Happy and Blessed New Year to Everyone!

I’m taking it easy this New Year. I may just go out for a leisurely lunch with family.

@pkml3 your question on Dear Hyeri had me trying to remember. Since it did not make a huge impression on me, I guess it was just a so-so watch. I did watch snatches of the beginning and the end again and now think it was a rather indulgent portrayal of how several characters dealt with brokenness, guilt, of distancing oneself from pain, of horrible parenting where the child is accused of something they had no control over, of compensation for inappropriate self-imposed requirements in the unhealthy way.

I feel it was just too much of that and an insufficient reason for all that suffering. A good, clear speaking up of one’s motives would have cleared most of the pain or prevented it. It did give some good pointers on a healthy break-up and dealing with friendships. I find that Hye Ri’s friendship with the other carpark attendant turned out to be the more normal and happy one, with forgiveness and good faith.

Was it worth the time? Only 50%. I stayed on by FFDing to see how things ended for the many weird and needy characters. It’s not a show I’ll have energy to rewatch. But there were some nice edits/camerawork that evoked hope or escape and stuff like that, which @WE and I appreciated. 🙂

I cannot say I was a ‘good’ drama watcher, because I made use of the skip and FFD button a good deal. I had to get past many scenes in several dramas that I claim to have watched, hence I may not have watched thoroughly but just ‘some’. I feel I’m mainly in a ‘some’ relationship with dramas!!!

The minute scenes start to look contrived or predictable, I find myself wanting to jump ahead to see something new. Gone are the days when I’d patiently watch every second to get the full nuance of a scene. Perhaps the later batches of dramas are also made so that not every second needs to be watched?

For silly or weird romances I stayed on with Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale. I noted that it had OTT caricatures and the twisting of boy/girl roles. It was bizarre and different and a good change from what I’d just been watching (the very heavy Signal!)

I did like Wedding Impossible for another misplaced romance. So much chemistry, too little action LOL. I found that I did enjoy the character growth and the attempt to give everyone a forward trajectory. In my review I said , “I liked most of the execution and the way the plot unwound with its twists, except for the last 2 episodes. The music and production quality were great, there was a good mix of light/funny and angsty stuff, and the actors were lovely to watch. I’d give this a ‘B’ rating. If the last episode had been able to give us more sparks…”

Death’s Game really packed a punch. It was not an easy watch but worth it. A simple message on knowing how to treasure the one who really care and being in their shoes!

My opinion of Lovely Runner will surprise many who loved the drama. I kept quiet in the end and hardly commented because I saw gaping holes and other stuff that bothered me so much, no amount of romance and sweetness of the leads could cover it up for me. The whole time jump thing sort of went crazy and in the end nothing was needed of our leads because the TOD did the job for them.

My Sweet Mobster was another one I felt became soppy and indulgent. Unfortunately it also starred Kwon Yool whose look always bothers me as plasticky, artificial.

No Gain, No Love was alright and then forgettable. I did like the rapport between the older Shin Min Ah and whatshisname. I found Spice Up Our Love a waste of time.

Doctor Slump was forgettable for all that Park Shin Hye and Park Hyung Shik threw into it.

Knight Flower was fun, and yes, it was about woman empowerment in that difficult era when widows were to spend days in ‘prison’ to mourn their husbands (whom they did not even know). Honey Lee was good to watch.

Love Your Enemy wrapped with many good feels and neat bows all round. Forgiveness and friendship everywhere made for a great Warm Yuletide. Some of the best hilarious scenes were at the beginning and I don’t mind rewatching that part where Joo Ji Hoon fell bottom first into the dumpster again!

Marry My Husband was somehow better in the beginning. Most of the time I just wanted the horrible twosome to suffer. I didn’t care for the romance but just went along with it.

Queen of Tears was interesting in a makjang sort of way. I wonder if it would have had so much traction if not for Kim Soo Hyun. I just wanted all the preview romantic scenes to be filled out but they never were. They were just scenes of the past and we hardly got any real romantic scenes in the present. Still the use of the round screen was interesting to create the snowy forest scene.

I’ll see if I have any notes on cdramas below.

Did not finish “Unmet” despite loving the female lead to pieces, maybe because I loved her that much and found the wolves around her more ominous as they were preying on someone not even aware they existed.

All in all good new on your end! 😀

@packmule3, yes, the leads in The Road Home were dating by that scene but couldn’t do anything about it because his subordinate co-workers were in other tents around them, lol. I loved their love story and their faith in each other.

I have never seen the Emma with Romola Garai. You and others have mentioned it before, so I will put it on my 2025 list.

An Austen-themed segue’: There is a house in a UK charity auction that would make a great setting for a Georgian/Regency romance like Emma or Persuasion. Or a place for Austen fans to congregate. It is in Bath, has beautiful gardens, and is absolutely stunning. 😍 (But undoubtedly Listed. Been there, done that, never again. 😑)

@Fern and @pkml3, because I also happened to be in an Austen mood, I picked up Emma (2009) today. It was delightful. I’ve watched other versions of Emma before and even the comparison of Emma adaptations. I do agree that Mr Knightley was too much an older brother to Emma for too much of the mini-series, and the romance could have been a bit more evident, but this Emma was really charming and likable.

An evening well spent!

Happy New Year to @packmule3 and everyone here!
I’ve been absent from this blog for a while because life has become very busy, with lots of frequent travdls, making me an inconsistent drama watcher.

In 2024, I only managed to complete 2 Kdramas and 3 Cdramas, the rest I dropped mid-way as I had to prioritise. I also noticed a trend in my viewing preferences shifting to more historical Cdramas and finding contemporary Kdramas a bit run-of-the-mill and repetitive.

Like @GB, I liked ‘Wedding Impossible’ at the beginning because of the lead couple and ‘Death’s Game’ because of the unique plot. But I don’t think these dramas have rewatch value for me.
The dramas that I really liked and rewatched were 3 Cdramas – ‘The Double’, ‘The Story of Kunning Palace’ and ‘The Blossom’. All are historicals with court intrigue and rebirths.

Here’s hoping 2025 brings us more dramas to relish!

@pkml3
RE: Emma
Yes, I specially looked for the Romola Garai version, realising that I had not seen the whole thing. I really liked that it is a mini-series so that there was time to be immersed in that tranquil world and get to enjoy those characters.

Yes, I noticed the dance and his eyes, the moment he realised his feelings. It was very low key. I felt that something stirred in Emma as well, she might have been vaguely aware. In any case, she played that piece of music of the dance on the piano the next day, as if to relive the dance.

The reviewer who compared the adaptations felt that the 2020 adaptation made the romance clearer earlier, also at that dance. In this 2009 verison, I noticed how when Mr Knightley was going to say goodbye, he almost kissed her hand but thought better of it and ran off.

Perhaps this version’s Emma had her epiphany a bit late in the last episode, but I believe the book had that as well. Mr Knightley could perhaps have been a little less brotherly earlier, however I feel this 2009 version did well enough in the romance overall.

I was in a hurry to watch this and didn’t search for it at the sites my husband would have recommended. I simply went to YouTube and bore with the repeated breaks every 3 minutes!!! to get through the 4 episode series. It was not what I’d recommend if one wants to watch every expression and scene, since with each break, the screen was blocked by ads for the other YT stuff, but it was watchable although annoying. There are also longer edits of the main scenes that can be easily rewatched.

I deliberately got a refurbished PC that still has a DVD slot. I don’t use it but I do have DVDs that I could watch. How technology changeth!

Happy new year! Wishing everyone all good things in the new year.

2024 K-dramas
Enjoyed and would recommend (in descending order)
– Lovely Runner
– Family By Choice
– Good Partner (ongoing)
– Knight Flower
– Wedding Impossible
– A Good Day to be a Dog – episode 1 only
– Midnight Romance in Hagwon

Did not enjoy, dropped or would not recommend
– Brewing Love
– Cinderella at 2AM
– Dare to Love Me
– Dear Hyeri
– Doctor Slump
– Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale
– Flex x Cop
– Death’s Game
– Frankly Speaking
– Iron Family
– Love Next Door
– Marry My Husband
– Midnight Studio
– Mr Plankton
– My Demon
– My Sweet Mobster
– Serendipity’s Embrace
– The Atypical Family
– The Auditors
– The Impossible Heir
– The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract
– Welcome to Samdalri
– When the Phone Rings
– Wonderful World
– Queen of Tears