40somethingahjumma

Oooh... is he in that? Oooh... I have to get to it ASAP. He is barely in Kunning Palace for the first 10 episodes (mostly in flashbacks) and then he's in it a fair bit for the next 10 and then is hardly in it afterwards. This is one of the rare occasions that I suffer from 2ML syndrome.

I've seen another version of this story which I like. It's about a smart but can't-be-bothered ML who changes into a responsible CEO when his marries the FL. I think the actors in that version are pretty good. Like in all industries the acting is a mixed bag. But I am surprised at how good some of the douyin actors are. Much better than those in mainstream C drama. The really good ones are really good.

Thanks for all the recommendations @NiteWalker and @OsmanthusTea So far I haven't watched a disabled/ill CEO drama that I don't like. So far so good... Some recommendations... After a bumpy first 15 minutes, it becomes really sweet and lovely.

I've seen this one too. It's a hoot. The chemistry is on point and even though I'm not a fan of the hidden identity trope, this one worked for me. Whenever I see Shu Tong, I click. He's probably my favourite douyin actor. ______ The best rebirth story so far... Really like the ML. At least he's not a passive onlooker for most of the show.

The healthy relationship drama. Only a day?

Here's another one with Shu Tong... playing yet another tortured gangster husband. I like the fated YingYang storyline and how it's done here. As usual he is great in the kissing scenes. This is a lighter contract drama with Liu Qing who very hot stuff... I love how he romances the FL. Do you have a link to that? It's tough wading through all the hundreds of shows.

Really like this couple who have done many dramas together apparently. The male lead is played by Shu Tong. Wish I knew that FL's name. Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLyQUS2rUzE Part 2

I like this ML too even though he's not exactly an acting powerhouse but he's cute. I've seen a few of his. This drama has one of the better scripts I've seen. At least it's not too crazy. The ML is not too aggressive and he smartly dispenses of the villains pulling the strings. The teamwork is great and more power to the production team for not over relying on misunderstandings.

This guy looks a bit like Lee Joon-hyuk from certain angles Same. I pretty much do that with certain actors and actresses.

Just finished this today. Loved the last few episodes especially. It's been a good six months for Ji Chang-wook.

My favourite kind of melodrama... Man, he's a darn good actor.

Really like this actress. She's genuinely funny.

A second chance for divorcees... Chemistry is pretty good and the ML is quite funny. Not bad. Girl enters into a contract marriage with a man she thinks is a construction worker but you know the rest... The deception doesn't go on forever. This ML is one of the best looking C drama actors around. He's one of the best. I've seen him in couple of melodramas -- one of them he was an awful abusive husband but his versatility is undeniable.

This couple is one of my favourites -- the FL is also a fave in the rom com stakes. She's better than a lot of A listers. The ML is pretty darn good as well.

All without IVF as well. There's plenty of people having sex in these dramas so children does make sense. I don't think I have seen without it. China is really ramping up the propaganda -- after all they are headed for demographic free fall if they haven't already.

I enjoyed this one.. Hilarious. Quintuplets.

Cinderella story with lots of slapping.

Oh yes, definitely. Lee Joon-gi and all that. It was a pleasant surprise to see Kim Ji-hoon play the comatose psychopathic son after years of wondering where he got to. Kim Jae-wook and Oh Jung-se. It's the culmination of everything. As a whole they did a really good job with all the different "lives" and it all comes together rather beautifully. What I liked about Lee Do-hyun's segment was Yee-jae's realisation that his life wasn't as bad as he thought and that there were people barracking for him and he didn't appreciate that aspect of his life. For me, the show is in part a critique of the "South Korean dream" -- the materialistic rat race of wanting to make it only to find out at the end, the system is rigged against you by the elites. It's not just SK of course but the fact that you can have a good job at Taekang for decades and lose it down the track. It puts a lot of pressure on young people to "get that dream job" ASAP and when they don't, they think they're failures. Here in Australia, people change careers at least 2 or 3 times in their lifetime. I just heard recently of a man who is leaving IT to go into medicine. I actually quite liked Kim Jae-wook in Her Private Life. (The only PMY drama apart from Healer that I've finished) He's also really good as a romantic lead. So is Kim Ji-hoon actually.

I want to see a spin-off of him playing that fixer character in his own story. I would pay good money to watch it. Wait till you see Episodes 6 and 7. Kim Ji-hoon has been around for a while but he seems to have difficulties getting half decent roles. I've even seen him in a sci-fi sageuk which few people have heard of now. Years ago he was in a popular makjang Jang Bo-ri is Here! and I only survived all 53 episodes because of him. He had short hair then. Quite a versatile actor really. Glad to see him these high profile shows even if he's playing psychopaths.

Upon finishing the show I came away wondering when was the last time I saw a K drama with plotting this brilliant. Shadow Detective S1 was pretty good but this one was on another level. This show actually feels like it's made by talented people who know exactly what good storytelling looks like even while using popular K drama tropes. The cast is the cherry on top. I didn't know who was going to be in it apart from the leads so it was a pleasant surprise to see a few of my favourites in it as well. Everyone was good in this and well cast. But the star of the show is definitely the script which reminds me so much of It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. For me it's a really clever... darker (certainly more violent) reimagining of the two famous classic stories. The combination of various crime elements is absolutely top-tier stuff. I don't want to give away too much but I absolutely loved the ongoing debates between Death and Yee-jae all throughout their interactions especially the anthropological ones. It's nice to be able to praise a show unreservedly and not sound like a curmudgeon about the current state of K dramas like a broken record.

I wished I liked this one a lot more. It does get better after Episode 1 but only a tad because of the fish-out-of-water part which is sometimes funny. The rest of it is pretty much your standard chaebol internal family struggle. There are aspects that remind me of Fated to Love You as well. The Joseon period was also clumsy in its feminist messaging. I am surprised that Lee Se-young signed up for such a mediocre clunky script. With her industry creds, she should be able to get better offers surely? Part of the problem for me too is that she is a far better actor than Baek In-hyun. He's okay but lacks the gravitas to pull off this role with nuance which the role requires him to have.

Only up to Episode 9 and not in too much of a hurry to catch up especially when there's still two more weeks worth of episodes unaired. This is the first piece of fluff that I've enjoyed in a rather long time. As people know I wasn't a fan of HomeCha but this one does feel much more authentic and lived-in. There's much more of a community feeling in this and I appreciate the weather forecasting angle to it which adds another layer to the story. Certainly people who live near water would have a heightened consciousness of the dangers of nature but also rely a lot more on the natural environment for their daily living. At it's core there's nothing especially groundbreaking about this although I like the camaraderie of the haenyeos. It's still rather charming to see people generally quite supportive of each other. There is the usual small town gossip which is nicely tampered by push back. The villagers aren't a monolith thankfully. They don't all hold a single opinion about every single subject as some of these dramas lead you to believe. It helps too that I like both leads -- good actors can do a lot to elevate the material but I do like how Yong-pil and Sam-dal are written. Their motivations are clearly laid and they make sense in light of where they come from, who they are at their core. Both crave community more than they do material success -- and honestly I don't have any problems with that. I have seen Yong-pil cop a bit of flak for being unambitious but really to me, a boy who lost his mother tragically to the sea, it's not hard to see why he prioritizes family over career. With Sam-dal too, I'm not that surprised that she's put her career on hold because she's completely disillusioned with the industry stakeholders. It's true that she should be aware of the cut-throat nature of the business but she's a talented individual who worked hard to prove herself coming up against a subordinate who thinks she can take shortcuts to success. Unlike what his father thinks, Yong-pil does prioritize family which is why he is still in Samdal-ri. He's keeping an eye on his dad who is still harbouring a festering wound and he's cast a watchful eye over Ko Mi-ja which has always been a second mother to him. Whatever anger he feels about losing his birth mother, is overridden by his concern for Ko Mi-ja's survival. There is a surprising recklessness to Mi-ja although I imagine a large part is survivor's guilt. I am sympathetic about the loss that both men suffered -- who wouldn't be? Even Yong-pil's dad wanting to cling on to a resentment just to hold on to the memory and to show he hasn't forgotten. I get all of that that. But remembering doesn't have to be about anger as it is here. It should be about love. Otherwise it's no longer about his Mi-ja but about him and the other Mi-ja. Also it's about how his Mi-ja died and not how she lived. Then there's the innocent bystanders who become casualty in this cold war. It's silly but people who cling on to their grief are usually pretty selfish. I definitely don't have SLS. There are a lot of people in this show who are living in the past for one reason or another. Sang-do is one of them. The reason why living in the past can be a very bad thing is because is causes people to miss out on what's in front of them or what good things the future could hold for them. Sang-do obviously doesn't see himself as a side character in his own story. To him, it's a second chance story. To me I think he is just trying to make himself the romantic hero in a story with Sam-dal. He someone who would definitely benefit from leaving that place for a while.

Death's Game definitely. It's cleverer and better written. Part 1 is action-packed. Surprisingly so. Acting is top-tier. There are also nice cameos from Jang Seung-jo, Kim Kang-hoon, Kim Jae-wook, Lee Do-hyun and Oh Jung-se. Kim Ji-hoon is really good as well. I wouldn't watch Gyeongseong Creature just for Wi Ha-joon because you'll end up being really frustrated. It's okayish but the writing is fairly mediocre.

I did a bit of inventorying. Ha. MDL is helpful in that regard. And discovered that I actually watched a few more than I had remembered. Completed C dramas - 20 Completed K dramas - 30 (A large number of them were Season 2s) Then there are an extra six dramas that don't fit into those two boxes. Copycat Killer and Oh No! here Comes Trouble are Taiwanese dramas that I completed. Then there was the live action adaptation of One Piece. Memorist and Gaus Electronics were two older K dramas that I watched and The Victim's Game was an older Taiwanese drama as well. So yeah... it all adds up to 56.

What trope would you like banned? In general there's nothing wrong with tropes if used well by skilled writers but philosophically there's the one I detest heartily and that is Noble Idiocy. It robs the other party of agency and moral responsibility in decision making. It seems noble on the surface but in the end everyone suffers. Ignorance is not bliss in such situations. It is a convenient way for writers to prolong the angst and perhaps even the conflict but I tend to lose a bit of respect for the perpetrator. Favourite Villain? Probably Shin Ha-kyun in Evillives. Because he doesn't start out as one and gradually develops into one. I also liked Shin Jae-ha's arc in Taxi Driver 2. Those last two episodes with revelations about his backstory were absolutely devastating. Honorable mentions are Heo Sung-tae in Decoy and a whole assortment of people from Big Bet. Big Bet is a fascinating study in villainy. Favourite Character? Either Xiang Liu from Lost You Forever played by the Tan Jianci or Yu Shisan from A Journey to Love played by Fang Yilun. Those are two are standouts and I have a tough time choosing between them. Both are definitely breakthrough roles for the actors and are absolutely scene stealers. They charmed me, amused me and moved me. Without these characters their respective dramas would less than what they are. Honourable mention would be Gil-chae from My Dearest -- a really fantastic arc for a truly independent woman of her time. Great performance by Ahn Eun-jin. Memorable Scene? There are just too many to recall. Number of Dramas Watched in 2023 *drum roll* 51 Shocking right? I had a lot of time when I was laid up with allergies. And that number doesn't include the ones I didn't/haven't finished.