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Really wish I wasn't aware this drama existed until the next month. I wish I didn't start the first episode last week. I wish I had discipline but I don't. Every episode ending has me more addicted and antsy. What crack did they put in this fr. The tension this episode had me on the edge of my seat. I loooove her cooking scenes so much ugh. I adore this drama even with all its flaws.
Can Shin Jae Ha please stop taking villain roles? I think he is a good actor, but it's going to be difficult not to suspect him as the bad guy in every single drama he's in going forward. I don't think that many of us would have suspected him as the bad guy right away in Taxi Driver season 2 if he didn't just finish playing the bad guy in Crash Course in Romance. But as soon as he appeared a majority of the viewers were like is he the bad guy? 😅 I wish his career choices were more like Im Siwan's as in throwing in a few really sweet roles in between the psychos that way we won't be that quick to always suspect him as the bad guy.
Taxi Driver fandom do me a solid and clear this up once and for all. I'd really love to see which majority rules 🍃
Which romanization of his name is best/used by you?
Do Ki
Do Gi
Doki
Dogi
Do-gi
Do-ki
Other or Valid Reasons we should stick to my choice in the tags
Please do reblog if you vote so that this can reach as many people as possible 🙌😊
Random Hanadan/BoF Shitpost
After hearing that Love in Flames of War, a republican era cdrama had Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers/ Meteor Garden/ F4 vibes... but eventually failed to deliver on that front I rambled at @dangermousie that, actually, we SHOULD have a Hanadan version of every genre of cdrama.
No...wait...I’m joking...but also not. My reasoning for this is solid:
1) No matter what you thing of Hanadan and all it’s objectively toxic and dated glory, you can’t deny it is a hallmark in the history of shoujo manga/anime/asian drama/ live action adaptation/remake pumping machine. It paved the way for all the ItaKiss, Fated to Love You, etc...and it is still to this day a nostalgia magnet for an easy cash grab with each remake (also the latest one might be the best lol).
2) *Surrender by Cheaptricks plays in the background, talks in “there is no war in ba sing se” mode* There are no new ideas in media. Everything is a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot, retelling, soft reboot, parody, homage, the same thing over and over again but call it by another name (it’s still a rose, yeah Shakespeare, you’re a genius, congrats!).
3) Let’s face it. Dramaland is going through the lowest of lows. Cdramas are bad and boring, Kdramas are scarce and boring and Jdramas are 10 ep cute little intros to the story you really wanna see that’s about to begin...at the end of ep10, last episode, no 2nd season. So, they might as well try Every Hanadan Set Everywhere all at Once.
So, without further ado, introducing...every genre of Cdrama Hanadan (with crazy plot eggs for some and none for others bc I say so):
Starting with contemporary…
1) Reverse hanadan where the fl is a rich asshole and the ml a poor little meow meow
2) Time loop hanadan
3) Modern Fantasy hanadan (sort of like the beginning of Bulgasal but more petty and less angsty lol)
4) Transmigration low budget web drama romcom hanadan
5) *barfs* modern office corporate romance hanadan
6) *barfs again* gaming hanadan
7) Sports hanadan (aka if HanaKimi wasn’t genderbender or cute but toxic instead)
8) Coming of Age/ Youth to Adult Married life Hanadan
Syke! Too late! There is already an OG classic toxic Hanadan of this Genre, it’s called Itazura na Kiss (and it’s my guilty pleasure, my personal hanadan lol)
9) Ice sports hanadan....yesss...get gory with the bullying with ice skating blades muahahaha. The red card locks her on the ice rink and they oil the railings/plexiglass around it so she can't even climb out and she nearly freezes to death. They rope her to the back of a zamboni and drag her through the ice. While she is trapped on the ice rink, they rig a bucket of water to fall over her so she freezes faster.
Now for the period dramas…
10) Republican Era hanadan
They could use the boat scene ending from the finale of the anime as a convenient plotpoint to escape the republican era without dying in the republican turmoil. "Oh, they just reunited dramatically on a boat post amnesia and went abroad together and missed all the political fatal shit and lived happily ever after. Their kids returned to China and lived happily under the great CCP rule (/s)!
11) Palace hanadan
It’s hanadan meets legend of Ruyi where he is the Crown Prince but the Empress Dowager holds all the power and on some humiliation move has him take a barbarian slave as a concubine...and the red card is that it's open season on her from every noble or regular consort of his harem and his friends in the court...all is fair the only rule is she cannot be murdered, everything else is fair game. So she is beating to the brink of death, poisoned daily with agonizing pills only to be given antidotes at the last minute, drowned, flayed, etc.
12) Wuxia hanadan. Similar. Dude is the leader of the jianghu, declares her a demon bc she offended him and has all the pretentious righteous sects go after her with agonizing Gus pushed on her body, plenty of chains, kebab her in multiple ways with stakes in torture chambers to cast out the evil.
13) BL Wuxia hanadan. (this one is just here by popular demand. Mine. No, I will not elaborate on that).
14) And at last…my personal favorite….drum rolls… Xianxia hanadan (here is the plot):
She spilled peach wine on his cloud robes once by accident before the Great Heaven's Ceremony so he scribed her name carelessly on the stone of the doomed as petty revenge hoping she'd get some bad karma. But at the time the Demon Overlord was fighting the Lord of Fate and the Dijun on Kunlun and as they made their final strike the demon overlord turned into a cloud of heavy miasma that swirled away swiftly for miles and landed on the stone of the doomed. Hence, for the next 10.000 years the calamities and heavenly tribulations of every god were transferred into the unlucky FL.
In the first 300 years, the gods were unsure of what was happening, but soon word spread of a small menial demigoddess who seemed to be getting an abnormal amount of calamities and trials and yet never ascended into a higher level god. But other gods were getting past their fated tribulations dates without experiencing the event itself but still ascending afterwards. Soon this bizarre phenomenon was being gossiped throughout all the heavenly realms and the gods were rushing to get their hands on every magical item capable of moving forward their tribulation dates... After all, who knew how long this free meal would last? So it follows that our female lead spent the next 10.000 overbooked from torturing calamity to the next without a break or a reward.
Our cloud cloaked protagonist came to learn of this business about 500 years into it. It was not his intention for the karmic payback to be that harsh...but then again it was his best cloud vest that the annoying, insignificant little demigoddess had ruined...and if the consequences had been that rough, who was he to question the Great Design. He soon forgot all about it, surely none of that pesky matter would come back to bother him...
10.000 later: Our fuming fl finally had enough...after experiencing every form of dismemberment as a human, for eons, though she didn't collect an ounce of heavenly grace to ascend to higher goddess....she sure damn well accumulated enough yin to form a monumental grudge...and she would use all of that energy into one single punch for a certain cloud clothed god that would send him so high the gods would finally know what lies above the heavenly realm...not that he'd get the opportunity to tell the tale.
Congrats! you made it to the end of my loooong ass ramble.
Here’s some Ice Cream...
“WISHES DO COME TRUE”: FINAL EPISODE APPRECIATION POST
It is finally here: the end.
We have been through a lot with this drama, and just like that it has come to its stage. It seemed like yesterday, I was too hyped hearing the news about Seo In-guk coming back to mainstream drama and Park Bo-young being the lead female; and now we’re here. I’m feeling a bit sad but, you know, there’s nothing to be sad of, of course.
When a book closes, a new one opens - after all. And this book? The book has a happy ending after all.
That was a spoiler; but I think it’s something that we hoped for. Although it’s bittersweet to let this drama go, it’s all worth it to do so.
One thing that I appreciate about this drama is that it goes back to where it all begun.
The first scene picked up from where it left off; from the bus scene where Myul Mang – now Kim Sa-ram offered an umbrella for Dongkyung because it was raining. It’s actually a recreation of a previous scene, it’s just that, it was Dongkyung who eventually lets the umbrella go instead of Sa-ram.
Aside from that, I think that scene was also one of the most memorable scenes in the episode, because it is where he told Dongkyung that instead of coming back as a supernatural being, he was finally living as a human. Why is it romantic? It was like Sa-ram telling Dongkyung that they are finally now in equal footing. Both normal humans in love with one another – no one higher than the other; they are just ... just humans.
One thing that separates this fantasy drama from other fantasy dramas is that it actually made the couple a possibility. As you can see, it’s normal for other fantasy dramas to just retain the characteristics of the leads until the end. Great dramas that follow this templates are:
Goblin, where Kim Shin still lived as a goblin until the end of the series;
Tale of the Nine Tailed, where Lee Yeon remained to be a gumiho until the end as well;
My Love From the Star, where Do Min-joon remained as an alien and eventually went back to his planet after the end of the series – only to teleport once in a while back for Cheon Song-yi.
They are great dramas, right?
But what’s the point?
The point that I’m looking into is that, in Doom at your Service you can actually see through the end. Even if the series ends, you can imagine the ending stretching it longer that it should be. And that ending is: Kim Sa-ram and Tak Dongkyung will both die; they will spend their whole lives living like humans, dying like humans – and nobody is left behind.
That is the beauty of life; because we realize that we will wither and die, we are able to create moments and experience things in a different way. We can live our lives to the fullest and without regrets. We realize that we aren’t immortal so we try to take good care of our body. That is something Kim Sa-ram realized when he became one. That “ah, I can die now so I need to take care of myself” feeling. And didn’t he quit drinking and smoking for that?
People might think that the point I’m making is extremely tragic. Some of you might ask “why are you redirecting the topic back to death when they both survived it?” and I won’t deny that. But remember, the whole drama is all about death and the need for you to accept it in the first place. We all die, we got to accept that. That’s why we need to live our lives to the fullest and that is also the only way to see meaning in our lives.
And going through the whole episode we can really see how Kim Sa-ram and Tak Dongkyung value that virtue. They learned to treasure even the simplest things and they learn to value important relationships. That’s the essence of life. And that only happens if you accept the fact that death can come knocking to your door anytime.
It’s a beautiful irony because Kim Sa-ram was death and he did come knocking at Tak Dongkyung’s door.
Another focal character in this drama – Sonyeonshin. She was greatly misunderstood. I’ve read and heard some people actually treating her as the antagonist of the series. And I honestly can’t blame them – because, let’s be honest we did too. We knew that she knew what was going to happen but instead of forcing it to not happen; she just lets it happen anyway. But that was also our mistake. We did not look at the large picture but instead, we just kept on looking at what was happening.
I think the writer is showing us that we, even how intelligent we are, are still humans. We can’t help but look at things in a narrow perspective – that’s why we whined when we saw what she did. It’s actually the same in real life, we encounter a problem, we whine and blame everyone; but if that problem blossomed into a beautiful outcome, we never really feel thankful to anyone but ourselves.
Our fates have all been decided the moment we are born – and that fate is to die. We are humans, it is inevitable. But it is always in our hands how do we make the most of the time we are given here on Earth. HE gave us choices and we get to choose what outcome we would want to happen, and that becomes a cycle up until the moment that we meet our end. HE knew all that but HE will always choose to stay and watch – because aside from it’s interesting to, HE wanted us to learn a good lesson from our own choices.
The same is through with what happened in the whole drama series. Sonyeonshin knew what was going to happen but she allowed everything to fall to its place – because as represented by the plant, it signifies growth. She pulled the strings, but ultimately, Kim Sa-ram and Tak Dongkyung made the choices. I mean, she never forced Myul Mang to specifically choose Tak Dongkyung. She never forced Myul Mang to fall in love with Tak Dongkyung either. And she never forced him to sacrifice his life for her. But he did it anyway. And that ultimately lead us to where he is now: his destiny, his fate. To become human.
There are still a lot of things Kim Sa-ram has yet to experience as a human – but he, more or less, experienced the focal points to become one, some of it are follows:
According to Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory, the most basic interpersonal need is tenderness. Sullivan stated that tenderness is the number one psychological need to live, without it our overall well being as a person is ruined and we will adapt maladaptively.
So where am I going to at this point? It’s the fact that this need is actually given to him by Tak Dongkyung.
A family; of course you cannot be human without a companions. He should be fine with Tak Dongkyung. But it was also her who welcomed him to her own family – which was really heartwarming. Props to Dongkyung’s family, they accept whoever the kids in the family bring in. Joo-ik even became a family after Ji-na brought him in.
Feelings. The thing with humans that makes us special is the fact that we have feelings. We know how to sympathize and we know how to appreciate what we are and what we have. Before when Kim Sa-ram was still Myul Mang, it’s kind of obvious that he lack in this department. But along the way, he finally learned how to sympathize and to love. As a human, it’s really good to see him finally using his facility of feelings. Because it’s just as he said ...
And of course, we can’t forget this heartwarming scene.
And by the way, about our home-girl Ji-na. I guess my ship finally sailed? Joo-in and Ji-na are now together. That’s not a question because I really thought that they would really be in the end.
The way she closed her eyes. That’s what told me that they’re the endgame.
But what confuses me is the fact that Kim Sa-ram’s relationship with Cha Joo-ik seemed to be different. Since I never really saw them talking much in the whole series, I would be way more convinced that they would be awkward to one another rather than bicker on the dining table just because of the fact that Kim Sa-ram dated Dongkyung longer than Joo-ik dated Ji-na. Although we won’t know what will happen after, I would like to send my regards to Aunt Soo – she finally got two more sons to take care of.
For my own opinion, a drama like this is a gem. There are a lot of dramas out there that are also good but this one - Doom at your Service, really hit the spot. It’s quarantine now because of the pandemic and the fact that it talked about how important it is to appreciate the little things we have is like an instant reality check.
Watching this drama, understanding the deeper meanings of every scene and every character makes me want to check my own life - if it was still worth living.
And by the end of the episode - the series - the drama prompted one question to all of us:
All my life, I’ve heard the same questions a million of times.
And I’ve made a million of wishes in my lifetime, and will probably make a million more in the next few years to come. But one thing I know is that, the wishes that we make aren’t all for naught.
Some of the people might think that our wishes are just words of the mouth that will dissipate after being said. But this drama was one of those living proof that someone somewhere is listening.
As we grow older, our wishes change. Some of us might not be able to remember what our wishes are before - those innocent wishes we had while we were still children.
But you know what, wish whatever you want to wish.
The question still lies though: “Do wishes really come true?”
To be honest, no one knows.
Even in the drama, Dongkyung’s wish of Myul Mang coming to the world never came true. Instead she got Myul Mang in the flesh.
Maybe we’re right to believe that our wishes are only wishful thinking. A thought that passed through our minds for a brief moment of time; but the truth is, wishes are what we really desire. And no one’s stopping you to ‘desire’ something with all your heart.
So keep wishing.
Because you will never know when will it come true.
Maybe today, maybe tomorrow.
Maybe Myul Mang will come knocking at your door if you keep your heart to it.
... again, you will never know.
THE END.
I wrote something about episode 15, by the way. You can read it here.
PS. It’s a bittersweet moment for me to let this drama go but then again, all good things comes to an end. I just wish they’d give Seo In-guk a new drama right away.
However, I heard that Seo In-guk have a new movie coming this 2021. The title is “Pipeline” and he, once again, is together with Lee Soo-hyuk. The actor who played the character of Cha Joo-ik. Let’s send our love and support for our Myul Mang for this movie
Park Bo-young, she has a new movie this 2021 with Park Seo-jun, let’s give our supports to our cute Bong Bong
To the people behind the scenes for this drama, I would sincerely want to thank you for your dedication and hardwork. For the actors, I hope you will get more projects soon! And I hope TVN will make more of these in the future.
I just watched first episode of Why secretary kim and I am hooked to show...
I mean where would you get a boss who doesn't get sleep just because secretary resigned lol
and that 'pimple' scene was hilarious lol seojoon really pulls off this character well
his interpretation of Ms kims actions and his interaction with his friend too lol i just can not watch this drama
Kim mi so or secretary kim who always smiles at him because of work even when she doesnt want to and lol when she told him she wishes to resign because she wants to live her life ...
ps park min young is too pretty
and their visuals is just so pretty
I am just hooked to this now and hope to gif something soon.
watched all 4 currently out eps of While You Were Sleeping and
bruuhhhhhhh
it’s filled the Goblin shaped hole in my heart lmao. I’m in love with it. oh man the feels also reminds me of SWDBS
Rambling about Taxi Driver Season 2
I posted part of what I'm going to say on the kdrama subreddit but I had some more thoughts that I wanted to expand on and I thought of waiting until the season completely finishes to write about this but I guess I don't want to wait that long so this may serve as my wrap up post for the second season of Taxi Driver 2 if the last a few episodes do nothing drastic to change my thoughts or if I don't have anything else to add.
But here goes: Taxi Driver 2 is really shaping up to be one of those shows that you need to watch with your brain turned off to be truly enjoyable. And I think that's where a lot of the dissatisfaction I see expressed online comes from because most people expect shows like that to be fluffy and this show is not fluffy but it has some insane leaps of logic😂. I personally have no problem with it because I found the latter half of the first season a bit too dark and I really just didn't like the storyline in the latter half. But the storyline in the second half this time around actually is culturally relevant since Burning Sun and all. But I will admit I think the show found a perfect balance between light and dark with the first four episodes and I do wish it would go back to that tone because sometimes it is a little too silly.
Part of me is still kind of bitter about the fact that season 1 switched out its original writer so we never got to see their intended version of season 1 play out.
I guess I'm just easy to please in a way because season 2 got rid of the biggest problem I had with season 1 which is the character of Kang Hana. I love Esom and this is not intended to drag her and in any way but the character of Hana was just so terribly cliche. I guess the one thing I'm immensely grateful that the second writer of season 1 didn't do is develop a love-line between Kang Hana and Kim Doki. Especially because the way they're developing the relationship between Kim Doki and Ahn Goeun is my favorite thing about this season. I haven't seen such an awesome slow burn romantic subplot in a while!😍.
Which makes me extremely glad that Pyo Yejin was the one that was eventually cast as Ahn Go Eun because if it was the original actress who initially got cast I don't think I would be such a die-hard fan of this relationship and yeah the bullying accusations would have played a part in it but I think I would have been a little weirded out by the real life age difference between the initial actress and Lee Jehoon to be cheering for a romance between their characters. So I guess the k-drama gods are really on our side sometimes😆. Now if they can only give us a Lee Jehoon and Pyo Yejin 12-16 episode rom-com drama🙏
