Happy New Year!
Here are the shows that caught my eye this month. I hope they don’t disappoint.
1. To My Beloved Thief
Another body-swapping kdrama.
Synopsis from mydramalist:
A romantic comedy historical drama about a woman who accidentally becomes a thief and a great Joseon army chasing her, whose souls switch, and they save and protect each other. Hong Eun Jo is a girl born to a noble father and a slave mother. She is also known as Hong Gil Dong. Eun Jo is a righteous thief who steals from corrupt officials’ granaries for the people. She hides her gender and lives amidst loud rumors.
Prince Yi Yeol has outstanding looks, a tall figure, and innate dignity. Yi Yeol, who enjoys detective investigations, falls in love with Hong Eun Jo at first sight while searching for Hong Gil Dong’s true identity with his brilliant mind and transforms into a straightforward man.
Cast: Nam JiHyun (“Little Women”) and Moon Sang Min (“Wedding Impossible”)
Episodes: 16 (huh? 16?!)
Start Date: Saturday, January 3
Airs on Saturdays and Sundays
Where to Watch it: Viki, Netflix
Network: KST
The trailers don’t have any subs but just watch it for the visuals.
2. No Tail To Tell
This is a gumiho story. The first gumiho kdrama I was invested in was “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” (2010) starring Shin MinA and Lee Seunggi. Then came “My Roommate is a Gumiho” (2021) with Lee Hyeri and Jang KiYong. I’m obviously watching this because I like Kim HyeYoon.
Synopsis from mydramalist:
Eun Ho is a gumiho, known in folklore as a mythical creature with 9 tails. She is different from other gumihos. She doesn’t want to become a human unlike other gumihos. She enjoys her eternal youth that never changes. She picks out the fun parts in the human world and enjoys them herself. To avoid becoming a human, she refrains from small virtues and accumulating small bad deeds. One day, an unexpected incident takes place.
Kang Si Yeol is a world-class soccer player. He is the top striker for a famous soccer club overseas. As a soccer player, he accomplished many firsts and he shines brighter than the club itself. He is also the king of narcissism. His life is perfect, but, one day, Eun Ho appears in front him. His life suddenly changes.
Cast: Kim Hye Yoon (“Lovely Runner”) and Lomon (huh?)
Episodes: 12
Start Date: Friday, January 16
Airs on Fridays and Saturdays
Where to Watch it: Netflix (hurray!)
Network: SBS
3. Undercover Miss Hong
Synopsis from mydramalist:
Set in the late 1990s, Hong Geum Bo is in her 30s and is an elite supervisor for the Financial Supervisory Service. She is a cool-headed, working woman who only thinks about her job. She goes undercover as a 20-year-old high school graduate, Hong Jang Mi, and begins to work for a securities company where suspicious flows of funds are detected. There, she meets Sin Jeong U. He is the new CEO of Hanmin Securities company.
Sin Jeong U is a natural-born management consultant and a corporate raider who believes that only numbers are honest. He uses any means necessary to reach his goal. He meets Hong Jang Mi, whose face is the same as Hong Geum Bo’s, whom he once loved. They become complicatedly entangled.
Cast: Park Shin Hye and Go KyungPyo
Episodes: 16
Start Date: Saturday, January 17
Airs on Saturdays and Sundays
Where to Watch it: ??
Network: tvN
As for cdramas, I’ll start watching these.
1. Shine on Me
Cast: Song Wei Long (“Youthful Glory”) and Zhao JinMai (“The Princess Royal”)
Episodes: 36
Start Date: (already started)
Airs everyday
Where to Watch it: Iqiyi, Viki, Netflix
Network: Tencent Video
2. Glory
Synopsis from mydramalist:
After rising star magistrate Lu Jiang Lai is brought down by a past wife-murder case, he’s left injured, amnesiac, and on the run, only to be rescued by Rong Shan Bao, the Tea King’s cunning daughter. Once rivals, she hides his identity and demotes him to a stable boy to exact revenge. As Lu Jiang Lai plays along to survive, he becomes entangled in the Rong family’s high-stakes search for a son-in-law. Amid power plays and hidden agendas, he and Shan Bao engage in a battle of wits that slowly turns into something deeper.
Cast: Hou MingHao (“Love in the Clouds”) and Gulnezer Bextiyar (never heard)
Episodes: 36
Start Date: (started already)
Airs everyday
Where to Watch it: Iqiyi, Viki,
Network: Hunan TV Mango
Happy new year @Packmule3 et al!
I hope you are all okay. I wanted to ask: @FGB are you OK?
Yes, a very happy new year @Packmule3 and all make this community what it is.
@FGB, same question from me as I watch the news. Hope you are ok.
Best wishes for the new year @Packmule3!
And @FGB I third that anxious question, woke up to news this am and really hope you are ok too.
Oh I didnt realize this is the eye out for shows thread too!
I am planning to watch or watching your exact same list.
I thought the idea of Glory sounded fun, almost dropped it after the first episode but kept sneaking back to watch HMH, and eventually decided to admit to liking it, even though it veers into the mildly trashy advert-for-china-tea area, and then changes course and confusingly expects us to actually understand matrilocal intra-family politics without a spreadsheet.
It is fan-service, I think they call it.
I admire the way HMH can makes a scene spicy by just widening those big liquid eyes a bit. He is never smarmy.
I remember you said it was hard to see him as manly — what with cosmetic work and the ML mandate to hold still all the time he has a tendency to look like a doll. But in motion when creases and thoughtlines show he has a skinny-guy-face, not particularly handsome.
I respect his commercial instincts in picking roles. So far he hasnt made a fool of himself, or treated women badly, all the while becoming very popular as his shows make $.
Oh I forgot, I am enjoying Idol I, even though its an idiots-at-law show. Its outer-wrapping of a murder case is holding up well.
The whole web of emotions between idols and their fans, of all stripes, is an interesting topic. The show addresses it well in several ways.
Both leads are doing an excellent job, the camerawork is fine and the OST is pleasant.
Dear Friends, Happy 2026!!!
I am OK and so are my relatives here. I woke up this morning with lots of calls in the wee morning so I was worried, as it is usually the hours where bad news are delivered. Then I saw the headings of some Videos coming my way.
Will speak properly in due time.
Nothing is defined yet, and funnily enough, you probably know what is happening WAYYYYYYYYYY better than us.
Thankfully even in our conditions I have some canned food (we have been waiting for something like this to happen for quite a while) and the cat has plenty of dry one, so for the time being, we are OK.
On the other hand, as in December, I still look for Japanese Dramas and especially Slice of Life and Iyashikei. We are folks that live in poverty and insecurity, so personally I don´t need to add unnecessary stress to my life.
* At this moment I am rewatching “Koe Girl! (2018)” which is a live action “Cute-Girls-Doing-Cute-Things” show about five girls living together and starting their careers as Voice Actresses.
* Trying to get into “The Hot Spot (2025)” about an Alien doing Good Deeds. I am still in Episode 1, he saved a co-worker, told her secret to her… and she spilled it to her closest friends… Thankfully it is labeled as a Comedy!
* Also tempted to rewatch “Suika (2003)”.
Will leave you now, as Water came and it should be rationed giving the circumstances!
About this month’s roundup:
* At a first glance, “No Tail to Tell (2026)” could be my pick.
My very first K-Drama was “Gu Family Book”. Fell in love with it and the titular Gumihos usually being more humane than the humans around them. Also, how the male Gumiho through sheer force of character drilled into his comrades that he was an asset and on their side.
A little later watched “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” and fell in love with Ms. Shin Min Ah’s character. It was a good person open to the World and enjoying it to her fullest, so when tragedy hit her it hurt so much.
“My Roommate is a Gumiho” was just excellent. It was a story about good people actually communicating and taking care of each other… even if sometimes their lessons were harsh ones. You could say that it was a Drama about principles, values, and how to materialize them into the World.
This one, at first glance, could be about stupid and bad people finally having Karma knocking at their door. Hopefully it will be well made for us to laugh about the hard lessons coming their way, and for us to check ourselves if we are following similar paths.
My dear @FGB, it is a joy and a relief to hear from you. My heart has always been warmed by your practical, reasonable, gracious attitude towards your difficult situation(s). I understand the sentiment … we cannot beat it, hence we make the best of it and find joy in even the most challenging situations. I applaud this and you.
As always my prayer includes you and your homeland. May you be kept in peace amid turmoil, given what you need each day, strengthened in body and spirit, protected from harm, and sustained with courage, hope, and resilience.
¡¡¡Amén mi querida @GB [Amen my dear @GB]!!!
BTW, sorry @Cleo for not greeting you properly earlier! This has been an hectic day.
This has been a day filled with beloved Friends asking how am I doing, and as far as I know (you could say I live in one of the less strategic parts of Caracas) everything has been calm. The only thing I have seen is a big Supermarket here that instead of opening regularly has installed lines and let in small batches of customers… to avoid looting. That is within view from my home.
These are reports from a neighbor:
The other supermarket have lines and let people enter in pairs.
The pharmacy I usually go to check my blood pressure has been closed and attending people through a small window.
My sister lives in another part of Caracas and saw attacks in communication towers in her not so immediate vicinity.
Two friends reported two hours of turmoil and the smell of explosives. How do we know? After experiencing the coups in ’92 (the one giving the Coup d’Ètat eventually became the founder of the now dying process) there are things that we have experienced and gone underground, but are ready to surface given the circumstances: a mix of trauma and survival instinct.
Until everything gets clearer, I have to be cautious.
Hope you are well!!!
(BTW: looking for recommendations on what to watch 😉 !!!)
Take care @FGB4877 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
I’m not sure yet what to watch this January. But I’ll post my 2025 drama list which you inspired me to do last year. ☺️
KDramas
1 – When The Phone Rings
2 – Love Scout
3 – The Trauma Code
4 – Melo Movie
5 – Once Upon A Small Town
6 – The Witch
7 – When Life Gives You Tangerines
8 – The Potato Lab
9 – The Haunted Palace
10 – Dear Hongrang
11 – Head Over Heels
12 – Taxi Driver
13 – Dr Romantic 2
14 – Trigger
15 – Bon Appetite, Your Majesty
16 – A Hundred Memories
17 – Good Boy
18 – Genie, Make A Wish
19 – Typhoon Family
20 – Dynamite Kiss
CDramas
1 – Blossom
2 – The First Frost
3 – The Prisoner of Beauty
4 – Coroner’s Diary
5 – Love Ambition
Dorama
1 – Marry My Husband
Taiwanese
1 – I am Married …… But
Anime / Cartoon
1 – My Happy Marriage
2 – The Apothecary Diaries Season 1 &2
3 – KPop Demon Hunters
Movies
1, 2, 3 – Rurouni Kenshin
American Series
1 – Season 1-5 – The Chosen
Rewatch
Who Rules The World
Love Like The Galaxy
Hidden Love
The Last Immortal
The Legend of the Blue Sea
Oh My Venus
Descendants Of The Sun
Alchemy Of Souls Part 2
Business Proposal
No Gain No Love
Princess Hours (Goong)
@FGB @Kate, @Cleo and Friends!!!
I think I did not wish you a Blessed New Year of Health and Peace of Mind!! Well I do.
@FGB, your ‘BTW’ made me laugh after all that you shared about the goings-on elsewhere in your country. As you are mostly drawn to jdoramas now, and as I’m mostly into cdramas, with a few kdramas, I do not know what to recommend for your watch. I’d choose the more thoughtful dramas for you.
Speaking of which, or having said all that … although I have not watched it myself, I found reviews of the kdrama When Life Gives You Tangerines to be highly positive. If you have not yet watched it, you may like it. 🙂
Happy New Year @agdr03!!
What a long list. Are these the shows you’ve watched or the ones you plan to watch?
Among them, the ones I did watch and found good or good enough…
Kdramas
2 – Love Scout
20 – Dynamite Kiss
I did not watch When Life Gives You Tangerines, but I believe it’s good.
Cdramas
2 – The First Frost
Dorama
1 – Marry My Husband
Anime
3 – KPop Demon Hunters
The ones I feel we can save time from watching:
Kdramas
1 – When The Phone Rings
16 – A Hundred Memories
18 – Genie, Make A Wish
Under Shows for a Rewatch, I’ve loved Goong for a long time. I must have rewatched parts of it some 20 times in the past. The very young Yoon Eun Hye (before the scandals) and Joo Ji Hoon (same). Loved their awkward, fledgling attempts at romance that had such a hard time taking off.
The ones I watched that I feel I can recommend:
Kdrama: You and Everything Else (if you don’t mind a saddish theme)
Cdramas: Twelve Letters, A Dream Within a Dream, Filter
Dorama: Romantics Anonymous
@FGB, I just remembered after going through my list of shows on MDL that I liked very much the jdorama Romantics Anonymous. I cannot recall if I recommended it to you before. However it’s one I could rewatch with delight.
Happy New Year @GB 😘
That’s all the drama I watched in 2025 😂
Goong is a personal favourite, it’s my first ever kdrama and EunHye and Jihoon were perfect for the role. 🥰 I can rewatch it anytime. ❤️
Dear @Agdr03, thanks for the recommendations! I don’t remember doing such a list, but it is a great thought nonetheless!
And over all that, thank you.
@GB, Romantics Anonymous I saw, thanks to your recommendation… but I watched it after you all have concluded it. Loved that ending as it was them just accepting each other and their quirks.
They were not isolated anymore as they had each other. For the World becomes a brighter place once you find kindred souls… on that same sentiment, thank you all.
Wow! You watched all those, @agdr03?! Brava! 👏👏👏
When did you ever have the time, my friend?
Howdy Queen 🙇🏻♀️ how are you? ☺️
I’m not sure how I watched those but probably in between family life, work and social life. 😄
I can’t believe January 4 is almost finished here. Soooo quick!
@FGB4877,
Your reports on the water ration and supermarket lines have a curious way of grounding some simple truths. That is, all these big geopolitical problems in the world must be viewed from the perspective of the common man struggling to obtain his most basic quotidian needs.
I’ve read and heard a lot from the Venezuelan Nobel peace prize laureate, Ms Machado, but your wry accounts hit home differently.
Thanks for keeping it real, @FGB.
Back to work for me. December was a tough month here in DC especially for those people who strove to maintain the air of festivity and normalcy even when they knew strong winds of change were in the horizon. Let’s see how January fares.
As for doramas (or jdramas), there’s one in Viki that looks interesting, “The Yakuza Boss’ Beloved.” I just wish a female character would someday be the Yakuza Boss, though. 😂 It’s not about switching gender roles for the sake of female empowerment or some tiresome woke nonsense. I just find that, as I advance in years, I find these helpless, indecisive, brainless adult women so unrelatable that my blood pressure spikes from watching the show.
Did you finish them all?
Try watching this cdrama that @GB and @ibisfeather are watching then. She wrote our favorite “Hidden Love.” 😂😂
Wait. It’s only 6:30am here so January 4 is just beginning for me. What are you watching right now?
I did finish them all. 😃 The rewatch, I had to fast forward on scenes that I don’t need to see again but when I finished the drama, it still made me happy. 😊
I saw that it was Gu Man that wrote Shine On Me. Queen, she wrote Love O2O and You Are My Glory. 😉 She likes my Yang Yang. 😂
It’s January 4, 10:48pm here now. I’m actually trying to do my prayers and afterwards watch Stranger Things. 😂 I was saying to my son this evening to watch it with me but he said, I’m not sure as people said season 1 and 2 were good but 3-5 weren’t. 😄
My boys watched “Stranger Things” too when they were home for the holidays. I wanted to watch it with them but I decided to let them have their own brotherly bonding time.
Yes. She also wrote Love O2O and You’re My Glory (is this the one where Yang Yang was a poor astrophysicist and Dilraba was a rich actress?).
I’m going to church by myself later. Hubby isn’t a 100% recovered so I want him resting. I’ll have to sit in a corner just in case I’m a carrier.
It’s weird how my family and friends came down with the flu during the holidays and I was the only one who didn’t. To think I was the one who was running around and meeting gazillion people every day. 😂😂 Maybe I should have myself checked in case I’m ill without showing symptoms.
Oh you’re poor hubby and family! Hopefully he’ll get better soon. My hubby was having fever and back pains too a couple of days before Christmas. He couldn’t attend mass too. He’s much better now and he said if I can take him to the massage place tomorrow.
Hopefully you’re not sick, just that your immune system is still good. 👍🏻
Yes, that’s the story of You Are My Glory. ☺️
It’s weird that I only watched 5 cdramas last year but then again, they were over 30 episodes per drama. 😂
I get your hubby. I’m needing a spa therapy, too.
My girl friends and I were debating the other day which one we would hire if expense isn’t an issue: a personal chef or personal masseuse? 😂😂 I said both because money wasn’t an issue.
And watch “Legend of the Female General” too if you can. The lead actor is the strong silent type that you’ll like. Not as good looking as Aou RuPing (?) the actor in The Coroner’s Diary, but hell do.
I’d hire both too! 😂
Okie! I’ll watch Legend Of The Female General. ☺️👍🏻 I’ll start that for my cdrama this year.
Happy New Year back @GB!
And, I will now try ‘Shine on Me’ if it is by Gu Mann. Just finished a Christmas re-watch of Boss and Me also by Gu Mann.
Just a note;
Although I am eagerly awaiting the bonanza of Jan 16 (No Tail to Tell and Can This love be translated), and handling the drip-drip of Shine On Me episodes for the plebians,
I still want to note that I am finding plenty of comfort in the fan-idol complications of the kdrama Idol I, and in the makjang glories of Glory (Hou Ming Hao’s matriarchal tea merchant epic).
Really enjoying them.
I didnt think I would like Glory at all, but in 36 episodes things turn out differently sometimes than one expects.
Did anyone watch Kian’s Bizarre B&B (Netflix)? Wonderful, whimsical humour served up via a floating B&B that is so uncomfortable for its guests that it’s achingly funny at times. Jin is one of the main hosts and seems to take it all in his stride.
@ibisfeather,
At the risk of turning into a Hou Ming Hao’s fan, I took a peek at his other cdrama “The Unclouded Soul” on Iqiyi. It’s about demons and humans. And though the story starts strong, I’m not interested in continuing it as I saw reviews that the ending is sad/open. That’s a dealbreaker for me. I don’t want to invest 40 hours on an unhappy ending with the hero and heroine living separate lives or awaiting a reunion in some nebulous future.
Nope.
I may look into Glory.
No 40 hours for me either. HMH or no HMH.
I found a lighter (than Shine of Me), fun romance in a shorter cdrama (20 episodes?): Love Between Lines.
I wanted to see what the Virtual Murder Mystery Game was like. With the game we see both modern day Shanghai and a city in the Republican era. Less angsty, more easy to digest and so far no ‘villains’ but there should be an inner demon or trauma. I expect it to be an easy watch with no surprises.
@GB,
I am already watching this show and it is a fun watch. Suspend all disbelief about the immersive, semi-virtual game and you are away! Good leads and a good in real life plot too.
@Kate
The FL in ‘Love Between Lines’ was in ‘Love in the Clouds’ and cute there too!
@GB,
She’s a very watchable actress. She’s both rather beautiful and evokes girl next door in this show. I am liking the way they develop her IRL plot. All very light but entertaining as you say.
For anyone watching on TenCent, your weekend to come just got more complicated;
I see that The Imperial Coroner 2 will be released there on Thursday.
Half-expecting Viki to suddenly add it too.
My current plan is Friday, the once-a-week-er Can This Love Be translated, and Sat/Sun, The Undercover Miss Hong, maybe. (But if the body swap works out, I will be watching To My Beloved Thief Fri/Sat too, so that might even be too much)
Rewatchig “Hotel del Luna (2019)”. It still has the scent of good literature. Find it endearing that it was the first Drama I shared with you all, as I were invited both by @GB and @Barbrey.
So many things I did not see back then… maybe because we were all immersed in the hype! The girl possessing Yu-Na’s body being killed by the rich girl for the sin of wanting to have a nice pendant makes for an incredibly tragic story. The rich girl only saw someone spending money, the poor girl wanting to have at least something beautiful in a barren life… how could the rich girl even start to understand?
Also the subtexts, the deepness, the multiple lectures. The multiplicity of the MaGos trying to show how possibilities are endless until Reality collapses in an event.
Also, remembering your wise comments from back then, dear @Agdr03.
@GB, @FGB
Just finishing up Can This Love Be Translated:
There is a lot to the script, I think the Hong Sisters still have that IT factor.
It will take awhile to digest, so if anyone has a nose for these metaphors, take a look.
The FL has a dissociated personality, with a very lively fully developed alter. While accurately within the definitions of the illness, they definitely work out an interesting set of themes.
1. sincerity. How do we know when people mean what they say?
2. Zombification. The FL becomes a famous scream-queen in the zombie genre. The ML is extremely inhibited emotionally; he is like a zombie. Likewise the FL, because of having her emotions locked away in her alter. Ala victorian gothic lots of political hay to be made about the effects of hidden secrets usually but not here..
3. The unraveling and disentangling of the FL’s habits of mind lays bare some of the ways being stoic under pressure, graceful at deflecting problems can become toxic for SK women. And men.
I think it is interesting that the internationalization of kdrama is handled with much less insularity/thinly veiled xenophobia than usual in the Korean industry. For those who wonder where this all is leading.
And the question of the Hong Sisters being topical in Korea still? They have never been in the forefront of genre popularity but they usually spawn a score of imitations. If so @pcml3 will be happy that the lawyer craze might be put to rest.
Forgot —
others have discovered a problem with NETFLIX SUBS. Do not watch with English “CC” subs, but with plain English subs. You may have to switch yr preference in the settings.
The English CC are only a transliteration of the actual English dubbing, and can be wildly different, to the point of being unintelligible.
I will have to go back to Master’s Sun, which made no sense to me and try it again!
Dear @IbisFeather, how are you doing these days?
Thanks to you recommendation, started “Can This Love be Translated? (2026)”. Episode 1 was delicious, with Cha Mu-Hee wobbling her head like the Lucky Cat. The Translator might not be accurate during conflicts, but he seems to translate other people’s feelings and emotions in an elegant way. You could say he elevated Cha Mu-Hee’s fight with the pregnant woman.
The actress is not just a beautiful woman, but also her bubbliness contrasts with the male lead composture bordering stoicism.
You commented on how it is a Hong Sister’s Drama, and suddenly Cha Mu-Hee’s movie involving “Hotel Diamort” seemed like a Horror twist on “Hotel del Luna (2019)” which I am still rewatching.
Regrettably I am unable to use Netflix’s original subtitles, so I have to enjoy it in alternative sites… we may be enjoying totally different shows as we are “Lost in Translation” I am afraid 😉
Happy watching, @FGB!
Along the same lines, Thank You, @GB, @Kate for recommending Love Between lines.
I love a landlord-tenant forced cohabitation, and the actors really make it work.
Architects, I love it. Lovely girl having a nagging fit in a domestic sityuation and the ML loving it. We must be in the cuter recesses of Cdrama modern!
My mom wanted to be an architect when she was young and got a clear no from her parents, for some of the same reasons as in this show, plus it was not in the plan for finding a ‘suitable’ husband.
Just finished ‘Glory’, the Hou Ming Hao costume drama/weird exotic oriental matriarchal (?matrilocal meets the empire??!!) fantasy. Really, really, really awful plot underpinnings but
somehow HMH made it work. Totally Gen Z. Idealistic, lush. Great ending.
I will watch it again
but
I fear recommending it to anyone else
or heaven forbid, writing a review.
So just a confession to the sisters. Fan service, really, really great fan service.
Hi @IB @pkml3 and Everyone,
I just wanted to say that I tried the first 2 episodes of cdrama, “My Page in the 90s” and was convulsed with laughter over the ‘sanitary pad’ question. It’s once again Chen Xing Xu as ML, but this time he’s acting opposite Wang Yu Wen, whom I’ve watched in fluffy romances. This looks to be another fluffy one, once again with FL slipping into a fictional story book and needing to get off the page with the help of a most reluctant ML and a preposterous 1990s pager that can talk back at one!
Yes, there are shades of “W: Two Worlds”, and “A Dream Within a Dream” plus other shows! It has the same crazy vibe as “Filter.” So if you’re in the mood for ridiculous and zany, you may like to take a peek!
I’m also watching “Idol I” and rewatching “Something about 1 Per Cent” – the fuller, clearer version than what I had before, with less bad edits. It’s still sweet despite the ‘red flag’ ML.
@GB, nice, I am waiting for Viki to air My Page, so will be giving it a try.
— I have been enjoying Idol I so much!
@IB, I watched the end credits (and spoilers) for “My Page..” and while it’s fluffy in the beginning, I’m wondering if it gets the melo treatment later. Tears and all that. Well I’ll be finding out!!
“Idol I” – Yes, I like the occasions that Do Laik gets all swoony and Maeng Se Na does not know how to react. Darn cute, considering that the actors are in their 30s!
Is Chen Xing Xu our new “it” Chinese actor on this blog? 😂😂 Will open a thread for us. Give me a few minutes. ⏳
How are you @FGB4877 ? I hope that you are well. 🙏🏼
I’m not sure if my Hotel De Luna comments back then were wise. 😃 Right now I just remember the ghosts. 😄
I hope everyone is ok with the brutal cold temperatures happening now in the US. 🙏🏼
How are you Queen? Update us when you can please.
I haven’t started any kdrama but I might start on Can This Love Be Translated because I like the FL. 😄
I finished Sniper Butterfly too. I got sucked into it big time. ☺️ Thanks for the recommendation @GB and @Kate I enjoyed it and the kisses were good! 😍
What was the other cdrama that you said the kisses were good @GB? 😃
@agdr03 –
So glad you enjoyed it! I now want to re-watch. Kisses top notch indeed.
Thanks, @agdr03.
It’s cold but as long as you have no place to go to urgently, have internet and electricity/gas for the heater, hot water and cooking, and the water pipes don’t burst, then it’s fine.
I did fall down in the snow yesterday because I misjudged how deep the snow was and lost my balance. But falling down gave me a good reason to remain on the ground and make snow angels to cover up my clumsiness, lol. I probably ruined my woolen pants but my husband teased me that had I been wearing snow pants I could have just skied (or slid on my bottom) down the driveway all the way to the bottom of the hill. haha.
I’m about to write my review on “To My Beloved Thief.”
Hi @agdr03! Yes, wasn’t ‘Sniper Butterfly’ quite sweet… the boy had to prove that he was a man and give his Noona ‘butterflies’… loved how she was in denial about being all aflutter!! However I like most the idea that FL’s father’s thoughtful gesture towards 1 boy had such a nice butterfly effect.
As for nice and plentiful kisses… ‘Shine on Me’ … ‘Love Between Lines’ … and ‘First Frost’. The latter had more than 6 kiss scenes (some quite hot) with Bai Jing Ting and Zhang Ruo Nan and the only ‘stalking’ scenes that are acceptable because the ML watches over the FL from a distance for some time without ill-intent or because he missed her. However stalking in most other shows will be red flags!!! And especially in real life!
I’m watching ‘My Page in the 90s’ now but it will take some time before we get to kiss scenes. I’ll of course report if I see good ones!!
Hi @pkml3… you sound like you had a soft landing!!
while you’re in the snow make a snow woman or two!
‘Shine on Me’ had the ML making beautiful, quite intricate and tiny models of the FL. It never occurred to me that we could compress snow well enough by hand to do that!!!
It is almost February!
New plans anyone?
For the coming weekend, I have gone back and forward on watching ‘Our Universe’ (viki). The plot sounds cute, and I nourish eternal hopes for Bae In Hyuk as an ML.
However, anyone who watched Crushology 101 was scarred by the saccharine emptiness of Roh JeongEui’s little ‘Bunny’ portrayal.
So I waver, ridden with doubts.
@Kate those kisses were the shy, longing and passionate ones. 🥰 it’s definitely worth rewatching. 😃
@GB I thought the ML really portrayed the vulnerability, pride and courage to be the man that he needs to be with her. 🥰 I agree that her Dad was really sensible in all of her life issues. ☺️
I have seen First Frost and enjoyed that too. The kisses were great as well. 🥰
I’ll see if I can start Love Between The Lines. ☺️
Good to know you’re ok Queen even with the very cold weather. It’s good it’s not a bad landing on the snow and you even enjoyed it. 😃
I went to the snow once with the family and I just find it exhausting with carrying your ski gears. 😂 we haven’t gone back. Maybe I can just visit a cold country someday just to feel how it is to live with snow around you. 😄
Idol I – The series is completed.
SPOILERS
I’d say it was a pretty good watch all the way through until Ep 11, when it basically ended. The PD obviously had to produce 12 episodes, and so the last episode 12 looked to tie up any loose ends that could be found.
There weren’t that many as would warrant a full episode, hence Ep 12 felt underwhelming, however it did give us the resolutions that made sense for all characters. Other than this, the pace was great, the writing made sense, the mystery of the crime was quite good and the detection while not gone into in detail, still quite interesting.
It was nice to be assured that the Gold Boys continued, back in the spirit of how they had begun, and that they were making their latest album from the songs that Woo Seong had left behind. The best thing was that they were in sync again as friends, that their fans had become more reasonable (even the obsessive ones!) and gave them privacy, and that Se Na was heartily approved as La Ik’s love interest.
Surprisingly even the entertainment agency boss had a bit of resolution, letting the Gold Boys go and be able to live more freely. La Ik’s mum made a short appearance and Chung Jae started his own Detective Agency.
I liked this series for the trajectory of the almost-but-not-quite villain and how he turned out to prefer living more honestly than in following his father’s perfidious footsteps. For a change I was low-key rooting for his character.
I even liked this series for finally giving us a Kim Won Hae character who was not the butt of jokes but a sweet and supportive boss, a cheerleader-in-chief who helped Se Na when she was alone.
The other side character of importance was the unlucky 2nd ML, Chung Jae, an ex-offender whom Se Na had taken under her wing, but who did the best detective work for her. I liked that he did not become the typical 3rd wheel or create a love triangle, but that he accepted where Se Na’s heart lay and respected her decisions.
It was a bit of an eye-opener seeing how fans preferred to buy their own merch, tickets, etc. I’d have jumped at the chance to have special seats to watch my idol given to me by my idol himself!!! But instead fans teamed up online to get stuff they wanted, even when they did not know each other. However in Se Na’s case, she found that her fan partner was none other than her supportive female colleague.
The romance, I guess, can best be called sweet and reasonable. There was enough attraction and electricity where it mattered, however that was never the main focus, as Se Na’s attitude after a hot night with La Ik showed. I did rewatch the sweet kiss scenes, few though they were.
Accolades to Soo Young and Kim Jae Young for giving us believable, relatable characters. I really liked Soo Young in this role as a firm, honest and good lawyer, able to hold her own against bullies and crazy fans of La Ik, as well as an excited and eager fan herself. If it mattered to rate it, I’d give this an 8 out of 10. 🙂
🫑🌽🥕🫒🧄🧅🍠🌶️🥒🥑🍆🥬🥥🥦🍍🫛🍒 🫑🌽🥕🫒🧄🧅🍠🌶️🥒🥑🍆🥬🥥🥦🍍🫛🍒
Hi @pkml3, I believe one of my posts got swallowed up.
I was writing a review of Idol I but I do not see it here. 🧐🤨😜
🫑🌽🥕🫒🧄🧅🍠🌶️🥒🥑🍆🥬🥥🥦🍍🫛🍒 🫑🌽🥕🫒🧄🧅🍠🌶️🥒🥑🍆🥬🥥🥦🍍🫛🍒
Found it, @GB! And it’s been approved already.
Thanks to your emojis, I found it right away.
I rewatched the entire Alchemy Of Souls (2 parts, 30 episodes total) and it is still holding pretty well. I especially appreciated the character of Park Jin and the actor who played him.
I want to start To My Beloved Thief.
Great! and Thanks very much @pkml3! I was in the mood for fruity-vege emojis… not that I’m eating as much of these as I should!
@GB, I’m going to open a thread for your review of Idol I. Thanks for writing one. — pm3
Glad you can join us in “To My Beloved Thief,” @Snowflower.
@pcml et aliae,
End of January, I am mostly on pcml’s on-air wavelength now — Undercover Miss Hong, To My Beloved Thief.
I am also all entranced by a belated watch of Are You The One.
I have 2 rewatches: the group rewatch RWotS, and Monmor and I are rewatching Tree with Deep Roots with a side of NeoConfucianism.
Tomorrow (Feb 3) a movie starring two of the young upcoming stars in kadrama will come to netflix. It is a teen drama, starring Choo Young Woo and Shin Shi Ah.
If This Love Disappears Tonight
@IB, I plan to watch this movie. It reminds me a bit of a jdorama but that only had a FL who kept waking up with no memory of the past. Catch you later!
@GB
I just read your last post/short review of My Page in the 90’s. It brought together some of the best throughlines I have seen, common to the cdramas which have enchanted us this winter. Worth copying over into another thread just so more of us semi-lurkers can read it and think on it.
Hi @IB, thank you kindly for your comment. I did consider it as I posted it, whether it would be better to have it on the WAWW thread. Perhaps, I might re-post it on the February thread. 🙂
Did you continue watching “My Page”?
Hi @GB,
I did not continue watching My Page after the first episode. My policy is not to write or talk about shows I dont end up finishing for one reason or another, so I didnt say anything then.