#i could probably list more kdrama actors but | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ohmybitna · 1 year

Text

↳ 8 Shows To Get To Know Me

i was tagged by @sorrowfulliming and @heesulovebot thank you both so much, I had a lot of fun doing this list! ❤️ I tried to choose some shows that have had kind of played a significant role in my life in one way or another, maybe you'll learn a bit more about me through this idk

one tree hill (2003 - 2012) i feel like this one is the most important show if you want to know me. It's half of my personality. I grew up with this show and all of these characters mean the absolute world to me, I relate to them on a deep level and I've rewatched all 9 seasons of this so many times that if you tell me a quote from the show I can tell you who said it and in what context and season (maybe even episode) it was said. It's probably the best teen drama ever made and except for lack of representation (which i can excuse to some extent because it started airing in the early 00s) this is really something everyone can and should watch. Nothing beats the friendships in this show. I'm still searching for the brooke & haley to my peyton tbh

the vampire diaries (2009 - 2017) this show is very special to me because I started learning english more intensely and on my own outside of school because I couldn't wait until they were showing the eps with german dub half a year after they originally aired. I had to wait 4 years until the show made stefan & caroline a couple and no other ship has ever come close to how I felt (and still feel) about them. best friends to lovers will always get me and they did it so well. we do not talk about anything after 7x05, the show ended there for me tyvm. they were by far the best part of the show for me since I dislike a lot of the decisions the show made a lot of the time. but they were the reason I created a tumblr account back in 2015 that I've since forgot the name and password for 😂 it was an account dedicated to making icons for tvd. ugh i miss shows with multiple seasons and 24 eps for each season

blueming (2021) this bl drama is always gonna be important to me since it made me decide to choose film as the thing I want to major in. I got really into independent movies after watching blueming because the cinematography of it astounded me and I wanted to learn more about it and how to create beautiful shots like those in the drama myself. I also rewatch it frequently. siwon is very dear to me.

taxi driver (2021 - 2023) i debated if i should put this or the devil judge/flower of evil/happiness here because i love them all dearly and they're all tied for my fav kdramas of all time but this one was the first kdrama i watched weekly as it aired and I was so obsessed with it and its cases and characters. i love darker themes and case-by-case dramas, it's my favorite genre when it comes to korean shows. kim doki is such a dear character to me and i love the way jehoon plays him. words can't describe how happy i am that it's back on my screen and just as good as it always was. (plus pyo yejin is one of my biggest celebrity crushes i love her sm)

the haunting of hill house (2018) one of the greatest shows ever made and imo the best of its genre. ep 6 of this show especially impressed me so much because it just consists of multiple one-shots. i love mike flanagan, he's my favorite director and if you're into psychological horror i more than recommend watching this and midnight mass because they're both masterpieces. mike has this way of connecting horror and sadness and he does it so so well. I could write essays about his filmmaking and he's my biggest inspiration when it comes to film.

my engineer (2020) this was the first bl I was really invested in, I even bought tickets to the online fanmeeting which i usually never do for anything. these characters and actors really helped me get through the lockdowns in 2020. one of the few bls where they managed to give everyone their fair screen time and made everyone's story enjoyable to watch. also very important part of why i loved watching it was the lack of fanservice they made the actors do and that we got them all in one room reacting to every episode together. it was the best and i wish more shows would do it.

light on me (2021) oh what a show. even though I don't like the ending and I think the last episode had some continuity issues and felt like a second thought in some ways I thorougly enjoyed the ride this drama took me on. the runtime allowed for the show to explore its characters well and made us able to connect with them. i miss that for newer shows a lot. shin daon is and probably will always be my favorite k-bl character, he felt so real and I could see an old version of myself in him. he deserved a lot better and I hope he's off to college living his best life, he deserves it.

one day at a time (2017 - 2020) let me just say that I am NOT a sitcom enjoyer. shows that are targeted to make me laugh usually don't and I get bored early on because I don't get the appeal. nothing against these shows, they just don't speak to me. HOWEVER odaat is a huge exception because I was hooked to the well-balanced use of humor and deep conversations and topics portrayed in this show. plus it also made me laugh!! and sometimes also cry both in the span of 5 minutes. these characters have a special place in my heart. elena halped me a lot in my journey of self-discovery and I loved the way the show portrayed her journey.

bonus: (i know this technically makes it 9 but i didn't know where to put it)

wish you (2021) I'm adding this as well but extra since I only ever watch the movie version of it. it's imo the only kbl that works as a movie. even though not a lot of people love this, it is my most rewatched k-bl (and I think bl in general). I adore Sang Yi, he's a lot like me and watching him be an awkward mess in front of his crush and idol is very cute to watch. the OST for this show is also so good i listen to it all of the time.

i will tag @ghostvalleymasters i hope you haven't done this yet :)

#tag game #about me #i loved making this list #sorry that it took me almost a week you guys #tagged

3 notes · View notes

accidentallyadramablog · 1 year

Text

Dropped Dramas in 2022

I saw @rain-hat's drop list and was inspire to make my own. I dropped a lot this year because I've been trying more drama genres outside my comfort zone and finding that...they are still outside my comfort zone. Urban fantasy kdramas and fantasy sageuks are where I thrive.

Since most of these were dropped due to my dislike, I will not be tagging this so that I keep my criticism out of the tags. List under the cut with progress in parentheses.

A Business Proposal (8/12) I normally don't like CEO romances because I'm not a fan of those types of power dynamics and gave it a shot after I saw gifsets of the "removing glasses" kiss. I found it enjoyable until the hiking scene for the 2nd couple because I love hiking and I personally would have left her on the mountain. I can't stand immature characters.

Between Us (2/12) I watched UMWA and it's a favorite of mine but I was really taken aback seeing Dean & Pharm in so many scenes when I've seen their story already. I started fast-forwarding the drama and by the end of episode 2, I no longer cared. I am watching Waan & Tul play out in gifsets though. I will probably binge this on fast-forward once it's done.

Blue Birthday (3/16) Too slow for me

Check out the Series (2/12) I loved the special Episode 0 but the full treatment was a mess and I didn't find anyone likeable.

Cherry Blossom After Winter (5/8) Too young for me and a lot of places it was cringey for me to watch. Sometimes highschool/college dramas are just too immature for me. I'm over 40.

Cutie Pie (5/12) Miscommunication as a plot driver is not for me when it's not written well, and they had that with both main couples. I'm also not a fan of this power dynamic. They had chemistry, I'll give them that. The actors for the 3rd/side couple have a drama coming out next year and that's on my to-watch list.

Enchante (7/10) Honestly, I was working a lot when this came out and I was behind most of the people watching and talking about it. By the time the ending rolled around, it seemed like a messy end, so I figure I ended on a high note by not finishing it. I enjoyed the hijinks up to that point.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (6/16) - I loved it! Except I was behind all of tumblr and basically was able to watch it all via gifsets and short clips without having to slog through the legal cases and mother drama. I only dropped it because I basically saw everything on social media and didn't see the need to watch the full episode when I got home from work. 10/10 recommended!!

First Love Again (3/6) I was bored. I also did not like the age gap or perhaps it was the boss/employee relationship.

Falling Into Your Smile (22/31) I just could not stand the way they wrote the leads' characters. There was a ton of sexual harassment of the FL on the part of the ML in their workplace and in the public and the writers tried to play it off as flirting. I would have filed a lawsuit. Jeez. Also, the director never let the FL emote. I know she can act as I've seen her in other projects. They even had her fall down the stairs at one point and her face never changed expression. This is a failure of the writers and directors.

In Your Heart (7/8) I stopped watching an episode before the sexual assault based on recommendations from reviewers on MDL.

KinnPorsche (8/14) As mentioned above, I'm not a fan of boss/employee relationships and I was tired of Kinn never having to apologize.

Love Mechanics (2/10) I would have loved to finish it but I don't have WeTV and was too lazy to look for it on a grey site and then forgot about it when it was released for non-subscribers. The chemistry and War's acting made my sternum ache. A++ acting on his part. I will finish this one day. (I did watch the original short version.)

My Bossy Wife (7/12) I was in it for a webdrama with a crime solving noblewoman but there was some serious homophobic plotlines and they hated GNC women too much.

My Tooth Your Love (6/12) Cute but I was creeped out by the doctor-patient relationship. I was getting sucked in and then would get hit with how unprofessional it was.

Once Upon a Small Town (8/12) Cute but I was bored. Everyone was pretty.

Our Blues (2/20) I started watching for Shim Dal Gi and her cute HS romance before I realized it was an ensemble drama. I dropped because of Lee Byung Hun. Why would the drama gods pair Shin Min Ah with him? She deserves a better acting partner.

Plus & Minus (4/12) I was behind a couple of weeks and spoiled myself on the messy break-up and reconciliation. I dropped before I could watch that.

Senpai, Danjite Koidewa! (5/8) Not my style. I could not stand Kaneda's character being so completely in panic mode at all times. I tried, I really did, to stick it out to see if he ever got over it, but he didn't by ep 5.

Sh**ting Stars (11/16) Loved the main couple but the 2nd couple ruined it for me. Yoo Sung with Ho Yeong was icky for me because of the working relationship and the age gap. I was rooting for Seunghyub (I should confess to being a fan of N.Flying) and I thought they were more suitable with their ages and their personalities. Dropping was not the fault of Lee Sung Kyung or Kim Young Dae who were great. I love their style of comedy.

Star and Sky: Sky in Your Heart (3/8) I found Mek's character Khuafah unlikeable. Too bad, I liked Star in Your Mind (the first part of the series with JoongDunk).

The Eclipse (10/12) Perfect drama. Great chemistry. Loved this. I just hated the teachers and the school and noped out of that even though I ended up missing out on the couples getting together. There's always a supercut I can watch later. I will watch anything with Neo Trai in it. I hope he gets like a million lead roles down the line.

Vice Versa (6/12) Honestly? I'm just not a fan of Jimmy's acting (in this or in Bad Buddy) OR the way his character NEVER REVEALED HIS NAME UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE. Eff that. Talay deserved better. I do like Sea and his acting. I want to see more and I hope he doesn't become co-branded with Jimmy. As mentioned above, I will watch anything with Neo Trai in it. I got excited when his character said Phuwadol was his type. I'd love to see a dude pursue a Tom in a Thai drama. Also, I was desperate for screen time for Jeab Lalana who I've loved since Club Friday.

You're My Sky (7/12) Good and it gave authentically queer vibes. The track stars were stressing me out though. Cheating story lines are not for me and I dropped it. The jock/nerd duo were more my style but they had less screen time. I also was completely bored by all the basketball so I tuned out the main couple.

#critical #drama critical #2022 drama year in review

3 notes · View notes

purposelynana · 2 years

Text

What Did I Watch: #22

Nothing.

Kidding.

I watched too many western series. Thanks to Skam and all of its remakes. I decided to just not caring about kdramas, cdramas and thai dramas. New challenge and new territory, that's all I need. But obviously we can't just go away from the things that shaped us. Below I've listed all the series that I watched on the past weeks.

Skam France

wtFock

I kinda wish to watch all of the Skam's remakes that is out there but it was hard. Like I struggled a lot with using google drive and so on just to download the episode. I had to save it in my cloud drive for re-watch purpose. But still, it was too damn inconvenient for someone that used to this kind of stuff back when I was a little bit younger. Right now, I just hope the show that I want to watch available in any streaming services.

Yet, there's a reward for every effort that we put. Those shows are freaking good. I could biased because I love the original one. But nope. I legit thinking Skam France shot in film camera because it was flawless. And the acting in wtFock made me in awe. These kids were first-timers and still they even better than any teenager actors that I came across before this. Gosh. What a joy just to find a show which trigger you in a good way and taught me in life better than a freaking preacher.

God, I miss Axel.

Eyewitness

I was bored okay. And tumblr gives me this weird algorithm and then I found this little gem. The perfect epitome of 'be gay, do crime'. I feel inclined to have the show more into noir-ish vibe but then, it didn't go there. I want to like it so bad but the camera language was terrible at times. When I look at on who's the director, well it's the least surprising name out there. Ha.

9-1-1: Lone Star

Because it was on a freaking trending topic for days.

Abbott Elementary

Actually this is the first time I finished a whole season of sitcom. And thank god, it was funny enough for me to continue.

Meng Hua Lu

On hold indefinitely. Its feminism point of view felt too unrealistic. Plus, they weren't willingly to go there for the sake of censorship. Fortunately the romance, for the first time, was actually make sense and look at that shot. Beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous.

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Team Connie all the way. We all should just make older siblings union. He deserves all the hugs in the world. I relate to him, me, a 27 years old spinster, relate to a freaking teenage angsty boy. He had a lot of baggage and I couldn't imagine when Susannah really really [redacted] how bad he can be.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

WHAT A FINALE.

Thank God I could live long enough to see this. To see Deborah Chow performed magic on my screen. To look at Hayden Christensen back as Vader, my fucking role model. Yes you read it right. Darth Vader is someone I'm aspire to be. And Ewan McGregor, hands down this is Emmy-nominated performance yall. Come on. COME. ON.

Maybe it was nostalgia or whatever. It was clearly a nostalgia that brought us to our screen, to increase our expectations, and to connect with a certain joy which probably last appeared more than decades ago. It was nostalgia and legacy, whichever it is, evidently set me up into this journey that led to Star Wars. A great reminder I was build like this because of Star Wars. The interest which initiated early by my father. The very first movie that I watched before I knew anything else is A New Hope and that memories engraved deeply in my heart. So, by watching Obi-Wan and absorbed any kind of life values contained in it, felt like a full circle to me. Everything is finally coming back to its own place.

And let's remind people, you can't create someone more tragic than the life of Anakin Skywalker. No one could ever come close to him.

#skam france #wtfock #eyewitness #obi-wan kenobi #meng hua lu #the summer i turned pretty #what did i watch

6 notes · View notes

kdramaxoxo · 2 years

Note

I have recently finished 2521 and I am going through withdrawal :( I've tried looking for similar shows but the only one that comes to mind is Reply 1988, which I already watched and it's one of my favorite kdramas ever.

Do you have anything similar to 2521 or Reply 1988? I don't necessarily want them with sad/bittersweet endings but I am looking for dramas that are more slice-of life, have a nostalgic vibe to it, focus on friendships and family dynamics, and have romance that is more about the little things and less about the grand gestures. I know that's a lot haha but would really appreciate it if you give me some recs since I really trust your judgement!!!

Thank youu

Thanks for the compliments!! That means a lot to me :)

Twenty Five Twenty One is super unique and there really aren't many other dramas like it. You mentioned Reply 1988 and that was the only one I thought of that had the romance, the nostalgia AND the friendship. There are a lot of coming of age dramas that might fill that gap though.

K-dramas similar to Twenty Five Twenty One

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo: Coming of age romcom about two college athletes. The romance is adorable and the friendships (while there could me more of it) are super fun.

Racket Boys: As a disclaimer I have not seen this yet. It's on my list and while it's not nostalgic, it has friendship, fluff romance and sports making it similar in that way?

Age of Youth: This drama fills the friendship and exploration of romance plus it's very binge worthy. There are two seasons though one is better than two, it's a fun watch.

Girl's Generation 1979: I dropped this drama but I literally cannot remember why? It takes place in the 1970's AND Bona is in it! This might be the closest drama to what you are looking for but I can't confirm it for sure. Honestly, I was going to go back to watching this but one of the actors was in the Burning Sun Scandal so it's a pass for me.

Fight for My Way: Again, there isn't any nostalgia but there are cute flash backs and the friendships are great. Plus the romance!! Though if you read my blog a lot, you probably already saw this one!

Reply 1988: You mentioned this one but it's for everyone else who might not have seen it. Set in the late 80's it's got tons of nostalgia and is about a group of friends growing up in a small neighborhood. It's a k-drama classic!

Rookie Cops: This drama was on Disney + so I only watched a little bit of it but it's got the strong friendships and soft romance that I think you're looking for. I LOVE Chae Soo Bin and might circle back to this one - it seems like an underrated drama (probably cause of the disney + thing)

#kdrama recs #kdrama recommendations #coming of age #twenty five twenty one #reply 1988 #racket boys #i need to watch that one for sure #ask #i love a list

54 notes · View notes

katierosefun · 2 years

Note

hey uh 8 months ago u posted: "i might compile a list of kdramas that either have very cool queer-coded characters, are explicitly queer, or just have a very queer vibe just to fuck around again so".. did u by chance ever post it? if u havent, no worries, but if u have the time, i would love to get ur recs- especially those w/ queer-coded characters or just a queer vibe (im researching q-coding for something im working)

aaah, thank you for reminding me of that list! i've actually got some time to kill (more like i'm procrastinating going to sleep), so actually, here's a list now!:

beyond evil

this show just immediately becomes number one on my list when it comes to queerness, queer coding, or almost explicitly a queer story in ways that i really just . . . have not stopped thinking about ever since watching this show. basically, this show is about lee dong sik (shin ha kyun) who, twenty years ago, was accused of kidnapping and possibly murdering his twin sister. now, hot shot new detective han joo won (yeo jin goo) starts working in dong sik's small town. when the murders start up again, these two go down a long path in finding out the truth of what happened those twenty years ago. the acting is just phenomenal: yeo jin goo and shin ha kyun are truly an acting match made in heaven, just because both are insanely talented.

what makes this story incredibly queer, i think, is just the relationship between han joo won and lee dong sik. neither are very much so interested in a heterosexual romance, which is interesting, because there are def. female characters that could have been their love interests, but not once is that ever enforced or even implied? i also have a post here somewhere about how dong sik in particular is pretty queer or expresses queer-coded traits (ie. his relationship with religion, his relationship with past male colleagues, his tendency to flirt exclusively with men), and han joo won expresses similarities (ie. unwillingness to engage in romantic relationships with women in particular). but more than that, these two share just such a deep relationship that it's incredibly difficult not to see them as romantic--it's also worth noting that the writer, director, and cast members themselves have very much so worked this story into something that's much more romantic. (ie. the writer and director noting that these two have a relationship that has very much evolved into love, yeo jin goo talking about how he thinks han joo won probably moved in with dong sik, shin ha kyun and yeo jin goo heavily improvising some of the most . . . romantic scenes in the show).

there's a lot of shows that i've been told are queer, only to be very sorely disappointed because i realize those particular recs take a very long stretch, but beyond evil is one of those few shows that i think. genuinely. is queer. i promise you won't be disappointed.

school 2013

and yet another show that i think is perhaps one of the queerest stories out in kdrama history. i'm pretty sure this was both lee jong suk and kim woo bin's debuts as actors too, which is such an iconic move on their part. but basically, this series is about the difficulties high school students go through in the korean education system. while this story is very much an ensemble story, jong suk's character go nam soon is, i think, the main character. he's not very academically inclined, doesn't have too much of a dream...and i think he genuinely is depressed because he hurt and separated himself from his best friend park heung soo (kim woo bin). things become very complicated when his best friend transfers to nam soon's new school, only now, these two are something between enemies/rivals/ex-friends-who-still-care-about-each-other-but-still-hold-a-lot-of-resentment-and-etc. so you can imagine all the angst.

there's some genuinely lovely scenes between the two of them. also worth noting that kim woo bin actually kissed lee jong suk (yes, there are photos) behind the scenes for one of the most dramatic scenes of the show. there's another rather queer pairing in this show (more like a queer . . . trio?), but the story between heung soo and nam soon is just such a key component of the story that i had to mention it first. this show def. has its cheesy moments, but nam soon and heung soo sleeping next to each other time and time again over the course of the series and also very slowly getting over their own hurts is just . . . this is very much so a love story, and i think when this show was airing, a lot of people were speculating the same. (also worth noting that jang na ra, who played the iconic teacher jung in jae in this series, explained in an interview that she genuinely things heung soo and nam soon love each other . . . so--)

sungkyunkwan scandal

ah, yes, but if we're getting a teensy bit past queer-coded-ness and instead moving into explicitly queer characters, i just have to mention this saeguk classic, sungkyunkwan scandal. this show is about an intelligent young woman named kim yoon hee (park min young) who, for the sake of money, pretends to be a man to enter the nation's most prestigious (and still one of the most prestigious universities today!) university, sungkyunkwan university. in the process, she meets her roommates--the stiff son of a government official lee sun joon (park yoo chun) and the wild horse of a student moon jae shin (yoo ah in). along the way, she also meets moon jae shin's best friend, the flirty son of a merchant goo yong ha (song joong ki).

what i really love about this kdrama is that unfortunately, a lot of kdramas will take the whole "gender bending" trope and have the main male love interest(s) go through this whole existential crisis of "oh my god aM i gAy? tHis iS aWfuL", which, of course, leaves a pretty bad taste in your mouth when you're, y'know, a queer viewer. but what i love about this drama is that while it def. starts with that reaction (understandable, given the era), it actually goes into a wonderfully progressive direction? even though the protagonist is a woman, the main male love interest very much so decides "okay, fine. then i'm gay." but it doesn't stop there?

there's a lot of characters who point out in this show that it's not a crime to love someone of the same sex. in one specific moment, goo yong ha confesses to lee sun joon that he has romantic feelings for his best friend moon jae shin--and jae shin and yong ha's relationship is very much so . . . queer. a very genuine gem.

while you were sleeping

okay . . . so full disclosure, this is probably one of those that are more of a stretch, but so many people ship all three leads together, so that's why i'm including them. also, i really do think they're all bisexual and in love with each other, so it works.

basically, this show is about three extraordinary individuals: nam hong joo (bae suzy), jung jae chan (lee jong suk), and han woo tak (jung hae in). these three can see snippets of the future in their dreams. by fate, all of their lives get entangled together, and what's really lovely about this show is that while the two male leads are in love with the main female lead, there's never . . . a real sense of a love triangle? these three work incredibly harmoniously together. (also, some of jung jae chan's scenes with han woo tak can very . . . easily be interpreted as ohhhh, he's got a crush. also, these three characters just radiate so many parts of the bisexual spectrum. hong joo and woo tak are on the very competent, distinguished bisexual side of the spectrum, while jae chan . . . jae chan's on the chaotic side. which is why i love them all.)

nevertheless

okay, so another full disclosure with this one: nevertheless is one of those shows that i just wish was better and also a show that i skipped about like 95% of the scenes, because the show is actually about the art student na bi (han so hee) dating the mYstEriOus student park jae eon (song kang). (spoiler alert: park jae eon is the walking example of a red flag.)

but ANYWAYS, if we look over their scenes (i love han so hee and song kang, they really are both lovely actors . . . and i think to be fair, they both said in interviews that people like park jae eon suck), we can find the genuinely touching coming-of-age queer romance between yoon sol (lee ho jung) and seo ji wan (yoon seo ah). these two are canonically in love with each other, and it's really genuinely lovely. i feel like wlw relationships in kdrama are specifically hard to come by, but this one, for its little screen time, was still so genuinely heartfelt and authentic that (okay, maybe i'm oversharing a bit) i felt as though i was really reading a page out of my own diary? like, the tentativeness and fear of potentially ruining a perfectly good friendship is so real in this show--but they really are quite sweet. :'))

shows i haven't watched, but i've heard very good things in terms of queerness/are now on my watch list because i've heard it's . . . got some queer-coded characters/queer stories:

the devil judge

okay, so i'm planning to watch this soon, so i don't have real thoughts on it so far, but as far as i can tell, it's about a dystopian korea where the legal system is especially fucked up. the chief judge and his . . . clerk? co-judge? share a very . . . . . . interesting bond. that's it. but i do know there's been some parallels drawn to beyond evil, which i still think is the peak of queerness in korean drama, so i suppose that must mean something!

move to heaven

so, while move to heaven isn't literally about a gay couple, this show is about a young man and his . . . uncle (? or friend? idk, i've only watched the first episode of this show) who basically clean out the apartments of those who have passed away, thereby giving some sense of healing to their loved ones. there's one episode about a gay couple, and i've heard it's incredibly beautiful. it's sad that there's obviously going to be death, but i've also heard that it's done with so much genuine respect and love and compassion for gay couples in korea.

unfortunately--and i end with this show on this rec list for this very reason, gay couples are still very much discriminated against in south korea. the discrimination is brutal. same-sex couples aren't allowed to register as a family unit, which interferes with matters regarding medical insurance and adoption, should any of these couples want children. and of course, there's everyday discrimination in the workplace, in school, etc. while i think people have slowly been getting better about queerness in korea, they're still incredibly conservative with queerness. so to have a story that so lovingly depicts a queer relationship means a lot--and i hope that in the future, there'll be more explicitly queer love stories. of course, i think there's a lot of power in queer-coding, esp. within the limited confines of mainstream korean television, but you know, times are changing, and i hope that shows like move to heaven and others will continue to push the envelope in queer representation in korea and beyond.

#answered #caroline recs #i hope this was a good list!#i encourage others to add onto this list because i'm sure there are a ton of other kdramas that are queer and really lovely #but these are the ones i'm most familiar with!

28 notes · View notes

starfire-s · 3 years

Text

here’s a list of the best, mediocre and worst kdramas i watched in 2020

no one asked for this but it’s happening because i have thoughts (also all opinions are my own if you disagree then get well soon i guess... no i’m kidding make your own posts about it don’t hate me please) ahsjsj anyways click to read a lengthy post and if you actually read the whole thing then thank you i hope you enjoy this wild ride!

THE BEST KDRAMAS -

mystic pop up bar - this show had everything i ask from a kdrama literally i can name it all found family (to real family), well thought out characters, a mystery plot, special effects, soft romances that were well written, a happy ending! no show in 2020 even comes close to how good this one was! the writers literally guided you throughout the whole thing so you could come up with theories and didn’t do a ‘aha! gotcha’ thing where they want to prove the audience wrong but they wanted us to be right and satisfied! the worst part about the drama is that it’s still so underrated and people just brush it off as some random fantasy show but it’s so much more than that! 1000/10

flower of evil - who doesn’t want to see lee joon gi being the son of a serial killer, living with the name of a man who is in a coma, and hiding his real identity from his wife who is a detective? this show constantly had me at the edge of my seat on a weekly basis so the emotions i went through while watching this are unparalleled! the writers also did such a good job on writing a coherent story that made sense and tied up all the plot points in the end. just a really satisfying show to watch! 10/10

where your eyes linger - i literally bought a $8 viki pass to watch this show so it should tell you everything you need to know about how i feel ahsjsj the episodes were 10 minutes long but we got a good story with well written characters who got character development in a total of 80 minutes it’s insane! honestly it’s still hard to believe this show had rookie actors because they were just so emotive that you could feel all the happiness, sadness, yearning and pining! probably one of my fave kdramas this year because of the acting that i always constantly rewatch! would recommend 10/10

crash landing on you - okay so this drama was actually released on my birthday last year and it was a time in my life when i was going through a lot so maybe it’s the comfort this show provided me through that time this is why i have such a soft spot for it? like the romance was good, it was funny, there was found family, the nk soldiers were all softies, there were strong female leads, soft male leads!!! ahh!! no other show on this list made me think about the unification of south korea and north korea irl because i wanted se ri and jeong hyeok to be together 4ever! but the only issue i had with this show was the ending they gave seung jun if they didn’t do that i’d give this show a 10/10 but just for that they get a 9/10

psycho but it’s okay - this was one of those shows where you’re literally like ‘wow everyone here needs therapy’ but this show was amazing i loved the story telling and how each episode related to children’s book/fairytales! the writers also did a good job with how carefully they talked about mental health in depth without villainising their characters but actually tried to make the audience understand why they were this way which included all the side characters too who had a well thought out story in each episode! also the dynamic between moon young, kang tae and sang tae was everything to me the actors all did an amazing job portraying their characters, it truly was a healing drama. the only thing i didn’t like about this show was the whole plastic surgery plot with the mother like that was very far fetched but it provided drama so i’ll let it slide because the rest was amazing. this show is a solid 8.5/10

18 again - another underrated gem! who would’ve thought a remake of that zac efron movie could be this good!! lee do hyun stole this show for sure the way he portrayed his character and gave heart eyes to his kids (when he’s only 25 irl was the best thing i saw this year ahsjs) i loved the family dynamics in this show, i loved how it talked about what it’s like to be young parents and how society still think it’s taboo to be divorced! it’s a show that makes you laugh and cry at the same time and that’s why everyone should watch it! however, the biggest clown thing this show did to me though was that i got sls for the first time while watching a kdrama... hwang in yeop if u’re reading this i love u and u deserved better 🤡 that aside this show was a 8/10

itaewon class - i actually didn’t watch this drama as it was airing because i thought i wouldn’t enjoy the plot but when i watched it i binged the whole thing in 2 days and my biggest regret is i didn’t watch it sooner! everyone knows i have a soft spot for park seo joon since he’s my favourite actor i’ve literally watched all his dramas like he could star in the trashiest drama out there and i’d still watch it and be like wow (looking at she was pretty 👀) this show aside from the acting had one of the best revenge plots in a kdrama! just watching a character realistically hustle his way to reach the top while fighting the corrupt man whose son killed his father was so so satisfying to watch! however, the love triangle in this show was questionable idk what they were trying to do with that but it personally annoyed me! but still i’ll give this show a 7.5/10 because i enjoyed it a lot!

do you like brahms? - kim min jae and park eun bin.. that’s all you need to know about why this is a good kdrama! i’m usually not a big fan of melodramas and everyone knows i prefer rom coms but this show was just so perfectly melo that i loved all the angst and pain we got!! also just watching two introverted people awkwardly fall in love was amazing! the characters story arcs were also handled pretty well with song ah finally learning to speak up for herself and joon young learning to express how he truly feels! but... the love square? was probably the most annoying thing the rest in my opinion was nicely done! i know people had mixed feelings about the ending but i loved that after all the pain joon young and song ah went through they got a happy ending together! 7/10

find me in your memory - okay this show started off very slow and it was confusing at the start but as it progressed everything in the plot started to fall into place! i mean this show really took opposites attract to a new level where the male lead could remember every single detail from his life but the female lead had to forget some of her traumatic memories to help her cope with her life! they were also tied together through a mutual character who was a big part of their lives in a different way! just an interesting melodrama with interesting characters i liked it! and moon ga young... i love you queen!!! 7/10

THE MEDIOCRE KDRAMAS -

more than friends - was the storytelling in this show groundbreaking? no. was the acting decent? yes. also probably the main reason i stuck with this show until the end! i think we can all agree lee soo had the best character development on this show he started off as a bad boy who wore one ear stud to actually becoming a well liked character... who else did it like him? no one. also the chemistry between the mains was 🔥 but the second male lead was so annoying is there a opposite word for second lead syndrome because i had that for sure! i think the best part about this show was the people i watched it with on here... shoutout to the five of us ahsjsj also this show introduced me to a talented actor/singer like ong seong wu (y’all know my kpop knowledge is nonexistent so no i didn’t know he was in a band called wanna one) all in all a predictable show but i had fun watching it so 6.5/10

tale of the nine tailed - i didn’t actually watch this show i watched it through gifs and instagram posts ahsjsjs so am i qualified to talk about my opinion definitely no... will I talk about it anyways yes lmao. lee rang deserved better that’s all goodbye and take care. 5.5/10

start up - probably one of the most awaited opinions. y’all thought this would be in the worst kdramas section but i decided to give this show some rights. the show started off strong, lost it’s way after episode 6 and then the last episode gave me what i wanted so i have mixed feelings. the writing was not the best i think we can all agree, love triangle as a plot device? wow so groundbreaking 🤡 the characters on the other hand... i loved every single one of them i mean ship wars? i don’t know her. the show had a lot of potential that was wasted but we also got some cute moments between the characters so there was really no winning or losing with this show? but in all honesty you can’t put a talented cast together like this and then just decide to give the audience a mediocre plot but the writers did exactly that! i think i can redirect y’all to my ‘crimes this show committed’ post for a in-depth analysis. lastly nam do san was a GOOD and REFRESHING male lead and ji pyeong was also a GOOD and FUN second male lead!!! this show gave me the ugliest ship war ever that i was transported back to my high school tvd days so thank you for that!! but the cast was loveable and all had a lot of chemistry together so here’s a 5/10 maybe that's too generous but... i think the reason why i didn't enjoy watching this show as much was definitely because of the tag on here lmao

THE WORST KDRAMAS -

the king eternal monarch - i miss clowning this show so much. the amount of braincells i lost while trying to understand this plot... i should be compensated by the writers. however, woo do hwan was a treat to look at on a weekly basis... however the writers kept decreasing his screen time even though he had a dual role... make it make sense? and i cannot comment on the plot of this show because i still don’t understand anything? also in my opinion tae eul and lee gon were the most bland couple of 2020, there was no chemistry between them and there was just a random kiss in episode 5 and they randomly said i love you... where was the development? also lee gon was soooo boring and such a one dimensional male lead! literally all the side characters were so much more interesting and the cast was good... but this plot. 2/10

do do sol sol la la sol - i wanna fight the writer who decided that the plot twist on the show would be that jun is a minor? i had no expectations from this show but it looked cute and nonsensical but that plot twist made me run the other way so fast that i never looked back! just because jun is a boy they really thought this would be excused like lmao we all have critical thinking skills???? the clown behaviour. a solid 1/10

record of youth - i hate this show so much. imagine not utilising park so dam who just starred in the biggest oscar winning movie to her full potential. imagine just making her a love interest to park bo gum’s character in the year 2020. i watched it up until episode 6 and i kept waiting for her character to get development... but it never happened so i dropped this show. also this show featured the MOST useless love triangle i have ever seen in my life like what was the point? also park bo gum’s characters family was straight up annoying (minus the grandpa) but they got so much screen time like that should’ve been given to park so dam... also villainising a gay side character for no reason at all in the year 2020? this show was a waste of my time i want the 6 hours i spent watching this back. -100/10

backstreet rookie - i watched one episode of this and literally wanted to rip my eyeballs out of my head. idk what ji chang wook was thinking when he signed this drama i think he lost his ability to read because that's the only reasonable explanation for why he chose to star in such a dumpster fire show! this show had a racist character... had a high schooler kiss an adult... sexist jokes... just the worst things you can think of in a drama... this show had it. i still can’t believe so many people watched this show to the point where it had better ratings than pbio... really made me question everyone’s taste? but sorry can’t relate my taste is excellent so here’s the rating this show actually deserves -1000/10

if you made it this far... thank you for reading. let’s continue to love some kdramas together and get clowned by others in 2021! looking forward to it 😅

456 notes · View notes

fashournalist · 3 years

Text

Beyond Evil is a Masterpiece

It is amazing how every detail ties closely with each other in this crime thriller. No filler episodes were needed. It was not dragged. It has an overlapping question that you only get to fully know after 16 episodes, but every episode answers a different question that leads to the ultimate revelation.

I think, to date, this is the most well-written Korean drama I have ever watched. I am not saying it tops my favorites Reply 1988 and She Was Pretty (those are still my all-time favorites), but in terms of screenplay, Beyond Evil is superb. Now I totally get why it won the Best TV Drama Award and Best Screenplay Award at the Baeksang Arts Awards this year. I think it’s even better than some Western crime shows; probably except for Breaking Bad because this series and Beyond Evil can belong to the same league.

This drama is the perfect example of “show not tell” storytelling. It will keep you guessing until the very end. You have to pay close attention to get hooked on the story. They will not spoon-feed you with all the details at once. Just like a Redditor at r/KDRAMA said, it is like peeling off layers of an onion. The deeper you dive in, the more you see. It also has a more satisfying revenge arc than My Mister (another critically acclaimed, great drama) and Crash Landing on You (also a good drama, but imho overrated and very dragged during the first half).

Aside from the brilliant writing, they have superb acting and directing as well. Shin Ha Kyun definitely deserved his Baeksang Best TV Actor Award! I think Choi Dae Hoon could have also won the Best Supporting Actor, although I have not watched It’s Okay to Not Be Okay to determine if the winner really deserved the award. The dynamics between Lee Dong Sik and Han Ju Won is amazing. Their care for each other was rarely spoken with words, but you can see through their actions how they value one another. I also like how the series did not force any romance, although I can definitely see some potential spark between Han Ju Won and Yoo Jae I. Too often, dramas force romance even when it’s not necessary. Beyond Evil stayed true to its nature: a psychological crime thriller. It also has a great soundtrack that perfectly fit the scenes. My favorite from their OST is Timeless by BIBI.

I have read that this is a low-budget drama in terms of production (compared to other dramas released this year) and with that, I think it’s even more commendable how they maximised the talent that went to this show despite working with limited finances. I also love the fact that despite having two male leads instead of the usual FL and ML, this show is actually headed by women (writer: Kim Su-Jin, director: Shim Na-Yeon)

There are so many K-dramas lined up in my watchlist, but I moved Beyond Evil up, and I don’t regret it at all. I rarely watch new dramas because I want to make sure they are worth my time; hence I wait for reviews and awards. If you are looking for critically acclaimed shows, make sure you add Beyond Evil to your list.

Sit back, pay attention, and feel the slow burn of this show with each scene.

#Netflix #TV #reviews #Beyond Evil #Baeksang Arts Awards #Kdrama #Korean drama #Shin Ha Kyun #Yoo Jin Goo #Choi Dae Hoon

52 notes · View notes

dangermousie · 3 years

Text

2020 End of Year Post - cdrama edition

This is only going to cover cdramas that aired in 2020; if I had to make a post about all the cdramas I watched this year, I would still be doing it in three months...

Overall it’s been a fairly decent cdrama year (certainly better than the very lacklustre kdrama year.) It’s no miracle that 2019 was (so many excellent dramas!) but overall pretty solid.

DRAMAS WATCHED

(In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)

44 The Legend of Jing Yan - the worst cdrama I have seen this year, and possibly the worst drama of 2020, period. The hero and heroine were both uncharismatic, incapable of acting and saddled with such shrilly moronic characters, the only suspense was how they haven’t both perished long since from forgetting to breathe. Nor was anyone in the rest of the cast much better; the screenplay was written by a lower mammal and the cinematography was the best a third-rate wedding cinematographer could offer. Stay the HELL away from this one.

43 Unicorn Girl - the only unicorn about this bland yet irritating piece of pap was the fact that I was supposed to believe the leads are hockey players.

42 Autumn Cicada - I like spy stories, Allen Ren, and Republican Era settings. I can tune out Communist propaganda with the best of them. Yet, the propaganda ate the story to such a degree that there was nothing left; pre magic change Pinocchio was less wooden then this narrative.

41 You Complete Me - no you do not.

40 Skate into Love - the only positive thing I can say about this is that at least it’s better than Unicorn Girl, if for no other reason that only one of them is supposed to be a hockey player.

39 Irreplaceable Love - how do you make a story about fake siblings with a mad mother falling for each other boring? I don’t know, ask the makers of this.

38 Eternal Love Rain - I hate to rain on their parade, but these two actors cannot act, have about as much chemistry as a piece of bread, and are trapped in a story perfect for entertaining the mental abilities of the leads of Jin Yan.

37 For Married Doctoress - ummmm, you could do worse I guess. It only made me break out in mild hives. The sadistic ending did make me laugh though.

36 Dance of the Sky Empire - why you get Xu Kai and waste him in this insipid mess of a story is beyond me.

35 Love Designer - it’s inoffensive except to my sense of entertainment. There is nothing wrong with it but oh God is it bland.

34 Love a Lifetime - It felt like a lifetime watching this, but I didn’t love it. The story is incoherent, the actors have no chemistry and it’s all an epic waste of time.

33 Love is Sweet - so sweet it gave me diabetes. I like Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu, but there is literally no plot. I don’t need to sink into a plotless morass to watch pretty people engage in PG-rated make-outs. I am an adult with access to stronger stuff if I am thus inclined, though to be fair they could get x-rated and I still wouldn’t be able to sit through so many episodes of plotlessness for that.

32 Fake Princess - I love Zhao Yi Qin, but the guy needs to pick better projects. The female lead in this one has the voice and personality that can strip paint but the story is also doing nobody any favors.

31 The Changan Youth - I lost my brain checking this out. I had to go and read a dense treatise on medieval coinage or Mayan farming to try to recover it.

30 My Dear Destiny - kinda cheesy fun. It honestly shouldn’t be as low except it really feels like community theater.

29 Handsome Siblings - why is the Nic Tse version so good and this one so bad? True mystery for the ages. Chen Zhe Yuan is the sole reason this isn’t lower, because that kid tries SO HARD to make this drama bearable and almost succeeds. I can’t wait to see him in Sha Po Lang which actually will give him something to do.

28 In a Class of Her Own - see my comment on The Changan Youth. But at least Song Weilong is gorgeous to look at.

27 General’s Lady - inoffensive, pretty and so utterly pointless.

26 The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion - those two leading actors are a no go to me but at least they considerately acted with each other instead of ruining two dramas for me. It’s very pretty though.

25 Jiu Liu Overlord - it’s a mess and I bailed, but I placed it this high merely due to the fact that Lai Yi finally gets a leading role and he’s sexy as fuck and I am shallow. Whoever styled Bai Lu should never work again except at a circus, however.

24 Cross Fire - not my genre and Luhan will always look too much like my cousin for comfort, but it’s a surprisingly gripping and dark drama. I liked it!

23 God of Lost Fantasy - if you want to watch a mediocre wuxia/xianxia, this is not a bad choice. Probably better than Legend of Fei actually, because at least it doesn’t have an A-list cast to waste and gives us Sheng Yilun himbo and shirtless.

22 Renascence - the insane cuts (it went from 70 eps to 36!!!) made a fairly cheesy story into a total mess. But I had a good time until I finally bailed mainly because of the male lead (Chen Zhe Yuan yet again carrying a not-good 2020 drama on his shoulders; the guy should be nicknamed Atlas) and the insane but in a fun way story. The female lead (both the character and the actress) were not up to par but oh well.

21 Legend of Fei - only this high because objectively there is nothing I disliked it. But there is nothing I liked either. The most uninspired drama on the list. If you could eat cardboard, this is what it would taste like.

20 Ever Night 2 - compared to EN1, it’s a waste of film. On its own merits, it’s not very good (the cast replacements are uniformly inferior and Dylan Wang is so wrong for Ning Que I cannot even put it into words; the script is useless.) But it had some parts I loved so very VERY much (all the shippy stuff was perfection) so I don’t feel too bitter.

19 Castle in the Sky 2 - a lovely if not too complex fairy tale. It is inferior to its prequel because it doesn’t have Zhang Ruo Yun who elevated it, but it’s still a solid bit of fun.

18 The Great Ruler - it’s very high fantasy, very pretty, and surprisingly involving.

17 (tie) Legend of Two Sisters in the Chaos - the secondary couple steals the show but the rest is not too bad if not too involving.

17 Legend of Awakening - a solid bit of fun with a seriously BDSM streak (theme this year apparently - but come on, the lead’s powers only activate when he’s in extreme pain!) It’s a bit generic and the costuming is done by a blind person, not to mention the OTP is a NOTP, but the rest of relationships (romantic and platonic) are wonderful (I live for the found siblings story in this one) and I like most of the characters.

16 Consummation - a rare modern cdrama I liked; a sweet coming of age story (and love story) even if wrapped in a pretty weird virtual reality concept.

15 Oops the King is in Love - this is how you do a low budget, sweet, silly piece of fluff. Our heroine pretends to be a eunuch and crosses paths with a powerless young king and they are adorable, even more so than the drama.

14 Song of Glory - pretty solid, though draggy and I didn’t love the toothpaste filter. But A+ cast, excellent leading couple chemistry, Li Qin being a BAMF and a leading man (Qin Hao) who is actually an adult.

13 And the Winner is love - objectively kind of a mess (and the heroine has the brainpower of a gnat), but the OTP chemistry is excellent and Luo Yunxi fighting and flirting with a fan as finally a leading man is worth the price of admission.

12 Miss S - snazzy and snappy and stylish and whatever else starts with S.

11 Eternal Love of Dream - I don’t know if it would work for you as well if you weren’t a hardcore shipper for this OTP in Three Lives but I was and this was such a darling, wonderful, shippy delight; plus I love this type of high fantasy.

10 (tie) Maiden Holmes - solid and sweet and a wonderful OTP. Proves that functional doesn’t have to mean boring. If you watch one cross-dressing drama this year make it this one.

10 Qin Dynasty Epic - srs bsns history epic. I am not far into it but it’s so good and smart and visually stunning (if you love battles, this one is for you.)

9 Love Lasts Two Minds - I adored this so much more than I should objectively have, but it’s so beautiful (and no I am not just referring to Alan Yu’s face) and the OTP has wonderful chemistry and the story is solid, and the whole trope of her memory being wiped but falling for him all over again while he’s constantly and utterly devoted is a fave; plus he’s in pain and semi-dyng for most of it so sluuuurp (happy ending, don’t worry)

8 To Love - yes, a modern drama is this high! But it involves intensity, tragedy, genuine adults and sexiness that is Lin Gengxin. And there is an actual plot and darkness OMG!

7 Legend of Xiao Chuo - so beautiful, so fun, so full of gorgeousness of Shawn Dou. Plus, Liao is a rare setting for a cdrama and there are a lot of characters and stories I liked a LOT. Less ship content than I wanted but more than I expected.

6 The Romance of Tiger and Rose - so so delightful. I was literally laughing out loud. I have no idea if it will work as well if one isn’t a seasoned watcher of period cdrama/reader of web novels, with bonus for watching/reading Goodbye My Princess, but it was a complete delight for me (and yes, I shipped for real, as well. Best of both worlds.)

5 Twisted Fate of Love - Jin Han gets a leading period drama role! And he’s enjoying it to the hilt, excellent as a smart, twisty bastard who is also charming and so madly in love with heroine. Sun Yi is beautiful and tough and her chemistry with JH is on fire, the story never drags, and it’s so twisty and fun and just awesome.

4 Love In Between - the most underrated drama on this list. It has no big names or big budget, but it’s wuxia that’s clever, driven, tragic, hopeful and so beautifully shot. Three separate (amazing) OTPs, a leading man who is so not typical (a doctor who cannot fight and who never acquires this ability) and who is intense and smart and damaged, a heroine who puts her quest ahead of her emotions, an unhealthy degree of involvement by yours truly. This is a drama Fei should have been.

3 Love and Redemption - such a lovely, addictive, utterly romantic fairy tale. I was obsessed with it for a reason. All the tropes you love and some you didn’t know you did, a star-crossed OTP to the nth power (and a secondary OTP I hardcore love), a twisty yet coherent plot, some insane chemistry and so much whump and hurt/comfort they must have bought blood packets in bulk.

2 Go Ahead - yes, I can’t believe it either. A contemporary slice of life cdrama made it this high on my list. But the way it feels so real, the found family perfection, the characters I love and loathe, the perfect cherry of a wonderful OTP that hits my narrative kinks on top, and just a perfect storm of loveliness all around with this one.

1 The Wolf - is that any surprise to anyone who’s checked out this tumblr for the last couple of months? Tragic, intense and gorgeous; so romantic and angsty and passionate it made me lose my mind (though some of it was gone the moment the camera panned to Darren Wang) - all my favorite tropes and then some; this is a drama that may not be perfect but it is 100% and then beyond perfect for ME.

FAVORITE DRAMA

The Wolf - I have seen objectively better cdramas; even this year. But it has been literal years since I have been this hardcore obsessed, this utterly pleased, this emotionally catered to and devastated at once. A beautiful dark fairy tale that manages to own me despite the storytelling gaps due to censorship, it took me for one of the biggest emotional roller coaster rides of my drama watching career. Visually gorgeous, poetic, intense, and so romantic it took my breath away, this is not just my favorite cdrama of 2020, it’s my favorite drama this year period, and the one cdrama this year to make it into my permanent Top 10 cdramas list.

WORST DRAMA

Legend of Jin Yan - see my write up for it for why as I refuse to waste more time on this stupid mess.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

Wolfie, The Wolf - he is such a haunted, tormented, complex, dark mess; loving and violent, severely damaged and with a hidden yearning softness, longing and aloof. And the amount of charisma and sheer masculine sex appeal Darren Wang brings to the role is insane and not something I see much of in a cdrama. Plus, that character arc with its rapid fall and slow painful redemption is A++++

Runner Up: Sifeng, Love and Redemption - has a male lead ever loved more utterly and selflessly, suffered more thoroughly and beautifully, and managed to have such chemistry with both his leading lady and his leading man (that his leading lady temporarily turned into) at once? The answer is no.

Almost made the cut - Feng Xi, Twisted Fate of Love, Han Shuo, The Romance of Tiger and Rose, Qing Ci, Love in Between.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Xiao Qian, The Romance of Tiger and Rose - so funny, so much the reason this drama was such a delight. I adore her beyond words.

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

Murder Daddy, The Wolf - I am sad the censors robbed us of seeing him die on screen. He was fully human but nonetheless managed to be the worst monster in a drama full of literal ones.

Ling Xiao’s Mom, Go Ahead - I hate her so much I don’t want to look up her name. She abused the kid, the disappeared and came back to abuse him some more. I mean she literally gave her child mental health issues. She is the WORST.

FAVORITE SHIP

Xing��er x Wolfie, The Wolf - are you kidding me? Who else could it ever be for me? They destroyed each other and saved each other, sworn enemies and childhood lovers, soulmates and epic messes, they couldn’t live with or without each other. The longing, the passion, the intensity, the angst, the epicness. LIKE THERE ARE NO WORDS!!!!

FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP

Si Yuan, Shen Manqing, Love in Between - I loved them as much and often more than the main OTP. So much angst and passion and a happy ending! She is a seeming sect darling (except the sect is horrible and also sexist so her only worth is as a marriage candidate) and he’s an information broker who is actually one of the members of a destroyed sect that’s blamed for the massacre of her family. That chemistry and yearning is insane. The scene where she touches his face when he’s unconscious was in serious running for my favorite scene of 2020.

NOTP

Legend of Awakening - I have never seen a couple that didn’t just have no chemistry but exhibited actual revulsion towards each other before watching Chen Feiyu and Cheng Xiao try to act as lovers in this one. It was almost entertaining to be honest.

FAVORITE SCENE

It’s a tie and both are from The Wolf. One is a sequence where Wolfie marches to the walls alone, seeking death at Xing’er’s hands and the whole sequence with the battle and rescue follows. The other is the intercut between Xing’er going to her wedding and Wolfie going to his execution, and the auto-da-fe being intercut with her wedding.

BIGGEST CRUSH

Wolfie, The Wolf - Ummm have you seen this tumblr lately, it’s basically a drool shrine to the man.

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Yelü Yansage, The Legend of Xiao Chuo - I have loved this actor since The Myth and he continued to competently steal every scene he was in.

NEEDS A SEQUEL

To Love - come out of the coma, dammit!!!!!!!

NEEDS A DIRECTOR’S CUT

The Wolf - duh. It started out as 59 eps and got cut to 49. I reaiize some stuff is never gonna get put in due to censorship, but some of the stuff that got cut got for time reasons because they were deluded and hoping to get a TV broadcast so ep count had to be under 50. I mean I doubt the censors would care if they kept scenes of Wolfie building her a swing or whatever. I really really want a director’s cut the way Goodbye My Princess did even if like with GMP it’s only three extra eps. Hell, I will take extra three minutes, as long as those three minutes are Darren Wang shirtless or with a sword. Ahem.

NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

The Song of Glory - it’s a fairly solid drama but honestly it didn’t need to be as long as it was and kind of got draggy and I got lost interest. (I could have gotten snarky and said all the dramas I didn’t like needed scissors taken to them in their entirety but decided to play nice.)

TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

There are a number of dramas I could complain about with regard to this (hi there, darling The Wolf!) but this award goes to Renascence - poor Renascence was never going to be a masterpiece, but it had the potential to be a bit of good cheesy fun until it had its run time cut by more than half and became an incoherent piece of insanity.

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

Dumb shrill innocent heroine who can’t tie her shoes - see basically all the cdramas I didn’t like this year.

FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF

Male lead torture - I mean it’s always open season on that in cdramas, but between Love and Redemption, The Wolf, Love Lasts Two Minds, Love in Between and so on, it was a banner year!

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Legend of Fei - what a waste of that cast; what a waste of our finite time on this Earth. What a waste of my intelligence to hope for something better and stick with it for a dozen eps. I have had stale wonderbread that had more personality than this drama.There is absolutely nothing that stands out about this drama in any way, from half-dimensional characters, to actors who are sleepwalking, to a plot that moves at the speed of an arthritic snail, to uninspired cinematography and direction, to lack of any chemistry between anyone in the cast. If paint-by-numbers was done by a group of particularly linear robots, it might come across the same way as this drama.

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

The Wolf - honestly, I did not expect it to come out AT ALL EVER let alone to become my favorite drama of 2020. I was not familiar with the leading man (hahah), I liked Li Qin but wasn’t yet obsessed with her, and Xiao Zhan was excellent in The Untamed but I was hardly going to follow him from drama to drama (and I don’t do SLS any way.) And the trailer was enjoyable but unlike seemingly everyone, I didn’t think it was going to be some epic masterpiece. And then it came out and while it wasn’t objectively an epic masterpiece, it pulled out all the favorite tropes, shippy and narrative kinks from the deepest darkest recesses of my id. And I fell harder than I have in years.

2020 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

None. Covid Year gave me PLENTY of time

BEST NON-2020 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2020

Novoland Eagle Flag and Joy of Life - they are in my Top 10 dramas from anywhere now. They are quite different except being smart and giving me protagonists to obsess over.

ETA: Also The Untamed because @idlewilds3 pointed out I actually watched it in 2020 even though I didn’t think so because this hellyear has lasted about three decades.

MOST ANTICIPATED IN 2021

I am gonna limit it to dozen and leaving out ones that aren’t necesarily supposed to air next year (Joy of Life 2, Love in Flames of War, Novoland Princess from Plateau.)

Monarch Industry, Novoland Pearl Eclipse, Silk Washing Stream, Dream of Changan, Sword Snow Stride, Wu Xing Shi Jia, Ancient Love Poetry, Immortality, The Long Ballad, Mirror Twin Cities, The Imperial Age, Fall In Love

223 notes · View notes

convenientalias · 2 years

Text

Some Dramas I Watched in 2021

At some point I will have to make a post of all the dramas that came OUT in 2021 that I've watched, but I'm gonna put that off until I've finished a couple more dramas. So it'll probably be in January or February or something. Who knows.

But since a bunch of y'all I'm following are doing it, here's just a list of some shows I watched this year (and what I thought of them!)

First, some rewatches:

I have now watched White Christmas three times. It's still really fuckign good, still my favorite kdrama thriller. @trifoliate-undergrowth watched it with me and convinced me to get more into Choi Chihoon and Lee Jaekyu, but Park Mooyul and Kang Mireu are still bae. But honestly I love all my boys. and my girls. and everyone in this show. Pacing--eight episodes, tight and frantic but never too fast to process. Feels--a rollercoaster, perfectly grim and perfectly hilarious and cheerful when it wants to be. Aesthetics--prim and claustrophobic and utterly on point. If you haven't watched this show, why the fuck not? Also, why the fuck haven't I written more fanfic for it?

Similar to White Christmas, I rewatched Circle: Two Worlds Connected with @trifoliate-undergrowth as well, and discovered new appreciation for Professors Park and Han, while continuing to adore Lee Ho Soo and Kim Woo Jin. (When I watch new shows with Yeo Jin Goo in them, like Beyond Evil, it also makes me appreciate Kim Woo Jin more. Was that sass directed at Beyond Evil? ...maybe so.) Circle is probably my second favorite kdrama thriller of all time but there's some hot competition for this position so idk.

Finally, I convinced my mom to watch Save Me with me. Now you may be thinking based on the progression of this list that I am about to say Save Me is my third favorite kdrama thriller of all time. Not really. Its pacing is kind of a drag sometimes and it's just so damn dark, both in mood and cinematography. (Again, a similar vibe to Beyond Evil. Sorry BE I'll stop sassing you eventually.) But listen. Save Me has Woo Do Hwan in it! and Seo Ye Ji! Two of my favorite actors, and it introduced me to both of them. For that reason I will always love it. It also has some great suspense and boyish shenanigans. My mom kind of hated it but I offered several times to stop watching it so we could watch something else and she refused so she can't have hated it as much as she claimed. Also she likes Woo Do Hwan now.

Obviously, though, rewatches are easy mode bc of course I like them, I bothered to rewatch them. So it's not surprising I really like these shows.

Cdramas I watched:

I only watched two cdramas to completion in 2021. These two were Winter Begonia (which I started in 2020) and Weaving a Tale of Love (which came out this year).

Of the two, Winter Begonia stands head and shoulders above Weaving a Tale of Love. In fact, it's one of my favorite watches of both 2021 AND 2020. It combines piercing melancholy with dumb slapstick with intense homoerotic friendship with traditional Chinese opera with political and financial intrigue with petty opera company one-upmanship. Its plot does tend to wander in one direction and another, and its central friendship would undoubtedly be better as an uncensored romance, but if you're okay with an un-focused plot and typical Chinese censored bromance, it's a really really good show. One of those shows where I have only been able to write one fanfic for it, for the simple reason that it doesn't really need fanfic. The melodrama, the angst, the humor, the intense bonding... it's already there, you know? I find it satisfying.

Weaving a Tale of Love, on the other hand, is a show I watched largely for the pretty clothes, the identity porn, and the cheerful, unstoppable female lead(s--the second female lead is also pretty good. For that matter, there's a great female villain and a loveable henchwoman who becomes the lead's ally instead. The women in general are pretty good). The men in this show are actually pretty boring unfortunately, and the crossdressing is... I like that within the show's world, the lead is a convincing eunuch, but as an outside observer, the female lead is pretty obviously dressed and made-up in a feminine manner. And the plot, while it doesn't exactly wander, has an ending that feels a little too easy tbh. I prefer my revenge schemers to get their revenge fully by their own efforts, preferably as the climax of long-term plans coming neatly together. But since most shows can't pull off a full NIF with neat revenge-planning, I will say Weaving a Tale of Love doesn't have the worst revenge plot I've seen either in terms of resolution, not by a long shot (cough Sword Dynasty cough Risky cough Lovers of the Red Sky cough). Honestly I'd recommend it as a light and bingeable watch, though it's nothing great.

Jdramas I watched:

Risky--The less said the better. I coughed about it above--yeah, as a revenge drama it was a disappointment. The ending was just too wtf, and the twists were half predictable and half "just why, that ruins the whole plot actually". Please don't watch this.

I also watched one much better jdrama, which is to say: Cherry Magic! A very cute little gay romance drama, with telepathy and office crushing. When you have a telepath, one character at least knows for sure how the other character feels. Now when your telepath is a very anxious dude who has yet to go through a sexuality crisis OR in general just accept that ANYONE COULD BE INTO HIM, you still end up with a slow burn and some miscommunication. But it's never too frustrating, and there's genuine affection and fluffiness, and it's just cute.

Kdramas I watched:

This was mostly a kdrama year for me. I watched more kdramas than anything else.

I finished two historical dramas. The first, Mr. Sunshine, I can't decide if I love or hate. The characters in it are complex and will stick with me for a long time, the acting is superb, and the aesthetic is magnificent, especially the frigid winter scenes and the melancholy nights. But the ending is kind of "rocks fall, everyone dies". And apart from the central romance, I felt like none of the other relationships were allowed to have as much depth as I wanted them to have. Everyone is stoic. Conversations are brief and clever and to the point; they lack the intimacy of a show where you get characters just sitting around bantering with each other or discussing their past or their beliefs at length. There are scenes where you get the sense Mr. Sunshine is trying to do this, trying to make you believe friendships between characters actually exist, but you never get a sense that "oh, these two people have talked to each other since I last saw them together", and the onscreen conversations are not sufficient to really build relationship. The exception here is Eugene and Kyle, who one hundred percent fuck around in the American Embassy every day, gossiping about their coworkers and their love lives, discussing the relative merits of life in Korea vs. America, and trying to find ways to embarrass each other in public.

Anyway I actually liked Mr. Sunshine. Eugene, Go Ae-sin, Kudo Hina, Kim Hui-seong, Gu Dong-mae... they're all really complex characters and the acting is so good. But when a show is good, you just kind of wish it could fulfill its potential, you know?

The other historical drama I watched is Lovers of the Red Sky. Less to say here, and also I already wrote a full review so I don't really have to go into detail. It's really fun. The romance is cute, the painting is beautiful, and the whump is whumpy. Both male and female leads are great, well-acted and interesting. The revenge subplot is bullshit and doesn't go anywhere, the political intrigue is shallow, and the villain wants to be Bang-won but will never be anything close to Bang-won. The supernatural elements are sometimes fun and other times are like "go away, I want to focus on the painting or literally anything else right now". Overall, similar to Weaving a Tale of Love, would recommend for a light watch but it's not going to end up on my list of favorites.

I finished three new 2021 thrillers. Of the three, the best was somehow Mine? Don't get me wrong, Mine has its flaws. The solution to the whole murder mystery still annoys me even now, and I think its turning Ji-yong into the only real villain of the show kind of flattened some character dynamics. But the femslashiness was <3 <3 <3 so good. And in fact, all the female characters were excellent. Hi-soo and Ja-kyung were my favorites, but canon lesbian and supportive sister-in-law Seo-hyun? Amazing, show-stopping, incredible. For her haircut alone I would have adored her but she also has the character arc to back it up. And the centrality of motherhood in the conflict between Hi-soo and Ja-kyung has ruined me for all other infidelity-related thrillers (yes, I know, I don't usually like infidelity-centered thrillers anyway, but that just makes it more impressive that Mine was so good for me personally). It's a good show. Also, just, the clothes. Hi-soo makes me want to wear dresses, and that's saying something. (full and somewhat more critical review here. I think I grew less critical of Mine after seeing what other thrillers 2021 had to offer lols.)

Beyond Evil--I wrote a long-ish post about it before. TLDR: Yeo Jin Goo is hot and his character is probably the most complex. The show annoys me on a thematic level and I found the consistently grim tone to be wearing and a little bit boring. I think I'm supposed to like Manyang in general more than I do. However, I did still write two fanfics for this show, which is more than for any of the other dramas in this post (except the rewatches) so it clearly did something to me. or for me. Idk. It has some genuinely dramatic and exciting episodes! Too bad that's only like half of them. I want a show with more verve.

The Devil Judge, my third 2021 thriller watch, has the verve. I really need to write an actual full review of it soon tbh. On a shippy, fanfic-writer-y level, Kim Gaon and Kang Yohan have a very fun dynamic, wobbling between "I don't trust you an inch" and "you may be my new (replacement) adoptive family" and sometimes just "looking at you with affection <3 <3". But I don't watch thrillers for fanfic potential! (convenientalias said, lying through her teeth.) I watch them for thematic coherency! And on a thematic level, The Devil Judge is really interesting. It has this whole discussion going on of what proper punishment/justice looks like, how a focus on "law and order" politics can lead to an increase in prejudice, hate crimes, and a lack of due process, and how a tooth for a tooth isn't actually the right course of action when pursuing justice. However, it lacks follow-through on the latter. Gaon continually calls Yohan out on his vigilante-level lack of due process or honest judging, but the show's opinion is that Yohan may be a bit shady, but listen, (says The Devil Judge,) he's really cool, okay? And don't we all kind of want criminals to get flogged or sentenced to death, in some part of ourselves? Don't we all want to blow up the big bads in a grand finale, with no due process whatsoever? The Devil Judge KNOWS that fighting fire with fire ultimately leads to more injustice, but listen, fighting fire with fire is cool, okay? Okay I'll write a full review of this soon bc I clearly have a lot of feelings. Final note--Jeong Seon-ah is really, really cool!

I also watched two BL miniseries this year, Color Rush and You Make Me Dance, about which I can only say, if you're gonna watch only one of them, watch Color Rush. I'm not saying it's better but also it's better.

I also started and didn't finish any number of other series. I'm going to cheat and mention one of them--Mad Dog is quite fun. I only have 3 episodes to go on that one so I think it's fair for me to take a moment to recommend it for anyone who wants to see Woo Do Hwan be sassy and reckless and nearly get murdered all the time while even his newfound team hates on him for half the show before finally coming around and realizing he is a treasure and needs to Take Better Care of Himself and Be Protected. For the rest, I'll talk about them some other time, in some other post. (If they came out in 2021--yes, I'm going to write that post eventually! There's just a few dramas I want to finish (or start) first!)

If you're wondering which of these shows you should watch:

-Watch White Christmas and Circle, obviously! If I can watch them three times you can surely watch them once.

-After that, I'd recommend Winter Begonia.

-After that, all these shows have their own high points and flaws. If you want some cheerful fun, I'd recommend Weaving a Tale of Love, Lovers of the Red Sky, or Cherry Magic. Thriller-wise, I actually think The Devil Judge is the easiest for me to rec. I consistently enjoyed it, every episode has something actually happening, and while Mine is a bit more to my taste, I think a lot of ppl want more violence and intrigue in their thrillers than Mine has to offer. Mine is a pretty good all-rounder though. I'd recommend Mr. Sunshine if you want a drama that's more serious (...but I'd also recommend Winter Begonia, except I already recommended that above) or if you want a show where you can literally ship any two characters with each other, those being its main attractions. And Beyond Evil, well, if you want to watch Yeo Jin Goo be a brat, it's certainly good for that.

In short, I had a lot of fun with dramas this year :)

#kdramas #cdramas #so that was my year #if you notice i left out pics for like two dramas... yeah the post only allows ten #i dont care about risky and weaving a tale of love is weirdly hard to find good pics for #anyway. ill be back in a while with my thoughts on dramas that came out in 2021 #but not yet

11 notes · View notes

dramaruni · 3 years

Text

@bpdaf so this answer opened a can of worms (that I can call procrastination) and I wanted to address it, but with the limited characters in the reply function, I decided to answer it with a new post. Also sorry if this come as an attack, I promise it's not. I just became really curious if I had the wrong idea about the live-shooting system as I was ready to refute your points, but realized I didn't have enough knowledge to do so.

*also tagging @jahe, @yasmini24, @le-amarant as they also replied to my post and I figured maybe you were also interested in this (although it's really long and rambly, so I don't blame you for ignoring the post entirely). So yeah warning, this post is really long.

So I'm well aware of kdrama's live shoot system. But I did wonder if it was normal to start shooting 6 months before the first airing episode, as I was under the impression 6 months of shooting exceeded the standard duration of filming. But I couldn't actually refute it without some data to back that up. So I went to find data.

According to Wikipedia's page on Korean Dramas, they write: “As producing a series involves high expenses, production companies seek to shoot the episodes in the shortest time possible. In contrast to practices elsewhere, the first four episodes of Korean series are usually shot in advance, but the rest are shot continuously as the series is being aired.”

This fits in line with what I believed about Korean dramas live shooting system. They film a couple of episode ahead of time and then rest comes while it's still airing to fit with the audience response to it. Even preproduced dramas are sometimes reshot and re-edited while it's airing. But it didn't really say anything about the average filming duration for a drama or what shortest time possible was defined as. Probably because all dramas will aim for different things and given the content it can vary a lot how long it takes to film.

But I highly doubt it took Vincenzo 6 months to shoot something around 4 episodes and then crammed the rest into the 2 remaining months, as they knew from the start they had 20 episodes to fill.

So let's go through some other drama's shooting schedule to compare with Vincenzo.

I chose to limit the list to 2020 dramas (as they were likely affected by the pandemic) and tvN dramas, so it's the same broadcasting company as these dramas will likely share the same practices. Obviously with the amount I have included, I can't make any definite conclusions, but it does show a pattern.

*disclaimer I tried my best to accurately determine the shooting duration from when filming started to when it ended, but not all of these dramas had that information readily available, so I made do with the information I had at hand. This means some of these are just estimations.

So without further ado, here's the list:

Vincenzo:

May 2020, Director Kim Hee Won and writer Park Jae Bum teamed up.

July 2020, Song Joong Ki and Jeon Yeo Bin were considering the drama, while Ok Taecyeon had confirmed

September 2020, filming started

February 20th, 2021 first episode aired

No episodes April 17thand18th

April 17th, last episode script delivered

April 23rd, filming wrapped

May 2nd, 2021 last episode aired

Shooting time: 8 months

Shooting duration before first aired episode: 6 months

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: 8 days

1. Crash Landing on You

*not affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic * includes overseas filming

July 31st, 2019 – first script reading

End of august 2019, filming overseas begin

December 14th, first episode airs

January 12th, filming wrapped

February 16th, 2020 last episode airs

Shooting time: 5 months

Shooting duration before first aired episode: 4 months

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: 1 month + 4 days

2. It’s okay not to be okay

I couldn’t find the exact time shooting started, so these numbers are based between March and May, as I assume they didn’t shoot without Oh Jung Se being casted and while the table read photos were released in May, it could very well be they had started shooting before this.

February 2020 Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Ye Ji casted

March 2020 Oh Jung Se casted

May 8th 2020, first script reading photos released

June 20th 2020, first episode aired

July 31st 2020, filming wrapped

August 9th 2020, last episode aired

Shooting time: 3-5 months

Shooting duration before first aired episode: 1-3 months

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: 9 days

3. Start-up

August 4th, all the leads are confirmed for casting

September 2020, promotional starts to come out

October 17th 2020, First episode aired

November 21st 2020, Bae Suzy wraps up filming (assuming filming wraps up around the same time as her as she is the lead)

December 6th, last episode aired

Shooting time: 2-4 months

Shooting duration before first aired episode: 1-2 months

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: around 15 days

4. Hospital playlist season 1

*only aired 1 episode pr. week

October 2019, principal photography took place

March 12th, first episode aired

Late April 2020, filming wrapped

May 28th 2020, last episode aired

Shooting time: 7 months (couldn’t find when they actually started shooting, so let’s just pretend they also filmed around October)

Shooting duration before first aired episode: 6 months

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: 1 month

5. A piece of your mind

February 7th 2020, article of the first script reading

February 13th, first photos from drama unveiled

March 23rd, first episode aired

April 8th 2020, tvN announces that 4 episodes are cut due to low ratings

April 28th, last episode aired

Shooting time: 2-4 months

Shooting duration before first aired episode: 1-2 months

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: N/A (couldn’t find the exact time but they also axed four episodes and I don't know how much that affected filming)

6. Psychopath diary

*not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic

August 2019, first script reading

November 20th, first episode aired

January 9th 2020, last episode aired

Shooting time: n/a

Shooting duration before first aired episode: 3-4 months (assuming they started shooting shortly after the first table read)

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: n/a

7. Stranger /Secret Forest season 2

* preproduced based on the information I found

January 2020, first script reading

June 20th, 2020 lead actors wrapped filming (But I only found this article that says this)

August 15th 2020, first episode aired

October 4th 2020, last episode aired

Shooting time: 6 months

Shooting duration before first episode aired: 6 months

Filming wrapped before last airing episode: 4-5 months

What does this mean?

So the drama that comes closest to Vincenzo's filming duration is Hospital Playlist, but they also did things a bit differently. According to their Wikipedia, they only aired 1 episode a week to comply with 52-hour week system and to avoid overnight filming for the cast's and crews' health. So that would extend their shooting time. They also had the same amount of shooting time as Vincenzo before the first episode aired, i.e. 6 months, but Hospital playlist was only 12 episode drama so they also had less content to fill.

The rest of these dramas has a shooting time with 6 months or less. I will say though a lot of these dramas are not action-packed (also I haven't checked the budget for any of these), so comparatively they probably have different needs when filming. The drama that comes closest in terms of action is Stranger/Secret Forest, and it's also pretty close in shooting time with only 2 month different (that's counting from the first table read though). This was however pre-produced so they wrapped up filming before the first episode even aired (if my information is correct). Also this was a season two so they were operating under a little different circumstances.

But with the exception of Stranger/Secret Forest (preproduced) and Hospital Playlist(tried to work with humane working hours), none of this drama has a 6-month filming duration before the first episode aired. In fact some of these dramas don't even exceed 6 months of filming. Meaning they had less time to shoot before the first episode aired. Their production was probably also lower and none them did CGI (although I haven't watched all of them so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) as that should also be accounted for.

So 8 months of filming is a lot to allocate to a drama, at least it's not the norm. There are other dramas that exceed that filming time that didn't make the list (Mr. Sunshine sorry too much research for at this point), but obviously that is not the standard.

Obviously I don't know how the filming was divided, how many of the episodes they had filmed before the first one aired. I don't know how many of the episode scripts were written before it aired. But I can see that even with the live-shooting, Vincenzo has some very uneven scheduling that doesn't align with how the rest of these dramas did their scheduling and airing. None of the mentioned dramas had any delays (in airing, I can't be sure about filming as some of them are probably affected by the pandemic), and yet Vincenzo did, even though they had spent more time filming before the first episode aired.

Also, most of these dramas wrapped up filming with more than a week to spare before the final airing, with It's Okay Not To Be Okay coming the closest to the airing date (with the ones where I know the date when they finished shooting), but they also only had 1-3 months of filming before the drama actually started airing so much less time than Vincenzo. And although they didn't have CGI, they did have the animations for each of the fairytales which I don't know how long it took but I can imagine it took some time.

So then I looked up another drama not by tvN but by Park Jae Bum:

Good Manager/Chief Kim

December 15, 2016 first script reading

January 25, 2017 First episode aired

March 30, 2017 Last episode aired

I couldn't find the date they finished filming, but given they only started a month before airing (honestly I felt super sorry for the cast and crew when I saw these dates), I am assuming the hit the last airing date pretty closely with filming, and that would give them 3 months of filming roughly. And they also had 20 episodes like Vincenzo.

I haven't seen this drama myself, so I can't say anything about the writing quality, but here Park Jae Bum was working under even more time pressure and was able to deliver the ending on time and as I hear, it was pretty a pretty good ending (but I haven't seen it, so feel free to refute me). And yet he couldn't do it for Vincenzo. So I do think something happened with ending, whether it was Park Jae Bum just took a long time writing it for whatever reasons, or someone/thing (be it something personal, writer's block, execs not liking the ending etc.) actually interfered and that prolonged the writing or entirely changed the ending.

Anyway this became too long, so let me just end it here.

I wish I had time to make a more comprehensive list so I could be more definite in the conclusion because obviously I can't base everything of the schedule of 8 dramas that also vastly different in production quality, genre and content.

So yeah I might have just wasted the last three-four hours making something that doesn't even make sense. But hey, at least I'm less prepared for the exams now, good use of time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#Vincenzo #so much procrastination #I don't know if this was just an excuse to not look at unity #probably #also I think this mostly also to satisfy my curiosity about the live-shooting broadcasting system in general #although there is still a lot to be learned #sometimes I have this idea that bad dramas are live-shoot and the good dramas are preproduced #but then I think of descendents of the suns and remember not all preproduced dramas are good #and if chief kim/good manager is as good as everyone says #they did a pretty good job considering the circumstances they had to work under #I have put it on my watch list #so once I'm done with exams I can watch it #and then I can tell you if I think PJB can write a good drama under immense time pressure #anyway this was probably pointless #but here it is anyway

41 notes · View notes

ablazenqueen · 2 years

Text

Thank you for the tag, @bad-buddy-owns-my-ass and @tipsyjaehyun!!! <3

1. Your all-time favourite BL and why: There’s no way I could ever pick between Bad Buddy and Manner Of Death. I could ramble on about both of these for days but simply put: Bad Buddy is the ultimate love story and Manner Of Death is a murder mystery BL. Need I say more?

2. The one BL that scarred you for life: Okay wait, there’s a story behind this one! When I started watching BLs and GLs, I researched and scoured blogs so that I could build up a massive watchlist and just binge through them. But like. I didn’t want spoilers. So I never checked warnings or reviews or plot summaries. Point is that I ended up watching Tharntype with no idea what I was going into and being absolutely horrified (I think I made it to… Ep 2 or 3?). This is probably funny for me to say, considering the number of BLs I’ve watched and how dub con is kind of an unfortunate staple of the genre, but I despise noncon and dub con with a passion and nothing will get me to DNF a show faster. (Also, I know Baker Boys isn’t a BL but Punn’s cake nightmares really creeped me out too. And the child sexual harassment in Ep 1. Anyway.)

3. Is there any BL that made you feel very single? Bad Buddy 1000%. It’s the way their relationship was built on such a strong foundation of friendship and devotion, the way they would oppose the world to be together, the way they never even consider breaking up, the way they’re a team and face every obstacle together. Just. Patpran. They made me feel single before they were even dating. And as if they weren’t perfect enough, Inkpa is the final nail in the coffin. Bad Buddy knows how to do romance best, no two ways about it.

4. If you could change one thing from a bl, which one would it be? Oh man, I can only pick one thing from one show? Gaya Sa Pelikula’s ending (I made a point to only watch up to the point where they got together and everything was good and happy, because I heard that it didn’t have a happy ending and I’m a big sucker 👍🏻), the entire second half of 2Gether, I would make Ace less horrible at the beginning of #My Day, I would get rid of Bohn and Duen (the only thing I didn’t like about My Engineer) or drastically alter their personalities and dynamic, Soo Hee’s entire arc in Light On Me, any BL that ever had a character force their ex to date them by threatening to kill themselves (not naming names but I’ve seen two now and that’s a big personal trigger and it’s never handled well), etc etc. I could go on. Name any BL I’ve watched, even Bad Buddy or Manner of Death, and I guarantee I can come up with a list of minimum five things that I would change. Picking just one thing in one show is impossible. Have I uhh… have I ever mentioned that I’m ridiculously nitpicky?

5. That one bl you detest (don’t hold back): Like I said, I can’t stand Tharntype. (No offence to any stans out there, you do you.)

6. Your top 5: Manner of Death, Bad Buddy, A Tale of a Thousand Stars, Cherry Magic, History 3: Trapped. Not Me and Keita Hatsukoi might make the list though, once I finish them.

7. That trashy bl that you lowkey like: 2Gether. It’s one of my favourites, a bit of a guilty pleasure, but it’s also kind of a mess.

8. Your favorite Korean bl (it’s important we know): Definitely Light On Me.

9. But also your top 3 for kbls: Light On Me… err, maybe To My Star and My Sweet Dear? (Sorry, I tend to prefer Thai BLs. Except Korea, for some reason, makes the better cooking dramas. *glares at Bite Me*)

10. Season 2? Which one? My Engineer! I think it’s the only BL drama that’s ever had me desperate for a second season (GLs and Kdramas, on the other hand…). Luckily a second season is supposedly in the works! (Unluckily they had to recast some of the actors. But you win some, you lose some, right? I just want Ramking canon.)

11. A bunch of dramas will air soon. Which ones are you most excited for? Oh! So many! For BLs, there’s Something In My Room (aired three days ago), Physical Therapy (tomorrow!), Enchanté (next Friday), My Ride (Jan 27), Cutie Pie (Feb 12), Kinnporsche (supposedly April), Fahlanruk (TBD), and Dear Doctor (TBD). I’m most excited for Kinnporsche (I’m absolute trash for crime shows), really hoping it lives up to the hype and the trailers! For GLs, there’s Gap The Series, The Girlfriend Planner, Girl Love Girlfriend, and Reverse 4 You, none of which have scheduled air dates yet (as far as I’m aware)!

12. Tag them! Am I allowed to say @everyone because I don’t want anyone to feel excluded? Just assume that if you see this, I’m personally inviting you to participate! ❤️

#thank you for tagging me! I love tag games!#misa tag #hmm… that feels kinda boring #how about:#misa tag! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*✲ﾟ*｡⋆#bl dramas #tag #tag games

4 notes · View notes

possession1981 · 3 years

Note

what are your fave kdramas (and tv shows overall), kind of got curious bc i know you liked jbl, and saw you watching yom now.. plus it's never too late to make my to watch list longer than it already is 🥴

aleks i’m sorry this took me like a while to get to bc i started panicking over narrowing down all the dramas i’ve watched into like a top list but i will give u a top 21 kdramas (i could have forgotten something though so it’s not set in stone) excluding jbl, which is definitely in my top 3 officially! u’ve probably seen a bunch or most of these they’re not exactly obscure but..

The smile has left your eyes (ruined my life) When the weather is fine (literally the catharsis..........) My country: the new age (also ruined my life) Wok of love (everything about this show is so sexy i gotta rewatch) Run on (character arcs <3) Angel’s last mission: love (i literally would watch anything shin hye sun ever did but this show truly slapped me in the face and said cry bitch.) While you were sleeping (introduced me to jung hae in my beloved) Something in the rain (pure melodrama i had such anxiety) One spring night (why is jung hae in so fucking great?) Strangers from hell (the sexual tension between siwan and lee dong wook 100% the reason the horror and suspense work so well) Hotel del Luna (literally genius in every way, plus actor jieun!!!!) It’s okay to not be okay (i love a show that makes me process my own trauma) Mr Queen (shin hye sun is literally the most brilliant actress in korean tv) Still 17 (see above) OCN Black (so many truly unsettling moments, i love go ara she is perfect) Hwayugi (fantasy!!!!!!!! suspense!!!! melodrama!!!!!) Reply 1997 (i rewatch so often...) Reply 1988 (same......) 100 days my prince (kim jae young desereved more screentime :/) Bubblegum (jung ryeo won and lee dong wook? TOGETHER??? sign me up! it’s so sad tho) Are you human too? (seo kang joon u are so much to me!!!!!!! i love the way this show genuinely engages with really fucking tricky existential topics in such a real way. also the amazing vixx ost <3) Sky castle (literally i mean it’s perfect. the way that show goes in and just questions power in every single place it appears.... chills. also kang chanhee did not GIVE ALL OF THAT for him to keep getting cast in little tragic cameo roles that propel the emotional narrative of main characters i’m looking at u true beauty and imitation)

i have a strong preference for working class stories and shows where the main characters are like, real adults in their 30s or so because i just think the writing tends to be better... i also love horror elements and fantasy and historical shit but most of all i love melodrama and tragedy. currently i’m watching youth of may as u know and also doom at your service and so i married the anti-fan and i am loving all of them tremendously what a good drama spring!! also for a bonus my favourite cdramas are ashes of love and the untamed. in terms of tv shows overall i love old classics like twin peaks and the x-files, i still mourn the get down, i’ve been an umbrella academy fan since my father figure gerard way released the original comic book and i still rewatch criminal minds regularly although now i do it with a critical eye because there’s def a dose of the copaganda but like the characters are so well written. also i love hannibal but i still have to finish it!!!!!! buffy is still my mvp show though like through all its problems i still would rewatch 100000 times </3

#kdrama #the clique (2008)#i could def start going on about bls too but i feel like that's a category of its own lmao #p

12 notes · View notes

katierosefun · 3 years

Text

well, here we are! june basically flew by and it was a little rough, but we’re back with some long recs on cool things i’ve read/listened to/watched, and i’m about to force everyone to sit down and listen to my sleepover-esque ted talk in which i give unwarranted and unasked for rec lists. so here we go!

kdrama:

while you were sleeping

okay, so i tried to watch this kdrama when it came out in like...2017, i think? but for some reason, i wasn’t able to get past the first episode. i don’t really know why? because it’s so beautifully shot, and i super love the premise, which is basically this girl and this guy are somehow able to see things that are going to happen in the future...but only in their dreams. this whole kdrama really handled the plot super well--each episode honestly felt like a movie in itself, and the filming was just stunning, and i think this has to be one of the most visual kdramas i’ve ever seen. each character is also super interesting and complex on their own, and i really loved seeing such a strong cast of characters interact with each other in this world.

i think the only slight downside of this kdrama was that i couldn’t really get invested in the romance? i’m not quite sure why--i found both lead actors’ performances wonderful, and don’t get me wrong, i did think they were cute together as the drama went on, but i still couldn’t find myself buying into the romance until maybe relatively late in the drama (like...ep 11 or so? ep 16 was honestly when i realized that awww, wait, they’re actually super cute). but then again, i feel like the writers weren’t really prioritizing the romance either--i think they really wanted us to think about the beauty of dreams and redemption and how everyone can touch another person’s life in some significant way, so i can’t really be mad about it!

but anyways, overall i really enjoyed this kdrama and watched it all a lot faster than i thought i would! SOLID music, beautiful cinematography, good acting, mostly good writing, and some really memorable characters! def. a must-watch if you love suspense, aesthetics, and some wonderful characters.

the ghost detective

i’m someone who doesn’t like horror or scary things at all, but i was so intrigued by the plot and whatever material i saw on tumblr, and...of course, choi daniel, lee joo young, lee ji ah, and park eun bin. honestly, this is just a really wonderful and really underrated cast, and they really all brought out their a-game for this 32-episode supernatural / thriller / horror drama. basically, this kdrama follows the story of a young woman who’s trying to figure out who murdered her younger sister...and of course, there’s something supernatural going on.

honestly, this kdrama was such a ride. i loved the crime-solving aspect of it, and i was really in love with the interactions between all the characters, esp. that of eun bin and daniel’s characters. (guys...they’re so ride and die for each other. there’s also so much yearning. so much yearning in this kdrama, it just about killed me--)

the villain was absolutely, appropriately, elegantly creepy, and like...scary beyond belief. basically, the villain (lee ji ah’s character) feeds her victims these harmful thoughts and ultimately get them to kill themselves. it’s sad and haunting, especially when you see that the victims tell their victims “don’t listen to the bad things. try only to listen to the good things”. and...yeah. themes of how to handle all of these bad feelings inside of you really came through in this kdrama, and there were a lot of themes of suicide and the kind of rage and sadness that comes with that. (also! if you’re a fan of lots of angsty/whumpy situations....this kdrama definitely does not hold back with all of your fave whump/angst tropes! literally! every! episode! i! had! to! lie! down! because! too! powerful!)

school 2013

(aww, look at this precious cast…as though they didn’t all make me ugly cry at least five times—)

yeah, yeah, yeah, i’ve talked about this kdrama ad nauseum, and i know i watched it last month, but as i was studying for the lsat, i really, really, really needed some comfort. most notably comfort re: studying life, academics, how difficult it is to study but also be uncertain of your dreams…and if you are certain of your dreams, how that sometimes requires studying but that just makes life all the more overwhelming…can you tell i’ve been thinking about this a lot

i’m not going to ramble more about this kdrama considering i already have done so multiple times, but i enjoyed this rewatch and honestly,,,my love for this show has just grown even more. there’s a good reason why people consider this a comfort kdrama, because. i consider myself deeply comforted. also, i’ve been listening to the ost for the whole month. it’s become a problem. but sometimes. sometimes you need to listen to songs that feel like someone’s patting you on the head and telling you don’t give up, set down your burdens, don’t think you’re alone and dream whatever you want to dream, go wherever you want to go. i’ll stop talking now, but god. when i say that i think everyone who has ever felt incredibly tired by work or school and just wished for someone to give them a big hug either then or now...god. this is just one of those kdramas that i think honestly touched so many people’s lives, and i’m very grateful for the cast and crew and writers for ever bringing this story to life. :’) (god, okay, now i’ll stop talking before i make myself cry i’m fine this is fine)

your honor

so, i watched this kdrama thinking that it would be light and funny given that yoon shi yoon is the main male lead, but boy was i wrong--don’t be fooled by these happy little faces, this kdrama is heavy. this kdrama is about a young man (with a criminal record) who winds up impersonating his twin brother, who happens to be a judge. we also have a trainee who, after seeing the legal system fail her older sister, is on the rise to dispense justice through the courts the best she can.

honestly, the first few episodes were rough, mostly because of the content. big trigger warning for rape, violence, and sexual harassment at work. this kdrama really didn’t hold back when it came to addressing how the very people who use the law can also be the very same people who manipulate and abuse it. because of that, i found this kdrama incredibly powerful. that said, it certainly had its lighthearted moments too.

overall though, i liked this kdrama. the main characters were incredibly complex and genuinely the type to make me believe that for all the injustices in the world, there are still and always will be people fighting for the right thing. as someone who wants to enter the legal field, this kdrama was just uplifting. i was so blown away by the absolute rawness of the main two leads, esp. yoon shi yoon, who i’ve only ever seen in super lighthearted kdramas. so this was a really interesting change of pace, and i genuinely enjoyed watching this!

waiting for love

so this kdrama is just two episodes, and what’s better is that it’s available on youtube! it’s about two college students--a young woman who’s been hurt by falling in love with jerks now just wants to date, not really fall in love...and a young man who’s excellent at giving dating advice except he’s afraid that he’s never going to actually fall in love, so he just dates a girl for the sake of dating.

now, i kinda thought that this show was going to be kinda lighthearted, a little shallow--but it was weirdly...comforting? idk, i found myself liking it a lot more than i thought it would be. this is far from the perfect kdrama, and i kinda wished that we got more than 2 episodes because i think some of the plot points could have been better expanded, but...there were genuinely a lot of scenes that made me think a bit more about what it actually means to be in a loving relationship--like how it’s not enough to just put on a happy smile and eat meals together, but like...you know. there has to be trust and actual liking and also, yeah, maybe a bit of frustration in order to actually know whether a relationship is real or not. and given that the characters were all discussing the pressure on getting married and romance esp. when you’re in your twenties...idk. makes you think about are you dating someone for the sake of appearances? or do you genuinely...like them?

there was also quite a few tropes that i personally adore in this kdrama, which helped balance out the stuff i found more tiring. there was a lot of the “right person, wrong time” stuff going on (you really want the two main leads to get together after a certain point, and you just keep holding your breath whenever they walk past each other and beg please please please let it be this time...), and also that good old “two strangers fall in love with each other purely over writing to each other” (god. first the half of it, then me & au, then greenhouse podcast...something about this trope huh). that said, there were def. some parts that made me “:////” because some of the characters were kind of frustrating, but i’m gonna chalk that up to good writing since i think i was mostly mad about how i knew people like some of the characters lol. overall, i think this might be at least semi-enjoyable--it’s probably not something i’ll watch again, but it def. made me mull over what it means to actually be in a loving relationship, esp. if you’re in your twenties and everyone around you seems to be in happy romantic relationships/getting engaged and whatnot.

movie:

columbus

i’m a firm believer that there are some movies that are meant to cheer you up, some movies meant to make you cry, and then there’s some movies that are just meant to...sit with you. and this movie is definitely one of them. this story follows casey, a high school graduate, and jin, the son of a famous architect. the two of them are both so incredibly exhausted with their lives (casey with her constant worry about her mother, who’s a recovering drug addict; jin with his surface-level lack of concern for his comatose father). in their small town of columbus, indiana, the two of them bond over architecture and just. being quietly there for each other.

this movie’s been compared a few times to lost in translation in the sense that there’s this not quite romance between the two leads, who have a bit of an age gap (john cho and haley lu richardson have about 20 between them!). to be honest, i didn’t really get the sense that there was supposed to be a romance. if anything, it just felt like...two really lonely people finding each other. definitely not a simple friendship--definitely not a familial kind of relationship, definitely intimate.

idk. i think this movie might not be for everyone--i definitely agree with a lot of past reviewers that this movie is on the slower side. there’s some stuff here about complicated relationships with parents, a lot of cool architecture, really beautiful shots...and overall, it’s just...quiet. it’s lovely, and i can’t really stop thinking about it. it’s subtle, bittersweet, and oddly compelling. might not be the kind of thing you’d want to watch in the middle of the day, but if you’re a little sad and in the mood for something not to necessarily lift your spirits but...at least acknowledge them and sit with you, then...this is the movie to watch. idk. i felt kind of crummy the day i watched this movie, and i felt as though someone just sat next to me on a park bench until the sun went down. (mayhaps specific but hush, i’m writing this right after finishing this movie, so i’m...feeling a certain way.)

wish dragon

i watched this movie right after watching columbus because a) decided i was in the mood for something lighter, and b) i learned that john cho?? voiced?? the dragon?? (caroline your crush on john cho’s jumping out this month...)

but anyways! i loved this movie a lot. it was so satisfying? like, just narratively speaking? and the animation was wonderful and also weirdly smooth and satisfying, and there were a lot of funny and touching moments. this movie’s about this young man named din who stumbles upon a magical teapot that holds the wish dragon long--long has to grant din three wishes, and yes, i know, very aladdin, but that said, this movie has so many original twists that it feels weird to call it an aladdin retelling. it really did feel like a movie completely on its own, which i applaud the writer and director for!

i don’t want to spoil too much of this movie, but something i really enjoyed was that din’s main wish is just to see his old childhood friend again. idk, i think we all have that one friend from when we were really little that we miss--and this movie really dug into that, as well as themes about parents wanting to do the best they can to provide for their kids, and!!! and long the dragon gets his own storyline and amazing character development too!!! i was honestly just amazed at how this movie fleshed out the characters so well and had so many wonderful themes that just made me tear up. guys. this movie’s great. highly recommend for its wonderful characters and the power of friendship. just a grand old time in general. :’))

searching

yeah...yeah, i wasn’t kidding about my crush on john cho this month. yes, i watched three of his movies within 24 hours. this movie is about david kim who’s looking for his missing 16 year old daughter, margot. this film is honestly noteworthy for many reasons, one of them being that the entire movie is told through like...a laptop screen, as in we kind of follow david’s frantic search through facetime, facebook, tumblr...which i honestly didn’t think i’d be into, but whoo boy, i was wrong. it just added to the whole addictive quality of this movie, as it usually does when it comes to anything from the thriller genre.

but besides this just being a straight up addictive thriller with absolutely mouth-dropping twists (but like...good twists, and smart twists, good god--), this movie was just...touching? there’s so many themes related to what grief does to a family (because we learn within the first 10 minutes that the mom died due to cancer), and there’s just...something really fragile about relationships between surviving family members. i was absolutely blown away by john cho’s performance as a tentative and grieving widower whose world just absolutely falls apart in his search for his daughter. this movie was just so...real because of that. like, yes, this movie has all of the suspense that you would expect this kind of movie to have, but there was also just...so many beautiful themes about grief and how far parents would go for their kids and godddd yeah no i started sobbing when the movie ended. god.

also, my bias towards john cho aside, i...really loved his character. david kim is absolutely believable, and like? he’s not just the guy putting the pieces together--he’s also the guy who misses his wife and also the guy who wishes that he was there for his daughter. he’s also the guy who pauses and re-writes all his text messages because he’s trying to be a good dad. i feel like with a lot of these suspense / missing person movies, it’s really easy to have characters who are just the stoic alpha male types--and david kim definitely had his badass moments in this movie, but like...something i just loved was seeing the vulnerability that comes with...having a missing child. being a parent. god. this movie messed me up but in a good way. i can honestly say that this movie is now probably going to be one of my fave movies of all time. highly recommend, am literally obsessed with it.

book:

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid

ohohoho………where to begin with this book. this was one of those books where i was like “huh i kinda don’t understand why people are so obsessed with this book”, but then i hit like...page 20 or 30 and was like “oh god i Literally Cannot Put This Book Down Oh No” and wound up finishing it in like three days (mind you, i only read at like...midnight these days. i don’t understand why either).

i finished this book at like 2 am and promptly burst into tears because this was just one of those books. it follows the story of evelyn hugo, a famous hollywood actress from the 60s or so and onwards. known for her intense beauty and her seven husbands, she’s now giving an exclusive interview to the young reporter monique grant, where she’s about to tell all about her life. this book had me dropping my mouth multiple times, and i think tjr can spin one hell of a story, with so many good twists and turns and intensely memorable characters. by the end of the book, i was actually mad that evelyn hugo wasn’t a real person, because i, too, fell a little in love with her and thought, i want to actually watch her movies. i want to learn even more about this remarkable woman.

but alas! she’s not real, so i don’t get to see her accept an oscar or look up all the tabloids about her and her seven husbands or her speculated (and very, very, very real) relationship with celia st. john. basically...i just loved this book. the last line made me smile and laugh and cry a little bit (actually...cry a lot), and y’know...i’ll admit it’s not totally perfect, but i’m glad this book exists, and i’m glad that even though tjr isn’t bi herself, was very adamant in this book about bisexuality being real. just. like. god. once again. mad that evelyn hugo isn’t real. it’s fine, she’s real in my heart.

#caroline talks #caroline recs

14 notes · View notes

rigelmejo · 3 years

Text

Dude I was on the language learning forms as I do sometimes, and someone was lamenting the lack of Chinese content to immerse in (watch, read etc). And how it was hard to find and they didn’t have this problem with Japanese what should they do?

Well. 1. I get their frustration on one level, as I do think Japanese content is so much more mainstream to watch in English speaking countries (at least anime and Japanese video games), that trying to find content in a language where it’s harder to just find content right on Netflix or from a friends recommendation does bring up a new challenge. Whereas with Japanese, probably you could accidentally stumble onto it or have a friend recommend you something, then at least explore deeper with some idea of what you liked/where to start finding it.

However. The person also sort of thought the lack of content was due to Chinese just not having as much content or as interesting content. Again I’m going to assume their key issue was just - it can be a new challenge finding media if you have a harder time just starting.

Because lol?? Chinese has SO much content. Like as far as language content on the internet alone??? Chinese has been eons easier to find than Japanese for me, and in terms of sites I actually use regularly is much closer to my experience of English online (there’s so much Chinese content online... so much... an incredible amount... like in chinese I’ve even found free movie watching sites FOR shows in English - like the way I find sites in English to watch Chinese shows IN chinese lol! Like you can use English to search for Chinese stuff, and literally do the reverse to find English stuff, there is so much Chinese stuff... I found more stuff in Japanese using bilibili in chinese than I could find of Japanese using YouTube In English). And Chinese drama land is HUGE it feels as active as American television, so you have endless genres to dive into and companies and actors and writers etc (there is a distinct lack of sci fi though as far as I’ve seen, but to be fair america isn’t making a Ton of sci fi compared to like Detective shows either - it’s just English speaking sci fi has had some more good ones in recent years). There is no lack of Chinese content out there. There’s audiobooks, dramas, audio dramas, talk shows, radio, fanfiction, novels, fanart, manhua, sites to find other stuff, forums, weibo, search sites, just a lot?? Like, if you think Japanese has enough internet content then there is an adequate amount of Chinese content on the internet too lol. You just may have to do a touch more initial exploration.

I just. Thought the assumption “can’t find media means their media sucks” was funny. Because also? I have not found that to be true. I know very little about Thai media. I just happened upon SOTUS cause of a friend talking about it. So like someone watching anime conveniently - I got into it. It was good, so I dug, and found a lot of amazing Thai shows (and some I didn’t love cause lol genres all have a mix of quality depending on show etc). There IS a ton of amazing Thai shows that exist right now. But if all you ever found was SOTUS? While it was great when I saw it to me, once I found more I realized there was a LOT better stuff. So like if you see one cdrama on Netflix (if that’s how you first easily find the media), that does not mean all shows will be that quality or anything like them! And just cause it’s the first one you found doesn’t mean they’re all like that ones quality.

Like I had a similar experience with jdramas growing up, so I get it. I was into anime, saw some (trainwreck) live action adaptations. And as a teenage just blanket assumed all Japanese live action media was gonna be around that quality. And then in recent years, I checked out some Japanese live action media - to see if new stuff was better. YEAH IT SURE IS (and I would imagine some old stuff was great I just gave up after one not-wonderful one lol). SO MANY AMAZING jdramas exist now! Even the ones I most feared would not be great - live action adaptations of anime’s? They’re so much better now, some of them are genuinely loved in their own right as standalone live actions. So like. One not-great show experience is NOT representative of the entire plethora of shows available and their quality. Now that I’ve realized how MANY good jdramas I missed out on? I have so much catching up to do ToT

2. If you’re in this boat of “content seems hard to find, so I feel like there’s none or no good stuff” what to do?

First ask some friends for recommendations?

Check Netflix, Amazon, YouTube (YouTube has a ton of cdramas), Viki, iQiyi app. Like how some people get into anime, maybe you just need an easy conviennent show in your recommended to get into more content.

Check out rec channels on YouTube like Donghua Reviews and Avenue X to hear about some shows and figure out the kinds of ones you’d even want to check out (I imagine other languages also have review channels like for kdramas).

Go to MyDramaList.com. Search genres you like, read recommendation list posts. if you’ve seen a show at this point already you can look it up and see in the “Recommended” section what other dramas are like it, you can see it’s genre tags to see WHAT genres you even seem to like. Use this to start DIGGING and finding stuff you might really like. Since like with anime, you’re only going to find the most popular stuff at first just based on Netflix or friends (which might not match up to your personal tastes as well as finding stuff that Is more your favorite genres).

Try out new stuff. And if it sucks, you don’t like it? Drop it, learn that about yourself, start another new thing. You’ll figure out what you like and dislike pretty fast (like I personally hate bad pacing or bad writing specifically characterization, and I can notice when the specific things I love are gonna be in a show pretty fast).

Check out genres specific to that language’s media. Because if it’s new to you, you might not know if you even like it or not, and if you like it then which things you personally prefer in it (since even within a genre there will be wildly different content and feels). For Chinese this might be wuxia, xianxia, palace dramas, costume dramas, republican era dramas, tomb raiding dramas etc.

*That’s how it worked for me, SOTUS led me to the bl drama fans, eventually they recommended Guardian so bam I guess I was learning chinese, YouTube recced me more cdramas from there to continue with, and mydramalist.com helped me find other shows with actors I liked from guardian (and other bl related shows which led me to Go Princess Go of all things for the bi lead), and that site helped me find more genres and shows I’d like, as well as friends continuing to rec things. Didn’t take long to figure out what I liked, didn’t, and to start noticing what upcoming stuff I’d probably be excited for. And now there’s so much good stuff found I don’t have enough time lol.

As for non show media: use shows as the jump off point. Just like using “easy to find shows” can be used to break into finding more shows. Once you have a show you liked a lot - look up it it’s based on a book, if it has an audiobook, an audio drama, a manhua, a donghua. Chances are it DOES have some of this stuff, because cdramas do a PRETTY regular amount of the time. Often cdramas have all or nearly all of these other story types. So jump into those, then find more novels or audio drama or manhua etc by branching off from the one you liked to others like it. Novelupdates.com is good for doing this with novels (it has a recommendations section), I imagine manhua sites have rec lists too, ximalaya starts recommending stuff once you’ve listened to a few audio on it, etc. And if you get into fandoms of those x media types, those fans will start recommending more too. And again, even if you just stick to media related to shows you liked - so often shows have so MUCH related media that would definitely keep you busy. (Like I didnt wade into non-show connected novels until I looked up more novels as recommendations afte show-related novels, like MDZS and Guardian leading me to SVSSS and 2ha and Can Ci Pin which at the time had no show adaptations, and then eventually found just-novel rec lists - which is still the main way I find fanfic).

#rant #June #discussion #I just. I both get why they were frustrated #but also lol it is a bit funny to me to read that #someone thought chinese has very little media and it sucks #because??? lol Chinese internet has been the most similar for me in terms of comparison to English internet #just because there’s SO much it’s like as big as my English shows to wafch/books to read lists god #there is no shortage of media #and also?? seeing the few easy to find cdramas or donghua #doesn’t mean they’re all the same quality?#that’s like finding family guy and thinking all American cartoons can only be like that #not realizing Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse or Xmen Evolition or Rugrats or Danny Phantom or Avatar exist #like?? just look more lol

7 notes · View notes