Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #335

Trotwood: Still plugging along, but wishing safety for all those who are protesting for peace and civil rights in Myanmar and Thailand. I'd feel bad if I didn't mention it here, especially since the model that everyone was gong gaga over a couple of weeks ago here is now spending much of his time as part of the protests in Myanmar.

kakashi: Drowning in real life stuff. Made it on the list for that job I applied to at the end of January. 6 people remain, next up: a trial lecture.

KOREA

Love Scene Number: 29

So, I wondered last time why they were not going in chronological order with the women, but it seems like it was broadcast in chronological order but the place where I found subs wasn't subbing them that way. This episode should have been the second one--about a woman who is about to get married but isn't sure that she actually loves her boyfriend. It's like they are almost too polite to each other to really get to know each other. She feels worse because her own mother gets proposed to by the younger man she is dating, and he wants to her mother to leave the country with him. I wasn't sure I was going to like her at all. I was especially appalled at the way she seemed mad that her mother was happy, but I'm glad I watched the whole thing. This show consistently shows the complexity of people's feelings. I'm weirded out by the reoccurring character that floats between all of the eps, though. She's just catty.

Times

I've only been able to watch the first two episodes of this show, so please don't tell what happens this week although I do get the feeling that the show is going to be our hero and heroine trying to save people by changing what happens in their own time frames only to find those people just dying in a different way because there are people who are really determined to kill. People are comparing this show to Signal because we have two people from different times (only five years apart) who communicate through a phone. At the beginning her father is president and she has a vey successful career as a journalist, but there are clearly forces who want her father dead and in a different time frame, he's assassinated. What I want to know is how did the "good" future happen in the first place?

Miss Monte Cristo (daily)

Wow. Two weeks in and the so-called friends have "killed" their second person. It's like the are just killing off all the good people so we know when the heroine comes back she can no longer be good to get her revenge. But who is going to be left who is worth saving? Why does that rich lady think she's her daughter? I also have a suspicion that the lagabout guy who is actually friends with her fiancé will play a big role. Will the fiancé succumb to the friend in his grief? All this questions are going to exhaust me I think. I'm not sure I will watch each week since I just want to get to the revenge arc.

minion to evil: her nerves are going to be the end of her

Convenience Store Fling (web drama)

Billed as an "idol drama," this quick 6-episode drama (I think the longest ep was around 15 minutes) lives up to it's name because all four boyfriend options for our heroine are in kpop bands. I've only heard of one, Pentagon, but the rest areAB6IX, Golden Child, and VICTON. Jooh Ah plays the heroine who works in a convenience store to help her pay for university, and the show is like one of those "choose your own adventure" books because fans got to vote on the guy she chooses since, of course, all of them fall for her.  Once you know that, the rushed ending (because they seemed to quickly film something based on viewer votes) and the choice (just think which guy would be most attractive to the people who would vote) make perfect sense.

CHINA/TAIWAN

Word of Honor

I had to watch the first half of the first episodes and read two recaps to understand what was happening, and this is a show where the set up is important.  The main character Zi Shu's emotional pain is as palpable as the physical pain (bad ass for function with all those nails in his body), so I liked that aspect. However, I was hoping that this would be more like Ancient Detective, where we could have a strong band of friends and major bromance without having to make the female lead horrid, silly, and annoying (looking at you My Roommate is a Detective).I almost stopped watching because of her. How can she be a martial arts disciple and be as silly and spoiled and mean? I wanted to hit her when she teased Cheng Ling. The boy has lost his entire family and to consistently make light of his suffering?  I am curious about how the group is going to continue to protect Cheng Ling when I'm still not sure even 4 episodes in who to really trust.

JAPAN

Kimi to Sekai ga Owaru Hi ni/ With You on the Day the World Ends

I'm caught up and now I'm wishing I wasn't watching this show but had waited to marathon. I also sort of wished I hadn't mentioned the zombies because I know the kinds of assumptions people might have. This is not a horror show. The zombies are just a detail--the illness they have could be any debilitating and painful virus. The real story is about the twisted relationship between the survivors, the government, and the scientist who is clearly mad. I'm commending the writer (writers?) because the plot and twists are so tightly woven that I'm surprised all the time but everything still makes sense. I know I've said this before, but this remains to be the best show I am watching in overall quality--writing, acting, directing. I just wish more people were watching because I really want to talk about it. And the twist at end of ep 6!!!

Attack on Titan - The Final Season

Dreading the next episode. 

Nishiogikubo Mitsuboshi Youshudou

No subs for new episode.

THAILAND

A Tale of a Thousand Stars

I like how it is clear to everyone and is starting to clear to Tian that he has feelings for the Chief. We've all seen how the chief looks at him as have all of the chief's friends. Now it's time for Tian to do the whole do I have feelings for him or is this because I have Torun's heart bit, which I'm glad to say is not going to be drawn out in this show. However, the show keeps teasing us with the possibility that Tian had a role in Torfun's death. We also know that he is on the radar of the guy who clearly is behind a bunch of the shady dealings in the village under the guise of being a benefactor. When an organized crime guy smiles at you and tells you to live a long life, it is never a good thing. But I will take all the fluff I can get, knowing that there will be tears and angst later as hinted at in this week's cliffhanger.

I'm just really happy that he is finally the lead in another drama and the drama is good! Whew.

Talay Luang

Still watching and still watching at double speed, which is probably the way to watch most lakorns; cuts down on all the unnecessary dramatic staring-groundswell of music bits. Things have become more complicated now that it appears that Korn not only wants Talay out of the picture, so he can have the resort and take over the business but also because he seems to genuinely want Moya for himself. In the beginning, I thought he just wanted her to be away from Talay, but now I think he also wants her for himself. I'm glad that Talay is getting some his gangster instincts back, especially since we now know that the baby isn't his. His response is perfect, an obvious deal choice that I'm always wondering that characters do not take. But of course, there are multiple people who want him dead or at least to never get his memories back, so . . .

Lovely Writer

This is the story of Gene, a writer who wants to focus on his fantasy genre stories. Unfortunately, in the past, he wrote one BL novel that has become really popular, and now his company only wants him to write BL stories. He's really not interested, but to fulfill his contract and get his other stories published, he has to. As if that weren't enough, his BL novel has been sold and to make a new drama series and they want him to be part of the filming. The show sold itself as making fun of the drama behind BL dramas (and there is enough to film a serious lakorn about this), but it's also going for far too many laughs, and despite it addressing some serious issues--like the tendency of directors to not want to cast gay actors to play gay characters (I can't help but roll my eyes here)--it also is trying to hard to be funny. I also only like Gene and just want him away from all the pariahs. I do like the girl with the motorcycle, but I have a feeling she's not going to be in the show much. Even the character who is supposed to be his love interest is not working for me yet despite the near perfect meet cute. I probably won't be writing about this every week.