Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #484

Anne: Happy Tues...ah...Thursday Drama Lovers! (I started this post on Sunday... took me FOUR days to finish it...)  How has it already been over a month since I last posted? All of my days have been filled with all sorts of work issues and work stuff, sucking all my motivation for drama watching out of me. I've been discovering that the more stress I have at work, and less likely that I want to spend too much time watching dramas that are longer than 4 hours...yes, my attention span has now been significantly impacted by YouTube videos. Couple this with my bad memory...which I attribute all to stress.

In order to find some interesting outlet at work (and to give myself some thing else to do instead of stressing out about things that I cannot solely control, I've started a weekly puzzle contest for our global team. The funny thing is... I always thought I would be pretty good at these, and I swore I seem to remember that I did quite well with these when I was in high school...but boy was I wrong. Yes, my poor brain apparently can't handle abstract thinking...anymore...sigh.

Besides being occupied at work these last few weeks...something else has invaded my household TV, which is controlled by the nine year old. (I watch all my stuff on my phone.) 

KPop Demon Hunters

Yep...you've read that correctly. The nine year old is completely obsessed - and as a consequence, these songs are now playing on repeat inside my head...even in my dreams!

Netflix got a hit that probably went way beyond even their wildest dreams.

Let's recap how this all happened (in my house...).

I saw this popped up on my Netflix recommendations like 3 months ago, probably because of all the K drama that I've watched and also on my watch list. I saw it was a cartoon and never clicked on it. Then sometime around beginning of August, the nine year old tells me that he saw a recommendation on my Netflix (he was doing this thing where he pretended he didn't know what the show was called...), and asking in a round about way if I knew what it was about. Of course I didn't. After about a day or so when I wasn't proactive enough to start the movie by myself, he further prompted that "everyone at school" is talking about it.

So...we started the movie...I was NOT expecting that occurred. The start was just LOUD, everything was LOUD, visually. Even the plot was LOUD. And I cringed a bit when the cartoon girls drooled over the abs of the cartoon boy. Because the movie told the story that was quite female centric, the boy (who is at the age when he's careful about liking anything too girly) wanted to stop watching after about 20 minutes.

That pause lasted all of 5 minutes, and the nine year old asked to start the movie again.

And that was the start of the end. My weeks long audio bombardment of the songs from KPop Demon Hunters. I swear, the more I am exposed to it, the more these songs dug into my brain. 

Then the YouTube video started. When I saw the content creators that usually talk about games started to discuss this movie, that's when I realized how viral this movie has become. 

So... I have sat through many, many dance performances of Soda Pop. I have heard every single song, sung, off pitch, with nearly perfect lyrics, over and over again for the past 6 weeks. 

And then last Saturday morning, the biggest top 40 radio station played Golden...

Sigh...I'm never going to get these songs out of my head.

Now...if anyone hasn't seen this movie yet...it's is basically a short K drama, squeezed down into <100 minutes. The story is a mix of Eastern and Western mythology. We have the trio of the girls, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, with super fighting skills and magical demon fighting powers through their voices. Rumi's voice start to crack because she is half demon (if this was a proper K drama, we would have segue into about 3 episodes side story about her parents. And follow by probably 1 episode each of a background story for Mira and Zoey) and her "patterns" are starting show. In the meantime, in the demon world, the demon lord is some amorphous entity that is trying to get out into the real world, which is currently protected by the girls.

During a brainstorming session in the demon world, Jinu (a demon boy) comes up with a plan; to form a demon boy band to take away the girls fans, and break their group/friendship. In exchange for his success, he wants the demon lord to erase his memories. And why, you may ask?  We get a very brief story about how Jinu sold his soul for a change in his life, but he left his mother and younger sister behind to die in poverty. (In a proper K drama, we would spend another 2 episodes on this side story, maybe we get more information about why he was so selfish. I mean, abandoning your family, especially your mother, is probably the top two of worst sins in the far Eastern culture.) 

Of course there are the silly side characters... an OCD blue demon tiger/cat (I can't tell what it is...) with the Cheshire Cat's odd smile. As the movie's plot advances, of course, Jinu and Rumi become friends of a sort, and a happy ending for the girls.

And like all other K drama - there is enough of an open ending for a continuation of the story.

And we will move from a kiddy movie to something that is definitely not for kids. 

ABO Desire (or Desire, the Series)

Now, this might not be a lot of people's preferred drama type, but this series brought a world to the screen that I don't believe many of us would have ever expected. It used to air on some of the major Chinese apps, but all of that got pulled a few weeks ago, and Viki was the only one left to finish. I actually didn't start the series when it pulled off my usual Chinese streaming apps, fearing that it was completed pulled. But I guess because this was produced by a Taiwanese subsidiary, this drama didn't get axed like the others.

For those who are not familiar with the ABO world setup, I look at this like the Xian-Xia worlds. Besides the unusual division of sexuality and fertility, the world is basically populated with a small numbers of super humans with "superpowers". There is a lot more "rules" but it's sort of hard to explain if this genre isn't your cup of tea.

But... let's get to why I am addicted to this drama. There is a GREAT underlying sexual tension that hasn't faded yet (13 episodes with 3 more to air). 

The story started with a mysterious man who has gathered all the previous lovers of Sheng Shao You in his super fancy house. (Look at this pool!!! I want one!)

This mysterious man is learning the type that Sheng Shao You's type. 

Shao You and Shen Wen Lang are rivals in business, but he needs his rival's collaboration because he needs the drug (that is being researched) to save his father's life. During his meeting with Wen Lang, Shao You sees Hua Yong, a man who ran into him at the hospital earlier in the day. Hua Yong is everything that is Shao You's type, through and through. He is soft spoken, fragile looking, obedient, and appears to be someone who is easily bullied. 

Shao You's meeting with Wen Lang doesn't got well. His rival refuses to give any collaboration on drug discovery that Shao You is after. And this is the start of a very large trap that Hua Yong has set up to lure his prey, Shao you. 

If anyone has seen the green-tea characters, Hua Yong is a master of the green-tea's tactics. He sets up several situations where he's the victim, stirring Shao You's protective instincts, and guilt as Hua Yong always gets into these situation into benefiting Shao You. And as the audience, I'm watching this kid, acting all teary and bullied, and I'm giggling silently with glee every time Shao You "saves" Hua Yong. Because we all know it's an act, one that is well planned...for years. Hua Yong set his sights on Shao You from when he was like 6 years old or something. 

There is a lot of plot.

And we also have our second CP. Shen Wen Lang and his secretary, Gao Tu, who is in love with his boss. 

I'm waiting anxiously for this to finish so I can binge the rest.

And this is what has been occupied my drama watching between my YouTube dramas. 

I still haven't found any desire to watch the more serious stuff. Hope everyone else has checked out the new dramas and found something that captures your interest.

Have a great week, and happy drama hunting!