First? I just want to say I love Mary!

hello

I am so mad at my relatives right now. I haven´t gotten a single strawberry this summer. I raise them, then other folks go to Viljandi and pick them when I am away or at work and they keep it all. When I pick something I always share. But they call and say: oh, I gave half the box of strawberries to a friend as a birthday gift, was that alright? NO IT IS NOT! Bastards. And then they complain the ones they bought from the market were bigger and sweeter, can´t I do something about it? Oh, the nerve! I want to kill them. My lazy chain smoking aunt, who never moved a finger in the garden, is the worst. should I just poison them strawberries? Makjang...But I want to poison seletcively, how is that done? I should get advice from a serial killer. Who´s the best man out there? Which method to use? Will they catch on to me? So many things to consider when killing someone

Or I need one of those keep calm and... cards right now. Otherwise, would I get a bald spot like Gong Shim? My life feels like that right now, everyone is just using me and I cannot stop them from going there and pillage. Doesn´t help with the stress that Granny broke a leg and can´t move or go to toilet so dad brought her a toilet chair. That´s why Dear My Friends is on hold for me, too hard to watch when there are real people having problems around me. Granny is talking weird too, like she should break that plaster and her foot shouldnt heal, and how she thinks maybe she doesnt need to eat any more. She sometimes gives me chills and I scold her
sorry for ranting. life is such a drama.

but at least I have friends /colleagues, who are awesome and let me catch the afternoon train instead of staying late for work. Yay!!!!

anyway, been watching Oh Hae Young Again, 38 task force and MotW
OHYA is not as entertaining as it could be, and it misses its chances here and there for more depth about some things. Like, why has Soo Kyung been turned from a tough girl into a "marriage or doom"-kind of woman? they should have gone all the way. That they chicken out of making precedents feels so hopeless...
I keep watching because I just wanted to see if they reach any kind of resolve cause it would have kept bugging me. I can accept whatever ending they give me, cause I am not that invested in the characters or even the romance. I just can´t stand the kind of loose ends where you can see it happens cause they dont know how to tie them rather than on purpose.

38 task force is like a spider web which starts from such thin threads you can´t imagine how flies can be caught with it, and then it grows circle by circle. there is a lot of mystery at this point, and while that´s usually a good thing, I am not sure whether it is the calculated kind of mystery or just careless in this case. hopefully calculated but I like the dramas boldness to point out privileged peoples´ attitudes and behavior.

MotW is still very confusing to me, those mechanisms behind the curses seem a...

Thanks to Carole, Voice and Am for recommending Japanese movie Orange in last week’s OT. In return, I'm sharing three versions of Orange's original ost Mirai (Future) which I found on Japanese Youtube. This song sung by Kobukuro is so beautifully emotive, listening to it could easily evoke both fond and sad memories, and remind us of people from our past whom we missed.

The first one is manga "romance" version from the perspective of Naho, the colored full screen manga drawings at the end of the video are really beautiful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4rg15tsWHs

The second one is manga "bromance" version from the perspective of Suwa, Naho’s future husband. The tears that Suwa (light-haired guy) shed while concealing his own feelings for Naho in order to bring Kakeru (black-haired guy) and Naho together is so touching, this is what we don't get to see in the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQCDrUhPgoU

The third one is the movie version, it is quite interesting to compare the manga versions and movie version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwhkIfS8b6E

I had been through a similar experience as Kakeru, it had been so hard for an adult to handle the grief and self-reproach, what’s there to say for a 17 year old teenager. In retrospect, there were things I desperately wanted to handle differently no matter what it takes if I could go back in time, but regrets can only remain as regrets.

There are lots of movies/dramas with this theme, if only we knew that certain actions of ours would lead to regrettable outcomes, we would definitely want to act differently if given a second chance, Orange, Proposal Daisakusen, and even Oh Hae Young Again all shared this same theme.

In Beautiful Gong Shim, I do not quite understand why Dan Tae rejected GS, he could have kept her by his side while he unravels his life's mystery. But still, kudos to the producers for having GS declared her strong resolve to continue to love DT to her heart’s desire, at least, I don't want to see GS's friendship with Yoon Soo being misunderstood and used to fuel DT's jealously, which is a typical kdrama trope.

Probably a new trend is emerging in kdramas, gender roles are being switched, the girls are getting very courageous and forward in expressing their love, as in BGS. And also in OHYA, Hae Young always said to Do Kyung she is an easy woman who is too eager to please him and always comes running at his beck and call.

Happy Friday Beanies! I had a very productive drama watching week. Saw BGS, Police unit 38 (excited for the coming episodes!), started Doctors (Kim Rae Won Oppa ❤️) and Beautiful Mind.
Is anyone else watching 99.9 Keiji Senmon Bengoshi?
I'm hooked and really enjoying this jap drama which is surprisingly funny and offbeat. Loving the quirky characters and am waiting for subs for the last epi.

Also, any Nam Goong Min fans can enlighten me what happened to the show he directed? I know it's complete but what happened to it? I'm fangirling him at the moment and have BGS OST on when I travel on the train.

And finally, and are there any shows with good gal pals/womance? (I don't like the term womance tho...) Esp those still in school, like School 2013 but girl-centric. After watching Doctors I'm reminiscing my school days with my girlfriends and the crazy stuff we used to do.

I finally gave in and watched Reply1988. I read a lot of comments on how it is the best Kdrama of recent times but i found it a little laggy at times. I liked that they included the parents but even with the extended time, it seemed like there was too much of the parents and too little of the kids.

I think they spent like 30 mins on the kids and 1 hour on the parents when it should have been the other way around. So you ended up with having these bunch of extremely close friends who are strangely missing when something huge is happening in one of their's life - Taek's father's heart attack, JH's brother's surgery, DS's grandmom's death - friends all absent. So it became a case of the show telling me they are close, but i'm not really seeing it onscreen.

ofcourse when they are together (taek's loss), they are amazing and heart warming

I ended up dropping it after episode 10. Honestly though, the fact that i knew who the husband was (and that i was still rooting for the other one) probably played a part in it

PS - I watched JH's confession scene on youtube and ended up crying. I watched it for the second time and then cried fresh. Rewatched it and then cried again. At this point i finally gave up and promised not to touch anything related to R88 lest i slip into depression.

Btw, so many new shows started this week, what are you all watching ?

Squad 38- squee! I want to be a con artist in another life

Doctors - Nice but i'm getting a DOTS vibe (not the good one) where everything looks good onscreen but i end up giving up on it

A beautiful mind - *Chills* I don't want to wait another week. b/w the 2 medical dramas i definitely prefer this one

Wanted - not watched it yet

Happy Friday! How do you like new batch of dramas? I am just happy -now we have three serious?(and beautifully filmed) dramas - Beautiful mind, God of Noodles, Wanted. (What ratings?)
How did you like 'Wanted'? I felt like I was watching a movie. Here is what's said in their production press conference. [Sports Seoul, The Fact, Xsports News, OSEN]

EP Park Young-soo said this drama was different. "I think it will be the most realistic chase thriller among Korean dramas. It is different from other dramas in that it will create fear using the realistic events which you can encounter in your daily life, not some supernatural happenings."

Kim Ah-joong said she accepted the project because of the letter written at the end of the scenario by the writer. It said as a person who works in media area, he wondered if it is time to think hard how far current reality show will go. Kim said "I thought the writer was not just thinking about fun watch in genre-wise, his message was clear as to what story he wants to convey."

About watching point, she said "If the viewers watch the drama focusing on how the show plays reality out, how the viewers in the drama respond, and what mission the criminal demands, rather than trying to find the criminal, then show will be more interesting to watch.
About the plot doing a live reality show for an actress to find her son, Kim Ah-joong said "You know in reality you can't get a live broadcast to find her son because an actress's son is kidnapped, but I think it is an instrument to maximize the situation. We all feel real variety show is progressing toward to make it more strong and exciting, so I try to play the role thinking it is not flat out lie and understanding the situation."

She took on the first mother role since she debuted. "I wasn't sure I was the right fit for this role. I will just do my best. Jung Hae-in is the character who fell in despair because she lost her child, but she is not a person appealing to the viewers. This is the drama you don't watch being immersed in one character, but watch how all the characters behave and react as the third person's point of view. I think what is important is how we can process this event with rhythm, staying in the center of the event. The focal point is not how well Kim Ah-joong can play the motherly love in This drama." About her action scenes, she said "Since I play the mother who lost her child, there are scenes looking for her child while not caring about her body. It is not the action shown in big action movies, but there are desperate real realistic action scenes. I got beaten a lot and fell a lot. I have black and blue on my legs and where not shown. I showed director-nim to mean I was working this hard, but there was no particular response."

About Kim, EP Park said "I found that Kim Ah-joong ssi got tons of bruises on the set. Watching her digesting action scenes herself not using double, I believed she could express the...

Other stuff:
Sad about Kim Sung-min who tried to kill himself. Do you remember him -He was great as YongGolDae, Qing general in Three Musketeers?

What's with all these bad news lately -Kim Min-hee(Love and Marriage, 2008) scandal after Park Yoo-chun stuff.

I watched Radio Star (latest ep 483) to get Music Commander(of 'King of Mask Singer') fix.
Ha Hyun-woo(=MC) seemed to have enough hardships in his life (including the time he performed in front of only chairs as audience).
He lives with his parents. I was glad to hear that because I read he was kicked out of his home after he quit college to pursue the music. Then again people teased him- what Rocker lives with his parents? (me:and a man in his mid 30's?)
His face belongs to 'Frog' team (on top of it is Park Hae-jin(CITT). heh)-
To me he looks like MC Yoo Jae-suk (cuter version), and remind of NamGoong Min when he talks. He is talkative, witty, weird? interesting.

and how amazing was it -his jaw was dislocated during his singing 'Don't worry'(ep 46 of KoMS, 2nd win) but kept singing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3CrB2I8m0Y

HHW's Mona Liza (when he was in 'I am singer') in youtube
/watch?v=x98m3GwFTXY

Most of the comments criticising The Doctors keep saying "regardless of their sexes", but I'm sure that is not true.
I can't help imaginning the biking scene between a 27 year old female teacher and her 18 year old boy student having a crush on her. I'm sure most of the commenters would be just swooning and sighing over the handsome wide-eyed puppy love and just dismissing the teacher as naive and clueless and maybe criticise her a bit but not in such disgust.
Why can't a 27 year old male teacher be young and cluelss?
I feel here the real culprit is KRW's mature appearance and mannerisms, not the character nor the writing.
If we ignore the fact that they will have a loveline 13 years later and ignore the actual actors, and just focus on the present, the characters, and their ages, the student is a hotheaded 18 year old girl ready to fall for the first handsome man treating her as a human being, and the teacher is a 27 year old young man nearing the end of youth idealism but still cluelss about the real impact of his being kind and understanding to these girls.
Or perhaps I heve seen one too many cluless 27 year old boy in my lifetime ??

Happy Friday Beanies! :)

Finally Seo In Guk is here!!!! *squees with delight* He's one of those men who can reduce me to a puddle of fangirling goo every time he shows up on screen LOL. Police Unit 38 is quite different from what I thought it'd be, but so good! I hope it gets high ratings and popularity, so far it really deserves that. Love that dry humor and real feel to it. The first episode was such a tease though, only letting us see glimpses of SIG right up till the final 15 mins or so *sigh* I felt so cheated lol.

Falling more and more in love with Lucky Romance which I really didn't expect. But Suho is not only seriously well-acted by oh-my-goodness-calm-down-with-the-charisma-before-you-kill-the-entire-female-population-RJY, he also happens to be the only character, on TV, in movies or in books that I have ever been able to identify so completely with. I LOVE how they portray him with a low EQ in the sense that it should often be understood (though that's not how EQ is intended), as in he doesn't understand social norms/doesn't follow them because they make no logical sense, yet he's still a sensitive, emotional and compassionate guy. Too often geniuses and people with high IQs and/or low EQs are portrayed as cold and without compassion, but not here, which is a pleasant surprise. Suho trying to understand Bo Nui's "stay healthy" comment via logic, having the "do not compute" reaction and then putting the pieces together once he has the right amount of information - I soooo get that. Mulling over little comments like that and not getting it until there are enough clues to get it logically... Been there... Many times... As well as not getting people's reactions when you state a non-personal matter in a logical way.
I hope we get more male leads, like Suho, who don't pull around women by the wrist, all tsundere-like. Here Bo Nui is in some ways the one with the upper hand and I love how he's like a lost puppy with his puppy-love lol, all innocent and cute :)

I started watching Healer. Don't get it. No connection with characters, plot or anything else and one of my pet peeves is flashbacks, which this show has in spades. So I don't think I'll finish it. When he held her against her will and CLIPPED HER NAILS, I just couldn't root for him anymore. That is sick. He needs help. And now she needs help, because he assaulted her and possibly traumatized her. NO WAY I'm gonna support a romance that starts out like that, no matter how funny it's meant to be.

Finally finished Entertainer. Not sure how I felt about the ending, but liked the show well enough overall. And Yeon Soo is LOVE. I hope Lee Tae Sun will make it big now, his and the kid's crying scene was just the most heartbreaking I've seen in a long time. And Gong Myong as Kyle was hilarious! When he handed out tissues for everyone - criiiinge.... Hope this'll be his break too, it seems the 5urprise members are all...