kittyflumpin

Rjgman56 has just fansubbed this movie.

I had to drop this at ep.02 b/c it's got all the romance tropes that I hate, with little to no substance. A few tropes I could stand (even enjoy!) but this is just full of them. I should've known it was a remake of You're My Destiny (a friend watched the K-drama remake Fated to Love You and told me about it, and I gave that a hard pass too).

People in the poll chose Kimi wa Petto (2003) but all the pics used are from the remake.

Interestingly, this seems like a mix of actual "classics" (if I may use the term for something so recent as the 2000s) and then a few more recent series that were thrown up on Netflix from the more casual J-drama viewers.

Anyway, my first was Antique (2001) which I definitely would not recommend to anyone as their first J-drama (though I clearly liked what I saw well enough to keep me coming back for this many years now!).

I agree. If an article is going to focus on just one country's titles then that should be noted in the title somewhere.

Ah, finally, English subs are available! I can watch this 6 years later (I hope it was worth the wait-- guess I'll find out!)

I'm a little confused about Yokohama Ryusei getting a Rookie-type award since he's been acting for a few years now but maybe there's some specific criteria they use that's different from my definition of "rookie" ?

I haven't gotten to the end yet but I couldn't resist clicking on the spoiler and hearing this makes me happy! I usually don't like reincarnation plots b/c they so often become a fallback for lazy writing-- just say a couple is "drawn together again by fate" or whatever, and you don't need to show us why they might actually like one another.

So if this is true, that Wang Lu just got the old lover's "golden core" (to steal The Untamed's terminology for it) but is otherwise his own person-- GREAT. That makes more sense, imo-- I don't believe in reincarnation but even if I did, it should be taken into account that living a different life will make a soul into a different person, since our experiences are what mold us. And I agree, it's better (and way more interesting) that Wang Wu move on and not just take up with another version of her dead lover. Especially since Wang Lu is plenty charming on his own-- he doesn't need to be Old Boyfriend 2.0 to make it work.

I also suspect that any titles that were on Netflix get a sort of artificial bump just b/c of their accessibility (as opposed to shows where viewers had to go get raws/wait for fansubs, etc, since a lot of newer viewers either don't know how to do that or can't be bothered with anything not streaming).

Wow, what's popular and what's good is sometimes miles apart

I didn't hate this, but I would've liked our female lead to be a bit less relentlessly cheerful and smiley while people treat her terribly, and maybe act a little more human. I'm tired of that being held up as an ideal, esp. for women. It's certainly not unique to this drama-- I see it in shoujo anime all the time (Fruits Basket, I'm looking at you)-- but it just really hit me while watching this show.

I've watched 2 eps now and I just can't figure out why they're suddenly dating. They don't even know each other. If ep03 isn't particularly illuminating in this regard I think I'm gonna drop it at that point...

Okay, good to know, I can drop this series now.

Holy sh*t no I didn't! Okay, that makes more sense then!

Having just watched ep11 last night I cannot imagine how they're gonna resolve everything in just one remaining episode without seeming a bit rushed. But I guess I'll find out.

I too am like... should I even bother? or just pretend it ended at an earlier (happy) point?

I liked this show overall, though it felt a little rushed in the end (like the twists & turns in the last 4 eps feel too forced for how fast they came in the story). I preferred the case-of-the-week(s) format in the earlier eps more than the overarching mystery, tbh. Still, I enjoyed it for being a K-drama that wasn't about rich and/or fashionable people (a low bar, I know).

I've been taking a (very long) hiatus from K-dramas but this year watching the delightful Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung (and seque-ing right into the also-enjoyable Catch the Ghost) have made me feel a little more forgiving and willing to give some K-dramas a chance. To that end, School Nurse Ahn Eun Young sounds appealing (okay, the 6 episode length also makes it less of a risk as a time investment).

I'm glad they just sorta fudged the story a little for the purposes of the drama b/c most people (including me) wouldn't want to switch one of the leads halfway through the story. I also think they mentioned in the beginning that MXY had been gone (sent to live with the Jin clan) for years at that point and as a teenager his appearance might have changed quite a bit during that time, so no one questions how different he looks now. This doesn't explain why LWJ or Jiang Cheng, etc., don't recognize him but... *shrug* Suspension of disbelief is the price we pay to keep Xiao Zhan in the role the whole way through, I guess.

I actually thought Goblin was kinda boring. Yeah, the scenes between the male leads were entertaining but not nearly enough so to make up for the rest of it (all the *actual* romance elements-- i.e. pretty much everything else-- had me snoozing).

My favorite series that I guess could be considered "Bromances" are (in no particular order): Beach Boys (1997); Keiji Yugami (2017); dele (2018); Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi (2013); and Original Sin (2018).

(Just to clarify, I don't count stuff like The Untamed where it's pretty Obviously A Romance but Chinese government censorship meant they had to get creative about how to convey that).

I agree-- The Untamed is *not* Bromance, it's a Romance (based on a BL novel). The only reason it's not more explicit about that is b/c it *couldn't* be, due to Chinese censorship.