S1234

It messes up with my head too. I watched Korean drama reviews on sites such as drama beans since 2014 I think, and I only stumbled upon MDL this year. Dramabeans has mostly viewers from the west and east Asia and they love noona dramas. When I saw some highly rated noona dramas being panned in MDL I was surprised till I realised that this website has a lot of viewers from very Patriarchal countries where they are used to seeing female leads aged 16 to 28 paired against male leaders who are never younger than 45 (really I am not exaggerating the female leads are that young sometimes). Since then I have tried to avoid MDL comments for any dramas which defies the rules of conservative heteronormative culture. I usually view Koalasplayground or dramabeans or IMDB to get a more balanced view. Don’t get triggered by MDL, it has some very toxic misogynist viewers.

East Asia is more liberal on gender roles when compared to South Asia and netizens are crazier in east Asia. A lot of MDL viewers are south asians I believe and they do bring that mindset with them when they judge a Korean drama. Which is why I have a problem with it. “You as a south Asian should not expect the same gender standards from another culture. Koreans are ok with reverse age difference even if you are not. “ And this biased view affects the MDL ratings for those dramas. I am a south Asian and as they say in South Asia, “Being a girl is like carrying a shroud”. Anyways enough said “it is what it is” 🤷‍♀️

I think people take inspiration from each other all the time. Saying that the Korean drama folks are copycats is so offensive. On a funny note all the Greek gods were adopted by the Romans. But it’s the Roman culture which was more popular and not Greek. Imagine if our planets are to be called Hermes, Aphrodite, Earth, ares, Zeus, Cronus, Poseidon, Hades just because the Greek came first. It’s perfectly fine for a set of people to like one culture over another culture more even if the first culture came first 😊

Exactly since the myth of a giant serpent benevolent exists amongst the Chinese as dragons, Indians as nagas, native Australians as rainbow serpent and the Mayan quetzalcoatl. Imagine. The hero’s journey in western stories or the fools archetype “0” to the world card “21” used in tarot is derived from Kabbalah but is also consistent across almost all cultures.

Age gaps only if the woman is older. It reeks of double standards. In Indian movies the male leads are usually 30 years older than the female leads and no one has a problem. If the female lead is even one year older people have a problem. Asia is a very gender biased continent

Some people and they want to poison the whole world with it.

I don’t understand this. Almost all stories are inspired by older stories. There are literally so many many many adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Romeo and Juliet themselves are inspired by the 7th century middle eastern story Laila Majnu. I have seen Chinese dramas which seem to be heavily inspired by the descendants of the sun (though why I fail to understand that was a horrible drama 🙂). People have lived in civilised societies for 10,000 years now and storytelling was even used in cave drawings. Thus similar themes would be there. Also a robe type garment is not only the garment of the Chinese, Japanese or Koreans. Even Persians and Mughal Indians had similar clothing. Mughal India in 1400s, in the Mughal court wore these robes which were called “Angrakha”. Even today many women wear these dresses on occasions. I am assuming that if we get giant snakes in south Asian stories people would have a problem? Tales of the Naga snakes and tales of a Monkey human abound in Indian myths too. Indian god of death is also called Yama similar to Chinese. Meridian opening I have seen in cultivation dramas appear similar to the Kundalini rising concept in Indian myths. I have been watching amazing and awesome Turkish dramas off late and I was surprised at the similarities that exist between south Asian stories and Turkish stories. Even their food is similar. We lived in a connected world. Silk route has been in operation for more than a 1000 years so people have been in touch with each other. Can people just stop this viciousness

Exactly right. I am a big fantasy and sci-fi reader and almost all major books are inspired by the lord of the rings. The lord of the rings themselves are inspired by the Avalonian tales and Beowulf. But Chinese readers and drama watchers can be like this. Many crazy Chinese readers went and downgraded Ken Liu on Goodreads for the Grace of Kings series since it was inspired by older Chinese fantasy books. The thing is the author himself had acknowledged that it was inspired but even then some vicious angry fans did that. Now I see similar things in MDL too.

Controversies and vicious toxic fans is the reason I want to stay away from MDL. Inane dramas with men who are much older than heroines get higher ratings. When the drama makers use unique content or there is any controversy the ratings drop like flies. The top rated dramas are usually so lack lustre. And unfortunately this trend is also making me eschew dramas altogether. I just spent a very pleasant month watching non Asian dramas such as stranger things, Turkish drama Black money and Turkish drama the Gift. I am so tired of all of these drama that ensue in Asian drama land that it’s becoming harder and harder to watch. And this website the MDL is super toxic even more than Instagram

OTP exists for India due to the frauds I think. Where I stay in Asia Pacific we do not have OTP unless the monies involved are more than 150 USD I think. Long story short I usually never use OTP. For large payments I usually pay by payment gate way methods such as AfterPay, Shopify which split money into instalments. If the transaction value is high one usually gets an sms saying “is that you, if not call us on this number”

Since I am originally Indian it gets very frustrating to pay when I am in India using my global cards since due to OTP and since I don’t have an Indian cell phone I cannot make a payment. So I usually have to borrow money from my Indian relatives to pay. Global payment methods such as PayPal and Google Pay or Apple Pay also don’t work.

Agree she looks like Xu lu. both has a very delicate face with other worldly vibe. She has a timeless face too which will age very very well. I like all her dramas

She is so pretty such a good actress. Why is she so underrated ? As someone else has commented here she really looks like Xu lu

Why why why why why is this rated so Low? I have been going into peals of laughter watching this. But now it’s confirmed all of my favourite dramas are rated 7.5 to 8. I seem to have unpopular opinions or shall I say less popular ones 😎. The main lead was in Vincenzo which I dropped like a hot potato since it was so unbearable for me to watch. People you guys, don’t trust my likes and dislikes in drama 🤷‍♀️

At this point I can say with 100 percent probability that this will release by the end of 2099 for sure 🙃

Great article by the way 😊 👍

😊 right now I am again skimming through the international sensation the “Atlas Six” and I am fully positive that I will be rereading this book too. So many page turning moments means I will be rushing and then coming back to reread this 😊

Same here I have not been impressed with the past two years. I suspect Covid has something to do with it, since the dramas are preproduced now or maybe below are are too many new dramas or maybe my preference have changed who knows

I usually only rewatch. All my top Rated dramas are rewatch dramas. I either rewatch or I drop. One unusual exception for me is FLAW which I wanted to rate 1.5 stars after watching 15 episodes which I rated 7.5 stars after watching 16 episodes (the end was good) I ended up giving 8 stars after rewatch. When I rewatch FLAW I skipped all the scenes of the annoying exes with either other or with the leads. This did improve the show a lot. I also reread books a lot, since if I am reading a thriller or fantasy I skip to rush to the end and then I reread to get all the delicious details. Examples Brandon Sanderson his books, Dune series (1 to 3) and Lord of the rings

I am like you I only seem to rewatch. I love the other drama of Jung Hae in on my rewatch - one spring night. I only either rewatch or drop a drama. No new dramas for me either since April

😊