Eleison

Oh dear, I'm a sucker for Korean monarchy dramas... hopefully it's not bad!

It's definitely resting on something for the shot. 😅

The pacing/editing was very strange (bad?) at the beginning, but it's finally evened out.

At Episode 12; I can't wait for ML to find out that his cos is intentionally trying to come between him and Qiao Man and wrecking their already fragile, tenuous trust. 😖 The dude's driving me nuts!

But it's a Cdrama; there's no way it'll get TOO spicy. Censureship will 100% kick in to block much of that. But it does have a trashy romance novel title, not gonna lie. 😅

I'm struggling with the same thing! I think/hope they'll show them both grow in this area, but it does bother me. 😅

These are all great points! 👍

I loved Reset! It had a very different feel from the other modern Cdramas (in a good way) that I really loved (and I'm a big fan of BJT). A few of the later episodes got a bit much, but overall a really gripping, entertaining watch.

Yeah, I think Cdramas culturally are harder for me to relate to as well (than Kdramas). I know what you mean! Also haven't enjoyed as many modern dramas. Thanks for sharing the Spotify link! I listened to that one track and it is good. A unique sound, for sure!

Though I must say, I died at the scene where OIY got doused by the hand sanitizer when she accidentally stood under it after being banished because she didn't know where to put the trash from the surgery. 😅 That was a priceless, hilarious scene.

I don't think this would be my cup of tea, either, for other reasons, even though I have loved the leads in other dramas. Thanks for your thoughts! 😊

Maybe I'll look up the music. Is it just the OST or are the BGMs good, too?

I also have some issues with some things about Cdramas (they feel less wholesome (because of the controlling/aggressive male leads and the extreme emphasis on a beautiful/flawless appearance with so many pseudo-historical stories that can border on trashy romance-novel type plots), weirdly, despite the intense censureship, so also more backward/old-fashioned in some unsettling ways, and sometimes it rubs me the wrong way), but they do know how to tell gripping stories. Recently they've been sticking the landing better than Kdramas. Though 2025 for Kdramas has been a fairly solid start, I think. Kdrama romcoms have really declined over the years, though. They used to write such good ones! Anyway. 😅

The only super big writing hiccup in my opinion.

Cdrama dubbing/sound quality is pretty subpar; I've always wondered why, with the massive budgets, sets, and scope of their dramas, the sound quality and realism of the sound effects is so poor (and WHAT a drag for the Chinese actors to dub dozens and dozens of hours repeating the script over their own characters speaking parts (cause some actors do dub their own characters; 😬 I think I would go nuts!). You're right that Korean shows tend to have much better quality in this area, so I wonder what happened with this one? 🤔

That makes sense!

I think he went from being a resident to a fellow, though, yes? So that in itself makes me happy. :) He left Yi Young at the resident lounge and kept walking.

I doubt they intentionally harm them, but they don't seem to take precautions and prioritize the cool/realistic shot over the animal's safety; in the older Cdramas for sure there's no way the shots of horses falling over from explosions and falling headfirst over tripwire is fake. I can tell CG horses (Cdrama CGI is not realistic enough yet to pull off a convincing CG animal) or puppets (there were a few shots in Snow Sword Stride that were clearly puppets), and most often the ones you're seeing falling and flying onto the the ground are real horses. And you're right, horses aren't cheap, but the kinds of horses trained to fall will also look well-fed and carefully groomed, and that is not the case with ANY of the horses I've seen in a Cdrama. They all look scruffy, matted, gaunt and sickly.

This last episode was just the sweetest! Definitely the best episode; didn't notice that it was two hours!

Apart from the beautifully sweet moments that made me teary with PNG's arc, I was grinning the rest of this episode. A perfect wrap to this lovely drama!

So many cute moments, but here are some of my highlights: I loved how the mom who wasn't obsessed with having the baby on January 1st was the one who ended up getting the "lucky" time. 😉 Also, the first years trolling KDW, Professor Seo gushing about the first years to Yang Seok Hyung, "Cute, aren't they? They're good, too" (but the Korean word for "cute" made her gush sound extra endearing and adorable); Sabi telling Prof Ryu's joke, and Jaeil impressing Professor I-Permanently-Wear-A-Scowl-And-Only-Talk-To-People-By-Shouting-At-Them... I could go on and on. 🥰

P.S. I guess Cupid is extra busy at the start of the New Year. 😉

Maybe it's standard for OBs, but all the same, I love how Prof. Seo greets each baby she delivers with a cheery, "Ahnyeong!" So cute.

My sister is, too, and she will often watch dramas with me, but I told I won't be showing her this one. 😅

I didnt notice that! The older Cdramas definitely don't; this is the first time I've seen it. There was one horse in a shot in Guardians of the Dafeng--I couldn't believe they put it on camera. It looked so unhealthy/awful I couldn't focus on what was happening in the scene. It could barely walk properly. 😳

I felt a similar way about the actor, Zhang Ruo Yun, too, in JOL 2; in Season 1, he looked healthy. In Season 2 he looked gaunt, and one shot showed his hand; it looked like it belonged to a skeleton. 🥺 I wish I could rest easier about the treatment of actors and animals in Cdramas. Hollywood has taken a LONG time to get where it is, and it still has a long way to go. I hope China's entertainment industry catches up soon.

But they do harm animals? I've watched enough Cdramas to know that those battle scenes aren't trick shots or CGI; besides, some look half-dead with ribs showing, not groomed well, and looking absolutely terrible. There's no way they'd waste money training them to fall properly (I know it can be done, but I doubt it's cheap) when they barely seem to feed them and even use them for riding when they're lame (that I've seen, too; any person around horses even just as a kid taking horseback riding lessons know you don't ride a lame horse). I'm not an animal activist or anything, but the way they treat animals in Cdramas, particularly horses, has always really turned me off. 😖

When I hear about Chinese actors talking about horrible conditions on set, I just think, "I believe it! They don't treat animals right; a bad sign for how they treat their actors."

I thought Kdramas didn't do that? Strange.