✒The Mysterious Village in the Deep Deep Woods °8.3° °excellent°
For as much as I liked this show, I don't have much to say. In part, that's because not much can be said without spoiling something. I went into MTOS knowing nothing and I'm glad I did. The mysteries undergo a gradual-unravel. The viewer who comes into the show with even half of the answers is MISSING half of the fun.MTOS follows a string of murders and missing persons - some new, some old, some very old. The viewer watches police as they investigate, and follows the families, friends and the victims themselves. It is utterly heartbreaking, yet it is lined with hope. It is a 2 season 2020 release, rated 89 on AWiki and consisting of 26 60ish-minute episodes. Currently, the very popular S2 is not available for streaming. S1 is just 12 episodes.
The acting is truly superb. Go Soo (Heart Surgeons, The Flower in Prison) is Kim Wook. He witnesses the abduction of a woman which makes him the next target of the gangsters - they saw him seeing what they did, and they don't like witnesses. He must run for his life and his running takes him to a very strange village.
Heo Joon Ho (Kingdom-8.3, Why Her?-8) plays Jang Pan Seok, a man who lives in the village. His life ended when his daughter was abducted over 15 years ago. He spends his time handing out fliers, visiting the police, and chasing leads - most of them false. Ahn So Hee (Thirty-Nine, Eulachacha Waikiki S2) plays Lee Jong Ah, one of Wook’s coworkers. She is super-cool. Her part is cool, but the coolness really seems to be the actress herself. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her. Ha Joon (Black Dog-8.2, Destined with You, Crazy Love-7.8) plays Shin Joon Ho, a cop who appears to have much more head than heart. Two residents of the village are Seo Eun Soo (Dr. Romantic, Duel, Chief Detective 1958) as Choi Yeo Na and Song Geon Hee (SKY Castle, Lovely Runner) as Thomas Cha. Ji Dae Han (Chicago Typewriter) really shines as Officer Baek Il Doo. I can't explain it, but midshow I realized that every line he uttered amused me immensely. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him as well. The director is Min Yeon Hong from Ugly Alert. The screenwriters are Ban Ki Ri from Who Are You and Witch's Romance, and Jung So Young - a first effort.
MTOS is more a crime thriller than anything else, but it is quite unique. While many horrible things happen, it somehow manages to send the viewer off strangely uplifted. It's a horrible world with horrible things going on all the time. We are blessed if we can find any decent companions with whom to brave the elements. Wook navigates heartbreaks while forming firm alliances with worthy allies. By the end, he's missing much less despite his losses. He is able to reconcile with his past and go forward as a better man. Would that each one of us could.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.3 📝8.4 🎭8.8 🎨7 🎵/🔊8 🔚8 ▪ 🌞6 ⚡5 😅3 😭7 😱4 😯4 🤢3 🤔4 💤0
Age 15+
Violence and extremely sad subject matter
Re-📺? Yep
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Crazy Love-7.8,
Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Hotel del Luna-8.4
Black Dog: Being A Teacher-8.2,
Move To Heaven-8.4,
My Mister 9.5,
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✒☀Every Sunflower Needs Its Sun☀ °7.8° °cuteness overload°
Adapted from the novel, "She’s a Little Crazy,” WIFTY is as cute as cute gets. Zhang Miao Yi (Exclusive Fairytale) plays FL Su Zai Zai. She might be alittle crazy, but she's also like 🌞sunshine.Crazy, in this case, means an uninhibited, hyper-focused go-getter. She's gonna go get herself Zhang Lu Rang (Zhou Yi Ran from The Legend of Zhuohua, Falling into Your Smile-5.7). He's gloomy and more like the 🌘moon, but he likes 🌻sunflowers. Lu Rang is good at every subject but English. Languages are a snap for Zai Zai, but she struggles with everything else. They end up tutoring eachother. After we meet Lu Rang's mother, it makes sense that he likes Su Zai Zai.
WIFTY is a 2023 release that is rated a high-flying 9 on MDL. (Romance fans love it, yo). It is 1 season consisting of 24 cuddly 35-minute episodes. They fly by quickly. Jiang Zhi Nan (The Best Day of My Life) as Jiang Jia & Bian Tian Yang (Bright Time, Song of Youth-7.2) as Gu Ran round out the 2ndary couple. They are fun: “As dumb@$$ he is, he actually didn't fall for my trick. This is so odd. What's more, how does he manage to be so obnoxious?” Actor, Bian Tian Yang, and his part, are adorable. The director is Mao De Shu (Lovely Us) and the screenwriters are Yue An & Tao Kai Xin who also collaborated on Let's Meet Now.
The original creator is Zhu Yi of the wildly popular show, Hidden Love-7.8. Consequently, WIFTY and HL are very similar. They are both low drama ride-alongs. The viewer hangs out with these simple characters throughout several years of their simple lives, but not much happens. That isn't to say that WIFTY isn't lovely. It is absolutely darling. WIFTY and HL are low on complexity, shade and tension, but they are high on romantic charm and the Prozac effect. They both include likable characters with some growing up to do. They both feature a FL who suffers from an instant crush that lasts for (presumably) a lifetime. Both cover from middle school to first post-grad positions. And both promote relaxation and tranquility. The viewer is unlikely to cry, will probably smile but not laugh, won't experience much angst or frustration, and will feel at peace. There will always be a place for such entertainment. To be fair, I will rewatch a feature that is of sub-standard quality yet it touches the heart before a piece that is intelligent and technically perfect but emotionally flat; but when it comes to rating a show, technical skill and the way it moves the heart are both important. A low degree of difficulty does lower the maximum potential score.
What they do in WIFTY they do well. The music is solid. They play a snippet from Brit rockers, Queen for a hot 5 seconds. It was amusing and quite unexpected. Before, by Zeyué is Shazam-worthy. The acting is excellent. The protagonists are engaging and there's some great dialogue. Long before they become a couple, our couple works on English prepositions and contrapositions together.
“If I exist, my love for you exists.”
“If I don't like you anymore, than I would no longer be me.”
It's a sweet scene.
“You don't necessarily have to become the sun. If you're willing to, you could be a star, a street light, or a firefly. They're all capable of shining when they want to shine. When they don't feel like shining they can slack off,” we hear in a challenge to shine as brightly as possible,
WIFTY shines as brightly as possible. Su Zai Zai is as unforgettable as she is adorable. While it's unlikely to appeal to anyone who isn't a serious romance fan, the show is simply delightful from one end to the other. If romance is your thing, make sure to exult in its warmth.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.8 📝7.7 🎭8 💓7 🦋6 🎨5.5 🎵/🔊7 🔚8 ▪ 🌞7 ⚡3 😅4 😭2 😱1 😯1 🤢1 🤔3 💤0
Age 13+ It's very clean. They do cohabitate prior to marriage. Rated TV-PG: Parental Guidance Suggested
Re-📺? Probable
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
💓 -
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love 7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine;
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1
K🇰🇷 :
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Touch Your Heart 8.2;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;
🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9
🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain 7.5;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Eternal Love 8.3,
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10
⚡/😱 -
C🇨🇳: Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
K🇰🇷:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
The Man From Nowhere 8.9
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4
Japanese🇯🇵 lite romcoms: Maid Sama-10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4, Toradora-8.5
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This review may contain spoilers
✒ Family Marriage & Sex In The City Seoul °7.7° °VG°
Boo-hoo, Ji-hoo❕We meet her when she's face-to-face with complete failure; a bona fide low point.
Raised by a patri-to❌ic father & a sympathetic-on-the-sly mom, she needs relief now. What she getz is this: Though she's a talented script writer, the TV station wants to credit her work to a known entity, in order to boost viewership. She needs fair recognition NW.
She lives with her brother. /She/ paid the depo$it / mainten-cent$ / expen$e$ / replaced appliance$ & more↗. While she was mandatorily sequestered at writer #1's office crunchin a deadline, her brother married his preggos GF. Nobody told Ji-hoo that GF-now-the-Mrs has moved in. Upon her return, when she innocently poked her head into her brother's room to say 'hi', Ji-hoo found ☢ut the hard-☹-way. Given that 🗻Dad🗻 is thrilled that Ji-hoo is about to be an aunt - the aunt of a #nephew (IT'S A B✨Y!!), she knows it's Game Over. There will be no getting that won back. She needs =equality=]> RIGHT N✴W.
Even after she'd been sexually harassed at work, she was asked to "Just work with us." They won't give her equal rights N⏱W. "Your time will come. We promise." She needs a new J.O.B. N⭕W.
She quits. N✴W❗
now she can't afford her rent
She.needs.aff⚙rdable.h⚙using.n⏱w#
$he absolutely, most direly needs affordable housing tonight
Engineer Se-hee is a self-isolated loner who has trapped himself in a rigid life, devoid of joy. His only goals are to maintain his strict schedule, save up $, and pay off his home mortgage asap. Nothing is going to work out for him without a roommate, though. He ran those calculations years back. The rental income is required in order to keep his journey to financial Buelah Land on track. ⭕ of his roommates ever work out, though. He even had to call the police on the last. He needs a compatible roommate N☹W…
Right on time, here come their bands of buddies. Se-hee's friends & Ji-hoo's friends are linked thru Ho-rang (Rang) & Won-seok, who have been dating the better part of a decade. None of the women have met the men yet. Based on names alone, each gang assumes they have a perfect landlord-tenant match-up for their bud. They weren't /trying/ to create a coed dorm, which is not as acceptable in conservative K-country . Well, didn't /they/ stumble onto something??
Thus is the show's opening. Ji-hoo & Se-hee are planted within 15ft of eachother with the cat going back and forth between them as a fluffy emissary. It grows from there. As it turns out, they are very✨compatible. Se-hee's ex-roomies never came close to the competence of Ji-hoo-roomie. It's several days of co-habbing before they even meet, due to conflicting schedules. When they discover the "setup", they plan to separate. But... well… things are working out so well...
So well, in fact, that Se-hee, who works for the App: ‘Don't 'Marry, Date', pulls a reverse play & proposes! They should get married! ? !WAIT! That's wrong. He PR⛔-Posed. He wants to marry for 'Not Love'. No one will question their living situation if they do. That way, his parents won't continue nag him about marriage, plus his dad has offered to pay off his mortgage when he marries. Ji-hoo benefits as she'll have the affordable housing she needs to stay in Seoul, rather than go home to live with M&D. CEO Ma always says that 2 are better than 1. Coincidentally, Ji-hoo had just finished writing: A Dork's Love. Is she about to marry a dork?
This writer is a clever devil. Going into the real-but-fake ceremony, Jihoo's mom talks to her about love & marriage in the bridal chamber and causes Ji-hoo to S⛈B. The unfeeling, ever practical Se-hee comes looking for his missing bride and finds her in that state. He says these words to Ji-hoo: "You can't stop crying? Then, we'll go together. It's all right if you cry. Come with me. I'll stay by your side. I will be with you." Sounds like a vow; an intimate vow between the 2 of them, alone in the bride's chambers. It's not yet ♥️. It's genuine friendship & comraderie + a promise of loyalty. It's not a fake marriage. Not really.
BTIMFL sets out with a light-hearted tone~>> a couple's friends eventually meet & interest sparks. The characters are rounded off nicely. There's a generous amount of Mars & Venus (man/woman) misunderstandings. No relationship in the series is w/o static. The romance between Soo-ji and Ceo Ma is the most fun. He's a catch - he even does a musical number! She finally comes to see who he is. The side characters greatly enhance the series.
Like ♥️, BTIMFL hurts sometimes. What's unnecessarily ♥️-rending is how Ji-hoo leaves and stays away - for what looks like weeks, maybe more. While the cutting with the snappy sounds is generally a fun touch, this later sadness is resoundingly out of sync with the quirky elements. Why would she cause such unnecessary pain to Se-hee? There's a clip of her having a good old time with her friends, while his world falls apart. She knows she's returning to him, while at the same time, he's demolished by heartbreak. The viewer feels his pain.
The show became so sad that the ending didn't lift me back up. It comes close to ruining the series, and it didn't even make sense! It's an example of awful Kdrama MSS (Mandatory Separation Syndrome: An overused Kdrama device in which the couple is separated by distance after professing love, but prior to their Happily Ever After). MSS is routinely awful. While there are times it's for the best, usually, MSS is detrimental to a series. How could a couple that has just come together, often after many struggles, bear to be apart? Why, oh why, are they compelled to write it in? Furthermore, in the emotionally wrenching letter Ji-hoo's mom wrote to Se-hee, she asked him to stay by Ji-hoo's side when she cries. Ji-hoo dumps him cold, allowing him to despair alone. What ugly irony.
The primary theme of BTIMFL is equality for women in a hyper-patriarchal society. Ha-rang wears a shirt that says "Raise girls and boys the same." We'll see a 2nd woman sexually harassed while trying to build her career. BTIMFL addresses this tired out, but still "what's happening now" indignity competently - 1 flagrant scene is like a horrible sexual harassment training video that the cubicle overlords foist on their employees. {If that's what's still going on in SK, they definitely need to tweak the power balance somehow. Women's rights were stalled there due to a military dictatorship (1961-1979) that solely focused on maintaining power, giving no thought to protecting the vulnerable.}
BTIMFL features The Disease: Good Daughter i/l Disease, in which dtr i/l's are
treated as slaves by the in-laws. That ain't healthy. Ji-hoo's mom is able to read it between the teas when the family's meet. She didn't want her daughter living her life as a slave to the In-laws. Still, the show is a little cynical about family life. It is entirely appropriate to prevent a mother i/l from bullying a young wife, but it's usually not a reason to withdraw from all family interactions. Their agreement to holiday separately is highly questionable. If a set of their parents is not respectful of them or their marriage, separation is appropriate. Apparently i/l's abusing their kid’s spouse is a pro-sport in K-country, so the writer is proposing a viable solution. We can hope that the separate holidays will rejoin if they have children. That all serves to drag down the production, which is outstanding through 13 episodes.
No show is without flaws. Besides MSS, the last three episodes end the show on a more sour / less sweet note. BTIMFL is amusing until around Ep14, where long, overdone, and wearisome shots framing Ji-hoo's pain-gripped face keep the series from continuing forward. The pacing is otherwise steady. Without that drag, the show's easily an 8+.
The poetry in BTIMFL, the discussions of literature, and "Room 19" add depth. "Room 19" is now part of my consciousness and vocab. This series tricks us into thinking it will be a lite piece, only to punch us later with surprising depth. Some notables are:
▶"We don't even know ourselves, so how could we know the dark sides of others?" 5✨
▶"When a person comes, it is in fact a tremendous thing. That person's entire life comes with them - Because it's fragile, so it may have been broken before - the heart that's close."✨
▶"A heart isn't something that is taken or grabbed. It comes to you." ✨
We can all applaud that, can't we?
Overall this is a VG view. One of the best things can can be said is that it leaves plenty for discussion. Spare us the mindless pap, which this show is not. My favorite FAVORITE takeaway from watching this is when Soo-ji declares: "I'd rather be a crazy bℹtch than a pathetic wench." Amen.
QUOTES⚜️
If I were to tell the 20 old me, would that punk believe me?
Ji-hoo! You should go out and get pregnant tonight. We're going to a club! (Soo-ji. Woman of action.)
Perhaps, if you have some time, would you marry me?
〰 IMHO 〰
Directing 7
Writing 8
Acting 7.5
Romance 7
Flutters 5
Warmth 5
Art 6
Excitement 5
Laughs 5
Thought provocation 8
Ending 4
Age 14+
Watch again? ✅ twice and counting…
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✒ Tae-yo's Bunkhouse For Stowaways ¤ How They Rock The Boat Until They Float. °Excellent°
This breezy series is like riding a skiff, whisking along the 🌊ebb & flo. We all know, though, it wouldn't be a Kdrama without some 🌫 moments, as well as a sad sense of loss for a 'sailor', or two. For all that, MFFL, like a summer shandy&soju, is lite and full of good cheer.Tae-yo is from a (pause) comfortable family. As such, he gets to live alone at one of the family docks (a spare house) while bobbling through college.
In the span of a dozen bells or so, several of his mates suffer a boarding crisis and show up at Tae-yo's 'gangway.' This mishmash of stowaways all know Tae-yo, but none of them know each other. Aigoo, why did he answer the door? His one friend, Cho-hun, (Hun) played by the charming Kang Tae-oh, boards wearing a 👗(⁉). The Admiral, (his 💰father) you see, had ordered him to jumpship and leave anything Hun hadn't bought with his own money (in other words, leave with nothing). Pushed out to sea on an iceberg, he has no lifeboat... or 👖. Dangerously exposed to arrest, said dress, swiped from a clothesline, is what barely spares him from the MP's and the brig.
All aboard, Tae-yo's fails to take any prisoners or to make anyone walk the plank. He accepts that they'll be 🛌 with him for weeks out to sea. He must keep their enlistment at the quarters hidden from his father, The Logistic CDR, or lose his own cabin. Bon Voyage! 🌊 Wave❕ as MFFL pulls up ⚓ and begins merrily⛵drifting with the tide.
In our spyglasses, we view Tae-yo's Crew adjusting to close quarters, while unavoidably forming a band-of-brothers, and making allies with the broader circle of Tae-yo's friends, while at the same time, keeping each other's secrets (mostly). These shipmates are like warm currents. It's cozy and cheery sailing with them.
There's Song-i, Tae-yo's best friend, who's mom went awol, there's Gar-in, who ran away from her suffocating mother, (Gar-in's cuter than a Pekingese Dog Fish) and you've already met Hun. Hun's an out of work/never worked actor & singer (but not much of a dancer). He and Gar-in are the live entertainment. Hun also astutely marks the 5 stages of Tae-yo's breakup, in realtime live feed. He's wrong about it all, and yet he's so right. Wrong or right, he's adorable.
In MFFL there's another of those ubiquitous Bermuda-love-triangles, but with its own twist. Predictable? Given that they meticulously forecast the weather, it's clear to see where things are headed. (Predictable's generally a tedious criticism of romances & feel-good jaunts. For a thriller or mystery - or an M. Night Shyamalan film - predictability is a shipwreck; but for works like MFFL, it's an empty net). The love triangle is integral to the plot in MFFL, so we shouldn't blame them that so many other productions forcibly wedge it into their scripts. Nevertheless, Kdramas are flooded over with unnecessary formulaic ♥🔺s. While we're swabbing the deck, we can address one more overused device - MoMPs: Missing-or-Misplaced-Parent(s) show up too often as well. In MFFL this is not well used (1/2 the MP story, anyway) and is a plot weakness.
But MFFL doesn't take on water just because, in a house of 20 year olds, 💕pairs form, and 💞reform. Close quarters, particularly on this "Love Boat" leads to such. They're all looking for the perfect oar to go with their rigging, afterall. It's the journey, the swelling attraction, imbibing truth about one's feelings, and the GoPro filming keeping things afloat, along with the smiles and 🌞warmth.
MFFL also dives into growing pains, especially adjusting from kiddie pool friendships to the wide open seas of adulthood. Tae-yo and Song-i have been inseparable since age 3. We watch them each drop ⚓ in a relationship. There's a big adjustment for all parties, given how close those two are.
When Song-i is first dating, she keeps the identity of her boyfriend classified, because he's Tae-yo's friend, and they aren't ready to go public. Tae-yo is thoroughly agitated over everything happening with this phantom bf of Song-i's. He says: 'This jerk let you walk home in the rain' (he had to work). Then Tae-yo comes out with: 'A decent guy would never let the woman he loves doubt herself'. Of course, right then he's causing her, his best friend, to doubt herself. 'She's got to break it off with that dude', He complains to his friend. Said friend and Song-i are each getting dating advice from Tae-yo, who doesn't connect that they are the two dating, even when he comments that their stories are similar. He loves to complain about the jerk Song-i is dating to that "jerk," who can only listen and take it. Cute.
Director Oh Jin-suk is 2-for-2 with me, as I love "My Sassy Girl," (2017). That show is also weatherproofed with straight feelgood joy, despite the usual impossible outlook in Ep1.
Cruisin on this 'houseboat,' and 🚢 with this blended crew, following them on their excursions to school, work, dates (why is that jerk keeping Song-i out so late! Grrr) and back home again, is what makes it skip like stones on a brook. MFFL is not trying to be a tempest. It gently flows, so these friends can coast near the shoreline and stargaze🌌from the top deck. It's a swimmy recess, a winsome escape, and plain old smooth sailing.
In short, slipping away briefly with MFFL is just happy hangout time whilst catching the high tide with bouyant allies. If you hate smiling, just take the next charter.
Now pass that Soju shot!
IMHO...
🎬8 🎭7.7 💓7.6 🦋6 😅6 🎵8 🤔6🎨7 🌞9 🔚8
Age 12+.
👁📺again❔ ✅Did it‼
Originally ✏ 4/2021
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Mars & Venus Go To Court °8.2° °Excellent°
TYK follows a TV personality who is out of work after a scandal. She would call herself an actress, but she's known for her good looks, not her good acting. She begs for a part in a new legal drama. She's told (with great reluctance) to research her role at a real law firm. Under that one condition she'll be offered the part. "On it!" Her manager calls his law-firm-owning cousin, whose immediate reply is: "There's no way - he won't do *this* favor - he will not have any actress come into his sacred company - it's WHO?!? (all without taking a breath) Turns out he's a BIG fan. She must be assigned to the most competent attorney in The Firm. He is all-business-no-warmth, and gives up on Prossy Missy the first day ("Just do what you want until quitting time"), because she can't work the copy machine. Heck, she can't even answer the phone.If nothing else, watch it for the pickup skills. Exhibit A: "Ms Oh, this letter is for you. I, Kwon Jung-roc, saw you for the very first time on February 6th, 2019 at the secretary's office of Always Law Firm located in Seocho - gu, Seoul.
"As we interacted with each other many times through work, and had about six meals together, I realized that your feelings weren't fake. I realize that they were actually sincere. Therefore, I, Kwon Jung-roc, request you, Oh Jin-sim, to officially go out with me. And I hope you give me your approval."
How do you think our Glamours actress will respond to this plea deal?
Summary Judgment: TYK is the perfect holiday for Kromcom devotees. It frames itself as a descendant of the film Roman Holiday, in which a princess (Audrey Hepburn) trades her carriage for a motorcycle after Escaping The Palace. In heavy contrast to the starched isolation of court, she is propelled by a rumbling hot motor to experience life, citizen-style: Fun. Adventure, + a dear & sincere romance inside a brief run. TYK could be referred to as Legal Holiday… or Office Holiday? A Brief Holiday In Motion? Contempt Overturned In 3 Months?
Exhibit Z: The soundtrack is downright Spotifiable.
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✒⚗Smart Patches Diabolical Minds & Victims' Circles °3.9° °disastrous°
The 1-sentence review: Don't let the snazzy opening fool you. Keep the lid shut on this show or suffer.Pandora, in legend, was created by the gods as payback for people obtaining fire from Prometheus. As the 1st woman, she carried a jar (or box) that contained all evil. When opened, evil & misery entered the world. Therefore, the title only serves as a metaphor for the show. Open this “jar,” & misery will follow.
Need convincing? We'll keep going.
Introducing Clover, a neural implant smart patch. It's a revolutionary medical device brought to us by Hatch. It allows direct input of data into the brain. No more studying! The chimp they've been testing on, “Red”, has an IQ of 120. After the demonstration that opens the show, Hatch is primed to make gazillions.
What could go wrong here?
The viewer is tipped off that things will go horribly wrong in many ways. The filming is dark & near psychedelic at times, while the soundtrack is heavily portentous. ‘This isn't going to be a lite feel-good watch,’ I was thinking. That woulda been OK. The problem is that 🅿 is patched together worse than Hanul Psychiatric Hospital's worst attempt at reconstructing Frankenstein.
🅿 is overrated at 89 on AWiki, which is just shocking to me. The IMDB crowd is at 6.2. It gets off to a hot start. The opening eps are fantastic. I love how Tae, the main protag, wears a very heavy gold chain that's wrapped around her neck twice. It's emblematic of being shackled. At times the action is great, especially early on. They promised the audience more, but their promises were unfulfilled. The filmcraft is outstanding - truly stunning, at times. (It's a shame that it was wasted on this effort). “So far, I don't understand the low ratings,” thought I. Turns out, the crowd is overly generous & must have weighed in before completing the show, b/c 🅿 is a disaster. It just doesn't become obvious until the 2nd half.
Gradually, it comes into focus that there is no focus, no cohesive plot. They bring up tantalizing possibilities w/o follow-through. 🅿 is not an assassin or girl-kicks-butt thriller; it's not a political nor a science thriller. It dips his toes into varied waters but never dives in. Characters haphazardly shift their allegiances. There's also gross over-acting. Bottoming out at downright insulting, it's so thoroughly incompetent that it really is breathtaking.
These people, who seem so happy, sure do turn on eachother.
The women:
Lee Ji Ah is FL Hong “Tae” Ra. On paper her life is perfect but she has no memory of her past. She's starting to get creepy flashbacks. The actress plays someone who inspires disgust in My Mister-9.5, a show that all should watch. Here she's relatable, which speaks to her skill. She's a victim. Her family life ended when her parents were killed in a car “accident “ that may not have been an accident. As an orphan, her victimization intensified.
Jang Hee Jin (Flower of Evil-8.9) plays Ko Haesoo “HSoo,” a reporter who is also a victim. Her husband & Tae's spouse head up Hatch. Her father is a former president who was assassinated & the crime has never been solved. Heartbreak drove her mother to suicide. HSoo's also an irritating lunatic. It's hard to root for a person who is that toxic & self-absorbed, even if she's been through legitimate trauma. She acts like she's the only one who has suffered loss, but none of these protags still has both parents. Something true of mentally ill people is replete self-absorption. HSoo is unhinged & blind to everyone else's pain. What's more tragically ironic is that too much self-focus only leads to despair, & HSoo crossed that threshold long ago. She's also raising a monster, so we can't even give her credit for being a good mom. Later on, they try to turn her into some kind of mastermind, but it isn't convincing, nor is it emotionally satisfying as she's still so tediously odious.
Han Soo-Yeon is Tae's sister& business partner Hong Yura. She has a new bf, but she's cryptic abt him. She seems perfect ~ at 1st glance. Soon we see that she's horrible. Yura ends up a victim as well. Kyeon Mi Ri is HSoo's mother i/l. She is often the rich mom in shows like Revolutionary Love-5.7 & Backstreet Rookie-6.4. She's a cutie, but she's distasteful in most of 🅿. Shim So-Young (Alchemy of Souls-8.3) plays the loathsome mental hospital director, Kim Sun-Deok. Her laugh is really too much; even for a heavy show, her part is over the top.
Let's hear it for Red, she really wowed the crowd before she becomes a victim.
The men:
Lee Sang Yoon (Lovestruck in the City-7.3) plays Tae's husband, Pyo “Jae” Hyun. They are deeply in love, & he seems unfazed by her shrouded past. He's preparing to take a sabbatical as Hatch CEO so that he can run for president. He's a victim. His mother was killed in the same accident that took Tae's parents.
Park Ki Woong/KiW (The King's Affection-8.3) is Jang “Do” Jin, the other half of the Hatch helm & HSoo's husband. Early on we see that KiW is not the devoted partner that Jae is. When we meet his toxic parents, we understand: He's a victim caught in his family's web. Bong Tae Kyu plays the nerdy creative force behind Hatch"s success, “Koo” Sung Chan. He's weak, which turns him into more of a victimizer. Hong Woo Jin (Squid Game-8.4) is Jang Kyojin/”Kyo”. He's a victim. He's been comatose since a motorbike accident that was prob NOT accidental.
Jung Jae-Sung is politician Han Kyung-Rok. Actors from Korea do the arrogant “knowing laugh” better than anyone in the 🌏, & he's among the best. (A funny guy I know always does a mock-up of the “knowing laugh,” so while it used to make me want to strangle the person inflicting it on my eardrums, now it just reminds me of him doing it for fun, so I giggle instead. Humor is the best medicine, indeed). He's often casted as an @$$h0le w/ power. I've seen him in Hospital Playlist-9, Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency-7.4, My Mister-9.5, Clean w/ Passion For Now-7, The King's Affection-8.3, & Big Mouth-7.4. He's been in many other wildly successful shows that I intend to get to asap. On MDL, his only sub-7 show is The Interest of Love at 6.8. He must have eaten magic beans that make him entirely distasteful but wildly successful to be in that many stellar features.
This is Screenwriter Hyun Ji Min's 1st credited work. The director is Choi Young Hoon of One the Woman, & the original creator is Kim HSoon Ok of The Penthouse series.
The theme is Victims. Sadly, most of us have been victimized in small or big ways. Being victimized leaves a person w/ a choice: Heal & move on, or let the pain rule (and ruin) your life. Healing must, at some point, involve forgiveness. (That has nothing to do w/ justice; for the benefit of society, crimes must be punished). HSoo personifies the concept that becoming a victim does not a saint create. Being victimized will tempt a person to wallow in anger, hatred, unforgiveness & bitterness. It's understandable, but in the end, those dark indulgences will only rot us out from within. Almost every character in 🅿 has been victimized, & almost every character chooses the path of bitterness & revenge. A mess it does make.
In ep2 we go back 15 yrs. The president is being inaugurated… & assassinated. Flashes of this past jolt Tae. A furtive missive, delivered by an untraceable tattooed motorcyclist, entices her to come to the Hanul Psychiatric Hospital, a visit that breaks the lock on her past. Soon we are looking at shades of the show Hanna-7, which is about teen girls being turned into assassins. This isn't the first time such a plot has come out of hiding: The 1990 film, La Femme Nikita, also involves young Iron Maidens. Bridget Fonda starred in 1993's Point Of No Return, which was Hollywood's version of the same film. (The French one is better). Let's not forget the absolute bang-jammy of the dudette insurgent bunch - Kickass. Ooo, the Swedish version of The Girl w/ A Dragon Tattoo (+2 sequels) is also as good as it gets. Once again, skip Hollywood's variant of these flicks. When thugs come at Tae, muscle memory kicks… then punches, slashes & tosses. It's SO (swordless) KILL BILL - for a scant moment, but that excitement goes away & never reappears. Whaaaa?
There's too many logical gaps, eg: It makes no sense that enemies seem to have unfettered access to a helpless person who has suffered a stroke. There's a USB that supposedly contains research files but it's inexplicably necessary to run Hatch's programs. Jae's campaign should have been dead after a voice file was released, but the problem evaporates. It's alittle too easy for enemies to sneak up on Tae, who's flawless until the show renders her impotent to push the plot. It's inconsistent & sloppy: Is she a female terminator, or a pathetic woman in distress? When we are introduced to Tae, we should have seen her vigorous workout routine. It would bolster credibility when she starts kicking butt out of the blue. In ep13, CEO Kummo is sent a packet of shocking evidence. He's elated. The problem is that all of it had already been on the national news - as reported by his own daughter i/l.
In the last half, I no longer cared what happened & rolled my eyes at every development. Eps14-16 status: ‘Officially offended’. This is when they attempt to manufacture emotion w/ some deaths, but it all falls flat. They attempt to wrap it up w/ pretty bows, but it's too little too late. While ep16 is not as painful to watch as the previous 4, it's painful, still the same, w/ a sacrifice that is unnecessary & plain silly. Not that I cared who lived or died by then. Kill ‘em all. Ease my pain.
Another thing that will ease my pain is by helping anyone who stumbles onto this review avoid that pain altogether. Try It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9, Law School -8, My Mister 9.5, or Blood Free-8.5 instead.
〰 IMHO
📣4 📝3 🎭5 💓3 🦋2 🎨8 🎵/🔊5.5 🔚2 ▪ 🌞3 ⚡5.5 😅0 😭4 😱4 😯4 🤢2.5 🤔1 💤4
Poli-wagging: 3/10. They make politicians in, general, look bad. That's fair.
Age 15+ for graphic, heavy violence; Language: R-rated $h!+, b!÷ch F💣s
Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only. Not that any mature person would enjoy this.
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Law School -8,
Call It Love-8.4,
Anna-8.1,
My Mister 9.5,
Uncle Samsik-8.4,
Mine-8,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Parasite-9
Action/Crime/Sci-fi -
Private Lives 8.1,
K2 8,
Vagabond-8,
Blood Free-8.5
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9
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✒ Things Will Be Fine Once You Turn 30 ~2️⃣9️⃣~ So We’re Told °8.7° °just excellent°
This show is a jalapeno margarita truffle: It's sweet, down-to-earth, tart, salty and a touch spicy. It hits a variety of primary taste buds and provides healing antioxidants as well. It's decadent, and I savored it.BMD follows 3 women. These college friends are fast approaching 30 but going nowhere as the show opens. All connected to the entertainment industry, 2 never got their careers fully off the ground. One had a hit documentary, but then her bf died and she fell apart. It happened organically. Eun's friends got into the habit of spending time with her as she navigated the walk of the living dead - grief. This eventually led to them moving in with Eun, who had bought a fabulous home with the haul she made: There's plenty of room. These friends are the epitome of lowkey and behave much like siblings. Even the purest among them, Joo, might cheat at cards. For anyone that's caught,~} it's HAMMER TIME. ( Joo’s kid is the only adult in the room, at times,). BMD is a 2019 release that is rated 88 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 60ish-minute episodes.
It's a big cast, and the acting is fabulous. The 3 leads are not only good, they are /funny/. Chun Woo-Hee (The Wailing-8.8, Mother, The Beauty Inside), as Lim Jin-Joo (Jin), is aimlessly acerbic, which is just buried rage seeping to the surface. At the same time, she's an adorably silly mess. Her pixie face heightens that effect. Lee Eun-Jung (“Eun”, the intelligent & capable documentarian who lives as though her dead boyfriend is still alive), is played by Jeon Yeo-Bin from Vincenzo-7.9 and the underrated Glitch-8. She talks to her now-passed love as if he's still there. She SEES him, too. This is her way of coping with grief. As long as she doesn't get too lost in it she'll be fine… but she's lost in it. Han Ji-Eun (Bad and Crazy, Lovestruck in the City-7.3) is Hwang Han-”Joo”. She gets the most male attention, but that hasn't netted her much. She seems the most feminine and the most fragile of the three. “Seems” is the operative word. Underneath the chiffon exterior, she's Kevlar. While the other two are confrontational, she catches prey with honey.
These women have a variety of men in their lives. They all live with Lee Hyo-Bong, Eun's brother. The cherub-faced Gong Myung (The Bride of Habaek-7) is Choo Jae-Hoon, Joo's coworker. He's in a dead relationship. His gf will not let go: Controlling him has become part of her identity. HE can't tear away: Being controlled by her has become part of HIS identity. It's not healthy. Ahn Jae-Hong (Reply 1988-8.6, Fight for My Way) is director Son Beom-Soo. They make a couple of cute Reply jokes in a callout to the hit series. Beom-Soo wants to film Jin's script, ‘Things Will Be Fine Once You Turn 30’. Nam Young-Joo is adorable as cafeteria worker Sol-Bi who has a crush on him. She drops that on him, in understated deadpan, as she drops a scoop of rice onto his tray. Kim Hwan-Dong, Jin's ex and Son Beom-Soo's assistant director, is played by Lee You-Jin (Be with You, Do You Like Brahms?). Lee Hak-Joo (My Dearest, Oh My Ghost-10) plays No Seung-Hyo, Joo’s baby-daddy. Seol Woo-Hyung is said “baby" and another example of Korea's amazing portfolio of amazing child actors.
Lee Joo-Bin (She Would Never Know-7.3, Queen Of Tears) is petulant actress Lee So-Min. She's a former college mate of Eun's. They had a falling out and now alternately behave passive-aggressive | aggressively competitive towards e/o. Ms Lee is not stupid, but her looks and success allowed her to skate without learning much, so she's ignorant. As soon as one thinks that means she's got a low IQ, she will surprise. I love Son Suk-Ku from My Liberation Diary-8.9 making an appearance. Such a 🙀bad boy😻. Lee Byeong-Hun (Way Back Love) and Kim Hye-Young (Lovers of the Red Sky) are the director/writer team.
In BMD, Mr. Director - Beom-Soo & Ms Writer - Jin, find themselves adrift without the A-team. Jin's ex-boss (played by Baek Ji Won from Kick Kick Kick Kick & Awaken-8.7), a veteran writer, also has a new drama being released, and the studio fears her. She is less than pleased at having to compete with her assistant! She's no NOOB! While she may not have her first choice of director (he wants to work with Jin 😤) she has the best of everyone else for her new drama.
It was Jin's scripts that first caught Beom-Soo's attention and soon it was Jin herself that drew him in. They quickly start dating, and their reparte is highly entertaining. Jin's take on relationships: “What you find before you fall in love with that person is the love that you possess but after you start your relationship, all there is left to find is hatred. Don't you agree?” Her new boyfriend of 2 days is speechless. Next we'll hear: “When he holds my hand, I somehow feel comfortable. I feel like I can hug him and I won't regret anything. I mean, dating is all about the process of breaking such trust.” - Now that's good writing😂. The way Jin talks makes it sound like it's only /cynicism/ that's going to be fine once a person reaches 30; not anything else.
The beauty of the show is in the writing and the dialogue. Not much happens, yet I could have watched 16 more episodes of their interactions, easily. They nicely cover communication mishaps; the gap between what the speaker intends and what the hearer infers. Human relationships, in general, are dissected. Do people live so that they can fight? “You fight with your shoulders in the subway. You fight with your words at work. You fight with your comments on the internet. The Earth is one big battlefield,” we hear.
Managing grief is a theme. Eun has become lost in her protective bubble of delusion. She says she's forgotten who she used to be - and I know exactly how that feels. As a widow, I have trouble thinking about my spouse. I believe I would enjoy an imaginary conversation much more. I haven't noticed that being /aware/ of being depressed actually helps with /ridding/ oneself of depression. Grief must be endured and will heal on its own schedule. Only time and boosting one's physical health will promote healing. Eun's friends allow her to breathe as she finishes up her walk through the valley of death.
While BMD contemplates grief, it's much more about surviving, thriving, and the sheer joy of life. The writing, directing, acting and overall timing are nippy and there's a lilt to the atmosphere. It's a completely unique vibe and I love it. Quirky. Offbeat. Witty. Lowkey. Very funny. It's all of that. There's an absurd love confession in ep2. They appear perfect for e/o. “Put yourself in my shoes.” Jin is genuinely astounded. “Why would I? I like my shoes better. I think that's just hilarious.” These girls won't see 29 again. After pondering on whether their prettiest days are behind them they decide to go clubbing to prove it ain't so. The scene is 😂😬😝.
The show is a funny contrast of characters. Joo sees her coworker going into a motel w/ his “ex”. She is interested in him, so she asks the cerebral Eun if she should say something to him about it: “All right. Let's approach the matter from the humanistic view. I believe history & art are part of the humanities. For example, women were always treated like trophies in the history of war. But, paradoxically… I'm not talking about whether @$$h0les & sluts are worthy of existence. I think what matters most is the ratio by which they exist. In order to understand that we need to think about…” We never get the rest of the lecture b/c Joo cuts her off.
“Why would he date you?” Jin's mother queries.
“I think he's dating me for my looks,” Jin responds.
“Is that even possible?” Mom's confused.
“I think it is,” Jin assures her.
“I feel bad for him. I should cook him a meal,” mom realizes.
The nature (and fallacy) of control is examined. “When I was young, I thought that everyone had a personality disorder. But if that is the case with everyone, it means that it's not a disorder. It just means that everyone is different. If problems arise from people's differences, it means that I'm half the problem. I tried not to do it, but before I realized it, I was imposing my ideas on people… I alter and distort what people say however I please, everything's either imposing or coercing. You see the higher I climb the ladder, coercion keeps winning. But I know that's not really winning. I try to keep my mouth shut not to pressure people, but I end up revealing my idea through my facial expressions or my vibe. I'm becoming very uncool as I get older.” Whoa. TRUTH💣❗ “Let's put our heads on the floor and reflect on it,” as Beom-Soo would say. People desire control of everything at every moment. Yet, we control very little, and controlling others brings paltry satisfaction. It's almost like humans are aware of what's right but are hopelessly unable to do it. Theologians might say it's exactly like that.
“No one can fully understand themselves. People who believe that they fully understand themselves will get hurt even more in the end.” That's said during a role play in which a relationship is dissected in the rearview mirror. “You loved me, and you used your love to try and force me into your idea of love. When I didn't behave as you expected, you criticized me. You abandoned me to tame me. You weren't trying to love me. You tried to possess me. You didn't want to accommodate me. To fit me into your idea of love you used my foolishness against me, You controlled my feelings however you wanted, and made endless demands. When I didn't meet your demands, you criticized me. You abandoned me. Did you love me?” Whoa, indeed.
There's too many shows that are great for 1/3 or 2/3 and then they pack it with a bunch of filler for the remainder. They don't have enough good content to fill the required episodes. I've taken to calling it MALcontent. In BMD, the opposite is true. It's not that a lot happens, it's just that the writing is so good and the characters are so much fun that I was upset when ep16 came around. They could have made this three seasons- easily. Btw, Beom-Soo has a solution to avoid /their/ show from suffering MALcontent. Jin is all ears. His idea: Reduce the quality from the beginning! 😏… ⌚… We wait for Jin to respond, expecting her to be outraged. After a couple moments of quiet contemplation, her face brightens and she declares the solution brilliant 😝.
A woman in a new relationship thinks she's alone but gets caught f@rting in front of her new bf. She later talks it out with the roomies. The whole sequence is 😂. It ends with a songwriter composing the tune: “The smell will eventually go away.”
So, hang in there!
Things really will get better, as long as you work hard and don't f@rt around too much.
QUOTES📢
A flowery path is actually an unpaved road.
Tears in your heart will become an illness. Tears that are let go will evaporate and will not exist in this world.
He's just a man. He approaches the situation rationally.
True rest is not at home.
It's okay to be a bit crazy. And yet the Earth still moves.
The pride of the successful divides into 2 categories: Flexibility and obsession.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.7 📝8.8 🎭8.5 💓8 🦋6.5 🎨7 🎵/🔊7.6 🔚8 ♦ 🌞7.8 ⚡2 😅6 😭3 😱1 😯2 😖0 🤔7.4 💤0
Age 15+ some R-rated Language
Re-📺? 🔛 I probably won't wait long.
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Modern Day:
Mad For Each Other 7.8 ~silly fun;
My Secret Romance 7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks);
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love to Hate You 8.9;
Her Private Life 8;
Touch your heart 8.2;
Romance is a bonus book 7.9;
Boys Over Flowers 8 ~ melodrama to the max;
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;
More Than Friends 8;
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
Try a Chinese historical fantasy romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8
Japanese lite romcoms: Maid Sama (10), Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo (7.8), Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions (8.4), Toradora (8.5)
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
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✒ ♥️ She comes & goes but it's all about those ❣♥❣ °7.2° °VG°
It's just dinner… Psych! It's more than that. Hae prefers treating patients in a restaurant. Food is happy & comforting. His charges relax more over a meal - they open up.Hmm… Maybe he just doesn't like eating alone.
Song Seung Heon is Dr. Kim “Hae” Kyung. He's a psychiatrist, so he's all alone. I've seen him in Saimdang-8.5 & Black-9. Those shows made me a BIG fan, though I wasn't crazy about his bad guy part in Black Knight-7. Seo Ji Hye (Crash Landing on You-9.1) plays Woo Do “Hee”. They do a couple of cute call-outs to CLOY. She's reunited w/ her CLOY co-star & love interest, Kim Jung Hyun (Mr. Queen-9). Here, he's not the man of her dreams. He is Hee's jerkface soon-to-be EX-lover. Hee seems dignified, but she has a silly sense of humor that pours out into her productions, 3-Stooges-inspired, all. On paper, these 2 are mismatched. In reality, they are ramen & kimchi: The perfect compliment.
It started in Jeju. Actually, it started on the plane ride over, though they didn't make a good impression on e/o then. She's going to get engaged! She's making a big deal about it. He's rolling his eyes, and “NO,” he won't do a video congratulations for her! Later, they end up at the same restaurant where he watches her get dumped - the opposite of therapeutic. One thing leads to another and they end up having dinner together, & staying at the same hotel, but they don't exchange phone #s… or even names. They won't exchange names for around half of the show. They fall in love before exchanging names! She offers a thank-you dinner to him when they are both back in Seoul, but he declines. His recusal was unintentionally unkind. He thought he was being clever when he told her that the next time a hit by Tae Jinah tops the charts, he'll meet her at 8:00 at a certain restaurant. The implication is that it'll never happen.
When she gets back to work, she's given a tough assignment. She must recruit a reclusive but daring & handsome psychiatrist to be on her podcast. It's all about those ♥❣♥, & he will generate them. You get one guess as to whom /he/ is. She doesn't know it yet, though, because they never exchanged names. .
DM is a 2020 release that is rated 82 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 70-minute or 32 35-minute episodes. This show stays small and uneventful, yet it works, somehow. For perspective's sake, I'll mention that I'm working through Prime's catalog and I just finished My Man Is Cupid-5.9, and Heartbeat-4.8, and they were tough to finish. DM was not. Everyone has their own line of demarcation. The show moves forward, linearly. It keeps its focus and doesn't wander.
Hae doesn't do podcasts. He does food therapy. He /ignores/ her email. This leads to a follow-up email pointing out that manners maketh a man, and he appears to have ⭕. An aggressive exchange follows, which then becomes an in-person exchange - an /attempt/ at one, that is. They each go to their other's place of business to finish the argument, but since they do it at the same time, they don't meet up then. They sure as shizzle know they can't stand e/o.
Their quest for an outrage-unload is interrupted when Tae Jinah's ‘She Comes and Goes’ hits the top of the charts! Fate is serving up popovers: Drop everything! They have a date at the fish market.
Soon… “You hate takeout. Why don't you want to go out?” Hae’s acting weird. “Oh, I'm afraid I'll run into that weird woman… One that makes me want to ramble on.” They /refuse/ to accept it as fate when coincidence after coincidence keeps them running into e/o, but they finally take the step of agreeing to share meals as “dinner mates.” No dating, no borrowing money, no TOUCHING, just meals. It's ep5 and they haven't exchanged names yet. (If they had, it would all fall apart because they detest e/o - professionally. His steadfast refusal to be on her webcast has up-ended her career). One thing that drives them to form an alliance is that their exes are back in town. Each of them had suffered a brutal breakup and neither of them wants to be available for their exes to pick their bones.
As they continue to meet privately and spat professionally, the big reveal has teeth that keep growing. They've grown used to e/o. To learn that they loathe e/o will hurt. Around that halfway mark it occurred to me that not much had happened. It is all small plates. I was enjoying the flavor, nevertheless.
Lee Ji Hoon (Rookie Historian-7.6) portrays Hee's ex, Jung “Jae” Hyeok. He's got the hardest job of the show and he handles it well. Son Na Eun (Ghost Doctor) plays Hae's gorgeous ex, Jin Noh “Eul”. Ye Ji Won (Brain Works) is the adorable Nam Ah Young, '2N Box' CEO and Hee's boss. She provides the fun & flash - It would be a much more boring show w/out her. She dresses like an anime character. I love it. She's half of the fantastical 2ndary romance. Kim Seo Kyung (My Country: The New Age) is the nervous Lee Byung Jin, Hae Kyung's nurse. The intrinsically affable Park Ho San is Keanu, a mysterious homeless man with a booming laugh that draws a person in like a beacon. He's starred in Departure, Sun & Would You Like a Cup of Coffee? I've seen him in My Mister-9.5, Prison Playbook-almost done - it's wonderful, & Han River Police-7.4. He's a plus in any production.
Ko Kyu Pil (Crash Landing on You-9.1, The King's Affection-8.3) normally enhances any scene he's in. In DM he plays Hee's coworker, Park Jin Gyu. They could have used him better. He's a 2D cartoon in DM. Yoon Bok In is Do Hee's mother. She's always good. In More Than Friends-8 she really showcases her talent. The directors are Go Jae Hyun (Player, Café Minamdang), & Park Bong Sub of The Uncanny Counter (S1-8.4 S2-4). This is screenwriter Kim Joo's 1st effort, and it's based on the original work of Park Jae Bum who gifted us with Vincenzo & The Fiery Priest.
I kept waiting to be disappointed with DM. So many shows flounder in the double digit episodes, but DM, admirably, takes on quiet depth. The acting is excellent, as well. It started to surprise me. Hee has to look at her father and say ‘I love you. You're a good dad. But you're so mean to mom. I'll support her, whatever her decision is.’ Respect and loyalty DO NOT mean you're supposed to support a loved one's evil or wrong behavior. Loyalty demands the exact opposite, as the true virtue of loyalty is always first loyal to truth.
“Do you like that man?” Her friend is curious. Hee shakes her head. “I do not want to... I won't. I won't like that man.” Soon after: “That's when I realized that your efforts to deceive your heart come to nothing when you truly like someone.” This is a cozy romance. The main couple doesn't emit sparks but they do emit warmth. They are embers, not a raging fire. The show is comfortable to watch, and this couple feels homey.
“I gave him up... because the person I love must be happy! You guys must have no conscience. You say you love them, but you have no interest in their happiness.” One of the side characters scolds Hae's ex. She is trying to get him back despite the fact that he's clearly in love with Hee. Ditto for Jae, Hee's ex. Here's 2 people ready to love the other and commit to the best for the other. They are contrasted with their exes who want to get back with each of them for selfish reasons. The exes want personal fulfillment and are looking to be physically and emotionally catered to. If they are willing to give in kind, that's one thing. But they aren't and they won't because they are utterly self-involved. Mentally ill people are all 💯% self-involved. Are all self-involved people mentally ill? I dunno. Maybe. Jae certainly is. Eul has childhood trauma she's working through, and she's certainly not “well”.
Hee reflexively covers for Jae when he does embarrassing things. But is she really covering for him? She can't release her shame. He's her past, and she's ashamed of her past. She's ashamed of her failure. She's ashamed that she felt for this messed up guy. She's ashamed that she can't make a clean break. At the core of it is that she doesn't feel worthy of this wonderful man, Hae. Not much is happening in these episodes, yet they held my attention because they're insightful.
One can't erase the past or hide it forever. “My life & my relationships are ridiculous. We love & break up. We fight & resent e/o... I thought my pain wasn't that special & I was doing okay. But it was a delusion. My relationship is a mess.” Hee has unresolved hurts. Once they get together, their past hurts are denying them peace. Not only are their exes physically present, but they are emotionally there as well. I was also angry at Hee. Talk about misplaced guilt, taking on other people's problems, & covering for toxic offenders! What she's really doing is self-sabotage. She's terrified. I hated what she was doing. Yet I was looking forward to seeing how they resolve it.
DM isn't perfect. There's videos of him being a vigilante, but they never follow-up on that motif. It's our Introduction to Hae, and yet that part of him goes into hiding and is never seen again. That is a flaw. They don't do a good enough job explaining Jae, his background, and his actions when he broke up with Hee and then disappeared for 6 years. The flaws are more than compensated for with cute touches and warmth. In ep6 they have dinner together and they're pretty much matching, already. We learn about Panama La Esmeralda Geisha coffee. I looked it up. It's expensive. There's some nice graphics - They have fun with gimmicks and polished effects. They show months of dating by way of a social media page filling up with photos. It's cute.
This director knows how to utilize camera, cutting, special effects and music to augment funny scenes. There's one contest that they film in slow-mo, fan blowing the hair back, and onlookers also being blown away; it's done for very good comedic effect. They totally forget the no-touching rule at that time and hug. “You have a dinner mate!? Is he handsome? Are you sure you're not dating him? Do you want to date him?” Hee's friend is all a-buzz. “At least he's not like that psycho psychiatrist. If he comes near me, that's the end of him.” Hee believes she'll take that rage to the grave 😅.
Hae's finest moment is at work. Sure, she lost her show due to that jerk, but B-class comedy never dies! They all cheer. (Hero music. Fade out). Hee… Hae… Hey, what else should I say? I think this is worth the watch. Is it in my top 50? Probably not. It's still a tasty snack, though.
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Simple & Sweet -
99 days with the Superstar-7,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
My First First Love-8,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Touch your heart 8.2,
Another Miss Oh-7.5,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Our Blues-8.5,
Be Melodramatic-8.7
🎎 -
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
Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
Heirs-7.3,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
Something in them Rain-9,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
Wait, My Youth-8.4,
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Find Yourself-8.9, Hidden Love-7.8
Consider a Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5
Originally 〰️🖋 3/2025
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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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This review may contain spoilers
✒Try 2 Find a Better Answer to the Question ♀️♂️ How Did You 2 Get Together? °Superior°
~All spoilers are at the bottom in a clearly marked section~TROTAR: A New Take on the Battle of the Sexes with Romance, Grace, & Ultimate Masculinity on Display. It is Superior.
This precious RomComDram is about a novice screenwriter whose script has been sold, but she was advised to work with the ML on objections /he/ has to her writing. She despises him from moment zero. He curtly states he doesn't understand his character's motivations. He can't see how the lead man/villain, Han Shuo (HShuo), would be attracted to ChuChu (Chu), the heroine. ‘Some people will never fall in love,’ he explains, ‘just like you and me,’ he tactlessly adds. ‘Have you ever been in a relationship /in love?’ she's asked, while she fumes. Oh, one more thing: "Your script seems chauvinistic." Grrrr.
She then scrambles over a feverish, junk-food-fueled weekend to make 'corrections,' even though she thinks /he/ is completely wrong. Exhausted, she passes out (with a tissue still up one nostril) and wakes up in the world of her script❕ It isn't a dream: She's really there, and she's >stuck< there.
YIKES!
She's a disposable character, 3rd Princess Xiaoqian (XQ), who has the restraint and thoughtfulness of Udai Hussein. More importantly, she's scripted to get whacked in ep3! Our FL decides to not risk finding out if dying in her vision equals real death. Her perfect villain, the black hearted HShuo, is to poison her on their wedding night ~ she'll tackle that 1st.
She's shocked to see that HShuo looks like that rude actor! He's excellent at playing up his heart condition and taking on other false personas - He can really act. Hmmm. While XQ manages to avoid being murdered on schedule, she'll have to watch that villain, while also trying to set him up with Chu, all while being married to him, so she can conclude the story and go home. HShuo is essential to her plot, so he must not die.
She penned HShuo, the ruthless prince of Xuanhu, w/ a bad heart that will kill him by age 20. Her plot calls for Chu & he to fall in love. In order to heal him, in the script, Chu will steal the Dragon Bone, Huayuan's most precious treasure. Ultimately, he betrays Chu to conquer Huayuan, and Chu kills HShuo in battle, taking the city back.
The filming is next level elegant. The sets are arrayed in perfect detail. The costumes〰 I was unable to avert my gaze from the resplendent rainbow of silks. The fluid dance of the fighting scenes along with exalted acrobatics & flowing robes augment the actors' movements w/ stunning results. Luxi Zhao, as the script writer/Xiaoqian/ XQ, is radiant & sparkling. Her smile lights the screen. Ding Yuxi, as HShuo, displays phenomenal skill. He just has the goods when it comes to acting. He can be ruthless or adoring. It's not his words that project how he feels about XQ, it's his body language, his focus, and his eyes. He has intensity.
The script reflects XQ's frustration over the disparity between the sexes. She created two adjacent cities: traditional Xuanhu is ruled by men, like most (all?) collective history on this planet. Women are to serve men and manage the home. In Huayuan, however, the situation is the exact opposite. Women do every important job and those worthless men manage the home and serve their wives. The actors were tasked to embody male-female roll-reversal as citizens of Huayuan City. They did an amazing job. Women are boorish and contemptuous of men. The male actors are mind blowing. Every muscle in their bodies mirrors a woman that is gentle, doting, & subservient. It's worth a rewatch just to focus on the performances.
The entire role reversal is handled deftly. XQ snickers in glee at first analysis. It's funny, until it starts to feel uncomfortable, and then horrific - in both cities. Very few citizens are truly pleased with their lives. Watching men being beaten and treated as pleasure slaves brings no respite to those who decry violence against women. Each city is extreme, and each one needs to be balanced out.
As things unfold, we see that HShuo, has the most attractive form of masculinity: a strong protector who loves his woman so much that, if necessary, he would give his life for her. He would never let family or politics get in the way of their relationship. He would definitely help with the housework, too. As it's the opposite of toxic masculinity, let's call it Ultimate Masculinity. This manliness is tempered by love. Together this couple is the equilibrium that the two cities lack.
HShuo falls for XQ episodes before she reciprocates. She's too busy with her plotline to notice his - or even her own - feelings. While he's trying to make their marriage work, she's trying to fix him up with her sister Chu, the heroine. At the same time, every opportunity he has to be alone with XQ is blocked by his kind, but idiot servant, Bai-ji. XQ hurts him repeatedly, and confuses him with her attentions to other men, particularly her long time fiance, Pei (her favorite character in the script). Pei hates the 3rd Princess and has delayed their marriage. This isn't the same princess, though…
She created the script with its flaws that manifest themselves in front of her. She devised the characters with their disabilities and deficiencies only to now work tirelessly trying to fix (undo) everything and everybody that she constructed. That's seriously entertaining. Her only advantage is that she knows the story, as well as each character's background and motivations. It shouldn't be too difficult, right? To her dismay, the changes she makes start to change the story and, thus, the characters' reactions. This alters their trajectories. She, herself, is tragically misunderstood at every turn. Xiaoqian is just trying to preserve her life, but the rewrites push the first Mahjong tile. Now they are all ting-ting-tinging to the floor, albeit in a beautiful pattern.
(Minor spoilers) 🔻Due to Xiaoqian's efforts, Chu does fall for HShuo, who reciprocates with dismissiveness, as he's in love with XQ. In addition, the revised 3rd Princess is solving problems and winning the hearts of the people. Their mother, the city owner, dotes over XQ, but always criticizes Chu, who freefalls into hurt-jealousy-hate-&-obsessive-devouring-rage. As Chu plummets, the plot gets out of control.🔻
XQ must get help! She runs to 3 story writers (who else?!). Every time she has a crisis they meet. She only gives them scant details, though. She grabs some fruit and presents the main characters: Miss Apple, Miss Orange, and Mr. Banana. (Yep, they went there). The fruit sets up a collection of silly but quite amusing metaphors. As her character is the Miss Orange, when offered one she exclaims: "PEEL the orange? That's bad luck!" Given that at that moment she's angry with HShuo, her next statement is: "Peel the banana." Not so much later, after saying: "I don't want to see you anymore," she slips on the banana peel and goes airbourne. Of course, he catches her in his eager arms.
She's charged to eliminate the threat of bandits along the trade route. The whole trip is delightful. At one point she gets caught up in some excitement and seems to have completely forgotten her mission. I won't spoil it. Expect to laugh. There's another hilarious scene where characters meet at a restaurant/playhouse to have a discussion, meaning an argument. There's a stretch where the characters say nothing. They just stare at each other as the actors in the play voice exactly what each is thinking. The scene is high flown comedy.
TROTAR is a commentary on men and women's relationships and the tragedy of the out-of-control battle of the sexes. It has thrust the sword through romance and made so many relationships miserable. It's a zero-sum contest. We've probably all seen men marry a beautiful woman and then crush her by jamming her into a mold. Wives can do that to husbands by belittling them, completely losing a sense of humor, or nagging. Kudos to the show creators for shining light on those insidious patterns, as perfectly illustrated by the first couple of Xuanhu. In the role reversal, however, women become every bit as bad as men. The author is saying that we don't have a gender problem, or even a racial problem. We have a human nature problem.
XQ gives the women of Xuanhu the answer: Work on yourself. It isn't that injustice shouldn't be called out, but too much focus on other people's ills can subtly allow us to feel superior, like we don't need to improve ourselves. That's self-deception. If we don't like being disrespected, sure, call it out, but the longterm answer is to show respect and work on ourselves. The more we improve, the more respect we garner. We will not complain ourselves to a better world.
This show is romance-porn for women because of the way HShuo loves XQ and how he looks at her. From what I've been told, what HShuo might want back is to be respected (don't we all), even looked up to a little, to be a tiny bit nurtured, and to be treasured above all. As proof, he asked her flat out if it was him or her mother more than once. At a (fake) funeral he makes a joke to her that if she doesn't keep her promise, he'll let her know 'who wears the pants in the family,' which is a top-10-worst of historical chauvinistic statements. Should XQ flip out? Remember, this is HShuo. As much as he adores her, do you think he'll call even 20% of the shots in the family? What's wrong with her quipping 'yes, dear,' even if she winks while she does it? It's a bit of a dance. Marriage is optional. If one is to marry, giving it the best chance to succeed by providing embedded core needs for each other is as much smart as much as it is love. Perhaps exercising patience while choosing happiness, contentment, & forgiveness will usher in peace & love.
That's enough of the deep thoughts. The show is funny, then heart wrenching, and finally buoyant. Romantics will be swept away by this series. As almost every line seems to carry significance. There is foreshadowing, metaphors, excellent (superb!) editing, skillful juxtaposition and other devices utilized, TROTAR is a production of the highest quality. It could hardly be improved on. The show has so few deficiencies that the minor ones stand out a little more. While on the runaway horse in the show opening, close-ups of Xiaoqian are out of sync with the moving background. They overplayed the cute, but kitschy, theme song. Otherwise, the soundtrack is lovely. In the last couple scenes Xiaoqian's makeup looks ghastly pale and uneven. In addition, they have a bad habit of not putting makeup on the back half of the actors' necks, so they appear red and sickly on screen. Finally, I think the last line in the show should be: "Are we married?"
Sweet dreams, all!
Quotes〰️🖍
Pain is unavoidable.
Great sorrow comes from great joy. Tragedy and comedy have always shared the same root.
〰IMHO〰
Directing 10
Acting 9
Thought provocation 7
Action/Excitement 8
Art 10
Music & Sound 7
Age 11+
⛔️Spoiler section⛔️
⛔️
⛔️
While XQ exiled HShuo to save him from being killed by Chu, HShuo & Chu end up joining together to invade Huayuan. When the city is taken back, HShuo is sentenced to death. He and XQ consummate their marriage in the jail cell. The next morning, the city owner refuses XQ's plea for mercy, so she drives a knife into her stomach. That stops everything.
Hey! Unclench! It's a prop knife! She's faking her death so they can escape to Xuanhu. They get a brief time to enjoy married life there.
They are forced to invade Huayuan in order to liberate it from Chu, who's starting to mirror Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. The plot won't be denied. Chu pierces HShuo's sternum. Lungs punctured, he's dying. XQ starts vanishing. Gasping, she can't reach him.
She awakens. The tissue still planted in her nostril! She quickly learns that the lead actor is in the hospital with near deadly lung damage from an accident. She rushes over there. When he sees her, he jumps in shock and tells her to get away from him! He had the weirdest dream, he explains. He woke up thinking about apples, oranges, and HER all the time. (No wonder HShuo was not evil and he could act so well!) She runs into the arms of the rude jerk who had said the two of them would never be a couple.
She had penned the /perfect/ romantic hero.
XQ revises her script to save ChuChu and give Xiaoqian & Han Shuo a happy-ever-after. The End.
〰Romantic Fantasy Recs〰
K: My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy; The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2; Hotel del Luna-8.4; Live Up To Your Name-7.6; Oh My Ghost 10. C: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9; The Sleepless Princess 9.1; Ancient Love Poetry-8.6; Love and Redemption 10.
Originally 📝 11/2021
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This review may contain spoilers
✒Time To Defend The ⏰ Or Regret Tomorrow °8.5° °Outstanding°
[Any spoliers are are the very end and clearly marked]Sisyphus is the show that escorted me through the looking glass into the wonderland of Korean programming and Asian dramas, in general. It explores the claim: "Just because you could do something doesn't mean you should." It's got action, fantastic romance, time travel, & a brainiac who can Macgyver anything. Though not issue free, Sisyphus is an insightful commentary on humanity: We make the wrong choices & then we live with regret the rest of our lives once we are finally honest with ourselves.
Themes explored are selfishness (if we only care about ourselves & what we want, it's radiation poisoning that will destroy society). Also featured are corruption, hate, revenge, & pride - forms of selfishness, all. Messianic imagery is a major player, as are regrets - they follow selfishness. Kindness to those less fortunate is critical, or we will create the monsters that rip into us. Hatred against immigrants & xenophobia is depicted. Sisyphus also examines the False Dilemma argument: Just because someone (especially a bad guy) says you have two choices, doesn't mean it's true.
The title is based on the Greek God Sisyphus. Per Wiki: he "was punished for cheating death twice by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Through the classical influence on modern culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean."
The question of whether the future is static is very much alive in the show, Asia Mart's Mr. Park says: "Do you believe you can change things?" He laughs. "You know you can't change anything, right? You can try all you want, but nothing will change." At the same time, Sigma & his minions make references to alternate timelines, hinting at the many times the end-of-the-world drama has played out.
The main protags are the time machine inventing genius, Han Tae-sul (HTsul), & Gang Seo-hae (SHae), who travels back in time to save HTsul & thus, the world. The world needs saving because the time machine will usher in nuclear destruction of the Korean Peninsula.
By the time SHae travels back to present day Korea, the country has been taken over by thieves from the future. They were in prison when war broke out, which served as a bomb shelter and ensured their survival. Volunteering as the 1st test-group that travels to the past, they accumulate massive wealth due to their prescience of lottery, sports & stock outcomes. Soon, they take over all the power positions in the country & set up the Control Bureau, an immigration enforcement agency that prevents others in the future from gaining the advantages they themselves enjoy. CB officers have very few restrictions & are allowed to kill on sight. All of this was crafted by the mysterious Sigma, traveler & villain #1, who is rumored to be the person that starts the war. Everyone in Sigma's circle is controlled by a desire to protect loved ones, or a desire for power and selfish gain.
➡️Don't give up! S takes off to a confusing start.⬅️ Ep1 is a tough one to get through, but watching HTsul save a plane that's going down is the biggest reward for watching it. Kdramas often begin by methodically setting the dials & levers that will operate the rest of the show. I first saw Sisyphus before I was doing reviews, so I decided to watch it again before writing about it. The beginning is entirely different in the 2nd go-round.
Both leads are on the Crazy Train, but they each have their talents. When we meet SHae & follow her trail, we see that she's a cool customer. From age 7 she rode out the apocalypse with her policeman father. He trained her in all kinds of combat as hunting for scarce food & water is very dangerous in the anarchy of the future. When we meet HTsul we see that he's pretty cool, too. Pretty bada$$ cool. HTsul does something amazingly clever in most eps. HTsul is also a pathetic pill-popper, ridden with guilt over the way he treated his brother, HTsan, the last time they met, just prior to HTsan's passing. HTsul's ex is his psychiatrist. She dumped him, but only after he cheated on her. What could go wrong here?
Trains & train stations are featured frequently, & appear to represent fate. Right from jump when SHae arrives in the past she sees a bright light & hears a bell. There's a train coming down the tracks right at her: Foreshadowing. Later, HTsul & SHae see each other at the train station while a fast train screeches between them. It's a metaphor for the onslaught of events headed their way that could separate them. HTsul hears the train on the way to the Control Bureau, which helps him locate it later. A train station is where the seat of power is in the future. There's also constant foreshadowing broadcasting HTsul's end of show options, like a train coming at the audience. They are always brought to the forefront.
Almost everybody we meet in Sisyphus is selfish, even SHae's father. Exceptions are SHae & HTsan. They will bring about change to those around them. Early on SHae tells HTsul: "You're really selfish. You'll do what you want & not care how many people died because of it. You selfish jerk." HTsan said it first to SHae: "You just care about saving the world, not my brother. I'm just the opposite."
Initially, HTsul displays corrupted values, thinking he can solve any conflict by throwing money at it. He founded his company, Quantum & Time with grad-school friend, Eddy Kim. Eddy does all the work. HTsul does whatever he feels like, and completely takes his friend for granted. Throughout the course of the show, jealousy & resentment, cause conflict in Eddy, due to HTsul's neglect.
Sigma & HTsul are contrasted. The series delves into the concept of families, struggles, abuse, & ostracism. HTsul lost his parents to an accident, but he had his brother, HTsan, to care & provide for him. Growing up, Sigma suffers severe abuse at home, underscoring that no parent is better than an abusive one. Sigma clearly isn't stupid, but almost nobody in the world is on HTsul's level: His perception that HTsul had it easy in life introduces jealousy.
Sigma's descent leads to madness. He falls in love with fire & death. He's smart, but a sociopath, arsonist, narcissist, & likely a fetal alcohol syndrome sufferer. Killing 50 million people with a nuclear bomb is just a game for him. He brags incessantly about what he truly cares about: Outsmarting HTsul. He loves to taunt him, beckoning: "C'mon out and play," to him.
The backdrop for all of this is the thrills, action, & the wonderful romance between SHae & HTsul. There's a GREAT scene showing how she looks out for him. He's desperately trying to call by rigging a trashpicked office phone into the phone lines. He's shocked when she says she's a little busy. She next yells: "Duck!" He does so quickly while she eliminates the threat right behind him. In shock, he steps away & sees more than 15 bodies on the ground between him & the overpass, where she's standing with her rifle. He hadn't noticed any of it, to the viewer's amusement.
"The girl or the world." He is constantly threatened that he'll have to choose the girl or the world. HTsul will figure out for himself what options he has. He knows he must outsmart Sigma or lose everything.
Some people don't have the capacity to enjoy fantasy. It can be too intellectual for some, or not logical or real enough for others. Sisyphus is fantasy based on an intelligent script, & it's directed smashingly well. The condescending "1" ratings have no basis whatsoever. If one hates some of the logical quagmires or the pacing, a rating of 5-7 is fair, but Sisyphus, in any timeline, doesn't deserve a rating under "5." So leave Sisyphus alone!
We get a clear sense that it's not over yet. Hopefully they won't take their ~time~ putting out season 2.
~Quote~
Gibson: The future is already here. It just hasn't been evenly distributed yet.
IMHO〰🖍
Directing 9
Acting 8
Romance 7
Flutters 6
Art 8
Sound & music 7
Action 8
Thought provocation 7
Ending 9
🎬9 🎭8 🤔9⚡8 💓8 🦋7 🎨8 🎵7 🔚9
Age 14+.
⛔️SPOILERS FOLLOW❗️
I prefer to not give away many spoilers, but some things are worthy of noting as follows:
Resentment festers in Eddy until all he can think about is destroying HTsul. Sigma, who went to grade school with HTsul, has a similar arc. They each have an obsessive hatred for him.
At the same time, HTsul has been in deep emotional pain over mistreating his brother, HTsan, who raised him after their parents died. Under SHae's influence, HTsul evolves into a better human. There's a Scrooge-like sequence where they look at themselves earlier in life. HTsul watches himself w/ commentary: "What a crazy Jerk. It's not Sigma's fault. This jerk caused the war," speaking of himself. He's growing. The thinking pattern that leads to his messianic sacrifice has sprouted. What's funny is how people will, w/o self-reflection, watch & think: Good for #him. I've learned the hard way that none of us can see our own stuff unless we have a major wake-up call.
HTsul had defended Sigma from bullies at school a couple times. As a result, Sigma is happier for a brief period. He claims that all the pictures he draws come true. (Hmmm...). He colored a picture of HTsul floating over the earth (is it HTsul or the world?). After HTsul rejects a friendship, Sigma hates him, like he hates everyone else - Perhaps more. HTsul's journey leads him in the opposite direction of Sigma. Insufferably arrogant HTsul is bolts loose at the show's start. Love for SHae makes him sane(ish) & enables him to make a selfless decision.
S's biggest flaw is a failure to sufficiently explain how saving HTSul will save the world. There's frequent foreshadowing of his final solution, like a train coming at the audience. Mr. Park asks SHae why she doesn't just kill HTsul? That would fix everything... "You're making it too difficult on yourself," he points out. Jae-sun, SHae's first present day contact, declares to Bing-bing that if HTSul doesn't exist, the war won't happen b/c the uploader hasn't been invented yet... They reference it over & over again. HTsul says: "I'm going to find Sigma. I don't care if I die.”
The Messiah, HTsul, cryptically asks SHae to come find him in the future, and then sacrifices his life to prevent the doom that's steaming towards them. This time, Sigma never saw what was rambling his way. Everyone from the future disappears, including SHae. Why is HTsul around at the end of the show? They had time-slipped, so right before the end, there were 2 of them. 1 HTsul dies, 1 survives; future SHae disappears, current day SHae lives. She's 7 yrs old.
Originally 📝 10/21
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A Delectable Mash Up Of Tim Burton Wes Anderson & Rainman °Flutters Superior°
Bring your own smores.I won't try to describe this. Just get in the camper and journey with these characters.
This review, and the show itself is not about splitting hairs over the level of accuracy vis-a-vie certain mental ailments or whether the plot is plausible. Trust me, I understand the pain mental illness brings home. The show creators are giving us a little therapy and laughter in the hurt. It's entertaining enough to mute outside interference and provide a safe space for a little escape.
Every element is a win: Acting, costumes, characters, character arcs, sets, plot, dialogue, writing, directing, and soundtrack. (I want to jump in and have my own nice, long, cathartic, airing-out-my-lungs argument with this gang. What an emotional high-colonic that would be.)
It all comes together to make something that is truly stylish, sad, sagacious, sanguine, and... SUBLIME. It is way better than just okay.
IMHO〰
Directing 9
Acting 9
Romance 8
Flutters 6
Warmth 7
Art 9
Action 6
Thought provocation 7
Age 14+
Re-watch? Absolutely
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⭐Face Value✈️ °6° °goodish°
Meet Han Se “Gye.” 🏃💨 Say ta-tah! Why did she run? She won! The 🏆 is waiting for her, 60 ft away, right on the stage. Gye looks ✨/perfect/✨. Limited edition shoes encase her feet. ✨She’s sparkling✨ head-to-toe. Just as she sets that glittering foot on the stage, she ST🛑PS as if frozen. Suddenly, she pivots & hightails it outta there. At 6 minutes and 20 seconds into ep1 we'll find out why: Gye randomly transforms into a rotund middle aged man! Once a month, she gets a few moments warning and then transforms into another person - another body. She's still /her/. She just doesn't look like her.Seo Hyun Jin (Another Miss Oh, Black Dog-8.2, Why Her?-8, Dr. Romantic) portrays Gye. Film star Gye has lots of fans. Therefore, she has lots of haters, too. After she flees the award show, the comments start, and they won't stop. Contracts and commercials evaporate💨. The rumor that she has a son just won't go away, either! (It was her. She transformed into a boy that day).
Lee Min Ki (Because This Is My First Life-7.7, My Liberation Diary-8.9) plays our ML, Seo Do “Jae”. He's the son of a chaebol. (For a change🙄). His family holds some of Gye's contracts and he's decided to cancel most of them. BUT, there's one or two that he wants to maintain. He'll need her cooperation. He presents her with a choice: Take a business trip with him and rescue the deal or pay the price of broken contract fees + a ruined reputation. They hint at it in eps1&2, but in ep3 we find out officially that he has prosopagnosia - face blindness. Around midshow, Mr. Lee starts to look pale and unhealthy with red-rimmed eyes. He seemed to be going through something, physically. I've seen other Kdramas in which many of the actors have irritated and red looking eyes. It's probably from the fine dust pollution.
So: He can't see faces and her face changes every month for a week. Yep, it's goofy like that. TBI is a 2018 release that is rated 95 on AWiki, because Awiki users are kind and very enthusiastic. It is 1 season consisting of 16 simple-headed 70-minute episodes. Here we go again: The content is sufficient for 10, maybe 12 episodes, yet they stretched it into 16, as they are wont to do. My name for that unfortunate repeating error is Malcontent. The letters “T-B-I” can refer to “traumatic brain injury,” which is an interesting metaphor, but the show is mostly cute and fun to watch. It simply could have been better. What makes it tolerable is the leads; they’re truly darling. The secondary couple is also appealing, and that makes all the difference. Ep16 is sweet. On the fun side, the wardrobe and jewelry are spectacular - The best I've ever seen.
Lee Da Hee (Search: WWW Harmony) is the breathtakingly beautiful Kang SaRa, Jae's stepsister and rival. Not only is she utterly stunning, but her wardrobe is gorgeous. It's truly one of the highlights of the show. She sports eclectic, non-matching earrings with stack necklaces and it looks fantastic. She's one of the most beautiful women Korea has to offer. Ahn Jae Hyun (Love with Flaws, Cinderella and the Four Knights-5.6) plays Ryu Eun Ho. He has the round face of a cherub, so the women go nuts for him. That isn't necessarily making his life easier. He has about a dozen odd jobs: Fawning just women get in the way, and they do not bring in the dough. Lately, he runs into SaRa at every odd job: Deliveries, coffee creations, laundering, and housecleaning are examples.
Lee Chul Min plays Director Kim, an executive at Jae’s company. His first credit is from 1991 and he has over 💯 credits. He started out as comic relief but has been getting more serious roles lately. He was really funny in the excellent comedies My Only Love Song-8.7 and Mr. Queen-9. I also enjoyed him in Black-9, the K2-8, and others. The director is Song Hyun Wook (Another Miss Oh-7.5, The King's Affection-8.3, The Golden Spoon-8.1, Introverted Boss-6.5, Revolutionary Love-5.7). He's been around. Screenwriter, Im Me A Ri, also penned the popular Doom at Your Service.
There's not a whole lot to say. The positives are the eye candy and the leads. The primary couple's interactions are quite cute, therefore, the acting and the romance are not the problem. The plot is. The writing is bog-standard average and the director stretched that lackluster writing too thin. As a result, this show requires little mental or emotional investment, so some might find it their perfect wind-down poison.
The vanilla script leads to discordant scenes like Gye's weird interactions with a director. The way they arrive at a contract doesn't seem plausible, either. Early on it caused me to have serious doubts about the writing, and possibly the directing and those doubts only deepened. Then there's the “mandatory” break-up, which is less than convincing (though it's understandable that the truth is a tough pill). The breakup only compounds their misery rather than alleviating it, which makes it frustrating for the viewer. Emotions often make no sense, I suppose. It's another example of MSS, or mandatory separation syndrome, an overdone Kdrama device where they separate a couple for a time. Here, wasn't necessary and it didn't enhance the show. Another unfortunate habit of Kdramas is “going rogue,” in which they abandon all the fantasy rules and templates they laid down early on, usually with zero justification. TBI is guilty of some mild rogue violations, which doesn't bother everyone, but such unforced errors bother me.
TBI does manage to be humorous. The obsessed public never has her relationship status correct. The internet gets ahead of the game: They are spotted out together and the viewing public assumes they're an item, but they've only just met. Later, they date in secret, so the public assumes they've broken up. The pattern repeats, and it's pretty funny.
TBI is the type of show that forces me to ask myself: Was this worth watching once? The fact that I ask says enough, perhaps. The answer for me is ☑yes, because the fashion show is insanely good, and the couple is adorable together, as is the secondary couple. There's a comfy warmth to it. I came out of this not being very impressed with the show but liking the leads even more. Now /that's/ some trick! For those of you who aren't romance junkies, don't bother. It will be The Boredom Inside.
IMHO〰🖍
RATINGS 🎬6.2 🖊6 🎭8 💓7 🦋5 🎨8.8 🎶7.6 🔚8 🤗5
LEVELS 🌞5.5 ⚡3.5 😅3 😭3 😱2 😬1 🤢2 🤔4 💤3
Shazams: Beautiful Moment, by K.Will
Age 13+
Re-📺? Naw
Fateful Magic Brought Us Together~~>>>
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Playful kiss-7.3,
Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
Live Up To Your Name-7.6;
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.4,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
7th Time Loop-7.9,
Kiss Sixth Sense-6.8,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
While you were sleeping-7.3,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Tomorrow with you-7,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3,
Love and Redemption 10
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Ou·ch ✈️ Just Keep Swinging °7.6° °VG+°
Arranged marriages? A bitter fight for the throne? One that turns otherwise decent people and caring siblings into mortal enemies? This is exactly like a Chinese historical feature. In TBWY, they exchange the word “corporate” for ”palace”.He's on the run, but it half-looks like a circus performance. In order to evade his pursuers, he's flipping over tables while diners’ repast is undisturbed. He's that smooth. The opening seconds remind me of the 2004 French film District B13 (Banlieue 13) in which the street kids are all amazing acrobats (It's on Prime! Ima watch it again. Hey! We're in Paris, too!) Mei was just setting the cafe's sign out on the sidewalk as part of her opening ritual when Ou pauses for a microsecond to decide his next move. Then he flips right over her. Mei screams and ducks. She didn't have to do either, though. Mei is getting ready to return to China. She misses her bf. She's saying her goodbyes. Ou is headed back, too. Those pursuers? They were sent by his Fughee, chairdad.
TBWY is a 2019 release that is rated 7.7 on MAL. Lin Ji Dong (First Marriage, Hi, 30 Years Old!) is the Screenwriter & Director. It is 1 season consisting of 65 45-minute episodes, which is a bundle. Could it have been shorter? But of course! Unlike so many shows, though, they keep the pace steady and keep marching forward. They don't wander around. I didn't find myself getting annoyed, which is something that seems to be happening more quickly these days. There are so many shows that start to drag due to empty filler and plain silly stuff. None of that happened here. Chinese modern-day dramas aren't for everyone. There's a premium on simplicity & stress relief. They love their melodrama, too. Simple doesn't mean “dumb.” They have a good handle on human nature. Like old black and white movies, watching at first seems foreign (unintended pun) but the only way to assess if it is for you is to dive in. Precursor: China does NOT do realism. If your white sneakers are always 🥛⬜, and you tend to prefer realism, China is not your place. I love fantasy and sci-fi most of all with romance being a close 2nd. I would argue that a good romance IS fantasy, but I digress. Anyone who argues this show and ones like it are too low IQ is really saying that s/he prefers realism. That's hard-wiring. It isn't a matter of right or wrong.
In some ways the cutesy-wootsy dynamic of the 2 leads reminds me of my marriage. I was married to a guy who was always making jokes, always teasing, and always poking fun. I was more focused on goals and accomplishing things. He would pick on me until I laughed or yelled at him to 🛑! At that point, he would start laughing and say: "You're so much fun.” I'm not the fun one! He is! Ou thinks Mei is the fun one, but Ou is the FUN one, and he's always good natured. She's become his favorite plaything. He thinks she's a blast. It's adorable. He's adorable.
Of course, headed back to China from Paris, she's next to him on the plane. She doesn't remember him from the sidewalk, nor the way he made her scream. With all the security detail around him, she figures he's a star. So, she drinks too much champagne and bugs him for a selfie with her, and his autograph. He's had enough of her! It's a shame that he grabs her suitcase instead of his own. He's going to have to see her again.
Sun Shao from Long Bad Daddy is Ou Yang. There's no way this guy isn't naturally happy IRL. Ou's a good natured kid who recognizes a good girl when he sees one. This actor is a great male lead and he makes the show. His father is the chairman, a ruthless businessman who has stepped over the line a few times. His mother is what would have been called a “handsome” woman. That's all I'll say. She isn't happy. She's been drinking heavily. Wan Si Wei (The New Painted Skin) portrays the truly good and lovely “Li” Dong, Ou's bestie. He's darling and delightfully debonair. Chai Bi Yun from Be Your Own Light is Lin Mei Ya, our FL. Mei was a sickly child. She learned to endure pain and hold it in with a bright smile. She was in the hospital bed, but it was she who was cheering up her own father. Now, Mei is bright, sweet, and adorable. She leaps into her boyfriend's arms when he picks her up at the airport. She missed him so much! She's so happy to see him! It's a shame he's been cheating on her.
Mei's father runs an outdoor eatery and he's sweating over a hot stove when she arrives at home. We intermittently go between Mei's reunion and Ou's. He's eating with his father, mother and sister at a table that could fit 20. The food is hot, but the climate is cold. His father's displeased with him for going to Paris and never telling the family. Zhang Qiu Ge (Xi Shi: Beauty of Spring and Autumn, 1911 Revolution, The Glorious Era) plays the Ou dad, Ou Chang Lin. The hairrrr. His hair says it all. Politicians wish they could coif like that. It's ramrod straight in the air and black and white like Cruella Deville. His head is quite large and the hair is doubly large. “Baba Ou” has largeness, but he has no largess. He seems oily and greedy, and he's thoroughly unlikable. Ou’s sister, Rui, always looks miserable, and his mother is detached. Fuhgee starts lecturing Ou about what he needs to do if he ever wants to take over the company. Rui is doing a great job, Ou points out. She should just have it. Sis, fed up, leaves. Mom then drops a comment like cold acid: “You don't want to give the company to her because she's not your real daughter, correct?” 🌬Brrrr. We cut back to Mei who is showing off her new cooking skills. Everyone is smiling and warm. Everyone but Mei's bf “Chen” Zhe (Zhang Tao from Nothing but You, The Old Dreams).
Later that night they discover the bag switch. They sort of get to know e/o by rifling through the suitcases. She watches his MMA fights. He reads her prose. When they finally begin the exchange, she goes to Ou’s company and learns that Chen works there! He never mentioned the new job that she can recall. She seems not to notice how uncomfortable he is with her there. By the end of ep3, Chen has broken up with Mei. WOOSH! He's gone. It's SO SAD. He did it at her father's restaurant. Right across the street, there's Ou, hanging with Li. They see everything, including Mei sobbing in the middle of the road. Ou & Li scoop her up. Li has been watching their interactions all day in near amazement. He seems interested in Mei himself. He's been watching her work the food stall from his family's restaurant across the street for years. Now, he sees the tension between these two.
One of the many trolls in the cave is Li WeiWei, Li's little sister (Shen Tao Ran from Stealing Dragon and Turning Cat). He got all the goodness & she got all the brattiness of the family. She sees Ou as her property (She claims he promised to marry her if she completed her 4 years of study in Japan without bothering anyone. He doesn't recall that). She notices that Ou is too differential to Mei, and he's spending entirely too much time with Mei, so she tortures Mei. Li has to step in and re-educate his spoiled brat of a sister. She keeps pulling deranged stunts and gets herself (and others) into no end of trouble. WeiWei is spoiled. At some point, though, Mei decides that Weiwei is cute and treats her well no matter what she does. It's a working strategy.
Ou is also immature. He doesn't want to work. Fughee is forcing him to. When he sees Mei pour wine on top of a snobby girl who insults her, he asks her to be his secretary. She needs a job and he does love a good fight. Also, he needs a secretary who can stand up to pushy interferers. Immediately, these two are comfortable with e/o. One could have guessed that as Ou's secretary, Mei is kickin’ it! He loves to tease her but he continues to reach out to her and help her. The ugly break-up Mei suffered is also weighing on Ou, who does NOT like Chen. He pieces together Chen’s career path; his stratospheric rise at the company can't be random. The way everything played out, he believes Chen has a rich and powerful female backer. He suspects one of the department managers. He has no idea it's his own sister.
DAYAM! Ou's sister and Chen get U.G.L.Y. - they ain't got no alibi, they UGLY! It's very weirdly typical of people who have done somebody wrong. Feelings of guilt make them angrier at the person they've wronged and they get even uglier, convincing themselves that somehow, this person deserves it. All they're doing is taking out their misplaced anger at themselves on the other person. Rui ends up pausing and changing course, which most people can't do. Chen remains selfish until the end - Chen’s insecurity led to pride which led to greed which led to him turning himself into a gremlin. It's a tale as old as time. As we watch Chen reflect on his life we'll see that he wants alot of things. He was an orphan with nothing. He doesn't want to love like that again. The temptation of marrying into the rich and powerful is too much for him.
In the head-scratcher-and-other-notables department is Ou's hair, which is an uneven disaster. Additionally, Mei's Aunt comes to live with them. The fact that I couldn't reach the screen and choke her out was causing me major stress. Fate? We have a long string of coincidences bringing these two together, but when the show is 2/3 completed everything blows up on our couple. There's shocking revelations and shocking events. It doesn't look good for them. Ou goes on a fact finding mission but leaves Mei in the lurch without a word. This is the worst time of her life, and he's ghosted her! It doesn't entirely make sense, and it's brutal. The car chases, fight scenes, and action in general are quite respectable. Ou's father's dirt brown pinstripe suit may be the ugliest suit I've ever seen. Du Ruo Nan (see spoiler section for more on her) and her friend wear outfits that hurt my eyes, but Siyu's wardrobe is to die for. In ep37 Siyu's ensemble is stunning. She has an asymmetric hemmed off the shoulder white dress with a high slit and star earrings. The outfit set my heart aflutter. {Still ~~> Siyu- SEE YOU! So sorry, but they've been through a near death experience together. They've been forged together by combat. That's an unbreakable bond. You don't have a chance.} The proposal! Oh. My. It's inspiring.
There's some gems tucked away. The potential resolution is rather obvious, but that doesn't detract from the storytelling. The plot is on the intricate side & it feels like a cousin to the amazing Kdrama SKY Castle-9, which is a bit of a heart-stabber. One character goes to Li for advice, wondering if a situation is too hopeless to even try. Li says that the outcome shouldn't be the focus. Enjoy the process; nobody should give up before they try. Nice. “Can an emotion be given to others? Do you know what your kindness means to me? That is cruel. It's even an insult.” One character tries to step out of the way from a potential romantic relationship to make room for another interested party. It was a cruelty to try & give away that person's love. Very nice.
QUOTE🗣
We should be honest with ourselves in front of love.
IMHO〰🖍
📣7.5 📝7 🎭8.3 💓7 🦋6 🎨7.5 🎵/🔊7.5 🔚🤗6 ▪ 🌞5.5 ⚡5 😅3 😭4.5 😱3 😯2 🤢2 🤔4.5 💤1
Shazams: tried. No results. Spoti doesn't have anything either. There's a couple of very nice songs.
Age 14+ Language: R-rated w/ f💣s - not much.
Re-📺? It isn't impossible
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
🌐💓 -
C🇨🇳:
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8; Everyone Loves Me-7.4,
I Hear You-7.3 ‘19 so cute but with many flaws,
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Meteor Garden-7.4 ‘18- 70% flowing 30% dragging,
Overlord-8.4 ‘20,
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Wait, My Youth-8.4
K🇰🇷 :
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Touch Your Heart 8.2;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5
Romance junkies only: Accidentally in Love-6.5 ‘18 B-level scripting, acting, and directing, but still fun/strangely relaxing to watch,
Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine but many object to an outrageous stunt the ML pulls,
Boss & Me-7,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
You are my destiny-6.8 cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Meteor Garden-7.4 - 70% flowing 30% dragging and BOF is better,
Hidden Love-7.8
⛔Spoilers⛔
⛔️
⛔️
⛔️
This is more of a venting session than anything else.
Our FL also plays “Du” Ruo Nan. We don't learn about Du right away but hints are dropped early on about her. In the teen episodes we learn that Mei has a twin. Mei was adopted out because of her heart condition. Her mother could not afford to get her treatment. Ms Chai plays two completely different roles in the show. Du is a warrior and her fight scenes are better than Ou's. She has to go up against the tide gangster at one point and that gangster dude is truly scary.
They bring the pain after episode 40. When dad's in the hospital, it makes no sense that none of these wealthy people in Mei's life help out. Ou's leaving for Thailand without a word hurt badly. They claim telling her that she's Ou's half-sister would devastate her, so they leave her alone and penniless to deal with her father in the hospital. It's awful, and it doesn't make sense. Then she's fired. She demands an explanation and he treats her cruelly, supposedly to protect her from being hurt worse. Boo-kan-aw! This is ridiculous. And it HURTS! Sure, he asked Li to take care of her, but it's still too cruel. Siyu is acting like complete trash, but what Ou is doing to Siyu is wrong. He's using her.
Why didn't Pops rat Chen out? What would he cover for him? Chen’s face when the family meets up and Chm Ou says Mei & her sister are his daughters. OH SNAPPITY-SNAP! Irony is a cruel joker.
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✒The Fan & the Sash and the Locust & the Cricket & the ◾️bird & the ◽️bird °7.5° °VG°
WRTW is the same old fare: A jumble of factions, a fight for the throne, decades old machinations, and wheels within wheels. It's all still tasty to me. Our leads first build a tentative trust and see that their goals are aligned. Teamwork quickly becomes love, but the heavy weight of responsibility may not leave any space for love to thrive. Their relationship is truly cute. They generate sincere warmth, but most of the time, it stops short of actual 🔥heat🔥. There's a whiff of perfunctory ceremony about them (tbf, that does fit their characters). WRTW is not really a romance, though it is /about/ a romance. It’s not a political thriller, either. It is supposed to be both but it stays on the surface and never reaches any depths.The show is a 2022 release that is rated a whopping 8.7 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 40 45-minute episodes. Based on the novel: "Qie Shi Tian Xia” / Let's Try The World, by Qing Lengyue, it's directed by: Yin Tao, Yu Yonggang & Shi Zhanli. Director Yin Tao is a master - a grand shifu. His credits include Ancient Love Poetry-8.6, Love and Redemption-10, and Under The Power-8.6 - powerhouses, all.
I've seen a few of these actors before. Yang Yang plays ML Feng Lan “Xi” / Hei Feng Xi. This is the show where I was determined to decide ~ once and for all ~ if he can act (other than playing a smug know-it-all). {I wrote that prior to his 1st appearance in the show. Right from the start, he's a know-it-all😏! But he's not excessively /smug/, at least} As beauteous as he is, long hair does not suit him. That I already knew from Love 020-6.8. This especially applies when it is done up tightly. When it's loose or disheveled it looks better. His acting ranges from thoroughly acceptable to VG. On acting skill alone, I fear he tops at high average: He gets his gigs for his looks. He is a beautiful man. I'm not turning away - there's enough special in that sauce. Here, he has some nice moments as a romantic lead. Zhao Lu Si is FL “Feng” Xi Yun / Bai Feng Xi. She's a natural, and she keeps getting prettier. She walks with an athletic spring here and her backbone is ramrod straight. Feng is /wrapped/ tightly.
Kai Jiang plays the Tianshuang Sect leader at the place where Feng makes her home. He played the emperor in the marvelous Rebel Princess-8.5. What’s interesting is how he looks much healthier and younger here, just a year later, so it must all be by design. Leon Lai is the prince, Huang Chao. He was in Ancient Love Poetry as a wronged husband, devoted disciple, and father. In Overlord-8.4, he's a fussy, downright persnickety clothing designer who has his world turned upside-down by a street ruffian, and in The King's Avatar-7.9 he's a gregarious gamer who's not afraid to take fashion risks. These parts are all nothing alike, and he is wonderful in all of them. I am a fan. Feng Qi Wu, the proud and strong matriarch of the Feng family, is played by Xuan Lu. In The Untamed-9 she plays the quintessential sweet and feminine sister. I hardly recognized her - so it's easy to recognize her superb acting skills.
WRTW suffers slightly from big-budget disease. Is Tianshuang Sect any good? It's hard to tell. At times they are vanquished rather easily. The fact that it makes us wonder is a problem in and of itself. Yin Tao is exceptionally talented - probably a genius. His past successes cleared the way for bigger and bigger budgets. At times, the money and the expectation to deliver can create an environment where creativity is stifled. WRTW is a visual masterpiece, but it doesn't have the plot intricacy and range of human emotions that some of Tao’s past works have. I settled into watching one episode per day. That was enough - the show never created the fever or the hunger to keep going; I was never anxious to see what comes next. I certainty won't be in a hurry to rewatch it.
It doesn't have the Yin Tao magic that has enchanted me in the past. WRTW is good - it's VG, but not excellent. The last handful of episodes even started to feel a smidge like a chore. I found I was not emotionally invested in the characters. Not one of them. Love and Redemption has some decent special effects but, with 55 action-packed episodes to fill, most of the effects are clumsy to the point of being uncomfortable. I talked my son into watching an episode and he shook his head at Sefan's first fight scene with a CGI beast in ep1. CGI and special effects are important, but they won't make me want to watch a show again. I watched L&R twice in a row, /despite/ the sometimes deficient effects, because the story, acting, and dialogue are superb. WRTW is more visually sophisticated, but I feel indifferent as to whether I'll ever watch it again. I expect I'll watch L&R 10 or 20 times before my life is over. That is the essence of big-budget disease. All the $$$ distracts from the matters of the heart - the essentials.
There are funny moments on the way to love. A lady minister of the court is interested in Xi but he only has eyes for Feng. He introduces the two women, and they end up getting on so well that Xi can never get Feng alone to confess his feelings! No doubt, WRTW is worth a watch. The filming is gorgeous from the start. The costume set my heart aflutter. The towns and sets are gorgeous. The art in the show is sublime. One of the interior sets has all the woodwork painted a pale green. I may just copy that. Batsuits! We see a ninja flying around in a bonafide BATSUIT. That's straight FIRE! It's cool how their fighting styles reflect their personalities. Feng is compact, tidy, economical, and understated. Yet, she's shockingly effective. Xi's style is flashy, expansive, sweeping, and downright showy. It all leads to cool fights, super cool weapons, and bad@$$ moves. Ep37 has particularly impressive battles and fights.
Fantasy fans will definitely enjoy this sampler platter. For fans of this show, wait until you see some of the even better features! China rules the fantasy world, and a world of wonders awaits you!
QUOTES📢
The more powerful you are in cooperation, the more benefit you'll get.
Have you convinced yourself of your own lies?
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7 📝7 🎭7 💓6 🦋7 🌞7 🎨9 ⚡6.5 🎵/🔊6 😅3 😭5 😱3 😯4 😖3 🤔4 💤3 🔚7
Age 12+ Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? It's likely since I'm such a fan of the director and the FL.
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain-7.5 ‘19,
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Story of Yanxi Palace-10
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9
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