And here's the part where I attempt to explain Kdramas to someone who's never watched them before. Basically in the same format as the previous one.

Korean Dramas

Intro - Kdramas tend to be less genre-specific than Cdramas. That is, you can usually catagorize them loosely into modern and historical. Kdramas don't typically do anything like wuxia and only recently have they started adding fantasy elements to some historical dramas. If there's fantasy in Kdramas, it's usually in modern ones and tends to blend supernatural with reality like it's commonly accepted. This usually involves ghosts and grim reapers and sometimes humans with magical powers. Korean dramas are usually one hour per episode and the common length is 16 but may be slightly more or less. Kdramas usually fall into the following categories:

Saeguk - this is what they call their historicals and unlike Cdramas, these don't always involve the royal family or palace intrigue, which is kind of nice so you can see regular people. However, there was a very strong slave culture in ancient Korea that might be startling to Western viewers, as well as a lot of misogynistic attitudes that are often less emphasized in Cdramas. FTM crossdressing is a lot more convincing for various reasons though. THere's a lot more emphasis on realism. Example: Slave Hunters

Modern Romance (romcom) - Like Cdramas, this is fairly self-explanatory, but Kdramas tend to be a lot more creative in their romcom stories and they're usually steamier too lol. Korean modern romances might be heavy on the comedy, or they might even include a decent amount of action. Example: My Suspicious Partner

Action/Thriller - This is kind of a blanket category bc it isn't as narrowly focused as Cdramas, there might be gangs and drugs, or it might largely be white collar crime or govt related. May or may not include romance. It will usually be heavy on fighting and other action scenes. Example: The K2 or The Veil (both highly recommended btw)

Soap/Family - this is a category I honestly never watch bc it's boring lol, but these tend to be overdramatic and center around a Chaebol family or families and their travails. There's usually multiple romance lines. Example: Magic

Urban Fantasy/Ghosts - These are usually but not always set in modern times and involve supernatural things like ghosts, gods, monsters, shapeshifters, ghost fighters, etc. Unlike Cdramas, there's nothing prohibiting explicit supernatural content so they won't pretend it's something else. Example: Let's Fight Ghost, Goblin

Psychological - THis is somewhat similar to action/thriller, but typically includes a strong psychological element of some kind. May or not include action and/or romance. Example: Save Me

Youth - one thing that's fairly annoying about Korean youth dramas is that the actors are often way too old to play the parts and it's kind of obvious. Youth dramas are usually set in high school, but might be university and there's almost always a bullying storyline of some kind. Example: Police University

Final notes - Korean dramas usually choose to emphasize comedy or be very serious. I would say most include some comedic elements. The Veil might be the one I've watched that was not funny in some way. There's often a lot more physical fighting in Kdramas vs Chinese. You can expect more overt misogyny from male characters as well. There's usually at least one unreasonable "witch" female character. If you see a random blur on the screen, it's probably a knife or other sharp implement. The same doesn't apply to guns lol.

Kdrama Pros:

- Usually really well-done in terms of effects, acting, and editing, very polished
- Fighting is generally realistic and up close
- Real kisses in romances
- Lots of good supernatural plots
- Comedy is usually pretty natural

Cons:

- Historicals are usually boring asf
- A lot of overbearing male characters
- Tend to be too long for the amount of real plot
- REALLY obvious product placement
- In modern ones, everything tends to be too shiny and pretty
- Too many chaebol characters

Kdrama 101 (i.e. five representative dramas to watch first)

1. The K2
2. Goblin
3. Our Blooming Youth
4. W
5. Good Manager

 Got bored of the WMM so lemme just do this lol.  Starting with...

Daybreaker - for some reason it took me forever to get through the last three episodes. Some of that was being distracted by FMA, but also, the show really got convoluted towards the end and every time you thought it was tryna climax, something else twisted would happen.  At least half the main cast eventually died too. Some for seemingly no reason just to add to the body count. Idk i mean overall i thought it was solid and the main bulk of the show was really great. I would generally give it a positive score.


Young Babylon by Lu Nei - Just finished this last night and tbh i really fucking enjoyed it.  I started reading it on a total whim when I saw a casting melon of Hou Minghao as the ML Lu Xiaolu. It was not at all what I expected, but somehow really entertaining at the same time. It was also very explicit at times so i'm honestly super curious at what a drama version will look like. All it does is follow in the first person a young factory worker in Daicheng. But the POV character is so colorful and hilarious that it just makes the whole book. The only downside is now i'm prolly gonna have some high expectations for the drama lol.


Tomorrow - Started watching this when it was airing but only just finished it.  EH.  I had a strong love/hate with this show. The first idk ten or so episodes were very gripping and i thought it tackled some difficult subject matter, some of it fairly unique to Korea, but most of it pretty relevant no matter where you are. However, it got very strongly preachy later on and i felt like there was a lot of idk hand waving that the death gods got away with. Things I liked...the guy who played Ryunggoo who has like no major roles before this drama. He was really good and i'd like to see him get more lead roles. Kim Sohee was very hot.  The reversal of Park Junggil's character was also good.   Things I didn't like...the Seventeen guy was highkey annoying most of the time. I didn't like that there was nothing between Ryeon and Junggil at the end despite the fact that he obviously still had feelings for her. They could have broken up the preachy message stuff with a bit of romance, just saying.


Anyway I'm down to i think six dramas on my CW list now ROFL.  I am also intent on finishing FMA.  I'm not overly excited about anything left on that list either, which is annoying, but idk if there's anything i've been waiting for out yet. I really wanted to watch the Kunlun Mountain thing but...oh and Big Mouth is airing end of July so that's something. Otherwise Idk lol. 

 I post-dated my entry on LJ friends moving over here, but I still maintain that I'm not moving my own blogging ooperation over here unless something legit happens to LJ.  So this will still be mainly extra overflow entertainment crap and rants that i don't feel like updating LJ with lol. I will check my reading page though as more people get here.

Anyway, so the iQIYI app has been stupid for me for days now. At first it wouldn't load at all, then it loads, but slowly and if i try to pick a drama, it boots me back to the Roku homepage. I was tryna either continue Moonlight or start a rewatch of Royal Secret Agent. Instead, I went back to Viki where I finished "finished" the Lost Tomb entry I was on, restarted King In Love, and started Welcome.  First, idc who apologizes for it, that entry in the Lost Tomb series is AWFUL. Writing was bad, pacing was bad, acting was bad, it was all BAD. I honestly liked the first two series but man, if this was anyone's first encounter with it, i can see why it gets a bad rap in netizen circles.

Oh that was another reason I was tryna get into iQIYI--to start Ultimate Note again. King In Love, I went through two eps right away, so i think there's only two left. I get that there's something between San and the CP but COME ON, Wang Rin is 1000x hotter. He makes the CP look short and ugly lmao. Plus, his nasty mom killed her dad, so why would she consider him since he basically defended his mom right up until he found out the truth. The truth that Wang Rin was already telling him. Pfft.  Idk why i stopped watching this, ig bc of my 2017 drama hiatus or whatever.

Next up, I randomly came upon an L drama where he plays a cat that can turn into a human. On MDL, the ratings are low, but those people have terrible taste. It's rated much higher on Viki. So far, it's quite cute, and very funny. L is way too perfect to play a human/cat lol. Another good choice would be Junho. Both of them are catmen and they have cat traits lol.  The drama is only 24 half hour eps or 12 traditional hour ten eps, so pretty short for a Kdrama I guess. 

i DID indeed put SSS on hold to watch these other things lol, but I only have like 10 eps left so i'll be back.

IN music, confirmed that Show Luo and Koda Kumi are my consistent best and longest fandoms lol. I found Show's one Japanese album on my music drive that I never touch anymore and damn that shit was good. Sucks that it's not on Spotify though. Was also discovering some random new songs that were on Kuu's shitton of compilation albums. I've always ignored those, but since they're on Spotify, I can check them out finally. 

 I'm almost done with YAMH and Lost in 49 at 12 and 14 eps left respectively. I keep switching between which one I'm addicted to at any given time lol. YAMH is dragging a little bit, unfortunately. I'm hoping they have another good arc or whatever yet before it's over. I don't really find giving Kelei a medical problem to be all that gripping lol. I'll probably avoid modern dramas for awhile again after this one. Unless I decide to watch that other one with Jingting set in the old folks home lmao.  Lost in 49 was getting super interesting where I last left off but then I started bingeing on YAMH.

BUT as it's a boring chill Saturday, I want to watch something less intense so I decided to go back to watch the Four.  Gives you the feeling of like, Saturday matinee nonsense as a kid lol.  I'm watching on Viki and I see that Mojin the Lost Legend is there.  I've been wanting to watch that movie for awhile. I mean, Shu Qi and Chen Kun and tomb robbing?  HOw come i haven't watched it yet?  QIGUAI.    

My drama moods are weird and I try to police them unnecessarily lmao.   I'm still thinking about starting Psych Hunter but I want to finish at least one other drama first.  I've also lowkey been thinking about trying  Confession with Junho and/or Secret Royal Inspector with L.  I've been wanting to see him in something else since I tried that stupid mask drama but he's only been in annoying romcoms. SRI sounds kinda funny. In that One More Time drama i remember being surprised by his comedic skill bc he always struck me as super serial. 

Anyway...omg The Four has a bunch of super boring talking scenes about fate and deep love lmao. Too much wuxia is bad for the brain.  Like het versions are bad enough, imagine tryna watch heteronormative BL.  Gad the cringe.   I wish there was some wuxia like The Four with either a group of guys and no girls or a group of girls and no guys. No romance, just action. 

Oh special, Viki has decided to fuck up and i haven't gotten through one episode yet. Feihua. 

 Finished Bride of Habaek finally.  I think this is what we call a fairly cliche plot that was mostly executed well.  A lot of the really dramatic bits mostly fizzled out and there was no real "bad guy" or showdown or anything like that.  Very romance manga-ish lol.  I ended up mostly liking all the characters though, even bird brain.  Also, even though Nam Joo Hyuk is for sure a questionable actor, I think he embodied his character really well.  That is, I got the feeling that Habaek was a really naive and immature god and so his cute confused looks half the time I think really fit.  Even him being overly aggressive at times felt right.  Like, here is a guy who has no idea how to act around people lol.  Maybe his questionable acting just made him fall into that Idek, but either way it worked for the role.

Tried to catch up on the King Loves but it's still not gripping me very much.  As I said previously, just really freaking convoluted and someone's always randomly getting kidnapped and plotting and it's just ugh...  All I know is that I really like Hong Jonghyun and Yoona to a certain extent.

I finally got into OneHallyu lol.  The "who's gay" threads are farking hilarious.  If you believed these loonies, everyone in Kpop minus 1 or 2 per group are gay, even the girls!  As someone posted: when will these ppl admit that they're disgusting yaoi/yuri fetishists lol.  What's even more hilarious is all the "evidence" they use and are super serious how they post too so you can tell they actually fucking believe it.  I think the funniest bit that I saw was this: 

Like tell me that isn't the biggest DUH ever.  Do you think that person will learn from it though?  Probably not.  It's also proof that they really are taking it seriously.  I've never really been in a non-Asian fandom so I can't say if the people in other fandoms are this freaking crazy.  They might be though bc I remember reading some stuff about the LOTR movies and Harry Potter that was pretty nuts.  Idk, scary that there's so many lunatics out there tbh.

What else?  I'm not sure if I'm an EXO or CBX fan tbh.  Probably the latter.  It's weird bc obviously CBX is IN EXO lol.  But I mean, with Exo, you figure, I only like the entire War album.  Half of Lotto and the other one are trash.  Otoh, I love all the CBX songs.  Even the Japanese ones and I'm sugoi hard on Kpop in Japan.  I also don't really care about any other Exo members other than CBX.  Except maybe Lay, but honestly, I still think he'll leave.  I came across this thing from a former SM trainee, who was American, and he basically said Tao and Lay would leave.  Obviously Tao did, but I mean...Lay not being in the War and such, I just lowkey bet that they'll sort of slowly cut him out and he'll just be in the China market releasing solos and acting.

So yeah I'm pretty sure it's CBX I stan lol, it's just EXO gets dragged along for the ride Idek.

 Ok, as much as I like the War and half of the previous two albums, tbqh, I like CBX more.  I could do without the rest of the group, just give me those three lol.  Chen looks like an old-timey actor for some reason, Idek why I like Xiumin and Baekhyun....ahahah.  I can just tell he's a brat.  Or kind of a jerk, depending on which way you want to look at it.  He is exactly right my type lol.

I've been alternately obsessed with Hey Mama and Ka-Ching.  The thing is, even in the regular EXO songs, Chen and Baek get most of the lines most of the time.  The rest are so largely forgettable lol.  The Hey Mama mini is so quality.  Parts of Girls isn't bad, but I just cannot get completely behind Japanese releases most of the time. Unless it's all I got, like with Junho lol.  I still preferred his One album though.

Heh, so my journey to avoid avoiding Sparrow got EVEN MORE derailed last night when I discovered that Taec's new drama was airing.  It's this thing about a cult and I'm waiting for it to skip time bc dude, Taec cannot pass for a high schooler anymore ok.  The cult leader is the smarmy dude from the K2 and that's just a totally perfect casting choice tbh.

New Bride of Habaek episode last night as well and I was totally waiting for Nam Joo Hyuk to get his unfortunate angry facial tic when he caught the demigod dude on top of his woman, but amazingly he didn't. Progress!  Him and Ji Soo need to hurry up and get better at acting bc wtf all my faves are going to the military lately.  I've been angsting over Ji Chang Wook for months and then it was announced that Lee Jong Suk is going too and I was like, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.  But it got worse.  Lee Soo Hyuk is ALSO going.  All my creys.  

That leaves me with Hong Jonghyun, L and Junho lol.  NO seriously, those three were my faves. D:

I'm also getting increasingly worried that Hyunseung is going to get his sooner rather than later and then I will really cry.  Especially since he hasn't had a proper comeback yet.  If he'd had that, I could handle it.  Maybe.

This is an un-cranky entry, so I need to add a bit of crank.  I find it REALLY annoying, as in it's turning into a pet peeve, when people insist on using real names instead of stage names.  Like, whY?  They clearly gave themselves stage names for a reason, Idk why you have to insist on using their real names like you're patting yourself on the back for knowing them or something, especially when they're common knowledge.  Is it the American need for things to be "real" or what?  Like it seriously bugs me.

 So the King Loves finally got interesting, even though the Crown Prince bugs the heck out of me, I love Yoona and Jonghyun, but this last episode I watched, major cringe at the writer.  The stupid villain guys go to prove that Yoona is San, i.e. the noblewoman by bringing a letter to the servant who has been disguised as her.  Predictably, the servant shows that she can't read the letter yada yada, cue smirking villain.  But srsly dudes?  It's been SEVEN YEARS and you're gonna tell me that the servant, who is supposed to be permanently pretending to be the noblewoman, hasn't been taught TO READ?  REALLY??  Like, how would you miss such an obvious thing.  Those are the kind of failures of logic for the sake of plot that I just CANNOT with as a writer.  I mean, I'm just imagining them being all, oh dang, I can't believe we got found out.  If only we'd taught that chick to read in the last seven years. I knew I forgot something!

Le please.

The only other thing I got is lol so much @ that "who do you think is gay hurhur" thread at One Hallyu.  Like, here are some people desperately in need of lives.  I was reading a few pages and was cackling when the actual gay guy came in and was all, I can't believe you all are taking this stuff seriously when it's based on fanservice, cultural differences and mistranslations.  Like, mte dude.  There's so much wrong with this entire thing.  First of all, why are they so invested in the idea that half of Kpop is gay?  Nevermind the complete unlikelihood of that being the case.  And secondly, to think you can actually prove it based on what you see on camera is fucking dumber than hell.  Think of the boygroups in the US and what, like two or three eventually came out as gay?  There's no 10% dudes, it's like 2%, so that would be roughly one guy out of 10 boygroups assuming 7 members each. MAYBE.  The real problem with US fans is how they look at everything through a US lens.  As someone pointed out in, Omona believe it or not, the reason there's such a huge cultural difference with Asian men showing affection to each other is because the issue of homosexuality is not prominent. Like, it's a fringe thing.  Whereas here, especially in fandom, people are hyperaware of anything being even slightly gay. Like, omo they stood next to each other, maybe their shirts were touching!  Gay!

Srsly, stop. Y'all look dumb. That's how you end up with GOT7 and their annoyance with shippers.

Oh wait, I have one more thing lol.  Apparently Yoseob posted an Insta pic that was very obviously taken in the exact same place that Hyunseung took his apology letter pic.  But he deleted it right away so who knows if HS even saw it.  And that's my question really, is why did he delete it?  I saw someone make a good point though that HS was not apologizing to his trash haters or entitled fans, he was quite obviously apologizing to Beast and for whatever reason, felt the need to do it publicly.  So really, all those people need to shut up with their "finally" or "too late" nonsense bc he wasn't doing it for you.  Go back to your trashbin.

 I wasn't sure if I would, but I did, I started another drama.  My two main candidates were Bride of the Water God and The King Loves.  I chose the former bc Idk really.  Maybe bc it's based on a manga lol.  The other thing is that the "immortal coming to the human realm" is literally one of my favorite romance tropes, maybe THE favorite.  Also, Nam Joo Hyuk is foiiiiiiiiiine.  I couldn't remember where I saw him before, but oh yeah, Scarlet Heart Ryo lol.  Reminder that I lowkey still want to finish that. >>

Ok so I only watched the first episode, but I liked it.  It was funny and ahahah you can't beat the traveling through worlds/time thing where the traveler ends up naked once he gets there. XD  Apparently "people" *coughomonacough* didn't like the first eps bc the acting was bad or some shit.  Obviously most acting criticism is usually pretty arbitrary anyway, but honestly, he's playing a total pompous ass character and I'm buying it so that's all I ask.  I kinda like the way he's all matter-of-fact about it and doesn't really show much emotion while he's making his decrees lol.  

The girl is funny, like her expressions, especially when he starts talking about how he's a god of this and that.

Ofc it's just the first episode and I might hate it eventually lol who knows.  I'm getting much better at dropping dramas when I start losing interest in the characters or plot rather than slogging through them.  Confession too, I didn't literally finish Suspicious Partner, I read recaps of the last Idk, 8 episodes or so and watched the pivotal twist scene, but that's it.  I just didn't care about the characters anymore. =/

That's mainly what it comes down to for me, I need to care about the characters and their struggle.  Once I don't, I usually lose interest.

 Finished Lookout the other night and I have to say, the ending was extremely MEH compared to the rest of the show.  I felt like it was hovering at a 9 and then I dropped it to a 7.  There were two main problems for me with the ending.  Spoilers all over this bitch so be warned.

1.The fact that every single character almost behaved completely irrationally and out of character in order for that evil kid's plot to work.  Just, especially Lee.  Like I don't believe for a second that she would have gone off by herself intending to kill Sooji.  She never displayed any tendency towards that kind of irrational, overly emotional behavior.

2.The end basically left everything hanging.  It's only obvious that Dohan died, but then again, what was that scene with him not wanting to call Kim hyung?  Meanwhile, Sooji, Bomi and Kyungsoo are still doing their vigilante shtick so why didn't any of them go to jail?  What happened to Seungro and his monster kid?  None of that was addressed.  Maybe there's a season 2, Idk, but the ending was barely an ending at all.

Side note, that priest was HOT and I'm mad.

Anyway, so that one's over, just need to make myself finish Suspicious Partner so I can focus on Sparrow.  My sugoi drama phase is kinda fading for now, but I'll probably want to watch the new Lee Jong Suk one at the very least.  But it also doesn't air until September lol.

In Kpop things, I hear that Hui and Edawn are producing a song or songs for that Wanna One group.  I really didn't intend to care about them as I didn't follow that show, but them are my dudes.

Tbh, I'm really surprised at how many Yesung plays I have. I'm a well-known ballad hater and that's literally all he does for his solo. Furthermore, I don't like Super Junior. It's definitely one of my tastes that I can't explain lol.

So Pentagon - Ceremony on June 12th at noon KST and NCT 127 - Cherry Bomb on June 14th at 6pm KST. I only recently discovered that Infinite's comeback never happened bc Sungkyu got injured. Idk how I missed that. There seems to be all this baited breath about them staying together, but it sounds like they're talking to Woollim about renewing their contract. Hah, I've been paying too much attention to Kpop lately though bc I was all confused when everything came out for Junho's new album to be released at the end of July. I was like, what, all at once? What is this? But oh yeah, it's Japanese and they don't do all that nonsense lmao.

Supposedly Jinwoon is supposed to release something this month too and I saw another article about HS and that one made it sound like there is a mini or full album in the works but the July track is a prerelease? Idk, I hope they're right, but I won't bank on it. Lately I haven't been paying much attention to any releases outside of Kpop. It's gotten that bad.

I'm reaching high boredom levels with both Suspicious Partner and RMOM. The romance in both is contrived and neither one is moving fast enough. Why can't you be like Lookout and leave me in suspense at the end of every episode? Not to mention all the action and plotting. I'll probably start another backdrama soon. Considering Voice or Missing Nine, bc I'm really in love with JCW's friend's face.

I said this already, but I'm officially paying a lot more attention to Pentagon from now on lol.


As great as this fancam is though, it doesn't fully show the true highlight of Edawn's part ahahah.