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"Don't get why neither Shamato or Norburo told what had been going on at the girl's home before she came to them, if only to protect her from more of the same. "

Yeah that made me bite my lip and scrunch my face.

This movie hit hard and hit deep. And it's at its most brutal after it ends and you sit on it for a minute and consider everything that just happened, and the ending note before the credits roll. Also refreshing to watch something, whether movie or series, which doesn't molest the ears with so much OST... it's sparse and effective here, and all the better for it.

Also it's interesting to me how the leads of Extracurricular and TBK have so many parallels in a world gone to s***. (Both also arguably INTP 5w6 archetypes, for anyone interested in the shady business of personality types.)

Yeh I started to mainly watch Kdramas because it's all I ever saw people talk about, but in the last few months I started watching Cdramas and I already have two of them in my top 5 Asian dramas ever. I'd like to be able to combine ratings for all dramas, not just Asian dramas, but guess I have to use IMDb for that. Still a lot of exploration to go with dramas of other countries. A lot of countries in the world producing great work - for example, Dark is on my priority list, which is a German production. I will say for SFH that the finale was gripping , stunning and visceral... it was certainly memorable. With TBK the feeling is more insidious and deep, and it's festering my mind to the extent where I'll probably need to watch this once again even in just a few days. There's a certain harrowing miasma which TBK emits and it's just one indicator of the layers of depth and impact the show has. Less "shock and awe" like the SFH finale and more of a sort of uncomfortable and unsettling helplessness when thinking about all the events that led to *this* in TBK, and all the questions it might ask of the reader concerning so many elements of human psychology.

I like Strangers from Hell but I'm not sure it really competes with TBK in any category other than production quality and maybe acting, and for acting I'd still say no. Looks like a clean sweep in terms of immersion, writing,
soundtrack, direction, cinematography, aesthetic (purely subjective), with a tie for overall production and a tie in acting if I'm being generous. I dunno, TBK had great layers, depth and just has that feel of being art. But hey, just my opinion yo.

This squats proudly in a strong stance over Strangers from Hell and unloads the sort of motherload a hippo would be proud of. :D

This is the most effed up show I've ever seen. And apparently the book is waaaay darker.

No it doesn't annoy me at all.

Douban actually has differentiation between dramas to actually be able to come to some sort of semblance of a pecking order, similar to IMDB. MDL is terrible because the scoring is so lenient that it feels like anything of a bit of worth scores between 8 and 9, so I just can't use this place as any real barometer and judge of which dramas to next look into, so I rely on ratings from elsewhere, stricter scoring, greater margin between dramas to actually form some sort of hierarchy of standards.

I'm not interested in dumb fan wars over who makes the better dramas. My only point is that the Douban ratings are far more representative of actual quality, particularly for Cdramas. WRTW is enormously disappointing to me, though I'll still try to finish it - it's weak. Joy of Life on the other hand is a masterpiece and please give us season 2 and 3 as soon as possible.

Rating is at 8.7 and has been for a few days. Are you expecting it to drop substantially over the next 1-2 days? I seem to recall 25 21 dropped about 0.2?

Acknowledging that doesn't guarantee satisfaction. A lot of comments here end up reading as something along the lines of "if you don't like it, the only reason must be your failure to understand."

As long as the ending is satisfying. I've seen great unhappy, happy and open endings, and bad ones. And all the other variants, bittersweet and whatnot.

If people don't like the ending and wanna drop the score from 10 to a still amazing 9.5, is it really a problem.

Episodes 5 and 6 sent this show into the gutter for me. Completely farcical writing, utterly deplorable characterisations.

I'm at like ep 17 or something in NIF. It is very good yeah - i'll return to it soon enough. The Long Ballad was great for me in the first 25-30 episodes but I feel the second half has been disappointing compared to the first half. Six Flying Dragons is really good, I agree - it's such an epic and covers one of the most interesting periods of Korean history, and it has amazing music. Empress Ki is my fave K drama sageuk, Six Flying Dragons probably 2nd place. Empress Ki is an emotional rollercoaster and stirs intense feelings for the characters (some of them are so hateable). Deep Rooted Tree (or Tree With Deep Roots) and The Crowned Clown are also solid, but not quite as good. I've heard that The Story of Ming Lan is amazing and maybe as good as NIF so I put that on my watch list recently. If the recs don't have to be historical then you could try something like Mouse or Sky Castle, both of which I really enjoyed. If you're looking for a mature and brilliant time loop drama, you could try Reset (it's on Youtube).

edit: I see you've already watched Sky Castle. Yeah it was a really good one for me too. I ended up dropping Iljimae - I picked it up because it's written by Choi Ran who wrote Mouse and Black. You're welcome to convince me to pick it back up - haha. If you're a fan of Lee Joon Gi then you could try Flower of Evil - for me the second half let FoE down, but it's loved by so many and is one of the top rated dramas of the last year or so.

Likeable characters and great bonds. A very clear story which is both easy to follow without getting bogged down, and yet it is still interesting. Real focus on the journey of the protagonists, the drama flowing like water with a strong, bustling current. Also, the ML is exceptionally pure and earnest, giving me subtle Demon Slayer vibes. The direction is sharp and engaging and the aesthetic is vivid, crisp, bold.

I think the best things so far are the strength of the character writing and the ease with which to follow the plotlines, which are not at all overwhelming.

This is pretty good - can recommend. Good pacing, interesting characters and a crisp and bold aesthetic.

One of the few high rated dramas that actually deserves its rating. Some of the rating happening on MDL these days is utterly laughable. I mean, do go ahead and explain how on Earth Who Rules the World is currently sitting at 8.8. It's so far out of sight in quality on almost every level from Joy, especially plot, characters and direction.

edit: I've found a reputable website for the rating of Chinese dramas in Douban, so now I can make sense of the scene.

My not so secret crush.