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? (6/16): “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.
Wow this week was the definition of depressing on all fronts and even Song Ah and Joon Young's cuteness couldn't hold all the sad back! I'm finding it honestly so hard to read Joon Young cause I really thought that he was slowly falling for Song Ah with how happy he gets when he sees her and how he's always looking for her but now I'm wondering if he was just enjoying how easy it was around her. The fact that he can't open up to her about his problems really says something and I was so mixed about Song Ah confessing her feelings for him cause like on the one hand I was like good girl for not hiding your feelings for years like with Dong Yoon but also I was cringing cause I don't think Joon Young feels the same way or if he does, he's still torn about Jung Kyung. I really wish I could see what the boys see in Jung Kyung but I just see a miserable girl who feels the need to make everyone else around her miserable and she really doesn't feel worth all the pain they're in. I hate that Hyun Ho is taking it out on Joon Young cause the man might like her but he's never once made a move and if Jung Kyung is confused or whatever, it's her own personal thing! On the other hand Dong Yoon seems to have always liked Song Ah which makes me wonder why he even dated Min Sung in the first place. I'm also worried on the music front too. Song Ah is being used by that Professor but I don't know why yet and I really hope that this show doesn't end without her somehow getting her dream. Director Nah had me shook too cause she's not the kindly old woman that I thought she was either with how she drew a line in the sand with both Joon Young and Hyun Ho. I wonder if at some point Song Ah will end up taking Jung Kyung's spot in the Founders Day event in the trio or if at some point Song Ah and Joon Young will play together cause I'm just counting down the days for that!
Flower Of Evil (15/16): 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 wonder if my waning interest in this show as it goes on is due to the fact that it's not exactly what I had hoped it would have been and if I even know what that would be. On the one hand I think about how much fun it would have been if Ji Won was in the dark longer but then on the other I wish she had told Hyun Soo the truth earlier so I could have seen them be a team. Though I wasn't exactly right in guessing that everything that happened at the end of last week was a ploy by Ji Won and Hyun Soo, I was mollified by how Ji Won was so ride or die for Hyun Soo regardless and how she's basically strong-armed her detective task force into being on her side and believing in her cause of her previous track record in solving cases. They were able to figure out that Hee Sung was the accomplice for multiple reasons one of which was that he attempted to kill Hae Soo thinking she was Ji Won so obviously the accomplice couldn't be Hyun Soo. I also really love that Hyun Soo meanwhile made friends with Min Sook and I hope that she'll be helpful in the future. I'm not worried that Hyun Soo will die and now we know that Hae Soo is okay too so no one was really lost. I wonder if Hyun Soo is going to end up going to jail for the village head murder anyway cause since Min Sook is alive then the people can't think that Hyun Soo was his father's accomplice anymore as she can clearly say that it was Hee Sung that was being groomed all along and I don't think that Hyun Soo would let Hae Soo confess. I do wonder if we'll have one final twist and find out that Hee Sung killed that man too out of wanting to frame Hyun Soo and he drugged Hae Soo which is why she was so weirdly loopy when Hyun Soo found her all those years ago.
Lonely Enough To Love (6/10): 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.
Because this week was basically the aftermath of Na Eun being scammed, it was pretty tough to watch. She broke down quietly before trying to act like nothing was wrong in front of others while also giving up her dream of being a writer in order to keep from ever feeling like this again. It super sucked on a whole but I was really glad that what she didn't do was try to isolate herself entirely and stay away from Kang Woo cause of her shame. Just like him when she was buying him shoes I felt myself wondering if this was the beginning of her cutting him out of her life but fortunately when she went to him at the end of the episode, that wasn't the case. I think he really helped her remember how much she loved writing and that she shouldn't give up because of one horrible person. I also want to shout out how terrible her mom is cause who in their right mind calls their child and is like I told you so when she's going through something terrible. In that same vein of terrible parents, we saw a flashback to when Kang Woo's mom died and we learned that his mom was depressed which he blames his dad for but also that his dad had no sympathy for what happened either and maybe it's just me being the bitter/dramatic human I am but I low key was like yes Kang Woo don't forgive him and only appear on his deathbed. I also think that we learned a bit more about Jung Hoon and the fact that he must low key be from a chaebol household from which he is estranged cause he came out to them and they're not okay with it. I wonder if he's playing on telling Bo Ra soon cause she's going after him without knowing the truth of his feelings.
I'm really enjoying this show but I'm a little curious as to where it'll go. I mean I'm sure that we're watching the story of Hye Joon becoming a star but I'm also a little worried that he's going to go from this good guy to a bad one and that we'll end up losing what makes Hye Joon so charming. My skin still crawls every time his family shits on him cause I will never understand why they can't support him when he actually is a professional model that makes money. His brother is definitely too arrogant for this world too and the small look we got at him at his bank really just proved that making me wonder if he'll end up having to taste some humble pie at some point. Even his mom who says she supports him only does so in words. I mean Hae Hyo's mom is a little too much but you can never say that she half-asses her feelings. I still want to see Hae Hyo realize how much of his career is due to the money his mom waves around and I wonder if that will be the thing to break up Hae Hyo and Hye Joon's bromance cause Hye Joon is the opposite. He's got the charisma and acting chops but not the money to bribe others and like in the end which one is better in the long haul? You can't pay off the general public who will clearly rave about Hye Joon and his acting. Hae Hyo's weird obsession with Jung Ha is strange too cause is it just that she doesn't like him that he's like I need to force all my attention on her to get her to like me? The funny thing is that he thinks he's doing good by getting her more work but he's actually ruining her life. I do think Jung Ha's breakdown was a little overdramatic cause it's not like any real setup in her career happened yet but I get the overall picture in needing Hye Joon to fall harder for her. Speaking of, their relationship is definitely still the best part of this show and I love that the truth came out about her being his fangirl. I also really love Hye Joon's new manager cause he needs someone who cares about him but is also competent and she fits the bill.
CDRAMA
So the finale for this show aired this week and honestly I'm a little torn over it. I was really into how different this show felt when it first began only to be slightly disappointed as it went on. The charm and uniqueness of this show never really went away but like I think I just didn't realize that this show was going to be focused not only on the friendship of our core four but also super character focused rather than romance. We spent so so long with Ren Ran and Yi Hye's exes while their new romances felt tacked on which I think brings us back to the whole character focus. We knew that their exes weren't the ones for them but like people in real life, you go back to your exes more than you should and it takes hella long to realize that you shouldn't have gone back. The problem lies in the pacing cause one minute they're still thinking about their exes and the next they're suddenly into Youting and Chen Nan respectively. Youting's storyline about opening his own company came out of nowhere and I think we're supposed to believe that Ren Ran is joining his company in parallel with her ex and his wife while Yi Hye and Chen Nan were so cute and I wished we had seen more but then I didn't understand the weird ending where I thought that things were okay with them only for Yi Hye to tell Ren Ran that they feel like colleagues rather than lovers now cause of their fight and I'm like but five seconds later they're sleeping together! Of course Ding Ding and Si Rui were still the best overall paced romance in this show even though I also had a few problems with them too but I loved the way he proposed and refused to leave her side when her father went bankrupt. Karen and Yi Tian were meh from start to finish and I wonder if it was that Yi Tian was too good and Karen never seemed to want to place more than 70% of herself into the relationship. The ending really made me feel like the show is aiming for a season 2 with how the vibe was between Yi Tian and Yi Hye and then Karen and her mom's old doctor. Overall I'd give this show a 8 / 10 cause it wasn't what I hoped for but it still wasn't bad!
Su Ci's identity was exposed this week by the evil Uncle in hopes of trapping Prince Qi in some sort of political nightmare but Su Ci the genius that she is was able to figure out what was going on and preemptively struck by exposing herself and preventing Qi from lying in front of the King more than he did. It was everything I would have wanted from this show in terms of a public reveal cause a lot of shows use the whole woman dressing up as a man as a joke but like in actuality, the King and/or the royal court would be pissed especially since the woman was in a place of semi-power so I liked that Su Ci did get thrown into jail and tortured for a while and the only reason she was let out was through more political maneuvering. I do really love the relationship between Qi and the King though cause it's like the two really do love each other and it's only that the Uncle holds so much power that they have to pretend half the time to make him feel better about whatever the problem is. It's amazing cause Kings are always either puppets or monsters so the fact that this King is both reasonable and smart enough to read political plots is everything. Having said all that, the best part of this show is still the weekly cases though so I was excited when we got another one since it's been a while. After Qi bargained with the King to let Su Ci go after he marries the Princess of a neighboring kingdom, she was poisoned by the Uncle cause he just can't stand Qi having any sort of power. It's the one thing that I wish this show would explain better cause it's like why does he hate Qi so much? Is it just that he doesn't want anyone else to influence the King? Either way we pretty much were able to uncover the plot though the Uncle murdered the Minister who he was using as his scapegoat so we've still got a ways to go in order to catch him.
This show ended up being a lot more fluffy than I expected it to be which is funny cause you would think with a name like it has that I would assume that it'd be silly but something about the synopsis screamed low key serious to me which was very wrong. I've only seen the first two episodes so far and though I'm not exactly stunned by what I got, I also wasn't bored or disinterested so there's that. Xi Ruo is silly but she's not the type of naive airhead that I don't like in these types of shows so I'm okay with her. Hong Bin is stoic so far and clearly has some sort of PTSD but we haven't actually seen much of him yet. I do hope that Hong Bin doesn't believe the lie for too long cause honestly it'll be much worse for Xi Ruo if he actually starts to want a child. I do think it's funny how out of his depths he is around her cause it's like with how he spends all his time on the battlefield, I'm sure he's never really met women before. I'm also really into Hong Bin's parents so far cause they're totally adorable in their own way. Neither are bad people and they really seem in love with each other which is sweet and I hope that translates into them accepting Xi Ruo pretty quickly. I'd love it if the two just got really excited about a grandchild more than the scandal of him getting a servant pregnant or whatever. I also hope that there's no love triangle with the brothers cause that always makes me low key sad to watch.
We're a little past halfway through this drama now and I'm pretty pleased with where we're at in terms of story. I love that Qiuchi and Ah Jun have both clearly realized that they love each other so there's no more wondering at why they feel jealous or disagreeing when the other makes a comment about them being together. Even everyone in their lives knows including Ah Jun's dad cause the moment he found out that Qiuchi thinks that he tried to have him killed, his first thought was oh shit that's why Ah Jun hates me now. I am pretty sure though that her dad wasn't the one to kill Qiuchi cause he really had no recollection of telling his first-in-command to go kill and if I had to guess, it'll end up being the uncle aka the younger brother of the legal wife cause their family is just evil to the core. It does bring me back to the same question as to who Qiuchi really is and who is family was cause once again there's no freaking way that all these rich nobles are out to murder a random commoner family. I still cast my vote towards Qiuchi being a lost Prince who's dad or mom was a royal but ran away to get married and people didn't want them to be found cause the current King as a child is a better puppet for the villains. It's still interesting that we're still shrouding the true Big Bad in shadows so like we don't know who he is yet but that makes me wonder if it'll end up being someone we know otherwise why hide a random person from the audience?
JDRAMA
I called it last week when I said that Nao was definitely the Kogetsuan heir but thankfully the show also cleared up the fact that Tsubaki isn't a Takatsuki after all cause just like Nao for a second I was like oops are Nao and Tsubaki half-siblings??? I do have a feeling that Tsubaki's real father is the man from the kitchen who thanked Nao for making Tsubaki so happy cause not only did he seem to know more about the Tsubaki family than most of the men working in the kitchen but also it was just a weird thing to say to someone who you don't really know. It's funny cause Tsubaki really seems to be burying his head in the sand about Nao when he keeps getting proof after proof that she's most likely Sakura. I can't fault the guy though cause he's clearly in love and happy for the first time in forever so he doesn't want anything to ruin it. I also can't help but wonder why in the world the grandfather hasn't done a DNA test on Tsubaki after which he can kick his horrible mother out of Kogetsuan. She's running around as if she's got it all when it's like her son isn't even a Tsubaki and whether or not she proves that Nao is Sakura or prevents the marriage, blood can't lie. Even now she's screwed unless she somehow gets the lawyer on her side cause the grandfather wrote a will so even if she kills him like she clearly killed the father, there's no winning for her. I think I just hate her so much that I want her to suffer. The way she attacked Nao's fake mom for no reason really shows what kind of person she is.
TWDRAMA
Lost Romance (15/20): 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?
Wow this episode was high key uncomfortable to watch just cause it was so cringe-y to see Xiao'en chase after Tianxing looking for Aoran. I mean we all know that Aoran's memories will come back to Tianxing in time cause this a romance drama after all but I still felt so much secondhand embarrassment for her when she hugged him in the van and asked him if he remembered her while his bodyguard and secretary watched. I also think it's a little hilarious that the police were even thinking of charging Xiao'en with obstruction cause it's not like she hid evidence because she fell into a 3 month coma like Tianxing did and the stalking is a whole different charge. It did totally throw me at first how kind Tianxing was cause I'm so used to Aoran being overbearing and all that but Tianxing feels like a real person which like props to Marcus Chang for playing two entirely different people! I wonder what it will be about Xiao'en that will totally catch his attention other than the fact that he admires her bravery for stepping forward about what she saw cause a normal person would be low key creeped out by her behavior. It also seriously sucks that she doesn't have a copy of Tianxing being pushed off of the building and that the bad guys destroyed the drone so I'm a little confused about how this story will be wrapped up. I do like the idea of Mingli's right hand man joining Tianxing's side cause he knows that he can only save her if Tianxing helps.
xoxo Allie
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