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
Do You Like Brahms? (4/16): “Do You Like Brahms?” is a drama about students at a prestigious music school and the people in their lives. It will tell the stories of the students experiencing lessons, practicing, performing, and competitions since a very young age along with their parents and teachers who obsess over these processes. Park Joon Young, started playing piano when he was six years old. He won prominent competitions in the country before going on to win competitions across the world. Chae Song Ah, a college senior majoring in violin performance. After graduating previously as a business major, she entered the same university again to go to the music school after four attempts and is seven years older than her classmates.
Joon Young and Song Ah are the absolute cutest little dorks and I'm living for them!!! I kind of adore how quickly the two are falling for each other cause I was worried we'd have to spend so long watching awkward love triangles but at the same time I'm worried cause if the two get together so early on, there must be a lot of misunderstandings and breakups coming! What I'd like is for the two to get together and be a team as they navigate each of their musical problems instead. On that same note I'm hoping that Song Ah's internship ends quickly cause I want to see the girl play the violin and live her dream not be Joon Young's assistant no matter how much I love that circumstances keep throwing them together. I think because of how complicated their previous loves were that they just love how simple it is to be together. They're both so similar in their kindness and love of music and they know that the other won't judge them no matter the situation. I said last week that the love triangles seem to parallel each other though they don't intersect but this week I think that Dong Yoon and Jung Kyung are more similar than I first thought. Dong Yoon isn't immune to Song Ah's feelings as I first assumed or maybe it's that he's realized that he likes Song Ah and not Min Sung which is why he told Min Sung not to tell Song Ah about them sleeping together. Everything Min Sung said about the situation was so skeevy and I was just like run Song Ah cause Dong Yoon is not good. Jung Kyung on the other hand is always weepy and melancholy and it leaves me wondering what in the world Hyeon Ho and Joon Young see in her. I thought at first that it was a matter of her being like Joon Young needs to pine for me forever but now I'm wondering if thinking about losing him first to music and then to Song Ah made her realize her feelings.
Flower Of Evil (13/16): 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.
There's absolutely no way that things are going according to Hee Sung's plan no matter what the episode is trying to hint at. I mean he's clearly an evil genius and like props to him for planning out such an evil plan which he definitely learned from Min Seok but I just can't see Ji Won or Hyun Soo or even Detective Choi falling for this. Anyone who's spent any little bit of time with Hyun Soo can tell that he's not a killer for all that he is and I bet my last dollar that all of this is one big plot though whether Choi is a part of it or not we'll have to see. What I can bet is that his intuition is probably ringing off the charts especially after that meeting with Madame Baek cause the woman always looks anxious as hell and it's like the Baek family should really not be sending her out to give alibis and interviews and stuff. What Hee Sung also doesn't know is that Ji Won ran a full blood test in the basement so of all people she would know that there's not just magically buckets and buckets of blood to be found so of course she's not going to fall for the sudden reveal that Hyun Soo is a killer. I am a little sad that we're going down this set up for murder route though cause I low key would have wished that we could have seen more of Hyun Soo working with Detective Choi, Ji Won, Moo Jin, and Hae Soo like a team. Jung Mi Sook being alive also seriously threw me for a loop and it seems like she lost her memory so as of now it doesn't exactly look like she can point out Hee Sung as the killer but maybe once she sees him, the memories will all fly back. Either way she's definitely a hidden card that Hee Sung doesn't know that Hyun Soo has and Hyun Soo needs all the help he can get. Hee Sung really shouldn't forget that the training he got from Min Seok, Hyun Soo got too regardless of whether he ever used it or not.
Lonely Enough To Love (5/10): 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.
We're about halfway through this drama now and honestly guys raise your hand if you too guessed that Na Eun's book publishing company was going to be a scam. It always irritates me that people in dramas act so completely dumb. If you're about to sign a contract or transfer a large sum of money, why in the hell wouldn't you get a lawyer to look over your contract or do some research first?? I had a feeling it was too damn early in this show for Na Eun's dreams to come true but I had low key hoped that this show might subvert my feelings anyway but nope Na Eun lost 5 million won which is like 4000 dollars. It extra sucks cause I have a feeling that she's going to take out her anger on Kang Woo for just being there when all he's done is be her biggest supporter. I was wondering last week if episode 4 was too early for these two to get together but with this show actually only having 10 episodes, I find myself just glad that both Kang Woo and Na Eun look to be falling for each other at the same pace. On another note I'm worried that Hyun Jin somehow did real damage to his arm cause he spent all episode rubbing it and due to this damage he won't be able to be a pilot anymore which will make him double down on getting Na Eun or making her feel guilty cause it was her fault he hurt himself so badly. Poor Bo Ra is also trying to take her shot with Hoon but she's not realizing that he's into Hyun Jin and not Na Eun so she has next to zero chance of getting him.
I was fairly excited for this drama to come out when I first heard of it cause I absolutely adore Park Bo Gum in everything I've seen him in and though I enjoyed Park So Dam in Cinderella And The Four Knights, I was more interested in knowing why she picked this drama in particular. So Dam doesn't seem to be the kind of person who picks dramas to star in easily and I assumed that after getting as much clout as she did from Parasite, there was no way she was going to pick a meh drama so there had to be something extra in this. Luckily after watching these first two episodes, I'm super on board. I do have to say that I was actually really surprised with how much screen time went to Hye Joon and his struggles with wanting to become an actor cause usually it's the male leads that are successful and it's the female leads that aren't but I love that both Hye Joon and Jung Ha are starting out pretty early in their careers. I love their dynamic already cause it's like the two clearly see something of themselves in the other even though they've literally just met and I always live for when we get a drama where the main leads aren't enemies at the start. I'm not sure why Jung Ha felt the need to lie to Hye Joon and why she kept that lie up cause I get being embarrassed to tell your idol that you're a fan but eventually I would have told the truth! I do feel really bad for how horrible Hye Joon's family is so far cause it's one thing to shit on his dreams but it's another to treat him like he's slouching around the house whining for money when he's literally not asked them for one thing since he graduated high school. I'm also curious to know more about Jung Ha cause we barely scratched the surface of her character and I wonder if she's got no family or if she distanced herself from hers cause they treated her and her dreams like Hye Joon's. We know that she quit a cushy company job to be a makeup artist but that's all.
CDRAMA
The finale for this show aired this week and I have to say that I'm a little mixed on the ending cause I absolutely adore that Haichao and He Mei finally got married making Ziqiu and Jianjian officially siblings like they're always wanted but at the same time I hated the way Chen Ting was swept aside and I can't help but feel like some of our endings were too vague and open. To the very last second Chen Ting refused to apologize for all that she put Ling Xiao and Chengzi through or that it wasn't poor Ling Xiao's fault that his sister died! I almost started crying myself when Ling Xiao asked his dad if he made up his debts to his mom for letting his sister die and it broke me that Heiping didn't say anything about it not being his fault either! I despised that Chen Ting was forgiven by everyone especially after she tried to commit suicide to really screw with everyone. The more we saw of her flashbacks, the more horrible she was. She left Ling Xiao with her own two legs but hated Heiping and Haichao and Jianjian and Ziqiu cause they loved him in her stead. At the very least Chengzi was redeemed and I'd like to imagine that some day in the future she might end up with Ziqiu cause he really was the only person she listened to. Jianjian's reputation was saved but like Tang Can and Mingyue had these real vague endings too. Maybe it's just cause I'm used to cdramas having all their characters paired up and happy that I was weirded out by the fact that neither girl ended up with anyone and that Mingyue even ended up giving up her dreams for her mom which really felt like a regression rather than growth to me. Jianjian and Ling Xiao had a fairly vague ending too but I suppose that one day in the future they'll get married too now that Chen Ting has given up. Regardless of all my problems, I'd give this show a 9 / 10 cause I think this show told a lovely story about what it means to be family.
Love Yourself / Love In Shanghai (30/36): A story that follows four women in their thirties during a glorious chapter in their lives. In the city of Shanghai at the age when they are most beautiful, they continuously strive for growth, independence and ultimately find friendship and love. As four friends step into their thirties, their lives which seemed to be on the right track start to go off the rails. TV producer Sun Yihe may be bold and fearless at work, but she is at a loss when it comes to love. Wang Xinyi is a fitness coach and single mom. As she hesitates before a relationship, she discovers something about herself. Dingding is an aspiring manager who wishes to help her trainees become the best boy band in China. Corporate executive Renran has always been rational and on top of things, but she craves for love and finds that the harder she holds onto it, the faster it fades.
This week was basically the week for all our main cast to take a step forward in their lives whether that was good or bad. Yi Hye finally broke up with Sam cause she realized that the biggest problem with forgiving a man who cheats or lies is the loss of trust that you have to deal with afterwards. Sam could literally never tell a lie ever again in his life but Yi Hye would still see lies coming out of his mouth. If I liked Sam more maybe I'd be sad but I've been on the Yi Hye and Chen Nan ship since the beginning so I'm just waiting for her to realize that Chen Nan is an option. Renran also realized that Youting was an option though I'm not sure I should give her any points cause it wasn't until he kissed her and then confessed that she was like oh this man likes me. I know she's worried about him being a rebound but honestly he's so much simpler than Lu Hao so it's worth trying. I expect drama to unfold once he finally comes back and sees that she's moved on but maybe it'll be enough to get Renran to leave DMA and work somewhere else. Ding Ding and Si Rui started dating this week too after Ding Ding decided to take the dive and risk her heart and they were super cute together but I'm worried about the fact that Ding Ding's father might be going bankrupt. Karen also had a big moment this week when she found out that she was in fact a carrier for the breast cancer gene so she decided to get a preventive mastectomy and it caused Yu Tian to get upset and I can't decide if it's simply that Karen won't have breasts anymore since if that is the case, he will have lost a lot of my favor. I do know that on top of that he's upset that Karen reached out to Ma Ke but it's like no matter who she dates or marries, Ma Ke is still the father of her child and deserves to know life changing news like this.
Maiden Holmes (12/32): After being defeated in a war against an invading kingdom, the Prince of Qi had his military power removed. His brother, the Prince of Yun decided to make use of the chance to support the ascension of the young Emperor. Prince Qi came to a tacit agreement with the Emperor and decided to retreat from courtly affairs. Meanwhile, he embarked on a search for the truth in secret under the alias of Pei Zhao. On his journey, he meets young detective Su Ci, the young master Xie Bei Ming, and poison master Dong Ru Shuang. As the four teams up to solve a series of mysteries, they also discover each other’s and their own secrets.
It's really surprising how much I'm into the different cases that our heroes need to solve cause in most dramas the cases are just a way to move the plot toward but in this show there's several things that are interesting me. Firstly I love that the cases really have nothing to do with politics. I mean yeah eventually we find out that everything leads back to Qi's uncle but other than that there are culprits to catch and murders to solve on the commoner/noble level. Secondly I think I just adore how smart every one of our characters are. None of the girls are led around by their emotions and the guys are all so kind and sweet. Even Beiming who at first is meant to seem like an idiot and the comedy aspect of this show can read political maneuvers from small hints that Qi gives. This wedding ghost case was totally fascinating though I low key knew from the start that it had to be the portrait maker though once I saw it was the guy we had met before I changed my mind cause I was like there's no way that one of Qi's friends did it only to be fooled again when it was him. I am wondering if Su Ci's whole breakdown about her identity getting out will mean that she's going to give up on being a man but I can't help but wonder since everyone knows her as this famous detective that even if she returns to being a woman, won't people recognize her anyway? Qi really needs to tell her the truth about who he is and then they need to go beg the King for forgiveness cause if he hears it from Qi's uncle then they're all screwed!
FINISHED My Girl (24/24): As a child, Meng Hui was involved in a terrible accident. Though she has born the physical scars of that moment on her face all her life, it’s the mental scars that have caused the greatest damage. Traumatized by the event, Meng Hui developed a dissociative identity disorder which causes her to switch between two distinct personalities at random. Never knowing when her alternate personality might emerge, Meng Hui has struggled all her life, to find a balance between her two sides. Now grown, Meng Hui works as a makeup artist who has started creating her own small line of homemade cosmetics. As fate would have it, she happens to cross paths with Shen Yi, the CEO of a large cosmetics company, during one of her episodes and suddenly declares herself to be his girlfriend. Though shocked by this sudden outburst, Shen Yi decides it’s better to save face by playing along, than make a scene in public. In turn Shen Yi is rewarded for his seeming gallantry when he discovers, not long after, that Meng Hui has developed a liquid foundation that has the potential to revolutionize the cosmetics industry. Desperate to get his hands on her formula, Shen Yi continues to play the part of the devoted boyfriend, a fact that shocks Meng Hui once her alternate personality relinquishes control. Though at first, only interested in Meng Hui’s formula, Shen Yi soon finds himself falling for the girl fate seems to have thrown into his life, and even more surprising, she seems to be falling for him. But their relationship is put to the ultimate test when Meng Hui learns that Shen Yi was the one responsible for the accident that changed her life, all those years ago. Will their love become the salve that heals their deepest wounds or will they find that some wounds really do leave permanent scars?
This week was basically the week for all our main cast to take a step forward in their lives whether that was good or bad. Yi Hye finally broke up with Sam cause she realized that the biggest problem with forgiving a man who cheats or lies is the loss of trust that you have to deal with afterwards. Sam could literally never tell a lie ever again in his life but Yi Hye would still see lies coming out of his mouth. If I liked Sam more maybe I'd be sad but I've been on the Yi Hye and Chen Nan ship since the beginning so I'm just waiting for her to realize that Chen Nan is an option. Renran also realized that Youting was an option though I'm not sure I should give her any points cause it wasn't until he kissed her and then confessed that she was like oh this man likes me. I know she's worried about him being a rebound but honestly he's so much simpler than Lu Hao so it's worth trying. I expect drama to unfold once he finally comes back and sees that she's moved on but maybe it'll be enough to get Renran to leave DMA and work somewhere else. Ding Ding and Si Rui started dating this week too after Ding Ding decided to take the dive and risk her heart and they were super cute together but I'm worried about the fact that Ding Ding's father might be going bankrupt. Karen also had a big moment this week when she found out that she was in fact a carrier for the breast cancer gene so she decided to get a preventive mastectomy and it caused Yu Tian to get upset and I can't decide if it's simply that Karen won't have breasts anymore since if that is the case, he will have lost a lot of my favor. I do know that on top of that he's upset that Karen reached out to Ma Ke but it's like no matter who she dates or marries, Ma Ke is still the father of her child and deserves to know life changing news like this.
It's really surprising how much I'm into the different cases that our heroes need to solve cause in most dramas the cases are just a way to move the plot toward but in this show there's several things that are interesting me. Firstly I love that the cases really have nothing to do with politics. I mean yeah eventually we find out that everything leads back to Qi's uncle but other than that there are culprits to catch and murders to solve on the commoner/noble level. Secondly I think I just adore how smart every one of our characters are. None of the girls are led around by their emotions and the guys are all so kind and sweet. Even Beiming who at first is meant to seem like an idiot and the comedy aspect of this show can read political maneuvers from small hints that Qi gives. This wedding ghost case was totally fascinating though I low key knew from the start that it had to be the portrait maker though once I saw it was the guy we had met before I changed my mind cause I was like there's no way that one of Qi's friends did it only to be fooled again when it was him. I am wondering if Su Ci's whole breakdown about her identity getting out will mean that she's going to give up on being a man but I can't help but wonder since everyone knows her as this famous detective that even if she returns to being a woman, won't people recognize her anyway? Qi really needs to tell her the truth about who he is and then they need to go beg the King for forgiveness cause if he hears it from Qi's uncle then they're all screwed!
Here's the thing with this drama. When I first heard about it back before it started to air, I was curious cause I loved Li Jia Qi in Meteor Garden and I ordered the main pair in My Youth where I thought they had pretty solid chemistry but then I heard the premise and I was less interested. It wasn't until only recently that I saw a super cute video of the two of them and suddenly I was like wait hold the phone the show seems cute so I dived in. Now that I've seen the whole thing, I'm very mixed about how I feel. There was a lot that I liked but also a lot that I didn't. It reminded me a lot of shows like Kill Me Heal Me cause though the synopsis claims that Meng Hui has PTSD it's closer to DID than anything else. I was actually really surprised how quickly things moved in this show cause like Shen Yi found out that Meng Hui has DID and that she had a scar really early on but the plot felt like it jumped from one thing to another especially the middle section where Meng Hui thought she was Director Meng. I did adore all the side characters though especially Wei Lei who I thought was going to be the second female lead but ended up being one of Meng Hui's fiercest friends. I also adored the side couples too but of course the reason that I really stuck around was the chemistry between Meng Hui and Shen Yi. There were so many more kisses and casual touching than I expected and like I'm the last person to want to ship actors in real life but if these two got together, I wouldn't be complaining wink wink. I do think that it was a little sucky in the final chunk of these episodes that everyone was lying to Meng Hui about Shen Yi having scarred her and it was especially icky when Shen Yi convinced Meng Hui to marry him before admitting the truth cause it was like he wanted her to have no way to leave him. The makeup part of this show was meh and honestly if you wanna watch a show about makeup, the kdrama Touch (even if I hate the main couple) or the cdrama Face Off (even if it's more monster makeup than beauty makeup) are better picks. Overall I'd give this show a 7 / 10 cause it's fluffy but without any real substance.
I might have spoken too soon when I said last week that Ah Jun's family isn't going to be related to Qiuchi's family's deaths cause now it seems like something is fishy. Ah Jun's master who was a disciple at the same temple that her mom was in seems to think that Jing was embezzling money while Qiuchi found out that Jing alongside Prince Kang bought the jade pendent. It's strange cause honestly Jing doesn't seem like a bad guy but then again Kang doesn't either so I'm left wondering which one is the real bad guy. I still think there's more to Qiuchi than meets the eye though cause there's no way that an assassin killed a random commoner family. In other news I'm glad that Ah Jun found out that her sister isn't the angel she thought she was cause it was going to get tiring seeing Ah Jun tell her sister everything while her sister just did horrible things for no reason. Like I got ruining her sword dance in front of the nobility but why did she need to expose that poor servant girl who just wanted to recite poetry other than the fact that it would make Ah Jun sad. It was totally strange when Ah Jun and Qiuchi met the King on the streets but I have a feeling that the King's promise to help them will come back in the future when Qiuchi needs a pardon for being the Dongyi King and all that. Ah Jun and Qiuchi are still super adorable but I can't help but wonder when the romance really will ramp up. At the very least Qiuchi seems to be avoiding telling her about her father's possible involvement but he's also not running away.
JDRAMA
We're about halfway through this drama now and I think my favorite thing is how chill the world feels. For all of Asada's big talk about hating women and being a playboy and how he could bag the prince, when real feelings appeared, Asada ran and it was absolutely precious. It was even sweeter than Ibuki worried about him and how he low key distanced himself but the best moment this week was when he realized that he shouldn't push Ibuki about why she follows Mei around and instead was like okay you protect Mei and I'll protect you. I really shouldn't have been surprised at how quickly Ibuki fell for Asada back and how she found out about the bet cause this show does only have 8 episodes so what normally would have gone on for episodes, only took one for them to work things out. I was proud of Asada for telling the truth and being like I like you for real and it's not just cause of a bet and I liked that Ibuki found it in her to tell him that she missed him too. Of course she's too afraid to admit that they're dating but I think we'll get there soon enough. I also found myself surprised with how much I like Mei cause at first I thought she would actually be more manipulative but I find her antics more funny than anything else and honestly I think she just depends on Ibuki more than she loves her romantically. Since Mei was bullied as a child and Ibuki saved her, it made her feel like no one could ever like her and that if she gives Ibuki any space, she'll be left alone again. I still wonder how Ibuki fits in cause even the way Ibuki shut down when Asada asked her felt really important. I don't feel anything for the new character we met this week but maybe in the future I'll warm up to Nao like I did Mei.
We're about halfway through this drama now and the only thing I could think about after this week is that this show is not about to go down a Hundred Million Stars In The Sky route is it?? There's three possible routes this show could take from here. One: Tsubaki's grandfather has lost his marbles and Tsubaki really is his father's child and most likely his mom killed his dad out of anger for having the affair with Nao's mom. Simple but little drama. Two: Tsubaki is an illegitimate child cause as it turned out his dad actually loved Nao's mom and thus Nao is the actual Kogetsuan heir which is why Tsubaki's mom killed the dad and convinced Tsubaki to point out Nao's mom as the killer and why his grandfather is telling Tsubaki to hunt "her" down. The two can still get married in this route and live happily which is my preferred ending. Three: Tsubaki and Nao are half-siblings and share the same father which is why Tsubaki keeps saying things like he cannot ever love Sakura and why his mom is so so so against him marrying Nao cause she knows that Nao is Sakura. The only thing that's preventing me from believing this is the fact that the guy who knew Nao's mom isn't stopping Nao from marrying Tsubaki cause you would think people would be more upset to know that these siblings are hooking up. It's ironic cause if this wasn't a jdrama I would be like there's absolutely no way this final route could happen cause duh but we know that jdramas like to march at the beat of their own drums so maybe. As a sidebar everything with Jojima was super cute and part of me is like Nao girl you should have picked route 4 cause marrying him and opening a little sweets shop would have given you the happiest ending ever. It's also interesting to see that in actuality Tsubaki isn't this horrible person after all cause he had nothing to do with Jojima's family shop failing and actually helped when he found out the truth.
TWDRAMA
Lost Romance (14/20): 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?
I kept wondering this whole episode if our heroes would return to the real world only for the episode to end and for me to realize that ah the return will be next week. I'm really just so excited for the future angst in which Tianxing doesn't remember Xiao'en or that he was Aoran and for Xiao'en to have to pretend like she doesn't love him. With 6 episodes remaining I guess we'll be dealing with Tianxing's return to power and the outing of his horrible half-siblings and all that they did to take over the company. I'll also be curious to know if the Chu Chu of the real world actually is Tianxing's girl or if she was just a random person who was nice to him. We know based on what Aoran said that Tianxing was miserable his entire life with not one person giving him love so if the real Chu Chu was nice to him, I could see Tianxing latching on. I also wonder if the uncle actually will run the company into the ground cause something about the way Tianjian doesn't actually read any of the paperwork he's been handed makes me feel that he's going to end up signing away the rights of any of the He siblings. In other news we found out that Qingfeng has actually been jumping from world to world like in Extraordinary You though he never knew that he was in a book until Xiao'en showed up which is totally and completely sad but maybe once Xiao'en returns to the real world she can find his original book and finish it so he can have a happy ending too.
xoxo Allie
No comments:
Post a Comment