It’s been a while since I last wrote a WAWW thread that I needed to dust off my memory banks to remember what I included in them. Synopsis, cast, number of episodes, start date, air date, where to watch it, original network. Did I miss anything?
I’ll continue keeping an eye on these shows released in July.
1. Spooky in Love
Starring Park EunBin (“Castaway Diva”) and Yang SeJong (“Still 17”)
Episodes: 12, the 5th episode is on Saturday
Airs on the weekend
Where to Watch it: Netflix
Network: tVN
2. The Apartment Job
Starring Ji Sung (“Kill me, Heal Me”) and Ha YoonKyoung (she’s the admin assistant in “Undercover Miss Hong”)
Episodes: 12, the 7th episode is on Saturday
Airs on the weekend, too
Where to Watch it: Netflix
Network: jTBC
3. Teach You a Lesson
There was a big buzz about this kdrama while I was in SK. But I wanted some sort of emotional distance in order to critique it.
Starring Kim MooYul and Jin KiJoo
Episodes: 10, all episodes are out
Where to Watch it: Netflix
Network: Netflix
4. Dream to You
I tried to watch this for Hyeri, but the male actor Hwang InYoup just turns me off. I admit that I never saw what fangirls found attractive about him in “True Beauty” but the nail in the coffin for him in this kdrama was the scene in Episode 1 when his character walked on stage in heels.
What the heck??? Is the costume designer his anti?
5. A Bona Fide Killer
I want to get my bad-ass-protagonist fix after “Agent Kim Reactivated” ended.
Starring Gong HyoJin (“Master’s Sun”) and Jung JuWon (never heard of him, but I’m sure I’ve seen him somewhere)
Episodes: 14, premiering tomorrow, Friday, July 31
Airs on Fridays and Saturdays
Where to Watch it: Viki and Kocowa
Network: MBC
This August kdrama interests me because I fell in love with the Korean countryside. I’ll ignore that she’s a prosecutor.
1. Our Sticky Love
“Our Sticky Love” is a sweet romantic comedy that follows Go Eun Sae (Ha Young), an amnesiac prosecutor who suddenly finds herself living under the same roof with Jang Tae Ha (Jung Hae In), a boxing coach who claims he’s her boyfriend. Set in a quiet countryside village lined with yeot (traditional Korean taffy) shops, their unexpected cohabitation sparks a quirky, heart-fluttering romance that’s as sweet—and sticky—as its setting.
Source: soompi
Cast: Jung HaeIn (“Love Next Door”) and Ha Young (never heard of her)
Episodes: 12
Start Date: Friday, August 7, I think all episodes will drop at once
Where to Watch it: Netflix
Network: Netflix
As for cdramas, I’m open to suggestions.
What about you? What are you all watching this month?
Thanks for these Queen 🥰
I’m watching Spooky In Love and trying to finish The First Jasmine.
I want to watch Dream To You because of Hyeri. 😆
I will definitely watch Our Sticky Love. ☺️
What’s with the kdrama titles? 😂
I’ll look for a cdrama after I finish TFJ.
How far along are you with “The First Jasmine”? Have you reached Episode 32? If my memory serves me right that’s where I stopped and skipped to Episode 40. Lol. I can join you.
“Sticky” Love? I don’t know if it has something to do with the guy being too needy and clingy. Or that they’re stuck in an awkward situation that they have no choice but to grin and bear it. Or that she’s wearing lots of bandage on her fingers in the trailer. Lol.
I think I’m only up to episode 19 of TFJ 😂 I’ll confirm with you.
You skipped it again??? 😂
Yeah the sticky 😂
I started “Spooky In Love” because of Yang Se Jong.
@Snowflower, I don’t know if I like Yang SeJong or his portrayal of his character GangUk. To me, GangUk is good specimen of a man-child. He’s a decent, high-minded, by-the-book sort of man. Yet he’s also awkward, a scaredy-cat, and a grandma’s boy.
But I do like both YSJ and GU more than Lee MinKi and his character in “Spellbound.”
I hope the storytelling doesn’t go south midway through the series.
@agdr03,
Ep 19?
Spoilers.
It’s the episode after Prince Li is found dead after a suspicious fire in the Eastern Palace. The Empress Dowager tasks the villainous Marquis to arrest everyone connected to Prince Li. One of those arrested is Mo Xiuyao’s military personnel because he’s falsely accused of associating with Prince Li by the Vice-Governor. So XiuYao personally beat up the Vice-Governor. XiuYao must have felt good, being able to kick the corrupt official, though he is going against the strict orders of our heroine Ye Li (or Ah-Li as XiuYao calls her) not to use or tire his legs.
Lol. The thing is Ah-Li lovingly prepared a medicinal hot pack for his yet-to-heal leg (it’s his right leg, IIRC) but he goes out to kick the Vice-Governor with the same leg. If I were Ah-Li, I would be annoyed.
Ah-Li doesn’t believe that Prince Li is dead so she sets off to investigates the Eastern Palace on her own. But she’s followed by her young admirer (I forgot his name). They find Prince Li’s escape route but are chased by men upon exiting the tunnel.
I just watched the silliest film, Wild Sing, 1 hr and 49mins. But I laughed so hard. It may not be so funny if you dont know the actors who are more or less usually in more serious productions. I am always intimidated by parodies in another language but these guys have such a good time! Oh Jung Se with lots of facial hair, Park Ji Hyun With bad table manners and an appetite for junk food, Shin Ha Kyun as a shameless villain, Uhm Tae Goo whose facial expressions totally cracked me up, and Kang Dong Won with a wig that really went too far.
I watched “teach you a lesson” as everybody talk about it. It’s disappointing. Ok, the thematics are good, and it’s based, but the drama itself is more like a western show than kdrama. Formulaic, procedural, not a “first episode of kdrama” but a “pilot episode” feeling. Sure, this episode is well done, engineered I’d say, clicking all the check you need to build a pilot episode. Then “one week = one case”, until last episodes, solving the “background long term plot”. It’s often unrealistic but two of the cases were interesting, thanks to take the time to develop them (half an hour of the episode).
Right now, I’m watching “We are all trying here”. Same writer than “liberation notes” (that I didn’t watch fully for reason not linked to its quality), and it’s even better. Just sometimes, a bit of slow pace, but anything else is top writing. It’s sharp, sarcastic, full of awesome lines. It’s the same feeling than famous older french movies, “comedies de moeurs” (many from the 70s, 80s), about the ironical comedy and the conflicts. If you are ready to plundge into this kind of thick and on-the-ground story, it’s good. Don’t expect fluffy rom-com or usual tone of many other kdramas.
Dear @WE, We Are All Trying Here was one of the best shows I have watched this year, beginning to end.
One or two people here also watched it at the time.
I know everyone is a little tired of long Cdramas..
But yet.
I have started Blossoms of Power from the very beginning all over again. It is rare for me to do this. A butterfly onto the next flower, that,s me.
But BoP is pretty special once you get past the first few episodes. Not a show that puts all the excitement upfront. The exact reverse.
MM and I have decided on our summer/fall rewatch. It will be an old favorite, The Beauty Inside. (Lee Min Ki! Park Min Young! plenty of fun cameos/guest roles for the FL’s transformations).
The writer, Im Me A Ri, will be the writer for one of Ji Chang Wook’s next: Human x Gumiho.
About Teach You A Lesson, I think there must be so many teachers out there in the world struggling under the pressures of being nice and good all the time that as one big mob they gloried in this revenge fantasy for teachers.
(I was a teacher and even though I hate vigilante shows I felt satisfied after this one. Cant say I enjoyed it, really, but looked forward to every episode)
One topic many people can agree on. the education system is broken and no one knows what to do about it.
I haven’t visited this forum in a long time. There was a period in my life when I wasn’t watching Asian dramas, or any TV. To sum up the last several months:
–Health concern, which after long waits for appointments and testing became…
–Cancer diagnosis
–Surgery, which removed all the cancer, but left me with…
–Paralyzed vocal cord, which took 4-1/2 months to reawaken
–Continued making music by learning how to play handbells
–Planned and took 21-day solo trip to South Korea, to celebrate being cancer free
Last night I started The East Palace to see if I could bear watching it despite the horror genre, and got hooked. The grotesque apparitions don’t frighten me because I’m too intrigued by their production. The storyline keeps me engaged with unexpected twists. The three lead actors turn in excellent performances, even when their characters are villainous or morally ambiguous. The young ML and FL have a tense dynamic between them which isn’t romantic, but the development of regard and partnership despite how they frustrate one another. The dynamic between the young FL and her father is fraught: both are strong willed and clever.
I watched up to Episode 27, then was put off by the scriptwriter drop a plot bomb by having people act out of character. Those who were usually perceptive put themselves at the mercy of someone they’d previously found suspicious, behaving as if they didn’t have a worry in the world. I’m less surprised that a get-together went south than that they had one at all, without cautions in place.
Oops. I meant to clarify that I watched to Episode 27 of The First Jasmine. The East Palace is only eight episodes in total.
Thanks for this Queen. ☺️
I’m starting episode 20 now. I like that A-Yao is starting to care more about A-li and that he is especially worried after talking to the doctor that checked A-li.
Yes, by healing his legs he really owes her his life 😄
The weirdest comment just popped up on the BoP pages; I want to keep it short but I am feeling a little hot under the collar.
Many of the souls on BOD have cried enough kdrama tears to fill a small swimming pool. The end of BoP (Ep36) has a return-from-the-dead-four-years-later scene, just one. The ML says “I’m back” and adds a bit about the season. (for me very LBFAD)
There was a strong current of repetitive online hooha about how the ending wasnt explained enough, or too short, or not enough babies or not enough kisses or not enough about how his body was snuck out of the capitol a few eps earlier. I didnt get it. The new little 5-year-old emperor runs around being precocious in 36, and there is even an ‘extra’ episode 37, where everything is explained.
I thought the ending was perfect as is, without any final ‘explanation’ of fake deaths, resultant power-sharing and parenting. The show was almost a prequel to the child’s reign, about all that his parents went through to create a stable empire for him. About their love and their scheming.
A lot of BoP oddly follows various kdrama rules, even though its a pretty standard costume cdrama (the birth of a new hybrid genre?). The dramatic return of the ML was signposted just enough to make one yearn for it in the middle of a fine palace-finale/volcanic-eruption during eps 32-36.
One soul said they didnt understand why the ML had to disappear at all! I was explaining why, if the mortally ill ML/Crown Prince had stayed around to inherit the throne while the current Emperor was dying, then his wife and child would have been in even more danger.
I was told that this was my implied opinion and asked to back it up (!!!??). I was lucky that Jeremy Xu (a tragic villain in this show) and his show-brother had had a conversation about this exact possible danger way back in Ep9 (and that I actually still remembered it).
What got to me was that I was just stating the obvious if you know drama plots, or at minimum exploring my understanding of the plot’s various possible outcomes.
Not an opinion for some idiotic fanfight, but an understanding.
Arent we allowed to understand anymore?
ps. the weirdest thing is that this is a drama where everything is explained 2-3 times by various characters, most notably in the first 5 eps, so it feels a little babyish to begin with. But an easy low-key watch…we have to defend our ‘opinions’?
I tried watching the new workplace romance that replaced ‘See You at Work Tomorrow’ but I fell asleep at Ep 1.
In the end I’ll just rewatch ‘Pinocchio’ which is so good, nothing much among the new shows can hold a candle against it. I’m being spoilt by PHR dramas!!!
I loooooovvve Our Sticky Love!!!🥰 it’s not perfect and I will not ask questions but I thought it was funny, warm, violent, emotional, great characters, perfect casting, great confession from the couple and the best round up for a great ending!!! It was very satisfying!!! 😍😍😍
I really like Jung HaeIn here. 🥰
This is the best out of all the country town kdramas. ☺️
Spooky In Love is really fun to watch. It is, as promised, a crisp, professional chaebol turn.
I am waiting for the new kdrama season in October. And beyond. Modern K-rom-com has run into a temporary rut, so new sageuk and fantasy promise relief.
Still appreciating the Pinocchio (’14) rewatch.
My other rewatch, The Beauty Inside (’18) wears extremely well, a timeless classic on the silly but cool side of things. The airplane company settings, the fashion!, the wacky supporting characters…reminds me of the initial impact of kdrama’s absurdist, surreal but deeply sentimental edge.
Thinking about a rewatch of We Are All Trying Here, which has remained indelible, with small perfect bits floating to mind often.
Given that I am a viki watcher and still educating myself in cdrama trends I have been watching:
Whispers of Fate (’25) for wuxia trends (essentially now they are kid’s shows) and its poppy steampunk paddle/winged steamer boats,
You Have My Heart (’26) to strengthen my sense that a big trend in Chinese horror is on the horizon,
and surprisingly, The Beauty of Resilience (’23). Even tho xianxia is so not my thing (yards and yards and yards of synthetic fabrics! tacky romance advice!), I was curious about the two ‘veteran’ stalwart x-leads in tBoR, Ju JIng Yi and ‘Fiction’ Guo. The plot and pacing are decent and unpretentious, and the CGI/fighting is a little better than usual.
About Chinese horror, the problem for my watching is that there is a lot of aesthetic history to digest, so I am trying to get ahead of the trend.
Actually, given East Palace’s popularity, kdrama on streamers may exhibit more of the same in kdrama horror soon.
I loved Exhuma, a film, and in retrospect, East Palace looks better than at the time. I am a little claustrophobic, so if you have seen the show you can imagine the scratch marks left on my armchair by my fingernails. Hoping for more shows in the open air.
Cdrama on viki alert!
The Shadow Sovereign just dropt in the US. A BiliBili production, 18 eps @30mins.ea., Snow Kong (PoJ) and Li Hong Yi.
Following various connections to a long review on Your Heart Is Mine, I have been informed that BiliBili is now producing quality shorter dramas, vs. IQIYI which has a very peculiar pyramidal financial strategy of throwing a lot of money at bigger and bigger productions.