So here's what I'm watching this week! Of course the list is split by country and the amount of 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 reviews, click here and if you want to see a list of my Favorite Asian OTPs and Ships, click here!
KDRAMA
FINISHED Backstreet Rookie (16/16): Jung Saet Byul is a 22-year-old four-dimensional girl with amazing fighting skills who loves her friends, family, and retro fashion. She has the boys lined up but only has one person who keeps her distracted, Choi Dae Hyun. He became imprinted on her as an unforgettable person after a cigarette errand three years ago. Three years later, Jung Saet Byul meets Choi Dae Hyun again at his convenience store that he now manages and becomes a part-time worker. Here, Saet Byul and Dae Hyun’s love story begins as they heal the wounds of the heart, gain love, and become adults dreaming of the future. Their stories unfold into a pleasant comedy within the familiar sensibility of a convenience store.
This show came to an end this week and I have to admit that I really wasn't a fan of this finale which is also pretty much how I felt throughout this whole show. I really think that Ji Chang Wook needs to take a minute and actually think through his next drama pick cause I'm not joking in the slightest when I say that he went from being one of my most favorite kdrama actors to me being a little turned off every time I see him and it worries me that if I try to rewatch The K2 or Suspicious Partner, I might not be into it as much as I was before cause I won't be unable to see Dae Hyun or the Melting Me Softly character superimposed on his other roles. I also wonder if the backlash for this show was the reason for Dae Hyun and Saet Byul not really getting together until the final moments of the finale and it that's why they didn't even share a kiss other than the short peck in the premiere. I mean normally I despise the noble sacrifice route but I suppose that since I wasn't that emotionally attached to this show in the first place that I kinda just rolled my eyes at this finale throwing that in last minute. The funniest part of this finale was the reveal that Dae Hyun's weird friend ended up being even richer than Saet Byul's friend and it like really sucks for the actor who played him cause he's fairly good looking in real life and the wig and the character was really not doing anything for him. The happy endings for everyone were good as well and I'm low key glad that Dae Hyun decided to return to running the connivence store cause that was where he was happiest. Overall I'd give this show a 7 / 10 and really I'm just glad it's over.
FINISHED Chip In/United Effort To Accomplish One Thing (8/8): A painter gets diagnosed terminally ill. On his 58th birthday, he plans to share his last will and testament. His great legacy and immense fortune slowly draw out his family's inner greed, causing a fierce mental battle amongst them. There are too many people around him who are only after his legacy; including his ex-wife, Ji Sul Young, who has taken care of him, Kim Ji Hye, a former mistress and mother to his daughter, and Dokko Chul, a son from a different father. They face different outcomes by the different choices they make as their greed overwhelms them. What are the limits of human greed?
As the finale aired this week, the saddest thing about this whole thing was how short it was! I really enjoyed the way this show told it's story and what story it told and it makes me think back on what could have been. I mean like imagine if this drama had been a normal 16 episode one and if it threw in a little romance alongside the drama. We could have spent more time getting to know all our characters before killing off In Ho and beefed up the mystery more! Having said all that, it doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy what we got cause even as a miniseries this show was super fun and I thought it was creative to end the show with everyone giving up on the inheritance even though I was like Bit Na girl keep the money! As we all guessed Sul Young was the one who was behind the whole thing and she worked with Jeong Wook to do so. What I don't entirely understand is her motivation behind it. Was it all because of hatred? Like I get that her life was pretty horrible after losing her husband to Ji Hye and then losing her baby and having to take care of Bit Na but like it was her own choice to go back to him when he came to find her when she could have washed her hands of the whole thing. I did like the final twist where she tried framing Bit Na so then everyone would be out of her way though I wonder if it would have been more impactful if she revealed it earlier. My other problem with the whole mystery was how Sul Young suddenly regretted everything and turned herself in. At least Jeong Wook went out in a rage of insanity! Overall I'd give this show a 9.5 / 10 and would definitely recommend if you're into murder mysteries!
Flower Of Evil (6/16): Baek Hee Sung seems the ideal husband. A hard-working craftsman, his metal-working studio has met with its fair share of success. Able to provide a good life for his wife and daughter, he’s a good example of what a husband should be. But this perfect façade hides some very dark secrets that even his wife, Cha Ji Won remains unaware of. Unfortunately, secrets have a way of coming out and as a hard-hitting homicide detective, it’s Cha Ji Won’s job to uncover as many as she can, in her never-ending quest for the truth. While investigating a particularly cruel case, she finds herself on a dark path that could crumble the very foundations of her happy life. But she is determined to bring this psychopath to justice. Delving deeper into the case, she realizes that he may have been close by all along.
I know I know! It's actually week 3 of this show having aired and you're probs all wondering why it took me so long to check this one out but I have to chalk it all up to bad advertising! I was hesitant to check this drama out cause I fell for the marketing strategy and thought it was about an actual serial killer who was hiding behind his police wife like ooh look how evil I am and how dumb my wife is which ugh not my jam but then as the second week rolled around I started to hear that this show was a lot more than that and that got me to finally sit down and churn out 6 episodes in one sitting! Hee Sung as it turns out is actually not a serial killer but a much more complex character. I don't know if I entirely believe that he feels no emotions whatsoever but I think he struggles to express them cause it's clear that he does love his wife and his daughter. Ji Won is a badass in her own right and I love how by the book she is. When she started to suspect Hee Sung, she jumped right in and refused to hide from the suspicion but she also refused to believe any of the rumors surrounding him. Unlike every other person in his life and even random strangers, she won't just go by hearsay. It already drives me mad that the village tried to exorcise him and that everyone just assumed that he was working with his father on the kills like damn people he was in high school when all this happened! I really hope that we are able to move past the suspicion phase and move to Ji Won and Hee Sung working together with Moo Jin who definitely doesn't believe that Hee Sung is a killer to find the real accomplice. At first I wondered if it could be the sister who killed the village head out of self defense and Hee Sung took the blame but the voice is a man's so maybe the village head's death had nothing to do with the kids. I also want to shout out the pacing in this show cause things are actually moving along rather than stagnating until the penultimate episode like so many thriller/investigation dramas tend to do.
FINISHED It's Okay To Not Be Okay (16/16): The story of a community health worker at a psychiatric ward who lives on 1.8 million won (approximately $1,520) a month and a storybook writer suffering from an antisocial personality disorder. A man who denies love and a woman who doesn’t know love defy fate and fall in love, finding their souls and identities in the process. Moon Kang Tae is a community health worker at a psychiatric ward who was blessed with everything including a great body, smarts, ability to sympathize with others, patience, ability to react quickly, stamina, and more. Meanwhile, Ko Moon Young is a popular writer of children’s literature, but she is extremely selfish, arrogant, and rude.
So the finale for this drama aired this week and seriously guys I'm sad cause I'm going to miss this world so much! With it's high production value, creativity in storytelling through fairy tales, and incredible chemistry between the leads, this drama may well end up being my favorite drama of the year (at least so far.) Of course that doesn't mean that everything was perfect about this show though little ever is but I think that all the positives vastly outweighed any negatives I had. I mean yeah we probs could have dialed back the screen time given to Joo Ri and Sang In cause I really couldn't find it in me to care and yeah I really wasn't a fan of how Moon Young's mom came back without any explanation as to how she survived but all that was nothing in the face of Moon Young and Kang Tae's slow burn romance and found family antics between our main trio. The trio helped heal each other's wounds, both known and unknown, through love and acceptance cause just like Director Oh said humans are weak but they lean on each other for strength. I loved the way Sang Tae stepped up as the show went on and became the older brother Kang Tae needed so that Kang Tae could step back and actually enjoy his life. I like that he's going to try going to college now and though Moon Young says otherwise I'm fairly certain that she's going to keep writing especially since Sang Tae is going to be an illustrator for other writers now. Overall this show is definitely a 10 / 10 if you haven't guessed it by now!
Love Is Annoying, But I Hate Being Lonely! (1/10): A story of young people residing at a co-living house. They do want to date, but they don't want to be serious. They prefer being free, but they also don't want to be lonely. Cha Kang Woo is a single man in his 30's and he works as a psychiatrist. He is full of curiosity about human beings. Even though he is an attractive man, he is afraid of having a romantic relationships due to trauma from his past. A woman appears in front of him and he begins to have feelings for her. Lee Na Eun is a freelancer copy editor. She is generous to good people, but she does not tolerate injustice. She hopes to become a novelist one day. Due to her situation, she has not had a boyfriend in 4 years. She begins to stay at the co-living house and develops romantic feelings.
This show is honestly such a mood guys. I originally wanted to check it out cause of Kim So Eun but also because the title caught my attention cause I mean how many of us think the same about dating being annoying but wanting someone around us when we're lonely?? It is really weird that this show seems to only be releasing one episode a week especially since it's not like the episodes are longer than normal but other than that I'm fairly into this show. Na Eun is the typical kdrama female lead who's down on her luck, messy, and clumsy but a good person all the same and this would normally bother me more except I'm just thankful that neither of our leads are chaebols at least so far. Though she and Kang Woo have had a typical misunderstanding during their first meeting, I do like that Kang Woo seems like such a nice person that he doesn't hold it against her. Instead of rallying back, he kinda just lets her act however she wants assuming that eventually she'll figure out the truth and apologize. I'm also really hoping that this isn't one of those shows where Na Eun will spend half the show into someone else while Kang Woo will be around helping her before she realizes that she actually likes Kang Woo cause based on the synopsis you'd think that Na Eun would be more hesitant about falling for someone but also cause I'd hope this show took a more creative route.
CDRAMA
I was pretty excited to check this drama out cause it's been a minute since I last watched a good fantasy cdrama that was focused on wuxia over politics. I tend to be super picky cause I'm really not into the cold male lead situation so I prefer my male leads to be a little more dopey like in Romance Of Tiger And Rose or playful like Martial Universe. So far I'm finding that Lin Yuan is the fun version of a tsundere where he says mean things but actually adores Feng Wu and will do anything for her. I do wish his face would relax a little but I suppose we can't have it all... Feng Wu is a little closer to annoying than cute and I high key wish that she had stayed a badass but after losing all her cultivation she had to start all over again as an isekai protagonist. I do wonder if story beats are moving so quickly cause this show only has 30 episodes instead of the normal 50 or so cause we've seen Feng Wu go from no cultivation to low-level to mid-level cultivator in 10 episodes and I really just can't wait until she returns to being the most powerful cultivator in the land in order to put all those people who looked down on her in their place. I don't particularly care for the evildoings that the villains are up to but fortunately I can mostly tune it out in favor of the cute cause the plans are always the same.
My girl Seven Tan has really been killing it so far this year with at least 3 dramas coming out with her starring in them. I ended up enjoying Under The Power well enough but wasn't a fan of The Eight so I was really curious to see where this one would fall and so far I'm stunned with how amazing the story in this drama is! It reminds me a lot of one of the Reply shows with the same it tells it's story and I really adored the fact that we started out seeing our main characters as children and then as high schoolers and I'm assuming at some point they'll become adults cause it makes us really feel like we're a part of these characters' lives and we get to see them grow. I adore the little family our trio and their dads have created so I'm already so scared to see when they split up like the synopsis states though maybe in the end it'll be a good thing cause I totally ship Jianjian and Ling Xiao but the way they see each other as siblings kind of retracts from that. I also think that Ling Xiao and Ziqiu leaving might be the push that Jianjian needs to become less childish but I just hope that when they reunite it won't be the cliche cold lead pretends like he doesn't need her in his life sort of storyline. I also bet that the second ship in this show will end up being Ziqiu and Mingyue who are cute as well though we haven't seen him notice her at all yet. The best thing about this show though is definitely the heartwarming tone and can I just say that I'm so relieved that Jianjian's dad didn't die like I totally expected him to??
TWDRAMA
Lost Romance (10/20): Zheng Xiao En works as an editor of romance novels at a publishing company, and secretly dreams about falling in love with a CEO. When she isn’t working, she spends her days daydreaming about He Tian Xing, the handsome chief executive of the company that occupies the building opposite her company’s offices. One day, Zheng Xiao En magically finds herself transported into the pages of a romance novel – and comes face-to-face with her crush He Tian Xing. However, she soon discovers that in this fictional universe, his name is Si Tu Ao Ran – and his personality is very different. She hopes to use all the tips and tricks she has learned from the romance novels she has edited to help snare his heart. But she soon discovers that in this fictional world, she isn’t the heroic female lead – and instead is an evil side character! Can she flip the story on its head – and end up with the man of her dreams?
So I was actually pretty excited when I found out about this drama despite not really following that many twdramas cause I adore when dramas/anime/tv shows take their main characters and throw them into a comic book world like in the cdramas The Romance Of Tiger & Rose and Unexpected, the kdramas W: Two Worlds and Extraordinary You, and even the anime My Next Life As A Villainess. I was a little hesitant though cause if you've followed me for a while you know that I'm not a fan of overbearing CEO types and I was worried that I would watch this show and get major SLS despite the fact that I loved Marcus Chang in Behind Your Smile. Eventually I dived in anyway and I have to say that so far I am exactly where I thought I would be. I do think this show is super fun and I'm loving Xiao'en cause of her confidence and feistiness especially compared to Chuchu who's the definition of everything I hate in a female lead (being a clumsy naive doormat.) I also adore how much the show pokes fun at romance tropes and I'm hoping that now that Aoran has figured out that he likes Xiao'en and not Chuchu that he'll start treating her better and I'll ship them again cause I did think their bickering was fun at the start of the show but I started to waver to Qing Feng's boat once Aoran treated Xiao'en like shit. I even wondered if maybe the show would pull a twist on me and have it so that Tian Xing was actually inside Qian Feng instead of Aoran cause it seemed like he was starting to understand all of the comments Xiao'en made about being in a book but now it seems more like Aoran is starting to remember and I'm just sitting here hoping that like Extraordinary You we'll see our main leads trying to figure out a way out of this book.
xoxo Allie
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