I am curious about exactly the same set of shows but 6-8 and 2 arent available to me.

Most excited about Take Charge of My Heart.

About 100 Days of Deception — Park Jin Young was amazing in Our Unwritten Seoul with Park Bo Young. It seems as if he stepped up his game there, but hoping this show will be good. He has been doing solo singing of great old covers online, so hopefully a real OST will accompany.

#7

For any others to add, I have to wait until the last minute to see if something might show up on Viki, so I cant make plans.

I do make prayers though, and I am really hoping to see Between Steps with the amazing Chu Young Woo as a disbaled roboticist; @WE’s fave Kim So Hyun is FL,and 3 of my fave supporting aces, Kim Min Seok, Seo Jung Yeo and Park Hyuk Kwon ensure that things will be stellar.

I am watching “Four Hands Two Sonatas,” an angsty piano makjang. It will end this weekend, hopefully on a high note.
I am on Episode 5 of “Against the Current” and I am addicted.
New dramas I am interested in:
“100 Days Of Deception.” I like stylish period dramas.

“recommendations from the crew”… and the list is set up neatly by date…hmm, sounds like a party!
Thursday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday (2 shows!) and Saturday!

@pkml3
Seeking Persephone
The hero thought his scars were visible underneath all that hair. It was his right ear that had been badly cut up due to badly done surgery when he was a baby and they thought his ear was ‘missing’.

He is the sullen, uncivil type to discourage social discourse but privately he was lonely and could be a warm sort of person, and a perfect gentleman with his wife and mother.

The thing about him being the law is that he left the innkeeper in the gibbet. We do not know if that fellow died of starvation in there.

At least he does listen to reason.

Guess what!!! I rewatched Signal in May 2024 but now I’m rewatching it yet again. It remains just so good. I’m making more notes and re-reading the old rewatch episode threads. The richness we find in these old shows that keep giving more over time, is hard to find in our recent shows.

I notice that the episodes were way beyond 1 hour… hence 16 episodes then was more like 20! I wonder if they can squeeze much into 8 episodes, … will see if the 2nd Season really does show up in November.

do we have an open thread for “Against the current” ?

Packmule3. – i finished the series / drama and would like your take on the last episode – Jinqi’s conversation with XLX. What did she really mean by saying one lifetime is enough.

Wow, @WE. Amazing clarity (not done yet, just wanted to say.)

oh BIG OOPS.
I am NOT going to bite the hand that fed me(!!!!)

I know.

@WE, that article actually made sense of the Chinese model, where big dramas are only made on pretrialed format — web novels, webtoons, games..and he points to shortform as a way to get material pre-trialed.

I found following cdramas lately on air wildly confusing due to the wayward desires of chinese fans of the novel and or any of the above. But what the producers want is a pre-set audience for the script, not just for the ‘traffic’ actors.

Meaning, if you were a writer with a longer script, you could go the other way. Get a short form version produced and released and if it is successful your longer script has a selling point. Like a synopsis.

@IF,

I am on Episode 16 of Against the Current. If it gets boring later on, which episode is a good place to stop?

I finished Four Hands Two Sonatas. There were makjang elements and plot holes, but the acting was excellent and the emotional payoff made it a worthy watch.
I am interested in Between Steps, Take Charge of My Heart, and 100 Days of Deception.

Hi Snow Flower! AtC? I really loved episode 38. Episode 39 was hardly anyone’s favorite. Apparently the rest is fun enough if you want to go all the way, but I stopped after 40.

@WE, ‘come over’ as in the invitation? “why dont you come over to my place” Usually that has to be well-located in a conversation and in a neighborhood locale.

Once you overuse any word like that with the double entendre, even the actors start laughing at themselves.

I started “A love Other Than Yours” as I could see this drama is driving people mad on the internet. I can’t say a lot, as I’m in first episode but:
– Awesome first scene, excellent second one.
– Then, often surprising about how situations turn. We go in a scene, getting the wrong idea first, and it leads to something unexpected.
After half an episode, it’s all right. Remembers me a bit “We are all trying here” about the tone. Comedy of manners (comédie de moeurs).

Just started Doctor X. There it is! The dance-in-your-seat theme song and the joy of vengeance against those creeps in the white coats! But only at the beginning of the second episode.

@snowflower I do not want to say more because I do not want to spoil it for you. There are also some good scenes in the episodes I sped watched.

@IB, I won’t be able to watch dramas for the next 2 weeks. Please let me know how you find “Make Me Tingle”.

About MMT — Nam Ji Hyun makes all her leading men become better people onscreen. Cant wait to see her effect on JaeYoung. I loved Idol I; it used KJY’s somewhat unsettled screen presence to great practical effect.

@IF, I love The Rebel! You will be humming the theme song forever, it’s that catchy! The rest of the soundtrack is great too.
Yay for more sageuks coming! Hope they are all good.
I liked the first two episodes of 100 Days of Deception.

@pcml3,

It is a vertical, so not a real show, more like a shockfest. I can only bear the ones that make me laugh, I need that space of artificiality. Since it is RSH, who has a great sense of timing and really enjoys his romantic tasks, I am enjoying it so far.

(warnings: suicide, anonymous first night, physical abuse)

He has a support role coming up soon in Veil of Flames.

I am not yet clear on vertical/short drama. The verticals are, I think, the very shortest of short (2 minute episodes) and can be watched by swiping vertically, while standing in, say, a subway car.

Short-form is where Quite The Girl lies, probably, since the eps are probably about 12-15 mins minus the intro and credits. Shows with a 20-30 minute format are noticeably different.

My concept of short-form is that they are similiar to the plot notes of a gothic romance writer overwritten by a standard soap-opera hack from any country any era.

The payment method described in the third section of that very useful video WE posted applies to both forms, vertical and short, I should think.

The main thing to understand is that this is the wild wild west of online streaming — enormously, insanely profitable, borderline porn, and every single corporation and nation on earth is scrambling to rein it in, get some taxes paid on it, and get a piece of the pie.

For young actors, these quickie shows represent rent money and usable visuals for self-promotion. I am not sure how actor-management views the whole process.

Lament of Autumn is pretty popular. Cheng Lei is acting his lovely uniforms to tatters; his skills are really impressive.

There is some discussion about where the role he plays is heading. Chang Xuan, a young warlord in the making (the ML’s name) at first appeared to be a good guy hiding under an attitude of dont-care, but lately he seems to be too ready to cross lines of propriety.

I am watching, under the spell of the music, the flirtation and the slow pace…..so far.

Just as soon as i say light entertainment…
Where The Mask Ends
just got serious.

A Spoiler follows. Possibly a teaser for @pcml3. A recopy of an mdl comment of mine today.

Ep11-12
I am starting to enjoy Cdramas which slide in under one’s low expectations and then sit up and metaphorically shake off their disguises.

I have been cheering on TXW’s twin-role (all the guys do it, why not a great actress too?), enjoying the melodrama and wondering how the romance was going to develop, without any real tension.

The big reveal has occurred and it rushed by swiftly, the ML carries his ‘WeiRao’ wife home in a romantic bridal carry but then

BOOM!
“Sweet talk and false affection will never win you a sincere heart”, says Lu Zhuo, our Heir.
WHAT?

All of a sudden the ML has thrown his hat into the romance ring. He refused the ‘real’ WeiRao because she was depraved. Now we find out he still hankers after love? So is he challenging A’Chou to be authentic with him?

And, of course, A’Chou is right back at him. Living in the real world, our girl.
“Only those who live in comfort and without fear can afford sincerity……All I learned growing up was how to beg and survive……If you want my body, or a smile meant to please you, I can give you both, but dont ask me for something I cant give. A SINCERE HEART IS TOO PRECIOUS. I DONT HAVE ONE TO GIVE.”

So the whole show has just switched up the romance into another level. In a new private space between them, where they now meet as individuals.

Meanwhile, the rest of the action has also diversified in 2 ways: a) we started switching in and out of the palace as the characters of the elder women in the palace and the two households really come into play, and b) another arena of action has extended to the lands and tenants which the FL’s ennoblement has provided her with.

So a definite uptick in energy. We havent reached the midpoint (ep15 of 30) so the personal relationship should reach some point of commitment then. But I am impressed by the way the writers have redefined our understanding of this romance in midstream.

@IF, I just watched 100 days Ep5, and here comes the moment when I become badly enthousiastic about a drama!! Ahahaha!! The big scene in the middle (you see which one, I’m sure) was damn intense. Actress Kim You Jung reached the very best of what she’s able, since soooo many dramas (romcoms or even crap like mydemon) where her potential is half of what it could, FINALLY she gets THE drama. If I compare with DearX (that a drama I liked) where her acting was good but rather focused on few stance, here she go full range, between the funny lady of the start, and the many various dramatic scenes, and in this episode, even traumatic one.

@MM, yes, it’s this scene (sorry for spoilers). Usually I had a term for scenes multiple meaning but with a high-concept. I can’t say if it fits really, as there isn’t a high-concept here, but nevertheless the scene was brillant, very well introduced, and growing in tension. The whole thing deserves a rewatch or even taking notes so much it’s good.

Here, I started Ep6, so what I say next could be a little spoiler but let’s go..

Ga Gyeong has half a medallion, and Tae Ung has the other half! I don’t remember if there is a clue before about that. But this episode make sure we see them, just after a scene when Sato speaks about his ex-wife (or maybe just concubine, I’m not sure). It’s confusing so I’d need to rewatch, but in short, he says that his ex-woman was korean (and ended to betray him). Lot of theory to build about that. It could be Ga Gyeong mother. So the adoptive mother of Tae Ung could be Ga Gyeong real mother. I guess that if the drama want a romantic story (and avoid true brother-sister) there shouldn’t be same real mother of the two ones. It doesn’t explain how half the medaillon ended in Tae Eung hands, but at least there is a proximity allowing that.

HEY, it’s the kind of thing that detective Pm3 could certainly solve better! 😉

I was time to pose this same

@WE We have seen these necklaces in earlier scenes.

@WE and @IF,

I have suspected GK being Sato’s daughter since Episode 2.
This drama is getting more intense with each episode.

@MM,

This makes a lot of sense. There is no Kdrama without a childhood connection!

I am watching Summer Vacation with JungJinYoung and ChoJiHyun. Its a youth show and showing on a K-tv schedule. I like the atmosphere and the attitude. It has some familiar surreal time and reality K-tricksiness. I think its poetic and am enjoying it.

dear @WE, I just finished Meow the secret boy and liked it but maybe only those who live with cats might. In the veins of cats and AI you come to mind — I religiously watch on Insta episodes from an AI project called HE WAS A CAT, by an account called linyeamo. A young guy dressed all in white lives in a tiny apartment with his cat, black with white paws. The cat has developed a habit of suddenly and temporarily turning into a young guy dressed in black, but he is human only in appearance. In all else he does completely hysterically funny cat things like get stuck on top of the fridge.

(how/why?) There have been occasional pithy or mysterious comments on other threads in BOD — I guess it was a memorable experience at the time?
(How did find it metaphorically..) I found it slow but mesmerizing. The string of tension lengthened and lengthened but did not break. I might have dropped it if there were only one ML, but L and Seo Ji Hoon complemented each other. Poor Shin Ye Eun got trained by L while SJH’s character grew up enough to actually care about her.
(how did I find it IRL?) Viki Rasputin has revived some shows which disappeared for a while.

My very dear @FGB, thank you so much for remembering!

This weekend is indeed the three days (triduum of sorts!) where we may think more about the supernatural: spirits (happy ghosts?!) … good saints and holy souls!! And that we have the privilege to join their ranks in due time heheheh! We hope to enter the august presence of the saints.

I wish you and all readers a happy and meaningful Halloween/end of October and All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day as well!!

When I began Tigers Sniff the Rose and Where The Mask Ends, I th
ink I was expecting TStR to be the light entertainment and WtME to be more serious. But it has turned out the other way around.

WtME turned out to be rocking noble-house melodrama, frequently pretty funny and often way over-the-top. (30 eps, finishes this coming week)

TStR turned out to take actual thought, an interesting take on Tang corruption and chaos. Intellectual, idealistic and as bloodthirsty as Christopher Marlowe, or Seneca, for that matter. All agree it should have trigger warnings. (40 eps, will probably take up most of November)

However, while the combination of Yan An and Tian Xi Wei in Where the Mask Ends is very dramatic, it is one of those endless push-pull situations, so one doesnt ever laugh at the main couple. They are very serious. More so than the storyline sometimes.

And on the other hand, in Tigers Sniff The Rose, Li YunRui is performing another one of his transcendent-lover characters and making Meng Zi Yi very happy, so these two medievally bloodthirsty plotters have developed a private, lively, harmonius and very lovely love life. It can bring a smile to your face in RL at odd moments.