Lua

Thank you so much for this great article! Every time I see a character on TV pulling out the object of their stab wound I die yet another death. I don't understand why film makers keep doing this?!

I don't know if this has been posted earlier but in this interview Nanno's actress talks a little bit about her character :)
https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-entertainment/1514358/devil-woman

Ah I'm glad we have the same opinion on this matter. It frustrated me a year ago, now I'm more relaxed and just don't expect much from the comment sections since my likings are def not with the majority here ^^"

Y'know I don't disagree with you on the terms that 90% of produced dramas/stories are Romance, or subtle depiction, so I know I have to expect it, wether as main or sub plot. However, I'm not sure if you missed my point so I'll try to explain further: 1) the comments I used as examples were copied from the comment section of dramas that fall into Crime or Thriller category. Do these dramas have Romance? Yes, very often so but before making these comments maybe one should also think about the main focus of the plot. Which leads to 2): As far as I'm concerned I found the Romance in Cruel City to be enough? But it wasn't "Romance fluff" I don't even know how people could assume that? I didn't find the description anywhere misleading "pains of love" referred to the loss of the girlfriend in the beginning and the whole moral dilemma in the rest of the story, and then just one sentence explaining Soo Min's story line - but I see your point that it might be (but like I said the Romance itself didn't fall too short - it just wasn't cute). My comment was that I don't like the way people "critisize" a drama on how much romance it gets if it's not primarily Romance genre. Imagine someone saying this about The Godfather etc. xD

Shouldn't Snowpiercer be listed as one of his movies here as well?

I put Tomb of the Sea on hold for a long time,,, now, I finished The Untamed 3 weeks ago and after Lost Tomb 2 I picked it up again only to see that one character and ooOOOHHHH it hit me like a brick XD He has a memorable face and he's good at acting, hope to see him in a major role some day~

I had everything of merch and magazines that was available here back then xD But I never tried out the live action, mostly because it didn't look appealing to me and how they used a plushie for Luna haha but I think I should watch that!

This drama is the epitome of what queer cinema is capable of when it comes to homophobic censorship! I truly respect this show's directing in that aspect. On a similar note, does anybody else cringe when ppl refer to the couples as "bromance" or "friendship"? The good old argument of "what if one of them were from the opposite sex?" still stands. Don't play into censorship, folks! Not everything needs to be explicit to be considered "canon"
All in all, Enjoy the show! It was a good emotional rollercoaster and will leave you satisfied, I promise!

I feel many were unsatisfied with the show's pacing but I personally really enjoy "monster of the week" with overarching conflict type of stories so I can't see this as a huge criticism.... However, I haven't finished the drama yet so my opinion may differ by the end of it :)

Yep, I just remembered that one! xD I thought right now (because I don't remember everything to be fair) "wait who was Joon in the end?" Ah yeah right, for some reason he looked like his brother from the other time line or whatever; If I ever watch it with a friend I'll probably skip the last 20 minutes tbh *shrug*

You're right with the doc lady, it could be she'll be safe after all (but again it's up to us to assume how!), however the thing is: There'll still be OTHER girls assaulted and the drama didn't bring any closure to that. I wish they would've explained all of it instead of wasting the last minutes for a "romantic happy ending" because that was honestly not what this show needed in my opinion.

No, the show made it clear that Moo Gang was not cut to be a detective, e.g vomiting on crime scenes... He would've never become a detective unless maybe he still met the doctor lady (I forgot her name) who was sexually assaulted. But the show decided to not show him at all so yeah we can assume anything haha I believe he and Ha Ram never met then.

Exactly that's the problem.... A show that to this point intertwined every story line suddenly decided to go "oh well, the audience can just assume how everything works out lol" and nothing else has been prevented, except for Ha Ram being born "normal" which also doesn't make sense, it could have happened that she's not being born at all - she was the daughter of the grim reaper after all... also that Black suddenly re-appeared after literally being ERASED - nah the script was annoying me sm in the end I'm still mad xD

I realized I never replied to you ._. I agree 100% *sips coffee*

That's what I understood since they keep nagging about the "promised bed scene". Maybe it got lost in translation but anyways it'd be like writing a director/film crew hate comments because you expected sth different from a trailer. The situation would be so much different if a show kept queer baiting but didn't deliver. The crew & cast kept telling that Trapped "had a much hotter scene than in History before" (or that's what I got) and well... I only watched Right or Wrong, and sex wasn't even implied there sooo??? And technically what they described as "lots of kissing" and "hot" happened in a bedroom = bedroom scene. -_-" I think I'll be salty about this for a long time *sigh* I also hope the creators of History will find more stories to tell that are not only there to please fan service.

Am I the only one who thinks these "fans" were only thirsty for a sex scene instead of caring for the characters? I didn't see any problem with ep 17 and thought it was beautiful to have Tang Yi vulnerable. Also the 2nd couple got their fair share (could it be more? ofc it could!) but this is always with BL dramas, the focus lies upon the main couple after all. And the concept of telling a story that's not a "only" BL but actually a crime drama with gay relationships means so much more to me tbh. I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea but why are the haters wasting our time and energy. I makes me smad that I almost didn't want to watch the episodes this week ._.

First and foremost, I need to compliment your writing style again! It was always top notch but I feel you get somehow better?? (and the graphics are so pretty they made me cry)
Since I hardly watch any Romance (as the "main genre") this article was very interesting for me as well. We discussed this before but it would be interesting to see how these dramas reflect the norm in reality. For example, in a lot of crime/thriller dramas the most powerful is often a group of old men only that are business men or politicians - or both naturally -, and in one survey I reviewed (2017) SK was the third last of the OECD-countries regarding women in politics. So even if it looks odd to my eyes it might seem normal to Korean viewers, or the drama is lowkey criticizing old men xD But we don't want to read too much into it, right? This would be an interesting open debate though.
Reading this article I actually wondered how the inbalance is related to main characters, meaning if the main character is actually the FL, or if both are main characters. Thinking about it I noticed that 1) there's often not one main character which's why we probably talk about ML and FL xD and 2) that if, like you'd expect from Romance genre, the story was mostly about the FL and her perspective wouldn't the ML be framed as some sort of antagonist, which is different for me than having a classic "love interest" as it is with most male main characters? (Mind you, an antagonist doesn't need to be a bad person ofc) Does that make sense or am I completely off the track?
On a side note, to have more clear opinions on that one I definitely need to watch more ^^" I take recommendations too!

I don't understand what happened? What did she apologize for?
Also what's the deal with those Chinese "fans"?

I would so much appreciate it if you could send it to me as well ;-;
Does anybody know how they will continue their work? Unbelievable someone keeps reporting them?!

I also really disliked their make up when Ha Ram and Man Soo were supposed to be old. Different actors would have been fine.... But the ending felt so flat in comparison to the deep and layered actual plot I'm surprised I only met few people that were disappointed too. I also thought the bracelet was so odd "How convenient" I get that Black - and also Ha Ram - were supposed to be selfish, it's okay to choose your own happiness, the problem really was that all the bad stuff would have happened without anybody getting justice :/ And also Moo Gang maybe died because he never could've get a heart transplant, which too be fair was the natural course anyways but it's kinda brutal y'know? And why did he still exist in the end when he was supposed to be erased? Like the 1st heavy punishment is total destruction, and the next is your life being erased but you still live on as a Grim Reaper? The only way to make this twist work would have been when his erasure changed a course of action for the better or to prevent something from happening, which just couldn't be the car accident of Ha Ram's parents? I have still no idea how he was connected to that?? It's like saying he was responsible for every single bad thing that happenend in her life, which wasn't true and everybody knows that. She wouldn't have the trauma of shooting someone she loved but honestly I still prefer characters living through it rather than amnesia. He could have told her he forgives her etc. But nooo all the drama, and the rest of the drama was for nothing.