Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #489
Anne: Hello Drama Lovers! It's been a minute since I've posted. The last couple months seemingly zipped by with less than a blink of an eye. I have no idea what I was so busy with. Maybe it's a side effect of getting older. Ha ha.
I did, however, finally took a vacation... The last one was before the COVID shut down. I don't know what bug got into my ear, but I decided to do a massive trip with the hubby and the kid. For 3.5 weeks, across 3 countries and 6 different cities. Now... do I remember anything on the trip? Bits and pieces. Good thing the hubby likes to take pictures. Although...sometime his picture requirements can get very annoying. I cannot count how many times, we had to wait for people to clear a space so he can take a picture without strangers in the background.
One of the places that we went was Seoul, and the hubby had an entire plan to take the kid to Lotte World. Now... I expected the rides and stuff... But what I did not expect was...
This was the most exciting thing that occurred this summer!
Now... let's take a look at what I've watched...besides the short dramas (now I have to navigate all the AI stuff...while they have gotten quite advanced, it still looks like anime to me)...I did manage find a few interesting enough to discuss.
Deep In
I'm sure everyone know by now that one of my favorite genres is BL. I stumble onto this one on while strolling through the new shows on my apps. The synopsis isn't anything unusual, two actors who were blending their roles and their real lives, blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The English title is a bit "suggestive"...but the actual meaning of the Chinese title is closer to "immerse, immersive, immersion"... basically getting too deep into their characters.
The story begins with Zhang Zhun, who is looking for a break to get back into acting. And the "break" he was looking at was a BL drama starting the most popular male actor, Zhen Xin. It doesn't take long before we know that Zhen Xin picked Zhang Zhun as his costar, because the star took a notice of the "extra" on a previous show. The director had a very specific vision, and he pushed the actors to create the most realistic chemistry. And it is in the development of this chemistry, that sparked the start of their relationship.
In the "movie", Zhang Zhun played Gao Zhun, the patient who was being treated by the psychologist, Fang Chi, played by Zhen Xin. The only reason that Fang Chi took on Gao Zhun as a patient was because of being asked by Feng Yun Ting. She is Fang Chi's ex-girlfriend and Gao Zhun's current fiancé. Gao Zhun is suffering from massive anxiety, depression, fear, and it look a few episodes before we realize why. As the audience, we when "see" the movie being shot, it is often out-of-order. And it took a few episodes before we start to realize the flow of the plot and who are the other characters.
I really like the progression and how, as an audience, we start to see the blur between the "movie" and RL. A lot of times, the drama goes from RL into a movie scene without transition, and we can only tell due to the costume of the two male leads.
Even at the end, in the Easter eggs, that we get another version of which is the movie versus the RL.
To this date, this is probably the best BL drama I've seen. It is quite emotional. If any readers like this genre, this is a must watch.
Tang Dynasty Occult Mysteries
I can't remember how this got on to my list, I think it was because I downloaded Archives: The Nanyang Mystery for my trip. (I'll talk about that one next.) It is a period mystery/crime drama that has a bit a the supernatural.
Li Jing Lian is from a prestigious family, her father a judge of some sort. She works as a coroner and has often used her unusual "job" to deter interested matching making meetings. She has a bet with her father that if she is able to solve 5 cases within a 6 months period, he will allow her to continue to work as a coroner. Jue Ming is a self claimed "ghost detective" who uses deductive reasoning to solve supernatural events.
Overall, the stories were fast paced, and it did keep me entertained. I really appreciated that there was a "logical" explanation for every supernatural event. The major thing that bothered me was that the ML couldn't see a dead body. I'm not so sure how that made any sense, and if that was true, why did he even needed to be at the crime scene. The only other thing was how mean the writers were to everyone else but the ML and FL. I don't understand the ruthlessness of the writers. Is there any reason but to shine a even brighter light on the main CP's love and persistence?
Despite these, this was still a great watch. And a very satisfying ending.
Spooky In Love
And my love of Korean dramas got a boost by my watching of this romantic comedy. Yeo Ri is the CEO of a hotel company who is battling her family for control of the company. She has a secret...she can see ghosts and anyone whom she touches with her bare hands will also suffer the same "vision" for a limited time. One of the main reasons why she must keep her position is due to her protecting Siena Hall, which has lost money year after year, when her engagement failed through, as no one wanted to rent a space where a woman's fiancée ran away.
In her path, she runs across Gang Uk, a prosecutor who kept running into a woman who had no logical reason to know where bodies buried. After two such encounters, he became suspicious. Of course, she cannot tell him why she knew where the bodies are buried, but her evasive actions just makes him curious about what she is hiding.
Because of her inability get too close to another human being, she is always alone. And it was during one of these times, when she is feeling especially down, that she goes out to a restaurant and gets seriously drunk. It just so happens to be the same restaurant where Gang Uk is eating dinner with his colleagues. In a fit of rage, in her drunk state (she took off her gloves), she rips a piece off Gang Uk's shirt. She replaces his damaged shirt with a really expensive one. He comes to her house to return the gift, and that is when she "remembers" what happened the night before. On her way to call a taxi, she walked into the crosswalk in front of an on-coming car, and he grabbed her hand and pulled her to safety.
From then on...he starts to see the ghosts... And his reaction to her ability was unexpected...for her.
Between solving crimes, dealing with her family, her stalker friend, her two personal assistants, and his grandmother, they grew closer. So far, together, they have been able to solve any issues and skirted any schemes against them
I have 2 more episodes to go next week. Crossing my fingers...
Oh yeah...one more thing...looks like Gang Uk's donor heart, belonged to Yeo Ri's friend, who died when they fell into the water during an yacht accident over a decade ago.
Watching this new Korean drama sparked my interest back to watching longer dramas. I did watch nearly half of the episodes of Archives: Nanyang Mystery, but it was dragging. I will probably need to FF the rest to see what happened. I also finished My Demon, and what in the world is with the ending? Sure he came back to life... but why is he still a demon? Sure he now only goes after "bad" people for his contracts...but what is the plan? The girl is still mortal!
And that's it for this post. Hopefully everyone found something to watch. Maybe I see an end to my lack of appreciation for the longer dramas coming to an end?????