abs-oluteM

This scene in eps 20 ( or was it 21?) was so sad but it also made it the best episode for me since we finally understand where he's coming from & why he sends out these mix signals.

Perhaps in a very human way of looking at it , he's behaving like a douche bag - seducing her and rejecting her all at the same time. But in this episode we are reminded that he's no ordinary mortal or even immortal - he's THE Ancient God, the last of his kind holding together the balance between the realms/ universe. So affairs of the heart seem so trivial when you compare it against the responsibility he shoulders and the power he holds.  It becomes clear to her (and me) that giving in to his feelings for her would have an irrevocable consequence that goes against the Natural Order of things. Can he possibly risk falling in love, when the gamble would be the existence of the realms and the lives of those who live in it? Given this context,  it's hard to fault him for behaving the way he has been .

Of course like he says, he can't control how he feels for her and he can't help being protective. So poor ShenLi will have to control herself and not be swayed. 

At this stage I have a soft spot for Mofang. No SLS but just that I appreciate his unwavering loyalty and devotion to her. And I know it is not easy for feelings to go away despite him saying he will reign it in. In another life / universe I would have rooted for him since I love a man who is upfront and decisive. Anyway,  it's not meant to be (plus my bias for LGX will not allow me to ) .

I am actually up to eps 23 at where Shen Li  and her realm have become targets of these "demons" or whatever they are call .  MF's body is missing and I can already forsee that they will use it to cultivate these creatures, and use him against her (or something along those lines). By the way, the folks in the Divine Realm are far from divine ! So many annoying & hateful beings. Such a waste of a pretty place - the peace and abundance they have enjoyed has made them complacent and self-centered. They should all be sent to the mortal realm to suffer! 

With subs 

This looks good & very promising 

7 hours ago, OsmanthusTea said:

He thinks too highly of himself when it comes to her but SL plainly said, sorry XY is XY and you is you, 2 of you are different people in my eyes so stop your shenanigans.... You go, Girl!!

I have completed up to eps 17 and sometimes I want to smack his head  . At times I think maybe cause his nature requires him to stay distant, aloof and non-intrusive that he can't outright tell her how he feels. I am certain he knows how he feels for her. He keeps finding excuses to be with her and can he really let her go marry Furong? 

Like she said, he is the only one who can cancel this marriage alliance which no one seems to want but which everyone (or she ) thinks is necessary. Of course there will be an uproar of sorts if he does cancel it,  and like @UnniSara mentioned in an earlier post about him not being able to interfere in the natural order of things.   However, he sure  is conflicted since  the heart wants what it wants. 

What I deduce is that he doesn't seem to think that one can fight fate . At least that's the impression he gives me when he talked about the life of his silver haired friend JingYan (who was also an Ancient God),  who in both his mortal lifetimes end up being conflicted between two women. On the other hand she somewhat challenges that notion for him since she thinks that outcomes are a result of one's choice. 

12 hours ago, ktcjdrama said:

This drama is successful in making me go back and forth between "he loves her more", "no, she loves him more", "no, no, he loves her more", "no, no, no..." 

I didn't think of it that way ahahaha but now I am wondering too. 

@Mouse are you watching this? 

@mademoiselle I was sorry for Soo Cheol when wifey left but old habits die hard. The Hong men just can't read the room. Glad HaeIn slapped him on his head

This has subs for the pre-released

I have to find a place to watch this . My usual site is gone and I am not keen on other sites with all the virus and stuff. For my region, I will have to renew my Viu subscription. Thinking if I should as I already have 4 ongoing subscriptions for streaming sites .

What are the key things that happened this week?

Preview eps 7

@40somethingahjumma so glad you opened this....I am almost at the end of the show. I am still very much invested - I just didn't have time to comment since I got sidetracked by The Legend of Shen Li . Can you believe it ? I am watching 3 cdramas all at once. This is uncharacteristic of me but why do all the actors I love have ongoing shows all at once?? LOL

I have so much to say but it's late and I will write more tomorrow but I must talk about  Liu Xue Yi as Pan Yue. Seriously how GORGEOUS is this man. This is the first time I am watching anything that he's done and oh my word, what an actor. Nuanced & refined.   Why isn't he getting better roles on with bigger budgets? Is this show considered low budget? Some say this was an A rating show that was upgraded to an S rating as it somewhat became a sleeper hit Youku. I don't even know what that rating meant but I just guess it meant that the drama was getting a lot of buzz. LXY has been receiving  a lot of love for his role as PanYue &  was the biggest winner from this. 

Got to post this here. He has so many beautiful looks and costumes - I guess all the budget went to his wardrobe  

I will share more of my thoughts soon about the cases, plot in general and the romance. Also about the 2nd CP . 

1 hour ago, mademoiselle said:

@abs-oluteM Jeon Jong Seo's real bf made a cameo as PD in finale episode! Sharp eyes fans pointed it out. Also cameo were Kim Bum, Lee Soo Hyuk and Ryu Kyung Soo.

 

Kim Bum played someone who fell in love with Chae Won (second FL) since he saw her at her wedding. He didn't want to miss the chance again so he actively pursue her. Lee Soo Hyuk is Ah Jung's groom in a drama she's filming. Don't know what's Ryu Kyung Soo playing.

I saw the cameo for her BF and also Lee Soo Hyuk. Did you finish this show? I saw there was a time skip

Knetz were saying that it is rather unbelievable that Chaebol families like that  would lose everything overnight.  

There's a separation of company  versus personal rights & wealth. Don't tell me the Hong family  has no separate funds kept aside under their personal name?  But then again this family seems so naive and easily fooled that it is not hard to suspend belief. For plot's sake , I don't mind them losing everything if only to show that they have been their own worst enemies. Also it validates everything that Beom Ja and Hyun Woo have been telling them about.

With the reveal that Ms Moh is EunSung's mother, it gives sufficient context to why EunSung is so keen on taking over Queen's. The mother had to "abandon" him for this ultra long term plan, and there's a lot of resentment built up on his part. I agree @mademoiselle that if ES truly has feelings for Hae In, that will become a weak point. But it could also make him more vicious later on. 

I enjoyed SJK's cameo so much. Still hoping for a S2 there. But my favourite bit has to be the epilogue when HaeIn realised that HyunWoo still wants to be with her and she finally finds a good reason to fight on and live. 

 I have completed till eps 11. I did expect him to be immortal somehow but  was a lil surprised  that he's THE Ancient God that they have been waiting for to come clear up the realms and seal things. But then again that probably explained the inaction with regards to the Xutian Abyss in the past 1000 year - he was too busy being mortal and falling in love! 

Immortal or otherwise , he still has this knack of pushing her buttons. I am always chuckling at how he appears to her as distant and unmoved by the urgency of things. He denies he is XY.  And yet he insists on being near her and doing things that will clearly make her heart flutter and yearn for XY even more. I don't know if he needs a smack on his head...does he not realise how conflicted she's going to feel now that she has to marry that Furong. I suppose it would be chaos if he did admit to being XingYu and it would have a negative impact on the marriage alliance. But, can he even bring himself to let her marry Furong? Surely he is going to regret this. I feel like he sends out all these mix signals - no surprise that her Master is wary of him.

11 hours ago, gilaswan said:

Aiyoh! Haein’s condition has gotten worse! She’s losing more recent memories! I feel so sad for the couple. 

The ending broke my heart.  In fact this entire episode was a bit of a cry fest for me. It was already sad when Hyun Woo had to say those nasty things in her face so that it would give her motivation to fight on. But at the end, when he realised how her condition has deteriorated, it felt almost hopeless. 

1 hour ago, mademoiselle said:

Soo Cheol may be dimwitted, but I like learning that he has some positive traits, too. It's sweet that he wants to be the father that show his son how to ride a bike etc.

Yeah...I am often annoyed by him but then I blame his mum for coddling him the way she did. The wife has some feelings for him. Not love or anything close but perhaps some sort of affection or sympathy since he's always been good to her .  She wasn't so comfortable hearing he's gonna suffer after this and I wonder if she'll be the "weak" link to CEO Yoon's plans

Anyway they finally revealed what we have speculated all along - that grandpa's GF and Yoon are mother and son. 

 Watched till eps 7.  A couple of things that I like.

First Lin Ge Xin ....it's not that I am bias. But  it's just that I love how Xing Yun is written. He kept this nonchalant and indifferent persona but underneath all that is a man full of wisdom and empathy. He was silly sometimes too and I can imagine how exasperating ( in an adorable way) it must have been for the immortal Shen Li to deal with him . Yet, his vulnerability brought up these protective instincts in her. 

This part where she told him she liked him and his response was just unexpected! 

The second thing was how things ended in the 1st arc ( ep 1 to 7). It was interesting because time becomes a commodity - and when something is a commodity it's value is subjective. For her she found it worth it to give 500 years of cultivation to save a mere mortal whom she only had a brief but genuine connection with. Her mother said that he would forget her in a year or two. But he didn't - he remembered her for the next 30 years till the day he died. That 30 years for a mortal is a truly long time. I confess this was the moment the show sealed the deal for me. 

Lol! I guess the cold war has started again.  With translations.

On 3/21/2024 at 12:37 PM, abs-oluteM said:

One thing though, I believe Chairman is the key to helping TaeOh . He senses something is not right with the death of his oldest son. He’ll want to get to the bottom of that . 

Looks like I was right here. Chairman did a prison break for TaeOh. TBH, if chairman didn't do that, TaeOh would not have been able to go see that prosecutor and get that video proving his innocence. How I see it is that the real puppet master has and always will be this old man. Neither Tae Oh , Inha or any of his other useless sons have the ability to outwit this old fox.

The problem I have from the start of this show, and even up to now is that the protagonists here failed to get my sympathy and the reason being I don't know why I should. Till now, I never quite understood what Tae Oh would get for placing InHa on top of the KangOh's  throne. For someone who is supposed to very strategic in his thinking, he clearly had no strategy in the last couple episodes and was pretty much reacting to the situation. Hyewon, with her almost emotionless expressions 90% of the time,  made me lose any sympathy I had of her situation when she decided to use InHa's affections for her from the start. And then still married him after kissing another man. 

While I know that InHa is the so called antagonist of this show, I actually do feel bad for his character simply because I understood what pushed him in this direction. For InHa , it was never really about the power. What he wanted so badly was to be recognised as his father's son, to be part of this family. He was looking for genuine affection. Even with HyeWon , I believe he was hoping she would come to love him though that was wishful thinking.  As far as I am concerned, he is no worse than any of the characters in this show since everyone here has his own agenda and is more than willing to throw someone else under the bus to save his own skin. 

Preview...can't wait to be done with this show. 

16 minutes ago, mademoiselle said:

PD Ahn likes these kinds of storylines. I will sit out on this one because I didn't like One Spring Night and Something in the Rain.

 

I just hope they don't have anymore toxic boyfriend/girlfriend or parents.

This is my worry. SITR was a torture - I have no idea how I managed to watch it then. So draggy towards the end. Incidentally WHJ was the brother there , so am not surprised the PD casted him here. But anyhow, I will do my best to survive this. Hahahahah....see how I am persevering through The Impossible Heir despite the mess of a storyline. 

-----------------------

Some translations from the script reading

 A bit more about the synopsis:

 The plot centers around an instructor who tirelessly assists a student named Lee Joon Ho (Wi Ha Joon) in gaining admission to a prestigious university. In a twist of fate, Lee Joon Ho later returns to the academy as a rookie instructor after resigning from a large company because he remains fixated on his first love, his academy teacher Seo Hye Jin (Jung Ryeo Won), even after becoming an adult.

Jung Ryeo Won will play Seo Hye Jin, a star lecturer who has been working in the field for 14 years. Seo Hye Jin is a character who doesn’t know defeat. Just as she was worrying about life and thinking about past regrets, Lee Joon Ho—the cheeky student she helped send to a prestigious university—brings unexpected changes to her life.

Wi Ha Joon will play rookie instructor Lee Joon Ho who shakes up the everyday life and feelings of his past instructor Seo Hye Jin. Leaving behind the opportunity of working at a large company where his future would be guaranteed, Lee Joon Ho returns to hagwon (private educational institution), where his life was dramatically turned around. Although Seo Hye Jin vehemently opposes this, Lee Joon Ho continues to approach Seo Hye Jin.

Source: 

https://www.soompi.com/article/1651416wpp/wi-ha-joon-and-jung-ryeo-wons-midnight-romance-in-hagwon-confirms-premiere-date-gives-heart-fluttering-first-look

TRAILERS

Yay. This will be on Disney +

Cast and Crew

Director: Park Cheol-Hwan

Writer: Lee Soo-Yeon ( Stranger S1 & S2, Life , Grid) 

Ju Ji-Hoon - Woo Chae-Woon

Han Hyo-Joo - Yoon Ja-Yoo

Lee Hee-Jun - Sun Woo-Jae

Lee Mu-Saeng - On San

Kim Sang-Ho - Kim Shin-Koo

Jun Suk-Ho - Seo Hee

Park Ji-Yeon - Jung Hae-Deun

From MDL

Blood Free 지배종

SYNOPSIS by ASIAN WIKI

Ending millions of years of humans eating animal meat, BF now dominates the genetically engineered cultured meat market. There are people inside BF and outsiders who begin to have doubts about the path taken by BF CEO Yoon Ja-Yoo (Han Hyo-Joo). Yoon Ja-Yoo founded BF with On San (Lee Mu-Saeng), who has a Ph.D. in physiology.

Meanwhile, after graduation from the Naval Academy, Woo Chae-Woon (Ju Ji-Hoon) served in army, but he now works as a bodyguard.

Episodes: 10

Premieres: Apr 10, 2024

2 episodes every Wednesday

Original Network: Disney+, Hulu

First short teaser....please drama, be good. This kind of former student - former teacher storyline always concerns me. 

My mum actually finished this show on NF. She did say it was kind of slow. 
 

But seems like local viewers find this inspirational. hahahahah inspired to do what I wonder? 

They won something for being handsome ahahahah

This theory keeps floating on my TL...I am like how is this possible? So are you saying poor Hae In supposedly had a "still birth" and they told her the baby died and the sis-in-law some how stole the baby from her. Are we trying to top the KBS weekend / daily dramas ?

20 minutes ago, mademoiselle said:

 

Is that Lee Jun Young, Park Sung Hoon and Jang Seung Jo? But wait, I don't dislike Jun or Lee Jun Hyuk in their villain roles, though. 

Yes.

On 3/27/2024 at 8:25 AM, 40somethingahjumma said:

 

Good lord! I just realised who he is! It's Wu Xin from The Blood of Youth. Admittedly he was bald there but he was also really good in that show. Ugh. I can't believe I didn't pick him straightaway. Wu Xin was probably my second favourite character in The Blood of Youth. Ack...  That was a good show and even though he wasn't in it much in the second half, it was a very memorable role.

I realised he has a few ML roles from 2021 which I will try after Blossom is over. 

On 3/27/2024 at 3:42 PM, rocher22 said:

The love scenes were very realistic and it was the first time I saw the main couple using an aphrodisiac (if I understood correctly) in a Chinese drama.

The FL initiated it and it was beautifully portrayed. 

 

This turned out pretty hot! I finished this show too and thought for a 10 min per epsiode show , it did well with the plot & romance. No time was wasted. Ending was a tad rushed though