Meari21

A possible spin off most likely. Maybe the next season will feature them with different stories about mental illness.

It’s just not your cup of tea. It’s a political satire/dark comedy based on real events. I’m a bit of a history buff so I found this interesting. Plus, it stars Japanese and Korean actors I happen to like so I felt compelled to watch it.

K-drama? It’s a movie. 😆

I think the last scene with the Sakaguchi Kentaro and Song Joong Ki cameos is meant to hint at a possible spin-off. Maybe Romantics Anonymous is going to have more than one season featuring other stories of people with mental illness. I'm betting that the counselling group is going to play a role in it as well. After all, the term Romantics Anonymous is coined after Alcoholics Anonymous and other such therapy groups. I'm guessing it's going to be another joint production between Netflix Japan and Netflix South Korea.

Why is the rating so low? I'm seriously curious.

It stars Tseng Ching Hua and that's all I need to know.

I don't think I've liked a J-drama in quite a while. There's something about their production designs, directing styles, and acting that don't sit well with me anymore, so I avoided watching them and just cherry picked the ones I found interesting enough. But I'm a sucker for food dramas and it's an Oguri Shun drama. Plus, I like Han Hyo Joo, she was my favorite in Moving. So I was really looking forward to this. I'm not disappointed.

Me, since 2005. I first saw him in Gokusen because that was the first J-drama I watched but loved him in Hana Yori Dango as Hanazawa Rui. I followed his career since then.

It's possible that it'll head over to Netflix but I'm not sure. The Blood Youth and Dashing Youth never made it to Netflix, after all. But if they can bring these three dramas to more international platforms, it'd be nice.

People are review bombing it? I thought the rating actually went up from 7.7 to 8.2. J-dramas don't usually have the highest ratings on MDL. People here are mostly into K-dramas or C-dramas. I understand that J-dramas are not everyone's cup of tea and many people find it hard to get into hence the low ratings.

I get what you mean. I almost didn't recognize Han Hyo Joo in this. I thought she was a Japanese actress! She even sounds like one! lol I suppose they wanted her to act like pretty much every quirky Japanese character in a shojo manga. They didn't have to make her like that, though. She is, after all, a Korean working in Japan and not really Japanese. But I'll take that over the typical loud, brash, and confrontational Korean FLs in old school rom-coms. They drive me crazy. lol

He does. He’s one of those actors who acts with his eyes.

Oguri Shun? He’s one of the best Japanese actors in existence. He was a child actor and rose to fame with his roles in Gokusen and Hana Yori Dango. You could try Rich Man Poor Woman. I think he plays a similar character there. He was also in the original Hana Kimi. I liked him best in Crows Zero, Let Me Eat Your Pancreas, and Ouroboros. The second male lead, the one with the long hair, is Akanishi Jin. He was a J-pop idol, member of the group KAT-TUN.

His character felt more like a supporting one than the first male lead. Too bad, I do like Zhang Linghe, just not in this drama. lol And surprisingly, I liked Yu Shuxin in this and the reason why I avoided this drama when it came out was because of her. Now I know she can be compelling if she takes on more serious roles and don’t act cutesy. I hope she does more roles like this.

I actually watched it for Jiarui. Tbh, I didn’t like Zhang Linghe in it. He’s a good enough actor and he’s very striking but he lacked the presence of a leading man in this drama. Cheng Lei had more charisma. I wondered why as he was not like that in his other historical dramas. Or maybe the character was just dull and charmless to me. Jiarui definitely stole the show. He had the best role.

Yep. Theater actors tend to over-act because that’s what’s expected of them. Performing on stage is widely different from acting in front of cameras. That’s why I find actors with theater backgrounds normally too much before they learn to tone things down.

Theater is different from TV or movies though, the acting style is different too. I would still consider this his first acting gig. And with the way he acts, it doesn't look like he only has three years' worth of experience. He's better than most actors who have been acting longer.

So I finally got to watch My Journey To You and holy moly, this kid is all that! Hard to believe that it was his first ever acting gig. From the way he walked, talked, and smiled devilishly, he clearly had the presence and acting chops of someone who has been doing this professionally for decades. I loved him in Fangs of Fortune as Zhuo Yichen, but I think Gong Yuanzhi is more unforgettable despite being only a support role.

Happy 30th, Pengpeng!

In fiction, Lucifer, who is a fallen angel and the devil in Christian religion was portrayed as a hero in several stories and one of them was in a very popular TV show called Lucifer. He is the literal king of hell and yet he is portrayed as good in that show, he even fell in love, saved lives, and was written as a misunderstood son with daddy issues. As a Christian, I didn’t take it seriously because it’s a fictional take on Lucifer. But I think there’s are cultural appropriation issues in this drama because of the Islamic roots of the character. I find it weird that Iblis is portrayed as Korean. If they wanted to borrow elements from your religion then they could’ve just changed the names. Genies or jinn are not new to pop culture and literature but I don’t remember seeing them portrayed by East Asians and incorporated into a culture that is vastly different from their origins. I don’t know why they had to use lines and circumstances presented in the Quran when they could‘ve just made things up and turned it into a dark fantasy romance that happens to have jinn in it. It would’ve been more acceptable, I think.