rugged

I stayed at Yongcheonru & loved their flower tea. 😅

Lol, thanks. 👻

i started this drama because i enjoy playing pool & snooker. was surprised how decent the director was able to capture a more realistic feel of two random people slowly getting to know each other. which is usually the most addictive part in a new relationship.

anyway, is there a sad ending? ie, someone dies? it feels like the female lead is narrating the story from the future. makes me worried the male lead passes away at some point and these are her memories of him.

Random notes:
This drama was the most watched drama in Hong Kong for 2014 with a rating of 29 points.

The original title for this series was 'Food for the Slaves' & the original cast had several changes from the 2012 sales pitch trailer.

Apparently there is an episode where you can see a minivan cruising through the Qing dynasty town. (I only learned about this after watching the series, so wasn't looking for it and not sure which episode this occurs in)

I honestly really enjoyed this drama. Every episode kept me entertained and left me curious on what was going to happen next. I understand a good amount of viewers have become accustomed to the high standards of modern kdrama's and anything lesser are drama's they can't enjoy. Then this might not be a drama for you. However, if you're someone with an open mind and just are looking for something generically good to kill time. I think you will find this series rather pleasing.

The only character which might get annoying early on is the chef 'Ko Tin Po'. If you can get past the first two episodes of his acting & behavior, it should grow on you and eventually make you laugh in certain scenes. Apparently his (Wong Cho-lam) 2013 drama 'Inbound Troubles' got high praise for his comedic role in that. This could just be a cultural difference in how people in Hong Kong portray comedy.

Saw someone on reddit recommend this drama and being a fan of Nakatani Miki, no clue how I missed it. Maybe because the poster image isn't too enticing and I've always ignored starting it. Hoping it's a solid 90's era JDRAMA, that keeps me entertained.

I might start this after Gilded Chopsticks, I am curious to watch a drama with the Boxer Rebellion.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUxlohmoXrakYQt6r7atn60R58DIW3fi3

You saw this 11 years ago and I'm watching it today. Ironically I am on episode 11 as well and truly enjoying the series thus far.

I just started it because I enjoy dramas with a good amount of episodes.
Did you finish the series? Worth it to the end or just a generic good time killer, soap opera?

Full Series with Subs:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQoygnhlz2LjNGXJTS0216thbCocpmk5t

I was stuck at a log cabin during a snow storm with poor internet and the TVB app was the only source for free drama's without tons of annoying popups at my disposal. I found this series from their app/site and I honestly thought it was really well done. I don't compare Hong Kong drama's with KDrama's and when I rate certain drama's, I am sticking with the country of origins overall comparison based on what I've seen for that country. I would give this show a 7.8/10 - It has comedy, a good cast, romance and the hardships people have to struggle with to survive.

I've been reading Chinese books about 'The Walled City' lately, only because there are basically no English books about it, other than a few photography books. After getting a headache reading AI translated Cantonese 📚 books, I decided to look for dramas filmed within the walled city. While there was only two (older) dramas filmed in the real city, I thought the plot of this drama seemed intriguing. Taken place in the early era of The Walled City. Showing you a glimpse of what it possibly was like before it became a sprawling city.

Only on episode 6 right now but each episode keeps you entertained and highly engaged to the storyline. I really don't want to say much as this is a drama that I feel others should watch going in blinded but when it comes to romance. It seems like that builds up later and slowly starts around episode 6.

If you took the Netflix Daredevil TV series, added the Taken films to a blender and mixed some soy sauce. You would get this movie. I'd agree that the average rating (7.5) does this movie justice. The fight scenes are done well, enough to keep you entertained. Both male and female leads work well with each other. So if you have time to kill and are looking for an action film, this movie should do the job.

Starting to sub this series but not going to pay for a premium vimeo account:
https://vimeo.com/1042073250

Will eventually upload them on telegram or if someone is willing to help with the vimeo account.
Add me as a friend to get updates on this series.

I came across this movie out of random internet rabbit hole clicking. Someone gifted me the book 'Solaris' (isbn: 978-0156027601) which was written by a Polish author. I then found out there was a 1972 movie made about the book but it was produced by a Russian film company called Mosflim. I was curious to see what other films was produced by Mosfilm and I came across a title that had a poster which looked like an action packed cdrama movie. Which was this movie, "Mrs. K" [Миссис Кей]. Wikipedia says this movie was only released in Russia but that could be outdated information. I did find it interesting though that a Russian film studio decided to invest in a Cantonese action movie. I wonder if there is more to this story than meets the eyes, a plausible money laundering scheme.

After watching the trailer for this movie, it doesn't look too bad and some reviews describe the film similar to a Kill Bill style filming/storyline. Downloading the movie now and will review it once finished watching.

I thought the pilot episode was amazing, the idea of the relay camera but then it started to change via the first few episodes. I'm guessing if you enjoy these types of shows, this one is worth watching a handful of episodes. The only thing I personally didn't like was how there is/was a few friends of theirs who aren't as famous or wealthy. How they are most likely working 2-3 jobs on top of trying to get acting gigs. Seeing how it's hard for the famous people to relate to those who aren't famous, sort of makes me cringe. It also shows you how far the gap is between someone in a few commercials vs. a kpop singer.

Ah men sista, I've been reading about 'Korea under Japanese rule' lately. Whenever I am reading about historical events or era's, I enjoy watching dramas that pertain and correlate to whatever that timeframe maybe within my book(s). Usually because I mostly read non-fiction and biographies/memoirs, so I end up getting the 'fiction' element from the TV dramas.

I sometimes get this era of drama's mixed, since Japan occupied both China and Korea around the same time. Therefor there are both kdrama's and cdrama's which touch upon this timeframe but I believe most of what I have watched were cdrama's thus far. I did want to start Pachinko or Bridal Mask but saw this movie in the search results and decided to watch it for fun. Just like you mentioned, this film does appear to be more of a 'hidden gem' as most people I know have not seen it.

I wish the female lead's hair would be pulled down but I understand she's portraying a 'slave'. Other than that which is just my own petty judgmental eyes, I absolutely love this series. It's vastly unique compared to your generic drama's. I love how most of the show is filmed on a merchant ship. I enjoy the grit and hardships of a seaport during these fictional ancient times. The production team did a great job in making a Baochuan style ship for the show.

Not only is this series different in terms of filming location, the plot is also fairly unique and (imo) perfectly intertwined to the location/seaport/merchant ship/harbors/etc. to where most people wont even notice they barley film anything a few miles from the shoreline.

I don't want to speak too much about the plot to where it might spoil something but people might say it's not unique in a sense where you might have a typical lost prince/princess child and the child grows up poor. Only to find out later on that they are from a royal bloodline. IMO, that's just a tiny aspect of the plot and the uniqueness comes from the pearl trade economics and 'chess moves' the male lead is able to foresee.

If you can find the original version with Cantonese/Mandarin/Korean all in the single movie, is clutch. However most versions I found were mainly in Mandarin, which isn't bad but I prefer watching movies in their original audio(s).

I became fan of the male lead (Nicholas Tse) in his 2007 CDRAMA, 'Wing Chun'. While looking at his list of shows and films, I decided to randomly watch this one. This movie is a great watch if you're looking for something outside the regular drama box. Outside of the movie being cooking related, the core to the plot is more about a son trying to live up to his fathers expectations as a chef. With a splash of retribution (cooking pun).

Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys cooking dramas or is looking to watch something that is not a love story. I do wish Nick Tse would do more content as he has solid acting skills. 9/10

I paused at episode 25 because this show so far is really good and afraid to finish it. This is just part of my personality with everything. Even books, video games, etc. I just hate when something is finished. Especially if that ending is terrible when 95% of the series is amazing. So I am saving the remaining 11 episodes for a super rainy day. Other then that, my personally rating based on the first 25 episodes is an 8.3. At the time I wrote this, the show has a 7.8 on MDL so my rating is about 5 points off per the average viewer. That being said, then the show is a solid 8.0 and I think most people would enjoy it.