ShortCircuit

I even know why WooShin would do it - he's trying to give SooHyun closure and maybe a chance to bring down Mr. Lee. But this won't work. It can't work, because HyeSoo was never on their team and Mr. Lee isn't THAT stupid.

Everything WooShin did, from the very beginning, was to get some closure for SooHyun, nothing else. And now there are countless people dead, their real father exposed as a murderer, TOO (they already knew he was a thief), no real chance to win (much), and a high chance at least one of the twins ends up dead. I have to say it though - I was even more afraid they'd try to do the switch with WooShin going to the funeral house ahead of time to get Mr. Lee by himself, and protect SooHyun from any danger possible. I guess WS respects his older twin enough not to make a clown of him at this time.

So, I wonder if HyeSoo made Sun an offer she couldn't refuse and turned her from HyunJo's side to her own. She (HS) has a chance to really come out the King Rat in this story.

The SIH are really way too stupid to exist. I mean... Why the heck would you break down the door to the last room people are hiding in, if you guess they're your own people, but desperate and armed?! Call the f*ck's sake out to them, let them know you're coming to the rescue, so that they won't shoot you on sight! Then again, they're being led by KHP, he really is the standard of SIH stupidity.

I can't yet understand what's the purpose of exposing the jail mass murder thing at this time. Maybe we'll learn tomorrow.

Peeve one: Why the heck does SeoHee need that Panzer Tank of a car, and would she actually be able to afford it?! Her family wasn't exactly well off, did someone else give it to her? (like SH, though I don't remember it being his either.)

Peeve two: Show, we talked about this. Do NOT hurt WooShin anymore. It aches. I don't want to see him scared, hurt, in psychological pain again. This one has to be the most frail (but still humongously brave despite that) character I've ever seen Ji Sung play. I didn't watch any BTS from this drama, but I kind of think this character made him commit to acting in it.

One more ep - I want both twins alive, Show, or we'll have WORDS.

Edit: and if the drama forgets about Dongrim and his father's operation, I'll also want to have words.

I KNEW the two idiots will try to pull this off, dammit, dammit, dammit.

The serial killer dad died on the rocks under the cliff - it's not explained but IMHO HeeSung hit him over the head and threw him down there. The police just wanted to end the case ASAP and probably just labeled it suicide to stop the media frenzy.

It's also unexplained what happened to the mother - BUT. Despite MiSook NOT being a serial victim... the box had the correct number of trophy fingernails. And HyunSoo lost his childhood memories when she disappeared - I think his father killed his mother first, and maybe DHS was there to witness it and that's why he forgot everything.

HaeSoo didn't want to kill that village master, she was defending herself. It was in the heat of the moment, and she and her brother were definitely already psychologically marked from their father's actions. She spends her life hiding, she's wearing form-masking clothes all the time, the rape attempt must have left a deep scar - that and her brother disappearing forever.

The amnesia was actually well-done, IMHO. He approached JiWon under a fake identity, their whole life together was filled with him showing her only what he thought she'd want to see from him... Now the slate is blank and they still are attracted to each other - this time they can do it with complete sincerity.

Can Li Yi Feng's prostitution scandal (for which I hope he gets his just comeuppance) affect the airing of THIS drama?

Are the other actors from MATOTC possibly affected from their association (even if just professionally) with LYF?

How is this drama related to Mirror: A Tale of Two Cities?

More questions under the spoiler.

I rate and appreciate a drama only according to the enjoyment I get from it. If other people do no enjoy it as much (or as little) as myself, I call it a difference in tastes and move on. MDL ratings included, BTW.

That aside, considering IMDB ratings is hilarious. Just look at LOTR: ROP and the manipulation of IMDB ratings for it, and you'll know why.

As for if this is appreciated or not in its home country... For its timeslot, on tvN, Eve (before it) averaged around 3.5-4% audience, The Killer's Shopping List averaged 3%, Kill Heel averaged also around 3, 3+%, etc, so if Adamas, which is completely different from Eve (with its roots in highlife reality) is averaging almost 3%, I'd say it's pretty normal.

It's not a runaway hit, yes, but who cares? It's doing fairly in its country for its timeslot and its network. I don't think they're losing money.

And I AM enjoying it, and I guess I'm not the only one. Such is life :)

EDIT: I see now there's a whole bunch of disatisfied comments under this one, LOL, I hope this doesn't turn into a flame war just because. Anyway, I'm out of these kind of comments, everyone have a good day!

MDZS (the webnovel The Untamed is based on) is authored by a now-famous writer who's pen-name is Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (webnovel authors usually go by pen-names rather than real names, for obvious reasons when they're writing BL, for example :D)

MXTX wrote a number of novels, other than MDZS, and the very best hilarious one that I can think of right now is her Scum Villain's Self-Saving System.

So, a bit of context. Danmei is Chinese BL. A stallion novel is what we'd call a hetero harem novel (overpowered MC who conquers half the female population of the globe, LOL). Transmigration is what happens when a person either dies and their soul is moved to another world, or is sent to the past (so they get to revisit and correct their past lives), or even in a novel they'd been reading. As a matter of fact, TROTR is a transmigration story, where CQQ got transmigrated into her own drama script and Han Shuo also got pulled into it, LOL. So you're a bit familiar with the concept already :D There usually is a System that controls the world and that can interract with the person who moved there, so that certain plot points are definitely reached. As you can see, transmigration is definitely sci/fan though there are some rebirth stories where there's no other world and are set in the modern world. Cultivation is what people do in ancient settings in order to achieve higher inner power, be better fighters and live longer lives.

In SVSSS, a stallion-novel reader gets so involved in criticizing the novel and its author that he chokes and wakes up... as the novel's most villainous character, who abused and tormented the overpowered MC throughout his whole life and ended up terribly defeated, made into a human stick (limbs removed, planted in a large ceramic urn, eventually killed), Shen QingQiu. The newly awakened SQQ knows all that is about to happen and definitely does NOT want to die like that, or at all. The trick is that there's a System (SQQ and the System's side comments on anything happening are to die for, LOL) and the System won't let SQQ go too much OOC (out of character) to change the plot too fast.

Luo BingHe, the original overpowered MC, is SQQ's disciple, and initially he worshipped SQQ... but things have to happen mainly ACCORDING TO THE PLOT, or SQQ would lose too many OOC points and die for real.

You can see the dilemma :D

This would be the novel I'd recommend to anyone who wants to try crack Chinese danmei, hillarious interractions, some almost tragedies (but don't worry, 'cause SQQ is sneaky :D), set in a fantasy historical-like world, and where most of the tropes are clearly delineated for everyone to see... and then dealt with :)

Let me tell you that the stallion novel author's pen name is Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky (and yes, it's a peen joke, LOL), and SQQ at a time has to get a different name so he goes for Peerless Cucumber. Yes. That's the kind of name he went for. Because whenever he tries to right some things... other things happen. Like when he tried not to die because the OG character abused the stallion-novel MC, and while doing it, turned the whole story... into a danmei novel instead :D

The novel (actually, all 3 of MXTX's novels, including MDZS) is being officially translated and published already (last volume of SVSSS comes in November), but there's a pretty good fan-TL still floating around the internet. And there's the first season of the donghua (the Chinese animation) for this story, second season already approved and in production.

Here's a few bits of the donghua to illustrate its tone :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc181MPOwak

(Sorry, I get a bit enthusiastic over this topic LOL.)

Where it comes to Thai dramas, for me it's definitely selection bias, as I like BL and I like Gun (ML of Not Me, among others), and I don't really like romance (despite my watched list and top labels, LOL, which would make one think I'm all in for romance... it just happens that most dramas I watch include SOME romance). Usually lakorns (mainstream Thai dramas) are inclined heavily romantic so I'm not interested... There definitely are some that are pretty good, but I just don't know which ones.

The Chinese really did turn a new leaf sometime in the mid 2010s. For me, the immediate immersion happened with The Untamed - which, also if you like historical/costume dramas, and plenty of humour but also heartbreak AND bromance (that is actually censored BL), is definitely one not to miss. It's also among the top 10 even in MDL (which leans heavily in favour of kdramas; Reset is there, pretty close, too) so if you want an almost universally acknowledged masterpiece of the genre, that one would be it.

Other than TROTR, if you want humour... The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty is lots of fun, and also Young Blood. They're both costume dramas, and I wouldn't say they're the apex of the genre, but they're hilarious.

There are amazing webnovels (and a lot of them are at least fan TL-ed, if not officially TL-ed already) where you can read all about that Chinese humour and start familiarising yourself with their idioms and turns of phrase. It's a long rabbit's hole, welcome to a whole new world of drama and different stories :)

Cdramas to keep you coming back for more: Reset, Under the Skin, Ever Night, Joy of Life.

Thai dramas to get hooked on (and help you get past the language barrier): Not Me, I Told Sunset About You, A Tale of Thousand Stars. I've only watched BL Thai dramas, though, so if it's not your genre... it'll be tough.

Stay with it, if you will, this is a slow-burner. You'll end up loving everything about Park DongHoon in the end. He's one of the purest souls I've ever watched in a drama.

And so far, this is the only drama I actually ended up liking IU's character.

Shin HyeSun played the Queen, and did an amazing job of it, but the main romance is between the King and his Queen's body which is inhabited by a man's transmigrated soul.

So one would say this is actually preeetty close to BL without being BL at all. I guess SK isn't ready for a full-on BL HEA, though, despite the many mini-series that sprung up lately. This was a long full-time series, on tvN, so kind of mainstream.

I just wish they'd have bit the bullet for the final eps and just... went with it :D

Yes.

I liked how nobody wanted to try Boss ChunSik's food. Come on guys, what's the worst that could happen? Food poisoning?

Mayor Choi is kind of crazy. He seemed to be the avenging type, but the manic laughter and his pleasure in watching PCH's staged execution... well, he's been kookoo for a while, then.

WTH, I like Park YoonGab now?! He was slimy as the Chief Warden, but he can play a part if he wants to, and not betray his organisation either. What do you know?...

PCH turning to politics to improve the lives of citizens while KMH dies of sudden onset leukemia would be the worst ending, IMHO, I hope they don't go that way.

Which reminds me - it sure looks like the psycho's siblings took the money he got from betraying PCH and spent it on themselves instead of trying to save their mother. Which if true... I hope karma finds a way.

PS PCH should retire and let Jerry in his place. He wanted the job anyway LOL.

Well, that cliffhanger was to be expected since the chemical slurry thingie.

I just hope they don't ruin the ending with a tragedy.

Danmei is a genre of BL literature (usually in the form of webnovels - that is, novels serialized online, when the author, even if they have a plan and structure for their novel, might even interact with the readers and change things or add something according to what the readers want. Like some fan-service, for example, LOL. Or they might not.)

Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) is the danmei novel that The Untamed is based on. MDZS is definitely BL/danmei (up to and including 18+ scenes). But the Chinese won't allow anything like uncensored BL to pass review and be aired, so the script writers of the drama tried really hard to adapt it so that the original relationship survives and is visible, even if there are no PDA or love declarations.

Which means to say, so-inclined people COULD theoretically see this as just a bromance, but anyone who knows it's rooted in a romantic story definitely can see it.

As to the ending, yes. I find it definitely a HEA. And I have the novel (and the extras to the novel) to back me up :D

She probably convinced herself she's doing it to avenge MinJo, and who knows, maybe she actually is.

It just twisted really fast once the SIH pulled SooHyun in.

And don't you just love it how everybody in the story - and their dog, too - just fell immediately in love with WooShin's Persona Non Grata novel? :D Then again, now that I think about it... basically two of the three people who read and liked the novel are now dead - Sgt. Ko and cute fanboy Agent Kim, and now only TaeSung is still alive.

Is this an omen?! Trying hard to remember if Mrs. Kwon only read the heart transplant story or did she have a Persona Non Grata volume in her room, too? (In which case, RIP, in advance.)

Persona Non Grata - this person is unwelcome. I'm beginning to fear for TaeSung...

No, poor WooShin's hand!! He's a lefty, too. Dammit. Who wants to take a bet that the destroyed tracking devices will come into play? I do NOT want them to be important in identifying which twin is still alive, if we get to that point...

LCW is a serious BASTARD and I LOVED it when SooHyun said his real father was dead and LCW had no relationship with him - take THAT, sperm donor, LOL. And the freaking action toy was there all these 22 years - what if they had just decided to gift it away to some orphanage? Then again, it was the last toy their step-dad ever gave HWS, it would have a huge emotional weight...

So, Sun is on HyunJo's side, who does she want to kill? I'm thinking it's her sister, I don't think she's too addicted to the idea of killing either twin, they're just business for her. Maybe SeoHee, but still, it would be too little to pay for what HyunJo wants. I bet she asked him for Yoon Jin TO HIS FACE, because Secretary Yoon couldn't hear her anyway. And I bet he agreed, maybe thinking he'd play her out later.

Mr. Lee (psycho ex-Team A leader who just got reinserted LOL) wants to kill SSH, and maybe HWS just for the giggles, but all the rest of the team are bumbling idiots. Where did Agent Park go, though? Since SIH is being dismantled. And where did KHP go, too, after sending TaeSung to the safe house?!

Where are all these people hiding?!

Show, do NOT hurt WooShin any more, I am a sadist and I like watching heroic characters suffer, but somehow HWS's honest fear and pain are getting to me like nobody ever before. He's trying to put things at right, he needs to survive (hand intact, too). And not lose his twin either, since we're bargaining anyway.

There can't be just two eps left... there just can't!

Jimmy Hoffa is in one of those barrels.

Also, Mrs. Kwon got a tad overdramatic, LOL and still didn't get to the level of HyeSoo. This story is bonkers!!!

And I was under the impression I was watching ep. 12, and then remembered this was 14... only two eps left?! NOOOOOOOO! *overdramatic Vader roar* (what, why can't I? :D)

It comes down to charisma, and he has it in spades. He's always been one collected actor, who shows high levels of EQ in scenes that need it, and can also do action (even when he was playing the cliche hit-by-a-white-truck-of-doom, DOUBLE amnesiac chaebol heir, LOL, in Save the Last Dance for Me, he already shone. And he's pretty good at picking his projects, I'll say that.

Unlike Lee Joon Gi, who is also very charismatic. His dramas are always either hit or miss, but he's always involved in the character and at times, when he's the only one sustaining the drama, he's in a world of his own. If you haven't had a chance to watch him perform yet, try Flower of Evil. Two Weeks and Time Between Dog and Wolf are also pretty good, if a bit older. International fans also like Moon Lovers (and he was the best thing in that drama, IMHO), but that one is a romance and I struggled with it just for him.

Other magnetic SK actors are Jung KyungHo (from Life on Mars and Hospital Playlist) and Jang Hyuk (from Slave Hunters, My Country, Wok of Love, Voice). Lee JunHo (Red Sleeve, Just Between Lovers) also seems to be on track to becoming one of the best SK drama actors.

But Ji Sung... yeah, he's up there with the very best of them.