Hm. I kind of disagree. I can totally see your points, though, and I was also a bit confused by the Hacker storyline, but to me it was the best lakorn so far.
I too was a bit disgusted, when he started getting her drunk, but then he had been hoping that she would get as horny as he had earlier and rape him. I honestly don't know about the word choice. Is it a language thing, a translation thing? I noticed some Thai lakorns translate the word sex as "getting married", which is also kind of huh? Anyhow, what redeemed the whole thing for me was the scene in the flower field, where Muey is like, "Yeah, I am done with this. You did not treat me well, had sex with me when I was drunk and generally I am a bit over getting closer and then being pushed away." To paraphrase. In no lakorn or show about cold man/warm girl have I seen the woman telling the dude off. I mean the redemption-storyline was pretty cliche, but what are you going to do. I wish she had not been pregnant and just left him forever. Haha. I also totally got why she became so different after the episode where he ran after her car. Because I would also have been done with this shit and done a 180. I have in fact in real life totally flipped on a guy I was really, really into after an incident occurred, but because I don't live in a Drama I never changed my mind about him. :-D
I also think I would type Thien as an ENTP personality, and Muey as an INFJ, by how she cut him out of her life. I often notice scriptwriters using these type of templates for their characters. And Marks acting was on point in that balcony scene. Just saying.
Was this the best scriptwriting and flawless execution ever? No. To me it felt a bit like someone wrote a good script, but then someone else came and said, "Wait we need more episodes, how can we stretch this. No, lakorn viewers will not grasp subtle character development, let's hit them over the head with this well-known trope/signaler." (Because it was there, from their move to Myanmar onwards you could tell Thien was changing his mind in small ways and Muey was getting more independent and seeing him more for what he was, and yet still liking him.) I mean, I don't watch Thai lakorns for their subtlety.
May I know why it has a special place in your heart? Just curious... ;D
Get ready for an essay! :-P It was the first contemporary Asian Drama I watched, having only watched a few Wuxia and Sageuks before. (Full disclosure: I have a huge soft spot for Wang Rui Chang after watching Eternal Love, and I was smitten by him and his wardrobe in this drama. :-P) But really, apart from the superfluous amnesia, I thought it was a good drama. The FL was one of the more intelligent and cool ones out there and I could really relate to her, and I loved her badass friend. I also loved that there was no triangle for the ML and FL, and that they both had exes and a life before they met. Actually I liked all of the cast, except the ex and the sister. Also, the kiss scene blew my mind, it was my first experience with the 8 camera-up close-set up, after only having seen closed lip or fish kisses that I expected when watching anything from Asia. :-D
I put this on my to- watch list only because the ML was in Fall in Love and I really liked him there, now I am glad to hear it is actually good. :-D Also surprised so many people here watched Fall in Love, because it got such mixed reviews, though it has a special place in my heart.
There are a lot of episodes with subs available on Youtube. I am on Episode 4, and it's a good drama. Some typical lakorn elements, but I love the main couple acting out their weird chemistry realistically.
I am late to the party, but thankyou so much for writing this series. I am not going to be able to unsee these things now, even though I never noticed before. It also explains to me, why I sometimes have an antipathy for dramas, even though eh plot and acting is fine and I think it's when the cinematography is overdone and it overpowers the acting and emotions of a story. I always felt like it was something about them being too "brainy", but couldn't describe what it is exactly.
Before discovering Asian dramas, I was into guys who looked like Chris Hemsworth or anyone with dimples, after I am really into long-haired guys in colourful silk dresses and guyliner. Before I liked watching political commentary on Youtube, now I watch kiss-compilations. Before life seemed a bit dismal to me, now it is full of colour and heartfluttering. I may have lost a few hobbies on the way, but I regret nothing! Not even the new wrinkles that appear after a crazy binge-watch.
Song Wei Long immediately came to mind. he was still so young, a minor, when he did untouchable lovers.
I had the experience with Kang Ha Neul and Wang Rui Chang. Song Wei Long as well, though I came across him first in "Find Yourself" and his real age was mentioned there, incidentally that's a Noona romance, haha.
Haha. Don't feel bad or creeped out. My Gen-Z daughter laughs at me fangirling over Dylan Wang since MG, but her…
Haha, I gave myself an out by saying I am swooning over the fictional character they play, not themselves. Which is true, I am really not invested in looking them up or knowing their private lives, as I was when I was fangirling as a teen. I might watch interviews or BTS if something is particularly good, but often it takes me out of experiencing the story. But yeah, I find so many of the Asian dramas are really easy on the eyes in comparison to western media.
Apart from the quality (as was already said, the young school-boy-looking-actors are usually not even actors),…
I agree. I am so over some 20 year old playing an accomplished CEO. I mean, with the age of the FL, who is always an entry-level employee, of course, it would be even creepier if all the CEOs were the age of actual CEOs, but you know, why not make romances for people over 30, over 40 or even over 50. These people have a life too and since many of the native watchers are supposedly housewives, they might enjoy that for a change. I know Korean TV has the family-story/makjang genre for that demographic and Chinese think unmarried people/women over 30 are somehow pathetic, but the complications of the story could also be more diverse and realistically they are different from being 20.
I never noticed that, what I did notice was more younger actors playing older roles, which honestly made me feel a bit creepy, being over 30 myself and swooning over someone I thought must be 29 or 30, but was really 21. I heard that many actors put the age-range they can play rather than their age in profiles when they go to castings, which makes sense with your article.
Ah, if I could only watch shows from one country all my life it would be T-Dramas. They sometimes tell a convoluted story, but the way the characters are drawn is heaps better than anywhere else, who often have switchable templates for character and thus no development. My tip for beginners is to prepare themselves for a tonal shift (ahem hot mess ahem) in the last five episodes. For some unknown to me reason they always use those to redeem the villain and state the moral of the story. I Ir
I am oddly proud of having watched three of the dramas you recommended. I am not an avid JDrama watcher, but the ones I have watched are usually head-spinningly good. My tip would be to not be put off by the often bonkers-looking plot descriptions. The more bonkers, the more the drama is probably trying to something profound about human nature. And because they are short, they are dense and never boring.
Thanks for posting this. Recently my life is too hectic to keep my attention on dramas and I have been searching for movies. I added all these to my list, because I have only watched My P.S. Partner, the raunchyness of Korean movies always surprises me. Lol.
My first Korean Drama was Scarlet Heart Ryeo, after everybody and their grandma posted about it on Tumblr, so it reached me, who was just into Romance in General. My tip to beginners is not to get intimidated by the difference in culture and language and the subtitles. Emotions don't need translation and the acting is mostly good enough to know what's going on even without catching every single line. And there are articles like yours that help those starting out too!
I now actively avoid the "successful guy, aspiring girl" trope, also if the visual is very pastelly and heavy on the filters, because then you already know how this story goes. I find the story is sometimes more interesting in low-budget productions.
I too was a bit disgusted, when he started getting her drunk, but then he had been hoping that she would get as horny as he had earlier and rape him. I honestly don't know about the word choice. Is it a language thing, a translation thing? I noticed some Thai lakorns translate the word sex as "getting married", which is also kind of huh?
Anyhow, what redeemed the whole thing for me was the scene in the flower field, where Muey is like, "Yeah, I am done with this. You did not treat me well, had sex with me when I was drunk and generally I am a bit over getting closer and then being pushed away." To paraphrase. In no lakorn or show about cold man/warm girl have I seen the woman telling the dude off. I mean the redemption-storyline was pretty cliche, but what are you going to do. I wish she had not been pregnant and just left him forever. Haha.
I also totally got why she became so different after the episode where he ran after her car. Because I would also have been done with this shit and done a 180. I have in fact in real life totally flipped on a guy I was really, really into after an incident occurred, but because I don't live in a Drama I never changed my mind about him. :-D
I also think I would type Thien as an ENTP personality, and Muey as an INFJ, by how she cut him out of her life. I often notice scriptwriters using these type of templates for their characters.
And Marks acting was on point in that balcony scene. Just saying.
Was this the best scriptwriting and flawless execution ever? No. To me it felt a bit like someone wrote a good script, but then someone else came and said, "Wait we need more episodes, how can we stretch this. No, lakorn viewers will not grasp subtle character development, let's hit them over the head with this well-known trope/signaler." (Because it was there, from their move to Myanmar onwards you could tell Thien was changing his mind in small ways and Muey was getting more independent and seeing him more for what he was, and yet still liking him.)
I mean, I don't watch Thai lakorns for their subtlety.
Thankyou for coming to my TED talk.
And sure, PM me anytime.
It was the first contemporary Asian Drama I watched, having only watched a few Wuxia and Sageuks before.
(Full disclosure: I have a huge soft spot for Wang Rui Chang after watching Eternal Love, and I was smitten by him and his wardrobe in this drama. :-P)
But really, apart from the superfluous amnesia, I thought it was a good drama.
The FL was one of the more intelligent and cool ones out there and I could really relate to her, and I loved her badass friend. I also loved that there was no triangle for the ML and FL, and that they both had exes and a life before they met.
Actually I liked all of the cast, except the ex and the sister. Also, the kiss scene blew my mind, it was my first experience with the 8 camera-up close-set up, after only having seen closed lip or fish kisses that I expected when watching anything from Asia. :-D
Also surprised so many people here watched Fall in Love, because it got such mixed reviews, though it has a special place in my heart.
Before I liked watching political commentary on Youtube, now I watch kiss-compilations.
Before life seemed a bit dismal to me, now it is full of colour and heartfluttering.
I may have lost a few hobbies on the way, but I regret nothing! Not even the new wrinkles that appear after a crazy binge-watch.
I heard that many actors put the age-range they can play rather than their age in profiles when they go to castings, which makes sense with your article.
My tip for beginners is to prepare themselves for a tonal shift (ahem hot mess ahem) in the last five episodes. For some unknown to me reason they always use those to redeem the villain and state the moral of the story.
I Ir
My tip would be to not be put off by the often bonkers-looking plot descriptions. The more bonkers, the more the drama is probably trying to something profound about human nature. And because they are short, they are dense and never boring.
My tip to beginners is not to get intimidated by the difference in culture and language and the subtitles. Emotions don't need translation and the acting is mostly good enough to know what's going on even without catching every single line. And there are articles like yours that help those starting out too!
What was the Mini-Shows you watched?