Easy Fortune, Happy Life

Sigh. I went to the gym and tried out another Taiwanese drama called Easy Fortune, Happy Life and I only made it 15 minutes before I gave up on it. I think I need to just stop trying the Taiwanese ones. I don't think I've finished one yet, though I have made it longer than 15 minutes on some of them. 

The Netflix description says:

Years after a wealthy man is healed by a rural herbalist, fate lands him in the same hospital where the woman's granddaughter is treating patients.

And it's billed as "romantic" and "goofy." All of that sounded nice. But...in that fifteen minutes...you see that the wealthy man is the owner of some super huge pharmaceutical company and while he's lying dying in the hospital, his family gathers around like literal vultures. They want him dead so they can inherit. They aren't even trying to hide it. I mean, thoroughly ugly, miserable people...and one of them is the ostensible love interest (or possibly two of them; though one grandson (?) was at least semi-decent--but he's not the dude in the picture). 

The acting was...iffy. I really just don't like that over-act-y style. While the granddaughter seemed like she'd be okay, every other character I immediately loathed. And I'm sure that's the point, but I couldn't imagine sitting through over 20 episodes of it to see the male lead (maybe) redeem himself. It's from 2009 too, so maybe the age of it has something to do with it.

I did check out reviews on Viki too after I was feeling so very MEH and found this:

And, wah, yeah, that solidified it for me. So very NOT finishing this one. Right to the ditch list.

Akash: Path of the Five

Along with Pub Encounter, I installed a number of other otome games on little dude's PC...some of which I picked up quite awhile ago. Ahem. Steam sales. amiright? One of those I don't actually ever remember buying, though I do remember looking at it, so I must have picked it up as Lo! There it was on the list. Akash: Path of the Five!

I have to admit that I didn't totally love the art at first, but it's grown on me. Especially in comparison to Pub Encounter. Ahem. There are no wrinkles here. Of course, all the character are about to "come of age" at 20 (though the water dude Caspian totally looks and acts about twice that). 

Let's start this over. You're a (very extremely) rare female elemental. There hasn't been a coming of age ceremony for one in 200 years. All the other elementals in your village (and other villages) are male. In order to keep the species going, there's been a truce of sorts with humans where (happily this was stressed) willing human women can mate with elemental males to have half-breed children. But an actual female elemental is so rare and so coveted that literal wars have been fought over them in the past. Strengthening the bloodline, etc. etc., not to mention that marriage between humans and elementals is forbidden. 

So. Yes. Imagine an entire village of all dudes looking at this poor elemental girl like she's the only game in town -- because she is. 

She's still attending school and has five classmates (conveniently) all of the same age, one from each element: air, fire, water, earth, light. Oh, and btw, she can currently work ALL the elemental magics but will have to choose one at the coming of age ceremony. Yet another thing for this poor girl to stress about as she's also beset on all sides by all the village vendors that want her to pick their stuff for the ceremony. 

At any rate, I gather that the peace treaty with the humans is about to come to an end (or maybe it was supposed to be re-negotiated after the ceremony?) and the village recently captured a human (male, of course, and the same-ish age...also, of course...). He's the son of the human's village chief? So things are tense. 

This otome is fully voiced and it's actually kind of refreshing. It truly is *fully* voiced -- including shopkeepers and the father and random people. Often, if an otome is voiced, it will just be the main characters (and not always even the MC). The voice actors are decent as well. 

The interface is good -- easy to use and figure out. Whenever you hit a decision point and you get a "point" with one of the guys, you get a flower blooming. I do like that -- I like some kind of indication when you make a choice. 

There's also a sidebar on the save screen where it shows a symbol for each of the five elements (but not one for the human, which is interesting, since you can also apparently get "flowers" from interactions with him) and (I think) the symbol that is "most lit up" is where you're headed. Not entirely sure how it works -- I've been mostly picking answers for Lux (the light element dude; he seemed nice and is the "childhood friend" and I was NOT in the mood for the super shmexy flirty air elemental Rocco) and his symbol is well lit. But one chapter I did pick something that apparently led to a point with the fire element guy and his symbol was also briefly lit --- but a few chapters later, it's dark again. 

Anyway, I did find a spoiler-free review on Reddit that lays out the guys perfectly:

Love interests are: Sirocco (Wind elemental, your typical otome womanizer), Rowan (Earth Elemental, your typical himbo), Lux (Light Elemental, childhood friend trope), Ignatius (Fire Elemental, tsundere), and Caspian (Water elemental, your typical cold guy - which also happens to be voiced by Sungwon Cho, which is why I found it hard to not call him TV-senpai when I played his route). I'm glad to tell you they're all best bois.

I've played for roughly half an hour and I'm not sure how far along I am in the story (no idea how many "chapters" there are) or whether things radically change when you go after a different guy. I started with Lux as he seemed like the "easy" choice (followed by Rowan, who seems very similar). There haven't been a ton of decision points, honestly, and it already feels like I'm "set" in Lux's route. I think I'll definitely have to do at least two routes to see how the re-playability is. Maybe for the next go I'll try a completely different character type like Caspian or Ignatius. 

I would say that I'm enjoying the humour in the dialogue and that the choices you can make have enough variety in them to keep it interesting. I'm also excited that this is a native English game and not translated and comes from a small independent studio. We need more of that, please! 

Will write up more after I've finished a route...

Edit: Okay! I completed Lux's route! And discovered a few more things...

Firstly, the storyline was good and I can see that the choices you make must, by necessity, change how the story goes (i.e. peace talks vs. fighting), so right now it seems like it will have a fair bit of replay value. I don't think that there are necessarily "good endings" and "bad endings", though maybe there are. The marriage question, for instance, seems to be a "you do you" thing and you could still be together but not married if you wanted. 

Hello, I'm Lux, and
I'll be your Sun God
this evening...

Also, there's definitely some re-playability in that, even though I finished his route, I only unlocked about 2/3 of the CGs? So if you wanted to go back and collect the rest by trying different answers, you could. Some of the full body CGs are ultimate cheese-y. I mean, look at that. It's just ridiculous down to the well-positioned little cover up solar flare.

That said, Lux was a fun route if you like too-innocent, I'll love you forever best bois. Like, I'm sure even in the other routes he's probably all "I'll support you however you want!" because he's just too pure for any world. 

Oh -- and one thing I discovered is that there's a way to go back and re-try choices without having to go back to a previous save. You can just scroll through the dialogue and re-do a choice on the fly if you want. So I will try and make use of that in my next go through to see if I can maybe unlock all the CGs in one go rather than having to go back. 

After you finish a route (the game proper stops basically at the Coming of Age Ceremony where you choose your element -- which I had picked "light" earlier, but I kinda thought I'd get another choice at the end, but I didn't...so maybe next time I'll try the "I haven't decided yet" when asked as I'm curious what happens if you pick an element that isn't the same as the dude), you then get a brief epilogue as well as a bonus story. The bonus story is an actual story -- it had two CGs but was mostly text you read on screen. 

In Lux's case, it involved the two of you preparing for a baking contest sometime in the future vs. his dad & his dad's partner and this whole side thing about his grandfather's pact with a rather horny demon. The weird thing was that I swear there was a part in Lux's route where he reminds you of when you first met and it made it sound like his dad was dead? So very confused. It was interesting, but a bit weird. 

Overall, I think this game definitely seems worth it. I spent just a bit over 2 hours on this play through (the Steam tracking says 2 hours 30 minutes, but some of that was me leaving the game on while I was doing chores). I won't spend that entire time on a route again, I imagine, as I'll fast forward through text bits I've already done, but I still have to think there's a good hour in there per route, maybe more, especially if you go slow and try and unlock every CG and read every epilogue, etc. Or, if you take time in between plays and read through everything again.

The art did grow on me. The sprites are all great quality and even change expression in the text bar area. The iffier art are the actual moving background scenes, which are a bit fuzzy. But I was wondering if I should play it in a smaller window? As I'm playing it on little dude's PC, with the really good graphics card, maybe I've just got the window too big and that's making things a bit wonky? I dunno. I didn't re-size it, but maybe I should. Everything else is crisp, though. 

So, am I glad I bought it? Yes. The MC is a particularly good one -- resourceful, take charge, etc. etc. There's even a bit when the village elders are falling all over congratulating Lux on saving the both of them and then take MCs testimony and realise it's really more on her -- and actually apologise and offer a commendation to her as well. Given how much of a wilting flower most otome heroines are, this one is a good contrast. She even initiates any shenanigans (in Lux's route, anyway...otherwise nothing would have happened because he is too pure for that).

Will I play it again? Yes. I'll probably finish every boy's route, even the flirty one, though I may not unlock every CG. Will update this with brief summaries of feelings about each, but so far, Lux is a total cinnamon roll -- a massive mountain of a sun god who likes to bake, is loyal to a fault, and wouldn't hurt a fly even though he looks like he could Hulk Smash the Hound. 

Edit: Okay, so I went through Ignatius' route and I have to revise my opinion a bit on the replay-ability. While there were some differences (and somehow I wound up in a strange mini-game that I totally sucked at as I wasn't prepared where you have to dodge barrels), the story is largely almost exactly the same. Ignatius is a slightly tsun-tsun little muffin who likes to draw and is an awkward little cinnamon bun, but the feel is pretty similar to Mr. Sun God Lux. The only really noticeable difference was in their escape from the human village taking a bit of a different path, but everything else seemed much the same. 

So, I'd say that it's still a decent game, especially if you pick it up on sale. I wish they'd even just made it so you could pick different vendors for the cake, dress, and jewellery, just to get some extra choices/flavour in there though. But I think what I'll do is let it sit for some months before I try to play another route to give myself time to forget the nitty gritty details. Of course, I haven't tried going "evil" and all "kill the humans!" so maybe that would make things go drastically different. 

Pub Encounter: Yuze Ryunosuke

So...er...I finally found the time to install Pub Encounter on little dude's Windows PC and played through a route today. I had to go through the Prologue again which reminded me how, er, little the art charms me. I mean, seriously?? These characters are all my age and they've basically just given them a shed-load of wrinkles. Some more so than others. As I'd noticed before, this isn't an otome where you gradually fall into a route -- you have to actually select a character. So I kind of randomly picked the one that seemed like the "shy businessman" type partly because he was the only one that had a "Season 2" as far as I could tell and his wrinkles weren't as bad. So, meet Yuze Ryunosuke.

I got about 2/3 of the way through his route and realised that I had no idea how I was doing other than a mystery intimacy % score when you save (which I just did after every chapter). So I did look up a walkthrough just to see if there's even any way to tell how you're doing and apparently I was picking all the "good" answers for the best ending naturally, which was good. There were, eh, two in the last bit I probably would have picked a different answer for (so sue me, I don't like pink), but it was nice to see that I think I would have received the best ending no matter what. Though, to be fair, it looks like there are only "Good" and "Best" endings, so I guess you can't really get disappointed no matter what. I think the next one I'll try I won't do any of it with a walkthrough to see what happens.

But. Okay. Let's see...I'm not entirely sure how to write about this one. I mean, I liked it. I wouldn't say it wowed me. The storyline was okay -- basically, he was burned in the past by a stalker and now doesn't trust women but, you, of course, he soon finds himself falling for because you're different. Or, actually, just NOT an insane stalker. Because dude literally seems to attract these likes bees to honey. 

He's the owner of a lingerie company. He seems a, um, very unlikely candidate for this job, but okay. 

On the plus side, he's fairly sweet. Kinda stiff and shy -- except after you guys start seeing each other and then he gets a bit more...assertive. 

And, weirdly, you make the first move -- he's walking you home after you get a bit (a LOT) tipsy and...well...you basically practically assault him because he tastes like a Bellini. It's actually kind of horrifying and hilarious because THEY CHOSE THIS AS THE CG. And the poor guy looks completely scandalised and terrified. And this is at the very beginning of the route. 

I...just...did they think this was a sexy picture? 

Anyway, MC, being the patient, always altruistic gal she is, helps him sort out his (new and old) stalker problems as she dodges rocks and gets doused with cold water. She is the epitome of turning the other cheek. Sometimes literally. She also, apparently, works for free for him while also holding down her own job (that she hates) and he, er, pays her in lingerie? And shmexy times? Kind of? 

The best ending has him proposing in front of all the other regulars at the pub. I suppose it's fairly satisfying and his character was nice. I do wish that they'd made her a bit older. He's 41 (and actually, I think the youngest of the regulars at the pub? So this feeling will only get worse, I suspect) and she's gotta be in her twenties. It really would have felt better if she were in her 30's. The MC in general was decent -- not as wimpy as some, but not as ballsy as others either. I didn't want to smack her though (mostly), so that was good. 

The shmexy-times were fairly low key (mostly text-y "Oh my" and "Oh what are you doing?" kind of stuff) so not as cringe inducing as, say, Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome but not necessarily what you'd expect from something with the sub-title "Forbidden Romance." That's not the bits I read for anyway, honestly, so that was okay. 

Story-wise, it was really, really obvious who the (number 2) stalker was from the beginning. Actually, the whole route, once they set up the basics, was really obvious. I'm curious as to whether the others will be equally transparent or if this will hold any surprises. Definitely at least two of the others seem WAY more flirty, so we'll see where that takes the story.

Did I enjoy it? Yeah. I wouldn't say it gave a high level of satisfaction though -- I don't see re-playing this route in my future. I will do the second season and the date thing you unlock after completing the ending, but I don't think this is one that you'd replay again. 

Run On

Ok, I was bad. I know, I know, I said I'd try and stick to Chinese shows for a while...but I wasn't loving any of them. So, I started Run On. 

Ah, and darn it, I'm liking it so much. I know exactly why too. The male lead, Ki Seon-Gyeom (played by Im Si-Wan) is delightfully off-kilter. He doesn't say the things people expect him to say. He doesn't do the things people expect either. The social contract that we all operate under -- he doesn't really have a huge amount of use for it. And I love people like that. He also plays Seon-Gyeom with a very deadpan, blinking style, another thing I am a sucker for. I haven't seen him in anything before, but I'll have to look for him again.

And it's not just him. The female lead, Oh Mi-Joo (played by Shin Se-Kyung) is a little off herself. She's snarky and she talks to herself. She's plucky but also a bit of a mess. I like her. I also haven't seen her in anything, though she's in some shows that are on my list to watch. 

Anyway, as for the story...he's a national athlete (sprinter) who's dad is an Assemblyman (and, even though I've barely glimpsed him in the first two episodes, is apparently going to be a jerk...seriously, is every politician in every show always an asshole?) and his mother is a famous movie actress. He's kinda steeped in wealth and privilege, but it hasn't made him a snot. He's dealing with a situation with his running where two members of the team are ganging up on a junior member...and, when I say "ganging up" I mean assaulting him so badly he winds up in hospital. Seriously. These guys should be arrested for attempted murder. But, so far, it seems like Coach doesn't want to do anything about it because one of them is a star runner. From what I know of the show, I imagine this is the incident that prompts our hero's exit from the sport. 

Oh Mi-Joo is a translator (mostly movies) and dealing with some jerkiness from an old professor and an old boyfriend both. She winds up being hired as translator to our runner boy, though they'd already had a few fateful meetings already.  Strange ones. Which I love.

Throw in the secondary couple -- the young & beautiful head of the agency Seo Dan-A, played by Sooyoung (who runner boy has some history with of some kind?) and an aspiring artist. She's a bit of a psycho. He seems like a total sweetheart...which feels really bizarre because the character is played by Kang Tae-Oh who was the Oh-so-Evil-Yul-Moo in The Tale of Nokdu. 

I'm not sure about her yet, though she's a bit "off" herself...it might be that she's a total dick to her brother and I haven't seen any reason why yet. He's played by Choi Jae-Hyun, who was the younger gay brother in Sweet Munchies. And I already feel bad for him because of that.

I'm just two episodes in, but so far it's charming. I honestly don't even really care too much about the plot (though I already suspect I'm going to be annoyed at Assemblyman dad). I just want to see them all being slightly odd and falling in love.

Edit: Okay, so I'm up through episode 6 of 16. I'm still liking it -- at least, all of the NON Assemblyman Dad stuff. Gah, I really don't enjoy the evil self-absorbed power hungry parent trope. But the 4 leads are all quirky and odd and I really do like that. Not entirely sure about the pace as I don't actually feel like much has happened yet so even though I'm enjoying it overall, I'm also starting to feel a bit antsy about it. And, honestly, the end of episode hint that Asshole Dad is going to try and make Dan-A and Seon-Gyeom seems absolutely absurd. Seon-Gyeom has already proven repeatedly that he's past the point of doing what his dad wants and Seo Dan-A is not even remotely a pushover. So it kinda feels like...why bother? I can't think of anything that he could threaten either of them with to make them bow to his will. 

Edit: Actually finished this one some time ago and didn't get around to writing it up. Overall, it was good. The last episode was the weakest -- the main couple had an "okay" resolution (a few scenes showing them growing closer) but the whole thing with the dad was...solved by the mom divorcing him? And then all his political machinations just...fell apart? And he retired? And was giving mom flowers again? I mean, WTF. He spent the whole show trying to meddle and even started a (fake) reporting scandal about his own daughter sleeping with a married opponent...just...eh. 

Though that was somewhat better than how they wound up the second lead couple. They had, oh, about 3 heart wrenching "we have to split up because reasons" scenes and then...in the last episode, nothing's ever said or solved but there they all are having dinner together like nothing has happened. So, what was the point? And nothing really happened with her half-brothers?

So...on the plus side, I really liked the characters and the actors. And the plot was mostly okay, a bit bildungsroman at an older age, but, eh, okay. It just kinda fizzled with the story at the end. I wonder if there was a reason for that? Dunno. Would I watch it again someday? Probably not. Looking back, I don't feel like there were any moments I was like "AH!! Love this!" but I'm glad I watched it once.

Somewhere Only We Know

 In my continuing quest to find Chinese shows to watch, I tried out Somewhere Only We Know. 

It's from China and I gotta say that I am having more luck with it than the last couple of Taiwanese shows I've tried. The description says: "Ph.D. candidate in Physics Mu Cheng He catches a third-year student in English Xue Tong cheating on an exam. When he even becomes the substitute teacher in her elective course Russian and makes her study with him after classes, her hatred for him only grows. Over time, however, Xue Tong discovers Teacher Mu’s true character and comes to secretly love him." though that's incorrect in an important way -- she wasn't cheating, though he thought she was (it was her friends who were). He winds up helping to prove her innocence.

It also leaves out an important character note -- Xue Tong's father was a normal man who died a heroic death and she's been living her life "as the hero's daughter" when she'd rather just have a father. 

It's actually been a week or two since I watched the episodes (I'm 3 in) and I've watched some other things since then. I can't say that I loved the beginning of this one, though it was leaps and bounds better than the Taiwanese ones I'd tried right before it. 

It reminds me in many ways of Put Your Head on My Shoulder, but it's a bit...pale in comparison? It's bit more over-act-y than that one and I don't like the main leads nearly as well (either of them--they aren't as engaging or sympathetic, nor does this show have the same level of humour). That said, it isn't bad. I've read some reviews that said the first few episodes were the worst, so that might be it. I am willing to give it another episode or two to see if it will grab me either with story or character and not be something I watch just to listen to Chinese.

Way Back Into Love & Queen of No Marriage

Sigh. So. I tried two more non-Korean dramas and one I couldn't even finish the first episode of. Er, actually, just checked and I didn't finish the first episode of either of them. Which is why I'm just doing one post for both. 

First was Way Back Into Love. It's a Taiwanese show, actually, from 2011. Not to be confused with (apparently) a new 2020 Chinese Drama titled the same thing with an entirely different plot. 

It's the story of a woman who returns home after a long absence living in the US. Since she's been gone, her mother has died and now it's just her father running a run-down B&B along with some friends (?) that the mother had taken in that are closer to the daughter's age. The father and daughter argue a lot. He's getting older. She'd left all those years ago with a boyfriend, which immediately made me wonder if there were a kid somewhere in the picture...though I didn't get to the point in the show where said kid was introduced...but I see now from a summary I just found that, yes, indeed, there is a kid. There's also an old love interest (now a local doctor). 

I was just...underwhelmed with the acting, the pace, and the story. I felt like I could guess the entire plot from the 38 minutes of the episode that I saw. It also had a couple of dudes that were obviously there mostly for comic relief. I didn't like any of the characters enough to invest my time in watching it, much like the 2 Fathers show I tried before this one. Especially at 22 episodes running about 65 minutes each (or more). 

I mean, there wasn't anything horrible about it. I've definitely seen worse. But life is too short. This just didn't grab me. It might also have been partly a production quality thing -- it's older and it shows.

The second one, Queen of No Marriage, has actually been on my list a long time. But I only made it 22 minutes into that one. And, honestly, wanted to turn it off about 5 minutes in. It's also Taiwanese and circa 2009. It opens with a mother (who doesn't look old enough to have a 33 year old daughter, but hey) at a temple trying to work up some good karma for her daughter to get married...by having the priest whip her with a stick. Yeah. It's played for laughs but...yeah. Then we get a glimpse of the daughter, who is a reporter after a scandalous story. We also meet who will obviously be the potential love interest -- a handsome younger guy doing whatever part time jobs he can find and his sidekick (who wishes he were as handsome). 

Again, totally underwhelmed by the acting. And the comedic stuff that I just...didn't find all that funny. It's cheap jokes, people. I'd liked the idea of a noona romance (which was why it was on my list to begin with) but since she seemed to have the mentality of a 14 year old...er...just a big NOPE from me. While the main characters acting was okay (not amazing, but okay), the minor characters were...very, very stiff. I've seen high school plays with better acting. And more clever jokes.

So both of these are moving immediately to the Ditch List.

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.

Hello, Me!

I wanted to start something funny after the Uncanny Counter (I mean, it had humour, but it was more action than not), so I thought I'd try a new one that had popped up on Netflix called Hello, Me!

I'd also wanted to try it because the main female lead is Choi Gang-Hee, who I'd liked in Good Casting...I just didn't finish that show because the more episodes I watched, the more I wanted to whack the writers (completely incompetent spies! coincidences! bad guys so obvious!). Anyway, I'm glad I did. I'm actually 6 episodes in now, so nearly halfway through the 16. I just haven't blogged it. Been...busy? Tired? I dunno. I got my first COVID jab not long ago and it messed me up a bit (and still is). 

ANYWAY. It's good! Gang-Hee plays Ban Ha-ni, a 37 year old perennial and abject failure. It's a far cry from how she was when she was the Queen of her high school, but things fell apart for her when she skipped school to go for an audition, got caught by her parents, and tried to sort of run...and caused an accident that killed her father. Since then, she's been a guilt-ridden wreck with no confidence--and a sister who barely tolerates her, a grandmother with dementia who blames her for the loss of her son, etc. etc. Life is not at all like her teenage self thought it was going to be.

Through reasons, the 17 year old version of herself shows up in the modern day. But this is the confident version of herself -- one who was literally in the middle of that stunt that got her father killed...but no knowledge of that happening. They connect and join forces by necessity, each one wanting to send the younger version back in time. The young Ha-ni can't understand how she turned into such a loser. The old one doesn't want to tell herself why -- she wants to spare her that pain as long as she can. Meanwhile, she's also trying to get her life together after being fired unjustly from her job.

Throw in two other blasts from the past -- the former bully turned movie star that was obsessed with her in high school (played with comic aplomb by Eum Moon-Suk) and a slightly younger (early 30s?) man who had once been saved by her teenage self from said bully and has always thought of her as Super(wo)man. He also happens to be the son of a CEO currently cut adrift for being a spendthrift. But he's not necessarily your normal superrich dude -- he is a bit of a cheeky ray of sunshine. He fairly quickly figures out that this woman that he keeps running into (the first time at jail!) is the girl who had once saved him, and at this point in the show, he's anxious to connect with her. Not really sure what his ulterior motive is--but he knows he wants to know her. Oh, and there's also her former minion/best friend from high school--they had broken apart after the accident that killed her father and now that former minion is her new boss. 

There are a WHOLE host of coincidences that on paper would probably make me groan, but they're making it work. After all, this entire show is a sliding doors kind of thing...in a way. I honestly am not sure how they wrap it up. If young version goes back and everything changes...where does old version wind up? If she goes back and nothing changes...what was the point? There's a number of ways things could go.

Great casting with the two main actresses. The younger is Lee Re and they do a good job of making the same faces, doing the same actions. They are believable together. As a viewer, you don't love the younger character -- she's SO full of herself and not particularly kind, but she's learning. You're also sad for the older as you know why she's where she's at. She never got past what happened. 

So, I have high hopes that they'll manage to make this a feel good story. I really want a happy ending for both of them. 

Edit: Am up through episode 9 now. There's a lot of comic action going on, now that the two potential love interests have (kind of) stepped up. Still enjoying it, still curious as to how they'll wrap it up. I can see a couple of different things happening. Not super excited that they've introduced some chaebol-style drama with the aunt of CEO-son, but, at the same time, this show has enough of a lighthearted feel that there's no way I see it going completely dark (totally looking at you, Gong-Shim). 

Edit: I finished it! It was good, though ultimately not great -- though that was on the world building side, not the acting side. Have the writer(s) EVER seen or read a Time Travel Story before? Anyway, basically, they manage to get young Ha-ni back (in remarkably easy fashion after all that DRAMA -- she has to WALK THROUGH A TUNNEL) and she's not able to save her dad (as the shaman had warned her she wouldn't). But, so far as the viewer can tell, there's no difference whatsoever in modern day Ha-ni. So...did younger version go back and, even with all her future knowledge, not change her life AT ALL? And still suffer from 2 years worth of depression and bad career choices? I mean, on the plus side, the resolution didn't negate any of the forward progress modern Ha-ni made. Nor did it disrupt her budding relationship with Yu-Hyeon (played by Kim Young-Kwang -- he was really just a ray of sunshine). So that part is good, but they should have at least had some reflection that SOMETHING changed for her younger version. OR they could have made it so that she went back and didn't remember anything from her time travel trip. 

But, anyway. The characters were all great. The actors were all great. Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Hm, maybe some day. I am glad that it wrapped up the chaebol stuff with Yu-Hyeon quickly and painlessly (well, kinda painlessly, except for Greedy Aunt) so in that sense, it was WAY more satisfying than Beautiful Gong Shim. The story stayed focused on Ha-ni, as it should. 

The Uncanny Counter

 After two back to back historical dramas (Nok-du and Mr. Queen-- that I loved, but still), it was time to go back to something contemporary. Honestly, I'm not sure why I tend to put historical shows low on the list. But, anyway...The Uncanny Counter.

 I've watched two episodes so far and I'm really liking this one. Basically, they are like grim reapers collecting evil spirits (a la Mystic Pop Up Bar and others). It's a subject I often toy with ... some day I'll finish that YA manuscript with the son of Death. But let's back up...7 years before the start of the events of the show, a young So Mun (the teenager in the forefront of the picture) and his parents were in a car accident. His parents died and he was crippled. But it wasn't an accident. Right before their car was slammed by a lorry, his dad had received a phone call from his partner (?) or associate (?) (who is that guy in the upper left corner, though they haven't realised this yet) that something bad was going down. 

So while the car accident was occurring, the partner dude Mo-Tak (played by Yu Jun-Sang, from a lot of things, but the only one I've seen him in was My Love From the Star and yay for a dude older than me) was being thrown off a roof and onto a car far below. 

I'd thought he probably died until I realised he was the same guy that So Mun (played by Joe Byeong-Gyu...my first time seeing him in something, though he's in a lot of stuff on my To Watch List) meets years later (so sue me, it was a quick glimpse of him before he got tossed off the roof). Anyway, he went into a coma and suffered traumatic memory loss from having his skull crushed. As one would. And that's how he became a Counter (which is what these evil spirit hunters are called -- no idea why). All of them were in a coma before being "awakened" by a spirit & given the chance to have a life again in exchange for working as counters.

Wow, I'm all over the place with this description. Good thing no one else reads this. 

Anyway, in the first episode, the Counters are fighting a third level evil spirit and one of them dies in the process because the spirit is super tough and evil. The spirit in him (Wi-Gen, played by the lovely Moon Sook) is then left searching for a new home -- another person in a coma -- but winds up in So-Mun (now a teenager) instead. She's confused; normally she'd never wind up in someone who was fully alive. After all, that's part of how they get people to be counters -- it's their chance to live again. 

At first, he's not sure he wants to join them. After all, he wasn't in a coma. And, dude, he's, like, too precious for words. It's not the danger to himself that makes him want to say no -- he doesn't want to die before his grandparents because he can't put them through that pain again (after they lost their daughter, his mother). And his grandma has dementia or something similar and doesn't even remember who he is most of the time. This poor gimpy teen is doing his best and is just too pure for this world. He also has two best friends who are determined to protect him at all costs even though the guy one Ung-Min (played by Kim Eun-Soo, from ID: Gangnam Beauty) has been getting the total crap beat out of him on a daily basis by a bunch of bullies from rich/influential familes. 

Anyway, after going out with them once and having his leg healed by Chu Mae-Ok (played by Yum Hye-Ran, who was Yeomradaewang in Mystic Pop Up Bar among other things and is only slightly younger than me ;-) ), who is the healer in the Counter group, he does decide to join them. The last counter is Do Ha-Na (played by Kim Se-Jeong, who I haven't seen in anything but clips from School: 2017), who can sense the evil spirits and is an expert at reading memories.

It's easy to see that there's going to be a whole connection to his parents and what was going on 7 years ago. So far, it's full of action, a bit of humour, and definitely high up on the Underdog Triumphing scale. Looks to have great promise. I hope it keeps up the pace. I do love an underdog story and the whole good triumphing over evil thing. 

Edit: Actually finished this one a couple of weeks ago. It was a joy. I don't think there's anything I'd change about it -- great pacing, great cast, good mix of humour vs. action vs. pathos. There might have been a couple of times where I think they went a bit outside the mythology without a great explanation, but nothing to really ding it. Excellent show and probably one of the least romantic Kdramas I've seen (but I didn't miss it; the show is that good). This is definitely one that little dude would enjoy too.