I watched Death's Game after Lee Sun-Kyun's death, and it made me really reflect about the consequences of a suicide on the survivors. A stellar story in eight episodes.
Just finished Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938, and it was a delight for Rang to finally get that happy ending he deserved. The first Nine Tailed was bittersweet and I felt shattered for his sake, even if it was a fitting ending for him. This drama was the perfect love letter for his character.
And dangit, Lee Dong Wook needs to do more dramas with long, flowing hair. He rocks that look.
A woman is given the chance to relive her life and get back at the people who ruined her life.
This is a super fun makjang #KDrama that didn't take itself too seriously.
Someone needs to do a thesis on the history of how different #kdramas and #cdramas are in their introductory title sequences!
Kdrama: Here is a cute cut-out collage of floating cherry blossoms, upside-down cars, tumbling foxes and… a rapidly expanding pool of blood!
Cdrama: Swirling water colours, tumbling dragons & phoenixes and… super fast rice paper cutouts depicting all the key events of the story including who kills who & who kisses who!
For those of you not aware, there is a whole genre of Korean historical fiction about the invention of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, because the real-life story behind the invention of Hangeul is “an incredibly sophisticated and super-secret linguistics project carried out centuries before the field of linguistics was actually invented.”
It was also revolutionary in that it made literacy accessible to commoners who didn’t have the resources to learn Chinese.
This is a story that hardly needs dramatization, but there is nonetheless a lot of dramatization, and I am such a nerd I will watch any dramatized version of the invention of Hangeul.
So, that said, TREE WITH DEEP ROOTS is more hardcore about the invention of Hangeul than THE KING’S LETTERS although TREE WITH DEEP ROOTS is older.
#Korean Streamer #Kocowa+ Continues Global Rollout With Europe & Oceania Launch.
“Europe, in particular, has adopted the #Hallyu (K-content) wave.
The continent was recently named as the genre’s fast-growing market, with 13.2 million identifying themselves as fans, according to the 2023 Overseas Global Hallyu Survey.” #kpop#kdrama
@AnnaAnthro It will be interesting to see if Oceania includes #Aotearoa , or only Australia. Some low-profile/ low-buzz but excellent longer #KDramas in the past have been Kocowa-only. Having access to them without needing an eye patch and a parrot would be lovely.
Stubbornly watching Sunrise on the River and I’m now at episode 11. It may not be cracktastic like In Blossom, but the cases are good and the acting is stellar.
As you can see I’m trying to stockpile episodes of In Blossoms so that I can survive the one-episode-per-day drought of next week lol.
Which is funny when you think about it. I still remember the days when I watched #Kdramas and it was two measley episodes per week. I have been horribly spoiled by #Cdramas.
I don't know why but I am still thinking of Lee Sun-kyun. I feel so sad for him still 😢
I got to know him very, very early. Through the dramas Coffee Prince (2007) and Pasta (2010). Was lovely to see his star rise over the years and was genuinely happy for him when Parasite became a big hit.
I have been re-watching JOSEON ATTORNEY and one of the themes it explores is something that I always find fascinating when it comes up in a sageuk: that the nature of monarchy is fundamentally corrosive to one’s humanity (or prosocial instincts if you want to get academic about it).
I’m not talking about the common people who live in a monarchy. I’m talking about the monarch and the people in the royal family.
Of the lot, I love Flower of Evil and Happiness the most! Flower of Evil may have over-the-top melodramatic moments, but I was so invested in the characters' insane journeys and the ending was so satisfying. Happiness - if there's a genre that needs to be invented, it is "slice of life zombie drama". I want them to make more of these LOL.
@KDramaQn@youronlyone There are A LOT of recent shorter #KDrama series that are clearly built around at least the possibility of a 2nd season, and I tend to shun those as I INTENSELY dislike that element of "Westernisation".
But having drifted toward #JDrama (where 12 is LONG) in large part because of all the saggy bloated filler in >=16 ep KDramas, I love the nice tight feel of those #KDramas that are written short and complete. "One Day Off" is a beautiful example
just want to say that i appreciate the Mastodon #Kdrama#Cdrama folks so much for being such a mature, pleasant and non-fandom-gatekeeper lot.
I am a mod of the CDrama subreddit and let me tell ya, I feel a spike of anxiety each time i am there. I have to wade through sinophobic things and worse, those fan worshippers who will harass u for even saying anything less than glowy about their idols.
I kinda understand why God banned idol worship now 😆🤣
Jokingplsdontkillme #Cdramas#Kdramas
I started SecretRomanticGuesthouse #KDrama for the excellent Ahn Nae Sang, and for 2 actors I like but haven't seen in ages - Han Chae Ah and Lee Mi Do. Sadly, after 1 epsiode, I doubt even the three of them together will be able to get me though this one. #KDramas
Why is it that when women in #Joseon dramas are in disguise as men, they are so obviously not. Are we supposed to suspend our disbelief? Is there another explanation? Perhaps that we are supposed to believe that no one would dare consider that a woman would wear men’s clothing? #KDrama#Kdramas
I need a #kdrama or #cdrama recommendation where the romance has a happy ending, please? I cannot afford to have my heart shredded by fiction currently.
And my brain doesn’t seem to be able to deal with words currently so I’m not reading.
Vigilante centres around a man with a secret identity: By day Kim Ji Yong is a police cadet, by night, he hunts down criminals who have escaped the law or received mere slaps on the wrist. When he was a child, he witnessed his mother beaten to death by a man and then saw him get a light sentence for the murder. As the Vigilante, Ji Yong swoops deliver the justice these criminals truly deserve.
What I think about the drama
I was really taken aback by how violent you show is.
I don’t know whether this is a recent thing with KDramas, especially now that international streaming platforms are buying them, but I am not really enjoying this more violent aspect.
I never realized how much I kind of appreciated the fact that censorship tones down violence. Chinese dramas and Korean dramas have very strict censorship laws, and I always chuckle when knives are blurred out in Korean dramas, which I thought was damn hilarious.
In Chinese dramas, the censorship can be over the top, but you’re not supposed to show too much blood and gore, though blood spitting is a thing. It took me a while to realise that I truly appreciated that, because after one year of watching almost exclusively Chinese dramas, watching Vigilante felt like a slap in the face, because oh, wow: Violence, violence! Ouch!
And the violence was so repetitive. Here is an episode with our hero beating up a bad guy. And here’s another. And another. And it disturbs me that he seemed to take pleasure in beating up his targets, so much so that I almost feel sorry for his victims! And he doesn’t just beat them up but kills them.
At first, I thought they’re going for a more Dexter-like character: A serial killer of killers. (That would’ve been intriguing to watch.)
Yet, Ji Young doesn’t give me that vibe either. So, I wasn’t sure what to think about his actions. I felt like his character isn’t fleshed out properly. Although we know why he is doing what he is doing, the lack of a moral arc makes him difficult to root for.
However, this is a slick, high quality production. And maybe you’re in the mood for a dark, cathartic drama about bad guys getting the justice they deserved.
But for me, it felt like watching an endless reel of people being beaten up. It wears you down after a while.
Final Verdict: 7.5
A slick production without much soul. Watch it if you’re really mad at somebody!