Rants and Weekly Raves #295 (RAWR)

Trotwood: (on tip toes and whispering) Helloo? Where is everyone?

kakashi: I completely forgot it's Tuesday, Trot. We had a public holiday last Thursday and it's messed even further with my perception of time and space. I watched zit, but I read a few of Panda's favorite historical romance novels! It's funny that they're a lot like Asian dramas, I never knew that before. 

Panda: Happy belated Memorial Day! I swear I thought today was Monday. Hullo everyone :) K, I had a phase in my life where it seemed like all I read were historical romances. I was in High school when I got shamed for them (that they were too lowbrow) and stopped. So glad I have recovered over that BS and have returned to them with a vengeance 😊. In addition to doing lots of reading - HR, contemporary romance and an unusual amount of fantasy; I have also continued watching mindless action movies. This week we saw John Wick 1, 2 and are halfway in Parabellum; Angel has fallen, Hunter Killer and I think 6 Underground. My brain is just in a weird way but eh if this is what it needs to survive I am okay. Oh, I also binged the Great Flower Fight on Netflix and it was very chill and not bad. Have a great week! Love and Light.

KOREA

Mystic Pop-Up Bar

I was entertained and moved by this show. Something that hasn’t happened in many drama premiers of shows I expected to like. I don’t have the antipathy about Hwang Jeong Eum that many have. She does scream in this, but I don’t think it is her but the character (so I wonder if she is now cast for this), and it is never (at least to me) in a place where I wouldn’t see another actress scream. It bills itself as a comedy, but the premise is rather dark, and her character is bitter for good reason, but we also get to see how bitterness and revenge can have far too much collateral damage. I like the idea of redemption, and I’m enjoying the team that is now in place to go into people’s dreams and fulfill their wishes.

The King: Eternal Monarch

Lots of chatter on Twitter, I'm mildly interested in what is happening, someone could tell me? 

Team Bull Dog: Off-Duty Investigation

Another show I wanted to like but am not in the mood maybe? I only watched one episode and want to know the connection between the brutal murder in 2007 and what has happened now, but not enough it seems to click on ep 2. The ragtag team is interesting but taking a LONG time to put them all together.

Where Your Eyes Linger

I’m not surprised that Korea is testing the waters with a BL drama considering how much money this genre is making for Thailand and Japan while China rakes in the dough by making popular BL novels into Bromance dramas. It also doesn’t surprise me that the test is an 8-episode show where the episodes are only 10 minutes long. We have a son of a chaebol family and his bodyguard, and it’s clear that the relationship is more than that to a viewer but not either of them yet. We have a girl show up with a crush on bodyguard, so we’ll see that same trope to push these two into deciding what they really want. Some people are excited because one of the main leads was in Produce X 101 as a contestant.

Mom Has an Affair

I know I said I was in last week, and I would still be enjoying this drama if we stuck to the conflict between the step-brothers, the one between the heroine and her arch-nemesis, and the ways in which all of these are all entwined with the birth secret and the threat of the mal knocking down the main family’s house. What I can’t stand is this trend to make women feel guilty for not being married. The two kids here believe their live would be better just by having a dad. That would be understandable coming from the little one who was even born before her father died, but the older one remembers his father and how he beat his mother. Still, he throws a fit and rents a dad to come to his school? It might be cute if he were 7, but at thirteen with him understanding how many hours his mom works just seems selfish.  I’ll check in again after 20 or more episodes.

CHINA/TAIWAN

Amensalism

I love it when we have characters/teams that are as smart as they are supposed to be rather than making you wonder how they ever became a top spy or top company or top doctor, etc. So really liked the way the show set up how our heroes break into the evil lair’s computer files. Everyone had to know that the big reveal about You Quan’s dad and the role his mom played in the whole cover up both past and present couldn’t be the end, but I’m loving the way the friendships are taking precedent over the romance with Yao Quing coming to help You Quan and the memories that Mei Fei has coming back to potentially make her and Kewei the friends she says she thought they could be.

Ancient Detective

I was warned, but I was so mad at Jian’s insistence on breaking his word and going after Shi Qi!! And then to hit Wo Huan in the face?!?!! And then to expect Wo Huan to apologize after Wo Huan almost died saving them? Because let’s be honest, they would be dead if Wo Huan hadn’t been at that roadside eatery on his own. Pfft. I felt like a proud mama though when he remembered what he had been studying to get his victory. Studying works, people!! I did not guess about Master Wang, but this challenge is going to be the toughest one of all, especially now that Jian is so close to dying and Wo Huan isn’t completely healed. I’m trying to at least be able to watch the individual arcs, so I’ve finished up to episode 19.

Girlfriend

People keep wanting to talk to me about the ending of this show, but guys, I only have up to episode 30 subbed where I live, so I can’t talk about anything else. I’m still loving it despite the fact that the writers felt the need to make my favorite MIL act like others by pushing wedding plans on our couple just because they admitted publicly that they are dating. Sigh. At least she didn’t push anymore, but we escape that only to have Gu’s mom show up with a fiancé for him (who of course is horrible—can’t they pick someone nice for once so the choice isn’t so obvious) full on girlfriend intimidation. I hope he confronts his mom. He clearly is successful without the family company, so I’d say they need him more than he needs them. Plus, we finally (after TEN YEARS finally) have Xiao Jing admit her feelings for Director Li. I hope all the episodes are subbed for next weekend, so I can finish.

JAPAN

Rental nan mo shinai hito/Rent a Person Who Does Nothing

I do love the mellow feel of this show, but I’m glad the parents showed up and asked the question I wanted to ask, “How do they plan to keep living this way?” Unfortunately, the show doesn’t answer the question only shows what a good service Shota is doing for others. To me, this should mean that he could make money off of doing this rather than just asking for car fare. They aren’t that old; how much savings can they possibly have? But we do get to see why Yusaku is so obsessed about being successful. Here he is making good money and being the top at his job, but his father completely ignores him because he didn’t become a doctor? First his girlfriend dumps him (last week--good reason, though), and we see his father dismisses him. No wonder he’s so hostile about Shota’s “work.”

Sousa Kaigi wa Living de!/The Invesitgation Meeting is in the Living Room

This episode focuses on the precocious son of the family, Nao. He is calm, sensible, logical, and fair-minded. While his parents seem to always be in some sort of whirlwind with the need to keep their jobs secret (I’m still not really sure why), he seems to be the steady force in the household. I’ve worried before at the way the grandfather and his dad seem to be in a silent battle over him, but from this episode it seems that his main concern is about his mom. All the kids’ stories in this episode should remind us that we can’t assume that we know why another person is angry.  All the kids had much more complicated issues with their parents than the parents even fathomed.

THAILAND

My Engineer

HURRAY!!!! The OPT broke up. Thanks goodness! Okay, I know this will probably not last. Next week’s episode is the last one, so they will probably get back together at the end, but finally Duen just can’t take the lack of trust in their relationship. Not sad about that at all; I’m sadder at the fact that it seems the other relationships that have so much potential will probably also be problematic. Still, I’m on the Doc/Frong train. They don’t need to be a couple; I’m just glad to see that Frong has found someone to talk to about his father’s death.

The Shipper

This show is like BL meets Nickoledeon. I can so see this goofy scenario showing up on some forward thinking kids show. Two intense fujoshi shippers write a story about two of their classmates that gets the two guys in a lot of trouble and one of them in an accident with one f the guys when she tries to apologize. The accident causes them to switch bodies and hijinks ensue. I’m not sure I’m going to keep watching now despite them casting some of my favorite GMMTV younger generation kids, but I’d love to see the bts because I can’t imagine how they got through some of the scenes w/o laughing. I may wait until it’s all done and do a fastforward marathon.