Rice Candy

Some good progress on the picture book today. Started dividing it into the proper layout, which usually works out to 24 pages or 12 spreads. Still not sure it's gonna work out, but it's coming along. As I want to include a lot of things that I remember from my own childhood, I spent some time looking up all the Chinese candies the Aunties would send. Didn't realise that the Botan Rice Candy was actually Japanese, but doesn't really matter, I suppose. I need to go into Chinatown and have a candy spree and see what I can find. If I can't find the Botan one, then maybe I can find the White Rabbit kind. There has to be some rice candy. A must. And pocky. Red ginger. Lucky candy.

I'm feeling very ambivalent about a lot of things. There are no right answers in life, you know? And kind of generally unsatisfied. But I don't see any way to change things, because it's not just about me, is it? No Man is an Island.

Such a stupid saying. Platitude. Bleh.

My office smells like a bonfire. The wind has been blowing down the chimney lately and it always smells like ash and fire now, like my own little private slice of Hell. Not saying I don't like my office. Just saying it's all brimstone up in here, yo. Kind of distracting. I keep expecting an imp to pop out of nowhere. I would call him George.

Was thinking about double eyelids. No, really. It comes up in Korean Dramas quite a bit -- it's apparently one of the most common plastic surgeries for both girls and guys to get. And I remember when I was a teenager and my friend Alice (who was all Chinese, as opposed to my hapa self) was so jealous that I had double eyelids. Everyone wants something they don't have. If anything, I probably wanted MORE of a sense of my Chinese self probably because I so didn't want to be myself. Living in backwoods Florida (and Mississippi and Arkansas) never felt like home; I always felt foreign and, to be honest, I embraced that to an extent. I ate with my chopsticks at lunch. I might envy some people (mostly because they had money and stability and things and didn't have to shop at Kmart or yard sales and then because they had a dad and not an alcoholic pedophile stepfather) but I never wanted to be any of them. Never wanted to be me either, exactly, but I also didn't want to be anyone else. I suppose that hasn't changed.

This is getting really rambling and not making much sense. Ah, hell, I don't know what I'm even trying to say anyway. Probably because I was dredging up childhood memories to work on this picture book. Though goodness knows none of that stuff is going in the book.

Anyway, decent gym time today and I'm almost at my next downward milestone. Just a bit more to go. But my back is killing me. I maybe shouldn't have done the running on the treadmill bit and just stuck to the elliptical, but I kinda wanted that feeling of feet pounding, blood rushing, music beating, steps in time. It's not the same on the elliptical somehow. Though it is better on my freaking ancient back.

Also, where did all this silver hair come from? Some days, it feels like a crown of spiderwebs.

I am not amused

There was a tragedy this past weekend. Little dude went for a haircut with the hubster. And got a buzz cut. And not even a good buzz cut. Like, the barber tried to give him some kind of fade but he doesn't have that kind of hair. So it's sort of fuzzy and random and there's a big whorl where his cowlick is. It's bad. So bad. Little dude has GREAT hair. But not right now. Right now he has no hair.

I cried.

Literally. I had to go in the bathroom and have a sniffle. I know, I know, it's only hair but oh holy jeebus it's so bad and he doesn't look like himself. At first, he seemed to think it was hilarious in a slightly hysterical sort of way. But now he's asking how he can get his hair to grow faster. Maybe I can get him to eat his veg...

Other than that...I've been doing some painting. Which I've missed. Man, I really like painting the monsters the best. Did an ankheg for Simon and it was such fun. Also a new mini for Jelly of her bloodthirsty monk and that was good too, though not as satisfying as the wee beast. Why is it more fun to paint the bad guys? I really don't know. It just is. Our monthly D&D game is going pretty well. I'm not entirely in love with playing as a dwarven cleric, but it's okay and we definitely needed a healer.

And...still waiting to hear from my editor. It's gonna be March at the end of this week. I am definitely concerned about the due date of the second book now, especially since little dude is off school for, like, three weeks in April. Gonna go visit the fam in Florida. Mom's not doing well. Hopefully I'll be able to write on it by then, but chances of doing much while on holiday (even a grandparent-visiting holiday) are pretty slim. So, yeah. Wee bit of stress there. And I'll hopefully be going to Prague in May when the little man goes for his choir trip. Be nice to have some me time in a city by myself. I'll get to see him when he's singing in some massive churches, but other than that, he's with his school buddies.

I did get a bit of work/progress done on the picture book idea. Not a lot, but some. I'm not very good at picture books. So few words. But I rather like the idea, anyway. Will have to see if it works. Not sure it will.

What else? I know there were things. I keep not talking about things. I have things not to talk about. I feel a bit like a ball of angst and terror but also of sunshine and feet tapping. I'm trying to be happy. I need to sing more. I need to sleep more. I should probably drink less coffee.

Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories

What is it about stories that feature food? I like them, I do. Anyway, I was at the gym and I had another 20 minutes or so of time to go on the elliptical and the Kdrama I was watching had finished and I didn't want to start the next hour long episode of that. So I thought I'd try Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories from my Netflix list. The episodes are just over 20 minutes long, so it seemed perfect.

This isn't a drama, per se. It's more like a series of disjointed stories that all take place in the diner of this dude, a diner that's only open from midnight until 7 AM. The witching hour. A story about people and food and the connections that they make. Or maybe I'm extrapolating, as so far I've only watched the first one.

First off, production-wise. I like the look of this one. Why? I don't know. It feels earthy and dark and gritty. It feels like city. It feels like what Tokyo should feel like (not that I've been there yet, but what I imagine it as). Neon lights reflecting off of damp city streets. Old and new, all on top of each other. Which is what Shanghai was like and somehow I feel like Tokyo must have a similar feel.

The first vignette features Shimada, a late night radio DJ talk show guy. In a chance encounter at the diner, he meets a female taxi driver and soon realises that she played his favourite ninja character (Crimson Maple) on a show from his youth (think Power Rangers). She was his first crush and he'd even written a fan letter to her.

He talks about her on his show. She hears him, as she's driving people around the late-night city. And here's where I thought, okay, this is veering into romance territory where we've got a guy who's met his first love years later, etc. etc. and I thought, yeah, I know where this is going. But I was wrong. Heh. I've been watching too many Korean dramas.

Because it turns out she doesn't really want to be talked about...but it isn't because he's outed her story. It's because Flying Squirrel (another ninja from the show) was her first crush...but things didn't work out because Flying Squirrel was a girl that had been born with a man's body and is now living/presenting as a woman (who also frequents the diner, with some fabulous pink hair). She doesn't want her story to get talked about if there's any resurgence over the show because he/she once protected her and now she wants to do the same.

I did not expect that.

Things work out in a friendly fashion & Flying Squirrel makes an appearance on the radio show. And the last scene is a bunch of them having a fan-club-ish type of meeting at the diner, all dressed in ninja costumes (and Shimada as an honorary member dressed in white).

So, I liked it. There was something quirkily charming about it and very random. It might actually be one of the first non-anime Japanese shows that I've really liked (my forays into Japanese dramas have NOT been very successful). I'll definitely watch some more. I look forward to being surprised. Also, it made me hungry.

Edit: 22 May 2020 -- (90 minutes, 1003 calories -- along with first episode of Good Casting) So, It's been over a year since I started this one and I've only (just now) finished episode 4 out of 10. I do like it, though it varies. Episode 2 I just thought was okay (a comedian gets in an extended argument with his former assistant). Episode three was sweet and made me tear up just a bit (awkward lady who knits sweaters for guys she likes; winds up with a younger dude who appreciates her when no one else does). Episode four was also good (Physicist dude falls in love with a Korean lady who learns to cook omurice just for him, though he has to chase after her to Korea because of parents not approving).

I'm going to finish it up now, I think, as I'm using this as my "filler" after Good Casting...since those episodes are 60 minutes and I'm doing at least 80 minutes on the elliptical every day and this fits well as the episodes are around 20 minutes.

After watching the episode today, I think what I appreciate about this show is how well it does at telling a fairly complete story in a short amount of time. And the food. It always makes me hungry. It's also quirky, mostly in a good way.

Edit: I did finally finish the first season. The episodes are a bit of a mixed bag, though overall I do like the show a lot. Actually, other than that second episode that I didn't care much for, the rest varied from little nuggets of joy to decent stories. And the food is always good. Netflix's 3 words for it are: sentimental, heartfelt, and understated and for once I have to say that I agree. There's also a season 2 and another (probably the original) series called just Midnight Diner (with the same chef, but not set in Tokyo?) I'll do another post for the second season, I think, since it's been over a year since I started this one!

I Eat, Therefore I Am

A loooong time ago I saw a clip of a Kdrama (I Eat, Therefore I Am aka Eating Existence) where a rather drunk and not particularly pretty girl (who actually can clean up nicely, but let's just say that she's specifically made up to not look very attractive or "normal" in this) wakes up after a one night stand. At first, she's all oh shit and is scrambling to find her clothes and get the heck out of there before she figures out that a) she's in her place and b) the dude is the prettiest boy she's ever seen. So she takes her clothes back off and gets back into bed. I must keep him!

Seriously, this boy's skin. He's one of those people that glow like Marilyn Monroe. I remember reading somewhere in an article about her a quote from a famous photographer about how one of the reasons she always looked so luminescent in photographs was because she had very fine hair along her skin and it caught the light. A halo effect, if you will. Can't find the quote now and it sounds kinda weird when I type it out, but I get it. This guy is like that. He's called Park Byeong in the show and in real life he's No Min Woo. He's a drummer and an actor and not super well known as far as I can tell in that he hasn't been in a lot of major things (the biggest of which seems to be My Girlfriend is a Gumiho and My Unfortunate Boyfriend where it looks like he plays another "too pure for this world" man) and had some kind of legal issues with his management company and (this sentence is getting really long) has been in the military for his stint for the last couple of years. And apparently likes to play quirky, odd characters. So now I love him. Because dude is hella quirky in this: he's attracted to Yang because she reminds him of an alien (like from Aliens) and he loves aliens and he waxes randomly poetic about soup. So maybe I love the writer, I dunno, though No Min Woo clearly inhabits the character. The screenwriter is credited as Ok Soo Dong Dal Pil but a preliminary Google search doesn't turn up much about him/her.

Anyway, all that is preamble to say that I watched the majority of it last night. Which sounds, like, whoa! But you have to realise that the episodes are really short (like 8 to 10 minutes) and I actually started at episode 4 or 5, which is where No Min Woo comes in. I don't think I missed anything major in the first few episodes and let's face it, I was there for No Min Woo. The girl lead by herself is a little too much; his character mellows the story. It's the spoonful of sugar theory of life.

Basically, Yoo Yang (Ahn Young Mi) is a struggling writer and she starts off in some dead end desk job but winds up fired/quits rather spectacularly by flinging raw oysters right at the face of her boss. A very stick it to the man kinda thing. She's got some anger management issues and is generally a rather bizarre person. Oh, I get it. She's abrasive but needy and seethes with righteous indignation but is also funny and sympathetic. She's the kind of person I like to write or watch but who would probably drive me batshit crazy in real life. Or maybe not. Maybe I'm her. On the inside.

Not a lot happens in the drama -- I mean, it's super short -- but the two leads do fall in love. They have a breakup though when he proposes marriage to her (he's quirky, but a traditionalist, I guess and is all-in) and she reacts by going on a self-absorbed rant about how she doesn't believe in marriage or kids or any of that stuff and isn't existential loneliness better than kowtowing to expectations? They get back together in somewhat dramatic fashion (on his part) when he's on a company outing (he designs mobile games) and saves an octopus from the hot pot and runs to her while carrying the sloshing carafe full of water, hope, and octopus. Coincidentally, she'd also just decided to call him and his phone rings as he reaches her door.

There's another bit where she gains some humanity and insight when the mom of the kid that she tutors dies and she realises that her old boss is the kid's dad and he's not an evil person after all and has his own life and dreams. And there's a plot thread about her best friend being pregnant and marrying a guy who's been cheating on her. And...that's basically it. The show wraps a year later wherein the best friend has had twins and has the husband's family wrapped around her finger, Park Byeong is still with Yang and has been promoted at his job and is doing alien stuff. And life goes on.

The underlying thread that runs all through this story of modern day angst is food and the comfort of it. The little joys. That's actually the thing that brought Park and Yang together -- a shared love and joy in eating. There's lovely bits when he's cheering her up with a hot pot and comparing her to the soup and strange bits when Yang goes off on her friend's fiancé over a steak. The best friends enjoying some perfect sweet & sour chicken together, made with love by the friend's mom. The food Yang enjoyed from the student's mom that brings tears to her eyes at the funeral as she remembers it.

This is apparently what she normally looks like.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I may even go back and watch the bits I skipped, though I don't feel like I need to as it was the lead-in stuff and I've seen clips of bits of it. It's not a perfect little story and there's not enough of it (I think it is based on a web toon?) but it did leave me wanting more. And I really want to see No Min Woo again and also Ahn Young Mi (she's in Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter and Reply 1997) as they both seem quirky as all heck.

Panda and Hedgehog

It was back to the gym today (1 hour on elliptical, another fast 10 minute treadmill session, around 600 calories gone) so it was also time to try a new Kdrama. I'd had Panda and Hedgehog (or, Ms. Panda and Mr. Hedgehog) on my list for a bit and I thought I'd give it a go, even though I didn't know much about it other than "When a gifted patissier with a gloomy past meets an easygoing café owner, he begins to let down his guard and learn to love again." It's from 2012, so I was a bit leery, but it also looked kind of cute from the stills. And, hey...Panda. Hedgehog. HEDGEHOG.

And...well, yeah, you can tell that it's older from the style and production value. Not that 2012 is ancient or anything (cough, cough...still can't believe it's not the 80's anymore...). A few random slow-mo shots for no good reason, action-y sequences that don't flow (though it was just a chase scene...this is definitely a rom-com and not an action thriller), slightly slow pace, etc.

So...there's Panda (the girl), who's name is literally Pan Da-Yang (played by Yoon Seung-Ah). She owns a cafe that she's sunk all her money into and apparently her parents are dead (?) but she has a sister. The patissier she hired kinda sucks. She's also out of cash and trying to get a job (not entirely following this, as doesn't she have a café to run?) working on a new pastry magazine venture at this fancy French sounding bakery that's very successful (and more about the new CEO/son of which later--he's the guy on the right in the picture).

And Mr. Hedgehog is the guy on the left. His name is Ko Seung-Ji (played by Lee Dong-Hae, a member of Kpop group Super Junior). His gloomy past apparently involves having been in jail (where he enrolled in a pastry making course) and perhaps something with being an orphan or abandoned? Not sure yet. He currently works as a baker/patissier for an old man that isn't actually his grandfather, but who treats him like a grandson. And he also is a loan shark? Hedgehog, that is, not the old man. He runs into Panda (yeah, ok, I'm just gonna call her Panda) a couple of times while chasing someone who owes him money and suspects that she may be an accomplice (she's not) but he doesn't actually meet her until the end of episode 1 when he goes running to her cafe because she's posted a help wanted ad and he wants to not rely on the old man anymore because the old man's daughter is back in town and the old man is too poor to help both of them and he feels guilty. Whew. That was a long sentence.

Meanwhile, the other dude is Choi Won-Il (played by Choi Jin-Hyuk who is one of the main characters in The Last Empress which I'm not gonna see because yo, chaebol royal antics and death and unhappy endings, yo but have been intrigued by the characters therein, so I'm kinda curious to see him in this). He is the recently returned son of the fancy place and is the new CEO (taking over, I think, from his step-father? who isn't overly happy about it?). He's also the childhood friend (and I do mean childhood -- the little clip shows them at around maybe 9 or 10 years old?) of Panda and she was his first love but he hasn't seen her since then because he was sent abroad to study.

Gotta stop a minute here. My little dude is 10. Nearly 11. I cannot imagine him at age 20-something (maybe even 30?) having NEVER dated anyone and pining after a girl he knew when he was 10. TEN. He's not interested in girls. He's interested in Nintendo. What is with the childhood friend thing in Asian media?? I don't get it. It's very prevalent in Japan and China as well. You see it all the time. Anyway. Back to our story.

He's determined to seek Panda out and immediately gets a helping hand when his secretary (who is crushing on him hard) hands him a stack of resumes...including Panda's. Like, right on top. He immediately recognises her. Partly from the picture (oh come on!) but also from her name (yeah, I'll give you that one). His younger sister advises him to surprise his old friend because a visit like that will surely make sparks fly.

This is when you know that the actual love interest is definitely Mr. Hedgehog and poor Mr. Childhood Friend has no chance at all because it cuts to Panda at her restaurant hanging up a huge panda suit outside as a display while standing on a little stool. She's just received the news from her secretary friend that she's got the interview when she, of course, falls off the stool right into the arms of a grinning Mr. Hedgehog, who is there to see about the job posting (and probably to ask about the possible accomplice thing, but I suspect the show won't even bother with that). And...that's also right when poor Mr. Second Lead pulls up in his fancy car, to witness his first love in the arms of another man. Boom.

Wow, I wrote up way too much for this. No way am I gonna keep that up.

Anyway, the acting seems okay. Other than how the show itself feels a bit dated, it's okay. I'm saying okay a lot, aren't I? I wasn't actually looking for a love triangle plot and I kinda suspect that there will be no surprises in this show, but eh, we'll see. Not entirely sure I'll watch the rest of it right now. I might keep this as one to finish later. But maybe I'll give it one more episode before I decide, because at least now the three major players have actually met each other. Will update later.

Edit: I've watched 3 episodes now and I'm still feeling ambivalent. I mean, I'm feeling like I should like it but I haven't really connected with the characters. Maybe it's because of the pace. I dunno. There hasn't actually been much screen time where Panda is actually with either of the two love interest dudes and so it's kinda hard to feel it. Actually, I feel more like I've been told about their individual motivations more than I've seen them. There's no real spark.

And Mr. Second Lead (the actor I was most interested in seeing) hasn't done much but make confused faces and angst about things all by himself. Isn't he supposed to be at least late 20's/close to 30? He flails and pouts. COME ON. A secondary character made a good point to him...basically, he's in an unrequited love triangle that doesn't actually exist except in his head. He's making the relationship between Panda and Hedgehog into this big thing but at this point they don't have any relationship other than a business one. And he's made no moves of his own on Panda other than to give her expensive presents that are kind of weirding her out (a super expensive massage chair from a guy you haven't seen in 15 years is a strange gift by any measure).

And there's all that typical Kdrama stuff where Panda apparently also knew Hedgehog when he was a boy too, so he's ALSO a childhood friend. But he doesn't know it because he lost all memories before 11 after some traumatic accident/incident (and there's gangster-y connotations). But she hasn't connected any dots (nor has he or Mr. Second Lead) and we only know because of a flashback. And there's gonna be family drama with Step-Dad of Mr. Second Lead (who seems like a wannabe-evil dude that's more like a buffoon). So...yeah, I dunno. I'm feeling like it's kinda clumsy. But I don't dislike it. I just can't say I like it either.

Edit: So.......I watched through episode 4 while at the gym today. And was feeling even more meh about it. Mr. Second Lead was getting even more ridiculous and pout-y and Panda, who looks a bit like a teenager, was also really acting like one too. Okay, you're cute. We get it. But how has she survived up until now? The only characters I'm liking much at all are Hedgehog (and this may be due entirely to Lee Dong-Hae being kinda cute and his acting not entirely sucking) -- and I don't really get exactly why he's helping Panda so much -- and the grandpa (he's good all the way around and I'm pretty sure he's actually the for-real grandpa of the Hedgehog character and his daughter is for-real mom of Hedgehog) and Panda's aunt (at least one person in the family has a brain).

Wasn't really feeling much charisma between the two leads though and as more of the "past" stuff was hinted at, it was just making me feel...weary. So I looked up a review and found this. And...yeah. Sounds about like what I was already feeling. So...sounds like another one to write off. Maybe someone could just tell me at which point there were some good Lee Dong-Hae moments and I could skip to those?

Final Edit: I thought I'd do a quick skip through the very last episode because that's usually where there's, like, some romantic bits, right? Eh. I take back what I said about the acting being okay. All of the bits of the last episode that I watched were awkward as all hell. That makes no sense at all. Usually it gets better as the actors inhabit their characters. Ah, well. Gotta find something else.

Inevitable Disappointment

I wear my hope
in a thin line of black eyeliner
and matte lipstick
applied with careful strokes.
Anything that strays outside the lines
removed,
blotted away.
Delicately,
like it's supposed to be.
honey ginger, perfect plum, rhubarb...
such appetising names, appeasing, cloying
designed to make me somehow
more palatable.

But it makes no difference.

Because here I am,
end of the evening and,
like always,
it made no difference.
It only weighed me down,
the same old me
and those empty calories
I swallowed
settle like cement
into my bones, my hips, my stomach, my thighs...
and I regret
every
single
bite.

And
I wonder,
once again,
why
I
even
bother
to
lift
my
fork
to
my
mouth.

It's late

There's a peculiar stillness
at night
when you're alone
in the dark
like a blanket--
a weight
that holds you down--
a cocoon
surrounding you
so warm and so cold.
There's a heaviness
to the darkness
that isn't there
in the light--
a pressure you only feel
at night
when you're alone.
It's a song
sung
in a language
not you're own.
You don't know if the words
are comforting
or kind
or another
thinly veiled barb
that gets under your skin.
Those words
that stick
to you
and
make you think
feel
dwell
on
the
you that shouldn't be,
the you that isn't,
the you that will never
be.
And underneath it all,
a pulse,
a beat,
the blood,
rushing through your veins,
trying to tell the
world
that you
are
alive,
you are here.
You
have
a voice
too.
It's
just
quiet
and
no
one
can
hear
it.




This poem brought to you by pink champagne and a lonely Valentine's Day.

My Love From the Star

I decided to hell with working on Valentine's Day (well, at least I worked out) other than laundry/shopping stuff...and I'd already done enough ridiculous silly watching some of Welcome to Waikiki while at the gym...so I thought I'd try something I've been wanting to watch that sounded like it would be funny but also less slapstick.

Which made me think of Jun Ji-hyun (Legend of the Blue Sea) because she's got such great comedic timing. So I thought I'd try My Love from the Star. Besides knowing she was in it, the only other thing I knew is that she plays some kind of Hallyu star and there's a love story with a handsome alien (hence the "from the star" bit). Also, I saw that Shin Sung-Rok is in it. I've been seeing him in clips for The Last Empress. I know I'm not going to watch that one...or, at least, it's doubtful...because it looks like way too much chaebol/royalty/backstabbing shenanigans and it's over 40 episodes BUT he intrigues me so I kinda wanted to see him in something. He's got such an oddly angular face. I think he's a bad guy in this one though. But let me start over.

I did NOT know going in that the alien Do Min-Joon (played by Kim Soo-Hyun) actually landed 400 years ago where he met a young girl/woman when his spaceship landing nearly blew her off a cliff. And...that young girl/woman is apparently now reincarnated as Jun Ji-hyun's character Song-Yi (and the hint is that she died tragically young the first time around). So, boom, destined love/fate/past connection thing. Hmmm. Sounding very similar to Legend of the Blue Sea, isn't it? He also saved the current version of Song-Yi when she was a teenager from being squashed by a truck (though he himself has not visibly aged in his 400 years on earth and, while she remembers it and kind of thinks of him as her "first love", she can't remember his face).

At the modern day point in the story, a comet is approaching earth and it's apparently his ticket home that he's been waiting 400 years for. It'll arrive in 3 months and then he's gone. Song-Yi has moved in next door to him, though he doesn't yet know that she's the same girl. She's a bit crazy, which, okay, I like from Jun Ji-hyun. She's also kind of unexpectedly sadder than I thought she'd be. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed and, while her fans mob her, they're also always calling her stupid. I mean, she kind of is, but she's also smart enough that it bothers her. She's also got a manipulative, greedy mother. She's kind of tough and weak at the same time. Which is okay. But it seems like a lonely life.

The other two characters in the picture are two of Song-Yi's friends from way back. The girl (Se-mi) is also an actress, but she hasn't hit it big like Song-Yi. The guy seems okay and has loved Song-Yi for 15 years or however long and has been trying to get her to marry him (but Se-mi obviously has a thing for him and Song-Yi doesn't and never has--when she was saved from the truck it was because she was running away from him--he's just her friend). He's also the younger brother of the Shin Sung-Rok character (who seems, so far, to be kind of a standard scheming evil chaebol dude not above killing people for financial gain, though at least their dad seems clueless that this is going on). Oh, and Song-Yi has a younger brother that seems okay, though his friends don't know that she's his sister.

So...this is a bit of a quandary for me for a few reasons. One is that there's probably bound to be some type of deus ex-machina type of thing to get around the whole long-lived alien/short-lived human thing / leaving the planet thing. Two is that he's a) super smart and doesn't like stupid people (or people in general, for the most part) and b) more than 400 years old (and who knows how long he was alive before he came to earth) so the only reason I can so far see for him to fall in love with Song-Yi is because they are fated to do so. Eh, I dunno. I'm not a huge fan of destined love stories. They aren't usually done very well. I have hope, as this one gets really good ratings and I do really like Jun Ji-hyun but I'm wondering if I should've waited even longer after watching Legend of the Blue Sea before trying it? There do seem to be some serious similarities.

We'll see. I'll at least give it a few more episodes. I did at least do a "does it end well" Google search and based on the blurbs (didn't read recaps as I don't want to be totally spoiled), it looks like it does.

Edit: Heading into episode 6. I'm still liking Ji-hyun, though she's more abrasively clueless in this than she is fish out of water clueless. I mean, you can kind of get it -- she's been surrounded by sycophants and that horrible mom since she debuted at 15. You see that she can be nice, when she's around friends (or people that she doesn't think want something out of her). But still, it would be nice if she had more "nice" moments.

Sung-Rok's character is about as evil as they come, but to almost ridiculous proportions. Like, his first thought seems to be to off people. Something gone a bit wrong? Kill 'em. How is that your go-to option? He doesn't even try to out manoeuvre people. He just kills 'em. Without even a lot of planning, which makes you feel like he's had to have left evidence behind. And how long has he been this way??

Se-mi, the best girl friend is, well, she's been harbouring jealousy and petting it like a live thing for years. So she's not a good friend, per se. Or a friend, honestly. I don't think she's inherently bad, she's just been eaten away by envy for a long time. The wanna-be fiancé is actually a very good guy...but Song-Yi been telling him in every way possible for years that she's not interested, so I'm not sure why he keeps holding on. It's kinda sad for both of them, because I think she'd much rather he was just a friend...and that's something she's needed far more as a person. She really is a lonely character. And, let's face it, he'd probably be happier too.

As far as alien dude, his equanimity is definitely shaken. Some of that whole storyline is a bit weird, with the stuff in the past. Though I'm still so fresh off of Legend of the Blue Sea that the parallels (while different) are probably too obvious. BUT overall I am enjoying it as a gestalt and it's fast-paced enough to hold my interest. My favourite parts are the more intimate, quieter, friendly/family-ish ones though, like when Do's "father" comes over and they all eat together. And I want to know more about the manga shop owner that's a friend of Song-Yi. What's up with her? She might be the only "real" friend Song-Yi has as I think she's the only one that doesn't want anything from her and will tell her like it is.

Edit: I finished it.

And...well...if I hadn't seen Legend of the Blue Sea first, I would have liked this one more. But there are some places where that show just really outdid this one. That's not to say I didn't like this one...but this one did have more problems. Anyway, back to bullet points...

• The worldbuilding / mythological framework for his "alienness" either wasn't adequately explained or was glossed over or contradicted at times. 
• The "happy" ending didn't really address any of the actual problems...nor did it really make sense as far as the rules of the world as previously explained...basically, he goes back to his home planet and then tries for three years to teleport back, only able to do so in spurts until finally he's able to sometimes stay for long periods of time. So much doesn't work with this that I don't even want to go into all the reasons why (or into any of the other little niggle-y problems). But it also doesn't address what's gonna happen as she ages and he doesn't or the fact that he's allergic to human saliva (seriously, what about other bodily fluids??) and the whole Time Traveler's Wife-style random disappearance/teleporting thing was just...eh, weak. There was a whole bit where the younger brother discovered a new asteroid and named it after Do Min-Jun...I'd thought they were gonna have that be the actual Do Min-Jun traveling back to Earth, which would have made more sense. But they didn't. So I'm not even sure why they had it in there. 
• Honestly, the whole thing about this super advanced alien civilisation traveling by means of asteroids/comets that they created seemed really kind of stupid. And then he's able to simply teleport back? He'd been wanting to go home for 400 years before he met Song-Yi. I guess he didn't want to go back bad enough?? And the random dissolving into a wormhole thing? Meh.
• Glad that poor second lead dude didn't wind up with the rather bitchy non-friend Se-mi. Of course, he never got over Song-Yi either, which really sucks for him. He was loyal to the end.
• The evil older brother played by Shin Sung-Rok was over the top ridiculous. I do feel like I like him as an actor but, wow, what a sociopath of a character. He even killed the eldest brother.
• I enjoyed the almost Rocky Horror-like camera-facing interview sessions more than I should have. Because, Rocky Horror. Not sure if that's what they were going for, but that's where my mind went.

Eh, mostly it felt like they'd come up with all of these barriers to happiness in the beginning of the show and then didn't really adequately know how to resolve them (and it was a romantic comedy, so they kinda needed to), so they threw shiny things at you in the hopes that you wouldn't notice. And it was shiny. Jun Ji-Hyun really is awesome and I quite liked Kim Soo-Hyun too. He is a bit otherworldly handsome. He was mostly stoic, but when he did break, he did a good job with it. 

What's-her-name did a good job with Se-mi too...actually, I so didn't like her character that I'm gonna have to wait to watch a show currently running that she's starring in. It looks cute but I don't even wanna see her right now. Maybe in a few months. Park Hae Jin as the second lead was really good, even if he did look like he was on pot half the time because his eyes were always so red. Did he have to use something for his crying scenes or what? I wanted to give him eye drops. He's gonna be in some new show this year as a lead, so I'll probably watch that. 

So...overall, I did enjoy it. It suffered in comparison to LofBS (which did a much better job on worldbuilding) but it was a good show with some good moments. I'm glad I watched it. I don't think I'll watch it again, but I can't really complain. Little dude even got into a few episodes of it with me. But I am a little sad that it wasn't MORE.

A year of fluff

So, a year ago was when I started playing otome games. I've mostly moved on to Kdrama now, though I'm still casually playing otome. It's all related though, innit? Last year I blogged more here than at any point since 2005 when I quit working to write full time. In between there were some years where I didn't blog here at all (only on my official site) or years where I didn't blog at all.

I tend to write/blog when I need an outlet, I suppose. When the vague stirrings of discontent (malcontent?) become too noisy. When I have to write or go crazy. Crazier. Whatever.

I have nothing to say for myself. It is what it is. Not even sure why I'm talking about it. I suppose it's because I just glanced at the past posts and realised it's been a year. A year of looking for something. Have I found it? No, of course not. I don't even know what I'm looking for.

Anyway, update on my experiment wherein I was trying to take a picture of myself every day in a new Instagram account (not my old one, as I wasn't about to subject people to that).

Oh, man.

I made it a month worth. 31 days.

I don't think I'm gonna continue. I feel too stupid doing it. It was a ridiculous idea. I do think I need to try and take more pictures of myself, if only to say, hey, I exist in this world. But I think I'll just do it periodically and post them here. No one reads this so it won't feel as idiotic and self-serving.

Though I will post one today because I found this dress at a charity shop and I really like it (I know, I know, someday I'll get over not wanting to purchase things at full price...well, probably not. I am my mother's daughter.). Though I obviously don't have the selfie-skill to get a decent picture of it. How do people do that? I feel like there are all these things that other women know how to do that I can't figure out. Like braiding my hair. Taking good selfies. Maybe I just need longer arms. Yeah, I'm gonna go with that.

Welcome to Waikiki

I decided it was time to be silly (after watching a mostly depressing episode of Strongest Deliveryman), so I've continued on with Welcome to Waikiki while I was at the gym. Which, incidentally, was my 4th time going this week. I've gone every day. Go me. Did 50 minutes on the elliptical, a bit on the arm weight machines and then another 20 minutes on the treadmill doing a fairly decent imitation of a runner. Well, sort of. Not really. Eh, whatever. I don't really care if I can ever run a quick mile; I just wanna be healthier and thinner.

So, anyway, I've watched three episodes now. I'd mentioned it in passing before when I was debating between this one and Legend of the Blue Sea, but it's the story of 3 friends + the sister of one who are running a mostly failing bed & breakfast in Itaewon. One is an aspiring film director, another an aspiring actor who has only played extras (he was Hoon in Because It's The First Time--does he always play a wannabe actor/performer?), and the last is a writer who wants to write dramas. The sister is about to graduate university and wants to be a reporter.

Their lives get turned upside down when they find a baby in the guesthouse. Ultimately, the single mother winds up living with them (and seems to be slated to be with the film director dude, who is recently broken up from his long-time girlfriend, who looks to be destined for the glasses dude, which is kinda weird).

I don't want to rehash the plot at all. Basically, it's just a ridiculously funny show. I don't think it'll be terribly romantic, but it is terribly slapstick. Take just one situation...Joon-Ki (the actor one played by Lee Yi-Kyung) is possibly up for a part as an extra in a movie about a swimmer. They tell him he's too hairy, so he goes to a waxing parlour and gets waxed. Like, everywhere. Full on Brazilian. It's painful. Of course. Later that day he has lunch with his new-ish girlfriend and meets her mother. Then her sister comes and it turns out to be the same lady that waxed all his bits. This freaks the girlfriend out, even though it was for a part. Because, you know. So he's already having a bad day. Then he goes home still hungry and tries to eat the girl housemate's (Dong-Goo's sister) ramen that she's just made. They get into a pulling war over it and the steaming hot ramen spills all over him. He winds up having to go to hospital...where the doctor who turns up to treat his atypically bad burn on the newly waxed private bits is...the girlfriend's mother. There's a lot of screaming and flailing and physical comedy.

Anyway, it's a lot of stuff like that. Everything played for the ridiculous. I don't know that I'll watch it all in one go or just when I need a laugh. It's so over the top that it might be too much to binge. More like a bar of rich chocolate that you need to digest in bits when you need a pick-me-up.

Ouch and blah and blergh

I'm sore today. Did another stint at the gym -- maybe an hour and a half? I was already sore from yesterday. Think I overdid it a bit yesterday. Definitely overdid it a bit yesterday. Also apparently forgot to take my blood pressure medication yesterday morning and was feeling really dodgy last night. Which is depressing. I was hoping that I might be able to work myself off of it but that's definitely not happening any time soon and probably never. I thought I might be able to -- been feeling better since I stopped taking the stomach medicine and was thinking, hey, wouldn't it be nice if I could be medication free?  So much for that. Head felt like a too-tight balloon ready to pop.

Dammit. I'm just so tired all the time.

I know some of that is my own fault. I have trouble getting to sleep, getting my brain to shut down, to stop making noise. I have a noisy brain. And I feel most alone at night, so it growls and complains and mumbles to itself like an animal nursing a wound.

Am I anthropomorphising my brain? Seems wrong, somehow.

I actually have work to do today and I don't feel like doing it at all. But I'm going to anyway. Will at least get a start on it. Don't want to be a complete failure. It's not the work I want to be doing...still waiting on the editor for that...which could be partly why I'm sitting here wasting time doing this instead.

Still stressing over little dude's school stuff. Can't believe we're turning down the free Grammar school place. I hope it's not a mistake. It's not a mistake. It's just a decision. Yes, let's go with that.

Next week is half term break. No idea what I'm gonna do with the little dude yet. Maybe some museums.

Anyway. Time to work and be productive and adult-like.

Because It's the First Time

One good thing about the gym is it gives me time to watch some Kdramas wherein I don't feel guilty about wasting the time. Ahem. Anyway, started a new one called Because It's the First Time, partly because I'd seen this one clip a few times that struck me as very funny and because it looks like there's absolutely no way there's any chaebol ridiculousness.

It's one of those young love ensemble cast type of things. They're all 20. At university. 5 childhood friends + a new girl. The pixie-haired girl, Song Yi, has had a crush on the nice, humble dude Ji An for a long time. Tae Oh (the one that's from a moderately wealthy family--but not chaebol levels) considers her his first love but, at the same time, he's been trying to convince himself for ages that he doesn't have any particular feelings for her. Hoon is the goofy one that wants to be an actor and seems to think that the other girl, Ga Rin, likes him. He certainly spends all his time with her. She professes to like Tae Oh (and has been giving him presents on Valentine's for years, though no one else knew it was her) but is also a wee bit off her rocker, pretending that her deceased father is still alive.

So, yeah, a little convoluted pairing-wise. The new girl in the picture is 3 years older and her name is Se Hyun. Tae Oh thought that she was his blind date and is all puppy dog over her, though every time Song Yi needs him, he goes running.

For reasons, Tae Oh thinks that Song Yi likes him and confronts her -- saying basically could she please just act like a girl and not burp and he'll try and be crazy about her too? She tells him he's not the one, though she doesn't admit it's Ji An. And...that's about where I am.

Honestly, no real idea who's going to wind up where or even if any of them get together. Tae Oh and Song Yi seem to be more the main characters, but that could be deceiving. Ji An also likes Song Yi, but he seems to not want to admit it either because he's afraid he'll lose the friendship that they share OR he's feel inadequate (his dad had taken a credit card out in his name and he's saddled with debt that's not even his, which will also keep him from taking the civil service exam).

So far, I'd say it's kinda cute and typical. Some nice moments, but nothing earth shattering. The actors are cute. The Hoon actor is also in the Waikiki Kdrama that I want to finish at some point. And the Ga Rin actress was one of the best friends in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Ju. It feels like she always plays the same type of character -- a bit innocent, a bit silly, but loyal and sweet.

I'm guessing that Ji An is "second lead" to Tae Oh (who is played by Minho, a Kpop guy from SHINee). And I suppose that's okay, even though Ji An is the outwardly sweeter guy--Tae Oh shows it more in actions than in words. And his chemistry with Song Yi somehow feels more of a muchness, if that makes sense. It doesn't. I know it doesn't. But I'll go with that. The dynamic between them all is a little weird though, the more I think about it. Song Yi kind of unfairly depends upon Tae Oh and expects him to come to her rescue but it doesn't feel like she really thinks about what that means to or for him. I doubt if the character would ever have thought about it because he's always been there for her, even if he is one of those characters that protests every step along the way. But he's the one that can't come to grip with what he wants or feels.

It's short. Just 8 episodes of varying lengths. Probably won't write any more on it until the end.

Edit: about to start episode 6. Just one comment...I don't see how there's any way they can resolve the various storylines in any reasonable way with the amount of time left. I fear I am about to be annoyed.

Edit: Finished it. It was really short. And, as I suspected, they didn't wrap up basically ANY of the storylines. Not a one. But that also seems to kind of be the point, so I suppose it's okay. It is, after all, a show about "firsts" for all of them...not "lasts." But, on the other hand, it feels incomplete and unresolved. Like life, yeah, yeah, I know.

It is the first show I've seen where the second lead character gets the girl. I didn't even think those existed in Kdrama land! Tae Oh was definitely the main protagonist/primary POV character but it's Ji An that winds up with Song Yi. At least, for now. That's the thing. It's the beginning, really, for all of them and not the end...it's just the end of the show. I suppose you could say that the only thing that is conclusive is that they'll all remain friends, no matter how they eventually settle down into their lives. In that sense, it was satisfying and I'm not exactly sad that Ji An got the girl -- both the guys were good guys. All the characters had their problems and strengths.

That was the best part of the show--the characters were all engaging and real. Am I glad I watched it? Yeah, I'll say yes to that. Would I watch it again? Hmmm, I dunno. I'm left at the end feeling more unsatisfied than not, but that's just because I tend to watch these things for some closure and maybe even sweeping romantic gestures. It feels like it needs a second season and it almost seemed like they were hoping for that with the "let's meet again when we're 23" thing at the end when Tae Oh goes off early for his military service (which, come on, really feels like running away and isn't any kind of good conclusion for the show). Not sure if it did well enough in the ratings when it first ran back in 2015 for it to have a follow up, though. The Viki rating is over 8 but not over 9. No idea what the real ratings were but you don't hear much about it, so I don't think I hold out any hope. It could have used a lot more time, though. Geez, even do the dreaded separation thing and expand it out to the normal 16 episodes and finish at least some of the threads properly!

Anyway, the actors were all lovely and did a good job. At least, the three main ones. The other two honestly didn't have enough to work with to do much to impress. I mean, they were fine as they were, but their characters stayed flat. There was no arc, no growth really. They were pretty much the same people going out as they came in. Not the fault of the actors, though. They were mostly there for comic relief and filler, it seems. I wouldn't mind seeing any of them again in something else, something with more meat on the bones.

Ambitously viciously

Started the week off with the gym. 5 minutes on the elliptical for warm up. 30 minutes boxing with Rob aka personal trainer dude with the dragon tattoo. 3 sets on the arm weightlift-y machines at the lowest weight, as left arm still feels like it wants to fall off. 12 minutes on the treadmill (while waiting on the elliptical to go free), 50 minutes on the elliptical again, doing the rolling hills workout, which sounds like it should be pleasant, no? Sweaty, that's what it is.

I was tired before I started. Now I'm...more tired. And the back is a bit throb-y. But hey-ho, here we go. Still a stone to go.

Though every time I go to the gym, I am reminded of how rubbish I am at being a girl / woman / person of the female persuasion. There are a lot of old people in this town and consequently, there are a gaggle of older women who go to this gym. Which I like. They aren't there to chat. They're friendly. They're not measuring you up, so to speak. Way better than the Virgin Active in Notting Hill that I'd tried when we lived there.  They are all wearing their yoga pants un-ironically.

But. BUT. In the changing room, all these silver-haired ladies are wearing their matching underwear sets. Lacey thongs. Frilly stuff. And there's me, in essentially the granny panties that they're supposed to be wearing. I don't think I own a set of matching underwear. I definitely don't own anything that looks more like spaghetti than underwear.

I did buy a new lipstick. So, yeah. Wherein the lady told me I'm supposed to be putting on foundation and powder on my lips BEFORE I put the lipstick on if I really want it to last. I just...no. I will always be crap at this stuff. I am a lazy woman. Or, lazy at being a woman. I was pleased I've managed to put lipstick on at all FFS.

Anyway. Enough about how crap I am.

Gonna go do a post about the new Kdrama I started up at the gym. New post.

Decisions

So. Little dude made his decision. IB School, not the (free) Grammar. Kinda painful to think about the money part of it but the school does seem a really good fit for him. I know every other parent we know is going to think we're insane, especially after we went through the whole appeal process. But, yeah. There you go. A decision has been made. Things have been signed. Letter will be sent tomorrow -- which is for the best, because otherwise I'm going to keep thinking about it and dithering and freaking out.

A line in the sand.

Why is it sand? Sand shifts. Should be a line in the rock. The bedrock. Marble. Something solid.

Anyway.

I don't know what to watch next. Overall, I did enjoy The Master's Sun but there's something about it that has left me feeling vaguely unsatisfied. I really don't know what it is. I can't put my finger on it. An unsettled feeling, a thread left hanging. I dunno.

Need to pick something before tomorrow morning when I go to the gym as they make the time pass much more quickly. And I need a good workout after the debauchery of the weekend. Not that it was very debauched. Debauch-light? 1 glass of wine, 1 cup of sake, a bit too much to eat. A couple of songs sung in French. Not very debauched at all.

I really need to be writing something or painting something. Might start Jelly's mini-figure tomorrow. Need an outlet. Or maybe I'm just tired -- was awake until after 1. Haven't been sleeping well for months.

Anyway...There are actually 144 things on my follow list on Viki, though not all of those are actually available to watch. Another 135 in My List on Netflix, though some of those are things to watch on family night or stuff that's already been watched or things that are also on Viki. So call it at least 150 shows to choose from. That's a lot of shows.

I'm kinda disgusted at myself for the amount of stuff I've been watching lately. I normally never watch anything other than whatever show we're slowly making our way through at night (currently Bones) after little dude has gone to bed. Why am I watching so much lately? The waiting? Yeah. There's that. The need for some feel-good romance? Could be. I've mostly stopped playing any otome games. This has substituted for that. Well, at least I'm slowly learning another language. There's a hole in my life, obviously, and this is what I've been filling it with.

So. Seems stupid to sit here and dither about it.

Ideas, Eyeballs, Dead Birds

Had an interestingly evil idea for a short story. Could even work as a novel except that it'd be an adult story (adult as in "for older readers" not adult as in "you'll need bleach for your eyeballs after reading") and I haven't the time or the inclination for that. Too busy with the middle grade stuff.

Though I'm still waiting on my editor to get back to me. Ack. Was supposed to be "in January" then "end of January" and here it is...February. Beginning to be a tad bit concerned about the 1 July due date for the first draft of Book 2...

Which is probably why I keep having random ideas. My brain is in neutral.

Anyway, it'd be kind of a reverse Groundhog Day kind of thing. But someone good who goes bad. Totally postal. Saving it here to remind myself. Dunno that I have any time to devote to it right now, but I can picture it in my head so I want to at least remember the idea. Almost a Yellow Wallpaper bit of slow madness. Could I pull that off? Maybe.

In Omo! That's Life! news...little dude's grammar school appeal was actually successful. Completely didn't expect that, even though academically he's capable...because the success rate of appeals is dreadfully low. Like, ridiculous low.

He was already super excited to get into the school he most wanted and we were ready to send off the acceptance letter. But the Grammar would be free...so need to think on it a bit. It's not a bad problem to have, but it does make things more complicated.

Anywho...tonight we're having a Japanese-style donabe dinner party with some friends. Shabu-shabu. Went by Wing Yip to buy supplies and little dude and I both saw this bizarre sake/rice wine cup/thing at the same time, sitting on a shelf among a bunch of other more normal bottles, like it was trying not to be noticed. Eyeing us, if you will.

Such a perfect moment. We looked at each other and we both went we need that at the same time. He is such my kid.

I'll have to keep the jar after I've drunk it. It's probably terrible. No idea. Will have to get my friend Jelly to translate it for me. Have no idea what it is or why it has an eyeball on it.

Let's see...what else?

Today's soundtrack has been a strange mix of Block B, Hozier, Guns N' Roses, and Right Said Fred. The weather is very English. The dog smells again. Oh, and there was a dead bird on the pavement, one wing outstretched to the sky, eyes closed, feathers that brilliant shiny black. I always feel like I should do something in those kinds of situations, but there's nothing to do, so I walk on by.

I feel like poetry. No, like I'd like to be poetry. Like there's a poem in me? Trying to come out? I want to play with words, run amok. Maybe later.

Edit: drank the rice wine. It tasted like rice wine. There weren't any mystery eyeballs floating in it or anything.

The Master's Sun

After finishing Dramaworld, I was debating going back to either Doctors or trying something new. But, dilettante that I am, I decided to go for something new. I liked So Ji-Sub in Oh My Venus (even though I am mad at the ending a bit) and I'd seen some clips that made The Master's Sun look interesting, so I thought I'd try something paranormal-ish. Have watched three episodes now, mostly while at the gym.

Seo In-Guk (Shopping King Louis) is in it too, playing a character called Kang-woo, which I didn't know going in, but I like him too, so that was a bonus. Anyway...the story. Tae Gong-Sil (Gong Hyo-Jin) nearly died in an accident of some sort some years ago. Since then, she's been able to see dead people (yes, the whole: I see dead people thing). Consequently, she's constantly in a state of semi-terror and exhausted as she can't usually sleep. The dead often want things from her, though sometimes it's almost like they're just glad to be seen. 

So Ji-Sub is another chaebol type this time, but this character is a bit of an ass and only worried about money. He's got his own traumatic past thing where he was kidnapped when he was a teenager. His girlfriend at the time died in a fiery car crash when he was rescued (after the ransom was already paid)...and at first you think, oh, he must be pining for her (everyone else around him thinks that) but it turns out that she was in on it with the kidnappers somehow and instead he really thinks she's some kind of evil bitch.

He's also the only respite Gong-Sil gets from ghosts -- when she touches him, they disappear. That reminds me a bit of the thing in About Time, though hopefully here it'll be a more consistent thing. So she's doing everything she can to be near him (gets a job at his company, follows him around, etc.). He thinks she's trying to seduce him at first (very unsuccessfully) but by the third episode he's starting to believe her about the ghost thing.

Each episode has (so far) had a little mini-mystery of it's own that Gong-Sil has to solve. Well, maybe solve isn't the right word. She has to help the ghosts before they'll leave her alone. Kang-woo is somehow involved with the dead girlfriend stuff (Cha Hee-joo, played by Han Bo-Reum) but no idea how/why as yet or if he's a good guy or a bad guy. 

So...so far I'd say it's interesting. Ji-Sub's still got that deadpan style. Have to see how his character plays out. He professes to have no interest but he keeps getting pulled in despite his protestations. It's a bit of a methinks he doth protest too much thing. Oh, and weirdly, his assistant is played by Choi Jung-Woo who was the idiot dad in Legend of the Blue Sea. So odd to see him play a nice guy. 

Not entirely sure about Gong-Sil's character mostly because I'm not sure why she's so terrified. I mean, yeah, the ghosts look scary at first, but so far we haven't seen them do anything to her other than look terrifying (though dead girlfriend just possessed her body at the end of episode 3, but that was only because she's drunk). She's a bit of a weird combination of shy/flirty/terrified/bold but I guess I'll see how it plays out.

Edit: I waited to write more about this one until I finished it. Mostly because I did most of my watching at the gym/lunch/train this time around. I have lots of thoughts and I'm going to bullet point them because, well, it's my blog and I'm the only one who reads it, so why not?

Random screenshot I took of So Ji-Sub's WTF face. Can't remember why.

• This might be the first Kdrama I've seen where I can actually buy into three tropes that I usually hate with a passion. 
• One: The Noble Idiot/Martyr thing. Gong-Sil's got that going on through a lot of the last episodes BUT it actually kind of makes sense as Joong-Won (So Ji-Sub's character) literally dies at one point because of her ghost connection thing when he saves her from a guy and gets stabbed in the back. She winds up making a deal with this spooky Chinese ghost-whisperer lady to get him to go back to his body.
• Two: Amnesia. Joong-won loses his memory of his time with her because of the deal with Mrs. Go (the spooky Chinese lady with the crazy eyes). This one I didn't think was wholly necessary but it worked okay and actually fed into the Noble Idiot thing because Gong-Sil was holding his memories and didn't want to give them back because she thought he was safer without her. And, since he actually is safer without her, I can buy it.
• Three: Forced Separation. I can forgive this one because Gong-Sil doesn't actually leave because of the Noble Idiot thing but because she needs to find out what happened to her when she wandered the earth as a spirit for three years. She also wants to (hopefully) get rid of her spirit sense and/or come to terms with it so she can be with Joong-won unfettered and unburdened by her NEED for him. It also works okay for me because he KNOWS why she's going and, while he doesn't want her to go, he can understand why she needs to for herself. I'm not even going to be mad about the no contact thing because we know she's got it in the back of her head that she may NOT go back to him if she can't get rid of her ghostly connection.
• There are only a few things that I found awkward/lacking:
• Kang Woo/Seo In-Guk's fighting scenes. I mean, I like him and everything and there wasn't anything really technically wrong with them...but somehow they were filmed really awkwardly. I can't even pinpoint what it was. Maybe because it seemed too melodramatically staged? I dunno. I just kind of inwardly cringed.
• The introduction of the twin sister of the dead girlfriend came so late in the show that it felt a bit like a red herring, especially as she'd been essentially following Joong-won around for 15 FREAKING YEARS. I'm actually fine with introducing that plotwise at that point, but there should have been at least background glimpses of her or something before that.
• Also the introduction of Lee Chun-Hee's character at the very end as the guy Gong-Sil had spent her missing 3 years with while she was a spirit. From his talks with the ghost, you can see he'd been keeping tabs on her the whole time. So why introduce him so late? It isn't deus ex machina exactly but it's something akin to it. And she's been "awake" again for, like, 4 years? Five? So why did he wait until now? Wouldn't he have found her as soon as possible after traveling the world with her for three years? Did he love her? It's implied but not stated. And why doesn't she remember her time with him at all when all the dead spirits are hanging around precisely because they do remember and have unfinished business still on earth? Maybe the argument is that only permanently dead remember? 

And...I'm done with bullet points. I liked the leads in this. Still enjoy So Ji-Sub. There's something about his comedic timing that I really like. Not entirely sure he and Gong Hyo-Jin had the best chemistry together (it wasn't sparks flying or anything), but it worked well enough. There was also enough humour to balance out the dark bits for me. Seo In-Guk as the second lead was good, though it was only at the very end that I could root for the second leading lady to actually get together with him because she was such a jealous bitch to start with. 

Liked Gong-Sil's sister and glad she had her moments at the end too. Really enjoyed the Mr. Kim character (Choi Jung-Woo) after I so didn't care for him in The Legend of the Blue Sea. 

Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Overall, I really enjoyed it. It was a nice blend of humour, romance, and pathos. Really surprised about not minding the three tropes popping up that I mentioned above because, honestly, those have been really bugging me in a lot of the dramas. But they did work for these characters. That's the difference. It didn't feel shoehorned in. Would I watch it again? Yeah, I might. Not for a while, but I could see it happening. I have a vague wish that there'd been more romantic-y bits for the leads as they spent most of their time verbally sparring. But, yeah, this was a good one.

Dramaworld

Is Dramaworld a Kdrama? Er, not exactly. It's sort of a parody / satire / romantic comedy thing. There are only ten episodes and they are super short -- only 8 to 18 minutes long each (even shorter if you take out the ending credits). It's about an American girl (who I think is actually from Australia? in real life) named Claire (played by Liv Hewson) who is leading a drab and depressing life and is completely addicted to Kdramas.

When her fav Kdrama leading man (played by Sean Dulake, a British/Korean actor born in the US who now works a lot in Korea...which is quite impressive as he didn't even know any Korean when he moved there) is in a new story playing a character called Joon Park/Park Joon and the story just isn't progressing properly (he's about to kiss the "evil" scheming second lead lady instead of the leading lady), she somehow winds up sucked into "Drama world" as a "facilitator" -- someone who works behind the scenes in dramas or as a minor character to help things turn out "like they are supposed to".

It's very tongue in cheek. And when I say that...I really, really mean it. There's seriously a scene where the "Kdrama super villain" Seth (who had been a facilitator for a long time but is now actively working to set himself up as the leading man -- which the viewer catches on to pretty early on, though it takes until the final episodes for Claire to figure it out) has a full-on Kpop music/rap video with a bunch of sageuk characters in hanbok. Not kidding.

Yeah. It was out of nowhere. So bizarre. But funny. But also really weird. But I bet fun to film.

Anyway, Claire comes clean to Joon and he's understandably completely wigged out that he's just a character in a drama and his entire existence really isn't real. But they save the day and save Dramaworld from being ruined (he kisses her with true love's kiss, while the second male lead winds up kissing the one who was supposed to be the leading lady and together they all stop Seth). And Claire returns to the real world.

But there's the hint of the "real" happy ending when later on Joon -- in the real world -- runs in to her dad's sandwich shop shouting about how Dramaworld needs her (he's dressed like some kind of James Bond character) and then passes out when he realises he's in the real world. And boom, cut to credits.

There's news that there might be a second season, which it seems like it needs. I liked Dulake and wanted...I dunno...more? Watched an interview with him and he seems like a nice guy. He also produced it. So I do hope it goes on to a second season. Honestly, the whole thing was a little too short. It needed more to elevate it to a full-on romantic comedy rather than being just a spoof. Not that there's anything wrong with being a spoof. Maybe it's just me.

So...my thoughts. It was funny. It was cute. It was ridiculous. I mean, she even seriously slapped him in the face with kimchi. The only thing it was missing was no mother-in-law tossing a glass of water in someone's face. Am I glad I watched it? Sure. Would I watch it again? Um, probably not. Maybe. I dunno. But I would watch a second season.

Splash Splash Love

I thought it would be nice to try something short next and Splash Splash Love looked cute. I'd seen the clip where the main character Dan-Bi (played by Kim Seul-Gi) arrives unexpectedly into the far distant past (1400s Korea, then known as Joseon) after falling into a puddle. And it was only two episodes--so, basically, movie length. A quickie.

I was not expecting to be charmed by this one but I completely was. Maybe it's because I didn't expect much from it beyond cute...which it definitely was...and that I didn't really know anything about it. But it had a lovely heart, good character arcs, and the puzzle pieces fit together far better than I had imagined from the beginning. It was tight, plotting worked, and the actors were all charming. Plus it turns out it was Paul Ahn's first role (Ahn Hyo Seop), the guy who played Chan in Thirty but Seventeen. I loved him in that.

Anyway, the story...Dan-bi is a 19 year old high school senior (someday I need to look up exactly what the age/school deal is in South Korea because I thought she was probably 17 for most of it until the said she was 19). On the day she's supposed to take the SAT (which sounds like it must be similar to the SATs in the US except maybe it's only offered once a year rather than multiple times as this was her "last chance"?), she winds up running away due to the stress. She's not that great at math and is feeling like a failure and just generally collapses under the pressure. She winds up falling/jumping into a puddle/some type of time portal and finds herself in the Joseon era (1400s).

After trying to explain that she's just a high schooler, which apparently sounds the same as "eunuch" in Korean, she winds up pretending to be a man and is tasked with being the King's advisor. That makes no sense when I type it out but it makes more sense in the show. :-P The King is played by Yoon Doo Joon aka Doojoon and historically he's supposed to be Sejong the Great. Who I, of course, had to look up and Sejong was a freaking amazing king. He invented hangul, supported science, was great for the common man...so much good. Dude was awesome. Based on his timeline, I'd have to guess that the movie would have to be sometime after 1422, making Sejong about 25.

So...various hijinks ensue as Dan-bi tries her best to survive in the past with her 20th century knowledge. The King comes to love her, probably in part because she's not afraid to look him in the eye and speaks her mind (probably even when she shouldn't). And she comes to love him too -- what's not to love in Doojoon's portrayal? He's honourable, kind, and good. As was the real guy he's based on. Though in real life, Sejong of course had many concubines, etc. and fathered a bunch of kids. That's one of those things that always puts a damper for me on the romanceable aspect in things like these time-travel romances and in otome, and I'm kinda glad that after Dan-bi gets back to the future there's a nod to that.

There's drama related to the King's advisor having grand aspirations (and his daughter being the Queen, who the King barely talks to). And a sweet little twist that Dan-bi thinks Paul Ahn's character is the famous historical inventor Jang Yeong-sil who was born as a peasant but came to prominence after Sejong recognised his talents and promoted him...but learns at the end that he's actually Park Yeon, an accomplished musician in that time. Turns out that SHE is Jang Yeong-sil...the name given to her by the King. Totally doesn't really work historically (the real inventor guy wound up being expelled from the royal palace even though the King didn't want him to be...though I suppose you could argue it. But "he" also wasn't a "she" or an eunuch...but, hey, I suppose you could make a case if you really wanted to go there as there's not much recorded of his family history either before or after his time with the Great Sejong...what am I saying? Hmmmm, maybe that the story is so charming that you'd like it to be true, if there was such a thing as time travel).

Anyway, it's a bit of a fated thing and Dan-bi does finally go back home (she misses her mom and doesn't want to run away anymore) and meets the lookalike (presumed reincarnation) of Sejong there in the guy who helped her on the bus on the day of the test and has her umbrella that she'd left behind. Nice symbolism there and full circle.

So, it was a joy and really lovely. Will definitely watch it again, maybe with the little dude because I think he'd like it too. I'd put it in my top 5. 100%.

Saw a news article rumour on Soompi that fans were demanding a season 2. No idea what that would be, story-wise, but I'd be there for that even though the show was perfect as it was.