50FiftillidideeBrain

⚔ 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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✒ 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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So Simple ☕️ But Soo-joon Will Make You Swoon °6.8° °good°

WWWSK is a mini romantic getaway. A just-for-fun romcom, there's nothing else going on. The leads are special actors. Park Min-young. (Secretary Kim) always delivers. Once again, she is quite lovely in this show. She wears fluid tops, feminine outfits, soft colors, and she always looks good. Park Soo-joon seems to be having a corkin time playing an egotistical boss. He actually makes the show. WWWSK is a 2018 release that is rated 85 on AWiki. WWWSK is 1 season consisting of 16 60ish-minute episodes. The directors are Park Joon-Hwa and Yoo Jong-Sun, & it's based on writer Jung Kyung-Yoon's novel. The filming is lighthearted & breezy. Animation accents add to the whimsy.

The setting is at a large company. The current CEO, Lee Young-joon, works for his father, chairdad. He's comically arrogant. He's not the least bit mean-spirited, however; he just seems a little silly. Secretary Kim is his personal assistant, and has been for 10 years. In ep1, she gives notice.

He's a bit surprised but tries to act cool. Gradually, we see that things aren't cool with him at all. He tries to fathom how she could leave such a wonderful boss as he. To understand what her struggles and concerns are, we must get to know her more, & he will have to get to know her quite a bit more. He also has a lot to learn about the complex world of interpersonal relationships. It's certainly no spoiler to say that they get together rather early in the show and the rest of it is trying to work out some of the struggles that they've had from back to the time they each were children.

Their first struggle in dating is how they fall back into the old habits of boss and secretary. She's making the reservations, when they're eating she's taking care of all his needs: His handkerchief, cell phone, making sure everything's laid out right. The restaurant employees look at each other and say: 'Wow, she seems more like a secretary than his girlfriend'.

He wants to spend more time with her, so he starts to lighten her load at work. He goes to makes his own copies, and the other employees almost have a stroke😮. Once his task is completed, and he goes back to his office, he peeps out to her sitting at her desk in the foyer area. He points at the copies. He points at himself. He's /so proud/ of himself. It's cute.

He tries to take her places that she would enjoy, which lands them at an amusement park. He gets his first 🎢 coaster ride. Through the entire thing he sits upright, arms crossed, chin up, looking like he's on the bow of a ship. E'erbody else is squealing. It's good for some chuckles.

The supporting story arcs and romances are even more fun. Hwang Chan Sung (True to Love, My Holo Love-6.8) is the frugalmiser, and Go Gwi Nam & Pyo Ye Jin (Taxi Driver) plays the observant Kim Ji Ah. Hwang Bo Ra (Vagabond-8, Arang and the Magistrate) is the Kewpie-faced, curly-locked Bong Se Ra (she's a cutie) and Kang Hong Suk (Hotel del Luna-8.4) portrays Yang Cheol, a big-ol teddy bear. One guy in the office knows absolutely everything. He doesn't share any of it until precisely the correct time. When they're all standing around talking and wondering about something, he'll be the resource of all information. It's a funny running bit, especially given how assured and authoritative his character is when he's giving out information. Fabulous child actors help light up this production.

WWWSK suffers a smidge from what I've labeled “MAL-content”. They don't seem to have enough content to fill up the whole show. It starts to wander about two-thirds of the way in and loses focus. The plot isn't tight; it's a little sloppy. Some of the personality changes are too fluid.
8.1? This is rated 8.1 on IMDB, 8.3 on MDL, and 85 on AWiki. I was so excited to watch it - I saved it for when I needed a “sure-thing" and didn't want to take a chance. So I couldn't help but be disappointed. It makes me feel lonely, because there is no day of the week WWWSK deserves such a generous rating. I get it - the show is cute, and it's better than most of the junk that loveless Hollywood puts out. Shows should not be rated on technical aspects alone as a show that doesn't touch the emotional core is missing something. Conversely, an emotional connection will cause us to overlook all kinds of faux pas.

New viewers to Asian programming will overrate the first couple things they see out of sheer joy that this entertainment wonderland has opened up to them. The leads are each fabulous, in their own rights. I saw WWWSK early in my Asian programming addiction. For a long time I just took notes but was suffering from an extreme illness and I got (almost hopelessly) behind on completing the reviews and posting them. I've since seen PMY in When the Weather is Fine-9 and Her Private Life-8, as well as a couple other shows in which her performance is better than the sum of the total production. Chemistry? She's Walter White - a walking chemistry set. She's fabulous in every role. I fell for Mr. Park from watching A Witch's Love-7.8. Additionally, I'm currently in the waning episodes of Itaewon Class. What an actor. He doesn't look the same at all. He has a serious and tragic part to play in IC, so it makes sense that he seems to be having the time of his life in this role. It makes sense that these 2 actors have beaucoup fans, and those fans are likely to view anything that they are in positively.

No doubt, WWWSK is a fun ride to take. But the romance itself is barely above average, it's IQ is medium-low, the plot has some weak points (particularly the backstory). There's lots of lesser known shows that are rated lower but are of better quality. Some examples are: Familiar Wife-8.5, Touch your heart-8.2, and Love Struck in the City 7.3 (I have to watch LSitC again. I liked it when I watched it quite a bit. Parts of the ending disappointed me, particularly with the secondary relationship, though I think they'll be fine going forward. It's stuck in my brain. I keep remembering it more and more fondly. I think there's something that my subconscious is telling me I missed. I'm going to have to revisit it and update my score eventually). These directors are capable and each have better shows. Park Joon-Hwa directed Touch your heart, Alchemy of Souls-8.3 and Because This Is My First Life (7.7 it's mostly exceptional but for the last 2 episodes), while Yoo Jong-Sun directed the fabulous Descendants of the Sun-8.3. Just go into this with your expectations set-to-mid and you shouldn't be disappointed.

In one sad scene, parents refuse psych treatment for a traumatized child. Saying “no” reflexively is a bad habit. Watching Kdramas is a good habit. WWWSK is imminently watchable - it's a good show. Romfans won't want to quit it early.


〰🖍 IMHO

📣6.5 📝6 🎭7.8 💓6 🦋6.4 🌞7 🎨7 ⚡3 🎵/🔊6 😅6 😭4 😱3.7 😯3 😖2 🤔4 💤3 🔚8

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

Workplace Romances:
Crazy Love-7.8,
Touch your heart 8.2,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Her Private Life 8,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Oh My Ghost 10,
Be Melodramatic-8.7,
Hospital Playlist 9,
Call It Love-8.4,
My Mister 9.5,
C🇨🇳: Find Yourself-8.9,
Boss & Me-7


🌐Modern Day -
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Familiar Wife-8.5,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Cheese in the Trap-7.7,
Our Blues-8.5,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9
Something in the Rain-8.6,


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

⚡️/🛸 -
Flex X Cop-8.5,
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Tunnel 8.5,
Why Her?-8,


💓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,

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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✒Homo Gestalt 〰❇〰 Thwarted Takeover °6.9° °Good°

Homo Gestalt - goog it, and you'll get the following response: “In the novel, More Than Human, homo gestalt is a mature gestalt consciousness that is considered the next step in human evolution. The novel is about six people with extraordinary powers who are able to "blesh" their abilities together, acting as one organism.” That's similar to what we see in PTG.

It is a 2024 release, rated 91 on AWiki & 100/81 on RT, and consisting of 1 season of 6 60-minute brain-eating episodes. It's based on the anime, Parasyte the Maxim-8.9, which is based on the manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki. The anime is just so good. I saw it on Hidive via Prime, which is a mere $5/mo. Per Justwatch, it's currently on Hulu/Disney and Crunchyroll, which recently took over Funimation. I'm an Asian programming junkie, so I can say with authority that there's better shows out there. This is still quite good, and it's entirely watchable. It is just lacking in the high EQ, or emotional quotient that the best Kdramas have. It pales next to Kingdom-8.3, Sweet Home-8.4, The Cursed-8.3, The Wailing-8.8… I could (and probably will) go on. I strongly recommend checking out the anime first for a solid footing on the landscape, here.

Jeon So-nee (Our Blooming Youth, Soulmate) plays Jeong Su-in. When her mom left, her father took his anger out on her. As a tween, she finally called the police on him. Kwon Hae-hyo (Flex X Cop-8.5, Forecasting Love and Weather-6.8) plays Ofr Kim Chul-min. They've shared a bond ever since that day. Su-in believes she was just born rotten to suffer such ill treatment. Koo Kyo-hwan (Extraordinary Attorney Woo, DP-8.4) portrays Seol Kang-woo. This guy is special. He has that “it” factor, and IT has nothing to do with looks.

Lee Jung-hyun (Legend of Ambition, The Admiral: Roaring Currents) portrays Choi Jun-kyung who is one of the government leads charged with handling this scourge of parasitic beings with a high protein diet. She's alittle extra. As the show went on, I thought she dragged it down a touch. She's better in the later episodes. I really thought her gloves were going to come off and reveal some secret, but alas, they're just wardrobe props.

Kim In-kwon (The King's Affection-8.3, Mr. Queen-9) is Kang Won-seok, Ofr Kim's junior. Jeon Hui-jeong (Boyhood) is the voice of The Grey Agent. Yoon Hyun-gil (Yumi's Cells, One Dollar Lawyer) portrays Seol Kyeong-hee, sister to our ML but not anymore - she's been taken over. The actress is fantastic in her stoicism. Lee Hyun-kyun (The Guest, Flower of Evil-8.9) plays a parasite leader, Kwon Hyeok-joo. Screenwriter & Director, Yeon Sang Ho (Kcountry's Stephen King who brought us The Cursed-8.3 & Hellbound-5.5 - both w/ S2 in the works, Train to Busan-7.8, & Psychokinesis) converted this manga to Kanga along with the help of screenwriter, Ryu Yong Jae (Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area).

Courage. Overcoming fear. In the face of an alien invasion, which is what this is, fear takes over and people just want to kill. Rationality gets tossed out. Maintaining the balance of rationality and compassion is the theme. We see duplicitous humans: The police force has a quisling. As always, the politicians are looking out for the people. (No music festival?! The mayor will be running for president! This is his last big event as mayor!! No matter what threat there is, we /have to/ have it❗). The parasytes take on more complexity as they incorporate themselves into our world. “Do you remember the command given to us at birth? Take over a human brain. I believe that means more than take over the brain physically, but to take over the great, living human organization.” Dang. The fake pastor actually sounds like a theologian.

The theme music for the opening credits is boss. The action is killer. The effects are impressive. PTG is good, but it's far from the best K-action thriller I've seen. Episodes 4&5 drag slightly, but ep6 is really good. Perhaps it's a whiff of big budget disease. Big budgets blunt the beating hearts of too many features.

I love the callout to the anime at the end. That's the most important factor. If you've seen and liked the anime, PTG is almost mandatory. If you like action/zombie/alien thrillers, this is easily in the top half of them. If you aren't used to Kdramas, which will only raise your standards over time, don't be scared - you'll definitely gobble it up.


QUOTE📢

Whether you like it or not, you are not alone.


〰🖍 IMHO

📣7 📝6.5 🎭7 🎨8 🎵/🔊7 🔚8 🤗4 ▪ 🌞4⚡8 😅1 😭5 😱4.5 😯4.5 🤢5 🤔5 💤1


Age 15+ violence, gore, cruelty, and language that is occasionally R-rated w/ F💣s. Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.


Re-📺? Probably not.

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


⚡/🚀/😱 -
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2,
Glitch-8,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Uncanny counter season-1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4,
Vagabond-8,
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Sisyphus 8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Revenge of Others-8.6,
Moving-8.3,
Signal 8.6,
Beyond Evil-7.4,
Iris-8,
Blood Free-8.5,
D.P.-8.4,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
Mother-8.8,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
The Wailing-8.8,
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4,
Parasite-9,
Oldboy-9,

As of today, PTM is available on Hidive. Some dubbed titles worthy of a visit of Hidive are:

Maid Sama 10,
Made in Abyss 9 {currently the 3rd movie and S2 are not dubbed. Per Hidive: “Since MADE IN ABYSS: Journey’s Dawn… and MADE IN ABYSS: Wandering Twilight… are compilation movies, you can either watch MADE IN ABYSS season 1 or just the two movies before moving on to the MADE IN ABYSS: Dawn of the Deep Soul…, the third movie is NOT optional”}
Parasyte the Maxim 8.9,
The Eminence in Shadow 8.8,
No Game No Life Zero 8.8,
RahXephon 8.6,
Akame ga Kill! 8.6,
Princess Principal 8.6,
Chihayafuru 8.5,
Girls Last Tour 8.5,
CR Chaika The Coffin Princess 8.4,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4,
Special A Class 8.2,
Food Wars 8.2,
Land Of The Lustrous 8.1,
Girls Und Panzer 8,
Reincarnated as a Sword 8,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU 8,
Gate 7.9,
Ao-chan Can't Study 7.8,
Beyond the Boundary 7.8,
You're Under Arrest 7.8,
Pet Shop of Horrors 7.8,
Hakkenden 7.7,
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun 7.7,
Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? 7.7,
Flowers of Evil 7.7 (not dubbed),
Farming Life in Another World 7.7,
Princess Resurrection 7.6,
Akiba Maid War 7.5,
Real Girl 7.5,
School Live 7.5,
Kokkoku 7.5,
Needless 7.5,
Senryu Girl 7.5,
D4DJ 7.5,
Iria 7.5,
Kokoro Connect 7.4,
Aura Battler Dunbine 7.4,
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall 7.3,
After the Rain 7.3,
BToom! 7.3,
Ice 7.3,
Armed Girl's Machiavellism 7.1,


Honorable Mention: Wasteful Days of High School Girls,
Blue Seed, Patlabor, Get Backers, Clannad, Tsurune, Tada Never Falls in Love, Kino's Journey, Lupin III.

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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): It's 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. She 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 who likes me." Hwon: "Is that how it works?" Hui: "of course it is!"}... 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. ES 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 it's overt. 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, however. 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 Hwon, 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 who love Hwon 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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✒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 in modern days.

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 one another. She, understandably, thinks he's screwy. Eventually, she is forced to believe him: They are thrust into, and stuck inside, many harrowing situations while they try to understand what in the wide world is going on. It's not like he could fabricate what she's seeing and feeling, and collective hallucinations are not as good an explanation as the simple truth: This guy's from the past! 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, additionally, address 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 who get skewered.

The biggest head-scratcher, from my perspective, is how they failed to equip Dr. Im with the best tools for that 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 also 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 with a pinch of 70's-80's-cop-show sound. "Not gonna wait," and "Fate" also snagged my interest and are on my Spotify.

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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✒Snap Crackle POP IT! ⛺️ °8.2° °Excellent°

🍹This show is a long cold draught on a hot day: Refreshing.

MPUB (2020, 12 1hr eps) is a story about the workings of the Afterlife, both up⬆ there, and down⬇ here. Many Afterlifers have jobs, while others have to do community service. Due to the creativity of writers Bae Hye-Soo (webcomic) & Ha Yoon-A, and director, Jeon Chang-Geun (What Happens to My Family?), it's fun to watch them do what they do.

Weol-joo (Hwang Jung Eum from Kill Me, Heal Me) runs a tent bar in Seoul as a front for her real job (eh, court-mandated community service, ahem), which is resolving grudges. She discovers that a local boy, Kang-bae (Yook Sung Jae from Goblin & The Golden Spoon), would be the perfect helper at the bar. That is because Kang-bae has a special talent for getting people to open up - No soju needed. Kang-bae has never been happy about this special talent of his. However, a gig is a gig, so he goes to work with Weol-joo and her bodyguard / Chef, Gwi (Choi Won Young from Under the Queen's Umbrella & Twinkling Watermelon).

Kang-bae is immediately plunged into hazardous assignments. Training is all on-the-job-as-you-go. It's hilarious when they step into a client's deep subconscious without warning Kang-bae of how wildly and inappropriately dangerous their venture is. Only after he screams "BUG!" and almost drops them down the ⬇⤵infinite🕳abyss⤵⬇ (😱❗) do they tell him the downsides of the j.o.b. I actually did L🤣L during that scene.

Another night, when Kang-bae comes to work, he walks through the tent door and enters a sunlit field 🌞. In the background, a jaunty band plays. It's the Afterlife Lottery Games! Next they have him partake in a criminal act that jeopardizes his 😳WN afterlife. Kang-bae can't even begin to get his balance🎢

The first few episodes deal with the stories of various clients. Some are amusing and some are tragic. Later, things take a more personal and dangerous turn. There are quotas to be met. There are bad guys to catch. There is Soju to drink. There are mysteries to be solved. Some have links to events 500 years past.

There's a couple small logical chips on the mug🍺, but the flaws are minor and few. This story is bright, full-bodied, and original. What imaginative delights the writer gave us! The acting and directing are a perfect pour. The cadence is also perfect.

So…crack open a Soju and give it a shot!

IMHO...

🎬8 🤔6 🎭8 ⚡7 💓6 🦋3.

Age 13+

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

Modern Day:
Mad For Each Other 7.8 ~silly fun;
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;
Something in the Rain 9

Historical/Period:
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy;
Live Up To Your Name 7.6;
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;
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4

Consider a Chinese historical fantasy romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose (9.8), Love Between Fairy and Devil (8.9) 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)

Originally 📝 8/2021

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✒☂ Drunk Dialing 4 Dummies ⛈ Dysfunction Under Inspection ☂ °7.8° °Excellent°

Spoilers are clearly marked and at the bottom.

Witches brew: These 3 friends are cursed!

Wu-Yeon(Wu) the 'ex-collector', says she's cursed to be forever trapped in a 1sided ♥️ w/ Su, despite days, mos, years~> Despite the /decade/ that's elapsed. She seems composed, but when alcohol pours in, emotions pour out into Su's voicemail. Wu has a most-of-life crush on Su, who has declared them to be in friendzone⛔️… more than twice, or thrice (or double on ice) for a full decade. Su drops into town & mixes her up, only to exit without leaving a gratuity. That forever leaves Wu forlorn & in need of liquid relief, which leads to slurpee vms on Su's phone. She's a serial drunk-dialer, & her friends are so hungover it. Su might be their friend, but he drags the party down.

Yeong-Hui(Hu) grew up poor, w/ no advantages behind, & only struggles ahead. She's been cursed to a life of toil, poverty, & unworthiness. Hu is 1/2 of the couple mixed within the group. She and her BF struggle to face life's hardships and muddled family pressures, while trying to stay strong together. The only true struggle is that Hu refuses to accept that the man she loves can truly accept her: She's too poor and her family is always in trouble: She will only drag him down, she's certain.

Jin-Ju(Ju) is cursed as well: Never to know ♥️. Ju struggles with loneliness, and her life, without love, is a drag.

MTF pulls up a chair alongside a band of boozers & toast the twenties. Wu, Hu & Ju were fused 🔗by combat in the HS arena. Now it's 10 years post graduation, when everybody thinks they have it figured out, but virtually no one does. They're learning to navigate adult jobs, situations and relationships. The 3 girls have a lifetime bond from their early HS years, so when Yeong-Hui pairs up with her BF, his friends come along as chasers to round out a 6-pack: 1 couple + 4 drinking buddies.

This brings us to now. Su is back in town, and once again sends signals to Wu that appear encouraging (is it finally happy hour?), only to flip the table on her once more. Again. As soon as Wu moves on to someone else, Su suddenly declares feelings for.... Guess who.

Their stories dial-in to several themes, including:

☂ Scars from thoughtlessness

☂ Pain's effects on emotional health, incl toxic Parent-child relationships & self-inflicted wounds

☂ Surviving 1sided♥️ - They all go through it

☂ Faulty suppositions - recheck yours every 5 years or so. They can't all be right.

☂ The sinking loneliness of selfishness vs the buoyancy of generous & committed ♥️

MTF also offers paths to resolution: L♥️ve is opening, giving & accepting. Maturity is learning to be unselfish, even when it hurts. Especially then.

For a few episodes, it was difficult to tell if it was worth the wait for last-call. There were a generous pours of quality exchanges, metaphors, quotes, ironies, basically the usual for the better Kdramas - The ones they do well are outstanding, if not superbly divine. 75% into the show, I had only been looking at it through narrowed eyes in low light, waiting for the moment a glass would shatter and MTF would be easily swept away & forgotten. However, by ep15, I felt like a regular with the gang at the pour-it-all-out-house. Unexpectedly, real tears started flowing. Inner conflict overflowed next over the proper rating: 7? Am I looking at this through the bottom of the glass? An absolutely stunning conversation put the answer into focus - MTF has buoyancy. It is refreshing, and it dazzles when it catches the light.

There's a spill of latent (submerged) emotions in MTF's examination of the 3 women and the challenges they stare down from across the table in their quest for: Love, financial independence, and the most elusive honesty-to-self. MTF opens their circle and invites the viewer in. Like with any relationship, the show leaves room to allow the viewers to drop in and raise a glass, even though we must hold back the urge to smash a soju bottle over some noggins.

This is more of a drama than a romance, and it is a worthy one. The cast is smooth and fluid; not a sour in the bunch. Ong Seong-Wu exhibits a truly great performance as Su. Be prepared for the slower cadence with anything that helps bring relaxation, and watch them blend, stir, and shake their lives.

〰QUOTES〰

Words are like boomerangs. They come back at you. (Aigoo. HEAR, youngins!)

Emotions are determined by the person on the receiving end. (Isn't perspective & timing everything?)

I'm afraid you will use the wounds you received as a shield & grow up a warped adult.

Back views are the saddest


〰IMHO〰

🎬7.5 🎭7.5 🖋〰 8 (This is the writer's 1st credited work, so we've been promised future brilliance) 💓7 🦋5 🤔8 🌞5 🎨7 🔚8

Age 15+



⚠️SPOILER SECTION⚠️

Before the next round, let's sweep away the broken bottles: MTF deliberately matures at a slow, near frustrating pace. It's relaxing if you can - Just un-tense↪ now breathe🌬 What will likely frustrate every viewer is that Su, Wu, & Hu are as irritating as a botched drink order. Perhaps it's not what you're expecting, but the director & writer have placed tasty fusion on the table.

In defense of the house specials, 1st we'll look at:

Su. Most people dislike him. For most of MTF he's emotionless. He's cold & self-isolated. Su was alone his entire childhood. Now he's alone, even amongst friends. From his view, human interaction means bitterly spatting parents. Affection denied is intimacy died. ‘Relationships are distasteful’, is what he learned at home. No wonder he's a photographer. He studies but never participates. At the same time, he desperately tries to let ☀ inside. Obnoxious, cold, or odd behaviors are childhood painkillers. Kids cope in any way they can. Entrenched behaviors turn into bad habits that are difficult to delete, like a voicemail once it's already been delivered. "Kron-ih-'kah," while it's appropriate (helpful, even) to call out bad behavior, we shouldn't tell a person that s/he isn't handling pain "right". Be patient & generous w/ others.

Though Su won't imbibe his own feelings, it's obvious that he's always been intoxicated with Wu~

⏱ Per his overseas friend, when Su's in the USA, his comment card mentions ·only· Wu, by name. No one else from Kcountry

⏱ Su picked on, cheered up &/or defended no girls, other than than Wu

⏱ No doubts, he enjoys spending ⏱ w/ Wu

⏱ He enjoys it so much that he fills her ☕️ & ⏱ whenever he's back, despite her deflections. "I want to see Wu as much as I can before I leave," he says, etc

⏱ His narcissistic jokes are on the tab, but he never leaves tips about the the good things he's done for Wu

Su's a world away from understanding how his actions leave Wu as frozen as a daiquiri. He lied to himself 1st, being blinded by fear & blunting to his underexposed emotions. Feelings for Wu gush out after she leaves the table to sit in the corner w/ another guy. Then (THEN!) he declares himself. Its effect is 100% contrary to his hopes.

{🐰⚫> IRL, ya'll RUN AWAY! A romantic relationship won't, nor is it supposed to, fix such problems. People like this often don't want to be part of a project that will hire them. The very moment their desired 'object' stirs, they'll dump ice water all over and bolt}

Wu: Though shy, she seems adjusted in HS, but her life's blood is leaking and sharks attack. Even w/ her friends' support, her emotions are still stunted. HS is when she begins to take Su's cues as clues of his interest. Sadly, Su ain't got a clue ·yet· Wu musters the courage to offer her 💝 to Su at the airport as he's escaping M&D by going to the USA. He visibly stiffens to rebuff her w/ blank eyes & rigid face, as a resolute chill falls like a dropped napkin. It's the 1st in a decade of misalignments between them. She cries for a long ⏱. Eventually, she just cries when she's sozzled. This ♻ repeats in bursts. Su reappears & appears interested, so Wu is frozen in hope. Her loved ones are hungover from it all. They don't like Su.

Wu is her most frustrating when she breaks up w/ Su. She's wrong. She agrees to go abroad w/ him, goes back on her promise, & then blames him for not being there - he doesn't ♥️ her enough, she blames. She wasn't honest about ·what· she needed from ·whom· preferring a draught of resentment when her needs sat empty. Just as she always flits from ex-to-the-next, never once opening up, then floating away, she pivots and does the /same/ to Su. 1-sided♥️ is a symptom, as is her projec/deflec·tion. Neither she nor Su is able to heal the other. They must self-heal to self-liberate or they'll self-isolate & self-medicate.

Hu is suffering from what's referenced in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower: "We accept the 💘 we think we deserve." Always railing against poverty, her mother's complaints drip continuously until their tiny apt was overflowing. Mom's resentment became a bitterness that long ago blotted out affection. Hu has been plied with inferiority. She was dunked into the whirlpool w/ no way to emerge, so she truly believes she's dragging down Hun-Jae, her BF since HS. After all, he shouldn't suffer the way she has! Once again, as is the case w/ Su, the branding from childhood cannot be brushed away. She's also extremely stubborn, like mom, so it takes her a long ⏱ to come around.

It's frustrating how nobody has a faster epiphany, but isn't that true life? People don't pivot like Michael Jordan. These characters, blinded by pain, aren't contrived. I'm reminded of Kafka's Metamorphosis & how fed up I was w/ Gregor: "Someone should smash this bug!" Lol〰 Kafka's manipulations: He tricks the reader into being just as fed up as Gregor's family. Gregor didn't do anything wrong↪ Except↪he frustrated us↪so "bring out the Raid!"

The series is to the rim w/ metaphors:

☂ Absent Su, the dummies are drinking. Wu keeps looking at the empty Su-less chair next to her

☂ Jurassic Park's "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" is cleverly placed (Su's apt in rearview)

☂ Wu & Su's clothes will start matching as they see each other more often

☂ Pinocchio's nose teaches us that lying distances us from others. We always lie to ourselves 1st. What sensible profundity

〰☂〰 ⛈Rain⛈ 〰☂〰

In MTF, rain represents the rough stuff of life that hammers all. Similar to armor, the ☂☂s are protective Shields. When Su decides to ♥️ Wu, he abandons his ☂ (He ✨ when wet. Ahem). Unprotected, Su hazards the elements & gets drenched. (Song-Wu Ong should do more scenes in the rain, all wet ☺).

People don't share ☂s often in the show. They're all alone in trying to protect themselves from the ⛈ of life. Instead of a lightweight ☂, they're wrapped up & weighted down in armor. We stand strong, walk shielded, & party-on better TOGETHER. It's not a coincidence that Hu compares turtle shells to armor over scars. Eventually, one will die from the weight or learn to take some off. (Of all the hypocrisy! - As if she's going to walk in the rain & not get wet! She will finally pull her chair all the way up to the table.)

About hypocrisy... When Ju tells the other girls how she sees ♥️, fate, & commitment, she might have been staggering around the room from the looks Hu&Wu shot her. The viewer's expectation is that the 2 will choose a personal-life application from that sampler. Instead, they comment on how /Ju/ has matured! We're all blind to our own stuff. That scene drops a case of stuff.

Enough w/ the ♥️🔺s! Not realizing, as a newbie, what a departure MTF is from Kdrama tropes (the CEO is not the best match), the kind CEO seems the better choice. But, Su is a different person by the end. He exits w/ his glass ½ full. He loves. He's open to friendship. He is now able to point the lens Wu's way: It's HE that's been in a 1-sided♥️ w/ HER all this time, he declares. I was stunned. So was Wu. She stops, reviews, & realizes ALL her relationships had been 1-sided ~> b/c of HER. That's top-shelf writing. It was this scene + crying real tears that took my rating from 7 to 8.

Along w/the ♥️🔺, MTF serves up another trope: MSS (Mandatory-Separation-Syndrome). Usually painful as cirrhosis, for Su & Wu it's a good thing. The power balance between them should be 1:1 parts, which is necessary for them to grow together. It's also appropriate that Su's devotion be proof-tested.

The men in this show are saint-level good: Loving, patient, supportive... These girls tapped-the-majic-keg! Even though Wu didn't choose Saint CEO, she did catalyze Su into becoming her prince. Ding-dong! The curse is lifted. Each girl gets her prince! Ju, the girl w/ the loveless curse, gets married 1st. (It looks that way - they'll make it. Right? ;)) She had been looking & lamenting that she would never find him, but he had always been spilled out in front of her. The other two come to realize they weren't cursed in the first place. None of them were.

Read More

♡They Slap The Guemganggo On The Viewer! ⚙ A Total Guilty Pleasure♡

What to think of this?

In the first couple episodes I couldn't u/s this acid trip. I peeped Wiki & learned that it's based on the classic 13th century (some of the stories are older) Chinese fantasy-quest novel: Journey To The West. The most outlandish elements of KO are taken directly from this classic. Having ruled out KO being devised under pharmaceutical influence (in the 21st century, at least), I trekked on.

KO opens with an adorable little girl, actress So Won Kal. She's wonderful as young Jin Seon-mi, who is duped by Devil King/”DK”. He may look like a man, but he's really a /monster/. He asks her to collect something from inside a magical chalet. His warning: Never acknowledge the being living in there; she should act like she can't even see him.

Why send a little girl, you ask? DK /knows/ she can do this, b/c he noticed that she is able to see spirits.

Little Seon-mi has gotten herself into the middle of a cosmic, centuries long game being played by I'll-do-anything-that-makes-me-look-cool Son O-gong/”SOG” & DK. SOG is the being that's trapped & Seon-mi is no match for him - yet. He makes a protection deal w/ her: If she will set him free, he'll come help her whenever she calls for him: He'll always protect her. Once free, Mr. Slyboots removes his name from her memory. She won't be able to call his name now, & he'll never have to honor the deal. He didn't realize they were destined to work together to save the world, however.

Fast forward a couple decades. They meet again, & SOG is not indifferent this time. This time, he has the illest of intentions: He wants to eat her! She is, as it turns out, a Samjam - she's one-off-a-kind special. Consuming her will make any spirit or monster vastly stronger: Her very scent is intoxicating! He soon discovers their deal, actually does protect her. He can't proceed with their contract in effect. How about a new, #much-better-deal☺❔️? NOPE. She ain't trusting him again✋️. He tries to get her to willingly agree - she's going to get eaten… At least he'll be gentle... Not a working strategy either. Aigoo, until he can figure something out, he'll have to protect her so nobody else can get a bite in first.

I know, right? So WRONG.

Under his wing, the delightful world of monsters & spirits opens up to Seon-mi. They occupy the most coveted positions in the world: entertainment, business, politics, & so on. Though there are bulls, monkeys & pigs (O MY!), etc, they look just like us. That allows them to blend in while keeping the populace at large blind to their existence. Even Hyun Bin (from Crash Landing On You) is one! We mortals are powerless against them, indeed;)) When a CEO shows up to cook & clean at DK's house, we get a sense of the privileged life they lead.

KO is a visual extravaganza. The fashion is bold & exciting, yet Seon-mi is always understated. Much of the show takes place at DK's house. That's a good thing, because anyone would want to hang out in this glizy, uber opulent abode. From the marble floors to the intricately composed walls of beveled mirrors & 1930's streamline gleam, everything shines. Most of us have never seen the like. Yet it still seems comfortable - a design marvel.

They add numerous touches to fill out the space nicely, such as putting Mrs. Ma (a dog) in purple lipstick to make her mouth look more dog-like. Another example is when they are looking for a mermaid. The hallway they walk is lit to look like wavy water. It's such details that separate the mundane from the marvelous.

There's clever juxtaposition. The other kids know she can see ghosts, so Seon-mi is picked on horribly at school as a child. She's different. Taking note of the insulting hate inscriptions carved by her classmates, she sits down at her desk and slaps her ETHICS book down. This is the beauty of film. One could write volumes on the topic of bullying, and they were able to reduce it all to one slamming book. I always need a moment to geek out over morsels like that〰

Ok, I'm back. The acting is terrific. Lee Se-young has 3 parts total, including Richie, my favorite character in the series. Cha Seung-won, as Devil King, must go through Samjan fits & display all manifestations of rage. They both just knock it out of the volcano.

We get a look at some fun relationships. SOG is a capricious, mean, surly, brat of a being. He & DK don't hate each other; they've just been playing tit-for-tat for centuries because they're bored. Neither one wants the other to perish, as that would make life even more boring. Hanging around the two of them when they're acting up is like a carnival ride. SOG & Seon-mi's dynamic goes from predator & mark to something quite different over the course of the series. It's truly special.

There's heavy foreshadowing. Familiarity with this director and writer prompts a caution: Believe their foreshadowing. These two value Duty Over Pleasure. Here may be sniffles. Tears, even. In the scene that shows the darkest augury, black is the theme. It's heavy & dark feeling w/ both characters in black. As we get closer, we can see that one's wearing a shirt with gold trim over black on one half, & gold trim over white on the other. There is still optimism.

Now for some Scooby Snacks〰

○We meet the cutest, hot zombie ever. Lil sumpum for the boys....
○There's a group chat that's a well done running gag.
○SOG moves into DK's place without even asking. What he likes, he says, is that "Parking's not an issue." He's using 3 spaces, it turns out, & DK is in trouble with the manager over it. Parking's an issue, just not for SOG.
○There's oodles of ice cream.
○We see a CEO cleaning & cooking at DK's. He makes snacks for the kids. The CEO even cleans Seon-mi's fridge! Her assistant would have fainted over that.
○Speaking of said assistant, Lee Han-joo, he's comical. He's always terrified, as he can sense the ghosts around them, but can't see them. Ms Jin has kept him in the dark about her capabilities, but he knows things aren't quite right. °He's always thinking about quitting, but then something amazing will happen. As Jin Seon-mi gets tangled up with dieties & their agendas, mega stars & other mysterious beings start showing up at the office. He's not leaving now!
○One day he due to an emergency he leaves his kids with Ms Jin. When he picks them up, they refuse to leave at first. They saw (real) dinosaurs & PK, (the pop idol) the CEO made them snacks... and they got to play with a girl that can pop her eyeballs out! Ha! That one made me suddenly laugh so loudly, I scared the cat.

Now for a couple examples of how they bollixed it up〰

●The undisciplined dialogue is the biggest flaw.
●There's too many contradictions.
●There's too much wavering back and forth, forth and back, and forth. And so on.
●Yet some things that weren't said were even more vexing.
●There's dead ends running amok. For instance, we're told that SOG has never felt real pain, but they also had informed us earlier that his heart was broken after being betrayed by a human. Later, that sunk to the bottom never to be heard from again. In the world of film craft, that's basically inexcusable. Quality productions don't do stuff like that.
●Finally, Lee Seung-gi looks Waaay better with the long hair. Why'd they cut it?

Here's the journal I kept while watching KO, until I gave it up, being at a loss〰

》It's so bad. Undisciplined, running amok all over the place. It's awful.
》Oh, look. Even Ritchie's in the group text. Look at SOG, trying to act like he doesn't care. It's too much for him. That's hilarious.
》This is so wrong. If he says he doesn't like to see her hurt, then why is he telling her he can't wait to get rid of her? He's the only one hurting her. This is frustrating.
》Ha! That one was outrageous. What fun.
》They all stab her in the back. They are all #monsters. She needs to run away. Go grab Jonathan, please! Save yourself!
》Hey, that kiss was something. They truly seem to care about each other. Sweet.
》PK, really? Feed (X) to (Y)? You're rotten!!
》》(W), how could you work with a goddess to steal (A's) soul!?!

》That's so cute.

》》No, it's awful.

》Just look at the way they look at eac..ch...othr.

》It's funny.

》》It's turrible

》Why du I like it

》》I don... No do. Nonn em Emmmm

》》》Augh!!!!! My head's exploding!

》》》Get out of my head‼️《《《

Conclusion: like deities, it's up & down, but it dons the guilty pleasure genre like sweet smelling, comfy slippers. This show slapped a Guemganggo on me, and I'm liking it against my will. I hate it too.. Maybe... It's doing to the audience what the characters do to each other. (Not for a second do I believe that's by design, but it would be awesome if it was).

Finally, there's an exploration of the idea of being forced to love someone. We aren't talking about a love potion where somebody's drugged into an obsession. In KO, a flawed and selfish character is either forced to (truly) love, or given the gift of love, depending on how we look at it.

For the character, this is a wonderful feeling without losing the sense of self. Said character becomes a better, deeper person. If God gives us love, are we to enjoy it? Are we to be angry that it didn't originate from ourselves, or that we don't have a choice? No.

Love is a gift 〰♥️〰 It's always a gift.

QUOTES〰
It's dangerous to assume others think the same way you do. Thinking you're Ultimately different from others is also dangerous.

The reduction of the universe to the compass of a single being and the extension of a single being until it reaches God. This is love. ~Victor Hugo~

IMHO〰

RATINGS
Directing 7
Acting 8
Romance 8
Flutters 7
Art 9
Ending 8

LEVELS
Action/ Excitement 6
Thought provocation 5
Snores 0

Suggested Age 15+

Don't miss:
K: My Only Love Song 8.7;
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
Alchemy of Souls-8.3
Black-9
C: The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8

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✒Jack & the Hedgehog Take a Bite Outta the Hood ✨ °8.2° °Excellent°

Yoon Hye Jin (HJin) loses it one day. Total Mariah-moment. She quits. She drinks. She trashes her boss online. HJin is a skilled dentist with a conscience. This, invariably, put her at odds with her greedy boss who expected her to prescribe unnecessary, but expensive treatment for their unwitting patients. She couldn't take the pain anymore, and extraction was necessary. Now she's jobless and no one wants to hire a ‘poison pill’. Going keyboard commando on her employer put all her potential employers’ teeth on edge.

What does she do? She goes for a ride. Her wandering takes her to a quaint seaside town. Her love affair begins with the sign over one establishment: Coffee in the middle of the day. Beer in the moonlight… But she ends up having a fateful day: She loses her shoes. Then her phone dies. She can't find her money either. At every turn she received reluctant assistance from a local yocal, Hong Doo Shik (DShik).

HCCC is a 2021 release that is rated 90 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 70-minute episodes. Shin Ha Eun of Love Next Door and The Crowned Clown is the screenwriter who brings small town magic to life. The deep-dimpled and lovely Shin Min Ah (Chief of Staff, Oh My Venus-7.4, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, Our Blues-8.5) is HJin. She's the hedgehog - get too close you'll get stuck. Kim Seon Ho (Welcome to Waikiki S2, 100 Days My Prince-5.5) is DShik, our Jack-of-all-trades. Since Start-up-8 and Strongest Delivery Man-6.6, I've been a fan. It's wonderful to see him play the romantic lead. Lee Sang Yi (Youth of May, When the Camellia Blooms-8, Han RiverPolice-7.4) once again shows his range as Ji Sung Hyun. Kim Young Ok, whose earliest credit is from 1957, is one of the elderly ladies. She is stupendous. The magnificent Lee Jung Eun has a guest appearance in ep1; I think she's my favorite actress right now. The rest of the cast is wonderful, and the music might even be better. After Shazaming ‘Wish’ by Choi Yu Ree I pulled the entire playlist up on Spotify. All of the music is sensational. It compounds the delight factor. HCCC is excellent. There's a little bit of filler in double-digit episodes, but it doesn't suffer much from it.

I'm a fan of the director, Yoo Je Won. He's brought us Oh My Ghost-10, the popular Love Next Door, & Crash Course in Romance. This Director exudes warmth, has an appreciation for good food, and really “gets” good music, particularly jazz. Like OMG, the soundtrack for HTCCC is stellar. Top tier. After some bold & underlined question marks (CV overview follows review) I am so happy that he's settled back into his own and is cranking out such amazing stuff, like I know that he can.

The main character in HCCC is the home town. HJin is from Seoul. She is used to high fashion and upscale amenities. The people that live in her new home lead different lives and rely on eachother heavily. We have the young, the old, the men, the women, the silly and the wise. There's a full cast and wide variety of well-developed characters who help push the plot. They also like to sink their teeth into some juicy gossip. After taking the plunge and opening a dental practice there, HJin offends everyone with her unconsciously elitist attitude, but with DShik's help from the shadows, she eventually settles into small town life. The next closest dentist is an hour away, so customers begin to wander in.

When HJin & DShik finally start dating, she wants to keep it a secret. The town is full of busybodies, afterall. Most of it isn't mean-spirited, but that's besides the point. Every time someone happens upon a sweet moment they are sharing, she turns around and slaps or kicks him. She even gives him a bloody nose in an effort to throw the dogs off. He almost doesn't survive their initial secretive phase. As it turns out, none of it was working anyway. Everyone saw through it.

They run into relationship static at one point. She knows he's keeping hurts from the past bottled up. She wants him to open up. She comes to the conclusion that she should wait for him. She tells him that if he promises to open up to her one day, then she'll wait until he's ready. He can take as long as he wants to “open wide”. I think that's the right answer instead of drilling him for what she wants, when she wants it.

HCCC digs into the root of things once or twice. One of the characters gets a beautiful speech followed up shortly by quite a beautiful death scene. Rather than the sequence feeling sad, it is a triumph of a simple life, lived well, to the fullest satisfaction. That is the theme of HCCC: A simple life and being content with just enough is the key to happiness. We let our endless wants create discontent and dissatisfaction. Choosing simplicity and contentment is choosing joy and peace. Love will always follow Along those lines, HCCC is a pleasant trip to the seaside with nothing complicated or heavy. Quite the opposite.



〰🖍 IMHO

📣8.2 📝7.8 🎭8 💓7.7 🦋5 🎨7 🎵/🔊8.8 🔚8 ▪ 🌞6.5 ⚡3 😅4 😭3 😱2 😯2 🤢1 🤔5 💤1

Age 12+ Language: PG-13, but there isn't much of that. Rated TV-14: Parents Strongly Cautioned.


Re-📺? 🆒


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

Fish out water tales:
Live Up To Your Name-7.6;
Mr. Queen 8.5,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 - It's exceptional except for 2 episodes,
Touch your heart 8.2,
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,


Modern Day Kromcoms-
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~silly fun;
Crazy Love-7.8,
My First First Love-8,
A Witch's Love 7.8,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Her Private Life 8,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9;
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Our Blues-8.7,
Descendants Of The Sun-8.3,
Familiar Wife-8.5,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
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,
My Sassy Girl 8.5,
Saimdang 8.5,
The King's Affection 8.3,

Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance 7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
99 days with the Superstar-7,
Boys Over Flowers 8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek 7,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
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, When I Fly Towards You-7.8, Find Yourself 8.9,
Hidden Love-7.8,
Wait, My Youth-8.4,
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5


{📣Yoo Je Won Career summary: The solidly rated High School King of Savvy is his first effort. Oh My Ghost, as highly rated as it is, is still under-appreciated. Not only are the 4 leads (as well as supporting actor Lim Ju-hwan) absolute savants, but there is not one wasted line of dialogue. Everything points to something else. There's constant use of foreshadowing, metaphors, and other techniques that don't stop. Every viewing of the show reveals only more. Furthermore, it's a laugh-out-loud delight in the first half and then gets genuinely teary later on. I suspect it suffers because things don't get rolling until the very end of ep1, so a chunk of viewers probably didn't stick with it. Nevertheless, it is a masterpiece and catapulted this director and the lead actors to super-stardom. Tomorrow With You-7, which also stars Shin Min Ah, was next. I liked it very much, but some of the logic is deeply flawed - so much so that I cannot rate it above a 7. The positives outweigh the bad, but it should have been better. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes was well received and followed up by Abyss-4.7, which is a complete failure in every way possible. It is a debacle and there is almost nothing redeeming about it, other than the good looks of the ML. It is over-rated by kind viewers, many of which are likely reacting to a dearth of good romantic content from Hwood. Abyss is better than most Hwood gunk, but it is not worth watching once, given the many better features Asia has to offer. Hi Bye Mama!-6.5 has plenty of positives, but I wouldn't choose to watch it again. It was intended to be a ray of hope for people that have suffered loss, which was exactly what I was going through at the time, but it didn't do it for me. With HTCCC, CCiR, and LND he seems to have recaptured his magic.}

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✒Shifters ⭐ Grifters⭐ Drifters & ♥️ Lifters °7.9° °Excellent°

Being the King's son has only brought Jang Uk misery and danger. Why? The Alchemy of souls. The name itself is a riddle. It is a spell that switches souls and bodies... and it's forbidden: We can't let the bodies of the rich, young, beautiful and gifted all be stolen by people who know the spell, afterall. As AoS opens, the king is dying. He knows his mage is mastering the spell, so he demands that the mage switch bodies with him, as the king is determined to produce a royal heir. Jang Uk is that heir. He's got the DNA of the mage, whose body fathered him. The man who took over that body is really the one who created him, yet, they have no DNA in common. It's almost like Jang Uk has no father, which is kind of sad. Nevertheless, according to the maxims of AoS, Jang Uk is of the royal line. Even though the King's 🌟 which marks the birth of a future king, appeared in the sky several months after the King's passing, the court believes the king died childless. Another man becomes king, another child becomes the crown prince, and the mage is forced to raise a child that isn't his.

While this is going on, an assassin has also been born. She (Naksu) wasn't actually /born/ a ruthless killer; she was made. After her tribe was massacred, a master adopted her with the intent to transform her into a killing machine. Over the years, She was fed pain and pressure until her bloodlust raged. The more skilled she became, the more difficult she was to control. Once she breaks free of her captors and starts mucking around, her quest for revenge against those who wronged her, coupled with her past crimes, land her on the most wanted list. As she's hunting, she's /being/ hunted - relentlessly. In fact, in ep1, she only escapes death by switching bodies via the AoS spell. Her emergent escape is incomplete, however: Her soul now resides in the body of a blind, weak woman named Mu-Deok, and Mu-Deok is not free. Mu-Deok is a slave - a slave who has just been sold. Who bought her? A mage. This mage is a near powerless man who's had his magical energy sealed from the day of his birth. Though his family is privileged, he lives as a lower class being in a world of powerful mages. What makes it worse is that his parentage is always questioned. His father has never acknowledged him, so the general perception is that he's a b@$tard. What's his name? Jang Uk.

Thus they meet. Jang Uk quickly realizes that Mu-Deok has abilities and knowledge that he desperately needs. In private she becomes his tutor - his master. In public, she's his servant.

What's so marvelous about AoS? Director Park Joon Hwa has brought us hit after hit, such as Because This Is My First Life-7.7, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim-6.8, and Touch Your Heart-8.2. He does not disappoint here. The filming is gorgeous. The sets, art, and costumes are impressive. A poetry book with blank pages becomes a scene of lofty elegance. Jank Uk's azure robe is resplendent. It's a string of one visual sensation after another.

The acting is everyday Kdrama - it's VG. Lee Jae Wook (Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol, When the Weather Is Fine-9) is the ML. Give him his Grade-A Korean Beef sticker. He's just another everyday Korean male lead. 'Everyday' means looking very (VERY!) fine, likely very tall, with a rich baritone voice, and excellent acting skills. Per Capita, Korea trounces Hwood when it comes to cranking them out. Jung So Min (The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, Love Next Door) is S1's Mu-Deok. (Lee Jae Wook's head is twice the size of hers. It's unsettling to look at). In flashbacks, her character is deadly serious. In her new form we gradually see that she's clever, moody, and always ready with a quip. She has a dry wit, a no-nonsense manner, and she's rather likable. When she's fighting back tears it's a nifty bit of acting. The pair's interaction is tangible. Mu-Deok must also have an overload of pheromones because she catches every guy's attention. I must say that Oh Na Ra (Racket Boys-8.3, My Mister-9.5) who plays maidservant Kim (a mother figure to JU) and Park So Jin (Sh**ting Stars, The King: Eternal Monarch-8) who runs the guesthouse/bar in town are both adorable. Oh my, the Crown Prince's voice is divine. It's impossible for me to dislike the prince because Shin Seung Ho (from Moment at Eighteen) is so pitch-perfect. {Before we get into it further, if you're watching this with the English language dubbing, you're missing some beautiful voices, particularly the men. You're also missing half of the performance. If that's the only way you can tolerate it, then it's better than not seeing AOS at all, but try an episode in the original language and see how it goes. Subtitle proficiency often takes mere moments.}

There's laughs. An attempted book burning ends up as a lark. Half of the jokes are connected to one mage's tea. Some would rather turn to stone than give up their libido. Jang Uk and Mu-Deok are on the run and hide out at this master's place for a spell. This powerful master's secret is his chaste tea, which negates one's sex-drive. Jang Uk decides to give the brew a try and becomes a happy little busy bee. So busy. So SO happy. Working and chumming around with his new master; they're just two bros having a great day. Mu-Deok is irritated, but she can't figure out exactly why. When that tea runs out, things do get tangled. One must have a libido to understand true desperation and sadness, it seems.

The soundtrack is magical. In S2 I shazamed Blue Flower by LIA, Aching by Kassy, I'mSorry by Ailee, and Raindrops by Gummy. There's a bar / guesthouse scene with wonderfully original music that takes me right to Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars. There's even some cool rock riffs here and there.

There's also love and bittersweet loss.

The best thing about AoS, though, is how it does Chinese fantasy! The screenwriters are Hong Mi Ran Hong & Jung Eun who collaborated on Hotel del Luna-8.4, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, and more. These writers have already revealed their fascination with Chinese culture in A Korean Odyssey-7.2, which they based on the ancient Chinese work, Journey to the West. If you like AoS, just be aware that this show is pretty much a Chinese fantasy piece with Korean touches sprinkled everywhere. Despite some clunky special effects, China does amazing fantasy. AoS has more showmanship (or flare), and a kitschy sauciness that departs from the elegance that China breathes out, but the fact that the writer and director got inspiration from China is undeniable.

AoS could be improved upon. I love actress Jung So Min in Because This Is My First Life. Initially, she didn't seem like the best fit for Mu-Deok. The spark was missing, perhaps? I couldn't pin it down. It became clear that it is the writing and direction that falls short, not her performance. The story fails when it comes to fully realizing her character and motivations. Her personality is ill-defined as are her internal struggles. JU's early attraction to Mu-Deok, before he realizes what's going on, is played for cheap grins. It's slightly off and takes away from the grace of the show. The bad guys should have been scarier. The FL is flipped over to Go Youn Jung (of The School Nurse Files-7.6 & Law School-8) in S2. She has no memories and he doesn't recognize her, so they need to fall in love all over again. It should have been awesome, but their delivery is barely above average. After wondering if Jung So Min was right for the role, I ended up missing her quite a bit in S2. Finally, they are inconsistent with the rules they laid down, especially in S2.

I'm sincerely a fan of these writers. Anything with their names on it is a draw for me. My love for them is warm and cozy but not 'Firebird hot,' to borrow from the show. Sci-fi/fantasy is my favorite genre (they are commonly lumped together as one genre though they are actually quite different from eachother, but there's no need to get into that now). The Sci-fi fantasy genre is not one for dummies. The best authors are masters of intricate world-building with everything fitting together like a hand-crafted 1-second repeating pocket watch - Parameters are laid down and strictly adhered to - The lows are heartbreaking - The highs are euphoric. AoS isn't like that. Its weakest link is the writing. More for fun, AoS doesn't take itself seriously. Besides the levity, there's a fair amount of sheer stupidity. With a perpetually slightly above average IQ, they stay in the shallow end, while I would have preferred the series to carry more weight. It manages to stay in an acceptable range (Look at the ratings! People are crazy about it!). A lower degree-of-difficulty does lower the maximum score, though. The writing prevents my fingers from going beyond a 7.9. Just can't do it. But I still liked it very much.

If you like AoS, alchemize your watch list to include these amazing Cdramas: Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!,
Eternal Love-8.3,
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Love and Redemption-10

QUOTES📢

If you're not going to do anything, just die.

Evil always does what it wants without ever stopping. Why does virtue always have to prove itself over and over again?

〰🖍 IMHO

📣8 📝7.4 🎭8 💓6 🦋5 🎨9.3 🎵/🔊8 🔚8.4 ▪ 🌞5 ⚡7 😅4 😭4 😱4 😯3.5 🤢4 🤔4 💤0

Age 12+
Scary elements violence gore; S2 language b@$+@rd, $h!+

Re-📺? Likely

Kdrama romances with a fantasy element:

My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Mr. Queen 8.5,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2,
Live Up To Your Name-7.6,
Oh My Ghost 10,
The Bride of Habaek-7.

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✒⚔In Pursuit of the Cursed Soul☠ °6.1° °great elements, avg writing°

The short review: BIS has an all-world soundtrack, great acting, excellent artistry, and solid directing. It's the writing that fails to transform this monster into something worth protecting. The plot is a haphazard mess and the dialogue is nothing special. If you are a fantasy junkie, you'll probably tolerate it well, but for all others it's a mangled mess. If romance is your thing, you will be sorely disappointed.

We've got a 3 episode set up, folks. So let's gouge into it. BIS opens 600 years ago. We get a brief look at the life of a Bulgasal and move on for a peek at the regular folk who are terrified of such creatures. When Hwal is born, his mother insists that he's cursed and hangs herself. The shaman affirms that the Bulgasal has a grudge against this cursed child from a prior life. Since Bulgasals are immortal, it will pursue this baby forever. What in the crazy world is a Bulgasal? An immortal. A monster. A flesh eater.

Next we see that it's people that are the true monsters. Young Hwal is shunned by everyone and cruelly despised. Under the shaman's bidding, the village surrounds the boy and tries to kill him, but the military is passing by. A general intervenes and adopts the boy, raising him to be a warrior - A monster killer. When he's grown, he's the best of the best. Now people say that he is blessed by the Bulgasal.

The very last monster Hwal must eliminate is that Bulgasal. What happens instead, though, is that during their confrontation, the Bulgasal steals Hwal's soul and turns HIM into the Bulgasal. This begins Hwal's centuries long quest for revenge. Not merely revenge but a reversal; a quest to make things right - he wants his soul back! During the Japanese invasion of 1593 Hwal learns that the ‘Bug’ who stole his soul also stole his ill fate. All the monsters that Hwal killed are reborn and seeking revenge. They're all going after /her/ because she possesses his soul. This former Bug has been living life after reincarnated life of fear and misery while being relentlessly chased by gruesome monsters. A human soul has brought her no pleasure whatsoever.

Before ep2 is halfway over, we make it to 2006 where she has morphed into a set of twins and the show's logic morphs into them sharing a single soul with no plausible explanation. One twin is darker skinned, darker tempered, and remembers everything, while the other one, the sweet one who is the shade of a kleenex, is oblivious. She thinks her sister’s weird. Failure to heed her sister's warnings turns into another tragedy. And that'll bring us to present day. The chess pieces have been realigned with many of the same cast from the past reincarnated & together again at last.

What's abundantly clear by the end of ep4 is that our female lead thinks she knows something, but she knows virtually nothing. That goes double for her sister. Our male lead knows a whole lot more, but there are clearly players and motivations afoot of which he knows nothing. Thus, the viewer's gaze remains shrouded, and they never do give us a clear picture. I always felt like the show was a moving streetcar that I ran to catch but never successfully boarded. Just like Hwal and Bulgasals are outsiders, the audience is also left on the outside. If a person wants to own a horse, s/he will feed it, maintain it, care for it, and nurture it. BIS tries to skip all of that, go to the butcher shop, buy random parts, and sew them together. That ain't gonna work.

BIS is a 2021 release that is rated 92 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 60ish-minute episodes. Ep1 is depressing. That heavy feeling never lifts. Lee Jin Wook (Sweet Home-8.4) plays Dan Hwal/the Bulgasal. This dude was born to act in period pieces and wear ancient armor with his hair in a bun. It's not that he doesn't look good with short hair and a modern day look, but he looks right at home as an old time warrior. He believes he's the only Bulgasal left. He also believes immortality is a curse. Jung Jin Young is the general who adopts him when the village tries to kill him. Boy, is this actor different as the father in My Unfamiliar Family-7.9. The lovely Kwon Na Ra (My Mister-9.5, Itaewon Class) is Min Sang Un, the original Bulgasal that steals Hwal's soul. Lee Joon (My Father Is Strange) is Ok Eul Tae, the bad guy. He does a nice job. (It's possible that I think that because his voice is so mellifluous). Gong Seung Yeon (Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency-7.4, My Only Love Song-8.7, Introverted Boss-6.5) portrays Min Shi Ho, who was Hwal's wife in the past and is Min Sang Un's little sister in the present. Lee A Ra (Kairos) is yet another fabulous Korean child actor. She plays the 2006 version of Min Shi Ho. The screenwriters are Seo Jae Won & Kwon So Ra who co-wrote The Guest, and the director is Jang Young Woo (Queen of Tears).

Let's munch on the good morsels and leave the substandard scraps for later. It is not the worst watch. Many things are done well and the characters are likable. There's gorgeous cinematography. The soundtrack is easily K-top-10 for me. Some of my shazams: Kim Kyung Hee's ‘Floating’, ‘Leave,’ by 4MEN, and ‘Beyond The Time,’ by Janet Suhh. Not only is this soundtrack a monster, but the sound in general is excellent. They come up with all kinds of unique delicacies for the ear, such as creepy scritching sounds.

The good is not enough to save us from the horror of Bulgasal, however. Their past, covered in the first couple episodes, is cruelly heartrending. It's really too much to process. It's more like an alternate timeline where everything is wrong and out of balance. They don't plant seeds or hint at another layer of backstory, early on. Therefore, in the final third of the show, when they spring a couple surprises, it is impossible to tell if developments were always intended or if they are making it up as they go. They do drop weak hints at something more, but it's feeble. That always feels sloppy. Killing off the kid is horrible. And they do it …twice… or do they? Ep13 gets alittle irritating and smells suspiciously like filler with the protags vacillating and having unexplained, out-of-character outbursts.

It starts to feel a bit incestuous. In the present, he encounters his father, his wife, his son, and his mortal enemies from that past. However, in the present, he seems to be attracted to his mortal enemy, his wife and his son seem like they could have a thing starting up, one of his former adversaries is now like a daughter to him, and his father is an outsider for much of the show. Perhaps everything was aligned wrong then and it'll be aligned correctly now? The questions and annoyances built up without enough positives to balance them out. The big reveals at the end were a bunch of hooey. Too little. Too late.

While they tack on a hopeful ending, BIS is dark, bleak and sad. There is very little romance and an overabundance of heart-stomping. They are loose with the rules that they laid down and the backstory, when finally revealed, is not convincing. Knowing what I now know, would I still watch it for the first time? My health has been such that I can't do very much but watch TV. Even given my ample time to spare, this is a tough question. I'll say “yes” with 50.00001% certainty. If your time is limited, there's so many better things to see. Don't be buggin over this one unless you have an unquenchable thirst for fantasy.


〰🖍 IMHO

📣7 📝5 🎭7.5 💓3 🦋5 🎨6.5 🎵/🔊8.7 🔚7.9 ▪ 🌞3 ⚡5 😅2 😭5.3 😱4.3 😯3.5 🤢5.5 🤔2 💤0

Age 15+ for violence and gore. This would be too scary for younger children. It opens to a knife fight and then a body floating in the water. Monsters eating bodies. Hwal sets his own compound fx.

Re-📺?
This one's in the okay-to-pass-the-time category, but I refuse to pass this way again….


In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ here's a list of better time spent ventures:

Modern Day -
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Oh My Ghost 10, Descendants Of The Sun-8.3,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
My Mister 9.5,

Historical/Period -
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

Action/Crime/Sci-fi -
Glitch-8, The school nurse files-7.6, Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2, Uncanny counter season-1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4, K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1, Inspector Koo-8.4, When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Vagabond-8,
Sisyphus 8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6, Blood Free-8.5, D.P. -8.4,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9, The Wailing-8.8,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9, Parasite-9,
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4

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Swoosh Flick & Flare °6.5° °has its moments°

They're messing with his mind. He arrives at his new school. A pretty girl greets him. He's happy… until he's carried off to the underground fights by buff boys in boxers. BTS is a 2017 release that is rated 89 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 8 30-minute groaners… I mean episodes. And boy are they idiotic. They're also pretty funny.

It is simple, childish, and arguably stooopid, but that's its charm. These transfer students each have special abilities. After the fight is sorted, they learn it was part of an evaluation. Their new school is a force for good! They've been selected to clean up schools in trouble. Almost immediately, they are placed on assignment as transfer students at schools in need of reform. They don't know how to use their abilities, however, so they generally get beat up in the field and luck into any successes.

The first mission is at an academy that has been feeding their charges a brain food supplement. The supplement has the unfortunate side effect of turning people into zombies. Another school is all girls; they've taken to kidnapping boys. Our heroes are so distracted by the girls during that one that they forget to rescue the kidnap victim. He had to escape on his own.

Shigeoka Daiki (Kore wa Keihi de Ochimasen!, Higuma) is Kakeru Shigeoka. He falls in love with Hikari at first sight. He is cute, but infinitely average. Kiriyama Akito (Asa ga Kita, Gekikaradou) is Kiriyama Kakeru. He is an old soul. Nakama Junta Ninjani (Calling on! Fight Towards the Future, Gokusen 3) is Kakeru Nakama. His glasses are smarter than he is. Kamiyama Tomohiro (Daibinbo, Switched) portrays Kakeru Kamiyama. He has a thing for moms. Fujii Ryusei (Yokoso Wagaya e, Rokuhodo Yotsuiro Biyori) is Kakeru Fujii. His flowing blonde hair is glorious. He knows that. Hamada Takahiro (Kazama Kimichika: Kyojo Zero, Shotai) plays Kakeru Hamada. He's a brawler. Kotaki Nozomu (Momikeshite Fuyu, Rokuhodo Yotsuiro Biyori) plays Kakeru Kotaki. He's also a brawler - right out of the 1950's. He would NEVER make a woman cry.

Yep, they're all named Kakeru. They're all weird in their own way. One likes mature women, though he dresses like a little boy. One has special glasses that can help him figure out anything. One dresses like a sushi chef at an Edo period themed restaurant. Two are brawlers, one of which has the doowap hairdo. The last one does seem like a pretty average guy, but he's definitely NOT Hikari's brother.

Kawashima Idaten (Umika Ie, Tsuite Itte ii Desuka) is Hikari, the cutie that's also an aid to the principal. The director is Lee Toshio of When I Get Home, My Wife Always Pretends to Be Dead & Dad's Backdrop. The screenwriter is Kawabe Yuko, who brought us Koi no Yamai to Yarougumi, Koi no Yamai to Yarougumi, Toyama Erika Grandma no Yuutsu & BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank Up Hen.

The acting is actually quite good in that things seemed effortless. The directing is crisp, something necessary, given that the show is just over 3hrs. Comedy is the least respected genre, yet it's also the most challenging. BTS passed the test in that it did make me laugh a few times. It's based on a manga. Manga and anime are all about a child-like sense of wonder and silliness. Viewers that have a silly side are likely to enjoy this. If you aren't the type to roll your eyes and grin at the same time, then enroll elsewhere.


QUOTES📢

Narcissists are invincible.

Luck is a skill.


〰🖍 IMHO

📣7 📝6 🎭7.5 🎨6🎵/🔊6 🔚6.5 ▪ 🌞4⚡6 😅5 😭2 😱3 😯2 🤢2 🤔2 💤1 🤗5

Age 15+ Language: R-rated F💣s, sex & boob jokes, but not much. Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.

Re-📺? Would, actually

You may also like:

After the Rain 7.3,
Ao-chan Can't Study 7.8,
Beyond the Boundary 7.8,
Chaika The Coffin Princess 8.4,
Chihayafuru 8.5,
The Eminence in Shadow 8.8,
Flowers of Evil 7.7 (not dubbed),
Food Wars 8.2,
Girls Und Panzer 8,
Kokoro Connect 7.4,
Land Of The Lustrous 8.1,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4,
Made in Abyss 9,
Maid Sama 10,
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun 7.7,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU 8,
Parasyte the Maxim 8.9,
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall 7.3,
Real Girl 7.5,
Senryu Girl 7.5,
Special A Class 8.2,
You're Under Arrest 7.8

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