monstersnroses

It's so messed up for me, I haven't watched any SOKP in over a year. And still no matter what I watch, it's not good enough to relieve the Xie Wei burns. I wish 'Learning to Love' had more episodes, but it finally relieves the Xie Wei burns like an ice pack, at least for me.

I was liking When Destiny Brings The Demon, but it went downhill real bad. It just wasn't good enough.

People watch SOKP for the first time, and then come back and ask for reccs for shows like it and it's like "Aaaahahahhahahaa.... you think there's some other Xie Wei ML out there in dramaland, that's funny."

ahhh tysm

On ep 1, i am confused, she was introduced as a mute, and already by halfway thru ep 1, she's talking.

anyone know if ep 10 is eng subbed yet somewhere? I checked onetouch and kiss and nothing yet.

It's way way too high for such a piece of crap show. K-dramas often come out with too high of a score on MDL, and sometimes - like in the case of for instance my demon - it seems just flat out suspicious.

I've never seen this, but i don't get out much lol. I just watch stuff but am never an active fan of anything really, so I don't know how the community works. But I can see that also reflected in china vs skorea fans, so I believe what you say. I've seen the same attitudes of people before. I've also seen k-dramas where a character is japanese or half-japanese, and they treat it like it's some big deal, like they make it seem like if you're a japanese or of japanese decent in korea, you have to put up wiht a lot of stereotypes.

I also believe you about shit being pre-downrated because altho i havent seen it for myself, i've seen other communities where things happen due to some hateful bastard who runs or moderates, and just look at the scores for My Demon. That was the biggest piece of shit drama i've ever seen, and still it sits well above an 8. Thats RIGGED, I know it. I can sense it in my bones.

sure, only if you do tho. I would love to learn if there really is something that I"m missing. I just wonder, if there was real j-prejudice, why would people watch a show and downrate it, instead of just not watching the show...? Couldn't it just be that people don't "get it" with their shows sometimes, and that's why the lower ratings?

I mean if this is tedious to discuss for you, then of course you don't have to. But I'm always open to learning new things. I have some japanese buddies, and it's funny because I don't really know a lot about japan, except hur dur anime, hur dur sushi. I want to be able to relate better, but for me that is much harder than it is for me to relate with skoreans and chinese. I can even speak and cook a fair little bit of korean and chinese, but not japanese.... and interestingly enough, that's partly because I don't watch j-dramas as much as I do k- or c-, so I don't get the same level of language and cultural exposure.

I have seen 60 j-dramas. Here's how my scores of those dramas break down:
10- 1 drama (this one)
8.0- 6 dramas
7.5 - 12 dramas
7.0 - 13 dramas
6.5 - 8 dramas
6.0 - 6 dramas
5.5 - 5 dramas
5.0 or less - 7 dramas

This is a little bit low compared to my average scoring for k-dramas and c-dramas. But I don't do this out of a prejudice, I don't care where a drama comes from if it's good. It's just that often I don't think that j-dramas are that spectacular.

I've also noticed from what exposure I do have to japanese culture, that they often end things on either an unsatisfying or open ended note. I have a book that's a big compendium of old japanese fairy tales, and many of them don't really have much of an ending to speak of. I don't think westerners have appreciation for that kind of thing, I know I really dislike open endings.

Another thing that has probably affected my scoring of j-dramas is that, at least to my western sensibilities, their humor is very inaccessible compared to chinese, taiwanese, or korean dramas. I often don't get the joke. The way females and males relate and behave on an interpersonal and societal level is also often hard to sympathize with or understand, as a western female, when I'm watching j-dramas.

I just score based on A) My enjoyment of a show and B) If I find it has strong artistic merit. If I really did rate based on prejudices, I never would have given L2L a 10.

I'm thinking at least from my pov, that j-dramas have a harder time appealing to international audiences because of deeper differences in cultural mentality. People see them and it's like "I don't get what I'm watching."

Even clothing style can be something that makes it hard to approach a j-drama. Right now the trends appear to lean toward men in pointy shoes, frilly loose fitting clothes and highwater-hemmed pants with loose flowy fit.... the women have been on this weird kick where they dress like 1970's Breck girls... poofy sleeves, pleated high-wasited clothes, high neckline, mid-calf length full skirts, 70's textile patterns and colors, lots of muted tones and browns. And that weird thing the ladies do with their bangs is also strange.

I think Japanese culture is just very very distinct from it's neighbors and they have more of their own thing goin on, that has much more to do with insular japanese tastes, and isn't as affected by international culture and style. Which just makes it harder for a non-japanese to appreciate.

I mean maybe I'm wrong. But I felt like I had to say something, because I tend to rate j-dramas lower, and according to your reasoning, that would be because I'm prejudiced against them, and I have no such anti-japanese prejudice. If I did, I wouldn't even watch j-dramas at all because I'd just assume they will suck and then pass them up entirely.

The only dramas I tend to avoid out of a prejudice is Thai. And the reason is simply that it's so hard on my ears to listen to Thai speech. I can't get immersed in a story when they're talking like that, I find it too distracting. So even if a Thai drama is good, I still probably won't watch it.

Holy crap, AND he studies and does homework?!

I hope he changes his mind at some point. I dont see a lot of 50yo pop stars, but plenty of 50yo actors. He has so much talent in acting, hope he decides to keep spreading his wings in that profession.

Right just consider it me not expressing myself properly.

Their agencies are probably not shopping either of them around for spicy scripts, is my poi nt kinda. Like dont expect spice from this pair being cast together in a project.

wait wut? but MDL says 10?

Is hirugao a must-watch or a could-watch-if-nothing-else? I've looked at it before and never thought it looked like my cup of tea so I haven't seen it yet.

A very cool little piece of insight into how he drew inspiration for the role, and also what a shock that this gorgeous beautiful person was treated like trash by the fashion industry.

But now it's like that scene from Pretty Woman: "You work on commission right? Big mistake. Huge."

I've been reading and watching more stuff about Raul, and I was thinking that as I was watching him, like "the director of L2L must have been really patient with him and shown him how to act and given him time to develop" because he has lots of screen and camera practice under his belt, but no real acting to speak of except that one movie Honey Lemon Soda and a few other minor productions, which are all nickelodeon-tier.

Part of the brilliance of what we are watching with L2L is the director. He knows how to bring out the best in the actors. Raul has incredible natural talent, and I'm so glad he found a good mentor to help him learn... this director just gave Raul a career. You can't do j-pop forever. But now Raul can continue on as an actor for a very long time to come. Yay!

I think they deliberately shied away from that because of the reputations and rl backstories of the two actors playing the parts...

Raul has literally grown up in front of the camera, and it wasn't *that* long ago in the collective memory that he was a babyfaced teen. He has a clean image as a jpop idol. Lately he's been slowly breaking out of that innocent cleancut teen look, but it just really isn't that long ago that he started darkening and sexifying his image. Too soon kinda for that.

Fumino is a well established actress, who was married for a while, then divorced, then remarried just a few years ago, and recently had their first child. I don't even think her kid is 2 years old yet.

I don't think they want to give these two too much skinship lol.... might be good for the drama, or for international audiences who aren't aware of who these two are, but its just honestly good that they didn't make these two actors go through some rl traumatizing experience just to film the drama with more spice.

I generally would rather watch a spicy show, but it's a testament to this drama that it straight up doesn't need it to still be kickass.

Oh no, he is sick?!? He needs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!

Oh boy, it's Zi Xian time again! Gahhhhh I can't wait!

Hot = ✅
Amazing actor = ✅
Kisses like fire = ✅

He was so great in Learning to Love, what an amazing performance.