I usually watch most of the high rated kdrama's but I just can't with this. The premise seems too boring like…
Also, Reply 1988 starts boring, but gets much better! It was really powerful by the end. I started getting hooked after Episode 5. There were some parts I found less relatable (like the parts with all the parents at times), but overall I loved it.
I'm a little confused by the connection between Bai Li and her two sons, Feng Ju and Feng Chang.
So, she was the Lord's concubine, had Feng Chang, then he became heir to the throne, and married Yige (Lanxi's mom) to improve his status, and when she died, Bai Li was promoted to wife (hence Feng Ju's status being higher than Feng Chang's)? Because I have no idea why the father/Lord would have ignored his eldest son; they're usually the favored child in all the royal family dynamics, which is why this is confusing me. 😅
When the montage in one of the earlier episodes explained their family I thought it was confusing, too, which is why I'm still confused.
come on cut him some slack, someone facing so much misfortune and who has been constantly taken advantage of/had…
That's fair. 😅 But there aren't a ton of ways to write jerks who aren't really (deep down) jerks, if you know what I mean. Cause most jerks who are just selfish people won't be as likely to change as those with past trauma because they're deeply and truly narcissists who think the world revolves aeound them, not people who act out due to past hurt that just needs to be dealt with. Just a thought! 🤷♀️
If I remember correctly. Relic 1: Knife, Luoren/Pingting. Relic 2: Clam, Yiwansan. Relic 3: Beast, Hongsha's grandpa.…
I've honestly been a bit confused by the relics and what they are, still. They seem to infect things or people who are troubled or vengeful? I haven't finished the greed relic, so still need to see where that one is and how they get rid of it.
Would someone mind listing out the relics again, and the member of the squad that each relates to? I remember people posting it a while ago but it's too far down in the comment section to find now without scrolling endlessly... 🫣
So, if Extraordinary You were a Chinese costume drama? (Complete with abuse and suffering, as pseudo-historical romance wuxia or xianxia Cdramas love to incorporate! 😅)
For how many Kdramas I watch (more than 300 for sure) they have teached us that the higher in power the men in…
Yes, that's true, but the lack of any other significant support characters in the cast list that we haven't already seen makes me think we've already seen the Bigger Fish (I honestly do think it's Yu Jeong)?
I actually found knowing who Drug Monster is (while the characters did not) a special kind of stressful/suspenseful. 😅
I was thinking, it actually feels like it IS being framed like a boxing match. There are rounds and different winners in each round, especially as Dong Ju has been using that analogy multiple times now (and you always know who your opponent is in a boxing match; no mystery there, just strategy for how to outsmart or outmaneuver him). The end of Episode 3 was a win for Dong Ju, for instance, and the end of Episode 6, for instance, was a win for Yu Jeong... 🤷♀️
Yu Jeong has only his own brain, but Dong Ju (thankfully!) has a team (kind of cheating, but good guys can cheat that way! 😋).
I haven't watched it yet but from what you said it seems like they are trying to pander towards the elusive "Modern…
I still don't think I responded fully to all your points, but oh well, here's maybe a longer post than yours to read! 😅
After reading your second post about your favorite Cdrama again, I'm not sure we disagree all that much, but it's more of how we're framing situations and maybe only disagree by degrees.
I was mainly put off by your first post that spoke in absolutes, bringing out dangerous over generalizations like "always" to describe people and dramas. 😅
Dramas (which I've seen, since I can only speak to those) in some ways are as subtle or nuanced as a freight train, but in other ways are usually more nuanced than you've described, and I think it's difficult to stereotype them the way you do. In fact, I'd like to see more specifics of the types you're describing.
A few of the Cdramas I was thinking of when I responded to you that I think did pretty well with couple dynamics are New Life Begins (which I already mentioned; only the ML and FL are portrayed with nuance, though), and then The Double and A Dream Of Splendor for the way the couples interact and support each other in healthy ways. Some others with healthier dynamics: Military Prosecutor Doberman, Alchemy Of Souls, You Are My Glory, When I Fly Towards You, My Sweet Mobster, Lovely Runner (very unrealistic and fantastical, though), I'm Not A Robot, Knight Flower, Shooting Stars, He is Psychometric, Castaway Diva, My Lovely Liar, etc.
Kdramas don't tend to portray married couples as main leads in domestic settings very often. Maybe there are a few recent ones I haven't seen that you have? I haven't kept up with romantic Kdramas as much, and several of the Cdramas I've seen have been very light on the romance recently.
(I tend to look more at the arcs characters go through (did they grow in an interesting/satisfying way?) rather than focus on the way characters are written before they change or even always after (like I love the character of Gu Jun Pyo in BOFs because he grows a heck of a whole lot and I like to watch his story arc; that sort of thing is what attracted me to dramas).
I do agree that East Asia, in my exposure to entertainment from China and Korea (but probably also Japan based on what I've heard) idolize work and success in work (another user pointed this out and I hadn't thought about it before, but I think they were right). So maybe they won't portray stay-at-home moms because they (or Asians seem to THINK they) don't/can't exist in those economies (that's at least what most dramas lead me to believe), unless they're chaebols, and that's when they fit the more stereotypical roles. I think the expectations for roles come out more from parents in dramas, not the young people.
And I honestly don't necessarily disagree with the points you made about men and women in domestic situations, and the world is quickly changing so the variety in family dynamics is only increasing; my point about traditional roles is they're prescriptive in a way that's demeaning.
No spouse should be made the servant of another in that they're always subservient to the other (as you described), but I appreciate more dramas showing men serving their girlfriends or wives (not to get sex from them but because they respect them and admire them as human beings who they are doing life with and being vulnerable and intimate with, and have value outside their sex appeal, cuteness or "feminine qualities") and being sacrificial and partnering with them in making choices (and not showing women making decisions as men ALLOWING women to make choices; a couple should be a team and partnership, not a hierarchy), and showing men treating women with more respect, being gentle, asking permission, etc. has been a good development in more recent dramas.
Some dramas have veered to the extreme you mention, but not often with the leads. I couldn't think of any that show the leads portrayed that way?
I also admitted that being a traditional housewife is not demeaning (taking care of kids and cooking for your family is necessary and good for a parent to do), but when it's EXPECTED of women specifically and women are raised to do that and to just be homemakers and feel like it's their job to make sure their husband is satisfied sexually since he's "bringing home the bacon," IS demeaning.
Girls and boys should be raised to be whole people, who know that commitment in a relationship means sacrifice and partnership. Both should be proficient at cooking so they can feed themselves and others (as you mentioned above about not being able to boil an egg 😅), if need be, and can work well with kids, fix the toilet if it breaks, hang the picture frame on the wall, get on the ladder, drive the car, balance the budget, grill the burgers, give the kids a bath, get their hands dirty when necessary, make breakfast, be ready to defend their family, be responsible for hard choices and all that lovely humanning, parenting stuff, and divvy up all that after conversation and expertise has been differentiated. 😏
A lot of storytellers are still figuring out how to write women who aren't in relationship to a man or their "role" as a women in the traditional sense. They're still not very good at it (dramas included), and these stories are the growing pains (at least that's my assessment), and I don't think they're perfect or always good, but they're steps in the right direction.
Also, dramas are often written to feed female fantasies, and that's a very real influence on the writing sometimes, too (because most consumers of dramas are women).
So, she was the Lord's concubine, had Feng Chang, then he became heir to the throne, and married Yige (Lanxi's mom) to improve his status, and when she died, Bai Li was promoted to wife (hence Feng Ju's status being higher than Feng Chang's)? Because I have no idea why the father/Lord would have ignored his eldest son; they're usually the favored child in all the royal family dynamics, which is why this is confusing me. 😅
When the montage in one of the earlier episodes explained their family I thought it was confusing, too, which is why I'm still confused.
LYN has been one busy fellow!
It was also these actors who I thought would have paired better in School, and here they are! 😅
Agree about the show being brilliant, though. 😉
I actually found knowing who Drug Monster is (while the characters did not) a special kind of stressful/suspenseful. 😅
I was thinking, it actually feels like it IS being framed like a boxing match. There are rounds and different winners in each round, especially as Dong Ju has been using that analogy multiple times now (and you always know who your opponent is in a boxing match; no mystery there, just strategy for how to outsmart or outmaneuver him). The end of Episode 3 was a win for Dong Ju, for instance, and the end of Episode 6, for instance, was a win for Yu Jeong... 🤷♀️
Yu Jeong has only his own brain, but Dong Ju (thankfully!) has a team (kind of cheating, but good guys can cheat that way! 😋).
Just a theory! 😆
After reading your second post about your favorite Cdrama again, I'm not sure we disagree all that much, but it's more of how we're framing situations and maybe only disagree by degrees.
I was mainly put off by your first post that spoke in absolutes, bringing out dangerous over generalizations like "always" to describe people and dramas. 😅
Dramas (which I've seen, since I can only speak to those) in some ways are as subtle or nuanced as a freight train, but in other ways are usually more nuanced than you've described, and I think it's difficult to stereotype them the way you do. In fact, I'd like to see more specifics of the types you're describing.
A few of the Cdramas I was thinking of when I responded to you that I think did pretty well with couple dynamics are New Life Begins (which I already mentioned; only the ML and FL are portrayed with nuance, though), and then The Double and A Dream Of Splendor for the way the couples interact and support each other in healthy ways. Some others with healthier dynamics: Military Prosecutor Doberman, Alchemy Of Souls, You Are My Glory, When I Fly Towards You, My Sweet Mobster, Lovely Runner (very unrealistic and fantastical, though), I'm Not A Robot, Knight Flower, Shooting Stars, He is Psychometric, Castaway Diva, My Lovely Liar, etc.
Kdramas don't tend to portray married couples as main leads in domestic settings very often. Maybe there are a few recent ones I haven't seen that you have? I haven't kept up with romantic Kdramas as much, and several of the Cdramas I've seen have been very light on the romance recently.
(I tend to look more at the arcs characters go through (did they grow in an interesting/satisfying way?) rather than focus on the way characters are written before they change or even always after (like I love the character of Gu Jun Pyo in BOFs because he grows a heck of a whole lot and I like to watch his story arc; that sort of thing is what attracted me to dramas).
I do agree that East Asia, in my exposure to entertainment from China and Korea (but probably also Japan based on what I've heard) idolize work and success in work (another user pointed this out and I hadn't thought about it before, but I think they were right). So maybe they won't portray stay-at-home moms because they (or Asians seem to THINK they) don't/can't exist in those economies (that's at least what most dramas lead me to believe), unless they're chaebols, and that's when they fit the more stereotypical roles. I think the expectations for roles come out more from parents in dramas, not the young people.
And I honestly don't necessarily disagree with the points you made about men and women in domestic situations, and the world is quickly changing so the variety in family dynamics is only increasing; my point about traditional roles is they're prescriptive in a way that's demeaning.
No spouse should be made the servant of another in that they're always subservient to the other (as you described), but I appreciate more dramas showing men serving their girlfriends or wives (not to get sex from them but because they respect them and admire them as human beings who they are doing life with and being vulnerable and intimate with, and have value outside their sex appeal, cuteness or "feminine qualities") and being sacrificial and partnering with them in making choices (and not showing women making decisions as men ALLOWING women to make choices; a couple should be a team and partnership, not a hierarchy), and showing men treating women with more respect, being gentle, asking permission, etc. has been a good development in more recent dramas.
Some dramas have veered to the extreme you mention, but not often with the leads. I couldn't think of any that show the leads portrayed that way?
I also admitted that being a traditional housewife is not demeaning (taking care of kids and cooking for your family is necessary and good for a parent to do), but when it's EXPECTED of women specifically and women are raised to do that and to just be homemakers and feel like it's their job to make sure their husband is satisfied sexually since he's "bringing home the bacon," IS demeaning.
Girls and boys should be raised to be whole people, who know that commitment in a relationship means sacrifice and partnership. Both should be proficient at cooking so they can feed themselves and others (as you mentioned above about not being able to boil an egg 😅), if need be, and can work well with kids, fix the toilet if it breaks, hang the picture frame on the wall, get on the ladder, drive the car, balance the budget, grill the burgers, give the kids a bath, get their hands dirty when necessary, make breakfast, be ready to defend their family, be responsible for hard choices and all that lovely humanning, parenting stuff, and divvy up all that after conversation and expertise has been differentiated. 😏
A lot of storytellers are still figuring out how to write women who aren't in relationship to a man or their "role" as a women in the traditional sense. They're still not very good at it (dramas included), and these stories are the growing pains (at least that's my assessment), and I don't think they're perfect or always good, but they're steps in the right direction.
Also, dramas are often written to feed female fantasies, and that's a very real influence on the writing sometimes, too (because most consumers of dramas are women).