Dear Lurkers and Bitches-to-be,
If you’re a newcomer to this blog and you want to post a comment on “The King: The Eternal Monarch,” please be advised that there’s a list of banned words and phrases specific to this kdrama to weed the crazy and delusional fangirls out.
If you refrain from using these words in your first post, your post will be approved expediently.
However, if you use any of these words, then your post, and all the precious thoughts you’ve painstakingly expressed in it, will be relegated to the spam box where it will await my moderation. (Note: I check my spam box about once a month.)
List of banned words as of 3/12/2020:
–Bromance, I already explained it here (link).
–Chemistry, as in “Their chemistry is undeniable.” Everybody has different understanding of chemistry so that “undeniable” chemistry can be, in fact, disputed and denied.
–Cinematography, unless you can describe the cinematography in specific and concrete ways. Please use unpretentious words like landscape, background, panorama, color palette, lighting, camera view, etc.
–Eargasm, as in “His voice is eargasm.” Sorry. My ears aren’t a vagina.
–Epic, KES hasn’t written anything epic yet, so chill. 🙂
–Explosive, like “He displays an explosive charisma.” Please reserve the use of “explosive” for dynamite and other substances that burst violently. Charisma doesn’t qualify. lol.
–Hot! If you type the word “hot” with an exclamation point at the end, your post will go automatically to spam. Excessive use of exclamation points will also send your post to my spambox.
–“Love him”. No, really, you don’t. You love REAL people, not strangers in tv shows. But feel free to fantasize, idolize, supersize, and fetishize him.
–Oppa. I’ll tolerate this word when spoken by a a) Korean and b) donsaeng. Otherwise, it’s cringe-worthy because Lee MinHo is really NOT your oppa.
–Slay, as in LMH slays, is slaying, slayed his role. Try using “sleigh” creatively instead and you’re an automatic, approved Bitch in my blog.
–Visual, as in “Their visual is no joke.” Don’t fall for the optics, please.
****************
This will be continually updated as I review trend words related to Lee MinHo and his new drama, “The King: Eternal Monarch.”
Thanks for your cooperation.
-Packmule3
I guess it’s good to be the King. The Monarchy makes all the rules 😂
Eargasm, as in “His voice is eargasm.” Sorry. My ears aren’t a vagina.
I’m the one that’s been living under a rock. The above is a first time for me seeing such a word. 😱😂
😈
You saw what I did there, didn’t you? 😂👍 I was channeling my inner tyrant.
Aren’t you joining us for this show? It should be fun. Plus, we can always use the male perspective.
Really? That’s a must in a Fangirl’s Vocab. 🤪
I shall put this list on a sticky note on my computer screen, Ma’am.
The oldtimers, like you, are given a free pass. It’s for newbies who might not be aware of how things are done here.
Like the earlier post on KES, I’m slowly laying down the protocol to avert a headache later on.
I also want to prevent this site from getting inundated with “love” posts from sensitive fangirls. From my experience, they’ll start a fanwar should their “oppa” be criticized and satirized here by @ nrllee and others.
There are other sites where they can wail and clutch their pearls, like soompi and Dramabeans. Those are bigger sites anyway and they have mods they can run to whenever they’re offended. Here, that sort of drama won’t be allowed. It’ll tire me out. lol.
You weren’t aware of this but I also made a similar readjustment for “Crash Landing on You.” But the list there was lengthier. For one, I had dimples included. lol.
Grin. Do none of the new actors have dimples? Shocking. I may skip it. I might recommend vas* to any without as well. Harrumph.
🧐
@packmule3 – I assume the invitation was for me. Yes, “The King: The Eternal Monarch” sounds like it has potential to be good. Plus, I’ve kind of missing coming on the site and reading everyone’s comments since CLOY. Like Fern, I may have to put a sticky note on my monitor so I can refrain from using these hazard words. Way to go all “The Story of Ho Dam” on us.
I am a new Bitch over here and appreciate the PSA. Is LMH a superstar in Korea? I am also very new to k-dramas, and not yet familiar with all the stars/shows, but have seen a lot of noise surrounding him and this new show. I only saw him in The Heirs, and was not necessarily impressed (but did not love the show much in general either, so that was a factor).
Yes. He’s a superstar in Korea and everywhere there’s a big kdrama viewing population.
I’d say his fanclub is bigger than Hyun Bin’s fanclub.
The demographics would be slightly different, too. HB appeals to both male and female, and his female fans tend to be older (because he is an ahjussi, lol).
LMH’s fans tend to be female and the young generation. The older female fans acknowledge his handsome-ness but they’ve handsome before so he’s no big deal.
With the panic from the coronavirus, I don’t look forward to dealing with hysteria from LMH fangirls should we post something less than stellar about him, his acting or his character.
Really…unless the acting is noticeably bad, I don’t usually comment on the actor. I stick with discussing the characters, dialogues, and interactions.
This is preemptive because I know we’re going to get a lot of lurkers again. I don’t mind the current group of Bitches. The fact that you got in already meant that you passed through the “content moderation” the first time around. But it’s the newbies and the wannabe-Bitches who might cry foul if they don’t get in. They should check first if they’re using these words that I’ve flagged for moderation.
During CLoY, some of the wannabe-Bitches also sent me double, triple posts, as if flooding the blog with their posts would increase their chances of getting in. 🙂 No. That ain’t gonna work, unfortunately.
A few also wrote one-liners saying, “I love your blog!” or “You’re the best!” Posts like these go directly to spam because how would I know if they’re legit kdrama viewers or just spammers from a viagra trying to flatter me? lol. Flattery will get you nowhere here.
“The Story of Ho Dam”? Did this book really exist or was it just fictional based on…hmmm… what’s–that-drama again with the book banning theme? The one with pretty boy Cha Eun Woo?
lol. We wouldn’t know right? If all the existing copies of the books were indeed burned.
“The Eternal King” won’t be shown till mid-April. I hope Netflix bought the rights to show it. Netflix is on-time with their showing times. Viki? Not so much.
Hello IcedFireAngel,
Even though I’m not the hotelier here, I welcome you.
I may be the only specimen around here who isn’t a bitche.
Indeed, I’m an old guy who comes here sporadically.
But bitches are my favourite characters in dramas!
You have the perfect words.
Yeah, there’s noise.
Lots of noise!!
And on top of that…
You SEE that noise!
You certainly deserve to be the heroine of a new drama.
“The Girl Who Sees Noise.” *
Aren’t you impressed by Lee Minho in Heirs?
It’s too bad because it’s his best performance.
Although it sounds a little crazy, I’ve seen almost all his dramas.
He may be flat, but he’s still professional, handsome and charismatic.
He does the Job!
And for girls, Lee Minho is synonymous with Libido!
* : by understanding the allusion : https://mydramalist.com/13103-the-girl-who-sees-scents
Aye aye Captain. I will try my best to abstain…and poking fun at the Eternal Monarch (May his name endure forever).
“ The older female fans acknowledge his handsome-ness but they’ve handsome before so he’s no big deal.”
When “handsome” moves from its humble beginnings as a noun and officially becomes a verb. It’s made it in life. Ask Google. 😂
PS pity the site name doesn’t abbreviate to BaD… 😂
Goo Hae Ryung – Rookie Historian. 😊
I’m not exactly sure about the book though but Ho Dam was a foreign minister in NK.
@packmule3
Q1 – “The Story of Ho Dam”? Did this book really exist or was it just fictional based on…hmmm… what’s–that-drama again with the book banning theme? The one with pretty boy Cha Eun Woo?
A1 – I think it was a fictional book. Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung. Correct, with the pretty boy Cha Eun Woo.
Q2 – lol. We wouldn’t know right?
A2 – Correct. I couldn’t find anything online regarding that book. There was an Ho Dam though–North Korean politician and Foreign Minister from 1970 to 1983 that made nominal efforts to reunite the North with the South.
Q3 – “The Eternal King” won’t be shown till mid-April. I hope Netflix bought the rights to show it. Netflix is on-time with their showing times. Viki?
A3 – I read that The King: Eternal Monarch is indeed coming to Netflix.
A3 – https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/k-dramas-coming-to-netflix-in-2020/
Ha! I was protecting you, nrllee!!
What I wrote was a “typo.” It’s missing the word “seen” — they’ve SEEN handsome before…
But yeah, it can be a “noun” too.
I probably didn’t hear of it because I’m an ahjuma. 😆😂
I’ve done fangirling but never really use words like that. I’m glad I’m still innocent that way. 😄
I think the drama was Rookie Historian. I enjoyed it, as it was pretty lighthearted, but it did have the “banned books” as a core theme.
Thanks for the warm welcome WEnchanteur. As stated, I am fairly new to the world of k-dramas, and have only watched The Heirs from LMH. Not saying his acting was terrible, but it wasn’t impressive. If Hollywood comparisons are permitted, he seemed a bit too Kristen Stewart to me. I’ll have to look for more of his works to make a fair assessment.
I’ll say, this is the most fantastic group of Bitches I’ve come across. I joined while watching CLOY, searching for other’s perspectives to the theme, and found @packmule3’s wonderful observations. With the world going nuts over coronavirus, its nice to still find folks inclined to share thoughts and ideas on this medium we all enjoy and appreciate.
“ Ha! I was protecting you, nrllee”
Thanks @packmule3. Sorry my statement about nouns and verbs didn’t make much sense after I reread it. Too early in the morning here and also with the specter of COVID looming large it hasn’t been fitful sleeping most nights. Keep safe and stay healthy where you are.
*Challenge – using handsome as a verb. I’m trying but none are funny. Brad Pitt will be handsoming at the beach. Colin Firth handsomed his way through Pride and Prejudice.
I think we should use it just for those frozen male lead performances I was talking about on the other thread, where the male lead is so cool he doesn’t actually have many expressions, leaving all the work to the female lead while he just looks handsome and gives us a micro expression once in a while.
Lee Min Ho might not be stellar but he didn’t handsome his way through any of his roles, except maybe for Faith but I can’t say as I dropped it halfway.
Example of handsoming a role: Xu Kai in both The Story of Ming Lan and The Legends. Then he did Military Academy playing a brat and I realized he really can act too.
Can’t edit: meant Yanxi Palace not Ming Lan.
I’ll second that @Barbrey ! Xu Kai was good in The Legends and Arsenal Military Academy. 😍
😂 @Barbrey.
Lol!😂😂😂i love it when you bitch😝 oopppsss😁 guess this is a must share via twitter.
Looking forward for your post on this drama. I might really include this in my watch list since i feel like kdrama again is in for a dry season lately.
Been dropping KSE dramas midway since dots and mr sunshine. Goblin..i finished it but if you ask me what’s the ending i can’t recall. 😂 sorry.
But LMH is charming though. Although I didn’t finish his drama with Jun Ji Hyun too. Lost interest.
Unintentionally, I got some ideas about your word list.
So I’m going to lay out a huge word pad!
Bromance:
While I don’t mind that term, I agree with your linked article.
In French, the proximity of the word “romance” (romance novel) also makes the term ambiguous.
It would be more accurate to speak of “romantic friendship”. Since in French, the term “romantic” does not imply a love story, but rather a way of being and a style. It is not easy to qualify these stories as friendships, which go beyond friendship by their intensity. They are excessive friendships, with plots that have something in common with romances, in the way the characters separate and reconcile. This is rather what the word reminded me of.
Chemistry:
This is the first time I’ve ever written that word!
The word reminds me of a chemical reaction, rather than feelings.
CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O
Maybe because the French word is “Alchimie”.
Chemistry is misused, I see this word in almost every drama review!
People manage to find “chemistry” where I can’t see anything, for very mismatched couples.
It’s much too vague, we don’t know if we’re talking about the actors, their characters, the script that manages to bring them together.
It annoys me !!!
Cinematography:
I sometimes use this word as a title, to describe the director’s work, in a concrete way. But generally, I tend to say “directing”, since that’s how it’s translated automatically.
Epic:
I use this word for stories that are really epic! Historical drama with war and battles. A 60 episode drama that tells the story of a fresco over 20 years (“Giant” drama). On this kind of dramas, there are opening themes, which are “epic” music.
Explosive:
I sometimes use it about an actor’s performance. For example, I like the actress Park Min-Young, she’s cute, romantic and never overacting. On the other hand, she disappoints me a little bit, and I expect her to show me an explosive performance one day. An explosive performance is a rare moment when an actor gives the best of himself and expresses himself totally. Often in a key scene, it can be anger, tears, but in any case something unforgettable and far above the ordinary. To take an example, Park Shin-Hye did this type of performance in Memories of Alhambra in a scene of tears. I use the word “explosive” because it suggests a moment when emotions come out completely, unrestrainedly, violently.
Love Him:
I sometimes say that I love an actress. It comes from the translation.
I have to make a difference between the actresses I like and those I like much more.
So in the first case, “I like”. In the second case, “I love”.
Actually, the French term I use is not “love” (or “aimer”), it’s “adorer”.
If we look in the dictionary, the term “adorer” seems even stronger, because we “adorer” a God, for example. However, in common parlance this term is much weaker, and is used very frequently. If we say that we “adorer” an actress, it is banal, and we know that there are no real feelings. On the other hand, if we say we “aimer” her, it becomes much more serious, and corresponds to your example.
However, the automatic translator always translates as follows:
“Je l’aime” : I love her.
“Je l’adore” : I love her.
The word “adorer” has certainly undergone a distortion of its original meaning over decades. The most curious thing is that in some situations “aimer” is stronger than “adorer”, and that in other situations, it’s the opposite.
“J’aime regarder des dramas” : the translation is rather “I like to watch dramas”.
is not as strong as:
“J’adore regarder des dramas” : the translation is rather “I love to watch dramas”.
Ahh @WEnchanteur French is the language of love. So beautiful. I (love) listening to it. 😂.
@packmule3 @agdr03 look who popped up on my Korean drama news feed. Puppy is back. 🙂. Howbeit just as the younger version of this romance (sounds like a melodrama).
https://www.soompi.com/article/1387959wpp/got7s-jinyoung-faces-1st-love-as-idealistic-college-student-in-upcoming-drama
Thanks, nrllee!
Hmmm… I knew my old posts on “He’s Psychometric” were being looked into. This must be the reason. His GOT7 fans were looking into his old kdrama because it’s been a year already.
@mslee, I lost interest in Blue Sea too but can’t figure out why. Liked the actors, the story premise side characters. I know we’re not alone though – lots of people lost interest. Do you remember why you did?
Thanks, MsLee. You have the advantage of seeing my snarky side in action from our soompi days so you, @dey and @lovebangwon know when I’m laughing or really ticked off. I’m hoping this will be an entertaining show so we can all get together again.
I’m considering skimming through “Secret Garden” to get the feel of KES’ myth-making approach. Her “Descendants of the Sun” and “Mr. Sunshine” are different from her “Secret Garden” and “Goblin.” Since “Secret Garden” and “Goblin” are fantasy-drama she has more flexibility to incorporate legends and myths in the plot. And I like it when legends and myths because it’s really the simplest way for any screenwriter to illustrate her moral values and explain cause-and-effect of the characters’ decision.
So we shall see how this kdrama goes. I’ll give it 8 episodes…. 🙂
@Barbrey hi. As episodes progressed i felt im not looking forward to it anymore. So i dropped it😁
I’ll look at When Love Blooms @nrllee because of Park Jin Young and Lee Bo Young when it comes out. It does look like a melodrama. I’m just excited for Jin Young because he’s back in drama land. ☺️
@mslee, we might share tastes in dramas because that’s what I did too- dropped Sunshine and DOTS about six episodes in, watched most of Goblin asking why I was bothering (I liked all the main leads, just each episode was so incredibly static for me), watched much of Blue Sea but lost interest in that too. It’s rare to find people who share my tastes so I will pursue this for a second: did you like Healer, Jealousy Incarnate, Strong Woman, Scarlet Heart Ryeo, Moonlight Drawn by Clouds, My Love from the Stars, W? While that list has my favorites in it, it also has dramas I didn’t like. So a test! Which ones did you not like?
A shout out to my friends…just watched the first episode of Hyena and it was stellar. The female lead – actress and character – is amazing, and the romance in this legal drama should keep everyone on their toes- audience and characters alike. But that’s only the first ep. I’m coming to it late, it’s half over, which is great – more episodes to binge if I like it.
@Pkm3, I know you don’t like legal dramas but neither do I, so I will let you know later if I’d recommend despite our preferences.
Thanks, @barbrey!!!
If the legal aspects are kept as a side story, I’m good at closing my eyes and holding my tongue. 🙂 Example: Vampire Prosecutor. The story revolved around the mysteries rather than prosecution. But if it’s Law-and-Order-y type of drama, no thanks. 🙂
@pkm3, I’ve binged to ep 8 and I still like it. can be really funny. It is a little Law and Ordery but mainly the three or four cases have played into the couple’s rivalry. Also, she’s definitely and he’s a little morally gray. They’re on the same team now. I recommend it because of the actors but mainly because she’s quite the unique character and I’m enjoying the enemies to partner progression. The law cases are a bit pat but still interesting and as I say, are very second fiddle to the characters.
@Barbrey
Hi, I see we have some things in common. Both what we like and what we don’t like.
So, thanks for the advice about Hyena! I should enjoy it. I never asked myself if I like legal drama, because I never watched legal drama in western shows. So the first time I saw it was in a kdrama. “I hear your voice.” It’s not completely legal drama, but there are a lot of court scenes. I loved those scenes. There were such incredible twists and turns. Since then, I’ve seen a lot of court scenes in other dramas (legal drama or not). And there’s generally the same quality.
Overall, I prefer dramas that sound real, where you can take the situation seriously and be emotionally involved. IRIS, Sandglass, Jang Ok Jung, Love in sadness, Hwang Jin Yi, etc.
Or when it’s comedy oriented. Comedy with a bit of finesse, because I don’t like overplayed scenes, with characters that scream, or sound completely wrong (“My Princess” was just that, too much Cheesy).
Well, there can be a bit of that, but only if it’s not the main thing. So excessive drama like “Feel good to die” made me laugh. Same thing for “Clean With Passion For Now”, whereas there is some overacting in the first episode.
I have a certain preference for historical dramas, rather realistic than fusion-sageuk. It’s also a way to find a drama that’s pleasant to watch, for sure, when I’m tired of dropping a lot of dramas.
On a contemporary drama, I have at least a 50% chance of dropping the drama.
On a historical drama, I have about 10% chance of dropping the drama.
A special category of stories, which is by far my favourite, but which you don’t find much in kdramas: psycho-cerebral thrillers, with or without science fiction.
Liar game (jap), W, Death note (anime), Sherlock Holmes, Kaiji (anime), Twilight zone (series), Primer, The prisoner (from 60’s).
By the way, this is a kind of story that is not very common. It requires a lot of logic. If there are inconsistencies in the details of the crime and how Sherlock Holmes solved it, it wouldn’t fit. I don’t feel that way with other detective heroes. It’s really specific to the character’s state of mind when he’s working. Maybe Columbo, because of the way he solves an investigation using psychological torture.
I like ‘real’ historicals too but I like to learn something from them. I definitely like Korean romantic comedies – because the English speaking world rarely knows how to produce them anymore. So that’s my go to. I’ve seen most of the fantasy, mystery and science-fiction based ones, but for me they rarely are the hit they are with others because I’ve been reading – two or three books a week – genre fiction for forty years. So Goblin, W, My Love from the Stars, Liar Game, Memories of Alhambra – there’s no wonder involved because I’ve seen similar before. I had high hopes for Black, that was one fantastical mystery, but they didn’t pan out. Korean fantasy/sci-fi never seems to have a satisfying ending that ties up the ends.
On the Love in the Time thread I recommended a number of good cdramas you might like if you haven’t seen many. If you’re not keen on over the top, you might not like Perfect Couple or the two Hu Ge fantasies.
I don’t watch much melo or makjang, but the two I watched that I liked a lot were Mask and It’s Okay I love you (the So Ji Sub one, I get this title wrong sometimes). Mask was a perfectly done, well-paced serial. You won’t be bored.
@Barbrey: You read so much!
I rarely have time to do it. So my favorite books are few. Some medieval French novels, or Frank Herbert’s saga “Dune”. Lovecraft too, and a few others.
This makes me appreciate originality in dramas or movies, especially in relation to other dramas or movies.
The drama “Mask”: You seem to have read my mind. It is a drama that I absolutely want to see. Pandeshi!
I enjoyed the lead actress in the drama “Queen of ambition”. A drama that uses a few makjang tropes, but the story is structured.
Without necessarily watching the whole drama, I recommend the first 11 minutes of the drama, just for what they are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQRmHrgV7cA
It’s the perfect script for an opening scene! The director made it nervous, with a lot of changes in the shot.
Although my favourite album for “classical” background music is “Hwang Jin Yi”, the drama “Queen of ambition” contains the beautiful classical song I heard in a drama :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQRmHrgV7cA
With such background music, the scenes become very moving. This contributes enormously to the quality of the drama.
Ooops, sorry, the link about background music is this one :
@Packmule3, I just finished Secret Garden. I approached it as part of my education about Kdramas, since I’ve only been watching them since Sept 2019. I think SG has not aged well, but I stuck with it all the way through to see how it contrasted with recently produced fare. If nothing else, SG can stand as a master class in Kdrama tropes. And I did enjoy watching a young Hyun Bin exercise his comedic chops.
@Welmaris- which others would you recommend that are considered “classics”? I am trying to explore all the alleged good ones to get a general grasp on the culture of k-dramas. I am currently watching DOTS, and maybe because I went in with low expectations, I have been pleasantly surprised. Since we are on a two weeks remote work/quarantine, I am looking for good kdramas to watch on Netflix, Prime or Hulu. Muchas gracias 🙂
@IcedFireAngel
It depends on what you call a classic.
If it’s a real classic, then: Sandglass (but this may seem too foreign to today’s kdramas).
If it’s a closer in time classic, such as DOTS.
Then: Empress Ki.
The only problem after watching this is that you might be disappointed by everything else.
You know what I did five years ago after stumbling on Coffee Prince and BOF and wanting more kdramas? I went to Dramabeans where Javabeans and Girlfriday rated every drama they had seen. Alphabetical list. I don’t agree with all their ratings (Emergency Couple is one of my faves) but I do most of them. So I just listed their highest rated ones and binge watched them. All the classics are on the list. I think you find it under “ratings”.
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😂🤣😂🤣 I kinda late but am here for TKEM – Off topic, for the life of me, I can’t get myself started for CLOY … sigh … But, that’s fine, there’s no need to force myself or anyone for that matter.
I am still going through and reading and re-reading all your posts on TKEM – a lot of digesting – 😅 Your blog is AWESOME! I find myself at a loss for words when I am reading all the postings, Gosh, this could be a PhD in the making, with all the literary/scientific/philosphical/religious/psychological references to both western and eastern, classical and modern canons!
Thank you but credit really belongs to the other posters here. I only post once a day (or twice) and they carry the conversation on long after I go to work or go to bed. They do so much to raise the level of discussion and as well as the sassiness, humor and levity in this blog.
I call them “contributors.”
Given everybody’s diverse talents and personal experiences, they contribute to the blog in their own unique ways and I’m grateful to them.
Welcome to the blog. 🙂
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