Rants and Weekly Raves #270 (RAWR)
kakashi: Watching two things, yay, one is going to break my heart because it's already clear it will end the worst way possible, and the other is breaking my heart with only one episode a week and only eight episodes in season 1.
Trotwood: I swear I didn't pick this picture. It was here when I arrived. Kakashi, people are going to rebel if they think I've kidnapped you and now you have BL drama Stockholm Syndrome with this picture. Seriously though, Ohm Thitiwat Ritprasert is looking good as Dean in Until We Meet Again.
Panda: I have a Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving/Hosting hangover.
KOREA
Tale of Nokdu (Finale)
I was pleasantly surprised because this finale hit all the right notes for me. I have been generally disappointed in final episodes for awhile now, so when a show closes well, I'm generally impressed. It will take me a bit to really think about whether it was as good a finale as the feels I'm getting right now or whether I am just so happy that it wasn't horrible and that people got to be happy and it still fit in with the historical construct.
Phew, thank goodness that finale was good. I have some quibbles e.g. I did get tired of some of the funny antics in the middle, but overall I was a very satisfied camper. One thing didn't ring true though, I simply feel there is no way YulMul would have allowed Dong Ju to simply leave then and not pursue her. That just isn't him, he had risked way too much for her to be by his side; there was no way he was just going to release her. But oh well, if that is the price to pay for our HEA, I will take it! LOL. I loved that our found family toddles on, content and happy. I can't believe Nokdu is trying to set up the badass Kim Sook with his brother. No Nokdu, she is wayyy too good for him. Everyone got their rewards you know, the King got his and that twist in the end with the Birthday and the Prophesy was well done. That last shot of the Queen mother sailing towards Nokdu actually made me shed a couple of tears, so emotional. Overall, one of my favorites of the year. Bid you farewell Dong-Ju and Nokdu-ya! Just wanted to add that our 3 leads were all so good. I mean of course Miss Kim So Hyun is amazing, duh. But I had not seen JDY in action before and watching this, all that kept crossing my mind was that this is a star performance ala the other Kim Soo Hyun in The Moon embracing the Sun. And for Kang Tae Oh, I see big things in his future too. Basically I will miss all of them especially Aeng Du!
Phew, thank goodness that finale was good. I have some quibbles e.g. I did get tired of some of the funny antics in the middle, but overall I was a very satisfied camper. One thing didn't ring true though, I simply feel there is no way YulMul would have allowed Dong Ju to simply leave then and not pursue her. That just isn't him, he had risked way too much for her to be by his side; there was no way he was just going to release her. But oh well, if that is the price to pay for our HEA, I will take it! LOL. I loved that our found family toddles on, content and happy. I can't believe Nokdu is trying to set up the badass Kim Sook with his brother. No Nokdu, she is wayyy too good for him. Everyone got their rewards you know, the King got his and that twist in the end with the Birthday and the Prophesy was well done. That last shot of the Queen mother sailing towards Nokdu actually made me shed a couple of tears, so emotional. Overall, one of my favorites of the year. Bid you farewell Dong-Ju and Nokdu-ya! Just wanted to add that our 3 leads were all so good. I mean of course Miss Kim So Hyun is amazing, duh. But I had not seen JDY in action before and watching this, all that kept crossing my mind was that this is a star performance ala the other Kim Soo Hyun in The Moon embracing the Sun. And for Kang Tae Oh, I see big things in his future too. Basically I will miss all of them especially Aeng Du!
Chocolate
I will try any Yoon Kye-Sang drama because he is good, and I have loved him as an actor since The Greatest Love (can you guys believe that came out in 2011?). So despite the fact that the synopsis of this show would have me running in the opposite direction, I tried it. And it was everything I feared. He, of course, is really good. Ha Ji Won is luminous. The settings and filming is lovely. Elf Ears (our Jang Seung Jo) is here playing that same character that he is so good at--the guy who has a heart but has been brought up completely unloved so that he has to constantly prove himself so he ends up being a dick half the time. And there is a newbie (to me at least), Yoo Teo, who steals every scene he is in. However, I will not be watching this anymore. It is just too sad. Sad upon sad upon sad. Like someone breaking your doghouse sad. Like your mom dying in the middle of a mall and getting no funeral sad. Like suffering through bombings and watching children die in Libya sad. Like having to operate on your dying best friend sad. Nope. I'm walking away.Jo: And based on your assessment, I made a beeline toward the drama. Give me all the sad, just don't piss me off with screechy mothers-in-law! So...I'm half way through the 2d episode now and first, that puppy, that angel, that pure being who is too good for this world, Yoo Teo. If you watched Arthdal, he was Song Joong Ki's dad. Dead in the first or second episode but quite memorable. Here, he's just the most gentle, loving, sweetest guy in the world, and I cannot stress enough how much it's going to hurt me when Ha Ji Won breaks his heart. As for the rest...this is a complete throwback drama without looking like one at all. It is gorgeously filmed but man, I keep thinking about Seasons dramas. So of course, I'm IN.
Of course you are, Jo. You have a thing for abject sadness. But I love Yoo Teo. I hope the next drama he is in he gets to be happy.
CHINA/TAIWAN
Royal Nirvana
I have to eat my words. I do not want heartbreak for these two. They're already making me sad even before anything between them has really started. To fall in love at first sight has a pureness about it that has no place in this cut-throat world they're in. And to know they're absolutely right for each other but that everything - and everyone! - is working against them...This drama is subbed slowly (only 9 episodes at the time I write this). Part of me is glad, I cannot handle those drama dumps with 500 episodes a week, another part of me gets extremely impatient. It did a lot of things right for me in the last three episodes. The extended bromance scenes put a huge smile on my face and our boy from the weird alien drama Let's Shake it (Zheng Yecheng) is perfect for this role as best buddy of this sad, brooding princeling. Crown Prince has so few people that mean something to him and one by one, they're taken away from him - not this one too, I hope?
HIStory3: Make Our Days Count
I'm still not buying the Bo/Zhi Gang relationship because it seems to be moving way too fast to make any sense for him. I get our goofy teenager's rush, but Zhi Gang clearly has scars (literal and emotional) that he is dealing with and the look when Bo knelt and gave him that ring seemed as much full of gratitude as love which may not be a bad thing, but I'm not sure Bo is ready to help him heal like he needs. Still I'm all in for the goofiness that is Bo's friendship with Hao Ting--why do they think they can get good love advice from each other? But mainly I'm here for the strength of Xi Gu. The way he faced Hao Ting's parents and his focus is admirable, but will he be able to keep his promise? The only hope I have is the memory that Hao Ting used to be a top student until he started being lazy.
Some Day or One Day
I'm confused, but in a good way, because so is the heroine, and the mystery just gets curiouser and curiouser.Yu Xuan is trying to track down the people in the picture that look exactly like her and her dead fiance, Zi Wei. She knows that person isn't her, and she wants to find her to confirm that her fiance was either cheating on her or didn't love her like she thought. It's sad really because she wants this to be true, so she can forget him, but the more she looks, the more she finds proof of his devotion. What she also finds is that the person in the picture is Yun Ru, and we know that the guy that looks like her fiance is really his doppelganger, Quan Sheng. We also find out that Yun Ru gets in an accident after being abandoned by her family. We end episode post-accident that, but it looks like Yu Xuan is the person who wakes up in the hospital in a past that isn't her own!
JAPAN
Tokyo Dokusin Danshin/Tokyo Single Man/Tokyo Bachelors
I know what I said last week about wishing for a specific couple, but I'm changing my mind. I thought the show was going to have Kazuna be the sister character to them all who has been secretly in love with Ishibashi for years and that he'd recognize her worth as a supportive friend and fall for her while getting over his first love. I don't mind being wrong, but the show seems to not like the female characters (any of them) very much and have changed her character into a fairly manipulative then angry then self-defeating person all in one episode. What happened to her--the youngest of the gang, but clearly the one who had the most sense? And as much as I like Saito and Issei, I don't really like their characters that much. In fact, the crazy desperation they all have about pairing up not really because of loneliness but because . . . why? It seems more ego about them being catches that can't possibly be alone than anything else. I don't know think I will be continuing this either.
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| Goodbye, Issei |
Le Grande Maison Tokyo
That skeevy restaurant owner get grosser and grosser with each episode, this time going behind his chef's back to buy up and/or bribe all the suppliers of fresh venison so his chef can win a contest. However, this lack of ability to get venison from regular suppliers actually helps our team because they meet with a man famous for his hunting and cooking skills, which inspire them to come up with a really original dish and gets thems a new ally and supplier. I like the way the people work together and how Obana seems like he's ditching them but it forces Rinko to do her best work. I was super tense during the contest though like I was watching the Olympics or something. I'm really glad that Kamehito is on board now because he really wanted to but knew he could not work with the old Obana. Shohei will be next I bet, but his girlfriend is going to be a problem in a rather psychotic way. I'm sure it was her who put those pins in Matsui's locker! Shout out to my dimples man Kyono. I hope Rinko recognizes his worth and doesn't fall for Obana instead. I don't want his heart broken!
G-senjou no Anata to Watanashi/You and I on the G-String/You, Me, and Bach
Now this, this show grabbed me from the beginning despite not thinking I would like the first episode. Yaeko was planning to get married soon. She had even tendered her resignation from her company because she was going to stay home after marriage. Instead, her fiance dumps her because he is in love with someone else and she's basically too embarrassed to ask for her job back and still leaves. She comes across a mini concert in the mall given by a violin teacher show is doing to advertise a music school and offer lessons to adults. She signs up. She makes friends with the two other people in her class, one a very reluctant participant in this trio. I love them all together, and each has a very sad reason why they are here which I won't reveal, but my fav scene of episode was when Haruko so very nicely puts her MIL in her place.
Ossan's Love: In the Sky
The first Ossan's Love was in my list of top dramas last year, so I was really excited when I found out that there was going to be a sequel. I wasn't sure how I felt, though, when I saw the trailers for the show because it isn't really a sequel at all. It's sort of like someone decided to do a AU fanfiction with a couple of the characters from the original--Haruta and Kurusawa. They are now workers in an airline. Kurusawa is a pilot, and Haruta has just been hired as a flight attendant after being let go from his former job. I was ready to hate it. But I don't. I sat and watched all three episodes that were available to me with subs in one sitting on Thanksgiving, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The only problem I have is that there are too many people to route for, and there is only one Haruta, so there is going to be a bunch of people I like with broken hearts at the end of this show.
Follow Saretara Owari
Well, that was dark. This is a drama that comes out in 15-minute episode pairs. It's centers on a group of friends who have been friends since high school, but they are now adults, but all of them but one get involved in some online scheme where you get put in a lottery for money just by following some celebrity online. The synopsis of the show says that it is a commentary on the dangers of social media, having so much of our lives on the internet, & our obsession with posting rather than actually living. Someone seems to have it out for this group of friends. Our hero is determined to find out who. He's the only one who doesn't use SM because he'd been a victim of online rumors when he was in high school. I just hope no one else has to die before he finds out what's going on.
THAILAND
Until We Meet Again
Since Kakashi has already posted one of the many sexy pictures from the poolside feeding scene, I'm not going to talk about that or the fact that someone needs to help Parm with his PTSD or the fact that the character of Alex is as creepy here as he is in the book. Instead I want to talk about the humor in this show, too. With all the tragedy of the former life story and the tears it causes in this timeline, I think it would be easy to not see how funny so much of the show is partly because it is also pokes fun and acknowledges the genre of which it's a part. I think lots of viewers can see themselves in Parm's friends, Manow and Team, because they are so hardcore shipping him with Dean as are all the girls watching poolside and the fans on social media. I mean look at their faces!
Blacklist
Subs are late this week for this. I'm not sure I will see it in time for post.
Dark Blue Kiss
It's like this show heard me last week concerning my issues with the PeteKao relationship story arc because all we got this week were the (much needed) reminders of why they are together in the first place. Most people will be talking about the contrast between the two dates and Pete's confession about how he wants to marry Kao in the future and be a person who can take care of him or even how Pete is focusing on getting a good internship to do just that, but can we give a shout out to his dad? He even asks them if they've been using his gift (condoms)! But still my heart goes to SunMork, and the relief that Mork feels when he knows the real deal about Sun's ex-girlfriend. Of course though, these two only get close to have Mork's past come to haunt them. I'm just glad that the gang didn't affect the competition.
WESTERN
The Mandalorian
Okay, he does take his helmet off when he's alone but if he takes it off in front of anyone else, it's the end of being a Mandalorian (a fairly strict religion, yup). And yet, for a very charged moment, he seemed ready to go there... for peace. Ah, my heart hurts for Mando TT__TT. But I love that Cara Dune is not a romantically involved female lead (at least it doesn't look like it so far) but much more likely his buddy in arms and on top of that so extremely capable as a fighter. Verdict after episode 4: Love it even more than before for adding so much depth to Mando with so little.
