The King's Avatar

So, we finally found a drama that little dude and I can watch together. It's another Chinese one (is it just me, or do they seem to make more dramas that feature computer-y game-y stuff than other countries??) called The King's Avatar. It helped that he'd actually seen some of the manga before on Manga Rock.

So...it's about a professional gamer named Ye Qiu (played by Yang Yang) who was the captain of a team called Excellent Era. The game is called Glory. Through various circumstances, he is ousted and replaced with a young hotshot (who so far hasn't actually figured all that much in the story, other than being a complete wanker to Su Mucheng).

Since he officially resigned, he has to take a year off. He immediately and coincidentally falls into working as a Network Manager at an internet cafe literally across the street from where he was before. So...literally in the shadow of his former home/office. How can he do this when he was SO famous before and even the Internet Cafe owner is a huge fan of his? Because he always wore a mask before and never participated in fan gatherings.

But being "unofficial" doesn't mean he can't still play...which he does, on the newly added tenth server. He's soon breaking records and making enemies. Some people soon figure out who he is...others have no clue.

There are a number...a PLETHORA, if you will...of other important characters so far (we're up to the 9th episode out of...gulp...40):

Su Mucheng, who was on the Excellent Era team with him and also seems to be the sister of his deceased best friend from when he was younger. She would've followed him when he quit, but he told her to stay. She soon winds up playing with him again whenever she can. Possible romantic connection, but also maybe just the whole childhood friends thing. No idea how or when her brother died.

The Internet Cafe owner Chen Guo, who has some baggage of her own about her dead father (who had started the cafe and also instilled his love of Glory in her). She's a huge fan of Ye Qiu but so far she still hasn't figured out who he is and is constantly haranguing him (granted, he's slowly getting better at his job...he had no clue to start with). Totally waiting for when she finally figures out who he is.

Her best friend Little Tang, who makes her study (I'm not totally sure what for or why), and who soon makes up one of the first members of Ye's new team. She's very very persistent and dedicated and one of those never crack a smile characters.

Bao Zi, who sports the ridiculous in-game name of Steamed Bun, and is the goofy sidekick who winds up playing with Ye by sheer joy and geekery. He might be my favourite character. He'd like to be a professional player, but he works in some kind of stock room. He hasn't yet learned who Ye is either, but somehow I don't think he'll treat him any differently once he does.

Huang Shaotian, a professional player on another team (er, I forget which one...the blue one?) who is a friend of Ye's and periodically comes in to fight/play with him on the 10th server. He's the mouth of the South type and would rival Stephen Chow with his patter.

Yifan, who was on Tiny Herb's (I know, I know, the names are ridiculous) professional team but was always ranked last and got kicked back to training camp. He winds up playing with Ye and does actually know who he is because the guild leader figured out VERY quickly that it was Ye kicking everyone's butt from his playing style. He had no confidence and is slowly blossoming under Ye's tutelage.

And...you know what, that's enough. If I go anymore, I'll be starting to create whole team rosters.

Anyway, there are a few things going on driving the plot -- Ye is trying to find rare materials to build a weapon that his  now dead friend created (the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella...and no, I'm not kidding, that's actually what it is called) back when they were teens. How that happened, I dunno, but that's what he's doing. This has lead him to complete missions/set records and all the guilds are competing for him because he's got mad skills.

And there's this asshole dude that he'd fired from the team that's trying to make his life miserable.

And machinations by guild leaders to try and utilise his mad skillz.

The game sequences are really well done, which I think is what attracts little dude. But there's a fair amount of humour (I put most of that on the lead actor, who's doing a great job) to balance things out. Some stuff makes no sense -- like why the guy is basically broke after being a professional gamer for 10 years (he should have been making some buck the whole time, no?) and exactly how the guilds / farm teams are connected with the professional teams.

But, at any rate, it's a pretty good show. Maybe that's the key to my enjoyment level of Chinese dramas...just need to find the ones that are predominately NOT romance and have other story drivers. I've had next to no luck on ones that include romance.

And great to find something to watch with little dude. :-)

Edit: We're now more than half way through and even the hubster has watched some of the episodes (sucked in enough to put it on pause when he has to take a break, so he is paying attention...though he says it's "the most Asian thing ever" ... to which I say, haha, have I got some shows for you...). Still holding our interest and it's been introducing even more characters as Ye is now putting his new team together. It's a fun show. Not groundbreaking but just the right amount of humour and low-key drama. Entertaining but not overly angsty.

Edit: We finished it and really enjoyed it. I can't say that any part of it was surprising, but overall it was just an enjoyable underdog story with a good blend of everything except romance (of which it had basically zip, zero, zilch). Would love to find another thing like this to watch with little dude because it was perfect for us to watch together.

Let's Eat

Heh. Yeah, I really do seem to like shows that feature food. Am I living vicariously? Yes, yes I am. Heck, watching romantic Kdramas in general is living vicariously given my life.

Anyway, Let's Eat is one that I noticed has a number of seasons (though interestingly, it looks like one of the male leads is the only one that continues on?) and, at least in Season 1, a female lead in her 30's that's been divorced. Lee Soo-Kyung (played by an actress of the same name) is 33 and fairly fulfilled in life (she works as a manager in a law office) except that she loves food and is often bummed when she can't eat out at a place that only serves large portions...or because it's a bit taboo to be there on your own as a single woman). She's a bit tightly wound sometimes but fairly well-meaning. Mostly, I'd say she doesn't suffer fools gladly.

A 20 something former heiress (her dad is currently under indictment and she's still spending money like she has it--she's very sweetly naive...the kind of girl you'd hate if she wasn't so gosh darn nice) moves in next door. And there's Koo Dae-Young (Yoon Doo-Joon--the actor that continues on in seasons 2 and 3) living on her other side. She finds him annoying and suspicious as he's kind of overly solicitous (and he seems to take a lot of phone calls with a lot of women where he's very obviously lying to them "Oh, sorry, I have to go, babe, I'm about to get on an airplane to Jeju...").

Anyway, I don't feel like recapping the entire thing...let's just say that weirdly there's some kind of bad dude/possible murderer going around in her neighbourhood and the show is very obviously trying to tease that it is Dae-Young (but in such an obvious way that you know it isn't, especially since he's the one that continues on with the series). But the food stuff is good and interesting -- Dae-Young is a foodie and (apparently, though not confirmed yet) runs a food blog that Soo-Kyung really likes. And I like that it's showing the challenges of being a divorced 30-something woman.

There's also the lead lawyer that Soo-Kyung works with (he's the fourth in the picture) who has a bit of an awkward crush on her though she definitely isn't seeing it as yet. Looking forward to when they actually get to creating their foodie club (as teased by the descriptions). I'm just finished with episode 2 so far. Will write more when I'm farther along.

Hmmmm...basically, I feel like this one is more fulfilling the promise that The Cravings had, which is probably why I gave that one up already.

Edit: Oh!! Just saw where I knew Yoon Doo-Joon from! He played the male lead in Splash Splash Love! No wonder I don't want to believe any bad things about him. ha!

And I forgot to mention my one meh about the show -- it's also got Jang Won-Young (who always seems to play a pervert or some kind of idiot or slimeball or something...and always has horrible nasty character quirks like sticking his hand down his trousers or through his hair and then smelling them) as a co-worker and husband of Soo-Kyung's best friend. What is it with the smelling the fingers thing? It's so gross.

Update 7 October 2020: Wah! Didn't realise it had been so long ago since I started this one. I finally started watching it again recently, partly because I felt like I needed to clear off some of the in-progress shows. It's been a weird, weird time, but more about that in another post. 

So. I have two more episodes left in this season. To do a VERY quick summation, Soo-Kyung distrusted Dae-Young for a good portion of the show (to the point of reporting him to the police at one point), but then thawed, then figured out he was the Foodie blogger, then started falling for him. Meanwhile, the younger lady has liked him all along and Soo-Kyung knows this (and assumed he liked her too--I mean, why not, she's young, pretty, sweet & he's always so nice to everyone that it's hard to tell what he really feels anyway; consummate salesman) and so has been holding herself back (also, I think, because she's a divorcee and older than him by a few years). Then lawyer dude, after being mostly a raving ass to her for the last ten years while also crushing on her, finally figures out he loves her and does a 180 and asks her out. Which naturally she finds rather confusing. And we're at the point where Dae-Young has actually kinda sorta figured out that he is liking her too (after he thinks she's been kidnapped, when, in fact, she was helping the police catch the guy carrying out the random assaults -- which, hey, show, kudos to you for not making it a damsel in distress thing and giving her some agency). At the end of the 14th episode, Dae-Young kisses her, surprising them both a bit, and it is witnessed by Jin-yi (the younger lady). 

There's more, but that's kinda the important bits. 

I'm actually a bit confused now because I know that Dae-Young is the only one that goes on to Season 2, when he moves to another city. Because that means the show is probably pushing for Soo-Kyung to wind up with lawyer dude or...? And, while lawyer guy is being sweet now and is a big man-baby and is trying and has liked her for over 10 years...there's literally no reason for her to wind up with him. They don't have anything in common. She's got no feelings for him beyond, oh, hey, my boss that's mostly been a dick for the last ten years but has suddenly confessed to me and oh man oh man this is awkward. She and Dae-Young actually make a reasonably good couple. They both love food. They argue, yeah, but at this point, it's affectionately. They get on. They have stuff in common. They talk like people together. There's no imbalance of power. There's no 10 years of weirdness to get over. 

So, eh, what the hell, show? You've actually set them up with a good relationship arc and...what? I guess I'll have to wait and see what they do, but I'm finding this very confusing.

That said, the food bits of the show are always worthwhile. A bit drawn out (sometimes uncomfortably so), but it always makes you hungry.

Edit: I finished it and it ended nicely (though a bit rushed) but...they wind up together. So I dunno what that means for the season 2, since the female lead isn't in it. Sigh.

The Cravings

Okay, so I like shows that have something to do with food. Apparently. Why? I dunno. I like food. And I saw The Cravings on Netflix and the episodes were really short -- 9 or 10 minutes). So I thought I'd give it a shot. Bonus that it had an "older" (i.e. still younger than me but at least not an early 20s girl) woman as the lead. Also, it had 2 seasons so I figured it ought to be okay.

I actually watched it maybe last week? I can't remember. So...meh. I watched just the first episode but there wasn't really anything in particular attractive about it. It felt longer than the 9 minutes it was. The lead is rather depressing -- she's recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend. Her job seems kinda dead end. The promised food looked okay but wasn't quite enough to grab my interest.

It does get good reviews, so maybe I'll try again later. There's too many other things I'm in progress with though, so I dunno.

My Contracted Husband, Mr. Oh

Back to the gym today and I just didn't feel up to the teen-ish ridiculousness of Accidentally in Love today, so I thought I'd try the first episode of something else that I'd downloaded that sounded like it would be more mature & romantic & possibly relatable. My Contracted Husband, Mr. Oh. 

So...yeah...the blurb says: "Han Seung-Joo (Uee) is a single woman in her mid 30's and she works as a PD at a broadcasting station. She does well at her job, but she is not nearly as good when it comes to housework. Han Seung-Joo has a hard time dealing with social prejudices about single women. To get the position of a "married woman," Han Seung-Joo marries Oh Jak-Doo (Kim Kang-Woo) who lives in the mountain. Their marriage is not based on love, but their relationship develops romantically."

Sounds reasonable, yeah? Bit of a cohabitation hijinks thing, maybe some fish out of water stuff, probably light and fluffy...right?

Why don't I know better by now? And who are these people that write the blurbs on AsianWiki and Netflix and Wikipedia? WHO ARE THEY? I kinda want to smack them. THEY LIE. THEY LIE LIKE A RUG.

Because, while there might be some fluffiness in this one, it also seems like it will be chockfull of makjang craziness. Han Seung-Joo is, indeed, a single woman in her 30's and very focused on her career. She's also supporting a deadbeat mother and brother (haven't even met him yet, but based on the horrible mother alone, he's bound to be awful) who take advantage of her every step of the way. And everyone -- friends, strangers, you name it, is constantly after her to get married. Yes, she does suck at housework. She's a workaholic. She's manipulative (in getting people to do things or appear on her shows). But at least she does have a couple of girlfriends who do things with her...when their husbands let them.

And...apparently, someone wants to kill her. And actually does kill someone in her house...on her bed... (a temporary renter), likely because they think it's her. So much for light and fluffy.

And Oh Jak-Doo is actually Oh Hyuk, who Seung-Joo was trying to find because he's the grandson of a famous gayageum (a traditional music instrument) maker who disappeared sometime back to go live in the mountains. A mountain that, strangely enough, Seung-Joo now owns due to the death of her one decent relative (her aunt...who specifically left it to her and not her older brother or mother because they are rotten people).

And Oh Jak-Doo coincidentally saves her at the end of episode 1 from a random attacker (probably the same guy that tried to run her off the road and/or killed the woman in her house) and she swoons. At least she had an excuse. The bad dude had been choking her mere moments before.

So...oh, man, I dunno. On the one hand, I rather liked the slightly strange Oh Jak-Doo from the get go. Not sure I'm much impressed with Seung-Joo. Definitely not in the mood for makjang horrible mother antics. Was not at all expecting Death! Murder! Drama!!

And it's long. Episodes are over an hour and there are 24 of them. I checked out some reviews and everyone is pretty much, like, around the midway point you want to gouge your eyes out. But you can't really trust reviews. Half of them said "oh, the chemistry between the leads made it all worth it" and the other half say "I didn't like them together at all." But most did seem to think it had way too much over the top drama.

I haven't seen any of the lead actors in anything before. They all seemed pretty good. But this will probably go on my "watching" list for a while and maybe I'll just do an episode now and again. We'll see. You can't trust those blurb summary writers. At all.

I Hear You

So...I still had some time at the gym and I didn't have another Accidentally in Love downloaded (and the wifi was dodgy), so I started another Chinese drama that I had already downloaded an episode of. It's called I Hear You.  The short blurb I'd seen somewhere said it was a romance between two very different people; him, a serious violinist and her, an aspiring voice actress...and they meet on some reality TV show. Just found a longer blurb on and it says:

Bei Er Duo, a girl from an ordinary family, dreams about studying in Japan to be a professional voice actress. However, her mother wants her to marry rich whilst she is young, leading to continuous blind dates which irritate Bei Er Duo. In her desperation to raise funds for studying overseas as well as helping her best friend Tang Li out of a crisis, Bei Er Duo joins a couple reality program, encountering top violin maker Ye Shu Wei.  

Ye Shu Wei is from a family of artists and has a low-key, mysterious, and genius character in both the composing and violin industry. He was forced to join the reality program having lost a bet to his nephew Yu Sheng. In fact, the actual reason that attracted Ye Shu Wei to participate in the show is not his bet with Yu Sheng. Instead, he seeks to identify the person who correctly answered his audition question. Because the reality show is faced with the crisis of integrity, Bei Er Duo and Ye Shu Wei start a lively and funny cohabitation life, and spontaneously fell into the fate of a wonderful romance together.

Hmmm. Well. That all sounds lovely, right? And the episodes are just around 30 minutes, which is good. Eh, I dunno. I stopped when I ran out of time and I've still got maybe 8 minutes to go in the episode but so far he seems like a pretty big asshole (is that what passes for mysterious?) and she's kinda stupid, with a permanently pouty face. And they appear to totally hate each other...her, mostly because she interviewed for a voice acting spot he was a judge on and she overheard the person who got it talking about how it was guaranteed because she was the daughter of some bigwig and so she (FL) was pissed that it was all a waste of time and blames it (rightly or not) on him. No idea what's up with him. But they still wind up pretending to be a couple on this reality dating show even though they don't know each other because she wants money to go to Japan. So, yeah, bit morally ambiguous. It wasn't what I was expecting. And the acting hasn't impressed me particularly.

I dunno why, but the girls with the permanent pouts really do annoy me. It's not her fault that's her face, I suppose. And I'm sure some people love that look. Just not me. And the dude seemed wooden. I'll probably finish the episode but not sure if I'll go beyond that. We'll see. I haven't had huge success with Chinese language dramas anyway. Maybe that's part of it.

Edit: Okay. I finished the first episode. Felt I needed to do at least that. And...just...meh. Don't particularly care for the actors (or, at least, their respective portrayals in this particular show). Didn't enjoy the premise. Saw no chemistry or hints thereof. Found the FL to be particularly off-putting. Found the ML to be playing it way too stiff in a ridiculous way. So I looked up some reviews and...sounds like it goes on in that fashion and that the chemistry between them never really improves (mostly on her part; apparently he's lovely and adorable once he loosens up) AND the killer...the end has the whole Noble Idiot thing going on with a separation for no reason, etc. etc. So this one is going on to my "not planning to finish list" right away.

Hey Ana, Let's Eat

Had found another super short episode drama (12-16 minutes each, only 5 episodes) and watched it on the way to and from Paris. It was on Amazon Prime, which seems to have a very random collection of short dramas (like the one with Cha Eun Woo).

The blurb:

An adorable love story of Park Ji-yong, a good-looking home shopping host, and Sohn Ana, a secluded girl who never leaves home and whose only joy of life is home shopping.

Starring: Nam Gyu-ri (the girl, was in a trio singing group, been in a few things, though none that I've seen before), Im Seul-ong (the dude; he's an Idol from 2AM and has only been in a handful of things...weirdly, this one isn't even listed on the AsianWiki)

So...at first I was, like, hey they're doing a fair amount of character build up without any face time between the main characters. How're they going to wrap this up so quickly? And then basically it was BOOM we barely know each other and have only actually had one conversation where one of them wasn't blind drunk but oh, how I care about you, let's be together from now on.

So...yeah. I mean, it's kinda cute. They are both interestingly damaged characters. She was left at the altar by her fiancé (for another dude) and has basically been in seclusion and not leaving the house for two years with a reaction where she can't eat with other people without getting sick. Obviously a mental reaction to the, er, trauma. He used to be fat and severely insecure and changed himself with the encouragement of another TV host (after he was accidentally cast as a host instead of a background person) after mis-reading her kindness as interest. Since he figured out she was never into him, he's just been kinda...existing.

He winds up having to recruit her because she's become a power blogger. She won't talk to him. He shows up and sort of accidentally shares his life story. She finally leaves the house to go meet with him, but he's out drinking for the first time in years and doesn't answer. But she runs into him anyway...after he's seriously drunk. She gets him home. He kisses her. Makes some sad drunken confessions. Next day, wakes up and is confused as to who she even is. But cooks her breakfast which she is magically able to eat (because he's confessed his weaknesses to her?). And yeah, now she's working as a host with him and they're in lurve.

This would have worked better longer, definitely. Or even just a few more short episodes where they get to actually know each other once they finally meet. As it is, it was kind of weird. 0 to 60 in no time. But the actors were cute and at least they were adorable together.

Would I watch it again? No. It was a good diversion for the train ride, but story-wise it doesn't hold up as-is. Am I glad I watched it? Eh, it was okay. I wouldn't say it changed my life in any way but it was okay for what it was.