and the truly excellent The Cursed-8.3, which generated a follow up film, The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey, and there's been talk of a S2. HB's S2 was announced. Just Because I haven't rated all his works at 8 and above doesn't mean I can't see what he's going for. He's an excellent talent working what is probably the most difficult genre. I will watch anything of his.
HB, my least favorite of Yeon's by far, seems to have nothing in place. The plot twists don't pack enough of a wallop. The plot pivot at the halfway mark is strange, with neither half of the show being wrapped up completely. There are some likable characters, but they drift away rather than find any permanent resting place.
HB's worst sin is that it's boring. It did not hold the interest of anybody in my family, and we're Kdrama fans. We stuck with it, as that's our habit, and we also kept hoping something would pull it all together. Abandon hope. Nothing gets pulled together. It could actually be by design, in order to underscore a nihilist theme. By allowing that there is design to HB is as generous as I can be. It's entirely possible that there's none. It's difficult to tell.
Having said all the above, HB is still superior to most of Hollywood's horror offerings which depress the IQ and heighten sadistic indifference in the viewer. HB absolutely will not do that: Your IQ is safe from being dragged down by it, and your sense of empathy will not be preyed upon by it. HB has some truly good elements that were left unreconciled in a string of missed opportunities. That's what fans of the show have likely connected with.
If blood & guts is your jam, HB is gory. In fact, it's uncomfortably so. There's only a half dozen or so such scenes, however, none of the deaths are quick, and all of them are tortuous. As a piece of horror, HB's around a 7/10, but in entertainment value alone, it's in the neighborhood of 5.5 - 5.9, and definitely under a 6. My son was emphatic about that. Unfortunately for HB, after being starved of quality🇺🇲entertainment for too long, Kdramas have shocked our systems with quality overload. Now our standards have shot up heavenward.
We are new enough to K-entertainment that we haven't seen many horror pieces. As previously mentioned, Kingdom and Squid Game are far superior to HB. Tunnel-8.1 is a cop show involving a serial killer, so it isn't far from horror, and Tunnel is excellent. Black-9 is another police/fantasy drama that is quite close to horror, both depicted onscreen, but even more so, it creates horror in the mind (I refer to it as a bit-of-a-mindr@pe). Black is a profound work with no wasted dialogue: Almost every line connects to another element in the show, building a complex work of art. If you aren't sure what to watch next, those should not disappoint.
HB is a big letdown - pun intended. Repent, turn back, and save yourself from the mediocre forces that will definitely drag your evening down, if you give in to them.
Quote🗣
It seems that none of us have the right to make decisions for ourselves.
〰🖍IMHO
🎬7 🤔5 ⚡8 🎭7
Suggested Age 16+
Re📺? I won't rule it out. Maybe I missed something. I like the direction of the 2nd half, so I will probably check out S2.
Originally ✏️🗒 12/2o21
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☪Enchanting, Entrancing, Some Dancing & Romancing ⚜️ °8.4° °Excellent°
[Spoilers are contained in a separate section at the end]⚜️What A Delectable Diversion. HDL is a magical little fantasy about a hotel where the dead can rest prior to heading to the afterlife. You Can Check Out Anytime You Like 🌃 But /She/ Can't Leave…
While the hotel is magical & regular slubs like us can't see it (or its guests), it still exists in the real world. It's registered with the province & a human manager is required to handle all human affairs. Enter Mr. Koo. When Koo is young, his father, in a fateful encounter with Ms Jang, promises Koo's future to Jang. Dad is pressured into this promise in exchange for his life; otherwise, Koo would grow up parentless. The good news is that HDL will now fund Koo's upbringing. So Pop takes him to 🇺🇸 where Koo, in time, "pulls a Harvard" in Hotel Mgmt. Even so, like all humans putting on blinders, neither dad nor child took the obligation seriously.
Koo comes to realize, 25 years later, that he cannot shirk this obligation. Just when he has his dream job bagged, Jang runs interference. What plays out is a peek into this amazing world within our world. As all of Koo's training is OTJ, every episode is a treat to something new & imaginative.
HDL is a visual extravaganza, from the hotel to the fashion-porn. Filmed on location at the Hotel Seine Café, which is staggeringly beautiful (it's now on my bucket list), 'dainties' & 'fancies' are 360 degrees around. Some of those delights are revealed in my spoiler section. The filming bolsters the gorgeous spectacle. Jang's got an outfit to go with every occasion, even one to wear when dining on rice cake soup. But don't expect spontaneity. If you suddenly want to go somewhere & she's not dressed 'correctly', just fuhgettaboudit.
While there's plenty of side stories in which to become engrossed, the main protagonists are Ms Jang (owner of HDL), & Mr. Koo, her very reluctant 99th human manager. Jang looks like a porcelain doll & is as feisty as a Tasmanian Devil. She's also sealed herself off. We see her dismiss the former Manager of 40 years with perfunctory efficiency, devoid of all emotion. She's taken on petulance as a primary personality trait. She displays no feelings at all, & is particularly devoid of compassion. Consistency long ago abandoned, she will say anything in the moment to satiate her emptiness.
Jang's truly b@d@$$, but, Ms Snark - Ms Sourpus - Ms Oppositional - Ms Ill-Tempered Ice Queen - is about to get a change of perspective, not just a change of clothes. Koo might appear to be a feckless wimp (which is how Jang's been treating him) but he is, as it turns out, tremendously courageous & a problem solver of the highest intellect. He knows when to be reserved & when to step up. When he steps up, it's with every bit of panache that Jang displays.
There are visual cues to the romance. Jang & Koo gradually match each other more & more. At first it's just her nail polish that matches his outfit & it grows from there. Flowers are popping up everywhere. They are beautiful… & perishable.
There's plenty of laughs. Mr. Koo is lurched far off-balance by the rush of new experiences, & he frequently jumps behind Jang out of fear until he gets accustomed to dealing with ghosts. She looks like she might reach 5'2" in spiked Jimmy Choos, so it's absurd - and bang-on funny.
When Koo was still running away from the job, Jang went out to retrieve him. He passed out after a nasty ghost encounter. K- "How did you get me back to the hotel" ? J- "Well, I got something similar to a handcart. All you need to know is that I got you back safely." The way she actually got him back, however, is not analogous to a handcart! Not one little bit!
Once in awhile, live people insist on checking in. They are placed in Room 404, the error number we've seen on countless computer screens. In EP10 there's a deft little scene: Koo & Jang are at a restaurant where people died from eating (she can't get enough of that). She's ticked off at him, but she can't resist taking pictures of her food. Snapping away, she never diverts her fuming stare from Koo. She moves the camera around & clicks it but only looks at him. It's hilarious. Koo is gifted a big cat print suit. Will the fastidious Harvard grad be able to even get one arm into the jacket without a meltdown? It's worth watching to see.
There's some head-scratchers, unfortunately, & there's some glaring omissions, too. The ending is not my favorite part of HDL. Things went downward a tinge in the last couple eps. Ep16 was too slow, sappy, & drawn out. It's always sad when the wrap up of a great story is the worst part of it.
We watch them & all the staff develop individually & as a unit. To avoid any jolts to the system pay attention. The show creators will tell you where they are headed: Believe them. We don't see much of what happens going forward, which is a little letdown. That is why viewers are clamoring for a S2.
Things are mostly looking way up at HDL, though. This is appropriate to watch with kids that are around the ages of 12& up. The feel is almost Disneyesque. There's some elements (evil ghosts, murders) that are too scary for children of single-digit age, who would struggle with the subtitles anyway. HDL offers valuable lessons, such as forgiveness, & Koo is a walking ethics handbook.
While you may not get 100% customer satisfaction, make sure to check-in anyway. This is a hotel, & a show, like no other. I'm a little sad, but also very bedazzled.
⛔️SPOILER SECTION⛔️
From tidbits to broad strokes, here's some additional insights into HDL.
In the way of laughs and delight〰️>
The pool is actually a yacht-worthy ocean with sunlight-levels to order. HDL even has an amusement park. Who wants to go! Uh, hang on... I can wait a while for that, I guess. The entrance fee is steep.
After Koo starts putting his whole heart into the job, Koo finds out that he was the /3rd/ choice for manager. Having been 'committed' to the job for 25 years & presuming himself indispensable, he's shocked. The staff calls him 'Mr. 3rd choice' behind his back.
The way she got him back to the hotel when he passed out was by possession. It's best that Koo not know.
How could you say "no" to having a beer with the Grim Reaper!? SANCHEZ!
In the way of romance〰️>
The Romance between these 2 is magnificent. Koo actually pursues Jang. She exposed the tiniest opening & he wedged it wide to occupy all the empty space. It inspires a smidge of awe. Before long they are spending most of their time together. They continue the trend Koo started by conversing in metaphors. For example, when Jang says: "The sea is beautiful tonight. It makes me a little sad." She looks Koo in the eye & says: "I'm sad because it's more beautiful than it was before." They feel for e/o, but they haven't fully acknowledged it to themselves, so they can't express it yet. As their feelings deepen, they both want to protect e/o. Next, they begin matching. It grows from there. Once she gets past wanting to kill him, they match more completely & start to reflect e/o. He closes one episode by declaring: "You are devouring all my nights & all my dreams: Admit it, he just laid down a 🎤drop! Another time, Koo tells Jang: "The view is much better now that I'm with you." Koo's so smooth he could write dating primers. They show us the apex of his masculinity when Jang, in an attempt to coerce him into the cat print suit, threatened to take his clothes off if he didn't wear it. He looked at her & said: "Can you handle it?" She froze for a moment. He ain't weak at all.
In the way of heartbreak 〰️>
We see heavy foreshadowing in the rose he gave her: It's fragile & will wilt eventually. Some things are left oblique, such as the sex of the last Yun family baby, or the non-answer to the "capricious" deities that don't seem to be fair.
It was obvious they would be resolving grudges for the staff. It might have been better if they spread it out a little more. We don't see what happens to anyone going forward, which is another letdown. The ending is not to my liking. At all. Their relationship is priceless. They have so little time together once they settle into it.
I get it: Koo let Jang go. He made the choice. The show creators chose the ground rules they constructed, though, and not only are their constraints somewhat severe, but they don't always make sense. Worse, is that they are inconsistent, at times. Early on, we're told the tree looks dead because time stopped flowing (is dead) for Jang. She didn't die in the series, so why would she have to cross over to the Afterlife? Why would Jang even be sentenced to pay a 1000 year penance? Because she took out the rotten government that abused their power & her people? Does Jang's punishment fit the crime as well as Koo's tiger suit fits him? Jang's horrible circumstances seem worse than she herself is.
I spent most of the series thinking that when Jang's time flows again she'll be able to live her life out with Koo before passing. In fairness, the vibe increasingly felt ill-fated. It's not like they didn't forecast the weather. Nevertheless, I'm going through 5 grief stages over it. Right now I'm angry. YO! It's a fairy tale, for cryin out loud!! Why can't we have a fairy tale ending!? :( looks like I'm sliding into the bargaining phase)...
Mago “straight” asks Koo if she can do him a favor in exchange for the scissors' safe return. Why didn't he ask for more time? Mago used him to work on Jang. She set it all up 25 years ago, perhaps longer. SHE caused his broken heart. She didn't have to be so stingy… so dang capricious. They're making me hate fate.
Don't tell me that meeting in future lives is a happy ending. One happy life now is worth a hundred ‘possible’ lives later. If they do, indeed, meet up as kimchi & chicken noodles, is that happy? Doubtful. It's understandable that aspects of reincarnation are considered to be romantic. The potential downside is that we could look at all the misery in this world as being deserved by the oppressed due to indiscretions in prior lives. Every living thing could be in jeopardy within that philosophical circle, & compassion & empathy will take on damage under such suppositions, also. The worst thing is that if it turns out to not be true, then it is too cruel to the oppressed.
Things go downward a tinge in the last couple eps. Ep16 is too slow, sappy, & drawn out. It's always sad when the wrap up of a great story is the worst part of it. The saddest thing is that I could be experiencing a warm firefly glow today, instead of anger. Finally, for Jang, running the hotel is a punishment, but it seems to be a reward for the next guy. CAPRICIOUS Mago winks at us again.
Enough of that.
I'm still alittle sad, and I'm also alittle angry, but still bedazzled.
Originally 〰️🖊 10/2021
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A Simple Poem From ☕Where It Is Always Warm
[Spoilers are contained in a separate section at the end]Though it mainly takes place in winter, WTWIF is like a caressing summer breeze. Be still; let it flow over & around you. It's about loneliness & togetherness, as well as pain & healing. One could say that a theme of the show is to 'Come In From The Cold.' Tied into that is what is required to come in from figurative cold: Expressing our feelings. Family & loved ones should know about us, about me, about you. Those that take their feelings to the grave remain in frigid, gloomy isolation.
The words "warm" & "cold," along w/ their variations, are ubiquitous in this series. The concept of temperature is visually represented over & over again, via the weather, beverage choices, characters, blankets, coats, or shoes. They weren't stingy w/ it.
The director wasn't stingy w/ quality craft or scattered embers radiating like beautiful glowing gems. For example, ep3 lays out an allegory for the show during book club. In 'The Legend Of The Silver Fox's Eyebrow,' the fox lends his eyebrow to a person who cannot find a real human. Looking thru the eyebrow reveals the true nature of a person. There were pigs, weasels, & rats, but no genuine humans were found. Imagine the fear & isolation that must follow such a non-discovery. In ep15, Mok Hae-won (“Hwon” played by Park Min Young from Her Private Life-8) expresses her version of this tale.
WTWIF has a unique vibe, like the feel of an indie film (except for Hui's scenes). The soundtrack is extended silence w/ a drizzle of subdued chords. The cadence is slow for 14 eps, & eps15-16 aren't necessarily fast paced, but they are jammed packed. The series seems to be moving at the pace of Eun-seob (ES - the fabulous Seo Kang Joon from Cheese in the Trap-7.7): Plodding, but steady. Around ep7 we're given reason to wonder what the rest of the show could be? By ep15, what came to mind was: Is it almost over already?!😥 What's even happened since ep7?? Charming small town life has happened, along w/ the subdued every day conflicts that don't seem like high drama but for the one living them out.
Speaking of small town life, Jang-woo (Lee Jae Wook from Search: WWW), is special. He understands himself & what he wants, which keeps him #content. Contentment is the #1 ingredient for happiness. He chose his hometown over the glamor of Seoul, as he understands the value of simplicity. We know he's smart, but he is also the /wisest/ of them all & the #1 pillar in the show.
Another delight is Hui, ES's sister (played by Kim Hwan Hee from The Wailing-8.8) who is full of life & J😁Y. She's simply happiness on a bicycle. Her energy is boundless. Her exuberance cannot be squelched. She also can't be stopped, the targets of her affection are learning. While we can't rely on Hui's logic… {If everyone at school hates me, he should be the one that likes me. Hwon: Is that how it works? Hui: of course it is!}... but, perhaps we could benefit from one of Hui's mantras: "That hurts my pride. It really hurts my pride. It hurts my pride SO MUCH!!" Get it out. Expel it! Then move on.
This series was expertly crafted.
Metaphors abound, like the cabin, which represents a locked away heart. ES goes there to be alone w/ his feelings as he's never expressed them to anyone. There's continuous comparing & contrasting, eg, Hwon and ES are contrasted. They each had a childhood w/ an intact family. They later lost their parents to abandonment, death & prison. The /difference/ is temperature. ES's family IS 🔥warmth. IES is quiet 🔥. Hui is expansive 🔥, Mom is protective 🔥, & Dad is the fuel that keeps everyone going. Hwon's family is cold. Crybaby, the word-smith, encapsulates the situation when he remarks: "This family is not clingy at all." It's a great, understated laugh line in the context. It isn't that they don't love, it's that their emotional capacity runs so deeply that they've been dragged down into solitary depths.
There’s mirroring, especially between Hwon, Mom, & Aunt. Hwon mirrors both of them & they mirror e/o. Metaphors blanket WTWIF. When ES takes Hwon to her childhood home, she acknowledges that she heard it had fallen into ruin - a metaphor for the family. It continues through Mom, who informs that she fixed the house up "well," & sold it "well." That fix-up process has begun for their family too. Images link characters. Hwon is connected to mom & aunt via lollipops & sunglasses. They don the sunglasses to hide hurt. Lollipops are most likely self-comfort - having something sweet when life turns bitter.
Genetics & the concept of family are touched on - mostly implied, but at times overtly. ES's uncle talks about what's in the family blood. He states it can't be denied, & pushes hard for ES to go away w/ him. This sets up the direct comparison of ES's family to Hwon’s family.
Several of the townspeople take delight in belittling ES, b/c they've passed judgment, calling his parents hobos. His adopted mother (Nam Ki Ae from Confession) is having none of that. She protests when they dispatch ES to rescue people lost in the mountain, claiming they care nothing about him or whether he's in danger. Another time, she declares that she's decided to love ES /more/ to avoid any perception of playing favorites. Her motherly love for ES is absolute, & she never hesitates to express it. She's pillar #2.
Hwon is drawn to ES like a weary traveler to a cozy seat by the hot coals. ES is always wrapping a coat, blanket, or his arms around her & she can't get enough of it. After the miserable truth about her family history is exposed to Hwon, she runs away to be alone w/ her thoughts. ES finds her on a bench & wraps his coat around her as the camera pans down to a small heater. He holds her. ♨Warmth. Such comforting warmth🔥. She can't get enough of it. She's been an ice sculpture for so long, that once she experiences his comfort, she (literally) latches on to him. It's quite sweet. If one thinks about it, warmth is simple. Coldness is complicated. “Simplifying” is another theme of the show. Think: Jang-woo.
The Maze Of Sisterfield… The topic of domestic violence is addressed. We witness a woman, days away from death on a hospital bed, who has bruises from a recent beating. In typical fashion, she lies about it. These women exist in a harsh climate that yields no space for compassion or pity; only cold condescension. It's a commentary on the collective, not on the women as individuals.
Severe, or continuous pain can change a person. Like forgetting how a person looked when young, a soul in chronic pain can forget what it's like to be well. After awhile, many that suffer long-standing pain struggle w/ even desiring to be healed: They can no longer visualize it. I've witnessed this. One cannot have a goal that s/he cannot comprehend, perceive, or are too frozen solid to carry out. The ones that love Hwon are unable to communicate it. They genuinely don't think they deserve it. They are icicles lined up next to e/o that never come together. When the weather is fine, they must melt to combine as water; then they can flow together.
Mom was trying to protect everyone, but she ended up isolating them all for a very long time. Her motivation was love, but she failed to express it. Hwon rightly told her: "If we're family, we should share the pain together." Bo-yeong muses that no relationship is flawless, but we can eat on a table that has a crack. Over time, stress cracks are bound to form in relationships (as long as they aren't forming /overtime/!). We hurt, apologize, forgive & move on. That's how we need to live. Everyone needs to find their space in which to thaw & breathe.
Hopefully, Aunt & Crybaby will find their space. How STUBBORN can a person be, especially when it's to h/h detriment? The show tells us that some people never let go of the white-knuckled grip they have on their emotions. Aunt is self censured, w/ ice cold resolve to carry out the sentence she's required of herself: Denied love & marriage, denied medical treatment & pain relief, shaded from the world & most human interactions. She treats Crybaby like she treats herself. If she is going to deny herself & live in misery, then Crybaby will just have to accept it. He is more special to her than she will acknowledge. If she lets him go for good, she'll regret it. Aunt hasn't fully blinded herself yet, thankfully. At the end of the show we see a developing fissure in the tundra via the hint of a smile. Aunt shows additional evidence of defrost when she implores Mom to write a letter to Hwon. Aunt warns that Mom's motivations will remain a secret forever if not explained. Communication must begin. Then healing is sure to follow.
The director, Han Ji Seung of Mistress, dedicates extended screen time to celebrate the arrival of spring. Hwon can tell it's getting warmer, she says, b/c her breath is fogging up only half the distance as before. The rain starts. Thunder rumbles. Vivid green buds cover the trees. Everybody is talking about the beautiful weather. Spring will welcome hope & simple triumphs.
Oh Dear, I've called this series a poem. We learned the difference between poetry & prose from #2🦄. Did I already forget?
Okay, review:
In the simplest terms, prose is everyday writing. It covers all the different types of writing one reads daily, from blogs, to articles, to novels.
Poetry adds artistic style to writing. It's all about vivid imagery & rhythm. It works to make you feel something, or to drive a point home. Poetry writers select their structure, rhyme scheme, pattern, & words w/ the purpose of arousing emotion.
Nope, it's a poem.
Quotes:
Warmth🔥: It's when my cold hand touches your cold hand and we both become warm. It's when loneliness meets loneliness and becomes cozy. It's when sadness meets sadness and becomes happiness. It's when cold breeze meets cold breeze and becomes soft snow. That is Warmth.
Make a choice☑◻: If you cannot just love, you cannot just give your heart, you can just give up on the happiness you would gain from loving.
Happiness and unhappiness are like the sides of a coin. If you don't become happy, there is no reason to become unhappy. If you don't possess you cannot lose, you can just disappear from that certain person's sight forever.
⛔️SPOILER SECTION⛔️
The following contains additional insights that might be considered spoilers.
ES grew up on the mountain. He was young when his parents abandoned him. Mr. Im found him & took him home to Mrs. Im's open arms. His early life experiences had left him emotionally untethered. Once Hwon came into his life he was able to start expressing himself. The townspeople call the "hobo boy" to help find people lost on the mountain, and mom fights it, saying they care nothing about putting him in danger.
ES's uncle talks about what's in the family blood & how it can't be denied. When he pushes hard for Eun-seob to leave w/ him, his biggest mistake was to declare that no one in the family can live w/ anybody else, as ES's birth parents already demonstrated. Uncle doesn't realize that ES has learned something better. Despite his (new) family's fears, there was no way ES was going back.
What's in MHW, Mom, & Aunt's blood? Isolation, shutting down, shutting out others, & retreat are family failings. In a later episode Hwon tells Mom: “You were all taking care of your own pain, so you threw me away.” Those are brutal words for a mother to hear.
There is more mirroring. Hwon is drawn in by ES like a weary traveler to a cozy seat by the embers. Long before she realizes her feelings, she mirrors ES's mother in being protective of him. We particularly see mirroring between Hwon, Mom, & Aunt. Hwon, believing she was rejected, started wearing sunglasses. The scenes play out between Hwon's confession & ES finally grabbing hold of her, and the pain expressed on her face & body are evidence of exceptional acting. When watching, what came to mind was: I've felt the same way she's feeling.
Hwon picked up another bad habit at home. She retreats. Rather than forgive Bo-yeong, who would have stood by her when things got ugly, she weathers the storm alone in quiet agony. Her silent coldness is her covering to conceal the hurt. Stress cracks allow the chill in to arrest her heart. We will see her thaw beautifully in this series. Both of them thaw & heal.
Hwon's mother makes excuses for her abuser. Eventually she just can't anymore. One day, he's threatening her & aunt while standing in front of the car. She just can't stop her foot from pushing down on the accelerator. While many of us wouldn't have hesitated to hit the gas, upon reflection, it's understandable that taking a life would be devastating for a decent person. Even if "Brother-In-law was "deserving of it," even if it's in self-defense, Mom & Aunt's reactions aren't too extreme. This was a man capable of love & generosity. He was a wonderful father to Hwon. The gravity of the situation is crushing them.
Once the truth of what happened to her father is exposed, Hwon's frozen core was hit by a sledgehammer & shattered. At the height of her pain, Hwon tells ES, in a Silver Fox paraphrase: "I'm so scared. I don't know what people are really like. I keep getting fooled. I can't believe anything of what they say or the things I had believed in." She talks about the hurt of not being told by her family about anything that's going on. In talking-the-cold-logic of right & wrong, she asks ES if that's right. ES's response is warm emotion. He says: "...(your mom) probably lived all those years carrying the burden in your stead." Mom was trying to protect everyone, but only ended up isolating everyone. Her motivation was love, but she failed to express it. Hwon rightly tells her: "If we're family, we should share the pain together."
Just like when she believed she was rejected by ES, the truth is that Hwon is loved more than she's ever imagined: It's just been hidden from her. How /can/ anybody know they are loved if they aren't told in word or deed? The ones that love MHW are unable to communicate it. We hurt e/o, but wise people apologize, forgive & move on. Everyone needs to find their space in which to live, breathe, and thrive.
Spring winds that had carried Hwon to Seoul later deliver her back to Walnut House. She's ready to plant roots & bloom. While she hated teaching music to children at the beginning of WTWIF, she's now content w/ it. Simplifying her life has allowed her to be at peace & to latch on to ES for all seasons to come.
Originally 〰️🖊 9/2021
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⬜️Fun with Light & Shadow ⬛ Slightly Silly ❣ Yet Utterly Adorable °Excellent°
I've always said that if you aren't willing to at least risk being tacky, you won't have any fun.That's one of the themes of this show. The opening line is: "All Children Are Artists." As we see when the group later goes to an orphanage, the children take pure joy in expressing & sharing of themselves. They aren't worried about critics or reviews.
This show introduces us to Duk-mi. She's an energetic, hard working & passionate person who lives in Technicolor. A once aspiring artist, Duk-mi is now the curator of a privately owned museum. Her job is not ideal as she, along with her suggestions, are rarely respected. Duk-mi is not easily suppressed, though. She does her job with verve. She also has a secret life away from the museum. If found out, she would be fired. You see, Duk-mi …🥁🥁🥁… Is a "fan😍girl." {GASP!} Pop singer Si-an is the recipient of her affection, and she is not alone.
Fangirls are a sisterhood of women, ALL devoted to a star. Besides knowing ALL the music and ALL the useless trivia about their idol, to be a true fangirl, one must be at ALL the star's public appearances. This includes ALL airport arrivals and book signings, not just concerts. ALL this dedication is neither easy nor cheap. We watch Duk-mi go from the museum, straight to a Si-an appearance lugging a step ladder & 14 inches of zoom lens. From behind a black mask, she snaps her photos & heads home, where we see how deeply her obsession is etched onto her being. Her studio apt is a giant Si-an collage. It's jammed with every souvenir of which one could conceive - posters, dolls, the requisite cardboard cutout & even Si-an pillows... Even a water bottle, half full, that Si-an threw to the crowd once. (I said 'half full' out of habit. This water bottle is definitely half-empty!). It's basically the tackiest decorating ever - Even worse than Bette Mildler’s in Ruthless People.
We then meet Ryan (Conventional. Condescending. Cheerless). He's an artist turned lauded NYC critic. A mental block has severed him from his craft. He can dip a brush 🎨, but he can't touch it to the canvas. As a critic he isn't known to look at many pieces for more than 3 seconds (<1 sec is typical, 2+ could launch a new artist). He stopped creating art when a painting of 🫧 bubbles arrested his gaze. Believing it was Stendhal Syndrome ('When exposed to an incredible work of art, one may experience a rush of psychological symptoms.') he sees a psychiatrist. His therapy was going the way of his paint brushes, though: Nowhere. It's a mystery in the NYC art scene, as is the artist, Lee Sol, who brushed on those 🫧 that popped Ryan's career. Nobody seems to know anything about the painter.
The first time Duk-mi and Ryan meet is at an art auction in Shanghai. They fight over a painting. The painting is of 🫧soap bubbles🫧. Artist: Lee Sol.
Duk-mi knows that "her SI-AN" is a fan of Lee Sol's work. Every year, The Road To Si-an webpage pools money from fans to buy a big gift for the object of their adoration. Her boss thinks it's merely a work trip, but Duk-mi's real mission is to get that 🖼 for Si-an. She loses. She tries to talk Ryan into surrendering the painting to her. He looks at her like she's a lunatic. Fate is at work; these 2 have 2 other chance meetings, though they both don't put it all together until later.
Duk-mi's boss, the director/owner of the museum, is a garrish, overweening tyrant. She is played by the great Kim Sun-young, who's clearly having the time of her life in the role & in those preposterous outfits. She makes Duk-mi miserable. Fortunately, her husband is embroiled in a scandal, so she must step down temporarily.
You get one guess as to who the next director is.
They don't blend well.
That should adequately lay out the paints on the 🎨: Except for their overlapping love of art, Duk-mi & Ryan, a Korean adopted overseas, have opposite existences. They are compared & contrasted in visual ways. Dude's home is painted a deep Wedgwood blue. While it's a pretty color, when it covers 4 walls it only reflects his current bleakness. Taste aside, Duk-mi's room is vibrant. She's open, which is why she can feel art so intuitively. She's full of love and passion. Ryan is dried up like old paint.
Ryan becomes drawn-in by hearing Duk-mi talk about works of art. With admiring fondness, she seems to be able to scry an artist's thoughts & emotions. He becomes fascinated with her w/o realizing it or thinking about why. Fascination leads to close observation. (😱! Don't look behind the mask!) We can feel doom approaching. What will Ryan, who is from that snotty NYC art world, think if he ever discovers HPL?
Another theme is family & togetherness. Duk-mi's parents created a home where all are welcomed. Duk-mi's mother is, well, /motherly/. She wants to feed and love-on everybody that comes through their door. They even raised Eun-gi - from birth - for an overwhelmed single mother. He & Duk-mi consider themselves siblings. Fellow fangirl, Seon-joo, who runs the local coffee shop, is Thelma to Duk-mi's Louise. The office, Duk-mi's apt, the museum, the coffee shop, and her parents place are all frequent gathering spots. Duk-mi's life is shared with family, and friends-that-are-family.
Ryan's life is solitude. That's why he's angry when Duk-mi pokes around his place when he's not there. He seems to have no one.
The two seem to fall for eachother quickly, though it takes them a few eps to realize it. While the falling-in-love is usually the funnest thing in a romance, in the case of Duk-mi & Ryan, I found the series even more entertaining after they get together. The way they mix it up is sensational; their relationship is pure enjoyment. Duk-mi smiles with her whole being. She smiles a lot. At first it seemed overdone, but it's rather by design. She is the SUN that warms him back up. Art is all about light. Ryan couldn't step forward until he came out of the darkness. His first steps towards healing were in Duk-mi's direction.
There are mysteries to be solved, secrets to be revealed, and singers to love in the balance of the show.
HPL also sketched in some laughs. They have trouble with R-r-ryan's name, so they call him “Lion”. Eun-gi tells Da-ni that she'd be an annoying friend. She looks at him and says: "You're a good judge of character." We understand Duk-mi's obsessive side when we get a full look at her family home: It's genetic. The two protags are in a chess game over a notebook and the truth about Duk-mi, which is amusing. Generating laughter could be the trickiest art of all, and HPL sells it.
Poor Eun-gi. He's coming in 2nd again. He wins the silver medal (again) in scoring his gf. Duk-mi was just a primer, actually. He certainly has a type! In my ledger, Eun-gi‘s gf won: Eun-gi is arguably more attractive, & he's protective, loyal, appreciative, chill, great to hang out with, and... Well, did you /see/ that shower scene?? That actor probably has fangirls himself. Nuff of that...
While HPL is certainly silly, and completely adorable, romance-wise, it can also be profound. The following exchange is a free therapy session: Seon-joo's TV producer husband is pushed into doing an 'expose’ show on 'crazy' fans. He hides this from Seon-joo, and even secretly copies files from her computer. When she finds out, she could have foamed up milk with no machine. She was STEAMED. He tries to explain, with the most positive framing, all the good reasons why he made the show, including securing the transfer she had wanted him to get. Fangirl nails it. She might be silly, but she ain't dumb. She asks if it was all for /her/ sake then? He says no, he didn't "mean that..." She responds:
"Do you know what I really hate about you right now? If you've hurt me, you should just remain as the assailant. Why are you using me as an excuse to act like a victim? Do you expect me to understand and pity you in this situation?"
He replies that he shouldn't have waited to tell her, and he's not sure why he stalled with that. She comes back at him again:
"Do you want to know why you didn't tell me beforehand? It's because you didn't feel the need to. You knew I'd throw a fit later on, but you were simply going to escape that moment." In finishing, she informs him that he didn't talk to her because he was already determined to do it.
One of the excuses he used was that it was all for their son. Her response: "You used my precious family as a weapon to stab me, and {your son} as a shield to hide behind. It was a nasty and cowardly move."
Perhaps that exchange will be useful for your next relationship argument. She later says that 'in a relationship there are things that cannot be resolved with logic. This is a matter of emotion.' Well put.
There are disappointments: No big "reveal" to Si-an, we don't see the exposé show & leaving a child at the playground?! C'mon. They could have done plenty of things better, but the positives redeem it. It's good enough to hang in your gallery.
The most important takeaway from HPL is that a loving and caring family unit can do a lot of good. Duk-mi and her mother make numerous lives better. Duk-mi's mother gets the credit as she raised Duk-mi. We ran the “open house" in our neighborhood. We are close with many of the kids still, and we even Christmas with two of the brothers that were fixtures in our home for a few years. We can't go after everything we want AND love others. The two are exclusionary. The odd thing is that helping others is more fulfilling than going after everything we want.
Quote: In Korea, if you kiss and don't go out, they send you to jail.
Originally 〰️🖊 9/2021
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Joseon-Seoul Drift ~⚕️~ Doctors Without⏳Borders °VG° °7.6°
This one had me on pins and needles😁. {Oh, dear. Many apologies. I had to excise that from my system. Okie dokie, moving on...}I wasn't enthusiastic about LUTYN a couple episodes deep. It didn't spike my interest. It almost seemed too ridiculous and I wasn't getting the point. It's a house rule that the whole series must be watched prior to weighing in (intolerable, stabbing pain being the exception). Some shows are perfected or impaled in the final episodes, therefore, prodding - um, plodding on was the only choice.
It paid off like hidden treasure.
The show's premise is that Dr. Heo Im, the most famous and gifted physician/acupuncturist from the Joseon era, suddenly time slips to the 21st century. While a 400 year jump would put a strain on anybody, he penetrates 21st century society uncommonly well. The primary reason is that his skills are still relevant and on📍point for modern-day.
Dr. Heo Im undergoes a remarkable transition (healing) in the course of the show. His touching relationship with Ha-ra (it's precious) is enough reason to stick with this series. The interactions with Bong-sik and Mom are almost as sweet. Watching Dr. Choi Yearn-keyong (played by Kim A-Joong, who makes 200 Pounds Beauty-6.5 worth watching) and Dr. Im circling round eachother, while the circles become a tightening loop that stitches one to the other, is pure pleasure.
One coincidence after another keeps him and Dr. Choi poking into eachother. She, understandably, thinks he's screwy. Eventually, she is forced to believe him as they are thrust into, and stuck in, many harrowing situations while they try to understand what in the wide world is going on. It's not a new concept, but LUTYN tells a great story in a skillful way that punctured my bubble of resistance. One scene that was particularly cute was when they played some carnival style games. She's better at throwing darts and popping 🎈🎈🎈 than Mr. Needle is.
LUTYN has a light-hearted feel, but it also managed to sting my eyes on a couple occasions. They also address some piercing questions that prickle beyond mere medical ethics. It's shot (filmed) well, and while LUTYN is not a high budget feature, the battle scene is impressive. Dr. Im's patients aren't the only ones that get skewered.
The biggest head-scratcher, from my perspective, is how they failed to prepare and equip Dr. Im with the best tools for the final penetration, er - mission. It's difficult to elaborate without spoilers, so we'll leave it there, lest I pierce your eyes. The ending is better than the average. Too many Kdramas have rushed, or tacked-on endings. The cadence on LUTYN is perfect. They 🔨nail it.
The soundtrack is solid. The action song, which is the title track, nicks beats from the 80's. It's similar to the ROCKY theme, but perhaps, even better. "Troubleshooter" is a get-ready-to-go that's jazzy, and has a pinch of a 70's/80's cop show sound. "Not gonna wait," and "Fate" also snagged my interest and are inserted into my playlists.
My recommendation: Have a little trust, stick around, and give 4 or 5 episodes a 💉 before you seek a second opinion.
QUOTE📢
You get angry at others for your own mistakes.
〰🖍 IMHO
⚡6 🎬7.5 🤔5 🎭8 💓7 🦋5
Age 12+
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Modern Day -
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;
My Mister 9.5;
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9;
Historical/Period -
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl / Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo 8.5;
Saimdang 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9
Action/Sci-fi/fantasy -
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
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
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 historical fantasy romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese lite 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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⏳BONG BONG ⚙ Sing A Song ... Say What!?! ..... Drop It Down.... ⏱H, yeah.....⌛ °8.7°
This show is seriously funny, especially the first half, so... Drop in!I had just watched Live Up To Your Name-7.6 which involves time travel to/from the Joseon period, so redundancy was a concern. Turns out, there was no need to worry, tee-hee.
There's nothing novel about entertainment features that portray time travel to a romanticized past era, anyway. Not only is the contrast between different cultures fascinating, but the fact that people are the same, no matter the circumstances, resonates.
Did I say fascinating? Not on this show. This show displays that the differences are HILARI🤣US.
What's so funny, you ask? Driving a big van through a cramped Joseon shopping district- after beheading the "monster" (the van) didn't work. Pulling out a 99cent lighter and causing panic. Teaching the Joseans "2 thumbs up👍🏽," drinking games, or slang. Fine, it's all been done before, but this show reaches into the backseat and pulls out the laughs. It's all giggles until a misplaced history book almost wipes out Korea entirely. Oh my. What should we do?
The van, Bong-Bong, is the most intelligent of the characters. Bong-Bong clearly has an agenda, and drives the plot, ahem.
Speaking of characters, we have the petulant actress, the greedy flimflam artist, the Mute Ninja who communicates with his mind, the escaped princess, the villain (a narcissist in full bloom), and more.
I loved this corny little show. The episodes are all just 30 minutes, so each one is its own brief escape. Bong-Bong may take me anywhere. Let him (yes, Bong-Bong is a male, even though On-dal calls him 'my lady' throughout) anyway, let him take you through 20 fun filled episodes. You won't want to return!
You have reached your destination.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣9 📝7 🎭8 💓8 🦋8 🌞6 🎨7 ⚡6 🎵/🔊8 😅7 😭3 😱3 😯3 😖3 🤔5 💤0 🔚10
Age13+
R language F💣 X 4 which is later played back
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Out Of The Chrysalis ➰️ Into Self Awareness ➰️ An Art School Fable About Taking Wing VG 7.6
Right from the start I'm thinking:"Yo! Oh NO! Women and girls don't need to be watching this!"
This story follows the lives of art students, particularly Nabi's group of friends. Though the focus is on their love lives, the stresses of classes, projects, competitions, and future plans factor heavily in the story. The protagonist is Yu Nabi, a beautiful and talented but resigned, student.
The show starts with her painful break-up. She is then quickly seduced by the powerfully sexual Park Jae-eon (Song Kang from Sweet Home-8.5 & Navillera), who is a notorious womanizer. They couldn't be more different, except for the "road closure" signs on the way to their hearts. She starts a physical relationship with him but continually doubts him. He never asked for more anyway. This type of dude is not good in real life. Users like this tend to be on the sociopathic scale. Naive girls will think the can change him, that they'll succeed where other women have failed. It won't work, girls. You will get your heart shredded.
"It's making me so uncomfortable," was my thought, from EP 2 through midway when there was a plot shift. At the same time, I was also thinking that the director & actors handled the seduction scenes well. They are as steamy as the kitchen in a noodle restaurant. Nabi moves on to other guys. She has no shortage of admirers herself. These relationships may make her more at ease, but there are clearly no sparks, such as the ones Jae-eon ejects when he's performing his craft.
My method is: No reviews without watching the entire show, intolerable pain being the exception. If I had broken it off with Nevertheless in the early episodes, which I was not enjoying, I would've had a much different opinion than I now do after watching every frame. A solid 25% (it seems) of the early episodes consists of Nabi staring with an emptiness that showcases how a hammer shattered her fragile shell. Her emotional core is pulverized. She's struggling with school. Nothing is going right. She's shut down.
Nabi brightens up in the very last scene, when she settles on the next step in the direction of her future. She smiles radiantly, her voice lifts an octave or so, her words suddenly flow with ease: She's confident. There was so much transformation in that last smiling sentence that it was breathtaking.
The director, Kim Ga Ram (Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency -7.4), created her own piece of art in this series. This is Kim Ga-ram's third effort. All three are rated solidly with an increase in the IMDB rating for each one. We should be looking forward to more excellent offerings from Ms Kim. Screenwriter, Jung Won, is just getting started.
Not only was Nabi's transformation handled aptly, but there are many scenes that are excellent, with imagery and metaphors noticeable in the first watch. (Another go-through would only reveal more.) In Ep9, for example, Do-hyeuk gives Nabi an umbrella. He told her it will rain. He has an extra umbrella. Cut to Jae-eon who looks out at the deluge, umbrellaless. Do-hyeuk was prepared for heartache. He had braced himself. He was ready for rain. Heartache snuck up on Jae-eon. He never saw it coming. Several others in the extended group, who had been longstanding friends, also pair up. Their romances were all done well.
Adorned with a butterfly tattoo on the back of his neck, Jae-eon claims it means: The ugliness & pain of happiness & a lack of freedom. While Jae-eon has looks, money, talent, and popularity, which are all things that people believe will make them happy, he's not happy. He's lived free with many women, which left him not free to pursue a meaningful relationship. It's obvious that Jae-eon's dingy apartment -it's almost grayscale- is emblematic of his closed off heart. "Nabi" means butterfly. Nabi emerges from her chrysalis at the end of the show. That emergence had nothing to do with a man. The criticism of Nevertheless promoting toxic relationships is not fair. Nabi's confidence, in the end, was from, by, and through HER, not anyone else. This show is a cocoon that yields it's beauty right on time.
The sculpture on which Nabi labours for the entire semester appears lackluster, just as Nabi does. She takes a step toward joining society by finally taking on assistants. The reveal for finished works will be the end of semester art show. What's on display is Nabi herself. Nabi's piece has taken up wings to fly. The process and the show are the stages of a butterfly. The matured Nabi powers through her entrapments in full stained glass splendor. She might as well fuse with her sun-catcher and bracelet.
This is a well-crafted show. I would give it a rating of around 7.6, but it doesn't rise to the level of a solid 8. The director will likely be there with her next effort. Nevertheless, this series is well worth watching. It's not like the 3' deep cutesy romances. The director has crafted something more complex. In fact, I would classify this as a drama about self-awareness and self-liberation first, and a romance second.
QUOTE📢
Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne~
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬8 🤔6 🎭8 💓6 🦋8 ⚡1
Age 15+
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Modern Day:
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love to Hate You 8.9;
Oh My Ghost 10;
Our Blues 8.7 - ensemble piece;
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9;
Love Struck in the City 7.3;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9;
Action/Sci-fi/fantasy:
Signal 8.6;
The Cursed 8.3;
Flower of Evil 8.9;
The Man from Nowhere 8.9;
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
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 Blows7
Something in the Rain 9
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