Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #433
Anne: Hello Everyone! Happy Thursday and then some. I'd spent the last week trying to figure out why we have a invention project for a first grader. Now, I thought that this would be more of an imagination exercise rather than them expecting an actual protype. Nope...I was wrong. He has a presentation and need a semi working protype. Not only that, they had to search the US patent office to see if something similar was already patented. We only got through the first 10 patents...out of a search that yielded >10,000 patent applications. I really think that these project are more of a parent/child co-project than a student project, at least not for a six year old. However, I don't know enough about mechanics to make a personal automatic seed planter. I know just enough to know that I cannot make a functional prototype. So...I guess he will just need to settle for one that "looks" like what he intended, without any moving parts. I am making him do most of the work, including the presentation, as always. His presentations are a mess, with almost mis-spelled words, crooked lettering, uneven spacing, and diagrams that you will need some imagination to understand. But it is his own work.
Not a whole lot happened this past week, except that I have jury duty tomorrow morning. So...let's see which will run out of batteries first, my laptop or my phone.
Enough of these mundane topics...let's review what I've watched in the past week.
Warm on a Cold Night
This was a nice surprise for the week. I started this for obvious reasons. It's billed as a costume crime solving drama. What I didn't expect that the "imbued with a wolf-like spirit" is more like werewolf, rather than having wolf like human characteristics. This is more fantastical than what the descriptions implied.
Su Jiu Er is a woman who has a strange illness where she will have a cold spell every once in a while that makes her basically faint. Her mother is trying all sorts of medicine to help her, but her "illness" is chronic and still not curable. She works as a constable with her godfather, but both are not exactly known for being competent in their jobs. Her goal is to make sure that she doesn't lose this job, even if she isn't allowed to do anything but be a "maid" to the unit.
Han Zhen is the crown prince of a neighboring kingdom whose people is a little bit more than human. See above reference to the "werewolf". They live much longer than humans, have super strength and agility, much better senses including hearing and smelling, and then can even shapeshift, whereupon they can enhance all these powers. This other kingdom is filled with different species/clans of these wolf-like beings, and each genetically possesses a more exaggerated "power". Han Zhen snuck out from his pack to find his best friend. I'm not sure if it's because of the "werewolf" genetics or what, but their body temperatures are a little higher than the humans, and are constantly "hot". (By the way, I understand that they used just normal ice to cool down, but all that white smoke denotes that the production company was using dry ice. I wonder if anyone passed out with that much sublimation going on around them.)
These two met because of a series of murders that were attributed to the "wolf people", and Han Zhen let himself be captured in order to investigate whether his missing friend was the culprit. And when they met, Su Jiu Er found out that when she has skin to skin contact with this very, very rude man, she feels instantly better, and the cold spell immediately reverses. The odd thing is... it only works with Han Zhen (we all know the Chinese drama rule), and no other "wolf people".
I'm not sold on the romance yet, but the premise is cute, and it's funny to see how everyone else sees them as a couple. And the mystery is just okay. But I couldn't stop watching, so it is definitely drawing me in. As another note...Han Zhen is 60 or 70 years old...
I'm only on episode 8...hoping that they keep this pace up. And I hope somewhere we can resolve the life span issue.
The Starry Love
This is the second show I started, but then got side tracked by the show above. As the title implies, it is a XianXia drama, where apparently humans, gods, and "demons" all interact. In the human realm, twin girls were born with the spirits of this double flower thing (okay, I watched raw and I have no idea what it really is called). When the older sister was born, Qing Kui, her father adored her immediately. However, when the younger sister was born, it caused the death of the queen, and her father shunned her immediately. Ye Tan, the younger sister, was basically "locked" away and abused by her own father for her entire life. When they were of age, they were betrothed to the heavenly prince and the demon prince.
Now...if you only read the synopsis, you would have wonder "how" there was a mixed up. Well... if you saw the show, you know that this wasn't a mix up by any means. Basically, right before the girls were taken to their respective husbands realms, the heavenly prince was in the demon realm where he met Ye Tan, who, trying to save her sister from a lifetime of misery of trying to become immortal, tells the heavenly prince that she is her sister, and then tries to convince him to cancel the wedding. Into this mess, these two chanced upon Chao Feng (the third demon prince) trying to assassinate his elder brother. The assassination wasn't successful, and Chao Feng fibbed and blamed the attempt on the heavenly prince.
So...now the day of the wedding, and each sister is in their respective carriages...and Ye Tan has a plan to save her sister. Unfortunately for her, the person helping wasn't that capable. Then Chao Feng, realizing that Ye Tan lied and was marrying into the demon realm and who can expose him as the person who tried to assassinate his elder brother, decided that she needs to be far, far away so she cannot expose him. Did we get all that? So Chao Feng purposely switched the brides in their carriages when Ye Tan's incompetent friend was trying to rescue the girls.
One more bit of information... the heavenly prince, due to his being in seclusion for SO long to level up... He developed a bit of an odd quark. He cannot stand crowds, other people, or being touched. He's basically a god who is a germaphobe. And in the demon realm, there are three princes, and the bride goes to the one who becomes the crown prince. I really feel bad for the older sister, entering a den of crazy people.
It's quite funny and it's fantasy. It's not as crazy as My Uncanny Destiny (my favorite show by FAR this year), which I watched again with my husband. But this is a pretty good show that manages to surprise me.
And this is it for this week, just these two new shows.
In addition to these two new drama, I finally watched Mr. Queen. I don't know why it took me this long...Anyway... I finally did...and... did anyone else feel that the Korean version missed the whole point of the story? The whole point of the novel and the Chinese web drama, was that a soul who lived as a man for most of his life, ended up falling in love with someone he would have sworn would never happen. And a king who started falling in love with his wife, because it had a new soul. While I acknowledge that the Korean ending made some what more sense... how in the world did Jang Bong Hwan become a different person in his past, in the present? The King changed because he met Jang Bong Hwan...but how did the chef in the modern time "change" in a past event of the modern time? I liked the Chinese version better. And I really wish someone would make the drama following the novel more closely. I LOVED the book.
Have a great week everyone!