The Problematic of the Unproblematic

SakiVI: Finally, a finale!  I thought it would never happen the way everyone's been dithering on this show.  Okay, Sora hasn't been dithering, to be fair, but she's annoying anyway, and not the heroine she imagines herself to be.  Also, the theme song is stuck in my head, so annoying... Shuk: [helpfully slaps the back of Saki's head] Oh, thanks. All subbed episodes, including 9 and 10, can be found at Beesubs  here .  I strongly suggest watching them in one go. And I for one am ready to see this one conclude. Then I can finish my other webdrama, Noble My Love with the lovely Sung Hoon. Don't know if he can sing or ever been in a boy band; I'm not even sure if he can act, but man can he pose!  SideBar: Sung Hoon, not only looks like Jaehyo's older cousin, but sings ballads, and DJs in China, while Jaehyo sings one line per Block B song, and plays lots and lots of League of Legends. Ep 9 So, the secret's out.  Anna-in-Hanna is wrapped in a w...

Ohhhhhh, this episode... we learn that Hu Ge can dance, that this show is a tease (why so many extremely cute Man Li - Ming Tai scenes?!) and that in addition, it wants to make us afraid for all our main character.... it works. Please don't let any of them die. Please. Death seems to be hanging more closely over everybody's head again. JoAnne: Man, I loved this episode! Annnnnnd I hated this episode! So much happening...and none of it looks any good for our guys, does it? Eleanor (aka dewaanifordrama): Man Li & Ming Tai, why do you have to be so dang cute!!! Is this all another calm before the storm? 

There's a lot of lovely bromance and sibmance in this episode - and so much smoooooooth Ah Cheng and Ming Tai action, I had to laugh several times. They're like these boys, enjoying their spy games so much! We also get quite a bit of Uncle Li and I must say, I approve. Well, of the actor, mainly, the patriotic stuff... a bit less. JoAnne: Yes, as actors, as humans, I love all of them. So. Much. Talent. Such chemistry between them all! Well, between most of them. I'm looking at you, TrainWreck. And yes, even her. I mean, she's fine, I just...she's not Psycho Kitten. That's not her fault, she's probably a very decent person. Look at her, studying medicine, devoted to her country, probably a filial child, on and on. She's a casualty of timing. I don't hate her, I'm not 'against' her. I'm for Man Li, that's all. The complaining is mostly just because it felt good to whine! Eleanor (aka dewaanifordrama): I have a problem. I want to f...

Well, I know a few people who might not have liked this episode for how it ended, but it's a goddamn GOOD episode again, with awesome action scene, romance, witty dialogue, and several faces of Ming Tai. I think I need to start labeling these posts: Hu Ge looks too good. That can't be good for our health! JoAnne: I don't know... he looks very cheesy here, Kakashi. But then, I'm never going to be okay with silk scarf neck thing that's so popular in K-Tw-C-J-Th-dramas. Hide your daughters! JoAnne is in a bad mood :) .... Well, of course he looks cheesy here, cause that's the purpose of his look, duh. As for the scarf: that's a typical 1930s dandy look. I like it!    Eleanor (aka dewaanifordrama): Well JoAnne is dealing with a rather terrible work SNAFU. We should send Ming Lou there to take care of the idiots and then comfort Jo. And Hu Ge, well I think the man would look good in anything quite frankly. And dang, that profile of his. Wow. 

JoAnne: Hello, Face That Launched a Thousand Ships Seems like another fairly quiet RAWR this week. I know I'm not watching nearly as much as I wish I were watching, that's for sure. At least this week I did catch up on one non-Chinese drama, despite Kakashi's subbing episodes at the speed of light. kakashi: I don't know how I do it, seriously. I'm challenging some serious Hu Ge awesomeness or something .  Jaehyus: Hu Ge is awesome! But I don't think I'm watching that much either. That's probably a good thing, since TV should be an accent to life, not one's life. Wittisms: My husband has done it again!! Stay single for just a few more months Ji-sub-a uh? I'm working hard to get back to Seoul and then we'll meet at the local 7-11. You'll be dazzled by my cute butchering of your language, i'll pretend not to know who you are and offer an language exchange. We'll fall in love, I'll conspire with your stylist to get you ...

These are quiet days at the Ming Mansion ... but under the surface, a storm is brewing. The presence of Ah Cheng's abusive mother is testing the bonds the Ming siblings have forged and Ming Tai is starting to investigate his brother's loyalties. JoAnne: I'm trying to figure out a way that Ming Tai choosing Yu Man Li could solve both of these problems. I'll get back to you. Eleanor (Hey...so I've decided to go by my name in the bloggersphere, so...I'm still dewaanifordrama, but I'm also just going to be Eleanor...hope that's okay): Oh Ah Cheng. I want so much that he doesn't have to go through so much pain. The Mings had better come through for him, otherwise I don't think things will end up going so well for anyone. 

kakashi: Mei Changsu's true identity gets exposed in this episode, thankfully only to a very dear friend... Ah, that scene! That scene! It gets me every single time. He really should be a bit more careful though, right? JoAnne: I just want to wrap these babies up in something soft and take them away, far away, where no one else is and they can be happy together. dewaanifordrama: Oh these two. Romeo and Juliet haven't got anything on these two.

Ah, a monumental, incredibly moving episode! And the beauty of Hu Ge reaches new (dangerous) heights. If you have not yet been sucked in by Nirvana in Fire, this is the episode that will do you in for sure. JoAnne:  I feel as though I need to go back and re-watch this one.  It was late and I think I imagined some of it... dewaanifordrama: I haven't even started commenting and already I'm reaching for the tissues. So much beauty, all tinged with poignant sadness. 

This is a "slow" episode, but one in which many things are set in motion and another wooden badge is moved closer to the fire pit. Those people are like puppets on Mei Changsu's strings ... only he does not command them with his beautiful fingers, but with his mind. JoAnne: I feel like we're really in it, now. He's setting things in motion - some paths toward retribution are direct, but others? Not so much. He rubs his fingers together here, and you fall down dead over there. You know who might be on to him a little bit, though, is Ning. Dammit. dewaanifordrama, Prince Jing's Noble Consort: That mind of his is quite something. We can all be glad that none of us has done anything for Mei Changsu to plot against us. Perhaps we can rub our hands together in glee as we watch the bad guys get their comeuppance. 

Watch Prince Yu get thoroughly played in this episode. And watch a beautiful, epic bromance unfold. Mei Changsu's health is starting to take a turn for the worse, brought on by too many painful memories and the biting cold that has descended on the Capital. JoAnne: I want to snuggle up in that cape. Not necessarily with Mei Changsu, you understand. It can just be me. dewaanifordrama: Bromance. It is one of my all time favourite things. And yes, that coat does look rather snuggly. 

Love grows and secrets are revealed in this episode. Ming Tai returns home, and for a while, it feels like war and pain and suffering are far, far away. But there is subtext, so much subtext, and a wary dance begins between the brothers. JoAnne: I'm just going to sit here and sulk. dewaanifordrama: Sometimes I really don't like happy episodes when you know trouble is coming. You can just feel that the hurt is coming. 

Are my recaps getting longer and longer?! It sure feels like it!! JoAnne says that's a measure of my love for a show and I think she has a point, because I wouldn't mind spending all my days recapping this and NiF! Ahhhhhhhhhh! But how are we going to deal with all those BAD things our good guys do? Can we just pretend that taking revenge on a person who is to blame for your mother's death is, somehow, acceptable? Not by my moral compass. But morals are not something these characters have time for; it's a "kill or get killed" kind of world. JoAnne: Neat dovetail of personal and professional there, Ming Tai... but another step down the road of corrupting your soul. dewaanifordrama: I have about a million things to say about the ethics of this, but at the end of the day, I just don't know. Good people have done terrible things and have then gone on to live worthy and good lives. What are the ethics of fighting for freedom and justice, and when is too much,...

Jaehyus: Gave The Disguiser 5 eps, and it's no Nirvana in Fire for me. Can't keep up with it. I actually don't have too much to say because nothing really registered. I was too caught up with anticipating Block B, seeing Block B, holding Jaehyo's hand twice (that's two times!), and recovering from Block B to really pay much attention to anything. Even Nirvana in Fire fell by the wayside. And whatever I have seen, I can't remember it, really. Although, that said, there was a jdorama.  I'll write more below.  Nabi: I couldn't keep up with anything this week. I managed to eke my way through the lone final episode of She Was Pretty , but everything else will have to wait for next week...hopefully. kakashi: The Disguiser and Nirvana in Fire are so good, I never ever ever ever want to return from The Disguiser and Nirvana in Fire land. I also want to keep recapping them forever and ever and ever . JoAnne: Whatever this is, it's contagious. I can't ...

Welcome to the adrenaline episode! Don't consume on an empty stomach and try not to get a heart attack. This is also the stretch of the drama that makes you want to stay up all night. God, I love spy stuff! God, I love Hu Ge. And yet, as I recap this and describe all the violence ... I get really sad. So many lives lost. Then and now.  JoAnne: It was probably not the best of days for me to watch the train episode, I think. It's another great episode, don't get me wrong. Bad timing, I guess. dewaanifordrama: Sometimes I wonder whether humans will ever learn to live in peace. I love a good spy drama and these actors and characters make it so worth it, but right now I'm just feeling sadness that humans are so bloody violent. 

Ah, so Ilwoo is starting to feel the pressure of single stepfatherhood and a missing almost-fiancee. He pulls through as a good man should, though Anna is not looking too great as a character or as a person. Shuk: Really. I'm almost to the point of praying that AinH gets picked up by a couple of Tolkien eagles and never heard from again. Episode 7                                       Episode 8 Ep 7 We start off with Ilwoo looking more and more sad and tired and almost fainting and Jinwoo not helpfully pointing out how Anna made all these preparations before leaving like putting the shop up for sale and suggesting she might have gone back to her ex-boyfriend. Gee, thanks, Jinwoo. His parents don't call him "son" because he's bright.