40somethingahjumma

Here's a new one, I think, with Wang Nan... He's a 傻子 and there are some interesting twists and turns. If anyone knows where I can find a drama of his as the hot uncle who ends up with his nephew's ex, please link me to the channel. He's got grey sideburns in that one. I've lost a few of Wang Nan's dramas that I "liked" in the past. I thought this one was quite lovely too... There's development and the ML is very supportive.

This show has all the makings of being one of the year's biggest hit. It just goes from strength to strength with a few pit stops along the way. It is a tad slow in parts but at least we're learning something about the characters or those worlds they inhabit. There's a surprising amount of eye candy here that can actually act. The actor who plays Fu Rong appears to be one of the younger members and he's turning in quite a decent performance. In fact, I almost liked Fu Rong in Episode 16. His character development, I imagine, will be one of the things to look forward to. So we have a Ancient One -- a lonely and bored god-like figure who is seeking companionship and pleasure now that his fellow ancient ones are no longer around. The last time I heard the expression "ancient ones" used was in the Stargate franchise. It helps to think of Xing Zhi as some kind of powerful alien living in the outer parts of known space that's looking for something to pass the long dreary hours away by himself. I was pleased to see the return of the little mermaid (Xiao He) and her prince who are reborn as potential lovers again this time around. He's her physician father's pupil. I always wondered how Gu Chengjin's story ended and I'm glad that we got some closure. What was really interesting was how his story and that of the demoness who sacrificed herself was part of something else bigger and even more tragic. Gu Chengjin reborn as Jing Yan was an Ancient One, Qing Ye who was banished to earth by the God because he misused his power to save the woman he loved. They are now destined to "miss each other". This time, the story ends more happily for the little mermaid. In this iteration Gu Chengjin aka Jing Yan chooses to be with her rather than the wife of the previous life. Thematically all of that of course is a foreshadowing of the other romance -- the main one -- "loving someone you shouldn't". Xing Zhi finally confesses to being Xing Yun. Whatever reason he has for maintaining the charade of not wanting to be with Shen Li, will probably make sense. Considering that he has some degree of foresight, he must know something that is holding him back. Plus the experience of Qing Ye must surely give him pause. Of course in the background to all of this is the age old Man vs Fate theme. No drama is ever going to resolve that but it is telling that they're putting that front and centre after that near fatal encounter with Fu Sheng.

@NiteWalker Is this an older one? It features your favourite pairing. I don't remember seeing it before. 男主：姚冠宇 女主：王初伊 ML: Yao Guanyu FL：Wang Chuyi It's not bad for a Cinderella story but yeah be prepared for all the birth secrets and hidden identities. I quite liked it.

I just caught this one with Shen Haonan... It's kinda crazy but fun. If you can buy into the face swap, all things are possible. He's quite funny in the first half. The FL is quite good as well. Unfortunately I didn't like this one. FF through a lot of it. It's a repackaging of a few different storylines. I barely made it to the end and was annoyed with that ending. He's the nicest of all the 傻瓜 husbands which made the ending even worse. If you remember close to the start when they were having breakfast, he grabbed the kid and went to the dinner table to where the wife was. There's no doubt that he struggled and wavered along the way -- he didn't take her to Spain after promising her he would -- but I think he always liked her. It's interesting to me that at the end he criticized his parents' marriage in a backhanded way. He asked his mother, "Are you happy?" Even though theirs was a marriage made between people of equal status, it wasn't exactly a love match. His dad was unfaithful to his mum and had a son with his first love. It's not as if things were working that well for them. So in the end she realised that she should mind her own business and let him make his own mistakes. There's no guarantee that a marriage between people of the same class would be a happy one. The thing I appreciated most is that it didn't just rehash other mute wife stories. It took an entirely different approach with the discrimination of people with disability in elite social circles. Of course it can be confronting and most likely that's the point. I also like the fact that she never got back her ability to speak like in other stories but was able to use augmented technology.

Online interview with some of the cast. The uploader explains some vocabulary after the clip. If anyone has access to the full interview, let us know. Here they talk about how much they've seen of the drama, fan reactions to LGX's character, LGX gets inundated with emails wanting to know who dies at the end.

A few mute wife stories... I've seen about 4 now. This one might be my favourite even though the pairing is new to me. The chemistry is good and the leads are very attractive. I particularly like the ML, the actor and the character arc. Even though it uses many of the tropes, it is done in a fairly original way. Contract marriage, birth secrets, family power struggles, mute wife, mother's untimely death etc etc. ML: Li Pei'en FL: Zheng Nanxi This one has a gangster vibe. This one is with Shu Tong. Can't remember if someone's posted it before but it's the first time I've seen it. I quite like it and I think the FL is much better suited to this kind of role than playing a bad girl. Basically the mute wife married Shu Tong's character when her family's business is in turmoil and they have a child together. His mother in particular isn't that keen on the FL as the DIL to say the least so she's trying to cause problems by bringing in another woman to be the son's "tutor". The husband is aware of the dynamics and while he has his ego and jealousy issues, he tries his best to be thoughtful of his wife in public. At least he tries to distance himself from any third party interference in their marriage.

This is a nice short one. Very attractive leads. The ML looks familiar. He's not immediately good-looking but he can turn on the charm with relative ease. It has all the usual tropes. High school connection. Cheating ex. Chance meeting. Longtime betrothal. But all used in a fun light-hearted way. This is a nice contract marriage one with a bit of You've Got Mail vibe. They both communicate very well. Also a very attractive pair.

Initial Impressions after 10 episodes... I don’t think I’ve ever come across a human caused transmigration event in my drama sojourns but it does serve the same sorts of purpose here. It’s a second chance story that comes with a reset button. Moreover there’s a vague sense of Heaven’s timely intervention in the dirty deeds men. Yes, Shangguang Zhi did this awful thing in stealing another person’s identity but irony achieves a resounding win in so far as her actions leads to her own demise. She reaped what she sowed. Furthermore now that Yang Caiwei is living as Shangguang Zhi, she is free to sniff around clues regarding her parents’ deaths. Despite the high production values and intriguing storyline I have mixed feelings about this one. After 10 episodes I can safely say that while I like it and have great anticipation for the general shape of things to come, I don’t love it as much as I would like to. I am, however, overflowing with love for Liu Xueyi, last seen by me in The Blood of Youth. The 33-year-old actor who has made a career playing villains and grey characters is a genuine acting powerhouse and by far the best thing about this. He smirks and smoulders in the best ways possible. Here he really does a fantastic turn as a crusader with two faces. In this he’s a bit of a Zorro. And perhaps an Edmund Dantes. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s strikingly handsome as well. Ju Jingyi is decent enough in the dual role of bad girl Shangguang Zhi and Yang Caiwei pretending to be Shangguang Zhi but often falling back on old habits. The chemistry between them is good but I’m still of the view that visually Ju Jingyi and Zhang Zhehan have something together that’s unique and can’t be replicated. My other issue with the show is how the show moves along — the pacing is slower than I like. At this point in the story I can’t decide if this is a criminal investigation show with rom com elements or a romance that just so happens to have some crime fighting elements in it. Perhaps that’s a good thing for drama normies but not for someone like me who prefer these shows to err on the side of having “too much” crime solving. My own sense is that there’s a good detective show waiting to unfold that’s being interrupted by romance tropes, side characters and clunky humour. It presents itself as a serious show or at the very least takes itself quite seriously and demands that the audience to do so as well. Yet, the personalities of the supporting cast are stock standard cliches that routinely find their way into a show of this kind. I keep reaching for The Imperial Coroner comparisons repeatedly. Although the leads in Blossom are generally better actors and have better chemistry, for me at least, Imperial Coroner has more of the “crack” factor. The direction is better, the characters are more interesting and the script feels a lot more rigorous. A fun vibe pervades the storytelling all throughout. I was drawn to the Imperial Coroner within the first 5 minutes. Blossom feels like work. Not arduous work but more effort than a person who loves the genre should have to put in. I don’t often comment about lighting in my reviews as I’m no expert on technical matters but this show tends to be unnecessarily dark looking. I didn’t particularly like the lighting on Ju Jingyi when she was doing her Shangguang Zhi stint and I wondered more than once if she would keel over as a result of an overdose on eyeliner. Finally I don’t really think the body swap/transmigration does much for to enhance the romance. There are no complex consequences to it. Its primary purpose is to prolong the push and pull and prevent the romance from making any headway too early. Thematically (and arguably) it could speak to Pan Yue’s devotion — he’s a one-woman man. Regardless of how she looks — whether disfigured or in the body of an unlikeable woman, he will always be drawn to her like a moth to a flame. However, in terms of the trope’s impact on how the romance plays out, it’s neither here nor there. It also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me too that Pan Yue would keep Shangguang Zhi close at hand in the courthouse just because she sounds ambiguously penitent. Yes, he is suspicious of her and there’s an element of “keeps your friends close and your enemies closer” but as far as he knows she’s still an entitled spoilt rich young woman. To my mind the set-up is too fast and loose for my comfort. At this point I intend to keep going because of 1) the larger conspiracy hovering over the leads as well as the backroom deals and 2) Liu Xueyi who is just absolutely brilliant in these types of antihero roles. The man is a criminally underrated performer. Despite sounding more negative than I intended there are a sampling of very good moments in the show. The sequences at the Life and Death gambling house, for instance, demonstrates that the show can be a good detective story and the leads make a good investigative team. That’s the kind of stuff I want more of.

This show is really good. I can't believe I'm saying this because generally I'm allergic to xian xia but the first 6 episodes has the best set-up in C drama I've seen in a very long time. A Journey to Love's set-up was pretty decent but this one's even better. I only started this for the Princess Agents leads but especially for Lin Gengxin and the show has exceeded my expectations in terms of world building and characterization. Within the first 6 episodes everything is clearly established. There's an arranged marriage in the offing. Shen Li, a powerful goddess falls to earth trying to escape the arranged marriage. In the course of her dodging a marriage she doesn't care for, she meets a mortal and lives with him for a time. During this time, as they work together to help each other she falls for him and no doubt her feelings are reciprocated. There's This is of course has become a popular short drama trope in recent days -- trying to run away from an unwanted marriage and finding a love match elsewhere. Usually with a far more powerful man. What makes this show better than the trope might indicate is the world building and the allusions to western fairytales. The first 6 episodes in particular remind me of shows like Mystic Pop-Up Bar, Tomorrow or Missing: The Other Side. Aside from being fantasy shows also, thematically the similarities are evident. It's all about unfinished business, grief and letting go. With the different realms mixing in Lord of the Rings fashion, the allusion especially to the Little Mermaid is quite compelling. The story of the demon girl living in the pond who is something of a substitute lover for her "owner" sacrifices herself in the end for him. There's also a parallel between the mortal Xingyun and Lord Bianci Shen Li living their days in an idyllic waterfront location.

Cast: Shangguang Zhi/Yang Caiwei - Ju Jingyi Pan Yue - Liu Xueyi Bai Xiao Sheng - Wu Jiayi Zhuo Lan Jiang - Li Geyang A Ze - Qi Pei Xin Ling'er - Ding Jie Native Title: 花间令 Director: Zhong Qing Screenwriter: Yu Hai Lin, Zhong Jing Genres: Detective, Thriller, Historical, Romance, Fantasy Synopsis: Pan Yue, recently promoted to the rank of Imperial Censor is in the city of Heyang in search of his betrothed Yang Caiwei who has fallen on hard times. He is the lesser but more talented son of a prominent family. Pan Yue is determined to marry his childhood sweetheart against parental objections but Caiwei who now a despised coroner's apprentice thinks herself unworthy. At that moment she is framed for the murders of an entire family and he offers to help. The beautiful but deadly Shangguang Zhi is resolved to be Pan Yue's wife by hook or by crook so she organizes a body swap. On the night of their wedding, the body of Yang Caiwei possessed by the soul of Shangguang Zhi is found dead. Foul play is suspected. Pan Yue is chief suspect. Meanwhile Yang Caiwei who now possess Shangguang Zhi's body returns to the city to investigate the real cause of the other woman's death.

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.

@abs-oluteM I've seen about 4 episodes of In Blossom and it's not bad so far. But there's something different about Ju Jingyi's appearance. I'm just wondering if she's altered her appearance cosmetically. The actress that played Yang Caiwei was okay. She was adequate. I didn't think she was that amazing to warrant controversy. On the other hand, Liu Shiyi is a really good actor. Wow. talk about nuanced expressions. It's surprising that this is his first ML role.

Oooh... it's with Zhang Yuxi. I like her. The chemistry is very good from the trailers. Wow. He's certainly going places. Is this like a Mr and Mrs Smith storyline?

Who is this guy? He looks like he just graduated out of high school. He seems a bit wet behind the ears. The banter is not bad though. I've never seen her paired with anyone else before. Interesting.

For me she was pretty much wasting her time with the ex. This kind of one-sided crush hoping that things will change is just a lost cause. If a man doesn't want to marry you after so many years of dating and he's so reluctant why bother? There's no trust either... what's the point? She also dodged a bullet as well because not only did he believe the Green Tea but he was also trying to have a bet each way. Not only does he have poor judgment but he wasn't that ethical. The show demonstrates really well why a man or a woman who has a foot in each boat should never be trusted with anything. It speaks to character. He can't say nobody didn't warn him. The message is clear: Don't waste your time on a man who is just stringing you along particularly if his thoughts are elsewhere. It's not bad. Liu Qing is always good value. I liked the twist at the end but I was pretty much on the right track regarding the family secret because it reminded me of a certain Christopher Nolan movie. It was interesting, something a bit different. Yes, it did remind me of All of Her also but it was better than All of Her because more thought was put into it. That was brainless stuff riding on the coattails of the leads' chemistry. This one had a half decent script. The ending was quite abrupt and it's bound to cause confusion. I didn't like the FL in Liu Qing's last one -- the action espionage one.

I was going to post this one but you beat me to the punch. I caught it last night as well and was impressed. It's thoughtful and feels like it's been written by human beings. Apart from the flash marriage bit, it's generally about normal people interacting in plausible ways. I'd been thinking that there are not enough of these types of stories where the leads have a mature relationship that's built on clear communication and an active avoidance of misunderstandings. The ML is particularly likeable here because he states clearly at the start what his expectations of the marriage is. He's not going to be a rebound but he wants a long-term relationship. This of course repudiates the usual contract marriage trope where they both claim to want separate lives with separate living areas. It's not a straight up transaction with benefits for him. He wants love eventually. The actor does remind me a little of Wang Xingyue. _________________ This is a pairing that I'm really becoming fond of. Last week I posted a couple of their dramas and this one is apparently their first collaboration. As you can see it's a rebirth story where the FL betrayed the ML in the previous life. He went to prison and three years later when he's released he finds her wandering around on her own infected with AIDS. She later commits suicide which leads to rebirth. I've been told that it is an older drama although I just caught it last week Tan Jianci is by far the better actor. But I struggle to see the resemblance. The douyin actor is rather on the stiff side. An actor with the calibre of Shen Haonan or Liu Qing is needed to pull off that kind of tyrannnical domineering CEO role. Because they're lazy. Because it's easier to make that the feature of the drama than to actually plot a show properly. It's exhausting and frustrating -- like playing a game of hide and seek that goes on for too long.

Yes, that's the one. It was my first encounter with his actor too. He was very likeable and since then I've seen a couple of others with him. He's in one where his wife is a 傻子 and had lost her memory. She falls pregnant and he sends her away when his brother's woman comes to live. On the way, someone tries to blow up the car. The actress is a popular one but her name escapes me at present.

I've only seen one of hers. It wasn't bad. Her character fell pregnant and the ML found out very early on. He soon finds out that she's got a knack for investing and has knowledge of antiques. She was supposed to be a lot younger than the ML and she probably is in RL. Of course it didn't help that she called him 大叔 most of the time either. Some recommendations... This features a brood of quads. It's quite good. At least I don't feel insulted and the ML isn't written as an idiot who can't see things as they are. He gradually works things out on his own despite being kept in the dark. Another guy who feels normal and not some plot device. The FL is Wang Ziyi and the ML is Xu Jiangshuai. She plays a pair of identical twins. He's kinda hot. This is decent and features an actor that I like... It seems to be set in the 1980s... I think. The ML is a teacher and they live in a rural area. She's reborn and works out that people in her county don't like her that much. She had a bit of a reputation for running around with men not her husband before the "rebirth". Her husband is a teacher. I wasn't sure about this one at first but somewhere in the second act the reborn FL became less unlikeable and the romance became more interesting. I can see what the show was going for -- two calculating leads ruthlessly trying to manipulate each other until he falls hard for her. It's a very hot and fiery romance. I don't think she's as smart as she thinks she is and at first she's reckless and noisy but once their relationship improves and she realises that his reputation for being a business genius is earned... things get better. I like the actor especially in this role. Does anyone know his name? This is my favourite kind of ML -- scheming and observant.

I've seen that one before. I don't really like the fact that they kept her real identity a secret until the end. It's unnecessary. I can understand that at the start but to drag it out. Plus why does the ML never tell the FL that he's helping the female villain because of his brother? It's hair pulling stuff.

This one is so bad that it's hilarious. Oh man... It is a trope fest from start to finish. It's as if someone threw all the tropes into a concrete mixer and popped this out. The FL has got to be the dumbest person to walk the earth. At least it has Du Yafei who is great in the make out scenes. I like this one... even if it's probably longer than it needs to be. But the ML is on the ball here and the storytelling doesn't feel as insulting. This one's okay too... Better than a lot of other period ones I've seen lately which just has me rolling me eyes. At least it focuses on the relationship between the leads.

This show is soooo good. I like everything about it. The writing is just pitch perfect. Even in three episodes there is already so much payoff. I like it so much that I don't even mind that Park Sung-hoon is playing a psychopath again. He does whatever he does so well. Whether he plays good guys or bad guys he nails it with a wrinkle or a stare. Besides I can understand him taking a break from playing good/nice guys in his last two dramas. :P The drama certainly boasts an incredible cast including Kwak Dong-yeon and Lee Mi-seok. I saw a short clip of the drama on YT and it piqued my interest immediately. It was the boar shooting scene and Kim Soo-hyun looked pretty 帅 and it has managed to get me out of the douyin rut that I'm in. It hasn't been easy finding something in K drama territory that would interest me but yes, this did it. In some ways it's not that surprising because there are many elements of a douyin drama in this. A snobbish and very dysfunctional conglomerate family that's recently become the target of all kinds of plots and conspiracies. Caught in the middle is their intelligent but sensitive grandson-in-law who is entangled in all their problems because he naively believed it was enough that he married the love of his life. It is a fairytale where Cinderella... or Cinderfella didn't exactly get his happily-ever-after. Instead he became the family's laundry cleaner and it's destroying his soul. The woman he thought he would love and protect for the rest of his life has become the bane of his existence. I wondered for the first couple of episodes what happened to this couple who liked each other. The show seems to suggest that they have forgotten what it was that brought them together but it's perhaps more likely that the family dysfunction, conflicting principles and neglect are the primary culprits. For me the highlight is that this is beautifully written story about marriage. It's highly relatable and the psychology is right on the money. Marriage is far more than feelings. It is commitment to a set of vows with trust at the heart of it because feelings come and go. Even when Hyun-woo pretends to be an attentive husband, by the very act itself he is changing the dynamic. Sure he wants out because he feels stifled by his demanding selfish in-laws but by his recent actions, he is recreating the marriage that they both had anticipated but went by the wayside. Not all of Hyun-woo's goodwill has ended up in the ash heap. Deep down inside he still cares and he was already a compassionate and decent person to begin with. But marriage is work... hard work at times so when the two people in it stop working at it... they stop caring. It's really that simple. Considering that they both come from very different family backgrounds, they definitely had their work cut out for them. On the acting side of things, it's a pleasant surprise to see Kim Ji-won in a completely different role to the one she played in My Liberation Notes. She's really very good. And I have loved Kim Soo-hyun for a very long time and he's very funny here. Episode 1 was hilarious. I laughed out loud so many times.

I've recently discovered this pairing in a couple of different dramas. The chemistry is fantastic and the leads are also very good actors. In this first one, the sassy FL is kidnapped along with a well to do boy. She takes them down and is mistaken for being a kidnapper. Someone knocks her over the head. She's taken back to the disabled CEO's home to convalesce. Since the boy has taken to her, the CEO offers her a job as the boy's carer. As she has crippling debt (who doesn't) she jumps at the chance of earning some big money. It doesn't take long before she concludes that someone in his family is trying to poison him to death. After a series of near death encounters the leads develop feelings for each other. The upside of this show is that it doesn't rely on the same group of villains all throughout. It often gets rather ridiculous that the same antagonists continue doing the same thing over and over with repercussions. It is unique that the story focuses on the ML's family dynamic rather than on the FL's. Also the boy is not the offspring of a previous one night stand. There are also a couple of mysteries that need to be uncovered related to 5 years ago when the ML was in a vehicle accident. It's well directed. This other one with the same duo is a revenge melodrama. Tonally it's different from the first. The FL attracts the attention of two men -- father and son -- as she plots to avenge the death of her parents. It's really the father she's after because she remembers him at the scene of the crime all those years ago. Of course there's more than meets the eye. She single-minded but the ML soon cottons on to her game and true identity. The actress is quite fantastic here as the troubled tormented vigilante. navigating a dangerous tightrope He has an agenda of his own and his father suspects that the two of them might be having an affair behind his back. This is a classy production that often feels more like a film than a tv show. It does keep the viewer on the edge of of their seat. These two productions are of high quality and the stories don't follow the usual templates,

A couple of recommendations that came through last night... This is a well-written, well-made repackaging of the contract marriage, revenge tropes. It's always a delight to see an intelligent, scheming FL at work. She first attracts the ML's attention at a blind date event and takes on the biggest gamble of her life. They enter into a contract marriage because she needs his clout to avenge her parent's death and escape an unwanted marriage as well as her uncle's household. On top of that she doesn't have a whole lot of time left. She's been poisoned for much of her life and is not expected to live long. The ML's just returned from overseas and is trying to shake off a marriage alliance. I wasn't familiar with the ML prior to this but he's very attractive and likeable. His name is Li Shiyao. 李是侥 Right off the bat she is surprised at how protective he is considering they are only a transactional relationship. As they gradually develop feelings for each other she is torn between early impending death and her fear of falling for him. The way they look after each other is very pleasing to watch. All in all the romance is quite lovely. This is a good example of how a hidden identity story can work with a bit of care and thought. Thus far all the Republican era ones have been decent. The actress is excellent and the chemistry is good. An actress at the height of her success from present day has an incident with a chandelier and dies on the spot. She travels back in time and her soul transmigrates into that of a blind young woman who has been ill used by her family. Having taken possession of the body she ceases to be blind but carries on the charade to protect herself. The dead young woman was betrothed to be married to the 少帅 military commander. One night a man with a blood stained shirt enters her room while she's about to have a bath. Later on she meets him again this time as the military commander's aide-de-camp donning a mask. She recognizes his voice instantly. There are many people who don't want this marriage to take place including the FL (although she changes her mind later) who has to navigate a snobby mother-in-law to be, a noisy and irritating 情敌 as well as her own family. What works for me is how the hidden identity is effectively used as a vehicle for the ML to observe and fall in love with the FL of his own accord. It's a fairly straightforward story that sees the leads avoiding traps and trashy people while she lives with the future in-laws. FL: Zhu Moyan ML: Li Hao

7 blooming years... for this pairing to see the light of day again The CGI actually looks half decent and it sounds like that they're using their own voices.

I don't remember watching this one before but yes, that's the brother of the male lead in The Imperial Coroner. Hard to miss. Very tall. Here's another one with Gangster ML Zhen Ziqi 甄子琦. The FL The chemistry is excellent here. He's such a great actor despite the weak set up with the ML's motivations very unclear at the start. It's important to establish motivations early on so you can root for the right people. But it's still a fascinating premise with the ML and his mute lover. The FL iis also very good in the role. They've been contract lovers for a couple of years and one day she tells him that her family is in talks to form a marriage alliance. She tells him that she's willing to back out of it if he asks her so. He seems not to care and she ends up being engaged to his nephew. So that's interesting reversal of the usual hot uncle trope.