when you steal your brother’s girlfriend.....haha.... Yamazaki Kento and Shuhei Nomura with Marie Iitoyo who’s also worked with Kentaro in Gakkou No Kaidan!
love how the japanese actors and actresses are all interchangeable and have worked with each other one way or another. I just found out that Kentaro has worked with a lot of the hot rising male leads and female leads in his dramas! So exciting! He’s gonna be acting alongside Shuhei in Sakurada Reset, and alongside Suzu in Sensei! and Cheerdance!
Sorry folks it’s been awhile. Here’s what I’ve been up to when I haven’t been crying and squealing in @dangermousie’s chats about Darren Wolf Wang.
~*~Korea~*~
Currently Watching:
Mr. Queen/Queen Cheorin - If you know me well you know I like to bitch about Joseon period costume, in particular those damn hats. I never would’ve recognized Kim Jyung-Hyun without the internet telling me he played the king. How is that the same sexy conman with a shotgun (bazooka? rifle? blunderbuss? idk what kind of gun it was) from Crash Landing on You? You can’t tell because of those damn hats! All the men look alike! Ugh! Anyways I went into this one not expecting to get hooked, I don’t like comedy, and I’m not sure how the eventual romance (because there had better be romance) will work out, what with the body swapping and stuff. But! I love it.
True Beauty - This is so dumb but I keep watching because I’m a sucker for highschool romances and both lead guys are really pretty. (Doesn’t hurt that Cha Eun-Woo looks like a budget Ro Woon from Extraordainary You.) It’s bubblegum fluff and easy to watch while I’m killing myself with my new 2lb exercise hoop so there’s that.
Dropped:
The Spies Who Loved Me - UGH. I can’t believe I watched 13 episodes of this crap. UGH!
Lovestruck in the City - Can you drop a show before you start it? I’ve been burned twice with by Ji Chang-Wook and the teasers/trailers for this aren’t doing it any favors with me. Maybe I’ll get desperate for something to watch in the spring and will binge it all then. Or maybe I’ll just keep giving it the side-eye on Netflix.
Ehhh?/I’m not sure:
Royal Secret Agent - It has L in it, who I loved in Angel’s Last Mission and hated in Meow the Secret Boy, so I guess he deserves another shot before I write him off completely lol. From what I’ve seen from glimpsing at the first episode, he actually can pull off the Joseon hat look so good for him. I’m just not really sold on the premise, seems a dime a dozen, but I’ll maybe give it a shot over the holiday break.
~*~China~*~
Finished:
The Wolf - There are no words. If I start talking about it I might start crying at work and I’d like to avoid that. Bottom line, despite its flaws, I loved every bit of it and Darren Wang has a devoted fangirl for life.
Dropped:
Legend of Fei - How can a drama be so unbelievably boring? Everything about this is dull, the story, the characters, the writing...I literally fell asleep twice before I got to episode 14 and called it quits. It’s crazy to me because I’ve loved Zhao Yi Ling/Zanilia Zhao in everything I’ve seen her in thus far, so something really had to go wrong in the writers room or direction to get such a blah performance. Other martial arts xianxias/wuxias that were dumb were still enjoyable because of the characters and story at least (here’s looking at you Moon Brightens For You, Winner is Love, and The Love Lasts Two Minds) I just don’t get it. The fight scenes were ok but the whole show can’t be fight scenes.
Currently Watching:
Twisted Fate of Love - Love this one! Jin Han as a lead in a period drama! Yay! His character is great too, he really excels at playing a bad guy lol. Plus I’m a sucker for fated romance, time travel, and hard resets. If The Wolf tore my heart out of my chest, Twisted Fate is the gauze I’m desperately packing in there so I don’t bleed out.
~*~Japan~*~
Currently Watching:
Kono Koi Atametamasuka / Do You Want to Warm Up This Love?* - Just one episode left, and of course the penulitimate episode was a cliffhanger WHO WILL SHE CHOOSE? I feel bad for 2nd lead...and honestly...I don’t want her to pick him??? But I can see why it’s the better choice and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s where the writers go. Just bummed at the waste of Tomoya Nakamura if that’s what happens.
Alice in Borderland - I actually started watching this because of a post @dangermousie reblogged and because Netflix has been shoving both this and Sweet Home at me everytime I open the app. AiB looked less scary so here I am. 6 episodes in, and it’s a fucked up dystopian/sci-fi/horror which is what I’d hoped for. Reminds me a bit of Battle Royale, just not as good. The problem is as the series nears the end it gets more and more ridiculous but that seems to be a fault of the genre. I’ll finish this, but I’m not sure I’ll want to stick around for the inevitable 2nd season they try pitching next.
Shanai Marriage Honey - Dumb contract marriage with two beautiful people who have great chemistry. Nothing really happens in this show except for lots and lots of sexual tension and cute fluffy couple moments. I do feel a little grimy knowing that the lead, Itagaki Mizuki is only 20. Dude doesn’t act like it. o_o
Ok what is going on in Kdramaland. Everything is ending on a whimper. Sorry for all the bitching but goddamn. First off....
Do You Like Brahms? - It had a sweet ending but slogging through all that angst and breakup bs was a chore. Also, the OTP never fixed their issues???? At least, I didn’t see Song-Ah making much of an improvement. Getting over her inferiority complex and mourning the violin is going to take time. At least we see Joon-Young stepping back and telling his mom off, dropping out of the competition, ditching his toxic teacher, playing music purely for pleasure (and releasing a CD that somehow catapults him back into fame but this time it’s on his terms) and finally starting to make his own damn decisions even if it’s over the spice level on his tteokbokki. I loved JY’s character (and could relate to him....dude has a lot of unhealthy habits that need therapy) but at the end CSA was just getting on my nerves.
Record of Youth - wtf happened here. This drama just got worse and worse. The ending was a whole bunch of meh. Park Bo-Gum is a sweetie but damn. Again another breakup. At least this time they didn’t get back together in the end (though I’m sure the drama was hinting ambiguously at the possibility...still...again...none of their issues were resolved so just don’t.)
Lie After Lie - Another one starts with a bang and ends with a whimper. I usually hate child characters but I really liked this one until they gave her lung cancer or whatever (I honestly stopped paying attention once the Lurlene McDaniel bs started) and started being a brat and pushing away her teacher and just being so damn annoying. As for the “reveals” I didn’t buy them. I wanted this drama to end as makjang as possible and honestly I didn’t buy the whole thing with the main villain being the one who had her son killed...or that he wasn’t even her son...(which they didn’t explain?) and also somehow her secretary is actually her real son? But where are the dads?? And again the stupid lung cancer bs. Idk. It was such a disappointment.
Tale of the Nine Tailed - At least this one is great! It started off rough. More Hwayugi than Goblin as far as comparisons go, but much better than Hwayugi (and I liked Hwayugi.) LDW is a dreamboat. I love the mythos, the fight scenes, the romance, the humor. Really digging it. Some stuff I don’t understand (the unhinged thirst over Kim Bum for example...>>) But I’m loving the music, the visuals, and the story. (The music reminds me a lot of Kaoru Wada btw. Like the love theme for Ji A and Lee Yeon is pretty reminiscent of the love theme for Inuyasha and Kagome.
Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol - This one is stupid fun. I do skim a bit. The whole Lee Jae-Wook being a teenager reveal didn’t really freak me out. I tried having a philosophical discussion with my boyfriend about power dynamics in relationships and whether or not physical age and mental age could balance eachother out when person A is an legal adult but a moron and person B is a minor (barely) but emotionally and mentally mature. Anyways my boyfriend said he didn’t care enough about a pair of fictional people to put that much thought into it. Ha. Tell that to the internet my sweet summer child. :P
The Spies Who Loved Me - This one took me til episode 3 to win me over but now I’m hooked. I will say I’m not a huge fan of the male lead (if I had to pick, it’d be Lim Joo-Hwan all the way, but the poor man is cursed to forever be the 2nd lead and/or villain. Sigh.) but the concept is fun, and I love Yoo In-Na’s character. I swear she makes a better agent than her 1st husband if we’re gonna be honest.
*Japan*
Kono Koi Atametamasuka? / Do You Want to Warm up This Love? - I’ve only seen the first episode if this but I liked it quite a bit. Tomoya Nakamura plays a CEO of a failing convenience mart chain. He meets an instagram foodie by chance who has some strong opinions on the pre-packaged sweets sold at the foodmart (where she is also a part-timer after failing at being an idol years before.) He hires her to create a decent dessert and boom we have our drama.
*China*
Love is Sweet - This was adorable. I don’t tend to enjoy or finish any modern cdramas, especially office ones. The deciding factor in this was Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu. Their acting, chemistry, and characterization was spot-on. Loved them to death! My only critique is that they tried making the 2nd lead the villain and then chickened out in the final episode. Like if you’re gonna go that far, go all the way. :P Ah well. A cute cute drama. (Though disclaimer, I gave zero shits about the 2nd couple and fast forwarded thru all their scenes.)
Dating in the Kitchen - This one ended rather incoherently. Introducing the younger brother character just to add unnecessary drama between the couple was stupid. Also all the cool cooking shots went away?? And while the otp had great chemistry I don’t think I can buy their relationship either. Their problems never were resolved. Sigh. But at least the mom was won over? Lol. This also had the issue of having a secondary couple who I didn’t care about.
The Love Lasts Two Minds - I binged all of this in a week and a half after Moon Brighten’s won me over into the Allan Yu fancamp. He’s not super talented (talk about only having one expression?) but he’s oddly charming? And excels at playing a dying man. Yukee Chen was also super likable in this, more so than I’ve found her in any other drama I’ve seen her in so far.
The Moon Brightens For You - Finally we see Allan Yu smile some! He’s so cute in the last few episodes, every time he refers to the FL as “wife” a fairy is born or some shit. This was quite fun.
Jiu Liu Overlord - My current obsession. I’ve been crazy about Lai Yi since he was the villain in The Flame’s Daughter, and then the hot doctor in Legend of Fuyao. Finally he is the leading man! And with Bai Lu! The first 8 or so episodes are suuuuper cringy tho. They made her character pretty grotendous if we’re going to be perfectly honest. But somehow he fell for her lol. I’d say from episode 13 onwards I’ve been watching their every interaction with baited breath. Like waking up at 6:30am to watch the new episodes baited. Lol. Not to mention we get to see Lai Yi shirtless and sweaty quite a bit lmao.
The Blooms at Ruyi Pavillion - Same otp leads as from Legend of Yunxi, but I never was able to get into that drama. I like Zhang Zhehan as the jinxed-prince much better here for some reason. Ju Jingyi grew on me after seeing her as the lead in In A Class of Her Own, and so far the cinematography and visuals in this drama are super pretty. I even like the 2nd couple, which is a rarity. I don’t skip their scenes at all and even enjoy watching them? Lol.
~~~~
Anyways feel free to drop by my askbox if you want to talk more in depth about any of these. :P Just don’t attack me over your Kim Bum bias <3
Queen Cheorin/Mr. Queen - I thought episode 8 felt a little weird tonally, but I’m down for the sexy king spending more time with his wife lol. Really happy to learn this is a 20 episode series as 16 just doesn’t seem like enough. This is definitely my most anticipated watch of the week, and I devour the raws multiple times while waiting for subtitles...
True Beauty - We had a break this week. I’m not sure if that was due to COVID, or baseball or what. In the meantime I picked up the original webtoon (I’d read the first few chapters years ago and then forgot about it.) I like the drama a lot more for keeping it in a highschool setting, but the webtoon has so many cute scenes with both Suho and Seojun that I wish would or had made it into the show.
Handmade Love - Ugh. I love this show so much. I mean yes it’s like a PPL/Lotte drama but it actually has a plot and decent characters. Doesn’t hurt that the music and visuals are gorgeous, along with Lee Soo-Hyuk killing it every episode. One episode left, and I hope he decides to stay on earth making clothes with Lee Su-Ji forever.
High Society (2015) - I needed something to binge and thought I’d try this out. Only on episode 2.
~*Japan*~
On Hold:
Shanai Marriage Honey - Still waiting on subs for episodes 5-7. It’s been done airing for a while but no dice at least where I regularly look. This didn’t have much plot but the couple had the sweetest chemistry. I’d just like to finish it damn it. :(
Currently Watching:
Love Lasts Forever/Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo (2019) - Again needed something to binge and I saw that Takeru Satoh of RuroKen fame was in a drama and I had to try it. So far it’s cringey and he plays an asshole tsundere doctor who is being persued by a child. Lol. I don’t like medical dramas so we’ll see how long I can take this.
Finished:
Kono Koi Atametamasuka / Do You Want to Warm Up This Love? - This had such a good ending! Yay! I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but my shipping desires were fulfilled. :) It also had a banging single. I’d listen to that.
Alice in Borderland - Surprise binge of the year, I ended up loving this while at the same time trying and dropping Sweet Home. The characters were great, the action and thrills were intense, and idk it was nice seeing a jdrama with a budget? Lol.
~*China*~
Currently Watching: O_O Nothing! Wahh!!
Finished:
Twisted Fate of Love - This was a solid watch and I enjoyed it til the end. Jin Han is a sexy beast. There’s really not much else to say about this drama lol. If you hate flute music maybe skip it.
Stealing this idea from @dangermousie because otherwise I will forget everything I’ve watched and cry at the end of the year while trying to make a list. (Anything that isn’t a 2020 release will be noted.) (And no they aren’t in ranked order yet.) (LATER I PROMISE.)
* = currently airing or waiting for subs. strikethrough means I dropped it.
