My first Asian drama was a lakorn. (Long story short: I thought it was porn. 😇🤦‍♀️😂) I still remember the title, Apple of My Eye. But I can’t remember anything else about the show except that the male lead was a blind man staying in Paris with his contractual bride to seek treatment for his vision.

But THAT is the description given in most synopses about the show so I’m beginning to doubt now whether I actually watched the show or not.  I suspect 🤔 that either I read the subs and disregarded the scenes or I merely fast-forwarded through the whole drama in search of the porn scenes and skipped the subs. Mea culpa. I was a newbie back then so I wouldn’t have mastered the feat of reading 50 words a second, analyzing a back hug, AND listening to the OST at the same time.

My second Asian drama was a lakorn, too, and this one was memorable because I loved the costumes and I found the melodrama of it all quite absorbing, instead of repulsive. The drama title is Wanida. I was aware that the eponymous heroine of the drama was too good-to-be-true (aren’t they all??) but I enjoyed her spunk and her feistiness. I don’t recall her backing down when the hero’s ex-girlfriend tried to intimidate her. One scene they went at each other like middle school girls, with the face slapping, squealing, and hair pulling. To me that was  entertaining, moreso than any Paquiao-Tysons-Holyfield-Ali boxing match.

The hero of the show was the annoying one here. He had an overbearing mom, a social climber of an ex-girlfriend, and a cute and loving wife. Who do you think he’d side with? Sigh. I could tell that he didn’t read any fairy tales because of his women problems. Choose the wife, darn it!

Half of the time, I wanted him to disappear and just let Wanida run the show.

The other scenes that I remember:

1. When the heavy painting fell on her head — and didn’t give her amnesia

2. When she had to clean a dirty hut, top to bottom, because her bad mother-in-law evicted her from her husband’s ancestral home. I would have fainted on the spot at the first sight of all the dust bunnies.

3. When she went back home to her rich father’s home and the husband begged her to come back (this was a scene better than Gone with the Wind), hahaha.

4. When she was learning to dance with her husband for the ball. (Did I tell you that I like the dresses?)

5. When she tried to sneak back into her room while her clueless  husband stood outside her room. Her three loyal servants conspired to fool their “master.”

6. When the rain came and the roof over one bedroom (His? Hers?) leaked like a sieve…while the other bedroom remained dry. Lol. What were the odds of that happening? As a result, they conveniently had to share a room.

I was really a newbie back then. I didn’t understand drama tropes.

I also liked the whole “dreamy” feel about the show. It must have been the natural lighting because many of the scenes were filmed outdoors or location shooting and not in a studio or backstage lot. The result was an old-world/other-world romance and an illusion of slowed-down time.

Really, I wouldn’t mind rewatching this kdrama to see if it was as good as I remembered it to be.

So there you go. I shared with you my first Asian drama. What’s your first drama?