BigFatDove

I would argue that Germany has, as little as I know, done an excellent job educating their populace about the crimes that were committed in the past and likely taken steps to atone for it whereas Japan has been somewhat more ambiguous.

I haven't watched the program they're talking about, so I don't know exactly what was said, but given Japan's history within the context of Asia in the 20th century I can understand why Korean viewers might be upset about expressing pure reverence for the soldiers of that time without acknowledging that.

Of course, the actor shouldn't be criticized for the actions of his grandfather and, similarly, white people as a whole shouldn't feel guilt per se over the actions of the past. It's true, as another commenter said, that most countries have committed war crimes against each other, even Korea notably had a similar incident in Vietnam. However, it's also true that both these specific events and far too many others are rather recent in that their victims are still alive or have died only in the last few decades and that their children and grandchildren too have definitely been impacted by that trauma whether emotionally, physically, or monetarily. So, I would say that it's not at all devaluing for those people, in any situation, to express anger regarding that.

There is likely a line somewhere though, between communicating about and trying to rectify that hurt and internet hate trains, which might be the same thing you were saying.

Liked the first episode, they feel extremely like exes that are still in love but hurting, so I'm looking forward to that. I love a competent FL, hoping she keeps that as the drama progresses, although she clearly becomes less so in front of the ML (but based on their apparent shared trauma, to an understandable extent). No mention of the twin just yet but I'm certain it'll come in time. Based on his previous works, I think this director must like working in small towns.

I loved both the manhua and the donghua up to their current points. I watched the first couple episodes of the live action and the plot seems to deviate, like Changge immediately going after her uncle and Sun not being in Chang' An at first and I don't think Leyan existed before?? Does the live action keep Changge going to the Uighurs and Sun going to the Khitan? And did they keep Changge's tactical brilliance?

I think the younger versions did a great job. I can't wait to see Lee Jae-In in other dramas hopefully as the lead.

I thought the main couple was extremely cute. I'm glad we got moments of them after they got together and wish that was more often the case in dramas.

That’s so clever, I didn’t even notice that! Will have to rewatch

Either the camera angles are just awful or she's just not that great in Scarlet Heart and Hotel del Luna is okay but kind of meh for her, but she's been a delight in all her movies + Persona as well as the Producers and she absolutely shines in My Mister. In WLGY Tangerines, it's hard to see her as a high schooler but she does great distinguishing between the role of the mother vs daughter characters as well as working with Moon Sori. I think she mainly does best in more real-ish roles with subtle emotions. So, I think this drama will depend on either if she's grown to better take on more fantasy-ish roles or if the drama itself is more grounded or fantasy. And the actual production of course.

Certainly, if it's done wrong or without heart, the usage of so-called "modern feminist" views in historical tv/period pieces can break immersion and seem unpleasant. But this isn't a recent phenomenon to occur, nor is it wholly unrealistic either.

Many (somewhat) older revered dramas, such as Empress Ki or Queen Seondeok or Dae Jang Geum, have focused on the stories of women and their empowerment. There is likely historical distortion here, on large levels (the real Queen Seondeok probably didn't live in the dessert because of a prophecy about her twin sister and I think we know barely anything about Jang Geum for real, let alone working in the kitchens) and small levels (they probably spoke a different sounding language or rode a specific breed of horse), but it is true that these women achieved at least their name in history and that these dramas filled this in with their own detail. I think very few people would argue any of these things make them unenjoyable or disqualify them from being Sageuks. Isn't the point of many sageuks that they dramatize real history to show the human element of it? This could include making the drama relevant or relatable to modern viewers.

Finally, if a TV drama being realistic really matters that much, it's not improbable that women could reach certain levels of power in history given that we know so little of their lives and that certain eras were more forgiving towards women than others. And I don't know history super well so I could be wrong about this, but even when society generally worked against them, powerful women (Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, literally Wu Zetian), although not the norm, were not uncommon either.

I do also hope though that this drama is better than Queen Woo.

Why are you gay?

As an adult, surely you can understand that other forms of expression than what you prefer exist in this world and that even if you may not enjoy it other people do and it’s okay because the acting of watching what you call “porn” doesn’t directly harm anyone. The actors knew what they were doing when they signed up for this and no one was exploited presumably. You are right that MDL needs to tag this for mature scenes.

People watch dramas for a lot of reasons. You may watch it to get away from certain western modern values, but I personally watch it to see representation and histories there tends to be less of on Western TV. Although I don’t particularly love this drama, I do appreciate the exploration of darker themes more commonly found in Korean movies. To perhaps somewhat alleviate one of your concerns, in Korea this does have a higher age rating. Finally, your explicit mention of the sex being gay sex doesn’t sit right with me, but that may not have been your intention.

Just finished the first episode and I’m sad how different it is from the webtoon so far :( I’m hoping it’s still good despite that.

I love her tattoos