So I went and browsed the MDL pages of the writer and director, and it makes me wonder how did this genius drama just come seemingly out of nowhere like this? These guys normally do like cop shows, detective shows, mysteries, right? I mean I haven't seen more than just one or two of their past projects, but I superficially browsed the other titles, and was like "whaaaat?"
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
Well this is it exactly... you or I would never have ended up in this situation with him and getting so involved because we would have been like "yea, no." from super super early on.
Her self esteem is just so so low. He knows this about her, too. It makes her at his mercy. In Korean shows, the love-wisdom about whether you have true love with a person or not, is do you feel sorry for them. The one you feel sorry for is the one you truly love.
Well, she is so hooked on him that at this point it wouldn't take much for him to basically hold her hostage for a bunch of ransom money from her father. And that's what Big Boss expects him to do. But he also knows that doing that would utterly break her, and the news of a host getting stabbed floating around in the background is a reminder to hosts of what can happen if you get the wrong person hooked and get in over your head. So... does he really feel sorry for her or not? Does he truly love her?
In the scene with FL and ML at the school gate, the virgin mary is illuminated in the darkness, looking down over them. And between them is a locked gate, and ML is wearing blood-red. It looks like a locked gate between heaven and hell, and he's like the devil, saying he wants to jump over the fence to get to her. But he doesn't... sort of like a vampire who can't walk in the light.
If he did decide in the end to play her, I highly doubt she'd just accept it and move on, she'd DO something and come unhinged.
This drama is ruining my life, it’s all I think about pretty much all day. It has ruined almost all other dramas…
Well WDBTD wouldn't be my first recc, but it was decent. Starts off super great, then devolves into a somewhat standard boilerplate xianxia towards the end.
I'd rather give you real reccs for shows based on their ability to A) draw your attention away from this show because they're really good and B) not completely steal your heart to the point where you're truly torn between two dramas at once....
Things you can try that I think might provide ideal distraction:
Light watches:
My Lethal Man (racy and batsh*t insane) Embrace In The Dark Night (racy and cheesy) The Princess Royal (sweet, smart, funny) Love To Hate You (spicy, funny) Oh My Venus (funny, sweet) Shopping King Louie (hilarious, adorable) I Love My President Although He Is A Psycho (cheesy, batsh*t insane, bad dubbing, low production value, makjang, bad-good) My Uncanny Destiny (distraction-tier, cute, intelligent, lil bit fluffy) High School King of Savvy (sexy comedy, frivolous, distraction-tier) Playing House (sexy, funny, frivolous and cheesy) Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (pure comedy with a little spice) Love Is Phantom (distraction-tier empty spicy binge watch but kinda has an artsy flair) Koi To Dangan (cheesy af, nicely spicy, fun, cheap thrills) Love In The Edge Of Divorce (funny, cheesy, spicy, sexaayyyy)
Heavy Watches:
Lesson In Love (spicy/racy, age gap, good production value/aesthetics) Falling Into You (age gap, spicy, slo burn, fun, slightly sweet) The Rose (vintage, excellent dialogue, bad BAD acting by ML, classic, taboo) A Million Stars Falling From the Sky and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (angsty, slightly spicy, psycholgically complex, a staple classic of asian drama) Enslaved By Love (spicy wild red-flag toxic madness) Love and Bid Farewell (angsty, toxic, tragic, but gorgeous and well-acted, powerful story, only to watch if you are cool with a masochistically painful experience, but it is mercifully a short-length, ending is poetic) Jotei (not the best but a "pretty good" solid, classic watch with a crap ending that sucks, about a japanese hostess, so keeps you immersed in the same industry with the same types of themes and people)
Watches to get immersed in to *totally* forget L2L for a little while, or watches for after L2L is over and you're ready to try to move on:
My Fated Boy (age gap, somewhat spicy, cute, moving) Story Of Kunning Palace (palace intrigue, slow burn, hint of fine spice.... this one is my fav drama of all time, but that's just me) That Winter The Wind Blows (not as good, but angsty, well acted, and classic) The Double (palace intrigue, immersive, complex, fairly good acting) Till The End Of The Moon (dark, obsessive, wuxia/xianxia, epic saga, soooo angsty)
This drama is ruining my life, it’s all I think about pretty much all day. It has ruined almost all other dramas…
I also think about this drama pretty much all day. I haven't even rewatched any of it because I don't want to ruin it for myself by over-watching it. I also just started watching Bon Appetit too! It's ok. It's gratuitous bullsh*t, but least it's not pretending to be something it's not, and the FL is a good actress.
I just finished When Destiny Brings the Demon right before this, and when it started out, I was set to give it a 10, but as it progressed and then the way it ended, I decided it was worth an 8.5. I thought I would be thinking about WDBTD for a long time afterward, but then I started this, and it friggin dropkicked WDBTD right out of my head.
The ML actor in this is SO phenomenal.... Arthur Chen is really good, but Raul Maito makes Arthur Chen look like a plank of wood by comparison.
I'm really happy about it too because it's nice to finally see a j-drama come out again that can legitimately compete internationally with k- or c-dramas.
This is going to be a controversial suggestion, but https://kisskh.at/29908-chugakusei-nikki Mainly because…
I second this suggestion. I think that drama is very similar to this one. I do like this one a little better tho, but chugakusei nikki was also really good. I only think this one is slightly better because the parallels and symbolism in CN was less subtle and more overt. I think L2L is just a little bit more sophisticated of a watch, and I like the cinematography better here.
There are things about CN that are way more controverisal, it's true. But the way their lives are cornering them into feeling a sense of urgency and desperation is very very similar, where you can see they have less and less choice except to abandon their hearts, or run away and start completely over somewhere else. So you get a lot of the same vibes. CN is just a totally other level of messed up situation, more twisted than L2L.
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
Once I dated someone almost 15 years younger than me. I did like his personality and we were getting along fine, and then after just maybe a few weeks or a month, he said something offhanded that was so immature that it made it hit home for me that this was not someone I could treat as a peer and have a relationship with, so I broke it off before we even really got started.
So I think about that, and then I think about how this FL's maturity is so stunted that they probably match up a lot better than I did with that guy. She's always with her stuffed bunny, she can't get respect from her class at school, and it really takes something special to try to drown yourself over a guy... whereas he had to grow up hard and fast in life. She's immature for her age, and he is mature for his age. So maybe they are closer - mentally - to being equals than just their outside appearance would suggest. Idk.
Maybe they make a good match? If they do run away and turn into the couple that runs the restaurant, she would grow because she'd be getting out from under her parents, and he would grow because he'd be getting out of hosting for a living.
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
> (or maybe I’m blindes too.)
Aha! You see?! What if this is the 'gotcha' of the story, is like "hey viewer, you think this getting hooked on a host shit couldn't happen to you? Well guess again!" The host is hooking the VIEWER maybe...?
Its possible that FL - and the viewer - is being gaslit the whole time. I can't tell! I don't know anything!
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
You also have the FL's dad saying he's concerned that she's going all psycho-stalker again and getting weird, and she says she's not.
And then he says yes you are, i know you better than you even know yourself, I've watched you since you were in diapers--"
And she cuts him off and storms out. But dad has a point.
So what if they take the story in that direction, where ML tries to cut it off with her, and she can't accept it and her psycho tendencies re-surface?
Think about how when she told the story of how she jumped in the water over the last guy, she said it flippantly and laughed about it. That is not normal. That's a red flag sign that something is wrong, if you're going by just pure psychology. Especially as she admitted in inner narrative that she's never told anyone that story out loud before. So as her first time re-living that experience out loud with someone else, she's laughing about it and minimizing it. What if that's supposed to be a clue that this story is about to go totally off the rails crazy.
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
What I'm mulling over is whether ML is really in love with her, or if he's playing a long-con, or both.
He told her "come buy a tower and you can see me"
She knew it was a lie, and she was right, and she walks away anyway. But she doesn't do it for herself. She does it because she predicts that that's what ML wants her to do. That could be her obsession creeping in. We don't know. So there's one layer.
Then the Big Boss comes in and tells him he's too soft and he should get out while he can. So even though ML played the cards technically correctly, that doesn't fool Big Boss at all, he knows exactly what happened... he had FL in the palm of his hand, and he let her escape. So there's layer two.
And the ML responds to the Big Boss by being adamant that he will be number one, he doesn't take the out that's being offered to him. Why???? To make money for his future with FL, or for his little brother? Or because he really wants to be Number One more than anything? That's layer three.
There is no way to tell by the look in his eyes, his behavior or expression, if he A) Is in love with her B) was never in love with her but feels mercy for her after he finds out she would jump in a lake and kys if he asked her to. C) Will decide to go full darth vader to the dark side like Big Boss.
He says from the outset that he will 'hook' her by giving her what she wants. She's a teacher. He doesn't know how to read or write. He could be just capitalizing on that because he's giving her her idealized romance.
You think he's in love with her, but you have the foreshadowing of the high school girl who early on described how she got hooked on him, saying "he's different with me" or whatever. The point of a host is to make the woman feel special and loved to the point she's willing to give you everything.
And what will happen when she tries to run away with him? Her parents will come begging him to end it with her, and bring a boatload of cash to buy him off. He knows this because of the FAT stack mom showed up with at just the first whiff of trouble with their daughter.
God I have no clue what's gonna happen. What if she jumps in the water again. Or what if she's the stalker who stabbed a host, and the other chick is just a red herring to throw you off track. What if ML gets stabbed by the crazy woman and they end it in a tragedy. What if FL stabs him? Or maybe they srsly run away together and become another version of the couple in the restaurant where they ate fish curry? Or maybe the fiancee gets tragically involved. This ending could go like 20 different ways that I could think of just off the top of my head.
I feel like ML is on a precipice where he really does love FL, but also has the capability to ignore that love, and embody the Ideal Host, the Number One, and he's currently wrestling with whether he is willing to make that deal with the devil or not, and he's not sure.
I'm also not sure whether she's slowly going psycho or not.
When they walked away from eachother at the beach, seriously half of me was like "run away from him as fast as you can!" and the other half of me was like "run away with him right now!" lol
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
I like how the farther you go along in the show, the less and less you feel like you know how it's going to end. The characters seem so enigmatic that you can FEEL how the characters themselves haven't made up their minds what choices they're going to make next, and the whole situation they're in just gets more and more tense till you're on the edge of your seat.
On one hand, I feel like they have a social responsibility to end it badly so that girls don't romanticize that kind of thing in rl.
On the other hand, they might feel they have a moral responsibility to end it well because hosts always get portrayed as the scum of the earth who don't ever deserve a happy ending, they are dehumanized.
And with a J-drama, there is *always* the possibility they will leave it open ended.
I have no idea what will happen next, I only know what would happen next if this was any other "host romance" story - tragedy.
Also if anyone does actually know the ending, do NOT spoil me. This is the most I've enjoyed a show in a long time, I just want to savor it.
Obviously people aren't clued into this drama yet, but I think in the end it will go down as one of the top 5 j-dramas of all time. It just might take time for people to notice.
Probably many of you are already aware, but in case youre not, if you go to the tab that says 'episode guide' you can rate each episode individually and this will boost its MDL score more than just rating the whole show.
This drama is so good. I don’t know why the ranking so low. I think it’s the best Japanese romance drama I’ve…
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much, this deserves a higher rating, this is worth at least an MDL 8 or higher. Instant cult classic, it should win awards really. imo this is better than some of the best classics of asian drama from the past 25 years.
Lol, thank you. Yeah, this series was rough for me. Blood was bad too, I agree. Blood could have been an 1:30…
Ya, from one vampire freak to another, you're right that asian stuff often doesn't grasp just what 'vampire-romance' is really supposed to be. With K-dramas they do gumiho stuff. But with c-dramas it gets interesting, because they do a lot of stuff that isn't vampire, but is 'vampire-adjacent', where if you just PRETEND the character is a vampire, it works. imo, Story of Kunning Palace was one of the best vampire stories I've ever seen, flat out... and ML isn't even a vampire! But he's so vampy that all he's missing is the fangs really. He has a drug addiction in that, so just pretend it's a blood addiction and boom, he's a vampire. A very HOT one, lol.
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Her self esteem is just so so low. He knows this about her, too. It makes her at his mercy. In Korean shows, the love-wisdom about whether you have true love with a person or not, is do you feel sorry for them. The one you feel sorry for is the one you truly love.
Well, she is so hooked on him that at this point it wouldn't take much for him to basically hold her hostage for a bunch of ransom money from her father. And that's what Big Boss expects him to do. But he also knows that doing that would utterly break her, and the news of a host getting stabbed floating around in the background is a reminder to hosts of what can happen if you get the wrong person hooked and get in over your head. So... does he really feel sorry for her or not? Does he truly love her?
In the scene with FL and ML at the school gate, the virgin mary is illuminated in the darkness, looking down over them. And between them is a locked gate, and ML is wearing blood-red. It looks like a locked gate between heaven and hell, and he's like the devil, saying he wants to jump over the fence to get to her. But he doesn't... sort of like a vampire who can't walk in the light.
If he did decide in the end to play her, I highly doubt she'd just accept it and move on, she'd DO something and come unhinged.
I'd rather give you real reccs for shows based on their ability to A) draw your attention away from this show because they're really good and B) not completely steal your heart to the point where you're truly torn between two dramas at once....
Things you can try that I think might provide ideal distraction:
Light watches:
My Lethal Man (racy and batsh*t insane)
Embrace In The Dark Night (racy and cheesy)
The Princess Royal (sweet, smart, funny)
Love To Hate You (spicy, funny)
Oh My Venus (funny, sweet)
Shopping King Louie (hilarious, adorable)
I Love My President Although He Is A Psycho (cheesy, batsh*t insane, bad dubbing, low production value, makjang, bad-good)
My Uncanny Destiny (distraction-tier, cute, intelligent, lil bit fluffy)
High School King of Savvy (sexy comedy, frivolous, distraction-tier)
Playing House (sexy, funny, frivolous and cheesy)
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (pure comedy with a little spice)
Love Is Phantom (distraction-tier empty spicy binge watch but kinda has an artsy flair)
Koi To Dangan (cheesy af, nicely spicy, fun, cheap thrills)
Love In The Edge Of Divorce (funny, cheesy, spicy, sexaayyyy)
Heavy Watches:
Lesson In Love (spicy/racy, age gap, good production value/aesthetics)
Falling Into You (age gap, spicy, slo burn, fun, slightly sweet)
The Rose (vintage, excellent dialogue, bad BAD acting by ML, classic, taboo)
A Million Stars Falling From the Sky and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (angsty, slightly spicy, psycholgically complex, a staple classic of asian drama)
Enslaved By Love (spicy wild red-flag toxic madness)
Love and Bid Farewell (angsty, toxic, tragic, but gorgeous and well-acted, powerful story, only to watch if you are cool with a masochistically painful experience, but it is mercifully a short-length, ending is poetic)
Jotei (not the best but a "pretty good" solid, classic watch with a crap ending that sucks, about a japanese hostess, so keeps you immersed in the same industry with the same types of themes and people)
Watches to get immersed in to *totally* forget L2L for a little while, or watches for after L2L is over and you're ready to try to move on:
My Fated Boy (age gap, somewhat spicy, cute, moving)
Story Of Kunning Palace (palace intrigue, slow burn, hint of fine spice.... this one is my fav drama of all time, but that's just me)
That Winter The Wind Blows (not as good, but angsty, well acted, and classic)
The Double (palace intrigue, immersive, complex, fairly good acting)
Till The End Of The Moon (dark, obsessive, wuxia/xianxia, epic saga, soooo angsty)
I just finished When Destiny Brings the Demon right before this, and when it started out, I was set to give it a 10, but as it progressed and then the way it ended, I decided it was worth an 8.5. I thought I would be thinking about WDBTD for a long time afterward, but then I started this, and it friggin dropkicked WDBTD right out of my head.
The ML actor in this is SO phenomenal.... Arthur Chen is really good, but Raul Maito makes Arthur Chen look like a plank of wood by comparison.
I'm really happy about it too because it's nice to finally see a j-drama come out again that can legitimately compete internationally with k- or c-dramas.
There are things about CN that are way more controverisal, it's true. But the way their lives are cornering them into feeling a sense of urgency and desperation is very very similar, where you can see they have less and less choice except to abandon their hearts, or run away and start completely over somewhere else. So you get a lot of the same vibes. CN is just a totally other level of messed up situation, more twisted than L2L.
So I think about that, and then I think about how this FL's maturity is so stunted that they probably match up a lot better than I did with that guy. She's always with her stuffed bunny, she can't get respect from her class at school, and it really takes something special to try to drown yourself over a guy... whereas he had to grow up hard and fast in life. She's immature for her age, and he is mature for his age. So maybe they are closer - mentally - to being equals than just their outside appearance would suggest. Idk.
Maybe they make a good match? If they do run away and turn into the couple that runs the restaurant, she would grow because she'd be getting out from under her parents, and he would grow because he'd be getting out of hosting for a living.
Aha! You see?! What if this is the 'gotcha' of the story, is like "hey viewer, you think this getting hooked on a host shit couldn't happen to you? Well guess again!" The host is hooking the VIEWER maybe...?
Its possible that FL - and the viewer - is being gaslit the whole time. I can't tell! I don't know anything!
And then he says yes you are, i know you better than you even know yourself, I've watched you since you were in diapers--"
And she cuts him off and storms out. But dad has a point.
So what if they take the story in that direction, where ML tries to cut it off with her, and she can't accept it and her psycho tendencies re-surface?
Think about how when she told the story of how she jumped in the water over the last guy, she said it flippantly and laughed about it. That is not normal. That's a red flag sign that something is wrong, if you're going by just pure psychology. Especially as she admitted in inner narrative that she's never told anyone that story out loud before. So as her first time re-living that experience out loud with someone else, she's laughing about it and minimizing it. What if that's supposed to be a clue that this story is about to go totally off the rails crazy.
He told her "come buy a tower and you can see me"
She knew it was a lie, and she was right, and she walks away anyway. But she doesn't do it for herself. She does it because she predicts that that's what ML wants her to do. That could be her obsession creeping in. We don't know. So there's one layer.
Then the Big Boss comes in and tells him he's too soft and he should get out while he can. So even though ML played the cards technically correctly, that doesn't fool Big Boss at all, he knows exactly what happened... he had FL in the palm of his hand, and he let her escape. So there's layer two.
And the ML responds to the Big Boss by being adamant that he will be number one, he doesn't take the out that's being offered to him. Why???? To make money for his future with FL, or for his little brother? Or because he really wants to be Number One more than anything? That's layer three.
There is no way to tell by the look in his eyes, his behavior or expression, if he A) Is in love with her B) was never in love with her but feels mercy for her after he finds out she would jump in a lake and kys if he asked her to. C) Will decide to go full darth vader to the dark side like Big Boss.
He says from the outset that he will 'hook' her by giving her what she wants. She's a teacher. He doesn't know how to read or write. He could be just capitalizing on that because he's giving her her idealized romance.
You think he's in love with her, but you have the foreshadowing of the high school girl who early on described how she got hooked on him, saying "he's different with me" or whatever. The point of a host is to make the woman feel special and loved to the point she's willing to give you everything.
And what will happen when she tries to run away with him? Her parents will come begging him to end it with her, and bring a boatload of cash to buy him off. He knows this because of the FAT stack mom showed up with at just the first whiff of trouble with their daughter.
God I have no clue what's gonna happen. What if she jumps in the water again. Or what if she's the stalker who stabbed a host, and the other chick is just a red herring to throw you off track. What if ML gets stabbed by the crazy woman and they end it in a tragedy. What if FL stabs him? Or maybe they srsly run away together and become another version of the couple in the restaurant where they ate fish curry? Or maybe the fiancee gets tragically involved. This ending could go like 20 different ways that I could think of just off the top of my head.
I feel like ML is on a precipice where he really does love FL, but also has the capability to ignore that love, and embody the Ideal Host, the Number One, and he's currently wrestling with whether he is willing to make that deal with the devil or not, and he's not sure.
I'm also not sure whether she's slowly going psycho or not.
When they walked away from eachother at the beach, seriously half of me was like "run away from him as fast as you can!" and the other half of me was like "run away with him right now!" lol
On one hand, I feel like they have a social responsibility to end it badly so that girls don't romanticize that kind of thing in rl.
On the other hand, they might feel they have a moral responsibility to end it well because hosts always get portrayed as the scum of the earth who don't ever deserve a happy ending, they are dehumanized.
And with a J-drama, there is *always* the possibility they will leave it open ended.
I have no idea what will happen next, I only know what would happen next if this was any other "host romance" story - tragedy.
Also if anyone does actually know the ending, do NOT spoil me. This is the most I've enjoyed a show in a long time, I just want to savor it.
Obviously people aren't clued into this drama yet, but I think in the end it will go down as one of the top 5 j-dramas of all time. It just might take time for people to notice.
A million stars falling from the sky