2 Fathers...and being Asian enough

So...my agent called the other day and asked if I would maybe be interested in putting together a proposal / writing a MG book featuring Chinese mythology / ghosts / mystery. Because it'd be a topical thing to tackle these days. And I am interested in it, though I had immediate misgivings. As Asian as I probably appear to him, I am half-Chinese. I didn't grow up speaking Chinese (well, not more than a few words). While a lot of my upbringing was definitely Asian, we didn't observe a lot of the traditional stuff. In fact, I probably know more about any of that than my mom did. Before she died, I certainly knew more Chinese than she did. 

But...I know more Korean and Japanese than I do Chinese mostly because I...ahem...watch a lot of dramas and anime. I've talked about this before. I do feel a bit of guilt about that. Shoot, I even cook more Korean and Japanese food than Chinese food. 

So, I do have some possible ideas to explore and I will write up a proposal / synopsis and maybe a couple of chapters to see if I can get into the head of the character. Might as well as I'm still waiting on edits on book 2 (which they've had for nearly a year now). But, along with the ever-present author imposter syndrome feelings, this also gives me am-I-Asian-enough feelings. 

Which is a VERY long introduction to me deciding I ought to make an effort to learn more Mandarin AND watch more Chinese language dramas instead of Korean ones. 

So I randomly picked a few interesting ones on Netflix to download an episode of and watched the first one of 2 Fathers today during exercise. And...well...this one seems okay so far, but it was put out in 2013 and I gotta say that the age of it shows. It's...not shiny as Kaylee would say. It might just be a stylistic thing, where it's a bit over-act-y (which is a problem I've had with Taiwanese shows before that I've tried).

The brief synopsis is that, seven years ago, two men were called to the hospital where they find out they might be the father of a newly abandoned baby (we never see the mother; apparently she had a dream she was going to follow). All they have is the letter from the mum saying she doesn't know who the father is. So they both try to claim the little girl (how refreshing) and say they'll get a DNA test. Then, weirdly, it goes into a big montage of them BOTH raising her together through her babyhood and toddler stage, etc. until it's up to the present time where she's 7 and in school. They all live together. There's a lot of jokes where people think the two dads are a couple -- where they alternate between being thoroughly affronted by that (they argue a lot) or playing up to it to annoy the gossipers.

One is a florist who is the strict dad, but seems sweet. The other is a lawyer who is the pushover dad who will buy ALL the chocolate. 

They both have a run in with a woman who winds up being their daughter's new teacher and her impression of florist dad is good and definitely not-so-good of lawyer dad. Obviously, she's gonna be the love interest of one of them, though it could honestly be either at this point. 

Honestly, they all seem okay, if over-act-y. The whole thing about them both being her dad is confusing. Did they take a DNA test? Was it inconclusive? What?? Because she has the last name of the lawyer one, I think. So...if he's her real dad (though she insists to her teacher she "has two real dads"), why would the Florist dad stick around? Because it also seemed like lawyer-dad was the boyfriend of the mother and the florist-dad was a fling? Maybe? 

So...I'll probably give it another episode or two and see. I think I have to think of it like it's a 30 minute sitcom vs. an hour long drama show. The girl is adorable though.

Edit: Holy Crap. I just looked online to see if I could find a non-spoilery review and I did...but it mentioned that they'd never watched a long episode drama before...so...I looked up how many episodes there are and OMG there are 73!!! Erm. That's almost 55 hours worth (the episodes are about 45 minutes long). And...uh...I can't say I liked the first episode well enough to sit through that many episodes. Oh man. So, yeah. I guess I'll be giving up on this one now.

Navillera

I'd put this one on my list when it popped up because the subject looked intriguing and poetic. And I saw someone posting about how beautiful it was, so I thought I'd give it a shot after my lukewarm feelings about My Shy Boss. So, it's Navillera. My first question was, honestly, what does that even mean? I did find this post which offers a few possibilities and all of them seem very fitting.

I've just watched one episode so far and I have to say that it looks very promising. We have two stories here -- Sim Deok-Chool (Park In-Hwan) is 70 and a retired postal worker. Ever since he was a child, he was interested in ballet -- Look, abeoji, how can people fly like that? -- but was forbidden by his father and then, life just never let up. He was always taking care of his family and never had time to indulge himself in his lifelong dream. Now, he's got time but will his body (and his family) allow him to finally learn to fly? This veteran actor has been in a TON of things, but somehow I've not seen him before.

Then there's Lee Chae-Rok (Song Kang). He's 23 and has a troubled past, though you're not entirely sure exactly what's what by the end of the first episode. The things you know for sure are that a) his mother is dead and b) his father was in prison (and was just released and there's definitely a lot of emotional baggage there) and c) some people from high school blame him for some reason on the implosion of the football club (?) and d) even though ballet was the thing that sparked a passion in him once, right now he is struggling. The actor is also in Sweet Home, which looks to be a VERY intense horror-y survival show. It's very impressive that he apparently learned ballet for the role; from the bit I've seen, he's quite convincing.

By the end of the first episode, the two are brought together, somewhat reluctantly on Chae-Rok's part. He doesn't want to have anything to do with teaching this old man to dance, as his own instructor is telling him to do. For the instructor's part, Deok-Chool burning desire to dance reminds him of Chae-Rok's beginning days. So you can see why he pairs them up.

I'll definitely watch this one, but I think it might be something I do a bit of at a time as it looks like it will be very emotional in both rewarding and draining ways, if that makes sense. 

It's an interesting one for me because, being the age I am, I'm very firmly situated midway between the two characters and there are elements of both of their stories that I feel I can relate to. 

My Shy Boss

Er, so. I thought I'd try something romantic and light and I'd seen this one recommended a bunch of times: My Shy Boss (aka My Introverted Boss). But...ah...the literal first scene in the show is of some woman committing suicide by walking off a building and landing on a car. Boom. Blood. Dead. WTF?

To be fair, the rest of the show was on the fluffy side, though the actions of the female lead in particular weren't making sense until the end (when you find out she thinks the male lead was responsible for the suicide of her sister, the roof jumper and the whole reason she came to work for the company was to find evidence against him).

The dude in question is painfully shy and has some severe social anxiety. Which is what I'd thought the show was about -- some perky female lead drawing her boss out of his shell and Huzzah! love ensues. Which is, I guess, what will happen...after a bunch of drama about did he or did he not have some responsibility in her sister's death...so, yeah. 

At this point, I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to keep on with it right now. Maybe I'll ask on Reddit whether or not the whole "did you kill my sister thing" drags on for a lot of episodes or not -- if it doesn't, then, okay, I'll see. But if it goes on for a goodly portion of the show, meh. 

Also wasn't immediately in love with either of the lead actors. Not that they were bad, but neither lit any kind of spark of interest either. Slightly more interested in the male protagonist, but he's in such a state of cringe that you mostly feel sorry for him. But the female character is...I dunno...a little annoying? It's hard to even put my finger on why. 

It also looks like the story is set up to have a lover's triangle with shy boss' co-CEO and best friend wherein said best friend may be back-stabby. That might not be the case, but signs were definitely there.

I feel like I'm talking myself out of watching any more of this one. Maybe I'll give it one more episode to see or try to find a not-too-spoiler-y review.

Hrrrhhhmmmm. Found this review. Which is not making me re-think my meh-ness feeling about this show. So maybe this'll go to the "maybe I'll go back to this someday" list.