Rants and Weekly Raves #271 (RAWR)

Trotwood: We are coming down to the end of the year and the end of the decade, people. Thoughts about holiday drama plans?
kakashi: Nah, still in the Fanfiction writing mood. But I'll take my external HD with me to the mountains
Panda: Just finished my Yanxi re-watch and now going to continue my other dramas. The only kdrama I was watching was Catch the Ghost but I think I have shelved it. Going to continue Le Grand Maison and then start a couple cdramas: Joy of Life and/or Lingjian Mountain. And I do seriously want to start Chang'An. Segue - is anyone excited for the Son Ye Jin & Hyun Bin drama starting Saturday? I have a feeling it's going to be a cliche-filled bore but I am curious 😃

KOREA

Chocolate (For Trot)

Jo: We left off with our heroine eventually agreeing to date the sweetest guy in the world - and why not, since her childhood love has been dead a while?  In true KDrama Classic fashion, the sweetest guy then marks that special event by introducing her to his best friend - the very not-dead childhood love.  In a very short time, she decides she has to move to Greece.  This way she will not break the boyfriend's heart any more than necessary and she will avoid her very strong emotions about the clueless childhood love.  Time goes by (fast, this show doesn't do filler) and the sweetest guy in the world is dying from a brain tumor.  His dying wish is to eat his former love's dumpling soup once again.  Cue best friend travelling to Greece, followed by misunderstanding upon misunderstanding between our two fated lovers.  She does eventually return and gets the soup to the ex, who knows it immediately and then dies that night.

After the funeral, our heroine receives a letter from the ex that says he figured out long ago that her long lost childhood love had turned out to be his best friend, and that she should do what makes her happy. Fat chance of that happening.  Love ends up giving her a ride home from the funeral, they get in a terrible accident.  She has a head injury and he operates on her despite his own injuries, because the small hospital where they are doesn't have a neurosurgeon.  Then he collapses and his cousin (Elf Ears, who is that perfect mix of despicable and pitiable that will end up loved by us) does the operation on HIM.  

A year later, she's still in Korea, cooking at some little country clinic/hospital but planning to return to Greece.  Meanwhile, his hand has started shaking and he can't do operations.  He thinks Elf Ears harmed him deliberately but it's due to his delay in being operated on.  Anyway, he gets a new job where he doesn't have to do operations.  Guess where?  

Also, here's another reason her family is terrible:  her mother abandoned her in a shopping center when she was 12 in order to flee debtors.  She took her son, the jerk who showed up years later and keeps doing stupid shit that the heroine has to pay for.  But anyway...the shopping center collapsed, and our heroine was trapped in the rubble with the mother of our hero.  The mother fed her a piece of chocolate to keep her blood sugar up, and then died when more rubble fell and crushed her.  That chocolate kept our heroine conscious and helped her respond to searchers, and it's why to this day our poor girl has a piece of chocolate to soothe her when she's upset.  
(waving at Jo) Thank you. This sounds as wretched sad as I thought it would be.

Woman of 9.9. Billion

I only had time to watch the fist two half hour episodes of this show, and I have to say I'm intrigued and not just because the last time the two lead actors--Cho Yeo Jung and Kim Kang Woo--were in a drama together, Haeundae Lovers (2012), it was a completely different type of show despite both having gangsters. I also seem to remember not finding anyone else at the time who liked that show but me. This show seems to be a big hit in Korea, which is surprising since there doesn't seem to anyone to really like in this besides maybe Kim's disgraced detective turned video game player, Tae Woo. He will be motivated to find the truth of the missing money (a bunch dug up by gangsters in the first minutes of the show) because it's at the bottom of his beloved brother's death. But our heroine? She's having an affair with her "friend's" husband--neither of whom are people for whom you can really feel sorry. And her husband is horrifyingly abusive. That dinner has got to be one of the worst vacation dinners I've seen on screen for a long time. Yet, I'm still intrigued. When she finds the money, she really has nothing--absolutely nothing--to lose.

CHINA/TAIWAN

Royal Nirvana

Why is this so saaaaaad TT__________________TT
I'm not sure I can watch this for much longer (when really nothing truly sad has happened yet, dammit)

HIStory3: Make Our Days Count

Once again, we get a scene where I looked around in amazement that such a scene was on broadcast television. But the real beauty of it wasn't the actual sesxual encounter but what comes after when it's clear that one of the partners believed it was all a dream from his fever-induced state, and it was until his mother told him to than Xi Gu for helping take care of him when he was sick that he realizes it wasn't a dream. HA! I love them together, and they were so pleased with each other when Hao Ting learned he got into a top school, so his parents now have to keep up their side of the bargain to allow them to date. I'm still not buying the other couple that much despite them wearing matching rings because Sun Bo is such a child; how is he going to deal with his boyfriend's sadness about being estranged from his family? Shout out to cameos from actor from HIStory1 as same character.

Some Day or One Day

What would you do if you woke up one day in a hospital where not only are people calling you by another name, but you were also ten years younger?And you have memories of this new life AND the other you. This is what is happening to our heroine. The positive is that in this life she is no longer the doormat of her family that she was before, which is good for all of them. But this doesn't help with the mystery. She wasn't in an accident. Someone deliberately hit her on the back of the head and new evidence shows that it is the last person I thought it might be. Is it the shock that makes her wake up back in the present and her other persona? Is the injured man her dead fiance or his doppelganger? So glad the next episode is almost completely subbed!

JAPAN

Le Grande Maison Tokyo

These cooking competitions are going to give me a heart attack!!! I watched several episodes in an effort to get caught up, and learned the secret behind the scandal at the restaurant. Shohei was the one to blame; he mistakenly used peanut oil in the recipe that made the diplomat sick. Turns out that Onada,Kyona, AND our frenemy chef at the other restaurant Tango know this. Obana sacrificed himself and his reputation because he didn't want Shohei to stop cooking. Sigh. What I don't understand is why Shohei, after he finds this out, still goes to work for the rival. Is he one of those people who hate people who are kind to them or feel like they pity them? He looked so sad walking away from the restaurant. Or is he worried about what his crazy (hopefully ex) fiance would do if he worked with them? I also hope our apprentice spy turns it around, too. But what is Rinda's game? Is she trying to ruin them or help them?

G-senjou no Anata to Watanashi/You and I on the G-String/You, Me, and Bach

It was painful to watch out trios first recital just because they were so bad but exactly what you would expect from a group that just started learning!  It's interesting that Yaeko acknowledges that maybe she didn't love her fiance but was just going along with the excitement of being with someone and getting married because it was the next step. I think she is more depressed about not having a next step than she is about not getting married, and when she sees her ex-fiance, I think she is sadder about the fact that she isn't glowing and happy like he is in his new life--not because she is mad at him but more sad for herself. She learns a lot about herself when she's asked to give Rihito advice, but we see that his confession is not going to go the way he hopes. 

Ossan's Love: In the Sky

Six episodes out, but none have been subbed since episode three

Follow Saretara Owari

This may be the BEST show I'm watching right now. Each episode is only 15 minutes, but they pack a very strong punch, and there are drama writers who should be paying attention to how you can build complex characters, relationships, and suspense in such a short amount of time. Junko has regained consciousness, so the episodes move on to Taiyou--our happy-go-lucky friend--and Koichi, the chef. Both become victims to the million dollar yen scam not just because everything goes viral online, but also because we can't hide our real selves, even if we try to practice sock puppeting, something I had to look up. At least the two good people of this drama have finally got together, but can they save the rest? Or are all their friends going to turn out to be nasty people on the inside after all? I wouldn't be surprised since whoever is doing this is clearly marking each for systematic revenge.

THAILAND

Until We Meet Again

So our main couple is finally close enough for Dean to tease Pharm and to take his advice about the siblings. Dean wants to be a good older brother, but when they have grown up separate and with his inclination to be withdrawn it's hard. Of course, all he needs is the sunshine of Parm to come into his life. We are getting more connections between the present and the past, but that only causes more pain for Parm in these visions that he doesn't recognize but that feel like memories. We got two iconic scenes from novel. The parking lot shirt grab and the aquarium date.

Blacklist

Two episodes to talk about because of the late sub last week with two episodes that go in very different directions. Of course, we knew that Title wasn't really on the dark side, but the question was how he was going to choose between Cupcake and his bros. Turns out that Cupcake shames him into choosing his friends over her, and he ends up helping them. They are able to bring down the ring leaders of God's hands at the school, but they still have no news of Traffic's sister. We also have their teacher keeping secrets from them, and they feel like he abandons them when they get suspended. We find out his history with the principal who was principal when he was a student (hard to believe this--guy doesn't look any different in flashbacks and they look similar ages), but it turns out that our heroes aren't the first Blacklist group. Now that God's Hand has been disbanded, can they catch the principal's misdeeds? Thank goodness the girls are now involved. It was making me worry about them since being kept in the dark actually put them in more danger.

Dark Blue Kiss

Okay, my DBK lovelies. It's time for the angst arc. Pete is still being his pain in the ass self, so we knew he'd completely lose it when Kao's secret tutoring of his arch enemy gets out. I have to say I was surprised that his project beat out Kon's since the young boy spent a lot of money cheating, but now off course the rival has even more incentive to cause trouble and cause trouble he does. Kao spends most of the episode chasing Pete for forgiveness, but he isn't ready to come out publicly yet. And in the plot that I really care about, Sun yells at Mork in the hospital because he's so worried about Mork, and Mork decides to quit to protect Sun and the business. (I guess he doesn't care about his other job?). I find it interesting that he openly admits to Rain that he likes Sun, even though that isn't going to cause him to go back.

WESTERN

The Mandalorian

No. Baaaaaaaad episode. Where was Dune? Where was the plot? Where was the point? Mando was so stupid I cringed for the whole episode. Besides, he gets the "Worst Dad of the Year Award". Not that he doesn't know the whole universe is after Baby Yoda. But he leaves him a) alone in the ship and b) alone with a woman he has never before seen in his life to c) go after a deadly killer (I liked her, (Ming-Na Wen!) by far the best part of the whole episode). I mean..... *rage quits*
P.S. Baby Yoda cries after all.
P.P.S. The most amusing bits were Mando getting shot 3 times with not even a dent in him.
P.P.P.S. Loads of Easter Eggs, man, I don't give a damn.