Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #444
Anne: Happy Tuesday everyone! Hoping that everyone, in the US, had a somewhat relaxing 4th of July. It's weird having the holiday on a Tuesday, some people got Monday off, some didn't, and then there is the theater summer camp that operated through all 5 days. Let's take a guess how close I was to sending the 6-year old to "camp" on a holiday... But I didn't because I did promise him that the camp was only NINE days.
Now...you would think that with ALL this extra "vacation" days on my hand that I would have caught up to some shows...well...I did...but they were all standup comedy. Yep, somehow my YouTube feed started recommending Mandarin standup, which I didn't think it existed, until YouTube somehow read my mind and decided to test out interest by "introducing" some shows on my feed. And about two days later, when I came up for air, I realized that my Mandarin wasn't SO bad...I got the jokes!
At work, I'm working through my own personal issues with being annoyed at a certain co-worker. This person annoys me because they basically "talk around" stuff, create strategic plans that have no operational process, tries to say something during every single meeting (that sometimes results in asking stupid questions), and offers no real solutions to what we're dealing with. But I, apparently, was good enough to hide whatever I'm thinking that makes my global boss thinks that I work well with that person. Granted, this is all from my own personal opinion, maybe I'm missing all their good points. I don't know. But has anyone ever has been so annoyed by someone that you will actually start to think that I should look for another job? Maybe it's the heat or something...
Whatever stress at work isn't helping with my show watching enjoyment...And the fact that I still haven't completely climbed out of my drama slump, but it's showing some promise.
Exploration Method of Love
This came out a few weeks ago, and I finally gotten around to taking a look. I like it. It's nothing new, it's very clique. But it has Gao Han Yu, whom I like, and it's funny and quirky. The plot is about a twin girls, one who is a an up and coming actress, and one who is a geologist. The former decides to "take" off with their mom on an extended vacation, leaving her poor manager to "kidnap" the twin sister to help with keep her actress sister's career from imploding.
As part of the keeping her sister's disappearance from being noticed, she has to continue "acting" in a 3 year relationship with Mu Xiu Lun, whose sister found the actress to "help" him so their mom would be "happy", and also help his image to take more control of his family's company. The side- characters are as colorful as the main CP, and I quite enjoy all their off-shotting sub-plots.
It is a comfortable watch, with fairly predictable and un-predictable funny moments, and explores a little of how demanding acting can be, even if you are popular. Of course, it is this acting requirement that allows the CP to take those first steps of attraction. And if you think about it, how is it possible that Mu Xiu Lun, who spent THREE years in a 'fake" relationship with the actress sister, never ever thought that all these changes in his "fake" girlfriend didn't point to someone completely different. And to watch this, I would advise suspension of reality and just enjoy the silliness. (Look at the KTV fight scene...)
Trick or Love
I have expected this girls pretending to be a boy thing to go a little further than mid episode 15. But given the fact that her parents' bakery supplies the afternoon tea desserts for the company where is she pretending to be a man, it's amazing that her father took 11 episodes and even amazing that he agreed to let her keep up with the ruse. However, no matter how much they think they have all this all locked and figured out...in the end, Jing Cen's mom met Guan Heng Wei's grandmother by fate, and Jing Cen's photo as a "girl" is revealed!
And poor Jing Fan got confessed to by Guan Heng Da, who thought it was the giving her his first sexual experience was the highest form of love confession!
And Wei Yu Quan, the clueless sidekick who needed Jing Fan to act as his Cyrano to woo his love, is now taking a second look at the no nonsense lawyer who has gotten used to getting her life threatened by her client's exes.
All in all, the story is not quite going the way I envisioned (and I like the lawyer sister better than the FL) but the plot is still interesting for me to stay until the end.
The Longest Promise
I did not expect to start this one...since I've been avoiding my favorite genre for the last month, due to having no interest in the last few that aired. Strangely enough, I started this because my husband wanted something else to watch after he finished Oh My General, and this was new and on Netflix. The first episode started with Zhu Yan escaping her marriage by creating a copy of herself that she can "dispose" of and pretend to "die". And it follows with the flashback of her childhood and her first meeting of Shi Ying. Now, the framing of Shi Ying was pretty brutal, and I haven't yet quite figured out why and whether the concubine actually died or not. I assume yes.
And to protect Shi Ying, his mother sent him away and created a scene where it seemed like to everyone that the little prince died in a murder suicide attempt that didn't kill his mom, but only scarred her. Then there is that prophecy, and he ends up hiding in the royal tombs for the next five years so he live through his 18th birthday. Due to a series of, closely grouped events, his having survived the fire could be exposed, his mother decided to commit suicide for real this time, but swallowing hot coal. That is a horrible way to die. And his master's method to teaching him the cruelness of the world was a bit much.
But why can I not stop watching this? I find myself starting the next episode to find out what will happen. Strangely addicting...
I'm probably switching to WeTV to watch this soon, as Netflix is too far behind...
See You in My 19th Life
I started this two weeks ago, but I only gotten to episode 5. The love story from Yoon Cho Won's point of view makes a lot of sense, and the trauma of having the girl you love die in our arms is traumatic for anyone, not to mention a child. For Ban Ji Eum, when she met Cho Woon as a boy, she cared for him deeply, like a little brother who makes her feel like a child for the first time in a very long time. The beginning of her feelings came when she stalked him when she was a little girl in her 19th life. Seeing someone she cared for to have grown up, and the influx of feelings and joy when knowing someone you cared about is alive and well...yes, I can see how this can develop into a crush. And the sudden disappearance etched a longing that when she met him again when she was an adult, the crush developed into something more.
I really like the scenes when she "rescued" herself from her family when she was a little girl in her 19th life. I liked that she found her "niece" and that she kept calling Ji Eum "uncle". I really liked this story line where someone who was her family knows her "secret" and is completely fine with it.
Now, as we all know, if any other female but the FL, displayed this kind of stalker behavior, we would think the girl needs her head examined.
I am looking forward to picking this up again, even though I haven't really gotten any heart flutters from the CP.
And this is it for this week, or rather the last two weeks. I wish have more exciting things happening in my life. But nothing really exciting happens, which is a good thing (nice and peaceful) and a bad thing (no great stories). Well...unless you count my house invaders as "exciting" events in my life. Or the fact that there is an urban bunny colony living in our neighborhood. If I get a picture next time...I'll post it.