namopanik

it gets considerably slower from ep 10 onward if that helps.

Woah, paper armor. Cool.
But fun fact coming: if the Wikipedia article is to be believed (and if I undestand it correctly), then a process of paper making in Flower in Prison is not historically accurate! They were using sieves in that drama, like the one used for making old Western paper and leaving this pattern of ribs on the sheet. Ha, I knew the texture should be different and now I know why.

You can suggest it here: http://mydramalist.com/discussions/suggestions if you want to.

It's strange watching it after 6FD, I keep seeing characters and almost deja-vu scenes that seem to be a halfboiled ideas waiting to be developed and re-used. It's like how I loved So Ji Sub in Master's Sun only to find out later that all his mannerism are heavily based on the lead of previous Hongs' work, that kind of feeling.
Contrary to popular opinion, I'd recommend watching both Deep Rooted Tree and Six Flying Dragons according to the date of release, because there's much improvement on cinematography and an attempt to connect them both in the end of 6FD. You'd miss those references when watching in a historical order.
But in the end, it doesn't really matter that much, it's not like any of them is incomprehensible without the other.

Hehe. A psychopatic murderer of 5 (and more attempted) is forgiven without any consequences in last 20 minutes or so and he and his survivors and their families have a painting party on a rooftop.
Bonus: most of his victims just vanish from the memories of others, because they don't count enough.

*casually stalking this page to observe how the hype fades*

'that's nice, it reminds me of the island since Tae Ho is here' (poop mine scene)
Uhm, ok? Under what moon does this sentence make any sense whatsoever??? That's nice, it reminds me of those times our friend, a psychopath, was killing us one by one? what a time to remember.
Everyone, please don't commit any crimes.
Well, if you have to make an ending for a drama cut 4 episodes, you can as well fuck it royaly.

on a flip side:
1. I haven't seen so much of cool toned lipstick since Missing You,
2. Min Sung Wook's character is neither evil nor murderous! After 6FD he was only getting villainous roles.
/3. Joon Oh renegade outfit. It clicks, all black with red sneakers. There's still a hope for a method in all this.
4. ending of the ep 12 - I'll take it literally as a confirmation of a limbo theory, because it would still make more sense than anything that's going on/

[eagerly looking for more, still don't hate what I'm watching]

nah, I enjoy the mother as a character. After two first episodes I was prepared to fastforward all her scenes, but she won me with her squad, her socks and her general sassiness. Not to mention her open mindedness and resolve :D I only wish she treated her husband better or he finally stood up instead of looking terrorized or (more recently) not giving a damn.
But the girldfriend? I wonder how would you call an actual psychopath that we have here on board then. Like, the one kidnapping random women and doing sick things to them, that jolly fellow.

minus gay game. He's open to himself, to a viewer, to some extent to his assistant. She's in dark. But I sense a potential for some 'how should I prove you I'm not' scenes coming.
/but still, transfering the denial and realisation angst on the 2nd lead - brilliant move indeed.

OST is so distracting, it's like a telephone wait music...

there were no superpowers in Protect the Boss.

Picnic at Hanging Rock perhaps...? It has this 'may or may not happened' vibe.

Then there's a hope. Maybe one day they will be subbed :)

Idk, it's not *that* bad. At least it's mysterious, characters' motivations aren't clear and from time to time it has this creepy mood.
Maybe low rating is because of identity issues? After ep 3 I'm still not sure what am I watching and synopsis above doesn't match the content. For a noona romance, the male has hardly any screentime (but they're clearly going this way [just please, let the shoelace trope die somewhere miserably]). I'm having Sweet Stranger and Me throwbacks, from its initial phase, when I wasn't sure why certain characters are still there. But genre-speaking, this show is neither noona-romance, nor a serious family drama on infidelity but it tries to fill most of its time with the above. Is it heading towards a weird, low-fluff but somehow comedic love triangle now? I don't know what to make out of it. At this point I think the show could benefit from cutting both male leads out.
/but mainly, it's peculiar and unpopular, so the votes aren't very reliable now.

I read it's because of multiple dialects, they want to have an uniform effect no matter which one is native for an actor. And then they can re-dub a drama into different dialect for different audience. Similar thing happens with bollywood movies, they are re-released with completely redone soundtrack for different dialects. What is disturbing for me is how the sound doesn't sound natural, it has no space, you can hear them like they were in separate booths with background artificially overlayed. Also, it's sometimes strange if you're more prone to remembering voices than faces, because they don't always match from series to series.

never put back a good drama for a mediocre one (two, dozen) in fear of heightening your standards [a message to past-me].
But maybe try seeing some lighter c-drama first to get accustomed to denser lines and dubbing? My first c-drama was Sound of Desert and I felt constantly overloaded so I had to keep hitting pause to follow the subtitles. The lines was much longer than their kdrama counterparts and stuffed with proverbs, poetry and other references which meaning was vague to me. This one is otherwise brilliant, but doesn't have the best pacing*, therefore it may be tiring for a beginner. /* for a tv series watched by a real life human, as a story it's masterfully constructed, but it requires a viewer who happens to have a 50 hours straight of a free time and doesn't need to sleep or wink./
/And generally speaking as a training in a processing of a fast-paced, overloaded content (or just getting immersed into things) I really recommend watching an anime called Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei.

I'm still amazed how chinese industry managed to release something so complex and deep as NIF when everything else is several classes beneath it. Are there more dramas like that, but untranslated and unrecognized?

I honestly don't know how to rate this thing. It can be so lame at some parts (those wannabe Tomb Rider traps and dangeons, exploding sci-fi robotic-demon-golem thingie, circle lenses giving everyone blooded eyes,...) and utterly cool at others (white haired witch1). Bonus points for 2nd lead turning evil. Female lead had little to no agency, like a trophy to be fought over. An important plotline is just cut in the middle without serious repercussions. And then it got really overly dramatic.
And yet I finished it in one go. That childish love triangles with possesiveness and angst turned on 100% are embarassingly engaging.

a friendly reminder: don't skip those parts after credits!