What Dramas Am I Watching This Week?

So here's what I'm watching this week! Of course the list is split by country and episodes I've seen so far are written below! There will be spoilers from now on so if you aren't caught to the episode number on list, you might want to go watch that episode and then come back! If you're interested in previous lists, click here and if you want to see a list of my favorite asian OTPs and ships, click here!

KDRAMA

Best Chicken (8/12): A man works for a big company although his dream is to run a chicken restaurant. A woman who lives at a bathhouse that her late grandfather left behind, only leaves her home when she absolutely has to. She wants to become a webtoon writer. These two meet and grow with each other.

We're nearing the end of this show and I'm still loving it mostly cause I adore the relationship between Bo Ah and Choi Go who are adorable together. I love that Bo Ah is like all prickly and wants to believe that she's meaner than she is but Choi Go is like the most adorable little cinnamon roll that he's melting all her walls. When he told her to do whatever she wanted cause he'll be here to catch her if she falls, we all melted and fell in love with him! At first I felt like her trying to ruin the restaurant felt like pranks (mean pranks but pranks nonetheless) but now after the whole suspension for two months thing and it coming out that she was the reason for it even though she didn't know it was happening, I'm a little worried that when Choi Go finds out, he'll be heartbroken and I don't want that! I feel like there's not a lot of episodes remaining and yet so much plot to go! The restaurant has to do well and Bo Ah needs to do webtoons again and her friends need to leave all of the scheming alone. I did love that this week Bo Ah and Choi Go were all precious and sharing the upstairs area. He was so flustered to be up there with her but she was so nonchalant. I do wish she would man up and tell her friends to back off but I'm sure that the show wants a big throwdown and I suppose one good thing about this show being almost over is that he'll have to forgive her pretty quickly too.

FINISHED Dae Jang Geum is Watching (16/16): This food-oriented drama imagines how the descendants of the famous Joseon woman doctor and alleged culinary genius Jang Geum (the subject of the famous sageuk Dae Jang Geum) might live today if they inherited some of her talents. San Hae has been gifted with an excellent sense of taste which has mad him a huge fan and connoisseur of food. His younger sister Jin Mi has been gifted with an exceptional sense of smell, and their younger brother Jung Shik has such excellent cooking skills he has his own Youtube vlog channel. The story follows San Hae at his work and his relationship with a rookie employee at his company, a woman named Bok Seung Ah.

The finale technically aired last week but I was a little too busy and I ended up watching it this week and it was about as good of a time as I usually having watching this show. I was a little annoyed that we spent so much of episode 15 with Seung Ah and Jung Shik kinda dating cause Seung Ah was into San Hae and Jung Shik knew it but he still refused to stop forcing Seung Ah to date him. On her part she was angry at San Hae for taking so long to feel the same as her and I get it on a level that you gotta have some pride and try to move on when the guy you like broke your heart and acted like an asshole but dating the brother is a terrible idea if you're looking for a rebound and that's what really sucked in my opinion. Luckily he noticed almost immediately that despite Seung Ah saying that she chose Jung Shik, she couldn't stop thinking about his brother and he stepped aside like he should have which led to a cute confession and acceptance and a cuter final episode. I loved that we skipped forward a year and saw them being all cute and in love and on the way to marriage. I also loved that we saw the manager and her second-in-command getting together and at the level we expected those crazy idiots to be on. Min Hyuk and Jin Mi both ended up as stars and they're still as cute as ever. I was living for how jealous he was and cringey they were on that show and then backstage cause it was everything!! Overall this was a pretty strange show and one that you cannot watch while hungry but I had fun so I'd give it a 7 / 10!

FINISHED Father I'll Take Care Of You (50/50): After Hyung Seob and Jung Ae worked hard to raise their four children, they are now ready to retire but one day all of their children move back into the house. Hyun Woo returns to Korea to seek revenge for getting separated from his only sibling and being sent to America. However, he reunites with Jung Eun whom he once met in New York. Will Hyun Woo be able to overcome his hurtful past and move on to find love? At the same time, Sung Joon also meets a girl named Dong Hee again whom he briefly met in Taiwan but finds her living in his parents’ house in Korea. Will Sung Joon and Dong Hee find true love? is about karmic connections, family values and young people who are destined to fall in love.

I started this drama hoping for something like My Father Is Strange and unfortunately this wasn't exactly it but I still enjoyed parts of it. My problem with a lot of family dramas are that there are too many episodes where nothing happens and I can't stand when the family members aren't super close and loving. It drives me up a wall to see selfish or mean characters and it's like why watch a family drama if the family isn't going to make you feel like you're being wrapped in a warm blanket? This show was interesting cause it kind of straddled the line. The characters did all love each other like a family at their cores but day to day were kind of a pain. The mother in this show was the worst cause she literally spent all of the show screaming and whining about one or another. The father I could never decide if he was a good person or an asshole hiding beneath a nice persona. The eldest son was smart but also a moron while the second son was such an idiot and his wife was worse. Overall what kept me coming back was the extremely cute relationship with Sung Joon and Dong Hee. I loved watching them grow from friends to getting married and how even before they actually got together both knew that they loved each other. The revenge plot with Hyun Woo was interesting but like a part of me wanted him to take the family down but I felt bad for him overall and I wish the brothers had found each other and been happy earlier. I also kinda liked the reveal that Dong Hee was actually an heiress but I wish it also had been done earlier than like second to last episode of the show. Overall I liked this show enough but it started dragging by the end and I doubt that I would ever check it out again so I'd give it a 7.5 / 10!

The Last Empress (42/52): Set in an alternate universe, in which Korea is a constitutional monarchy in 2018, Oh Sunny is a bright and vivacious musical actress who marries the emperor. She becomes involved in the palace power struggle and a mysterious murder that sets off events that threaten the monarchy itself, while searching for true love and happiness. But, she ends up falling in love with Na Wang Sik who works as a bodyguard for the imperial family. He started working in the palace to take revenge on the person responsible for his mother’s death.

What a crazy ride. It's super weird though cause it feels like every week we end on a huge cliffhanger only to roll it back the next week and after like 21 weeks I'm finally learning a little lol. The Emperor is such a moron tbh cause I know we're supposed to feel sorry for him and shit about always losing those he loves but it's like at some point it's your own fault. You're the Emperor. Literally no one has more power than you do and yet everyone is constantly playing you. If you were more of a badass like Wang Sik/Woo Bin or Sunny, then you would be able to not only protect yourself but everyone you love too. It was super weird that Woo Bin told the Emperor that he loves Sunny and that the Emperor should let her go and that the Emperor was just like well I disagree but didn't act on it. A lot of shit happened though and now I'm wondering if maybe he's just playing a long con cause I'm sure he doesn't fully trust Wang Sik/Woo Bin after all. I did like that Yu Ra found out the truth about the royal family and I can't help but want her on our team cause despite they're being so so many more people against Sunny and Wang Sik/Woo Bin, they're still kicking ass. Sunny managed to take over the imperial household and finances while also getting Yoon as temporary Emperor though her family did find out the truth about their mom and now she's stuck in the records room so that's a problem. Wang Sik/Woo Bin managed to keep the Emperor on his side, get his little brother out and find out the truth with Yu Ra and the guard but he did spend a lot of it injured which sucks.

CDRAMA

Shall We Fall In Love (15/35): A story filled with hilarious circumstances that leave you not knowing whether to laugh or cry. It follows a young man's journey from nothing into someone who proves himself at work and wins over love and friendship. Jiang Yi Nan is an unemployed youth with limited options due to his lack of credentials, Nevertheless, he is optimistic and cheerful as he waits among the many people in the jobless pool. During a random encounter, Yi Nan saves Chen Xin Yue who has fallen into the water. Encouraged by his attraction to her and Xu Hao Yu's provocations, Yinan applies to work at the same company as Chen Xin Yue. Yi Nan relies on his hard work and quick thinking to not only secure the job but to become the top applicant of ShenYuan Group's open recruitment. Unhappy with Yi Nan's happy-go-lucky attitude, Xu Hao Yu makes life difficult for Yi Nan at every turn. His girlfriend Liang Ding Fei, on the other hand, is full of curiosity towards Yi Nan. As it turns out, Yi Nan's acceptance was a mere mistake by President Jin who tries to cover it up by roping in colleagues to ensure that Yi Nan is pushed out of the company.

I've really not been liking where the show is going this week with Xin Yue being super embarrassing and making me cringe for episodes upon episodes now! She decided to protest her firing which was ridiculous only to find out she got fired cause Ding Fei did it cause she was jealous of Xin Yue being around so she decided to get revenge by possibly stealing Hao Yu back? Idk if that was the plan but that's what it seemed like when she showed up looking really really pretty but flirting with Hao Yu. He's obviously still in love with her and only left cause he's insecure and wants to do well in the company but doesn't believe in himself so he's trying to cheat his way up. It was heartbreaking to watch Xin Yue break Yi Nan's heart even though she likes him cause she basically told him to back off and leave her alone cause they're only coworkers and soon they won't even be that. Poor baby's heartbreak was all over his face and it's worse cause it's Hao Yu he lost to as he thinks and that dude has no problems with rubbing things in Yi Nan's face!

The Story of Ming Lan (52/73): The Story of Ming Lan, based on the novel written by Guan Xin Ze Luan, follows our heroine through her youth, into her adulthood, and well into her marriage life as well. She’s the 6th child of the Sheng household. Though she is an intelligent and beautiful child, she was not loved by her family (her dad, her sisters, her mom dies early.) She has to hide her intelligence and suffers through the years, hoping to avenge for her mom. During this process she will meet many friends and foes, one of which is our male lead, Gu’s second son, Gu Ting Ye. He has helped and mistreated her before, but also the one to witness her sharp wits and lonely soul. After they get married, they will work together as a power couple, managing the new King’s regime as well as harvesting a world of happiness on their own.

My lord I did not expect what happened this week! It was so much fun the first half and then it got crazy! I was loving watching everything work out for Ting Ye and Ming Lan from playing the Fourth and Fifth Aunts to getting all the Gu assets to becoming the Marquis and Marquis's wife. I expected the return of Ting Ye's mistress for a while cause I knew that would be someone's sneaky move but obviously it was going to lead to nothing cause Ting Ye despises her but I was shocked to watch her try to kill him. I kind of had a feeling that the son would be dead cause he would be the bigger thorn in the side of Ming Lan and Ting Ye's happiness so I wasn't surprised there. I also super super hate that my couple had to take in a concubine (which is ridiculous cause they've only been married a year so everyone chill with the baby talk) but more than that it was one thing for Ming Lan to accept the concubine cause it was forced on them but it was another for her to force him into spending the night with her. I get her logic cause she wants to keep him happy but it's so obvious that Ting Ye just wants her to love him and that he's not like most guys who will sleep with any pretty face. It did lead to a hilarious few scenes where the concubine kept trying to get Ting Ye to sleep with her but all he cared about was whether Ming Lan was jealous. I'm also really glad we saw Ming Lan's family tbh cause I know there was a lot going on in the Gu household that Ming Lan had to settle but now I hope that with their house in order she can go out and see other people like her family and the other rich ladies. The best scene was when Ming Lan was fighting with her family and Ting Ye popped in like yo bitches I've got my wife's back! I'm also interested in Qi Heng's new wife who I do feel bad for cause all she wants is for her husband to love her but can see as hating Ming Lan which is always ridiculous cause it's like why is the other woman always blamed. Blame your damn husband. Ming Lan and him haven't seen each other since before he married his first wife.

JDRAMA

FINISHED A Girl & Three Sweethearts (10/10): Sakurai Misaki is a patissier who dreams of having her own business in the future and has prioritised work to the extent that she has forgotten how to kiss. But one day, she is suddenly dismissed and has difficulty finding a new job. At that moment, Misaki meets Shibasaki Chiaki, her first love in high school. Learning about her situation, Chiaki invites her to live-in and work at the seaside restaurant that he runs in Shonan. Chiaki has two younger brothers. Second brother Kanata is a talented chef while third brother Toma is a waiter at the restaurant. Misaki ends up spending one summer with the three handsome siblings.

What an adorable little show that I really didn't expect to love as much as I did. I went into this show cause Kento's my favorite Japanese actor and I loved Kiritani Mirei in Heroine Disqualified but I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this show cause jdramas tend to be super weird for the most part but this was so good! It had this heartwarming feel, a super cute romance and tons of fun baking/cooking. I loved watching Misaki and Kanata slowly fall in love through how similar they were in their passion for food. He was there for her whenever she needed it and she brought out a happier side in him. I loved watching how they would plan courses to compliment each other's meals and how even when they were angry with each other, they were still on the same wavelength. I loved the restaurant setting and the family relationship between the three brothers. The only thing that I didn't love was how the couple didn't get together until like the very last episode even though they were basically dating for episodes before that without it being called a relationship though I did like that Misaki was able to both live her dream of baking overseas and being with Kanata. It felt a little too much to have them break up just so she could go to New York cause they have like phones and stuff and can date long distance but since it was only one episode, I didn't mind it too much. Overall I'd give this show a 8.5 / 10 and it makes me want to rewatch Panda and Hedgehog cause of the baking!

xoxo Allie